Deli Paper Washi Tape!

Here is another great use for deli paper! Homemade washi tape. Watch the video to see how I made it:

So grab your stamps, stencils (the star stencils I used were from Oriental Trading Co.), paint and imagination and make some unique tape today! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

DIY Hairsticks! Easy to make and fun to wear!

Hi friends! Today I will share a fun hair accessory that is inexpensive to make using supplies from Papermart!

Watch this video to see how to make and use them:

Supplies for the Organza Ribbon Flower Hairsticks:

• 2 3/4 organza ribbon in pink and 7/8″ wide in green
• scissors
• wire
• cute bead or button
• wire cutter and needle nose pliers
• skinny dowel
• pencil sharpener
• fine sandpaper, waved paper, awl and a small saw or cutting tool
• hot glue

Directions:

1. Prepare the hairsticks by cutting a small dowel into 6″ long sections. Sharpen one end with a pencil sharpener and sand smooth, buff with waxed paper.
2. Wrap 2 3/4″ wide organza ribbon around your hand 4 times and cut. Cut through the folds on each side of the ribbon so you have 8 squares of organza. Stack them up randomly so they do not line up and make a hole in the center with an awl or needle. Cut a 4″ piece of wire and slide a bead or button in the center and pull the wire to the back and securing with a small twist. Push the wire ends through the hole in the ribbon. Holding the flower by the wire make a few snips in the organza and gently heat the flower over a candle. Make sure you move the flower so all of the layers get curled.
3. Wrap the wire ends around the blunt end of the hairstick and the add a bit of glue and wrap a foot of 7/8″ wide green organza ribbon over the wire, tie the ends in a double knot to secure.

Directions for the Feather Hairsticks:

1. Prepare the hairsticks by cutting a small dowel into 6″ long sections. Sharpen one end with a pencil sharpener and sand smooth, buff with waxed paper.
2. Select feathers for hairsticks. I used a combination of turkey and guinea feathers from Papermart. Hot glue the ends of the feathers an inch from the blunt end of the dowel.
3. Place a thin bead of hot glue along the area where the feathers are glued to the stick then tightly wrap rat-tail cord around the base of the feathers until they reach the bare dowel. This gives the hairsticks a neat appearance and keeps the feathers secure.
4. Embellish with beads and rhinestones as desired.

I hope you enjoyed these projects and til next time happy crafting!

I’m asking the question this week! Is Scrapbooking dead?

Hi friends! I decided that on Wednesdays in the summer during the Ask a Crafter hiatus I would ruminate on my own craft questions.  This week I wonder: Is Scrapbooking dead? What do you think?

I posted this video on YouTube the other day and I was overwhelmed by the response! I have decided that I would film a series of back to basic scrapbooking videos. I need your help, what topics would you like me to cover? Photo printing options, basic supplies, multi-page layouts? Let me know. I want to present scrapbooking as a sustainable inexpensive hobby that can be done as simply or elaborately as you like. If you have any scrapbook questions or problems that you would like addressed please let me know. I want to cover as many bases as I can without being overwhelming. Do you think I can do it? I hope so! Thanks for sharing your input and til next time happy crafting!

Birch Tree Paintin’

Howdy friends! I just taught my first free drop in watercolor class at the library to a new group of students. It went great. I hope they come back to class next month as all of their paintings were beautiful…I wish I had a camera and took photos to share, but alas I was a scatterbrain today. I originally was going to paint a 9″x12″ painting of birch trees with them like this:

But decided that a smaller greeting card size would be more appropriate for beginners and I am glad because the class ended up going 1/2 an hour over!  I wanted to make sure they finished a project and they were all beautiful! I actually taught them the masking tape technique I posted earlier (see the technique here) but tonight I want to share how I painted the birch trees from the beach with no masking. Have a look:

That’s it for me tonight, I spent the evening with friends and I am ready to drop. Have a great night and til next time happy crafting!

Let’s Paint Beach Roses!

Tonight I have a quick tutorial for you on painting beach roses. I shared some that I painted at the beach in watercolor last week and I was requested by several for a tutorial so here it is, enjoy:)

Painting does not need to be difficult or complicated. Just play and have fun, it’s only a piece of paper after all. Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Let’s relax with a tall glass of lemonade and color!

Hi friends! I hope you had a good weekend. We were busy but it was fun, we spent the 4th with friends at their camp and yesterday we had a family cookout down the road. Today was beautiful weather-wise and we hung out at home, played outside and made silly putty with glue and borax. Gotta love science! I went down to my studio tonight to get a jump start on a couple framing jobs I had just got in and my daughters soon joined me and they decided to stamp out some house mouse stamps to color. I got a new pack of Mr. Sketchy markers (Yes, they still smell wonderful!) and they just had to use them! It was so funny, the first time each girl used the markers the first thing they did was color out a swatch chart and write the name of the smell under the color. My studio now smells like a fruit salad LOL! That reminds me that coloring is a great way to relax after a busy week. Today I’m going to show you how I colored the Lemonade Stand image from Impression Obsession using alcohol markers:

I was hoping to make the card on the video too but dang, this image took 20 minutes to color and I swear it only felt like 5 minutes. I hope you find the tips, tricks and techniques I share in this video is worth 20 minutes of your time.

Sometimes I will stamp out a bunch of images and keep them in a baggie with my markers and take them upstairs so I can color while I watch TV or visit with the family. It is still fun to color, no matter what your age, don’t you agree? Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

DIY Stencils with Hot Glue!

Hi friends! Today i am going to show you how to make beautiful custom stencils with hot glue, have a look at this quick video:

I love how they grip the paper and the ink does not seep under. All you need to make them in a hot glue gun, glue sticks and a silicone mat. I recommend using a high temp (or the high setting) glue gun because you will be melting a lot of glue. All you have to do is draw a design on the silicone mat with the glue, let it cool and your stencil is ready to use! How fun is that? I hope you try this tip for making stencils for pennies! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Happy 4th of July & Create with Freedom!

Hi friends! I want to wish all of my american readers a happy 4th of July!

And I am going to show you how to make this card:

The motorcycle stamp is from Local King Rubber Stamps. The “Happy birthday” is SU! (retired) and the Frame is Inque Boutique (retired) the stencils and dauber bottlers were from Oriental Trading Company.  It was rough going, there were a couple of times during  this tutorial that I thought I might have to toss it and start again but I persevered and I liked the outcome. The best part of have a project go downhill is that there is no where to go but up! You should keep at it because you can’t make it any worse, you have nothing to lose…Didn’t Janis Joplin say something like that? Are you curious how it went? Watch the video:

It is raining n Maine right now so no fireworks tonight. We are going to have a family movie night instead, we are going to watch The Parent Trap! In fact, I better go make popcorn! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Painted and Embellished Treasure Bags for Kids!{so fun!}

Hi friends! We are a couple weeks into school vacation, it won’t be long until we start to hear “Mom, I’m bored!” Well, we can fix their wagon with this fun project using affordable supplies from Papermart!

OK I have to say that my kids do not say “Mom, I’m bored” very often because the things I find for them to do involve cleaning (my Momma didn’t raise no fool!) BUT if I see them milling about aimlessly I might suggest they check out the supplies I left out on my craft table. This project is also great at using up odds and ends from other projects, all you really need are the cloth bags.

Supplies:

• Canvas bags
• Fabric paint or acrylic paint
• Small fabric paint brushes (optional)
• buttons and ribbon flowers
• Fabric Glue
• Cardboard
• A scrap of fabric for the pocket
• Glitter
• And any other embellishment you wish to add, be creative! You can also add gross-grain ribbon to the edge of the pocket or narrower ribbon as flower stems.

Directions:

1. Place a piece of waxed paper covered cardboard inside the bag before you begin to keep the glue or paint from seeping through.
2. Cut a rectangle of fabric for the back pocket and press back the edges to keep it from fraying (if desired) and glue to the back of the bag. Let dry.
3. Use fabric paint to draw stems and flowers on the front of the bag. You can sprinkle glitter on the wet paint for sparkle! Let dry.
4. Use fabric glue to attach buttons and ribbon flowers to the bag and make sure the glue dries before using.

I hope you enjoyed this project as much as my daughters and I did. Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!