Sealing Wax Kit from HM BFC

 I needed a special gift for a crafty birthday girl.  Because I love sending handmade cards and decorating the envelopes, I thought this sealing wax kit was a perfect gift choice.  With this complete kit, making wax seals can begin immediately.  If you've never applied a wax seal to an envelope, you have to purchase this kit from HM Ben Franklin Crafts.  I guarantee you'll be delighted to be able to send off your mail with pizzaz. The wax seals can be applied to wrapped gifts, invitations, and have many other beautiful uses.  HM Ben Franklin Crafts also sells extra wax (in various colors) and metal seals with great embossed designs.  I like to make a bunch of embossed wax seals on a silicon mat or parchment paper,  This way I have many to choose from without having to melt a batch of wax everytime I need a seal.  I just glue (Fabri-Tac 3 in 1) the wax seals to the surface I want to decorate. It's so easy and elegant!

Lemon Butter...Yum!

 

When my lttle lemon tree starts bending over from the weight of all the fruit, I know it's time to make lemon butter. (I used to call this yummy buttery spread, Lemon Curd but that always sounded unappetizing so I renamed it Lemon Butter.) You only need about 4 large lemons, some butter, eggs, and sugar to make two small jars of this delightful spread. Hope you'll try this recipe.  It will surely become one of your favorites.

Lemon Butter

6 large egg yolks, strained

1/2 cup of fresh lemon juice

zest of 1 lemon

12 T. of sugar

8 T. chilled butter cut into pieces

Combine egg yolks, lemon juice, zest and sugar in a saucepan.  Stir with a whisk until mixture is blended. Using a wooden spoon, keep stirring over medium heat until the mixture is thick and coats the back of the spoon.  Take the saucepan off the heat and add the butter slowly while stirring. When the mixture is smooth and still warm, fill the jars with the lemon butter.  Let the jars cool and then refrigerate. Enjoy!

P.S. The mouse image on the tag was made with a Penny Black stamp, "Homemade' and the jars with the lemon design lids were purchased from Daiso.

Valentine Shaker Gift Bag

I was experimenting with a Simon Says embossing folder (Pinnacle Hearts) and tried it on a piece of foiled card stock.  It embossed beautifully and I initially thought to use it on a card, but since I haven't made a gift bag in a while, I decided to use the embossed paper on Valentine gift bag.  Because the hearts looked like they would make a good surface for shaker elements to slide down, the bag became an experiment in making a shaker bag.  After finding a suitable bag in my stash, I used double stick tape to adhere the heart embossed strip to the bag.  Around the embossed strip I lined some sticky foam tape. Next I applied a clear piece of acetate over the shaker element but added the shaker heart pieces before sealing up the rectangle. To cover up the foam tape I glued on some printed cloth ribbon. 

I had some vintatge looking Valentine cards and selected one with a cute boy and girl.  I cut around the cherub-like images and glued them to the bag leaving an opening for a Valentine note.  Lastly, I added two ribbon bows to the handle of the bag.

I think my experiment of adding a shaker element to a gift bag was successful.  There are so many possiblities with this idea and the shaker box doesn't necessarily have to be rectangular.  A heart-shaped shaker box would look great on bags for many occasions.  You just have to think outside of the box!  How about a wedding gift bag with a shaker box filled with rice?

Cat Valentine Card With Conversation Candy Hearts

 Conversation candy hearts are one of my favorite Valentine treats, so when I found the Lawn Fawn stenciling template set, it was a no brainer that I was going to purchase it.  It was easy to color in the hearts using pastel ink pads and a small piece of scrunched up paper towel.  The words were a little more difficult to color in with red ink and so I had to use a stencil brush.  After stenciling the background onto a plain white card, it was super simple to stamp the Penny Black image, color it in with Copic markers, and fussy cut it out.  The sweet cat was mounted on adhesive foam dots and the card was done! This card turned out exactly as I hoped and I plan to use the conversation heart stencil on future projects.  Now I need to find some conversation candy hearts....a sweet reward for me!

Cat with Paper Hearts Valentine Card

 Sometimes cards just happen.  I was 'pawing' through my Valentine stuff when I spied a set of Penny Black clear stamps.  They were super cute but for some reason I never inked them up. Next to the stamp set was a Simon Says Stamp 'Floating Hearts' die which I thought would pair well with the stamp image I had chosen.  First, I cut and adhered a heart printed card stock onto a plain white card.  Next, I die cut the Floating Hearts out of plain white card stock and glued it to the card front.  I stamped the cat holding the string of hearts and colored it in with Copic markers.The colored image was adhered to the card with foam dot adhesives. Finally, I used the Lawn Fawn 'Candy Hearts' die to cut out the 'Hugs' heart from pink and red paper.  After it was secured to the card, I was done! This card really made me happy because it was so easy to construct thanks to the dies and so cute due to the Penny Black image.  Okay, onward to more Valentine cuteness....I LOVE this time of the year!

Relax, It's Your Birthday!

 I made this card for my daughter-in-law's birthday.  She always looks happy when she's sitting in her favorite chair reading a book or working on her laptop.  Because I don't spend a lot of time  watercoloring but do want to get more proficient at it, I decided to play with my set of Derwent watercolor pencils purchased from HM Ben Franklin Crafts.  It was super easy to stamp the image (on watercolor paper) with waterproof Memento black ink and then lightly add color with the pencils.  Then I minimally wet a very small paint brush and used it to wash over the areas colored in on the stamped image.  It was super easy to add color where needed but not so easy to remove color (so work slowly).  After the image was dry, I fussy cut it out and adhered it to a printed card stock which was folded into a card sized to fit a matching envelope.  I found some old alphabet stickers (which looked like typewriter keys) and used them to vertically spell, ' RELAX '.  On the inside of the card I stamped a birthday message but this card is suitable for many occasions.  Watercoloring stamped images is another fun thing to do while traveling, requiring only a small brush and a set of watercolor pencils.  I hope you'll give watercolor pencil watercoloring a try. I think you'll find it stress relieving and morale boosting!

Valentine Shaker Mini Calendars

Last year my last two calendars turned out really well.  They were shaker calendars.  I decided to use my three remaining mini calendars and recreate last year's shaker calendars so I can mail them out to friends. However, I can't find the stamp set that I used so I had to substitute other cute images. I know that I will eventually find the stamps I used last year and I am satisfied and pleased with this years mini shaker calendars.

To make a shaker calendars, you will need a 12" x 4" piece of  double sided printed card stock.  Fold the panel at 4", 8", 9" and 10". Use a suitably sized heart die to cut out a window.  Glue a piece of acetate behind the heart opening.  Using foam tape, form a wall around the heart window and along the edges of the calendar front.  Partially fill the section of the calendar with the heart window before securing a panel behind the window. Fold and tape the calendar frame closed.  Add calendar and a cute fussy cut character.  Mini shaker calendars seem complicated but I assure you they are super easy to make.  You really can make a bunch with very little effort...but first you need the mini calendars. I purchased mine at HM Ben Franklin Crafts. Hurry, you still have time to craft your own mini calendars!