HangTags

As I get closer and closer to my upcoming Christmas Craft Fair, I'm getting all the little things in order.  One of said "little things" was to make handmade, branded hang tags for my apparel.  I wanted these tags to identify my brand, give information about the product and the price, and of course look pretty.  

This past week I ordered 1000, yes you read right 1000, hang tags from Staples.  Why?  Because Staples only carries the size of hang tag I wanted online and in batches of 1000....I guess I'll be making all my christmas gift tags this year too!  I'm still waiting for them to arrive.  But I had some I had purchased from the Container Store (omg....I won't go into how much I love that place) and wanted to try out some designs to see what would look best.  

I knew I wanted to incorporate the silhouette I have on my blog header since I love it and it's vintage and ties my products to my blog.  A while back I purchased these stamps for this exact purpose. 

The one on the right is the closest to what I have on my blog header, and YES it drives me a little batty because it's not oriented the same way....I will survive. I knew I wanted to make my tags memorable and standout, so of course embossing was the only option...man I love embossing.

So I stamped, I drew, I wrote, I tested, I burned 

off some fingerprints and here's what I ended up with

The silhouette is stamped in Red Rocket Gold Ink and I used clear embossing powder over top.  The words are hand printed by yours truly in 2 sharpie colours.  The back will have the info about the apparel.  It's not as pretty.

Now to make 1000 more when the other tags arrive....

Girls Night Craft Party

While I was at home Saskatoon we had an unofficial house warming for Jill and her new condo/crafty party.  

The hostess with the mostest.

At first it was just an idea with me, Jill and Amy, and then we invited Megan (queen of cakes) and KO (my sister in law and friend) and well it just became a thing!

Jill and Amy had originally made card kits for three, but since we turned out to be five Jill and Amy improvised some make and takes!

Top Left: Megan (Queen of Cakes) & Amy (Jill's bestie & my birthday twin)

Bottom Left: Sisters - Me (duh), Jill and KO (sister in law)

Right: Just some of the sumptuous food we had

Our inspiration while we worked! LOL

Top Left: Jill gets excited about spray ink

Top Right: Megan stamps

Bottom Left: Spray ink scares KO.  

That was SO funny to watch. But using spray ink is unpredictable at times

Bottom Centre: Something makes me smile

Bottom Right: Amy shows off her embossing

This is me and Amy, after a few glasses of wine.  We cleaned up the scrapbooking stuff and started playing Cards Against Humanity.  I don't know what's happening in this photo, but I love it!

Oh, and I guess I should show off what I made?

Mine is the green one on the right hand side, 

with the white doiley and washy tape.

This was our tag make and take!  

Mines on the far left that says "Holiday Wishes"

I had such a blast with these ladies.  

Makes me wish I lived closer to them.

Meet Massimo!

Remember a bit ago when I shared the baby shower gift I made for my girlfriend Andi?  That cute bunny and baby blanket? Here it is in action!

As you can see, Massimo has arrived and he couldn't be any cuter (or louder?  He certainly doesn't look like he's loving my gift right at that moment!)  Andrea wanted to stamp his hands and feet for his baby book and possibly a birth announcement. Ha ha ha.  Little did we realize how challenging it would be to ink and stamp a 3 1/2 week old baby!  

Only a few "oopsies", but really all things considered both Andrea and I thought we did pretty great!

Let me tell you, the feet were WAY easier than the hands.  We eventually had to rock him to sleep so he would relax his hands and manage those prints.  It was SO fun, and funny.  We used a couple different colours of ink and turned him into a Smurf at one point!

OK and these are just gratuitous shots of my favourite little man!

I mean, c'mon! Look at this cutie.  He's so aware and interested in what's going on around him.  Which made it hard to distract him and ink his hands!  Monkey!

I can't wait to spend more time with this cutie.  

Gotta build up my arm strength!

Belated Birthday Card

I love making homemade cards (duh).  I love clever quotes, cute designs, and funky patterns.  Unfortunately I often forget the actual day of some people's birthdays......but in my defense I remember the month.  Anywho, here is the first of three cards I've created for 3 great friends.

You know that friend that always tells you the truth, even if you really don't want to hear it.  The friend who knows WAY TOO much about you-in fact because she knows so much you can never not be friends...yeah she's my bestie and she  lives in Toronto (Ontario).  We went through college together, lived together (briefly), she's over all wonderful and I forgot her birthday.  So here's my belated birthday card for Rachel.

First I started by stamping the entire background

in a light yellow to create a tone on tone pattern.

Then I inked the edges and glued on

this cute retro housewife image!

Then I cut out 2 word bubbles and inked them to match.

It took me a while to figure out exactly what

I wanted to say...I mean I knew what I wanted to

say just not how to say it.

"I don't want to gossip but....I think you

should think about getting some new friends......"

"...because this one forgot your birthday!"

Clever right?  It's a little sassy, and I know that I can only use this kind of language on a card to this type of friend...y'know what I mean?  Anywho, I think it's cute and I hope she does too!  More cards to come-stay tuned :)

Linkin' Up To

Nifty Gifty Tags

I'm sure many of you out in blogland make homemade gift tags.  It's nothing new and it's a great way to use up scraps!  I bet some of yours are better than mine. And while a part of me wished to make beautiful ornate, lace adorned, sparkly gift tags, the reality is that these are often thrown out (recycled) with the gift wrap.  So I make nice enough gift tags to match my wrapping paper.  Yes I am just THAT cool.

Since I love stamping (and had some new ones to try out) here is my first batch of hand stamped gift tags!

And here are the very few gifts I have purchased, wrapped and are all ready to go.  As you'll notice I don't go overboard with fancy wrapping either.  Not that I don't want to, but I have to pack them in my suitcase and fly them from Vancouver to Saskatoon (about 1200km or 750 miles!)  So any goreous wrapping would get squished and man handled by the baggage crew! Boo!

Linking Up To

New Goodies

I did something today that I never thought I would do.  I purchased items from the Martha Stewart craft line!  I was at Wal-Mart and saw a glitter stamp kit for $30.  It didn't seem that hot for $30, but I noticed there were individual glue pads and tri-colour glitter at more reasonable prices.  So I bought them.  I thought "How gorgeous to add a little sparkle to my stamps?"

So I got right to it and kept on cranking out some truly lovely cards for What The Heck Wednesday.

Here they are in all their glory!

Everything's Not Lost - Coldplay

Sympathy card with corresponding stamped envelope

What A Wonderful World-Louis Armstrong

Any occasion card with corresponding stamped enveloped (not shown)

Everytime We Say Goodbye-Cole Porter

Sympathy/Farewell Card with corresponding stamped envelope

In case you forgot, here's how to enter to win these

 "Crooner Cards"

To enter to win September's prize from Leslie:


1) Leave a comment letting me (JILL) know what you'd do with the tapes (1 entry per comment, multiple comments welcome) Feel free to leave links to your own projects! I love seeing what you've made!

2) Become a follower & leave a comment (if you're already a follower, leave a comment to remind me)

3) Leave some comment love on Leslie's blog (and come back here to let me (JILL) know in a comment)

What The Heck Wednesday Sneak Peak

In talking to my sis about my contribution to What The Heck Wednesdays, I searched high and low for a theme for the cards I'm making-which will end up as a prize for a very special winner!!!  I didn't know if they should be blank inside, Christmas themed, friendship....I'm very bad at making decisions.

So I started stamping this morning, hoping inspiration would strike.  IT DID!  I love quotes, it's probably half the reason I scrapbook.  I feel like so many of life's moments can be summed up with a great quote.  I like Oscar Wilde quotes in particular.  In fact one of the first cards I ever made for Ty was a hand sketched beer mug with the Oscar Wilde quote "Work is the curse of the drinking class".  Not only is it funny, it's super appropriate for an engineering student, which if you didn't know tend to party pretty hard in university.

Anyway, back to the theme.  I was thinking about some of my favourite love songs, since I was making a love card when it hit me.  Crooner Cards!  All of the cards I make for WTHW will have lyrics from a song by a crooner (Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, Harry Connick Jr, Michael Buble, Dean Martin, Bobby Darin, maybe some Beatles even though they aren't crooners etc etc).  I will try my best to select lyrics that other people will recognize and appreciate! 

Here's a sneak peak!

That's all for now!