Tips for Using Our Vintage CD's, More Bird Cards & Crafts by DT & Link to Giveaway!

Hi Everyone,

I have more fabulous Birdie samples to show you this time by our DT Ladies , plus - some tips & links for using our Vintage CD's, a link to Vicki's Giveaway, a great Christmas bird theme tutorial and a peek at a NEW Bird Stamp Set! Our vintage birds are so popular we have birdies on several products and everyone always asks for more. I love this little fairy nest with the bird & fairy boy DT Leader Vicki Chrisman made using our Altered Fairy Scraps.

Vicki is having a great Giveaway on her Blog for a My Book Calendar and she decorated this one using papers and images off our CD's.

Here is the 'My Book Calendar' you can win and customize. Leave a comment on Vicki's Blog   by next Wed, Dec 21/11 to be entered to win on.

I always love the altered wall art projects Vicki designs and this one using our Birds & Blossoms Booklet looks so great with the broken clay pot nest she made using a glue gun, moss and mini eggs.

I may have gotten a little carried away with birds on CD 2 as I had Cindy, our graphic designer turn them into about a dozen 12 x 12 papers, 6 B&W files, png files you can layer, plus a couple of fun templates.  Here are the birdy papers included on the CD.

This pillow below was created using one of the image files from CD #2 reduced to an 8 x 8" size and printed on fabric. You can purchase fabric printable sheets at several craft & scrapbook stores but you can also print images on fabric by ironing it to freezer paper!  Freezer paper is like wax paper but it only has wax on 1 side you iron onto cotton fabric. Here is a link to a great tutorial by Monique at pocketfulwhimsy for a photo pillow she created of her kids using freezer paper. You could use the same method with images from our CD.

Look at this great card DT Member Gini Cagle made when she reduced this image but you could also use both roosters & chicken images to create wall art or a pair of pillows for your kitchen. You may have image editing program on your computer but a few people have called or emailed who own older computers wanting to know what program to use to resize the large images on our CD's and our free Printables.  Adobe Photoshop Elements is super popular and is included on more computers and even some printers now. Costco just had it for $49.00 but there are also several free programs! 

Paint is a free program on many PC's but you can also download Paint.net a free image editing  program (just click on green their button)  It has over 1000  4* reviews with way more features to allow you to resize, crop and even layer images, plus I love that it has unlimited 'un-do', if you don't like your changes.   If you have a Mac you can use iphoto which is similar. Gimp is another free program you can download, plus there is Picasa from Google and other free image editing programs you can read reviews about Cnet.

I showed this beautiful card DT Member Linda Duke created recently but I wanted you to see the before and after B&W Birdie Darling and other B&W images included below. Oh my - I also adore this one!

Ooops, it looks like I squished the image as it's really 12 x 12" but can be reduced to 8 x 8", 4 x 4" etc. These are the other B&W bird files on CD #2

Here are the different color png bird files which include a couple of journal cards and birds you can layer over paper as they are png which means they have a transparent (not white) background. You can also go hybrid - print them and cut out for projects.

There are also a couple of templates shown above with a 3D standing robin and 2 birdy seed packages which are fun to fill with candies or money.  I showed this apron Vicki's friend Gabby made last time but now you can see the egg image she used above with a bit of ribbon.

Now onto some projects using our Bird Stamp Sets.  DT Member Michele Kovack created this striking card below using our Bird Notes Set and I love how she colored the birdies on the branch, a popular stamp on this set.

I've always wished for a stamp with a branch of birds with flowers you could color. So you can see part of a draft of a new bird set below we recently finished.  Yes, we are still working on NEW Clear Art Stamp designs - they will just be distributed by another company. I'm currently working on licensing arrangements and will give you NEWS ASAP. This is just a corner of the new set that will be called Sing For Joy. I just adore their faces and had Cindy add the blossoms and leaves. Do you like it?

 I've always adored this artsy layout Michele made with her daughter Courtney years ago using the birds and squirrel on our Fairyland set. She simply cut text print leave shapes and inked around the edges.

DT Member Pam Hooten made this sweet card using a stamp from our Love You Mother Set and look how she stamped extra apple blossoms to cut out and add.

DT Member Heidi Blankenship used one of the bird and flower images from our Best Buds Postcard Kit on this postcard made from a cream coasterboard so it inks and stamps beautifully as you can see here how gorgeous it looks stamped with the set included in the kit.
This tag is also beautiful.

DT Member Julie Campbell decorated this wonderful birdy 3D Shadow Box using our Altered Fairy Scraps except the nest in the middle is from the Birds & Botanical Booklet. You can also see a postcard Julie decorated here on her blog.

I can't remember if I ever showed this cool altered piece that DT Member Jan Hennings created using the Birds & Blossoms Scraps but I like all the colors and nest. Jan also stamped on fabric with our Bird Nites stamps and had her muslin bags featured in Sommerset Life.

Look at this beautiful card DT Member Debbie Marcinkiewicz created with the Little Blessings Scraps. Debbie also hosts the Shabby Tea Room Challenges and we are the Sponsor Company for Dec 26th, the same day we start our Shopatron SALE with our companies at Splitcoast!  Most of our items are already on sale but there will be some new items, specials and free shipping Dec 26 to Dec 31/11.

Here's another birdy on sheet music paper from CD # 1 which DT Member Victoria Warren-Mears used to decorate an journal composition book. This would make a great inexpensive gift. I also like this layout with the birdy page from CD # 1.

This isn't birds but I wanted to tell you about the fabulous Christmas cards DT member Tammy Roberts just posted like this one for her mom using our Christmas Image Booklet. You can see the other cute card here on Tammy's Blog. 

Lastly, I want to show you a great tutorial by past DT Member Lisa Zappa on how she created a background paper with our Birdie Clear Art Stamps using Spellbinders Nestabilities round & scallop circles dies to make Christmas ornaments, name placecards and a candle wrap. She stamped the sheet music with a border from Artsy Banners and names stamped with ABC Top Hat. You could easily change the colors and even stamps to create any theme table setting. They look like they would also make fab coasters if you sealed the tops.

PS -  We still have some Single Sided Scraps left which are marked down to $1.99 each in Easter, Girlfriends, Travel and Wacky Animals

Wishing you joy, creativity and a very Merry Christmas! 

If you missed our new free Santa Printable Gift here is a link.

Sandy Redburn
Crafty Secrets

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Blaine,WA 98230

Altered Spoon Album Tutorial, Heart Album, Layouts and Vintage Card Samples - Oh My!

Hi Everyone,
Ooops, I’m a day late with this post due to ‘unforseen obstacles’ but I have some great samples to share!   Check out this fantastic Altered Wood Spoon Mini Halloween Album Tutorial  that DT Member Michele Kovack designed.  She also did a Christmas Spoon Mini Album HERE last month using a Spellbinders oval die, which come in many sizes. On my next post I will add a printable project sheet that Cindy our graphic designer is making.


We just got these heart albums back in stock and DT Leader Vicki Chrisman designed this gorgeous album using papers from the CD , our Love Mail Scraps and Flourishes Stamps



The albums come unassembled in an ivory chipboard and include 4 mini frames . You can see all of the other pages HERE on Vicki’s Blog


Look at this fabulous card fellow internet pal Marlene Bender was so sweet to sent to Vicki’s mom for her 90th birthday!  Vicki sent me photos so I could see how pretty it was and I had to share and show you. All of the images & sentiment she used are from our Girlfriends Creative Scraps. Click her link to see other great projects.


Marlene used our Glamour Girls Clear Art Stamp set to stamp the corners and lady on the inside adding to the nostalgia. I got the lady on the swing in a portfolio I bought by an artist who drew ads for a furniture store in the late 1920’s. The original is over 18” tall and so pretty we are adding her to paper on our CD #2.


I thought this was such a cute idea they way DT Member Gini Cagle added a pennant banner to her layout with the matching twine. The image is from our Homemade Booklet and spoon is from the Kitchen Classics Stamp Set. Details HERE on Gini’s Blog.


When I first saw this cute Halloween layout DT Victoria DT Member Victoria Warren Mears did HERE of her son I didn’t notice she used our Pattern CD to create the entire page.  The faux ‘white studs’ look so 3D and she cut the leaves and pennants from different papers, enlarged the page pattern across the top and used one of the journal pages.

DT Member Michele Kovack also made this fun rooster card and I love the way she added the small treat bag (stamped with our chicken wire) behind the rooster from our Farm Chicks Stamp Set and how the bag holds a tag (but could also hold a custom coupon, movie tickets, birthday money, etc.), eliminating the need to wrap a gift!

DT Member Debbie Marcinkiewicz sent me these next 3 fantastic cards using a combo of our images, stamps and CD papers. I loved each so much I couldn’t pick a favorite!  Just click Debbie’s name above to see a bunch more fun cards she made for our last Retro Challenge.  Image below is from our Homemade Booklet, label frame from Vintage Label Stamps.

I love how Deb mixed 2 stamp sets with postmarks off Artsy Banners and ‘sweet BIRTHAY wishes’ is from the Born to Fly Stamp Set. The adorable image is from our Little Blessings Scraps. 

She also used our Artsy Banner Stamps for the banner and a combo of Happy Birthday stamps off our various various stamp sets. Ticket is off our Love Scraps and our CD paper was used on form, but I’m not sure where the form is from?  Geez, I’ve seen this shape many times – can anyone tell me where/who?

DT Member Gini Cagle explains HERE on her blog how she used Sakura Crystal Lacquer with an image from our Mini Scraps to create a 3D image.


DT Member Viola Mahr HERE created this very pretty card tucking the pansy image from our Garden Scraps behind her ‘fence’, with details on her blog when you click on her name.

In Canada we celebrate Thanksgiving the 2nd Monday in October and it always feels too early to me. I don’t want Fall to start, I still want Summer to hang around!  No choice – we had Thanksgiving this past weekend here, but it was a wonderful sunny day and there were several goofy but helpful participants! From left: my sis Wendy, my dad Russ, daughters Chelsea & Katie, hubby Scott and B-in-law Ron.

All 3 of our daughters adore Martha Stewart and her recipes and this year our youngest, Chelsea 24, asked if she could use Martha’s Brine Recipe and cook the turkey.  Brine…weird?  It was the most delicious turkey I ever eaten! Hmmm… I have to ask her; did she use the whole bottle of wine?  Too bad, DD #2, Holly was away. I love big family dinners! We added all 3 leaves and christened our ‘new but old’ oak table but I need better matchy chairs.


I leave you with one of our happiest guests, sweet Arissa, my niece who loved the fruit punch her Grandma made!


Wishing you joy & creativity
Sandy Redburn
Crafty Secrets
Check Our Store Locator
Visit Our Online Store
Join Us on Facebook!

This Blog: http://heartwarmingvintage.blogspot.com
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