More Valentine's Day Crafts - Catching Up Part 3

So despite the business of January, I managed to plan the Valentine Banner Class featured yesterday, and two make n take projects for the January Crop at my LSS and the February Crop at my LSS as well as a couple of fun Valentine sample projects just for display.

 

This was the January Make n Take. We still had a lot of the Distress Colors of the Month from 2015 (remember, I think they got in a double order) so I used the Candied Apple and Hickory Smoke for this Valentine candy holder I found on Pinterest.

 This was the actual Make n Take, but the ones below showed some options for other sizes and colors.

 

Before I knew it, the February crop was upon us and I needed another make n take.  We had been featuring dies for the make n takes and there were quite a few of the envelope/gift tag dies I had been given to design with in November, so I broke it out again for the February crop and used it to have a bunch or hearts spilling out of the envelope. 

 

Once again I turned to the Tim Holtz Heartfelt die and heart punch. 

I had a lot of cutting to do to get those kits done!

 Patriot didn't care. He decided to nap in the middle of all my neatly stacked piles and leave kitty hair on everything. What is a girl to do?  He insisted that he was the most important.  After all, his little kitty life had been completely turned upside down with all the rescue kitties taking over his house for months. 

 He demanded one on one time with me and was willing to go to any lengths he had to to get my attention.  So, I obliged, and petted him, cuddled him and loved him.  The kitting could wait.  My baby needed me.

 Eventually He got his fill and I was able to tidy my paper stacks and get back to it. As you can see, the base of this make n take was the Tim Holtz Postage Stamp die. The word Forever is from a Crta Bella die set.

This was a fun one to design and it was a very well received make n take the day before Valentine's Day.  Lots of customers made it into a card right away to give to a loved one.  I framed mine and displayed it it in my home as a decor piece.

 

Lastly, to inspire some Valentine creativity, I used one of these burlap bags we had in the store, added some trim, made a heart screen and filled it with Glossy Accents and then covered those with fine red glitter.  So simple and I just love the look.

 I also used one of my new (new to me anyway!) Tim Holtz Cupid dies on the toilet paper roll spool. I was inspired to make this after seeing a bunch of cupid spools on Pinterest. There must have been some sort of challenge or swap or something because it was crazy how many people had designed cupid spools!
This is definitely not my style. Way too foofy, but I had a lot of fun dying all the trim with Tattered Rose Distress Stain, and glittering the cupid, and dying the paper roses with Tattered Rose and Fired  Brick Distress Stain.  It was nice to step out of my comfort zone and get a little foofy!

 Last but not least is this cone of Valentiney goodness. I had never made a cone before and made several mistakes even though I tried following a tutorial.  I used a lot of Tattered Rose and Fired Brick on the flowers and trim for this one as well.  I also used the red glitter and some pink glittered paper that I cut out with some Tim Holtz Mover and Shapers dies.
Again, this is foofy, but the Graphic 45 paper I used on both of these just lends itself to over the top foofiness. Totally fun and totally not my style. ;-)

Well, other than a couple of crazy tags and some cards, that is about all I had time for in January and February.  Thanks for sticking with me through this entire blog entry! Wow!

Pink Precious Kitten Tags

For my last two design team projects this month I made three tags using the Carta Bella Baby Mine Girl paper line and showcasing pictures of two of my cats as kittens.

For the first tag of Lady Jane, I used the pink bottle paper and one of the nursery rhyme cards from the paper line. I think she kind of looks like the kitten on the card.  I layered some of the stickers again.

 

The trellis looking section at the bottom of the tag is the Sizzix - Tim Holtz - Alterations Collection - Frameworks Die - Trellis

The second tag of Mercy Otis also used the Trellis frameworks die. When you cut several out so you can have different paper patterns inside the trellis, you end up with plenty to work with.  I just love the feminine, quilted look with this paper line. 

The last tag features both kittens and a quilted background. Again I layered stickers and die cuts. 

To make the quilted tag or any other shape you want, cut or punch out 1" squares for all the patterned papers. Spritz them with water, crinkle them up and them flatten out again. (I punch larger squares for larger backgrounds)

The second step is to adhere the squares to a solid paper backing.  I usually use thin cardstock. The squares need to be adhered with an adhesive that is not sticky or tacky.  A glue stick works great.

 Once you are finished attaching all the papers to the backing paper, then I machine stitch over all the squares diagonally both ways. Yes, it is a bit time consuming but I love the end result. Once that was finished, I used my  Sizzix - Tim Holtz - Alterations Collection - Movers and Shapers Die - Tag and Tie die and then did a finishing stitch around the edge of the tag.

 I had seen these new Project Hangers by Cosmo Cricket hanging in Craft Envy and wanted to put them to use, so the hanger was the inspiration to make the tags in the first place. I think this would be adorable to hang in a baby girl's room.

 

Seeing as I still had tons of the quilted paper left over after I cut out the tag, I also cut out a piece using the Ornamental Movers and Shapers die and attached some of the stickers to make a very quick card.  Inside I put another sticker about love from the paper line.

Love Springs Eternal

Okay, so I know the Alexander Pope quote is HOPE springs eternal, but I decided to take a little creative license with it for this cute spring picture of two couples in love.

 I used the Carta Bella Baby Mine Girl paper and stickers for this layout.  And it just so happens that Carta Bella posted a sketch on their blog that my friend Susan made for the Baby Mine Boy paper line.  So I decided to give it a try with the girl line.  If you haven't checked out their blog, you must!

For these embellishments I layered stickers from the sticker sheet to make the Mickey and Minnie tags.  The letter stickers are Tim Holtz Ideaology Label Letters.  I felt this page needed a few little touches of black.

 I was given a Prima Wooden ATC card to use with this paper.  I thought that True Love was perfect for this picture.  These come as plain pieces of wood with some etching on them.  I wanted to do something with it, so I colored the hearts.

 I picked a few colors from my Ranger Distress Paints and using my water pen, I painted the color on in the different sections.  The watered down paint was somewhat translucent and allowed the wood to still show through.

 It went on quite easily.  Once the paint had dried, I lightly sanded it to distress it more.

 A few more little touches of black.  These black dots are from Queen & Co. Candy Shoppe Frosties.

 The sketch called for two borders.  It shows scalloped, but doesn't have to be.  I felt scalloped fit though and there was a scalloped pink border on the sticker sheet.  Cool!  But only one. Bummer!  What to do?

First I cut the border sticker in half.  I used the scalloped part on the top of the layout and then took the 1/2" straight strip and using a Lifestyle Crafts scallop border die, I put the sticker strip along the scalloped edge and cut it.

Dies work much better for cutting or altering scissors than scissors or punches which seem to gum up.

Last but not least I got out my Label Stickers again and cut some letters for a title and I was finished! 

Late!

My first design team assignment was to make a layout using Carta Bella's Baby Mine Girl paper.  So cute and adorable!!  But, other than my kitties, I have no babies, girls or otherwise.  No problem I thought, I'll just do a layout about my girls when they were kittens!  But then when I pulled the paper out and looked at it, my mind was made up.  It screamed "White Rabbit!" to me, and seeing as I had just taken some pictures with the notoriously tardy bunny, I knew it was meant to be.

As always, I turned to my favorite sketch site, Sketch Savvy and pulled an oldie but a goodie out of my stack of sketches. If you haven't seen or used Susan's sketches before, you are missing out!  Head over there and check it out.  Loads of inspiration right at your fingertips.  Sketch Savvy #95  I have used before, but I really like it and felt it fit my pictures.

 This embellishment cluster was easy to put together.  I got a Queen of Hearts card from just a plain deck of cards I had in my stash, cut it in half and used it beneath the blue oval sticker.  I mounted the sticker on thin chipboard and just rough cut white cardstock and the chipboard into a smaller oval shape than the sticker. I adhered the rose sticker to the center.  I detail cut the little teapot from the nursery rhyme paper.

Here is a mini tutorial for making the watch.
First I cut three thin pieces of chipboard with the Tim Holtz Movers and Shapers Pocket Watch Die. It embossed the inner circle but doesn't cut it.

 Then I painted them all three gold with Metallic Distress Paint.  I punched a 1 1/2 inch circle from white cardstock and stamped a clock face on it.  For this one I used a 7 Gypsies pre-inked stamp.
Adhere the watch face to one of the die cuts as shown.

 For the other two, I used my Tim Holtz Tonic Craft Knife and cut the center circle out.

Then all that was left was to draw the hands on the clock and layer the three together.  For an added bit of dimension, I then covered just the gold part of the watch with glossy accents.  You can see how it makes it shimmer in the photo above.

These flags are simple enough to make.  Just trim some scraps and glue them on to a decorative pin.  I punched two hearts from cardstock and covered them with glossy accents.

 The title is just Studio Calico letter stickers with Glossy Accents for dimension and to allow the letters to match the watch and the gold sequins.  The sequins look orange in the photo but they all three match on the layout. I adhered the Studio Calico sequins with Glossy Accents and then used my sewing machine to sew through them.  I also used my machine to sew various papers throughout the layout.

This was a fun assignment!  Although I have plenty of product left over to do another layout.  So stay tuned.  Will it be girl kittens or something else? 

Lilac - Disneyland's Pet Cemetery

I needed to take a break from the huge pile of unfinished layouts.  It ended up being rather emotional for me as I had to peruse years of pictures to find just the right ones for the layouts.  Lots and lots of great memories, but because my younger sister passed away last August, it was also difficult to look at all the pictures of her beautiful, smiling face.  I just miss her so much.
Anyway, so I took a little break to try and complete some of the current challenges at Disney Scrappers, and to celebrate Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.  What a wonderful weekend!

So now, onto my latest finished layout.  This layout was for Disney Challenge #8 - March Sketch.  Our challenges are open ended over there, so we have lots of time to work them into our schedules. 

This layout features Beloved Lilac the skunk in the Pet Cemetery at Disneyland's Haunted Mansion.  She was "Long on curiosity...short on Common Scents."
I bent down to get this picture and after I took it I realized that the sun was shining over the wall in such a way that it made Lilac look angelic.  I totally LOVE it!  Pure serendipity.  These pictures have had nothing done to them (I don't own photoshop and have no idea how to use it.)

The sketch for March was #101 from Sketch Savvy.  The additional challenge for this sketch was to use a picture of morning at Disney OR a Disney photo with interesting lighting.  You can see I turned the sketch upside down because of the rays over Lilac. 

I used Traditions from Carta Bella and added a few chipboard pieces from Fancy Pants, BG and CC. 

 

The title is a QuicKutz (Lifestyle Crafts) alpha called Mademoiselle.  I cut out two layers of QK adhesive chipboard and one of the Traditions paper and then layered them to make the title pop.

 The stickers are also from the Traditions paper line.  I attached some to some of the chipboard pieces that I covered with paper first.

 There is a whole page of tags that comes with the line.  I used two for Lilac's epitaph.

This one went together fairly quickly.  It is bright, busy and fun.  Something I think and angelic skunk who is long on curiosity would enjoy.