Balls Up Christmas machine embroidery

Just me being silly with a little Christmas double entendre machine embroidery.

Circle die cut paper Christmas tree and frame

I like using both the interior and exterior of the things I die cut and today I have a post that features two projects- one that uses the inside of the circle die cuts - A hanging Christmas tree and another that uses the outside of the circle die cuts - A photo frame.

 

To make these two projects I used a variety of green scrapbook paper and Sizzix Framelits Plus set of 15 circle dies.

After I die cut all the circles I cut a slit in each one half way through the circle to the center.

Then placed it on a piece of thin green yarn and glued the circle flaps together forming a slight cone shape. 

You can adjust the cone shapes as narrow or wide as you like and space them close together or far apart to make your hanging paper cone Christmas tree any shape you like.

With the "leftover" outside circle shapes I glued them together with the largest on top and working through to the smallest underneath.

I placed a cute photo of my nephew in the final circle.

Then I trimmed up the top page to a square and glued it onto a 12 x 12 piece of scrapbook paper.

To hang up my concentric circle photo frame I clipped it into a vintage wood clip hanger.

 I hope you have enjoyed my twofer circle die cut project and you'll give them a try!

Easy Halloween decoration- Candy Corn Stack of books

If you have a stash of books why not make an easy Halloween decoration with them by stacking them by color to form a candy corn.

Cost: Zip!

And best yet when the holiday is over no need to worry about where you are going to store your out of season decorations simply pop them back on the shelf where they belong.

Mummy cat rubber stamped and redacted recycled book page Halloween decoration

Have you tried redacting book pages to make quotes and fun phrases? I love it. It's like a puzzle but creative.

I thought I'd make some more book cover art with the redacted book pages and adding my favorite new Halloween stamp - a mummy cat from Judikins.

 This page I actually found Kat and craft on the page!

The other 2 say

"One of the problems...an ordinary...person....is to keep a covert eye on him. He....would...hide behind.....tombstones.....of course.

and

What do we know?....asked....the....tail....he's....to...destroy....incriminating.....information.

Try hide and seek with words!

Wiggle eye planner clips oh my!

Fun and easy project for you today.

Simply grab your stash of wiggle eyes in a variety of sizes and some paper clips.

Heat up the hot glue gun and attach the wiggle eyes to the single bend end of the paper clip.

These wiggle eye planner clips are so easy you could make a whole bunch and give them out as treats to all your friends.

This project approved by my pompom candy corns.

Easy way to dress up an old pair of boots with a stencil

I can't stop stenciling! I had this great bird stencil from Stencil1 and an old pair of motorcycle boots that were just calling for embellishment. I slipped some cardboard into the boot to flatten it a bit and used a Sharpie to draw in the bird onto the side of the boots. I'm thinking about hand painting some color into the outline of the bird shapes?

How to make candy corn planner clips

This year's Halloween theme is most definitely "candy corn". I think this is now my 4th or 5th candy corn craft so far and it's only mid-September!

I die cut 2 sets of each size candy corn in all 3 colors of scrapbook paper with the Sizzix candy corn die.

 I trimmed the top parts off the white candy corns and the bottom parts off the yellow candy corns.
Then I glued the parts onto the full orange candy corns.

Then I glued the two candy corns back to back with a paper clip in between with hot glue.

Note: I did try a wet glue but it made the paper soggy and the paper clip showed through.

How to make yarn cone candy corn Halloween decorations

As a recycled crafter I think my eyes have this way of looking at things and seeing something else....or it just could be my declining bad eyesight :) When sorting through my yarn stash I ran across a yellow one and thought it would make a fun candy corn decoration.

So I went to my other boxes to see if I could find more and it turns out I had 5 cones of yarn in various sizes.

 Next step was to gather up the white, orange and yellow yarns, I even made a candy corn out of the boxes - I swear I didn't think of this it just happened when I placed them on the floor to photograph and there it was!

I had fun picking out different shades and textures of the yarns.

TIP: Start with the top and bottom of the cones then wrap the middle section I found it easier to get the proportions right and get the yarn to stay in place.

Oh and if you like the little guys on top- they are simply acorns painted orange and then little jack-o-lantern faces drawn on with a Sharpie.

How to make a paper leather deer die cut cuff bracelet

Sizzix paper leather is such a fun material to work with. It die cuts like a dream and one of my all time favorite motifs to use in my art, jewelry making and crafts is a deer and this Tim Holtz Holiday Knit deer sweater like pattern is awesome!

So I thought I'd make a cuff with paper leather and the deer die.

The first step was to iron on some Heat n Bond to one side of the gray paper leather.
Then die cut the deer pattern.

Peal off the backing paper and iron the gray paper leather to a piece of black paper leather.

Cut the cuff to the size you would like it to be on your wrist - I did mine about 2 inches wide but you could make it any width you like.

I rounded the corners a bit and ran it through my sewing machine stitching a row of black stitches along each side about 1/4 of an inch in from each edge.

Use your favorite closure method- Velcro would work great or a button and button hole I bet would work great too.

Election year U.S. map and recycled dictionary page card

I remember being at an election part for Obama's first term and the hostess had a map on a board that was colored in every time a state was announced. This U.S. die cut card is inspired by election year maps.

For the background I used a page from an old dictionary and I chose the page that had California on it. To embellish the page I stenciled a field of stars with a blue ink pad and a Judikins field of stars stencil.

I used the Sizzix United States die to cut out both the outline of America and the individual California state.

Happy Election Year!

Glow in the Dark secret inspiration word art

I am a big fan of little secret things in art, hidden messages, images, etc. I thought it might be fun to paint a secret message on two stenciled panels.  During the day they look like pretty decorative stenciled art and at night they glow with the inspirational word "DO".

I started out with some recycled square pieces of wood.
I painted them with two different shades of FolkArt paint- Cascade and Dutch Aqua.

When they were dry I taped the Floral Wallpaper and Nouveau Damask stencils onto the blocks and stenciled them using Waverly Chalk paint in plaster color.

 When the decorative stencil paint was dry I then laid the Waverly letter stencil over the decorative stencil (THIS IS IMPORTANT NOT TO REMOVE THE UNDER STENCIL!) and painted the letter with the glow in the dark finish paint. It doesn't show during the day but when the lights go out they show up.

How to airbrush solar lights

Over at Craft Gossip I have posted a fun and easy tutorial on how to airbrush plastic cups in a rainbow and add die cut words to make a colorful solar light sign.

How to make red, white and blue 4th of July pom poms to top of a bottle of party wine

I love pompoms and dressing up a bottle of wine with a big one when when heading out to a party makes a fun decoration to give to a hostess. This red, white and blue giant pom pom will be fun to bring to a 4th of July picnic.

Gather up red, white and blue yarn along with your pompom maker and a sharp pair of scissors and plate.

This pom pom will consist of 2 pompoms sewn together.  For the first side of the pom pom wrap with red primarily and then a bunch more white. As much as you can get on your pompom maker.

Trim off the pompom maker and set aside.

Make the second one with a base of blue and again cover it with white wraps.

 Stitch the two pom pom halves together with the white section together.

Hold the pom pom over the plate and trim the pom pom round.

Tie the pom pom on a bottle of wine.

50 Small Paintings-Done!

My New Year's resolution for 2015 was to do the 50 small paintings in the book Learn to Paint in Acrylics with 50 Small Paintings. It took me a bit longer to finish them all and even a bit longer to photograph them and write this post. But I should also add I built the shelves along the way to display them too!

 And me being me I did them all on recycled plywood I had leftover from a construction project.

I cut and sanded the plywood down to 5 inch squares.

Then I primed all the wood squares to get them ready to do each painting.

This was the first painting. Boy, that seems like forever-ago!

I can't tell you how fun this was to do! The directions are excellent and each painting is such a pleasure to paint.

I would end up working on several at a time as you need to allow the paint to dry in some cases so it's fun to start the next and jump back and forth. I highly recommend this book and this process. As you can see the collection looks great and you learn so much. I have already started to use the techniques I learned by painting these pieces in new original paintings.

3 crewel embroidery motifs used on a check table cloth

I started this project a long, long time ago and finally put the finishing touches on it and now I can share my crewel embroidery done on this check fabric using the patterns form the book The New Crewel Embroidery.

How to make pom pom carrot Easter decorations

No matter what new materials come out I still seem to think of ideas to make with pm poms. Today's fun little pom pom creations are carrots that my amineko thinks are just too fun not to snuggle, I know she doesn't look happy but she is :)

All that you need for these little creations are a variety of sizes of orange pom poms, a bit of green yarn and a hot glue gun.  Simply glue the pom poms together from smallest to largest.

To make the carrot top I looped a few wraps of yarn around 3 fingers and tied a knot around them with another piece of yarn. Then I tied a piece of yarn around all the loops. Then I cut the loops open and glued the tied end into the large pom. I made a bunch because quite frankly they were so easy and cute.

Color Blocked Craft Table and Accessories

  I have entered this Color Block Craft Table and Accessories project in the Fave Crafts Craft Contest 2016- If you like it please pop on over to their site and VOTE for it! I could win $1000 bucks! Thanks in advance for your support :)

Having a workspace that inspires creativity and keeps all your craft supplies organized can really make your crafting and art making time efficient and fun. 

I made this large worktable out of a piece of plywood and Plexiglass with squares of Fairfield Oly Fun Craft Material in between for a modern color block look. The layers are all held together with office supply binder clips. 



The center support of the worktable is a stack of recycled books! The coordinating desk accessories were embellished with all different types of paint and foil. 


The stemware glass balls were painted with Testors paint. 
The glasses were painted with  Design Master Tint It Transparent Dye Spray Paints. 
The jewelry box was given a new look with Plaid Ceramcoat Chalk paint. 
The little square plates were embellished with  Silver Therm-o-web Deco foil scissors. 
The little plastic animals were colored silver with the Testors Enamel paint marker. 

And since I plan on spending a lot of time at my new craft table coloring in books like Leisure Arts' Art of Coloring Mandalas I sewed a new cushion for the vintage stool and embellished it with a Simplicity applique.

 

I had a scrap of Plexiglass left over from my film industry days and it was a bit smaller than an 4x8 sheet of plywood so I had to trim the plywood down. If you are making this with new materials your plexi and plywood will likely be the same size so you can skip this step.

I used Fairfield Oly Fun Craft Material to cover the plywood. This material comes in pre-cut squares in a great variety of colors as you can see so it was easy to lay them out and arrange them in a pretty pattern.

Then I laid the plexiglass over the squares and secured it with office supply binder clips.

One of the fun things about this color block craft table is that since it isn't permanently secured you can swap out the color blocks anytime!

 

To give a new look to these vintage glasses I used a variety of Design Master Tint It Transparent Dye Spray Paints.

I masked off the bases so they would stay clear. While painting them I placed them on top of some cardboard containers. This made it easy to rotate the glasses for nice even coverage

To embellish the little plates I die cut a piece of Therm-o-web Easy-cut adhesive and applied Silver Therm-o-web Deco foil.

I am eager to try this technique on all sorts of recycled surfaces.

The next color blocked item on my craft desk was this piece of stemware that features little ball shapes. I painted each one with a color of Testors paint.

A project I see on Pinterest a lot is upcycling little toy animals by painting them with metallic paint. The Testors Enamel paint marker worked great for this!

In keeping with my color blocking theme I thought it would be fun to upcycle this jewelry box by painting each drawer a different color within the same color family.

I used a variety of blues, greens and grays of the Plaid Ceramcoat Chalk paint. I used a bit of painter's tape to hold the drawer pulls out of the way while painting. I also took the glass out and scraped the floral image off with a razor blade.

I love my vintage step stool but I thought it could use a bit more padding. The easiest way is to make a tie on cushion. I had a slipcover pillow that I could easily make a new coordinating slipcover for.

All I did was fold a piece of fabric over itself right sides facing with about a 4 inch overlap. Before stitching the sides I pined ribbons in each corner facing in.

 When turned right sides out I placed ta Simplicity applique on the new pillow cover. 
I am so excited about creating all sorts of things in my new creative space.