What a great way to start my Monday! I just found out my recent scrapbook layout was featured on the Core'dinations blog! I absolutely love the Core'dinations cardstock and I'm so pleased that my page was featured! Also, I've got another Core'dinations project posting at Crafts Unleashed later this week. You can get a peek at the project in my tutorial of how to make a paper daisy.
Happy Monday!
I know, I know. We just got over Valentine's Day and we're already moving on to St. Patrick's Day. Today, I'm posting over at Crafts Unleashed sharing step-by-step instructions on how I created this 12x12 layout using my new Storybook Cricut Cartridge from Consumer Crafts. So be sure to pop over and check out my latest project as a member of the Crafts Unleashed Design Team!
I've written a feature post to highlight the awesome Storybook Cricut Cartridge over at Crafts Unleashed, today. So, head on over and check it out!
I love the look of shutter photo displays and one of my goals is to print and display more photos in our home. I scooped up these shutters from a thrift store a couple of months ago for just a few dollars. I finally finished this project and I'll show you how I did it! If you don't have thrifted shutters, then you can always purchase some from a home improvement store.
This is what my shutter looked like when I bought it. 
I got these paint samples from Home Depot. They were pre-mixed and were less than $3/bottle. One is black, the other is a pale blue.
I started by painting a coat of black paint over the shutter. I was going for a rustic look, so I intentionally left areas unpainted and was not "perfect" in my painting. Once dry, I flipped the shutter over and painted the other side. Be sure to open and close the shutter so that the slats don't dry closed and get stuck. 
Next, I used a dry brush technique and painted a light, coat of the pale blue over the black paint. To do this, dip your brush in the blue paint and then paint on a scrap piece of newsprint, or a rag so that most of your paint is off your brush before you paint your shutter. Again, I left areas of the natural wood, unpainted, and I left lots of the black showing through to give it that rustic, layered look.
Once that coat was dry on both sides, I attached my wire that my photos would hang from. 
I wrapped the wire around the edge of the shutter, and then thread it through the hooks that hold the dowels used to turn the shutter slats. I used three pieces of wire for each tri-fold shutter, so I could hang three rows of photos.
My first Crafts Unleashed Design Team project is on
Crafts Unleashed today!
For full details on how I created this piece, head on over and
read my post at Crafts Unleashed.
Here's a simple tutorial on how to create gorgeous 3D paper flowers using your Cricut. I created these flowers to go on my mixed media love canvas for my first project on Crafts Unleashed.
Supplies:
Paper or cardstock
Cricut
George and Basic Shapes Cartridge
Mod Podge
Paint Brush
Scissors
Glitter
Hot glue
1) Place your paper or cardstock onto your Cricut cutting mat and load the paper into your Cricut. With your George and Basic Shapes cartridge in your Cricut, select the flower shape indicated below (you want to press shift, then the flower key to get
You will need 3 flowers to create one 3D flower.
This is what the flowers will look like once they are cut and removed from your cutting mat:
2) From your first flower, cut one petal as shown below. From the second flower, cut 2 petals as shown below.
3) Next take your first flower and bring the sides of the opening together to form a cone as shown below:
4) then add a thin line of hot glue to the one edge of the petal to finish your cone shape. Repeat this step with your 2nd flower to create another cone.
5) Next, take your third flower (with 5 petals) and fold it in half to find the center. cut a small slit in the center as shown in the first picture below. Then, fold the same flower in half in the opposite direction and find the center. Cut a small slit, just as you did before, which will leave you with an x cut in the center of your 5 petal flower.
6) Next, you'll begin to assemble your flower. Cut a small amount of the point off of your 4 petal cone. Apply a dab of hot glue to the tip of your 4 petal cone and poke it through the x that you cut in your 5 petal flower (see the picture on the left below). Then apply a dab of hot glue to your 3 petal cone and add it to the top of your bottom 2 layers of your flower. You should now have a flower that looks like the picture below on the right.
7) Next, curl the edges of each petal by wrapping the edge around a tiny paintbrush or other round tool. Once all the edges of your petals are curled, dip your flower in Mod Podge as shown below.
8) Scrape off any excess Mod Podge. Then pour glitter over your flower and tap off any excess. Repeat as desired until you have even coverage. Finally, place a scrap of tulle into the center of the flower and push into place.
Now step back and admire your glittery goodness!
These gorgeous flowers can be added to any project your heart desires. Think scrapbook pages, cards, banners, wreaths, photo frames, decorative candles, really the sky is the limit.
Happy crafting!
(Don't forget to check out the canvas I used these on over at Crafts Unleashed)
This is my piece for this week's Mixed Media Monday. This week's prompt was "past loves" meaning a technique or medium that we used to love working with but haven't used inawhile. My past love is scrapbooking. As you know from my recent posts, I spent last weekend scrapbooking with Donna Downey. Before then, it had been ages, I mean ages, since I've scrapbooked. I had forgotten how much I love playing with photos and scrapbooking.
This is another page that is part of my first canvas album that I'm working on. The stamped image was created using acrylic paint and Donna's Baby's Breath Foam Stamp. I added Stickles to the petals once the paint was dry. The background was created with various layers of pink and white acrylic paint and I used gel medium to created the embedded sheet music.
Thanks for stopping by to look and I can't wait to see what the other MMM artists have created this week.
This will be the first page in my fabric album. I painted the canvas page with a landscape scene using acrylic paint. The house is raw canvas that I colored with Stampin' Up ink pads and water. I bought the fence at Joann's and I added the mini roses.
I created the tree by tearing circles out of patterned paper and then crumpling them. Then I tore into each circle to create an almost petal effect. Then I glued the circles one on top of each other and added the roses to the center. I used real branches for the tree trunk and cut the bird free-hand, then inked it to coordinate with the color scheme of the page.
I used the Martha Stewart Monarch Butterfly punch to create this butterfly. I am totally in love with this punch and while it was a little pricey, I can see myself using it a LOT. I punched the butterfly out of vanilla colored cardstock and inked it with the same way I inked the house.
This house is not anything like our house. We don't have roses and it's much more Victorian than our house is. I could never live in a fancy, frilly house like this, but I find myself admiring the Victorian Cottage style and it makes me happy. So this is my little fantasy house. In reality, I'm a much more casual, rustic girl. I guess that's why I had to add the roughness of the burlap to the roof of the house. :)
{Again, the canvas page, album and house are part of Donna Downey's Fabric Scrapbooking line and can be purchased from her website}
This is my first completed fabric scrapbook page! I started the page during my weekend with Donna Downey and I finished them last night. I absolutely LOVE working with canvas as the foundation for the page. The various layers were added by using techniques I learned from Donna. I'll walk you through how I put these pages together.
First, I absolutely love this photo. This is one of those photos that was taken, uploaded (or downloaded?) onto my computer and then forgotten about. When I was searching through photos I came across it and I simply adore it. It was taken on a hike when Taylor was about 2 1/2. So, now for the details of the page...it's a raw canvas page, no gesso, and I began by gluing down the photo with fabric glue (Aleen's Tacky Glue works well), smooth out the bubbles. I chose to tear the corner of my photo before gluing it down, but that's just because I don't like the harsh edges of photos. Next, I used the tree stamp and then embossed the image. I wanted my trunk longer, so I painted the trunk with a dark brown acrylic paint. Then I spritzed the background with walnut ink. I painted the canvas butterflies with acrylic paint (watered down), and used a scrap of patterned paper on the corner of the photo. Then I added the ribbon tab to the outer edge of the page along with the strip of frayed burlap. Finally I typed the journaling and cut it into strips, then adhered it to the page. Oh, and then I added the little flower because every page needs a flower. :)
My journaling reads:
Life is a journey;
a path with twists and turns,
we never know what's around each curve,
but, little one, rest assured,
whatever this journey brings, I'll be there to hold your hand.
For this page I started by painting a "color within a color". That was the instruction that Donna gave during the workshop. So I painted brown edges with a muted green inner circle.Then, I added the patterned paper as a mat for the torn photo and attached the wire heart to the page with the the ribbon scrap. I added the canvas tab that says "Family" and stamped the word "Cherish" on a scrap of vanilla colored paper. Then I inked it with pink and purple chalk ink to coordinate with the other page in this 2 page spread. To make it more distressed and blend in with the other page, I also spritzed some walnut ink on this page and stamped the butterfly image, and added the burlap. Finally, I took some cream colored Prima flowers, spritzed them with the walnut ink and then added some copper colored glitter glue to give 'em a little shimmer.
I love how they turned out! I can't wait to work on the rest of my pages!
{Updated to let you know that you can buy several of the supplies for these pages (canvas album, rustic wire, and canvas tabs and canvas butterflies) from Donna's shop!}
My dream of meeting Donna Downey finally came true this weekend when my friend, Jen, and I drove to Valencia, CA to spend the weekend creating in workshops taught by Donna. It was all that I had hoped it would be and more. I didn't walk away with any "finished" projects, but I have all the supplies, tools and knowledge on how to complete them. The projects are all started and are at various stages on their way to completion. The weekend was all about learning techniques to create incredible mixed media pieces. While we carted in a lot of our own paint, brushes, stamps and inks along with some patterned paper and random embellishments, Donna supplied all of the products I've been drooling over in her shop. We worked on 2 canvas albums and learned layering techniques and the secrets behind Donna's unique style.
My workspace looked like this for most of the weekend...
This is a picture of Donna demonstrating a watercoloring technique in my friend, Jen's, canvas album. How COOL!
Here are some random snippets from my weekend:
- Although we allowed 5 hrs of travel time that should have taken 2 1/2 hrs, we were a 1 1/2 late for the first workshop. Gotta love LA traffic!
- The Remember When Scrapbooking store was ammmaaaaazing! They have awesome products (including Donna Downey products and Unity Stamps and a large selection of Tim Holtz products), and an incredibly friendly staff. They even had a tab going for me on Saturday and Sunday! How awesome is that...an art supply tab! I have to give a huge shout out to J.P. who is probably the nicest person in customer service I have EVER met!
- Donna autographed and wrote a quote on my canvas tote bag that I'll be painting once I decide how I want to decorate it...
- On Saturday we had lunch catered by Panera and ate and chatted with Donna about her journey as an artist how she was "discovered" and some of her goals and dreams. She was just as down-to-earth and as approachable as I expected her to be.
- When we weren't in our workshops we went to Joann's and Michael's (where I got the cutest little inspiration binder I'll be sharing soon!) and we ate really yummy food that we can't get at home!
Meeting and learning from Donna was a dream come true and I had such an awesome, relaxing weekend with one of my best girlfriends!
Thanks, again, Mom for helping to make this happen!
AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!! EEEEEEEEKKKKKKK!!!!!
Deep Breath.... Sigh.
OK. I think I've composed myself. I have that I'm-SO-frickin'-excited-I-think-I'm-going-to-jump-out-of-my-skin feeling! OMG. O. M. G.!!!! In 3 wks I'm going to spend the weekend playing with paint, and paper and fabric and flowers and ink and stamps and all kinds of artsy goodies with DONNA DOWNEY!!! I'm going to Remember When Scrapbooking in Valencia, CA and I'll be attending 4 workshops taught by the one and only Donna Downey. If you've been a long-time follower of my blog, you know how much I LOVE Donna Downey. I first shared my love for her when I came out about by my craft addiction. Then, I told you how much I love her studio. I've also shared with you some projects that were inspired by her and I shared more about my love of her, her studio and her fabric scrapbooking here. Donna and I share a love for turquoise and my recent mixed media canvas was also inspired by her. I love browsing Donna's blog and her shop for inspiration.
This is a DREAM come TRUE! I still can't believe I'm going to be in her presence and creating with her and learning so many creative techniques that she uses so I can expand my skills and let my creativity soar! I've been telling everyone I know but I simply cannot put my excitement into words. I don't think I'll be able to sleep at all that weekend!
And I need to tell you that I have the BEST MOM in the WHOLE WORLD! While there are many reasons why she's the best mom, the number one reason today is that she is helping with the cost of the weekend. Of course, I offered to foresake all Christmas gifts for the next 10 yrs if she would help pay for this amazing opportunity. I also have the BEST HUSBAND in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD, because he is letting me go away for this amazing weekend ALONE. I'm leaving Taylor with him for the weekend as I enjoy the creativity and the moments of solitude! I hope they're both still alive when I return!
Did I mention I'm excited?
I'm not that great at replacing the protective layer of plastic on my Cricut cutting mat when I'm done using it. And, after I used my Cricut for LOTS of cutting in preparing for Taylor's birthday party, my cutting mat had lost it's stickiness. Rather than buying a new pack of cutting mats regularly (at $10 for a 2 pack, the cost can add up!), I figured there's got to be an alternative. I discovered this handy tip and thought I'd share it with all of you!
You need the supplies shown above:
Cricut Cutting Mat (obviously ;) )
Aleen's Tack it Over & Over
Scraper (from your Cricut tool kit. If you don't have the tool kit, you can use anything that will scrape the coating away without damaging the cutting surface - a plastic ruler would probably work just as well)
a Foam brush
a small amount of water
a small container and popsicle stick for mixing
Note: Teflon Spray or WD40 will also be helpful.
Step 1 - Use your scraper to scrape your cutting mat completely clean. This task is made easier but spraying a light coat of Teflon spray onto the cutting mat to prep it for scraping. The spray helps break down the adhesive on the mat.
Next, grab your Aleene's Tack it Over & Over. This is a temporary adhesive and I actually had it in my stash because I un-mounted all my rubber stamps awhile ago to use them on acrylic blocks. I coated the back of the stamps with the Tack it Over & Over adhesive.
Pour a very small amount of Tack it Over & Over into your mixing container.
Pour a little water into your mixing container (it should probably be about 3 parts adhesive to 1 part water). You can adjust it as you go along.
Use your foam brush to coat your cutting mat with your glue/water mixture. The mixture will bead up but just reapply. Once the mat is thoroughly coated, let dry for several minutes until it's dry to the touch but tacky.
Your mat is ready to use! And here's one final picture to show you how perfectly the paper sticks to the mat, but lifts off easily, too!
I like to store the unused glue/water mixture in a small container for future use.
I hope you find this helpful!!! And the best part of this is: the money you save by not buying new mats, you can use to buy more Cricut Cartridges! :)
