School is Almost Out!

 

Do you have a mess like this?

In case you were wondering, that is my scrap drawer and it is overflowing.  These are just the patterned paper scraps and I hate to hoard my scraps so when the drawer stopped closing nicely for me, I knew I had to do something.  At the same time, I also was trying to come up with a little something to make for my son’s teacher on the last day of school.  I like to give the teacher a gift card to an office supply store so that they can get supplies that they need for the classroom, but I really like to add a little crafty something.  I always try to make it something that is useful to them.  Kill two birds with one stone right?  Well here is what I did.

First off, I cut down some scraps to 4”x6” (this could really be any size you want) and then I went through my stamps and found a bunch of “Take Note” or “Just A Note” stamps.  I also used some of my school themed stamps.  On each sheet, I stamped something so that each sheet was different and unique.  I then cut a piece of medium weight chipboard to the same size and stacked the papers. I ended up having enough sheets that I opted to make 2 sets.  Once I had the papers all stacked, I backed them with the chipboard and then used binder clips on the sides to keep them all together.

I then (using a paintbrush) added 2 layers of Padding Compound sold by Chica & Jo on Amazon and let it dry.  A little bit of this goes a long way.  When it was all dry…I had custom made note pads.  I love these!

Now, of course since this is a gift, I have to package it up!  So using my eCraft, I cut out a couple of shapes from eCraftCentral.com and layerd a circle tag stamped with Papertrey Ink’s Tag-Its #6 mini set.  Then I tied a pretty red ribbon in a bow around the two notepads and using Scor-Tape attached the label that I made right to the ribbon so that it could easily be removed from the notepads.

Well I couldn’t stop there, I had to make a coordinating card (after all I need something to put that gift card in) and using some more scraps, I created a simple patterned paper background and then used some more shapes from eCraftCentral.com to frame my stamped tag.  I think I will put all of this together in a cute little gift bag with some black felt tip pens to go with the notepads.

This project was really easy to do and I think I am going to make up some more of these for me!

Dressing Up a Gift with the eCraft

 

One of the things that I love about my eCraft is that it allows me to take something that is bland and boring and turn it into something beautiful.  That is one of the things that I did with my eCraft for Mother’s Day, but this is something that can be done for any gift-giving holiday.  For Mother’s Day I got my mom and my mother-in-law a necklace and they came in these silver metallic boxes.  With boxes like these, I don’t need to get out the wrapping paper, but I did feel like they needed to be dressed up, so my trusty eCraft came to my rescue!

Using the Gift Bow file from the Christmas Gift Bags & Boxes collection at SVGCuts.com, I imported it into my eCraftshop Pro software and I was off cutting.  I used double sided papers from K&Company (from Citronella and Poppy Seed) so that you get that little peek of color inside the bow.  Such a nice touch.

To assemble the bow, I followed the video that SVG Cuts created to go with it.

 

The doily underneath is the My Favorite Things High Tea Party Doily die and I also die cut the Tim Holtz ticket strips to make the “tags”.  Using Distress Inks to match the colors found in the patterned paper, I colored the tags and then used some Tim Holtz Visual Artistry Seamless Experience stamps to embellish the tags.  I then handwrote the “To” and “From” for a more personal touch.  (We affectionately call my MIL “Gal” in case you were wondering).  Once the bow was assembled and everything else was ready to go, all I needed to do was adhere it on the box.

 

To finish off this post, I thought I would share with all of you a story about my Mother’s Day.  First off, I am leery of Mother’s Day.  Every single Mother’s Day that I have had since becoming a mother…something has gone wrong.  From the grill catching on fire, to a flat tire on the car, to baby Jared spitting up all over me and having to spend the rest of the day in borrowed clothes…Mother’s Day has not been kind to me.  Mother’s Day for 2012 actually wasn’t half bad!  Did something go wrong?  Yes, but it could have been so much worse.  We were leaving the house to go to our Mother’s Day lunch with all the moms and extended family.  I put these boxes in a white plastic grocery bag along with the cards to bring along.  I needed to drive that day, so I handed the bag to my husband so that the kids didn’t smash them up.  We stopped at a local store to get flowers for my husband’s grandmother and I ran in the store leaving him in the car with the kids.  When I got back to the car, I noticed that the car was cleaner.  I admit that my car is not the cleanest thing and usually the cup holders have old drinks sitting there which it did that day.  My husband turned to me and said, I cleaned up for you.  I said thank you and then asked him where the bag with the presents was.  The look on his face was….well you can guess.  Turned out that he used that white plastic grocery bag to throw away some of the garbage and did not take the gifts out of the bag!  Quickly he fished the boxes and cards out, but it was too late.  The bows and cards were wet.  Yuck!  Fortunately they did not get soaked and he spent the rest of the drive cleaning them off so that at least we had something to give the moms.  So overall, not a bad Mother’s Day…at least for me.

I’m back…

 

Hi everyone, I hope everyone had a great weekend…especially all the Moms out there!!!  Before I get started with my post for today, I want to give a big shout out to Lyssa Beth Zimmerman!  Lyssa was a big help to me last week when she filled in for me on the eCraft Design Team blog.  Unfortunately, we had a death in the family and I also had some computer problems, so I really appreciate Lyssa filling in for me and her project was just adorable!  Thank you Lyssa!!

 

Since, I did not get to post a Mother’s Day project last week, I decided to show you my project today.  I always make the moms in my life a card for Mother’s Day to go along with their gift.  This year due to my computer problems and limited time to crank these out, I used the same design for each card, but I changed up the color scheme to fit each mother.  This was super easy to do using PaperLayerz by Megan Elizabeth.  These pattern papers are made using the same base as the eCraft Diecutable Cardstock which you all know is a favorite of mine.  On the front are 9 blocks (4”x4” each) and then the back is a larger pattern that fills the entire sheet.  All of the colors on each sheet coordinate, so all I needed to do was pick a sheet per mom and then start cutting.

 

I used a frame image from Lettering Delights Butterflies & Blossoms set.  This frame was pre-designed with the attached flowers, so again it was super easy to put together.  Using Make the Cut, I set up each layer in a separate square to coordinate with the paper.  I then placed the background layer in an area big enough for it to be cut so that I could use the backside pattern.  The black and white layers were cut separately.

 

Here’s an example of what one of the mats looked like before I cut…

 

On the white panel I used a stamp from Unity Stamps (Kit of the Month January 2012).  I used my Distress Markers to color directly on the stamp and then huffed on it and stamped.  I picked colors for the stamp that coordinate with each card.  I then topped it off with a sentiment from Papertrey Ink Fillable Frames #4 in black ink.  Then all that was left to do was to assemble each card using my Zig 2 Way Glue Pen and my Xyron Mega Runner.  I used a Papertrey Ink Rustic White card base for each card.  Here are the finished cards…

 

For my husband’s grandmother…

 

For my mother in law…

 

 

And for my mom…

 

Hope you all have a great week!!!