Ministry cards

I've made several cards for the church ministry with some of the released products from Doodle Pantry today.
Just wanted to share!   I've had a blast getting to get back to card making. I am a little rusty, so have to get back into things.
These first FIVE cards are using the new scripture set called Stand in Faith.

SUPPLIES
Images: Stand in Faith
Paper: Neenah white Solar crest cover, pattern paper from Pelican Dreams, PTI ocean tides, PTI classic kraft, PTI fine linen
Tools/Accents: Silver mini brads, sewing machine, Flower box sprigs & flowers DIE set, Spellbinders Label 20 die, Marianne die LR0151, Marianne Die LR0150

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Supplies
Images: Stand in Faith
Paper: Neenah white Solar crest cover, pattern paper from Stand in Faith, black cardstock, PTI scarlet jewel
Tools/Accents: Silver mini brads, sewing machine, Flower box sprigs & flowers DIE set, SPellbinders Fancy Tags Two, Spellbinders Fancy Tags

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Supplies
Images: Stand in Faith
Paper: Neenah white Solar crest cover, pattern paper from Stand in Faith, PTI summer sunrise, black cardstock
Tools/Accents: Silver mini brads, PTI ribbon, EK Deco scallop edger punch, sewing machine, SPellbinders Fancy Tags Two

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SUPPLIES
Images: Stand in Faith
Paper: Neenah white Solar crest cover, pattern paper from Morning Glory, PTI enchanted evening, SU marina mist
Tools/Accents: Spellbinders circle dies, Silver mini brads, sewing machine, Marianne Die LR0150

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I hand drew and cut the shell out and scored some lines on it, and then punched a 1/8" circle for the "pearl". I used a white gel pen to make the pearl shine.

SUPPLIES
Images: Pelican Dreams (pre-colored digital image)
Paper: Neenah white Solar crest cover, pattern paper from Pelican Dreams, PTI ocean tides, PTI classic kraft, PTI fine linen
Tools/Accents: white gel pen, sewing machine, Flower box sprigs & flowers DIE set, Spellbinders ovals dies, The frame label die and decorative oval frame are discontinued dies from CDS

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Here I used the Snowy Egret pre-colored digital image, and the scripture is from Renewed Faith.

SUPPLIES
Images: Snowy Egret (pre-colored digital image), Renewed Faith
Paper: Neenah white Solar crest cover, pattern paper from Morning Glory, PTI enchanted evening, PTI soft stone, PTI summer sunrise
Tools/Accents:  PTI summer sunrise ink and sponge, Woodware butterfly punch, Black mini brads, sewing machine, Marianne Die LR0150

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Thanks for stopping in today, I appreciate your visit and hope you have a blessed week!

Cute Kid Lizard Card

I've been coloring with my copics and getting more practice. Although I have much still to learn, I do like the coloring process and results. I've got several more cards in the works with copic coloring and hope to share them over the next month.

Here is a card I made for Send a Smile 4 Kids challenge which Doodle Pantry sponsors today.
I used Quirky Lizard image and printed it onto Xpress-It copic cardstock paper.
This is an A2 size card.

Here's the copic colors I used:

Here's the list of supplies I used for the card:
Image: Quirky Lizard
Paper: XPressIt copic paper, PTI new leaf, PTI orange zest, PTI summer sunrise, SU garden green, yellow check paper by ThePaperStudio
Copic Markers: RV34, E35, E37, E29, BG10, YG67, YG03, YG11, Y02, Y15, Y38, YR04, YR07
Accents & Tools: Spellbinders Wonky Rectangles die, sewing machine, SU wasabi seam binding ribbon, glue dots, SU retired mini flower punch, EK success fern punch, white gel pen


Thank you for stopping in for a visit, I hope you have been inspired to create! May you be blessed this week!

My very first COPIC marker experience!

My very first experience with copic markers and I LIKE THEM!

ONE YEAR AGO, I bought the 72 Copic markers set A for Papercrafting.  At the same time that they arrived, my husband got a new job in another town and we had to begin the process of decluttering our home, fixing it up and selling it, then packing up and buying and moving and unpacking.  Once we were moved, there was the whole process of getting kids ready for the school year and then these past several months have just been a whirlwind. So the markers got set on a shelf or packed in a box since then.
When I set up my craft room last September, I got my markers all prettied up in a little wooden holder and they have been in front of me ever since.  I've not been able to sign up for a copic certification or coloring class for the past year, which is part of the reason why I was holding out even trying them.... I was a little skeptical to dive into it, afterall, not knowing what I would be doing.

Then for my birthday this year, my husband planned a surprise party for me, by which I was surprised with, and many of our new friends showed up and even bought me presents from my amazon wishlist... one item of which was the special Xpress Copic blending paper. Yippee!  I said to myself, "I have no reason to put this off any longer!"

So today, I needed to make a birthday card for a soon-to-be 9 year old, my daughters friend.
I immediately decided that I would pull out my copics and TRY to use them on this card.  Might be bad, might be OK, but I was going to try!
I printed 4 of the image out, since I was planning on messing up at least once, LOL.

I used the digital images as follows: Dizzy Dachshund, the hat and balloon from Birthday Accessories, and the sentiment on the inside from Celebration Sentiments.

(Card supplies are listed at the bottom of this post.)

Now I am not going to try to "tutorial", since I of course, really don't know exactly what I am doing with copics yet.  To an experts eye, there is probably much lacking from my copic coloring on this hot-diggity-dog.
But to my untrained eyes, I actually think he turned out kinda cute and not too bad.  I did mess up on the dog's back though, you can see a faint "line" across the side of his back... haha, I tried to use the copic #0 colorless blender to make shiny highlights like I always see on those "professional" cards.... LOL, that was a mistake.  Don't try to use that feller without having done some research first or taken a copic class on the colorless blender.  I messed the doggie up badly and tried to "save" it by using the browns over it again a few times to reblend it brown.... I think I saved him enough for a 9 year old's card. If I was giving the card to someone who I know would "notice" stuff like that, I would have started over.
I was trying to make the fur on the dog look like fur... I didn't much succeed, but hey, this is my first attempt ever, so you know it isn't perfect.
Here's my final card:

For the body, I used the browns E31, E35, E37, E29.
For the tongue I used R20, R32, R02 and E04.
For the cheek E04
For the hat BG10, BG16, BG49
For the balloon, hat fringe and collar V12, V06, V09
Around the body and on the bone on the collar is a little W1 and W3
I used a micro fine liner to draw the string to tie the balloon to the tail

For the balloon, I wasn't even going to try to use the colorless blender again, I just left two spots without any color to make the highlights.
I am not sure if I even used the right groups of colors together... I just played it by eye and picked ones that looked like they were matching in tones.  Afterall, I only have the A set of Papercrafting Copics so the color options for each color group aren't many. But it is enough for a beginner like me.
Here's the copic colors I used:

I have not tried the copics on any other paper yet.... I do have some Neenah Solar Crest smooth cardstock (#04701) which I was told worked ok with copics, but today, I wanted to try the Xpress paper first.
Here's a close up of the image:

I am SO impressed with the Xpress cardstock, that I don't think I even want to try copics on anything else!  The only problem I had was the cardstock seemed to have some watermark type spots in it, even after the copic ink went in there.  You can see if you look at the close up of the dogs body and on the balloon... not sure if that is a defect or if all the paper is like that. My paper has been in it's package since I got it, so I doubt anything was spilled on it.  I might try buying another package to see if there is a difference in the paper lot.

To finish off the card, I did the inside too:

So that's all!  I really LOVE how the copics look, even though I couldn't blend very well and don't know too much about the #0 yet.  I am going to keep at it.  Now I can't wait to color again!

Card Supplies:
Digital Images: Dizzy Dachshund,  Birthday Accessories,  Celebration Sentiments
Papers: PTI plum pudding, PTI wisteria, PTI hawaiin shores, My minds eye Penny Lane Katie Lou
Embellishments: SU mini brads, Linen thread, PTI buttons, PTI ribbon, EK deco scallop edger punch
Tools and adhesive: Piercer, foam Dimensionals, ATG adhesive, Sewing machine, White Gel Pen, ZIG black .35 pen

Some crafty things

Hello!  Here to share my crafty thing this week.
For a recent baby shower, I was tasked with making the name banner and the favor boxes.
I made 68 little Overalls Favor Boxes and they have 3 Hersheys nuggets each in there, although 5 would have fit.  I kept track of my time making these. Over 5 days, I spent a total of 16 hours!  All that time included SVG cutting pieces out (that was 10 hours of the 16, because I could only cut pieces for 3 boxes at a time on the mat I have), scoring, folding, sewing the front panels, gluing together, inserting eyelets and brads. Their baby's room is done up in green and yellow and John Deere, so I found a logo by a google search and saved it and printed it at 3/4" round to punch out and add to the front of the overalls pockets as a personalized touch.

I also printed some labels to wrap over the nuggets.

To make the labels, I used Photoshop.  I opened a new document and set the resolution to 300 and the size to be 1" tall and 2-1/2" wide.
On the first layer, I insert the digi paper. I comes in real small and I have to stretch it out way larger than my opening size so that I could see the pattern well.
Second layer, I then created a rounded rectangle white shape in the center of the opening.
Third layer, I inserted the tractor PNG (from Got Tractor Digi) and then
Forth layer, I insert some text on a curve.
When I "save as" from Photoshop, and select to save as filetype PNG, I make sure it is at 300 ppi resolution. If I save as JPG, I make sure the quality slider is all the way up, at 12.
Finally, I inserted the JPG or PNG file I saved from Photoshop, into the first label space in a Word document label sheet. Word has the premade label template sheets, and I chose the one with 30 labels on it, 3 across and 10 down. If all the labels are the same you just copy the one you inserted and paste it in every other space. OR if you made multiple styles, you copy and paste however many you want in all the spaces. In my case, I made 2 labels with different BG patterns.
Then you print the page and wrap your nuggets!

I also made the baby's name banner. 

Pretty simple, I just printed 3 of each color paper triangles for sticking to the chipboard triangles and alternated every other one. I made some coordinating color for layering and sewed the edges. I SVG cut the letters out and then also cut shadowed layers for the letters to layer over onto some coordinating CS. Found some various embellishments from all over my crafty stash to pretty it up, but not too much since for a boy. Each end piece uses the Got Tractor and I diecut with the circles dies. I put large grommet eyelets in each hole and then it slid nicely on the SU rope I got a couple years ago.
Here's individual photos of the banner triangles.

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Using the Morning Glory Color plus set and the Renewed Faith sentiment set, and the instructions over at Sun and Moon Crafts kits, I created domino size glass magnets. Just inserted the digi paper at about 50% opacity, and a few of the Morning Glory images around and a sentiment in the center and printed them at domino size. Then followed the directions and got all the supplies at Sun and Moon Craft kits.

Very soon, I plan on making some cards using the Morning Glory for the Card Ministry box and hope to share them here!
I hope you have a sweet week!  Thank you for visiting.

Valentine projects and gifts

I've been pretty busy with Valentine's and teacher gifts this past week.  It's been fun to get a little crafty and I hope to do more in the upcoming weeks/months as I do some refocusing on priorities and back off on new digital products.

Here's what I made for the kids to pass out at school. I kept these pretty simple as most kids will just plunder the packaging into the trash can.  I used the 1x8 cellophane bags from Stampin' Up. And the Monkey Peeps. The background digi paper is from the Little Boy Valentines.

My daughter decorated her shoe box that will collect all her Valentine's. I wrapped it with the paper and she added all the stickers and bling.

Teacher Valentine cards using Monkey Barrel and Monkey Peeps. 3 cards the same, the center one is showing the inside.

And for the teachers, along with the cards above, I made some keychain and magnet sets.  I packaged some chocolates and a small trinket gift box with keychain and magnet sets in a cellophane bag and dropped that into cute little tin buckets from Target.

I needed a special way to package the keychain and magnet sets, so I designed up a box template and SVG file and it will be released On Feb 17 next Tuesday at Doodle Pantry, but below is a sneaky peek of all 3 box window opening styles!

Below using Black Eyed Susan and New Butterfly

 Below using What a Hoot

 Below with photos of bluebonnets that I printed out.  I'm addited to bluebonnets!

For the keychain and magnet sets, all the supplies and directions (minus the digital art) on how to put them together can be found at Sun and Moon Crafts.  I LOVE THIS PLACE!!!    I have a lot of their glass pieces, glass glaze, eco magnets and keychain or other setting supplies on hand for when I need to create someone a special gift quick. And people LOVE to get a cool glass magnet or keychain specially made for them. And the best part is that you can put any digi, photo, or even dried flowers behind these glass pieces to make it personalized.

For the teacher aides in the Kindergarten class, I made them a trinket box (and matching cards that I already sealed into envelopes before taking pictures, oops) trinket box from the same template above and put chocolates in there instead. The left box is using Feathery Friends and the right box is using Aussie Critters.

 Yuuummmmyy!

So, wow, that is all I have been up to the last couple weeks.... and now for the next 11 days, I am working on making 75 Overalls Favor boxes, and a Baby Name Banner, as well as a magnet and zipper pull set for the mom-to-be.... busy, but I am having fun getting back to crafty mojo!  I'll be back to share those projects soon!
After the baby shower projects, I'll be getting the Card Ministry Box for the church finished up and filled with cards for church member encouragement.

Until then, may you be safe and blessed and can bless others with your own crafty inspiration.
Many hugs!

Digitally created Clock Face - manly style

I altered the face of this CHEAP walmart 9" wall clock.... I replaced the plain paper face with a digitally created one suited for my Dad's automotive shop.
He recently had his home built off the back end of his shop, so that is where he lives and works. He likes "Oldie" styles and, of course, cars or anything with an engine.

I don't have step by step photos, but I do have step by step directions written and a finished photo of my clock.
Here's the clock all ready to be hung.

All car images from Doodle Pantry, Classic Cars 1, Classic Cars 2, Classic Cars 3, Classic Clunkers 1, Corvette, Big Rigs, Motorcycle Mania, VW and Gas Can, Hot Rod Pickup.


So here's what I did:

1. Bought a $3.88 wall clock from Walmart.
2. Unscrewed the 6 small screws from the backside (they hold in the rim and glass over the front, but they screw in from the back)   SOME CLOCKS might not have screws, but perhaps the front cover snaps off.... you'll have to do your research to find out what kind of clock you have and how they have secured the clear cover.
3. Carefully turn the clock around and pull up on the rim which hugs the glass. Once the rim is removed, you can tilt the clock sideways a little and hold your hand out to catch the flat glass piece.
4. Now on mine, the clock face paper was stuck down with adhesive, but perhaps you might find some with paper that pops out.
5. So I just measured the entire width of the inside face, so that I would know what size circle to fill up with cool digital manliness. 
6. The clock hands are not screwed in, they merely fit snugly over the mechanism crank. So carefully using your fingertips and only touching the CENTER of the hand (not the parts that stick out), lift up the second hand until it comes off. Repeat same gentle effort of lifting the minute and hour hands, touching only the center sections that encircle the crank.
7. If you want to paint the second hand, now is a good time, spray paint is best, allow to fully dry.
8. I set all that stuff aside while I go to my computer to use Photoshop to create a manly clock face.

In Photoshop, heres what I did:

1. I created a new document about 1/8" to 1/4" larger than the size of the measured circle. In my case, the clock face insert was 6-3/8" diameter, so I made my Photoshop document a 6-1/2" square.
2. On the document settings, you want to be sure you are set at the highest resolution (300) and a transparent background.
3. Create 15 new layers in your layers panel.
4. Go back and click on the Layer 1.  While on the first layer, create a circle fill shape at 6-3/8" (size of your clock face diameter).
5. Click to second layer, insert the check paper from the 50's Diner Check Digi Paper on the Doodle Pantry FREEBIE page.
6. Uniformly stretch the paper so that it covers the circle entirely, and this makes it overhang the top and bottom of my boundary, which is OK.
7. Then while you are still on the second layer with the check paper, use the CTRL+ALT+G command to "clip" the paper to the circle shape in layer 1.  In order for this to work right, your layer 1 must be BELOW the layer 2 when you press the CTRL+ALT+G.
8. Now your circle should be filled with the check pattern and all around the circle should be blank.
9. On layer 3 through 14, you insert whatever image you want (but must be PNG) for each of the numbers on the clock face. One image per each layer.
10. When you insert on each layer, apply the image and then click on it to move it around or scale it down and place it in the spot you want.   On mine, I used all the different car images and placed them around so that the cars were in place of numbers.
11. If you want some of them to be numbers instead of an image, you can use the Text command on that given layer, or you can insert a digital number PNG.
12. If you want to use this document later, save it so that you can modify later for a future clock face of the same size.
13. To save your new clock face as a PNG, just go to "save as" and then when the pop up box appears, choose PNG as your filetype, make sure the settings of resolution are at least 300 ppi, and give it a name, ok, select your folder to save in, and finish.
14. Now you have your saved clock face as a PNG which you can print from whatever program you print from. I use Word to print.
15. Print your clock face at full scale, preferably medium cardstock, not copy paper.
16. Cut it out and cut a hole in the center just barely big enough to fit around the clock crank mechanism. 
17. Place it into the clock to see it if fits. Once you have it trimmed to fit perfect, use whatever adhesive (NOT DIMENSIONAL) to place it down, making sure the "12 o'clock" is at the top.
18. Replace the hour hand carefully over any one of the hour numbers, gently push until it feels secure. It takes LITTLE effort, do not over push, and be sure to only handle the center area, not the parts that point out. Replace the minute hand carefully over the 12, handling only the center that encircles the crank, do not touch the pointer. Replace the second hand carefully over the minute hand and 12, not touching the pointers, only handling the center, gentle pressure until it feels secure and won't go down further.
19. Replace the glass and rim, hold in place while turning around to the back. Insert the screws throw the holes in the back to secure rim in place.

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So that's my simple little project for today!   I already have more ideas for other clock faces for people I know, now I can't wait to go buy more clocks to alter!

Hope you have a blessed and safe weekend, thanks for visiting!

Little Overalls Favor Boxes

Hello!  I don't know how time gets away from me so much.  I have so many projects I'd love to sit down and create and I end up spending it in email or running neccessary errands, or taking care of family.   I still have many projects on my to-do list!

For instance a baby shower coming up at my church, I am making 75 little favor boxes.
I made this "prototype" below up for the product pictures for Doodle Pantry's new product release today, but the favors for the actual shower are going to have the little SU punched tag in green/yellow (the boys room theme is John Deere).  When I finish all the favor boxes for that, I will post a picture here.
The "Little Man" sentiment is included in the Overalls Favor Box SVG product, along with a few other TINY sentiments. The mustache in the photo below is handcut, but you could find an SVG cut of mustaches to cut some out, in fact, Doodle Pantry has some.
Supplies for these boxes listed at bottom of post.

The box inside is 1-1/4" deep, 2-1/2" wide, and to the top of the overalls (not the curved straps) is 2" tall. But to the top of the curved straps is 3-1/4". So a medium "fun sized" candy can fit in there, or 5-6 kisses. I haven't checked, but maybe even a gift card put in diagonally MIGHT fit in it.

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I also made a girl version.  For the girl version below, I used the digi paper from Camo Digi Paper Pack.
I'm so glad I never threw out or gave away my tons of 5mm (1/8") eyelets!  They work perfect on the straps on these Overalls boxes.  And the really TINY brads, I think they are 3mm (1/16"), work best for the pocket corners.

It's funny, after I finished this little box, I thought how cute it would be to get a white or pink 1/2" or 5/8" lace to wrap around the bottom of the box to make it look like an overalls skirt!

SUPPLIES/TOOLS:

• Overalls Favor Box SVG/template by Doodle Pantry
• Electronic cutter (I have ZING)
• Electronic cutting software (I have Make-the-cut)  >>>(Or you can PRINT the optional PDF handcut sheet)
• Blue cardstock (boy box) and White cardstock (girl box)
• Denim patterned paper (boy box) and Camo Digi Paper (girl box)
• Sewing machine
• 5mm eyelets
• Crop-a-Dile eyelet setter
• 3mm mini brads and 1/16" hole punch
• Foam dimensionals (to pop up pocket)
• SU mini tag punch (boy box) and twine thread
• Ribbon (girl box)
• Adhesive

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I hope you have a beautiful day!