Friday, April 27, 2012

Mother's Day Vintage Printable Box, Label Tutorial, Links and Booklet Clearance!

Hi Everyone,

I have our 2012 Mother's Day Vintage Printable for you and it's a 'Mom's Sweet Confections Box'. I also have a fun tutorial showing how you can use the same image from the box to print labels for glass bottles and other keepsakes. Plus, all our old Alphabet Booklets have been marked down you can scroll down to see clearance pricing and links.

Here is our Printable Mother's Day Box Template and you just need to left click it until it gets as big as possible and right click the image to save it to a picture folder on your computer. You can print it on card stock or paper.

I took photos yesterday and planned to have this post up early but the photos turned out sooo BAD. Took more again today inside & outside to no avail, so Cindy cut out my boxes so you can see a bit better how pretty the Stardust Gelly pen looks that I used to outline the roses and the decorative designs. I also used a Gold metallic Pen to outline the label but it isn't showing up well either. Maybe it's time for a new camera.

You can stamp tissue to line your box and add chocolates, a piece of jewelry or a gift certificate. See this fab tutorial for stamping on tissue that Vicki did using our Dahlia stamp set! If you create anything - we would love to see photos! Ok, this photo is bad but can you see how I took the same image off the box and printed it on Clear Label Paper. They sell printable label paper at office supply stores and you can buy it at amazon. Look how cool this label photo project turned out by Kate from Censationalgirl

I cropped the label part from our box using a free program called Paint (which is installed on many computers). You can also download a fancier version of: paint.net or for Mac computers get Gimp to do image editing. Using Paint you can crop and paste just the images you want to use onto a separate document and not waste any label paper.

I wasn't thrilled with the way the glossy label paper looked on the bottle above as it's so transparent so tried adding some water with blue food coloring. Note - Lesson learned: Inkjet Label Paper will smear if it gets wet. Laser Label Paper is waterproof. Next, I tried the one sheet I had of Matt Label Paper and I like it better as the matte label sheets have a hint of opacity and the ink seemed to adhere better as you can see on the bottle below.

Here are some labels I printed on a Clear Glossy inkjet sheet using a page of pretty labels that will be on CD # 3.

Okay, now I have a couple of links to some past vintage printables you may have missed from other years. Here is a link to this nice poem that Marlene Bender used to make this pretty sample below.

I also love this old forget-me-not postcard with this poem. Here is the link to get it larger

This an old sample Vicki created a few years back with a photo of her sweet mom using letters and a label from our Divine Alphabet Booklet and all the Alphabet Booklets have been marked down to $1.50 each but if you call and order them in bulk you can mix titles and we can fit 63 in a Priority Flat Rate Box for $58.00 and we will pay the S&H! Here is a link to the titles left: Altered, Angelic, Boys, Girls and Divine.

Each of the Alphabet Booklets have 9 letters and a word at the top of each page, numbers and 4 pages of images or poems. The Boys and Girls would be fun for birthday party crafts.

Look at this beautiful card DT Member Michele Kovack created using our Love You Mother Stamp Set. on sale for $12.99. You can see more photos and get all the details here on Michele's Blog.

I will be back next week with a bunch of fabulous Mother's theme projects and layouts like this pretty one that Sheila Rumney created using papers and elements from our CD # 1, Creating with Vintage Papers

Plus, I will show you a project I'm working on to make a dress form using sewing papers that will be on CD # 3, Creating with Vintage Typography. We are just finishing up the samples for the CD and it will be sent off to have a bunch made.

Also, look at the beautiful Martha Stewart patio set Scott bought me as an early mother's day gift! The chairs swivel and glide and I swear they are the most cozy patio chairs I've ever sat in! The only problem is they are so big I'm not sure if we will have space for the firepit I wanted.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Sandy Redburn

Crafty Secrets

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Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Decoupage drawers, Vicki’s Giveaway, School Papers, Fabulous Samples & More!

Hi Everyone,

I have some great stuff to show you today and this Friday I will be posting a new vintage printable for Mother's Day so be sure to come back or simply sign up on the side so you don't miss anything (like our Linky Party May 7th or the DIY Tutorials starting soon)!

Look at these funky little drawers DT Leader Vicki Chrisman altered and turned into shelves. She decoupaged a bunch of different papers that will be on our New CD # 3, Creating With Vintage Typography and has a bunch more photos and tips HERE on her Blog. Plus Vicki has a great Giveaway to celebrate her 5th Blog-aversary you can enter!

We are working on the samples now to add to the CD and there is enough space to add a couple of fonts and some wonderful sentiments and poems I've collected from old vintage cards. Do you ever notice they save all the best verses for the most expensive cards? The CD #3 should be back from the manufacture in 3 weeks

The file below shows the school theme papers that will be on CD 3 and click to see them bigger. Jill left a sweet comment on my last post when I showed some pages and also asked if we would have any school papers. Yes - and look how cool they tuned out! School Days will be a PNG you can use as a title. I sent Jill a big hug because she was so encouraging to me and said her husband passed away 8 weeks ago. She has a young son and my heart goes out to them. I'm going to really try and not complain

Look at this adorable card Sophie created using the mouse, cake and ornate frame from our Tea With Alice stamp set, the balloons from Little Girl and Letters for "Bon Anniversaire" are from our ABC Top Hat Clear Art Stamp Set.

Sophie has been on a roll creating so many adorable and clever cards. Look how she stamped the little play outfit for the paper doll girl and the cat and dog all from our All Dolled up set.

She created this card for a 50th wedding anniversary and used our Cherish Stamps (except for the 50) The gold accents finished it off perfectly. You can get the details here in Sophie's gallery.

I'm in love with Vicki's new Bow Die and Marlene Bender bought a package of them in Vic's Etsy Store and made this stunning card showing an image from our Birds & Blossoms Scraps

Here are some cute photos of Otis, our little 11 yr old blind, diabetic dog looking all cute playing on a trip to the park.

Somehow he ended up with fleas (which he never gets) and Chelsea, 25, our youngest stayed here for the weekend and gave him a bath, haircut and flea collar.

Here he is as good as new and looking all spiffy. I miss him as he lives with Chelsea & Anthony now and he's their baby. I swear he looks younger since he moved in with them.

I will be back Friday with a wonderful Mother's Day Printable and a tutorial. I should really say 'Saturday' as I so often post later in the day or night but I will try.

I hope you are having a wonderful week!

Sandy Redburn

Thursday, April 19, 2012

CD #3 Preview & Update , Vicki's New Bow Die, My Happy Bird, May Day Printable Link

Hi Everyone,

I'm so excited to finally show you the cover of CD 3, Creating With Vintage Typography and some of the other files that will be included! This third CD was truly a labor of love. It became an obsession to try and include everything people had asked for and then so many life changing challenges happened...

Cindy, my graphic designer for the last 8 years developed a benign tumor in her eye and was off 4 weeks with surgery and Shelley our shipper was off 6 weeks with major back surgery. I'm so happy to say they are both doing great now but it's been a long and difficult recovery. During this time DT leader and dear friend Vicki lost her beloved mom and dog. Our Design Team finished their 6 months and I was in such limbo I never even offered a DT call and only added friend Marilyn and some long time fav ladies stayed. Jessica our office manager left for college but thank goodness is returning.

I got so stressed out I decided to change the business and simplify life and I'm still busy trying to sell off a bunch of our products to focus on our best sellers and start licensing designs. You all screamed 'Keep the Clear Art Stamps' - so yes we are working on NEW Stamp Sets and Creative Scraps - plus some new great projects I will share soon!

First, we need to get Cd 3 off to the manufacture but need to add some inspiring samples! Diane, my ad lady did the 2 ABC Nursery Rhyme papers and Astrid from Sweden did 4 papers but Cindy did everything else! Please tell me what you think of these 36 designs?

I hope when you click them on they get big enough so you can see the variety. I showed the other sheet of 6 Bingo cards before so there will be 12 total.

The ABC flash cards turned out so cute, I'm going to print them on fabric and make a little book for my niece & nephew. If you recognize the pretty diamond paper it's from our Earthy Paper Pad which was sold out until Scott found a couple of cases marked wrong, so there are a few left. There will be blog tutorials for printing on tissue, using image transfers, decoupage, water slide decals on glass & furniture, iron transfers and more!

NOTE: Our Barber Shop Papers are going on a Men's CD and but will also be available as a digital download soon and there will be new Men's Scraps next month!

Vicki has a brand new die design that makes really cool bows and check out the 3D shadow box she created with one! She has a little tutorial showing how she stamped the bow using our Farm Fresh Stamp set and step by step how they go together. She's selling them in her Etsy Shop. The roosters are from a pair of prints on CD #2, Creating With Vintage Illustrations.

I also wanted to show you this adorable vintage paper standing bird who is parked in my kitchen window. The bird is a printable paper template on CD # 2.

As you can see I just poked him inside the plant but he stands and this sample is just printed on the least expensive cardstock from Staples with 'no-name ink' from the Ink Farm and he/she is still cute enough to make me happy when I wash dishes!

I spotted this adorable card that Sara - iscrapnXS made, who was also the random.org winner at our first Linky Party. She used an image from our Sweet Stuff Stamps and you can see her Splitcoast Gallery here.

Look at this cool altered house Diane from Art of Craft in New Zealand created. I love how she used the beach child from our Seaside Stamp set and placed her in the garden as she really looks like a garden girl! Diana sells our stamps in her NZ store and has all the amazing videos like this Tim Holtz Ticket Die video I recently posted where she uses our Bird Notes, Garden Girls and Wonderful Woman stamps.

I almost forgot - here is the link to print for a previous May Day Printable image from one of my old antique books that's fun to color. The link goes to a higher res copy than the one below

Lastly, I love this new Asian Mango Slaw recipe from skinnytaste.com I don't think I've seen a recipe I didn't think looked yummy yet.

I love to read your comments and hear any suggestions!

See you soon

Sandy

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Fabulous Vintage Card Samples, Pintrest Boards, See us at the GAS Show in TX!

Hi Everyone,

We've been busy finishing the files for CD # 3 and I will show you some of the files next time but I'm super excited! Also working on 6 new stamp sets and some other fun surprises. I have some really inspiring stamped cards and cool projects to share today. With Spring here everyone is pulling out their flower stamps & images and creating pretty, colorful projects and this cool art journal by DT Member Pam Hooten makes me happy just looking at the colors and how she used our Dahlia and Sunflower Clear Art Stamps with Ranger & Dylusion inks and a stencil. You can see more photos and details on Pam's Blog.

DT Leader Vicki Chrisman has a great tutorial on her Blog Showing how she used our Dahlia Stamp set to create this pretty card using just Pink Glimmer Mist and a Pink Copic Marker (ok, maybe a little yellow).Vicki's always worried that she can't color as well as some of the 'Copic Queens' but this shows you don't need to be an amazing color artist or use a bunch of colors. You can get all the details and see the inside on Vic's Blog.

When we were at the Sewing & Craft Show a couple of weeks ago past DT Member Marisa Grosson stopped by for a visit and brought me a bunch of beautiful samples and I wanted you to see the cool way she layered her card using our Rose Stamp set and you can learn how here on Marisa's Blog.

I also met the wonderful Elizabeth Lincoln at the show and she brought me some beautiful cards - lucky me! I'm just sad that we accidentally packed all the samples up into our antique trunk and I didn't keep Elizabeth's and Marissa's cards out to show you. You can see a bunch here in Elizabeth's Splitcoast Gallery. like this one she made with Bouquets of Joy

I really enjoy reading the family stories that DT Member Julie Campbell posts with the scrapbooks she is creating to honor all her family members and the detailed history she is documenting, like this sweet story. I wish I had more photos and knew more stories about my family. I have told my kids every story I've heard and keep meaning to do video interview with my mom and get her to tell some of the stories in her own words about growing up at the end of the depression on a farm.

Here is a cute and quick card idea that DT Member Marilyn, aka busymartha whipped up here on her Blog using an image from our Little Blessings Scraps. I love the little pennant she added and homespun colors.

Marie-alice emailed me me 2 adorable cards and look how she made a table for the kids and pies from our Winter Wishes Stamp set. It's a great example how you don't have to just use this set for Winter projects.

Look at this sweet card she created with our All Dolled Up and Grand Greetings stamp sets. It would make such an adorable card for a little girl. You can see a bunch of fabulous cards here in Marie's Splitcoast Gallery.

Sophie La Fontaine also emailed me 2 wonderful cards she stamped like this one she created with our Sing For Joy Set and I love the creative way she used the flower to stamp a background, the mom bird and the window she die cut!

I love the way Sophie mixes up stamp sets to create cards I never would have thought of like using the chair from Take it Easy Stamp set with the little stamp set from our Halloween Postcard Kit and others like the Fleur-de-lis from Artsy Banner You can see a bunch more great cards here in Sophie's Gallery.

I'm not sure if you spotted this fantastic box that Shawn altered and posted on our Facebook page. She used a Breath Right Box and our Book Lovers Stamp set and I love that she turned it into a 'Tea Gift Box' and incorporated her love for reading and tea. You can see more photos and details here on on Shawn's poetryinapotoftea blog (corrected link).

I started some Crafty Secrets Boards over at Pintrest to post projects and samples and I need to add a bunch more to it but here is the link if you want to check it out. It's a fun way to see stuff!

Lastly I wanted to show you the new ad Cindy made for the Great American Scrapbook Show we will be at May 31 to June 2 in Arlington, TX! We do this big show every year and have so much fun. Vicki Chrisman will be doing demos and make & takes and Sara Hemphill is coming back to help us. I will be posting more details soon but if you live anywhere near - please come see us and get a free gift with a purchase over $15.00.

I'm off to dinner with my wonderful husband to use a gift certificate we were given for the Boathouse restaurant and I can't wait to have a bowl of seafood bisque!

Until next time,

Wishing you joy & creativity

Sandy

Crafty Secrets

Visit Our Online Store
Join Us on Facebook!
This Blog: http://heartwarmingvintage.blogspot.
Our Website: http://www.craftysecrets.com

Toll Free Phone or Fax 1-888 597-8898
Local Phone 604 597-8817

Crafty Secrets Head Office
15430 78 A Ave.,
Surrey, BC V3S 8R4

USA Warehouse
250 H. Street, #436
Blaine,WA 98230

Monday, April 9, 2012

The Results, $1.00 Mugs to Stamp and Some Great Samples

Hi Everyone,

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend with those you love. We are doing Easter dinner here today and have the entire clan coming!

I have results from our Linky Party for $50.00 and the $60.00 CS Gift Card on Craftberry Bush Blog went to #137 Sharon Oki Stamp Queen.

DT Leader Vicki Chrisman will also be posting who won her Altered Fairy Kit sometime today.

It's funny that when I hit the button on random.org to pick who won our $50 Gift Certificate - it picked # 1, Vicki Chrisman (who can't be a winner) so I had to re-do it and it picked #16, Sara from www.iscrapnxs blog. Her card is adorable and you can see all 31 fabulous samples here! Thank you to everyone who posted their wonderful creations!

I wanted to have more tips and ideas on using the Shrink Plastic Sheets we are selling but I've run out of sheets and need to bring some back from our USA office. So instead I will tell you the stampable Travel Mugs are back in stock at Dollartree and I just ordered a case of 24 for $1.00 each to use for gifts as they are such a great deal with pick-up at the store (so no S&H). This is a mug that Cindy van Koll (our head graphic designer) stamped previously with our SM18 Wild Flowers and SM01 Bird Notes Stamp Sets. The rubber band is removable and can be trimmed down.

I also wanted to show you this stunning project that I came across by Michele from the UK who stamped and altered an empty container with our Garden Girl Set and turned it into a string holder. Michelle is on the Design Team for The Craft Barn and and they stock several of our stamp sets for you ladies from the UK who are trying to find them!

You can visit Michelle's blog to get more details here. What a clever recycle idea!

Here is another fabulous sample from the UK by Joanne Allison who used our Poppy Card on this gorgeous sample! You can get all the details HERE on Joanne's Blog

I adore this adorable little girls birthday card by Sophie La Fontaine. She used 3 of our stamp sets with the cute puppy is off our All Dolled Up Set, the cake is from Tea with Alice , and she stamped the pretty background using our Floral Art Set. You can also see some other great cards in the Splitcoast Gallery here

Lastly, I posted an update on our Facebook page about our Sale and details on some products that have sold out and some discontinued on Special Clearance.

Hey, if you are a dog lover look at this fun bed & breakfast - the Dog Bark Inn!