Beautiful Bella!

 

When you have gorgeous papers like Carta Bella…it is so easy to make something stunning!  My project today has very few supplies and it came together so well.  On top of that, depending on the paper that you use, this is a design that could be applied to just about any occasion.  For my card, I used the gorgeous Carta Bella Paris Girl collection.

To start with, I took a piece of black cardstock and cut it to 5 1/2” x 5 1/2”.  I then cut all those gorgeous scallops.  To do that, I used Papertrey Ink’s scalloped dies in all three sizes, small, medium, and large.  I laid the three dies on my eBosser plates, placed my Carta Bella paper on top of all three dies and cut.  That way I had a small, medium and a large for each piece of patterned paper.  I then started to layer them on the piece of black cardstock, alternating the scallops slightly.  Once I had all the scallops in place, I trimmed the sides off with my heavy duty Carl cutter. My panel is 3 1/2” x 5 1/2” If you don’t have a heavy duty trimmer, you may want to trim as you go along and make your panel the exact size you want.  I did mine larger so that I could pick the section that I liked the best.

 

Then I took a sentiment from PTI’s Mat Stack 2 collection and heat embossed it with white embossing powder.  I also grabbed some Hibiscus Burst stain ribbon (PTI) and tied a bow around the top edge.  Then using some foam adhesive I adhered the panel to my black card base.  I love the look of tone on tone for this kind of card because it really makes the patterned paper the star of the card.

 

I hope everyone has a lovely week and that all the kids enjoy their Halloween!

Halloween Treats made easy with Bake and Shrink!

 

PrintOnIt.com just helped me out of a jam!  I had to bring some treats for a little Halloween get together, and since I am known as the “crafty” mom, I couldn’t just bring something that I picked up real quick at the store.  After all, I have a reputation to keep LOL!  I have been extremely busy lately, so time was critical!  PrintOnIt.com’s Bake and Shrink helped me make the cutest little cupcake toppers that fit right on these mini cupcakes!

 

Using some Tim Holtz dies, I die cut out (using my trusty eBosser of course!) a bunch of Halloween images from the Bake and Shrink.  Tim’s dies tend to be fairly large and would never work on cupcakes, but that is the beauty of the Bake and Shrink!  With this material, you can get those images that you love in miniature form and I LOVE how well it maintains the detail.  After cutting, I just smeared some black Archival ink on them and then used my heat tool to shrink them.  While I let them cool off, I took some regular old toothpicks and colored them black with a permanent marker.  Once the Bake and Shrink was cool, I adhered the toothpicks to the back with some liquid adhesive.

 

While I was putting these in the cupcakes, I discovered something else that is really neat about the Bake and Shrink.  You can easily clean them up with a wet paper towel which means that they are totally re-useable.  Gotta say, loving that!

 

Be sure to come back to the blog everyday this week to see what the other ladies have created with the amazing products from PrintOnIt.com!

Wearable Art with PrintOnIt.com’s Transfer Paper

 

I very rarely make something for myself, but today’s project is just that.  Normally, I carry a purse that is rather large and has room for all sorts of stuff, but sometimes I just want to grab the bare necessities and go.  So, one day at Joann’s, I found this little plain black cloth purse with a couple of front pockets and I knew I could do something with this.  It is just the right size to throw my wallet and phone in there and I can dash off.  Of course, as a mom, I can’t resist doing something with it that reflects how proud I am of my boys.  That instantly brought to mind a die that I got from Papertrey Ink a few months back called Fabulous Frames.  Pair that up with transfer paper from PrintOnIt.com and we have a perfect combination for my new little purse.

The first thing that I did was print up some blocks of digital paper (and of course some recent pictures of my boys) onto the transfer paper using my inkjet printer.  Then I set to work using my wonderful eBosser and the dies to cut out the the pictures and the frames.  This die actually cuts all three pieces of once, so by mixing and matching the exterior frame with the interior frame, I saved a lot of material.  I also used PTI’s Loop De Loop die on another piece of the transfer paper for the border that is right above the pockets.

After doing all my die cuts, it was pretty smooth sailing.  I just lined everything up onto the purse and laid a piece of parchment paper on top and ironed everything in place.  Done!

 

PrintOnIt.com’s transfer paper really makes projects like this a breeze.  I also love that the transfer paper is thin so that it conforms well to your fabric.  If you are thinking of making some wearable art, be sure to check it out!

eCraft Special on HSN!

 

Hi all!

 

Just wanted to let you know about an upcoming HSN eCraft Special!

TOMORROW IS THE BIG DAY!!!

The Boys are getting anxious!

 

As you all probably know by now, I am the mom of two wonderful boys.  They are my pride and joy and I feel very blessed to be their mom.  They cannot wait for Halloween so I thought why not make them some t-shirts to express that!  Here are my two little munchkins, Jared and Mason, showing off the shirts that I made for them.

I used some of Cooler Concepts’ Dark t-shirt transfer film to make these and have to say it…love this stuff.  It is nice and thin once ironed on.  Now, I wanted to make these using my eBosser of course (because I am addicted) so here is how I did it.

 

First off, I printed some digital paper onto the transfer film. I used Echo Park’s Apothecary Emporium Collection which you can get digitally at JessicaSprague.com.  Then I turned to a die from Papertrey Ink called Modern Alphabet (Upper Case).  Here is how the die comes.

It comes on this sheet of magnet and also notice that the letters are attached with a thin piece of metal.  The reason for this is that you can break them apart.  No tools needed , just a little bending back and forth and they come apart.  That means that you can cut only the letters that you need.  When you do that, just put them on the magnet sheet for storage so you don’t lose any of them.

 

The eBosser cut the transfer paper like butter and in no time at all, I had all my letters ready to iron onto the shirts.  After removing the backing paper from each letter, I laid them out on my shirts.  I decided to go with a wonky line up just to add a little interest.  Here are all the letters laid out.

All I had to do at this point was place some parchment paper on top and them iron on.  So Easy!  My sons loved them and had to wear them the very next day.  Jared even told me that one of his teachers told him that she loved his shirt.

Now to survive the next 23 days until Halloween!

A Quick Halloween Decoration

 

Halloween is coming and my kids can hardly stand it!  Each year, we order costumes extra early (in fact we have had them for a few weeks now) and they begin counting down the days until I start to decorate the house.  They love Halloween probably more than Christmas so what is a mom to do?  Get crafty!

 

For my project today, I used some awesome shrink film made by Cooler Concepts and my trusty eBosser to whip up a quick decoration.  In fact, it was so quick that I started to think that these would make amazing placeholders or party favors for a Halloween party.

To start with, I printed some digital paper from Lettering Delights (Haunted Halloween) and the RIP sentiment onto my shrink film.  This is pretty easy to do with Photoshop or most photo editing software since the digital paper is a picture file.  Just import your digital paper and then add your text on top.  I used a light orange for the text because once you shrink it down, it will darken.  After letting the shrink film dry (i.e. time to clear off my desk LOL) I set to work.  I used a die from Papertrey Ink called Mat Stack 5 and lined it up so that the sentiment was in place and taped it down so it would not shift.  Then I ran it through my eBosser using the sandwich appropriate for that die.  In this case, the thin metal die sandwich.  It cut just as clean as any paper I have thrown at it.  Love that eBosser!

You can see here that some of the ink from the printing actually transferred to the die, but no worries…it cleans up easily with a baby wipe and did not affect the look at all. Next, I punched a 5/8” hole in the top and then started to shrink it with my heat gun.

Here you can see how much it shrunk down compared to the die itself.  Next, I threaded my label with some homemade crinkled ribbon and tied it around the black plastic rose (which I found at Target).  I took a strand of Halloween lights and fed as many as it would hold in a glass container and then added my rose.

I am thinking that I will have to make some more of these, I think they would be awesome lined up on my fireplace mantel.  Anyone care to share some quickie Halloween decorations that you make?  I’d love to hear them!