CraftyEngineer

Keep your glass away from me!

THIS IS SO COOL!

I am a HUGE fan of glass etching. And well, I found this new blog, How Does She, where she had done some glass etching on some teacher gifts using her Silhouette. HELLO. OMG. I can do that. In fact, I copied her idea almost exactly except that my vase was a different size!

So, first, the story of why I made this (for some reason I have to have a "why"!). My son's elementary school principal gives out "Birthday Pencils" to the kids at school when it's there birthday. Well, everytime I met with her I'd look at that container she had and think "I'm going make her something else". Never knew what I wanted to do until now. Only downside is that it's glass but it looks cool so hopefully that will make up for it!

It was SO easy to glass etch with the silhouette. Oh my! Now, I can't stop looking at glass stuff at every store I go into and think about how I can etch it!

Now, what else can I make?

My favorite card size.

My favorite card size to make is little 3x3 gift enclosures. They are quick, fun, and most importantly the item I use the most, as far as cards go! Grab and go so to speak.

So, I love this size so much that I had a custom die made from Accucut to cut six 2.75x2.75 cards (with score lines) out of 8.5x11 sheet. I already had a 3x3 envelope die! Then, I thought it would be great to design a custom die that would be a box to hold 4 cards and 4 envelopes of this size. Accucut's custom die service is awesome. I've had quite a few dies made over the past couple of years. Now, I have all the stuff (we crafters are all about the stuff, right?) to make little boxes of gift enclosures. Sweet. Accucut also sells this heavy duty plastic that cuts nicely with the dies. That's what I used for the top.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, the images are from Unity Stamp Company. The set is called Going Retro. The inside of each card says "Have a groovy day!" Aren't lava lamps cool?

Thanks for checking in. Hope you are having a great day!

A bucket o' gift cards...

Recently, my neighbors got together to help another family in the 'hood out by collecting gift cards to a local grocery store. I wanted to present them in a fun, spring-y way. And perhaps actually use up some of the stuff I already have. Ha (that'll be the day.).

I do have a surplus of those $ spot Target tins. Who doesn't? :)

I had this vision in my head that the gift cards would be held with some sorta clips things or maybe coming out like flowers out of the tin.  Well, the first attempt was to use pipe cleaners and clothespins for stems and grabbers. That didn't work though. The gift card was too heavy to keep the "stem" straight! On to plan B... I liked the idea of the clipping thing... aka clothes pins. So then I stuck them all around the tin just to figure out what to do next. Hey, those could work as the holder-uppers and the grabber things (such technical terms, I know!). Okay, but these are boring old brown/tan/regular clothes pins. Hmm. How to paint them? And quickly (because I lack patience). Took out all my acrylic paints and quickly started to lose interest on this project. Told you I lack patience. :) Oh, wait, here are my son's DOT markers. Yep, I used those and covered those boring pins and made some bright ones QUICKLY. Only weird thing was that the PURPLE really comes out PINK. ??? Hmm. Stuck the pins on with a glue dot on the outside... just enough to hold the pin up. Added ribbons to the handle and some packaging/grass stuff to the inside. Then the outside needed something quick. Accucut layering flower die to the rescue. Again, I used some Best Creations glitter paper (yellow) left over from my son's card earlier. That cardstock is awesome. I love that the glitter doesn't come off like other glitter papers/cardstock do.

Hope you like this little creation. It was fun to make something colorful and springy/summery. It was even more fun to give it away.

Hope you are having a great weekend! 

ETA - Just found out about the Moxie Fab challenge: The Gift Card Holder Challenge. Please join me in playing along!

Starting simple again...

Wow, getting back on a bike is easier than getting back into stamping. I have been crafting for the past few months but not necessarily making cards. Lots of gifts. Lots. LOTS. LOTS of silent auction items for my son's elementary school carnival back in March (maybe I can find some of those photos!). My youngest had a birthday somewhere around there too. I will have to show those invitations soon, too.

Anyway, the other day, probably last week or 10 days ago ... who really knows anymore. All the days are the same yet they aren't and they're flying by. Rambling. So, a while ago I made this card. It is my first card with these cute Lawn Fawn stamps. Did I mention that I met them at CHA back in January? Did I mention I went to CHA back in January? It was a last minute trip and a better-take-advantage-that-all-the-stars-were-lined-up to go kinda thing. It was a great trip and it was quick. So, met Kelly Marie, owner and illustator for Lawn Fawn. Love her. Met Tiffany Johnson. Wow. She's fun. All in all, great booth, great people, fun stamps. So, I had to get some of course. And here's my first card using them... as well as my first card in a long time...

Funniest part of this card... my kids asked me what that was a image of. Sigh. Really? I don't like explaining things that make me feel "older". Not so funny, I guess. But they are so sweet. Guess I'll keep 'em.

It's already hot here and boys are ready to hit the lake and pool. And the allergies are almost killing me but thankfully I keep the drug companies in business. Hope you are having a great day wherever you are. Would love to hear from you!

Happy Birthday, Michelle!

Hello! Anyone still out there in blog land? April is here already. Wow. Didn't we just celebrate New Year's?

Well, today is my bff's birthday... She says she's 39. I guess it really is her 1st 39th birthday. :) Next year, we'll have to do something grand.

We had a Nordstrom Rack open up close to us recently. I just went there for the first time. Michelle told me that she got a pair of shoes there recently. I'm in the market for a new pair. Well, actually I'm not anymore since I found some there ;) But I had to make her this card...

The inside says "if the shoe fits... but one in every color!". All images from Taylored Expressions Fashionista Set.

Hope all is well in your world. I'm trying to get back to blogging a bit. I'm still crafting so it's just a matter of taking the time to blog about it.

Supplies:

images: Taylored Expressions

paper & ribbon: a muse artstamps

accessories: ek success label punch, copic, spica

 

 

Never too late to be a ROCK STAR!

I made some cards a while back with some stamps that I had laying around.

Definition: "laying around" - never put away from their initial purchase. <roll eyes>

I really liked the "rock star" sentiment. I think I got it about 4 or 5 months ago. Whoops!

Anyway, those "kid" saying stamps always crack me up.

Somehow this card made me think about my son's 2nd grade teacher. Not sure why. But it does. :)

The girl rocker is all sparkly, of course...

Busy weekend around here. Cub Scout pinewood derby races this morning, PTA fundraiser this morning, party this afternoon, party this evening... and um, a party tomorrow. And guess what? NONE of them are kid ones! YAHOO! I hope you have a great weekend!

Holiday Crafts! Part 3 - Glass Etched Ornaments!

Every year my neighborhood does an ornament exchange. The rules are simple... wrapped ornament with your name on the inside, NOT a tacky ornament, and each ornament can be stolen a maximum of 2 times. We play the traditional "white elephant" rules without the tackiness! But boy, some of my neighbors are vicious! It's always a good time and I look forward to it every year.

This year was no different than the years past... I always make my ornament. I tried glass etching many years ago and really had an idea that I wanted to try out. So I revisited glass etching!

The hardest part of this endeavor was finding glass ornaments with holes already in them. Sure, I looked online but they were pricey and I wanted A BUNCH. I called up my BFF and asked her about sources... she has done much stained glass and I knew she would know of some good glass sources. Turns out she cut me a bunch herself from her scraps and her husband drilled the holes for me! SO NICE!!! I so appreciate them doing that!

Here is the ornament I made for the exchange:

I made a few other ones too for various friends (Longhorns and Twilight... is there anything else??):  click on the thumbnails to see them all.

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Have a great day!

Holidays Crafts! Part 1

SCHOOL IS OUT! I can finally take a moment to post... whew! I'm so excited it's out and the boys are home, too. Like a little kid at Christmas! Seriously!

So, if you've been around here for a while, you know last year I did that crazy "25 days of projects"  (25 projects in 25 days). This year I decided (actually on day 26 last year!) not to do that again. I did actually get injured during that process last year and now have tennis elbow going on a year (ssssh don't tell my dr. - he thinks it's from lifting kids!) Anyway, I still made up a ton of projects for myself to do and most are done except for those Christmas Cards! But I have an idea... just have to wait for the paper to come in (yeah, that's my excuse!).

Anyway, I'll try to post my creations more frequently but here's one for you today...

I've decided that this is the year of orange and white! Good Christmas colors, eh? Well it is a Longhorn year and all..

I got a custom pillow box die recently and that came in very handy for the ever-so-popular gift card gifts for my fellow longhorn lovers:

Have a great evening!

Sucker!

Me. That is. I've been trying to be so good for the past few months... trying to only buy stuff that I'll use or *need*! And then WHAM! this Scottie Dog barked at me at my LSS last month. It's a Quick Kutz die and it's a "limited edition". Know that means, right? It means better. buy. it. right. now. or. it'll. be. gone. forever. DOH. or I should say SUCKER! GAH. I am a dog lover. I am. I have 2 dogs. Never had a Scottie but still had to get it. WHAT???

Alright so I decided to use it for some birthday thank yous that I needed to make. Isn't this doggie cute? See what I mean? I saw a sample at my LSS similar to this with a plaid background and thought if I paired it with the A Muse gingham paper, I think it worked out pretty well. The thank you sentiment is by Memory Box.

I think this is one of my first die cut cards. I'm not sure if I like die cut cards. But it was fun to make. I'll have to try some more sometime.

In other news, we're back from vacation in Mexico and school starts in a week and half. Sadness. I'm not ready.  It's been a great summer with my boys. They are at a great age now and much less "work". More time for fun. I need to get crackin' on some back to school stuff here soon. A few weeks ago, I tore my studio apart and haven't put it back together yet. Need to do that in a flash so I can get to creating again! Anyway, thanks for stopping by. 

 

Wedding Invitations.

As you may know, my husband's nephew is getting married in May. I've been playing wedding planner and helping my so-to-be niece with some of the stuff. Including designing, creating, all paper items for the wedding. So, wedding invitations. I worked on this design for a while before committing to it. I really like it but it had to be feasible. I needed really long paper. I've told you about my friend, Edye, who owns LMNOPeople. She found me this Stardust card stock from Papersource but at wholesale prices! WOHOO... it's 22x26" - Perfect. It's a shimmery ivory heavyweight card stock and it has matching envelopes (BEAUTIFUL)!

So, pressing on... I made the invitations I wanted to. I needed long paper to make an envelopment type structure to hold all the inserts (rsvp card, info card, map, and work-parties invite). I used my cuttlebug to dry emboss the outside flap. This cardstock took to dry embossing very well.

I'm so happy with them. I'm SO happy they are done. WHEW.