Helllllloooo Molding Paste!!!
Boy, did I have fun today. I played with molding paste, metallic watercolors, paint and home made spray inks. 

I belong to a group on facebook called Stampin and Taggin Place.  The swap this month is rolodex cards.  I've always wanted to alter rolodex cards so I thought this would get me started.  There are so many different ways you could do with them.  It's kind of like ATCs.  I picked up my rolodex at a thrift store for $1.99.  Yay! Those things are like $30 in the stores.

How to alter a rolodex card using molding paste:

Picture
1.    The first thing I did was to use my home made spay inks to make a bright colored background. I used orange and yellow.  I just sprayed randomly, trying not to be very neat about it. 

2.  I used a pallet knife to spread a thin, even layer of molding paste on the card.  I didn't spread it over the card completely.  I then picked out a rubber stamp and stamped the image in the molding paste and then let it dry.  Be careful if using your heat gun.  The molding paste will bubble if you get it too hot. 
*Tips - if you spread the molding paste too thick, your image will not stamp well.  Also, if you are stamping several items like I was, make sure to clean off your stamp every 3 or so stamps so the molding paste does not build up on the stamp and again give you a poor image.
Picture
Look at that dimension!
Picture
There they all are.
3. The next step is to paint the image.  I used craft paint and metallic watercolors.  I started by painting the center of the flower image with craft paint.
Next I used a light color craft paint to paint the flower pedals and then went back in with a darker shade of the same color and outlined the pedals. 
I then used my metallic watercolors to go over the pedals with the same color to give it some shimmer and blend the colors together.  Additionally, I added more watered down craft paint to the center and painted the leaves in the same way, craft paint, then a hint of watercolors.
The last step was to paint the rest of the molding paste in the background of the flower with a light yellow or blue watercolor.  I also gave them all a spritz of glitter spray.
Just keep fussing with the colors and adding layers until you are happy with the coloring. 
Here are some more close ups of the finished product. 
I really enjoyed this project and hoped you did too. As always, let me know if you have any questions on the tutorial. I'd be happy to help and would love to see if you have done any projects altering rolodex cards.

MiMi

 
 
About a week ago, I posted a couple tags I made, a vintage woman tag and a fairy tag.  One of my readers had never made a tag and the post inspired her to make a couple.  I wanted to share her tags with you.  She did a beautiful job.

Barbara has her own blog, Glitterarti...Cards by Barbara Daines.  Her bio and links are below.
Picture
I have been crafting all of my life....well, since I was 4 years old. I love  days when I can get out of bed, not bother with make-up, or housework and go  straight into my craft room. I live in a beautiful part of England, just outside  of the 'World Heritage' city of Bath, with my OH, Alan and our German Shepherd,  Finn. I have 2 wonderful grown-up sons, Nick and Adam, and 1 gorgeous new  daughter-in-law, Emma. I consider myself very, very lucky indeed.
 
Barbara makes beautiful cards. Please take a minute and check out her blog at:
http://glitterarti1.blogspot.com/.

MiMi

 
 
I love to use recycled materials, things around the house or things you would normally thow away for crafting.  I love to upcylce, go to thrift stores and clearance stores and see what I can find.

I was making a paper bag mini and messed up the gluing and where I punched my holes so instead of throwing them away, I made flowers.

I love how they turned out and will for sure be making these again.  Here's some quick instructions on how I made them.

How to make a paper bag flower:

1.  Cut open your paper bags, paint them and then dry.  I used craft pain and some home made sprays.  I used metallic paint on one and some glitter paint on another.  I also left part of the paper bag as is and didn't paint every single part of the bag.  I like the craft paper look.

*You can use lunch bags or grocery store bags.  These are lunch bags. The grocery store bags will be thicker.  You will have to spray a little more water on them when scrunching them up.

2.  Cut 5 different size circles. I used decorative edge scissors. 

3.  Spray them with water, scrunch them up and dry.

4.  I then used hot glue to glue all 5 layers together.  I glued the first layer onto a 1 inch circle as a base.  I glued them really quickly and used a fair amount of hot glue.  When all 5 pieces were down, I pushed the center down and pinched it together.  This gives it more dimension.

*Be careful to not burn yourself.  You could use a pair of tweezers to do this. I just used my fingers. They are like leather from years of being burned with hot glue so it didn't matter to me.  :)

5.  If you want to add a center, go ahead and do that. I used glitter glue and some bling on a couple and on one I didn't. I just scrunched up the center more. 

I hope you like this project.  Let me know if you have made some paper bag flowers yourself or decide to give it a try. I'd love to see what you've made and post it. 

MiMi
 
 

Vintage Women Tag Swap

I had so much fun participating in this swap with some of the women in Artsy Addicts.  Here's the one I made for my swap partner.

I printed my vintage woman image on card stock and really distressed it up before attaching to the tag.  I added a dryer sheet flower I made and a few other embellishments.  There is quite a bit of glitter on the edges of the tag and on the flowers she is holding.  Some lace on the bottom and fibers on top to finish it off. 

Here's a couple of close ups:

My swap partner was Nancy Johnson.  Here is the beautiful package she sent me.
She made a bag to hold the two tags.  The tag on the right is an additional tag she made with a stamped image on it.  The main tag in the middle is made of heavy weight chipboad.  She has totally blinged it out.  It's simply beautiful. I loved it.


Fairy Tag Swap

I also participated in another tag swap with some of the women in Artsy Addicts.  This time we did a Fairy Tag.  Here's the one I made for my swap partner.
I made the tag out of glitter card stock.  I added some rose trim at the bottom. Isn't that stuff so pretty? I love it.  The border and the doily heart were painted with glitter paint.  The top has some lace trim.  I tied pink ribbons and attached a couple beads with a silver ring that I colored with alchohol inks to match.

The fairy is a stamp I had. I l colored it and glittered it up.  There are tulle wings attached to the back of the fairy and she is stuck down with pop dots.
I really like how this turned out and once again, I had tons of fun.  When I receive my fairy tag from my partner, I will post a picture.

I sure had a fun time with these swaps.  The women of Artsy Addicts are very
talented and inspire me.  I have a link in the right side bar if you are
interested in checking them out.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you I have inspired you.

MiMi
 
 
A quick share on some paper flowers I made for the front of a journal.  I love the metalic silver with purple.  The paper is tissue paper and old book pages. 

I sprayed and painted the papers and then used the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die to cut out the pieces.  From there, I simply layered with hot glue and used some bling and glitter glue in the middle for the flower center.
Hope you like them.  Do you make paper flowers?  I'd love to hear and see how you make them.  Please share! 

Let me know if you have any questions.  Till next time, happy crafting.

MiMi
 
 
About three weeks ago, I altered the cover of a sketch book.  In the post, I showed a fabric flower I altered to fit the feel of the book.  This is just a quick post to tell you how I did that.  It's really simple.

Here's the original flower:
I made the flower from fabric and burlap using the Tim Holtz tattered floral die.  I glued the layers together using hot glue. 

Changing the color:  The first thing I did was to get some walnut stain and drip, not spray it on the flower.  I love walnut stain!  I used alchohol ink to stain the blue flower bling in the center as it was way to bright.  I also used wine colored paint to color the burlap a little. 

Changing the shape:  I wanted it to not lay quite so flat so I used some liquid matte medium to paint on the pedals and then shapped them the way I wanted. I used my heat gun to set the shape.   You could probably use watered down matte Mod Podge too.

Making leaves: I also added some brown leaves I cut out of card stock using a sizzix die.  I first covered the card stock with used dryer sheets and spayed some color on it with my homemade sprays. 

*I will do a post on making flowers and leaves with used dryer sheets soon. I have been doing this for a long time and love it!  Good way to recycle too.

Here's the altered flower:
I just love it!  I'd love to see flowers you have made!  Be

What's next?

1.  365 for February
2.  flowers - I am getting ready to make some flowers from old clothes, tshirts, sweathsirts, jeans and pants.  Should be fun.
3. used dryer sheet flowers and leaves

MiMi

Don't forget to "Like" me on facebook and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. 
 
 
Yes I know it's the end of February and I am just now posting about my 2012 365 journal.  Life happens or in my case, 2 boys in wrestling happens.  My life has been consumed by wrestling practices, meets and tournaments and as a result I am one month behind.

In 2012, I committed to myself that I would keep a year long journal.  I really want to try all different kinds of journalling this year so mine will be somewhat different each month.  For January, I did a typical 365 which is where you take a picture a day and journal about it.  I did pretty good with only a couple missed days. 

The cover:

I decided to keep this simple and just put them in a binder with my journalling on 3 x 5 cards.  I decided to use this old 2 ring Franklin Planner binder my hubby brought home from work. 
I altered it and voila!  Here's the front cover.
And the spine...
And the back cover...
A couple weeks ago I posted a sketch book cover that I altered. I used my wood buring tool to burn the letters ART and put it on the cover.  This week, I used the word love to burn into wood and put it on the front cover of this binder. 
Isn't that super cute!  I love it. The set of words for the wood burning tool comes with several words to choose from.  I really like making those.

January Journalling:

I made a tab for January using a Tim Holtz file folder tab on the edge die.  Love this die!  I used a Smash date stamp to stamp the date on the bottom of the tab.
I put the date on the top of the 3 x 5 cards for the month and then just pulled them out and journalled every day.  Does anyone believe me?  You shouldn't.  I didn't do this every day. I scribbled notes on a sticky note and then did all the cards at the end of the month.
But I did take a picture darn near every day. 
Here's what your mess looks like when you have proctrastinated almost to a point of no return.
See the hearts?  Guess what that's for.  Yup, Febuary. 

My Goals:

1.  Keep it simple so you don't fail and give up.
2.  Write every day.  This is not a published novel, so just write to create the habit even if you don't have much to say  (as in the example above:  "So sick!  Head cold."  I meant what kind of journalling is that anyways?
3.  Explore new kinds of journalling.

So I did achieve my goals for the most part.  I have always journalled but not daily so this is new to me and I am happy with my success. 

Now on to February and a couple tutorials I promised on hot glue embellishments and flowers. 


MiMi

Dont' forget to follow me on Pinterest and LIKE my facebook page.  Links
are in the side bar.  Please feel free to ask any questions and show me what you
are creating.


 
 
Ta Dah!  Do you love it or what?  I totally love this and had the best time making
it.  I know, I know, I gotta stop saying how much I love the stuff I post but I
do love it.  I guess that's a good thing right?

This was the first time I just started a project with no inspiration or direction and I just totally winged it.  I usually have some general direction even if it changes a bit throughout the project. 

I simply started with painting the background in earth tons that were originally going to be my color palette...cream, brown, white, gray. 

And then bham!  Color happened and I love it. 

I used a lot of texture stamps and scraps of things I have already made.

My intention is to use this art journal for me to explore different techniques and continue to develop my mixed media skills.  Hopefully a fun cover will inspire me to use it more and more.

Do you have a fun art journal cover you have altered?  Please share. I'd love to see it.

MiMi

ps The best part about making this project..my boys loved it! 
 
 
Quick post to show you a journal I finished making this week.  
Isn't it cute?  Perfect for a teenage girl. I just love polka dots! 

Here's a couple close ups.
Homemade flowers...
Love me some butterflies...
and crackle finish!
Hope you like it!

MiMi
 
 
Picture
Alter a sketch book?  No problem.  Give it an "organic" feel?  Problem.  I know
what organic means and how it applies to food and even decorating and fashion
maybe...but art? Hummm, I wasn't sure how this was going to play out but I was
up for the challenge and by the time I finished, I was thinking my style might
even be a tad organic.  That is of course if you think this sketch book actually has an organic feel.  I'm still not sure of that but I am  sure I love it and had a ton of fun doing it! 

Okay so how did I get from no clue to the finished product?  It wasn't easy.

Getting my inspiration:

The person who asked me to make them the sketch book emailed me a picture that kinda indicated the organic feel she was going for.  Helpful but I still was stumped. So, what do you do when you are stumped? Google! 

First Google search:  organic
Second Google search:  organic style
Third Google search: organic art
Ahhhhh! Really?  At this point I thought I needed a paper bag to breathe into so I went back to basics...color and my supply of homemade embellishments.
I pulled out a couple shades of brown and blue paint and some fabric flowers I made using the Tim Holtz tattered florals die.

TIP: I tend to make lots of flowers in a sitting and keep them in my supply and then pull them out when needed.  I make different kinds, sizes and colors.  I find that this helps me to be more productive when I am making a project.

The process part 1 - the background:

Picture
This sketch book comes bound so the first thing I did was to take the cover off and give it a good coat of gesso.  The cover was originally green so once it was dry, I gave it a second lighter coat to make sure it was totally covered.

Using a damp brush, I painted a light brown color in a streeking pattern with no intention of total coverage. 

I then used a dry brush with a thin coat of the dark brown over the top. I made it a little darker around the edges.  

Using black Archival Ink, I stamped in a couple spots with  a  script stamp.

The next part is the canvas...I glued it down unpainted using Elmers craft spray adhesive.  This stuff is very sticky.  Protect your area when spraying it.  I frayed the edges before gluing and didn't glue the frays down.

I used both the blue colors I picked out and a dry brush to paint the canvas.  I intentionally got some off the edges of the canvas onto the background.
Picture

After the paint on the canvas was dry, I added some of my homemade sprays using Dazzling Metalics Rich Espresso paint.  I held my finger of the nozzle when I sprayed it so it would not come out in a fine mist but rather leave larger drip marks.


I also decided I was going to use an additional color besides the four I picked
in the beginning for inspiration. I picked wine and used my finger to make some
hightlights around the edges.
At this point, I was kinda figuring that the "organic" feel I was supposed to be going for was blown.  I had this nice, neat, clean lines, just right image in my mind of organic and thus far this sketch book is nothing like that.  This is more like messy, sloppy, spotty, blotchy.  Oh well, I love it so on to the flowers.

The process part 2 - flowers:

I thought that when I was done with the background, I would just attach the flowers I'd picked out in the beginning and move on.  One problem....

This flower on this sketch book was not going to work.  I suppose if I had that nice, neat, clean lined background it would have worked out great. But I don't sooooo.... 
 I altered the flower to match the feel of the book. 

Here's what I came up with....
Ahhhhhh,  LOOOOOOOOVE it!!!!!!
Picture
I altered the smaller flower as well and attached it along side an embellishment I made with hot glue, a rubber stamp and some acrylic paint.

I will do tutorials on the flowers and the hot glue embellishments in a seperate post. 

The process part 3 - the title:

Picture

The last step was to put the word "Art"  on the cover.

I decided to go with wood.  I used Woodsies, small thin pieces of balsa wood.  They come in large packages and are really inexpensive. There are squares, circles, rectangles, mixed shapes and letters. 

These are really neat to use. You can cut them with an exacto knife or a die, stain them, paint them, stamp on them... really fun.

I thought the wood felt organic and would help with the theme of the book.

I sprayed the pieces with Walnut Ink.  I love this stuff.  I know a lot of people own all kinds of sprays and mists.  There must be a dozen on the market or more. I don't own any of those commercial spays, never have. I make all my own with one exception - Walnut Ink. It's one of my favorite supplies.  It's not cheap but it goes a long way.  The color is very intense. I mix it with water to dilute the color. 

After my wood pieces were dry, I used my wood burning tool to spell out ART.  I took some of that same wine color paint that I used on the the edge of the cover, to lightly smear on the top of the letters to tie it into the background and flowers.
 
I really like how the letters turned out. 
Besides the letters, there are number sets, symbols and word sets that can be used with the wood  burner.  They words fit perfectly on the smaller pieces of rectangle Woodsies.  They are inspirational words like love, inspire, believe etc.  If you don't have wood burning tool, ask your husband. He might have one in his workshop. It's really easy and fun.  You can also burn leather. 

The finished product:

I used my Cinch to rebind the cover back onto the sketchbook. 

So what do you think?  Did I get organic or ummmm, not so much?  Either way, I had a ton of fun doing this and the recipient loved it so, mission accomplished. 

What's next?

1. butterfly notes journal
2. hot glue embellishment tutorial
3. flowers - probably a couple posts on flowers, how I make them and how I altered the flower in this post.
4.  365 for January
5.  February's journal - not a 365 but it will work.
6. altered art journal cover

Until next time, thanks for stopping by and please feel free to leave a comment.  I'd love to hear what you think!