Hot glue stencils!!!!!!

I have signed up for a postcard swap and we have been given free reign as far as technique and theme go. Several artists had been suggested earlier so I went looking for Traci Bautista as I had been to her site before and liked her art.  I discovered that she makes hot glue stencils!!  What fun!!! After a search online for tutorials on making these I got started.  I dug out my silicone mat, plugged in my glue gun and in no time I was making stencils.  It was a blast!! I made flowers, stars, grids, circles, hearts, arrows, and a few miscellaneous all over patterns that are just swirly.  Fun!!  I did have to remove the glue strings which took a bit of time but in the end I have over twenty stencils of my own art!!  I will be using these along with some ink sprays to create backgrounds for this postcard swap. I expect I will be adding some designs to some of my hand decorated papers as well.
Here are some close ups of some of the ones I made.  Therese

Chunky book page - blue, crackle paint and "allure"

Joined a 4"x 4" Chunky book page swap on one of my groups with the theme of "blue, distressed crackle and allure".  It took a few days and some internet research to come up with my concept for the project and to find tutorials for creating crackle paint.
I am very happy with my crackle background.  More info on that a bit farther down.   I decided to use techniques that draw me to creating - hearts, green and pink, texture, inspirational quotes, script backgrounds, hand lettering, etc.  I started by trimming my background to a four inch square and then stitched it with white thread to a white backer which was embossed with hearts.  I dug through my stash of hand decorated papers and found one with pink and green.  I glued a portion of it to cardstock and die cut a heart (SZ) out of it.  I embossed the heart using a script stamp (SU) and white embossing powder.  I glued it to my blue crackle 4" x 4" background using hot glue, added the felt flower and leaf embellishments and the little quote with hot glue as well.  I hand lettered the words and added the dots using a white gel pen.  Very happy with it!!

Crackle backgrounds - there are many tutorials on line for making them.  I started by using a clear crackle medium which I have own for a long time. I applied it to quarter sheet of dark blue hand decorated paper and followed the direction on the bottle.  I let it get tacky and then applied light blue acrylic paint to the surface.  It crackled some but not enough for my liking.  So I went looking for another method.  Someone on the group recommended several tutorials so I watched them and decided to use cheap white glue and paint.  As you can see on the left I started with several squares of blue serendipity paper which I painted liberally with cheap white glue ($1) and then painted with white and silver acrylic paint while the glue was still wet.  I had to apply a generous coat of paint to avoid disturbing the glue layer too much.  I left them over night and they crackled very nicely.  Unfortunately, the contrast between the upper and lower layeres was not really what I was looking for so I started over.

I used a quarter sheet of dark blue cardstock, applied the glue as described above, added a medium blue acrylic paint over it and left to dry overnight.  It crackled very nicely and the contrast between the two layers was much more what I was looking for.  The photo to the left is the same piece of crackle background as you see in my finished piece but they look so different.  Must be the light over my other work surface that made the difference.
So if you are looking to give this technique a try I would recommend the cheap white glue and acrylic paint technique.  It is cost effective and gives you very nice crackled background.  Here is a link to a tutorial.   Enjoy!!

Therese

Thank you cards featuring "altered" Christmas gift wrap

 Here are the thank you cards I created for acknowledging the blessings we received over the holiday season.  I saved aside a piece of nice gift wrap to use as the background for my cards.  I like that the paper is significant to the season.  

This was my third attempt at making cards with this

paper.  The first one was a fail because the snowflake cellophane I saved would not adhere to the paper with heat so I had to scrap that idea.  Idea #2 seemed much too stark in design and execution so I scrapped that idea as well.  I am much happier with this "altered" version of the paper and it made all the difference in the look of the final product.  You can check here to see how I altered my snowflake paper!!
After altering my paper I cut it up into 4"x 5.25" pieces.  I laid it over my card base and found that there was too much contrast between the decorative paper and the cardstock so I altered the edges of my cardstock as well.  I used a dark brown ink pad to rub down the edges and the red brown stamp pad I used for the decorative paper to add the stippling.  Much happier with that look.

With my edges all done I glued my decorative paper to the center of my card base and stitched all the way around with my sewing machine using a dark brown thread.  I created the greetings using Corel Draw combining the words with the tag shape and laser printed them.  I trimmed them out using my small craft scissors and used a regular hole punch to punch the hole.  I found this fiber in my stash which coordinated perfectly with the paper - yellow, rust and brown!!  I cut two five inch lengths and tied them with a half hitch knot onto my tag.  I adhered my tag to the front of my cards using double sided tape.
The greetings are all digital images.  The top left Thank you is from Melonheadz, the top right Thank you . . is from Paper Dreams of Mine & the other graphics are from Graphics Fairy, the many thank yous on the lower left is from DZ Doodles and the lower right one is also from Melonheadz.  The tag is from Dana's Inspirations.
I am very happy with how these turned out.  I will spend part of the day tomorrow letting everyone know how much I appreciated their thoughtful gifts.

Therese

Altered gift wrap for Thank you cards

I like to use a piece of gift wrap that arrives on one of my Christmas presents to make my thank you cards for the season.  This year I chose this very unique snowflake gift wrap in rust and ivory that my daughter wrapped my gift in.
I started by stamping a script stamp all over the paper using a reddish brown ink (Brilliance) and applying gold embossing powder here and there so I would get some gold highlights overall. Once it was embossed the rest of the script seemed to be less prominent so
I decided I needed to add a design

element with a bit more body to offset the delicate snowflakes already there and to provide a darker element to tie in with my tag greetings.  I dug these two snowflakes from my fun foam stash.  To make the larger one more delicate I punched holes in the larger balls using a regular hole punch.  Much better!!

 I used regular glue stick to adhere all the pieces to a clear mount and stamped it all over my paper using the same red brown ink.
On the left, you can see the piece of brown paper I was using on my work surface to catch all the over stamping from altering my paper and my card fronts.  It is looking pretty good and will no doubt end up in a future project as background paper after I have added a few more bits of "left over" paint over it in the next month or two.  I add all my left over paint from any project to paper - either one that already has some on it or a completely blank one if I do not have one that coordinates.  It always gives me very unique backgrounds for my projects.  You can check out the cards I made with my paper here.

Therese

Work area in my studio

This is what my work area looks like since the beginning of the new year. Needless to say, it has not always looked like this but I had to clean up my space completely before the holidays because we had company and we needed the space in this room to accommodate a bed.  Fortunately, it was DH and I who slept in the bed so being surrounded by boxes of supplies was not a surprise to us.  I am making a serious effort to clean up after each project and keep the area ready for the next one!!
Therese

Chunky book covers

On one of my groups we are going to be having a 4"x 4" fat book page swap every month so for January we have been challenged to make covers for our books!  The theme for the swap is Shades of Colour.  After a bit of "sitting" with the concept I decided to use the following magazine cover to create my book covers. 

I loved this mosaic image as soon as I saw it on the cover of a magazine that arrived before Christmas!!  When it was time for the magazine to be recycled I tore off the cover not sure what I was going to be doing with it.
I cut off the text and cut the remainder into 1" squares.  

I sorted the squares into colour groups  - sixteen blueish ones for the front cover and sixteen  mulit-colour for the back cover.  I glued them to edge to edge onto white cardstock, pressed them under weight and trimmed them to just under a four inch square.

 I cut two 4"x 4" pieces of chipboard and glued my collages to them.  I used decorative packing tape to finish off the edges.



I cut the tape in two, adhered the white edge to the front of my covers and folded the remaining part with the letters to the back creating a nice collage on the inside covers as well.  I am super happy to have created art with this beautiful piece of paper that manages

to maintain the beauty of it without keeping the original context.  I love how you can see eyes, a mouth and fingers on the back without really knowing where they come from.
I will be binding my pages from the swap into the covers using my Zutter Bind it all machine using a large binding which will give me lots of room to add charms, fibers and tags if I wish.
I added ribbon and a 3D embellishment to my cover.  The embellishment is one I created when my grand daughter was visiting this summer. We played with bottle caps and I filled this one with a punchie that says, "Think HAPPY, BE happy".  I glued it to the cavity of a flatten bottle cap, added some clear Dimensional Magic and then inserted the blue iridescent beads all the way around the words and left it to dry.  The colours are a perfect match for my covers.  I used double side tape to adhere my ribbon to the outside and inside of my front cover and tied the ends together at the top.  I used an awl to make holes in my bottle cap and my covers then used coordinating thread to stitch it to my cover over the ribbon.
So the journey begins!!  I am looking forward to the swap and all the interesting pages I will receive this year.  As the cover says, we must think to be happy, nurturing the good that arrives in our lives and being grateful for every blessing is what will bring us happiness.
Enjoy what you love today!!

Therese

Large cards with lovely little girl in pink & green!

I made theses cards for my monthly card exchange.  They are large 5"x 7" cards - I found some envelopes with flat cards in my stash and decided to use them up.
For each card, I started with a 5.5" x 4.25" piece of scrappy collage paper I created a while back.  I cut them in two so they would be large enough and added a layered tape border over the gap.  This tape - sort of like duct tape - arrived on my Christmas Secret Sister gift.  I was able to remove it intact so I saved it!!  The colours were perfect for these cards.  I glued those elements in place and went looking for images and greetings.  I found these two images of little girls by Lilac and Lavendar which I thought would do perfectly so I trimmed them to size and watercoloured them.  The greetings were in my stash - I layered them with colour coordinated label punchies (SU) which I cut in two so they would provide just a nice frame around them.  I glued the images in place over the tape border and added the layered greetings to the lower right.  I thought that the image on the pink card needed a bit of something so I added a gel pen faux stitching border.  I added a dotted line border with the same gel pen on the greeting on the green card for the same reason.   I love this colour combination!!

Therese

Teesha Moore inspired Postcard

I joined a postcard swap on one of my groups!!  The Theme: a raised letter A in Teesha Moore style!!  I started with a 4" x 6" lightly coloured alcohol ink background that I had in my stash.  I used my new Dylusions - Triangles -  stencil which I got for Christmas from my sister to add some texture on the right hand side.  I simply placed it over the background and sponged some inks through the holes - purple, green, teal & blue.

I punched the left hand side with a Fiskars ribbon slot punch, added some doodling around the holes using a fine tip Sharpie and then did all the way around the postcard edges using a wider black permanent marker. It added the contrast I like in my favorite Teesha Moore art. Then, I went looking for elements I could add to my collage.  I started with the chipboard "A" which fit right in and then found a cool sister poem on the gift tag I received from my sister this Christmas (will have to find out where she got it),  a teal coloured glittery heart, a little fairy girl and a couple of butterfly punchies.  These struck my fancy and complimented the colours of my background very nicely!!  I did sponge the poem with the same colours I had used on the stencil to get it to coordinate.
With my elements chosen I gave some thought to how I was going to add words.  Teesha often writes between the lines in her art so I drew wavy lines from the dips on my left hand border and added dots in between.  Really liked that!!  The border needed a bit more colour, so I used a variety of gel pens to colour in all around the slots.   That was better!!

I glued down my sisters poem and used 3D foam tape to adhere my "A" in place.  It needed a bit more contrast so I added some black doodling to it. The poem also needed a bit of something so I added some black dots on three sides and some drops of coordinating nail polish to the right hand side of it.   With those main elements in place I started adding words using a variety of hand lettering with a fine tipped Sharpie marker.  I started by adding "sister" next to my "A" and kept adding words and doodles between the lines.  I did get some inspiration for my lettering from Jenny Doh's book - Creative Lettering.  Once I had filled all the lines, I glued on my butterflies, the glittery heart and the fussy cut little girl.  I found the coordinating fiber in my stash which was off my sister's gift!!  It was so fun that I was able to incorporate so many elements that she gave me into this collage!!!  I tied the end of the fiber into the first slot and then cut it off.  Tied it into a different slot and cut it off.  I repeated the process until I had filled all the slots and no fiber remained - perfect!!  I really love how much texture it adds to the final piece.  I added another 4"x 6" postcard to the back and hand lettered "postcard", added a dividing line and little postage square in the corner.  I am very happy with my postcard!!!  We will be doing monthly postcards on the group - I am looking forward to doing more letters using different techniques.  You can check here to see the "R" postcard I made using the Tim Holtz January Tag as inspiration.
If you received some crafty items for Christmas, dig them out and use them!!  Get creative today!!

Therese

Angel favours!!

I created these favours for the Christmas Dinner for my family on Boxing Day!!  My daughter found these little angel ornaments on her vacation this summer and thought they would be great for the favours.  I agreed and started brainstorming ideas!!  The angels had twine hangers sticking out of their heads and nothing I thought up seemed to work with that feature so I decided to remove the hangers.  With a good swift tug, most came out clean.  Others, needed more convincing but eventually complied.  I filled the holes and painted them over with white paint.  That was better!!!  I decided that a round ornament would work well as a favour and could then be displayed on the tree in future years.  I have several on my tree from previous years where my sisters offered up ornaments as favours.  A 2.75" circle was sufficient to frame the angels so I cut them from a variety of red glittery decorative paper.  I layered the red circles onto white scalloped circles - both were cut with Nestibilities.  I did add a white crochet cotton loop between the two layers to accommodate a hanger.  I used GOOP to glue the angels to the circles.  I seriously considered adding glitter to the scallops and in the end decided that simple and elegant was a better choice and left them as is.   I added a circle on the back with year & event info and added a name tag to each one to indicate everyone's seat for our meal.  I am very happy with the way they turned out and I hope everyone will remember the fun of this Christmas when they add the ornament to their trees as the years go by.  

Therese

Tim Holtz January Tag Challenge

Happy New Year!!

Wishing you and yours every blessing in 2015!!

It has been a busy holiday season with not too much creative time but I did manage some crafting today.
On one of my groups we are considering a Tim Holtz monthly tag swap or challenge so I decided to see what I could create in the creative spirit of  Tim Holtz's January Tag!  I was not interested in copying his tag exactly so I decided to do a 4"x 6" postcard instead and liberally substituted what I had for what he used in the way of product and put my own spin on the elements as well.  I made a list before I headed to the craft room - tissue paper, paint, distress stains or spray, words, metal embellishments, glitter and seam binding which was my guide to the products which he used.
Tissue paper - I do have a wonderful piece of TH tissue paper which was gifted to me by my altered cuff swap partner and I set it aside in a "safe" place so I could use it for a project just like this.  Needless, to say today when

I could have used it, it was no where to be found.  I eventually gave up and dug out a piece of sewing pattern tissue and stamped it with a background newspaper stamp (IO) in black permanent ink to create tissue paper for my project. I could have chosen to create more of a collage look by choosing a variety of stamps instead.  I am happy with what I produced.  I did stamp a much larger piece than I needed so I will have some for future projects.

 I started with a 4"x 6" glossy photo paper which I washed with some gray watercolour.  I have a few of these colour palettes which I used previously for classes that I will be using up in my projects this year in a effort of using up what I have.


I applied glue to the whole front of my postcard, laid my piece of tissue over it and burnished it well.  Once it was dry, I trimmed all the way around with my scissors.  I chose a piece of tissue that was not too busy and featured only a few of the original lines on the sewing pattern.

Paint was the next item that Tim Holtz used, so I just added some colour using the watercolour palette I had sitting there - mostly red and oranges.
Next, I went looking for distress stains or sprays.  I had purchased vintage inks from Stampin Up a while back and thought they would do nicely for the spritzing I needed to do next.  I mixed up some mahogany which turned out to not be as red as I had expected and then dried lighter.  I chose Tea Stain (SU) next and found that it just blended into the surface and did not show up at all.  Needing to add a bit of colour I decided to use Charcoal.  That did the trick - it added colour in some very nice splotchy areas along with some nice spattered sections. Just what I needed.  I tend to mix sprays as I need them instead of having some on hand.  I admit that it means that I don't use them as often.  Maybe this year I will use them more often by mixing more than I need and leaving it in the spritzer for next time.

 












While the sprays were drying, I went looking for the other items I needed.  I found stamped words (SU) in my greetings bucket which I cut apart and trimmed.  I found a chipboard R which will work for one of my postcard swaps - bonus! Found some metal screening and a TH "wonderful" metal tag and decided that my next element should be a "U" which I die cut from shiny silver cardstock using a SU alphabet die.  When I checked the list I still needed glitter

and seam binding so checked my heart bucket and found a red glittered heart and my stash of vintage seam binding and found some coordinating red seam binding which I had dyed for a previous project which was perfect.  I used a permanent black marker on the chipboard "R" - completely covering up the bright pink!!  Perfect!!
Once my postcard was dry I arranged my words, letters, red glitter heart and the metal embellishments.  I decided to tie the seam binding to the R which worked in all of my elements.  Once everything had a home I glued the words in place.  I used three black diamond brads to attach the silver metal screening,  a vintage gold brad to attach the round TH "wonderful" embellishment and three black mini brads to attach my "U".  I tied a short length of the red seam binding to the stem of the "R" using a double knot, attached it with 3D foam tape and tucked the seam binding ends in around the "U".  The glittered red heart was added using double sided tape.  The words seemed too stark so I used the same gray watercolour I had used on the postcard front and added several light washes to tone them down a bit. I also added a bit of black to some of them to better define their edges.
I am very happy with my postcard and having used the "R" I can use it for the postcard swap for the end of the month!!  So, a good use of my crafting time today as I managed to get the TH tag challenge done in the same project as the "R" postcard swap!!

Therese

Navy and purple felted wool cuff

Another cuff for my giftie swap!!  This one began with a pieced layer of navy blue felted wool (3" x 8").  Because I am using scraps I had to combine two pieces of felted wool to create the length I wanted.  I butted the two pieces up very tightly and sewed them together using a wide zigzag stitch and black thread.  The thread is very matte and therefore pretty much disappeared.  I did position the main focal point - a beautiful embroidered floral design -  over the

seam so it would camouflage it was much as possible.  I started by doing buttonhole stitch all the way around using thin lavender wool yarn (thrift store find).  I positioned the focal element (thrift store find), pinned it in place and sewed it in place using embroidery thread that was the same colour.  I wanted to add yet more texture but not take away from the beauty of the embroidered piece so went looking for seed beads I could use to embellish it with.  I found these that did exactly what I wanted - they almost look like stars in the night sky!!  I sewed them on randomly using navy embroidery thread so the stitching does not show.

 This wood bead was just the right colour so I drilled an extra hole in it to make it a button and sewed it on with navy thread.  I created a wrap by braiding three pieces of lavender wool yarn into a string which will create an adjustable closure on this cuff.
Really happy with how this one turned out and love the colours!
The giftie swap was for Christmas so this is appearing here only after the gift has arrived and been opened by the recipient.

Therese

Another ATC card - anniversary

This card features an ATC from my traded collection. I liked that this collage had a heart so I decided to use it to make an anniversary card.  I stippled my orange card front using my stipple stamp (SU) and brown ink.  I stitched on this piece of burlap which was sitting on my desk with orange thread and then stitched on the ATC using the same thread.  I love how all the pieces look together.   I trimmed this laser printed greeting, watercoloured it to coordinate with the card and adhered it using double sided tape.

Hope you are enjoying your holiday season and are grateful for every blessing you have received in 2014!!  I am!!  Wishing every thing good in the 2015!

Therese

Gray and rust felted wool cuff

 I have joined a swap on one of my groups where we are swapping little gifts for Christmas.  I have decided to make cuffs for the participants so needless to say these are only appearing here after they have been opened for Christmas by those who received them.

I started with felted wool scraps that my daughter gave me after she was finished her large projects like table runners and teapot cozies.  I started with gray wool (1 1/2" x 8 1/4") for this one and did buttonhole stitch all the way around using dark gray thread.  I added the rust fiber using my sewing machine in free form arrangement.  I die cut a little row of ovals out of dark red felted wool using a large Sizzix border die.  I pinned it in place over the fiber and sewed my embellishments in place through all the layers.

The little circles are plastic and the others are a combination of gold sequins and black seed beads.  After sewing the embellishments in place I went back adding a stitch between each little oval using the same black thread.  Finally, I added two black beads on the end that combined with the long length of fiber creates an adjustable closure for this cuff.
I am enjoying making cuffs. You can check here, here and here for some I have made recently.  I did several others over the summer unfortunately I did not get photos of those.

Therese

Secret Sister card with clipart image

I have been participating in a Secret Sister swap on one of my groups and I made this card for mine.  It is appearing here because she now knows who I am!!

I used a commercial image that I received as a prize some time last year and trimmed it to have an even border.  I used a pink card front which I stippled on the edges using pink ink with my stipple stamp(SU).  I added a green layer which I tore on the right hand side which I stippled with green ink.  I added a bit of lace to it before I glued it to the pink card front.  I layered my image over the lace and stamped a little "Hello" below its lower right hand corner.

Has been fun being a secret sister!!

Therese

Another couple cards with serendipity collage

I have been on a collage kick for the past few days and here are a couple more cards that use a serendipity collage.  I used green and blue for this serendipity and it ended up with some orange in it too which was kind of fun.
I created the collage on 8.5" x 11" scrap paper using a regular glue stick, stamped it with a newspaper column background stamp (IO) using green ink.
For this card, I punched the left hand side with a chevron punch (SU) and backed the holes with navy cardstock.  I added a navy gros grain ribbon and stitched the whole layer to an orange card front using orange thread.  I added a colour printed greeting which I trimmed to look like a tag to the ribbon using orange fiber. I created a bit of a collage on the right hand side using a colour printed light house image (mine) and a green and blue rectangle.  Once the collage was in place I used double sided tape to adhere the greeting in place.  The large white area to the left of the greeting seemed to pop too much so I dug through my used postage stamps and found this one that had the right colouring and size. I glued it in place with double sided tape.  That was much better!!

For this card, I used an ATC from my traded collection which features a beautiful little bird done in glittery transparent embossing paste.  I started by adding navy ribbon to my serendipity collage and then stitched the whole thing to my green card front using red thread.  I added a colour printed greeting to the bottom edge of the ATC and then adhered this element to my card front using double sided tape.
Using ready to go focal elements makes for quick and easy cards!!

Therese

Wire & Bead ornaments for ByHand giftie swap

I worked up this ornament for a different swap on a different group but when my original idea for the gifties for this swap became too time consuming I decided to just make a few of these instead!!  I am very happy with how they turned out!! I managed to make them all different using my supply of Ebeads.  I did all the beading first - there were beads everywhere!!  I put all those supplies away and then dug out the ribbon and started matching ribbon to the contrasting beads.  I am always amazed that with hundreds of rolls of ribbon sometimes I cannot find a really good match - for those I came up with a colour that worked even if it didn't match perfectly.

You are seeing these here now because all the gifties made it to their recipients and patiently waited for their turn to be opened on the days leading up to Christmas.  

 Our tree is full of handmade ornaments and each has a memory attached!!  I hope these all found their way to Christmas trees this season and will be lovingly put away to be enjoyed next year and maybe even for years to come!!

Therese

PS
You can check out the tutorial for this ornament by clicking the link to Tutorials just under my header at the top of this page.

Shabby chic card

I made this card for my Secret Sister on one of my groups earlier this year and scheduled it to appear here now that she knows who I am!!
I started with a taupe card and when I was finished it I signed my name on the back!!!!!!!!!!   Bummer, I cut the front off the card and remounted it to a warm blue card front and found a larger envelope to put it in!!!
I stamped the taupe card with a flourish background stamp (IO) in a blue green colour. I mounted over that a element I created that features a layered flower and some lace.  I used a backer that came with Prima Flowers as a base. I trimmed the top using a label die (TH) and a partial cutting plate in my Big Kick.
Having a partial plate allows you to position your plate therefore only cutting certain parts of a die!! I really like having that flexibility. Where did I get a partial plate??  It is the remnants of a full plate that broke in two pieces so in effect I have two partial plates!!
I distressed the outer edge, stippled the edges in several colours and then sponged on a bit of brown.  I added a short piece of lace across about two thirds down and attached the ends on the back using double sided tape.  I used the Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers die and cut the large one from an alcohol ink background that coordinated, a smaller one from gold coloured vellum and the smaller one from the scrap I cut off the top of the Prima packaging.  I added a button brad to hold them all together which I distressed with a green Sharpie marker.  I attached the layered flower to the layer using double sided tape and stamped a greeting below the lace using a clear stamp set in a blue green ink.
It is a little out of my ordinary in regards to style but I am trying to do create cards that will not give me away!!

Therese