How about Hanukkah in July?

Hello again!

Today I am showing off the new i-crafter Holiday Words dies paired with the i-crafter Snowflake Border die set on two cards.

I wanted to my cards today to have a Hanukkah theme rather than Christmas. There are plenty of other holidays celebrated in December that we can begin to prepare a card stash for now, plus I happen to know some amazing folks who celebrate Hanukkah, I will be sending these cards to them!

To start my first card, I began by cutting some Erin Lee Creative Holographic Cardstock down to 4"x 5.25" & then die cut my "Happy Holidays" out of the center. I angled the dies slightly to add a touch of whimsy. For this card, I used the negative space created by cutting out the words, I set my words to the side to use in my second card. I trimmed some blue scrapbook paper down to fit on my card base, leaving it slightly larger than the Holographic Cardstock so there would be a nice layered look when I finished.

Next, I backed the Holographic Cardstock with foam tape to add some dimension to the card. Once this was placed, I used the center bits of the words to fill some of the negative space and make it easier to read.

I die cut snowflakes using a blue glitter cardstock. The snowflakes are a mix of the extra dies in both the Holiday Words and the Snowflake Border die sets, along with the smallest 3 snowflakes being negatives from the border die itself.

My second card also pairs the i-crafter Holiday Words and Snowflake Border die sets. I chose a 5.5"x5.5" white card base for this project. I die cut the snowflakes from each die set using Holographic Cardstock to match the words that had been set aside from the first card.

Next, I took the same blue glitter cardstock as I used in my first card and cut it down to 5.5"x5.5". I should have laid my words down and made sure that I was happy with the fit first, instead I eyeballed it and as a result my words are closer together than I would have liked and "Holidays" dips into the snowflake border a bit.

A "pro tip" when using the Snowflake Border, this die is so intricate that some of the pieces take a extra passes through the machine or even a precision cutting plate if you have on, which I don't instead I run it through twice with the die facing sideways, then another two times with the die facing up and down.

I glued everything together flat with no foam tape and no extra embellishments other than the snowflakes that I had die cut. Even with the "imperfections" in these cards, they are absolutely gorgeous and I am so excited to send them this Winter!

I hope that you’ve enjoyed my cards and that you feel inspired to go create! Be sure to join the i-crafter Facebook Fan Club, then follow us on Instagram, and Pinterest too! We love seeing all of your creations using the i-crafter products so don’t forget to tag us or use #icrafter when you share!

Until next time,

R. Winn

Love Wins Instagram Hop - Guest Designer for Sassy and Crafty

Hello friends,

Today, Sassy and Crafty is participating in the Love Wins Instagram Hop. I am honored to be guest designing for Sassy and Crafty for this hop.

We want to invite you to head over to Instagram to hop along with us to celebrate Pride month and our LGBTQIA+ crafty friends and allies. Today is Purple, this color represents Spirit.

Pride originated from the early morning of June 28th, 1969, when LGBT community members rioted following a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village. The first parade was on the first anniversary of this riot. It's important to celebrate Pride today because there are still many rights and privileges not afforded to the LGBTQIA community. I celebrate Pride in honor of the friends, family, and adopted family that I have in the LGBTQIA community. My story is not my own, but one of the amazing people in this community who have shown me the true meaning of loving yourself, of finding the magic within, and of showing kindness to others when you have nothing else to give.

My first card is in honor of my nibbling (the child of my sibling), Aries, who is an amazing non-binary adult. They were the first interaction that I had with the LGBTQIA community that impacted my life personally. Watching them become the wonderful person that they are is one of the true joys in my life. There have been highs and lows in their young life, but they have grown to be an advocate for other LGBTQIA community members, children, and people with disabilities. Their strength inspires me and their spirit is beautiful beyond measure.

For this card, I used the Sassy Girls - Kiss Stamp, I love this image and the blue eyed beauty reminded me of Aries (although they wouldn't ever wear anything that low cut.) I colored the couple using Copic markers, I made sure that I did the shorter hair as blue since that tends to be a color Aries gravitates towards.

For the background, I used a holographic purple cardstock from a past Hero Arts monthly kit (I may need to hunt down more of it because it's super pretty!). Behind the purple, I used a sheet from DCWV's Zodiac paper stack, it's black with tiny silver foiled dots all over it.

The amazing sentiment is from the new Find Yourself Stamp and is foiled with Deco Foil Transfer Sheets, Rainbow. I fussy cut around the sentiment, then added some tiny floral embellishments from my stash. My second card was inspired by the LGBTQIA community as a whole! I saw this image from the Never Let Go Stamp and thought it would be beautiful lit up with EZ-Lights!

First, I colored the hands using Copics, then used my Scan 'n' Cut to cut the center of the heart out and fussy cut the outside of the hands. To create the Pride Flag Heart, I stamped the hands onto vellum, and divided the heart into mostly even sections using a straight edge, and a pencil. Once I had my straight lines, I used Copics to color in the colors of the flag. I found that the chisel tip worked best to avoid a bunch of streaks and uneven color.

For the background, I used a white cardstock that had a little shimmer to it, then used a stencil from Layered Comic Book Stencil and Purple Paper Glaze to create a focal point for the hands and sentiment.

I added the "love you forever" die from Erin Lee Creative in purple and added holographic silver behind it, then I fussy cut a base layer behind it. I cut out half a heart from the holographic silver and used a black Copic to write "Press Here" for the EZ-Lights button. To finish the card off, I used a few embellishments from Unicorn Galore Shimmerz by Buttons Galore.

Now, if you haven't already, join the hop over on Instagram to show the LGBTQIA community, and be entered to win amazing prizes from these fantastic sponsors!

Thank you for stopping by,

Rachel

Dashed Circles, i-crafter May Release

Hi again friends!

It's i-crafter's Release Day and I am so excited to share the new Dashed Circles dies. This set is super versatile and allows you to use your other i-crafter products (and every other company's products) in even more fun ways! The dies cut dashes on two sides of the cut circle creating a positive and negative space that can be used on your projects. I have 3 cards to show you today with fun ways to create using this great new set.

My first two projects use paper from Echo Park's Perfect Princess paper pad. I have two adorable little girls that are getting a package from me soon and I wanted to include some cards for them. 

The first card, I folded my card base out of a dark gray, and took the die to the very edge of the fold. By placing the cutting circle just over the fold, I was able to cut *almost* a full circle card base. My cutting machine didn't fully cut the bottom circle's dashes, I could have recut or used a shim to help it, but decided that I liked the look and kept it as is.

Next, I picked my patterned papers from the Perfect Princess pad, and die cut two Dashed Circles from it, the larger of the two circles is the princesses, the smaller is a sentiment that says "little girls have a magic of their own, princess." 

I added a medium sized Dashed Circle in a bright yellow to contrast with the gray and create space between the two patterned papers. This was popped-up on a thin foam tape, then the smallest Dashed Circle was added to it. I finished the card with 3 light purple heart embellishments from HAI Supply

The second card, I used the same paper pad, but wanted to show off a few more tricks the Dashed Circles die set can do! I started with a blue-green card base then cut down another piece of the yellow to add on top of that. I cut out various pieces of the patterned paper that I wanted to include. Next, I took a medium sized Dashed Circle die, and added the die one size smaller in the center of it. I cut both of these at the same time, creating a frame for my unicorns (I lined up the outer circle dashes on both the unicorns and the frame) and a back layer for my crowns.

After playing with the layout of the 4 patterns, I turned my attention to the sentiment circle "You're a princess". In order to highlight this circle, I positioned the smallest Dashed Circle die in the top left of the yellow layer, creating a negative space that opened up to the blue-green base. I added foam tap to the back of the sentiment to give it more depth. I finished this card off with some Raspberry DoubleClick Skittles.

My last card is super shiny! I stared with a black card base to make the Holographic Cardstock pop more, in the center of this shiny layer, I used second from the smallest Dashed Circle die and cut a negative space. I used this to line up the location for my Halo Lights. I added the center cut piece of the Holographic Cardstock to help the light reflect upwards more (black tends to absorb light so this helped more go upward.) I also used a metallic blue marker to fill in the rest of the black, thinking I would be using vellum to fill the negative space, which I later decided against.

Next, I cut out 2 partial Dashed Circles from a striped pink cardstock scrap. I grabbed the scraps of my yellow cardstock from earlier and cut out "Shine on" for the top circle, and "like a" for the bottom circle with i-crafter's Carly alphabet dies. For "diamond" and to fill the negative space in the center, I used Light Blue Metallic Paper.

I finished the card off with Diamond Clear Jewels from HAI and by writing in "Push" since I failed to stamp it before I glued everything together! Here is a short video show off card all lit up!

Head over to i-crafter to get the new Dashed Circles die set, and check out the other wonderful new release items too! Be sure to join the i-crafter Facebook Fan Club, then follow us on Instagram, and Pinterest too! We love seeing all of your creations using the i-crafter products.

Until next time,

R. Winn