Craftinbish

   Happy Saturday you lovely crafters! Just think, a whole weekend to work at your happy desk and create: cut, paste, spackle, paint, sew. . . .or whatever it is that you do to make jolly. I've joined a few swap-bot swaps that I'll be working on and sharing later. I also started an art journal that is strictly for the sake of creating with no "goals" in mind other than to express myself. If I'm being critical of it, so far, it's a hot mess. But, on to the current project I'm sharing.      These fun vintage guest checks are great ephemera for junk journals or a tuck-in for a pen pal who loves vintage items. I like guest checks because they remind me of the past. How often do you actually receive an old-school guest check like this in restaurants anymore? My guess is probably not often, as everyone is using thermal tape receipts these days and those aren't that great.  So, let me share my steps in creating these little dandies.  Tea dye your guest checks...

       Hey friends, Happy Valentines day!  I hope you're all doing great. I have a quick little project to share with you. I made this embellished postcard to send a lovely swap-bot partner for a homemade postcard swap. If you're into snail mail or need something to do with all your accumulated craft projects check out their website at  swap-bot.com.   For this project I started out by grabbing a postcard blank. I bought a bunch of blank postcards from Amazon years ago. They are the exact right dimensions and weight for designing your own postcards and have a blank front.  The postcard image in purple is Coco and Reno's "snail mail" photopolymer stamp. I stamped the image twice using my Misti stamping tool. After putting my base design down I gathered die cuts from my precut stash that would coordinate with the snail mail theme.  TIP: Accumulate extra die cuts from projects in a die cut stash. I always end up cutting more die cuts t...

    Interior of Snail mail folder Greetings crafty friends. Today I'm sharing a Happy Mail I created for my pen pal Renée. We became pen pals through swapbot.com. If you love paper crafting or sending and receiving mail I recommend you check it out.  Outside of the mail folder Embellished Folder The patterned paper of the folder base and coordinating question tag has been pulled from a hot buy paper stack I recently purchased from Michaels at a clearance price of five dollars. (Love me some clearance sales).  I began by pulling out the polka dot type pattern and sizing it down to fit in my upcycled Pipsticks envelope. I did have to widen the opening of the Pipsticks envelope a bit with a craft knife to fit in my folder properly, as the zipper seal makes the mouth more narrow than its interior. Next I die cut a frame from the coordinating paper. I embellished the frame with flowers and butterflies which were leftover from my Spellbinders card kit of the month for...

Are you a new paper crafter?         Hi crafty friends! If you're here checking out my blog it's because you're a paper enthusiast like me. Today's discussion is for those who are new to the world of paper crafting and are curious about what basic supplies every paper crafter needs in their arsenal to make beautiful pieces they'll love and want to share. Here are my top five supplies or supply groups, that have made all the difference in my creations.      The staples of my craft room are scissors, glues and adhesives, paper, and ink. If you're going to make cards, art journals, collages, or create happy mail you'll need these basic items to get started. Stamps are also another important staple in the craft room, but we'll leave that for another post.  1. Cut   You'll need a large pair of scissors to make bigger cuts for things like taking images out of a magazine. You'll also need a smaller pair for fussy cutting or doing detailed...