Jam Wagon (Rustic Cart w/ Jam Jars

This was a really fun project, made for a challenge in the eCal, SCAL and Create Facebook page. I first made the cart from SVG Cuts' Harvest Sunset, which is designed to hold six coffee pods in its bed. I'm not a coffee drinker, so decided to use the jam jars from SVG Cuts' Mums on the Porch.

The plan was to replace the circles in the cart insert with octogons to hold the jam jars. I had to first shrink down the jam jars so that six would fit into the bed of the cart. They ended up being 1-7/8" in diameter. Hence, the octogons needed to be 2" in diameter. I then needed to redesign the overlay for the insert with the octogons, leaving the small reverse border. Also, I deleted all coffee pod holes in the bottom of the cart so that the jars could set on it. (I believe the coffee pods "hang" in the holes?).

The texture on the front bumper is from a stamp by Just Rite, called Crackle Background. I've used this a lot and really love it for distressing. The Jam Wagon sign was made in Affinity Photo and the image of the jam jars are the actual photos of the jars I made for this project. The autumn leaves digi paper is from the Autumn paper pack by Carta Bella. 

One of my most favorite parts of the cart are the wheels. These were designed so well! They were easy to put together (compared to other circular items with lots of tabs), and the result is just beautiful to me.  I don't know how Mary came up with this design, but I think she's brilliant. The little band around the other edge was painted with Color Burst bronze liquid metallic paint. Once dry, I use a black dauber to dull/smudge them.

Next for the jars. As I noted, these are from Mary's most recent kit, called Mums on the Porch. They're really easy to make, and very satisfying to make as they go together really well. I selected all of the pieces at once and just dragged the size down so that the center of the lid was under the 2" of the octogon hole, so about 1-7/8". 

The digi paper for the lids came from Etsy. These digi papers came in large patterns, so I shrunk the raspberry print from 12x12 into 12 squares of 3" each. Even though they are large designs they are seamless, so you can attach as many as you want together and the pattern continues seamlessly. I loved the little lines through the raspberry paper, but the peach ones did not have lines. So, I selected the background only on the peach paper and put it on another layer (in Affinity Photo) and inserted stripes in a light yellow between the background and the print of the peaches. Then, just merged it all together. This peach one required only 9 squares of 4" each. The labels came from Creative Fabrica (Summer Digital Design).

For the embossing on the jars I used an embossing folder from Woo Yang Fun, called Water Wave. After the jar was completely done, I used  Tim Holtz Distress Micro Glaze over the embossed areas, which gave it a sheen and more varied definition.

I think that's about it. I probably went into too much detail, but I think it's easy to think that these projects are just put together quickly when, in fact, there are so many time-comsuming details and planning that go into them. But, no complaints! It's still so fun to make it and see how it turns out.

Off to Harvest Festival!

 

Honeycrisp Basket by SVG Cuts

Another challenge project for the eCal, SCAL and Create Facebook page. This one is by SVG Cuts, the Honeycrisp Basket. It's designed to be an apple bushel basket, but I had to change it to a tomato basket, as I just had to features tomatoes from my own garden.

I designed the strapping in Affinity Photo. I also cut real wood vaneer panels for the entire outside. It's the first time I've been able to cut vaneer. I love it. Now that the tomatoes growing time is ending, I will change this back to an apple bushel basket.

Premium Quality! Home Grown Tomatoes

Sister-in-Law Birthday Cards

 Sharing a few birthday cards made for my sisters-in-law.
This first one was for Judy (March).

This one for Susan, who is a world traveler (June).

And Terry, a lover of photos and family (August).

I designed each of these from scrap using elements I had in my image files and altering images in Affinity Photo.

Happy Birthday to My Sisters!

3 Summer Tags

 This is a 3-tag challenge on the eCal, SCAL and Create Users Facebook page. These are my quickies.

This was an easy and very fun small challenge.

Happy Summer!

Bags, Boxes and Tags Challenge

Here's a little hexagon butterly box I made for one of our eCalSCALcreate challenge. The box comes from Simply Crafty SVGs. I made it with a solic top and added a full patterned panel. The cardstock is called Felicity, by Authentique.  I extracted the butterflies from one of the image panels, printing two of each size (mirrored), so that I could glue them together so they were two-sided.

The inside of the box was divided into two sections.

The finished box is 4.5" across and 2.5" tall, but it feels bigger when looking inside.

Thanks for taking a look.

Fly High and Take In the View!

San Diego County Fair

My daughter and I are starting a new tradition. She started it last year, when she submitted her keychain collection to the San Diego County Fair, which she had been collecting since she was a little girl. This year we're submitting hobbies we've done this year. It's a really fun, community-driven activity. It being my first year, I decided to make a display of some of the tags I've made over the past two years. These tags, as are noted throughout posting over the years in this blog, are made for challenges on the eCal, SCAL and Create Makers Facebook page.

 I added two extra tags to fill in for other holidays. 
The first one added was this 4th of July tag. The circular medalion at the top, as well as the three stars, were printed on cardstock and then Glossy Accents were added for a glossy, glass look.  

The other one added secondarily was the Halloween tag. Just copied a few elements and then did a c2p and foam tape to add some dimension.

This was my first time submitting to the fair, second year for my daughter.  It was fun because both of my grandson's submitted art too. The little one got a participation ribbon and the older one got a 1st place ribbon. My daughter submitted a few items (a quilt, a wall hanging and her old Beanie Baby collection). She got a ribbon for her quilt.   

Here's Sunny and his "trash scupture." It's so sweet that they give the littles participation ribbons. It's so encouraging for them. He made this little scupture, then added some wadded up pieces of paper around it to complete the look. He cracks me up!

My 10-year-old grandson drew an entire deck of character cards, named them and gave them super powers. He was pretty proud of his 1st place ribbon.

I'm so proud of them. We all can't wait to submit for next year. I'm already creating in my head what I'm going to make.

It's A Creator's World! Participate!

College Graduation 2025

 I designed and made this graduation card from a great niece. I'd seen these step cards, most times in a metal die, but I use an electronic svg die cutting machine (a Starcraft Solo), so decided to give this a try.

 

The 2025 on the front of this card was done with heat transfer vinyl in metallic gold. I used a heat press, the type of press you'd use for applying vinyl to clothing.

All of the background paper designs and images were either from Creative Fabrica or Etsy. The wording on the card was found on a card I saw on Pinterest.

The two panels (yellow and purple) behind the graduate were designed by me and printed with a gold or silver gel pen inserted into my cutting machine (you take the cutting blade out of the cutting machine and replace it with a pen/marker, then tell the machine you are drawing instead of cutting) using print2draw. Love how it worked out.

Congratulations and Happy Future, Tori!

Anything Goes Challenge - Easter Egg Carton

I've been thinking about making this little egg carton for years. I purchased the cut file in the Blueberry Acres SVG Kit from SVG Cuts. I've had the kit for years, and finally get to make it.  It went together pretty easily. What takes me the longest is selecting the digi papers, which came from Paper Phenomenon's In the Kitchen digital paper pack.

I wanted to make/decorate eggs for the inside, so I sanded the outside of one, printed out some of the digi paper on copy paper, then ripped pieces off and glued to the egg. After it was dry I put Mod Podge on it. However, the egg was way too large and I couldn't close the carton.

So, I got some smaller egg (probably Cadbury egg size) and covered six of them with the scrap paper and, again, adding Mod Podge.

If you get a chance to make this sometime I think you'll really enjoy it. 

Happy Easter!

Spring Tag Challenge

It's that time again. Five spring-related tags. All of the tags this spring were Pinterest inspired. I recreated designs and made the cut files for them. All patterns were from digital paper that I printed.

Tags #1: Embossed tag, with print-2-cut leaves and glitter flower centers.

Tag #2: The sunflower for this tag came from SVG Cuts. The center was filled with seed beads.

Tag #3: This was a print-2-cut projects. The flowers came from varous Creative Fabrica images and were altered to peach-colors.

Tag #4: Another Pinterest inspired tag. I made the cut file for this one from scratch. Images were from Etsy and Echo Park.  No reason not to make three while I was making them. You can see that the green one has a lot more beads. I inadvertently poured way too much. I tried to take some out, but it was too hard, so I just left them in there. 

Tag #5: Lastly, this was my favorite one. Layers of ephemera, with the doily by Spellbinders. I love the shabby sheek style.

And, that's a wrap.  These challenges are always so fun.  

Happy Spring, All!

Kid Crafting with My Grandboy (Squishy Books)

My grandboys like coming to my house because I'm a paper crafter. They love going into my room and creating. My eldest grandson has learned how to use my photo editing program to prepare photos and save as a png (with transparent background). He then takes it into my cutting machine software, traces the images and prepares them for print-2-cut. Then, he procedes to make the proper printer settings, prints it with registration marks and cuts the images out.

He found some pdf projects and tutorials to make "squishy" books. He prints the project on regular printer paper, then covers the image area with packing tape, and then cuts them out. The base for the pages are placed in pairs, back to back, and are taped bottom and sides. He then stuffs them with batting and tapes the top closed.

Here's the first book he made. The Squid Book. I can't tell you where he got the patterns. It's in google docs and I don't know how to use it. Yeah, he's smarter than I am in certain things. The little suitcase on the top right opens and there are little letters and whatnot in there. You can reclothe the little guy on the bottom left. There's a game on the last photo, with a spinning wheel.

These books have pockets on the pages and small elements that have the packing tape on the front and back. Double-sided tape is placed on them, so he can move the elements from one place to another.

The next one is the "Burger Shop." This is fun because you can set the characters behind the table, use a dry erase marker to order off of the menu, and then build the burgers, soda drinks with tops and straws, and french fries in the deep fryer. Really cute stuff.

The most current one he made is a Game Book. There are actual games to play, including tic-tac-toe and a puzzle. There are party foods and blender drinks, so on the last page you can put your characters at the table for a party, wearing party hats, top hats and bow ties. This one is not a squishy book, but a regular flat book.

He does 95% of these projects all by himself. And, as a side project, he found this tiny chip bags that he made and stuffed with batting. They're about 2.5"-3.5" tall, and so cute.

What will it be next week? We'll see!

Way to Go, TG!

Sunny's Magic Explosion Box

We know by now that my youngest grandson loves boxes, basically anything you can put little things in and then move them into another container. So, for his birthday I made this little explosion box from Lori Whitlock (matchbox explosion box).

I made this with Disney-themed paper by Echo Park called Magical Adventures. I always use the digital version and print it out myself. I filled the little inside boxes with crafty fun, elastic braid for bracelets/necklaces , beads, pipe cleaners and a couple other small items.

When the box is opened, it reveals four slide-out drawers.

There's a little camera on top and I put my grandson's little face in it.

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy!