Candle with Die Cuts

Yesterday, I showed you a stamped image candle. Today, I wanted to show you that you can do the same method of melting images into a candle with die cuts too. I die cut several different sizes of snowflakes from the Northern Frost strip die in the 2010 Holiday mini. The snowflakes on this strip die are GORGEOUS!!!!

To apply the die cuts, you would place your die cuts where you want them to be on the candle and wrap the candle tightly with waxed paper, making sure the waxed paper is smooth. Using your heat tool, quickly and evenly heat the die cut and around its edges. This takes just seconds so be careful not to burn a hole into your candle. Pull the waxed paper gently away from the candle. You will be able to tell if the die cut melted into the candle all the way. If it didn't, just re-place the waxed paper and heat again. After the die cuts are set into the candle, add some stick on rhinestones.

Die cuts on candles are so pretty! I use my candles just for decorating purposes. I wouldn't recommend burning these and if they were lit, I wouldn't burn it past the start of the die cuts or the rhinestones. Once again, the Scallop Circle die makes pretty little candle coasters for displaying the candle :D. Have a holly jolly day today!!!

Blessings!

Barb

Supplies:

Dies: Northern Frost strip- 120901, Scallop Circle- 113468

Dasher Stamped Candle

I'm feeling better today- so far :-), so I got some photos this morning. I've been working on things for my daughter's skate team Christmas Show raffle. The raffle helps to raise money for the team. I'm showing this kind of backwards today :D. I sewed a bag for the candle on my serger using sparkle tulle that comes on a roll. I topped it with a tag, a poinsettia flower, and tied it with gold crochet thread. The flower is punched from the 5 Petal Flower punch and the petals are curled under slightly with a chop stick. I added a star shaped gold brad to the center and an Old Olive holly leaves die cut (holly leaves not Stampin' Up!).

I LOVE the Dasher stamp!! He is the most elegant reindeer stamp I think I've ever seen. I stamped him on white tissue paper with Cherry Cobbler Classic Stampin' Ink and cut him out close to the image. I placed him on the candle where I wanted him to be and covered him with a sheet of waxed paper. Holding the waxed paper tight and smooth over the image on the candle, I used my heat tool to melt the image and tissue paper into the candle. This takes literally seconds, so if you try this be careful that you don't melt a hole into your candle. Be sure to keep the heat tool moving quickly over the image.

I finished him off by stamping my sentiment on another piece of tissue paper and repeating the process outlined above. I also added some red stick on rhinestones to his antlers. The gold base that my candle is standing on was made with mat board, gold metallic card stock, the Scalloped Circle die, and my Big Shot. These make quick and inexpensive, but lovely gifts, for just about anyone on your shopping list. My tall pillar candles cost about $3.00 each, but if you were to buy a candle with an image on it in the store, you would pay about $10.00 - $12.00 each. Have a wonderful day today!!!

Blessings!

Barb

Supplies:

Stamps: Dasher- 116816, Many Merry Messages- 116586

Classic Stampin' Ink: Cherry Cobbler- 119669

Punches: Extra Large Tag- 119866, 5 Petal Flower- 119880

Dies: Scallop Circle- 113468

Faux Hand tooled Leather Part 1

When I went to Hobby Lobby to get origami supplies for my daughter, I went to the scrapbooking section of the store and found these awesome aged book covers. I just loved them and decided that I could pull that off at home, lol! I took it a step further though and made faux hand tooled leather. I'm going to have to do this tutorial in three parts because I have 11 photos :-). I used two 4" coasters for my covers because we know someone who owns a restaurant and he gave me a ton of them for free! Gotta love it :-) !

Here is what you will need:

Paper:

Crumb Cake card stock- cut into 4x4 squares and corner round each corner (or you could trim after adhering to your covers)

Classic Stampin' Ink:

Early Espresso, Cajun Craze, Soft Suede

Other Supplies:

Finial Press Textured Impressions embossing folder

Brayer

Sponges

Yes glue

Royal Coat satin decoupage medium

Step 1. Take 2 pieces of 4x4 Crumb Cake card stock and run them through the Big Shot in the Finial Press embossing folder. These will be your covers- front and back.

Step 2. Ink your brayer with Early Espresso ink and brayer over the Finial Press embossed card stock covers. You may have to do this a couple of times, but do it lightly so you don't get ink on anything except the raised areas of the embossed card stock.

Step 3. With Cajun Craze and a sponge, lightly sponge over each cover, leaving some areas un-inked.

Step 4. Again with Cajun Craze, sponge over the edges and a few areas of the card stock to deepen the color of the ink.

Step 5. With Soft Suede ink, sponge over the areas you didn't sponge with Cajun Craze and also on the edges. You will want the Cajun Craze to show through the Soft Suede so don't ink too heavily.

See post #2 below for the rest of the instructions...

Faux Hand tooled Leather Part 2

Step 6. Crumple up the card stock, but be careful not to tear the edges.

Step 7. Smooth out your crumpled card stock and flip it face down. Apply Yes glue over the entire back surface. I use my finger to apply because I get better coverage and it also helps to smooth out the card stock so that it lays flatter. Apply it to your coaster and run the brayer over it several times to get good contact with the coaster. Check the edges and smooth them down with your thumbs if needed.

Step 8. After your glue dries, apply one thin coat of Royal Coat Satin Decoupage. When it dries completely, it will have a very slight shine. You don't want it too shiny because you want it to look like hand tooled leather :-).

Step 9. For the inside covers, you will ink the card stock the same as you did on the outside covers. Crumple the inside covers and very lightly, rub your Cajun Craze sponge over the wrinkles. Apply Yes glue as in Step 7 and apply to the inside covers. Apply Royal Coat.

This is what the outside cover and the inside cover look like together.

See post #3 below for the rest of the instructions....

Faux Hand tooled Leather Part 3

Step 9. Sponge the edges of your Crumb Cake pages with Soft Suede.

Step 10. Punch holes in your covers and in your pages and assemble.

This is what the inside of your mini book will look like :-).

And the outside cover. The satin Royal Coat puts just enough shine on the covers to make it look like the smooth hand tooled leather that you often see on saddles. I'll be back later with my completed mini book so you can see the finished book. I haven't finished it yet at this posting :-D.

Let me know if you have any questions and I hope you'll try this technique!

Blessings!

Barb

My Digital Studio Bookmarks

Before my hubby got me 'My Digital Studio' for my birthday, I saw a post on 'Stampin' Connection' (a Stampin' Up! forum for demonstrators), and the demonstrator made bookmarks with her own photos in MDS (My Digital Studio). They were so pretty, I knew that I would want to make my own when I finally got MDS :-). I took some time over the weekend to create my bookmarks. It was so easy! I printed mine out on photo paper, mounted them on card stock, and then heat laminated them. I like my bookmarks to be sturdy and protected so I don't have to worry about them getting messed up- hence the little bit of glare you see in my photos :-).

I used all of my own photos on these bookmarks and my two favorite bookmarks are the last two. These two scriptures are really speaking to me right now :-), but I also love that my photos fit these last two scriptures so perfectly. You can print out five bookmarks on one 8.5 x 11 sheet of photo paper or Whisper White/Very Vanilla card stock. I'm going to make several sets for little 'send- in- the- mail' gifts ;-). If you would like to try this, you can find the tutorial for them at Kitty Stamp by Betty Traciak. So many possibilities for custom bookmarks! Wouldn't it be awesome to make photo bookmarks of the grandkids for grandparents who read? Wishing you all a wonderful day today. Thanks for stopping to visit! See you tomorrow!

Blessings!
Barb

Supplies:
My Digital Studio

3 x 3 Envelope Tutorial

In a pinch you can make your own 3x3 note card envelopes :-). You can use white copy paper- which is what I usually use, or you can make your envelopes with Designer Series Paper to match your note cards. They are really easy to make!

1. Cut paper 4 1/8" x 7" for each envelope.
2. With the 4 1/8" side at the top, score 1/2" on each side.
3. Turn the paper so that the 7" side is at the top and score 2 1/2" from the right end. Move the paper to the right and score 3 1/8" from the first score line.
4. In the photo below, I drew dashed lines to show the cutting area. The short flap at the top is the top portion of the envelope. Cut off the right and left sides along the dashed lines leaving the center area uncut.

5. Cut off the right and left areas inside the dashed lines at the bottom half of the envelope cutting at a slight angle as shown in the white circles above.
6. Corner round each corner as shown by the red dots in the photo below.

7. Fold in the center flaps to the inside of the envelope. Add some glue to the very outer edges as indicated (by the white arrow and dashed lines in the photo above) on each side of the bottom flap and fold the bottom flap up, pressing down the edges, to create the envelope.

The next photo below shows the completed envelope. Easy Peasy!!! Let me know if you have any questions! Have a great weekend!

Blessings!
Barb

Coin Envelope Tutorial

Necessity is indeed the mother of invention, lol! I wanted to make Jan Tink's Teeny Tiny Scrapbook, but there were no stores in my town that sold coin envelopes. I didn't want to wait for an order of them to come in and I sure didn't need 500 of them! Sooooo, I made my own coin envelopes from Designer Series Paper for my Teeny Tiny Scrapbook :-). Below you will find instructions to make your own coin envelopes.....

1. Cut Designer Series Paper 4.75" x 5"

2. With the 5" side at the top, score 1" from the right edge and 1/2" from the left edge.

3. Flip the paper so that the 4.75" side is at the top. Score 2.25" from the right edge. Move the paper to the right and score 2.25" from the first score line. This will leave a 1/4" on the left edge.

4. Fold on all score lines and crease each fold with a bone folder so the score lines are nice and crisp.

5. With the 4.75" side at the top, cut the corners off the top and bottom right edge and the top and bottom left edge as shown in the photo. You will have a 2.25" flap on the right, a 1/4" flap on the left, a 1" flap in the center top, and a 1/2" flap in the center bottom.

6. Fold in the 1/4" flap to the inside of the envelope and put some Two Way glue on the outer edge of the 1/4" flap. Bring the 2.25" flap over to line up with the outer edge of the 1/4" flap and press to adhere.

7. You will now have an envelope with a 1" flap at the top and a 1/2" flap at the bottom. Corner round both sides of each flap as in the photo above. Put some Two Way glue on the edges of the 1/2" bottom flap and fold up to adhere to the envelope. The 1" flap that remains is not glued. You will use this 1" flap to adhere the coin envelopes to the little book in Jan Tink's Teeny Tiny Scrapbook. Now we can have coin envelopes in any color we need :-). I hope you have fun making your own coin envelopes! See ya' tomorrow!

Blessings!
Barb