MY FINAL PIN IT FRIDAY FAVS POST: Farewells and the Very Best of Pinterest Pins

It's been quite a wonderful ride throughout all of the posts here over the past many years. It's led me to creativity beyond measure and an amazing pen pal, too! I hope you continue to search previous posts on this blog to spark your imagination and provide inspiration from all of the creative and talented folks from around the world whose work has appeared here.

As I look forward to all the adventures and creativity that 2018 has to offer, I once again close out the year with my favorite poem for stamp artists sent to me by my friend, Michele:

Twas the night before Christmas, I'm glued to the tree.

I’m wondering what Santa will bring just for me.

Could it be new card stock or ink pads or lace?

"Or stamp sets," I said, with a big smile on my face.

And that’s when I saw him..."Hi Santa," I said.

To which he replied, "You should be in bed!"

"Oh, dear!" I said, "I’ve just been caught...

But I was hoping to see what goodies you brought."

He took a brief look at my room where I work.

Then he shook his head quickly, and left with a jerk.

...And I heard him exclaim, as he put it in gear,

You've got enough crap, I'll see you next year!

Thank you for taking this fantastic ride with me on this blog. I wish you continued creativity as you make others (as well as yourself) do a happy dance as a result of your handmade paper crafts and culinary delights! 

Happy crafting, KT

PIN IT FRIDAY FAVS: Purses and the Very Best of Pinterest Pins

I saw a wonderful purse tutorial on Pinterst using the Envelope Punch Board and knew I had to make one for my dear sister in her favorite color: Any shade of blue!

Original Pin HERE

My purse turned out like this:

...and I made a matching card

to go with it:

I finished everything and realize that the purse really needed the bow that was shown in the original pin and video tutorial. Those finishing touches can made a BIG difference!

It helped me quite a bit to mark all areas ahead of time for the sticky tape placement using a pencil and to fold the velcro flaps before the purse was assembled. For my own future reference, here are the areas with adhesive tape:

I also increased the handles length to 10 1/2".

This purse started with a 12" x 12" piece of DSP and resulted in a final purse size of 4 1/2" wide x 6 1/2" high without the handles. With the handles, it was 8 1/4" high. That resulted in a large purse for any gift-giving occasion!

Next, I made a small version from a 9" square of DSP punched at 1 7/8" to hold a candy treat:

Here are a few more purse pins that caught my eye:

Original Pin HERE

Original Pin HERE

Original Pin HERE

...and finally...some handcrafted Thanksgiving cards

from friends who made me do a

happy dance:

PIN IT FRIDAY FAVS: More Thank Yous and the Very Best of Pinterest Pins

I needed a fairly quick thank you card and here's one that caught my eye:

Original Pin HERE...and
here's my CASED version:

...and here are a few more favorite
THANK YOU pins:

Original Pin HERE
This would make a nice autumn or Thanksgiving
card by switching the leaves to brown and the berries
to a lovely shade of orange ^_^

Original Pin HERE
So simple with loads of white space...love it!
I have a die set of numbers and could quickly get
the "U" by die cutting a zero and snipping off the top!

Original Pin HERE
The white word on black makes for a stunning card!
The patterned piece of paper reminds me of
adult coloring books!

Original Pin HERE
This card makes my heart so happy!
May you make someone happy with your
handmade creations!

PIN IT FRIDAY FAVS: Thank Yous and the Very Best of Pinterest Pins

I've needed quite a few thank you notes lately for some very thoughtful people that I'm thankful to have in my life. This card pinned on Pinterest struck my fancy plus I had a scrap of watercolor paper that I wanted to use:

Original Pin HERE

I don't have this exact set from SU, but I have a similar retired SU set called Asian Artisty and that led me to create this card:

This card is for my friend Rina who gifted me with a happy birthday die. I used the "happy" from her set of gift dies for Rina's thank you note. After the card was completed, the card seemed off-balance with too much white space above the oval. After trying a few possible fixes, I decided that the placement of two butterflies resulted in the best solution ^_^ (Butterflies from SU Embosslits Beautiful Wings, Oval from SU Stitched Shape Framelets)

Additional thank you notes finished and ready for mailing:

This card needed something to make it pop and

some Stickles came to the rescue:

This pin from my previous blog post got me thinking about cutting words out on my cards:

See Original Post HERE

The following note cards were made on my Cricut using the SU stamp set called Avant-Garden for the flowers and SU Fabulous Phrases for the white embossing words on the black card stock:

...and one without my Cricut:

The inside view for all of the cards above:

PIN IT FRIDAY FAVS: Halloween and the Very Best of Pinterest Pins

I saw this saying on Pinterest and it made me LOL! 

Original Pin HERE

I knew it would make the perfect saying for some of

my double Z Halloween cards:

I found a SVG witch hat file to make the hat on my Cricut

and the bats are made from a Martha Stewart bat punch.

For the purse, see my previous post HERE, and for the

double Z cards, check out my post HERE.

This was the treat I made to go with my card:

I added a separate "WITCHES" labels because it was difficult to see the cursive word "WITCHES" in the original pdf download. To make these Tic Tac Warts, you can find the download info. HERE or HERE. There you will find downloads to make these quick Tic Tac crafts below: 

(I found the Tic Tacs at my Safeway: 10 for $10!)

Here are a few more of my favorite

FALL/HALLOWEEN pins:

Original Pin HERE

This card got me to thinking how I could use my Cricut to cut other words out of stamped images. My next post will show some floral thank you notes inspired by this pin idea!

And finally...I love these two pins, but oh!...the work involved is intense!

Original Pin HERE

Original Pin HERE

Try doing a Pinterest or YouTube search to find

directions to make these tri fold shutter cards.

There are quite a number of variations

on this type of card, too!

PIN IT FRIDAY FAVS: Fall is Here and the Very Best of Pinterest Pins

Creative juices are flowing and I've received a number of cards this month from my card making buddies. I usually don't post the cards I receive, but from now on, I want to share the multi talents of these terrific friends with the readers of this little 'ole blog! It's a wonderful thing to be on the receiving end of so much sunshine and happiness that these lovely cards bring into my life, and I only hope that the cards I send out elicit a similar feeling  ^_^  Here are the most recent cards received:

Rina used the embossing folder set by Anna Griffin seen HERE on Amazon and shown below: 

Then she gifted me the entire set! Oh! happy day! I found this card on Pinterest and CASED it for a thank you card for Rina:

Original Pin HERE

My CASED version:

I've stayed up until 2 AM playing with all of the sayings and embossing folders that comes in this set - Time truly flies when you're having creative fun! (More posts using these folders to follow for sure!)

Then, I received the loveliest of cards from a thoughtful and creative friend:

I love the effect of this multi-layered card! I also loved the label that Juliette places on the back of her cards:

Next, my awesome pen pal and paper crafter extraordinaire in British Columbia, Canada made this card for me:

I LOVE butterfly cards and I love how she used vellum for the layer under the butterfly's wings. Check out my butterfly card board on Pinterest HERE.

Lastly, another oh! so beautiful card from my multi-talented friend, Alice, that made me smile from ear-to-ear: