Witch Kitty Shaker Box

Hi again, readers. As I'm typing this I'm staring at a large, strange bug on the outside of my window and it's rather terrifying. So proceed with that in mind. 😂 Today, I have a really cute little halloween treat box that I made using the Lawn Fawn Fancy Box die. This is an entry for both the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge - Fall/Autumn, and Wednesday challenge - Anything Goes.

I started by cutting the main box piece from some double sided patterned paper, using the little space and stars pattern as the outside of the box. I knew I wanted to use my new Mama Elephant Meowlloween set, so I decided to make the little witch cat fly through the air on her special golden broom.

Before assembling the box, I used the coordinating oval window die that comes in the Fancy Box die set to cut a hole in the  top of the box because I wanted to make a shaker. I haven't made a shaker in a long time, so I was slow and confused most of the time, but it came back, just like riding a bike. 😜 I cut a piece of acetate the same size as the box lid, then glued that directly to the inside of the box lid. This waas the front window of the shaker, Then I placed foam tape cut into thin strips along the edges of the acetate to make a raised area and seal for the shaker contents. I did two layers of this. Then I threw in some gold glitter, and black and orange seed beads. Like I said, I haven't made a shaker in a hot minute, so now I'm wishing I had added more shaker goodies!

I then cut another piece of acetate the same size as the first (the size of the box lid) to serve as the back window of the shaker. I could have used a piece of patterned paper or something, but I wanted the goodies inside to also be visible from the outside through the shaker window. However, this posed the problem of the foam tape showing. I happened to have some washi tape that was about the same width as the foam tape I needed to cover up. It was white and black thin stripes and to me, the inside pattern of the box kind of had an old-school wallpaper vibe. Like something you might find in an old abandoned Victorian-era manor. When I combined the washi with the patterned paper, I got major Haunted Mansion vibes. Anyone else? Kinda spooky vintage? Just me being weird? 😂

Next, I heat embossed the witch cat from Meowlloween in black, and the broom and "boo to you" sentiment from the same set in gold. I put this card together over a few days, so I started by watercoloring the body of the cat a dark grey.

Then a few days later, when I was ready to finish the coloring, I had already put my watercolors put up and didn't want to get them out again (😩 leave me alone! lol), so I decided to color in just the little details left with my Polychromos colored pencils. It was fortuitous that I embossed the gold elements on black card stock, because I think colored pencils pop much better on black versus white! I just used a purple for the details on kitty's hat and dress, and a brown for the broom. After all the coloring, I fussy cut everything out.

I then put a foam square on witch kitty and stuck her in the left corner. I put another foam square (what can I say? I'm a sucker for dimension 😂) on the square I had cut out with the "boo to you" sentiment, and adhered that to the bottom right. Finally, I used just a bit of Multi Medium Matte on the bottom of the cat in order to adhere the broom, to make her look like she was flying through the night sky.

I thought the night sky needed some twinkle, so I used a few Pretty Pink Posh "metallic gold" gems to give it a little more sparkle. And last but not least, what's a treat box without a little treat? I save up my lollipop treats from the Simon Says Stamp monthly kits for when I get a sweets craving, and these are two of them! So thanks for the props, Simon! 😂 And a big thank you all for stopping by and reading about this project. Happy crafting!

Slow Down For Coffee and a Good Book

Hi again everyone! This week I have a card using one of my favorite products to play with lately - the Lawn Fawn scalloped pop up box die. I know it's been out for a minute, but I only got it within the last few months... and only gathered up the courage to try it out recently! 😂I may or may not have a slight fear of three-dimensional cards due to a complete lack of spacial awareness on my part 😜. I combined quiet a few companies' products for this card, which is something I love to do. It can sometimes be challenging to make the various styles cohesive, but I love it! This card is an entry into the current Lawn Fawnatics Challenge 35, Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.

The theme of this card is to slow down and take a minute (or a few hours 😛) out of your day to sit down with a nice book and a good cup of coffee. Or tea, which is usually the case for me. (I type as I literally sit here sipping a latte. 😩) I'm a huge fan of reading. Books were my main companion for most of my childhood, and I'm always reading at least one, but usually around two to three books at a time. Something that makes my heart soar is that my husband was a self-proclaimed reading hater when we first met, and I've turned him into such an avid reader, he devours about a book a week, if not more! So when the Mama Elephant "book worm" stamp set came out a while ago, I had my heart set on it.

My local stamping store has a great selection of Mama Elephant products, and I usually treat myself by going there once a week, if for nothing other than to browse and make myself happy. Every time I went, I looked for this set, and it was never there. But lo and behold, two days ago I had a really difficult doctor's appointment that my husband knew I would need cheering up after, so he took me to the stamping store and they finally had "book worm" in stock!!! It was such serendipity. I was thrilled. I had no idea what to make with it at the time, though 😂.

It seems like there are a fair amount of coffee and tea themed stamp releases coming out lately, but I haven't gotten any of them. I love to participate in challenges, and a lot of them were doing food/drink themes, so I had to "get crafty," pardon the expression 😏. I found the most perfect patterned paper at Hobby Lobby, and I had some book-patterned paper left over from one month's Simon kit. I want to say the paper may be Pinkfresh? It's only barely visible in photos, but I cut the box and structural supports out of some dot-embossed kraft card stock from Bazzil that I got in a random grab bag months ago. I then covered the "inside" panels with the coffee cup paper, and covered the "outside" panels with the book paper. I used both book stacks, and three little reading animals from "book worm", and as the pièce de résistance the sloth in a coffee cup from Art Impressions' "sloth-some" set. I also used the "slow down, enjoy your day" sentiment from the "sloth-some" set.

For some reason I agonized over the medium to color these with. I was really low energy and strength, so I usually go to Copics for that. But I knew they would bleed and the backs would be visible on this particular project. I eventually settled on my Faber-Castell Polychromos colored pencils, which is funny because in my opinion they require the most physical effort of my usual coloring mediums. 😂I tried to pick up colors from the coffee patterned paper, and kept the animals relatively neutral since I knew there would be a lot going on. I had to fussy cut everything, because even though I was lucky enough to snag the "book worm" stamp set, (which the lady at the store told me they can not keep in stock) they didn't have the coordinating dies. 😞However! I persevered, then glued those little bad boys on with my favorite Tombow Mono liquid glue

to make a scene. In the good way. 😉 Finally, I heat embossed the "slow down, enjoy your day" sentiment in white on black card stock. That seems to be my trademark sentiment application these days, but I can't help it! It's so versatile, and I just like the clean, modern look.

That's it for this little book-y, caffeine-y box of goodness! I'd like to know what your "easiest" and "most effort" coloring mediums are. Tell me in the comments! And if you'd like to know when there's a new post on Handmade by Inez, subscribe via email using the sidebar. Thanks so much for reading, and happy crafting!

Simon Says Stamp "Back to School" Challenge

Hey everyone! I really stepped out of my comfort zone for this card. I'm unsure how I feel about the outcome, but I'm proud I stretched my creativity! I made this card for this week's Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge. The theme is "back to school." Now, I don't have any kids, so back to school time was not on my radar. Since I just started card making this year, I haven't even had the occasion to give a back to school card to anyone.

I don't even have any little kid or people stamps that I could throw together into some semblance of a school scene! So I initially said, "well, I'm going to have to sit this challenge out." Somewhere during a Hulu binge, the idea for a chalkboard just hit me over the head like a ton of bricks! I also thought maybe I could use white embossing powder to emulate chalk. I am not a distress-er y'all! I have no idea how to make things look "natural;" I'm always trying to making things look supernaturally uniform. 😂I finally said to heck with it and tried an experimental run. My fist thought was to pat down some Versamark, but I realize it would just completely adhere the embossing powder, and I'd get big white squares. Not the look! So I just sprinkled some embossing powder around without anything to adhere it to, but knowing how embossing powder likes to stick with static I thought it might work. I was pretty surprised with the outcome!

I wasn't really sure what to put on the chalkboard, so I decided to use my We R Memory Keepers alpha punch board to make up a little "ABC" to look like it was written in chalk. I distressed the edges with "black soot" Distress Oxide ink to try to make it looked like it was chalk lettering kind of wiped away/messed up. For the wooden frame of the chalkboard, I re-used the face of a woodgrain envelope I was hand-lettering "Christi" onto but ended up writing "Chisti." LOL. But shh, that'll be our little secret. 😜

I was vaguely thinking of trying to find something pencil-y or chalkboard eraser-y in my stamp or die stash, and while I was searching, I saw the little studious kitties from the Mama Elephant Little Cat Agenda set and knew straight away those were going on the card! I colored a little trio of tabbies using Copic markers in primary colors to up the school-like feel. Then I die cut them and sent them on their merry way as chalkboard decor! 😂

And that's it for this week's SSSW challenge. Thanks for stopping by and reading, and make sure to subscribe to my posts if you never want to miss one. 💖

White Picket Fences

Hi everyone! I have a pair of cards this week. The first one didn't turn out quite like I imagined, and it had one too many "handmade authenticators" aka oopses and messes. 😂I still liked the concept and wanted to salvage it, so I made a second one that turned out exactly like I originally pictured!

I really wanted to show the messy version with all the mistakes, because I like to see tips and tricks for cleaning them up, how to avoid them, etc. I love sharing mistakes in card making because I think someone always learns something (usually me lol! 😫). The idea for this card came from the Simon Says Stamp August card kit stamp set "Mandy's Flowers." I had wedding cards on the mind because I need a few at the moment, and I was trying to figure out the best use for the fence stamp from the August stamp set. The idea of an idyllic "white picket fence" motif came to me, but while I was making it all I could think of was Tom Sawyer. 😂Must not let the recipient know their card is infused with Mark Twain energy! 😜

So here you see the most glaring issue. I burned the paper a little while heat embossing the gold details. It was the last bit I had left to emboss and it had taken forever at that point, and I tell you, my mind totally wandered somewhere else. My eyes were glazed over staring at the paper. Which is not a good thing with a heat tool in your hand! Learn from me! 😂I tried to cover it over with a thick white gel pen, which actually did lighten it to a point! No idea how to recover from that mistake except cover it. 😰

The second little "oops" is pretty well hidden, but my fix changed the look I was going for. I wanted to use the cute line separator from "Mandy's Flowers" between sentiments I picked from Simon Say's Stamp's "Floral Bliss" set. However, for some reason I decided it was better to hand stamp it instead of using my Misti, and of course I messed up the stamping! It was originally black embossed like the sentiments, but I decided to invert the colors and emboss it white on a black strip of card stock to cover the mistake. I do like the way it looks, though! I really couldn't decide if I wanted to fill the space around the sentiments, so since this card was experimental I decided to experiment! I used small images from "Floral Bliss" and heat embossed them in gold. It fills the space well, but again it wasn't really what I envisioned when I set out to make this card. I'm glad I made this version though, because I learned what to do and what not to do when I made version 2.0!

I initially intended the card to be pretty clean and simple, so clean and simple I kept it! Here is my second version of the card. I really wanted the fence and its coloring to take center stage, and I think it stands out well, especially with the added enamel heart stickers from Doodlebug, also part of Simon's August kit! 

Coloring the fence posts was kind of a detailed effort. I used my Shuttle Art alcohol markers in CG 0.5 and CG 1. I don't have a good grey set in Copics because I don't really know where to start. I think I have a T5 that Blick sent me by mistake and let me keep. 😂Any suggestions for a great cool grey series of Copics?

After stamping and coloring the fence, I stamped the sentiments and divider in Versamark black ink and heat embossed them with Ranger clear embossing powder. I added the enamel heart stickers as the last step. This time I used pink instead of white like the last card, and I absolutely love the pop of color it gives.

I was so tempted to add something else to the white space, but I like that the focus is entirely on the fence. I think it gets the theme across a little better. I'm interested to play with large negative space in my future cards!

And that's it for this wonky duo of congratulations cards! Any tips for fixing burns on paper? What are your most common "oopses" or mistakes you make when you craft? How do you fix them? I would love to know!

Simon Say Stamp "Distress It" Challenge

Hi there! I have a card with a story this week. I made this card for the current Simon Say Stamp Wednesday Challenge. The theme this week is "distress it," and they're featuring Tim Holtz products. 

Last month, my mother-in-law house/pet sat for us, and to fill the time and have some creative fun she looked through my stash and wrote down a few ideas. This was her sketch  of the card. I interpolated it the best I could! 😂

Everything fell into place easily after that! Not knowing exactly where I was going, I ran a 4.25" x 5.5" piece of white cards tock through my Big Shot with the embossing folder that comes with the cute Cat Chat set by Sizzix/Tim Holtz. I also used the stamps and dies that come with the set! I just picked two Distress Oxide ink colors that appealed to me and that I knew would blend well. I used Peacock Feathers and Picked Raspberry. I blended very lightly because I wanted a bit of a mottled look to add to the hot mess-ness. 😂

After taking care of the background, I stamped one of the cats from the set, as well as the little yarn ball, using Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I turned the cat into a grey tabby with alcohol ink markers, used the coordinating dies from the stamp set, and cut them out. I just got a Xyron sticker maker that I thought would be useful for adhering small pieces, where I usually have to finagle liquid glue into tight spaces. I was right! I couldn't get the yarn ball to go through, though. I did end up using liquid glue on that. I want to try the sticker maker with a lot of other items. 😊

I placed the cat and yarn ball in the center of the background, then got to work on the sentiments. They're from one of my favorite sets, Hero Arts Snarky Mix and Match Sentiments. I stamped them using Versafine ink and embossed them with clear embossing powder for some dimension. I adhered them to the card face with 1/4" foam squares, then finished it off with some Tonic Nuvo Crystal Drops in simply white to bring in some of the white from the sentiments. Finally, I adhered the whole card face to a pre-cut 4.25" x 5.5" base. 

And that's it for this crazy little cat card! I hope you enjoyed it. It's my first time entering a Simon Says Stamp challenge! It was a lot of fun and I hope to participate more!

We Are Mint To Be

I remember many years ago, I was down about not getting something in the color I wanted (mint green) and my husband said "I guess it just wasn't 'mint' to be." I always remember that cheering me up, and I think about it all the time whenever I see mint, so when the new Simon Says Stamp release included this stamp set with the phrase "we are mint to be," I knew I had to make this card for my dear hubby!

I started by scoring and trimming an 8.5" x 11" piece of mint green card stock down to a 4.25" x 5.5" card base. I wanted a tattered look around the edges of the card face, so I used a ruler to help rip off about 1/4" of card stock on each side. Next, I stamped the amazing little terrarium from Simon Says Stamp's new "Plantiful Puns" stamp set using Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I colored in the plants using the Copics below. I attempted to give the white space inside the terrarium the look of glass by coloring the edges with Copic B0000 (not pictured).

The frame below (containing alcohol ink artwork by my husband!) inspired me to make the terrarium edges metallic, but I was afraid of messing it all up by embossing. But when I was looking for inspiration, my husband suggested I emboss it gold, and us being on the same wavelength was enough to give me courage to try it anyway!

I used my Ranger clear embossing pen to fill in the lines of the terrarium. I have a hand tremor, so the line isn't as straight as it could be. It occurred to me that next time, I could probably line up my marker with a ruler for a bit straighter result. But I'm so glad I took the chance on embossing it, because I love the way it looks!

I finished up by mounting the white card face to the mint card base. I then stamped the "don't ever leaf me" sentiment using Memento Tuxedo Black in the bottom right corner, embossed "we are mint to be" in white on a piece of black card stock, trimmed it down, and popped it up with 1/4" foam squares in the top left corner for a bit of dimension. That's it for this relatively simple card. Do you have any particular stamp sets or sentiments that are special to you for little reasons like this? Leave a comment and tell me. I'd love to hear from you!

Cherry Blossom Thank You

I've been in a massive creative rut for weeks on end lately. In an attempt to jolt myself out of it I treated myself to a little Pretty Pink Posh haul. I absolutely love Pretty Pink Posh because they're local (Seattle area - GO HAWKS!) and their fresh, floral, pretty style strikes a chord with me. I'm happy to report that it worked! I made something for the first time in weeks! I needed a thank you card tomorrow, and even though I had some in my stash I was eager to try my new products (who wouldn't be?). I ended up using their Cherry Blossoms stamp and die set, along with their Everyday Greetings stamp set. My little haul included their Classic Jewel Bundle, so of course I had to finish it with some sparkle! Read on to see how Inez Got Her Grove Back! 😉

I started by stamping one of each image in the set. I used my Misti stamping tool and stamped  on Bristol paper with black Versafine ink, which I used because I intended to watercolor the images. If you're going to use any water on your stamped images, you need a waterproof ink foremost. Versafine is my favorite. You also need to stamp on something like watercolor paper or Bristol paper that is intended to soak up and hold water, otherwise everything will bleed and the paper will loose its integrity. I used Bristol instead of watercolor paper because I wanted a smooth surface. 

My intent was to layer the flowers over a cute patterned paper, so I found a piece in my stash that had a bright, happy color palette and chose my colors for the stamped images based on that paper. Spoiler alert: I didn't end up using the patterned paper in the finished product, but I'm thankful it provided me a color palette! 😁I used my Tombow Dual Tip markers to watercolor this time. I use various techniques with them, but for this card I scribbled the markers onto a large acrylic block to act as a palette, and picked them up with my Pentel Aquash water brushes. That's my tried and true, quick, easy, low-mess, no-fuss watercolor method!

Next, I used the coordinating dies to cut out all the images in my Sizzix Big Shot. I knew I wanted the flowers all layered around the top of a bottom-folding card, so I spent a while arranging them into something that pleased me. It was at this point that I realized the patterned paper was really just taking away from the pretty, soft flowers, so I decided not to use it and to instead glue the flowers directly onto a white card base. I used Ranger Multi Medium Matte with a Darice Needle Tip Applicator top. Multi Medium Matte is a great adhesive because it's super strong and dries quickly. The needle tip applicator allowed me to get under all the little leaves and petals I was layering. 

I completed the card by combining two sentiments from Everyday Greetings. I stamped them with Versamark watermarking ink, then heat embossed them with Ranger Super Fine black embossing powder. Despite using an anti-static tool, I always get messy embossing! Does anyone have any pearls of wisdom for flawless embossing? Let me know in the comments! After embossing the sentiments, I added a bit of sparkle to the center of each flower and leaf with my Zig Wink of Stella glitter pen. Finally, I filled the blank space with Pretty Pink Posh Pearl White Jewels to give it a final boost of oomph!  

And that's it for the card that broke the rut! Phew! I can feel the creative juices starting to flow back through my brain. 😁Thank you so much for stopping by and reading! If you have any questions or comments don't hesitate!