Three More Easter Cards

Three more cards I made and sent this year. They have a lot to be desired though. I was trying to use up scraps and was working on them late at night (what other excuse can I come up with ??!), I was getting burned out I suppose. I'm sharing them anyway because perhaps they may inspire someone, giving them the spark of creativity to go and make their own different card. Thanks for looking =)

Easter Egg Shaped Eyelets Cards

I was given these decorative eyelets a few years ago. They are fun accents, but tricky for me to set. There were some cute bunny eyelets in the batch, too, but sadly I was never able to set them without the eyelet breaking.

Thanks for looking =)

Punch Art Chick Easter Card

I made this card for a long time pen pal that raised chickens at one time ! The chick idea came from one I saw in a magazine a few years ago; it used buttons for the chicks body. Mine was made with Summer Sun card stock  I punched with circle punches and the scalloped oval punch from Stampin' Up! I sponged a bit of ink around the edges and added highlights with a Signo white gel pen. The legs were made Wire Works from Stampin' Up!.

The metal edge on the tag was colored with Sharpies.

The decorative papers are scraps, I have no of the manufacturer or design names since they were part of a grab bag I bought a couple of years ago.

I really should have done some stitching on the edges or used the edgelits dies,  something to dress it up a little bit.

Thanks for looking =)

Punched Easter Egg Wreath Card

This is a pretty simple card, the idea came from a wreath I made many years ago. I imagine someone has made a card similar to this before.

The card base is Kraft from Stampin' Up!, stamped with the Woodgrain background stamp and Itty Bitty Backgrounds stamp using Kraft in...... oops, I keep forgetting, I think it's called Crumb Cake now, not Kraft. I also sponged the same ink around the edges.

I put on a thick layer of clear drying glue, added "grass" from a gift basket last Christmas. I like to repurpose items, so this was a different and fun way to use a little bit of that grass. I set it aside to dry for several hours with the Woodgrain stamp in its box on top of it to weight down the grass into the glue. It would have been faster to use hot melt glue, but I knew I'd burn a couple = if not more! - of my fingers trying to stick the grass into the hot glue before it cooled off.

I used the 3/4" x 15/16" punch from Stampin' Up! to punch out eggs from decorative paper. The paper I used was actually a paper placemat, another fun use for an ordinary item ! I lightly smooshed them into the palm of my hand with my fingertip to try to give them a bit of curve, dimension. I then applied think lines of Diamonds glitter glue on each egg. They were attached to the wreath with hot glue.

The bow was made from 5/8" pink grosgrain ribbon and adhered with hot glue.

Thanks for looking =)

Bunny and Easter Eggs Punch Art Trifold Card

Instructions for the 3D bunny figurine (made from a plastic Easter egg!)

are posted on my blog here:

http://craftysahmiam.blogspot.com/2012/04/repurposed-plastic-egg-paper-mache.html

I used several punches from Stampin' Up! to make this card.

Almost all of the other supplies (many of which are now retired)

were from Stampin' Up! as well.

SUPPLIES:

Extra Large Oval for body -1

Small Oval for ears - 2

Modern Label for paws - 2

1/8" Circle punch for eyes - 2

3/4" x 15/16" Oval punch for eggs

Lace Ribbon Border punch for daffodils (I reused the tiny pieces that fell out when I made the repurposed jar= flower vase project)

hand cut a teeny tiny piece of pink for the bunny's nose

Whisper White card base is 12" x 5 1/4"; score along the 12" side at 4" and 8". 

Sponge Bashful Blue ink over a cloud stencil ( I made my own, freehand cut from a piece of heavyweight drafting vellum) to create the sky.

Tear green card stock to create the hills. When you glue them down, be sure to leave a little bit of the top edges unglued so you can slide the eggs behind them. The green I used was textured with a white core. 

Punch various colors of card stock to create the eggs. I used retired colors from Stampin' Up! Barely Banana, Pretty In Pink, Mauve Mist, Bliss Blue, Certainly Celery, Lavender Lace. Stamp E A S T E R  (I used the All Around Alphabet set, Stampin' Up!).  Let dry well then add glitter ( I used an unknown glitter, should have used Dazzling Diamonds from Stampin' Up!). 

Stamp "Happy" from the Happy Everything stamp set, Stampin' Up! I used Lovely Lilac ink on Barely Banana card stock, added a little bit of clear drying liquid glue sprinkled with glitter around the edges.

Assemble the bunny, add details with a marker, sponged inks, white gel pen . 

A Daffodil Delight marker (Stampin' Up!) adds a touch of color to the centers of the teeny tiny flowers. Carefully glue them to the green card stock. 

April 5th   EDITED TO ADD:  I received an invite to enter this card in the first challenge (2TC1) at a new blog, Twisted Tuesday Challenges. I've not done a challenge on a blog before ! I think I have all the steps figured out, keeping fingers crossed that this edit and the links I submit work...................

Challenge details:

THE CHALLENGE

It's Spring and the birds are chirping, the flowers are blooming and the clouds are coming! To get the beauty of Spring a little rain must fall. So our challenge to you this week is make a creation with a cloud or two.

The TWIST

The cloud(s) CANNOT be stamped.

Be sure to check out the fabulous design team creations as well as the challenge submissions then submit your work at the recently launched blog, Twisted Tuesday Challenges.

Thanks for looking =) 

Photo Contest Submission 3

I took this photo while on a moving boat.
I was on an Architectural Tour along the Chicago River.
It was a memorable experience - and a lucky shot ! Straight out of the point and shoot Fuji camera.

It was not a "winner" and published in the newspaper, but it is on the web site. Word is getting out about this little "contest" the newspaper has and there are some gorgeous, professional looking photos being submitted.

Repurposed Plastic Egg Paper Mache Punch Art Bunny

What a long title for such a small project ! There are also going to be numerous photos for this project so for those of you with slow internet, if you want to see all of the photos please have patience.

I had this crazy idea to think of some things to do with plastic Easter eggs and I came up with making a "paper mache" egg out of them. It's a good idea for those eggs that have a little crack in them or no longer stay closed. I was hoping to come up with another inspiring idea to help repurpose something that may otherwise become trash. It's also a pretty good idea for those of us that do not have a craft supply store nearby, making our own mache eggs to craft with !

You can take this idea and do soooooo many things with it: glitter the eggs, paint them different colors (even paint them to look like real eggs), decoupage printed papers/napkins onto them, stamp on them, add flowers and ribbons, add a ribbon hanger, use them as place cards, etc and so on !!!!!

This idea was totally inspired by painted egg bunnies I've seen in my old craft magazines over the years. In fact, here is an image I saved from a catalog several years ago (it is much cuter than the paper punch bunny I made here...........):

Time to quit rambling and get to the steps. Once again, there are several photos I took of this project to help visualize the process.

Make sure the plastic egg is clean. Open the egg, add a little bit of glue along the seam and close. Tear up small pieces of paper (I used lightweight brown packing paper). Apply the pieces of paper with a clear drying glue (I used a decoupage glue). You will want to have a little stand for it to sit on while drying; my paint pallette worked perfectly for me. Add more layers, drying well between each. This project does take some time...........

Once you are happy with the number of layers and they are dry, paint the egg then allow to dry well once again. I only used two layers of mache and three coats of paint on mine.

Punch out two large ovals for ears, four small ovals for feet, a small circle for a base to glue the bunny bottom to, and a small oval (retired Stampin' Up! punch) out of scrap paper to use as a mask, two 1/4" circles out of black for eyes and a tiny heart out of pink for a nose.

Sponge pink ink through the mask onto the large ovals. Following the diagram, snip in a little bit at the base then fold back at the opposite side of the snip. This will make it easier to pinch the ears together and give you a little tab to glue the ears on top of the head. Then again, you may come up with a better idea on how to make ears and attach them, this is what I could think of.

Glue two of the smallest ovals to each other, add two lines to each with a permanent marker. Glue these two ovals to the top of the small circle.

Add a small puddle of hot glue on top of the feet/circle, 

smoosh the bunny bottom into it and hold in place until set. 

You could try to carefully paint the set hot glue glue white. 

Add highlights to the eyes and nose with a white gel pen (or paint).

Attach the ears, eyes and nose to the bunny head with your choice of glue.

Rub a little bit of blush on the cheeks and add a mouth with a permanent marker. 

The photo above shows how I attached the ears. I pinched them together then glued them to each other. I adhered the two little tabs at the bottom of the ears onto the top of the head with clear drying multipurpose glue .

Tie a simple bow or knot our of ribbon or a fabric scrap. Add a brad, button, flower, etc if you wish to the center and hot glue onto the top of the bunny head at the base of the ears. 

The photo above shows how I looped fabric to make a bow then wrapped the metal tabs from a brad around the back to hold the bow in place. 

Add a pom pom tail to the backside =)

I used the Blossom Bouquet Triple Layer punch to punch out several pieces of tissue paper, scrunched them and glued them together to make a tail. Adhered with hot glue.

Thanks for looking =) 

Baby Thank You Samples

I was asked to make some quick baby shower thank you samples for my cousins to look at, see if there is anything I have in rubber stamp images that they liked. The shower theme was rubber duckies and the babys room is zoo animals. It's a boy.

The "Thank Yous" for the baby shower are plain white 5x5 notecards with a scalloped edge that has a touch of glitter on it. They wanted to see if there was something that we could stamp on them quickly to get them done this coming weekend. Above are a few quick ideas I threw together. I think they are going to use the adorable baby feet (in light blue) . I suggested adding iridescent glitter around the edges of the stamped white panel before adhering it to colored card stock then mounting it on dimensionals/pop dots onto the card front.

Baby Gift Set 4

Another old set of items I made for a baby shower in 2005.

Gosh, it doesn't seem like it has been 7 years since I've made this gift set !

I used to really like making gift bags like this.

Making the top cover took a bit of engineering, 

but it isn't too difficult. 

Decorate a plain handled gift bag as you like

(I used various stamps from Stampin' Up! and Bliss Blue ink)

Make a matching gift card.

Make an envelope either from scratch if you have an odd size card or by sealing a regular envelope then cutting off an edge. Be sure to punch a semi circle on the top edge to make it easier to remove the gift card. Adhere envelope  to bag.

The easeiest way to try to tell you how to make the bag cover is to measure the length and the width of the opening. Add at least 2" to each of these measurements. It really depends on how far down you want the sides to come or if you want to use a border punch on the edges as to how much more you need to add to the length and width measurements.

Score along the these measurements one inch (or more depending on how far you want it to come down the sides of the bag), fold on score lines then snip in on one section of each corner so they can fold in. it's just like making a box lid. 

Cut  a slit with an xacto knife along the long folds on the top of the bag just long enough and wide enough (about 1/4" wide) to go over the handles.

Fold in all edges and adhere. It will look like the lid to a box.

Slide over the handles on the bag. 

 before

after

A plain old 5x5 photo album bought at a dollar store. 

The plastic cover had "Our Wedding" embossed on it so 

I removed it then stamped the cover of the album with Stazon ink 

and stamps from Stampin' Up!

I made a tag with Sculpey clay that I smooshed the footprint rubber stamp

from Cuddles and Tickles stamp set (retired, Stampin' Up!) into. 

I baked it then painted it, adhered it to layers of card stock

and gingham check ribbon.

I added super simple, plain pages to the album. 

before

after

A little 6x6 shadowbox bought at a dollar store that I dismantled and repainted.

I added some home made doo dads to make a little memory box. 

I made this when using bottle caps was all the rage !

Thanks for looking =) 

Baby Gift 3

A gift I made in 2007 for a mother to be :

box filled with 50 (yes 50!) thank you notes

and matching envelopes.

Since I posted the baby gifts the past two days, I decided to look through old blog posts to see if I ever shared a few others I've made over the years.  They are quite old, but I'll share them anyway because they may give you an idea. 

Actually there are a few others I made but never photographed. 

I've made so many projects over the years, most of which were never photographed. 

The box came from a dollar store, it was designed to hold CDs.

I decorated the front flip flap with my own plaid card stock that I made using the Plaid Maker from Stampin ' Up! (no longer available). It was a fun tool, a plastic stencil with lines that you would sponge or brayer inks onto to make plaids. Barely Banana, Bliss Blue, Brocade Blue were the colors I used I believe.

I stamped "baby" with the jumbo alphabet and Bliss Blue ink from Stampin' Up!, cut out by hand with scissors.

The cute little words were stamped with Brocade Blue ink and a tiny roller stamp from another company. 

The adorable footprints were from the Cuddles and Tickles stamp set, retired from Stampin' Up!

Thank You is also from a retired stamp set, Stampin' Up!

The baby feet were stamped in Bliss Blue ink, overstamped with Versamark ink then heat embossed with an iridescent/clear embossing powder.

The polka dot organdy ribbon came from an online source.

Bliss Blue and Whisper White card stock for the card - with real stitching done by sewing machine !

I used the Sweet Feet stampin' around roller and Bliss Blue ink to stamp along the bottom of the inside of the cards and the edge of the envelopes.

I included a list of ideas to use the box for afterwards.

Thanks for looking =)