CD/DVD Envelope / Mini Scrapbook

Outside front of finished project

Several years ago I received junk mail that contained a CD. I had no use for it so I planned on recycling the mailer and CD, but then I had an idea...............

I wondered how big it was opened up, could I make my own like that.

Sure enough, I was able to tweak it a tiny bit to make my own version of this mailer out of one piece of 12x12 card stock ! I liked how the project turned out so well that I entered it in a Stampin' up! contest; it did not win.



It is a bit involved and can be somewhat confusing since there are several folds, cuts and flips. What's neat about this folder is that you can make it a sort of mini scrapbook too if you wish by adding photos and other embellishments. Or print out a listing of what is on the CD/DVD then attach it to one of the flaps.

I'd recommend completing the basic folder portion, except for gluing the seam, before you do any stamping or decorating to be sure you are working on the correct sides, facing the proper direction. You may wish to use sticky notes to mark each portion once you have all of your cuts and folds marked so that way you will know as it is laying flat on your work surface which way is "up" and which portions to decorate.



There are two outside areas to decorate if you wish as well as four inside. With all of the fantastic double sided designer papers available today, it would be easier to make one of these, no stamping required.



Score from the left edge of your 12" x 12" card stock at 5 1/2" and again at 11". Do the same from the top edge down. These score lines will be your guides for cutting and folding.


The curved area where the CD/DVD is inserted is optional. If you don't have a circle or oval cutter, trace around a can, plastic container, etc then cut out with a pair of scissors.

Ribbon can be simply wrapped around and tied in a bow or if you wish to have it permanently attached, glue the ends into the "spine" of the envelope when you are sealing it together. You can also attach an eyelet in the little front flap to run ribbon through. Another idea, attach a brad to the front and another brad to the flap then wrap string around them to close them like one of those office supply envelopes.

Below are a few photographs to help show the project. Unfortunately I tried to make diagrams and realized they were backwards ! I posted this project with instructions and a diagram to splitcoaststampers.com in 2004 - and was surprised that I could still find them there !

                                


Inside of
CD/DVD envelope
Decorate each of these four areas however you'd like, add photos or a menu of what is on the disc, etc.



The numbers on the above photographs correspond to the numbers on the photograph below. This is to try to help illustrate how the top portion is "flipped" so you need to be sure your images are stamped upside down to be right side up once assembled.

                                                            Inside of the envelope

                                     

                                                Outside of the envelope

The flap that is glued to the opposite portion to create the envelope isn't showing well in the finished project photo since it is already folded over.

All stamps, ink and card stock used on the above project were from Stampin' Up!

Thanks for looking !

Caramel Apple Tin and a Card

I loved embellishing these little dollar store tins in so many different ways !

This is another old project, one I shared with a group of ladies several years ago.

All supplies are from Stampin' Up!, many of which are now retired:

Real Red, Kraft, Chocolate Chip, Garden Green, Naturals Cream card stock
Decorative paper
Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Garden Green, Summer Sun, More Mustard classic inks
Bleach for the apple cut out on the caramel apple tin note card. I had hoped it would bleach out to a rusty color. You can safely use bleach on your stamps, but be sure to clean them right away! Using bleach as your "ink" on colored card stock creates a unique look. Each color of card stock bleaches differently, so you may want to experiment on a scrap first. I use a piece of white felt or wadded up paper towel dampened with bleach on an old plastic lid as my "stamp pad".
Bud Basics, Flannel Plaid, Happy Everything stamp sets
Round Tab Punch to create the apple core. Punch one out of white and another out of red. Lightly sponge Creamy Caramel ink on the edges of the white piece to create that discoloration apple cores seem to get =) Cut the top and bottom off the red piece and glue to the white piece to create the red peel on the top and bottom of the core. You may wish to stamp speckles of darker red ink or bleach on the red pieces before adhering to create those spots many apple peels have. Cut a little snippet of Chocolate Chip card stock then glue to the back to create the stem. Stamp seeds with a trimmed eraser or small rubber scrap if you do not have any stamps that would work.
Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon and button for the card

Distressing tool or carefully use the edge of scissors to ruff up the edges of the card stock





The card is called a triangle tri-fold card. Instructions can be found here.



Fill the completed tin with paper shred, an apple, caramels and stick. Wrap in a cellophane bag, tie with raffia and attach the small note card tag. Makes a cute gift for welcoming teachers back to school !



Thanks for looking !

Kountry Kitty Kat

Sigh..... missing my Mulligan buddy......

Today I'm posting a cat creation I made several years ago.

The pattern was found, I think, in a Country Handcrafts magazine.

I made several of these country cuties to donate to the school holiday bazaar.

They were easy and fairly inexpensive to make.

Thanks for looking !

In Memory Of Mulligan

It's been a sad, sad weekend here, my buddy Mulligan cat passed away unexpectedly.



I do not know the exact cause since he had been fine, showed no signs of illness, until I applied Hartz UltraGuard Flea and Tick Drops. He started seeming out of sorts the evening I applied them and was gone within 36 hours. It never crossed my mind that he could be getting sick from the flea drops.



There were no external signs of trauma.



I was absolutely shocked, just could not believe it. I still am...........



I was curious about the flea drops (a brand I had not bought before) so I looked online and was horrified to see so many references to products by Hartz being injurious, even deadly, to pets !



I'll never know for sure if that is what caused his untimely death, I am sick with guilt thinking it could even be possible that I caused it by applying something I assumed was safe.



I want to let other people know what I only just found out about these EPA approved pesticides and the harm they can cause to your beloved pets in hopes of saving the life of another. Please see the web sites below:


http://www.hartzvictims.org/
YouTube - Dangerous Pet Products?


You can do a search and find more web sites regarding this.



Should you use these products, be certain to follow the guidelines and read the disclaimers thoroughly. I've read, now that it is too late, that if you use these products and notice any reactions, bathe the animal in Dawn dish detergent with lots of clean water and contact your veterinarian immediately.



I am missing him terribly right now as he would normally be sitting in my lap as I work on the computer, proofreading for me.....sniffle. And today throughout the day I couldn't help but look for him to give him a head scratch as I walked by his favorite table to nap on. I also missed his MEOW! to let me know the food bowls were nearly empty this evening. He didn't like it when they were half empty and he let me know it . Sigh.....................

Cute Pink Shoes, Repurposed Bag and a Trophy =)

My son and I participated in a just for fun Youth/Adult bowling league this past summer - and we finished in second place for our division! Surprising news to us !

The repurposed bag was a brand new bag that I found at a neighborhood wide yardsale for $2 last summer. I actually left it there since it had another company logo debossed into the front of it. On the way back to my car I stopped at that sale again to see if it was still there because as I was walking to other sales, an idea came to me: maybe I could cover the logo up. It was still there so I bought it . I immediately went to rummaging through my stash in the craft dungeon when I got home and decided that I could indeed cover it up.



I used a piece of Hodge Podge Hardware, two rhinestone brads, two snippets of polka dot grosgrain ribbon, printed out the Stampin' Up! logo onto cardstock that I then covered with Crystal Effects to make it look like an enamel label. I punched two holes into the bag with my Cropadile, pushed the brads through, finished with a dab of E6000 glue to the brad tabs to make sure they wouldn't come undone . I never used the bag for anything until this year - it was the perfect size for my cute pink and white bowling shoes !



Thanks for looking !

Pick A Petal Snowmen Cards

I LOVE how this card turned out - 

and wish I had taken more photos of it so you could see it!

 The snowman is the front flap of the card that opens. It is a long skinny card that fits a business size envelope. It was entered in a contest for Demonstrators years ago, it did not win.

As soon as I saw the Pick A Petal stamp set from Stampin' Up! I just knew I had to make a snowman with it =) I created the three cards above right away, then after a little more  playing around I came up with the tall snowman cutout card I shared first that was submitted to a contest. There are no patterns, all snowmen were hand drawn and cut out with scissors. I've made several variations of snowmen and numerous snowmen projects with this stamp set, I don't know that I ever made a flower with it !

Bashful Blue and Whisper White card stock, Basic Black and Pumpkin Pie classic inks, white embossing powder, fabric / ribbon scraps.

Thanks for looking !

Mason Jar Lid Ornament

It's still unberably hot and humid here, so I am sharing another "cool" project.

Here is an idea for reusing old mason jar lid rings:

create an ornament !

Add photographs, stamped images, magazine cut outs, fabric and so on to create one of a kind ornaments.

For this particular ornament, I created a snowman face stamp from rubber scraps. Stampin' Up! used to sell stamp sets uncut, that is we had to cut out each piece from one sheet of rubber images. It wasn't a big deal, using a good sharp pair of scissors made it easy. Plus, by cutting them out on our own, we could get as close to the image as we felt comfortable, limiting the amount of extra rubber around the edge of the image meant there was less chance of getting ink on portions we didn't intend to.

Project  Supplies:

White spray paint (or brush on acrylic paints and sealer) to repaint the ring.

Rubber scraps cut and mounted to old Jenga game pieces for the snowman face.

White posterboard (sturdier than cardstock, but you could use cardstock then back it with chipboard, etc to make it more sturdy) to cover with clear drying liquid glue and Dazzling Diamonds glitter.

Acetate/transparency/window sheet or repurpose a clear plastic packaging for stamping the snowman face on with Stazon inks.

Ribbon, fabric, raffia, etc to wrap around the ring and create a loop for hanging.

This creation of mine was difficult to photograph due to the bright sunshine and glitter. It was very sparkly in real life !

Thanks for looking !

Cold Play Mason Jar Wrap

Another mason jar idea (a few others are posted here and here)

Easy to do for so many occasions !

I used card stock, inks, stamp sets, punches and organdy ribbon from Stampin' Up! to create this mason jar "wrap".

Night of Navy cardstock stamped with Whisper White Craft ink.

Whisper White cardstock torn for snow drifts. Add liqud glue and Dazzling Diamonds Glitter along the torn edges for sparkle.

Whisper White cardstock stamped and punched with various classic inks.

Cold Play and Season Of Joy (?) stamp sets from Stampin' Up! .

Thanks for looking !

Snowman Mason Jar

It's sooooooo hot out again with no relief in sight anytime soon. I admit it, summer is my least favorite season. I do like winter - except for the short days. I love snow, always have ! I know, I'm strange. I thought I'd share a few snowmen ideas over the next few days to try to get our minds off of the heat =)

Today I'm posting a mason jar idea I was going to share in a few months. I may as well share it now . It may inspire you to work on something for the holidays, it's not too early to start those holiday gift giving projects !



The idea for this mason jar project came from a similar idea I saw in an old craft book.



Supplies:

clean mason jar and lid

white spray paint

styrofoam ball

snow texture medium

Sculpey for the nose

black fun foam or buttons for the eyes (and mouth if you wish)

black acrylic paint and paintbrush for mouth

ribbon, fabric scraps

your choice of heavy duty adhesive



Spray paint the mason jar lid white, let dry.

Trim a little off of the styrofoam ball to make it sit flat on the mason jar lid.

Cover ball with snow medium, let dry well.

Create a nose from Sculpey, twisted orange pipe cleaners, wood dowel or pencil.

Cut eyes from fun foam or use buttons, beads.

Adhere head to top of lid. Glue on the nose and eyes with a heavy duty adhesive. Wrap neck with ribbon or fabric.

Paint on mouth or adhere pieces of fun foam, buttons, beads.

Create a hat from fabric scrap or old sock if you'd like. I had a hat for this snowman project, but it wasn't on when I took the photo, I'm such a doofus sometimes!





The card was made using Whisper White and Real Red card stock from Stampin' Up!, Real Red classic ink, Cuttlebug embossing folder and ribbon scrap. The greeting is from a retired Stampin' Up! set, I don't remember exactly which one I used.


Other ideas for reusing mason jars were posted previously here.

Thanks for looking !

Stamped Tiles

Ahhhh, a break in the extreme heat and humidity today. I really would like to seal the grout in the kitchen, but it hasn't been a full 48 hours to set. No sense in rushing it...... but I really want to get the kitchen put back in order ! So instead I am going to repaint the register vent covers (I really don't want to buy new covers just to change the color) and clean all of the woodwork.



Today I am sharing a couple of projects I made with tiles some time ago. Stamping on tiles to create coasters was such a popular project. It seemed anyone with stamps was making them - and they were popular at craft fairs.



This link has basic instructions plus numerous comments full of tips: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/tile_coasters/
 
 

The set of lighthouse tiles were made as coaster gifts with a matching storage box. The box was a plain brown paper mache box that I stamped and painted with acrylic craft paint. I added twine trim along the bottom edge .

The miniature tiles are magnets. I found a bag of small used tiles at a church sale. I stamped them with Stazon ink then painted with acrylic indoor/outdoor craft paint, baked then sealed. I added a little piece of magnet to the back (another use for the advertising magnets you may receive). They were perfect little trinkets to leave in geocache boxes !




 
 
 
You can also decorate tiles to use as trivets and write on/wipe off message boards ! Use broken pieces of tile to create mosaics with, such as covering the top of an old table, the bottom of a serving tray, adhere to the rim of clay flower pots or for making stepping stones.




Thanks for looking !