Gooood Morning!!!


Have you ever had an item kicking around your closet forever - and you don't seem to get around to crafting with it like you planned the first day?  YUP - we all know that feeling!  Well, here's one of mine {trust me I have many}.....its a wood heart and I can't even tell you where I got it, its been that long!  


Well - I dragged it out to the craft table and there it sat for a few weeks!  I stared at it - it stared back.  It was touch and go there for awhile!  Finally, I felt enough guilt to decide to work it!  


Then I had fun - lol!   So now I am feeling the love with this on my wall right this minute!  

Challenge Entry:  

Challenge 56: With All My Heart .....

Decorate a Wood Carft Item
Supplies:
paintable wood craft item [preferably with drilled holes - but you can improvise]
craft paint, [colour, and a white paint]
paint brush, 
fine grit sandpaper or sanding tool {in a pinch, a foot spa sander, or nail sander}
background rubber stamp [ex) script, text, floral, hearts,etc)
stamping waterproof ink [Stampin' Up! Basic Grey or Basic Black]
hanging material [ribbon, wire, twine, etc.]
Decorative Cardstock [ plain for flower, designer paper for banner]
Punch - for flower [example uses SCALLOPED FLOWER punch]
gem or pearl embellishment
stickles or glitter glue [ Stampin' Up! Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Diamonds]
thick glue dots
glue 


Instructions
PAINT YOUR WOOD CRAFT ITEM
Paint your wood craft item {my example, the heart} in the colour of choice {mine is lt. blue} and let dry; lightly sand when dry - then repeat the same again. 
Take a saucer or small foil tray and dab some white paint into it and add 2 or 3 drops of water and mix. Now you have a ' white wash '.  Paint on this white wash over your painted/sanded wood item.  The streaks are a good thing!  But not wide streaks - blend a little.  Do this until your piece is more white than the previous colour.  When dry sand lightly. You can sand till the wood shows through on the edges if you like - if you don't like, then just sand so the wood feels smooth. [note- paint 'lifts' the fibers of the wood, it swells it a bit which is why we sand!]


STAMP AWAY!


Now that your piece is painted and prepared - STAMP IT!  Take your background rubber stamp, and your ink pad and stamp the entire surface well. NOTE - this is going to work the 'first time' - so practice on paper first to see how well you stamp a large stamp. 
 When ready, place it over your painted craft item and stamp the design onto it.  This took 3 trys for me - as my heart is wider than my stamp and I stamped the center first, then added the remaining side areas.


OK - if you feel you screwed up - or don't like the look of the stamp, just RE-PAINT and start again! 


But you like it, so moving on......
Make your embellishment/ FOCAL POINT
A hand-made PUNCH FLOWER is a cool thing these days - they are in every craft project!  You could also use a bought flower to save time!  
Making a Punch Flower
Punch out several Flower shapes in one or two colours of sturdy weight cardstock. [Stampin' Up! cardstock is sturdy at an average 80 lb weight.]  NOTE: you can crumple the cardstock to make forming the flower easier and it gives that shabby chic look!    
Next - leave one flower shape intact. That is your foundation piece. After that, take a scissor and snip out a section of one shape and roll the flower like you are making a cone shape - bring the two cut sides together and overlap one section over the opposite side. Glue together and hold till the glue works. You could use a clip to help.  
Then snip out 2 sections of the next flower shape and repeat - this time the gap is wider where you cut away the section but requires you to do the same thing - bring the cut edges together, and glue overlapping them so it looks like a complete shape once more. 
Then 3 sections on the next one....and so on, till you are done with the punched flower shapes. 


When you are finished preparing each of the flower's sections - bend the petals back a little - this takes a little patience {as if the last section didn't,lol}.....but it is possible to bend those back. I use something round like a pen to roll the petals against - and I hold them over my finger while I work the next section. Do your best - and little tears only make it more 'hand-made', so don't sweat it! 
NOW - ASSEMBLE YOUR FLOWER - by gluing the smallest section into the next larger section!  Flatten the tip of the bottom of your flower a bit, and glue into place. Keep building your flower this way till you are ready to glue it to the flat foundation flower shape.  And your are DONE!  CONGRATS!  


TO FINISH - I added the flower to a banner strip I made from decorative paper. But before I glued the flower on, I added thick glue dots to the back of the banner, the entire length. This allows for it to float above the painted wood piece!  Now glue on the flower and when dry, add your decorative piece to the finished wood piece.


TO HANG - add ribbon such as my example. I tied 2 pieces of ribbon, 7 inches each by tying a knot first at one end and inserting the ribbon into the holes leaving the knot to be on the front!  Then I stitched the two remaining ends together.  You can also do this with one long piece of ribbon - about 14 inches long. Or use twine, wire, etc.
 Add beads too!  Anything you wish to decorate - use your own ideas!

THANKS FOR STOPPING BY! 

HAPPY CRAFTING! 

CS25H

Inside Greeting ' Happy Easter '

Hello, today I am entering a challenge!  I have not entered one here before, but over at Creative-Sketches there is a challenge today called CS25H Holidays and Celebrations and I have chosen to make an Easter Card for a friend!



To do this, I have chosen my INSPIRED BY NATURE stamp - using the floral image (it's a double-mounted stamp - opposite side has grass!) because it feels like Spring to me and I wanted my card to not be over-the-top Easter, but something more simplier and relaxed.

I have made the focal piece using our SCALLOP CIRCLE Bigz Die (the scallop red circle) and then layered it with Pumpkin Pie and Whisper White cardstock, followed naturally,  nestled in the center,  my stamped image!

My ribbon is a thin strip of paper cardstock (Whisper White )  run through our Crimper tool, and sponged ever-so-gently with PEACH PARFAIT ink.

The two tiny tags (say that 10 times!) tied on are made with our MEDIUM JEWELLERY TAG punch - and decorated with co-ordinating stamps, TINY TAGS and one little sequin for good luck, lol.

My Easter Greeting is on the inside - stamped in a row - kinda different, but simple too.

I also had fun trying a new thing - using GLUE DOTS and GLITTER!  How cool!  I found this idea from my friend Dee over in Australia, and another fantastic Stampin' Up! Demo!!

So head on over to check out Creative-Sketch's online site for more ideas - or if you have time, to try a challenge!

Hey everyone!

I am deep into my crafting this morning as I had a swap project to finish, and once I was done that, I was still feelin' crafty.  I took a look at some challenges posted 'round the net and found Tuesday Trigger.  The challenge "Sweets for the Sweet" suits me!  It's soft colours of Pink are some of my favs.


So using the same stamp I merely switched to a different project and ended up with my own CHIPBOARD HEART!   I really like it!

This is the front, see - its the same pretty heart from the Stampin' Up! "Love You Much" stamp set.  It has been created in several stages using the stamp, chalks, vellum, cardstock, white embossing powder and chipboard of course!  It may be hard to tell from this angle, but it is fairly thick chipboard and  I still need to decide what I plan to use it for.......I guess that will be another post for another day!

Today, I will show you how I made it!!  This way, you can always create your own custom chipboard accents - you're not limited anymore to purchasing ones from a retailer!

Stage 1.  Stamp Image onto  Adhesive-backed Vellum and Cardstock, Emboss, Chalk.

I chose to stamp my image onto VELLUM using white CRAFT ink which allowed me to sprinkle White EMBOSSING POWDER on to the 'wet' image, heat to dry.  Now I end up with a beautiful soft design on the pale icy vellum - like a fine lacy curtain!  

However, I also want to layer it over a equally soft cardstock - a whisper of pale pink. 

Meanwhile, I cut out the vellum embossed heart image and set it aside for now.. 

To layer the vellum over a very soft pink colour cardstock -  the white ink against this paper might not "show up" very well......so, after some thought, I chose this next stage. 

In order to make the white vellum heart 'pop', I need to give it a "shadow" from behind - a contrast. 

If my vellum was not the 'adhesive-backed' type, I could simply chalk or ink on the back side of the vellum to make the white image stand out - but since I can't chalk or ink the sticky back side, I need to do the following .....

To do this,  I stamped the same design onto the pink cardstock using a deeper PINK ink, and then using pink CHALK, I 'spotlighted' the flowers and itty bitty circles, and edges, applying the chalk with a soft applicator in circular movements. The chalk darkened a tad over the pink ink- even better!

Peeling away the backing on the vellum heart, I adhered it directly over the stamped/chalked image on the pink cardstock.  Now there is a 'pink shadow'  from behind - which sharpens the white heart design.  See the picture above and below. 

So let's summarize:

1. stamp image with craft ink onto vellum; sprinkle with embossing powder, heat to set,

2. cut out vellum-embossed heart and set aside,

3. stamp image again in a darker co-ordinating ink onto cardstock, spotlight various parts 

of the image with chalk in the same colour,

4. adhere the vellum-embossed heart directly over the stamped/chalked image on the cardstock

Stage 2. Create the  Chipboard Heart

First I adhered the cut-out cardstock/vellum HEART onto a piece of chipboard. 

To CUT the chipboard heart out - I need to use my hobby knife and since the chipboard I am using is thick, I decide to use a wood-working technique.....trace holes around the shape, then cut with the blade following the holes.  See pictures. 

Here I punched holes around the edge of the heart, and then cut from hole to hole with my blade. 

To make it easier to see - I created 4 holes in a larger size, see them?  You would cut from one to the next hole, which you can do in one deep cut, or go over them several times till the chipboard is cut through.  

The accent is cut :)

I sand the edges with my sanding tool.  

This is the back side which I have also sanded lightly around the whole edge. 

I can also decorate this side later if I wish. Or journal. 

Well - that's it!  Not hard, just a bit time consuming, but you can create co-ordinating accents to match your stamping projects.

Hope you give it a try!

Beverly

SUPPLIES  All tools, inks, embossing powder, chalks, vellum, cardstock by STAMPIN' UP!

Contact Me if you have questions or wish to order these supplies. 

My daughter and I  have a lot of fun celebrating Thanksgiving  by donating a basket of goodies to our local animal shelter.  Last year we  found some “Turkey” canned dinners for cats and dogs, added some rawhide bones, catnip and some toys.
We owned a cute circular red, leather ‘ pet photo frame’ with a little paw print on it – which inspired me to make a paper version.  A half-dozen of these later added to the basket – we wrapped it – and my daughter delivered the basket.
So I was just thinking how I needed to get a leg up on this already for this year – but I am so busy re-organizing. Then I discovered that SU has their latest TWITTER CHALLENGE # 4 – make 12 blank Thank You Cards and donate them to a charitable cause. Apparently we are on the same wavelength! :)
Well….so here I am this morning with my coffee, in my cramped studio making small notecards!  My table is absolutely swamped,  so small is good! LOL!
My plan  for if you are rushed – is to go for something real simple. SO instead of last year’s ornate-take-your-time pet frames, this year I made the thank you cards as 3 inch notecards.
I’ve stamped images by using a mixture of my vintage animal stamps and new SU Thank You stamps. I plain stamped, chalked some, added some punched hearts, used my circular 1 “ punch to capture parts of the images – just played like mix ‘n’ match!  Using scraps I made 12 so far and 1 bookmark! Yeah – but I think I will make more because my intention is for them to have the ability to give a lil thank you note perhaps when someone adopts?  I might just keep adding some to a pile for Christmas – do one or two here and there. 
Well here’s the pics – and I am off to go see what we need for groceries, so HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!! yeah…looks nice outside!

See the above stamp – simply change to a girl using a marker!
Found these in a box of 12 – they are vintage stamps from an old school that no longer operates – are they not sweet? Very hard the rubber but they still work!

Do you Twitter? 
SU Twitter Here 
See Challenge # 4 is to make 12 blank Thank You cards and donate them to your favourite organization like a charity, school, community, etc.

MTSC37 - that's the code for Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge #37 today over at Mercy Kerin's blog HERE.  It's the first one I have tried of this but it's a fun sketch and a chance to showcase more of my stash!

and here the picture is cropped:

I used a an old favourite stamp set and some patterned paper from my old stash - which is soon to be part of a 2nd hand sale I am doing to help clear up some room!  Out with the old - in with the new!

To all of this I used Stampin' Up!'s new IN COLOR cardstock in both: Soft Suede and more cardstock AND matching ribbon in Dusty Durango, a nice orange-y rust colour.

I elevated the pies with dots, and highlighted them from behind with a stamp from our Stampin' Up!'s SAE campaign last spring, called 'Polka Dot Punches' which co-ordinates with some of our basic punch shapes; this one is for a scalloped circle punch.

A few more bobs 'n' bibs and there it is.   Well - another thing today.....we just got a dog!!!! And I have been busy creating and its time to go see him, he's been so lovely and quiet - whatta fella!  His name is Pepper and he is a Peek-a-Poo.....I shall post a pic of him soon.  Anyways ta for now!

hELLO! I am hosting a challenge on the Crafts Beautiful [crafty magazine] forum across the pond.
http://www.crafts-beautiful.com/site/index.php/forums/viewthread/11905/

However - I have decided on offering the same challenge on our side of the pond - so its my first challenge here: my Gothic Arch Card Challenge!

Objective: create any card using the Gothic Arch style - and submit to me by providing a link to a picture of your make. I always judge my entries by the various degree of: artistic composition, originality, difficulty, and general attractiveness. I give each of those a possible 5 points each for a possible maximum total of 20 points. If there is a tie, then I will announce it and create a tie-breaker.

Deadline: please submit to me by January 15th. 2009. {North American contestants only}

Prize: Stampin' Up! Create-A-Calendar Kit

*** If there is less than 3 entries - I will not award a prize but will send each entry a consolation token of appreciation.