Scrap N Grow

Posts Tagged ‘Provocraft’

Good evening everyone.  Today, I have a quick Valentine’s Day gift idea for a loved one, a metal embossed picture frame.

Metal Embossed Valentine’s Day Picture Frame

This frame would also make for a great wedding or anniversary gift too.

Supplies Used:

Add A Little Dazzle Metal

Unfinished Frame from Michael’s

Mars Black Windsor & Newton Acrylic Paint

Black Velvet Ribbon from Michael’s

Embossing Folders: Romance (Provocraft), Conversation (Provocraft), Manhattan Flower (Stampin Up), and Valentine Background & Borders (Sizzix)

Thank you so much for stopping by. I greatly appreciate and welcome any comments or questions you may have. Please stay tuned later this week, for I am working diligently finishing assembly of this month’s Paperie In Bloom rose bouquet which I will feature on Thursday, Valentine’s Day.  Have a great evening.

Michelle

Good morning everyone. Today is day four of Scrap N Grow’s Heavy Metal Valentine’s Day Cards Week. Today’s featured cards focal image is from Provocraft’s Heart Blocks embossing folder. Metal is from Add A Little Dazzle and the die cut hearts are from Tim Holtz’s Sizzix Alterations line.

Heart Blocks Heavy Metal Valentine’s Day Cards

Heart Blocks Heavy Metal Valentine’s Day Card Close Up #1

Heart Blocks Heavy Metal Valentine’s Day Card Close Up #2

Heart Blocks Heavy Metal Valentine’s Day Card Close Up #3

Heart Blocks Heavy Metal Valentine’s Day Card Close Up #4

Thank you again for stopping by. Please stay tuned tomorrow for another Heavy Metal Valentine’s Day card idea. Have a fabulous day!

Michelle

Good evening everyone.  I hope your week is off to a good start.  This week, I am going to feature a week long series titled, ” Heavy Metal Valentine’s Day Cards”. Each day, I will feature a different card that includes metal embossing. While I am showcasing these cards as inspiration for Valentine’s Day, any of these cards could easily be used for an anniversary or wedding card as well.  Today’s card featured card has been embossed using a Provocraft embossing folder titled, Romance.  I embossed and sanded the featured image in 5 different colored Add A Little Dazzle metal sheets.

Heavy Metal Valentine’s Day Cards Day One

Heavy Metal Valentine’s Day Card Day One Close Up Number One

Heavy Metal Valentine’s Day Card Day One Close Up Number Two

Heavy Metal Valentine’s Day Card Day One Close Up Number Three

Heavy Metal Valentine’s Day Card Day One Close Up Number Four

Heavy Metal Valentine’s Day Card Day One Close Up Number Five

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope that you will stop by again tomorrow as I will showcase another heavy metal Valentine’s Day card. Have a great night.

Michelle

Good afternoon everyone.  I hope your weekend is going well. It is very hot, humid, and rainy here.  Today, I have another bouquet from the Cricut cartridge Giant Flowers, poppies.

I love poppies and they are are currently blooming glory in my gardens.  Poppies come in an assortment of colors.  The one’s featured today are a deep red.  I used my Cricut die cut machine and the Giant Flowers Cricut cartridge. I cut all flower parts at 4 inches.

For the petals: I die cut them using a deep red card stock and afterwards used Fired Brick Distress Ink to add color to both sides of each petal.

For the ring around the center, I die cut the flower part using a deep purple card stock and afterwards used Dusty Concord and Black Soot Distress Ink to produce a deep purple nearly black color.

Lastly, for the center, I tried several different options.  In the end, I harvested poppy centers still attached to their stems from my own gardens that were through blooming.  The die cut part that the cartridge offers is wonky, frustrating to work with, and does not to me resemble a poppy’s center at all.

After I colored all the card stock flower parts, I then used my McGill molding mat and tool kit to mold and shape each part prior to assembly.  My adhesive of choice for this project was Inkessentials Glossy Accents.

As stated earlier, I used real poppy centers attached to their stems and made a hole in the center of each flower and threaded the seed head/stem and applied a bit of adhesive and set aside each flower to dry.

Overall, this bouquet assembled rather quickly.  I found it challenging to arrange the flowers as well as to photograph them. The photos above do not do justice for how the flowers really turned out. They are absolutely stunning in person.

I hope you enjoyed my project for today.  Please feel free to leave me a comment.  Thank you for visiting and I hope you return again soon.

Michelle

Good evening.  Today, I am going to finish sharing my Toy Box Mini Album. I shared part one on Wednesday. Click here to read part one. So let’s return to our Toy Box mini album reveal.

Spread Five.

Spread Five primarily consists of photo mats and has an interactive flap that reveals additional photo mats when opened.

Toy Box Mini Album Spread Five

Toy Box Mini Album Spread Five With Flap Extended

Spread Six.

Spread six features a vintage rocking horse chip board accent from the Crate Paper Toy Box collection along with a Maya Road library pocket and journaling spot.  Opposite page has two bookmarks tucked into a page pocket.

Toy Box Mini Album Spread Six

Toy Box Mini Album Close Up

Toy Box Mini Album Close Up of Pocket Page

Spread Seven.

This was a fun spread and I admittedly went a bit over the top.

Toy Box Mini Album Spread Seven

The left hand side page of the album features a notebook embossed card that has spaces to place photos or journalling inside the card.  I used Tim Holtz’s Notebook Texture Fades embossing folder to emboss the card front and attached a mini journaling card from the Toy Box collection with a mini paper clip.

Close Up of Embossed Notebook Card

The opposite page has a pocket and holds a keepsake Toy Story coloring book.  I made the coloring book using my Your Story Mini machine and Toy Story coloring pages purchased from Target. The color book’s cover focal image is a Toy Story sticker that I purchased at Michael’s.  Inside and alongside the color pages, I added a dimensional Crayola sticker embellishment that I also purchased at Michael’s. See Below for close ups.

Close Up of Keepsake Toy Story Color Book Cover

Close Up of Keepsake Toy Story Color Book Pages

Spread Eight.

This album spread features a dimensional train embellishment from Jolee’s Boutique and car embellishments from the Crate Paper Toy Box collection. I die cut the road using my Cricut machine and the My Community Cricut cartridge.

Toy Box Mini Album Spread Eight

Toy Box Mini Album Close Up

Toy Box Mini Album Close Up

Spread Nine.

This spread features another extended flap page in order to accommodate additional photos.

Toy Box Mini Album Spread Nine

Toy Box Mini Album Spread Nine With Flap Extended

The fire engine is a dimensional Jolee’s Boutique sticker.  The airplane and the John Deere tractor are chipboard embellishments from the Toy Box paper collection. I used a Martha Stewart border grass punch for the grass and found the dump truck embellishment in the patches department at JoAnn’s. I cut the dirt hill by hand.

Spread Ten.

Toy Box Mini Album Spread Ten

The left hand page features a centrally placed photo mat that is surrounded by various sizes of Lego’s that I hand cut from Lego decorative paper that I purchased at Archiver’s.  I used pop dots behind various Lego bricks for added dimension. The right hand page features a complex pop up block element.  I say complex as the block took me several hours to figure out it’s proper assembly.  The block is a Karen Burniston 3D twist cube pop up die. I love how it turned out, but will admit that the process of trying to place the interior rubber band inside the cube totally frustrated me.  This band allows the block to twist and pop up.  Once assembled, I secured the block to the page with a brad which allows the block to spin.  I embellished the sides and the top of the block. I die cut the word PLAY and the star using my Crricut machine and the Mickey Font Cricut cartridge.

Close Up of Pop Up Twist Cube Block

Close Up of Pop Up Twist Cube Block

Spread Eleven.

Toy Box Mini Album Spread Eleven

Both pages feature a corner pocket page design and each pocket contains a removable, interactive A2 flap card.  The cards were die cut using a Sizzix A2 Card w/Flap Die.  The cards provide room for 4 photos. I used a Velcro hook and loop fastener for the flap closure and added a button for added detail. Afterwards, I tucked in a few journal cards from the Toy Box paper collection.

Spread Twelve.

Toy Box Mini Album Spread Twelve

This spread is all about vintage toys.  I had each of these toys in my own toy box as a child. The embellishments are from the paper’s collection with the exception of the moon tickets and and rocket advertisement which came from October Afternoon’s Rocket Age collection. The advertisement is mounted on a mini file that opens to reveal two additional photo mats.

Toy Box Mini Album Close Up

Spread Thirteen.

Toy Box Mini Album Spread Thirteen

This spread features popular games that children play.  The checkerboard paper was purchased at Archiver’s as a single sheet and I apologize that I can not recall the manufacturer.  I embellished the page with a couple of authentic Checker pieces from a well loved game that I purchased at a garage sale. The opposite page features a set of I Spy cards that are held together with a decorative brad.  This page is actually a flap that opens and features two more of my favorite childhood games, Monopoly and Domino’s. The domino’s are purchased embellishments as real Domino’s would have added too much bulk to the album.

Toy Box Mini Album Spread Thirteen With Flap Extended

Inside Back Cover of Toy Box Mini Album.

Toy Box Mini Album Back Cover

The End.  In all, the Toy Box mini album has places for over 50 photos and journaling.  No doubt that this album was labor intensive and expensive to make.  I am almost certain that the intended recipient will cherish this album and that the gift will become a keepsake for her son in the years to come.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and for allowing me to post this jumbo mini sized album into separate blog posts as each post took me several hours to compose and post. I tried real hard to include each page’s details and source’s, but if I forgot something, please do not hesitate to email me or leave a question in the comment section.  Thank you again for visiting and I hope that you come back again soon.

Michelle

Good morning blog readers.  How is your week thus far?  Mine has been extra busy as my fiance has been out of town for work.  Today’s project is going to be presented over 2 days due to the size and complexity of the project. I spent my free time yesterday taking and editing photos and composing my list of supplies used. Today’s featured project is a Toy Box and Mini Album.  I made this toy box mini album for a girlfriend who is expecting her first baby.

Toy Box Exterior

Opening View of Toy Box

My mini album was initially inspired by a past project that Kathy Orta of Paper Phenomenon shared with her viewers.  I have included a link to her website here. Kathy Orta  is a very talented designer and is well known for her amazing mini albums. Furthermore, she also sell tutorials for most of her mini albums via a secure website.  Her tutorials are very clear, concise, and include several step by step photos. I purchased Kathy’s Toy Box tutorial; however, I was a bit intimidated by the construction of making the toy box.  I instead decided to use a pre-made unfinished toy box that I purchased at Joann’s.  Because I used a store bought box, I had to resize my mini album as well as get extra creative in order to add a shadowbox to mine. After having completed my project and comparing mine to Kathy’s inspiration Toy Box mini album, the only resemblance between the two is that each projects encompasses a toy box, shadowbox, and a mini album component.  The design of my project is therefore an original design that I improvised along the way.  Sorry for the fine print explanation, but I do want to ensure credits are given when and where appropriate.

Toy Box:

As I stated earlier, I purchased an unfinished toy box at JoAnn’s.  I lightly sanded the box before I used Espresso Color Wash spray to color the box inside and out.  I sprayed 2 coats and used nearly 2 bottles to adequately color the box.  Indie the box, I lined the bottom with patterned paper from the paper collection, Crate Paper Toy Box collection.  Once adhered, I applied Walnut Stain Distress ink to the box’s corners and edges for a vintage look.

Toy Box Interior Bottom View

I created a shabow box using Tim Holtz’s configuration  boxes.  I have several of his boxes and used left over boxes from a previous project.  I selected my desired sizes and cut to fit a thick piece of chipboard and adhered the boxes to the chipboard.  I colored the boxes using the same color wash that I used on the exterior of the box.  Afterwards, I selected desired papers and cut each to size and adhered to each of the boxes.  I then adhered a miniature bear to one of the boxes using Craft 6000 adhesive.   I elected to leave most boxes undecorated so that the recipient can add her own personalized trinkets.

Close Up of Shadow Box Inside Toy Box

Throughout the mini album, I used Crate Paper’s Toy Box collection.  The collection has a 6X6 and a 12X12 paper line as well as chipboard and sticker embellishments.  I did also add in a few other decorative papers from other collections that coordinated with the theme.

Toy Box Mini Album Cover

Because I used a pre-made toy box, I had to customize the size and shape of my mini album to fit inside the box.  The mini album is hefty in size and thickness.  I made my own binding and covers for the album. The binding is dark brown leather and the binding uses 4 large book binders from Tim Holtz’s Ideaology line.  The albums closure uses a brad and a hair binder and is accented with an Industrial Chic Jewelry component that I purchased at Michael’s.

Side View of Toy Box Mini Album Binding

Top View of Toy Box Mini Album Binding

I told you that the album was a biggie.  Now let’s take a look inside. In all, there are 14  2 page spreads in the album.  Each spread has a minimum of 1 interactive element.  This definitely added to the bulkiness of the album.

Title Page.  I chose to spell out Child’s Play using Scrabble letters.  I inked the edges of each tile using Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

Toy Box Mini Album Title Page

Spread One

Toy Box Mini Album Spread One

I embellished the left hand page using several embellishments for the collection.  The dog puzzle piece is a stray piece of a puzzle that I own.  Behind the boy’s life band are 2 removable tags that the recipient can place photos or journal on.

Toy Box Mini Album Spread One Embellishments Close Up

The opposite page features an interactive element.  I used a Sizzix A2 Card w/Flap Die to house pictures of journaling. The insert has room for a photo on the front, back and two more inside. I used a Velcro hook and loop fastener for the flap closure.

Toy Box Mini Album Close Up of A2 Card Flap Enclosure

Spread Two.  It’s all about a Barrel O Fun!  I die cut the barrel using my Cricut and the Old West Cricut cartridge. I inked the edges of the die cut using Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  The monkey’s are actual pieces from the Barrel O’ Monkeys game.  I lightly sanded them, applied a coat of Gesso before painting them with acrylic  paint.  I painted them a dark brown. I adhered them using E6000 adhesive.  I kept the opposite page simple.  A photo mat and a tag that can be pulled out from behind the mat.

Toy Box Mini Album Spread Two

Soread Three.  This was a super fun set of pages that I went a bit overboard on.

Toy Box Mini Album Spread Three

The left hand page tank was die cut using the Stand And Salute Cricut Cartridge and my Cricut machine. I used pop dots to add dimension to the tank’s tracks.  The dirt is full of texture.  It is a product called Elements made by Art Glitter Inc.  I used Flower Soft Glue to adhere the product and let dry for several hours to ensure good adhesion. The opposite page is actually a card that open’s and has a pop up feature.  The card’s front cover includes a photo mat and is embellished with a painted chipboard tag that I added Tim Holtz Ideology chain to to simulate a military dog tag.  I embossed the word boy using my Melody Ross embossing dies.

Toy Box Mini Album Close Up of Card Front

Inside the card is a pop up feature.  The pop up was created by using a Sizzix pop up die.  I used Zig Zag.  I adhered chipboard elements from the Toy Box collection to simulate a mini scene and added a journaling spot and additional dirt for added texture.

Toy Box Mini Album Pop Up Card Interior

Spread Four.

Toy Box Mini Album Spread Four

This spread features a dinosaur theme.  The dinosaurs and the mountains were die cut using my Cricut and the Dinosaur Tracks Cricut cartridge. The die cut’s edges were again inked using Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  Behind the adventurous band is a removable journaling card that is stamped with a notebook image from Impression Obsession.

Toy Box Mini Album Dinosaur Scene Close Up

Toy Box Mini Album Close Up

Spread five will be featured in my next post. I will continue this post tomorrow to help minimize the length of my posts.  As many of you know who blog, it takes several hours to compose a post that is jam packed with photos.  I will share the remaining pages in my next post.  I hope that you like what I have shared thus far. Please feel free to leave a comment or ask a question. Thank you so much and have a great day!

Michelle

Happy Memorial Day. I would first like to thank those of you who are currently serving our beautiful country. I would also like to take a moment to remember those who have fallen in the line of duty.  Words can not merely express my gratitude and thanks for all servicemen and women who are currently serving or have served our country.

Next, I would like to apologize for my absenteeism this past weekend as I had fully intended to post throughout the weekend.  I did enjoy our one nice day on Friday before heavy storms and monsoon like rains drenched our area throughout the entire weekend. Several times our power flickered and internet was intermittent at times.  Storms + complex project + not enough hours in each day = no blog post over the past weekend.  I sincerely apologize and will try and play catch up this week for you.

This afternoon I finally completed my envisioned bouquet of peonies minus the stem’s leaves.  This project was definitely a never ending whirlwind!!! It consumed nearly every free non stormy moment throughout the long holiday weekend. My original vision for this project was to create a bouquet of life like peonies.  Earlier this spring I had purchased several of the McGill paper blossom punches and thought that I would use them to make some peonies.

I started by printing off the peony instructions from McGill’s website.  I then proceeded to select paper and punch the desired number of required shapes.  As I was punching the shapes, I thought to myself that the shapes seem pretty small, but I proceeded anyway and completed the assembly for 7 peonies.  They turned out fine but are indeed very small and lacked a life like sized blossom. I am going to save these for later use on a scrapbook layout, card, or home decor type project.  The completed McGill peonies are pictured below.

Peonies Created Using McGill Paper Blossom Punches

The McGill peonies while nice were not what I had originally envisioned, for I desired big, luscious, full blooms like their live counterparts.  So I instead decided to use my Cricut and the Giant Flowers Cricut Cartridge. A Cricut die cutting machine allows a user to cut my desired shape(s) at any specified size. My luscious, full sized blooms are pictured below.

I elected to cut my flower parts at 3 inches.  The book recommends much larger but with having previous experience using this cartridge, I knew I could successfully cut my shapes much smaller.  I followed the book’s instructions and cut desired shapes in white card stock to assemble a test flower.  I do this typically to figure out the quirks of assembly and for determination of size before using my quality card stock. I am so glad I did as I was very disappointed in the test flower.  In my opinion, the flower was sparse and had a hug hole in the center.  Perhaps, if someone were to use this as a centerpiece or even to place a candle in the center then this would be sufficient but not for a luscious life like blossom that I envisioned. I now knew that I needed to cut mass quantities of each flower part in order to potentially achieve my desired flower.  To do this I  used my Gypsy and placed mass quanities onto a 12X24 mat and cut out shapes once more.

I listed my cuts below:

4 Peony centers (not the recommended 2)

8 peony leaf 1 (not the recommended 6)

8 peony leaf 2 (not the recommended 4)

12 of peony leaf 4 (not the recommended 4).

I also cut 2 of peony layer 4 in lieu of the recommended 1. These are for the center stamens.

I chose 2 different colors of pink card stock  and cut enough parts so that I would be able to make 5 of one color and 4 of the other color. Odd numbers are more visually pleasing to the eye. I will warn you that if you decide to make these yourself, please purchase enough card stock.  After all parts were cut, I used Worn Lipstick Distress ink and my blending tool and inked the edges on both sides of each flower part.  Afterwards, I used my McGill molding mat and accompanying tools to mold the flower parts.  I then used Inkessentials Glossy Accents to glue each flower part prior to the final assembly. This step was labor intensive and downright tedious, but makes a huge difference in the final flower.

Regarding the final assembly, I rolled and offset glued consecutively all 4 peony centers ensuring that I did leave a large enough central opening for my stamens to fit. If you need too, glue these together first, I just estimated.  Next, I adhered 8 peony leaf 1 parts and again offset these with each layer. I adhered these at the height of the score marks on the peony centers.  I continued to adhere the remaining leaf parts offset for each row while I held the flower firmly in my hand upside down the entire time to ensure that the adhesive and flower stayed firmly together.

I would also like to share with you and hope to save you the frustration that I encountered using various adhesives. I started out using Crafter’s Ultimate glue and this did work, but I felt took too long to dry before I could proceed to adhere additional flower parts.  I then tried Inkessentials Glossy Accents. This worked better but still required additional time to dry in between each flower part.  I then decided to try hot glue.  While this seemed to work well intially, I became very frustrated as while I was adhering my final petal layers on my flower, I could see that the hot glue previously used cooled clumpy like and that my flower parts were not adhered well. I could see that large clumps of flower parts were barely adhered and were not intact.  At this point I was very frustrated!  So much so that I had to just walk away and take a break.  The next day, I reassembled the flower and the others using Inkessentials Glossy Accents.  I used 2 sets of locking tweezers to adhere 2 parts at a time and let sit to completely dry each time, typically 3-5 minutes.  This was very time consuming!!!!!!! In order to pass time,  I surfed the internet and chatted on message boards. In all, it took me the better part of late Saturday, Sunday, and a few hours this morning to complete the final assembly of these 9 peonies.

For the stems, I had to think outside the box a bit.  These flower heads have some distinct weight to them. I decided to use double thickness floral wire and wrapped the wire with green floral tape.  I used hot glue successfully to adhere the stems to the flower heads. I still need to cut out leave,s but really wanted to post these for you instead of making you wait yet a few more days.  To help conceal the naked stems, I placed the blossoms inside a cute watering can purse I received awhile back for a gift. I then photographed them for you outside in between the bouts of rain.

All in all, I think this project demanded the most time to complete of the projects I have posted thus far. I am pleased with the results and am eager to cut the leaves out.  What do you think about today’s flowers? Which do you prefer?  I would so love for you to leave me a comment telling me your thoughts or ask any questions.

Thank you for stopping by and for taking the time to read this lengthy blog post.  I am in the process of starting to compose my studio gallery organization and will begin to post about that later this week. I also plan to create the poppy next on the Giant Flowers Cricut cartridge as well as complete my Compendium of Curiosities II challenge yet this week.

Thank you again for stopping by.  Have a great night!

Michelle

Good afternoon! Today a have a couple inspired by baby cards to share with you.  The first card idea was featured in one of the first issues of Cricut magazine.  I just liked the clothesline idea and thought it was a fresh and an original idea.  Below are my interpretations for both baby boys and girls.

Clothesline Baby Cards

The laundry was die cut from the New Arrival Cricut cartridge.  The grass is a Martha Stewart grass punch, The scallops were cut with decorative edge scissors. I used a mini brad for the heart and a Fiskars mini handheld star punch to embellish each onesie.  Lastly, I strung jute for the clothesline and attached the laundry using mini clothespins. Afterwards, I attached this layer to my brown embossed (Swiss Dots, Provocraft) card base before I added a button with more jute to soften the lines between the grass and the scallop border.

The next card was inspired from a past Darkroom Door background stamp release.  I love the look of subway art and hence the past purchase of this stamp along with others. Visit their blog and check out there stamps here.

Bear Baby Girl Card

Bear Baby Boy Card

For this card, I stamped and embossed the background image using Ranger Distress embossing powder.  I then added the big teddy bear after cutting it from the Christmas Solutions Cricut cartridge and added some wiggly eyes for bear’s eyes for added whimsy. Next, I used a scallop corner punch from Creative Memories to accent the layers corner’s.  Afterwards, I inked the edges of each layer using Walnut Stain Distress ink and adhered my card layers together. Once adhered, I used my Crop a Dile to punch a hole and strung  decorative ribbon through hole and added an Ideaology type charm with either a B for boy or G for girl initial.

I made 5 of each of today’s cards so I should have ample supply for friends and families upcoming additions.  Next up, I need to make some graduation and wedding cards.

Thank you as always for stopping by and I hope that you will return again soon.

Michelle

Good morning blog friends!  I got an early start this morning after a late night finishing today’s featured project.  The sun is shining bright and it is going to be a gorgeous spring day here in MN today.  I am so excited to share my project with you today, a set of his and her’s stainless steel coffee traveler tumblers.

His & Her's Coffee Tumblers

I invite you to read on for I have included a step by step tutorial of my process.

Supplies needed to customize your own tumbler:

Stainless steel alterable coffee tumbler.  I purchased my tumblers from Monica Weaver at her online store called Add a Little Dazzle.

Art metal.  The metal I used is from Ten Seconds Studio.  I have all their colors.  For his tumbler, I used 1 sheet of  Rockstar Black.  For her tumbler, I used scrap pieces of Ten Seconds Studio Metal.

Embossing folders.  Select any patterns you wish to use.  I listed the folders I used below for informational purposes.

His: Clockworks embossing folder from Provocraft

Hers: Divine Swirl (Provocraft), Forest Branches (Provocraft), Goochie Script (Provocraft), Houndstooth (Provocraft), Jamara (Provocraft), Japanese Scales (Provocraft), Mesh (Provocraft), Perfectly Paisley (Provocraft), Polka Dots (Provocraft), Swiss Dots (Provocraft), Bricked (Sizzix), Bubble & Honeycomb Set (Sizzix), and Square Lattice (Stampin Up).

To start, first select desired color (s) of art metal.  I used a 9×12 sheet of Rockstar Black for his and used metal scraps cut into 1.5 inch squares for her’s.

Scraps of Art Metal Cut Into 1.5 Inch Squares

Next, select your desired embossing folders.  The ones I used are listed above in the supply list.

Select Desired Embossing Folders

Step 3 is to emboss the metal.  I used my Vagabond to emboss my metal squares.  For his tumbler, I opened the embossing folder and laid the metal sheet on top and used a paper stump to manually emboss the metal to avoid crease lines from the machine as his is a large sheet of metal.

Step 4 for his is to sand embossed metal and wipe clean the sanding residue.  For her tumbler, I applied 2 inch wide Scor Pal tape to a sheet of copy paper and then applied each metal square in my desired pattern.  I then used a sanding block to highlight embossed edges of the designs and wipe cleaned afterwards with a cloth as shown below.

Apply Metal Squares To Adhesive Card Stock

Next, locate the clear plastic insert inside the tumbler and remove.  This clear plastic sheet protects your design from condensation.  For both tumblers, I laid the plastic sheet on top of my metal sheet and used a sharp knife or scissors (your preference) to cut embossed metal sheet to size.  It is hard to see but if you look close in the photo below, you can see the glare from the plastic insert lying on top of the metal.

Plastic Insert Laid On Top Of Embossed Metal Sheet

The last step is to insert your embossed metal sheet and the plastic insert into the base of the tumbler.  I will provide you with fair warning that this will take a bit of patience as the fit will be tight.  After I had my embossed metal and the liner inserted, I used a bamboo skewer along the interior to better shape the metal to to the interior shape of the tumbler. Lastly, screw the bottom back on and make yourself some coffee to enjoy!

Here are close ups of each tumbler and and both side by side.

Close Up of His Coffee Tumbler

Close Up Of Her Coffee Tumbler

His and Her's Coffee Tumblers

Rest assured, you will receive so many compliments on your new altered coffee tumbler!  I made my fiance’s for him at Christmas time and he has used it since Christmas and has received numerous compliments from people who have inquired about where to purchase their own.  My fiance says they are surprised to hear that it was handmade or altered. I made another for a coworker at Christmas time and filled it with K Cups, but failed to photograph it. She uses it everyday and too has told me that she has received numerous compliments.  I finally now have gotten around to making one for me.  I am so happy now to have my own.  Now my honey and I both have stylized travel coffee tumblers.

Thank you so much for reading this rather lengthy post.  This is my first tutorial I have written, please feel free to contact me or leave a comment if you have any questions or need clarification.  Thank you for stopping by and have a fabulous day! I hope that you will come back again soon.

Michelle

Hello blog readers.  Today I have a Pinterest inspired canvas.  Pinterest for those unfamiliar is a site with a plethora of inspiration.  Simply place a key word into the Pinterest search box and behold the results that will soon appear.  The Pinterest home page is chocked full of recent pinned ideas including food, decorating, fashion, crafts, and everything in between including crayon art.  Recently, there were a few crayon art canvases featured on the Pinterest home page that caught my attention. I have an inquiring mind and wanted to learn more.  So I performed a search on Pinterest for additional ideas regarding crayon art and was simply stunned at the amazing results  that my search returned.  At this point my interest was peaked, but now I needed to know how people had actually created these.  Off  to You Tube I went.  A crayon art You Tube search yielded a large number of videos that featured the art of melting crayons. Many of the videos featured were only a few minutes long from start to finish. I watched several, and each artist made the process look silly easy! So a few days later, I stopped by Target and purchased 2 boxes, 64 count Crayola crayons that just happened to be on sale.

Once home, I laid out the crayons in my desired colors and pattern, then measured the width of my Crayon rainbow and decided that a 16X20 primed white canvas would  be my best option. The next step was to adhere the crayons to the canvas using an adhesive that could withstand the heat from a heat tool or hair dryer.   Several people in the videos I watched, recommended to adhere crayons with a hot glue gun as it seems to withstand the high temperatures as the crayons melt. So I did, I adhered each crayon flush with the top of the canvas and carefully applied hot glue to each crayon being  careful to not burn my fingers.

The next step I believe is the most critical of all! Cover your work area to avoid crayon wax splatter.  Do not be timid on the real estate covered!!!!! I can personally attest that the forced air from a hair dryer/heat tool will result in splatter in unexpected places. Once the surrounding areas are completely covered. Begin to heat the crayons until they begin to melt.  Several videos suggested to keep the hair dryer/heat tool in motion and do not sit too long in one place.  The results observed as the crayons melt is totally up to you and is dependent upon the motion and direction of the heat tool.  This step is what sets each crayon art canvas apart from the next. Melting crayons is not an exact or predictable art style/science.  All I can advise is to experiment and keep an open mind.  I tried to keep an open mind, but found myself repeatedly reheating areas to “move” the color over and have it appear more uniform…hence 45 minutes longer than the average video. Crayon artists that I was inspired by originally had left more white space than I chose too.  It is really personal preference.  If you Google this, you will see what I mean.   If crayon art sounds remotely interesting to you…please Google this for yourself as I am finding it difficult to explain my process in words.  Once I was satisfied with the result I let the canvas completely cool.  My results are pictured below.

Crayon Melt Art Canvas

Because I like to put my own personality to my art, I chose to add a quote.  I cut the quote from the DC Comics Batman: The Brave and the Bold Cricut cartridge using my Cricut machine. I then adhered the letters using Crafter’s Ultimate Companion adhesive.  Afterwards, I added Inkessentials Glossy Accents over each letter to simulate a raised, wet look to the letters as I feel this helped the letters to stand out a bit more. This project was fun and totally an experiment.  I am pleased with the results and plan to purchase frame moldings to frame the canvas.  This canvas will soon grace my art studio’s gallery wall.

Thanks for stopping by.  I would love to know if any of you have done this before. I would also like to add that I think this would be a fun project to try with your kids with parental supervision of course. Have a great day and I hope that you will stop by again soon.

Michelle