Kid gifts: barrettes and zipper pulls

Last week I made some ribbon barrettes and zipper pulls as birthday gifts for a few cousins and a friend's daughter. I haven't had a chance to make these in ages, so it was fun to pick out color combos and look through all my embellishments to see what would work.

I didn't write down the supplies I used, but I shared a tutorial for making ribbon barrettes in a previous post (10 years ago!), and all the basic supplies and measurements are listed there. If you'd like to see more examples of either the barrettes or zipper pulls, just search the appropriate phrase on my blog.

 
For the barrette holders, I cut pieces of kraft card stock, rounded the corners, and used a white paint pen to doodle a border and accents. I also used a punch to make slots in the card stock for the back prong of the barrettes to slide through.

These zipper pulls/bag tags are made with flattened bottle caps -- purchased as a papercrafting embellishment; I didn't flatten them myself :) -- monster buttons, mini chains, and the zipper pull clips. The backing card for these was actually a background panel that's been sitting in my stash of odds and ends. I made it using Color Burst powders, and even though it's a little wild and crazy, I liked the bright colors with the zipper pulls. I just used a black marker to make a faux stitched border and punched three holes along the top to clip on the pulls.

That's it for my quick post today. Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Autumn pop-up cards

One of the things I've been trying to focus on since I moved is using more of the craft supplies I already have. Packing and unpacking everything in my craft room made me realize how much stuff I have, especially things like patterned paper, embellishments, and even the various bits and pieces I hang onto, like die-cut pieces I didn't use on a card or backgrounds that I'm not sure I like. So with that in mind I used an old card kit from Close to My Heart to create some autumn-themed pop-up cards.

Supplies:
Stamps: French Foliage, Lighthearted Leaves (Stampin' Up!)
Paper: From the Heart card kit (Close to My Heart)
Ink: Crushed Curry, Pool Party, Soft Suede, Cajun Craze (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Washi tape (Handmade Modern), gold sequin trim (Stampin' Up!), wooden leaves (Paper Source), Scor-Tape (Scor-Pal), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute)

This card kit, which I've had sitting on my shelf for at least four years, had supplies to make twelve cards and came with a pretty floral/sentiment stamp set. I used that set to make a couple of birthday cards, but I decided to use the rest of the bases for these autumn cards. (The French Foliage stamp sets is one of my favorites, and I don't get to use it enough!)

You're probably wondering how these are pop-up cards, so here is a photo with one of the cards opened:

The card base is actually a pocket with a piece of card stock inside the pocket and a piece of card stock that lays on top of the gold frame. The pieces are attached at the bottom, and when you pull the piece inside the pocket, it makes the piece on the outside pop up. I'm certain you could make this type of card base from scratch, but I don't have the patience for that, so it was fun to use the kit to make a different card style.

I decorated the front of the card with some collage-style stamping and added a few little embellishments. On the back panel, which you see when the card is "opened," I stamped a quote sentiment and a single leaf. I debated whether to write my message on the piece of card stock that slides inside the pocket or on the back of the card. I decided to go with the inside piece, which was a little tricky because I had to work around the front layer being popped up, because it seemed odd to just leave that space blank.

I'm hoping I'll be able to make a few more autumn cards to send out for Thanksgiving before we get into winter and Christmas. (Eek - how is it that time already?!) Thanks for stopping by!

I'm back!

Well, hello there! It's hard to believe that I haven't posted on my blog for almost two months. Since then, we've closed on our house, moved, and are working on getting settled and discovering the ins and outs of being homeowners. It's been about a month since we moved in, but we still haven't finished unpacking. We took care of what we really needed -- kitchen, bedrooms, craft room (of course!), etc. -- and then lost our "oomph." Part of the problem is that we need some furniture in order to finish getting settled, but with all the production/delivery issues and delays right now, a lot of things are out of stock and on back order. We found a sofa we liked that wouldn't be delivered until January or February! Oof. I'd thought we'd be all ready for the holidays, but now I'm not sure. So it's been a slow process.

But enough about the boring stuff. I have actually made a few cards in my new craft room! And here are the first two:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Thankful Forest Friends, Tree Rings, Sentimental: Birthday (Winnie & Walter)
Paper: Cinnamon Cider, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip card stock
Ink: Cinnamon Cider, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Gray Granite
Accessories: happy Birthday die (Simon Says Stamp), Ornate Layers dies, jute twine (May Arts Ribbon), Into the Woods elements, Box of Chocolate sequin assortment (Craft Medley), foam tape (3M), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute)

One of my cousins has twins (a girl and a boy) who celebrated their fourth birthday this month, and I wanted to make cards using a stamp set that wasn't specifically for birthdays. I chose this autumn/Thanksgiving set because I think these animals are adorable and look like storybook characters. Using different dies and accessories, I made one card a little more feminine, and one card a little more boyish. For the card with all the animals, I had to cut out the images by hand -- and I think I did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself. :)

Inside the "boy" card I simply added a layer of Very Vanilla card stock stamped with a birthday sentiment. But in the "girl" card I added a small stamped branch in each corner to tie in the images on the front of the card.

It felt like I had to retrain my crafty muscles a bit while I was making these cards, and now I'm working on my blogging muscles. I'm still not exactly sure how much I will be blogging going forward. I like having a record of the cards I've made and being able to search for a specific stamp set or technique. But finding the time and energy to do all the steps (take and download pictures, resize/edit them, write the post, etc.) isn't the easiest right now. So I may try out some different ideas, like maybe just posting pictures and supplies without much text. Or maybe a weekly round-up of whatever I've made that week. We'll see what happens.

Thanks so much for sticking around and stopping by today!

Pastel birthday desserts

I'm back! And I have officially decided that home buying is one of the worst experiences ever. I hope we like living in this house, because I can't say I want to do this again anytime soon. And that's not to say that anything has gone wrong. My stress level is just through the roof trying to figure all this stuff out while simultaneously sorting/packing belongings, working at my job, doing the everyday stuff (laundry, dishes, making dinner, etc.), and dealing with the world in general. Sigh.

So today I'm throwing in a quick blog post for a little change of pace. I have three birthday cards that use the same stamp and die set and color combo. I won't go into too much detail, but I think all of the cards are fairly self-explanatory. If you have questions, though, feel free to leave a comment, and I'll respond as soon as I can.

Supplies:
Stamps: Cake (Essentials by Ellen), Birthday Backgrounds (Stampin' Up!)
Paper: Whisper White, Soft Suede, Mint Macaron card stock (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Chocolate Truffle amalgam ink (Gina K Designs); Soft Suede, Mint Macaron, Soft Sea Foam, Powder Pink (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Cake dies (Essentials by Ellen), Stitched Shapes dies (Stampin' Up!), Skyscape Mini Cover Plate dies (Catherine Pooler), Subtles Candy Dots (Stampin' Up!), Iridescent Bubbles (Taylored Expressions), White Tea Lace Paper Doily (Stampin' Up!), jute twine (May Arts Ribbon), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute), Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!)

This stamp set is a two-step set, so there are separate stamps for the outline images and the filler images. You could stamp just the outlines and color or paint the images, but I went for the quicker option of stamping. For this card, I tried to create the look of the desserts sitting on a table. I love how the bit of doily looks like a tablecloth.

For this card, I used a few die-cut stitched circles to spotlight the images and sentiment, and I doodled a double frame around the edges to break up the solid background. I usually like the look of hand-drawn borders, but I'm honestly not sure I love it on this card. (I think maybe it needed a little more, like some swirls or curlicues.)

For the last card I layered a white scalloped rectangle on the front of the card as well as on the inside (see below). I focused on just the cupcake images from the stamp set, placing three on the front of the card and one inside to coordinate with the punny sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by today -- and for hanging on through all the craziness. I'm hoping to get back to consistent blogging in October. It might not be terribly frequent, but if I start with one post a week, I can work my way back up. Have a wonderful weekend!

Bright butterflies and an update

Quick life update: my sister and I bought our first house! It's exciting and completely nerve-racking all at once. We'll be closing and moving in about a month, which means the next few weeks are going to be crazy! I started boxing up the craft room today, so my card-making will be on hold for awhile. I do have several cards and card sets I haven't shared on my blog yet, so I'm planning to squeeze those in when I need a break from packing. :)

Speaking of a break from packing, let's get to today's cards, featuring a few bright butterflies. 

Supplies:
Stamps: Brilliant Butterflies (My favorite Things), Totally Random Sayings Vol. 3 (Essentials by Ellen)
Paper: Thick Whisper White, Basic Black card stock (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Mango Melody, Daffodil Delight, Flirty Flamingo, Melon Mambo, Coastal Cabana, Bermuda Bay (Stampin' Up!); Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko); Stardust Gelly Roll pen (Sakura)
Accessories: Frame in Frame 2 Cutting Plate (Taylored Expressions), orange sequins (Craft medley), sparkling clear sequins (Pretty Pink Posh), Bitty Banner punch (Stampin' Up!), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute)

I love the style of these butterflies, and they're perfect for clean and simple cards. I didn't get the coordinating dies, so I decided to stamp the butterflies directly on a heavyweight white card base. I chose three pairs of bold colors (pink, orange/yellow, and aqua) with a dark and light shade of each. I used the dark shade for the top pair of solid butterfly wings and the light color for the bottom. Then I stamped the bodies and detailed wing images in black.

I added accents with black card stock on each card: a strip on the bottom and tiny banner in the upper right corner on the first card and a scalloped frame on the second. Then I stamped a sentiments and added trails of sequins around the butterflies.

To add a little sparkle to the butterflies, I used a Stardust Gelly Roll pen to fill in some of the sections in the detailed wing images. It's a subtle detail, but fun when it catches the light.

This stamp set would be great for making a set of cards -- just choose one layout and then use a different butterfly color and sentiment for each card.

I realized this week that in the midst of house hunting I completely missed my 10-year blog anniversary, which was Aug. 1. Oops. I had wanted to do something to recognize the occasion, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen right now. Maybe I'll do something toward the end of the year -- I'm thinking about a post where I share my favorite card from every year I've been blogging. If you have ideas about what I could do, let me know in the Comments.

Thanks for stopping by!