Trash to Treasure and 12 Tags of 2013 - April!

Me again - two posts in one day!!!  I uploaded another video in my series of 12 Tags of 2013 and I have caught up with my April Tag.  I did have to wait to do this one as it was the perfect excuse to try out some of the new Distress Paint!!!!  Any excuse to shop right?!  So following Tim Holtz technique tutorial for my background and using his fab Dragon fly tag as my inspiration this is where I ended up.....

You can see the foiling I was telling you about earlier popped up again on this tag!  I really liked the Distress Paints.  I do use acrylic paint and I really liked the versatility of this product.  Easy to apply direct from the bottle, great coverage but doesn't overload the paper and dries with a smooth finish which is great for stamping over.  Needless to say I will be adding to the 4 bottles I purchased to try out this faux patina technique. Ha ha!

Here is the link to the video I made of how I got from A - Tim's Inspiration April Tag to B - my finished April Tag.

It's looking a bit messy on my desk there but this shot is nothing compared to the state of my desk when I had finished playing with my new Distress Paints!!  Steel yourself.......

See how I push everything out to the sides so I can keep my video frame looking all neat and tidy ish!!!!

The reason I am posting this as a Trash to Treasure Post as well as 12 Tags of 2013 is because I did actually use my plastic wrap to make the little bubbles to capture my bugs under.

I know it is a bit naughty to keep bugs in a jar but this is ok right?!!!  I am a bit late doing this but I promised to send a card to someone that commented on my Last Trash to Treasure Post and the winner is.........The lovely Mo!  I hope you read this Mo.  I will get that card off to you soon with a little surprise for you too.  Better Late than Never ;-)

I am off to finish off one of the tutorials for my Etsy shop.  I have two projects almost done and I keep way laying myself.....Focus Helen.....Focus!

Thank you for popping by X

Trash to Treasure - No 4 (a smidgin' late!)

I wanted to post another video so this is a little later than I wanted it to be.  Today's Trash to Treasure post uses up some things I know you are going to have.  That last little bit of ribbon off the roll that is just too pretty to throw away!  What do you do with it?  I put it all in a tin because it might be useful....one day!  Today is that day and I am emptying out my ribbon scrap tin to see what I have.

And this is what I made.  I can lay claim to using another potentially trash item as these cards were both made with scraps of card and paper out of my (bursting at the seams) scrap box.

These cards are easy to make and can help you use up all those bits you have been saving!  Most crafters I know have a bit of a hoarder habit!!!!  So I think your going to like these.  Fingers Crossed x

Here is a video how to......hope you enjoy it and give it a go yourself.

The winner of the Trash to Treasure No 3 card was..........

Mo!

Thanks again for the lovely feedback and I will be doing another draw for  one of these ribbon cards on the next Trash to Treasure post.  So if you want to win one of these cards then please leave me a comment here.  What do you do with your ribbon scraps?

I have delved into my ribbon scraps before so here are a couple of links from past posts you might like take a look at if you have lots of ribbon scraps squirrelled away.

Click here for a mini tutorial.

Click here for the post for this one - my first video tutorial - have I improved I wonder????

Thanks for popping by x

Trash to Treasure - No 3 Continued......

As I suspected it took a while to get this little tutorial edited, finalised and uploaded to You Tube!  So here is the card I made using the same techniques I used on the box in my last post.  I have repurposed some old jeans and used scrap paper to print my images on for the image transfer technique.

On Friday I taught my class how to make these cute flowers using white sheeting which we stamped with a background stamp using distress ink before gathering it up to make a frilly flower.

I love making these flowers as they are quick and easy and really pretty.  Just think of all those scraps you have lying around or before you put the old clothes out for recycling I am sure you could use hubbies old stripy shirts!!!  A nice way to preserve a child's pretty dress on a layout too.

And here is the video tutorial of how I made the top card on this post which features 'a how' to for the image transfer technique and how to make the denim flower. Hope you like the video tutorial and try out the techniques for yourself.

The top card is the card I am giving away on my next Trash to Treasure post in 2 weeks time.  All you have to do is leave me a comment either here or on my previous post to be in with a chance of winning.

Thank you for popping by X

Trash to Treasure - No 3

I really wanted to start this post by thanking everyone that has left me such lovely comments over the past week.  You have really confirmed to me how much I love to craft and how wonderful this blogging malarky is.  Who knew a year ago when I started blogging how addictive it was and that is really down to you, all my fellow crafters out there in what I think of as a virtual community.  Everyone has been so willing to help when I didn't know how to do so many things but best of all is the sharing.  I know it might sound a bit soppy but I think you will agree with me there is such a generous sharing of ideas and knowledge, sharing of art and inspiration and a willingness to encourage and support out there and that spurs me on to try harder to make beautiful things.  I might not always manage it but I really enjoy the trying!  Thank you to everyone that has liked what I have been doing here on my blog enough to follow me.  I still check out my statistic page and colour in my map each time a visitor from a new country pops up.  How cool it is to have coloured in 68 countries to date.  I have been brushing up on my Geography and thank goodness for the internet or I would still be searching the atlas for the whereabouts of Kazakhstan.......ok ....... and lots of other countries I only vaguely knew where to look for!!!  I have just spotted Moldova on my list of visitors and I will have to look that one up too!!!  I still need a visitor or two from Alaska though as that is a major colouring job!!! ;-)

Now as I suspected when I decided to do a regular Trash to Treasure post it is going to be two weekly!!!  So without further ado my trash this week was old jeans and this is what I did with them.

The jeans have been torn into strips, frayed and fashioned into flowers and ribbons!  As I wondered how to use the flowers I had a huge pile of very large flowers that were in need of a storage solution sitting on my desk and I had this box (actually it was a set of 3 nested boxes I bought some time ago) and decided to make a pretty home for my pretty flowers kindly gifted to me by my friend Barbara.

I white washed my wooden box with acrylic paint liberally thinned with water.  Just to make sure that the wood colour was toned down a bit as I wanted to try out an image transfer technique on a 3D object rather than the flat ones I have done this on before.  That is when the Trash to Treasure ethos popped in to my head and I decided to print my images on to unused instruction sheets that I have left over from previous classes I have taught.

So I found a lovely blue and white Toile image on the internet and I  printed out several sheets (ink jet printer) on my recycled instructions!!

Then working on a side at a time I trimmed pieces of my toile print roughly to size and then you need to work fairly quickly for step one of this technique.  Liberally coat the piece with acrylic paint - I am using white as my print has a white background.  Work quickly and evenly coat the side with a thick coat of paint.

 Next press the printed image onto the side into the wet paint.  Have a piece of kitchen roll handy for mop up of excess paint and an old plastic card (gift card or similar) to gently at first press the paper over the piece and then being careful not to tear the paper smooth it out and against the side making sure you have good adhesion.  Then it is time to have a coffee and let it all dry.  You can use a heat gun if you want to speed up this process.

 When it is totally dry it is time to wet it again!!!!!  I use a paint brush to coat the back of the paper with water and leave it a minute or two to soak into the paper.  Then use your finger to rub the paper and gradually remove the top layer of paper to reveal the image below.  If you have not done this before then be careful.  If you rub too hard you will remove the image entirely.  Gently does it.  There will be bits that don't work but don't worry as this adds to the shabby chic look and the over all charm of the image transfer.  There was a slight problem using the recycled paper in that the black ink did start to bleed.  I manage to avert disaster by rubbing away from the revealed print so as not to transfer the ink back on to the transferred image.

Let your image dry out again and then take a piece of kitchen towel and gently buff off any large stray bits of paper peelings.  Then carry on working to cover the entire box.  This technique is messy but I think it is worth it.

Here is the outside finished.

And then I used more of the printed paper cut to size and glued into position to cover the inside of the box as you can see here.  

I inked all my edges with Chipped Sapphire Distress ink.

Including the inside edges  and then gently sanded the whole piece to shabby it up some more.

And here is my finished Trash to Treasure piece with its recycled denim embellishments.

and here it is filled with pretty flowers - perfect!  Gotta love a bit of gorgeous storage!!! (I am soooooo modest!!!! ;-))  I love this image transfer technique.

I am in the middle of making a video of this technique and using it on the card I am going to give away this on my next Trash to Treasure post.  I wanted to get this post up first as it is a bit long and I will post the card with video later today or early tomorrow dependent on You Tube upload times.  So if you want to win the as yet unseen card then please comment on this post.  Have you tried this technique?  It is a bit messy to do but I think it gives a lovely result and I hope you like it too.

I have done the draw for the Trash to Treasure No 2 card and the winner is.........

Eliza!!!!

Thank you Eliza and to everyone that took the time to comment I really do appreciate it.

That's it for this post.  Pop back later to see the card you could win if you leave a comment on this post.
Hope you enjoyed this Trash to Treasure project and try it out for yourself.

Thanks for popping by x

Trash to Treasure - Two Weekly!

I thought it might and I proved myself right!!!!!!  I will be making the Trash to Treasure post every fortnight rather than weekly.  It gives me a little more thinking and creating time.  I have a card class to prep for on Friday so things have gotten a bit hectic this week......Oh and Callum has broken another bone!  It is his little toe this time....I thought Gymnastics was supposed to keep you fit!  He is ok and is quite happy to be on crutches for a few days!!!  I think he will be bored with them soon enough.

I am sharing a card design with you today and it is definitely in the Trash to Treasure genre!  It is one of the cards I will be teaching to my class on Friday.  I love embossing heavy acetate packaging and I really don't know why I haven't tried it before.  I love how it looks in this apperture.

Luckily for me I have a couple of students who kindly keep me in Spellbinders packaging!  (Mentioning no names!)

I will do the draw for the card giveaway from last weeks post when I do my Trash to Treasure post next Monday but thank you to everyone that kindly commented.

I will be finishing off the packs for my second card for my class tomorrow and I am working on the pattern for my Pyramid Mini - Part One of the video tutorial is in the can so those film types say I believe!! - I had such fab feedback on my last post that I could wait to get started on it ;-)  Thank you again to everyone for your kind words.

See you again soon x

Trash to Treasure - Card Tutorial

Graphic 45 and Acetate Packing makes a fab shaker card!

As promised yesterday here is how to turn your acetate blister packaging (and I know you have some!!) into great shaker cards!

I started with a square card base and I measured my packaging and cut and aperture in my card so the packaging could pop in.  This acetate blister pack was one that is attached to a piece of card so it comes ready made with a lip to attach it to the inside of the card.  All I had to do was go around the edge with a black permanent marker as it was previously attached to a white card and a little of that showed when the packaging was inserted into the aperture.

 Next up I rummaged through my Graphic 45 scraps - perfect for cards - and came up with this arrangement.

On the bottom of the card front I secured the tartan paper over the aperture with DST.   Make sure you put DS tape around the aperture to hold the paper in place.

Then turn the card over and cut out the aperture once more - easy peasy!

I then attached the rest of the papers to the card front and added the word 'MANY' which was cut using my Cricut Opposites Attract cartridges.

Next I attached the acetate packaging in place with DST and then made lots of little card strips with the word 'Thanks' in various languages and fonts that I hand wrote on them.

Then I added some tiny glass beads to the shaker and attached another piece of black card over what is the inside of the card.  Make sure you tape around all the edges of the card piece and the aperture or your shaker bits will fall out!!!  Also remember to cut the backing card a tiny bit smaller than the card base so it doesn't show from the front of the card and doesn't interfere with the fold line.

....And finally.......Like the plaque I made on my 2nd Trash to Treasure post I made a daisy from a piece of red tartan and embossed acetate which were die cut with my Tim Holtz Tattered Floral die which were shaped and then had a yummy black dazzler (Creative Expressions) attached to the centre.  The whole flower was attached to the card front to finish of this alternative shaker card!  If you like this card and you follow this link to the Trash to Treasure post and leave me a comment there you could win it in next weeks draw.

Thank you for popping by x

WOYWW 191 - Intentions

My desk is full of intentions today!

It is my intention to post a tutorial today for the first card on my desk which I made in my second Trash to Treasure post yesterday.  I used the acetate packing of some Basic Grey magnets to make the fun shaker part of this card.  It is also my intention to give it away to someone that comments on my Trash to Treasure post.  Pop along if you'd like to be entered into the draw and to find out what else I made.

Next along my desk is another card that now belongs to Elizabeth aka silver scrapper (my first Trash to Treasure giveaway winner) and it is my intention to pop it in the post today so it will soon be winging its way to bonny Scotland.

The box you see at the end is something I intend to use for my third Trash to Treasure post - I have an idea I am mulling over!  It involves an old pair of jeans!!

As those of you whose eyes aren't as bleary as mine will notice I skipped this as I thought it would make a cheery shot on this dull morning.  It is my intention to have a play with some more of this lovely paper and embellishments called Seraphina.  Here are two cute cards that I have made with it already.  I am loving the little wooden embellishments.

Oh and last but not least it is my intention to empty that bin!!!!

All my intentions of  course depend upon whether or not I can drag myself away from visiting with the gang at WOYWW!!!  If you have no idea what that is then please follow this link!  But be warned you may not achieve all that you intend to today once you start hopping!!!!

Thanks for popping by x

Trash to Treasure No 2

I was really excited to get going with this Trash to Treasure project once I had decided what to use as trash.  I have to say that this trash is not my own but belongs to someone in my class who kindly gave me a rather large bag full of this trash.  I am not going to mention any names on the grounds that it will definitely incriminate!!!!!  It was a bag full of empty Spellbinders acetate containers..... you can see why my lips are sealed ;-)

 As you can see the Spellbinder dies have been very carefully removed from the tops of their packaging.  I normally use these as paint pallets in my classes but today I am going to try to turn them into treasure.  I used 2 packages for this project.

I also used my carefully stored G45 scraps in fact I used the back of one of the paper pads for the harlequin card below.  I am feeling very virtuous right now!

I cut the hanger from the packaging and cut a piece of the harlequin card to the same size.  I then used one of the very first tools I bought to put holes in things and punched holes all the way around the sealed edge of the packing.  I am going to stitch my card to my acetate with the holes.  I used brads to keep things in place as I bashed away with my hammer.

Next I removed the lip from the second Spellbinder packaging (be careful as it is a bit sharp).  That gave me two lovely thick pieces of acetate which I put through my cuttlebug and embossed.

I have always wanted to try this and was so pleased with the results I had a play with some different textures.  The heavier the pattern the more white the acetate becomes.  It is very pleasing and I am definitely going to be doing this more often!

I then use my Tim Holtz Tattered Floral die to cut the embossed acetate into flower shapes.  I also cut some flowers from coordinating G45 papers.

After mixing and matching for a while I decided on the daisies and shaped the card and the acetate petals before hot glueing the layers together.  I had the perfect flower centres in my stash.  I love these Creative Expressions Dazzlers as they look like liquorice all sort sweets!!  I have to add here I don't like to eat liquorice all sorts but I have always liked the look of the pink and blue ones!!!

 Next I cut a panel for the centre of my plaque and mounted it on a blue patterned paper leaving a fine border showing.  I fussy cut out two coordinating butterflies from one of the G45 papers too.  Not too fussy with the cutting as I snipped off their antenna - poor butterflies :-(

 I blinged my butterflies with tiny gems and stickles and then let them dry before I coated them with glossy accents.  I cut out the first two words of my quote using the Opposites Attract Cricut Cartridge and layered them up ready to glue to the centre panel once I decide on positioning.

I adhered the centre panel in the middle of the harlequin paper and glued on the words TRUE BEAUTY.  I made some fine wire antenna for my butterflies and glued one under the word TRUE.

Then I was ready to take a fine ribbon and stitch the harlequin card to the acetate packaging.  I think I might try to make a giant shaker panel with this packaging - that would be fun.  I used a blanket stitch (at least that is what I think it is called).

I made a further small plaque with the rest of the wording of the quote which I hand wrote and attached in position with strong tape.  Then I hot glued my acetate and paper flowers in place and added my second butterfly.

I was really pleased with these acetate flowers and would like to try them without the paper layer in the future.  Sorry about the differences in the colour of the photographs - the final result was pictured in daylight!  I think using flower and butterfly embellishments for this quote is perfect as both flowers and butterflies spend their time as buds and caterpillars before revealing their inner beauty.

Thank you so much to everyone that commented on my first ever Trash to Treasure post last week.  As promised I put all the names into a hat and Elizabeth is the winner of my card made from cracker debris!

I had another idea when I was working on this Trash to Treasure post and I used the same kind of shaped acetate packaging - this time from some Basic Grey magnets and I came up with this alternative shaker card.

I will share the photo tutorial for this one tomorrow.  This is my give-away for this week's Trash to Treasure so please leave a comment on this post and I will put everyones' name in a hat again next week.  I'd love to know what your favourite trash to treasure projects are.

I am pretty sure I can do more with this acetate packaging so watch this space!!!

Trash to Treasure

Another lovely snowy day today as you can see.  I know it is just a sprinkle compared to some places in the country/world but doesn't it look pretty?!

As you may or may not know I have been doing a spot of tidying in my craft room and keep coming upon things to inspire me.  How many of you have a pile of this I wonder.....cracker debris!  In order to get it off my desk I decided to do something with it.  Turn my Trash to Treasure (fingers crossed!).  I am going to make this a regular feature.  A kind of challenge to myself.  I know you all do the same as me.  Keep bits of this and that you think will be useful and then just store it!  I figured if I have a regular Trash to Treasure post I will at least make a small dent in my squirrelled stores ;-)

So without further ado.  Here is my pile of cracker debris that my Mum and Mother in Law patiently unfurled as I got on with dishing up the Christmas Turkey.  Thanks Mums!!!x

I started with a card base from Craftwork cards that has a fancy embossed edge.

Then I used some of the lovely silver glitter cracker card for the front of the card and I put a strip on the inside edge to highlight the shape of the card front.

No border punches or stamping and embossing required as a cut a strip off the fancy edge of the cracker.

The fancy border strip was a slightly different shade of white as you can see so I added another strip of the silver glitter to make this difference in shades less obvious.

I was definitely going with the bling theme so I made a fancy buckle from one of the yummy Creative Expressions Fancy Pearl embellishments and surrounded them with the silver balls that I snipped from the wires that had previously attached them to their crackers.  As this was a fairly heavy embellishment I used my hot glue gun to attach it and then I went to town attaching diamond gems to the embossed spotty patten on the edge of my card blank.

At this point I had no real plan of which occasion this card was for and I could easily have gone the Christmas route but I decided to celebrate the bling and make this a card to send to the special person in your life that adds Sparkle to your day.

As I was making this I remembered doing a scrapbook layout that used cracker debris so I looked it out and here it is.....

Our family love to wander around Harrods in London and to see what we could buy if we ever won the lottery!!!  One year I spotted the most beautiful Crackers and just couldn't resist.  It was only right that I use the cracker debris to do this layout.  It is really touchy feely addition to help evoke the memories that this layout records.  The crackers were an expensive indulgence even at their sale price but you'll be pleased to know the cute teddy bears were on buy one get one free!  Sometimes you just gotta treat yourself ;-)

So that is the end of my first Trash to Treasure post and I hope it inspires you go seek out some of the bits and pieces you have tucked away and to make something fab with it.  Please leave me a link if you do and I will come and visit to see what treasure you have made from your trash.  As your lovely comments on my blog always make my day have extra sparkle I have decided that if I get any comments on this post I will do a draw and send someone my sparkly card so they can send it to that special person that make their day.