Altering a Canvas

Hey everyone! I have now got into altering things, I know a lot of people have been altering for a wily and it is not new but I always thought that it would be hard and what would I alter, what would I do with it once I was done. I came up with all these excuses on way I should not do it because I was being a chicken!! lol Now that I have started altering I can't stop!! I love it! It is so much fun!!

So I started off easy with a canvas. I just got a cheap one from the dollar store, the size is 8x10.

I also used some paint dabbers from Adirondack the colors are Espresso and Gold. I used some Tim Holtz distress Ink in Walnut Stain, Vintage Photo and his embossing ink. The embossing powder is also Tim Holtz in vintage photo. The stamp set I used is from Inkadinkado named Chandeliers. There is also some Prima on this canvas. the butterfly an the lace. The metal label holder is from Tim Holtz

To start off I painted the edges of the canvas with Espresso paint then once that was dry I toke the gold and I dab some on my finger and rub it into the canvas.

After the paint was dry I toke the paper that I was using and I glued it down with a hot glue gun, but I only glued the middle down first so I could rip the edges of the paper. The paper I used is from Shabby Green Door. Once I have ripped the edges I distressed them with vintage photo and Walnut Stain once I was all done with that I toke the Gold paint dabber, dab some paint onto my finger and just rubbed some of the edges with the gold paint. Once I had the paper the way I wanted it I glued the rest of the paper down.

All this was the hardest part of altering this canvas! Not bad uh. After I was done with all the messy stuff all I did was embellish it!! Here is the finished canvas.

Here is a closer look at the bottom of the canvas

I had a lot of fun altering this canvas!! So to all the chickens out there like me give it a try!! I bet you will have a lot of fun!!

Till next time!!

Melissa

Thank You Magnet

This gift magnet was very easy to make and doubles as a great little gift!

Simply take a small envelope and open it up to create your template. Then, use the template and trace the envelope shape onto a double sided cardstock (I used papers from Sassafras Sweet Marmalade kit).

Once your template is cut, re-create the original envelope folds using a ruler and a scoring tool.

Then measured the inside back panel of the envelope to determine the size of your magnet; make sure that it will fit inside.

Cut the background from a colored paper and add a piece of cardstock in an accent colour ( I chose red) to your design.

Add a coordinating flower and use letter brads and stickers to spell out a sentiment of your choice.

Use some rhinestones or any other embellishment to complete the design.

To make the yellow bow, just take a piece of scrap paper, ink the edges, fold it and attached it with a stapler.

Once your design is complete, cut a piece of magnet that is the same size of the background paper and adhered it to the back.

You can find sheets of thin magnet that can be cut and found at your local dollar store.

To insert the magnet into the envelope, just cut small slits in the top left and bottom right corners. Once your magnet is inside....voila.....your work is complete!!

Racquel

Clearly Counting Down The Days...

I am in love with the way this project turned out. So much so I think i'm going to make one that I can use for the entire year.

Isn't this such a fun way to countdown to Christmas?????

I took a plastic frame from the store, it's the kind of frame that the picture slides into and has the flat bottom so that it stands up.

First I had hubby drill 4 holes in the top of the frame to hold the numbers up with my rings. The rings work great because it makes the numbers so easy to flip over as the time draws near!!!

If you can't drill holes in the top I do have another idea for you. You could put velcro on the back of your numbers and on the frame to hold the numbers up.

Next I painted the edges of the frame and the numbers before I did anything else.

Then I picked out the paper I wanted to use. I loved the little snowman circles on Cosmo Crickets Golly by Jolly line so I used that.

You can see behind the word Christmas is where I put the snowman. Grabbed a bunch of embelies that matched and sat down to work. I did some stamping with a swirl stamp I had, and some with a snowflake stamp. For the stamping I used Staz-On ink. This way I knew it would not rub off.

Now for my numbers. I found this acrylic like paper and used that. I'm sure you could use transparency paper also. I cut the acrylic 2 inches wide by 3 inches long. You will need at least 12, 13 if you want to put "08" when there are only 8 days left. Make sure your holes on the numbers line up with the holes on your frame.

Hope you enjoyed my coundown til Christmas project! HO!HO!HO!

Stacy

O' Christmas Tree - Mod Podge Ornament

I thought this might be a fun project to make with the kids for the holiday season. It's fun to make, but a little messy!

Cut your patterned paper into 1/2 x 1/2 inch squares. Place you ornament on a piece of computer paper to keep the glue contained. (don't use newspaper as the ink may come off onto your patterned paper when you put the glue on).

Hold the top of the ornament with one hand and use your brush to put the modge podge on one part of the ornament. Apply enough glue for maybe 2 squares of paper to start.

Next you will need to place a couple squares of paper over the glue then press firmly to adhere then brush on more glue and glue in more paper. Make sure you overlap the paper squares on one another.

Once you have all of your paper on the entire ornament, completely cover with a coat of modge podge. At this time I also put liquid pearls around the top of the ornament to look like snow then let the entire thing dry overnight.

You are now ready to decorate as you please. You can add some beads, ribbons, adhesive pearls, Stickles for some glitter effect...

You now have a cool, fun, homemade ornament for your Christmas tree.

Stacy

Supply List:
Paper mache/blank ornament (I picked this one up at the dollar store)
Mod podge / waterbase sealer and a brush to apply with
3 strips of 1/2 by 12 inch patterned paper
Ribbons, beads, and buttons
Liquid Pearls (Ranger)
Stickles (Ranger) or Glitter Glue
and any other fun things you'd want to use to decorate!

Reward Charts for Kids & Altered Treat Tin

Well, I purchased the Sweet Marmalade Collection Kit by Sassafras and I was so pleasantly surprised! The colours and patterns were beautiful and I decided to use the kit to make a few creations for my little girls. My first two projects were reward charts for each of them. Both charts are 11.5 X11.5 mounted on a piece of 12 X 12 white chipboard with double sided tape.

The pink symmetrical floral pattern of Candied was perfect for laying out the grid pattern that I needed for the design that I had in mind. I simply evenly spaced out each lady bug and used 1/4 inch strips of cardstock to create a grid pattern. I adhered the strips with double sided tape and then used my sewing machine to add the yellow stitching across each green strip.

I mounted the words "I Can" with a piece of chipboard covered with coordinating cardstock, then I inked the edges to make it pop. The stickers for the title came from the same kit. I attached a snap at the end of each green strip and used brads to separate the ladybugs.

For the next chart I wanted something different , so I looked through the papers, and boy was I inspired! I took the Sugary Sweet patterned paper and used the design as the basis for this chart. Again, I used 1/4 inch strip of green cardstock to divide my page, and because I knew what I wanted my daughter to use her chart for, I only needed four green strips.

In order to make the strips go under the red flower, I had to cut the shape from the second piece of paper that was in the kit. Once it was cut out, I attached the green strips with double sided tape, stitched along each one, inked the flower and attached it to the page. The butterflies are also adhered with Velcro circles.

For the title, I decided to mount each letter on circle punched from a piece of coordinating cardstock. Again, I inked the edges to make it pop! To attach the charts on the wall, I used a reusable adhesive called HandiTak. It will hold it forever, and when you take it off...there will be no marks or residue on your wall!!

My last creation was a treat tin. Again I used double-sided tape to adhere the patterned paper. I stamped the title and used dimensional letters to add variety. I had to use Stazon ink for the stamping because the stickers have a glossy coating and I wanted to ensure that it wouldn't smudge. The word "emergency" is stamped using regular ink as it was done on regular cardstock. I embellished with a brad centered flower and I used the trim from the Sugary Sweet paper to create a nice border.

Hope these inspire you to try to use the natural designs of your papers to inspire your layouts/projects : )

Racquel

N - O - E - L

I have been in the holiday spirit since this weekends snow flurries. I grabbed some of my stencils and thought this would make a wonderful wall hanging.

First, I chose the 4 sides of patterned paper I wanted to use. The paper collection is from Basic Grey's Eskimo Kisses Collection Pack. Simply LOVE it!!! I then traced the letters onto the patterned paper. To put the paper on the letters I used modge podge so I didn't have to worry about the paper coming off. Once it was dry I used a file to smooth the edges down.

Now for some inking. I used creamy caramel ink for the edges. If you are going to ink your edges make sure you do this before you put your embelishments on!

Decorating your letters. I used ribbon, brads, flowers and some of the FABULOUS stickers that come with the Eskimo Kisses paper kit. The santa on the letter "N" came with it. Doesn't he look so cute!!! :)

Putting it all together was a breeze! I punched holes at the bottom and/or the top. (depending on what letter I was doing). Tied them together and there you have it. A cute, fun and easy to make holiday wall hanging.

This would make great gifts for family, friends, co-workers and for all of your holiday gift giving exchanges. The letters I used were about 2-3 inches tall. You could make 3-4 wall hangings with 1 sheet of 12x12 pattern paper. In this paper kit you'll have enough papers and stickers to make wall hangings, holiday cards, gift tags, and layouts!!!

HOHOHO!!! Happy Scrappin'

Stacy

Jack O' Lantern Treat Bag

Wow two posts in a week I'm on a roll! I just love Halloween, I won't be able to stop myself from making creepy crawly creations! As I mentioned in my previous post, this one's all about yummy treats! I made this super simple Jacko treat bag for my guests that are attending our small Halloween/Davian's birthday party, I still have a couple more to make!

Now, if you do not have a diecutting machine to cut your bag shape you can always look it up online, I found this great site with a nice variety of printable templates you can either print directly onto your cardstock or trace and then cut manually.

I'm trying to make these as simple as it gets given the number of guests I'll be having over, but you can always embellish to your hearts content! These cool mini alphabet stickers are all the rave these days, check 'em out over at the store they're from My Little Shoebox!

The evil looking pumpkin was a cut taken from my Quickutz library, and what I did was cut it twice first in black heavy weight cardstock from American Crafts and then again a second time with an orange sheet from their Earth Tones pack.

I then layered and then glued the whole piece onto my bag with pop dots. I finished it off by adding a shadowed-like effect to my diecut by coloring it in using various markers.

Hope you've enjoyed today's project, so fun and easy even the wee ones can do it! Until next time happy crafting!

Nini :)

Cricut Tuesdays with The McSmitty Girl

Hi Everyone!

Last week my family and I travelled to the city to visit with my Mom for a few days and wouldn't you know that I forgot to pack my scrapping supplies (you can read more about it on my blog located in the Interactive Community)! So here I am with 3 new projects all using the Cricut in some fashion.

'You are the centre of my heART' was a quote I read in a magazine where the scrapper dedicated her craft to her family. It was profound to me and have remembered the quote ever since but had no way to make a creation out of it. So with using the Kaiser Craft Flourish Frame Set it was the perfect canvas to decorate this quote. The papers used for the frame is 'Bittersweet' from Basic Grey (one of my favorite lines).

I still had plenty of product left over from my DT Feb Kit for embellishing except for the pearls used (they are also from Kasier Craft). The quote was cut from my Cricut using the Sans Serif Solutions Cartridge.

The first cut was with the Blackout Creative Feature at 0.75" then I repeated the same size cut at the usual font setting. Nested and glued the letters together and spread them throughout the frame to carry the eye from top to bottom. Arranged my pictures to correspond and volia! C'est fini!

'A Shelter Bay Christmas' is my long overdue Holiday layout. I had difficulty getting my pictures (a whole other story in itself). Here was my opportunity to expand my 12x12 usual page layout and try using a different type of page protector. You see, I felt there were some pictures that could not be altered into anything smaller than a 4x6 size without taking out something important.

Therefore I combined both types of layouts to create this massive one (my biggest to date). For my title I used my Cricut and the Blackletter Soultions Cartridge and cut out the letters using the Shadow Creative Feature at 1-1/4" then I nested and glued the same letters in the same size cut out at the usual font setting.
The mats (for the subtitles and journalling) were created using the Storybook cartridge.

I chose 'marquee-4', nested and glued 2 mats - one cut out with the Shadow feature then afterwards the usual shape setting both at 6". I had to make slight cuts once glued as they did not exactly fit smoothly in the premade slots. The subtitles were created from the Opposites Attract cartridge using the Upright and Opposite fonts both in Shadow and usual settings. All letters were cut between 1-1/2 to 2", nested and glued together for additional pop.

*Paper used for this project was Basic Grey 'Figgy Pudding' and American Crafts Cardstock 'Christmas' pack. Additional stickers are from American Traditional Designs, Jolee's and Karen Foster. Journalling Card from first page of layout: Maya Road

My last project was created for my Mother-in-Law as we are attending a Baby Shower in a week or so. If you recall in my previous post, I used the Kasier Craft paper from the Reminicising collection as well as embellishments from Cosmo Cricket and Prima all taken from my DT Feb Kit (still maximizing my product)!

So in keeping in the same theme as my Baby Shower ensemble, I created a card and coordinating envelope using the same collection of paper from Kasier Craft (actual paper titled Treasure and Hold Dear). Again with my Cricut machine I used the New Arrival cartridge starting with the envelope cut. I used the 'Fit to Page' cut feature to ensure I can create the biggest card possible while fitting into the envelope (I chose 'envelope-2' in this case. The cut was calculated at 5-3/4". With using that same meaurement I cut out the 'card-2' image at that size with the Blackout Creative Feature.

*Quick Tip: Cut your envelope out first using the 'Fit to Page' cut feature, remember the size of that cut then proceed to cut the coordinating card in that size. You will get a perfect fit everytime!*

To finish I cut the sentiment using the Shadow and usual font features at 1-3/4" (still using the same Kasier Craft papers), nested and glued my words together onto the card. Lastly I embellished with a butterfly cut - first was the Shadow Creative Feature, next cutting at the usual shape setting and lastly cutitng the layered piece all at 2" to keep the proportions the same. Finally nested and glued that shape onto the card with a bit of decorative touch from my marker. To adhere the envelope, I am using the Prima cardstock adhesive embellishment.

*Another Quick Tip: You do not need to calculate sizes when layering with the Cricut. Just keep the size dial at the same measurement - just change your creative feature. Instant 'pop' everytime!*

*Paper used for butterfly shape: Stampin Up

Actually, I do have one other project I want to share (in fact, 2) but they are for birthdays coming up in the immediate future. You know who you are! So I will save those pictures until the end of the month.