May Crafty Things and Obsessions

I know it’s almost June, but I did a lot of crafty things in May, and obtained new things and became obsessed with other things.  So I thought I would share them here.  I was writing posts for my personal private blog today and discovered a bunch of these fun photos from May, so I thought I’d post them over here on my public blog as well.

I Copic colored a bunch of things, because my Copic collection is finally at a place that I have enough colors to use!

I got a laminator and started foiling things.

I cleaned up and messed up my craft room many times over.

I got obsessed with traveler’s notebooks (Midori + fauxdoris) and ordered this Sojourner (Field Notes sized) from Rowena Curtis (@retrowtures on Instagram).  It arrived on 5/20.  I love it and have used it a lot!  I have four notebooks in there currently:  a calendar, a brain dump one, a sketch/draw one, and then one for lists (such as movies I’ve watched this year, crafty ideas to try, etc.)

I got obsessed with making DIY folders to go into my traveler’s notebook. 

I also got obsessed with Hobonichi planners and did a lot of research.  I finally ordered a Hobonichi Techno Avec from Japan at the end of May.

I got some more new pens from Jetpens.  That combined with my new traveler’s notebook obsession, I tested pen and ink pads on papers and notebooks quite a bit.  This was on the 32 lb Hammermill copy paper that I had a ream of already.  None of my pens bled through this, even the fountain pens.  Some of my inks bled through, especially the dye inks.  I think pigment and chalk inks work best in notebooks/planners, if you plan to use the other side of the paper.

I got two $9 containers from Amazon to hold my Copic markers and my pen collection!  Best thing is they stack, so it’s an expandable system.

I also re-discovered my Pilot Hi-Tec-C 05 pens and used them a lot.

I made Monika’s baby a softie kitty.

I made Peppermint a nerdy cat pen pouch for her birthday.

I made a bunch of cards in May.

For Todd’s mom Sylvia for Mother’s Day.

For Jen Carlson’s birthday.

Foiled cards.  This one for Sally’s birthday.

The next two for Paper Issues sponsored by Therm O Web.

This one for Monika’s baby shower.

This one for Peppermint’s birthday.

This one for Todd’s dad Tim’s birthday.

I got this set of stamps from Kelly Purkey and I love the pile of crap emoticon stamp!  I want to stamp that on my work notebook every day!

I actually do a lot of crafty things that aren’t for creative teams.  Those hardly ever make it onto my blog anymore.  If there’s anything you want to see more of, or that you want me to discuss in more detail. please leave a comment.

Read More »

Paper Issues | Therm-O-Web Deco Foil

The new issue link party is up on the Paper Issues blog today!  It’s called “Hooray for the Red, White, and Blue” and it’s all about these three colors, patriotic, parades, Memorial Day, nautical elements.  This issue is sponsored by Therm-O-Web and it’s all about their deco foil! 

Therm-O-Web sponsored this issue and sent me a few different colors of their Deco Foil and different adhesives to work with them.  I was so intrigued and wanted to experiment with it all!

The first project I did was to foil my red Moleskine Cahier notebook. 

I simply used some AC double-sided tape and adhered them to the notebook.  Then I pressed the gold Deco Foil onto the tape and peeled it off.  The Deco Foil adhered to the tape and I have a beautifully striped foil notebook!

For my next project I used two methods to add foil.  I printed the cat graphic from Simple Stories with my laser printer and ran it through my laminator with the rainbow Deco Foil on top of the print. 

For the numbers, I used the balloon numbers die from Avery Elle and diecut them out of Scor-Tape double-sided adhesive sheets.  Then I adhered them onto my card first, then put the gold foil sheet on top of the numbers and pressed down.  I removed the foil sheet and the numbers were gold foiled!

For my next project I used a couple of different methods of foiling.  I stamped the background images with cameras onto my cardstock with Versa Mark ink.  Then I heat embossed it with clear fine embossing powder.  After that I ran it through my laminator with the teal foil on top of the embossing.  This method doesn’t yield as crisp of an image as graphics printed with a laser printer, but it does give it an artsy look.

I diecut the “thanks” using Therm-O-Web’s Double-Sided Foam Adhesive sheets and Lawn Fawn’s “Scripty Thanks” die.  Then I pressed the Deco Foil down onto the diecut word and removed it.  The foil adhered to the word and looks so pretty!

For my last project I used Therm-O-Web’s Hot Melt Adhesive and diecut stars out of them.  Then I used my laminator to hot melt the adhesive to the cardstock.  After that I peeled off the papers on top of the stars and ran it through the laminator again with the foil on top.  The blue foil adhered to the hot melt stars and turned out so cool!

I hope you enjoyed a look at the various methods I used to add some foil to my cards!  Be sure to link up your projects to the Paper Issues blog post for a chance to win a prize pack from Therm-O-Web!

Read More »