New Junk Journal Format

 Hi all!  Today I'm all about this little junk journal I just made:

It is really fun - opening on the left AND right!  Check out the video to see it in action:

I'd love to know what you think of it!  Please leave me a (not mean) comment here or on YT and let me know if it works for you, or if there's anything you would change.  TFL and see you next time!  ~Maureen

Stitched Hi

 Hey all!  Can you believe I have another card for you and it hasn't been years since my last one?!

I'm still playing with my Spellbinders stuff and am really loving all their stitching dies, so I used the Stitched Hi dies with some bright silver cardstock from Heartfelt Creations.  I stitched it with some blue variegated embroidery floss from DMC (although you can't really see any variation in my picture) and mounted the whole thing on a dark blue cardstock cut with the outline die.

For the background, I used the Circular Stitch Background die, but embossed it instead of cutting it out on a white A2 piece of cardstock.  I glued that to my card base, and then mounted the Hi with foam dots.

To finish it off, I embossed a sentiment from the Just Wanted To Say Sentiments on the same blue cardstock with silver embossing powder and trimmed down.  I remembered to use my anti-static powder tool from Taylored Expressions for a perfect emboss with no stray bits of powder.  I then glued the sentiment strip straight to the background.  I didn't pop it up because I didn't want it to compete with the Hi.

That's all for now, but hopefully I'll see you again soon!  I'm trying really hard to get back into the swing of cardmaking again.  Thanks for looking and hope you have a great day!

*Please note that affiliate links are used whenever possible.  There is no extra charge for you, but I receive a small amount from those sales.  Thank you!*

Happy 20th Birthday Spellbinders!

Hey everybody!  It's been 84 years since I last posted so you must be surprised to see me!  Well, I was so lucky to be invited to celebrate Spellbinder's 20th birthday with them!  Here are the two cards I made for the occasion:

First up, is this super fun stitching background card: 

I used a piece of patterned paper from the new Cheerful Occasions paper pad to cut out the Stitched Fanfare background die.  First I glued it to a piece of heavy weight cardstock to give it more stability when stitching and then cut it out.

I then stitched all the half moon motifs with DMC Etoile embroidery thread.  It's got a nice little sparkle, which is perfect for celebratory cards!  I then took another piece of patterned paper from the collection and mounted it onto an A2 top folding card.  I glued the stitched background over that.

I foiled the "a big hello from me to you" sentiment from the Sentiments for Everyday hot foil plate and die set onto white cardstock with gold foil and fussy cut out.  I added the sentiment to the background with foam tape and finished off the card with a few baubles.

Second, I have this fun birthday cake card:

This is a top folding A2 white card base with a piece of patterned paper (also from the Cheerful Occasions paper pad) cut slightly smaller.

I die cut the Stitched Fringe Cake layers in pink and red cardstocks, then cut down 2 of them so they would layer in a pyramid.  Then I stitched with more DMC Etoile thread.  

I cut the cake stand and the candles from silver mirror cardstock, and the wicks and flames from white cardstock, then simply colored the flame portions yellow.  I glued everything together to make my cake and mounted it on a piece of white cardstock with rounded corners.

I foiled the sentiment "make a wish" from the Yana's Special Sentiments set with silver foil and die cut it out with the matching die.  I inked the edges of the sentiment and the white panel with blush ink and mounted them on the card base with foam tape.  Finally I finished it off with a bunch of clear baubles.

Happy 20th birthday, Spellbinders, and here's to many more!!  Thanks so much for letting me celebrate with you all!!  ~Maureen

*Please note that affiliate links are used whenever possible.  There is no extra charge for you, but I receive a small amount from those sales.  Thank you!*

 

Update!

 Hey all!  It's been FOR.E.VER (and a few days) since I blogged last, so I wanted to post an update of what's been going on with me.  

I completely lost my stamping/cardmaking mojo.  But I'm still buying some stuff here and there because I'm pretty sure I'll get it back at some point.

I took up sewing/quilting!  After sewing a bunch of masks for family and such, I decided I hate sewing masks, but actually enjoy sewing!  So I did some searching on what to sew and came up with quilts.  I have been completely obsessed with quilting and even transformed part of my craft room into a sewing/quilting area. 

As per my adult ADD, I have *one million* projects on the go and have a hard time picking each day what I'm going to work on.  One of those projects is the Fat Quarter Shop Sewcialites Quilt Along.    

We just started on Friday, Sept. 25 with our first free block pattern (out of 36 total), and will be getting a new one each Friday until well into 2021!!  You can make 3" blocks, 6" blocks, or 9" blocks, or any combination of them.  I'm working on the 6" size and the first block was definitely a challenge for me, but I really took my time cutting, pinning, and sewing it all together and I think it came out really great!

I hope to be sharing more about my quilting adventures here on my blog and on my YouTube channel, so if you're at all interested in this stuff, please stay tuned!  Thanks for looking and hope you have a great day!

Birthday Basics Turnabout Cards

Hi all!  I actually have 3 cards for you today!  The reason is because I also have a little tip for you: when you use your turnabout stamps and dies from Concord & 9th, make at least a few at the same time to save time!  Since you already went through the trouble of setting up the turnabout stamp in your MISTI (or other stamp positioning tool) and picked out your coordinating colors of ink, why not stamp a bunch of card fronts to have ready to go later when you need a last minute card and are strapped for time?  Birthday cards are especially handy to have around, so here are a few ideas for you.

 

As I said, I set up my Birthday Basics turnabout stamp in my original MISTI and picked out 4 colors of ink from My Favorite Things that I love together.  I also got out a sheet of kraft cardstock and white cardstock and cut them in quarters, making a total of 8 A2 size cardfronts.  I also needed a few extra turnabout jigs for this so I picked up a couple extra from Concord & 9th, but you could also make your own out of cardstock (like we used to do in the pre-jig days).

I put the jig with card front in the first position and stamped with the pink ink.  Then I switched out the jig to another with a blank card front and put it in the first position and stamped with the pink ink.  I went ahead and stamped all the fronts with the pink ink and then cleaned off the stamp.  It saves a lot of time not having to clean the stamp every single time you stamp!

Then I put the jig in position 2 and stamped with the green ink.  And continued with all the fronts.  Then I did the blue and purple inks.  When I was done, I had 8 card fronts on 2 different colors of cardstock!

To make the shaker card, I took one of the kraft panels and die cut an opening with a Lawn Fawn die.  I got a white cardstock base and stamped with the word and confetti images from the Birthday Basics set with the same ink colors.  I added 2 layers of craft foam with a circle cut out of them, and filled the opening with the Enchanting sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy's Cards - it's the perfect match for my colors!  Finally I sealed off the opening with some Duralar film and it was done!

My second and third cards are a twofer - I made one with bits left over from the other!

I used the dies in the matching die set and also the Altenew Bold Alphabet die set for the HAPPY letters.

And I still have 6 card fronts left to make into cards!!  Such a great way to save time making multiple cards (and they don't all have to be the same design).

Thanks very much for stopping by my blog and hope you have a great day! ~Maureen

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(Not So) Quick Tip #3: Layering Stamp Templates

Hi all!  Today I have the next video in my Quick Tips series, however it's not so quick this time.  But I still think it's a pretty good tip - making templates for your more difficult layering stamps (or all your layering stamps if you want!).

The concept is that you make a series of templates - one for each layer - so you can easily place the stamps in your MISTI or other stamp positioner the next time you use the set.  You only need to figure out the placement once to make the templates, then you can use the templates to show you the exact placement of each stamp in the future!  I'm sure that's clear as mud, so here's the video:

And here's a look at the templates I made for the Prettiest Pomander set:

I hope it makes sense!  If not, leave me a comment below and I'll try to make it clearer!  If you use this tip, please LMK which set you did it for - I'd love to hear if it helped!!  Thanks for stopping by my blog and hope you have a great rest of your day!  ~Maureen

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Everyday Bouquet Thanks

Hello all!  Today I'm sharing a little 4.25" square card that I threw together to thank the people at the dentist's office for taking such good care of my teeth:

I used the stamp set from the Everyday Bouquet Turnabout Toolkit, positioning it in my MISTI using the included guide and then cut a piece of white cardstock into a 4.5" square.  I stamped the image 4 times with My Favorite Things inks (Berrylicious, Green Room, Limelight, and Banana Split which is apparently discontinued - sorry!), turning the square each time and cleaning off the previous ink.

I then diecut the panel using a Your Next Stamp stitched square die and the Thanks word die from the Toolkit.  I cut the Thanks 3 more times from white cardstock and stacked them together.  I adhered the panel to a Green Room card base and fit in the white letters.  I then glued the patterned letters over the white letters and finished off the card with some Lucy's Cards Jewels.

I love this effect - you can barely see the thanks when looking at the card straight on, but turn it a little to the side and it jumps out at you!  I hope you like this card and thanks for stopping by my blog today!  ~Maureen


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