Friday, October 22, 2010

Turning Life's Tricks into Treats

Sometimes you have great plans and everything seems in order until life plays a little trick on you and you are left to scramble. This recently happened with our make-n-take project at a show I was at in Orlando.We had everything neatly prepared in kits, ready to assemble, but we discovered that the box was no where to be found shortly before the session was to begin. Richard ran on a mission to get replacement items nearby while Betty, Richard's lovely fiance, and I got to experience crafting on the fly. She is not a crafter and was a REAL trooper to step in and help out. Talk about designing under pressure. I just happened to have brought my Sizzix diecut machine with me and a fall leaf die. Hmmm, just gotta believe there was some intuition involved there!



We scrounged up some papers, cut up some ribbons as we waited for Richard's return. Then we would figure out the revised project idea. With some quick prep trimming and our Popsicle Stick Table Top Labels turned out to be a quick and easy to make hit! We joked afterwards how Betty officially crossed over to the crafting world and Richard may just come home one day to find her crafting away!

 I would say we made lemonade out of lemons, however I think it was more like pumpkin pie out of some smashed pumpkins!

The photos are a bit dark, but it gives you an idea of this easy and decorative fall project, which can be used for parties to label food at the table or used as party favors. I decorated the mini flower pots with trim and ribbon using Glue Arts ribbon adhesive and filled them with some M&Ms. Each of the popscicle stick labels turned out so cute and were made in minutes!
This was a Halloween themed version done with a Jolee's Pumpkin sticker. We used the extreme adhesive squares and extreme adhesive cartridge for the Glue Glider Pro to assemble. For the pots, it was the ribbon adhesive. The diecut labels were punched from kraft cards stock using a hand held punch from EK Success. This craft project is easy to duplicate for any holiday or them by switching out the colors and embellishments with the appropriate colors and themes for the season or occasion. 
Just had to get a picture of Richard and Betty with one of their make-n-take creations! The store owners loved the simplicity of the idea especially as a fun craft project to do with kids. Each person could add their own creativity in the assembly process to make it unique. You can wrap the sticks with ribbon using adhesive squares to fasten on each end, add buttons easily with the adhesive squares on back and make ribbon loops, too! Experiment to come up with some other fun uses for extreme adhesive squares.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Glue Arts: Gift Sets and Lovely Layouts



Glue Arts: Gift Sets and Lovely Layouts: Check out this design team gift set that I did for Glue Arts featuring stamp sets from the fabulous Hero Arts, gorgeous CS from the Girls Paperie and my favorite adhesives from Glue Arts. Perfect inspiration for the upcoming holiday seasons - simply change out the stamps and papers to suit the season.

A digi sale and some inspiration to fuel your DIGI CRAZE!


Digi designs are popping up in all sorts of creative uses...svg files are great to use to cut out shapes & designs for use on layouts, cards and all sorts of gifts. Pair them up with some vinyl like Glue Arts’ Car Accents™vinyl to create anything from Sports Posters to wall decor to decorating your car! These signs were featured on the Glue Arts Blog to inspire HallowTeen home crafting.




You can also print and hand cut digital designs to create paper piecings from patterned papers like the layout I posted by Susan last week. For project ideas think funky fall pumpkins and art deco skulls! My Hallowettes digi set is perfect for these types of Fall projects.


Or if you don’t have a die cutter and software to use digital designs in this way, you can create fun scrapbook layouts with one of my digital scrapbooking kits or themed digi clip art collections: Feel of Fall Paper, Love is Plentiful Kit, Antique Charm Kit, Ladybug Garden or  Peace Rocks. Patterned digital papers are great to pair up with svg shapes or digital brushes to create custom elements/designs for any crafting project.





If cardmaking and invitations are on your holiday project list, the verses and fames in these collections will help you with your designing. Use my Elegant Frames, Elegant Verses 1, Elegant Verses 2, Elegant Nameplates, Special Numbers, Hip and Happy Frames or Forever in Love Frames to create custom stationery, card sets, monogramed gifts or digitize the designs to make custom embroidered gifts.






Join the Digi Craze and save 40% today only (Oct. 21st) at www.mygrafico.com!