Advent All Year, Feb 2026

Hello, hello! Welcome to the info page for my newlivestream series. I’ll be using my Spellbinders Crafty Advent Calendar from 2025 to extend the fun all year long in 2026. I’ll have a live stream on the 4th Friday of every month at 4pm Pacific time. The stream will last between and hour and an hour and a half. This series is also a craft-along!

I will preplan a project, post sneak peeks and post of things you can prep ahead of time if you want to craft live with me. I’ll try to use the advent supplies in a way that may not be super obvious. That way you can get more ideas on using your advent goodies. Hope you will join me.

Date

The next live will be February 27th, 2026 at 4pm Pacific Time. Join the live now or watch the replay.

February Project

This month we will be creating critters in fun, alternative ways. Then we will set them in a scene to peek out. There is a little extra surprise to these critters not shown in the sneak peek that I hope you will enjoy!

You will need to do a fair bit of die cutting ahead of time. I have a photo guide on dies and cardstock colors to help you through all the pieces. We will do some die cutting on the day of the event as well. I’ve noted in the preparation instructions what you need for now and what we will do live.

If you want to craft along with me, here is a preview of the preparation list. Click this link to download the instructions. A zip file will download. The folder includes PDF and JPG files.

If you have any questions or comments, you can message me here on the blog from the Contact tab. Or you can email me by using misty at craftysoup dot com. I’ll do my best to get back to you in a timely fashion. Hope to see you on the 27th.

3 Products, 3 Cards

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching! If you haven’t already created your cards, I’ve got some ideas to share. I wanted to add techniques and ideas you can use all year long. Starting with three basic supplies, a modern color palette that steps away from the traditional, and a solid design principle means we have the recipe for many lovely cards.

Products

I started with a sentiment stamp set that can be created for a Gal-entine’s sentiment or for more typical Valentine’s. I have a nested set of heart dies. Having different sizes allows for more design options. Finally a simple geometric 2D embossing, in this case polka dots, will add some texture to the designs.

Design Element

My favoite part about these cards is this fresh modern color palette. It is also a great one for masculine cards or for cards that step away from mushy sentimentality. All my colors come from Concord and 9th.

The heart die set is going to give us various ways to play with negative space. Often we will cut shapes and then use that shape. But if we use the hole left behind from cutting, we get different design options.

The Cards

The most common way to use a negative space is to create a shaker card. And that is where I started my creations. I’ve leaned int more of the pinks for this Gal-entine’s card. But I have kept it more modern by including yellow and aqua.

Card two plays with negative space in a very different way.

After creating a striped panel, I cut out the heart but let it overhand the edges to get just a partial negative space left behind. The I filled in the space with the sentiment. I adore this one!

Card three looks simple at first glance. The hearts are cut to reveal some other elements. However, when the card is open, there is a pretty surprise.

I also have an interesting technique happening with the gold splatters. If you want to know more about that, check out my tutorial video.

Before you go I have a bonus card. When using negative space, there will always be positive shapes leftover. I just can’t let those go to waste. So here is a heart filled card to used up those bits.

Hope you have happy Valentine’s Day crafting! Until next time, have an artful day.

Advent All Year, Jan 2026

Hello, hello! Welcome to the info page for my BRAND NEW livestream series. I’ll be using my Spellbinders Crafty Advent Calendar from 2025 to extend the fun all year long in 2026. I’ll have a live stream on the 4th Friday of every month at 4pm Pacific time. The stream will last between and hour and an hour and a half. This series is also a craft-along!

CORRECTION:

I gave the wrong day of the week. This is the correct day…
The January 2026 stream will be on FRIDAY, Jan 23rd at 4pm Pacific. Here is the sneak peek..

If you want to craft along with me, here is a preview of the preparation list. Click this link to download the instructions. A zip file will dowload. The folder includes PDF and JPG files.

Mystery Box Makes, October ’25

So, what is Mystery Box Makes? It is just a silly game and creativity stretcher! I have a “grab-bag” style box of supplies that I purchased online as part of a store clearance sale back in Nov ’24. Since the box is a grab-bag, that means all the supplies in the box are a mystery. The box comes at a steep price reduction because the supplies are unknown. Who doesn’t like a good deal and a fun mystery?

I’m going to reach into this box and pull out three items. Much like that cooking show with the mystery basket ingredients, I have to put those items to use on one crafty project. Will these ingredients work together? Or will it be a recipe for disaster? Let’s find out…

This month I actually had the live come together with only minor technical glitches. I promise, some day I will have zero tech issues and I will rejoice. Despite the small glitch I pulled out a few fun things and got right to work.

A piece of random scrapbook paper — **Item #1: Pattern paper with balloon on the front, red & white stripes on the back.**

**Item #1: Pattern paper with balloon on the front, red & white stripes on the back.**

I was sure I would not use the balloon paper. However, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do a card, a scrapbook page, a mini book, or… I pulled out my story binder to see what photos I had ready. Wouldn’t you know it, I had a birthday story to tell. So, balloons won the day after all.

The photo for the story is not a great one. Even in person it is really hard to tell what it is (blueberry frech toast covered in whipped cream!). That is probably why the story has been left untold! Today was the day to use an imperfect photo to create an uncomplicated layout. Here is a quick peek at the finished product.

If you want to see the details of this layout coming together, here is the live video recording.

So that is it this time around. I hope you join me for future Mystery Box Makes LIVE. I’ll be back on Nov. 20th for the next one. Until then, I hope you have an artful day.

Protected: ScrapHappy Reunion, 2025: Watercolor Class

Ghosting!

No not the person who you were talking too who suddenly ghosted you.

No, not the haunted spirit kind of ghosts. (Though that is close.😉)

I want to talk about the technique of ink ghosting! While this technique is very simple to explain, it does take some time and patience to get right. So let me show you how it is done and give you of tips & tricks.

Work on heavy cardstock. The smoother the better.
Choose a water reactive ink. Many basic dye inks on the market will work. Look for labels that say “permanent” or “watercolor friendly”. Those are the ones to avoid!
Spread ink all over your paper really well. Ink brayers or foam daubers work great. You can use blending brushes but it will take much longer to get a good coat of ink.
Use an open shaped stencil. Anything with too much detail can get blurry.
Cover up any paper that sticks out beyond the stencil!!
Spray a light mist of water from about 12 inches away until the images are evenly coated.
Wait for about 10 seconds. Dab excess water away with a dry towel.
Repeat as needed to get full coverage on your project!
Voila!

Now I have a bit of an announcement. I will be opening a small online shop to sell a few products. One of them will be this ghost stencil that I designed! If you really want to see it in action, the video below shows all the detail.

I’ll be sharing another ghosting technique on Nov 4th using some stamping. Stay tuned for that! Until next time, have an artful day.

March 18-22

It wasn’t too busy in my craft room this week. I got a few projects done, some cleaning and organizing sorted, and some sewing progress made. As for YouTube, just a couple of projects went up. In fact these were the only layouts I actually finished. I’ve been working on my sketch class over at SCT but between headaches and appointments, it has sat unfinished.

So, here is what I did do. This one was the second CKC challenge, called the blast off challenge, where we use 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 of elements. Specifically it was 5 enamels, 4 chipboard pieces, 3 photos, 2 ribbons/fibers and 1 word title. I’ve never done this before, so here it is! Video available.

The second layout was for the monthly sketch challenge. I altered it a little to fit my needs but you can see the inspiration. Video up for this one too.

I’ll be back soon to wrap up March. Until then, have an artful day.

Mystery Box Monday, Aug ’23

Hello, hello! I am excited to bring back my Mystery box Monday series. I did this series back in 2020 and since it did not get a lot of views back then I had retired it. But I missed it. This project was just some weird creative fun and I am happy to be back to it.

So, what is Mystery Box Monday? I have a “grab-bag” style box of supplies that I purchased from Piece Craft Love as part of a clearance sale back in Dec ’22. Since the box is a grab-bag, that means all the supplies in the box are a mystery. The box comes at a steep price reduction because the supplies are unknown. Who doesn’t like a good mystery?

I’m going to reach into this box and pull out three items. Much like that cooking show with the mystery basket ingredients, I have to put those items to use on one crafty project. Will these ingredients work together? Or will it be a recipe for disaster? Let’s find out…

This time around the first two items were clearly Christmas and I thought I knew what I was going to be making, until…

I pulled out this Doodle-Pops sheep embellishment. Um… okay. Now what?

So the brain starts churning away. I could use the letters for a card title. What kind of card? Sheep means baby. Can I do baby with Christmas stamps? There are a lot of words on there, what if I just use the words as an alphabet? What about the holly leaves, what could I do with those in terms of baby? It could be a hill for the sheep to stand on…

…and the idea was born.

I knew the hill would be green and the letters red, so in order to move away from the obvious Christmas color scheme, I pulled in more colors to create a confetti feel. Marker stamping and spattering techniques pulled this card together. If you want all the details, check out the video.

As a bonus I did go ahead and create some Christmas cards too using the same design style. Now I have a bit of a head start on my holiday crafting!

So that is it this time around. I hope you join me for future Mystery Box Monday goodness. Until next time, I hope you have an artful day.

What else is new?

If you don’t follow my YouTube channel, you may be wondering what I’ve been up to in April. Hopefully you’ve already seen my posts for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit build and first two layouts. If not be sure to head back to read up on those.

I’ve had a few other things going on so far this month.

First up as this photo indicates, I did get a Mystery Box Monday project done and I liked how it came out. Be sure to read on for more on that.

I also made some sweet little bouquet embellishments. I did not do my usual project forgery for the CKC group this time around as my ideas were very simple and not worth a whole post/video. These sweet little bouquets came about from a spin off of the other project I worked on this month…

…I did a very big product review that I will detail in another post (coming soon!). I put that product to use in a pretty project, so be sure to check that out!

Mystery Box

Each month I reach into my mystery box of crafty supplies and pull out three items. Much like that cooking show with the mystery basket ingredients, I have to put those items to use on one crafty project. Will these ingredients work together? Or will it be a recipe for disaster? Let’s find out…

Here is a peek at the mystery items I pulled out of the box this time around. The “first” item was actually a bundle of three things as part of the thank you note from the shop. I hade some sequins, some floral embellishments and a stamp of a cat in a window. The next two items are as pictured below.

That stamps definitely set the tone for this entire project! You can view all about it in the video.

But here are the final project pictures if you want a quicker view.

Bouquet Embellishments

So this idea got stuck in my head when I was playing with my new die cutting machine. It just took me a little while to find the time to get to it. But once I was in the process it didn’t take a huge amount of time at that point since the new die cutter has a much larger cutting area than my old one!

That wraps up another blog post. Until next time, have an artful day!

PRODUCTS USED^^

Spellbinders, Stylish Ovals florals: https://shrsl.com/414me
Concord & 9th, Grateful Blooms: https://shrsl.com/40scs
Scrapbook.com, Sprigs die set: https://shrsl.com/40sdg
Stampendous, Cat in the window stamp: https://www.franticstamper.com/Stampendous-Cling-Mounted-Rubber-Stamps–Window-Kitty_p_139798.html

^^ Disclaimer: I offer affiliate shopping linked products when possible. This shopping won’t cost you anything extra, but I get a small kick back from the companies for sending business their way. It is an easy way to tell me “Thank You” for the content I provide.

3 Products, 3 Card Designs

I’m hoping to help you expand the usefulness of some of your supplies. Today I’m using just 3 main products to create three different card designs. We’ll look at a few tips and tricks to expand the use of layered stencils and background dies. In fact I’ll confess, I only own one cover plate/background die!

Now, I’m going to show you some Easter cards today, but I want you to keep in mind that simple changes can turn these cards into just about any occasion. You’ll get the most tips and details from the video, but I’ll share the basics below.

For the embossing powder, it was used to:

As a basic stamped greeting
Edge the card front
Edge card elements (eggs in upper card)
Added as focal point accents (flower centers)
Create a focal point texture piece

The stencil was featured by:

Using a portion to create a “die cut” focal
Using it to decorate other elements (the eggs)
Using it in portions to decorate the background.

The cover plate die was also used in three ways:

As intended, as a background layer. The tone on tone gives it a special tone.
As a dry embossing texture (the video covers this technique!)
As a dry + heat embossing focal piece

I hope you found some interesting ways to stretch your supplies! I’d love to hear the ways you enjoy using background dies, stencils or embossing powders in your crafting.