Repurposed planners into ART gifties

Finally had a chance to share some new ART gifties. 2 of my Yahoo groups have monthly lotteries where there is a theme. Anything goes that follows the theme. I made 2 repurposed calender/planners. I found them at Dollar Tree.

Here is the original planner.

Here is the Vintage themed Planner. The embellishments are shrink plastic.

Here is the Thankful Themed Planner. I thought it was good to be thankful for another year.

Anywho....just sharing. They make great quick and inexpensive gifts.

Christmas Row House Swap - Gingerbread style

The next installment of my monthly row houses swaps was to be in the Christmas genre. Hmmmm.....what to do, what to do. Well, I went totally out of my box and went quirky and cute. Wow!! Totally not my usual style!! LOL But I like it!! I have always wanted to make big Gingerbread Houses, baked up fresh, dripping with icing and loaded down with candy. This is the next best thing. I love the peppermint "shingles" and the glittery iced roof (I used 3 kinds of Martha Stewart glitters for the sparkle). Please click the pic to appreciate the glittery roof. It is headed to my friend Diann in NC. Hope she is feeling "SWEET." You can see the previous row houses here and here .

Altered Hershey Bar

Here's another ART goodie to share. For this swap we were to make an Altered Giant Hershey Bar with a Christmas theme. This is headed to my friend Wanda. I hope she enjoys it!! :)

I removed the original wrapper to use as a template. I cut a replacement from Christmas scrapbook paper and wrapped it around the chocolate bar. I cut out a tag from a coordinating paper featuring a smiling snowman. Punched the tag and tied it up with a ribbon. I added some sparkle with punched glitter snowflakes and added a bit more bling with a glitter gel pen. Easy Peasy yummy giftie.

JOY Banner Swag for Christmas

One of the fun mingles I am participating in over at ARTHaven is a "JOY" banner. For mine, I chose 3 coordinating "snow" papers and cut out 4 mittens and 3 snowmen. I backed them with coordinating cardstock and cut them out again. I stamped and embossed the letters with white and framed them with more cardstock. The snowmen are holding their letters with gray fuzzy chenille arms.

I used 5 coordinating fibers and crocheted the swag using a large Q hook. I used 3 Fun Fur, 1 Homespun and 1 Ribbon yarn. For some added bling I added some metallic foil snowflakes on split rings. The snowmen and mittens are attached with silver clothespins (Silver spray paint).

Make your own Glitter Dots and Shapes Tutorial

I am working on a project for a 25 Days of Christmas swap (I'll be able to share that later on December 9th!!) One of the embellishments I am using are Glitter Dots. It is a very cool and effective embellishment to use on your ART. I learned about them from the book Pretty Little Felts. From there I of course tweaked the idea to make it my own. I not only made Dots but other Shapes as well.

You need to assemble:

• Fine glitter (I used Martha Stewart antique silver and antique gold
• Glue (I used Regular Elmer's Glue-all)
• White cardstock
• Hole and Shape Punches
• Old Credit card or stiff piece of card stock
• Wax Paper (Not pictured)
• Acrylic Sealer (Optional)
• Glitter Tray (Optional)
  

Place your cardstock on a sheet of wax paper; squirt with glue

Spread your cardstock with an even layer of glue using the credit card or the cardboard.

Sprinkle liberally with the glitter(s).
I used each glitter separately and also did one piece that was a blend of the two.

Let dry completely!!

I learned the hard way (by being impatient) that this is an important step. Leave it alone overnight and your glitter will stick much better!!

Tap off the excess glitter.


Now to use them......punch out your glitter dots or shapes and glue to your ART!!

I'm not sure if you can tell or not but the top half of each sheet above was sprayed with the sealer, while the bottom half was left untouched. If you click the pic you can probably see the difference.

Ta-Da.....cheap, quick and easy glittery embellishments!! :::Smiles:::

Now, for the Acrylic Sealer.....all I had handy was matte finish. It did keep the glitter from shedding as much but also dulled it down. Depends on the look you are going for. I'm thinking that gloss sealer might be the best of both worlds. I will try that on the next batch I just made tomorrow when they are dry. I also have a batch currently drying on a copper colored paper to see if I like that better!! :)

I did run them through my Xyron sticker maker and that worked great!!

Glitter disclaimer.....you will have glitter in your hair, guaranteed when you are done with this project!! :::Smiles::: But that makes it a good day, don't you think??

Iris Fold Christmas Cards - The next batch...

Well, the Christmas Card Creation Train continues plugging along! :) Here are two ornies and two reindeer that I have completed. As you know....I simply adore Iris Folding. I have been looking for a "branch" to hang my ornies on and decided on this piece of scrapbook paper. The ornies are folded with metallic foil origami paper, my personal fave.

I really like this leaping reindeer pattern. I have a set of swirls stamps that I use practically everyday. Turns out they make excellent fancy antlers as well!! Who knew??

Iris Fold Christmas Trees - Variations on a theme....

I continue to work on my Christmas Cards.....of course Iris Folding is still my fave technique. Here are 4 Pine trees that used 4 coordinating green papers and similar, yet different layouts and patterns. I like how they turned out. :) I have 4 more apertures ready to go, just need to sit down and do the folding!! Just sharing.....

ART Quilties to share

I am doing a 2 quiltie mingle with 2 wonderful ART friends: Penny and Wanda. I wasn't really sure where I wanted to begin for the longest time. Then I found these 2 smallish embroidery patterns and "knew" I had found my starting point. :) I LOVE the look of Redwork and would someday like to make a redwork quilt. But for now, I have made a mini redwork (and bluework) quiltie. It is satisfying to be able to complete a project in a short time.

I did both embroidery pieces one night while on the couch "listening" to TV. I know you can relate to not "watching" TV, but "listening." Most ART friends I have are like me and unable to just sit and stare at the lighted box of mindless entertainment. It's just not enough for me.....my hands need to play too!! :::Smiles:::

I kept them simple and really like how they turned out. I like that some of the edges aren't perfect and a bit frayed. It gives them a story. Anywho, just sharing.

Okay, now I can share this new ART....

....I was waiting for it to be rec'd by my friend Eileen. She won a BINGO prize in one of my ART groups. So, since she calls herself the Paper Queen.....I made her a crown!! :)


Thanks to Burger King for the template!! I cut out the crown from coated poster board and covered it with funky wrapping paper. I added glitter, trims and of course jewels to jazz it up. I can just see here sitting at her ART table, wearing her crown!! LOL


I also made her a paper weight. I purchased them at Dollar Tree. They are designed to be filled with a photo (or a piece of ARTwork). She is all decked out for Halloween!!

More new ART to share....

I have been having fun with a couple of past charms swaps, so I signed up for another one. This time I only had to make 8 charms. I have been wanting to play with Shrink Plastic again so that is what I chose as my medium.
I recently acquired some new, retired Stampin' Up sets. I thought this lovely lady would make a graceful charm and I believe she did. She is from the Days Gone By stamp set. I stamped her with Jet Black Stazon Ink on the front. On the back side I colored her in with my water color pencils. I used a corner rounder to soften the edges, punched a hole for the jump ring and let the shrinking process commence!! :::Smiles::: I'm still a kid at heart.....no matter how many times I use Shrink Plastic....it still amuses me greatly!! When the charms were cool I edged them with a black sharpie, added a jump ring, a beaded eye pin and another jump ring. I attached them to a Moo card made using DCWV Le Creme paper.

The other project I finished up today is for a mingle. We were given a stocking pattern and the challenge was to make it from a brown grocery bag. I actually chose brown mailing paper as I had several rolls in the studio. I cut out the brown stockings and used Spray Mount to attach them to the printed scrapbook papers. I cut them out again and used my Mat Pack from Stampin' Up and a needle tool to punch holes around the stockings. I stitched them up with embroidery floss, added some embellishments to the cuffs and added a little sparkle with my gel pens. The stockings are to be given empty for the recipients to use as gifties themselves.

That's what is new in my neck of the woods. Thanks for stopping by!!
Oh, I forgot....these guys were hanging out and posing while I was shooting my others pics today. I guess they wanted to be famous too!! LOL

2 dozen Christmas Cards from 3 sheets of scrapbook paper

Impossible you say?? Nope. I beg to differ. Today I will show you how I turned 3 printed Scrapbook papers, some cardstock, a bit of adhesive, a handful of rubber stamps and a Versamark and Jet Black Stazon ink pads into 24 Christmas Cards, size 6 x 4 1/4 inches. I began with 3 coordinated papers from this stack from Joann's.

Since I am sharing so many pics I left them at medium size. Please click on them to view larger!!


Here are the 3 sheets I choose. It is important to choose papers with lots of focal images and stripes.

First thing I did was cut each paper into segments and sections and set aside.

I designed them to fit in these ready made envies from Walmart. While I simply adore handmade envies, due to the sheer number of cards I will need for this Christmas I will be jazzing these up with some rubber stamping instead.

I grabbed some coordinating cardstock and made up the cards. To give them a bit of pizazz, I used a snowflakes background stamp and my Versamark pad on all of the card fronts.

This is how little waste I had left from cutting up the three sheets of scrapbook paper.

These are the images that were still left over after making 24 cards!! :)

Drum roll..........and here they are in sections of four. All are similar, yet different. I used Jet Black Stazon ink and a few stamps to give each one a little greeting on the fonts.

I hope this inspires you to find the time to make yourself some cards for this Christmas!! Remember, there are only 65 days left!!

2 more Christmas Card Prototypes....

....that I have been playing with. The first one is my design....simple, yet effective. I LOVE the JOY stamp in conjunction with the Christmas words background stamp.



This one is modeled after a technique by Michelle Zindorf and can be found here. She amazes and inspires me. After getting my feet wet with this card I hope to design my own inspired art pieces. :::Smiles:::

I also ordered 2 new 12 x 12 Christmas stack today at Joanns. I cannot wait to get them and get busy with all my ART for Christmas projects: Cards, gifties, mingles, tags.....

BTW, there are 70 days left!!

Christmas in October...

....so I decided to play with some of my new toys and make some prototype Christmas Cards. It seems it is snowing in South Georgia today!! :)

I was happy to find the Cuttlebug Snowflakes embossing folder. Here are the first 2 cards I made with it. I added some glitter and gel pen glitter to the first two, but don't think I like it near as well as plain. So, here are the plain versions I made .....one dozen cards and envies done.......no idea how many more to do or what the next style will be!! LOL Stay tuned!!

More Day of the Dead ART....

....as promised. Here is the other ART piece for the Day of the Dead Mingle I shared yesterday. Originally we were to make an ATC and a domino. Then it was changed, happily, to make an ATC and then another ART piece. Yippee. I found this skeleton pattern and went to town painting him with my Sakura Glaze pens. I decided he needed a "home" so I made him a coffin. I filled it with sparkly tulle fabric snippets for a cobwebish effect. I really like how he turned out!! Enjoy!!

El Dia de Los Muertas

So, here's my newest ART. I am in a mingle for The Day of the Dead. I LOVE this theme. So much fun!! I am to make one ATC and one other piece of ART. The latter is still drying and needing some assembly from Hubs in the shop. I can, however, share with you the four ATC's that I made. I simply adore the skeleton lady.

The background paper I used was a lime green cardstock. I used the swiss dots and flower fantasy cuttlebug embossing folders, along with cactus green and jet black stazon ink pads. The technique was shared by a dear friend Eileen and can be found here. It is a very fun technique....give it a try.

Anywho....just sharing.....