Pom Pom Topper {idea by Tifany DeGough}

I can. not. stop. making pom poms with The Twinery's twine!

You can use a twine pom pom as a quick embellishment for a fun mini album - check it out:

I hope you give it a try!
{And if you are curious how to make a pom pom, this is the tutorial I followed to make mine.}

Thanks for stopping by today - please leave a link in the comments to your projects using The Twinery's twine...I'd love to take a look!


And don't forget to visit me on my blog - I love visitors!:

Supplies:
Twine: The Twinery {Blossom, Caribbean, Lilac, Pink Sorbet}
Acrylic: Peachy Keen Stamps {Large Acrylic Round Ornament Set}, Peachy Keen Stamps {Large Acrylic Star Ornament Set}
Papers: Echo Park {Little Girl Collection}
Stickers: Echo Park {Little Girl Collection}
Other: Fiskars {Craft Knife}, Ranger {Glossy Accents}

A Nod to the Royal Wedding

 I discovered these awesome cupcake toppers on The Tomkat Studio blog and although extremely last minute, well it would just be wrong not to join all the pomp and circumstance today, wouldn't it. As these beauties were very kindly offered as free printables, i set to work. dusted off my scalloped edge circle punch and made confetti out of all the scraps. the glassine bags were the perfect packaging with just a touch of maraschino twine from the Twinery to finish them off. ok, if you're looking for me i am down at the Abbey showering Will and Kate with the very best of British! now if i could just remember where i left my tiara??? can never find that thing when i need it!!! lol

{Free Printable} Teacher Note Cards

Next Week (May 2-6) is Teacher Appreciation Week! 

What a perfect time for each of us to take a moment to express our gratitude to the teachers who go above and beyond each day to educate our children. Teachers do far more than just teach the ABC's and 123's...they touch and impact the lives of our children - pushing them to be better students, better citizens and better people overall. What a special job they have! This coming week, let's go out of our way to show them our appreciation in an extra special way!

We have a free printable download just for this special occasion! 

Teacher Note Cards

Click HERE to download the note cards.

Download and print the free note cards we've created to make a special appreciation gift for your child's teacher - you can create a set of Flat Note Cards and pair them with your favorite envelopes or you can even use them to create a handmade notepad like the one we showed you earlier this week. What teacher doesn't love some paper fun?!

Cut the sheets along the dotted lines of on the printable sheets to create four 4.25 x 5.5" cards per sheet - for a total of 12 cards (or more if you print off more copies). We recommend that you print the cards on nice heavy, white cardstock for the best results. If you want to create a note card set with envelopes, you'll need A2 envelopes (we love Paper Source's envelopes...their Red, Chartreuse & Curry envelope colors match this printable perfectly).  

ENJOY! 

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Here are some other great Teacher Appreciation gift ideas from some of our favorite places around the blogosphere:

          

"Thanks a Latte" Gift Card idea by The Girls at Eighteen25 {our twine is on there, too!!}

 Teacher Classroom Subway Art Wall Print also by The Girls at Eighteen25

*Side note: The sister trio over at Eighteen25 are somethin' kinda fabulous! If you have never been to their blog ...go take a peek now...go ahead...click on over there - you won't want to miss anything they blog about! All I can say is...I wish I could be their sister too! Ha!

    

 Drawstring Pouches by Ellen from The Long Thread

  Embellished Scissors {be still my heart!!} - by Char from Crap I've Made

These ideas and many, many more can be found over at Skip To My Lou for their Teacher Appreciation ideas from today's top crafty bloggers! 

Blog Hop with The Twinery & The Stamps of Life {and a little giveaway too}!

Hello Everyone! Today we have something super special to share with you!

Are you ready for some fun?

The {Stamps} of Life and The Twinery Design Teams are playing together for this blog hop!
This is the very beginning so you are in the right place!!!

Have you tried our baker's twine?
Our twine is made from 100% cotton, it's eco-friendly and made in the USA. Whether you're gift wrapping, crafting or tying up baked goods to give to a friend, our baker's twine adds a fresh, yet nostalgic look to any project at hand! Our baker's twine comes in 11 delicious colors and is uniquely twisted against a bright white hue, creating an eye-popping burst of color and a creative embellishment! Our twine has lots of color which lends to a fun, candy-striped look. 

For creative ideas & more...you're at the right place! 

We share lots of fabulous ideas right here on our blog!

About The {Stamps} of Life:

They feature high quality, made in the USA, clear stamps and digital stamps/brushes for stampers, card makers and scrapbookers. Feel free to browse their gallery with more than 2500 samples using our stamps, watch our free how-to videos and join our club!

As you make your way through the hop 

make sure you leave a comment on
each of the designer's blogs.
There will be 4 prize winners chosen
among the comments left.

Two winners will receive their choice 2 sets of stamps from  
The {Stamps} of Life valued at $12.95 per set

and

Two winners will receive a Colorful Bunch Sampler Packs 
($20 value each) from The Twinery!!!

 The prize winners will be announced on 
The {Stamps}of Life and The Twinery Blogs

 on Tuesday May 3rd.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let's start this hop off with a fun project that anyone can do!

And guess what? You don't even have to be an avid scrapbooker/card-maker or stamper...with just a few supplies, anyone can do it!

Making Handmade Personalized Notepads

 First you'll need to...

40 cuts of paper or cardstock {all the same size}

Stamps of Life stamp set of your choice {I used the Boxes4ABC set to create more personalized notepads, but any set would work - they are all fabulous!} 

Acrylic block for mounting the stamps

Inkpad(s)

2 Large Binder Clips 

Padding Compound or PVA Glue

Paintbrush

 Wax Paper {or something else to catch the "glue drips"}

Chipboard Sheets - optional {cut the same size as your paper}

To make the notepads...

Cut about 40 sheets of paper or card stock, make sure they are all the same size. I cheated a little for that step (shhh...don't tell anyone) - I just used precut, 4.5 x 6.5" white card stock sheets that I picked up in the paper aisle at Michael's.  

Then...

   STEP 1: Adhere the stamps to your acrylic block to create the design you want. I chose to use The Stamps of Life Boxes4ABC stamp set to create personalized notepads for a few children that have upcoming birthdays. 

STEP 2: Ink up the stamps on your block. You can get creative here...that's the nice thing about using The Stamps of Life sets...each stamp is an indiviual piece, so you can use many ink colors without making a mess of your overall design! 

STEPS 3 and 4: Press your design firmly onto each sheet of paper. I chose to create a notepad with a child's name on it. So, I inked 40 sheets with the name "Jude" at the top.

STEP 5: Once all of your sheets have been stamped, stack them neatly together. Make sure all of the sides {top and bottom, too} are all even. This is the point where you can also choose to back the notepad with a sheet of paper chipboard. It's just for added support of the notepad itself, but it's not necessary. If you do use the chipboard, just be sure it's the same size as your notepad sheets and place it on the bottom of the stack as the notepad "backing". Then clasp the binder clips on the sides of the notepad to keep it neatly and tightly held together.

STEP 6: Paint a light coat of compound glue along the top edge of the paper stack. Make sure you glue each sheet in order for the notepad to properly hold together. You will need to do this several times, allowing about 10-15 minutes of rest between each coat {I put four coats on each notepad}.

STEP 7: Allow the glue to dry. I recommend allowing the notepads to dry overnight or for about 24 hours, but once the glue is no longer tacky to the touch, your notepad is done!

Finally, I used our baker's twine to neatly package up each notepad I created - it gave the gift an added fun embellishment!

 I hope you enjoy making some notepads of your own!! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm off to go see what everyone else is making...

Click on the links below to see what everyone else has created with
The Twinery's twine & The Stamps of Life stamps
{and be sure to comment on the posts to be qualified to win the fabulous prizes, too}!!

The hop list:

The Twinery Blog - YOU ARE HERE

The {Stamps}of Life Blog

Jeanne Streiff

Julie Ranae

Deb Felts

Monique Hansen

Vicki Garrett

Monika Wright

Emily Niehaus

Emily Leiphart

Beverly Sizemore

Tifany DeGough

Joana Studer

Katrina Hunt

Laura Williams

Jen Carter

Kim Howard

Jenny Suchin
Sheri Twing

Accents and Wrapping with Baker's Twine

 

Hello, it's Emily with a post on using your twine for quick card accents and wrapping card sets with twine! I recently made a card and gift set to send to my best friend's parents in Greece. My friend had to make the decision to spend the last two months of her father's life away from her husband and three year old son back in Canada. It's a heartbreaking story and I wanted to send them something to let them know that I'm thinking of them. 

Here's how I made the feature card and packaged gift set.

 

 

To determine where I wanted to adhere the twine on the card, I stamped out my scene.

 

 

I positioned the houses where I wanted them to be and used a pencil to trace the hearts.

 

   

Then I applied Scor-Tape over the hearts.

 

 

I cut tiny pieces of Honeydew baker's twine and pressed them in to the Scor-Tape.

 

 

Then I attached the houses over the twine with foam tape.

 

 

Here are a couple of close ups of the twine showing through the houses.

 

   

Next is the set of thank you cards I made since the family will be relying on the assistance of family and friends in the coming weeks and months.

 

 

I added a Honeydew twine bow on the index fingers to say 

"We'll always remember what you've done for us in our time of need."

 

 

Here's how I package my cards for clients and gift-giving.

 

   

Assemble envelopes, clear bags and Lemondrop twine. 

Punch four small holes in the label.

 

   

I put the envelopes inside the card and slip them into biodegradeable and compostable clear bags.

 

   

 Before I tie them together in a bundle, I rotate every other card 180 degrees to reduce the bulk.

 

   

To cut the proper amount of Lemondrop baker's twine, you will want approximately ten times the length of the card. Wrap your twine around the bundle five times.

 

.  

Take your piece of twine, open it to its full length, then fold it to halve it. Snip the loop so that you have two pieces of twine and four ends. 

String the twine behind the label and up through the holes like so.

 

 

When you get to the back of the package, I simply bend the twine at 90 degrees. 

One end will head toward the top of the cards and the other toward the bottom.

 

   

Bring the twine around to the front, put the bottom end of the twine through the bottom hole, up behind the label and out the top hole in the label. The twine at the top of the package will meet it. This is where I tied the bow.

 

 

You can tie the bow at any of the four points and you don't even have to wrap the twine around all four sides. I prefer it this way so the cards can't slide out.

 

   

I really hope you enjoyed this post! 

All stamps are from Papertrey Ink and you can find the sources on my blog. 

Have a great day everyone!!

 

Crafting a Mini-Gift Set

It's Tifany from Ink Blots by TRD and today I am going to share a quick and easy mini gift set that can be created with a few simple supplies (you can use up your scraps!) and some gorgeous twine from The Twinery.  This would be a great last minute set to tuck in an Easter basket or just to give to brighten someone's day.

I started out by getting a small notepad from an office supply store. This notepad is 5 1/4" x 3 1/2" and about 1/4" thick. (And I got a pack of 3 on sale for $1!)

I cut two scraps of double sided patterned paper to size (5 1/4" x 3 1/2"). I adhered one to the full back of the notepad using ModPodge and adhered the other piece on the front of the notepad, only attaching at the top (so that it can flip up to reveal the pad underneath).

I created a small topper (1 1/2" x 3 1/2"), scored it at 5/8" and 7/8" (this leaves equal space on the front and back side and 1/4" for the spine area) and adhered it in place.

I rounded the bottom corners using my Corner Chomper (rounding a small chunk of pages at a time) and then I used my Crop-A-Dile Big Bite to punch two holes through the top (a regular Crop-A-Dile won't work for a pad this thick).

I finished it off by tying it up with some fabulous twine - I used Caribbean, Honeydew, and Pink Sorbet to go with the colors in the patterned paper.

(Oh, and I added a fun little surprise by stamping a cute little butterfly every few pages in the notepad - it keeps the homemade flair going along the way!)

I had a small pencil left over from a shopping trip to IKEA, and it was the perfect size for the small notepad. I wrapped the pencil with the three colors of twine I used to accent the notepad (Caribbean, Honeydew, and Pink Sorbet), adhering them along the way with Matte Accents.

I am loving making pom poms from twine so I thought that would make the perfect pencil topper!

So cute and SO easy!

I had some more coordinating scraps and so I decided to make a bookmark to match the set. 

We have a 7 year old who loves to read and is in the middle of probably 4 or 5 books at any given time, so bookmarks are always of use.

I cut a small strip from the patterned paper that matched the front of the notepad and gave it a matching topper. I punched a hole and threaded those three great colors of twine onto it (Caribbean, Honeydew, and Pink Sorbet).  I finished it off with a happy sentiment stamp and now I have a super easy and fun gift set to give away!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Please visit me on my blog - I love visitors!:

Supplies:
Twine: The Twinery {Caribbean, Honeydew, Pink Sorbet}
Papers: K & Co. {Berry Sweet Paper Pad}
Stamps: Market Street Stamps {So Happy}
Ink: Tsukineko {Midnight Black & Turquoise Gem}
Adhesives: Plaid {Mod Podge}, Ranger {Matte Accents}
Tools: We R Memory Keepers {Crop-A-Dile Big Bite, Corner Chomper}
Other: Staples {Mini Notepad}, IKEA {Mini Pencil}