Paris By Thirteen

On this last day of 2014 I am sharing my last post for Unique Laser Designs.  It has been great working with this group of talented people!

I asked Unique Laser Designs for an Eiffel Tower especially for this project.  In August I was able to go to Paris with my kids, my mother,  and my thirteen year old niece.  I am planning on giving this project as a memento of my niece's trip.

            

The two towers are cut out of chipboard, while Flourish A was cut out of wood.  These embellishments were simply embossed with embossing powder.  Tags can get busy due to their size and I felt that this simple treatment helped to showcase the laser cuts.

Have a wonderful 2015!

Flourish A

Glittery Gingerbread Ornament Teacher Gifts

I always love to make something special for all my kids teachers especially for Christmas.  This year it was more about the outside of the gift than the inside, but the inside had some really yummy homemade peanut butter chocolate crunch bars.  We ended up giving these glittery gifts to more than just the kids teachers, we also gave some to the principals at my eldest school.

I used the wonderful 6 piece set of Gingerbread Ornaments from Unique Laser Designs as the base for the for these gifts.  Each ornament comes with its own string to hang up on the tree, they are all unique, really perfect just on their own, but I decided to glitter them up.  Below is a tutorial on how to glitter these fun little ornaments with this amazing Sparkle Medium.

  Techniques for Glittering Intricate Chipboard or Wood

1) Start with the chipboard or wood of your choice (these are wood).  I used these cute little Gingerbread ornaments, but as you can see there are lots of cutouts in the men, and that is what gives them their charm, but hard to glitter without getting in all the crevasses.  Below are some tips.

2) If you just do a light coat with the glitter (like below), it looks great, but for these gifts I wanted a complete coverage so I needed to apply a thick coat of Sparkle Medium to the entire surface.

3) Once you apply the thick coat of sparkle medium with a foam brush it covers up most of the details of the ornament, but that is an easy fix!!  Hint- only do one side of the ornament at a time so it has time to dry and not smudge.

4) Using needle, thumb tack, paper piercer, or other long thin object (I used my paper piercer and cleaned it up really well after) poke the tip into the holes of your object to scrape out the extra glitter inside.  You may have to do this a few times in the front and back of each hole, wiping away the extra that builds up with the foam brush.  This step takes some time, but really worth it in the end.

5) It takes about 2-3 hours to dry due to the thick layer or glitter medium applied, but they look amazing when they are done.  They are now super sparkly and perfect for these gift bags.

6) I used plain lunch bags as the base for the gifts.  I filled the bags with the yummy homemade treats, folded over the top a couple of times (squeezing out the air) and stapled it at the top.  I then took a hole punch and punched 2 holes at the top and used green satin ribbon and laced it through the holes tying a simple bow lacing the ornament string in as I tied the bow and let it hang down the bag.

These gifts are filled with homemade goodies, topped with a homemade glittery ornament, and place in a homemade gift bag.  It is a simple gift, but it is one from the heart to show my kid's teachers just how much I appreciate them.  When I taught the best presents given to me were the ones that were made not just a simple gift card, it meant so much more that the parent or student took the time to create something for me - straight from the heart, and years later those are the presents I remember and still have!!

Supplies Used

Wood - ULD

Glitter- Imagination Crafts

Ribbon - May Arts

Foam Brush - Plaid

Paper Bag

Hole Punch

Staples

Paper Piercer

Enjoy!!

We All Need To Wag More

I'm excited to bring you my final project for the Unique Laser Designs team.  I have been guest designing for a couple of months now and I have been inspired and left speechless by the beautiful creations put together by the other ladies on this time.  They are certainly a wonderfully talented group!

The first time I reviewed the Unique Laser Designs catalog of products there was one piece that immediately caught my eye.  It's the Unique Laser Designs Wag More Bark Less die cut.  I love this saying and the way these simple words are designed are too cute to pass up.  For for my last project, I knew I needed to feature this product.

Here's what the MDF die cut looked like before I started to work my magic.

While the piece looks amazing in its natural state, I choose to paint the words black and use it in combination with one of the newer Graphic 45 lines, "Raining Cats and Dogs".

I purchased this bare frame for a dollar and then covered it with a patterned paper and embellishments from G45.  I then added the Unique Laser Designs Wag More Bark Less piece to the top.  

This inspiring saying fits perfect with this classy line from G45.  I plan to give the frame as a gift to a friend that just rescued a middle-aged Lab from our local animal shelter. 

I hope you are inspired by this project and it gives you a chance to get your fingers a little inky! 

Stay Scrappy My Friends,

P.S. And, remember to wag more and bark less!!!

2015 Sewing Journal

Happy Day after Christmas!!
 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas day. Kisha here today to share with you an altered journal I created to keep track of one of my 2015 goals to sew.

 

First, let's start with the Unique Laser Designs products used for the cover of this sewing journal.

 



 

Fancy Dress Form in cork and the Plain Dress Form also in cork

 

 

Circle Stencil in wood and

 

Wood Scissors 

 

For this project I used a chipboard based book with a folded edge.  I will be creating this journal as a stand instead of a flat book (this will make sense in the end).

 



 

I used an actual pattern for texture on the cover before building my layers.

 

I stacked the fancy dressform on top of the plain dressform for dimension.  The fancy dressform was embossed with a shimmering gold embossing powder.

 

For more of a bling look, I used gold stickles on the pair of scissors. This is a process I allow to air dry instead of using my heat gun.

 

Here is the completed look of my 2015 sewing journal. Layered with lots of the necessary items to start my sewing process.

 



 

 

Keepsake Box, By Elizabeth Pipkin

KEEPSAKE BOX

 

Hi again everyone! I’m here to share my last project as Guest Designer for Unique Laser Designs and I would like to say that it has been an honor and privilege to have the opportunity to use these great products and work with such a great team! For this project, I decided to make an ordinary wooden box into a keepsake box as a gift for my sister who is retiring from her job at the end of this year. I wanted it to be something special and I hope this fits the bill! I chose Unique Laser Design’s pretty Corner A, Flourish A and the word Love, from their Live, Laugh, Love and Hope set. The corners and flourish are wood and Love is chipboard.

 

I decided to keep the finish simple on these by just dabbing on Ranger Adirondack Pearl acrylic paint dabber. Then I used a Q-tip rubbed in Tim Holtz Aged Mahogany Distress Ink Pad and rubbed around all the edges.
 

Now, to begin on the box... I purchased it from our local craft store awhile back and after seeing a pretty keepsake box decorated by Gabrielle Pollacco, I decided to give it a try!
 

I painted it inside and out with Gesso.

Then, I randomly rubbed acrylic paint on all sides including the bottom with my finger.
 

I wasn’t too thrilled with how the paints didn’t blend in smoothly so I got my foam paint brush out, got it wet with water and ran it over the entire box. Then when it dried, to tone down the paint a bit, I used my Pearl dabber again, dragging it across all the colors.
 

 

Before moving on to the outside, I wanted the inside to be pretty also. I used papers from Graphic 45’s Botanical Tea collection cutting them to size, inking the edges with TH Victorian Velvet and gluing top and bottom in and then adding smaller images from the same collection. I also added some Diamond Stickles to the flowers and hummingbirds to shimmer it up a bit. The pretty butterfly is from Reneabouquets.com.
 

Now, back to the outside of the box… The next step is to randomly stamp images you want to use on your box. I used Tim Holtz Black Soot Distress Ink. Now I have to say, this was way out of my comfort zone because I hardly ever use black ink for stamping, but after seeing it used so frequently among other artists and Gabrielle’s pretty box I decided to give it a try. I was pleased with the final result. Also, I’ve always been a stickler for precise stamping but am getting to where I really like the look of fading (or not a completed stamp).

I inked around all edges, inside and out with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo distress ink pad to give it an aged look and then I used my homemade texture paste with a Prima stencil.

 

I wanted to use an image from Graphic 45’s Botanical Tea paper on my box, so I cut it out with my Fiskars circle template and cutter, distressed the edge and inked with TH Vintage Photo and glued it to the top of the box. I then framed it with Artisan Elements circle and inked that in with Tim Holtz Black Soot.

 

 

I also decided to use Tim Holtz’s pretty metal corners to add elegance to the box.

Now for the embellishments! My beautiful ULD pieces, a Reneabouquets butterfly, a Prima flower, some cheesecloth, white berries, leaf ribbon, pearl flourishes and metal key. The blue butterfly I fussy cut from the G45 papers to match. I also used Diamond Stickles in the image.
 

 

On one side is ULD’s pretty “Love” chipboard.

The little cherub I won in a drawing and metal key on the side are both from Reneabouquets!

 

And the finished product!
 

Thank you for taking time to stop by and view my Keepsake Box!

Products Used:

Unique Laser Designs Corner A and FlourishA (wood)

Love, from Live, Laugh, Love and Hope set (chipboard)

Folk Art acrylic paint in Rose Pink, Aqua Moiré and Forest Moss

Ranger Adirondack Pearl dabber

Gabrielle Pollacco’s Daisy Stamps (lattice)

Prima Clear Stamps #545055

Hero Arts Clear Stamps Special Time #2

Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads in Black Soot, Vintage Photo, Victorian Velvet and Aged Mahogany

Prima 6x6 stencil, Ameruse Duchess Mix (H) flower

Diamond Stickles

Bo Bunny Frosting Jewels (pearl flourishes)

Graphic 45 Botanical Tea 12x12 paper collection

Artisan Elements circles

Tim Holtz metal corners

Reneabouquets cherub, butterflies and intricate metal key

Queen & Company baby blue rhinestones