Crafty Weekend Fun

If you follow me on Instagram (@unifyhandmade) you may have already seen two of the cards I’m showing here on my blog today. I made these cards for fun, and I like having lots of them on hand and ready to go for myself and for my family and friends as well. The last stash I had collected was running very low, and lately I’ve been trying to make at least one card a day—for fun, to keep my stash alive, hehe. I think making one card a day is an easy goal—and it’ll certainly be a fun one. It seems as though I’ve haven’t been making as many cards as I used to these past couple of months. But now I’d like to ensure I put time aside to create at least one card a day. I think I’ve said this in the past a few times, but this time around I’m really going to make time for all of my stamps, dies, and other craft tools. I can’t let them just sit there collecting dust. They’re all too cute and fun not to use!

I do get my crafty fix when I’m working all day on the papercrafts I sell in my shop—and that’s such a blessing it itself. Maybe that’s why I didn’t even realize that I wasn’t making enough cards for fun because I have fun everyday just working on orders, too. Once in a while when I’m working I’ll glance over at my stamp stash and realize they’re being neglected but I always tell myself, “Oh the weekend, I’ll make as many cards for fun as I can” or, “I’ll make one card tonight before bed”. Usually I’ll post a light night card on my Instagram, hehe.

This weekend I also went to Lawn Fawn’s 4^th birthday party at, Stamp Fever, in Orange, CA. It’s a cute little craft shop filled with all the things to fulfil your crafting needs—plus the staff there is super nice! If they don’t have something you need, they’ll simply order it for you. Kelly Marie, and Mike, (two out of the three LF owners) were there greeting everyone, and doing fun make-n-takes. It was really fun to be in a fun crafty environment with friends. I even took my boyfriend, Gabriel, and I made him do a make-n-take with, Nancy, hehe.

While I was at Stamp Fever I picked up a few new stamp sets, and dies. I’ll probably be sharing those on my blog soon. I love supporting small business so I tried to spend as much as I could without going overboard at Stamp Fever—actually I think I did go a little overboard but it’s ok! Haha.

Tomorrow I have a new video on the Lawn Fawn blog so I hope you stop by their page to view it. I’ll probably share it here on my blog as well.

I hope you have a great day! 

D.I.Y.—Easy Pumpkin Treat Bag Card!

Recently a Facebook friend asked for advice on creating a super simple Halloween themed card; and, I always love to give advice and help others when it comes to crafting so I decided to create a tutorial showing how one can make a cute yet easy card. What’s so great about this project is that you don’t need a ton of tools, stamps, or patterned paper. Very basic tools and paper were used for this project—but the end result was still super cute!

Here are some of the tools I used; however, if you don’t have these it’s no problem! The most important tools you’ll need are paper, scissors, pen, pencil, ruler,and glue. 

*The size paper I’m using is standard computer size paper (about 8 x 11”).

First, take the black paper and cut it in half. I cut it at 5 ½” on my paper trimmer (this gives me two standard A2 size card bases). Next I fold one piece in half and sketch out the bag handles like so:

Next, I cut out the handles and also rounded the bottom edges of the card. Once that was completed I used that card base to trace the bag image onto an orange piece of paper, then I lightly sketched an inner border at about ¼” an inch and I also lightly sketched the eyes and mouth of the pumpkin.  

Once that was done I cut out the pumpkin bag and also cut out the eyes and mouth using my Exacto knife. Next I used my black pen to draw some faux stitching and bag handle openings, and adhered it to the black card base. 

Lastly I cut out another blank orange bag to place on the inside of the card and I was finished! 

I hope you enjoyed this super easy tutorial! Let me know what you think in the comments and if you decide to make some share them with my on my facebook page! + special thanks to my little sister Melanie for letting me use her super cute pumpkin cake pops as props. If you live in the Los Angeles area feel free to stop by her blog and order some cupcakes or cakepops! Click here for her blog. 

D.I.Y.—Day of the Dead Cupcake Toppers

September is half-way over and Halloween is quickly approaching. I have a really cute, affordable, and fun D.I.Y. project using some stamps I purchased from my local craft store for only $1.00! I’ve mentioned before that, Joanns Fabric & Craft stores always has new holiday themed stamps every year and I always love to collect them all. This year one of stamp sets that got me super excited was the Day of the Dead skull and bones. Typically these acrylic stamps don’t produce a clean crisp image with regular black ink so I decided to purchase some black embossing powder for this particular project instead. I remember when I was a novice papercrafter and I’d pass through the isle with all the little embossing powders and just marvel at the variety of colors; and how cute the bottles were—but I never actually knew what they were for. Now that I know what they can do I’m obsessed with them! 

Step 1: Place the stamp on your acrylic block 

Step 2: Generously dab your stamp onto the versa mark ink pad

Step 3: Stamp the image onto your card stock

…You can kinda see the water mark here if you look closely

Step 4: Apply your black embossing powder

Step 5: Shake it off

Step 6: Apply heat

Amazing right?!

Step 7: Color-in using markers, color pencils, or any other medium you prefer

Step 8: Cut the image out

Step 9: Apply to wooden pick and cover the back with matching skull (double sided)

And you’re finished! Wasn’t that fun? 

Card of the Week #7

I know I keep going back and forth between Halloween and Christmas items but I can’t help myself. I’m in love with these holidays and I can’t help but work on them both at the same time, haha. I have to admit that I’m also working on Christmas items because within the virtual shopping world it’s best to be ready three months prior to the upcoming holidays, like Christmas. So as of now I’m already stockpiling the things I want to sell in my shop; and, this card is one of the OOAK cards that’ll be available in my shop soon.

I’m so in love with this card. This Christmas I have a feeling that the popular Christmas theme will be the red and white peppermint colors. The red and white colors is one of the reasons why I love Christmas so much—that and all the wonderful smells of Christmas too. 

I used Kraft card stock for the base of this card (my favorite type of cardstock), and I used ivory card stock for the border. The stamped used for this border can be found here, on the Lawn Fawn website. The gingerbread girl and the sentiment can be found in that set as well. Did you happen to notice the sweet little text bubble? It’s one of my new favorite things, as far as stamps go, and you can find those and more in different shapes and sizes here. Definitely a must have for papercrafters or stamp lovers. 

Lastly, I’ve packaged my card in this cellophane card sleeve and for more information on where I purchased these you can check out the blog post I dedicated to it by clicking here. 

Thanks for stopping by for another card of the week! I hope this will spark some inspiration! 

How it’s made Monday—Making Thank You Notes

If you've been following my blog for a while now you’ll know that I take pride in packaging my items before shipment. I love to provide a whimsical experience for my customer; and I’m always trying new ways to make my packaging look super adorable. Not only do I enjoy trying new ways to say thank you to my customers, I also like sharing how I go about doing making them too.

I love to use paper-scrapes from previous crafting projects and I’m going to show everyone how I use my lovely paper-leftovers. Saving your paper scrapes is so crucial because you can sometimes use those scraps for other projects like tags, toppers, and stamp image paper piecing. I have a box filled of different color paper scrapes and I love to go back to that box and search for the color pieces I need before starting from a full sheet of paper.

This time around I’m scraping (pun intended) my ‘Thank you’ card and instead started making the ‘Thank you’ circular tag with a washi tap accent. Really quickly—if you’re unfamiliar with washi tap, it’s a Japanese tape that lots of crafters use for decorating cards, tags, etc. Go ahead and give it a google if you’d like to learn more about them; and, to find the store that I buy my washi tape from you can click here.

So, I’m using ivory leftovers for my ‘thank you’ tags, and as you can see I have lots of them!

I’m also using my ‘thank you’ stamp courtesy of Lawn Fawn. I absolutely love that they provide a free gift stamp with all their orders. It makes receiving their packages even more fun. 

I’m also using one of my favorite Lawn Fawn sets ‘Love ‘n breakfast’ for this thank you tag and I’m using my 2 inch craft punch. 

…and this is how I use the stamps

Next, I simply color in the images and place some washi tape on the back of the tag to seal my bag (but sometimes I skip this process if I’m not using a craft bag), then I apply some more washi tape over the tag to secure it. That’s it! It’s cute, simple, and whimsical. 

D.I.Y. Trick or Treat Bags for Halloween

Halloween is a time of sweet celebration; and, whether you’re hosting Halloween parties, celebrating with your children, or preparing for spooky trick or treaters— making candies bags is something we all have to do at some point. We all know that making cute treat bags is a fun process (well if you’re like me it’s fun, haha), but making them doesn’t have to break the bank. I’m going to show you how I made these treat bags, and also provide links and info as to where I purchased the tools I’m about to show you. 

I always check the clearance and dollar bins at my local craft stores, and every year one store in particular, Joanns, has holiday themed acrylic stamps for only $1.00. I purchased a few of the Halloween and Thanksgiving themed stamps, and I was super excited to get a chance to use them for this project! You can find this Inkadinkado stamp set and many others like it at your local Joanns Fabric store. 

Next, you’ll want to use a chalk ink when using the Inkadinkado stamps. These stamps are made out of acrylic and don’t take well to the normal ink pads; thus, chalk ink is the prime resolution to acquiring a clean crisp image. I like using the Dew Drop Multi-surface chalk ink, by Versa Magic, in Midnight black. 

Next, you can grab your treat bag. I’m using treat bags I purchased from a supplier on Etsy, The Lemon Drop Shop. You can find the listing for 100 of these Kraft bags for only $8.00 by clicking here. Once you have your kraft (or preferred treat bag), go ahead and apply some ink to your stamp, and stamp the treat bag with your preferred spooky image. 

The next set I’m going to use is the mini stamp set created by Lawn Fawn. You can find this set by clicking here. What I did with these is simply stamp a few of the pumpkins, in both sizes. Then color them in, and cut them out. 

Next I took my recollections tape runner and began adhering the pumpkins to the treat bag surrounding my stamped image. Then I stamped a few accents around the pumpkins and also stamped my sentiment. 

Once that was done, I filled my treat bag with yummy treats, grabbed my trusty Crop-A-Dile and placed two whole punches at the top which allowed me to string some twine through and create a bow. The twine I used for this project is made by Lawn Fawn, you can find the link to this product here. 

…and that’s it! You’re done. Doesn't it look so simple yet super cute? Go ahead and give it a try, or use this as inspiration for your own treat bag design. 

Thank you for stopping by once again! Feel free to leave a comment letting me know what you think. I love hearing from you. 

Follow my blog with Bloglovin