Valentine Arrows Using Dollar tree Products

 

So for my Valentine's cards, this year I decided I wanted a dimensional arrow of love element. Here is what I came up with. The paper straws I had on hand, the heart table scatter, and crepe paper I picked up at Dollar Tree. I hope this inspires you. I post the final card here, once they are completed if you want to check it out. There is a video on how I made these. Just head here.

Button Paperclip Bookmark

 Simple Bookmark idea...or even can add it to a card. Saw this somewhere and thought it was great for these type of buttons since I am never sure what to do with them. Yes, there is a video, found here.

Let's make Butterflies

 I kept looking at those sparkling gold bits left over from puffy word stickers. I didn't want to waste them...I just love that gold color. Then, it hit! Use them as butterfly bodies. I use a lot of butterflies on my cards. I knew they would not go to waste. Sometimes, you just have to think outside of the box in your paper crafting ya know? To watch me put these together watch the video here.

Nuvo Drops Turned into Enamel Dots

 I have always struggled when adding Nuvo drops to my projects. I would think they were dry enough to store the card until I needed it...and then later the Nuvo Drops would be flat because I had not let them dry long enough. Thanks to a hack from The Hedgehog Hollow from YouTube I found I now know what to do. I am using leftover plastic packaging along with a simple grid sheet and making them ahead of time. These are then easy to store. They are also easy to scoot off the plastic for that project that needs an "enamel" dot. This allows me to have the look I want without worrying about them becoming flat. Hope this helps you too!

Doodle on your Die Cuts for a New Look

 

When cutting out your die cuts...think about altering them to add some "doodles". It adds something a bit different to your embellishment.

Adding Color to Neutral Embellishments

 When picking up embellishments from Dollar Tree..always get some in white. You can color them later to match your project pretty easily. Here I used Distress Oxide ink, but you could also use dye inks, alcohol markers, or maybe there are some other things I haven't thought of. Let your imagination take your projects to the next level.

 

I am at it again ya'll. I made clusters of embellishments one evening, then the next day turned them into cards. For this card. I took the banner, the flat shaker element, the sentiment sticker, and the butterfly to create the embellishment. The next day I added a red panel that I had embossed in silver with a corner border. Then it all went on a white top folding card base. Doing cards in batches like this has been fun.

Sentiment Strips

 Sentiment Strips have been a trend for quite some time. I decided to go back a bit to an old school technique of taking those small sentiment strips and making them into tags to add to projects or to send as happy mail. These are quick to do. They use up those skinny strips of paper leftover from other projects while also using up some patterned paper. It is sentiment strip tags for the win! I have a video up today on my YouTube channel for you to check out how easy it is to make these. I also will have a video out soon using a sentiment strip tag in a card project for inspiration.

Layered Embellishments Leading to Cards, Card #4

 

I love how this card came together with the banner embellishment. Again I kept the card itself super simple since the banner had all the goodness. The banner embellishment does have a couple of stamped elements..the heart and the sentiment. Those stamps are from Papertrey Ink. I have had them in my stash for years but they are classics. 😀 I layered on a black cardstock card panel a heart black and white patterned paper. That was it. I found I really enjoyed doing a night of layered embellishments then later turning them into cards. It really was super fun, relaxing, and my die-cut container definitely had fewer embellishments at the end. So it was an all-ar
ound win. I hope you enjoyed this series of cards.

Layered Embellishments Leading to Cards, Card #3

 

In keeping with the theme here is another layered embellishment made into a card. So cute right? I think this comes close to being my favorite of the four cards I made. This was so simple to make. I just added a strip of that black and white patterned Recollections paper I used for all the cards onto a black card base. Then I added the embellishment that was already put together. Easy Peasy!
💖

Layered Embellishments Leading to Cards, Card #2

 I turned another layered embellishment into a card. This one has a lot of patterns going on. Looking at it now I am sure some are going to go...Oh my! But in person, this actually works. I really do love that striped paper from Echo Park I made the flower embellishment portion from. I just could not part with that paper until I had used all of it I could. The patterned paper comes from a black and white 6 x 6 paper pack from Recollections I had forever (and there is still plenty left). The owl washi might be what sent this one over the edge... 😊

 I am sharing a FB live I did recently on my YouTube channel making layered embellishments or back in the day they were called "card candy". I will be posting the cards I made with these embellishments over the next few days. This was a lot of fun so I hope you'll check back. Links to my YouTube channel is in the bio.

Back to the Fun!

My work life has been challenging the last year.  That didn't leave much time for blogging, but it doesn't mean my love for papercrafts has diminished.  I still have been creating regularly since our last meeting.

Lately it has been fun playing around with mini-pocket letters and embellishments.  Here are a few that I will be sending out in the mail to swap partners.  Though these are only sneak peeks.  I will post everything in it's entirety once I am sure the partner has received it.  

Here is a sneak peek of my Summer Themed mini PL that will be going out to my partner with a few extras. This was a blast to make. To be in the mail by Monday.

Sneak peek of my camping mini PL and a bag of goodies. Going to be heading in the mail Monday.

Lastly is the sneak peek of my mini embellies I am swapping with their bag of extra goodies. Yesterday was very productive. I gave my circuit explore a workout. 😊