Fairy Jars

It has been forever and a day since I posted. I have not been doing much consistently in the crafting realm, so have not had any entries.

I came across this video a few months ago and was determined to do this craft with my 7 year-old. So, today (my birthday and a ped day for her) we had a "Mommy & Me Day" and the craft we had planned was fairy jars.

I took out one of my Cricut machines and got my Tinkerbell & Friends cartridge out. They have these beautiful silhouettes when you use the filigree setting.

Here was the first step - doing the tissue paper layer and adding the silhouette to the interior of my jars. You will note that there are berries, flowers and pine cones waiting. The pine cones were glued & glittered by my daughter (she was so proud!).

 Then it was a matter of putting all the embellishments on the rim of the jars.

So simple to do and so beautiful when lit up at night. They have battery-operated flameless "candles" in them. They were so much fun to do (the one below is for my younger daughter).

When I posted the Tinkerbell one on Facebook, a friend of mine asked if I could do another one immediately. So here is the other one I did:

I am already thinking of the things we can do for Halloween and Christmas! I think I have found a new favorite craft!

Back to My Roots

Today I actually did some scrapbook layouts! I haven't done any in a while, so I will admit that I was a bit nervous that I might not have any ideas or would just sit there staring at my photos completely frozen. Well, I pulled out some pictures of my youngest from last year when we were outside blowing bubbles and things just happened. I used the Bo Bunny line Forever Young which has such beautiful bright colors and it all came together easily. Here is the double layout:

I matted each picture with some black cardstock so that they stood out and then used 2 of the papers from the Forever Young collection. I then added some Thickers for the title and year. Last, I added some pearl dots to carry out the bubble theme. Did I mention that I used a Memento black ink pad to edge the papers with all the circles? I like to edge patterned papers so that they have a defined edge. Did you see that I even used the name of the papers under one of the pictures? Talk about using every part of the paper! This layout just makes me smile :)

I then decided to use the backside of one of the pages to do one last layout of my little one:

This again, used only papers from the Forever Young collection from Bo Bunny. Since I had the full kit, the letters are also from the same line. I liked the idea of using the colored chevron on top of the black version. This page has a lot of movement, so I wanted to keep it simple. Love how it turned out!

This week I had a colleague at work ask me to make something for a christening she was attending today and this is what I made:

I didn't want to use traditional "baby" colors. I took a bit of a risk with my color palette and my colleague loved it. Phew!

It has been quite a crafty week :)

A Mixed Media Canvas

I have not posted in quite some time! I have also not been crafting much lately (so many things going on!). Here is a canvas I did for a mixed media swap:

I started by putting down color using Gelatos. Then I printed up some flower images and glued them down. I then did the ladybugs using paint and nail polish. I glued rhinestones on for their eyes. I used glass bead gel on the sun for more texture. I used white gesso and a diamond patterned stamp to add more layers and did some dots of color with acrylics. Buttons and rhinestones in the flower centers, the word "Grow!" and then a border of washi tape to finish off the canvas. 

Since the swap was spring themed, I think this passed the test :)

My New Obsession

Growing up I used to have pen pals whom I wrote to regularly. They tended to be people I met on vacation in Florida. Throughout high school I wrote faithfully. Part of the fun was decorating the envelopes with all kinds of stickers. My friends always knew when it was a letter from me.

Here I am years later when everyone writes via e-mail and social media. Every once in a while I think about how much I loved just writing a letter and then receiving the reply in the mail. Now there is a new thing that lots of crafters are enjoying: Pocket Letter Pals! It combines our love of crafting with writing letters. Here is the concept that started with Janette Lane: put together a page with inserts to swap with someone else. You can add little gifts in the pockets or not - depends on the expectations of the swappers (something to discuss ahead of time). The most important insert is the letter because this is to get to know someone else. You can decide to do one swap or you can decide to continue and be pen pals. I have done 2 and sent them out:

For the first one we decided to just do what we felt like doing. For the second we decided on a Halloween theme because we both love Halloween. I had fun putting these together, but have to admit that I was nervous about sending them because I only had a few goodies in them and they are not as elaborate as some of the things I have seen people post.

I also received my very first one in the mail from someone in England. We have decided to continue writing to each other :)

So pretty! And there were some nice goodies included which I will definitely use. I still have 3 other people I promised to swap with, so here is the next one that is about to go out:

I was feeling like spring, so went lighter than is usual for me, but still is very me. I tend to be more simplistic with my creations, so I hope that's okay with my swappers.

The size is nice (it's a regular sheet that you would store baseball cards in), so I can keep everything I receive in a binder. I look forward to continuing to swap with people and creating more pages while getting to know new people around the world. I feel like that kid who loved writing to pen pals all over again!

Week 5 of the DLP

Week 5 of the DLP is now done! It took me a while...The prompt from Art to the 5th was this: 

Art Challenge:  Under Paper (paper on your work table that gets all inky while you work)
Journal Prompt:  What Lies Beneath?

I thought this would be super easy, but then realized that I am not really that messy nor do I really use any kind of under paper. I decided to use some paper towels I use to blot my ink sprays with as well as the parchment paper that I put under the pages to keep from spreading to others. Here is what I started with (along with acrylic paint and gesso in the middle of the pages:

And then...nothing! I did not know what I wanted to do. So I walked away from it (for 2 weeks, might I add). When I finally came back to it this week, I started with a layer of gesso mixed with Primary Elements powder to give it a green hue:

I liked that the papers underneath gave it texture. Then I decided that I was just going to play with textures and focus only on the days of the week. Here is a mix of modeling paste, modeling cream, stucco, acrylic paints, gesso (black and white) and marker. I also stamped the dates:

I wasn't completely happy with it because it seemed to feel "weak" to me. Then I realized that I needed a border to help balance out the larger circles. I also randomly picked some of the stamped circles to thicken with marker (the "stamping" was done using caps to my paints dipped in black gesso):

Now this is more me - a bit bolder. I didn't want to use any quotes or specific focus. I just wanted to play and this is what it got me and I am fine with it! Here are some shots that show a bit of the texture:

Until next time!

Week 4 of DLP 2015

I was lucky enough to have a day of crafting with friends yesterday and decided it was time to attack the Week 4 prompt from Art to the 5th Academy for the Documented Life Project 2015. The art challenge: Writing. The journal prompt: Words with Friends. I had an idea straight away - I have 3 friends that I have met through crafting (and one of them also from singing) and they are my nearest and dearest because they are the ones I go to when things happen (good and bad) and I wanted the page to focus on them.

I started with Dylusions sprays and gesso:

Once I was happy with how the colors looked, I cut out an image that I found online that was perfect for this page. The 4 clasped hands was perfect because of this close-knit foursome of friends: 

Did you see the quote at the center? "The only way to have friends is to be one" - Ralph Waldo Emerson. I thought that was totally appropriate for us!

Then I decided that because the picture was a bit stark against the colors, that it needed a strong border. So I went to my stash of Washi tape and found a fun one to outline everything:

Now for the part that really personalized it - I went onto Facebook and found images of me and my friends (Karin, Carla and Linda) and printed them out in black and white. I used heavy gloss gel to glue them to some plastic packaging I had, cut them into shapes and then matted them with patterned scrapbook paper (I was channeling Carla a bit because of the choice of purple). I then outlined the pictures in black marker and dotted the matte with white gesso. I free-handed all the "heartbeat" lines for the title ("My friends are my lifeline") as well as the break-up of the days of the week. I then outlined everything that was black in white using a Signo uni-ball pen and here is the pièce de résistance (the goofy one at the top left is me - lol):

So this is my homage to the friends who have gone through a lot of craziness with me over the past few years and I would not trade them for the world! 

Karin, Carla and Linda - I could not have a more supportive group to have my back and I love you all dearly...you crazy, nutty group of gals! LOL

Week 3 - DLP 2015

The Week 4 prompt came up on Saturday and I had yet to finish the one from Week 3. The prompt was "The Color Wheel" and the journal prompt was a quote from Georgia O'Keefe. You would think that being someone who likes lots of vibrant colors that this one would be super easy for me. I was stumped! I think my problem was that I was looking at everyone else's posts all week and then could not come up with my original idea. However, being the science geek that I am, I kept thinking "ROYGBIV". You know - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet? As a university student that spectrum was burned into my brain. So finally, last night I gave it a whirl. I started by using black gesso for my background. Then I decided I would literally put the spectrum down with my acrylic paints. I smeared each color on with my fingers as I didn't want them to be perfect lines. I then used some letter stamps to put the quote down. The next step was to put glitter paste around the edges. I was happy with the lettering (and numbering of the days of the week) and walked away thinking I was done. This morning I was looking at it and all the clean black just seemed TOO clean. I took out my acrylics again and edged a cap with the different colors and randomly put circles down. NOW I am happy with it. I will put what happened on the days of the week a bit later. So here is my 2-page spread for Week 3: