handmade cass

Although I haven't had much time for card making and stamping since we moved earlier this year, I have been keeping up with my reviews over at Craft Critique .  Here is a quick recap on what I have tested out this year.  Let me know if you have tried any of these and/or have helpful tips. Kinkajou Bottle Cutter Close To My Heart | Inks and Muslin Bags Martha Stewart Crafts for Kids Book Close To My Heart | Micro-Tip Nonstick Scissors Folk Art Chunky Glitter Acrylic Paint More reviews are written and will be published soon. Happy holiday crafting season!

I have been working on a new item in my fresh crafts shop that I am really proud of! Take a look at the advent calendars I made using a wood soda crate and stamped muslin bags. Gold Crate Advent Calendar with Muslin Bags Rustic Wood Crate Advent Calendar

In preparation for my Christmas cards this year I bought my supplies early.  The fantastic idea I have in my head is going to take a while to execute.  As part of the project I bought 6 Distress Stains  (from Tim Holtz/Ranger).  I haven't had as much luck with them as I thought I would for blending colors easily and quickly.   And when I opened a few of them they were already leaking, before I even used the dauber.   I have to admit that I'm disappointed.  Has anyone else had the leaking problem? I've had purple fingers for a week.

I have had a Silhouette electronic cutting tool on my wish list for a long time.  And I got to use one for the first time this weekend.  It was love!  My mom is the proud new owner of a Silhouette Portrait and I think she plans on using it to cut fabric for quilting.  But she is in the middle of a big move right now, so I get to use her machine for a bit.  Hooray! I used it to make a father's day card for my husband, and was amazed by how clean the cuts are.  It was really easy to set up with my Mac too.  Here is the cut held up to the window so you can see through it. Now, what else can I cut??? And here is the finished card.  I really like the way the bumble bee came out. I used an enamel brad and Sharpie marker and added some vellum wings.  My husband said it was one of his all time favorite cards.  Just goes to show what a difference the Silhouette makes. I also pulled out some old Hambly screenprints paper to make a mat...

There must be something in the air right now, because I have a bunch of girlfriends that are all expecting babies this summer and fall.  So I decided to send some happy mail to these special ladies and try out some new stamps and craft supplies. I fell in love with the oven image on this Lawn Fawn stamp set and then the sentiment really sealed the deal.  Everything else just came together in 5 minutes increments while unpacking and keeping my toddler from destroying anything in my new craft room. This is the sentiment from the same stamp set that I used on the inside. I used my Copic markers to color the oven images and found out the hard way that they smeared the new black ink I was using for the first time (Hero Hues Dye Ink).  I have always used black Memento with Copics in the past, but I thought this would be safe since it is a die ink...no such luck.  Stick with Memento Dye Ink for Copic markers.  Even after drying overnight, see the bleeding...

My family went through some big changes recently!  We packed up and moved from Southern California all the way up to the very top of Washington state.  Did I mention we did it all in less than 14 days?  It was crazy. Now that things have started to settle down and I'm not spending every free moment unpacking (don't get me wrong, there is still a ton to unpack), I got creative and made some moving announcements.  I was inspired by a few I had seen on Pinterest ( mainly this one ), and knew that I wanted to use kraft envelopes because they remind me of moving boxes and packing paper. You can also see a bit of the return address stamp that I designed (more on that later). I used an old Thomas Bros. California map book to make a bunch of USA die cuts and printed up the cards using my new Canon PIXMA MG5320 printer .  The inside has all of our contact info and a picture of our family in front of our new house.  I loved printing the picture right on the ...

I just received a big, fun order from my favorite Stampin' Up demonstrator and got to thinking about using up some of the leftovers.   In case you didn't know, Stampin' Up stamps come with some assembly required and you end up with a foam-backed rubber piece like this at the end. I thought I would just cut out some fun shapes for my daughter to use as stamps.  It took me a few hours to figure out what I would adhere them to, since I don't have extra stamping blocks sitting around.   Then I saw these champagne corks that I had been saving for a different project - but they are perfect for little hands to hold onto.  The Tim Holtz scissors were perfect for cutting the foam-backed rubber, but I found that straight cuts turned out much better than curves. Just look at all the fun we were having!  And since I ordered a wood mounted stamp set from Stampin' Up the adhesive was already on the foam.  But if you ordered a cling rubber stamp set you coul...

I saw a very punny valentine in the last Paper Source catalog and had to make my own version.  Now I am using the hedgehog stamp from Lawn Fawn's "Critters in the Forest" set on all my valentine's cards.    And I am squeezing a sentiment about hedge-hugs wherever I can. This bookmark using the Lawn Fawn hedgehog will be included in a card for a friend that is always reading. These were the colors I used for inks and Copic markers: And I made a couple valentine's cards at my last monthly Stampin' Up card class.  I love the new honeycomb embossing folder! This card also has a bookmark that tucks into the die cut heart pocket on the front.

You can check out my latest Craft Critique review here: CHA Winter 2013 - Crafts for Kids

I was really glad that Craft Critique was re-launched right before the CHA Winter 2013 show, because the timing was perfect for me to attend as a reporter.  It is such a special conference for any crafter to attend - full of all the latest and greatest products, tons of inspiration and projects, and even some celebrity crafters.  Here is just a small portion of what I saw.  At CHA I made a beeline to the American Crafts booth to check out the new Amy Tangerine line " Yes Please".   LOVE the new stitching kit from the "Yes Please" line.  This set has chevrons too!  Amy was doing a make and take project, so we could test out the stitching kit.   Loved the Amy Tangerine travel kit that I have seen online.  Perfect for vacation mini books! Smitten with the colors and patterns in "Lucky Charm" from Dear Lizzy and American Crafts. My favorite color is glitter.  And I can't believe how awesome the POW glitter paper is...