Hero Arts Clings Silhouette Rubber Stamps

Last week I had the opportunity to shop at the Mapunapuna Ben Franklin Crafts and happily found some new Hero Arts rubber stamps. I could hardly wait to get home to ink them up. Since I have many people to write thank you notes to, it seemed to be a perfect time to try out these new stamps with old-fashioned graphics. The ornate frames and buckle style tags were cut using Spellbinder dies. It may not be apparent in the photo, but both die cuts have embossed designs. The black and white background papers came from the La Creme DCWV paper pack. The only problem I had was that the solid areas of the stamped image sometimes did not leave an even black color so I had to do touch-ups with a black small tip marker. Ben Franklin Crafts has lots of new silhouette stamps so you should pick some up. I'm sure they'll make writing thank you notes more enjoyable. Don't forget 40% coupon day is coming up. Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you'll visit again soon to see what other projects I come up with in the new year. Happy 2011!

Little Yellow Bicycle Products

Isn't the name, 'Little Yellow Bicycle ' a weird name for a craft line? I guess the name does help consumers to remember the company. Anyway, this new company has the yummiest line of papers, stickers, embellishments, mini albums, etc. For those of you who can't ever get enough cupcake and other sweet designs, you're going to love these products. Because many of the papers have hearts on them, they would be perfect to use for a jumpstart on Valentine's Day. I can also see using these fresh and cute items on the thank you cards you are probably working on right now. You are making them aren't you?

Hello Kitty is in my photo dressed up as a rabbit to welcome in the New Year. 2011 is the year of the rabbit. I was lucky enough to win the Hello Kitty doll at a game arcade in Japan. I love the arcades there because you can actually win without putting in a ton of money. I hope that 2011 is a lucky rabbit year for you too!

Snow Globe Shaker Card

I know it's Christmas Eve and probably no one is reading blogs, but I still wanted to post the last Christmas card I made for 2010. I was inspired by watching Cheryl Miyashiro (Life is Sweet) on the Joy of Crafting (OC16 Sundays at 6:30 pm) this week. She demonstrated a cute tea bag or candy holder with a shaker element on the front. Then as I was starting to put away my stamps and punches for next Christmas, I discovered a neat Penny Black snow globe cling stamp that I didn't get around to using. I couldn't resist making just one more card. I also found a word stamp that came with the gingerbread house clear stamp (Our Craft Lounge). It was the perfect sentiment for my final card of 2010. Cheryl's tip on cutting the foam tape really thinly worked well for the snowglobe. I think using the Sizzix scallop card die (the one that comes with the cupcake die) gave the card a gingerbread shingled roof appearance. I really love snowglobes and my favorite one was given to me by my oldest son who bought it all by himself with his own money from Woolworths when he was about 7 or 8 years old. The two figures in the globe are a mother and son shopping.....sweet huh? I also love gingerbread houses and one year stayed up for hours holding onto the gingerbread roof waiting for the icing to dry. The overhang of the roof was really too long which made it heavy, but I persisted and with a ton of icing I achieved success! I hope Santa will be visiting your home tomorrow morning because you've been GOOD.... haven't you ? If not, try harder next year! LOL! Thanks for taking the time to read this post especially if you are here on Christmas Eve....you really must be a devoted blog surfer. Go to bed now or Santa won't come. Do you hear the reindeer hooves and jingle bells?

Potpourri Filled Compote

To me part of the feeling of Christmas is revealed in the scents wafting through your home. When I walked through Ben Franklin Crafts I was not planning to buy a bag of cinnamon scented potpourri pine cones, but the smell just said, "Holiday" ! I purchased a bag of the natural ones and one of unscented gold colored pinecones. At home I found my favorite compote dish ($10 from a thrift store) and mixed the pinecones with some artificial miniature fruit from my Thanksgiving arrangement. I was left with lots of extra scented pinecones so I decided to deocrate them with bits of extra decoration/wrapping trimmings and felting wool. The heads of the pinecone people are made from Hearty Clay (with a mini Santa cap and pipecleaner snowman cap). The pinecone Christmas elf/figures don't need to be in a compote and they are fun to place around the house where you want to add the sweet smell of Christmas. (Oh a flashback memory..."The Sweet Smell of Christmas" was a book that my children loved during the holidays because it had scratch and sniff stickers. We scratched and sniffed the book so much that I had to buy replacement books. If you have young children in your home this book makes a great pre-Christmas gift.) Have the sweetest Christmas ever!

Gingerbread Boy Tag and Card

This year, since I had a very late start on Christmas because of traveling, I only made one batch of gingerbread cookies. I thought that a cute tag using Sizzix dies (gingerbread boy and loop edge tag) would be perfect to accompany the homebaked gifts. When I found a 'Got Milk' clear stamp in a set with gingerbread images, I knew I had to use it on the tag. I liked the tags so much I made a large card too. To hold the gingerbread cocoa mix on the card, I cut two horizontal slits (about and inch apart) in the green print paper and slipped the mix into the opening before taping down the printed paper to the red card. I embellished the tags and card further by gluing on some mini holly garlands, plastic charms, red acrylic dewdrops, and glitter (use white drying glue to make it look like icing). I know that this project is very late for Christmas 2010, but maybe you can keep this tag/card idea in your head and make gingerbread cookies next year. I know that I need to get an earlier start on crafting for the holidays (begin in July?) but then I say this at the end of every year....sigh....next year will be the one that will be organized!

Gift for Flower Lover

If you've visited Ben Franklin Crafts recently, I'm sure you've noticed that there are lots of very attractive artificial flowers and flower related items for crafting. Because spring is just around the corner, I'm sure that your crafting friends would love to have some. Rather that just putting the flower embellishments in a box, I found a garden mini tool tote that I knew would be the perfect gift basket for my gardener/crafter friend.


Actually, I purchased the tool tote last spring when I spied it in Ben Franklin Crafts. (Never pass up a good item that will come in handy for gift giving at Christmas.) I'm sure a similar tote can be discovered at a hardware or gardening store. I included flower seeds, a flower shaped sponge, flower embellishments and cookies in the tote. I'm really proud of how perfectly this idea worked out. It looked great wrapped in cellophane and tied with a fancy pink and green bow. Half the fun of giving is finding the perfect gift and presenting it uniquely. Keep your mind and eyes open for special things all year long as you shop at Ben Franklin Crafts, of course!

Sweet Candy Memo Holder

I like memo holders because I always need reminders. This one was a quickie that was whipped up from some wire and leftover candy decorations. I simply coiled the wire for the base, strung on the plastic gumdrop beads and made a couple of loops to hold the message paper or cocoa packet. I wired on some plastic candy charms using a thin wire and covered the wire with a bow. This is a sweet present to make as a last minute gift for a teacher or office co-worker. The gumdrop beads came in a large box (from BFC) so you can even make these for Valentine's Day or a birthday if you switched out the ribbon and charms with something more appropriate. Well, thanks for stopping by and I hope I helped you figure out what to give when time/money is in short supply. I'll have a few more ideas to share before taking a break for Christmas. Happy Holidays!