Saturday, December 15, 2012

Winter Wishes and Soapflakes

 I had a gift exchange with some friends and since I started this little thing earlier this year, I decided that I should kind of continue it for everyone.  I made them soapflakes and a little picture with instructions to set next to it on a sink in their home.



Here is what I put in each package for everyone, a bowl of soapflakes and a picture frame with the instruction poem.
I made this from a photo I saw of a card Joy Kennedy posted on her twitter account.  I LOVED it and decided to kind of try and duplicate it for my instruction poem.  I call it an instuction poem, because people don't know that the snowflakes are coated in soap and can be used to wash their hands.

To make this card, I embossed a 4x6 piece of Kraft Core Cardstock with the snowflake texture fade folder and then sanded the snowflakes.  I stamped some white cardstock with the blueprint snowman stamp in black archival ink.  Then using some Distress Markers and water markers, I colored the snowman, inked the edges with frayed burlap distress ink, and then you cant see it, but I covered the snowman with rock candy distress stickles for a little shine.  I printed the poem on white cardstock and backed it with more Kraft Core.  To make a couple of the words stand out, I drew around them with my Distress Pens.
I bought a package of fabric rose petals from the dollar tree to make the snowflakes.

Then I cut snowflakes out of the petals using Tim Holtz movers and shapers dies.





After dipping them in glycerin soap, I had soapflakes. 

For a detailed tutorial on how to do this, I posted a step by step tutorial on Instructagram
Then I packaged them all up in a large lunch bag, topped it with a large doily, Tim Holtz rosette snowflake, and made some tags out of the old Making Memories metal tag maker and stamped one of the mini blueprint snowflakes on it.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Jingle Jangle Jamboree Tag

I promised a Disney tag RAK to some friends over on Disney Scrappers, and I wanted to make one that will easily go on a Disney Scrapbook page.  One of the friends is here in So Cal and goes to Disneyland often, so I felt safe making a tag that will go with pictures taken at the Jingle Jangle Jamboree back in Big Thunder Ranch in Frontierland. 
 I used a #8 kraft tag and did the Tim Holtz Distress ink and texture fade embossing technique to make the tag look like distressed wood.  Then I cut out the title using Echo Park's This and That paper and Tim Holtz Inside Out alpha die. 
 I'm going to be honest here -- Sizzix, the ejection foam you use on these detailed dies really sucks.  It was a complete and total pain cutting these letters out!  And it is such a simple alphabet. COME ON!  You are a premier die maker, you should have developed a sturdier ejection foam by now!  I don't know if this is due to manufacturing in China and getting crappy quality, or what, but this is not the first of your dies that I have noticed has this problem.  You really need to get this fixed.  And while I am on my quality rant, please bring the manufacturing back to the USA.  You can do it and it is so much easier to monitor quality control and shipping problems.
I used the left over quilted paper from my last entry, to cut another ornament shape and then decorated it with an old holly punch, a tiny jingle bell, and just the letters from the Inside Out alpha. 

I made a complete tutorial on how to make this tag, including the wood grain tag on Instructagram.  You can see the step by step directions here.

This was such a fun little tag to make and I can't wait to use it on a layout.  Yes, I know I said I made it for a friend as a RAK, but, well, I made TWO of them so I could have one too!  ;-D