Showing posts with label Handmade. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Handmade. Show all posts

Monday, October 13, 2025

Bonus Thanksgiving Monday!

More Monday fun - it’s a long weekend here in Canada so an extra day to play in my craftroom!


Playing with sketch challenge  the Hand Stamped Sentiments #HSS473. Inspired by the torn edges - but flipped the orientation of the dove and sentiment.


Resulted in another lovely card featuring the Peaceful Garden Suite.


Happy Stampin’

Margaret 
Live, Laugh, Love
Be Totallyawake4-life

Tuesday, September 23, 2025

Technique Tuesday - Emboss Resist

For today’s edition of Technique Tuesday I am playing with the Emboss resist. I have chosen to play with my Prairie Grass stamp set as it’s perfect for showcasing this technique.


I am also playing along with the Case-Ing Tuesday #CT530 over on Facebook where we case a card from the catalog from Stampin’ Up! 



My colour palette was chosen from the Hand Stamped Sentiments challenge #HSS472 of Pretty Peacock, Darling Duckling and Timid Tiger.


I love how gorgeous this technique works allowing that pop of white to shine through against the vibrant background. Perfect for an I’m here for you card! 


This sketch was a lot of fun to play with. There’s something extra therapeutic about tearing your pretty paper - it’s like a message of contradiction in the brain being faced from your childhood teachers saying that you don’t tear paper and now has been won by the adult brain saying go ahead I can do whatever I want now I’m an adult 🤣

Have you used paper tearing in your paper crafting design? 

If you haven’t done the Emboss Resist it’s one of the easier techniques that gives a lot of WOW factor. 

All you need is your stamp, white paper of coloured inks of choice plus a Versamark or other brand of sticky ink pad, clear embossing powder and a heat gun. A anti static powder is also handy as it prevents the powder from sticking to any fingerprint reside from handling your papers. I also keep a small paint brush with my embossing supplies for if the anti static powder wasn’t enough to delicately brush away stray powder I don’t want on the paper. 

So use your anti stick powder over the paper, stamp your image in versamark onto the paper, sprinkle with embossing powder and shake off excess. I love using a coffe filter to catch my excess to be able to easily pour back into my powder pot. Use the heat gun to set the powder. Make sure it’s all turned shiny and fully set. I usually heat from the back first so that it’s less likely to blow off my powder on me. Than I do a second time over the front.  Once your powder is set you can blend colour with sponge or brush or use a brayer to add colour over top of your image as desired and than use a paper towel to clean off the embossed areas to reveal your white pop of wow 🤩 than finish your card design! 

Happy Stampin’

Margaret
Live, Laugh, Love 
Be Totallyawake4-life


Friday, September 19, 2025

Fancy Folds on a Friday

Welcome to another edition of Fancy Folds on a Friday. Today I am playing with a centre pop up fold.


My design took inspiration from the Festive Friday Challenge - World Cardmaking Challenge #FF0193. I have chosen blue, pink/purple, rhinestones, a fun fold, patterned paper, colouring and a thinking of you “I’m here for you” sentiment from the inspiration list.


I’m playing with my Beautiful Butterflies stamp set and dies with the Watercolour Bokeh DSP the Fresh Freesia and Balmy Blue colour palette with some Frosted Iridescent gems.


The centre pop up was the perfect fold for the butterfly focal image.




I’m always looking for a new fold to try. What’s your favourite fold for cards?

Happy Stampin’
Margaret 
Live, Laugh, Love
Be Totallyawake4-life

Thursday, December 23, 2021

How old is your oldest ornament?

How old is the oldest ornament on your tree??? 

So my first few Christmas trees that were ‘mine’ to decorate were decorated on a students budget - so they all had homemade decorations like the ole popcorn/cranberry chains, salt dough cookie cutters ornaments and pinecone angels that I had made with pine ones, milkweed pods, wooden bobbles and pipe cleaners and sprayed gold - they haven’t made it through the years unfortunately!


However this Little hand crafted Angel - she was a gift from a coworker/friend  - so if my memory and math is current I have had her over 30 years that she’s topped my tree! 

Goodness how’s that possible? She still looks as amazing as the day I got her!

Margaret
Live, Laugh, Love
Be Totallyawake4-life 

Thursday, November 25, 2021

Bright Baubles

OK I already loved the Bright Baubles Bundle but seeing this Artisan team member inspiration and now he layered them to really make them POP I want it even more!!! 


So intricate and elegant! They’d look lovely hanging on a tree too! I just love making paper ornaments for my tree! 


Tombow glue is perfect for intricate gluing and dries clear. A little trick I use if I need a really intricate dab of glue is make a puddle in my silicone mar and use the paper poker to dot on OR I use a sponge and dab the glue onto sponge and than dab onto the paper dies for a nice even application.
 
Here is the entire Bright Baubles bundle!
 
Photo credit and full details here: 

Happy Stampin’ 

Margaret

Live, Laugh, Love
Be Totallyawake4-life

Tuesday, June 25, 2019

My Heart Scrapbook Layout

Finally carved out some scrapbooking time recently and got a layout of the girls when they were wee littles in foster care still. Our foster mom Angela takes the most amazing photos of the babes she takes in 💕💕💕

Used an inspiration layout from over Scrapbook Nerds Facebook community and combined it with last months corrugated cardboard technique and the new Butterfly Wishes stamp set from Stampin' Up! 

They are just so adorable and their coloring begs for the use of gold, crumb cake and black color palette! 

I was pleased that the corrugated cardboard was easily cut using the Big Shot and heart dies from Stampin' Up! I brushed it with gold Nuvo mousse to give the raised corrugation a shimmer effect.

Accents of gold were added using gold foil and the Be Mine Stitched Heart die from Stampin' Up! 

 
Love how the corrugated cardboard offers so much dimension to the project!


Happy Scrapbooking
Margaret
Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much
Be Totallyawake4-life

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Valentines is coming

 There are no more kids in school in the house to make 'teacher appreciation' Valentines for so will have to rely vicariously through custom orders from clients! 

If I had a video recorder and stand I would totally make my own video on how I made mine to share but I don't so thank you google for finding me this awesome paper crafter who shared her's for anyone who'd like to case the idea themselves!


If you are not a papercrafter and love these hope on over to Totallyawake4-stampin and make a custom order for the teachers in your life! . 
 
Have an amazing day!


Margaret
Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much
Be Totallyawake4-life

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Flowers make me SMILE

I love FLOWERS ... there is something extra lovely about flowers from their pretty array of colors to their often intoxicating scents! 

If I could afford it I would have fresh cut flowers around my home ALL the time. Once upon a time I use to actually struggle with the ethical challenge of fresh cut flowers ~ the whole they start to 'die the minute you cut them from their plant' but than a friend who is a florist and lover of flowers themselves put it in a way that made sense to me. A Flower starts to die the minute it buds. You can leave it to open and blossom and wilt and die alone in the field or you can carefully prune it and place it a vase in a place of honor in your home and cherish it for the duration of its life span but either way its life span is going to pass. So now I treat myself to fresh cut flowers as often as my budget can afford it. 

In the meantime I enjoy PAPER flowers cause they have a much longer lifespan and they too can be scented by infusing the paper with essential oils! So win win! 

 I am just loving this new stamp set and die bundle from Stampin' Up!  The Botanical Garden set suite has so many awesome cool things with it! From the Stamp set, the Die cut to gorgeous designer series paper and coordinating embellishments with the washi tape and jewels! 
Bundles at a discount!

Jewel Embellishments



 
Coordinating cardstock
Stunning Designer Series Paper


Coordinating Washi Tape
The amazing Botanical Gardens Suite set can be made to use so many gorgeous pieces for home decor, celebrations and gift accents! Also love that the artisans of Stampin' Up! are so willing to share their designs and they encourage those who need a little help to 'copy and share everywhere' the stunning work they do!
 Here are some amazing samples inspired from fellow demonstrators .... just so versatile the looks and creations you can get depending on what colors and items you choose to put together. I LOVE that they designed the coordinating paper so that you could stamp on it too!



One of the challenges though with working with so many small pieces is getting a pattern you like laid out and than having to 'adhere it' without loosing your pattern ... the crafting community to the rescue again with amazing tips, tricks and tutorials for making crafting easier! Love this one which would work PERFECT with placing the Botanical Gardens suite elements on your card! 

Another great thing about Stampin' Up! that I love is all the coordinating pieces take the guess work out of choosing color palettes that coordinate when it comes to ink and papers ... everything matches and goes well together, Including this cool Vellum from the Sale-a-bration catalog shown here! 


Between January 5th and March 31st did you know for every $60 you spend with your Stampin' Up demonstrator you can buy the Botanical Gardens bundle and earn the Vellum shown in the video for FREE! Who doesn't love FREE stuff specially when it coordinates so dang well?

So what is making YOU smile today?

Have an amazing day!

Margaret
Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much




Monday, December 28, 2015

Paper Magnolias


How gorgeous are these handmade paper Magnolias from Lia Griffith? 

I love paper bouquets because they will last so much longer than fresh cut do! When I want a floral aroma to go with them I just diffuse a essential oil blend with floral hues!

Find the Tutorial on how to make these gorgeous Magnilia inspired paper creations here. 
https://liagriffith.com/paper-magnolia-flower/

Have an amazing day!

Margaret 
Live well, Laigh Often, Love Much
Be Titallyawake4-life

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Handprint Christmas Tree ornaments

 
Ian the Elf brought the crew everything we need to make our annual hand print keepsake ornaments ~ this year we voted for a Tree theme! 
 
What You Need
  • Large clear ornaments ~ we get ours at Michael's
  • Acrylic paints ~ green and various colors for the 'lights'
  • Plastic disposable cups - to hold ornaments while you work
  • Metallic Marker
  • Hairspray
  • Glitter
  • Funnel
  • Soapy Warm Water and washcloth you do not care about 
  • Rubbing Alcohol
What You Do
  •  Wipe glass or plastic with rubbing alcohol to remove any oily residue
  • Paint childs hand and place firmly on the ornament ~ you can orient it either fingers up and closed or down and spread open for the branches we opted for up so they would fit on the ornament.
  • Place paint side up into a plastic cup to dry.
  • Once dry you can revisit and decoarte your tree adding lights with toothpicks or fine paint brush dots and tinsel or stars and whatever the child wants. Let dry again.
  • If using clear ornaments you can carefully remove the hanging top as they are fairly fragile and glitter them up by spraying the inside of ornament with hairspray make sure to direct spray to cover entire inside and than use the funnel to carefully pour in glitter.
  • Cover top with your thumb or return the top and shake to distribute glitter. Repeat as required to get full coverage. 
  • Add a ribbon to your hanger hook!
  • Wrap and put under the tree for the big day!

Hand print ornaments are always a hit with loved ones ~ something extra special about capturing their little hands for prosperity! If you missed our other post on the 10 keepsake hand print and photo ornament ideas you can view it here
 
 
Have an amazing day!
 
Margaret
Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much