DIY Hoop Frame {Waffle Flower Crafts}

Hello friends,

Recently, I took a little field trip to IKEA and while browsing the marketplace, these cork trivets- aptly called HEAT- found their way into my smooth gliding cart.

Once home, I wanted to see what I could do to free these cork circles from eternal KP into something a little more.  I combined a trivet with some Waffle Flower Crafts stamps and dies to create a patriotic hoop frame.

I found a favorite picture of my girls from a few years ago (love those matching dresses) and raided my stash for some paper crafting supplies.  A 7" embroidery hoop fits perfectly a top the cork trivet. 

I covered the hoop with the yellow polka dot patterned paper and added the photo- holding it in place with a clip. Next I stamped the the sentiment from the In Every Way stamp set and die cut Perfect Word die and adhered it to the project. 

I die cut the Rosette Hearts Template Die from patterned paper and attached them to the frame.  I also added a couple small banners from the Rosette Hearts die to the photo.  Finally, I added some craft glue to the embroidery hoop and attached it to the trivet. 

Well that's all for me today.  Thanks for stopping by! 

Katie

DIY Snow Globe Gift Card Holder {Avery Elle}

Hello friends, 

I am over on the Avery Elle blog today sharing an idea for a DIY Snow Globe and Gift Card Holder using the Be Jolly stamp set designed by my teammate, Heather Campbell.  

I love the mason jar snow globe projects I have been seeing both online and on stationary, so I decided to try my hand at making one with the cutie snowman from the Be Jolly set and make it a gift card holder as well. 

To make this project you will need: 

• Be Jolly stamp set and coordinating Elle-ment die by Avery Elle
• Alice Tag die Elle-ments by Avery Elle
• Wide mouth Mason Jar
• Black, Red and Pale Blue ink
• Copic Markers- I used E29, BG10, BG13, YR18 and a Colorless Blender to add polka dots to the hat and scarf
• 2 binder clips
• Foam Tape
• Strong glue- I used Aleene's Tacky Glue, but a hot glue gun would work too. 
• Pillow/plush Stuffing
• Chunky glitter
• Ribbon

Below is a step-by step for assembling the snow globe: 

1. Stamp and die cut snowman.  Color with markers. Die cut a second snowman shape, but do not stamp or color this die cut. 2. Attach snowman die cuts to both sides of a binder clip.  I used craft glue, but you could do it with any strong adhesive or even a bit of washi tape.  3. Use foam tape to attach front and back of snowman shape together. 4. Attach gift card to second binder clip and using craft strong adhesive (hot glue gun works too), adhere the flat side of the binder clips to the jar lid. 5. Apply more glue and adhere a bit of pillow/plush stuffing to the lid to cover the binder clip. 6. Add a tablespoon of chunky glitter to the jar.  

Once the adhesive is dry-and it's VERY IMPORTANT that everything is dry and secured to the lid- insert the lid in the ring, and screw the lid to the jar. Turn the jar upside down and shake the glitter to distribute.  

As a finishing touch, I die cut a rectangle tag included in the Alice Tag Die Collection and stamped Warm Wishes along with some small flakes also included in the Be Jolly stamp set.  

I tied the tag to the jar with a bit of red and white polka dot ribbon.

And voila!  All wrapped up and ready to go for gifting fun.  One last tip: To avoid making a mess of the glitter when your recipient opens the globe to retrieve the gift card, you may want to mention that the snow globe should be turned upside down so all the glitter falls to the bottom of the jar. 

Well that's all for me today!  Please let me know if you have any questions.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Katie 

DIY Desktop Calendar {Waffle Flower Crafts}

Hello friends,

The holidays are upon us, and today I am sharing a gift idea and the how-to for making a cute and compact desktop calendar using Waffle Flower Craft's Planner and Calendar stamps sets.

To get started you will need:

• 6 x 6 patterned paper pad- I used the Everyday 6 x 6 pad by American Crafts
• 2-3 sheets of cream or white card stock
• Small wooden easel- found in the wood craft aisle at JoAnn's for $1.99
• Ink
• 3/4" Circle Punch
• Surface-Tag Die- Starter Kit
• Waffle Flower Craft's Calendar stamp set, Planner Add-on Weather 1 and Planner Add-on Weather 2 stamp sets, Planner: Stay Focused stamp set
• Other Waffle Flower Crafts small image stamps- see details below

First I trimmed the patterned paper to 3 x 3" squares.  This means that you can make 4 calendar sheets from 1 6 x 6" piece of patterned paper. Next I die cut 12 rectangles from the Surface- Tag Die- Started kit from cream card stock and trimmed the rectangle length to 2".  Save the scrap that you trim off from each rectangle as you can use that a bit later on.
 

Next, I determined which month would go on each piece of patterned paper and using the Calendar stamp set, I stamped the month and dates on the trimmed tag die cuts.  If a month had fewer than 31 days, I used a moistened cotton swab to wipe away the ink from the extra dates as needed.  I had a 2015 calendar handy for reference when I was completing this step.



Remember those tag scraps?  This is where I put them to use, I went through my Waffle Flower stamps collection and stamped small images representative of each month on the tag scraps and used a 3/4" circle punch to punch them out.

For reference, I put together a list of the stamp sets I used for each month:

• January: Snowflake from Planner Add-on: Weather 1 stamp set
• February: Heart from Loved stamp set
• March: Kite from Planner Add-on: Weather 2 stamp set
• April: Rabbit from Tribal Thank You stamp set
• May: Flower and Stem from Loved stamp set
• June: Sun from Planner Add-on: Weather 1 stamp set
• July: Ice Cream Cone from Planner Add-on: Weather 2 stamp set
• August: Jar and Bugs from Riverside stamp set
• September: Checklist from Planner: Stay Focused stamp set
• October: Raven from Tribal Thank You stamp set
• November: Coffee Cup from Planner Add-on: Weather 2 stamp set
• December: Gift from A Homemade Christmas stamp set

I adhered the calendar and the month icon to the patterned paper, stacked them on the easel and admired the cute:

These were a cinch to put together and would make a perfect holiday gift for your coworkers.  

Speaking of gifts, Nina has created two Holiday Gift set bundles perfect for gifting to your crafty friends or adding to your own holiday wish list: The Die Bundle and The Gift Wrapping Bundle.

You can read about what's included in these bundles as well as cut offs for holiday shipping times in her blog post here. 

Well that's all for me today!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Katie

DIY Watercoloring with Reinkers

Hello friends,

Happy Monday! I am back today with another DIY "Saturday" post... a bit late... I am not entirely sure how that happened except that there might have been some cold medicine involved. :)  I came down with the mother of all colds towards the end of last week and have been in a bit of a fog over the past couple days.

Anyway, I wanted to share with you some photos of how I created my hombre watercolor background featured in this card last week.   I have just begun to explore watercoloring over the past month, and I was looking for a way to play around with the look without investing money and craft room space on a technique that I may not like.  As I was experimenting, I recalled a workshop many years ago, where the teacher taught us how to watercolor with our ink pads.  So if ink pads would work- why not reinkers?

Here is what you will need:

• Watercolor paper
• 2-3 DYE ink reinkers- I used my very old Stampin' Up shades: Barely Banana, Blush Blossom, and Pink Pirouette

TIP: Alcohol ink reinkers will not work for this technique.  Don't ask me how I know it, except for saying that my fingers were so red that it looked like I was interning at Sweeney Todd's barbershop....

• Water brush- I kept mine empty, just a preference
• Water- duh

First I brushed the watercolor paper with a bit of water.  I find that having the paper a bit moist helps the ink blend from the get-go. 

Then I places a few drops of each color of reinker on the paper. 

Then using a bit more water, I blended the colors with the brush using loose strokes and moving down the paper from lightest to darkest.  If you want to go over the light areas again, don't forget to rinse your brush.  

Now let it dry, this is the hard part, but a heat gun will speed up the process.  Take care if you decide to move the paper.  Depending on how wet it is, it may drip and run. 

Then I decided to heat emboss a sentiment from Mama Elephant's Make a Wish set.  Watercolor paper is pretty porous, so you may want to use a foam pad under your project, along with lots of pressure on the stamp impression. 

And here is the finished project!  I attached the watercolor panel with foam tape to a yellow card stock base. 

I love finding new uses for supplies that are already in my stash!  I also used a reinker to achieve a watercolor look in this card for the latest Avery Elle I {heart} U challenge. I used only one color of reinker for that card- so it was even more simple. 

Well I hope this how-to has been helpful and I would love to see your watercolor masterpieces with reinkers. Link me up in the comments section and I will pop by to take a look!  

Thanks so much for stopping by!!! 

Katie