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Sunday, March 30, 2014

Fit for a Princess ABAC challenge #34 "5"

Good morning crafters,

I'm so excited to share today because I am the newest member over at Anything But a Card.  I applied to participate in this challenge blog because my main goal is to start scrapbooking more.  I'm SOOOO far behind as baby Steven is almost 8 months old and I don't have a single page for him and Alexis just turned 2 and I hardly have her album started.  I'm such a bad Oma!

With that said, I did NOT create a page for my first challenge post...still such a bad Oma!  This week's challenge is "5".  You could use the number 5, 5 things, 5 colors, whatever 5 represented your idea.  Sadly there just wasn't anything I could do for that challenge that pertained to either of them for a layout, instead it did pertain to my other granddaughter, Miss Bella.  Bella will be 5 years old this year and will have started kindergarden.  I'm assuming that she will probably have made a few friends and will probably want to invite a few to her birthday party.  Now her birthday isn't until December, but I say it's never too early to start planning.  Especially if I am going to be making her party decorations and such as I always do!  So with that said, let's get started...

I had a crown svg pattern in my overloaded SCUT file that I really need to organize.  I have no idea where this file came from, so if it's yours, please let me know and I will give you kudos.  This is why I also need to organize them.

I opened the file in SCAL and manipulated it bit.  I created two crowns and cut the first one at 5 by 2 in pink and the second one at shadow blackout round in purple paper.  The crown even has 5 points to it :)
although the crown was fine it lacked a little personality.  

Then I hot glued a bamboo skewer to the larger crown 
Because the skewer will be laid between the two layers I pop dotted it and layered the pink crown on top 
I also cut out the number 5 for her age and pop dotted it also 
and added some glitter glue for sparkle!  
Miss Bella loves glitter as much as I do.
Of course, no crown would be complete without some bling and
 that was accomplished by gluing on some flat backed rhinestones.  
Miss Bella loves coming and playing in my craft room because I have sparklies as she calls my bling!
Now sometimes there is a mistake and you cannot fix it.  
Can you see my mistake?  
When I layered the pink crown on top of the purple one, my skewer 
showed through the pink triangle hole.  Ugh...trial and error!  
So I cut out two triangles using my cricut 
(I do keep all my cut files named with the project that I created them for, 
that's about as organized as I get for my cut files) 
a bit larger than the holes and glued them on and added a bit of bling. 
 I also wrapped the bamboo skewer with some pinkish ribbon and 
hot glued it to the top and tied another piece onto it.  
Now she will have a beautiful hand held crown for her party.  My plan is to cut more of these (depending on how many little girls will be at the party) 
and let them decorate them with glitter and stickers before adding the skewer. 
 I think these will make a great party favor and something
 they can take home to remember Bella's birthday party.

I hope I've inspired you to create something and join us over at Anything But a Card for the challenge "5". Remember, it can be Anything But a Card!

As always, have a great day and God Bless!


Saturday, March 29, 2014

Unscripted Sketches 250 Thank You card


Good morning and happy Saturday!

Today was supposed to be my sleep in until my body wakes me morning and do absolutely NOTHING!  I've been crafting up a storm this entire week getting ready for an upcoming event and cannot wait to share it with all of you, but you will have to wait a bit yet!  I love teasers...

When I did wake up at 7:23 a.m. I was pretty amazed that I slept in almost a full 1 1/2 than when I normally wake up.  I got up, made coffee and decided to check in on facebook.  BIG mistake...or maybe not.  I found a post by Susan who is my leader over at Amazing Mold Putty and she mentioned that Unscripted Sketches had it's Saturday sketch up.
Sketch250

I don't know why, but it totally made me want to create a card with it.  So, taking my coffee I headed to my craft room and started looking for inspiration.  I have a 12 x 12 container with all sorts of unfinished or partially finished resin pieces in it and I've made it my goal to USE them and make something with them.  Whether it's a card, layout or a mixed media project, I've got to use them up.  I found this frame that I had poured a while ago and inspiration struck immediately.  The frame was made with a mold using the Amazing Mold Putty, poured with Amazing Casting Resin and Copper Alumilite metallic powder.
I pulled out my Alumidust in Deep Purple and Lt. Green and began working... 
Just dip your dry paint brush in the powder, highlight the area you want covered, spray with water and set with your heat gun!  EASY and no mess. 
I love the shimmer that it gives it. 
I did the same exact thing with the Bronze Alumidust on a piece of white card stock and after setting it with my heat gun I stamped my sentiment with black Stazon directly over the top of it. 
Then I traced around the frame and cut it out.  I also added a heart rhinestone right over the top of my "stamped" heart for that needed bling I always have to have. 
Some quick dry glue to the back of the frame and clamped with my chip bag clamps all from the Dollar Tree, hehehe and it can sit and set up for a minute. 
Now, another one of my goals is to use up some of my store bought embellishments.  Seriously people, I could open my own craft store with all the stuff I have.  I have a big problem when it comes to hoarding crafting supplies, but with that said, I always do have that perfect item. 
So I found these Iron On Rhinestuds from a clearance bin...is it possible to iron on paper?  
Let's try...I set my iron (which I had to ask hubby where it was 
since I do not iron anything; he does. What a good man!) 
to wool 5 setting and following the package directions began to iron the studs directly onto my paper. 
IT WORKS!  
Now, back to my stash of resin embellishments, I needed a butterfly and I'm sure I had one or two or three...When I pour molds and I have extra resin, I will pour molds that I have in my stash to not waste the resin.  That's why I have so many embellishments.  
Maybe I should figure out how  NOT to OVER MIX resin. 
I even found a purple butterfly, but that really isn't unusual because purple is my favorite color.
I highlighted the body and a bit here and there with a black sharpie.  Sharpies work fabulous on resin! 
I glued my butterfly next to the rhinestone studs and 
PERFECT match. 

Isn't that just the cutest Thank You card?  I say you can never have too many of them, so I might have to do this again and again using different color paper.  I'm really thrilled with how this card turned out.

Now, if I've inspired you to create a card using this week's sketch from Unscripted Sketches, I've done my job for the day!  
As always, have a great day and God Bless!


Friday, March 28, 2014

CFC130 Oval I Like Your Style

Good morning,

It's Friday and again over at Cas-ual Fridays a new challenge has sprung up.  I love participating in the challenges and today is no exception.  Today's challenge was to use Ovals...

Let me start by telling you since I am on the design team over at Amazing Crafting Products I pour A LOT of molds.  Currently I have one of those paper keepers, you know the ones that hold 12x12 scrapbook paper in them made by Iris?  Yeah, you know the one.  It is FULL of poured embellishments.  I have enough embellishments to start my own store.  Some are half painted, some are blank, some are finished but never applied to anything.  So when I saw the challenge today I decided to find something in my box to create with.  I really need to use what I have made and I found this:

A perfect oval.  I had poured this the other night because as I was making something and I had mixed too much resin and instead of wasting it, I just pour another mold.  That is exactly why I have this FULL box!  This piece was poured with Amazing Casting Resin mixed with Alumidust in Bright Blue.
Here is a picture of the actual mold using my Amazing Mold Putty.  
You can go here to see how you can make your own molds.
I started with dusing some Alumidust in Gold directly onto the mold and then spraying it with water.  Using your heat gun, just slightly heat it up and it's set!
Now, I wanted some bling also...I used my 3d Crystal Lacquer and glued rhinestones onto each of the peaks.

Now the big center peak is not flat so it's impossible to lay a rhinestone on it.  Back to my Alumidust, this time in Bright Blue and following the same procedure as above I created my center.
I kinda craft backwards alot.  Most everyone picks their paper, then their embellishments.  I'm the opposite; I create my embellishment and then I have to hunt for the right paper.  
I found this awesome paper in my stash from DCWV, the RockStar Mat Stack.  I knew it would be perfect for this card.
Again, still working backwards, now I needed a sentiment.  I stamped my sentiment on some bright blue card stock which matched my Alumidusted embellishment perfectly with the saying of...
I like your style.  Love how this all came together.  The stamp set is from Getting Cricky from when I was on her design team.  I still use this particular set allot.
I really do like how this clean and simple card turned out.
Adding that ribbon made it look like a belt buckle.  The perfect addition for any Rock Star.
Now, if you have looked closely I added a new addition to my craft room.
Can you see what I am talking about?
Do you know what the card is resting on?
Ha, it's a hand brush/mirror combination I found at the Dollar Tree.  I've seen so many people have these cute card holders and never knew what they were called or where you would even find one.  When I saw this at the Dollar Tree I immediately thought I could turn this into a card holder.  I might go ahead and spray paint it silver though...what do you think?

So, I hope you've enjoyed my card today and if you haven't participated or are looking for some challenges, Cas-ual Fridays is a great one to start with.

As always, have a great day and God Bless!

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Amazing Melting

Good day crafters,

Do you ever go to bed at night and you cannot sleep because you have a million craft ideas running through your head?  Well last night was one of those nights for me.  I have a dozen projects on my table right now and about 2 dozen running through my head.  I've been on a crafting frenzy the last week or so.  I spent 2 evenings cleaning and sorting my craft room because it really needed it and in turn found a bunch of things I had purchased or acquired, who knows how, to make something with.  Two of those finds turned into this tutorial today.

As I was cleaning I found a bag full of little Scentsy containers.  A friend of mine used to sell Scentsy and when she quit, she gave me the entire samples kit.  
She thought I would be able to use those little containers for my beads, findings, etc.  Little did she or I know what I was really going to do with them until last night.  I could hardly sleep because I was so excited.  So let's get started:

First off I knew I was going to use my Amazing Crafting Products.  Actually a mold I had already made a while back.  It was just small enough for this project and I wasn't even sure it was going to work.  Experimenting should be my middle name.  I created this mold from an old pendant and I'm not even sure I took pictures of the original piece.  In fact, I did try to go through all my pictures (must find a new way to sort these projects) and I could not find it.  Sometimes I get lost in creating and forget to take pictures...I should know to ALWAYS have my camera available.  So anyway...

Here is the mold
Here is my Scentsy container and my personal melting container.   
So I just took the melt out of its container and began the melting process.
Make sure to blow out your candle before tipping the melting container to pour your melted wax.
(Don't ask) 
and pour.  This melts pretty fast and dries almost just as fast.
I remelted the remnants of the wax and once my first pour was hard, I poured again 
Here you can see a closeup of the hardening process. 
Repoured the second time (being sure to take the tealight out of the holder).  
You will still have a bit of wax left in your container,
 but I just used a paper towel and wiped it out.  
Now I have two lovely melts ready for gift giving.
And a container to store some beads, findings, etc. in.
I put the two melts into a baggie, located a tea light and the melting container I bought at the Dollar tree that I also found while cleaning. 
I did take the sticker off the original Scentsy container and put it on my baggie so the person who receives this adorable gift will know what scent it is, but you could make your own tags.
and packaged it up 
for gift giving.

I even have someone I want to give this to already.  
I will just make her a quick card today and my gift is ready!
Oh yea, and so inexpensive.  If you had to purchase some melts 
(I know the Dollar tree has some) 
and your tea light container this project would cost you around $2.  
Actually if you broke it down even further maybe $1.50 
since you could make at least 2 gifts.

I hope you've enjoyed my cheap and easy tutorial today and hope you leave me a comment telling me what you think of today's project.

As always, have a great day and God Bless.