Don’t Worry, a Dropped Stamp is No Big Deal

I was intending to prepare a post about the creative ways to use 6×6 and 6×8 paper pads to make cards – you know, how easy they make it – when I did the unthinkable. I dropped an ink loaded stamp onto my patterned paper.

Gasp!

What to do? I was filming it too!

Instead of turning off the camera and starting over as if the accident had never happened (I mean, you’d never know, right?) I pushed on and created these cards. And before you watch the video, can you tell which one has the GIANT “oopsy” on it?

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Macrame … on a Card? Why Not!

Welcome to another Make It Monday where I attempt to combine my love of all things paper, with other craft genres that my store supports. Today’s challenge?

Macramé !

I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s and remember how popular macramé was back then. I don’t think my Mum had any plant hangers but I won’t swear to it! While we were all in lock-down in 2020 and rediscovering lost crafts, macramé boomed! It had started to resurface before that (or maybe it never really went away?) but with everyone at home digging out their old craft bins, it seemed like you couldn’t turn on your favourite social media channel without your feed being bombarded by all the creations.

What’s that saying? “If you can’t beat them, join them”? Well okay then. But I’m going to do it my way!

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Embossing with Distress Oxide Inks as a Way to Elevate a Card Design

Happy Monday everyone!

I am back with a quick Make It Monday post for you. Sadly, the cards I am sharing were made for family members overseas as one of my Aunts passed away last week. I am unable to go to Scotland to attend the funeral but wanted to send a little bit of myself to them so they know that I’m thinking of them.

These cards feature a coordinating stamp and die set from HoneyBee Stamps – Dragonfly. We only have one stamp set left in the store it is such a good set! In this video I show you how you can use just the stamp set to create a lovely card, and then emboss and die cut some vellum to take that original design and elevate it. Take a look.

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Adding Extra Buzz to a Layout

Do you ever have photos from an event that call for a special treatment? It can feel daunting to scrapbook them which sometimes leaves us to push them aside in favour of “easier” photos/memories. I am here to encourage you to tackle those special photos and memories!

Recently two of my daughters had graduation ceremonies. My eldest graduated from high school and her celebrations spanned the whole month of June, were very involved, and required several costume changes LOL! I have made a tiny start in creating an album for her, but admit that the album as a whole is a project that I have yet to take the time to plan out in detail. So it is in my “later” pile. For now.

My younger daughter graduated from Grade 7 which meant a much simpler ceremony (especially now since Covid kind of killed a lot of the Elementary school functions) and not so much lead-up and fuss. But that doesn’t mean that her pages should look or feel any less special than my 18 year olds! There are many ways to create pages that look and feel special – both to the viewer and to the subject (because I want my daughter to look back on these pages and know I put just as much effort into her grad pages as her big sisters.) Today I used two techniques to add that special touch – a cut file, and some hand stitching. Take a look at how it came together.

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Three Ways to Add Beads to Your Projects

I’m on a bit of a personal mission.

We have many different genres of crafts in our store and I field questions about all of them on a daily basis. I’ve also dabbled in a lot of them over the years, but wouldn’t call myself an expert by any stretch of the imagination. My mission right now is to find ways to incorporate as many as I can into my beloved paper crafting.

So far I’ve watercoloured on a background (not a huge stretch for me as I love to use my Distress Oxides to “paint” with). I’ve stitched on a card (so fun! Can’t wait to do it some more!) And I’ve created little clay embellishments for a card (fun, but I prefer to buy my embellishments pre-made to be honest.)

This week – Beads!

We sell pre-made jewelry pieces in our store and we sell a variety of beading kits for kids of all ages. But we don’t sell beads, or jewelry findings, or chains, or anything that one looking to get into jewelry making would need. Sorry, not sorry! That is a rabbit hole we are not prepared to go down at this point. But once upon a time I DID make jewelry! I gave away my containers of beads and findings many, many years ago to a particularly lovely babysitter who was celebrating a birthday. But as I mention in this video, I did find one little packet of beads plus some old necklaces that I tore apart just for this post. Here, take a look.

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Inspiration on a Friday – Adding Clay to Cards

This week our store has been featuring a couple of different clay based items. The first item is our Kids Modeling Clay, and the second is our brand new Introduction to Pottery workshops that start in September. It’s had me thinking … can you use clay on cards?

Turns out you can! We had sold out of the clay I wanted to use (it’s on order so keep checking back) but my business partner Amanda had the perfect solution for me. Check it out in this video.

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Making Something Beautiful out of a Messy Effort

A couple weeks ago, for an Inspiration Friday post on my store’s Instagram account, I created two different watery backgrounds. I made one using a set of watercolours that Altenew had sent to us, and the other with my beloved Distress Oxide inks. There was a clear winner! LOL! My watercolour technique needs a LOT of work!

Well, for today’s Make It Monday post, I am sharing a layout I made with both those backgrounds. First, let’s take a look at how those backgrounds came together.

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