Samples, samples and more samples

Whenever I have a big crop to attend as a vendor, like Boyne Highlands’ “Girls Just Wanna Crop” with 331 women, I create samples for as many of the products as I have for sale as possible. After all, how do you know you need that product unless you can see (and touch) what someone has done with it for yourself?

I finally had a chance to get photos of all of these card creations … this post will be long, but hopefully it will be inspiring!

 

Elizabeth Craft Designs’ A Way With Words Dies
Elizabeth Craft Designs makes these dies using hand-drawn words from Suzanne Cannon. They are beautiful and unique and fit perfectly on cards and scrapbook pages alike.

My husband, who used to just run my register and serve as chauffeur and pack-mule at the larger crops, has gotten a bit crafty lately. Every time I taught a class, I would come back to either new samples or a group of ladies hanging on his every word! The coolest thing is I have not shown him how to do a single thing … he has absorbed it all from listening to me teaching and/or discussing products with him over the years. It turns out he is quite creative. I know I should not have been surprised, but I was!

For these words (to show the differences in the Elizabeth Craft Designs’ Cool Diamond Silk Microfine Glitter and the Warm Diamond Silk Microfine Glitter), he adhered ECD clear, double-sided adhesive to black cardstock and then used the Believe die to cut each one out. Then he applied the glitter and polished it with his finger. Super easy and super beautiful!

By the way, the top one is Cool Diamond — it has a silver or blue tint. The bottom one is Warm Diamond — it has a gold or yellow hue.

For this one, I cut the words out twice — once from brown cardstock and once from Bazzill’s Foil Cardstock (one of my new favorite products). I layered the foil die cut slightly to the right of the cardstock one to create a bit of a shadow.

The foil background is embossed with the ECD snowflake embossing folder. I used the medium die from the ECD Entwined Circles die set and added a few Glitter Dots. Easy and stunning!

 

Elizabeth Craft Designs Silk Microfine Glitter

Did you know ECD double-sided adhesive and Warm Diamond and Cool Diamond glitters are transparent and can go over photos? I did the fairy and birds with Cool Diamond. Matt made the mosaic with Warm Diamond (he was looking for ways to join my two lines).

Matt also made this one using the Warm Diamond Glitter and Mosaic Moments RTC Grid Paper in Black.

 

Elizabeth Craft Designs’ Chevron Background

I love this new die from ECD. On this card, I put back in some of the chevron pieces it cut out (flipping some over to take advantage of the double-sided paper). But the coolest thing is all of the pieces along the top and bottom of the chevron have tiny holes cut in them so you can take out those pieces and create a banner, like I did at the top of the card. Ingenious!

I also used Halloween Charms and Alphabet Die from ECD on this one.

This time, I covered my card base in ECD double-sided adhesive, added the die cut to the top (cut out of silver foil cardstock) and then filled in the open areas with ECD Silk Microfine Glitter. Then I colored them in using Copic markers. This idea is totally stolen from Kelly Booth and hers looked much better than mine, but you can get the idea …

 

Elizabeth Craft Designs Animal Dies

These are part of the Karen Burniston Pop It Ups Collection for ECD. I love that they have little props, like a Santa hat and glasses, that fit on any of the animals.

This is new paper from PhotoPlay … I used Honey the Bear with Props 5. He’s sitting on the Holly Flourish (trimmed and mangled from transport) with Glitter Dots for berries. The stamp is also from ECD.

Cheepers the Chicken wearing Props 5 and a stamp from Karen Burniston, as well.

Jolly the Mouse, stamps from Karen Burniston (the same set as the chicken) and the new Labels & Circles die

 

Iron Fence Pop UpThis ECD die, also by Karen Burniston, came out for Halloween, but it is easily made into a Christmas fence by using glitter paper. I added the Labels & Circles dies and a stamp by Joset Designs for ECD. The paper is from BoBunny.

Here’s the fence again … this time not as a pop up. In addition to the Labels & Circles (love that set) and the stamp from Joset, I used the Chevron Background Die to cut out the pieces for the banner from glitter paper.

 

Winter Sweater Die

I can’t get enough of the Winter Sweater Die by Joset Designs for ECD. It is way too much fun to play with. These are just cut out of paper … I added the Holiday Garlands 2 and Holiday Charms dies, along with Glitter Dots to these ones. The hanger is cut from foil cardstock.

Matt did this one … he used foil cardstock for the cuffs, antlers and nose … I love how it shows the embossing that is part of the die. And, he added googly eyes and Glitter Dots. The bow is from the balloon die set by ECD. Quite clever!

 

ECD Peel-Off Stickers

I love these stickers. They are so versatile … you can use them with any coloring medium and on just about any surface.

Matt made this card on Mosaic Moments RTC Grid Paper with Cool Diamond Silk Microfine Glitter and Copic markers. I love how he colored the background in.

I did these on patterned paper (from Graphic 45) and fussy cut them out.

More glittered and colored stickers … it never gets old.

The card on the top right uses the Transfer Sheet to use the remains of the sticker after the outline has been used. The paper on that card is made using the new stencils from Karen Burniston for ECD.

Two more samples … I thought the Kitchen Time set would be fun to make tags to adhere to your homemade gifts this holiday season.

 

More Dies from ECDThis one uses the largest die in the Entwined Circles set. I added the Holly Flourish, Joset’s Birds and some Glitter Dots. The birds are cut from glitter paper (Close to My Heart) and the hats and scarves are cut from felt. I love how versatile the dies are!

I made this one the last day of the show using the new Pinwheel die from Joset Designs for ECD. I cut most of it out of foil cardstock (I told you I love that stuff). Because the foil is white on the back, I added Cool Diamond Silk Microfine Glitter to the backside before creating the pinwheel. The paper is from Doodlebug. And, yes, the pinwheel is adhered with a brad and spins!

 

Stencils

Finally, I purchased this beautiful Memory Box stencil from Bayview Scrappers, another vendor at the show. I made a sample for their booth using Distress Ink and dies, which I neglected to take a photo of.

But, I also did this one with Viva Decor Glitter Paste in two different colors for my booth. I love how it turned out. It will become a card eventually!

And there you have it … Are you inspired?

Stay tuned … page samples are coming soon!

Perfecting Pocket Pages

Pocket pages have been on trend for a few years now. They may be called Project Life, Simple Stories, Journal Cards or something similar. Basically, you buy a page protector that has different sized pockets in it to hold elements. You can fill the pockets with photos, journal cards, cardstock, patterned paper or whatever else you like.

I have played around with the pages for a while, but this is the first time I tried them in place of a traditional scrapbook page.

The page above is (the photos aren’t the best because they are taken through the page protector and I needed to prevent a glare …) the first time I tried geocaching. I cropped the photos to fit in the pockets and added cards from a couple different companies to complete the page. It took about 10 minutes … most of that time spent deciding which cards to use — there are so many cute ones!

Here’s another I did of our trip to Gaylord. I love the ability to quickly combine random photos and elements and complete pages without thinking about design. On this one, I even added a sticker to the front of the page protector.

And another … this was my favorite meal during our trip. It deserved it’s own page, but I’m not sure I could have done a traditional page with the few photos I had. And I LOVE that card that says eat well!

So, in review, I love the journal cards and the quick and easy approach with pocket pages.

However, it is sometimes difficult to get the pockets to match the photos. And, the back side of the page needs to be filled in, as well, which is much more difficult — at least for me.

Yes, I will continue to do pocket pages and mix them in with my regular pages. On a limited basis, they are great fun!

It’s New: Pavilio Tape

Pavilio Lace Tape is an exciting new product imported from Japan.

Well, it’s not entirely new … it’s more like a new twist on an old product. It is similar to washi tape, but has been laser cut to make an intricate lace, floral or geometric design. The tape is thicker than washi tape — closer to the weight of quality cardstock — and is not transparent. But, like washi tape, it is easily removable and therefore, not permanent.

The floral designs on the card above are one of the patterns.

On this one, I covered the entire card with strips of the tape. I love how the pattern matched up!

It seems to stick a little stronger than most washi tapes, but it can still easily be pulled up without damaging the paper. If I were using it on a piece of home decor, a mini album, fabric or canvas, I would probably add a bit of Designer Dries Clear Adhesive to the ends to make sure it doesn’t come up. I put it on these cards two weeks ago, and it hasn’t lifted at all, but one never knows …

On this card, I placed the white lace tape one a white card and then used Distress Markers to color in the pattern. The white that you see around the flowers is actually the tape. I colored into the negative space, directly on the cardstock under the tape. And then added some black rhinestones and pearls to jazz it up a bit.

I have lots of plans for the white tape … you can ink it or airbrush it and then use the colored tape on one project and the design left behind on another! Look for more examples this summer.

My only complaint about the tape is that it is expensive. The smallest rolls are $5.22 and the prices go up to $20, I believe. I paid $13.22 for the white lace above. The floral and geometric patterns I purchased were $6.72 and $6.22 respectively. And, I bought a few additional rolls, so expect to see those in projects shortly.

Pavilio Lace Tape is just coming to America … I Googled it and found it on Amazon and Etsy, shipping directly from Japan.

There is a traveling store, BayView Scrappers, in Traverse City, MI who sells it (it’s where I bought mine). BayView Scrappers does not have the tape on their website yet, but I did find some of the patterns in their Etsy store. You can also contact them via phone or e-mail and I am sure they will be happy to help and ship it right to you. Please tell them Candy sent you! Small business owners need all of the support they can get — especially in Michigan — these days.

So, my overall review of this product … if you love, and use, washi tape, ribbons or border stickers to dress up your projects, this is worth the money. The elegance it adds to a project is unlike other products we have available to us. And the quality does justify the price. Although I still wish we could import it cheaper!