What is this?
Teaser….! Can you guess what this is? LOL! I just wanted to share a sneak peek and show ya that I have actually been crafting this week! My studio is an absolute pigsty right now… I’ve got to run some errands, but I will be back later to show you what this is! Inky Smiles! Erin
A Bit o’ Fru-Fru for the Studio
I’ve been dedicating and spending more time this week to work in the studio and get some artsy fartsy things done. Really, it’s mostly done, just some odds n ends that I am working on like painting my InkStak making some fru-fru stuff for the space and some minor picking up of the place. I pulled out my fabulous little Bernina machine, some fabric and thread and went to work inventing some fru-fru to coordinate with my curtains. I also made a little adjustment to the “ties” on my curtains (McCall’s “Home Dec in a Sec” Pattern # M4329 View B – Empire Valance) as the teeny weeny thin ribbon just wasn’t doing it for me. I wanted to use that cool green fabric in the curtains but didn’t have quite enough of it. Anyway, back to the Fru-Fru Invention…. I wanted some blingy something or other and have been enjoying looking at other ppl’s spaces (not just papercrafters) and have seen some FABULOUSO chandelier lights and things in some spaces that are making me droooool. Well, a chandelier would look sorta ridiculous in this space and the ceilings are a bit too low for a dangly piece of lovely fru-fru, so I got to thinking about what I liked about them… Turns out I like the dangly crystals and fringe and shininess of it all so I thought about what I could do to add a little dangly/shiny/fru-fru fringe in this space. Chair Wraps With Fringe And Ties Oh MY So yeah… I pulled out the leftover fabrics from making the curtains and went to town. I was too lazy to go to the fabric store and look for a pattern, so I just sorta “winged it” and fit the fabric to the chairs and whipped up some ties. I really like the mismatched patterns. (It has taken me YEARS to figure out that you can mix and match patterns as long as they have colors that compliment/coordinate. Dang “ocd”… lol) The funky fun orange and fuschia beaded/circle fringe (this is the chandelier part cuz I couldn’t find the “just right” crystal beads) was a fun find at JoAnn’s but I found out you can get it slightly cheaper at WalMart. The fringe is stitched on with a fun, decorative stitch. The wraps fold over the top of the chair and then tie around themselves to the back of the chair. The paisley fabric is actually a really cool hot pink color that I can’t quite get a good photo of…. ergh. Here are some snapshots of the chair wraps. {Click photos for larger view.}
Tutorial: Paper Beads Part Two – Adding Bling & Stringing Your Beads.
We covered the making of the actual beads in Part One. The post was getting quite long so I decided to start a Part Two post – Add some bling and string your beads. {Continued from Part One} Adding Bling ** At this point you can also opt to add some bling to your beads. I experimented with adding Perfect Pearls glittery powder, glitter, and Stickles. Here are some photos of my experiments. Perfect Pearls: Worked on blue beads fantastically! Glitter: Sprinkle on after you dip in UTEE. Beautiful addition to red and tan beads. Stickles: Carefully dab onto dry UTEE and then dip in UTEE again. Didn’t work so great because the glue in the Stickles bubbles up and makes a nasty mess. Hints: Don’t heat too close or too long to the bead or it will glob up and the UTEE will flow like lava off your bead. (See above right photo.) And please don’t touch the bead like me until it’s cool or it WILL burn you and make a mess. Taking one for the team… ouch! Stringing Your Beads 1.) Gather up your tools & supplies: Pliers, Tiger Wire, Crimp Beads, Spacer Beads, and Clasps (I used a Toggle Clasp). If you are adding a charm, gather your jump rings and charm, too. 2.) Cut a piece of tiger wire long enough to go around your wrist PLUS at least about 4” extra. I cut a 12” length for an 8” bracelet. Lay out flat on your workspace. 3.) Start by stringing your crimp bead followed by one part of the clasp you’re using. Then fold about 1” or so of the tiger wire over the ring on the clasp and thread it back through the crimp bead. This will secure your clasp to your bracelet. 4.) String the beads. I string a few coordinating “starter” beads on. These help space out the paper beads and give some better maneuverability to the toggle clasp. String all your beads on until you have the desired length & design. End your string of beads with the same # of spacer beads that you used at the beginning. 5.) String on one more crimp bead and the other half of your clasp. Fold over loop on clasp and thread back through crimp bead and all of the spacer beads. Keep pulling the wire until it is snugged down around the loop on the clasp. You may need to use your pliers to gently tug and pull the wire to the correct length. 6.) Snip off the wire so that it ends about half way through the last paper bead. (See above right photo.) This should secure the wire so that it doesn’t pop out and scratch you. Voila! You now have a custom handmade piece of jewelry to add to your collection or to give away! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial & as always, I would LOVE to see what you come up with! BONUS RAK: I’m going to give this bracelet away in the evening on Wednesday, January 14th to a random commenter using a random integer generator. Here’s how you can put your name in hat: * Post a link on your blog back to this bracelet tutorial and leave a comment here letting me know you’ve shared. Comments will be closed at 6:00 PM Wednesday night. I will draw a random name on Wednesday evening. Inky Smiles & Good luck 🙂
Tutorial: Paper Bead Bracelets Part One
This was supposed to be posted on Friday, but our internet was out (AGAIN) and I spent the morning on the phone switching our phone service over in preparation for switching internet service. (We have VOIP phone and wanted to make sure we kept our phone number…) And then we went up north for the Draper Temple open house. (We got a special invitation because Brent is an elected official.) It was so neat, they had a great tour and a little reception at the end with a gift of the “Then Sings My Soul” cd from the MoTab Choir. The very best part of the evening was when we got to shake hands with one of the leaders of my church, Elder Eyring… What a fabuous evening! Anyway… here’s the tutorial! This technique is SUPER easy. My mom said this is a way old paper art…. she has a necklace made from old rolled up newspapers. (It’s super pretty!) I loved the bracelets at PTI, but I did not like the idea of ModPodge on a wearable item. If you’ve ever gotten something wet that was one ModPodge’d you know what I mean… ewww. I also saw these beads made on a YouTube video by Suse Weinburg, but I did not have the UTEE melting pot. Michael’s has it but it’s $34.99 and I didn’t have a coupon when I was there… Anyway… if you have an old Versamark pad, a heat gun and some UTEE and a little creativity, you’re good to go. 🙂 I hope you enjoy making these beads and I would love to see what you come up with! 1.) Gather your supplies. I used the following: s Versamark Pad s Heat Gun s Patterned paper s Spacer beads (glass or metal) s Clasps & crimp beads s Wire Snips/Pliers s Tools for rolling paper (anything long and skinny will work) s Glue pen s Ultra Thick Embossing Powder s Various glitter/shimmery powder s A mat or paper pad to protect your work surface 2.) Cut long, narrow triangular strips of paper and set aside. The # of strips you need depends on how many beads you will need to go around your wrist. Cut extra pieces for those “oops” moments. Where’s Waldo? Can you find the pink strips on that marvelous pink mat? LOL! 3.) Roll wide end of paper onto whatever you’re using to hold the bead. I switched to wooden skewers (WalMart) in the middle of the tutorial. (The embossing tool actually works great to hold the bead while melting the UTEE later….) Use glue if you need to help secure the paper while rolling. When you reach the end of the paper be sure to use the tiniest amount of glue possible to securely stick down the narrow end. If you have extra glue oozing out it will make a mess in step 5. 4.) Roll the bead on your Versamark pad and generously ink up the bead. Make sure all of the paper is completely inked up. Dip into UTEE powder and thoroughly coat. Gently tap off excess. 5.) Heat up your heat gun and hold the bead in the heat. Rotate the bead while the UTEE melts. (This keeps the UTEE from globbing up in a puddle on the bead.) Don’t hold the heat in one place too long or you may also burn the UTEE and it will turn a nasty yellow color. 6.) Let bead cool, then roll in Versamark and dip in UTEE again until you get the desired thickness of coating and desired appearance of your bead. ** Click here: ** Continue to Part Two: Adding Bling & Stringing Your Beads
Washington —-> Utah or BUST! Road Trip, the Book.
Today I am grateful for lasting friendships. Some people come into your life for a season, some for a reason, and some for forever. I have many friends who I have kept in contact over the years and am so grateful to still have these friends in my life. Last weekend one of my forever friends, Sarah, came to visit from Washington. She brought along her two daughters (L & S) and her fiance (Dustin) & Dustin’s little dachshund, Chip, on their way to meet Dustin’s family over the Thanksgiving holiday. Sarah and I have been friends since we were 15 years old and met in Berlin, Germany where our dads were stationed with the Army. We lost contact over time but 3 years ago found each other again. Like most of my friends from Berlin, when we met up again it was like time had not really passed. We just sorta picked up where we left off… only this time Sarah had two darling daughters to add to the mix. We had a BLAST hanging out together and enjoyed a lot of laughs. I have tons of fabulous photos that I have been working on editing and a disc to burn so Sarah can print off pics when she gets home and tons of photos to make some fun digi layouts with! I guess I better get busy! Remember the sneak peek from the other day? Well, here’s the whole thing… I wanted to give the girls something fun to remember their trip by. This is a big trip for them, meeting new “future” cousins and grandparents, etc. I made two little almost matching 6×6 mini albums for L & S to put photos from the trip in and added pull out tabs to journal their memories on. The back covers match up to spell out Road Trip. I kept the books to put vinyl covers on so the Stickease stickers don’t peel off and the covers don’t get destroyed on the trip. I’ll mail them off this week so the girls will have them when they return home 🙂 Materials Used:* Bind It All Machine* BIA 1″ white OWires* CTMH Road Trip Papers & Stickease Pack (retired)* Miscellaneous coordinating ribbon Click on photos for a better view. Some might be a bit fuzzy… for some reason PSE was saving as GIFs and not Jpgs and I didn’t catcht it on some and don’t feel like re-editing the pics.
Thoughts For Thursday: Gratitude – Day Fifteen & Artwork
Today is day #15 for me on this journey. I have been keeping track of my daily gratitude and compiling it on my computer. I am having way too much fun thinking about my blessings… and it’s hard to choose just one per day to write down. Here’s where we’re at today: Tonight I am going to visit some ladies for church and I am bringing them a fun little gift. Years ago when I was with CTMH, I received one of these in a swap or a buy in or something, I don’t remember. I liked them so much that I made hordes of the little guys to give to friends here and there. They are SUPER simple and inexpensive to make. Materials Needed:Blank notepads (3x5x3/8″) – I picked mine up in 6 packs at WalMart12×12 paper cut into 3″x 10 3/8″ stripsCoordinating cardstock for embellishingCoordinating ribbonStamps – I used “Give Thanks” from CTMH & Watercolor pencils. Decorate and embellish the front as desired and tie a ribbon around the flap… easy schmeasy and you have a cute little gift for a friend. 🙂
A Little Art: Scrunched and Distressed Leaves
I have decided that I absolutely LOVE altering letters! Here’s a fun little project that I made to hang on the walls of my new studio…. I bought the paper so long ago and created this rather quickly and tossed out the little edge that says who makes it…. so I apologize for not being able to tell you right off who made it. {Click on photos for larger views} The E is a hardboard letter that I picked up at Robert’s Crafts. The rhinestones are from Me&My Big Ideas (MAMBI), the ribbon is Papertrey Ink. I clipped the flower from a 99c bushel of flowers from WalMart. The leaves are created using a scrunch and distress technique. Scrunched and Distressed “Leaves” Materials:ScissorsInks for distressingCardstock (I used a textured one from Archivers on my original E & I liked the effect.)* Baby Wipes (optional) 1.) Cut out your leaves… make random looking shapes.2.) Make a center “crease” for the center vein of the leaf and ink up.3.) Use all of your pent up frustrations and scrunch up the paper leaf. Seriously, scrunch it up like you’re smashing it into oblivion… you want all sorts of funky creases. 4.) Open up your leaf and begin smooshing it all over your ink pad to start adding life to the veins. Warning: your fingers will get extremely messy. Baby wipes come in handy at this point. (Scrolling on up to add Baby Wipes to the materials list.) 5.) Scrunch up your leaf again and ink up. Repeat until you get the desired effect.6.) Open up your leaf again and add some final touches… add additional ink colors for more fun effects! Experiment and have fun with your leaf! This is a fun technique to use for making fall leaves for cards, scrapbook pages, etc. Here are some oldies from my CTMH days…
E
Remember those altered letters I did for some girlfriends a while back? I made one for mE, too! It’s an altered paper mache letter. I painted it with acrylic paints and then covered it with paper and altered some Maya Road flower petals with Cloud 9 Design paper, Stickles, and glitter to make a flower.
Character
“Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open.” I made a whole bunch of these little guys for some girlfriends a while back… Avon had these cute little Disney Princess Chapsticks on sale and I could not resist! And of course you can’t just give them to your girlfriends without some sort of cute packaging…. (You can click on any of the photos to view them larger.) I modeled my package after a matchstick box card and made it slightly bigger to accommodate the Chapstick tube. It’s decorated in paper from CTMH which has been stamped with CTMH Stamps & Inks. The flower is done by stamping Versamark ink on a piece of transparency paper (acetate) and then sprinkling white embossing powder over it and heating with your heat gun. Be CAREFUL…. the acetate WILL melt if you heat one place too long. Once the embossing powder is cooled you can cut out the flower. It may take several tries to get the desired effect… the embossing powder likes to stick to the acetate anywhere it can. You can try rubbing gently with an anti static bag, but be careful because it can scratch the acetate… I stamped a CTMH paper flower with a polka dotted stamp from the Floral Elements set and set aside to dry while working on the acetate flower. When all the floral components were ready, I pinned them all together with a little (discontinued) sequin flower and brad (CTMH) and attached the flower to a white organdy ribbon (CTMH). Supplies:White organdy ribbon, paper flower, white brad & sequin flower – CTMHInks & Paper – CTMHStamps: Floral Elements, Delight In Everything, Follow Your DreamsWhite Embossing Powder – CTMHHeat Gun – MarvyAdhesive, misc.
T is for Trish & the Star of the Show is K
I have a few things to post this week. I’ve been remaking some of my fav (recent) projects with different papers and designs. (I hope you don’t get sick of them, but sometimes when you find a fun thing to make your creative muse is AWOL you make it over and over… especially when they are good for gifts!) I will share them this week… Here’s the first: a remake of my little chipboard calendar with the BIA machine. The possibilities are endless with these little calendars… This one goes from May 2008 – May 2009. I was privileged to be able to hang out for a couple of days over the past couple of weeks with my friend, Trish’s daughter, K. We were making a fun little project for T for M’s Day. T and her dh, T, are going to Canada tomorrow for a work thing for dh T without the munchkins…. K and I thought it would be fun to put something in T’s suitcase… I am pretty sure K put it in the suitcase or gave it to her mom early yesterday… meaning: It’s been given, T is in Canada (or an airport along the way) and I can post safely now! YAY! {Click on photos for larger view} K & I had a BLAST hanging out together to create this calendar. I dreamed up the design, K picked out the papers and did the actual assembling of the calendar. We did our own little photo shoot the first evening in the freezing cold… poor K was such a good sport! Here’s some photos of K’s creative adventure. For an 11 yr old, she’s pretty good with the Fiskars Fingertip Craft Knife and mastered the ATG pretty quickly. Supplies:CTMH Papers, BradsCTMH’ers – whats the name of the paper kit??? Simple PleasuresFiskars Threading Waters Punch & F.Craft KnifeBIA machine, Owires, 4×6″ Chipboard CoversWe R Memory Keepers RibbonsMaya Road Chipboard letter “t”