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The new Sizzix die cutters available now at Ben Franklin Crafts are sizzling HOT! The Big Shot machine will accommodate even the large purse booklet die cutter. I’m having so much fun making mini purse albums to document my shopping sprees. The purse booklet and pages could easily be the focal point of a paper party, office crafting session, or even a teen’s birthday celebration. Provide bowls of embellishments (maybe instead of refreshments) and you’ll have an instant success. I also love the Flower Beauty Blossom die cutter, which makes four petal parts of a blossom. I found that cutting four layers of (Japanese) mulberry paper at once makes a gorgeous peony-like flower. (See photo. Click to enlarge.) To make the blossom more realistic don’t use the smallest petals and add yellow pips along with leaves from our floral department. Fold in half and wrap green floral wire stems around the pips and then pass the two wire ends through the petals. Wrap green florist tape around the stem and add in the leaves as you wrap. The resulting flower would make a great gift topper instead of a bow or be an easy, elegant, inexpensive wedding decoration.
Lynn
I love the K. and Co. book of 32 punch-out cardstock purse boxes. The pastel colors and printed designs are so feminine. I also like that in the thick booklet there are two purses of each reversible design and there are sixteen different purse shapes complete with embellishments to punch out. Pictured here is a purse/luggage box I made for my niece. I added my own ribbons and yarn plus flowers from American Craft’s Greenhouse container of flowers combined with sugar-coated brads from Doodlebug Designs. I used clear stamps from Hero Arts and Studio G to print small birthday messages on the punched out tags. I think the resulting box is really cute and perfect to contain a small gift of lip gloss and cash. Because there are 32 purses in this booklet, they would make great favors at a teenage girl’s party. If you wanted to make the favors all the same you could use one of the unfolded purses as a template and cut identical ones from cardstock. I like the fact that the booklet just has just a picture of each finished purse and not precise instructions. This allows you to get a basic idea but the freedom to improvise. By giving party guests a variety of embellishments, the making of the purse box could be an icebreaker activity and the boxes could be filled with candy or makeup. (There are also other books from K. and Co. that make non-purse shaped boxes.) Now, I need to mail this soon-to-be-belated birthday gift.
Lynn
For me, this time of the year (besides being a lei-making season) marks the poignant passage of youth. I can’t help wondering if the graduates know what lies ahead of them without the safety net of a structured school system. Even if the student continues to college there will be so much freedom that they might crash from the exhilaration of too many unsupervised choices. Therefore, it is with congratulations and trepidation that I made and mailed graduation cards. I found the Hero Arts Clear Designs rubber stamps called Happiness Messages to be very appropriate as sentiments for graduation. 
(See photos. Click to enlarge.) The hula girl card was made to go with the graduation lei necklace (in the recycled corrugated soap box) featured in this month’s website project. Gift money can be slipped behind the front card that is woven in the slits of the back card. The butterfly on the other card is from the floral department at Ben Franklin Crafts where there are many choices of bugs and birds made from real feathers. Well, I need to work on a card and gift for a niece, whose birthday I forgot…sigh, getting old.
Lynn
Before I start writing about party favors, let me just add that I’m sorry that the pedestal cake plate photo doesn’t show the glass base very well, but I think you can imagine what it looks like. If you enlarge the picture by clicking on it, the larger picture shows the entire cake plate better. Also on the other side of the wooden CD frame I adhered a rub-on, which says, “the things I love about you” and then I added lots of Dymo printed labels with what I think are my son’s best qualities. I forgot how much fun it is to use the Dymo label maker (everyone labeled everything with it in the 60’s or 70’s. (See photo.) 
Well, back to the mini scrapbook kits. There are several companies who have kits, which include all the embellishments needed to complete a project. I am particularly fond of K and Co. kits because they have sparkly do-dads, ribbons, paper, etc. From their Berry Sweet line I made the little purse with a few changes. (See photo.) I thought that the flower on the front was too big and stiff so I punched out another one (using a Magic Punch) and K and Co. paper that was printed on one side and glittered on the other. I think it’s fun to change up the kit 
projects to suit your taste and you can always incorporate the extra items from the kit into another project. Anyway, the inside pocket was large enough to accommodate several photos so I was happy to quickly scrap a two-day visit with my sister. We did lots of shopping on that trip, so the purse shape of the mini-book seems appropriate. After making the kit I thought that the low cost might make it a great party favor for a young girl’s birthday. The guests could take instant photos or you could quickly print up digital ones. Making the booklet would be good party activity. If you have too many guests to afford the kits, perhaps you could make a simple purse from cardstock and supply embellishments, paper, and tools to your guests.
Okay, back to work on graduation cards and the next newsletter…Lynn
I have been a collector of vintage and antique items for decades. Most of my treasures have been discovered at garage sales, flea markets, and antique stores. Usually I can’t resist purchasing some old china or jewelry. Recently in an antique store I saw a clever use for an old dessert plate. It was something like a cake stand with a pedestal made from a glass candleholder. Using an old European porcelain 8” plate and a 4-1/4” glass candleholder (from Ben Franklin Crafts), I was able to recreate the piece I saw. (See photo.) I glued the two pieces together with Loctite glass glue. The glue is a little watery so it is easier if you turn the plate upside down, place the candleholder (small end down) in the center of the plate, and then apply the glue at the joint. If you decide to try to make this dessert stand, please don’t use any plate before checking that it is not valuable. Personally, I would never use a dish from a set or one with a maker’s mark. Unmarked, non-hand painted, single plates usually have little value so I am comfortable recycling them. I plan to make lots of these mini-cake plates and give them as Christmas gifts along with my homemade cookies. 
I love the new K and Co. papers called Berry Sweet and Mira. Since their color palettes are similar I think they work well together. A while ago I saved a wooden CD holder that came in the mail with a free demo disk. After peeling off the outer paper I decided that it would make a cute card if re-papered with some of the Berry Sweet line. I used the Martha Stewart decoupage glue and it worked really well as both glue and sealant. By adding a beaded Berry Sweet flower and a Mira dimensional sticker the cover looked just right. A 
disk and string closure by Making Memories completed the outer part of the card. Inside I used rub-on (K and Co., Mira) words and series of photos. (See photo.) I was very pleased that I didn’t throw away the free wooden CD box because the recycled card is just perfect for my computer-loving son’s birthday.
Lynn
Last week I purchased some great new craft supplies for wool felting. Manufactured by the Clover 
Company, these new items included felting wool in luscious colors, felting needle tools, and appliqué molds (rose, daisy, etc.). As soon as I got home I started to try out the new craft supplies. Although Ben Franklin Crafts did not have the felting block to work on, I found that a block of Styrofoam worked well as a substitute except for the fact that little bits of Styrofoam have to be picked off the back of the felted item. Anyway I was pleased with my first attempts at felting using the molds. (See the blog photo and website project for a hat card with felted rose.) I think that I might be able to create my own felted items using cookie cutters for molds. The orange daisy is actually a pin eyeglass holder. I used a piece of wire to attach the small side of a figure eight key ring to the pin back (one with holes). Amy in the Mapunapuna Bead Shoppe uses this figure eight key ring to make her angel pin eyeglass holder. I thought it was a great project so I ‘borrowed’ the idea to make this flower pin eyeglass holder.
More later about my shopping and crafting discoveries….
Lynn
Almost every time I craft I learn something new. Sometimes even when I craft something I’ve done before, I find a new way to speed up a process. I often learn the most from my mistakes . . .what not to do the next time.
Today, I decided to make a card for an upcoming nephew’s birthday. I usually find it difficult to craft guy-themed stuff because I like frills, glitter, flowers, hearts and other girly-girl embellishments. Anyway, I decided to start with a black card…all boy. This nephew was recently in a robotics competition so I found a robot rubber stamp in my collection. I wanted to keep the card simple so I thought maybe I would just stamp ‘Happy Birthday” with the robots in a row. I think colors are an easy way to establish a masculine tone to the card so I decided to use silver and turquoise because they would also stand out on the black. Anyway, I stamped and embossed with the same color powder as the ink so that any part that didn’t get embossed would still be the right color. I discovered that on the black card if the embossing powder didn’t stick to all of the inked design, the non-shiny design is really noticeable. To correct this problem I used an embossing pen (clear) to fill in the missing parts and re-embossed the design. I’m happy to say that this worked well and the card came out just right. The finishing touch was the copper eyelets that I added to the sides of the card. The rubber stamp letters were ‘Ransom Alphabet’ Clear Choice Stamps from Royal Brush Mfg. and the robot rubber stamps are by Personal Stamp Exchange. (I'm not sure if PSE is still in business.) Actually any machine-type rubber stamp (cars, planes, tools, etc.) could be used instead of the robots to give the card a masculine look. The ransom alphabet stamps are my new favorite letter stamps because you don’t have to line them up exactly since they are supposed to look messy.
Continue crafting and learning,
Lynn
The new Sizzix die cutters available now at Ben Franklin Crafts are sizzling HOT! The Big Shot machine will accommodate even the large purse booklet die cutter. I’m having so much fun making mini purse albums to document my shopping sprees. The purse booklet and pages could easily be the focal point of a paper party, office crafting session, or even a teen’s birthday celebration. Provide bowls of embellishments (maybe instead of refreshments) and you’ll have an instant success. I also love the Flower Beauty Blossom die cutter, which makes four petal parts of a blossom. I found that cutting four layers of (Japanese) mulberry paper at once makes a gorgeous peony-like flower. (See photo. Click to enlarge.) To make the blossom more realistic don’t use the smallest petals and add yellow pips along with leaves from our floral department. Fold in half and wrap green floral wire stems around the pips and then pass the two wire ends through the petals. Wrap green florist tape around the stem and add in the leaves as you wrap. The resulting flower would make a great gift topper instead of a bow or be an easy, elegant, inexpensive wedding decoration.
