Be a UNICORN - Mini Journal

Hey, Friends!! Happy Hump Day! Today I have a bright and cheery project to share! 

All month long the Eileen Hull Inspiration Team will be sharing Junk Journal projects and let me tell you right off the bat I am not a Junk Journalist!!

Don't get me wrong, I love journals! I love making them. I love that I can personalize each book... but I CANNOT for the life of me fill them to the brim and decorate the innards of said books.

The thought of decorating each and every page, staining the pages, and having hidden flaps and compartments terrifies me and gives me anxiety. 

Well, my daughter's birthday is coming up and she has been begging and begging me to make her a pretty journal. She has seen the handmade journal I make and has always tried to stake a claim on them. But since lost of my projects are for different teams I'm on so sadly I have to remind her that they already belong to someone or need to be mailed off somewhere.

This time I made this one for her! She doesn't care too much for overly extravagant or any of the "foufou" stuff. Which is absolutely perfect for me because I can't compose a junk journal to save my life. Instead, her journal is more of like a journal/ scrapbook/organized hybrid. 

Don't let the Junk Journal title turn you off and intimidate you. It can be whatever it is you want to be. And you can use it and fill it as YOU want. This is YOUR JOURNAL. And you can do (or not do) with it as you want.

Let me show you what I did with this one...

Supplies Used

Eileen Hull Passport Die (Sizzix)

Eileen Hull Place Card & Flowers Die (Sizzix)

Eileen Hull Bookmark, Tag & Pocket (Sizzix)

Tim Holtz Stitched Oval Dies (Sizzix)

Big Shot (Sizzix)

Standard Magnetic Platform (Sizzix)

Mat Board(Sizzix)

Creative Station (Xyron)

Mega Runner (Xyron)

Essentials Paper Pack (Kingston Crafts)

Unicorn Mini Books (Hampton Arts)

Unicorn Envelope

Inktense Pencils - Fuschia 0700 (Derwent)

140 lb White Cardstock (Accent)

2mm Elastic Cording

Bonefolder 

Clear Drying Liquid Glue

Clothespins- OPTIONAL

I started off by cutting my mat board into smaller segments. To make the passport, you really only need to cut the cover and spine pieces with chipboard and not the entire die with chipboard. You will need two cover and one spine. Then, I cut my paper down to the same sizes as the chipboard pieces. 

I ran my paper through my Xyron Creative Station and adhered them onto my mat board pieces to cover the fronts and backs of each.

Then, I placed my pre-covered mat board over just the cover and spine piece as shown in the pictures down below.

As a rule of thumb (and to determine what side will end up where), I always put whichever side I want to end up on the front directly against the die. The side I can see is always going to be the backside.  So if it's faced up towards you, it will end up on the inside of the cover.

Once die-cut, I folded the spine along the crease lines. Then added glue along the sides and attached them to the cover pieces. I held the cover pieces in place using clothespins until the glue set.

I die-cut the page portion of the die from cardstock and folded it along the crease line and scored it with a bone folder. 

I'm not creating my own page inserts for this book. Instead, I will be using these as divider tabs.

To add tabs to my dividers, I used Eileen Hull's Place Card & Flower Die to die-cut fun patterned filled paper.

Again, folding along the crease lines.

I used my Xyron Mega Runner to attach the place cards to the sides of my die-cut insert piece.

I also die cut a few coordinating flowers (also included on the Place Card die) from white cardstock and attached them to the flower tabs- covering the front and back of each tab.

Pretty dividers weren't enough so I used Eileen Hull's Bookmark, Tags, & Pockets dies to create adorable tags and pockets to attach to each divider.

I also used the scalloped corners in the die set to mount a removable photo mat.

I aligned and attached the two bottom corners first and used the top of the photo mat as a guide for placement for the other two so that they would be perfectly spaced.

To decorate the front cover, I fussy cut this pretty unicorn I found on a paper bag! 

I die cut an oval and place the unicorn over it to gauge how I wanted to cut it. I didn't want the hoof to get cut off so I placed it over the top of the die, through the oval, and not under the cutting edge so it would die cut the unicorn without cutting off its leg.

I attached the unicorn onto the oval then attached that onto the front cover.

I threaded elastic through the spine and slid in pre-made books from Hampton art I found at my local Walmart. They were perfect and were already Unicorn themed so I didn't have to alter the covers.

Here is the finished journal...

 

It turned out great! It's bright, cheerful, and super fun!!

Just like my daughter!

I just know she will love it!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that you are inspired to create one for yourself.

HAPPY CRAFTING!!

~Mitsyana 

Elegant Gift Tags That Say Thanks!

Hey, Crafty Friends... It's September 15th! 

That means it's time for another challenge at the I am Roses Blog!! And today I made a set of gorgeous gift tags. These would be a great accessory to a wonderful thank you gift. They are simple and elegant but with a pop of color that is striking! 

Let me show you how I created them, keep reading down below.

Supplies Used

Solid Burgundy- 2 Layer Full Bloom Flowers (I Am Roses)

Yellow Variegated Cherry Blossoms (I Am Roses)

Mini Mixed Christmas (I Am Roses)

Mixed Green- Medium May Roses (I Am Roses)

Mixed Green White Cherry Blossoms (I Am Roses)

Mixed Green Small Paper Flowers (I Am Roses)

Soft Green Carnation (I Am Roses)

Other Supplies Used

Big Shot (Sizzix)

Eileen Hull Leaves, Spring(Sizzix)

Tim Holtz Tag Collection (Sizzix)

250 Sticker Maker (Xyron)

Mega Runner (Xyron)

Lace Border Dies (Diamond Press)

Thanks a Bunch Stamps (Diamond Press)

Cardstock- White, Kraft (Recollection)

Cardstock- Red, Green (Bazzill)

Versamark Ink Pad (Imagine Crafts/Tsukineko)

Distress Oxide- Black Soot (Ranger)

Clear Embossing Powder (Judikins)

MISTI (My Sweet Petunia)

Anti-Static Pouch (Ranger)

Buttons (Buttons Galore)

Cutter Bee Scissors (EK Success)

Quick Grip Glue (Beacon)

Hemp Twine

Assorted Rhinestones

Heating Tool

Wooden Skewer (optional)

I started by creating the tag bases. I knew I wanted them to be frilly and eye-catching. 

I cut 2- 2.5"x 6" strips of white cardstock and ran them through my Xyron Sticker Maker. Then die-cut them using an intricate border dies by Diamond Press called Lace Borders.

I die cut the actual tag itself from both Kraft and white cardstock using the largest die from Tim Holtz's Tag Collection die set. 

I trimmed about a quarter-inch off the kraft tag and layered it onto the white tag using my Xyron Mega Runner.

Next, I peeled my lacy borders from their protective film and attached them onto the tag.

I used my MISTI to help me align my sentiments from the Diamond Press Thanks a Bunch stamp set. Once it liked the position I dusted my tag with an anti-static pouch, then inked up my stamp with Versamark ink and stamped directly onto the card.

I sprinkled clear embossing powder over the entire stamped sentiment and heat set it,

 

I set the tag aside. 

Then used Eileen Hull's Leaves, Spring dies to die cut leaves from red cardstock. I used only the top corner stemmed leaf and placed 3 layers of scrap paper on the die and cut them all out at the same time.

I inked the tips of the leaves using Distress Oxide ink in Black soot.

I repeated all the previous steps, this time, I swapped out the red cardstock for green and switched out the lacy flower border to a delicate butterfly border.

I also switched out the sentiment both are great "thank you" sentiments (and both come included in the thanks a bunch set)

And here is where the pop of color comes in...

After attaching the leaves onto the card, I build a little floral arrangement on each. 

I curled the stems of the flowers using a wooden skewer to create little swirly vines. Then attached the flowers onto the tag using a rally strong liquid adhesive.

Then scattered a few rhinestones here and there and attaching them using tiny amounts of more liquid adhesive.

Lastly, I attached a twine bow to each tag topped with a single button.

And here are my finished tags...

I really love how bold these colors look against the kraft and white cardstock. Because I used neutral colors as my base the color I did add really pops!!

I really love how these turned out and I hope you did too!!

Make sure to join in on the fun!! Head on over to the I am Roses Blog to learn more and to enter for your chances to win some amazing prizes

Hope to see your lovely creations soon!!

HAPPY CRAFTING!!

~Mitsyana 

So many cards, so little time!!

Hello,  Crafty Friends!! I have been a busy little bee! LOL

I'm so excited to be sharing a huge array of cards with you today!!

All these cards are from BRAND NEW STAMP SETS from Diamond Press!!

These are from the Nature Stamps, Die, and inks set.

I totally love this very retro set... They are from In the Kitchen Stamps, dies, and inks set.

I am an absolute TAG nut!! And these are beyond FANTASTIC! They are interchangeable!! and you can mix and match the tags with cut out insert sentiments!! By far an absolute FAVE!!

This set is called Everyday Words Nesting Dies Set! These are so versatile!!

Check them out in action here...

If you are excited about these sets then you'll be even more excited to hear that I'm doing a GIVEAWAY!! That's right, you heard me right, I said a GIVEAWAY!!

I will be giving away a Diamond Press Machine!! I will choose one person at random from comments left on my Diamond Press Instagram post. So be sure to head on over for your chance to win! **Contest is open to U.S. Residents only and machine color will be chosen at random by Diamond Press**

All you have to do is head on over to my Instagram account, follow me, and like the Diamond Press Post. I love HAPPY comments too... so, if you're feeling extra generous, please leave me one (or three... LOL)!

You can find ME on Instagram HERE.

Visit my awesome Gal Pals, Pam Bray and Heather Conklin, on their Instagram accounts for more Diamond Press inspiration. They will also be doing a GIVEAWAY so make sure to LIKE, FOLLOW, and give a little CRAFTY LOVE!!

You can follow them here...
Pam Bray
and
Heather Conklin

Special Shout out to my girl, Beth Kingston, for SLAYING her demo on HSN LIVE!! And  For Diamond Press for making these amazing products! Make sure you send them some CRAFTY LOVE too! Without them, none of this would be possible!

Now go watch HSN and SHOP!! LOL

~Mitsy

25 Days of Christmas Tags

Hello, Crafty Friends! Welcome to day 25 of Tracey McNeely's 25 Days of Christmas Tags! I am so excited to be included in today's line-up! Today I m here with Pink &  Main and can't wait to share these four tags I created.

If this is your first year joining us and would like to learn more about link-up, please visit Tracey's original post here.

For all you seasoned peeps, let's get started!!

Here are my darling tags...

The stamped images are from Pink and Main's Winter Portraits stamp set. I colored them with watercolor markers and a water brush then die cut them out with the coordinating Winter Portraits Dies.

For the tags, I die cut white cardstock using Pink and Main's Scallop Hexagon Dies as a base and layered paper from the Frosty 6x6 Paper Pad that I die cut using the Nested Hexagon Dies.

I popped up each portrait image with foam adhesive squares then mounted them onto the tag bases.

I wanted to add a little bling without taking away from the images so I added bows made from gold accented organza ribbon to the top of my tags. Then topped each bow with a small snowflake button.

Here are close-ups of each tag...

I am truly grateful to be included in this year's line-up and so amazed to work with so many wonderful sponsors!

Thank you so much for joining us today!! Hope to see you all next year too!!

Pink & Main Supplies Used

Scallop Hexagon Dies

Nested Hexagon Dies

Winter Portraits

Winter Portraits Dies

Frosty 6x6 Paper Pad

Other Supplies Used

Sizzix Big Shot

Spectrum Noir Aqua Markers

Spectrum Noir Ultra Smooth Premium White Cardstock

Strathmore 140 lb. Mixed Media Paper

Xyron Mega Runner

Foam Adhesive Squares

Snowflake Buttons

Ribbon

Mixed Media Glue

HAPPY HOLIDAY CRAFTING PEEPS!!

~Mitsyana

Elphie Selfie Birthday Card & Tag

Hello Crafty Friends!! Happy Hump Day!!

I'm back again with Team Xyron today, and we have something special lined up for you!!

We will be partnering up with Lawn Fawn all week long to bring you tons of crafty fun and inspiration!!

And as an added bonus, both Lawn Fawn and Xyron are each giving away a $50 prize package which includes one $25 gift certificate and one Xyron Mega Runner.

All you need to do to be eligible to win is:

1) Visit BOTH the Xyron and Lawn Fawn on Facebook.

2) Leave a comment on one (or all) of the featured 

Xyron & Lawn Fawn collaborated projects during the entire week.

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy, right??!!

For my project I used Lawn Fawn's Elphie Selfie clear stamp set. I was lucky enough to play with set at the Xyron AND the Lawn Fawn Booth during Creativation and immediately fell in love. Not only are the characters adorable but ,with all the different sentiments included, this set is very versatile.

 I started by first stamping my images onto Strathmore Mixed Media Paper. This is a heavy duty, multi-purpose paper, that holds lots of moisture from different mediums with minimum bowing.

Then, I traced and shaded my images using Tim Holtz Distress Markers. 

I used a Aquash Water Brush pen filled with water to blend the colors out.

Next, I used a scissors to cut out the images. 

If fussy cutting isn't your thing, Lawn Fawn also make the coordinating dies for this set (HERE). I, on the other hand, don't mind hand cutting. I sometimes find it very relaxing. 

 For my card front/ back ground I cut out patterned paper from Lawn Fawn's 

Perfectly Plaid Rainbow Petite Paper Pack to the following sizes:

White cardstock Card base- Standard A2 sized card- 5.5"x 8.5" (5.5"x 4.25" folded)

Rainbow plaid paper - 4.25" x 5.5"

White cardstock- 3.75" x 5"

Blue plaid paper- 3.5" x 4.75"

Green plaid- 1" x 4.75"

I ran the blue plaid and white cardstock through the Xyron Creative Station Lite and layered them onto each other, leaving a .25" white border around the blue.

Then I applied adhesive on the 1" x 4.75" strip by running it through the Xyron 1.5" Sticker Maker (aka "X") . I attached it to the bottom of the blue paper creating a blank landscape to place my critters.

 I did not attach my landscape to the rainbow plaid at this point.

I knew I wanted a little dimension to my card so I decided to rain the landscape piece with some home made foam adhesive sheets.

To make my own foam adhesive, I simply took craft foam sheets and cut them down into two smaller pieces, and inserted it into my Creative Station lite. Once through, I trimmed the excess protective film off the sides, flipped the foam faced down and ran it through my machine again. Make sure you burnish your foam for maximum adhesion. Now both sides of the foam have adhesive on them.

I peeled back the protective film off one side of one of the foam sheets and applied it onto my landscape piece.

At the same time I was making foam I also ran through my rainbow plaid paper. This will be for when I attach the entire card front onto my plain white A2 sized card base.

Then, once that part was done, I peeled the other backing off the foam and mounted my landscape piece onto the rainbow sheet.

Now, with the left over adhesive foam sheet, I cut it into .5" strips, then down to little square and rectangles. to fit the back of the stamped images, creating little pop dots for most of my cut-outs, and attaching them to the backs.

Finally sticking them onto their little landscape. All I needed to do was peel the protective film and attach images as desired.

I had a brain fart moment and realized I forgot to stamp my sentiment. Usually I'd do this part onto my paper before doing anything else to it, just to avoid any potential accidents. But I went through with stamping anyway and just my luck... no accidents

I stamped my 'Wish Big' using VersaFine Onyx Black Ink. I love how bold and crisp it stamps.

I found some really thick dark pink and white twine that went perfect with all the colors of the card. So I decided to wrap it a couple times and tie a multi-loped bow onto my card.

I decided to make a tag with the extra paper I trimmed off making my card. These were obviously too small to make another card but big enough to make a tag. I don't like wasting perfectly adorable paper.

Putting it together was a cinch!

The created the tag by snipping off a corner to a 2"x 3.5" rectangle, I flipped it over and laid it faced down and mirroring the other side. lined up the corner to make sure they were straight and even, then took my scissors and made an identical cut. 

Then I took a .5" x 2" strip of leftover green paper and mimicked my card with a landscape view.

Next I ran my tag through my Creative Station Lite ad mounted it on white cardstock and trimmed a .25" border around it.

I also had a little ellie and a pennant leftover from my colored stamped images, to decorate my tag with.

Then,  I punched a hole at the top  of the tag and tied a bow up on top.

And for the final touch, a little faux stitching on both the card and tag, by creating dash lines around the perimeter of both.

And here is my finished Card and Tag set...

Hope you all enjoyed this project!! Thanks for stopping by!!

~Mitsyana Wright

And, just a reminder,

don't forget to enter in our awesome GIVEAWAY by visiting the Xyron and Lawn Fawn pages on Facebook!

Supplies Used

Elphie Selfie (Lawn Fawn)

Perfectly Plaid Rainbow Petite Paper Pack (Lawn Fawn)

Creative Station Lite (Xyron)

1.5" Sticker Maker (Xyron)

Other Supplies Used

Mixed Media Paper (Strathmore)

VersaFine Onyx Black Ink (Tsukineko/ Imagine Crafts)

Tim Holtz Distress Markers (Ranger)

Aquash Water Brush Pen (Pentel)

PITT Artist Pen M (Faber-Castell)

Craft Foam Sheets

Deluxe Paper Trimmer (Martha Stewart)

Scoring Board (Martha Stewart)

Cutterbee Scissors (EK Success)

Pink and White Baker's Twine

Clear Liquid Adhesive

Buttons