Quick Tips Video #1

Hi all!  I was filming a project video and had so many little tips to share that the video became much too long for anyone to want to watch! So I decided to start a series called Quick Tips sharing just the little tips I come up with so you don't have to watch a whole project video just to get a couple of little tips and tricks.

#1 has a couple tips about working with intricate diecuts.  Hope you find these them helpful!

That's all for now, but I'll definitely have more Quick Tips to share with you in the future!  TFL!

*Affiliate links below don't cost you anything extra, but help me out.  Thank you!

Make Yesterday Jealous!

Hey all! I'm trying to find a happy medium between cleaning my craft room and actually taking time to craft, and here's the result of one of those crafting sessions:

I just love this sentiment from the Altenew Painted Inspiration stamp set!  I also picked it because it's a very bold font so I thought it would still be readable even over the bit of the mandala (I hope it is!).

Mandalas are very popular and fun to color, but buying big mandala stamps can really add up, so I thought I'd share one solution I've come up with - I bought a digital book of mandala designs to color!  I looked around for a while to find a whole book (as opposed to buying single images, which also adds up) with designs that I would actually want to color.  I finally found this one, Blooming Mandala coloring book, on Etsy that I love!  It's got 50 images and they are really pretty and fun to color!

They are meant to be printed on letter size paper so I just cut it up into 4 pieces and colored one.  I printed on plain old Georgia Pacific cardstock from Walmart and colored with Chameleon alcohol pens.  I wouldn't recommend trying to do a lot of blending on this cardstock because it does tend to bleed a lot, so the Chameleon pens were perfect to get that gradated look without any blending.

After coloring, I die cut it with a stitched rectangle die and matter with a piece of Blushing Bride cardstock from Stampin' Up!  I stamped the sentiment using my Mini MISTI and Versafine several times to get it really nice and solid, then embossed with clear embossing powder.

Finally I mounted the whole thing on a white card base then got back to cleaning! lol!  I hope you like this idea for lots of mandala coloring fun and thanks for stopping by today.  Have a great day! ~Maureen

 Affiliate links don't cost you any extra, but help with the cost of my stamping addiction!

Hey There!! Turnabout Cards

Hey all!  I took a break from cleaning my craft room to make a couple of cards with some Concord & 9th products I just got - my Valentine's present to myself!

I actually made the white version first:

I used the Concord & 9th Hey There Turnabout stamp set and matching dies, plus the new Turnabout Jig in the 6x6" size.  I stamped it 4 times using 4 My Favorite Things inks with the Original MISTI, then die cut the script hello from it, being careful to keep all the tiny little inner pieces too.  I then die cut the same hello twice from the pink cardstock (no need to keep the innards).

Side note: the Glue Sponge was a huge hit at this year's Creativation, so I Googled it to find where to buy it.  Well, I was surprised to find out that this idea has been around for years - used by teachers to help kids with gluing things more neatly in the classroom!  I am all about instant gratification so I had to make one instead of waiting for it to ship to me (although I think that the real product is probably worth the money!).

So here's my homemade version using an old set of gladware, a couple antibacterial sponges, and a 4 oz. bottle of Elmer's white glue.  I probably should have used a special paper glue to prevent buckling, but this is what was easy to get:

First I adhered the stamped background (which had been die cut with a stitched rectangle die) to the pink card base, then used the glue sponge to help stick down the first pink hello diecut.  Then I stuck in all the little innards from the stamped layer into the pink diecut.  I find this makes the whole project look better to actually have those inner pieces in there.  And the glue sponge was perfect for this!

Next I stuck down the other pink hello, then the stamped hello on top of it all.  And that's it!

For the other card, I used the same ink colors, but stamped on a piece of Toned Tan sketchbook paper (it's a cheap alternative to kraft cardstock for me).  The steps are basically the same, but with the other dies in the set.

Also, I used Blue Raspberry cardstock for this one.

I hope you like these cards and TFL!  ~Maureen

{Affiliate links don't cost you anything extra, but help offset my stamping addiction!}

Fairy Scalloped Box Card

Hi all!  It's been a while, hasn't it?  I completely lost my stamping bug, but it seems to be back so I'm playing again!

I recently got the Lawn Fawn Scalloped Box Card Pop-Up dies:



I thought it was so cute, I had to make one!

I stamped the images from the Fairy Friends stamp set using my Mini MISTI and Memento Black ink.  Then I took it out and colored with Chameleon markers.  I put the images back in my MISTI and overstamped with Versafine Onyx Black ink.  Finally I used my Scan N Cut to cut them all out.

I cut all the box pieces from a couple of different Lawn Fawn patterned papers and assembled the box.  Then I stuck in all the pieces with my ATG tape gun.  For the fairies, I cut thin strips of stiff plastic and adhered them to the box with the strips so it looks like they're flying.

Lastly, I stamped the sentiment from the set with Versafine on a scrap of the blue PP, trimmed it out, and used foam tape to adhere it to the front flap.  I love how it turned out!!

I hope to keep posting as long as my stamping bug stays and I can share with you all.  Please note that affiliate links are used in my posts.  TFL and have a great day! ~Maureen