Friday, September 25, 2015

How I save Some time in the Craft Room

Hi, how would you like to feel like you are getting more crafting done in less time?  Well, here is something I try to do as much as I can.  Today over at the Creative Paperclay® Blog where I am a Designer, I share one of my tips to save time.  I find that this tip is applicable to many areas of crafting and more.



My tip is about making batches of embellishments in advance.  Yes, just like cooking meals in advance I do that with some crafting.  Since I use Air Drying Creative Paperclay® in a lot of my creations I like to play with the clay and make a lot of things.  This way I make one mess and I have one clean up to do.

In addition I then have a bunch of clay  embellishments ready to be added to my projects with little prep work needed.

I like to take the Creative Paperclay®  and my big box of moulds out and go to town making a lot of small and medium size embellishments, beads, and jewelry pieces.  Playing with the clay is very therapeutic and just creating objects with no predetermined plan set is very relaxing.





As I said before, this tip applies to many types of crafting, it is fun, and a great way to save some money by making your own embellishments.  Also, I find that cooking food in batches saves me much time too.  At least more time for crafting!

I hope that you are inspired to create more and more now that you have these tips.

Thank you for stopping by.



Monday, September 21, 2015

How To Make a Paper Posie

Paper flowers are easy and fun to make.  The possibilities seem endless to me.  Today over at the Arnold Grummer blog I share a tutorial on how I made this "Posie":



As you may already know I make a lot of my paper by hand by recycling papers intended for the recycling bin into a supply that I then use in many crafting projects.  I enjoy making my own papers using an old blender just like the original Arnold Grummer method.  To see more just pop over to the AG blog and follow the links to their YouTube channel.


Supplies:
Handmade paper (mine)
Chalk Ink in "coral"
Aleene's Tacky Glue
Double sided tape  3m
Button (my stash)
Memory Keepers "Flower Punch Board"
Fiskars hand punch "Burst"
Glitter Glue in pink (Dollarama)

Thank you for stopping by.

How to Hoot



Hello, today the Design Team (including myself) over at the Linnie Blooms Blog are doing a cooperative Blog Hop with Faber Castell.  We are pleased to team up with a company that makes such wonderful art and craft products.  Here is the project I made:



It is a canvas ATC (Artist Trading Card) with an owl.  It would also make a cute tag.  To start off here is a list of the products I used to make this project.

From Faber Castell:  Glass Bead Glitter Gel, Mixed Media Stencils Collection 101, Gelatos                ( Margarita Mix, Orange Soda,Limoncello, Snow Cone, and Bubble Gum), and Pitt Artist Pens "Big Brush" in "Orange Glaze", and "Black"
 From Linnie Blooms:  Owl, ATC,Stamp "Stitched Doodles",  Stencil"Flutter"
Other Products: Square Sequin (Art Minds), Rhinestones (Dollarama), Aleene's Tacky Glue, Ranger Black Archival Ink, and DYMO Label Maker.



To begin, I chose three complimentary colours of Gelatos to prepare the background of the ATC.  I love using the Gelatos from Faber Castell as they are the creamiest pastels ever!  The colours are beautiful and I really like the NEW Bright Colours.  I used my finger and a few drops of water to spread the colour over and into the canvas.



By the way the ATC is a Linnie Blooms canvas layered ATC.  It consists of a sandwich of two layers of raw canvas with a recycled paper in the middle.  The layers are stitched together so the creator has no actual sewing to do!




I chose two colours to create the funky happy Owl by using the same method I used previously in colouring the ATC.  I then used the Stitched Stamp (Linnie Blooms) and a Black Pit Big Brush Pen (Faber Castell) to add the feathers to the owl.



For the ATC, I used a stencil from Faber Castell , and the Glass Bead Glitter Gel also from Faber Castell.  The paste is easy to spread with a palette knife.




The picture below shows the paste when it is still wet.



 I did try to show what the dry paste looks like in the other picture, however it is difficult to see the sparkling beads as the camera blurs the image due to the shine.








Another step involved using a Linnie Blooms stencil called  "Flutter" and some more Brush Pens by Faber Castell to add the branch to the ATC.









To make the Owl's beak I used a square shaped sequin which I folded in half on the diagonal.


The Owl's eyes are self adhering faux rhinestones.


To adhere the owl to the ATC I used some good tacky crafting glue.  I used the same glue for adhering the rhinestone eyes, the beak, and the words (made with the DYMO Label Maker).

This was a fun project to make and I hope that you too find working and playing with the Faber Castell Products and the Linnie Blooms products enjoyable.

Please get "Hoppin'" by going here: http://linnieblooms.blogspot.com/2015/09/linnie-blooms-and-faber-castell-blog-hop.html
And just in case, here is the list of Designers taking part in this Hop:

Ann Strecko Koemen (That's where you are now)

Thank you for stopping by!


Thursday, September 17, 2015

#LoveFallArt Journal Page




#LoveFallArt Art Journal Page is the video I made for the YouTube C.A.C (Creative Arts Collaboration) for September 17th- 20th.  Check it out, leave some comments, subscribe to my channel and please give a thumbs up.  Every little bit helps!


Monday, September 14, 2015

How To Make Doing Laundry Fun

The  world's smallest laundry bag how to!  Ok, so I may not have the solution to doing laundry but I do have a fun how to about decorating a small cloth drawstring bag with a laundry theme.  This would actually make a great bag to tote your coins, some detergent or pods, and are dryer sheets for your next trip to the laundromat.  Think of those in your life who have to go out to do their laundry and create this bag that will at least bring a smile to their faces on the dreaded "L" day.



Today over at the Linnie Blooms Blog I am sharing my latest Design Team project.  I used a cloth bag that once held some Linnie Blooms Canvas Die Cut shapes (like these).  I peeled off the stickers, inserted a piece of cardboard into the bag to create a hard surface to draw on.

I downloaded one of the NEW Linnie Blooms Stitching Patterns (available here) called "Laundry Day",  reduced the size by 60%, printed it on paper and used a sheet of carbon paper to trace and transfer the pattern onto the cloth.

I used some Gelatos by Faber Castell as my water colour pigments and coloured in the images by painting each one.  These new patterns make creating so easy and fun.  I do encourage you to check them out and create something.


Supplies:
Linnie Blooms Cloth bag from Die Cuts, and Linnie Blooms "Laundry Day" Pattern
Faber Castell Gelatos
Carbon Paper

Thank you for stopping by.

Friday, September 11, 2015

How To Make Apple Clay Ornaments

How would you like some Apples?  Well, at least how would you like to make some apple ornaments for your favourite Teacher, or Apple lover?



Hi, today over at the Creative® Paperclay Blog I am sharing how I made some easy and cute apples to be used as hanging ornaments or just gifts.  They are easy and quick to make, and can be done with a group of children.  Adults will enjoy making these as well.

The supplies I used to make these are:
Creative Paperclay® Air Drying Modeling Material
Apple Mould (From My kids stash)
Paperclips (Staples)
Deco Art Crafter's Acrylic Paints in: Christmas Red, and Christmas Green
Paint brush
Deco Art Glue, Sealer,Finish in Gloss
Twine (From my stash)

The process is fairly simple and I share several step by step pictures over at the Creative Paperclay® blog.  All you need to do is dust the inside of the plastic mould with some talc powder to make it easier to pop out the dried clay.

Push some clay into the mould, let it sit a few minutes than pop out the apple shape.  While the clay is drying but still moist, insert a paperclip halfway into the back of each apple.  Let the apples dry.

Smooth off any rough parts with an emery board or some fine sandpaper, brush off any dust, and paint. I chose to add a final coat of Sealer to give the apples some shine and protection, but that is optional.  Finally I tied some small bows and glued those to the tops of each apple and strung some more twine through each paper clip.

I hope that you are inspired to go play with some Creative Paperclay®.  Thanks for stopping by.


Monday, September 7, 2015

How to Make Page Corner Bookmarks

Here is how I make some easy and cute Bookmarks for page corners with some recycled papers.  Today over at the Arnold Grummer blog I have a post on how I make a template that can be used over several times to make these handy dandy page markers.  Check it out here!



So all you need is some papers from the recycling bin and a piece of cardboard!  For this project I also used the following:

Deco Art Decoupage in Gloss
Micro=-Fleur (Arnold Grummer)
Flower from my garden

Easy peasy project for you to make, enjoy!