Monday, March 28, 2016

Diamond Press & Xyron Bundle Giveaway Winner

Hello, Crafty Friends!!
I wanted to thank everyone that visited and left such wonderful comments for my children and I.
I am so sorry for the delay and keeping everyone in suspense.

The winner of the Diamond Press, Xyron Mega Runner, and Xyron X giveaway is...

Pam Bray

Congratulations, Pam!!

Please message me to collect your prize!!


For all those who didn't win this time, be sure to follow me on my blog, Facebook, or Instagram to keep up to date on any future giveaways and/or to see my latest crafty projects and inspiration.

Thank you all for stopping by!!

Hope you all have a crafty day!!
~ Mitsy

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Spring Gardening W/ My Kids , the Diamond Press, & Xyron

Happy Hump Day, Friends!! I have an awesome post for you today!! I had the wonderful privilege to get to play with one of the newest  and coolest gadgets in the crafting world... the brand new Diamond Press by Crafter's Companion!! 
And not only did they send me all these awesome goodies in the picture above... but they will also sending another complete bundle to one of my lucky readers as well!! EEEEEKK!! How stinking exciting is that?!!
AND...  As if that wasn't enough excitement, guess what??!! The amazing people at Xyron are also going to let me giveaway an awesome Mega Runner and fabulous "X" Sticker Maker!! 

AWESOMESAUCE!!

That's right... one of my lucky readers could win this whole kit and kaboodle! This entire prize package is worth over $85. To find out how you can win this super fab craft package read all the way through this post. So let's get to it!!

Well, let me start by telling you how flipping cute this little machine is! And a cute machine needs cute little hands to play with it!! You don't really need to have cute little hands but it just so happens that I have a few ready and willing pairs of hands to help me in today's post. OK, honestly, I barely did any of the work. My children are the ones who will be running the show today!

I will show you how my brood of munchkins made these... Biodegradable Planters!


Supplies Used
Diamond Press (Crafter's Companion)
Jiffy Pots
Hemp Twine
Plastic Forks (like toothpicks but with 2 prongs at one end)
Acetate (Grafix)
Paper Trimmer (Fiskars)
Non-stick Cutterbee Scissors (EK Success)

We started by pouring soil into our biodegradable planter cups. Everyone got in on the dirt... literally. The kids each, removed, hardened chunks of dirt & rocks, and oversized twigs. Then we read the directions on each seed packet and planted all the seeds according to each.

We saved all the leftover packets for this next step.

Making Planter Markers...
Each of my kiddos
Trimmed their packets down to 1-3/4"x 2-3/4". Then arranged it onto the blank/ cutting folder with the die cutting edge to paper. and cranked it through the Diamond Press machine.



They each took turns cranking out their plant markers/ signs... even my 3 year old toddler. The cutting folder instead of a plate system made die cutting a breeze!! No more having to think of what plate combo to use. Just close the folder with you die and material and you are good to go!!

 Always remember to craft responsibly. Young children should only craft under close adult supervision. Even though these tools are extremely easy to use, parents should exercise caution at all times. I always monitor my children very closely... because frankly, these are mommy's toys! I'm just sharing them! LOL

I share lots of crafting toys. Always supervised, and alway after thorough instructions.

I think it's easy to say, I have some really bright children ... here is my oldest, switching cartridges out of my Xyron Creative Station Lite and then proceeded to use it. I think someone has been watching mommy way too closely!
Not only did she change out the cartridge herself, she ran the little flag pieces through, knew to trim the pieces off with trimmer attached on the backside, and burnish around the die cut pieces with her fingers. She handled it like a pro! Yup, someone has been watching mommy way too closely!!

Here, I finally got to help out... after the die cut pieces were laminated I attached them onto plastic "forks" and then sandwiched it between a piece of acetate and trimmed off the excess. No additional adhesive was required. The regular laminate cartridge lays down a layer of  laminate on one side and permanent acid free adhesive on the other. Making it also perfect to apply onto photos. 


Here are my little goofballs sticking their plant markers into their pots.


Uh-oh... here's where we found out we forgot to decorate our pots first. OOPS!!! It's a good thing we have extra pots! We can just decorated the empties and transferred our dirt and seeds after we decorated the pots.

 To decorate our pots, we just reached into our Diamond Press Bundle kit again. Not only did this bundle come with the machine, dies, and folders... it also came with matching stamps and an ink pad as well.

 And since the ink included is dye based, we don't have to work about the ink smearing and washing away if they get watered or rained on. Our stamped images will be on there for good!

Once stamped mommy just attached hemp twine bows onto each pot. And presto, our pots are done!! 


I'm was very impressed with the quality of these stamps... they stamped wonderfully!

Even though our pots are rounded and heavily textured, you can still clearly see the details from the stamp... like the stripes on the butterflies (above) and the polkadots on the flowers (below).

Just imagine the amount of detail it will leave on a flat surface.

 Now all we have to do is soak the pots, water the seeds, and wait for our little sprouts to grow. And once they have sprouted a bit we just plant them directly into the ground. No need for removing the from their pots. Easy peasy! 

I hope you enjoyed today's crafting/gardening project!! My kiddos did!
Thanks for sticking with us!!

And now, down to the crafty giveaways! I'm sure you haven't forgotten about this...
Or these!!

I will be choosing one RANDOM winner to win this amazing prize package... that's right, ONE of my lucky readers will win ALL 3!!



Here are a few things you need to do to be eligible to win...

1. Visit Facebook and LIKE the Diamond Press page. Don't forget to tell them that Mitsy from the Xyron Team sent ya!!
2. LIKE Xyron on facebook.
Let's not forget to thank them also for sponsoring such amazing prizes!
AND
3. Leave a comment below.
This last one isn't a must but is very much appreciated!! If you can, leave a sweet comment below letting my kiddies know what a fabulous job they did! I will read each comment to them to inspire them to keep on crafting and encourage them to express themselves through art... so, please no negative nellies!! All comments will be moderated before being posted.

Don't forget to FOLLOW ME to keep up to date with my latest CRAFTS and any awesome GIVEAWAYS!!
Blog - www.upontippytoes.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/UpOnTippyToes/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mitsyana/
Periscope - https://www.periscope.tv/mitsyana 
Twitter - https://twitter.com/mitsyana

Giveaway will be open till 11:59pm Friday, March 25 and announced on Monday, March 28.
WISHING ALL OF YOU THE BEST OF LUCK!!

This giveaway is in no way sponsored or affiliated by Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or blogger. 

Until next time...
Happy Crafting!!
~Mitsy






Friday, March 18, 2016

Light-up Checkbook Cover w/ Chibitronics and Xyron

Hello, Crafty Friends!! Today we are getting"tech-y" in the craftroom!! The amazing people at Chibitronics have partnered up with the awesomeness of Xyron and today is the last day of our fabulous week long blog hop!

For my project I chose to make something I can take with me everywhere. That's right, take my crafts with me... why not?! And that is why I made this Light-up Checkbook Cover!!


Supplies Used
STEM Starter Kit (Chibitronics
Cut'n'boss (Craftwell)
Ebrush (Craftwell)
Fabulous Die- Marquee Text (Truly Mitsyana for Brutus Monroe)
Stephanie Barnard's- Royal Stand-Ups (Sizzix)
Unicorn Die (Top Dog Dies)
Double Sided Cardstock, DIY Project Stack Stencils (DCWV)
White Cardstock (Bazzill Basics)
Silver Foil Cardstock (Grafix)
Sharpie Markers- Pink. Lavender, Bright Blue
Spectrum Noir Marker- TB1, TB3
Gellyroll Pens- Glitter, White (Sakura)
PITT Artist Pen S (Faber-Castell)
Deluxe Paper Trimmer (Martha Stewart)
Score board (Martha Stewart)
2way Glue Pen
Chalklets (EK Success)
Blue Painter's Tape
Pencil
Scissors

I started by using my Cut'n'boss machine to cut out my unicorn from plain white cardstock. This unicorn come with extra mane and horn pieces to layer your unicorn, 

I airbrushed my mane using pin, lavender, and blue sharpies with my ebrush machine.
Then trace my horn with a glitter Gellyroll pen.
I shaded the cheeks with pink chalk and a blending stick and then traced the detail lines with a fine tipped black pen.
I assemble my pieces together using 2way glue.
Lastly, I traced the hairlines and the edges of the mane.

I measure and cut a piece of double sided cardstock at 6"x 6.5". Then scored my cardstock at 3.25" and folded it in half.

I repeated the same steps with a piece of white cardstock. The White cardstock will be my bottom (base) where all the circuits and lights will be mounted. And my double sided cardstock will be the top, where my design will be attached.

I airbrushed the "FRONT" part of my cover (top piece) making sure to tape it off to create a straight line separating front from back of my cover. I used Spectrum Noir in TB3 in my ebrush machine and only airbrushed the edges.

Then I hand drew clouds onto a piece of white cardstock. I fussy cut 4 clouds (2small, 2 big).  Then ebrushed the edges with Spectrum Noir TB1

I also die cut a ornate shape to go as a backer to my unicorn. The one I use dis from Stephanie Barnard's Royal Stand-Ups set. Then I ebrushed around the edges with a pick sharpie.

If you do not have an airbrush system, you can definitely shade using ink and daubers. It is totally up to you, what you are comfortable with and what you have available.

Then I ran all my pieces through my new Creative Station Lite machine.

For a bit of bling without the bulk, I decided to die cut "MY" super fab die out of silver foil /mirrored cardstock.(yup , this is one of my new dies)!! EEEK!! OOOHHH, SO SHINY!!
I attached using my glue pen.

And here is what it looks like with everything attached.

Now, for all the gizmos!! Here is where it start to get "tech-y"!

On my white cardstock I used  pencil and ruler and drew lines on where I wanted my circuits to go. making sure to clearly mark each line with a positive or negative symbol, so I know which end of my LED light needs to touch which line. I also drew dots in the areas I wanted my lights to be placed. By doing all this I pretty much just drew a map of my whole layout. 

I also, cut a 2"x1" piece of paper and folded it on half,  and again marked one side positive and one side negative.

Then, using my Mega Runner, attached my flap down onto my base... Making sure that my negative line leads to my negative side of my flap, and my positive line to my positive side. Now, all I have to do is run the copper adhesive tape along the lines and attached my LED sticker lights onto my dots.

In order for the lights to work the LED must be touching both the + and - copper tapes and both ends mist also touch the battery (one on each side of the battery).

You may notice that there is an extra line that goes clear across my project... that is just there to tell me to stay above that line... below that is where the clouds will be (my horizon) and I didn't want the clouds to block my lights.

To keep the battery from touching the circuit continuously on both sides of my battery, I added foam mounts all around my battery. This does two things...
1) keeps my battery from moving.
and
2) keeps my circuit off my battery until it is pressed down onto my battery.

You can't really see it in the picture above, but you can see it better in the pic below.

I ended up putting a third foam square directly above the battery (right onto the copper tape) to prevent it from shaking loose.

Then I used my Xyron Mega Runner to attach my cover to my base.

Once attached, I used my white Gelly roll pen to draw little stars and a night sky.

If you want exact placement to where your lights are, simply pres down to activate the lights. While the lights are lit, used your pen to mark your points. And tah-dah!! Exact placement!

Now that my cover is finally put together, all I need to do is slip it into a vinyl checkbook cover sleeve. I bought mine a while back from a LSS (Local Scrapbook Store) but if yours doesn't carry them, you can easily find the on Amazon.

And here is my finished Light-up Checkbook Cover...



I hope you enjoyed today's project! I had a blast! Don't forget to head on over to Chibitronics HERE to see what their team created with Xyron products!! 

As always...
HAPPY CRAFTING!!
~Mitsy







Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Truly Love These Moments

Hello again, crafty friends!! I have a lovely card for you today. I recently received a few new dies from Die-Namites Dies and they are GORGEOUS. One of the dies that really stuck out to me is this beautiful die called Sunflower Serenade.

Sunflower Serenade
What's kind of funny is that this does not look like your typical sunflower, despite the name. Which gives me prime opportunity to color it any which way I want. I don't have to stick to the traditional yellow petals with brown center. Nope today these flowers shall be red!!

I absolutely love coloring flowers! And for me, there's no better way to shade and color than ebrushing!! Especial on very details dies like this one. I love being able to layer and blend my colors and have them dry almost instantly.



I used my ebrush with  Lime Green, Olive Green, Red, Magenta, Orange and Brown Sharpies.

Then I hand drew detail line throughout the die cut to give it a bit of definition. I also used a glitter gellyroll pen toThen  used a scissors and trimmed off the surrounding frame off away/ from the flowers. 


I die cut the "love these moments" from the Teresa Collins "Noteworthy" set in a black and gold foil cardstock. I used a glue pen at layered them one on top the other but off set it so that the die cut in the back works as a shadow. I know that the black cardstock show up as blue... Kind of reminds me of the black/blue / White Gold dress that circulated  all over social media. 

But I promise you, the cardstock in black. LOL


Then I ran both sets of die cuts through my new Xyron Creative Station Lite. Yes, I said "Lite"... that's right, the Creative Station now has a baby sister!! And it is absolutely adorable!! I love this little machine. It uses 5" Creative Station cartridges as well as the new 3" Creative Station cartridges in an array of materials... magnet, laminate, permanent and repositionable adhesives.




The New Xyron Creative Station Lite will be making its World Launch on HSN today,  March 16th. So stay tuned!!

For my card front, I cut black cardstock to 4"x 5.25". and the craft cardstock 3.75"x 5". I distressed and shaded the edges. Then decided to emboss the craft cardstock using We R Memory Keepers Happy Birthday embossing folder.

I attached my sentiment and flowery focal point onto my card front. Then ran the entire card front through the Creative Station.


I just peeled and attached my card front onto the card base I made using Craft Smith's Natural Luxury Stack. Then I tied sheer black ribbon across the top making a simple bow. 

I really hope hope you all enjoyed this card today!! I know I did! Hehehe!

And, don't forget to Stay tuned to HSN to watch the Xyron's NEW Creative Station Lite!!

I hope this inspires you to get crafting!!

Hope you all have a wonderful day!!
~Mitsy

Supplies Used 
Cut'n'boss (Craftwell)
Sunflower Serenade (Die-Namites)
Love These Moments- Teresa Collins Noteworthy die set (Craftwell)
ebrush (Craftwell)
Creative Station Lite w/ 5" Permanent Adhesive Cartridge (Xyron)
Sharpie Markers- Lime Green, Olive Green, Orange, Brown, Red, Magenta
Black Cardstock (Bazzill Basics)
Woodgrain cardstock- Natural Luxury (Craft Smith)
Gold Foil Cardstock (Grafix)
Craft Cardstock (DCWV, Colorbok)
Happy Birthday Embossing Folder (We R Memory Keepers)
Tim Holtz Distressing Tool (Tonic)
2 Way Glue (EK Success)
Glitter Gellyroll Pen (Sakura)
PITT Artist B (Faber-Castell)


Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Life is a PICNIC

The sun is shining and warm weather is finally upon us!! Yay!! And to celebrate why not take a nice country picnic?! Well, at least a nice country picnic on your crafting table!! LOL


That is what I did making this uber cute picnic themed card by using  Pink and Main's NEW "Picnic" stamp set.


Other Supplies Used
Cut'n'Boss (Craftwell)
**BRAND NEW** Creative Station Lite (Xyron)
Stephanie Barnard's Scallop w/ Greetings Drop-Ins (Sizzix)
Scallop Wavy Lines Dies (Pink and Main)
Momento Tuxedo Black Ink, VersaFine Onyx Black Ink (Imagine Crafts/ Tsukineko)
Red Gingham Cardstock (Playshop Paper Hawaii)
White Cardstock (Bazzill Basics)
Spectrum Noir Alcohol Markers-GB9, EB4, EB6, BG7, GB1, DR1, DR4, CG2, CG4,DG3,1G4, GG4, CT2, OR1, TB1
Spectrum Noir Color Pencils- 70, 89, 100
PITT Artist Pens- XS, S, B (Faber-Castell)
Chalklets- Red Chalk (EK Success)
White Gellyroll Pen (Sakura)
White PC938 Color Pencil (Prismacolor)
Diamond Glaze (Judikins)
 CutterBee Scissors (EK Success)


I started by stamping my images using Tuxedo Black Ink onto plain white cardstock.


Then, I colored my images with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers. For the ants I used GB9 and EB4. 

For their eyes, I used BT3 and TB4 and also used SN color pencil 70... and a white Prismcolor pencil PC938 for the eye centers.

For the hamburger I used:
For the bun- GB1, GB9 and shaded with SN color pencils 89 & 100...
for the sesame seeds I used BG7. 
The burger, BG7 & EB6,
Lettuce-CG3 & DG3,
Cheese- CT2 & OR1

For the Watermelon, DR2, DR4, CG2, & DG3

For the fork, IG4 & GG4.


I used red chalk for ant cheeks and also added highlights throughout using a white jellyroll pen. For eyelashes I used an XS PITT Artist Pen. And for the final touch, I used Diamond Glaze to add a little rhinestone onto the girl ant's head.


Now onto my card base. I love using die sets to make card bases. No need for pre- measuring or scoring. I just cut and fold.. and presto, instant card.

For today's card I used Stephanie Barnard's Scallop w/ Gettings Drop-Ins Die Set.  I cut the card base out of plain white cardstock and the card out of red and white gingham cardstock.

For my background, I cut a piece of white cardstock 3.25"x 4.25". I cut out  hills from scraps of green patterned paper I had laying around using  Pink and Main's Scallop Wavy Lines Die. Then trimmed them down to fit my white cardstock.


I wanted my background to look more like the sky so I airbrushed it using my ebrush machine and Spectrum Noir marker in TB1.


To adhere everything together I used a brand spanking new item... 
It is sooo new that's it's is not even out yet!!

The Creative Station Lite by Xyron.
This is a miniature of it's big sister, her predecessor... the Creative Station, And, just like her big sister, she can has the  ability to change between two different sizes and different refill cartridges.... magnet, laminate, and of course ... permanent and repositionable adhesive!! EEEEEKK!! All the perks of the original Creative Station but in a compact and portable size. Great to take with you to crops or while traveling.

The New Xyron Creative Station Lite will be making its World Launch on HSN March 16th!

So stay tuned!!

IT was just perfect for today's project. It provided me with edge to edge coverage with very little to no waste... the perfect size for my card pieces.


I made a little train of all my card pieces, and ran them all through at one time.


Then all I did was adhere my pieces onto each other.

 First creating my landscape background, then attaching my scalloped mat onto the card base. Then attaching my background to the card.

Before adding my ants, I stamped my sentiment across the top of my card using VersaFine Onyx Black Ink.


I added foam adhesive to the back f my ants for a bit of dimension and then adhered them to the front of my card.

And here is my finished card...




I really love how this card came out!! This stamp set from Pink and Main is so adorable and the scalloped edge of the card gives it a very old town country feel.

Hope you enjoyed today's tutorial!

Until next time...
HAPPY CRAFTING!!
~Mitsy