Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

By Cardmaking & Scrapbook Layout Contributor, Peg from the blog Peg’s Crafting Corner.

I have to admit that National Backyard Games Week was new to me when I first heard about it.  I searched the internet to find out that it is used to observe the unofficial start of summer and comes the week before Memorial Day every year.  This year it’s May 18^th – 25^th.  

The week is used to promote physical and social activity amongst family, neighbors and friends all while playing the games that we grew up on such as pillow case races, H-O-R-S-E and many others.  One idea to celebrate the week is by having a party or a carnival.  A good place to start for that is by creating invitations to send to friends and family telling them to come join the fun.  This is a quick and easy invitation that even your children can help you make. 

Begin by using items that will represent some of the games that you used to play and will be playing at the carnival.  It will add an element of excitement to the receiver of the invitation when they remember what games they used to play and for kids trying to guess what games will be there. 

Using a piece of green cardstock that measures 9 3/8″ long x 6 1/2″ wide and fold in half.  Next, punch the rope, using the EK Success Braid Punch, to represent the game of tug of war at the bottom of the front flap. 

I have been using the new American Crafts Dear Lizzy Neapolitan line and loving it.  The line had the perfect elements I was looking for to include on this invitation.  I began with using the Accents and Phrase Sticker Book and chose the bicycle to represent a bike parade, the arrow for a bow and arrow contest and of course you have to include some fun so I used the “fun” ticket sticker.  One of my favorite pieces is the 3 tickets stickers because on them they say, “Here’s the scoop” and I used a black marker to write on the lines, “You Are Invited.”   I, also, included a the measuring tape piece from the Sunny Skip patterned paper to represent a jumping contest and the ice cream cone from the First Date patterned paper to include an ice cream eating contest. 

Since the celebration is all about being outdoors I just had to use the Silver Lining Vellum for some clouds.  I didn’t just want to stick the entire sheet on because it just didn’t fit correctly into the design so I used my Xyron Create A Sticker Machine to make them into stickers after cutting them out.  This helped to adhere them onto the invitation without have the adhesive show. 

In order to make the clouds into stickers, simply run them through the Xyron Create A Sticker Machine, peel them off the adhesive and stick them to your project. 
Now that you have an idea for the party invitations, start inviting your family and friends to join you for the unofficial kick off to summer and have fun playing the games you played as kids with your children and their friends!

By Cardmaking & Scrapbook Layout Contributor, Peg from the blog Peg’s Crafting Corner.

Q1. How do I create a vintage look on a layout or card?

A1. A good starting point to achieving a vintage look is by inking the edges of your projects in a brown or sepia ink. Another easy thing to do is to distress the edges of your paper. Once you have them distressed you can ink the distressed edges or leave them alone. If you are doing any stamping on the project you can stamp the image in the brown or sepia ink to give it an old look. Using tan, yellows or brown papers, too, is another great way to achieve a worn, vintage look.

 Q2. Do you have any organization tips?

A2. CreateForLess carries a large selection of organizational and storage items for all of your craft supplies. Some of them are created to fit into your craft space to store things like small tools, ink pads, embellishments and other things in. There are some storage pieces that are designed to help you store your paper especially those 12 x 12 sheets. Don’t forget that sometimes you will want to take your supplies with you so those made with handles and divided sections are good for on the go.

 Q3. What can I use to temporarily mount unmounted stamps?

A3. Tack ‘N Peel are reusable sheets that help your rubber stamps cling to the acrylic or wood block and are the perfect answer to using those unmounted stamps. The adhesive side creates a bond between the sheet and the block which helps keep the sheet from moving and when the stamp is applied you don’t have to worry about it falling off or moving while you stamp the image.

 Q4. How do I keep the intricate pieces from sticking in my dies?

A4. The answer to this is an easy one.  Blue Painter’s Tape.  Since it’s made not to permanently stick and won’t harm surfaces it’s a great choice to use on your dies.  Simply cover the intricate areas on your dies before placing the paper over the top.  Run it through your die cut machine and once you’re done pull the tape off.  Those little pieces pop right out!

Q5. I like to use my distress inks and spritz them with water to use on things, but my paper curls up.  What can I do about that?

  

A5. The first thing is to make sure that you are not oversaturating the paper.  Watercolor paper is good to use for this technique as it is made to hold water without becoming too wet.  It is made so that when water is placed on it the water sits on the surface and doesn’t bleed the color into the fibers making them less intense and since all the liquids aren’t absorbing into the paper it doesn’t have the chance to saturate and cause the paper to curl.

By Cardmaking & Scrapbook Layout Contributor, Peg from the blog Peg’s Crafting Corner.

There’s nothing more fun than to receive a flower on a special day and what better thing to have is a flower pot that you can keep.  This beautiful flower pot card was created using the new American Crafts Neapolitan Dear Lizzy Collection. This would be a great project for Mother’s Day, which is on the 13th.

Plus tomorrow for Free Stuff Friday enter to win a prize pack from the American Crafts Neapolitan Dear Lizzy Collection!

Products Used:

• Orange cardstock
• American Crafts Dear Lizzy Patterned Paper:  Hazy Horizons, Sweet Sundress and Warm Memories
• American Crafts Dear Lizzy Ribbon: Printed and Specialty
• Craft Stick
• Foam Sheets in Green
• Wet Glue
• Tape Runner
• Martha Stewart Scoring Board
• Martha Stewart Paper Trimmer
• Stylus
• Scissors
• Ruler and Pencil
• EK Retro Flower Punch
• EK Open Scallop Edger Punch

Begin by cutting a piece of orange cardstock to be 4 ½” x 12″ and score at the 2″ mark using the Martha Stewart Scoring Board.  Now move the 2″ score line over to the left so that it is at the zero mark on the scoring board and score at the 5″ mark.  This will give you 3 sections- one that is 2″ wide and two that are 5″ wide. 

Fold the last 5″ long section up over the other; leaving the 2″ section unfolded.  Measure 1 ¼” in from each side of the paper and make a mark. 

Using a ruler and pencil draw the lines from the marks you just made to the top corners of the 5″ flap as shown in the picture. 

Place the paper in the trimmer matching the pencil line to the trimmer’s cutting track and cut on the pencil line. 

Repeat this step with the other side again lining the pencil line up with the track. 

Using the EK Open Scallop Edger Punch, punch a scalloped edge on the top of the 2″ flap.

Trace 2 of the flower pot shapes using one of the flaps as a template onto the Hazy Horizon sheet and cut them out.  Adhere one sheet with the wavy stripes out onto the front of the flower pot that will be the front of the card.  Lay the second sheet aside for now. 

This is what your card will look like at this point.  Run a piece of tape from your favorite tape runner along the inside edge near the fold.  Tie the ribbon around the flap and fold the flap down to secure. 

Now, punch 8 flowers using the EK Retro Flowers punch and the Sweet Sundress and Warm Memories Patterned Paper from the new American Crafts Neapolitan Dear Lizzy line.  Glue them together using your favorite wet adhesive glue.  Taking the stylus and 2 foam sheets stacked on top of one another gently emboss the center of the flowers going in circles until you reach the center.  This will give each petal a little curl to add a little dimension. 

Take one of the foam sheets and trim 4 long strips off to make the flower stems.  Next, fold each strip in half and then open up and add some glue onto one of the halves.  Fold down again and hold until secure.  This will create a stem that is sturdy enough to hold the flowers up right. 

Once the stems are dry, glue them to the flowers using the wet glue and allow them to dry.  After they are dry, run a piece of tape along the edge of your flower pot and place the stems over the tape making sure the flowers are at different heights.  Trim off any excess stems that are below the tape using a pair of scissors.  This will help remove some of the bulkiness when the patterned paper is placed over them. 

 

Take a craft stick and trace around it onto the Sweet Sundress Patterned Paper, cut it out and adhere it to the craft stick using the tape runner. 

Attach the pinwheel from the American Crafts Dear Lizzy line to the top and put it in the middle of the flowers on the flower pot making sure it is the tallest of all the pieces.

Take the second flower pot shaped paper that you traced earlier and making sure the green side is up; adhere it over the flower stems and the bottom of the pinwheel as shown in the picture. 

Find the four small flower shapes shown in the picture from the Serendipity Thickers and place it in the center of each flower. 

Use one of the cute stamps or fun stickers that are in the new Dear Lizzy line to add a special sentiment to the card and plant some smiles in a person’s day!

By Cardmaking & Scrapbook Layout Contributor, Peg from the blog Peg’s Crafting Corner.

The New American Crafts Neapolitan Dear Lizzy Collection is so scrumptiously fun that my imagination went wild when I received it.  I am so excited to share some of the fun new things in the line with all of you!  I know once you see it you’ll have to have it.  I heard recently the colors of this line being described as candy coated and after hearing that I knew the perfect picture I had to use to create this layout. 

Many years ago, I went to school and became a Certified Chocolatier and had this picture of one of my chocolate pieces lying around waiting to be scrapped. After hearing the comment about the colors in this paper line I knew I wanted to use it to go with this picture.  Think of all of the fun pictures that you have waiting to scrap yet and you will soon find that many of them are just waiting for the new American Crafts Neapolitan line, too! 

The New American Crafts Neapolitan Dear Lizzy Collection Used Here:

• American Crafts Neapolitan Dear Lizzy Patterned Paper- Lucky Laugh & Cheerful Notes
• American Crafts Neapolitan Dear Lizzy Large Tags
• Thickers:  Neapolitan Dear Lizzy- Splendid
• American Crafts Neapolitan Dear Lizzy Brads
• American Crafts Accent & Phrase Stickers Book
• American Crafts Ruffle Paper
• American Crafts Neapolitan Vellum Sheet:  Sparkling Smile
• Additional Craft Tools Used:
• EK Success 1″ Circle Cutter
• Martha Stewart Travel Trimmer
• Martha Stewart Scoring Board
• Favorite wet glue: I used Tombow Mono Aqua Glue
• Favorite Taper Runner

Often striped paper just isn’t the look we are wanting on a layout, but it could be and we just don’t think about it.  Turn the striped paper so the stripe runs horizontally.  This will always give your layouts a new and creative look because we often don’t think of turning a striped paper in a different direction.   The pastel stripes in the Neapolitan line make it fun to do that! 

I love the new Ruffle Paper in the line.  It can be used as a whole sheet for the background of a layout or trimmed down like I did here and used as an embellishment strip.  It is easy to use in a paper trimmer and can be trimmed as long or wide as you want it.  How fun is that? 

I used my Martha Stewart Scoring Board to score the Ruffle Paper every 1″ and then folded peaks and valleys so that it would stand up off the paper to create a raised dimensional look.  I added two strips of wet glue on 2 of the peaks and glued my picture which was adhered to the dotted paper from the Cheerful Notes sheet. 

I punched a circle from the Sparkling Smiles Vellum sheet and put one of the fun matching brads through it to create a layered look and to fill an empty spot on the layout.  I love that the paper punches so easily and the additional look that is added by using the brads in it! 

The stickers are fantastic!  There are so many different sayings and pictures to add just the right touch to any card or layout.  I had no trouble finding a saying that would work with my chocolate shoe picture.  In fact, I had trouble deciding what one to use so I included several and by adding one of the tags (you get 12 in the package) it allowed me to add more stickers.  

I can’t say how much I love the letters.  The whimsical cursive letters are perfect for titles or whatever you imagination dreams up!  The smaller foam ones add a sharp contrast to the cursive ones to make a statement.  It just doesn’t get any more fun than that! 

The new American Crafts Neapolitan Dear Lizzy line is so much fun all you will want to do is to create with it and not do anything else!

By Cardmaking & Scrapbook Layout Contributor, Peg from the blog Peg’s Crafting Corner.

Around my home we always seem to have great opportunities to take pictures of wildlife.  Every year we have several different types of butterflies that enjoy these purple phlox I have planted.  Butterflies are one of my favorite things to take pictures of and make into layouts.  Often though, it is hard to see them in a picture.  Do you have pictures like that?  Where there is so much in the picture it’s hard to see the subject?  There’s a fun way to draw attention to them in your layouts…frame them!      

Supplies Used:

• Bo Bunny Gabrielle Flight 12 x 12 Paper
• Butterfly Embellishments from the Gabrielle Line
• Coredinations Black Magic Cardstock-Orange
• Coredinations Sanding Tool
• Dust Buddy Tack Cloth
• Lagoon Stickles
• EK Layering Heart Punch
• EK Large Butterfly Punch
• Light Yellow Cardstock
• Light Orange Cardstock
•  Orange Coredinations Hocus Pocus Cardstock
• Heritage Cricut Cart
• Cricut Die Cut Machine
• Favorite Adhesive and Tape Runner

     Start by attaching your photos to your layout using your favorite tape runner. 

Punch 1 heart per picture on your layout from the light yellow cardstock using the EK Layering Heart Punch set to the middle heart and lay aside the solid heart to use on another project.   Take the open heart pieces, which will be the frames for the subjects in your photos, and go around the top of the heart with the Lagoon Stickles.  Lay all of the pieces aside to dry.  

Using the EK large butterfly punch, punch 2 butterflies from the orange Coredinations cardstock and sand the wings  with the sanding tool inward leaving the body of the butterfly and antennae black.  Wipe off the pieces using the tack cloth to remove any leftover dust and then run a line of Lagoon Stickles down the center for the body and allow to dry. 

Next, you will use your cricut and the Heritage cart to cut the words “Butterfly Love”.  Set the size to cut to 1″ and cut the words, “Butterfly Love” using the font key on the keypad and the light yellow cardstock. Then, cut them again using the font key and the shadow key turned on together to cut the letters from the light orange cardstock.  Adhere the font letters onto the shadow cut letters using your favorite adhesive. 

Assemble all of the pieces on your layout using your favorite adhesive and tape runner.  Don’t forget to place your hearts around the subjects in your pictures that you love.  On this layout I placed the word “butterfly” unevenly to make it look like  it was floating like a butterfly would; which added extra interest to the title, too.  Have fun adding special features like this to your layouts, also! 

Next time you have the opportunity to capture great photos don’t hesitate to get them even if they are further away.  When you do your layout you can add a frame to bring attention to what you love about the photo! 

By Cardmaking & Scrapbook Layout Contributor, Peg from the blog Peg’s Crafting Corner.

I have fun experimenting with different scrapbooking materials and one bad habit I have is to save the packaging from the embossing folders that I buy. One day, I came across them and decided to try making my own embellishments with the leftover packaging. I used my Cuttlebug Embossing Machine, a floral embossing folder, my favorite color of Stickles & viola

Supplies Used:

• K & Company Spring Blossom 12 x 12 Paper Pad
• Yellow and Blue Cardstock
• Stickles:  Glam Pink, True Blue, Firefly and Yellow
• Tombow Mono Liquid Glue
• Weathered Wood Distress Ink Pad
• Martha Stewart Monarch Butterfly Punch
• Fiskars Fingertip Craft Knife
• Self Healing Mat
• Cuttlebug
• Fancy Corners Embossing Folder Set
• Favorite Tape Runner
• Scissors
• Ruler

Remove the packaging from the embossing folders and cut a piece large enough to fit the folder with a pair of scissors.  Run the folder through the Cuttlebug using the “A” plate and 2 “B” plates.

This is what you will have after doing this step. 

On the reverse side, the debossed side, color in the pattern using the Glam Pink and Firefly Stickles.  Allow to it to completely dry.  If you have some areas that you missed you can go over them again to fill them in.  Use the Yellow Stickles to put a dot for the flower center on the embossed (top) side of the piece.

We often use a mat behind the photo, but I have a second way that I like to bring on the attention…by adding a frame around the picture.  Begin by measuring just the picture; not counting any border that you have left around the outside. The photos I used measured 2 7/8″ x 2 7/8″ so I cut a 3 ½” x 3″ piece of yellow cardstock.  Next, measure the photo from the edge to the side of the actual photo and then measure that on the all sides of the cardstock and connect the lines.  It will give you a frame that looks like this. 

Using the penciled in lines as your cutting guide, cut the inside of the square out using the Fiskars Fingertip Craft Knife and self healing mat.  Remove the center piece.

Adhere the photos using a tape runner and put the frames over the photos using either a dot of Tombow Mono Liquid Glue or a little tape from the tape runner on each corner.  Also, adhere the dried Stickled embellishment you created to the center of the layout using small dots of glue on the areas colored with the Stickles so it’s not seen. Let dry.   

Punch 8 butterflies using the Martha Stewart Butterfly punch and blue cardstock.  Ink the edges of 4 of them with the ink pad.  Layer the pieces to create 4 butterflies and add the True Blue Stickles to create the bodies.  Once these are dry, glue them to the corners of the frames using the Tombow Mono Liquid Glue. 

You know have a finished layout using recycled items. It’s a great way to create fun embellishments and to recycle the packaging from the tools you buy.

By Cardmaking & Scrapbook Layout Contributor, Peg from the blog Peg’s Crafting Corner.

Pop up cards are fun to make, and to using a sketch to put the embellishments on, adds a whole new level of fun.  They are 2 of my favorite things and I know after creating this one they will be on your lists of favorites, too. 

Supplies Used:

• Blue Cardstock
• Yellow Cardstock
• White Cardstock
• Hippity Dance in the Rain by Imaginisce
• Hippity Honey Bunny by Imaginisce
• Ink Pad
• Acrylic Block
• Martha Stewart Craft Knife
• Martha Stewart Scoring Board
•  3-d Adhesive Squares
• Garden Life Stamp By Inkadinkado
• ½” Circle Punch
• Paper Trimmer
• Favorite Tape Runner
• Favorite Markers
• April Showers bring May Flowers Sketch (Click to Download)

First, print out the sketch and then move onto cutting the blue cardstock to be 6″ x 6″.  Also, cut the Hippity Dance in the Rain sheet in half to give you two 6″ x 6″ sheets.  Adhere a piece of the patterned paper to one side of the cardstock for the outside of the card.  Turn cardstock to the other side and tape the other piece of patterned paper to it making sure that the patterns on each side are different and that they are not upside down.  Fold the card in half after scoring the center with the scoring board.

Measure 2 3/8″ from each side of the card and make a mark.  From the center fold, measure ¾” above the fold and ¾” below the fold and make a mark at both points.  Place the card on the scoring board and score  the horizontal lines as shown in the picture.  Cut  vertically through all of the layers from the top score line to the bottom score line on each end as shown in the picture. Fold the center of the piece so that it “pops” out towards you.  Lay it aside. 

Stamp your image onto white cardstock and color with your favorite markers.  Cut around the image to make a 4 ¼” x 4 ¼” square.  Cut a piece of yellow cardstock that measure 4 ½” x 4 ½” and adhere the stamped image to it using your favorite tape runner.  Adhere it to the bottom of the pop up stand that you cut in the step above. 

Now using the sketch, add the embellishments to the inside and outside of the card.  Remember in using a sketch the embellishments do not have to be the same as what is shown, but should in some way resemble it.  Here I used the sketch and changed the clouds to umbrellas that I hand cut from the Hippity Honey Bunny Sheet.  I, also, use it to cut the sentiments out and adhered them to the card using the 3-d adhesive.  I used a ½” circle punch to punch the 3 birds out  which take the place of the flowers on the sketch.  

 Now it’s your turn!  Go have some fun and create this card so you can add it to your favorite things to create list, too!