Gnome Sprinkle Birthday Card

I love gnomes and my daughter-in-law loves cats so I decided to combine the two themes into her birthday card...also I just bought a gnome stamp set (Whimsy) which I just couldn't wait to ink up. LOL!  I started this card by cutting the colorful heart frame using the Sizzix die on some heart print card stock.  I used the same die to cut out a frame out of plain white card stock.  I saved the inner piece of the white card stock frame and stamped the 'Happy Birthday' and gnome with cake onto it before coloring the image with Copic pens.  I also used white glue to add some fine clear sparkle glitter to the cake.

I glued down the white scalloped frame to the front of the blue card and then inserted and glued the inner piece with the gnome and words inside the frame.  Next, I added  double stick foam adhesive to the backside of the heart frame to form a complete seal for the confetti. (I had to cut the foam tape to make it 1/4" as I only had 1/2" tape.) I carefully placed the scalloped rainbow heart frame onto the white scalloped frame. Before completely sealing the pocket, I added the heart, cat paw print, and cat face confetti into the clear window pocket.

For the inside of the card, I stamped the melting gnome image (Trinity, Simon Says) and the cat images (Poly Clear, Hero Arts) onto white card stock.  I cut out the images after coloring them with Copic pens.  They were adhered to the card with glue and adhesive foam dots (behind the cats).  White glue was used to adhere some fake confetti sprinkles.

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I think this birthday card is successful because it makes me smile.  I'm hopeful that the birthday girl will enjoy the humor of the card. (The cats are gray like hers and they often cuddle up with her husband (my son) while he is sleeping...Hahaha!) Hope YOU have an extra sprinkles kind of day!

Halloween Treat Bag Cards

 Yes, these are CARDS, not trick-o-treating bags.  These bag cards fit into standard 5x7 envelopes.  I created them as a way to send treats to my favorite trick-o-treaters who live too far away from me to knock on my door this Halloween.  I started by cutting up some large brown paper bags and their handles.  Using just a ruler, serrated scissors, and glue, I formed the 4"x5" mini bags and added the handles (made from the original large bag handles).  It was incredibly easy to cut the Whimsy printed Halloween card stock sheets (from a paper pad) to fit the bag fronts.  

Next, the Happy Halloween words were die cut from gold foil card stock using the Whimsy die.  Fabri-Tac 3 in 1 glue was used to adhere the words.  Also glued on in the upper left corner of the bag was a cobweb cut from vellum using the Sizzix die.

On the back of the bag card, I plan to write a message to my sweet trick-o-treaters.  I didn't want to leave the back of the bag bare so I sprayed it with Tim Holtz Distress paint and stuck on some puffy candy stickers.  Rather than sending candy through the mail, I decided to eat the candy and fill the empty mini candy wrappers with folded money.  This way the recipients of the Halloween Treat Bag cards can buy their own treats....toys, books or even CANDY!  I hope this post has inspired you to make your own treat bag cards to surprise your favorite faraway tirick-o-treaters!

Autumn Agate Necklace With Pendant

While looking in my stash for beads to string into strech bracelets, I 'found' an agate pendant.  In the plastic zip bag were two strands of beads hat matched the pendant.  Since I had my jewelry tools out, I decided to whip up a necklace. The two strands of beads were not the same size or colors, but they did both match the pendant so it wasn't hard to complete the necklace.  Since the pendant had a sterling silver bail, I finished off the necklace with silver ball beads and a silver hook clasp.  It was simple to use crimps and a crimping tool to make sure the closure was secure.  I'm glad that I took the time to complete this piece whose parts were patiently waiting for me to put them together.  I know that I will happily and proudly wear this Autumn Agate Necklace this fall.  Hope that you will take the time to check out the beads at HM Ben Franklin Crafts to select the perfect ones to make into some autumnal and holiday jewelry.

 

Halloween Treat Bag Tags

To make my Halloween treat bags even more special, I decided to make some spooky tags to tie onto them.  I started by die cutting the black card stock paper with a Little B tag die.  Next, I cut a piece of printed burlap ribbon to fit the tag and attached it with 3 in 1 Fabri-Tac glue.  For the bottom of the tag, I cut a piece of Whimsy printed card stock (black and white stripes) to fit and glued it down. Onto the striped paper I adhered some Martha Stewart and Stiko stickers. (I've had the Martha Stewart stickers in my Halloween supply box for years but I'm sure that you can find suitable stickers at HM Ben Franklin Crafts.) The final touch for the tags was to attach unique yarns to make the tags even more special. Okay, time to bake the treats to go into the bags which will be tied closd with these cautionary, spooky tags.  I love the scary fun of Halloween...don't you?

 

Stretch Bead Bracelets

After seeing Joy making stretch gemstone bead bracelets on Joy of Crafting, I decided to give it a try. It was amazingly easy and fast to make the bracelets and I couldn't resist making a bunch.  I used turquoise, amazonite, amethyst, and agate beads. 

I also made two glass bead bracelets. The one on the left was made with African glass beads.  The colorful candy-like glass bead one was made for Halloween.  The only problem I had with the construction of the bracelets is knotting the elastic cord.  I wanted to make sure that the knots were secure so I did double surgeon knots but then these knots were bulky and hard to hide between the beads.  Doing a single surgeon's knot and G-S Hypo Cement was a better solution for the completion of the bracelets.

There are so many gorgeous beads for sale (especially at HM Ben Franklin Crafts) so your bracelet creations are limitless.  I hope you'll give this easy craft a try and make yourself some beautiful, fun jewelry. I know that you'll be unable to stop your bracelet production after making just one...like eating potato chips...hahaha!

P.S. I used both .7 and 1 mm stretch elastic for my bracelets.  I feel that the 1mm is sturdier but the knots are bigger and harder to hide. For smaller beads .7 elastic cord is easier to thread through.

Japanese Gift Bags with Tags

 These Japanese design gift bags were purchased from HM Ben Franklin Crafts (or was it Daiso?).  I really loved the grafic designs on them.  All they seemed to need were matching tags. 

Because I feel that Hanafuda cards have great graphic designs, I decided to incorporate them into tags for these Japanese designed gift bags.  

I chose Hanafuda card designs that I thought matched with the bag graphics and glued them onto simple die cut tags.  

I stamped appropriate Japanese characters on the backs of the tags and heat embossed them with metallic embossing powder.

These tags were then tied onto the bags with unique yarns from my ever-growing yarn collection.

Even the backs of these gift bags were decorated with gorgeous designs.  The bag backs are so lovely they could actually be the fronts.

I hope that you'll take a look at the spectacular Japanese themed gift bags at HM Ben Franklin Crafts and Daiso.  I'm sure they'll inspire you to make some matching tags or maybe you'll fill them with Japanese goodies.  The Japanese man bag is going to my son who loves anything from Japan.  The more feminine bag is for a just born baby girl and it will contain a kimono.  I think these bags will add to gifts by making the presentation exciting. Arigato!

Halloween Welcome Sign

Rather than making another Halloween card, I decided to try something different...a Halloween sign.  It came together rather quickly because I had some embossed and stamped papers already in my 'Halloween box' of supplies.  It was so simple to use the Sizzix texture impression folder on black construction paper and then rub it with metallic cream.  The Whimsy 'Zombie Herd' stamp was used with white embossing powder to make the zombie images. Color pencils were used to color in the faces.  The stamped zombie paper was trimmed and adhered to the embossed animal skin textured paper.  Next the 'WELCOME' words were formed with 3D sticker letters.  This square was adhered with double stick tape to a square of faded red card stock.  A hole punch was used to make the holes that were used with twine to make a way to hang the sign.  This was a very simple and fast project to do and I think it shows a bit of horror humor which is what I really like about Halloween.  Welcome to my House of Zombies!