Craftinbish

 Hello crafty friends. Today's post features some really fun typewriter greeting cards with floral accents. I used Spellbinders clear stamp of the month with an accompanying die set for February 2022. Love this cute design! I began by using my Misti stamp tool to lay down these images with some black versa fine ink. I love using the Misti because it ensures you get a usable stamped image. If you don't have one of these in your craft room yet I certainly think it's worth the investment. Next, I heat embossed my stamped images with Wow clear embossing powder.  A card I'd love to recieve.  Coloring in my stamped images was a lot of fun. I used a combination of alcohol ink markers, Tombow brush markers, and colored pencils. Because my images were embossed the clear layer allowed me to use any medium I wanted without fear of smearing the ink. I even used some watercolor on the typewriters simply because I love the way watercolor looks! I wanted to ach...

 Hello, wonderful crafting friends. Hope you're all feeling inspired to create and have been cleaning your crafting space as you go. 😋 I'm the messiest crafter ever and usually have to spend time picking up and putting things away because I've run out of every inch of space possible and lost all my tools under the clutter. HA! When inspiration hits, you just have to run with it, right? Today's greeting cards go hand in hand with being a bit of a messy crafter. Often my cards will have smudges on them or imperfections, which is expected to some extent as this is a handmade item. I don't really understand how exactly this happens, but it just does. When the smudges can't be erased using a pink eraser, I LOVE splattering my cards with some acrylic paint. Not only does this look cool and artsy, but it's also fun to do and hides any small or large imperfections you may have in your design.  Card using Catherine Pooler Date Night inks In creating this...

      Good morning my paper-loving friends. I have another upcycle project for you today. I call these specimen envelopes because they feature a clear widow like a slide with a "specimen" in the middle. I've had these envelopes in my stash for a while now. I love them so much, that I haven't been able to part with them. These would make a lovely addition to a happy mail for a pen-pal, a swap, or of course, tucked into a journal. I could also see these tied to the outside of a gift package with a note or a little something extra inside. So, let us get into it.        I used some pages from my German English dictionary for these envelopes. I got out my Gelli plate and swiped some Distressed Oxides onto it and misted it with water before I pressed my paper onto my Gelli plate. If you don't have a Gelli plate a regular craft mat or piece of laminated paper (or any non-porous flat surface) would work just as well. I used my h...

 Hi friends. I wanted to share a fun upcycling project with you today. I followed a YouTube video by Pam at The Paper Outpost for turning used greeting cards into journal cards for your junk journal. Not only is this very fun and easy, but it's also a wonderful way to give a second life to the beautiful notecards you may have from friends, pen-pals, and family members that you don't know what to do with. This idea could also be used to create postcards instead of journal cards.  So, grab your stash of received happy mail and pick out the cards with images that you like. I wanted to give all my cards an aged look, so after gluing some paper to the back of the card to cover up any writing I decoupaged some used tea bags to the front.  Once that surface was dry I collaged some images to the front of the cards. I distressed around the edges, front and back with some distressed Oxide in Vintage Photo.  I also stamped images...

   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...