Thursday, October 30, 2014

BOOtastic Gift

Happy Hallow's Eve!!
 
Today I'm here to share with you a BOOtastic giftbag and mini album. This is a great gift for the host of a adult Halloween bash as well. 

 
First I will start you off with how I altered the Wood Skull for the giftbag.
 


These are the supplies I used to alter the skull.
 


 To begin the distressing process, I used a black piece of cardstock to give base to the back of the Wood Skull (eyes and nose). This is to give be a foundation to add the bling.

 
Cover the face of the skull with Distress paint, be sure not to cover the teeth.  Then while still wet, cover with Distress Embossing Powder and heat set.


Next, let's work on the eyes.  Now this part could have been completed in one of two ways.  You can add one diamond as the center of each eye then fill in the rest of the eye with white or your choice of color embossing powder or any other medium.
 

 
I chose to fill the eye socket with bling. Next I enhanced the teeth using Liquid Pearls in silver.


 
Now let's build the giftbag. 
 

The ziz zag you see on the giftbag is actually what would be considered the negative from a design cut.
 

 
I cut this piece into three sections and used the same embossing method to distress it.
 
 
And here is another look of the embellished giftbag.
Now, let's take a look at the mini album.
 


For the front of this mini I used a Chipboard Corset as the focus.
 
 
This is how the Corset looks unfinished.  I love this design, especially being it has usable holes for lacing up the front instead of having faux holes.
 
 
I altered the Corset by mixing the two main colors used throughout the mini album.  Starting with the center of the corset, being very careful to only ink up the section I want to emboss in the lightest color.  Next I moved over to the next section to emboss in black, and continued until the entire piece was completed.  Finally ending with threading the center of the corset.
 

 
Here's a glimpse of the inner pages of the mini album.  Each page has been mildly altered to prep for those fun Halloween photos.
 

 
I also used a Custom Decorative Wood Design on the second page of the album. I love how the mix of embossing powders gives this wood design the look of rustic metal. While the base embossing color is still hot from heat setting, lightly sprinkle darker embossing powder on sections.  As you heat set each layer, add more embossing powder where needed. Then using a my distressing toothbrush, I spritzed gesso over the piece to add more of a weather look.
 

 
 
Products Used:
 

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Just a Note

Hi everyone!  Once we are closing in on November, I start thinking of fun little ideas for gifts or even favors for holiday gatherings and parties.  I love something I can make quick, easy, yet cute!  Even better if I can slip a gift card inside!  This project is a perfect example:



These note pads are very easy to make, which means you can make a lot of them quickly for a great little gift that anyone can use.  You can personalize them to any occasion by using different patterned papers.  I used a fall theme for this one.

The Unique Laser Designs Music Notes are a perfect touch to give them a little extra pizzazz!  These are the ULD pieces I used:


                                          W-1071L Music Notes 1"

Even better....since it's a set of 10, you can make at least three note pads with one set.  Again, great for making a large amount....you could even use a personal name instead of the word "notes" and they could be used as place cards at a party.

The base is simply a 8" by 3&1/4" piece of cardstock, scored at 3", 3&1/2", 6&1/2" and  7".  Here's a peek at the inside....it holds a standard size post-it note pad:
 

The closure is a piece of ultra thin velcro....but regular velcro works just as well.

On the music notes, I used Walnut Stain Distress Paint and then when dry, brushed Black Soot Distress ink on the edges to give the notes some depth and shading....again, I was thinking quick and easy so I can make a lot of these:


Thanks for stopping by the blog today....hope you are inspired to get that holiday crafting started....a lot of great ideas in the Unique Laser Designs store....check back soon for more ideas!

 

Monday, October 27, 2014

A Gift of Love

It's under two month's till Christmas and I wanted to share a little 8x8 canvas of my niece for my mother for Christmas.


Dot Graph
Feathers

The three products I have used, are the gorgeous feathers in chipboard as opposed to MDF, the MDF Dot Graph and the little tile with the word "smile" engraved on it from the Brick Wall pattern - again in chipboard.

I covered the canvas with gesso and then applied some texture paste with a mask.  Once dried I used Cotton Candy Tim Holtz distress stain over the masked area.

For the Dot Grid and Feather I used my White Prima Chalk Ink directly on them and dried with the heat gun.   For the feather I then applied some gel medium and applied some white sugar dust on top.  It has come out so beautiful and shiny.  I just love the white on the feather it looks awesome.




Here is a close of the Dot Grid which I slipped underneath the photo 


A nice simply canvas which is a beautiful gift of love, perfect for a Christmas present.  I hope I have inspired you to create some wonderful gifts.

Happy Scrapping



Saturday, October 25, 2014

Colorful Fall Layout

Hi again everyone! 
I’m back to share my second project as Guest Designer for Unique Laser Designs! For this project I decided to do a layout using their beautiful wood leaves. They smell so good! I really hesitated to do anything to them at all because the wood grain is so lovely but I had a specific project in mind so went ahead with my original plan.


First, I gave them a coat of Gesso.


Then, I spread some Aleene’s Turbo Tacky Glue over a small section at a time, then placed my pre-treated eggshell over it, and gently pressed it down. Do this until it’s completely covered with eggshell pieces and leave just a little space between pieces. I got the Eggshell Tutorial from Gabrielle Pollacco a few years ago. The pretreatment is the most tedious and time consuming, so you really have to want to try this technique to do it! (I will cover that part at the end of the tutorial for those that want to try it.)


Once you get them all done, let them dry completely. Then you’ll have to carefully break off the eggshells that hang over the edges.


Next, I gathered all my Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks that I thought I might want to use for my leaves. I knew I wanted an Autumn theme so these are the colors I came up with, as well as a little gold Metallic Mixatives and Alcohol Blending Solution.


After being satisfied with the colors, let them dry and add a layer of Ranger Glossy Accents. This seals the eggshells in and leaves a beautiful clear coat over the mosaics. Here are the finished leaves.                                              


Now, for my layout. It took me quite awhile to choose my background paper to compliment the photos I wanted to use as well as the leaf mosaics. I distressed the edges and added Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink to the edges with the wood tool and felt.


This is the first non-human layout I’ve made and it was a challenge for me using so many pictures. It took me several hours of deciding how to place them because I wanted to be sure and feature the beautiful wood pieces I’d just decorated. I also had trouble deciding whether or not to mat the pictures but in the end decided I didn’t want to cover anymore of the background paper than necessary so I just inked the edges of the pictures with the Tim Holtz Vintage Photo.


I then did a little dragonfly stamping and stamp-embossed a dragonfly at the bottom as well as some pretty leaf vines. I then added the title and a few birds and beautiful butterflies from Reneabouquets.com.

Thank you for stopping by! 
All of the trees pictured here were photographed by me on our property with the exception of the aspen, which is at our neighbor’s that is right next to our driveway.

PRODUCTS USED:
Daler Rowney Gesso (from Walmart)
Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks – Currant, Butterscotch, Citrus, Sunshine Yellow, Rust, Meadow, Ginger, Red Pepper and Gold Metallic Mixatives
Ranger Glossy Accents
Bo Bunny Forever Fall Bouquet (background paper)
Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink Pad
Fiskars Butterfly Magic Clear Stamps (lower dragonfly)
Inkadinkado Foliage Trails Clear Stamps
Hot Off The Press Dragonfly Clear Stamps (small dragonflies)
A La Mode Embossing Powder
Reneabouquets.com butterflies


To pretreat eggshells: Save up several and soak them in warm water and a bit of anti-bacterial water for at least an hour or overnight. Pull out the membrane and be sure to get all the little bits or the shell pieces won’t glue to your chipboard. Then let them dry for a few hours on paper towels. Then you are ready to go!

Thursday, October 23, 2014

New Products Now on the website !

Good morning !

I've been busy working on a bunch of new goodies, and wanted to share what is now available on the website.   Obviously I like all of them, but some of the new items have become my favorites already !!   Hopefully you'll like them ! :D


Berry Branch with Birds
Chubby Tree with Owls

Deco Frame - Sheila
Cooky Cats - Set A
Cooky Cats - Set B
Cornucopia
Bird Houses
Bird House Sign
Fairy Wings
Pacifiers



To be continued...

Many more new designs still coming (I ran out of time...lol)