Izbzee

Neighbor gifts

Pinterest has been my go to lately for some inspiration and we decided to a do a little more for a gift for our neighbors this year.  Using some fabric from my stash, I made some simple bags.  We added some boxed cookie mix, though with an adjustment in the size of the bags, you could add a mix in a jar if wanted or fill the bag with wrapped baked goodies or candies, etc.    

Some greenery, berries and a small wooden spoon found in the wood crafts section at Hobby Lobby worked well. 

The kraft tag was a print 2 cut done using SCAL 5 Pro and cut on the skycut.  The edges of the tag are swiped with some white ink.  We used some brown paper wrapped wire to pull everything together.  

2022 Holiday Tags - #12

Today's the final day... the reveal of the last tag.  This digi stamp, Christmas Gnome with Lantern, from Polkdoodles.com was the perfect image to use.  

Colored with colored pencils and blended with Gamsol.  There is some shimmer added to the beard and a few stars around the tag edges.  It just doesn't show well in the above images.  

To add a little more to the tag -- the EZ light from Pear Blossom Press was added to the back panel.  There's no need to create a circuit as the circuit is built into the EZ light.  Just add the battery, secure the light in place as directed in the instructions provided with the product packaging - and making sure that the button is facing the front of the tag.  Once you have the light in place, add some foam tape around the edges.  I placed two layers of the tape along the edges and secured the two tag pieces together.

Press the button and voila!  You have light and a very special tag that will be fun for any recipient!  

This has been a delightful 12 days again this year.  Thanks again for stopping by.   I'll be posting a recap a little later this month.  If you're so inclined, we'd love to have you join us next year for our annual reveal and share your 12 tags as well.  All of the tags shared this year here and on the Facebook page can be found in the 2022 - 12 Holiday Tags Reveal album.  

2022 Holiday Tags - #11

Interactive cards are a favorite of mine.  Why not make a tag with an interactive element?  

This spinner tag is fun and festive.  Again, I used a paper from the Nordic Christmas Collection and the dotted paper is another digital image found in a pastel dotted and stripe collection.  Both are from Creative Fabrica.  

I used a rounded corner rectangle for the initial base.  An oval was used for the cut out and the tree is from the Winter shapes folder in SCAL.   Size and then fill both the shapes with the desired images using Pattern Fill on the Fill and Stroke palette.  Cut and assemble pieces to form a spinner.  Use a little ink if desired along the edges since the digital images are printed on white paper.  

Thanks for stopping by.... we're nearly done with the reveal for this year's 12 Holiday tags.  Feel free to check out all of the tags in the album on the Facebook page found here.  

2022 Holiday Tags - #9

I decided to create another tag using foiling.  The tree file were a purchased file from So Fontsy.  There are quite a few tree designs in the file.. I enjoyed picking the 9 used on this tag.  

The trim on the bottom was a print 2 cut using a simple rectangle filled with a pattern from the Nordic Christmas Collection I found on Creative Fabrica.  The foil quill came through again~ just make sure that it is thoroughly heated up before using.  One of the benefits of using the Skycut is that there is a USB port and you can heat up the foil quill using that port -- no extra battery pack or dragging another charger and plugging it in to use the foil quill.  

Thanks for stopping by -- hoping you're enjoying the reveal!  Our Facebook page offers the whole gamut of contributors this year... so stop by there too  

2022 Holiday Tags - #5

I tried a different shape for this tag, filled one end of the tag with a fun buffalo plaid print.  

More use of Print 2 Cut in this tag.  The buffalo plaid and the To and From were printed using SCAL and cut using the Skycut C24.  I love the spot on cut.  The tree and banner were filled with color and were also printed and cut.  The edges of the images were edged with ink in a similar color to cut the bright white of the paper they were printed on.  

A small wooden star was used to embellish the ribbon hanger which was wrapped with some twine.  

2022 Tags - #3

Keeping it super simple on this one....  Print 2 cut simple!  Back with an additional layer for a bit more sturdiness.  

The image is from a fun Christmas Collection Creative Fabrica, The images included were created and meant to be used for sublimation purposes.  Don't let the word "sublimation" turn you away from using these or similar images for other things if you don't have a sublimation printer or access to one. 

This project was cut using the Skycut C24 and set up for the print 2 cut process using SCAL 5 Pro.  Cutting using the Skycut and SCAL software is always spot on - never off. 

Add a little "shimmer" to the highlights on the image and you're done!  Add a ribbon or some twine for hanging.  

Thanks for stopping by... be sure to stop by our Facebook page and see the other tags that are being shared by other creative makers!  

2022 Holiday Tag Reveal - Tag 2

Our Facebook group is having so much fun -- and if you haven't taken a look at the tags that were posted yesterday, you might want to stop by and take a peek.  You'll find the group here.  Today's Tag #2 has a couple of steps  1)Print and cut the tag filling a concave rectangle shape (rectangle and oval -- back minus front) with a little buffalo plaid from a collection I found at Creative Fabrica.  Make sure that shape is set to print only. Center the shape over the tag shape and line up with the bottom of the tag.    Foil the sentiment using a single line font or a font with a narrow line.  The standard foil quill point works well.  

Since the tag is printed on white cardstock, I inked the plaid edges with some Black Licorice ink, leaving the remainder of the tag without any inking.  

The snowflake has an added shadow which will be cut.  The snowflake is set to draw and foiled.  Once the foiling is complete, cut the shadow layer and pop up with a bit of foam tape.  Add a length of ribbon to finish off the tag.  The SCAL software and Skycut are perfect companions for creating holiday tags again this year...  

Thanks for stopping by!  Hoping your holiday crafting is going well.  

Stack of cards

The number of this November/Thanksgiving stack of cards continues to grow as T has decided he wants to share a few as well.  Do I mind?  Of course not! 

Pinterest inspired, but with a slightly different take, this card is cut on the Skycut using SCAL 5 Pro and shapes from the Library and a few different techniques I thought I'd like to try.  Lots of enjoyable "play" time.  

I used the back minus front command in SCAL to create the leaf cuts  (I now have nearly a hundred white leaves ready to color to use in a future large shaker project).   I used two separate sentiments created using fonts and the p2c option offered in SCAL.  (Both fonts are from Creative Fabrica) for this stack of cards.

It was fun adding the score lines for the leaf cuts using a shadow cut as a panel behind the card front face.  

The panel was colored using distress inks.  Once the panel was adhered to the back of the card face, I flecked some gold shimmer on the card face and the shadow layer.   Once dry, the card face and panel were adhered to the larger panel and then to the card base.  

These are pretty quick to assemble once the stock was printed, cut and pieces colored.  This month's stack jumped from 12 to 20.  I've already figured in that we'll be adding this number to the our Christmas card list as I begin that process next month. 

Hoping you will be enjoying some creative time in the next few days if not sooner.  Enjoy and thanks again for dropping by.   

more Halloween decor

The Topsy Turvy Cake file from Simply Crafty SVGs was the perfect base for this fun project.  It also pairs really well with the Shrunken Head Candlesticks found in this post.  

It was fun using a digital striped paper (from Creative Fabrica) to fill the pieces for that section.  The SCAL 5 software makes it so easy and the Skycut cuts a printed image perfectly!  We added a "stripe" of light gray marker along each side of the stripe.  This adds a little more depth to the striped pattern on the paper.  

Assemble the cake as demonstrated in the video found here.  We used Bearly Art Precision Craft glue to adhere most of the pieces in this project.  

The "eyes on you" border was created in SCAL 5 and is simply a series of duplicated circles evenly distributed on a long narrow rectangle.   The union command was used to make it all one connected piece.  Cut.  Ink the edges with some mid to dark gray ink.  Create additional circles in slightly smaller sizes for the remaining 2 pieces of the eyes.  Assemble.  Add some white gel pen details if desired.   and coat lightly with some glaze.  We used Mod Podge Collage Medium.  Let dry and then using some narrow double stick tape, adhere to the edge of each of the cake layers after assembling the cake.  We made 5 strips (23 circles) measuring 11.5 inches in length cut on the diagonal and used most of the strips to decorate the edge of the cake layers.  

The "It's Show Time" marquee is simply 3 pieces of paper cut to the width of the top layer.  2 white and 1 black slightly larger in size.  You can cut the text on both pieces of white -- however, we chose to use it only on one piece.  Sandwich the black between the two white pieces.  We added a toothpick to each end and slid the picks between the border and edge of the top cake layer.  

Since we plan to fill the cake box with some goodies for our upcoming family dinner, we decided to add some weight and strength to the cake base.  We cut an extra bottom for the base and filled a sandwich bag with about 1/2 cup of rice.  Seal the bag and carefully stuff into the base.  Add an additional circle under the doily piece.  This will add a bit more strength to the entire base and stiffen the edges a bit.  

The cake with the marquee in place is nearly the same height as the candlesticks... so together, they work quite well.  

Hoping you're enjoying some creative time in your space this weekend.  Enjoy and relax!  Crafting is a great way to destress.  

Thanks for stopping by!  There are a couple of additional ideas coming together here ... can't wait to share in the next week or so.  

Signboard Easel Card

These were so fun to make... I created a similar signboard easel design back in February -- for Mardis Gras.  With a few improvements, I decided that I could use it for some other options.  Resized to a standard card size (4.25 x 5.5 inches), decorative panels added and this is what I came up with.  

This project is now featured on The Artistry.  AND the signboard easel is a free SVG cutting pattern you can download and use.  You'll find the details for downloading this free file and how to create something similar here.  

Embossing, and inking add a little more texture and interest. And the signboard file is a free download at Creative Fabrica!  

There are lots of ideas flowing for using the signboard easel.... I'm sure we'll be seeing it in some future posts later this year and into next.  

Hoping you're looking forward to some creative time in the next few days.  Enjoy it!  I know I am looking forward to doing a little bit of cutting, gluing and assembling today and tomorrow.  

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