Bunny Digi Stamp

I'm not sure what's happened this week, but I've been pretty inspired with Easter crafts! I've got one more goody for you - a digital stamp to use to create your own cards or decorations.

He's so cute... I see lots of opportunities for him in the future. In the meantime I hope you have fun with him. Please say "hi" if you download and be sure to come back and post a link to the creations you make!

Click the image to open in new tab for larger image. Then right click to download.

For personal use only.

© heather sitarzewski. 

Halloween Friends

Halloween Friends
Here's a fun Halloween craft project you can use to make cards,
treat bags or lot of decorations.

Halloween if officially 58 days away! We already have lots of fun plans for this year's celebrations (no costume decisions as of yet, however), lots of crafty projects too! For the next couple of months I'll be sharing some of the projects that I'll be working on. I have so many lined up I can hardly wait to get to them all!

This first one is a super cute set of Halloween Friends that you can use to make your halloween cards with. A few alterations and additions could turn them into sweet treat sacs and I plan on making a whole slew of them to string up for a decorative pennant.

You can download the instructional pdf of the Halloween Friends right here. I'd love to see your creations, come back and share your take on these fun guys!

Happy Halloween Crafting!

February Flashback

Hello! Yes, it's been too long between blogs again! I am working on a project that I want to post when I am done with it. But it made me miss my blog and I thought in the meantime I'd post something Zion and I did back in February and I never got a chance to post. Better late than never, right? Or we can look at it like this - it will help you prepare for next valentines... or give you a great rainy-day summer activity to do! Either way, enjoy!

Sweet Crayon Heart & Color-in Valentines!

If you have kids then you have crayons. Millions of them. And if you are a crazy, pack-rat, crafter like myself you keep all the ones your kids get when you go to restaurants too. So you have millions more. They are loving used by your little artistes, they break and then you have billions of broken crayon fragments! Well, for pete sake, DON'T throw them away! There are plenty of great crafty applications for broken crayons and perhaps I'll blog more of those later. But for this little handmade Valentine you melt them in heart shaped molds and make brand new multi-colored heart shaped crayons!. Of course you could use any shape mold, but these *were* for Valentines!

They are so easy! Remove the paper from your crayons and break them into tiny pieces. You can use an X-acto blade to slice the logs into smaller pieces. (Parents do this part!) Then let your kiddos pick out the colors to go into each heart. You may have to help persuade them to use a few bright colors along with the dark blue, green and browns. =) Bake them in the oven at 250º for 10-15 minutes or until they are melted but not so liquidly that you get brown sludge. After they cool just pop them out of the molds and rub any rough edges on a scrap piece of paper. Ta-da! Cute muti-colored crayons, perfect for coloring in the valentine.

For these cards I printed out sayings with my computer and used Stampin' Up's Sock Money set for the images. The sayings were all monkey related like...

Valentine, You got me Swingin’ on a Vine!
No Monkey-ing around, Be my Valentine!
I’m Banana’s for You!
You’re more fun than a Barrel of Monkeys!
You’re Top Banana!
Just Hangin’ Around, Hoping You’ll be my Valentine!

Then we used the Stampin' Up Top Note die to make the header cards for the packages. Put in a valentine, a crayon heart and staple the header card to acetate bags. Voila!

I let Z write on the header cards the To's and From's but you could go crazy and decorate that part as well! So many options. Now go dig out your muffin molds and broken crayons and have a ball. Because if it's like it is here, it's raining and the kids need something to do! =)

Happy Stampin' - Baby Gift

So, it's been way too long... Since I have done any productive crafty work and I am so happy to share this one with you. I had a baby shower to go to this weekend and was hoping to sew some things. That requires a sewing machine (check), sewing supplies (sorta check) and a supply of fabric (uhhh, where are those boxes???) So, rather than go buy more of what I already have *somewhere* I opted for a stampin' project, even though I had to punt on a few things. I think it turned out really sweet.

It's a gift pack set of blank cards set up to be used as either announcements, thank you cards or other baby related goodness. The package is a wooden box stained with ink and embellished with decorative paper. A sample of the cards inside decorates the top slide out piece. Inside are 22 cards and the whole thing is wrapped in a belly band (which also hold the envelopes on the back).

The stamp set used is Stampin' Up's "Bundled in Love" and the paper is "Delicate Dots" Designer Series from the Sale-A-Bration catalog (which you can still get until March 31st - contact me if you'd like info).

The card is made of four layers. The bottom is a 4.25 x 5.5" piece of Certainly Celery card stock, next is 4 x 5.25" piece of the Delicate Dots designer paper, then a Top Note die cut Whisper White card stock and last a Top Note die cut piece of vellum. They are secured together by two punched holes at the top with a piece of ribbon laced through to look like a bow. The sentiment is stamped on the top vellum layer so a picture of the baby can be attached underneath. And since all the layers float freely they can be used to write thank you's or baby stats for an announcement. (The box art does not have the vellum layer and the ribbon is glued on).

Once the cards have all been sent out the wooden box is the perfect little storage container for baby memorabilia, photos and whatnot.

It was an absolute joy to put this together and I hope the soon-to-be-Mom enjoys it and will be able to put it to good use. Now, I am looking for excuses to make some more! =) What other occasions could this type of box be used for... hmmmmm.

Card Swapin'

Here are a few of the latest cards for swaps. I love using the brayer and here I've used it on both cards with very different results.

SOCK MONKEY LOVE
Stamp Set: Sock Monkey
Paper: Very Vanilla, Basic Black, Real Red
Ink: Close to Cocoa, Basic Black
Markers: Close to Cocoa, Real Red, Bordering Blue
Tools: Brayer, Sewing Needle
Misc: Stampin’ Dimensionals, Crafting yarn (not Stampin’ Up!)

To achieve background: Run brayer across stamp pad with irregular strokes (so you get hard edges of pad) and roll on paper. (Will take a few passes to cover completely.)

To achieve texture on Monkey: Color with brush end of marker, trying to coat with one pass, quickly. Allow to dry. Use 0.5mm end of same color marker and draw lines back and forth across individual sections of monkey (i.e. head, ears, arm, etc.)

SPOOKY NIGHTS, HALLOWEEN FRIGHTS
Stamp Set: Halloween Frights and Frightful Fence Jumbo Wheel
Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Summer Sun
Ink: Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Lovely Lilac, Elegant Eggplant, StazOn White, VersaMark
Tools: Brayer, Heat Gun, 1 1/4” Circle Punch
Misc: Embossing Powder (black and white), Stampin’ Dimensionals, Staples

To achieve background: Run brayer across stamp pad in various directions (so you get irregular/hard edges of pad) and roll on Whisper White paper from lightest to darkest color (i.e Summer Sun, Lovely Lilac, Elegant Eggplant.) Go back and forth, up and down to “blend” colors together. As you can see I have some hard edges on this card that didn't get blended thoroughly, but that's what lends hand-made cards their charm =) Clean brayer between colors so you don’t contaminate your ink pads.

Halloween Treats and Cool Colors

Just a quick note on how well the halloween M&Ms match Stampin' Up! colors. (Lovely Lilac, Kiwi Kiss, Only Orange and Basic Black). I've been saving these wine bottles for ever and didn't really know what I was going to do with them. They make lovely candy-holder-decorations.

I've just taken crimped black paper and lightly rubbed a silver ink pad over it to give it a metallic-grungy look. Layered on colored card stock, ribbon and super long twist ties (from toy packaging - again one of those things that looked like something could be done with, so saved...). Little medallions were made with the Stampin' Up! "Batty for you" set and dangle from a loop made with the twist tie. Topped with cork stoppers from the craft store and voila! Very cute Halloween themed decoration.

What a great treat to make for a halloween nut you know! The trick will be not eating all of the candy yourself.

More halloween themed crafts in the works...

Getting ready for the holidays

I LOVE fall. I love the smell, I love the weather, I love the changing leaves, I love a comfy sweater and most of all I love making things. Halloween is probably my favorite and now that my little one is old enough to be excited about it too, this year is gonna rock! I'm already on it. Of course I am in the OMG it's August-I-need-to-make-all-my-Christmas-presents mode as well!!!! Halloween first though.

I save all sorts of things I think may come in handy for craft projects and this time I'll get to put all those paper towel rolls to good use for the candy containers (thanks to a great demonstration at the Stampin' Up! Convention)! Some random cans will make lovely votive holders. A few thrift store finds have become pretty decorations as well. The orange vase only needed the little stamped pumpkin medallion to dress it up. The orange basket needed a new handle and thanks to a coat hanger and some black cording it now has one. I dressed it up with a cute Frankenstein medallion and scalloped punched paper stapled together and bolts through each side =)

The basket will eventually hold the candy bags. I picked up a pack of halloween cookie cutters at the last thrift store spree, hope to find some more. I'll place them in cellophane bags with candy corn etc. and tie them with ribbon and the extra stamped medallions. I also made a few halloween cards just for good measure.

The stamp set used is "Batty for You" and the Frankenstein sentiment is from "Smarty Pants". Both Stampin' Up sets. The papers, ink and ribbon used are Kiwi Kiss, Tangerine Tango, Pumpkin Pie, and Black. I can hardly wait to order the new Halloween paper and make all these things again. I'll be putting a class together soon showing how to make these great decorations so be sure to check out my stampin up site for class dates.

Who knows maybe I'll actually get super into Halloween and make my own candy corn too with this great recipe I found last year. (It's vegan friendly, btw.)

Now if I can just get Z to settle on the costume so I can start making that. Right now he's flipping between Astronaut and Donald Duck... stay tuned to see what his decision will be!

Stampin' Swap

I've been working on cards for an organized swap and in typical me fashion I am down to the wire to get them done. Work has been nutty and I've had a few other projects to work on as well, so these took a back seat. I'm almost there. One more element is missing, but I have to borrow the set to complete them so if it comes down to it they will suffice as is. =)

I am so happy to be a part of this swap. I was invited in after someone dropped out and from what I hear these are a bunch of super talented stampers... hope I can fill the big shoes!

I've used one of the new hostess stamp sets from Stampin' Up called Window Dressing, along with the new In Colors (Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze). Ity Bitty backgrounds was used to make the "snowflakes" and I've dyed white gross grain ribbon with the Kiwi Kiss stamp pad. The tree was hand drawn for the little bird to sit on. A layer of acetate acts as the window glass and has "snow" dabbled on with a sponge and white staz-on ink. Lots of cutting, coloring and piecing but make a very eye-catching card.

Stinkin' Sweet Card

Here's a fun card I put together for the Monsters Ink July Shoebox swap.
Stamp Set:Pun Fun
Card Stock: Old Olive, Elegant Eggplant, So Saffron, Apricot Appeal, Whisper White
Paper: Old Olive patterned paper, Water color paper
Ink/Markers: Old Olive, Elegant Eggplant, Apricot Appeal, Pretty in Pink, Blender Pen
Extras: Boho Flowers Punch, hemp twine, antique brad, staples

All products are Stampin' Up.

Wedding Cards

Wedding gift cards made with Stampin' Up! "Doodle This" set, Shimmery White, Whisper white and Bashful Blue paper, Corner rounder punch and glitter and ribbons. (non SU! sentiments) I plan to add pearly details, but didn't have any for the photos. I love the way the flourish stamp turns into the skirt of the dress. The bodice and dress "lace" was made by using the corner rounder punch. So sweet and simple. The hardest part has been deciding how to layout the cards. I've done about 5 different styles and these two are my favorites... so far! =)

Shoe Box Swap

Stamping has become my therapy. I look forward to Shoe Box night because there are so many talented gals who love to do this too. It's so fun to see what everyone comes up with, make all the cards and come home with a new stack of little lovelies. This months challenge was using Stampin' Up! punches. Thanks girls! I feel much better now.