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Paper Smooches Card — Thanks Bunches!

By KariV on September 8, 2013 in Paper Crafting

This weekend has been a whirlwind of activity for me! So to take my mind off things, I made an adorable card with my Paper Smooches stamps to enter into their card challenge here.

I am in love with Paper Smooches stamps! And this was my first time playing with my new “Friendly Flowers” set. This week’s challenge was inspired by this picture:

So I took the idea of lace, and pink, and flowers and put them all together in my card here:

I used the Paper Smooches Friendly Flowers for the flower portion, and the Paper Smooches Vegtastic set for the sentiment.

The doilies bring in that lace element and the pink chevron paper is from Me & My Big Ideas.

I used liquid pearls in “Platinum Pearl” on this card. I think these pearls turned out pretty good! That pink ribbon is seam binding (which I love!)

Well, what do you think? Is this a winning card?
I had a great time working on this challenge! There will certainly be more Paper Smooches in my future! See you next time. 🙂

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“You can do anything” card

By KariV on September 2, 2013 in Paper Crafting

I made this card especially for my daughter. I love how it turned out. In fact, I would love to get a card like this myself! That sunshine/sun rays stamp will probably be one of my favorites.

I made this with mostly all the loot I got from Simon Says Stamp! I LOVE my stamps, and especially when I win them!
Here’s the inside:

Because it was a little grey, I thought the envelope could use some bright colors, so I made her a bright pink envelope. Who wouldn’t love to get this happy envelope in the mail? I purposely made it much bigger than the card so the banner wouldn’t get crushed. There’s definitely plenty of room in there for this card!

Linking up with Simon Says Stamp Challenge. 🙂

And I thought the yellow and grey was perfect for the Runway Inspired challenge, too.

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Cutting Fabric with the Cricut (and easy pillowcases)

By KariV on July 24, 2013 in DIY, Gift Ideas, Paper Crafting

I don’t remember much about going to girls camp when I was a youth, but one thing I DO remember is receiving a homemade pillow case with my name embroidered on it. I still have that pillowcase all these years later! So I really wanted to make pillowcases for the girls this year.

I was excited to cut names out of fabric with my Cricut and then iron them on. Here’s a quick video on how to do this: (It’s easier than I thought!)

I’ve seen other videos where they use fabric stiffener to cut the fabric. You have to paint on the stiffener and then wait for a day or so for it to completely dry. It seemed messy and took WAY too long for me!

So instead, I used “Heat & Bond,” which you can find at JoAnn’s or WalMart…and it worked great!

I sewed up a bunch of these pillowcases using the burrito method. There is a good tutorial here. This is a fast way to make cute pillowcases, including a sweet little piping (hot pink houndstooth on my pillowcases).

Our camp director, Krista, picked out the fabrics for these and I LOVE them! I think she has an extraordinary eye for putting fabrics together. (Thanks, Krista!)

Then I cut the fabric letters using the Cricut, and ironed them on. They turned out fantastic! And I think they look great with the waterbottles for camp.

So if you have a cricut and haven’t tried cutting fabric yet, what are you waiting for? It’s easy and there is so much you can do with fabric. I am ready to work on my next fabric project. See you next time.

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Personalized Water Bottles

By KariV on July 18, 2013 in DIY, Gift Ideas, Paper Crafting, Uncategorized

Here’s another goodie I designed and created for Girls Camp! The first thing I think about for camping is WATER. And I was in search of the perfect water bottle to give to the girls. (The camp director wanted their NAMES on the bottles…and you can bet I took on the challenge.)

It was fortunate for me that I found these metallic water bottles at the Dollar Store! I had to visit 6 dollar stores in order to find enough of them! Each store had a few, or none…and since I am not the type to give up, I just kept on going to more stores until I found matching bottles. (I was happy to finally find victory!)

Since our colors were grey, pink and chevron, I thought the metallic work work out perfectly. And then I found the pink herringbone vinyl (which is sort of like chevron, right?) and I just knew it was a great match.

To make these personalized water bottles, first adhere the pink herringbone vinyl.

Second, trim the black shiny vinyl (I cut it into 1 1/2″ strips)

Third, cut the silver metallic vinyl letters with a die cut machine. (I used my Cricut and the Lyrical Letters font)

Adhere the metallic letters to the black vinyl strips. And cut them down into flags after you put on the letters.

Here’s a tip for cutting the perfect flag end: Cut the middle of the flag first, up about an inch. Then, cut from the bottom left side up to the cut mark in the middle…and then cut from the bottom right side up to the cut mark in the middle. Voila! A perfect flag every time.

Last, adhere the flag with letters to the water bottles with the pink herringbone already attached.

I think they turned out pretty cute, don’t you? (And there’s a sneak peek at the pillowcases I made…coming in another post!)

Bonus: here’s a sweet little (easy) gift sack I put together for a treat:

It’s just a white lunch sack (small size) with chevron ribbon, white coffee filter flower, and clothes pin with washi tape! Sometimes you need a sweet little gift that takes just minutes to put together. 😉 {Inside are the best animal cracker snack bags.}

And here’s the start of getting things all boxed up. I hope they like them! And here’s what I love: acting as camp support (ie: making all these little gifts and helps) without actually GOING to camp. (In fact, I will be in California the whole time they are at camp).

But I do love still being a small part of the celebration. Happy day!

Now I hope you are not tired of pink and girly YET, I have another camp post coming soon!

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Double-Sided Paper Pocket (tutorial)

By KariV on July 17, 2013 in Gift Ideas, Paper Crafting

I am excited to (finally) bring this post to you. Girls Camp started this week, which means it is safe to start posting some of my projects and handouts I’ve been working on for the girls! 🙂 So get ready for a week of girly crafts and projects…here we go!

The colors for camp this year are pink and grey, with chevrons. When I was asked to help make some cute handouts and favors, I jumped at the chance (this is right up my alley)!

The first handout I thought of were these double-sided paper pockets. I found the PERFECT paper that had pink chevrons on one side, and polka dots on the other side.

You might recognize these little darlings, I used them for my Backyard Picnic here! See, if you just change up the colors, you have an entirely different feel. They are the perfect size for Ghirardelli chocolates, but use your imagination for other items that can slip inside the pockets.

At my backyard picnic, I put Laffy Taffy candy on one side, and Wet Wipes (for the BBQ!!) on the other side. Perfect.

Wouldn’t these be adorable as a little “Thank You” for someone? For these little pockets, you need a 6×6″ sheet of paper, adhesive, and some ribbon. (For a larger sized pocket, I’ve seen them made with a full 12×12″ sheet of paper.)

Here’s a semi-quick (just under 4 minutes) video How-To:

Since it is July in Arizona, we decided to use Laffy Taffy for the Girls Camp pockets, instead of chocolate. I’m pretty sure that was a smart move. I hope the girls are enjoying camp…and laughing it up! Can’t wait to hear how they loved Girls Camp.

Leave me a comment and let me know if you have any other creative ideas for using these pockets. 🙂

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