Mystery Box Makes, Jan ’25

Hello, hello! I am excited continue to share this series into 2025. I did this series back in 2020 and revived it in 2023. I have a mystery box of crafting supplies from Simon Says Stamps. As I dive in I never know what I’ll be using to create! New for 2025, join me LIVE on my YouTube channel each time I make.
So, what is Mystery Box Monday? 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 was only the second time I’ve gone live EVER! I thought I was feeling pretty calm, but my nerves did get to me just a bit as I forgot to add some of the pieces I made to the final project. But, let’s start at the beginning…

Stencil Alphabet
Alcohol Marker
Gift Bag

Here are the items that were pulled from the box… A set of chipboard alphabet “stencils”, a tri-blend alcohol marker and a snowman zipper top bag. With the final item as a little gift bag, the project sort of decided itself. I would just need to jazz up this little bag with the other items. I started with the idea of giving this snowman a scarf colored with the marker and add some special touches with twine and some bling. As I searched for twine I came across some ribbon that would fill in for the scarf beautifully. I also stenciled some little “tags” with M and C for Merry Christmas. The final touch was to stencil the number 25 on the plastic itself.

During the video I forgot to add the M and C tags to the scarf. Here you can see the final intended look.

If you want to see the process, go ahead and check out the video.

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

Glimmer of the Month subscription, month ’25

I’ve decided to dive into the hot foiling trend. I never expected to actually do it. The cost of a foiling machine, the cost of new foiling plates, the space to store it all and getting caught up in the latest and greatest were all a bit overwhelming. And yet. And yet I was feeling a sense of FOMO. It was almost akin to the early days of die cutting; it was the latest and greatest. But would it be an expensive fad to fade away? Die cutting ended up being a staple crafting method. I believe hot foiling is as well.

My shifting thinking toward hot foiling collided with a ridiculously cost saving Black Friday deal. I accidentally ran across a hot foiling machine for a discontinuing price of $25. I was stunned. And also sold! The next step was how to go about adding some hot foiling plates to my stash in a reasonably affordable way.

Enter another collision of events. I had been subscribing to the Freckled Fawn memory keeping kit and cancelled it back in November due to poor customer service. I thought I would take a break from subscriptions for a while again. However, the Spellbinders kits have been in my periphery for a while. When I found the hot foil machine, signing up for a monthly foil plate subscription just seemed to make sense. I could slowly add to my supplies and also some monthly happy mail. I may even try to keep the goodies a surprise if I can manage to avoid all the social media reveals!

So, on with my first happy mail goodies. I received the December “kit” near to Christmas and held off making the unboxing video until after the holidays. So here is what the December set involved.

On the left you can see the outlines of all the pieces included: The larger floral corner, two sentiment plates and the coordinating three dies to cut out the pieces. The center shows off how things will look when used as designed. To complete the monthly kit there is a roll of hot foil. This time it was matte gold. How can you have shiny foiling that is also matte? I don’t know the magic they use, but the results are beautiful!

I had a learning curve to overcome when setting to work. After a few mistakes I got the hang of it and the results were amazing. I quickly got ideas on projects and made it happen. I created a set of cards for Galentine’s Day as well as a scrapbook layout using some scraps.

Neither of these images do justice to the shine of the foiling. You should watch the video to get the full effect.

I hope you’ll join me later in the moth as I unbox and explore the January glimmer products. I’m looking forward to adding more shiny goodness to my projects this year.

Until next time, have an artful day!

Forgeries on the Fourth (aka FOF), January ’24

As a design team member over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge group I play along with as many of our monthly inspiration challenges as I can. The Forgery on the Fourth project is definitely one I enjoy! That is where we see a scrap product we like and set out to recreate it with supplies we already own. So let’s go ahead and dive in to what I have for you this month.

Since we always start our forgery projects with inspiration, here is the image we are working with this month. It is the September 2024 kit from Hip Kit Club.

It is really hard to see into all those tiny embellishments. Here are the best grabs of images that I could manage.

Here is what I ended up making. These makes were not special or complicated, but in my makes video I explain some crafting ideas behind them. For instance I talk about the advantages of alcohol based markers. I also create several things using circle punches while explaining how to see shapes differently.

You can hear all my thoughts, plus some bonus makes in my video. Remember that coffee press icon up above. I tell you how I found a similar item from

For more creative ideas, the CKC blog has more forgery examples to check out. I hope this gave you some ideas on how you can recreate your favorite products with supplies you already have on hand. Don’t forget to show off your stuff over on the CKC Facebook group, or tag us on Instagram @counterfeitkitchallenge or use #counterfeitkitchallenge.

Until next time, have an artful day.

CKC Kit Build, January ’25

I love kit building and that is why I am on the design team for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge project. We take an inspiration kit each month and proceed to replicate it, or as we say, counterfeit it. This is a free, friendly group that helps inspire you to use up supplies you already own. We are not about needing to buy the latest and greatest thing (though we won’t stop you if you enjoy new crafty goodies😉 ).

Happy New Year everyone. January is always a big shift for me as I move from largely die cutting and card making back into scrapbooking. I often feel a bit rusty switching gears again. I’ll shake off that feeling and get right back to it. So… Welcome to a new month of kit building. Christine is our hostess this time. She chose the September 2024 kit from Hip Kit Club to inspire us. Before we dive into the details of this kit, let’s give a warm welcome to our guest designer this month. Jennifer Cain. You can find her on Instagram and on YouTube.

So let’s move on with our kit. Here are a few looks at what we have in store this time around.

It is a bit hard to get a closer look at all these goodies so you’ll have to trust me when I say I saw something sepcific that caught my attention, LOL.

For the papers, I only used items that sparked some interest for me. There was no specific reasons I included some papers and not others. The funniest thing about building out my papers was that I completely forgot I had this split-heart print in my stash. It was such a fun match to the inspo! Some other paper choices were more on the interpretive side, but that is how I roll.

For the embellishments I was super inspired by small little images in the kit pack. That lead me to pulling a lot of die sets and stamps sets to mimic those images. From roller coasters, to owls, to shoes, I packed in a bunch of little imagery. It’ll be a month of making embellies for each layout! Yet, I still do have my FOF (aka Forgeries on the Fourth) project coming, so perhaps I can get some work in ahead of time to pre-make some elelements.

Hope you will come back on the fourth to see what I made ahead and what I left to do in real time!

Before we go, there is a tradition over at CKC of titling our kits just like companies do. So I’m calling mine…

Sky High

… in honor of the stars and rollercoasters and hot air ballon images.

If you want more details on my kit building thought process, check out my kit build video. (This will go live 6am PST. To keep our team coordinated, our blog posts go live at midnight EST.)

I hope you can follow along with the other designers and see how they interpreted their own kits.

Here’s the full hop link list

Have fun kit building and don’t forget to show off your stuff over on the CKC Facebook group, or tag us on Instagram @counterfeitkitchallenge or use #counterfeitkitchallenge.

I’ll be back on the 4th, for our Product Forgeries. Until then, have an artful day!

Spellbinders Advent, Bonus critter ideas

During my daily Advent opening and project I managed to create this menagerie of critters on day 14.

Since I was creating videos in the shorts format for those daily projects, I asked if people wanted a longer format of creating these guys. The resounding answer was YES. So here is that video.

You may notice that I made some changes to these guys during this second version. That just means there is flexibility to creating. Here is a closer look at all the new guys.

I mentioned in the video that I have a printout of instructions for creating these guys. Right now this is a rough draft corrected version of the document. However, I wanted to get this out now. You can always come back for the final version next week. I hope you find this document useful.

Critter Instruction Sheet

NOTE: CORRECTED download now available.

You can download this pdf file to print and store with your dies for future reference.

That is it for this one. Hope you have an artful day!

Spellbinders Advent Day 22-24

Join me all month of advent as I open each day of the Spellbinders Crafty Advent Calendar. Some days I will create a project and some days I’ll just show off the goodies. No matter what, I know I will use each and every product at least once this month. So much fun awaits!

If you missed previous days, be sure to go back and see the first seven days as well as days 8-14. If after seeing all the goodness you’d like to grab one of these calendars, they are on discount right now (as of 12/11/24) over at ACherryOnTop.com**. For now, let’s dive into the next section of fun.

Day 22: Pink Sequins

Day 23: Floating Cat

Oh my goodness! This cat is so dang cute. If you remember back on the 6th we got a very cutesy bee that I said was not my style? Yet today I’m in love with cute? I think the difference is that while the bee is big-eyed and anthropomorphized, this cat is more cat-representative and in a silly situation. So, yeah, cute vs cutesy is a thing for me.

Now, my daughter said the cat should be in a box. Thus, I made it so! (I wonder how many people will get cats as Christmas gifts this year??) At any rate, the box was easy to make. I cut two squares of the same size. One became the box base. The other I trimmed at an angle on the two sides, and I trimmed off a bit of the bottom. This creates perspective for the front box flap. I glued it flat down at the top and popped up the bottom edge with some foam squares for dimension. The two side flaps were simply slivers of cardstock. A bit more ink shading where things over lapped and voila, box!

Day 24: Luggage set

What a fun die set! You know I had to do a bit extra for this one. The still photos do not say it all. You really have to watch the video to get the whole experience!

Day 25: Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!

To see the rest of this series, visit these pages.
Days: 1-7
Days 8-14
Days 15-21
Days 22-24 (you are here)

** I use affiliate links when possible. When you shop using my links I earn a very small commission at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work in this small way!

Spellbinders Advent Day 15-21

Join me all month of advent as I open each day of the Spellbinders Crafty Advent Calendar. Some days I will create a project and some days I’ll just show off the goodies. No matter what, I know I will use each and every product at least once this month. So much fun awaits!

If you missed previous days, be sure to go back and see the first seven days as well as days 8-14. If after seeing all the goodness you’d like to grab one of these calendars, they are on discount right now (as of 12/11/24) over at ACherryOnTop.com**. For now, let’s dive into the next section of fun.

Day 15: Embossing Folder

Day 16: Sentiment Die Set

Day 17: Nested ticket/postage edged die set

I had way too much fun with this nested set. I was supposed to keep the day’s project simple. But. Nope. I had to make all the things.

Day 18: Sequins

You know I had to do it at some point. Today I made a shaker! And a bonus card too for other sequin ideas.

Day 19: Sentiment Stamp Set

I was rushed for time today. So my exposure is bad on my filming (and still image capture!) But I did make really good use of many leftover bits that I have been saving throughout the series. I cut a new tag and did some ink blending. Besides that and the stamping, everything else was done.

Day 20: Random Dots Stencil

Day 21: Popsicle

I admit that some of the included pieces kind of puzzled me. In fact, they felt like a puzzle as I was trying to layer them all together. I think in the end there are options, LOL.

To see the rest of this series, visit these pages.
Days: 1-7
Days 8-14 (you are here)
Days 15-21
Days 22-24

** I use affiliate links when possible. When you shop using my links I earn a very small commission at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work in this small way!

Spellbinders Advent Day 8-14

Join me all month of advent as I open each day of the Spellbinders Crafty Advent Calendar. Some days I will create a project and some days I’ll just show off the goodies. No matter what, I know I will use each and every product at least once this month. So much fun awaits!

If you missed days 1-7, be sure to go back and check them out. For now, let’s dive into day 8. If after seeing all the goodness you’d like to grab one of these calendars, they are on discount right now (as of 12/11/24) over at ACherryOnTop.com**.

Day 8: Vase & Flowers

While I loved this vase, I knew everyone out there would make a vase with flowers in it. I definitely like to show other ways to use supplies. So today I used the vase as a rainbow background for a cluster of flowers.

Day 9: Sequins

Today we got the sequins I knew would come at some point. Each year Spellbinders has included 2 packs of sequins. I really like this style of sequin as it has no hole and that makes gluing them down so much easier! While most people would make a shaker that doesn’t require glue, I made a disco ball instead.

Day 10: Sentiment Die set

Today’s three sentiment dies read “just saying hello” when stacked together. However, you can always split them up into different word groups.

Day 11: Embossing Folder

Yes! We got an embossing folder in our advent box. It is a small one, but a mighty one. I enjoyed using an inking technique for this one that I learned from Jennifer McGuire.

Day 12: Lemonade Glass

Unfortunately my camera’s exposure settings were off and my video & graphics are a bit blown out. I’ve tried to correct it as best as I can. You’ll have to trust me that this tag is more fun in person!

Day 13: Multi-lingual Sentiment Stamp Set

Finding ways to use sentiments so that they stand out as a featured item is a bit tricky for me. I’ve come back to my much used idea: repeat stamping.

Day 14: French Bulldog

I was inspired on day 9 by Mostly Paper Crafts‘ YouTube channel. She turned the honey bee die we got on day 6 into an entirely different critter. I usually see different ideas in dies, but the bee did not click with me. That is, until I saw her video. Then… when we got today’s little bulldog a flood of ideas hit me. So here they all are, LOL. All these critters were made with a combo of the bee and/or the bulldog pieces.

To see the rest of this series, visit these pages.
Days: 1-7
Days 8-14 (you are here)
Days 15-21
Days 22-24

** I use affiliate links when possible. When you shop using my links I earn a very small commission at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work in this small way!

Spellbinders advent is back! Recap Day 1-7

Days 1-7

Join me all month of advent as I open each day of the Spellbinders Crafty Advent. Some days I will create a project and some days I’ll just show off the goodies. No matter what, I know I will use each and every product at least once this month. So much fun awaits!

Here I will collect each week of the project and post pictures and videos to share the fun and inspiration. If after seeing all the goodness you’d like to grab one of these calendars, they are on discount right now (as of 12/11/24) over at ACherryOnTop.com**.

Day 1: A Hot Air Balloon

Day 2: Floral Stamp

Day 3: Flower Set

Day 4: Sentiment Banners

Day 5: Doodled Borders

I’ll admit I’m not sure how much use this little squiggle die set. But I had fun with it today and that is what matters right now. 😊

Day 6: Honey Bee

If you’ve followed me for a while, you probably know that cutesy is not my style. I’m super excited about this bee. I’m sure plenty of people are though! At any rate I made use of the bee but he’ll likely sit unused after this. That is okay. I’m still loving my Advent Calendar!

Day 7: Floral Stencil

No time for a project today. But I got a quick video in and gave info on what I’m doing with all these tags that I am making during this series. Stay tuned for that blog post coming very soon.

By day 10 I was able to finally do a makeup project for day 7. I actually made something Christmas themed!

To see the rest of this series, visit these pages.
Days: 1-7 (you are here)
Days 8-14
Days 15-21
Days 22-24

** I use affiliate links when possible. When you shop using my links I earn a very small commission at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work in this small way!

CKC Kit Build, November ’24

I love kit building and that is why I am on the design team for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge project. We take an inspiration kit each month and proceed to replicate it, or as we say, counterfeit it. This is a free, friendly group that helps inspire you to use up supplies you already own. We are not about needing to buy the latest and greatest thing (though we won’t stop you if you enjoy new crafty goodies😉 ).

Welcome to a new month of kit building. Vikki is our hostess this time. She chose the Goldenrod Digital & Printable Kit by Traci Reed Designs to inspire us. Before we dive into the details of this kit, let’s give a warm welcome to our guest designer this month. Tamra Hunt, pictured to the left! You can find her on her blog.

So let’s move on with our kit. Here are a few looks at what we have in store this time around.

Lets take a bigger look at the papers since that is where I usually start. What caught my attention was the fact that there were plenty of everyday papers tucked in there. From plaids to polkadots, I found plenty to inspire me outside of the definite fall theme of this collection. I very much appreciate that! I also liked that the softer than traditional color palette as well as the addition of gray and gray-teals.

So these are the papers I came up with. I subbed out the black star print for a large bold multicolor star. I included one leafy print and one pumpkin print as a nod to the theme. I also subbed in one wreath print that while intended for Christmas, could work really well on a Halloween layout with porch pumpkins!

And here is a look at the embellishments. I kept my main selection of embellishments manageable. I will allow myself to draw readily from my stash of fall and Halloween embellishments as needed.

Don’t forget that each month I also create my own elements to add into my kit. Of course these are inspired by the original kit, but often have a twist of their own. So don’t miss what I will make in just a couple of days. I’m sharing some things from super-easy to fun-techniquey this time around.

There is a tradition over at CKC of titling our kits just like companies do. So in honor of the wreath print I included, I’m calling mine…

Porch Decor

If you want more details on my kit building thought process, check out my kit build video.

I hope you can follow along with the other designers and see how they interpreted their own kits.

Here’s the full hop link list

Have fun kit building and don’t forget to show off your stuff over on the CKC Facebook group, or tag us on Instagram @counterfeitkitchallenge or use #counterfeitkitchallenge.

I’ll be back on the 4th, for our Product Forgeries. Until then, have an artful day!