My Visit to Paper Source, in Old Town, Pasadena

Oops, I meant for this article to post at Midnight for my usual ‘Monday’ post but I accidentally hit the ‘Publish’ button too soon and now this is a Sunday night post, hehe, and I’m going with it. Moving forward, this Friday I visited Paper Source for the first time. My sister had been there before while in Old Town Pasadena and quickly told me about it. I've wanted to check this store out ever since, and finally made time to visit while having lunch with my mom and sisters. As soon as I walked in the door at Paper Source I was in awe. There were so many colors, and products—I was in heaven. There is so much inspiration at this store, and many tools for you to get your crafting on; for instance, their huge wall of high quality rubber stamps, embossing powders, favor boxes, tags, and so many other things. Their wall of wrapping paper has also got me thinking about not only using them to wrap gifts but also trying to figure out what else I can use them for because each print is so beautiful; and, I’d love to see what else I can use them for—perhaps things like, using them as a background while taking product images, or napkin rings. So many possibilities. But enough talk—take a look at all the pictures I took below. 

What do you think? Great store right? I loved these two stamps I purchased from their store—and I couldn't help but get myself some stickles, hehe. I’m definitely already planning to return very soon because they have so many things I’d love to get my hands on. 

How to Make a Card with a Pocket

Happy Friday, everyone! I got a few requests’ for a tutorial on how I created my card with and inner pocket—and I’m super happy to share! If you didn't see the post with the card I’m talking about you can click here to view it. Now, before I get into the details of the tutorial I wanted to talk a little bit about this card I created (above) I think it came out so cute, and the way I colored the houses reminds me of the homes in Reykjavik, Iceland. The homes in that city are so lively and colorful. Speaking of colorful— isn't Lawn Fawns’ pattern paper amazing? Ok, let’s start the tutorial!

Whether you are starting off with a piece of 8.5” x 11” cardstock, or a 12” x 12” piece of pattern paper—cut it down to the dimensions show in the image above.

 For the sake of visibility I’m switching to a piece of white cardstock.

Start with the blade at the bottom of the paper trimmer, and bring it up to the 4 1/4" mark, and stop.

Turn the paper horizontally, and align it with the 4 1/4" mark. With the blade at the top of the paper trimmer, bring it down (cutting) until you hit the 2” mark and stop.

When you’re done, your paper should look like the piece shown in the image above.

Now you can score! Lay your paper (as shown above) horizontally, and score at 4 1/4".

Next, turn the paper vertically, and score at the 2” mark.

*Returning to pattern paper mode* Next, round the corner of the pocket tab (optional), and adhere. Using my ATG, I placed some adhesive on the left side of the pocket tab, folded it up and attaching it to the inner card base.

There you have it! I also bought some small envelopes that fit nicely inside. I think I’m going to be making a lot of these for Birthday’s and for Christmas too. I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial, let me know what you think in the comments. Have a great weekend. 

Handmade Housewarming Party Invitations

I just bought this awesome stamp set from Lawn Fawn named, Home Sweet Home, on Friday, and it already got here! So thought I’d make something cute in between orders (I couldn't help myself) using this super adorable set. My idea was to create a really fun housewarming invitation with bright colors and an R.S.V.P. reply card as well. I also had the idea to create a side pocket on the card and I think it came out pretty well. I plan on making more cards with pockets in the future. Side note—if anyone would like me to do a tutorial on how I created the pocket, let me know. But back to the card design—I used all a lot of my Lawn Fawn stamps to create this invitation; for example, the set I used for the R.S.V.P. post card was created with their set, You've got Mail, and I also used their alphabet stamps sets: Quinn’s ABCs, and Smitty’s ABCs to create the sentiments. Cute right? 

I didn't go through each step of my process for this invitation—A: because I’m lazy, and B: because I really need to get back to finishing orders. But I’m hoping that the pictures I've shown kind of give you an idea of how I did it. Let me know what you think. I’d love to hear from you! 

The Winner of Friday's Giveaway!

Congrats to Katie R.! You've won two sets of handmade stationary! Yay! Go ahead and email me at unifyhandmade@gmail.com, with your address. 

Not Your Everyday 24k Gold

Since Mother’s Day is nearing, I thought I’d create a super simple—yet tasty treat that you can make for Mom’s day; or, for any other special occasion. I’m using very basic home ingredients, and a very cool ingredient—edible glitter. I don’t think that edible glitter is used enough on treats, haha, and I want to start incorporating it more into special event treats. Here’s how I made it: I cut some fresh strawberries, and placed them into a bowl, added about a tbsp. of sugar, and half of a lemon (juice)—and set that aside.  Next I wanted to make some homemade whipped cream with a little bit of color to show that this treat would have hints of lemon in it (silly I know, but it’s fun for me, haha). So, I used some heavy whipping cream, confectioners’ sugar, and a few drops of yellow food coloring. Then I whipped them together until I formed soft peaks. Once that was done, I added two scoops of vanilla bean ice cream into a cup, added the strawberry mixture, and topped it off when the yellow whipped cream. Lastly, I took some 24k gold sugar (edible glitter) and sprinkled it over the top—and I was finished! This tasted SO good, you have no idea. 

What do you think? Doesn't it look so awesome? It tasted as good as it looks too, haha. I’m going to be using this more often—especially for parties. Also, later today, I’m going to announce the winner from last Friday’s post, so if you commented to win check back later to see if you won! Have a great day.