Picture Frame Keychain Kit

 Gosh, you gotta check out all the new cool kits at HM Ben Franklin Crafts!  Recently, while shopping at HM BFC, I couldn't stop adding items into my shopping cart.  One of the most interesting kits I discovered were the picture frame keychain ones. They came in many colors but I limited myself to two colors....going to go back later for other colors (hahaha!).  Although the store had separate parts you could buy, I thought I should start with a kit so I would be sure to get everything I needed to complete a project.  After laying out all the parts for the project, I decided that I wanted more color so I added some cute puffy animal stickers ( Angels Craft).

HM Ben Franklin Crafts also has tons of adorable charms and doo-dads to add to your projects. In the photo above you can see the other frame kit I chose and some of the fun charms I plan to add to my next keychain.  By the way, the clear colored gel that comes in the kits has a screw on tip that will extrude the gel like cake frosting.  Also there is enough gel leftover to make other frames.  In future posts, I plan to show you the other fantastic Japanese craft goodies I purchased from HM Ben Franklin Crafts.  Please come back soon to check out new products I found at HM BFC and see the  projects that I've crafted.

Kimono Fabric Swatch Calendar

I was tidying my craft desk when I discovered another pack of mini 2026 calendars.  Yikes!  I wasn't planning to make more calendars this year, but I didn't want to waste the calendars.  (They are not craft supplies that can be saved for another year.) Now that the post office is getting stricter about the thickness of mail, I had to think of  a quick, attractive, and flat solution for decorating the calendars.  As I am a collector of many things, including vintage and unique fabrics, I decided that a unique swatch of fabric would be ideal to decorate these calendars.  I chose a Japanese kimono fabric with lots of gold highlights.  It was easy to cut (3) and fold the easels from 12x12 grey card stock.  The calendars ended up being 4"x4" and should fit in an regular sized envelope. I used double sided adhesive tape to put the calendar base together and glued the fabric onto the front with Beacon 3 in 1 glue. I was planning to make a raveled edge on the fabric swatch but the fabric was very difficult to unravel. I ended up just cutting fabric into squares and leaving irregular edges.  I am pleased with the look of the finished calendars and the ease of their construction. Although it is rather late in the year, I hope that recipients of my calendars will appreciate and use them throughout the year. Calendars can exist off a hand held device!

Hello Kitty 2026 Mini Calendar

Happy Girl's Day!

I thought I was done with making calendars for this year, but then I found four more under the clutter on my craft desk.  Since I recently purchased (in Japan) a new Hello Kitty stamp (Sanrio), I decided it was time to ink it up.  I paper pieced the image by stamping on printed washi paper and fussy cutting out the umbrella and Hello Kitty's kimono. These pieces were then glued to the whole stamped image. The rest of the image was colored in with Copic pens. The stamped, colored and paper pieced Kitty was glued to the calendar base that already had the calendars (from HM BFC) adhered with double stick tape.  

As final embellishments, I glued on some artificial cherry blossom (from HM BFC, I think) and added a few sparkling gemstone stickers (to add some bling and cover some ink smudges..LOL!)  I'm glad that I used up the final four 2026 mini calendars because I think they turned out to be rather attractive and now I have a few more to pass out to friends.  Who doesn't need a mini calendar?

P.S. If you want the instructions for making the mini calendar easels, refer to a previous post (Feb. 1st)

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!