Birdhouse Ornament

So I've really been slacking on this blog...but honestly I never have time to do any crafting now that I'm working...but today, since it's Christmas Eve (and I'm on call) I thought I would try out this template I purchased from Marion Smith Designs....she has the most amazing ideas! This was her birdhouse she posted awhile back but now dressed for the holiday season and made it an ornament...so cute! I bought the template last night and made this today...all I used was some scrapbook paper, prima flowers, glimmer mists from tattered angels, hot glue, the pink ATG gun, and some beads I had from another project....hope you like it!

BOO!

So it's taken me longer than I thought to get this Halloween mini done. I've been so busy with work and sleep, I don't have much time to do anything else...but I thought I would share some of the pages I have done so far. I started with a chipboard album that I purchased from Target for 99 cents. I actually had a couple of these so I used a page from another set to make a total of 6 pages or 10 with a cover and back. Next I painted just the edges with black craft paint. Next I cut 12 pieces of paper the same size...something just over 5 inches and I glued them to each page. I then punched two holes to bind the book on each page. Next I bounded the book with different ribbon. Here's the cover:
This was a piece of scrapbook paper and the letters that say "Boo" were stickers from Target for 99cents.



The pumpkin on this page was actually a chipboard Halloween cut-outs set that I bought from A.C.Moore for only $2. There were 10 all together. Now these cut-outs were plain so I painted them with craft paint then embossed them with clear ultra thick embossing enamel (UTEE). I used this technique thoughout my album. If you would like to learn how to do this check out Marion Smith's A piece of craft dot com channel on youtube for a video demo(she shares this tip and lots others on there...she's great!) The flourishes were stickers bought from Target for only 99 cents!




This one just has a pocket...the card pulls out so I can journal on it or put a picture on it or both!



The moon was from that Halloween chipboard pack that I painted whit and yellow and embossed with clear UTEE. This page has room to put a picture on the pocket and then the tag pulls out which can be used as a photo mat and journal card...







This one again can be used as a photo mat or journal card or both and the letters are chipboard in which I again painted using purple craft paint and embossed with clear UTEE.

So thats all that I have done now...I'll hopefully have the finshed product done soon and then I can fill it with pictures and whatnot :)

Cover was found

Okay, so I found a picture of the cover of the mini album I made my cousin's baby...LOL....I wish I had all the pictures...I was so proud of my self. The book was made from grunge board, which I painted with some craft paint from Michael's. The book was bound with the Zutter bind-it-all, the name was just from a cutout alphabet thing I've had for years, the flowers were made thanks to Marion Smith and her youtube vid on how to make Tim Holtz's grunge flowers (I printed out the images of the flowers and used it as a template b/c I do not have a sizzix machine) and finally the "Brand new baby" saying was a sticker that I also purchased at Michael's.

So mad

So I was going to put up a post about the album I made for my cousin's baby and all the pictures are gone!!!!! I don't know what happened to them. it was an awesome album too! But I'm gonna go work on a Halloween mini...I will be sure to share it on here!

Baby Shower

Well my cousin, Heather, is having her first child and the baby shower is this Saturday. We decided to make arrangements with the soup cans making them into flower pots with Gerber Daisy as center pieces. Just thought I would share the cans I made...I’m also working on a mini album for her. As soon as I get that done I’ll post some pics!

Altered Cafe

Last week Angela and I went thrift store shopping which was amazing! We bought sooooo much! Well I found this sign for 49 cents and had to have it. I sort of started or rather wanted to start a coffee/café theme in my kitchen.


However the colors in my kitchen include blue, brown, orange and white. So I needed to alter this sign to fit well in my kitchen. My walls are blue so I didn’t want much blue in this sign. The mug on it has some blue in it….perfect….now I have to change all the black. I figured I could paint the frame in a white wash then around the mug I would paint orange and add in some brown detail. So to start I taped off the chalk board and mug area and used some white paint we had left over from when we moved into our house. I dipped my brush in water before dipping it into the paint to water it down. After 3 coats I got the coverage I was looking for. Then I distressed the edges with a sanding brick.


Next I removed the tape. I did have some paint that got under the tape over the chalk board area so I used some nail polish remover to clean it off. Then I used the same white paint without adding water as a primer to the black background and used a heating tool to dry it.


Next I began mixing colors to get an orange that I liked..to be honest it’s a little brighter than I was looking for but I’m not too worried about it. Now the surface is very smooth which left me with brush strokes and removal of paint of areas that were still wet. To remedy this I used my heating tool to dry it (after I put one coat of orange paint on) and I appliedpaint in small areas and dried it with the heating tool then moved on..this really worked out well. Then I just used some brown paint and randomly formed a design. Finally I used a brown ink pad to ink around the distressed edges. Before I knew it I was done.


I think it turned out really well. I think this is the first time I really took an item to alter it and it turned out well without me getting frustrated and giving up…lol

Admit One

So I’ve been practicing making mini albums…after discovering Marion Smith on the web (if you don’t know who she is check her out on you tube or her site www.pieceofcraft.com) I’ve been inspired to make mini albums. Because of Marion I’ve also discovered Tim Holtz who has been hiding under my nose for years. He makes a line of distressed scrapbooking material…to me they are both Gods! I’ve really enjoyed learning everything I have from Marion...my world of scrapbooking has grown which my husband hasn’t been too happy about when he saw the damage it did to our bank account. But I must say that I DID NOT pay full price for anything. I am a bargain shopper, always have been, and always will be. That should make him happy...but doesn’t...in any case...my discoveries have made my lonely, jobless summer fly by. But like they say, “all good things must come to an end” and my end will be in a few weeks as I have been officially offered a job! YAY! But I still plan on updating this, hopefully more than I do now, and will continue making my crafts that I sell on etsy. I’ve really had a lot of fun this summer discovering crafts, bargain finds, and myself. Anyways I just wanted to show you a mini album I made, that was suggested by my husband (shocked? Me too). He wanted an album that we could put our movie and concert tickets in. I have saved them since we first started dating so we have 5 years worth. With the help of Tim Holtz’s grunge board, some acrylic paint, mod podge and the zutter bind-it-all (another thing Marion has shown me) I made this mini album. I just have it put together and I haven’t started putting the tickets in yet but I will...eventually.

Lomo Action Sampler

The Lomography website had a sale on some of their merchandise about a week and a half ago. I bought some film and I bought another camera. This is a 35mm camera that has 4 lenses. It’s called an action sampler. They actually make them with 6 and 9 lenses but this one was cheap ($20) so I went with this one. Unfortunately, I have a lot to learn about this camera too. Only about 10 images actually are visible but luckily the camera came with a roll of film so I’m not too upset that it was kind of a waste of 36 exposures. What I learned from this first run with Boing (that’s what I call it because it was labeled the “football” style camera…it says “Boing” on it and the “o” is a soccer ball) is that aim is important, lots of light is important and, of course, movement is important. Some of my images kind of cut off what I was trying to focus on. And my indoor pictures are not distinguishable and if there is no movement, then its just the same 4 images. What I liked about the images were some pretty colors. Some of them were just so blue…one of the reasons I like lomo cameras is the way an image can be saturated with a color with or without a color flash. I’m working with Diana still…I’m trying to find out where I can get 120 film developed without being so costly….I’ll be sure to update on that…for now enjoy some of the images I got with BOING!

Custom Framing

Here’s an easy way to decorate with your very own personal touch…make your own frame! All you need is :
~cardboard
~scissors
~glue stick
~tape
~scrapbook paper
~embellishments
~ruler
~pencil
First I started by finding a piece of cardboard that I could use. It was already just the perfect size so I just went with it. You may need to cut yours to a suitable size. If so, do that. Next, my picture I wanted to frame was a 4X6 picture so I needed the frame opening to be slightly smaller than that so I used my ruler and pencil to mark the size I wanted. Then I cut it out. I then placed that in the center of the cardboard piece that I want to use as my frame and traced it with the pencil.


Next I used my cutter bee scissors to cut an “X” in the center of the box I just made. You may need to use an exacto knife if you don’t have scissors with a sharp tip. This makes 4 triangle with one edge still attached to the frame cardboard.


From there I cut the edges attached off.


Then I used a glue stick and covered one side of the frame with it, and firmly pressed it onto the back of the scrapbook paper I was using and made sure it was thoroughly attached.


Next I used my cutter bee scissors to cut an “X” in the center of the box I just made. Again, you may need to use an exacto knife if you don’t have scissors with a sharp tip. This makes 4 triangle with one edge still attached to the paper.


Next I used the glue stick to apply glue on these triangles and folded them back over the frame making the frame center open.


Next I cut off excess paper


Then I folded the paper from around the outside of the frame towards the back and secured with the glue from the glue stick. I started with opposite sides so then I could make the edges smoother as they could be folded like a present.




Next I attached the back of the picture I am using to the cardboard I used to trace the center of the frame. This provided a solid back for the image. I secured it with tape.


Then I took excess cardboard and made a stand by taping it to the back and folding it to secure it at a position that would support the frame.


Then it’s ready for embellishments! Have fun with it!

Diana Has Arrived

So as I talked about in one of my earlier posts, I discovered the world of Lomography and was hoping to one day buy the Diana f+ film camera. Well my dream has come true! I received my camera a few days ago…and well…it’s been interesting. This camera feels so fragile, and it is. It is almost 100% made from plastic. And loading film, can you believe I had to read how to load it???? I just couldn’t remember. And you don’t get to see how you focus. You basically judge about how far you are away from the subject you are imaging, set that distance to one of the 3 range options and point and click and hope for the best. My first roll of film was not the best turn out. I put on the 35mm back and set it to take normal rectangular pictures, but mistakenly put in a panoramic mask. So what that meant was when doing panoramic shots you only get 27 exposures and with normal you can get as many as 36 (which is the film I had) so that meant that my images overlapped each other. Nonetheless some images actually turned out to be pretty neat lookin’. For my next to rolls of film, I discovered my error from the first roll and so the overlapping was gone. My problem now is learning to be still while taking pinhole images (you need the shutter open longer to let enough light in with the very tiny opening). This caused a lot of blurry images…but again some looked really neat and others, well, not so much. But I’m learning. I started with the 35mm film figuring it would be cheaper to use. I’m anxious to get the 120mm film which is what the camera was really designed to work with. The best thing about the 120 film is that it produces vignettes which I absolutely love! When I get that film and start working with it I’ll let you know how it turns out…but for now I gotta get back out there and shoot some more…

Here's my favorite image from my first roll of film:



And here's another that I really liked from the first roll:



Here are more from my other rolls:

Create Your Own Art Work

So here's an affordable way to get the artwork that you want in your home. I love the country signs that have cute sayings but I just couldn't find one that would fit in our kitchen. I like the say “Good food, good friends, good times." In fact the saying "good times" is something my husband and I use A LOT. So I really wanted to have a sign with that saying on it. Now my kitchen is this amazing blue color (well I think its amazing) and I have accents of brown, tan and orange. Needless to say I couldn't find those colors in a sign so I took it upon myself to make my own. I went to a local craft store to get supplies. I first went to the scrapbooking section to find paper to use as the background. I found this awesome orange paper that had fluffy white flowers and grabbed two of those. Next I headed to the frame department and found a frame that I liked and I was able to use a coupon on it so I got it for half price. I already had cardstock at home for the lettering. I simply tried to line up the two sheets of paper the best I could to cover up the fact that there were 2 separate sheets instead of one solid background. Cut it the size of the frame. Then I cut out the saying using my Cricut© machine with the Jasmine font. Then I simply glued them in place. After letting it dry I just placed it in the frame. Then I bought some cheap berry garland and draped it around the frame. And there you have it. Total cost was about $15. And it’s custom made!

Flower Pots

So I should be studying for my Abdomen board exam but instead I’m doing this. I’m trying to grow flowers from seeds but I’m not having much luck keeping them alive and there is still a chance of frost so I’m afraid to plant them outside but they’ve are grown enough to not be in the starter kit that I bought. Unfortunately I don’t have flower pots or the money to go buy some up so I needed to come up with something that not only could allow the plants to further grow indoors but also look nice as it would be displayed in the house. That is where I decided to make mini flower pots out of stuff I have around the house. I will show you this very simple and pretty way to make a small pot from a tin can. You could really use anything like plastic bottles or bowls too. The supplies you will need include: Mod Podge, scissors, foam brush, scrapbook paper, ribbon, paper trimmer, and the item you wish to plant in (i.e. tin can, soda bottle, cool whip bowl) I also had pliers to push down a part of the can that was sticking up inside to avoid cutting myself as I placed the soil into the can.


First I took the label off the can.


Next I measured the height of the can and cut my scrapbook paper accordingly (I used a scrap piece of 12X12 paper and cut to the height needed).


Then I covered the entire outside of the can with Mod Podge.


Next I wrapped the paper around the can.


Cut off the excess paper leaving some extra and applied the Mod Podge to that and pressed down to secure.


I gave the can a little time to dry before I applied the Mod Podge around the entire outside of the can again, over the paper. This will help it resist water should you spill any as you water the plant. Next I tied a scrap piece of ribbon around the can while the Mod Podge was still wet. Then I allowed it to dry.


Finally I filled it with soil and planted the flower…and that was it. It was really very simple. Happy growing!