Get Well Card

Right now my favorite stamp company is Heartfelt Creations.  I love their stamps with matching dies.  At the Scrapbook Expo, I bought their Blazing Poppy set, and this is a card I made with the Blazing Poppy flowers.

The leafy flourishes were done with Spellbinder dies.  The lattice with labels behind are a Silhouette Store cutting file.

The only problem is the flowers are too thick to put into an envelope for mailing. I had to make a box to send the card, which I gave to my brother to hand carry to my sister.

Stamp Positioner Tool Hack

After reading a message thread on the Two Peas Refugees Stamping board, I really wanted one of the nice stamp positioners available for sale.  The only problem was that there were reports of cracking with the tool I had intended to buy.  There were suggestions for how to do a basic hack to create your own tool.  I adapted those suggestions slightly.

I bought two 8x10 sheets of polycarbonate at Home Depot, one 8x10 photo frame from WalMart, printed off a one inch graph sheet that was divided by quarter inches (from quiltbooksandbeyond.com), and grabbed a roll of Gorilla Tape that I had on hand.

I replaced the glass in the photo frame with one of the sheets of polycarbonate.  I put the graph sheet behind the polycarbonate, then put the fiber board back of the frame back on.  However, first I ripped off the hinged stand from the back of the board back of the frame.  I needed it to be flat.  I filled in the rest of the cavity of the back of the frame with cardstock and chipboard from my stash, until the back was level. I taped the chipboard/cardstock layer in place with Gorilla Tape.

I added the other sheet of polycarbonate to the front of the frame.  It overlaps all the edges.  Once I had it straight, I taped it down one of the long sides with a long piece of Gorilla Tape for my hinge.

It took about 10 to 15 minutes or so, and it works.  I stamped one of the Blazing Poppy flower stamps, but I wasn't happy with the washed out color, so I stamped it again.  It gave me perfect placement on top of the first stamping, and it deepened the color which made me a lot happier.  I have tried it several times, and so far, the Gorilla Tape "hinge" works fine. If I need to replace my "hinge" at some point, it will be easy.

Total cost: a little over $12 with tax.

Now for the pictures of my tool hack.

My completed stamp positioner hack on the left. Yes, that is a Cuttlebug A Plate next to it. It comes in handy.

The Cuttlebug A Plate gives stability under the polycarbonate sheet when I ink the stamp.

I didn't get a dark enough color when I stamped the first time. So I inked it again and re-stamped. It stamped in exactly the same spot, which is what I wanted a good stamp positioner tool for.  This makes it SO easy!

The above photo shows the back of the photo frame. Normally a photo frame has a cavity. By adding additional cardstock and chipboard behind the polycarbonate sheet and fiber board back, it had a firm surface for stamping on.

I still need to cut some fun foam to use for inserts for using this with clear stamps. I don't have time to do that right now, but I am mainly using it with cling stamps at the moment, anyway.

Valentine Box Card

I have purchased some of the SVG Cuts Box Card sets, and I get excited every time I see a new set released by them.  Unfortunately, I was disappointed with their 2014 Christmas box card set, and I liked only one of the 2015 Valentine set.  If they sold designs individually, I would have bought their Valentine mailbox box card design in a heartbeat (pun intended), but I couldn't bring myself to spend $7 for just one design.  (See the Halloween Box Card entry--this was recent history repeating itself.)  The Valentine mailbox box card looked fairly easy to make.  I figured I could just use some designs from the Silhouette store for the embellishment, which is what I did.

It took me two days to make it.  It took longer than I expected to create the actual mailbox design, and longer than it should have to find shapes to use, cut them, and assemble everything.  Seriously, I need to just buy the SVG Cuts set next time, even if there is only one design I like.  This is the second time I have created my own version strongly inspired by an SVG Cuts design.  I am obviously a slow learner.  My time is worth more than the cost of the set.

I was pleased with how it turned out, though, even if it did take a ridiculously long time to make.  I made it for my husband for Valentine's Day.

Stair Cards

I love unusual cards, and these are the kind I have been making lately.  I got the cutting file for the card from the Silhouette online store, but I am guessing the instructions can probably be found on SplitcoastStampers.  I did split the right panel of the cutting file, instead of it being one piece.  For this first one, I just used older scraps and have no idea who the manufacturers are.  I will have to look up the stamp manufacturers, but don't expect it to happen unless someone is dying to know.  The stamps are both a couple of years old, though, so they probably aren't around any more.  I used a Technique Tuesday stamp from several years ago for "Let it" and cut the stamp into two separate words so I could place them the way I wanted to.

This second one I used Graphic 45 papers from last year's 12 Days of Christmas collection.  It's not obvious, but I did some fussy cutting and popped pieces.  The letters used for SNOW and PEACE were cut with a Sizzlit Tim Holtz alphabet die.