Guest Post

I am a guest over at Craft's and Coffee!

Sharon is having a Christmas in July week with plenty of Christmas crafts to get you thinking about creating some beautiful decor! 

I hope you come over and see what I have made with some BEAUTIFUL trim from Expo International and the STYROFOAM Brand Foam Cones.

Sneak Peek!

You will have to go see the finished product at Crafts and Coffee!

Heartfelt Journal

Welcome!

I am so glad you stopped by today, I think you will be too!

We have been waiting since January for this amazing Journal Die designed by Eileen Hull and they are finally shipping this month!

Everyone on the team has fallen in LOVE with this Journal Die and when I say fallen, I mean fallen HARD in LOVE! So many possibilities. Any style can be made, it is up to you!!!

This is one that I have created and I am so in LOVE with this Journal!

I am going to share some of the highlights of the design with you.

I like to gather lots of different embellishments and see what happens.

I knew I wanted this to have a vintage feel to it, so of course crackle paste is needed. 

I love stitching on paper and adding elements to paper. Many pages have stitching on them, zig zag and just straight stitches. I also added lace. 

I wanted more of the pink to come through so I colored over the top with a colored pencil.

I had to ink up the Journal to make it look old and dirty. I used another product by Eileen Hull. This is just one of the colors in the Color Box Blends Eileen has designs. These Blends carry 10x's the amount of ink that a ink pad has. It works great to give me the vintage look I want!

The cover is coming together. This dress form and paper is from 7 gypsies. It is a new line called Architextures.

I added my own pages into the journal. Although this journal is designed so that you can use Madori Travel Journals and add them. 

I love making wider pages so that they can be folded and give you extra room in your journal.

This is also another favorite of mine. I Stitch together file tab folders. Now you have 5 extra pages on one page. I add torn paper and vintage snaps. More crackle paste.

Here I just added a image and torn the page on the right side.

Another fold over page. There are also file folders included in this journal. You can do so many things to your journal, these are just a few of the elements of this journal.

Super close up of the cover. I hope you have enjoyed my journal and all the vintage goodness.

Supplies I used:

Journal Die-Sizzix by Eileen Hull
Papers- 7 Gypsies
Dress Form - 7 Gypsies-Achitextures
Crackle Paste-Deco Art Media
Ink-Blends By Eileen Hull
Miscellaneous embellishments

Stop by Eileen's blog all month to see what the other Design Team members have made!
You won't be sorry!

Beautiful Sculpted Clay Dress on Wood Canvas

Oh my goodness, has it really been so long since I have posted?

Time flies!

Well I am back and I have a fun project to share!

I have been playing with some of my Makin's Clay® and I have come up with a great piece that I am loving! I hope you do too!

This is a 5 X 7 wood canvas that I have covered with Makin's Clay and then I sculpted a dress on top.

Would you like to see how it is done?

What you need:

Makin's Clay®

Wood Canvas

Palette Knife

Deco Art Media Paint - Acrylic

• Colbalt Teal Hue
• Titan Buff
• Burnt Umber

Paint Brushes

Paper Towels

First thing I did was to Soften up some of my Makin's Clay by placing it into a plastic bas with some bottled water and let it sit overnight. I don't want it soupy, just softer then normal.

 I used a palette knife to add the clay onto the canvas.

I started to shape my dress using the knife and my hands. I smoothed the dress with water and a paintbrush.

I rolled out clay and cut a thin piece to make the ribbon and shaped it onto the dress.
I let it all dry.

Using DecoArt® Media Fluid Acrylics Cobalt Teal Hue and Acrylic Glazing Liquid I paint on and wipe off paint. I then too DecoArt® Titan Buff and added to areas to tone it down. Once I achieved the look I was wanting I set aside to dry. 

I could have stopped at this step and just sealed my piece and call it a day. It is beautiful just the way it is. However I took it on step further.

I added a mix of DecoArt® Burnt Umber and Glazing together and applied it over the top, working fast. I wipe it with a paper towel to achieve the look I desired.

I LOVE the way it turned out!

I hope you enjoyed my piece and hope you give it a try!

 Thanks for stopping by!

DIY Christmas Decorations With Makin's Clay®

Oh my goodness it has been hectic in my world! 

I have been away from my crafting and it was because my husband and I made a HUGE move!

We moved from Colorado back to Minnesota where our children live and I am so grateful to be HOME!

So now back to crafts and fun!

How would you like to make some beautiful decorations for hanging on the tree or wrapping on gifts. You could also use these as part of a Hostess gift!

Let's get started.

You will need:

Makin's Clay®-I used Natural...but you could use colored and skip the painting

Makin's Cutters Bulbs

Glue

Glass Glitter

Paint

1. Gather all materials

2. Roll Makin's Clay out to about a 1/4" thick and cut with bulb cutters (or any shape)

3. Use a toothpick to make a hole in bulbs and let dry overnight

 4. Paint or skip this step if you used color clay

5. Use watered down white glue and apply glue to bulb and sprinkle or dip into glitter glass

 6. Add a string of choice

 

 Add to your gift packages

Or onto your Christmas tree!

These are so beautiful shimmering in the light! 

You will love them!

Super easy and fun!

If you would like to see what else I made with the bulb cutters, I would love for you to visit HERE!

I think you will be AMAZED!

Hope you enjoyed this fun and simple project.