TCM June Release Previews - Sweet Memories

Welcome back to the previews for The Crafts Meow's June release! 

Today is our 3rd day of previews for the new stamps being released on Friday, June 21st, during The Craft's Meow New Release Blog Hop!

Today we are previewing another new set illustrated by Nina of Nina B Designs called Sweet Memories!
Nina designed this set to use for Project Life but it can also be used for scrapbook pages and calendars. Sweet Memories is also perfect to use on cards! You are going to love the versatility of this set!
For my first project, I made a little book to hold journal cards.

This is what the book looks like all folded up.

I used a sentiment and the buttons stamp from Crafty Shelf for the front of the book. 

I adhered a piece of ribbon around the book to keep it closed. The patter papers are from Simple Stories - Snap Color Vibe.

Inside the book, I created two pockets to hold the journal cards. 

I stamped a few of the sentiments on the inside cover and above the first pocket.

Here is a peek of the journal cards. 

Wouldn't this make a great gift for anyone doing project life or who scrapbooks?

I also wanted to show that you could use this set for cards.

I stamped one of the frames on pattern paper along with a sentiment from the set. The patter paper is from Authentique - Genuine. I added more butterflies which I punched out out of pattern paper and added pearls for their bodies. 

Make sure you stop by The Craft's Meow Blog for more inspiration from the DT using Sweet Memories. 

While you are there, be you leave a comment for a chance to win a Sweet Memories set. 

   You have until 8:00 pm EST tonight to leave a comment.  

Stop back tomorrow because we are previewing this months free gift with $50 purchase!

It's all about the packaging

Hi!
It's Thursday and it mean it's time for another challenge for The Outlawz POM challenge group. This week we are challenging you to create a gift card holder.
I have a couple of samples to share with you.
Here in the U.S. you will see a lot of Christmas in July themes so my first gift card holder has a Holiday Theme.
As you can see I kept the front fairly plain so it could be used for a masculine or feminine gift. The sentiment is from a retired SU set called Riveting. I found the ribbon buried in my ribbon drawer and used it to create a bellyband to keep the gift card holder closed. The papers are all from my scraps. I believe the pattern paper is from Basic Greys Jovial pack.
Lets take a peek at the inside.

I couldn't find a gift card in my house so you are stuck looking at my BP rewardcard! lol! If you like using up your scrap paper then you will love the size of this...it's 6 1/4 x 4. I scored the paper at 1 1/2 and at 4 inches. It's nothing fancy and really easy to make but I think it would make a nice gift for any occasion. If you wanted to, instead of using a ribbon for a bellyband you could make one out of paper.

Believe it or not my next gift card holder was also very easy to make. Istn't this cute?!!

Lets take a look at it opened up and then I will explain to you how I made it.

Are you ready for this? I used two circles and two 5 1/2 x 2 inch strips of paper to make this. I cut out the circles using the smallest of the Spellbinders Grand Circle dies. I lined the edge of the circles up on my paper cutter at 3 inches and cut the bottom off. The bottom corners of the strips of paper were cut off at an angle. Now to add the flowers I used a fun technique that I call inking your embossing folder. Now you can ink either side of the embossing folder, place your paper on the ink and run it through your cuttlebug or like machine. You will get a different look depending on which side of the folder you ink. The folder I used is Sizzix Petals a Plenty and I inked the raised side of the embossing folder which gave me the look above. Now had I inked the other side the flowers would not have ink on them but the rest of the paper would. Give it a try so you can see the difference yourself! I only embossed the flowers on 1 or the circles and 1 of the strips so the backside is plain. If you wanted to you could emboss both sides. I also wanted the embossing to be very subtle without much depth so ran both the circle and strip through my cuttlebug to flatten the embossing a bit.

Now to assemble it I took the un-embossed circle and glued it to the un-embossed strip of paper. Now take the embossed strip and add score tape to the back along the bottom and sides an stick on top of strip with the circle glued to it. This creates your pocket. Next line up the embossed circle on top of the plain circle making sure that it is also tucked in the pocket and attach all layers with a brad off to the side. I covered up my brad with the felt flowers. I also added a bit of lace before I added the brad.
I added a white circle behind the gift card so I could include a handwritten note but you wouldn't necessarily need to do that.

Be sure to check out the my fellow DT gals to see their awesome gift card holders. They are all quite different and all are fabulous!

I hope you will play along with us this week. If you do, make sure you follow the steps to submit your creation to be eligible for the prizes we are giving away! All the details for submitting can be found in the current challenge discussion in POM challenge group.

I am submitting these to the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp! Challenge Blog - anything goes

Bearly Mine Challenge - anything goes

Creative Craft Challenge - Pretty Blossoms

KB Cute Monday - Something Cute

Make it Monday - anything goes

Thank you so much for stopping by and enjoy your Thursday!!

Gift Bags & Tags

Hi!
Remember yesterday I said I had another birthday themed project but it wasn't a card?
This week the challenge for The Outlawz POM challenge group is Bag & Tag. You can create your own bag or use a ready made bag.
I have a couple of samples where I created my own bag and one that used a ready made bag. I also went with a boy theme and a girl theme.
Let's take a look...

My masculine themed bag is the handmade one. I just realized I did not write down the dimensions so if you are interested in them leave me a comment or send me an email...K?
I used a couple of different SU stamps sets on this one, Wanted and Bronco Buster. When I attached the border to the bag, I only add score tape to the two sides and the bottom so I would have a pocket for the tag. The sentiment on the tag is from Gina K Designs Out West Stamp set. The tag was made using Spellbinders Labels 11 as was the label on the front. All the papers are SU.

For this bag I used a white lunch bag. I cut off a couple of inches off the top because I did not want it to be quite that tall. The pattern paper is SU as is the cardstock. The border along the front was made using flower stamps from Gina's Fun Year Round stamp set. I used my color spritzer tool to add the spatter of different colors or ink over the flowers. I attached the border the same as I did for the masculine bag to create a pocket for the tag. The tag for this one was made with Spellbinders Labels 17 and the sentiment on the tag and on the front of the bag is from Gina's Inside & Out stamp set

I hope my samples have inspired you to play along with us this week. We have some awesome sponsors for all challenges for the month of July:
Oozak's is offering a $50.00 gift certificate
SCACD is offering a $25.00 gift certificate
Gilli Rubber Stamps is offering a Goodie Bag

And we also have a prize specific to the POM group for the month of July. 3 digi images from Anne's Digital Art.

Thanks so much for stopping by to visit with me and I hope to see lots of bags & tags entered in the challenge this week ;o)

I am entering these in the following challenges: Make it Monday/Anything goes, Craft Your Passion/Anything goes, Paper Take Weekly/Anything goes, Penny’s Paper Crafty/Happy Birthday, Ruby’s Rainbow/Happy Birthday, Bearly Mine Challenge/Anything Goes, KB Cute Monday/Anything Goes and Sentimental Sunday/Anything Goes with a sentiment.


Masculine Bag/Tag Supplies:
Stamps: SU, Gina K Designs
Ink: SU
Paper: SU
Other: Ribbon, Brads, Twine, Eyelets, MFT Star Border Die, Spellbinders - Labels 11 & Stars

Femine Bag/Tag Supplies:
Stamps: Gina K Designs
Paper: SU
Ink: Memento, SU
Other: Ribbon, Twine, Brads, Eyelets, MS Border Punch, Color Spritzer Tool, Spellbinders Labels 17 & Gromment Tags

Box of cards

Hi!

I hope you are having a good evening!
Tonight I wanted to share with you my Blast from the Past challenge for this week.

This week I chose to revisit Gina K's 'Box of Gift Cards' videos which you can find here and here. Mother's Day is right around the corner and I thought this box of cards would make a nice Mother's Day gift.

I decorated the clear box with a belly band, a ribbon, felt flowers with corduroy brads in the center and leaf branches. I used the 'For You' stamp from Gina K's new Masculine Messages stamp set and punched it out with a spellbinders tag.

I chose to use colors that would be neutral for man or woman. There are six cards in the box so I kept the layout fairly simple and used it on all six cards.
This is the sketch I used for all 6 cards.

Th pattern papers are all SU. I have a ton of retired SU papers so making this box of gift cards gave me a chance to use some of those papers. I also used SU Soft Sky and Gina K's White and Chocolate Brown pl papers.

All the sentiments are from Gina k's Inside and Out stamp set which I felt was perfect for these cards. I used the 'Happy Birthday', 'Thank You' and 'Congratulations' on the outside of the cards and the coordinating sentiment on the inside.

This is the inside of one of the cards. I finished off all of them the same way.

I would love for you to join me for this weeks challenge. If you do, please be sure to add your project to the Stamp TV gallery using tag STVBPSLS09 so you are entered in the drawing for a free stamp set!

You can find all the information about the Blast from the Past Challenge and all the other challenges here on StampTV.

Thank you for stopping by! I really appreciate it!

Project Supplies:

Stamps: Masculine Messages, Inside and Out

Ink: Rich Cocoa, Wild Wasabi

Papers: SU Pattern Paper, SU Soft Sky and Wild Wasabi, Gina K - Chocolate Brown, White pl.

Other: Oval Nestibilities, Ribbon, Brads, Felt Flowers, MS Leaf Punch, EK Border Punch, Spellbinder Tag

A matching set

Good evening!

Anybody else crazy busy getting ready for the holidays? I am having a hard time believing next week is Christmas!!! Yikes!!! I am not ready!!!
There have been many times when I am making a card it will end up being bigger than any envelope that I own...every have that problem?
Tonight I am sharing a card with a matching envelope that I made. There are a couple of great tutorials on how to make an envelope using your scor-pal. One is on the scor-pal site under the techniques section and the other is on Stamp TV.
All the papers used to make the card and envelope are from my scraps. The DP is scraps from my Basic Grey's Bittersweet pack.
The cold weather that we are experiencing here was inspiration for the matching card. In cold weather I love to curl up on the couch with a good book and a nice cup of hot tea.

I used a few different stamps to create my living room scene. The couch is an Alota stamp that I purchase from Magnolia-licious. The table is from the SU set called Scene in a Garden and the Teapot, cup and cloth is from Gina k's Lovely Shelf stamp set.

The couch, teapot, cup and cloth are paper pieced using the Bittersweet dp. I wanted to create a wood floor for the couch to sit on so ran a piece of the brown bittersweet dp through the distressed lines cuttlebug folder. I added another piece of bittersweet dp above the "floor" for the wall and separated them with a dark brown piece of ribbon to look like the baseboard of the floor.

I store my couch stamp with my Magnolia stamps and when I was digging it out for this card, I realized that I have sorely neglected my magnolia stamps! Can you imagine?! My more little Tilda's! They are now sitting on my table waiting to be inked up. Now I just need life to settle down so I can give them some love!

Thank you for visiting me tonight!
Hugs,

Card Supplies:

Stamps: Couch - Alota, Table - SU's Scene in a Garden, Lovely Shelf

Ink: Rich Cocoa, Versamark, Copics

Paper: Basic Grey - Bittersweet, White PL

Other Materials: Ribbon, Clear Embossing Powder, Cuttlebug EF

Technique: Paper Piecing

Gift Tag Box

Happy Monday my Friends!

Where does the weekends go? They sure fly by don't they?

Today I have a project to share with you. I made some Christmas tags for gifts and a cute little box to put them in.
The box is a 4" square using SU's Cranberry Crisp cs. The box top is 1/4" bigger, also made with Cranberry Crisp and SU DSP. I used a scalloped square nestibility to cut out the center of the box top and covered opening with a 4" square piece of acetate. I decorated the top with ornaments from Gina K's First Christmas and the sentiment is from her Signed with Love stamp set.

Here is a picture without the ribbon tied around the box. The ornaments were colored with Copics and then water colored with a clear Sakura Glitter Pen.

And here is the inside with the gift tags. I added dividers in the box to make four sections. The tags were made using stamps from Gina K's Calendar Bits and Pieces set. The base of the tags is True Thyme cs punched out with a 1 1/4" scalloped square. The To, From and Tree were stamped on Ivory PL and cut out with 4 different spellbinder labels, labels 1, 2, 3, & 9. I finished off the tags with an eyelet and ribbon.

Now I just need to decide who to give them to...

Have a marvelous rest of your Monday!!!

Hugs,

Project Supplies:

Stamps: Calendar Bits and Pieces, First Christmas, Signed with Love

Ink: True Thyme, Cranberry Crisp, Rich Cocoa, Copics

Paper: Ivory PL, Cranberry Crisp, True Thyme, SU DSP

Other Materials: Sakura Clear Glitter Pen, Spellbinder Labels 1, 2, 3, and 9, 1 1/4" Circle Punch, Gold Cord, Ribbon, Eyelets, Scalloped Square Nestibility Die, 1 1/4" Scalloped Square Punch

Popcorn Box Treat Holder

Good Morning and Happy Friday!

Last Friday when I was Christmas shopping I came across a few plastic popcorn boxes in the dollar bins at Target that I thought would be really fun to alter for a present. Well when I got them home my daughter insisted that they were to big for me to use to make gifts with and that we need keep them to use for real popcorn and off she went with them to make popcorn! She is such a stinker!!!
I still like the idea of the popcorn box for gifts so I sat down and came up with my own template to make one.
The box is 4 1/4 " tall. I was surprised how much candy it took to fill it up! I will probably use this size for smaller gifts like mittens or a T-shirt and make a smaller template for box that I could use for the sweet treats.
All the paper and the ribbon are from my scraps. The snowman is from Gina K's Hip to be Square stamp set.

Have a fabulous Friday!!!

First Christmas Blog Hop

Good evening and welcome to another Gina K blog hop!
Tonight we are doing the First Christmas hop! The First Christmas stamp set is illustrated by Asela Hopkins. Asela has created the perfect combination of Christmas stamps with this set.
I have a couple of projects to share with you tonight. First up is a card I made using the larger ornament and the bear images.

The images were stamped with tuxedo black ink on white pl paper, colored with copics and cut out. I added sparkle to the ornament and bears hat and scarf with a clear sakura glitter pen. The trim and ball on the hat, I dabbed white liquid applique on them, sprinkled with glitter and used my heat tool to puff the liquid applique. The images are sitting on a piece of white paper that I embossed with the cuttlebug snowflake ef and then rubbed some Holiday rub-on paste over the raised snowflakes so they have some shimmer to them. The dp is from my scraps. The border is spellbinder's snowflake border and I laced ribbon through the bottom loops.

Next up is a project I created for the monthly 3-d challenge on Stamp TV. This month the challenge was to make a gable box and a handmade ornament. You can find the challenge here along with the template for the gable box.

I used Rich Razzleberry cs and Basic Grays Eskimo Kisses papers for the gable box. I wanted a window in the box so the ornament can peek out so I used the long wavy rectangle to cut it out and covered the window with a piece of acetate. The only embellishments on the box are ribbon and buttons.
I found some plain little wooden ornaments at Hobby Lobby. I wanted to make an ornament using just a sentiment so I decided on the present shape. At first I was just going to paint it before stamping the sentiment but when I went to get the paint out of a drawer I saw the walnut ink by Tsukineko and ended up grabbing that instead.

I rubbed the ink all over the ornament and when it was dry I stamped the sentiment in versamark and heat embossed it with black ep. I added a ribbon and loop to finish it off.

Are you ready for some more Eye-Candy tonight!? Stop in at Asela Hopkin's blog (our featured Illustrator tonight) and see what she has prepared for us.

Then, check out these GinaK Designer's blogs for their projects:

Carolyn, Donna, Erika, Jessica, Lee, Melanie, and Theresa

as well as our CenterStage Spotlight Designer's blogs:

Deb , Diana, Karen, and Sharri

Remember, the Idea Center has lots of tutorials, photos, and links that will provide even more ideas for you with this stamp set!

And, if you haven't already done so, be sure to leave a comment on GinaK's blog for a chance to win this stamp set tonight too! If you have already purchased this set, you may swap it out for any other GinaK stamp set valued at $23.95.

Card Supplies:

Stamps: First Christmas

Ink: Tuxedo Black

Paper: White pl, SU Real Red, SU DSP

Accessories: Copics (E50, E51, E53, E33, E35, E37, G3, G5, G7, R20, R21, R22, R24, R29, Y28), Liquid Applique, Glitter, Ribbon, Brads, Silver Thread, Clear Sakura Glitter Pen, Spellbinders Snowflake Border

Box and Ornament Supplies:

Stamps: First Christmas

Ink: Walnut Ink, Versamark

Paper: Rich Razzleberry, Soft Sky, Basic Gray - Eskimo Kisses

Accessories: Wavy Rectangle nestibilities, Gina's Buttons, Ribbon, Wood Ornament

Calendar Bits, Pieces and Grid Preview

Hello!!
Tonight I am so excited to be previewing a new stamp set called Calendar Bits & Pieces & Grid, illustrated by Tami Mayberry. This set is huge!! Yes, I said huge and can be used for just about any project you can think of.
When I got first glimpse of this set I knew right away what I wanted to make with it. In the past I have made my MIL a desk calendar using the 6x6 desk calendar from SU for a Christmas present each year. She did not get one last year because SU does not carry them anymore...at least that I know of and she was a bit disappointed.
I came up with my own desk calendar that still has room to display the 6x6 scrapbook pages so she can add them to her scrapbook. I started out with two 8x8 squares of chipboard and covered them with SU DSP. I tried to use a color palette that would incorporate all seasons so I used Bashful Blue, Riding hood Red, So Saffron, and Tangerine Tango. I attached the two pieces of chipboard together with gold hinges and brads.

I stamped the calendar grid 12 times on white pl paper with tuxedo black ink and added the dates and months to each before trimming them down to size. I punched holes in them and attached them to the chipboard with larger brads. I added a canopy if you will, to cover the top part of the calendar using a border bunch and some pearls in between the scallops. I finished off this side with some punched out flowers and ribbon.

For the scrapbook page side, I created a very simple mat to place the scrapbook pages on. I did not want to layer all the pages on here because I did not want the bulk and wasn't sure it would look very good so I added a library clip on the top of the mat and on the bottom to hold the scrapbook page.

For this scrapbook page I used some of the stamps from Calendar Bits & Pieces & Grid set. The sentiment 'Happy Winter Day' is from the set as is the frame around it. See how perfect it fits in Spellbinder's Labels 3 die? Now since I only wanted one scrapbook page at a time on the front I had think a bit as to what I was going to do with the other pages waiting to be displayed. This is what I came up with...

I created a pocket on each side of the back of the calendar using cardstock and a page protector to hold the rest of the scrapbook pages. I am just showing two of the pages but will share the rest on a later post.

On these two pages, I used what I am calling the journaling lines from the Calendar Bits & Pieces & Grid set. I usually do not add journaling to my pages mainly because I can not write in a straight line and I am too lazy to draw my lines so this little stamp is gonna be well loved by me for my pages!
The other stamp sets I used on these pages are Gina K's Best Fishes and Just Keep Swimming.

All the images were colored with copics and cut out. I added some silver cord and antique linen Distressed Stickles.

So what do you think of this set? Can you see how versatile it is? Are you ready to see more from Gina, her Design Team and more of the CSS DT?

First stop by our Illustrator's blog - Tami Mayberry for some projects with her timely stamp sets.

Here are the GinaK Designer Member's links who are joining us in the preview tonight:

Carolyn, Cat, Donna, Erika, Jessica, Lee, Lynn, Melanie, Nina, and Theresa

You'll also want to check in on these CenterStage Spotlight Designer's blogs for more ideas:

Melissa, Sharri (you are here), and Sue

For some helpful tips on how to use the Calendar Bits & Pieces and Calendar Grid stamp sets, please be sure to check out Gina's blog and StampTV for a helpful video on just how quick and easy it can be to use! Both of these sets as well as the PDF version of the Calendar Grid image will be available for purchase tonight over on our online store.

Calendar and Pages Supplies:
Stamps: Calendar Grid, Calendar Bits & Pieces, Best Fishes, Just Swimming
Paper: White pl, Chocolate Kiss, Regal Rose, So Saffron, Bashful Blue, Riding Hood Red, Tangerine Tango
Inks: Tuxedo Black, Riding Hood Red
Accessories: Distressed Antique Linen Stickles, Diamond Stickles, Copics, Snowflake Punches, Flower Punches, Silver Cord, Brads, Hinges, Border Punch, Pearls, Ribbon, Library Clips, Spellbinders Labels 3, Page Protecters, Quickutz Bubble ef

Bookmark

Good evening!

I hope you all are having a great weekend so far. I spent a good portion of my afternoon cleaning and re-arranging my crafting corner. I had bought some new shelves and drawer a few months ago and I was struggling with how I had them arranged so we'll see this is better.

Thursday night I was working on a project and wanted to stitch on it so I dug out my sewing machine and started sewing only to find out my tension was way off. The tension has been very touchy lately and I thought I had got it set right...well I guess not. I was so frustrated because I had worked on this template for the card for a few days and I don't think I can save this one after the sewing fiasco. So guess what I did after work yesterday? I headed off the Hancock Fabrics and bought myself a Janome Sew Mini! They are on sale there right now...pretty good deal too. Now I can try to remake the the card.

I have been thinking about what kind of Christmas gifts I want to make this year. I remembered seeing a really cute little bookmark and thought that might be fun to make for the kids in Abbi's class.
This was so easy and really quick to make.
The bookmark is make from a 3x7 strip of pattern paper. On the backside, I added a little pencil mark at the half way point and fold one side over to that point. The other side I folded but over lapped it a bit so I could glue the ends. I trimmed off the bottom and decorated it and that was it. Pretty simple huh?

Here is a closer view of it.

The snowman head is from Gina K's Hip to be Square stamp set. The dp is Theresa's Deck the Halls and I a couple of holly leaves from Gina K's Winter Foliage stamp set. I think I will make many more of these and use up some of my scrap dp.

What kind of gifts will you be making for Christmas? I would love to hear about them!
Thank you for visiting me tonight!

hugs,

Supplies:

Stamps: Hip to be Square, Winter Foliage

Ink: Tuxedo Black

Paper: Deck the Halls

Accessories: Memento Markers, Spica Glitter Pens, Rhinestones, Ribbon, Circle punch, MS leaf punch

Halloween treat holder

Hi!

Am late posting tonight or what?!! I decided that I needed to do a bit of house cleaning today after work and before we went out for a family dinner to celebrate my husbands birthday. I got a good start in one room before we left and had every intention of finishing the cleaning when we got home. Well I had stopped at Gina's store this morning and bought all kinds of goodies that were released last night. They were calling to me so I got side tracked at my crafting table and before I know it it's almost 11:00pm, I have several projects started and my house is not clean! Anyone else wish they could snap their fingers and it would magically clean itself? lol!

Anyway, I have been working on a Halloween treat holder to make for the kids in my daughters class. I saw one a while ago while blog hopping. I apologize, but I honestly can not remember what blog I saw it on. If you have seen this, please let me know so I can give them the credit.
I really like the concept of this treat holder but need to come up with a better decor for it...not a big fan of this one. I think it's the spider and the web that is not sitting well with me. Maybe I will switch that out for a sentiment.
Looking at it from the front reminds me of a matchbook.

When you open it the candy slide up as you can see in this photo below.

I did not add any images or papers to the inside but plan to when I figure out what I want to do with the outside. I would gladly take suggestions on how you would decorate this treat holder or what changes you would make to what I have so far.

It is way past my bedtime and I have to get up early tomorrow morning to help spread woodchips around the playground at my daughters school but those new goodies at still calling my name!

Have a great rest of your evening and if I can stay focused tomorrow I should have a project made with my new goodies to share with you!

Hugs,

Gift Box

Hi!

Oh my goodness, it's been a busy week! I was so tired when I got home from work yesterday I fell asleep at 5:30 and didn't get up until 6:00 this morning!
I am posting rather late today. I decided my house needed a good cleaning so that is how I spent my Friday. I hope your day was more fun than mine.

Tonight I wanted to share something I made for a birthday present. I just love the Little Monkey stamp storage system and had a couple of the boxes for the system sitting around. I am one of those people that will hang on to anything that could be altered.
I covered the box with some retired SU dp and tired a bow around it. I used the background dots stamp from Gina K's Bold Flowers to stamp on Really Rust, Chocolate Chip and River Rock. I used the Marvy flower punched to punch out different sizes of flowers and layered them. In the center of the flowers are buttons with rust colored fiber tied through the button holes. The sentiment is also from Bold Flowers.

It is suppose snow this weekend so I am hoping to get in a lot of stamping.
Have an awesome weekend!
Sharri