Caboodle! New Paper!

I put the word out that I was looking for ideas on what you all would like to see on my blog and Mickey, a friend of mine in Battle Creek, Michigan, requested thank you cards that her kids could send to thank friends and family for the gifts they received for Christmas. We also talked and decided to find an easy card that even her young children could make. Caboodle is the brand new paper from Close to my Heart and it's so cute you wouldn't believe it. Believe me, the catalog doesn't do it justice.

Instead of making a full card I decided to go with making a postcard so that's it's just one piece of paper with the design on front and on the back, it's blank. I had found some with cute ruffled edges at a store a few months ago so I pulled them out to make this card and a card I'll show you tomorrow. Postcards don't lend themselves to lots of bulky embellishments because you need them to lay flat so you can write your message so I chose not to use sparkles, buttons or ribbons on this, all something you can add if you want to later.

You'll need a piece of colonial white cardstock cut 5 1/2 by 4 1/4 (like I said, I bought mine but it's not necessary to have one with ruffles or you could make them yourself with a punch).

Cut crystal blue cardstock 5 by 3 3/4 and sweet leaf cardstock 2 1/4 by 2 1/4.

Cut pattern paper 4 3/4 by 3 1/2, another pattern 4 3/4 by 2.

Cut colonial white cardstock 2 by 2 and 2 by 1/2 inch.

Distress everything with cocoa ink. If you like you may cut corners with corner rounder. Glue down crystal blue large cardstock to postcard.

Again, you may round the corners of the largest pattern paper piece, the attach directly in the center of the crystal blue cardstock. Add second pattern paper strip 1/2 inch from the bottom of the card, flush with the edges of the larger pattern paper piece.

Take a piece of magic mesh and lay it over your small square colonial white piece and dab sweet leaf ink through it with a sponge tool. If you don't have magic mesh you can take a piece of plastic wrap or bubble wrap, ink it up and cover the small white piece. The objective is to add a cool texture.

This adds a lot to it instead of leaving it plain.

Stamp kids from the Family Ties - Children set onto the white paper. If you are picky about their face showing through the background, skip making the background. Add the stamped image to the sweet leaf cardstock mat and attach to card about a 1/2 inch from top and left hand side of card.

Color in the kids by using a blender pen and your ink pad. Be careful not to go over the same spot more than once or it will wet your paper. Take your smallest piece of colonial white cardstock and stamp "thank you" on it. This stamp is from Say it in Style. That's it for this card. Can you imagine how much it will mean to the person who receives it?

June Word Puzzle

This little candy tin is so fun and so easy to make. I bought a bunch of them just to hold Hershey Nuggets. The nuggets are so great because they are flat on the bottom and also mailing labels wrap around them perfectly. I'm not doing a full tutorial today because I have shown you how to do these before. Click on this link to see how to randomly stamp mailing labels and wrap them around the nuggets. Directions. For this particular tin of nuggets I used the June Word Puzzle stamp and Holiday Red, Sunflower, and Moonstruck inks. I used the three smallest flowers on the set as my random stampers.

Once I'd done the nuggets inside I cut a randomly stamped piece of white cardstock 1 3/4" by 11". I attached a 1" by 11" piece of Sunflower paper to the center. I then wrapped both of those around the tin (short side) and applied some Tombow to the ends of the paper so they were attached but could easily slip off the tin.

The top piece is 1 1/2" by 1 1/2" white cardstock, stamped with Tickled Pink flower stamp set (not available on my website but I have some). The flower was inked in Sunflower then the edge was rolled in Holiday Red. The center is Moonstruck ink. I then added the Thank You from the Say It In Style set (my most used set) in Moonstruck ink. I then glued it to a 1 3/4" by 1 3/4" Sunflower cardstock mat. I attached it to the wraparound piece with a Holiday Red brad and a little Tombow then slid it onto the tin. Now who wouldn't want to receive one of these?

Twitterpated Card Box

If you haven't signed up to be a follower, please do, one of my followers will win a bunch of blog candy (handmade craft items, some of which you see displayed in these posts).

I forgot to tell you what I make these boxes out of, they are our acrylic stamp holders, you can see one here! I've also tweaked the original instructions to make the inserts larger so make sure you check those out.

Here's another one of the boxes we'll be making in Niles, Michigan tomorrow. If this interests you and you live in mid to western Michigan or Northern Illinois, give me a call or email and we can talk about doing the workshop with your friends. This paper is one of our new ones called Twitterpated. I feel like it's okay to tell about this one because Jeanette Lynton, the founder of Close to my Heart has it on her website, you can see her blog at http://jeanettelynton.com/. Here's the front with Twitterpated paper and Tickled Pink stamps.


This is the sideview, both sides are the same, directions for this can be found *here.*


This is the back of the box with special buttons made just for this paper set. Aren't they cute?


This is the inside of the box, the labels were cut first with a fancy punch and then distressed and stamped with Say It In Style stamps. That's it, if I get a chance to complete the other kit I made with Bella paper for the workshop, I'll post pics of that. Have a great day!

Animal Cookies card box!

I'm so excited because tomorrow I'm teaching a workshop for one of my Close to my Heart clubs. Our club meets monthly to make a variety of projects and this month's will be at my friend, Angel's, house around noon tomorrow. Angel chose Animal Cookies and Bella papers for the boxes and I made this example yesterday for us to follow as we make the card holding box. For full instructions see the Card Box Instructions I wrote back in June.

The front here uses the Animal Cookies paper, Tickled Pink stamps, Dutch Blue, Tulip, Sunflower, and Clover Meadow inks. I used Precious Alphabet for the writing and a window charm for the center of the flower.

The sides of the box are identical using the same stamps and paper as listed above. I also used a crimper and sanding tools to give it texture.

For the back I used the Summer Celebration buttons and waxy flax. The ribbon isn't CTMH.

Inside I made 12 dividers and used Say It In Style stamp set which has 36 different labels in it, it's my most used stamp set EVER.

I hope to make a few more of these boxes after the workshop if I have leftover kits (I always make sure I make TOO many for my workshops, never know who might stop by.)