Happy Birthday

For whatever reason, when it comes to making cards lately, I get stuck. But I recently made some birthday cards I'd like to share. They were inspired by ones I saw on Pinterest, but are different in some ways.

Each card is also a great way to use up some of those scrap pieces you have from other cards. Which is what I used for every one of them! It's one way to clean out your scraps box!

This first one is the first one I've made using my bicycle stamps. I believe I got them at Michaels for those of you interested in picking up some! I also used my Martha Stewart circle cutter to cut the circle for the bike and the navy circle behind it.

This one, I hate now. I struggled with the twine because it ended up being too long then too short, then it wouldn't stay in place. I used a glue pen to secure the twine to the card. I secured it at the bows and in the middle, and now I wish I had secured it all the way across.

After I made the first one, I wanted to make more of it. but I lost my "d" stamp and birthday was too long in the capital lettters, so I had to change the bottom font (after I'd already put the happy down, of course). Then after I took this photo, I fixed up birthday and filled in all the light parts and made it look better.

With a couple of the left over banner pieces I made this card, which was inspired by a Father's Day card. They had the ties where I have the banners. I actually love this card so much! I might make even more of it!

That's all I've made recently, aside from a few failed Father's Day cards. I only need to make 2 of them by Sunday, and I can't even make one. Hopefully tomorrow goes better!

Have a wonderful day loves!

Michaels Haul - #1

I won't post any of my previous Michael's Hauls because you can just visit my Facebook page (here) to see them. I will, however, share the most recent on from two weeks ago when I was passing through Saskatoon to visit some family. This was definitely the most expensive Michaels trip I've had thus far, the cheapest was a little over $200. But here's everything I bought and some things that came in the mail in the last week!

Four washitape dispensers, need the ones that stack on top of them! I'll share my washitape collection at the end of this post! A carousel for my desk. I'll share what I store in it, in a future post!

Foam adhesive squares, Zots glue dots and a bunch of Hello Kitty things for my penpals!

More washitape...of course! So in love with the camera's and film strip tape!

Jon (my boyfriend) found the middle moustache stickers, and my sister helped me find the other two. Jon also found the owls and I found the cute cameras! I hope to use the moustache's for various father's day cards and various funny cards like "I *moustache* you a question" and then have something adorable inside! The moustaches on the far right are fuzzy which is why I love them so much.

Top left: Martha Stewart trifold 36" x 24" cutting mat, metal ruler, fuzzy peaches (my fave), flower punch, and a flowered photo box.

Top right: Martha Stewart 12" score board, embossing tool kit and wide tip glue pen. Scotch tape gun and Fiskars cutting blades for my paper slicer.

Bottom left: Titanuim blade scissors, lined post it notes, 24 UHU glue sticks and ink for my printer (from Staples)

Bottom right: Large and small white button brads, black eyelets, small and large black button brads.

Aside from washitape, I'd have to say my other crafting weakness would be stamps. If anyone wants to see any of them better, simply let me know! (I had to get this off my Instagram since I accidentally deleted the original). The little square sets in the middle, were from the sale bin.

And of course, more stamps! Finally got my hands on the snail mail stamp that I've been eyeing since I started penpalling. The top left stamp (you plus me equals love) was one I saw my card idol use! So excited to use it for next years Valentine's Day cards. And of course a map of Canada! Somewhere I also have a "Canada Pride" stamp which I love using on my snailmail envelopes!

And that concludes my Michael's haul. However, I got some things in the mail that Jon ordered online for me. They arrived in the mail shortly after we got home.

Washitape from the Freckled Fawn grab bag sale. Which I was really excited about. You can visit their website (here) and keep in mind that they sell a lot more than washi tape!

This was my washitape collection (including a few duplicate rolls featured on the right above the orange chevron) before I got the ones featured a little further down the page. I know it's kind of got out of hand. When Jon counted it at this point, I had 100+

These are the beautiful stamps I ordered from Scrapbook Daily Deals. They post a new deal every day, you can visit their website (here)

I got these papers from Peachy Cheap (I think). They work similarly to Scrapbook Daily Deals. One deal every day, and only for a limited time. You can visit their site (here)

These may have come from either Peachy Cheap or Scrapbook Daily Deals (Can't remember). They basically run from the same place, so it doens't matter. But I love how perfect they are for Project Life (I'll talk more about it another time).

And more washitape! These loves came from Peachy Cheap and my favourite is the roll in the top left corner. It's got the days of the week on it, which would be perfect for a planner or Project Life!

And that's all the lovely craft supplies that I've gotten in the last couple of weeks (aside from the stamps post the other day!)

Have a wonderful day loves!

-Alex

The Grand Tour

In the last two days, I've fought with the name, and decided to revert back to what goes on my cards and my Facebook page. However in the future, I think something that better reflects myself would be more appropriate. I also think that learning to use code and make my own template would be a good idea. I spent hours browsing for one that reflected me, and came up empty handed every time. But after changing it for the second time, I think I'm really happy with this. It's what I wanted! Yay me!

All of that aside, it's time for the photos of my craft space. I didn't take any close ups of how I organize things, I'll save those for later, but I thought I'd share the space I have to work in with all of you.

ABOVE: this is the view through my door. Yes the light switch is outside the room. Luckily it's no longer a dimmer switch..which was weird.

To your left is my craft space (and the bottles I need to put in the garage). The wooden unit in the bottom left corner, is where all my stampin up stamps are currently stored. They're in the first two drawers, but I want to reorganize them into all the drawers. I'll post more about that later.

To the right, is my living space, and the shelf I need to take a apart to reorganize my paper. Yes Pitch Perfect is playing in the background. And a Guy Faux mask is in the corner. The art on my wall I painted myself in highschool.

This is the view from between the bakers rack and the table you can sort of see in the first picture. this is where all the magic happens. The giant white desk is a sewing table I picked up from my neighbours garage sale. The filing cabinet, wooden shelf on the right, and the desk on the left came from my mom's house. The chair came with a desk I bought but gave my mom. My computer sits on the right, and my cricuit and printer are on the left. My carousel is hiding behind my laptop and the white things stacked near the middle of my desk are my washitape holders, which are currently empty. 

To the right of my desk is the filing cabinet. The drawers on top of that is where all my magazines for envelopes go. The photo boxes are where I store my Cards. Below that is my scraps box, stationery, and bead boxes that hold beads and gems. Below that is all my paper, and my project life (which has yet to be opened).

Turning towards my living space is the table where my boyfriend paints and assembles when he's over. The bakers rack holds all my magazines for crafting, washitape (suitcase), stickers (suitcase), wrapping paper, a magnet sheet, ribbon, cards I've received (bottom green box) and my twine (top green box). The wooden cabinet beside that was also bought at my neighbours garage sale and holds all of our board games, and extra tins that my boyfriend's mom sent over.

This is the desk to the left of my main desk. On top of it right now is snacks (I get hungry when crafting). My scissors have no current home so they sit there. My acrylic stamps sit beside them because I use them a lot. Then I have various tins on top to hold things I'm currently working on, or my incoming letters that need to be replied to. Below my desk is where I store extra file folders and all my letters. In the drawers are various things from ink for my printer to things for penpals, to garbage bags, and stamps I need to put into the stamp cabinet.

That's the mostly basic overview of my craft space. I'll share more detailed photos and ways that I organize myself in the future. Tomorrow I plan to work on putting all my wooden stamps away so I can show you the awesome cabinet they're stored in!

Have a lovely day!

-Alex

Shopping!

Hello lovelies! Hope all is well with all of you on this fine day. The other day I went craft shopping...again. Big surprise. Two weeks ago I was in Michaels and spent $600. The most I've ever spent in one trip. Usually I average $400 once every other month.

I'll share those photos later, but while I clean up my craft space a little bit, you all can enjoy the stamps and inks I purchased yesterday!

Have a wonderful day! Hopefully I'll be able to post cards made using these stamps soon!

-Alex

Scalloped Paper Flowers - Tutorial

I know I said I'd show you around my craft space first, however it's a huge mess right now. I need to put things away first. So, until that happens, here's a paper flower tutorial instead.

It's so simple I have no idea how I didn't think to try it myself. I discovered this through a video tutorial I stumbled across on Pinterest. It didn't have sound, and from what I could see, she did things a little differently. She misted her scalloped circles beforehand and then scrunched them and let them dry. I just used patterned paper and saved myself a step.

These flowers are a super easy way to get rid of some scrap papers, or use up that box of scalloped circles that have been piling up. I love these so much that I'll probably have a box of paper flowers by the end of the week.

Alright, here's what I used, you can use any variation of these things, and at the end, I'll share another set I made with a little flower punch :)

1 1/2" Scalloped circle punch

Scrap of paper (any size will do as long as you can get 4-6 circles from it)

Piercing tool (I just used the one from my Cricuit Tool Kit)

And one brad per flower you want to make.

 Start off by punching your circles. I use 4, but for added fullness you could use 5 or 6 circles.

Crumple your circles individually. If you're making multiple flowers you can crumple them all at once and go from there. You can also mist your circles lightly with water to make them easier to crumple. A few tutorials I've seen suggest this to make them easier to work with and when they dry they hold their shape better.

Gently uncrumple your circles and stack them together. Then take your piercing tool and pierce a whole through the centre of all of them. Insert your brad into the whole you just created and secure.

Crumple your circles (one layer at a time) starting with the top circle. Crumple them towards the centre around your brad.

Once all the circles have been crumpled around your brad begin to pull them out from the centre starting with the bottom layer, until you are happy with the look of your flower.

Tada! You either have a mess of crumpled circles, or a beautiful flower. I've included a link to the video tutorial I found, for those of you who would like to use it as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoNvEvZ7byg

- Alex

*NOTE: don't hesitate to try with different patterns in one flower, different colors, different sized circles, etc. do whatever you have to to make it feel more 'you'.