Etched Christmas Ornament - Christmas in July

Yeah- I am getting this post in under the wire- I have been working on some Christmas in July projects and it is still July!! Still on track :o)

I have been using my Etchall Etching Creme for lots of fun things lately and I am really happy with how this project turned out.

I used Etching Creme, Etchmask, a plain glass ornament that I picked up at the local craft store, a craft punch, and some stickers for this project.

To start off I punched a shape in a piece of my Etchmask. If you have never used Etchmask, it is awesome for creating your own etching stencils.

Next up, I applied Etchmask Transfer Sheet to the top of the Etchmask, This makes it easy to apply to the surface to be etched, plus makes sure that your Etchmask keeps it's shape.

Since my surface was not entirely flat, it did take a little bit of doing to get the Etchmask on just right. Patience is the key here! Use your squeegee to make sure that all of the edges of the mask are firmly adhered to the glass surface, then remove the Transfer Sheet. At this point I added my stickers in the center of the open area to make my design. Remember: The open glass will be etched, and everything that is covered will be clear when you are done!

For my design, I added a large snowflake in the center and holly leaves all around the outer edge. I cut the stickers to fit my design.
TIP: When working on a curved surface add a ring of masking tape around the area to be etched to contain the Etching Creme.

Apply a thick coat of Etching Creme and allow to sit 15 minutes. Return excess creme to the jar and rinse project under running water being careful not to get the creme on any of the unetched surfaces.

Here is a close up of the center snowflake in my design.  Who else is getting ready for Christmas? I would love to see what you are working on.

Be sure to check out the Etchall Facebook page to see more projects by the Etchall Ambassadors. Thanks for stopping by today!


Big Time Party Decorations - Flowers!

The Princess is almost a year old and we are getting ready for the party. We have TONS of flowers to make and here is a look at how some of them will look.


This flower is 18" in diameter and very sparkly!

Supplies:
  • Smoothfoam 3" Ball
  • Italian Crepe Paper
  • chipboard
  • double sided tape
  • coffee filters
  • hot knife
  • gold paint, gold spray ink, gold microfine glitter
  • Beacon 3-N-1
  • Ribbon for hanging
  • paint brush, chop stick, stapler


To start off I cut a chipboard in a 8" circle and covered it with strong double sided tape. For the outer layer of petals, I cut ten 6"x10" pieces of crepe paper, then shaped them as shown above. Gather then across the bottom, staple together to maintain the shape and stick down to the adhesive.
TIP: - I cut a "ring" around the outside of the circle and just removed that portion of the release paper, instead of pulling it all off.

Add 5 petals, evenly spaced around the circle, then add 5 more. For the second layer of petals, I cut strips 5" wide and ruffled them as I stuck them down to the adhesive.

For the center, I cut the outer ring from 3 coffee filters, fringed them, layered them together and added them to the center of the flower.

For my center, I cut the 3" Smoothfoam ball in half with my hot knife, painted it with gold metallic paint, and sprinkled it with glitter while wet. When it was dry, I adhered it using Beacon 3-N-1.

To finish it off , I rolled the edges of the petals using a chop stick, shaping as I went. Then gave the whole thing a good spray with gold ink.  Add a ribbon to the back to hang. Done!

Thanks for stopping by today!


Fun Desk Spruce up with Deflecto Crafts

As you know the princess is almost a year old now (hard to believe!). Her mama went back to work a couple of months ago and we have been working on sprucing up her new office. Deflecto Crafts has some awesome stuff to help out with this project and this month I was lucky enough to receive the Pencil Cup with Photo Frames to work with.

Here is what I did with it.
I painted random, left over, chipboard letters gold and glued them around one of the frames. To the other side I added an embellished frame. I layered flower die cut from a MD Hobby and Craft metal sheet and some Wendy Vecchi Art Parts.  I added some cute flowers to plain pencils and added them to the cup. Easy peasy and quick. This will look super cute and DD1's desk!

Thanks for stopping by today!  Be sure to check out the Deflecto Facebook and Pinterest Page for more great ideas and sneak peeks of brand new products!




Christmas in July with Smoothfoam and Robin's Nest

I have been uber busy working on some Christmas projects these last two weeks - in July no less- and here is the first one that I get to share with you!



Over at Designer Crafts Connection we have a challenge sponsored by Smoothfoam and The Robin's Nest this month.
 


DCC and Robin's Nest design team members received product from the Robin's Nest and Smoothfoam with the challenge to create some fun holiday projects to share with their readers.  You can check out these designer projects by hopping thru the DCC webring and visiting the Robin's Nest blog, or select from the projects featured below.  Don't forget to enter to win a stash of holiday goodies from Robin's Nest and Smoothfoam by commenting here, or on any of the participating blogs. The more often you comment, the more chances you have to win!  The winner will be selected by midnight, July 28th....  Good luck!  

Here is what I came up with.

I wanted to make something small that I could display Christmas goodies on come holiday time. I bake constantly during the holidays and I am always in search of some little something to put a few tid bits out on. For this I used:
Smoothfoam 8" Disc
Smoothfoam 3" Cube
Smoothfoam Ornament 
All the papers, pearls, die cut snowflakes, and ribbon are from Robins Nest.
The base is from IKEA- it is a candle holder. I used a gold paint pen to add some color to it. To attach it to the Smoothfoam Disc I used Aleene's Liquid Fusion.
To color the ornament shape on top I used DecoArt Metallic Luster Paint- this stuff is the BOMB folks- you should run right out to the store and pick some up. Seriously.

I can't wait for Christmas to roll around so I can throw down some cookies on this cute little thing.  The perfect size for 6 cupcakes. No one will ever know what happens to the other 6.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week!




The Traveler layout with Webster's Pages

Today I have a new layout for the Crafty Scrapper. I am so in love with these new Webster's Pages papers. Love the colors, love the textures, love everything about them! We have two new lines in the store- Nest and Strawberry Fields.

I am still working on scrapping the few thousand photos I took last year on The Caribbean Crawl 2015- we were in St Kitts on this day and we were having a great time.


For this layout I used the Strawberry Fields line. I started my background by using a lot of old chipboard alphas and applying them randomly to the page. I applied a coat of gesso to the whole thing and let it dry, then painted with two tones of cream and gold iridescent paint.

I fussy cut the flowers from one of the patterned pages and highlighted them with my new Zig Clean Color Brush Markers- these things are pretty cool!  I also added some die cut stickers from the Nest line. The hearts are die cut from American Crafts corrugated cardstock and highlighted with my white Signo pen.


Who is not in love with the new Petaloo flowers that have come out in the last few months?? These are AWESOME. I really like how they have lots of petals on them, but they are FLAT enough to go into my scrapbook albums. 


More fussy cutting here and again I used the new Zig Clean Color Markers to give the piece some extra highlights and sparkle. Because we can never have enough sparkle!



Be sure to stop by the Crafty Scrapper to pick these new papers up for yourself and see the full supply list I used for the layout. 

I'm 1 Onesie

The Princess will be one very shortly (which I can't believe!) and of course she will need something to wear while eating cake. Out came my iron on letters from Joy.

http://www.joysa.com/


I wanted to make something quick and easy, because I am pretty sure she will only be able to wear it this one time.


Here is the princess in her custom made onesie- and she is ready to eat some cake!
I picked up super cute onesie at Target and grabbed my Baby Monogram Letters and Numbers in Upper Case White. I dyed them to match the onesie using spray ink and ironed on following the instructions found HERE on the Joy website. There is not an apostrophe with the set, so I trimmed a tiny bit off the "1" to make one.

Be sure to check out the Creating with Joy Facebook page and give us a like- lots of great ideas will be posted there and you won't want to miss them!




Travel Journal made from Scratch

Hi everyone,  I love to travel and I love to record my memories almost as much. For my trips I normally make a mini album, so I can stuff all the little stuff I collect in there with my photos to save. This little album is from a cruise we took in 2012.

This post may contain affiliate links. 

I used a lot of 7 Gypsies for this album, I really liked the colors of these lines. For the cover I added a Maya Road tin, butterfly and  mini chipboard.

Lots of journal cards so I could record my days. Using my Cinch Binder makes it so easy to add all kinds of things in my albums.

I used some Basic Grey journal spot stamps here and there, and I added several manila tags from 7 Gypsies too.

Because I was using a custom binding I could add pages of any size- I included several mini pages, fold outs and pockets.

I used a whole pack of the 7 Gypsies journal cards and I turned some on their side to change the orientation. I love having the little odds and ends sticking out of the album.

Adding a manila card to black cardstock makes an instant page!

I added numbered tabs to three small tags and bound them in the middle of the album.

I used a couple of the 5x7 photo pockets and I simply covered the seam with decorative paper before punching and binding. I think it gave it a better look.

Lots of pockets to put tags and other stuff into.

For this page I adhere two photos back to back, cut them into a pennant shape and bound them into the album.

I didn't use a lot of embellishments in the album, instead I layered lots of papers to create the dimension.

Do you make mini-albums? Have you tried the Cinch Binding Tool? It is so easy to use and you can make the most amazing albums using it. 

Thanks for stopping by today, have a wonderful week!

Magical Memories Class

I am so excited about the new class I am doing at The Crafty Scrapper. I had so much fun creating this class and you will love this little book to hold all your Magical Memories. I have used the uber cute Say Cheese I and Say Cheese II paper lines from Simple Stories.


 I started with  Maya Road Oh Snap bare chipboard album and added tons of media to make it my own. Because I can never make anything that is flat I added some Filmstrip tape from Tim Holtz for depth and dimension. I LOVE the way this turned out!


Because I like to have lots of dimension in my books I added several die cuts made from Eileen Hulls mat board and dies from Sizzix.

Coin envelopes are the perfect way to add pockets to your mini albums!

I don't normally use a lot of stickers for my albums, but I adored the 12x12 sticker sheet with this line. Sooooo very cute!!

We all know how much I love my Cinch from We R Memory Keepers. I used it here to bind the album and to add some additional pages to the other side. This album measures an impressive 20+ inches when it is fully open!


There are LOTS of ribbons included in the class kit as well, I just photographed the book before I added them for some strange reason :(
We have had this class once, and it is on the schedule again for July 26th. There are also kits available if you are unable to make the class in person. Contact the store directly at 972- 923-3151 to reserve your spot in class or purchase a kit.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!