Milk Carton Valentine Treat Box

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It's February already!  Where has the time gone?  Do you have something for your Valentine?  Here's an adorable treat box I made with the Milk Carton die *

The Milk Carton die is approximately 8.5" x 11" so you will need to use a larger die cutting machine such as the Journey Platinum *.

Instructions:

Cut the milk carton from Bubble Gum card stock, then use the larger heart from the Basic Box Window Plates Die to cut the heart shaped windows from two of the sides. Cut two, 2" squares from Sweet Berry card stock and glue them behind the heart shaped windows.  Center the smaller heart die inside the larger window cut-out and cut the inner window.  Attach a piece of Acetate inside each window.

Now you're ready to assemble the milk carton.  Here's a quick tutorial: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrUDBDGQWrM

After assembling the milk carton, attach the smaller heart cut-outs to the non-window sides of the milk carton.  Use the Tattered Blooms Minis die or your favorite punch to cut some small flowers from Whip Cream card stock. Add a flower with a pink sequin center and some leaves near the edge of each of the Sweet Berry hearts.

Stamp a tag with the Happy Valentine's Day stamp. Attach the tag and a double bow to a miniature clothes pin or a clip and use it to hold the milk carton shut.

Supply List:

Milk Carton die *

Basic Box Window Plates Die (Retired)

Annual Celebration Stamp Set *

Tattered Bloom Minis Cutting Die *

Bubble Gum card stock *

Sweet Berry card stock *

Whip Cream card stock *

Journey Sequins Pink World *

Light pink organza ribbon
Miniature clothes pin
10 Tags & Trims Cutting Die Set from Paper Wishes.

* denotes an affiliate link - see my disclosure for details.

Never Ending Card

I’ve been wanting to make one of these for a long time, but with four panels, I just couldn’t figure out what to put on them all.  For some reason, a few days ago the theme to Lamb Chop started running through my head and I thought, “Aha! Modify the lyrics and that would be perfect.”  So…

 

 

You’re welcome for getting that song stuck in your head!

Here’s what I used:

• Boutique paper pack and labels (sadly, I don’t think this is available anymore.  Botanical Etchings would be another good one)
• Teal, Gold, Silver and Pink Jewel Border Dazzles
• Teal Jewel Dazzles
• Mix ‘Ems Butterflies
• Lacy Butterfly Silver Dazzles

I based my card design on this YouTube video:

http://youtu.be/3rLBknHCPcE

Ombre Tea Tin

I enjoy drinking tea and usually have several types of loose tea on hand.  A few months ago, I found some loose tea at Grocery Outlet in a 3 tier tin.  I was far more interested in the tin than the contents and the price was right (I think it was around $3.00).  The tea was awful as expected, but I have 3 more tins for less than the price I would have paid for one at some of those fancy tea shops.  Today, I decided that I wanted to give the tin a face lift, so off to the craft room I went.  As I was sorting through my paper, I spotted a 12x12 sheet of Color Me Gold Flourish paper from PaperWishes and knew in an instant what I wanted to do with it.  I’ve been seeing  a lot of items using the ombre graduated coloring technique and the challenge at PaperWishes this week is to make something with that technique.  Next I needed to decide what medium to use and I settled on my metallic cream chalk set.  I cut a piece of paper 7.5” x 12” and started coloring.  The process took a while, but it’s fun to watch the colors blend together and I really like the end result.

 

I made the labels using the 6 Layered Labels and 2 Swirls cutting die set from PaperWishes.  I cut the large labels from card stock an then cut an acetate cover for each one.  I used eyelets to attach the acetate to the card stock.  I cut the smaller white labels from card stock and used repositionable adhesive on the backs.  That way, I can switch out the labels if I change the tin contents.

Memorial Day Wreath

Today, my ESL kids made these wreaths for Memorial Day. I got the idea for the wreath from Enchanted Learning and I found the poem at Apples4TheTeacher.com.  I used the Attach to Shape feature in MyMemories Suite 4 to make the poem star shaped.  It’s really easy to do, you just add a text box with your text, add a shape, select them both, right click and select Attach to Shape from the context menu. 

The wreath is very simple to make, especially if you have an electronic cutter.  I used my eCraft.  The shapes are basic shapes that most machines come with.

Obviously, you could make this just about any size, but I started with a 7” circle with a 5.5” cut-out for the base.  I sized the stars to 2.5”, 2” and 1.5” and cut them from red, blue and white card stock.  I randomly glued the stars around the circle and then when I was done, I added the poem to the front and a hanger to the back.

Deco Dragon Egg Freebie

I just love this week’s freebies and I think you will too. They are called Deco Dragon Eggs.  They are fun to design and easy to put together.  I cheated on the first two by converting one of the templates to a .svg file so I could cut the shapes with my eCraft.  I cut the first one from purple and lavendar card stock and then made a smaller one from patterned card stock. It takes 12 pieces to make each ball and there is no gluing or taping involved.

After I discovered how easy they were to put together, I decided to design one with photos of my granddaughters.  This time I had to do the cutting by hand, but it was pretty easy.

I printed the pieces on HP Everyday Photo paper.  I was afraid it would be too flimsy, but It holds its shape very well.  I think these would make really cute Mother’s day gifts.  You can also use them as boxes as they are about 4.5 inches in diameter if you print them full size on 8.5” x 11” paper.

If you would like to make some of your own dragon eggs, you can get the templates as well as several digital papers for free at the links below.  They will only be free for a limited time, so be sure to grab them before May 20, 2013. 

• Deco Dragon Egg 1
• Deco Dragon Egg 2
• Deco Dragon Egg 3
• Assembly Instructions

You do not need MyMemories Suite 4 to use the papers and templates, but it does make it easier.

If you’d like to purchase MyMemories Suite 4, be sure to use coupon code STMMMS97442 to receive $10 off the purchase price plus a $10 gift certificate to use in the My Memories online store.

Pinwheel Bouquet

I have some more freebies for you today from My Memories, three cute sets of pinwheels.  Just download and print them as-is or use the template to design your own.  You do not have to have My Memories Suite to use the templates, but it does make it easier.  These freebies will only be available until April 21st, 2013, so be sure to grab yours today.

Here’s an encouragement card I made with three of the pinwheels.  Instead of printing them full size, I resized mine to 2.5 inches.  I found some background paper in my stash that matches the colors perfectly.

This project needs to be printed on both sides of the paper, so play with the placement and sizing on some scrap paper with your printer in draft mode first.

Here are links to the downloads:

• Beach Bum Pinwheel
• Seize the Daisy Pinwheel
• One in a Melon Pinwheel

If you would like to purchase your own copy of My Memories Suite 4, be sure to use coupon code STMMMS97442 to receive $10 off the software plus a $10 gift certificate to spend in the My Memories store.

Mini Gift Bags for Easter

I have freebies for you today!  Three downloadable kits with an Easter party bag template, some digital papers and lots of embellishments, too.  You don’t have to have MyMemories Suite 4 to use them, but it will make it easier.

Here are three bags I made with the kits.  I didn’t make any changes to the bag on the right. I printed it straight from the download.  I started with a blank template for the bag on the left and used only elements from the three digital kits.

I made the bag in the center using the Hoppy Easter set that came with MyMemories Suite 4 .  I printed the eggs separate from the bag and then used foam squares to mount them on the front.

Grab these downloads while you can.  They will only be available for free until April 7, 2013.  Here are the links (there are 3):
Freebie 1
Freebie 2
Freebie 3

If you need help constructing them, here is a link to the instructions: http://www.mymemories.com/craftables/partybag

There’s still time to enter to win a FREE copy of MyMemories Suite 4, check out the Scrapbooking kits at MyMemories.com, then come back here and add a comment with a link to your favorite pack and include a sentence or two stating why you like that pack. Only one entry per person, please. Comments must be posted by Midnight PDT, March 31, 2013 to be eligible. I will announce the winner by the end of the day on April 1. The winner must be willing to provide me with their e-mail address so I can send them the code for the free download (do not include your e-mail address in your comment!).

Star Mini Photo Album

Now that Christmas is over, I finally have some time to record a tutorial for the albums I made this year.  These are so cute and really not that difficult to make.

 

They open up to form a star which can be hung as an ornament.

I think they would be a great first Christmas gift for a new baby or a newlywed couple.  Each year for 12 years, a new picture can be added.  They’re also great as a collection of photos from Christmases past (as I did) or a year in pictures (one for each month).

I made 18 of these little albums this year for my parents, siblings, nieces and nephews.

If you’d like to make one, here’s a tutorial.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Materials list:

• 12 photos sized no larger than 1.75” x 1.75”
• 18” ribbon (anywhere from one half to one inch wide)
• White glue
• Glue stick
• Scoring board
• Plain scrapbook paper
• Three coordinating sheets of scrapbook paper (I used Winter Flannels from Hot Off The Press)
• Distress ink
• Paper board (I used a cereal box)

Cover:

• Cut  a 4 1/8” x 7 1/2” rectangle from the plain scrapbook paper.
  Score lengthwise at 1/2” and 3 5/8”.
  Score crosswise at 1/2”, 3 5/8”, 3 7/8” and 7”.
• Cut two 3 1/8” squares from paper board (the second largest Nestabilities square die works perfectly for this)
  

Pages:

• Cut three 3” x 12” strips and one 9” x 12” strip from the first color. Score every 3 inches.
• Cut two 2.5” x 12” strips and one 2.5” x 10” strip from the second color.  Score every 2.5 inches.
• Cut two 2” x 12” strips and one 2” x 4” strip from the third color.  Score every 2 inches.

Altered Playing Cards

A few weeks ago, I attended my uncle’s 88th birthday party.  As with nearly all of the family gatherings on my Dad’s side, we spent a lot of time reminiscing about the good old days and going through scrapbooks.  One of the things my aunt and cousin have started to do is trade altered playing cards.  It looked like a lot of fun, so I asked if I could join in.  A couple weeks later I received my first APC from my aunt.  She decorates both sides of the card.  I don’t know anything about APCs so I don’t know if that’s the way they’re always done.  Here’s what she sent:

Very cool!

A week later I had an unplanned surgery and I received another APC from her.  This one has one of my favorite cartoon characters on it:

Cute, huh?

So, I decided it was high time I sat down and made my first APCs.  As usual, I made them first THEN got the idea to look on the internet to see what other people are doing.  Oops! mine are definitely different than most.  For one, I didn’t have any ephemera (gasp!) so I made do with what I had on hand.  I’ll get some for the next set.  Ephemera seems to be a big thing with APCs.  Here’s what I ended up with.  I made two.  One for my Aunt and one for my cousin.  The theme is Summer.

The watermelon is made from red, light green and dark green cardstock.  I made the pitcher and glass with shrink plastic.

Cedars of Lebanon Quilt Block Card

Here’s another card based on a quilt block.  I made this one with paper from Paper Wishes.  I just love the bright colors!

The technique for this card is a cross between iris folding and paper weaving.  the green squares were rather tricky to do.  You can find the pattern and instructions for this card on my website at: http://www.handcraftedgreetings.com/card.php?card_id=00232.

Airbrushed Butterflies

Here is another air-brushed card.  Butterflies, of course!  I’ve had this particular stencil for years, but hadn’t used it much. The flowers across the bottom are from the Spellbinders Flower Bouquet Miniabilities set.

After I finished airbrushing the butterflies, I removed the stencil and airbrushed the background lightly with sky blue.  The butterflies across the center are from Martha Stewart’s Butterflies border punch.

Airbrushed Lighthouse

I used one of the gift certificates I received for Christmas to buy a Copic airbrush.  One of the things I really like about it is that since it uses Copic pens, there’s really no clean-up.  I’m still learning the basics, but what fun! I have quite a collection of brass stencils, so I selected one with a lighthouse on it and here is what I created.

After I removed the stencil from the background, I decided that the overspray made a nice frame, so I added a little more color and cut about 1/4” away from the stencil border.  The yellow card I used for a background isn’t really that bright, I don’t know why it scanned that way, the rest of the colors are about right. It’s closer to the shade of the yellow on the lighthouse lamp.

This was a lot of fun to make and I’m looking forward to collecting some more colors.  Right now, all I have is blue, red, yellow and brown.  They’re fairly expensive, so I’ve been using 40% and 50% off coupons to buy them one at a time from Michaels.

Open Sky Lantern

I found some time this evening to make another lantern (no pencil lines this time!). These go together fairly quickly.  This time, I added the flowers and butterfly before putting the lamp together and it was much easier.

Here’s the front…

… and the back.

Mini Lantern and Butterfly

Today, I finally found some time to play with my new mini lantern template from Hot Off The Press.  They are so adorable!  This is my first one, complete with pencil marks – I’ll be more careful next time!

I made it with handmade paper.  The butterfly is layered gold foil and pink scrapbook paper.  I really like the way it turned out.  There are six lantern templates in all.  I think they would make very cute Christmas ornaments.

On a completely different topic, In case you’ve been curious regarding where I’ve been for the past month and a half, I just finished a complete re-write of my website.  So, if you haven’t visited for a while, take a look and let me know what you think.  You can find it at http://www.handcraftedgreetings.com.

Giant Spiral Card

I have been eyeing the Fold-it card templates from Paper Wishes for quite some time, so when I saw the spiral template on sale for $1 I snapped it up right away. I wasn’t sure how I would like the template because it seemed like there was a lot of tracing and cutting involved, but it turned out to be quite easy to use.

Here is my first card.

I made it for my niece’s graduation. Inside, I put a verse from the Bible on each of the petals and an inspirational poem in the middle. Of all of the giant fold-it templates, I think this one has the most room in the center for writing.

The template also comes with a pattern for a small spiral, plus templates for tags and decorative dots and swirls. I know I will be using this one quite a bit!

I need some software testers

I’ve been learning Visual Basic for the past couple of months and I’ve written an application that prints tile pages for tea bag folding.  Here’s a screen shot of the selection page:

If you’re interested in testing it, let me know and I’ll send you a link so you can download it.

Pinwheel Star Card

I recently purchased and downloaded a project guide from Kaleidoscope Kreator to get some ideas for more things to make with their software.  The first project that caught my eye was card with a layered star and I wanted to learn how to make it.

I used a picture of a Dianthus from my garden to create the star.  After that, I just followed the instructions, which were very easy, and the card went together surprisingly fast. 

The really neat thing about Kaleidoscope Kreator is that you can print the same design in multiple sizes on a single page.  This makes it ideal for printing tiles for tea bag folding.  You can also use it to print on fabric to make pieces for a quilt.  it is really quite versatile.  To see some of the other things you can do with Kaleidoscope Kreator, check out their idea gallery at http://www.kaleidoscopecollections.com/ideas.htm.

Butterfly Silhouette

After making the moose yesterday, I decided I wanted to try something a little more complex.  I found this really pretty Japanese style butterfly in my clip art collection.

This time, I put the pattern on top of the card stock and traced it with a stylus, then I cut the butterfly out with my X-Acto knife.  It was a little tricky because I have fairly bad eyesight so I had to work with my nose practically on the paper so I could see the indentations from the stylus.

Moose Silhouette

Tomorrow is my oldest son's 23rd birthday.  How time flies!  As I sat down this afternoon to make his card, I was at a loss for what to do.  Cards for guys have always been a challenge.  Recently I saw some really pretty silhouette cards on one of the groups I belong to, so I decided to make one of those, but instead of using flowers I wanted used his favorite animal, the moose.

I searched through my clip art files and found the perfect image. Here is the result:

Materials Used:

• 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" gold card blank
• 4 x 5 1/4 brown card stock
• scraps of blue, brown, green and dark green handmade paper.
• x-acto knife
• Precision point scissors (like Cutter Bee)
• Gold border stickers
• Gold Happy Birthday sticker

Instructions:

• Find a suitable image for the silhouette
• Draw a frame around the image, making sure that part of the image touches each side of the frame.  This is your pattern.
• If your card stock is light enough, you can use a light box to trace the pattern onto the card, otherwise, use temporary adhesive to stick the pattern to the card.
• Cut around the pattern with an x-acto knife or precision scissors, making sure not to cut the parts of the image that touch the edges of the frame.
• Layer torn pieces of handmade paper behind the silhouette.
• Add gold border sticker and gold Happy Birthday sticker
• Mount on gold card blank.

Pop-up Box

I got the idea for this box from some junk main one of my co-workers received.  If you push down on it, it flattens out so that you can put it in an envelope, but when you take it out of the envelope it springs into a box shape.  I thought it was just about the coolest thing I'd ever seen, so of course, I had to figure out how it was done.  The secret is that it has a rubber band inside.

The box my co-worker received was hexagon shaped, but I thought it would be easier to start out with a square.  Here's mine flattened out in my scanner:

I used Kaleidoscope Kreator 3 to print the graphics for the sides.  Next time, I will make sure that the flowers on the top half of the box sides are right side up.  Oops!

For the top, I punched out a square with my scalloped square punch, stamped Happy birthday and added some punch flowers.

And here's another view of it popped up:

You can download a copy of the box template and instructions from my website at:

http://www.handcraftedgreetings.com/miscprojects.php