First Craft Shop 2026

Hello everyone,

I had some credits to use up so I ordered some craft items I needed to stock up on. 

First I picked up a few Stamp sets. I noticed while making Christmas cards, I was lacking in just plain greetings. I also needed some Christmas embellishments.

These are so sweet aren’t they?

I picked up some more stamps I liked 

These I will add to watercolor cards

I just love these painter ones

And these are great for watercolor backgrounds as well.

I bought some eclipse diecuts. These will come in handy for clean and simple cards.

I picked up more coin purse hardware. The plastic ones are specifically for kids. I will have fun playing with these. 

I love the hand embroidered pendants I’ve been seeing, and since I haven’t put my Brazilian embroidery skills to use in years, I added these to my cart….and what’s better than linen fabric? I bought several squares of them in different colors, and I already have lots of Brazilian and embroidery thread. I’d say I’m set! 

That’s it for this time around.

Thanks for dropping by! Keep crafting everyone !

Carmen

Coastal Cards

Happy New Year everyone,

First I’ll show you some coastal cards I made up. I’m trying to use up most of my Graphics 45, Catch of the Day paper pad.  These make great cards for men especially, but women would like them too. 

First card:

And a close up

Second card:

Close up

Note the sailors knot. 

There are several, with lots of diagrams to follow online.

Third card:

Close up

Fourth card:

I have enough of the pad left for maybe two or three more cards if I get creative. I decided I’m just going to make them up and that way I have them if I need them.  

Thanks for stopping by, keep on crafting.

Blessings, 

Carmen

Denim Pocket Picture Frame

Hello people 😊

I don’t know if I told you, but I came across a fun recycled denim idea that I decided to try. I love it and hope to make a few more. Not only that but I will continue to work with denim fabric, both recycled and new. Here is my creation. 

I love it! The casual, recycled pocket from a pair of old jeans used with some cute little scrapbooking flowers. I glued them in place, but you could totally fashion a pocket to go in the pocket and replace it with the season (i.e. Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter), you could really get creative with these.

Thanks for popping by,

Blessings,

Carmen

Instagram

Quick Christmas Cards

Good morning,

I am popping in to share some quick cards I made for Christmas this year. These were so easy to do. I used printables, a few strips of Christmas paper, a stamp and a simple embellishment. Details below.

I ran off a printable from the Facebook page “Free Printables.” The author is Jackie Hayes, and the post was called “Quirky Christmas Girl.” Once you join Free Printables, you can use the search icon on the top right to find the post. As you can see there are several, and I didn’t use them all.

Note also the diecut I used under the pencil. This set had several sizes. I used the larger size to cut the images (I circled them because they were quite close together). Then I used that one and one size smaller to create the trim around the image- which you will see below.

I apologize for picture quality…it is, in fact, a white card, and you can’t see the difference in the color of the image and the color of the card. Just in the photograph of it. On this one I used two strips, one was thinner. I put a silver bow on with embellishment tape, and wrote the greeting. The picture was placed with foam tape. So quick and easy. 

Note the frame around the image, which I explained above. This required a diecut and some glueing.

This one was two strips, some silver embellies, a written greeting and popped up image. 

This was also two strips, a stamped greeting, pearl embellies and the popped up image. 

A few more

And the whole party of cards! The most tedious part was getting the frames on the images, but it escalated the image, and I have my trusty little 10 ml. glue container to minimize the frustration of glueing small things. 

I didn’t put anything on the inside like I usually do. They were supposed to be quick hellos! 

Thanks for stopping in and Merry Christmas!

Carmen

Check out my creations on Instagram 

Vintage Coin Clasp Purse

Happy Weekend all, 

I thought I’d drop by and share my little Clasp Coin Purses today. I found a little pattern and tutorial on the Tried & True Creative blog and decided to try them, and they are so easy to make. I hope you’ll try it. There’s minimal machine sewing, and really the only hand sewing is attaching the clasp to the purse. I did make myself a pattern for the bit of batting I used, but that’s easy enough to do.

 

Why is it that when you take a photo, all the loose threads show up? lol…

I hope you have a wonderful weekend,

Blessings.

Carmen

Catching up With Cards

Hello!

The winter is finally gone and the bees are out. Here in the ‘Loops the sun is shining and the Lilacs are in full bloom. They smell wonderful out there! 

Anyway, on to some cards I’ve made recently…

These guitar cards’ strings are too fat, but I found some thinner ones that will work better for the next one. 

Note the embossing on the envelopes

This was my attempt at tone on tone. I almost did it but couldn’t resist adding the black. 

I made the watercolor backgrounds on these two cards then used diecuts on them.

Another attempt with tone on tone - - I still don’t have it quite right, but simple is hard! 

This card was an attempt to use up leftovers for the background and then add stickers and embellishments. These look great with flowers, but I don’t have a lot of realistic looking flowers so I used stickers. The butterfly and sentiment are popped up. 

Next I made these. I wanted to use flowers on a masculine card but with an industrial or steampunk feel. The diecuts worked well through the tape, which was surprising to me. I like how these turned out with the brads that look like screws. I also did up a small tag.

Unfortunately I took these pictures at night, but you get the idea.

 I love the flowers on there and think it works. Next I’ll try them with a steampunk card.

I hope all is well with everyone. Thank you for stopping by to take a peek. 

Blessings,

Carmen

Country Christmas Table Decor

Hello there,

There’s quite a bit to unpack in this post. I loved my primitive digital stamps and decided to make some felt ginger prims out of some of them. Dried orange slices have always appealed to me, and then I found these primitive candy canes. Plus, you know I’ve made soap and salves in the past - - so now I am trying to make my own toxic-free cleaner. 

Believe it or not, out of all that came my table top Christmas decor. 

If you’d like the link to my Ginger Prims above, they were made from my digital stamps here. Just click on the image, and print from the new page. The Primitive Star Snowman is here. 

The orange slices were super easy to do. I don’t have any photos of the process because it’s so simple. Cut the ends off an orange, cut a bunch of quarter inch to half inch slices and put them on a cookie tray. I used foil under them, I believe. Turn your oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit and turn them over every 45 min or so. I think they were in there for at least 3 hours. I just kept checking on them.

Just note that if you do leave them in the oven too long, or cut some too thin, as the slice in the back, they will turn a bit brown on you. 

I’m happy with these though. 

The candy cane idea was a Pinterest find. I picked up some plastic candy canes from the dollar store, took a bunch of leftover quilt batting and twisted it around the cane starting at the crook, hot glueing it here and there as I went along. The start and end are a bit tricky, but doable. Then I took a strip of fabric and twisted it around my fat little cane in much the same way. There are YouTube videos of the process here, and the chunky ones here. 

You may be wondering about the cleaner, as I mentioned above. We have a large spruce tree out back, so my husband cut some branches off for me. However, I was convinced I needed pine branches, so off he went into the woods to find pine trees and he came back with a bag of branches for me. Sweet, right? 

In the end, the spruce branches had a better scent, imo, but I decided to do both. In addition I added orange peels to another mason jar as well. Once the jars were stuffed full of branches and orange peels, I added white vinegar. Also from the dollar store, since it’s just for a cleaner. Will it end up being too vinegary? Perhaps, but vinegar is a good cleaner and dissipates once dry. Plus I can add pine or orange essential oils if I decide the vinegar is overpowering. You do need to be aware of what you don’t want to use this cleaner for - - - like wood for instance, but it’ll make a great kitchen and bathroom cleaner. 

Then came the fun part. Sprucing up the jars with different elements. The rusty bells and rusty stars I got off Temu. The strings were in my stash. Oh, and the little berry wreath on top of the large mason jar was a dollar store purchase. As was the berry wreath on the table.  Notice I added some fabric strips and some cinnamon sticks as well.  

I may still add something on top of the lids, or I may leave them. I haven’t decided. 

I love my little Ginger prim man and woman. 

And of course my primitive star snowman. 

Here it is in all its primitive country glory. I guess it’s fair to say I’ve been keeping busy. I love this little set up. It’s different and welcoming. All I need now are some primitive looking place settings. 

Thanks for stopping by,

Carmen