A Card In Honor of the Royal Wedding



Did you watch the Royal Wedding?  (If  you haven't there's just a bit of a spoiler alert here in this paragraph) Prince William & Kate Middleton are now the new Duke & Duchess of Cambridge!  I didn't get up at 3am to watch, but I did set my DVR.  I'll have to play back later to watch their vows, as I came in when they were coming down the aisle.  But after seeing their "double" kiss on the balcony at Buckingham Palace (the sweetest thing!) I just wanted to post my Congratulations to the Royally Happy Couple!  I remember watching Prince Charles & Princess Diana's wedding, but this one has to be my favorite so far...LOL.

Anyway--I made this card a while back (long while back), but I thought you'd be interested to know that I used a gold foil chocolate candy wrapper for the mat, which I used a border punch on.  The flowered overlay is from some beautiful wrapping paper that I just loved, and the sentiment is a sticker.  But isn't this sentiment just Perfect for this new married couple?!  Which, of course, is why I chose this card to highlight today, even though it's not as "weddingish" (yeah, I know...not really a word).  =)  I cut two corner punches from the lavender cardbase and added a touch of dark purple ink to the cut out corners to finish it off. 

The camera I used when I first made the card and took the photo wasn't that great, so I apologize the coloring is not better. 

Thanks for stopping by today -- keep an eye out this weekend for some blog candy, as I'll be celebrating my one year Blogaversary!  =)

Lisa

Sip n' Tip Tuesday - New Dimensions

Today I'm having a delicious afternoon tea that a friend sent me -- Sweet Ginger Peach tea made by Revolution Tea.  We did a lot of traveling this weekend to spend Easter with my in-laws (which was lovely), but I've been feeling a bit under the weather today and ginger tea always seems to help settle my stomach. 

I have another great tip today in regards to giving your project some new dimension with repurposed materials.  Usually when we want to add depth/dimension to a papercrafting project we would add pop dots, foam squares, or mounting tape to the underside of our papers/embellishments to pop them up. These can be acquired pretty inexpensively these days--for instance, at a local $1 store.  However, my tip today is to save you some pocket change by using what you already have at home.  Try some of these ideas for some no cost, but effective ways of adding dimension to your cards, scrapbooks, or other papercrafting projects you might have:

1. Cut corrugated cardboard boxes (or shipping boxes) into small squares, based on your project size (you can also use a hole punch or circle/square punch to cut your cardboard if it fits in your punch--but I found sissors to be much faster/easier to use).  Take a black permanent marker and color the sides of the cardboard to "camouflage" it when using in your work.  Adhere the cardboard with glue stick or a wet glue to your project to pop an image/text.  Double stack the cardboard squares (use a wet glue to sandwich the cardboard together) to add even another layer of dimension. 

2. Use your hot glue gun to make small glue dots onto a silicone pad (craft mat, baking sheet, etc.), and let cool completely.  Once cooled they will be solid and ready to use -- simply place the glue dot on your silicone pad or craft mat and hold a heat gun over the top until the cloudiness of the glue starts to clear (about 7 seconds) then press your cardstock onto the glue dot.  Turn your cardstock over and heat the other side of the glue dot again and add your embellishment onto dot when it starts to become clear.  Don't leave the heat gun over the glue dot longer than 10 seconds or it may completely melt your glue.  Store your homemade glue dots in a baby food jar or other recycled container until you're ready to use them. 

3. Take a small section of printer paper, or other lightweight paper, and scrunch up into a 1/4" - 1/2" ball.  Add a wet glue to the ball and work in with your fingers until sticky but not soaked.  Press onto your paper project with a craft stick (or popcycle stick) and add your top paper layer you want "popped", pressing down slightly.  Leave set to dry 5-10 minutes.

4. Kid's Fun Foam comes in a variety of colors which you can cut up just like the cardboard and use to color coordinate with your project, so it will blend into the background without having to color the sides with permanent pen.  I have found that a strong adhesive (such as Scor-tape, The Ultimate glue, or Glossy Accents) works best in adhering this type of mounting foam to your project.  If you're double stacking the foam for extra depth, use a hot glue gun to adhere the pieces together--this helps to "melt" the foam together and keeps it from separating.  When the hot glue cools, you can trim off any overflow from the edges before adhering to your project.

5. You can use the styrofoam from the packaged meats at the grocery store much in the same way as the cardboard above -- just make sure it's well sanitized first.  Use an emery board to sand off the finish of the smooth styrofoam packaging to give it some tooth--apply to project with a wet glue or strong dry adhesive.

Have a look around your home, you just might discover something old you can "re-new" again.

Happy Crafting!
Lisa

Adhesive for the Tool Box - GM4

It's Grungy Monday #4 - and a box of adhesive for Hubby

I missed last week's Grungy Monday technique because I currently don't have any Color Wash--but when I do, I'll give that technique a try.  For this week's Grungy Monday, Linda at Studio L3 has us working with Tim Holtz Texture Fades & Distress ink.  You can find the video HERE. 

I actually used TH new Texture Trades (Artful Muse set), which are ATC size, with walnut stain Distress ink for my tag.  I also used TH new stamp set (Reflections), which I've been wanting to use for a while--and I love it! 

I've been telling my DH I would make him a box for his MacBond adhesive...and I finally did!  I used TH Lost & Found paper stash for the box and cut out a border strip from the same paper as a box band.  The tag easily slips into the band, and stores into his tool box.  I used the two techniques on the tag on opposite sides (as shown by Tim in his video), and used one side for the title and the other side for the product info site.  



oops--please excuse the messy writing,
at least this is the back-side. lol

Guess I better go get a few more things crossed off my list.  Have a great day!   Lisa

Bland to Grungy Grand iPad Jacket

From bland...

I finally got tired of looking at my bland, black iPad jacket and decided to give it a bit of life.  My DH says he likes it because it tells a story, but when I offered to do one for his he promptly informed me that he likes his plain black jacket just the way it is.  Okay then, so I'll just show you mine. 

...to Grungy Grand!

I used Tim Holtz Lost & Found paper stash cut to fit within the creased sections.  The inCase jacket converts into an easel for better viewing, so I didn't add any dimensionals to the vintage style papers I used.  Instead I stamped some silhouette images and phrases, added a couple stickers, and finished with a touch of Distress ink.  It really was quite simple to make, but I'm very pleased with the outcome. 

I adhered the finished cardstock (CS) to the jacket with Scor-tape, and it holds it very well.  Later down the road if I want to change the look again, I'll just remove it and add another.  And if you're wondering how I'll remove the CS without tearing it up, check out my recent Sip n' Tip Tuesday tutorial (of course I'd remove the cover from the iPad before starting the removal process).

That was a pretty quick post for my most recent "Re-do".  Whatcha think? 

As always, thanks for stopping by.
Happy Crafting!  Lisa

Sip n' Tip Tuesday - Removing Dry Adhesive from Paper

some examples of dry adhesives

Welcome to my first ever Sip n' Tip Tuesday tutorial -- where you can sip your tea, while checking out my tip of the week.  This week I'm starting with my most favorite papercrafting tip EVER -- how to remove strong dry adhesive from your paper once you've stuck it down, without ripping your paper.  Oh yeah! 

One of my pet peeves when I'm crafting is when I adhere paper together with a strong dry adhesive (I usually use Scor-Tape) and realize I've gotten it crooked, or put it in the wrong place.  If you try to pull it apart the paper just rips and you've gotta start over--how annoying is that?!  A couple years ago I was assembling kits for one of my classes that had a lot of moving parts.  I had a variety of samples I was using, and for one sample in particular I had just used the last of my paper--and yes, I made a mistake when I adhered it together...upside down.  I happened to have my heat gun out, as I was using it for embossing, so on a whim I decided to try to heat the glue through the cardstock and it worked like a charm!  No ripped paper, and when I reattached it to the project correctly, I only had to flatten it back down with the original adhesive and no one was the wiser.

So here's how it works -- starting at the edge of the paper you need released, hold the heat gun to the paper as you would if you were embossing.  Don't keep in in one place for too long, then gently pry apart the paper.  If you are lifting edges the paper will be HOT.  Use tweezers to pull the paper apart to start.  If you can anchor down the bottom paper (or have a friend help), gently pull away the top paper while heating so you can pull it apart continuously, otherwise heat only a small section at time and pull away only the section that still retains the heat.  Once the paper cools it WILL rip, so take your time.  If you have a large section you're heating or even a small bitty section your trying to remove, it's takes a bit of finesse to do it yourself--it will help if you slide a release sheet (paper that the stickers have been removed will work) between the sections already pulled so if you drop the top paper the adhesive won't reattach itself. 


Remember, I'm using my other hand to take the photo.  =)

What I've found so far that this method will remove:  Scor-Tape, Ranger Wonder Tape (or other red line double stick tape), ATG (Advanced Tape Glider) Adhesive, Tombo Adhesive, or any other permanent dry adhesive, glue dots, stickers, foam pop dots (the foam will melt if you're not careful, only minimal heat needed to remove), and certain packaging can be opened with your heat gun by heating the glue (since some packaging glues may emit toxic fumes, please use extreme caution if using this method -- if you're unsure, don't do it). 
If you find other things that the heat gun works in removing, please make sure to add your comment so we can keep this updated.  I welcome all your comments.

Enjoy your cuppa!
Lisa 

Heading Towards New Horizons



 Retirement--the next step towards a new adventure!  This card was for a military friend of ours doing just that -- heading toward new horizons.

Using my Independence Day cricut cartridge I made the pennant banner for this card.  I didn't even realize the pennant cut was on this cartridge, so that's a bonus which can be used for a lot of other projects!  I stamped the background with Stampin Up's large denim stamp & faded jeans distress ink.  Then I used Tim Holtz new stamp set, Air Travel, to stamp the plane and heat embossed it with Zing black embossing powder.  Finally I stamped the "Time is a Companion" quote (also by TH), and added a ribbon to complete the card.  I love that quote--and thought it worked well for this retirement card.  Simple, but I like how it turned out.

For the inside of the card, I just blended in more ink leaving patches of white, for a sort of clouded effect, and stamped a bit more using "The Lord Bless" Wordsworth stamp, and stamps made for "Operation Hero Mail".  At the writing of this post, the Hero Mail stamps are on sale right now for $5.00 ---> HERE. 

It doesn't take a special day to say 'Thank You' to our military members for their service, any day will do just fine.  Consider sending a card today in support of Operation Write Home.

Guess that's about it for today.  Thanks for checking in.
Happy Crafting!  Lisa

Mister Zagg

I love Ranger's Mini Misters!  They're great for so many things (we'll get back to that), and I think they're fairly inexpensive as well--a nice bonus.  But you'd be surprised at what you might have around the house worth repurposing.  We recently bought our son a new phone; and everytime we buy a new phone we always buy the Zagg Invisible Shield for it's guaranteed protection.  But this is the first time I'd noticed that there is a small mister in each kit--no kidding!  These misters have a solution in them to help apply the screen cover, but is easily washed out and perfectly usable--and the labels peel right off too.  I dug out another of our kits we had put up, and grabbed the mister out of that one too.  One of the misters is the exact size of Ranger's Mini Mister, and the other was a tad bit larger.  But how cool is that?!  Had to pass on that bit of useful repurposing to you all, of course.

Getting back to why these misters are so fab:
1.  Small size to go anywhere/anytime, for all your crafting needs
2.  Delivers a fine mist, so heavy droplets don't weigh down your project in just one area.
3.  Fill the bottle with so many fun things -- great for lots of applications:
     - Fill mister with water, apply dye ink to stamp, mist inked stamp with water and press image onto cardstock for a watercolor print.
     - Fill mister 2/3's with water, add 4-5 drops of re-inker, spray over project a little or a lot--depending on the color coverage you like, let dry naturally or dry faster with heat gun
     - Great for distressing projects with a bit of water mist, scrunched up paper, and drying time
     - Fill with stamp cleaner to clean up stamps, dry on soft cloth/towel
     - Fill with walnut stain
     - Fill with Copic blending solution for your alcohol ink projects
4.  Use as a water mister when a bit of steaming is necessary for your small fabric projects

And SO much more!  You can google lots of information on how to use these misters, or check out YouTube for more project ideas.  Tim Holtz has a lot of videos I like watching for inspiration...try checking out some of those on YouTube for your inspiration (he uses the Mini Misters in a lot of his projects).  Here's a video to get your creative juices flowing...Tim Holtz Distress Ink & Mini Misters...Enjoy!

ETA - Best Buy (local electronics store) installs a lot of the Zagg film onto gadgets for their customers, which means they go through these misters very quickly.  I asked them what they do with them, and they said they throw them away!!  Whenever I'm in there, I ask if they have any emptys.  If they do, they give them to me.  Sometimes they'll combine misters that are low together, and give me the empty bottles.  Just thought you might be interested!

 Happy Crafting!  Lisa

Cats & Nursery Rhymes

A bit of playful fun - Cat & the Fiddle - for Hannah

I know I've been behind blogging this week -- I've been working on a Mother-Daughter Tea for our church.  I'll post the specifics for the projects, and pictures, once the event is completed in May--I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise for anyone.  But just as a teaser I can tell you we named our tea time "A Supercalifragilistic Proper English Tea".  =)

In the meantime, I thought I'd share a quick card I made for my friend's daughter, Hannah.  They have some fun cats in their family--we used to watch them bounce off walls & shelves, and laugh at the funny things these cats would come up with.  So I had to include a cat in my birthday card! 

I absolutely LOVE the Nursery Rhymes cricut cartridge!  Even though my kids are older, I just couldn't resist all the great cut files for this cartridge.  I'm sure I'll find lots of ways to put this cartridge to use.  As for this card:  I used my Cricut to cut the Cat & Fiddle figure from a spice color cardstock (CS), and cut the base shadow blackout using a darker brown CS.  I inked the edges of the detailed cut with vintage photo distress ink, adding extra for the fiddle area.  Then I used Glossy Accents over the fiddle to give it a polished look (it's not easy to see in this photo unfortunately), and tied a ribbon around the cat's neck, before adhering it to the shadow base.  I used a white pigment ink to lightly dust around the edges of the dark brown CS. 

My CS base is Best Creations CS (I believe--it was in my stash), and I added a strip of magenta CS to break up the design a bit...also adding more white pigment ink, after distressing it's edges.  I added a bright pink May Arts ribbon, and a glittery "H" to finish the front of the card.  On the inside I cut phrase "Cat & The Fiddle", inked it with a bit of vintage photo, and applied diamond stickles for a bit of a sparkle effect.  I didn't cut the shadow for the phrase, as I wanted it to sort of blend into the card a bit. 

I probably don't use my Cricut often enough for card making, but I need to.  I couldn't believe how quickly this card came together  -- good thing too...I was already belated as it was!

Thanks for stopping by!  Lisa

The Journey to Grungy Monday #2

If you haven't been to Linda's StudioL3 yet, you ought to pop on in.  She's hosting Grungy Mondays and it's all about playing with techniques -- Tim Holtz style.  This week I'm playing with Claudine Hellmuth's multi-medium matte and distress inks.  This is a technique I hadn't tried before today, but I found it was both easy & fun to do -- Linda posted a video link for this tutorial, presented by Tim Holtz (of course), on her blog.  One of the things I really like about Tim Holtz is that his tutorials are so easy to follow!  He does everything step by step, and explains what he is doing so even inexperienced crafters can follow along. 

For my card I used a portion of scrapbook paper that had a larger image of Rome's Colosseum on it.  The stamps I used are by TH:  old jalopy, flock of birds, & journey quote.  Several distress inks were used:  stormy sky, forest moss, weathered wood, & pumice stone.  I also used brown corduroy distress ink to "grunge" up the silky ribbon.  I heat embossed my quote using VersaMark & Zing black embossing powder, and added a steering wheel gear & TH game spinner to finish it off before adding it to a ripped blue & green cardstock mat.  Attached it to a brown card, and there ya have it.

Thanks for popping in again.  See ya soon...Lisa

LoveLee Links



Skagway, Alaska:  scenic eye-candy



I have a lot of places I like to visit--on the web--and with so many things currently on my home page, I thought I'd make it easier to find these wonderful sites.  So I moved my inspiration links to a new page of my blog, called LoveLee Links.  When you're on LoveLee Notes home page you can access it by clicking on the page link just below the title box, next to Blog Acronyms.  

I hope you take some time to check out these links on occassion.  I like to relax with a hot cuppa tea when I'm blog hopping.  And sometimes, a bit of papercrafting eye-candy is all it takes to get your creative mojo back in action. 

Thanks for checking in.  Lisa

CAS Tea Sampler Purse

For those of you that know me and/or follow my blog, you already know that I love my tea -- I also enjoy trying many tea varieties from around the world.  Well, a friend of mine who is not really a tea drinker, came to visit recently while her husband was deployed (his year away is nearly over).  She actually will drink tea with me when we're together, but time got away from us and there were only so many days to drink tea.  LOL.  I meant to send her home with some tea that her hubby had sent me (my DH had asked him to send it to me), but after she left I realized I hadn't packaged it up for her.  As I said...she's not a big tea drinker, but I did want her to be able to try some of the samples I had.  She used to live in Turkey and had mentioned how she really liked their Green Apple tea, so I wanted her to have some of that too. 

I didn't want to just put it in an envelope, so I cut out this purse with my Cricut from the Forever Young cart (purse1).  I used my Gypsy to hide the contour lines of the purse's flower image for the back part of the purse, and for the front of the purse I added a "T" cut out from Plantin Schoolbook cart. 
NOTE:  If you don't have a Cricut you could draw the purse shape and cut it out twice (front/back). 

Cutting purple coordinating cardstock (CS) to the size of the purse bottom and sides, I used a 1-1/2"" width for the bottom of the purse and scored horizontally in 1/4" increments, then accordian folded the CS.  I did the same process for the sides of the purse.  I used score-tape to attach the 1st fold to the purse base on bottom first, and repeated the same with the side accordian folds.  It was easier to position the purse front over the accordian folds by assembling it back to front. 
I used one-sided CS, but double-sided would've looked really nice, and finished off the insides a bit better--plus I could've used the other side of the CS for the accordian folds.  Isn't hind-sight always 20/20?!

Well, that's about it...quick & easy--just the way I like it.  =) 
I adhered CS behind the "T" with glue so I could apply the glitter, and finished it off by quick tying a sheer ribbon to the handle.  I added some tea I packaged in small plastic jewelry bags, and shipped it off to my friend.  A simple gift of tea in a cute package.  I could've added some inks & embellishments to jazz it up even more, but I really just wanted something CAS.

CAS is the acronym for clean & simple.  The viewpoint on a CAS design is subjective, but basically speaking - a CAS design usually has one or more of the following attributes: a distinct focal point or theme, shows uncluttered space, not always a time-saver project but may highlight a specific technique, doesn't usually have a lot of layers/embellishments, is easily reproduced with minimal supplies.  I first learned about CAS designs on Splitcoast Stampers.  You can do a search on their website and find a lot of CAS examples--their site is a wonderful resource.  For this CAS project, I'm simply hoping you look at it and maybe think of a "T" purse/pouch.  =)

Thanks for stopping by, I think I'll go for now...I feel a tea break coming on.
Lisa