Scrap N Grow

Archive for April, 2012

Hello everyone.  Today I have a gift ensemble to share with you that I made for a dear friend of mine who recently welcomed a baby girl into the world after struggling for years with infertility.

Altered Pink Frame

I started with an unfinished 5×7 picture frame from Michael’s and embossed a sheet of Kiss Me Pink Ten Seconds Studio Art Metal sheets using one of their Kabuka molds called polka dots. Afterwards, I adhered the metal sheet to the frame, flush cut the edges, and then sanded the edges and raised embossed areas to reveal contrast of the core aluminum.   To dress up the frame, I added a wide glittered pink ribbon (Wal Mart) and sewed a large rhinestone in the center (Teresa Collins).  For added flair,  I stuck in a few Maya Road heart pins, two little silver charms from Michael’s, and a bingo card from Jenni Bowlin. I then proceeded next to make a card and a matching gift bag.

Baby Card and Matching Gift Bag

The Baby stroller is from the New Arrival Cricut cartridge.  Afterwards, I added a few pink rhinestones for added bling. The double sided gift bag was simple to make.  I simply painted both sides of the gift bag with Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint before adhering my die cut stroller to each side of the gift bag.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope that you will come back again soon.

Michelle

Hello everyone!  The weather here in Minnesota remains unseasonably cool.  Walking around the gardens earlier today, I observed  that my bleeding hearts are beginning to bloom alongside my Bloodroot and Hellebore. With each gardening season, there is so much anticipation and a very long wish and to do list.  I typically sit down with a cup of coffee and notepad and begin to record my thoughts and project ideas. Later on, I prioritize each item based upon budget, skills required, and or necessity.  While composing my list, the idea of garden words arranged like subway art came to mind.  So while driving on my way to work this past week, I began to brainstorm words that represent gardening.  I jotted them down on a piece of scrap paper before I headed into work, and throughout my workday added to my list as additional words came to mind.

Garden Scrabble

“Garden Scrabble” is an 11×14 canvas painted with acrylic paints. I used heavy modeling paste in areas for added texture.  I had the idea to use scrap letters after watching a recent episode of Donna Downey’s inspiration Wednesday.  I liked how she was able to use up her left over letters.  I chose to use my remaining assorted sets of grunge board alphabets by Tim Holtz. Needless to say, it was a bit of a challenge to successfully spell and arrange each desired word. Afterwards, I thought it would be fun to colorize and emboss each word. At this point, I had all my words colorized and arranged on a sky blue canvas.  The canvas needed something more.  I used a Crafter’s Workshop stencil for the sun and embellished with Mustard Seed Distress Stickles by Ranger.  I really wanted to add some flowers and after much experimentation, I decided to quill daisies.  I used Provocraft’s Daisy quilling die and followed the instructions, it was pretty easy.  Afterwards, I adhered them to the canvas and painted flower stems before adding a miniature garden trowel in a clump of dirt in the corner.  The dirt is  so cool, the product is called Elements Earth Textures for Arts & Crafts. Art Glitter is the manufacturer, I used walnuts and adhered it with Matte Accents.

Thank you for stopping by. I highly encourage you to create your own word art and use up those half used sets of letters that we all have.  I have been working on this weeks Compendium of Curiosities challenge…this project too has evolved.  I love it so far, but am waiting for a generous coat of Glossy Accents to dry likely overnight. Thank you again for stopping by and please visit again soon.

Michelle

Happy Weekend Everyone!  I am back after a couple days of life’s craziness.  Today is a humongous post jam packed with lots of pictures showcasing a travel mini album/ journal I created recently especially for Tripazon’s upcoming corporate announcements which were made public this past Thursday evening.  Tripazon for those who are unfamiliar, is a full service exclusive travel club.  Click on the Tripazon link for a 2 minute brief overview of Tripazon. Membership is a mere 59 dollars a month and for this nominal monthly fee, a family can afford to vacation for cheap!   Tripazon offers vacation packages, golf discounts, cruise packages, airfare, rental cars, travel insurance, and over 2,000 national shopping discounts, and more. Tripazon’s prices are unheard of and are backed with a 100% price guarantee and the accommodations are all 5 star. Tripazon was started in October 2011 by the founder of Resorts 360, an exclusive elite, luxury travel club that was founded back in 2008.  Tripazon was created for mass appeal with a affordable price point.  Membership alone in Resorts 360 is 10,000 dollars a year! So Tripazon’s 59 dollars a month is very affordable.  Without sounding like a commercial, I have a link on my right sidebar titled Invited Sponsor to learn more. This link will take you to my sister site Vacation 4 Cheap.com.  The sidebar link is clickable and will open in a separate window to play about an hour video presentation explaining Tripazon and how in addition to saving money on travel, a person can also earn a substantial residual income.  I would like to point out that Dr. Jeff Urhmacher DDS addresses the viewer as doctor as this was the original intended marketing plan.  It has since been opened up to others like you and I.  I like to think of it as it was a best kept secret among doctors.  No longer!!!!

Now onto today’s project, a travel mini album/journal created using Tim Holtz’s vintage valise suitcase die.

Travel Mini Album/ Journal

The album was created using Tim Holt’s vintage valise suitcase die from Sizzix.  I die cut the covers and coordinating suitcase pieces out of grunge paper using my Vagabond and covered the grunge paper with a decorative faux leather paper and inked the edges.  I painted the corners and luggage straps with Tim Holtz’s Pitch Black Ranger paint dabbers and embellished the straps and corners using Tim Holtz’s Ideaology mini fasteners.  I adorned the handle with a Ideaology philosophy tag and an airplane trinket.  I used a ponytail binder along with a jumbo brad to create a closure mechanism.

The interior pages were stamped with a Unity notebook stamp using Coffee Archival ink from Ranger.  I used a hole punch (Crop A Dile) for each of the pages.  I created a spine out of grunge paper to enable me to use Tim Holtz’s large binder rings to contain the interior pages. I over sized the spine in order to create a pocket inside both the front and back covers. Inside these pockets, I placed a few camden tags from 7 Gypsies  along with a few vintage photo mats for extra pictures. I used the Destinations Cricut cartridge on my Cricut Expression in order to create the Poloroid looking photo mats.

Sandwiched between journal pages, I used kraft glassine envelopes.  To add texture and add a vintage flair, I crumpled each envelope and used Walnut Stain Distress Ink to highlight the texture. I then cut labels for each envelope using Tim Holtz’s mover and shapers label die. Afterwards, I painted each label using Distress crackle paint.  Once dry, the edges were inked with Walnut Stain  Distress Ink to create some added depth.

Kraft Glassine Envelope Inserts

Next, I created several album/ journal pages and embellished each of the pages with various Tim Holtz Sizzix dies as well as die cuts from the My Community and Destinations Cricut cartridges. The pages were each stamped with various travel/journal themed graphics and sayings using several Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous stamps. Below are pictures of several of the pages.

Travel Journal Page 1

Travel Journal Page 2

Travel Journal Page 3

Travel Journal Page 4

Travel Journal Page 5

Travel Journal Page 6

Travel Journal Page 7

Travel Journal Page 8

Travel Journal Page 9

Travel Journal Page 10

Travel Journal Page 11

Travel Journal Page 12

Travel Journal Page 13

Travel Journal Page 14 Back Inside Cover

Whew, you made it through all the pictures!  All in all, the valise mini album/ journal contains over 50 photo mats and has over 30 journal pages.  I hope you enjoyed my mini album/ journal.  I am off to work on my challenge entry for this weeks Compendium of Curiosities II challenge hosted by Studio L3.  Feel free to email me with any questions regarding the die cuts or embellishments used today.  Thank you and I hope that you visit again real soon.

Michelle

Welcome to Scrap N Grow.  Today I am very happy to share my latest creation, a blooming dahlia pillow.  I just love how this pillow turned out!  It was overall pretty simple to make once I tweaked the assembly technique.

Blooming Dahlia Pillow

The pillow itself is a pillow form purchased at Joann’s and measures 12×16.  The pillow cover’s fabric pattern is a favorite of mine, vintage garden ads.  It was hard to cut up as it is a favorite fabric of mine and I only purchased a yard, note to self… purchase more than 1 yard next time.  I then approximated the size of fabric needed to cover the pillow, cut the fabric, and used my sewing machine to create the cover with a generous 1/2″ seam allowance.

For the blooming flower petals, I used Eileen Hull’s Sizzix Bigz Flower Die, Petal Power.  The die cuts 2 different size petals. I cut several petals (kept losing count while counting) out of 100% brick red wool felt that I purchased at Joann’s.  Afterwards, I used coordinating thread and pinched and sewed each petal in order to create the puckered effect shown here.  This was time consuming but worth the extra time and effort.  Lastly, I used Fabric Tac adhesive to apply each of the petals to the pillow. This adhesive is washable after 24 hours.

Tips learned along the way:

I initially began to assemble the petals as cut and found that the flower overall appeared to lack dimension and appeared flat to me.  Anyone who knows me, knows I love dimension and movement in my projects. So as I stated above, I individually sewed each petal. Initially, I tried to sew each petal on the sewing machine, but found that to be a bit too fussy for me. As stated above, I found it easier for me to sew each one by hand.  After a few petals, I developed a rhythm and this seemed to help keep the project moving along in a reasonable timely fashion.

My other tip that I discovered was Fabric Tac adhesive.  The stuff is magic!  Prior to using the adhesive, I had begun to sew each petal to the pillow directly.  While this worked well, I found it difficult to maintain the shape of the dahlia, and was very time consuming and difficult to conceal the threads.

I would love to hear your comments on my pillow.  I am also planning to make a few other blooming pillows once I complete my pattern design.  Thank you for stopping by and I hope that you will visit again soon.

Announcement: Tomorrow is big day for my Tripazon travel business (Website is www.vacation4cheap.com or click on my invited sponsor ad on the right hand side bar on this page).  They are throwing a pre-launch webinar party tomorrow night (Thursday 4/26/2012) to celebrate and plan on making some special ground breaking announcements of which I will share on Friday along with a cool project I made for the occasion.

Michelle

Welcome.  The weather is finally nice here in Minneapolis, Minnesota, 65 degrees and sunny. Today’s project was inspired after cleaning the debris from my remaining gardens, particularly around my butterfly bush (Buddleia) plants.  I am always amazed at the variety of butterflies that I observe throughout each growing season. The butterflies colors are amazing, but my favorite butterfly has to be the monarch.  I just love their bold color and their bold color makes them easier to spot and watch.

"Take Flight"

I began today’s project began with an 11X14 canvas to which I applied various shades of blue, white, and gray acrylic paints in order to create a sky backdrop.

I chose black card stock to outline the borders of the butterflies and various shades of orange  for the interior color of the butterflies.  I envisioned a monochromatic flight of butterflies overlapping a bit. I used Spellbinders Grand Shapeabilities Die set called Wonderful Wings.  For each butterfly, I cut 2 layers of each color both orange and black and adhered right sides facing out so that each butterfly would look beautiful when viewed from either the top, or the bottom. Next, I shaped and posed each butterfly into an artful arrangement attempting to simulate a “flight” of butterflies.  Afterwards, I adhered each butterfly with Inkessentials Matte Accents to the painted canvas.

Lastly, the title was welded using my Provocraft Gypsy, then die cut using my Cricut Expression. I applied the title to the canvas using Mod Podge Matte finish.  I just love how this canvas turned out.  This canvas will soon be hung on my gallery wall inside my art studio.

Thank you so much for  visiting and I hope that you will come back again soon.

Michelle

Welcome.  Today I have another journal to share.  The featured cover technique follows along with the faux patina technique featured on page 58 of Tim Holtz’s Volume 2, A Compendium of Curiosities. Linda Ledbetter over at Studio L3 is hosting a weekly challenge with a chance to win a cool prize just for participating and my entry is pictured below.

A Compendium of Curiosities II Challenge Week 2

For today’s journal, I again started with a blank notebook from the dollar spot at Michael’s. I rummaged through my stash of scrap metal (Ten Seconds Studio) and found a metal sheet previously embossed that fit would adequately cover my journal.  I used a brayer and paper stump to smooth out embossing the best I could.  I did not mind the remaining texture and thought that the remaining texture would add additional interest for this week’s technique, faux patina.  Next, I followed Tim’s technique found on page 58 using several colors of alcohol inks in order to create my faux patina background and am pleased with the results. It was a lot of fun.

After a bit of brainstorming, I came up with the idea to have an idea notebook.  I then remembered a blog post a while back on Wendy Vecchi’s blog using a phrenology stamp. I thought the idea of a head for an idea notebook would be perfect. I referenced the post on Wendy’s blog and totally forgot that Wendy had created an coordinating art part for the stamp.  I quickly dug through my stash and was pleased that I found I had the coordinating phrenology art part.  I also liked how Wendy had adorned the phrenology head with flowers. So to personalize my art part head, I had the “bright idea” to embellish the flower’s centers with a light bulb from Tim Holtz’s Ideology line.

I first stamped the Stamper’s Anonymous phrenology head stamp onto Wendy Vecchi’s Studio 490 coordinating art part using Jet Black Ranger Archival Ink.  Afterwards, I used Faber Castell Pitt pens to color the eyes and lips.  I added glossy accents to her lips for an added touch and applied Tim Holtz Worn Lipstick Distress Ink to her cheeks for blush.

The flowers are also from Wendy Vecchi’s art parts collection.  I used Jet Black Ranger Archival Ink to stamp the flowers with Studio 490 background stamps.  Next, came the tricky part.  I enlisted help from my fiancé to help drill a hole through the art part layers in order to accommodate the light bulb. He was a good sport and did a great job!  Afterwards, I continued to assemble and adhere the art parts together.

Prior to adhering the head to the cover, I felt that her neck needed a little something….perhaps a necklace or ribbon?….or both?  I decided to use Tim Holtz Type Charms to spell “Ideas”.  I then drilled small holes along the edge and used jump rings to attach charms and embellished the charms with Webster’s purple ribbon.  I felt this mimicked a necklace of sorts.  I then proceeded to apply pop dots to the backside of the head and applied to cover of notebook. This project was a lot of fun and I now have a handy notebook to jot down my future ideas.

Thanks for taking the time to read this very long, detailed post.  I hope that you will come back again soon for additional inspiration.

Michelle

Welcome.  In celebration of Earth Day tomorrow, I am highlighting a project that encompasses the principles commonly associated with Earth Day: reduce, reuse, and recycle.  Today’s project is a repurposed garden journal.

Earth Day Garden Journal

The cover is from an old Prairie Restorations catalog.

The actual notebook is from the dollar spot at Michael’s.  I purchased several of the notebooks despite that I disliked the exterior colors and graphics.  I knew they would be great altered.  I liked the fact that the interior pages are lined and are kraft colored.

I printed my title on cardstock scrap and colored a Tim Holtz Ideology ornate frame using Tim Holtz’s faux patina technique as featured in his latest book release, Compendium of Curiosities II.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope that you will visit again real soon.

Michelle

Welcome.  Today I have a couple of  cards using a couple of my favorite stamps.  Coneflowers and sunflowers are among two of my favorite garden flowers.  The Thinking Of You card’s image is from a soon to be retired Stampin Up set called Inspired By Nature.  For this card, I used a distress ink watercolor stamping technique that I learned from Jennifer McGuire’s online card class last fall. The sentiment is Hero Arts and the tag is a Tim Holtz mover and shaper mini die.

Coneflower Thinking Of You Card

The next card features sunflowers and the stamp is from I Brake For Stamps.  They have an incredible selection of realistic flower stamps. For this card, I stamped the image with Ranger Jet Black Archival Ink and painted the sunflowers using Lumiere paint by Jacquard.  The picture unfortunately fails to capture the iridescent nature of the paint. For the background, I used watercolor paint and then distressed and inked the edges of the image layer.

Sunflower Blank Note Card

I hope that my cards have provided you with some botanical inspiration.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope that you will come back again soon to see my upcoming  Compendium of Curiosities week 2 challenge project hosted by Studio L3.

Michelle

Good Evening,

I just finished my April 2012 Tim Holtz 12 tags of 2012.  Tim Holtz decided to retire his 5 year tradition of 12 tags of Christmas which were a lot of fun.  Instead, for 2012 he has decided to feature a tag each month that likely will coincide with a holiday or the season.  He started this past February 2012 and will “owe us” January at a later date.  Below are my completed tags for February, March, and April 2012.

Tim Holtz 12 Tags, February 2012

Tim Holtz 12 Tags, March 2012

Tim Holtz 12 Tags, April 2012

Out of respect for Tim, if you are interested in the products and techniques used, click here to be taken to his blog.  He has a menu on his sidebar labeled 12 Tags of 2012.  Provided I have the supplies he uses on each tag, I try to follow along and replicate his design……not to copy him, though he has great design style, but rather to provide me a frame of reference for understanding the techniques he demonstrated.

Thank you for visiting and I hope that you will come back again soon.

Michelle

Good Afternoon Bloggers,

Today I am highlighting my very first challenge entry ever!!!!  The challenge is being hosted by Linda Ledbetter at Studio L3.  I have been a long time follower of her work as well as admire the amazing talented artists who have played along with her former challenges.  Up until this month, I have only played along behind the scenes because I did not have a blog. Linda’s announcement regarding the Compendium of Curiosities II challenge start date provided me the added push to go ahead and design a website/blog.

So on Friday April 13, 2012 Linda posted the first technique challenge titled “Custom Foam Stamps”.  The technique can be found in Tim Holtz’s latest book release, “A Compendium of Curiosities Volume II on page 66.  Information regarding the challenge and its rules can be found here at Linda’s blog.  In addition, Simon Says Stamp.com is offering a $25 gift certificate to one randomly chosen participant for this week’s challenge. Click here to shop at Simon Says Stamp.  They have all the latest and greatest products, ship fast, and for free with orders over $75.

Here are my results of part one of the challenge:

Custom Foam Stamp Technique by Tim Holtz

Afterwards, I chose one stamp and used it to create a blank note card.

Studio L3 CC2 Challenge Technique Card, Page 66

Lastly, I have uploaded a picture for the “Where Is My Vagabond” contest hosted on the Sizzix Blog.  By entering, participants will receive a set of Vagabond keys.  I really need these after recently averting a Vagabond sandwich mishap. Fortunately all ended well.  Photo of Vagabond below taken after an intense foam stamp die cut workout session for this week’s challenge.

Where Is Your Vagabond?

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope that you come back again soon.

Michelle