Embroidery Project with Veggin Stamp Set

Hi everyone, Jes today. I'm over on the Sweet Stamp Shop blog with this fun embroidery project, and I thought I'd share here with you as well. When Sweet released the new VersaCraft ink, I saw an excellent opportunity to combine two of my favorite crafting hobbies: embroidery and stamping. 

The hardest part was deciding which set to use.  I ended up ordering the Veggin set when I ordered the VersaCraft ink pad. I like to have decorated dish towels on hand to give out as gifts. The adorable veggies were perfect for a set of dish towels. 

When using a new ink I like to test it several times on scrap paper, or in this case fabric scraps, to get a feel for how it works.  With my smaller blocks I tended to smudge it quite a bit as I pulled up, but with the Fiskars Stamp Press I was able to get a clean impression.

The ink was still a bit light in some places, but I just traced over it very lightly with a pencil since it was going to be hidden with thread anyway. I made the mistake of not ironing out the crease from being folded when I did my project. It didn’t hinder the stamping or the embroidering, but it did annoy me a bit. 

Before I start stitching a project, I like to pick out all the thread colors and have them in a little basket that can also hold my project when I’m not working on it. It makes it easier to have everything on hand.  It’s also a habit of mine to finish all of one color before moving on to another.  It can be tedious when working on larger projects, but with this design it moved very quickly.

I zoomed in on this to show you the stitching in more detail. I used a simple stem stitch to outline each of the veggies. I considered filling them all in, but was afraid the cute little faces would not show up as well. So, I chose to just fill in accents on each veggie. The faces were a bit too small for me to stitch in and have it look right, so I traced them with a marker instead. 

Here is a close up of the finished project.  My best friend has already laid claim to this towel, and asked for a complete set.  Dish towels are just the first item on my list of things to make now that I have this new ink.  Some other projects I have in mind are: aprons, t-shirts, bags, wall art, wash cloths, bibs, pillowcases, handkerchiefs, baby blanket, pot holders, tea cozy, placemats, napkins, and various clothing items for my daughter.  I hope that this post inspires you to explore outside the world of paper crafting. If you use Sweet stamps be sure to tag us on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook. We love to see what you create.

Fifteen Minute Dragon Bookmark

Hello friends! It's Jes today.  If you didn't know, Kris and I are co-admins for the Sweet Stamp Shop Fan Club on Facebook. We recently started a book club for our members, and we're reading the Harry Potter series together.  Everyone is making adorable bookmarks, and I was inspired to make a set of my own.

I started out by watercoloring a sheet of Canson Watercolor paper. I taped it down to my desk to minimize warping so I could get it good and wet.  I used a few distress inks that I had on hand.  Then once it dried, (I was impatient and heat set it with my heat tool) I stamped out a few Dragons from one of my favorite sets from Sweet Stamp Shop. I used Memento Ink in Tuxedo Black, because I wasn't sure if I was going to water color the dragons, and Memento doesn't bleed.

Once I had them all stamped out I used a T-Square Ruler and a fine tipped Sharpie to draw in the shape of my bookmarks. I liked how it looked right under the wings best, but when I do this again, I'll bring the lines out to the tips of the wings. I think that will make cutting and popping the image to clip in the books easier, and more attractive. 

Next, I tried to be all fancy and cut the whole thing out with my Gyro-Cut tool. Don't do this. It takes forever with this paper. Cut it all out with scissors and then you can use the gyro for the detail cutting later on. 

I chose to color them after they were cut out, you can color before or after, it doesn't make any difference.  Isn't he so cute? I colored him in with a couple of Tombow markers, but you could use any coloring medium. I also outlined the whole thing with black markers just to give a clean edge.  *Note, the backside looks pretty gnarly, but by adding the long rectangle on the bottom it makes these easy to line up, so you could have the dragon dude on the front and the back.  I'm going to play around with it a bit, and I might update this later if I come up with an idea I like.

Here is the hard part.  To make the little dragon hold your page like this, you have to cut in pretty close.  I used my gyro for this, and then cut all the way up to his shoulder and his neck to give him as much room as possible to hook on the page.

I used the tip of the gyro tool to push the arms out after cutting them, and then bent them back a bit so that they would stay popped out and I wouldn't have to do it again every time I wanted to mark a page.

His arms are very tiny and he doesn't hold the page well when he was cut like this, so I experimented really quick and decided to cut out his body. This works well, but the tail was so close to the edge of the frame that I nearly cut through it, and it's still very fragile. I mentioned above that it might be a good idea to have the frame for the bookmark start at the tips of the dragon's wings. This is why. It would give room to cut around the tail without risking the integrity of the bookmark.

Both look adorable, and I'll definitely use both. Just play around a bit and see what you like best.  They will also work well as regular bookmarks. 

If you liked these let me know in the comments. We're also taking requests for projects.  If you have something you'd like to learn to do, let us know in the comment section and we'll do our very best to post a tutorial soon.  Also, don't forget to follow us on IG: @teachplancraft and @jes_planning.  Drop us a comment and let us know you're coming from the blog! Thanks for reading! 

Fast and Easy Corner Bookmark

Hey, everyone!  It's Kristine with you again today, and I've got a quick craft for all the book lovers out there.  I'm sure you've probably seen that video going around Facebook of the bookmark made from the corner of an envelope and washi tape?  Well, I wanted to make one that was a little more sturdy and a little more "me" than that.  So armed with a few tools and an unlined 4x6 index card, I came up with this!  What do you think?

The whole thing came together in about 20 minutes.  Now that's my kind of craft!

First up, turn your 4x6 unlined index card (or piece of cardstock, whichever you prefer) on its corner and draw a 45 degree angle so that the diagonal part is about 3 inches long.

Next, draw horizontal and vertical lines to create a square.  Extend them to the edges of the card. (The pencil lines are pretty light in this photo, but you should be able to see them if you click and expand.)

Now, cut off the diagonal part and the large rectangle to the upper right. 

Score very lightly along the two sides of the square that still have pencil marks.  Then fold the two rectangles backward away from the triangle.

Once all the pieces are folded up flat, carefully trim off everything hanging below the bottom of the triangle.  I used my craft knife and a metal ruler, but you could use scissors, too.

Turn the triangle over so that the flaps are facing up.  Fold one flap down and put adhesive on it (I used a roller adhesive and went all around the edges.  Then stick the top flap down on top of it. 

You should have a 3-layer triangle now that has an opening between the front and the first flap.

All that's left to do now is decorate it and start using it!  I stamped the Book Club set from Sweet Stamp Shop with Memento ink and colored the images with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers.  And boom, that's it!  20 minutes, start to finish, and I have a really cute bookmark.  These would be super easy to make as gifts or party favors!

Thanks for stopping by today!  Please feel free to leave a comment or question down below and I'll be sure to get back to you!  Happy reading!

Hey, everyone! It's Kristine with you today, and I've got a quick post for you about my bullet journal. As you know, I abandoned my traditional planner (an Inkwell Press flex) for a DIY version in late April, then two weeks later, started a bullet journal. I've been using it for 3 weeks, and I absolutely love it! It's given me the flexibility to experiment with layouts, which is why I moved into a DIY planner in the first place.

Many people who use a bullet journal set up weekly layouts in advance, but I like mine to go day by day - the ability to change it up and make each day however long it needs to be is what really drew me to the system in the first place. It's just so happened that this past week was able to fit on a 2-page spread, but if that didn't happen on another week, it would be a-ok with me. I've got a new plan for next week's days which incorporates a sort of Dutch door set-up, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it works out.

One of the things I loved about my old Erin Condren and Inkwell Press planners was stamping, and I'm starting to figure out how to incorporate that into my bullet journal now, too. This week's stamping was mainly decorative, but I'm looking forward to trying some more functional stamping next week. Stay tuned!

Following is the link to a very short 4-minute time lapse video showing how this week's days came together. I hope you like it!

I hope you all have a great week ahead! Please feel free to leave any comments or questions below - I'd love to chat with you about the bujo system!

Watercolor Divider for Personal Sized Planner

Hello! It's Jes, back again with another fun craft.  I woke up with a nasty headache, that has lingered all day. I needed a simple craft that I could do on the couch and didn't have to think about too hard.  Sure, I could have pushed this post off till tomorrow, but I've been working hard to meet my posting goals, and I wasn't going to let a headache ruin my solid streak.  I decided to make a simple but fun dashboard for my new personal sized planner.  Here is a look at one a did a few days ago, just for fun.

I used Count Down and College Plans from Sweet Stamp Shop to create that divider.  I just stamped, colored, cut, and glued. Then added the sentiments from Count Down. The tab is from the Labels and Tabs set from Studio L2E.

For today's project I decided to do a simple watercolor dashboard and spruce it up with a single sunflower.

Supplies needed:
Watercolor Paper
Markers or watercolor paints (I used Tombows)
A hole punch
Water Brushes (or a brush and cup of water)
Stamps and ink

I have this Canson Mixed Media notebook, that I used to pre-stamp all of my favorite stamps. I can toss it in a bag with a few markers or colored pencils and color on the go, or while watching TV.  So, I just tore the sunflower page out to work with today.  The sunflower stamp is from the Our Friendship Grows set by Lawn Fawn.

I absolutely hate to measure. I don't know why, but I do. So I just traced the last divider I made, and slid it down the page a bit to put the tab where I wanted it.

 Next, I laid down a solid foundation of color in an ombre pattern. Then, I spritzed it well with a little mini mister bottle I picked up from Walmart ages ago. I wanted it good and wet. Using an old dry rag, I soaked up all the excess water, and lifted a bit of the color off, because it was too dark for what I wanted.
While my divider was sitting to the side drying, I colored in my sunflower and pot.

I wasn't thrilled with the way the pot turned out, and ended up coloring over it again with my tombows before I attached it to my divider. I cut these out using my amazing Gyro-Cut tool (seriously if you don't have one GET IT! Then come back and tell me I was right and you adore it :D ). I love that I can fussy cut detailed images in such a short time, and get such clean lines. 

 

See? It's awesome, right? When you're finished admiring how neatly that cuts, we'll move on. I'll wait. 

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Ready? Next up, I attached the flowers and flowerpot to my divider.  I ended up sketching in a stem and leaves, because I wanted smaller leaves and a smaller stem than what are provided in the set. 

So, glue them down nice and snug, and you're ready to hole punch.  This was actually a bit flimsy for my tastes, so I went ahead and traced it on a piece of heavy card stock and then adhered it to the thicker piece to give it the sturdy feel I prefer.  Finally, I grabbed an insert from my planner to line up the holes (my six hole punch doesn't work and I need a new one) and punched out my holes.  Then, I just popped it in my planner and I was ready to go.  From start to finish, including drying time this took about 35 minutes.

Do you love this? Hate it? Do you have any questions, or thoughts, or tips? Leave me a comment below and let me know what you think.  I love comments, and will respond to all of them!

Don't forget to follow me on Instagram @jes_planning. 

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15 Minute Summer Activity Sticks

Hi everyone, it's Jes again. I'm back with another 15 minute (ish) craft. Have you ever heard "I'm bored! There's nothing to do around here!" from your kids over the summers? I remember annoying my mom with it constantly. My daughter is getting to that age, and I decided to head off the boredom with some pre-determined activities we can do together. I considered just writing it in my planner and choosing something for each day, but that wouldn't be much fun for her.  Then, at a recent wedding, the couple put popsicle sticks out on the tables and asked people to write down date ideas.  It was perfect for what I needed, and I stopped by the craft store on the way home to grab some sticks for myself.

What you'll need:

     Popsicle sticks (tip: get the colored ones, they're more fun)
     Markers (tip: sharpies bleed really bad, so test your makers before using them)

     VersaCraft Ink 

     Stamps that go with what you want to write. 

          I used - Just Icons, Plan Craft, Little Cooler, Plan Summer, Game Night, Bacon Break, Plan To Eat, Plan Television, and Plan Everyday

The next part is super simple.  Write your activity on the stick, choose a coordinating stamp, and stamp it on the top of your stick. You will want to let the ink from your stamping dry for a few minutes before coloring or it will smear.  I had the most success with the ones that sat about five minutes.  

As always, at the end of the project, there are a few things I wish I would have done differently.  I think it would have looked really pretty to write a bit bigger, and fill the stick, maybe even add a bit of fancy lettering. I definitely wish I would have found a marker that didn't bleed.  I also wish I would have tried my spectrum noir markers out on it for the coloring. Using the colored sticks instead of the plain ones would be more fun, but then coloring might not look right.

I've included a short how-to video below.  If you like it, be sure to hit like and subscribe.  If you do this craft, be sure to tag me on Instagram @jes_planning and let me know. :)

Blending Colored Pencils with Gamsol

Hey, everyone!  It's Kristine with you again today, and I've got a video for you on how to blend your colored pencils with gamsol.  We all want to color our stamped images and make them look smooth and seamless, but colored pencils can be fickle to shade and blend just right.  Enter gamsol, a magical substance that will give your colored pencils a beautifully smooth blended look every time, with barely any effort!  I hope the video is helpful - enjoy, and happy coloring!

(A quick note about paper and ink - I used Versafine ink in Onyx Black for these images.  It works well with the gamsol and doesn't smear.  Most inks I've tried work fine, but you should do a test if you're planning to use something other than Versafine, just to make sure it works okay.  As for paper, the smoother the paper, the better the blending.  I have found that papers with more "tooth" don't allow the blending to be as seamless and smooth.  I used plain white smooth cardstock in the video; I've also used gamsol on sticker paper with great results.)

My New Bullet Journal

Hey, everyone!  It's Kristine with you today, with another post in my long quest to find planner peace.  You guys - I think I may have found it!  I am using something now called a bullet journal, and I absolutely LOVE it.  For anyone who hasn't heard of it before, there's a short, very informative video on www.bulletjournal.com to introduce you to what bullet journaling is and how to get started.  If you're at all curious about it, take a look at the video, then keep reading.

So to start my foray into bullet journaling, I picked up the Leuchtturm 1917 notebook at JB Welly (note - I am not compensated for providing any of these links; they're just here for your information).  They can also be found at Amazon and some brick-and-mortar stores.  This journal is A5 size and has dot grid pages, which I love to pieces (you can also get it with grid pages).  The paper is a lot thinner than I'm used to, which I'm not a fan of.  I get a lot of shadowing with the pens I'm using, but no bleeding, so that's something.  Speaking of pens, I'm using a black Faber Castell artist pen and Stabilo fineliners.  Also in my pencil case are a pencil and an eraser.

Now, it's not necessary to have any of this to start a bullet journal - bullet journaling is really about the process, not the "stuff."  But I like to have pretty stuff, so there you go.

The backbone of a bullet journal is the index.  The nice thing about the Leuchtturm 1917 journal is that it has an index already printed in the front that takes up 3 pages.  The pages of the journal itself are also pre-numbered, which helps tremendously.  Each time you add something to your journal, you add an entry to the index.  Here's my index so far:

Now I'll run through rest of the pages I have so far, in order (except for the title page with my name and phone number on it in case I ever lose my journal):

First up: bill tracker and birthdays pages.  Each month when I pay bills, I'll record the amount here.  The birthday tracker will help me keep up with cards and gifts I need to buy and send through the rest of the year.

Next, my future log (this is where you can record future events that you don't have calendar pages for yet).  I have to say, I don't love this.  I've seen several ways to lay them out, and I think if I do a future log in my next book, I won't do it like this.  I just don't like how it looks, and there's not enough room to write stuff.  I may just spread it out over a couple more pages.

I couldn't think of any other tracker or collections pages I was dying to have, so I went ahead next and created my monthly calendar for May.  Because of the way May started on a Sunday, I ended up with a lot of wasted space at the top row, and the May header is way too big.  For June, I will definitely change this up.

So far, the bullet journal is a lot like a regular planner - the monthly layout, the extra pages for tracking bills or birthdays or books you read or what have you.  Here, though, is where it gets drastically different - the daily pages.  Now, lots of people like to do a weekly spread over two pages, with evenly spaced areas for each day drawn out in advance.  But to me, that defeats the whole purpose of doing this journal instead of using a regular planner - by planning daily, I am free to make each day's section as long or as short as it needs to be.  Here are my first four daily entries for May:

As you can see, I'm able to experiment with different header styles and handwriting, which is fun.  Each evening, I set up the coming day in my journal.  It takes only a few minutes to write in a heading and list out the items I know are coming the next day (or even items coming in a few days that I just don't want to forget).  I create this list based on the items on my monthly spread, and add to it as the day goes on.  Each item starts out with a dot next to it, unless it's an appointment that has a certain time (small circles) or important things that must get done right away (squares) .  As an item on the list is completed, I draw an x through the dot, circle, or square.  Anything that didn't get done and needs to be moved to another day, called migrating, gets an arrow.  A horizontal line through the signifier means that the task no longer needs to be done.

After these four days were over, I discovered a doodling challenge on Instagram that I wanted to do for May.  In the spirit of bullet journaling, I set up the challenge on the next available page, even though I was only four days into the May pages.  That means that my May daily layouts will be split up, but that doesn't bother me in the slightest.  The challenge I'm doing for May is for doodling flowers:

I love this spread - all the colors are making me happy.

On the next set of pages, I'm continuing my May daily entries.

As I think of more collections that I want, I'll add them (I've already added a page for the alumni band newsletter I'm putting together this summer), and continue adding monthly and daily pages as needed.  And the book will continue on thusly, until it's full and time to move into another one.

The great thing about the bullet journal, for me, is that it can contain everything - calendars, events, work items, home items, birthday lists, travel planning, lists of books read, weight trackers, doodles, diary entries, home improvement projects - the sky is the limit.  It is a page-by-page record of my life as it happens.  And I love that I don't need 16 different planners or books to keep it all.

If you're intrigued, I encourage you to spend some time on the bulletjournal.com website, then peruse online to see how people have set up their journals.  A word of caution - there are some real works of art out there.  But don't be intimidated!  The journal is primarily meant to be functional - if it works for you, that's all that matters!

Thanks for hanging out with me today and reading along.  If you have any questions about bullet journaling, leave me a message down below and I'll be happy to answer as best I can.  Happy Sunday!

Not All Crafts Are Wins

Hey everyone. It's Jes again. I'm here today with a set of fail cards.  Have you ever sat down to craft and ended up messing up every single project? That was me today. I forgot about Mother's Day this weekend, and have spent the day trying to come up with two cards to send to my mother and mother in law. After several failed attempts I realized that it just wasn't going to happen today.

The first several attempts were crumpled up and thrown away. The last few that I'll show here were ones that I thought I might be able to salvage.

 This one here isn't terrible, my biggest fail here, was using the wrong paper.  I used regular cardstock, which worked well with the embossing, but didn't like my watercolor attempt at all. What you see here is after several minutes of trying to flatten it out after it completely crumpled in on itself. I might cut it down and paste it on another piece of card stock.

Tip #1: Know your materials. In crafting (at least for me) last minute additions don't often work out.  If you're using plain cardstock, watercoloring will not work.

This one actually looks fairly pretty. A few things about it bother me though. For one, black background and Mother's Day don't really go together. I thought I'd try something out of the box and ended up really disliking the final effect.  This black cardstock was extremely flimsy too, which made the card feel very cheap. The final thing about it that caused it to end up in the fail pile is the fact that it is off centered. The bottom part can be salvaged for a congratulations card down the road. 

Tips #2 and 3: Invest in good quality card stock. The cheaper stuff just doesn't hold up well, and flimsy cards feel like the folded printer paper cards we used to make as kids.  Using little pencil marks to mark the center of the paper is helpful and you don't end up (usually) with images that are not lined up. 

In this last one, the mistakes were just flukes. I'll be redoing this card tomorrow and using more caution.  The first mistake was the two different colors for the vine and the leaves. It just throws it off a bit.  Second, I smudged it really bad by pulling up my stencil before the leaves were completely dry. The final mistake, was when I pulled up the tape holding it to my table. It ripped the top part of my card.  If it had just been any one of the mistakes, I probably would have finished the card and sent it anyway, but all three was just too sloppy for me to use. Bonus win: I finally used the right paper!

Tip #4: Be patient.  If you try to pull up your stencils or tape too soon, your watercolors will smudge or run together giving you a muddy look. 

My final tip is: Don't get discouraged. Sometimes craft projects just don't work the way you pictured. Take a break and try again later.

Thanks for reading. If I end up with a set of cards that turns out tomorrow, I'll add a new post. 

Doctor Who Plan With Me

Hi everyone, and happy Monday! It's Jes today with a Plan with me video.

You know how you plan a week out and then stare at it wondering what that nagging thing you forgot was? Yeah, that would be Mother's Day this week. I even wrote down that I needed to make and send cards, but totally forgot to put it down on Sunday. So I'll have to fix that when I get back out to my desk.  Anyway, this week is a Doctor Who week, in honor of the all-night marathon my best friend and I have planned for Friday.  We're 3000 miles apart, but we make movie night work with texting, and messaging.  It's not ideal, but we'll take what we can get. What do you do on movie night? What are your favorite snacks? We love chips and dip, and gelato. Let me know in the comments! I hope you enjoy my video.