Fun & Easy Watercolor Butterfly Doily Craft!

Hello friends! The project I am sharing with you tonight will make a great party decoration and craft to make with your kids! And it is affordable using supplies from Papermart. Watch the video to see how it is done:

To make the butterfly I first sprayed the doilies with my homemade spray inks (you can see my homemade ink spray tutorial here🙂 then shaped the doilies into wings. I also used the spray inks to color white raffia ribbon and wrapped it around a marker so it  would be curly when dry. Then I glued glitter on wooden clothespins and let them dry.  The antenna was made from star garland. I clipped the wings, raffia ribbon and star garland antenna together and added googlie eyes and rhinestones and it was done! These can be made in bulk assembly-line style for a party decoration too. Have fun with this project and til next time happy crafting!

More Rainbow-y Goodness!

Howdy folks! It is really starting to feel like Spring! I can see the grass on the lawn now and I have to mop the floors every night…well, er… I SHOULD mop the floors every night due to the mud. Yay, before we know it it will be Spring!

I was in the mood to play with color. I had a box of clear crystal acrylic hearts from Papermart and I decided to color them with alcohol ink. It worked great! Here is a quick video to show you how:

Now, that method is est if you want to color a bunch of things at once but you can also color one of those crystals with a permanent marker after you adhere it to a card. That is quick and easy too. You can use this technique on any non-porous supply (metal, plastic, glass etc.) so buy bulk supplies in white and clear and alter them! It’s fun! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Happy Fat Tuesday: Let The Good Times Roll!

I live nowhere near the Big Easy but that doesn’t mean I can’t celebrate! I made this colorful Mardi Gras mask using inexpensive products from Papermart. I have done this project in classrooms, summer camps and even as a birthday party activity. It is easy and fun and you can’t make it look bad. I used feathers, rhinestones, gold ribbon, metallic markers, hot glue, a bamboo skewer and cardstock to make this quick project. The mask template can be found here.

You can change-up the colors and make photo props or decorations to hang on the wall, it is such fun. Watch the video to see how it’s done!

Remember, if you are doing this project with the kids you might want to use Thick & Tacky glue or glue dots instead of hot glue, let’s all be safe out there! {Don’t burn your hands off!} 😀

Thanks for stopping by and til next time let the good time roll, oh and happy crafting!

Video Tutorial: Iris Folding!

Look at me going all traditional! 😀  Today I am going to show you the “olde” technique of iris folding. It is perfect for Christmas cards especially if using metallic papers. I discovered that the metallic candy wrappers from Papermart are perfect for this as they are thin, shiny and cheap! BTW the glitter and rhinestones are from Papermart too and under a buck!

I have done this technique before with paper scraps but the result was always bulky so I would have to use foam tape at the edges of my card to even the thickness and then pay more postage to mail it but these foil wrappers are so thin a regular stamp will do! Check out the video and see how it is done:

Here are some of the iris folded cards I made. The heart was easy because it was equally wide and high and I just centered my window over the template. The tree on the right  is wonky because I had more green strips to fill in, you can see where it is jagged between the white and green, it should be a smooth cascade…

A tip I will share is to count out from the center of the iris so that you start with the same number of strips of each color. If you have 5 white, 5 gold and 7 green you simply lay down 2 strips of green before beginning the round. Make sense? I explained it in the video too but I think it is one of those things you just have to do. Here are the templates I showed you in the video. You can right-click and save them to your computer of left-click and they should take you to the Circle of Crafters website with lots of great iris folding ideas and tutorials!

Another idea is to try this with your scraps of scrapbooking and wrapping paper, you can even get crazy and mix and match for a quilted look! We are a bunch of crazy gals aren’t we! Woohoo! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

WOYWW: Cardboard Jewelry Video Tutorial!

Heidi-ho there neighbor! It is election night here in the states and I LOVE it! Before I decided to “chuck it all and become an artist” I was a broadcaster and I worked in a newsroom for a brief stint during an election, there is nothing like the excitement in a newsroom on election night, it is electrifying! Working in a newsroom, other than election night, wasn’t for me though, I was much better suited to be a wacky DJ…now I am married to one LOL!

Anyway…It is nearly Wednesday and time to check in with Julia at the Stamping Ground for What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday. I have been playing with my old Sizzix original dies, matboard scraps, stamps, ink, embossing powder and beautiful 91 cents a bag rhinestones from Papermart!

I made Wine glass ID charms, earrings, pins and necklaces and all for pennies a piece. My desk is covered with the supplies, I still have many yet to decorate:

I downloaded a Netflix app for my Kindle so I can watch TV whilst I glue, you can see it propped up on my shelf:

These cardboard creations are so much fun to make and wear and they will be great for gifts this holiday season. Here is a video showing you how I did it…oh and for all of you who said they missed my chit-chat on yesterdays silent video there is all kinds of jibber-jabber…All I can say is you asked for it 😀

Easy, right? Here are a few close up shots of the finished jewelry:

Thanks for stopping by and if you want to see some fabulous crafty spaces check out Julia’s blog. Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Clean & Simple Dragonfly Card

Edit 5/4/12: Hey, Annette over at About Art Accents/Art Neko gave me permission to offer my blog readers 10% off regular AND sale price items in her shop (and her prices are reasonable to begin with!) just use the coupon code: Lindsay10% in the PayPal customer comments box. Now, go on, check out their stamps, you won’t be sorry! Thanks Annette for letting me pass on the savings to may awesome blog readers!

I was puttering in my studio last weekend playing with some stencils and spray mist making a mess when I took my wet stencil and pressed it on a scrap of cardstock. I liked it so much I used it as a base of this card. All the stamps are by Art Neko/About Art Accents:

 

I like how the ATC frame has spots for rhinestones but unfortunately I did not have any oval ones so I made do with round ones.

TIP: Rhinestone are expensive, whenever you buy them get the clear ones and color them with a permanent marker like I did with an emerald-green one. that way you will not end up with a bag full of colors you will never use!

Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!