Saturday, November 23, 2013

Festive Fall Wreath




Festive Fall Wreath

I created this fun festive fall wreath for Alpha Stamps.  I absolutely love the tufted owls, I am especially thrilled about how the sunflower buttons made perfect little owl eyes (I was literally squealing like a demented school girl when I saw how cute they turned out).  They are so adorable.  This project took many 180 turns and did not come out like I had originally planned. One thing I learned doing this project was to let go of the preconceived ideas I had and just let the process flow without those preconceived notions cluttering up my brain.  If I hadn’t done that the owls would never have come into being.
I covered 10 maple leaves with the double dot vintage chiffon scrapbook paper and 11 oak leaves with the double dot vintage decaf scrapbook paper.  I then edged them all with vintage photo distress ink using an ink blending tool.  I choose the neutral colors for the leaves so that the fun embellishments would stand out.
I then layed out the maple leaves in circle (but if you look closely the wreath has a bit on oval shape to it) and hot glued them together.  When making a wreath you want to lay all your leaves going in the same direction.  If you make a mistake and don’t get a leaf in the correct position you can heat the glue back up with a heat gun and move the leaf into the position you want.  I then used a length of the burlap ribbon that came in the fall fiber set and loosely wrapped it around the wreath at an angle.  I secured it to the back using hot glue.  
       
I then used 8 oak leaves and glued them to center of the wreath with a hot glue gun.  Again making sure they all were laying in the same direction.

I next cut two strips of the Double Dot Vintage Papers in Vintage Chocolate, Burnt Orange, Gingerbread, Maize, and Orange Citrus 2.5 inches wide by 12 inches long.  I also cut 1 strip 2.5 inches wide by 6 inches long from each of the Autumn Song papers.  I then ran all these strips of paper through the Vagabond machine using the Autumn Gatherings Decorative Strip Die (be sure to use the correct setup for the die cutting machine you are using).  I used an extended spacer platform and a pair of the decorative strips cutting pads.
I would recommend running one layer of paper through at a time as I found that the strip wouldn’t cut entirely through two layers of the paper (even though the photo shows two).  As I cut the strips of paper I kept the shapes sorted by shape and size.  This came in very handy as I was building the little leaf perches and swag.
To make the owls I traced the owl shape on the scraps of Vintage Chocolate, Gingerbread, and Maize Scrapbook Paper that remained.  I rounded the bottom of the owl by using a stack of pan pastels (I found this to be easier than trying to cut around the intricate little owl wings on the chipboard shape that would just be covered by the perches.  I glued three of the larger birch leaf shapes from the stacks of leaves cut from the Autumn Gatherings Decorative Strip Die to make the tail feathers.  I then glued two matching small feathers from the Assorted Feathers to make tufted owl feathers on the heads.  I then glued the owl shapes cut from the Double Dot papers and made eyes by cutting off the shanks from two sunflower buttons and glued those on to the owls.  I then glued two larger feathers on the owl to make fun little feathered wings.  I set these aside to dry I as assembled the little leaf and twig perches for the owls.


I next made three little perches for the owls using the shapes I cut from the Autumn Gatherings Decorative Strip Die.  I started with two to three twigs as my base glued end to end and worked from the outside in gluing down leaf shapes starting with the largest leaves first.  I layered more twigs and smaller leaves as I worked my way towards the center.   I let the glue dry and then glued one to each owl.  I then cut the shank off an acorn button and glued that to the center of the perch.

I knew the wreath need a bit more pizzaz.  I cannot make a nice pretty bow out of ribbon, it’s just not in my arsenal of abilities so I decided to make this large piece for the bottom center of the wreath where a bow would normally go.  I started by making a fan from the three remaining oak leaves (which is mostly covered up but you can kind of see it peeking out from behind).  I then tucked some of the embossed leaves in and around the oak leaves.  I then made a larger leaf swag using the same steps as before to cover the entire length of the oak leaf fan .  I glued the swag to the oak leaf fan, picked this fun lady from the Falling Leaves Collage Sheet glued her in the center and then glued fan to the wreath using hot glue.

I then glued the owls in the 12, 3, and 9 o’clock positions on the wreath.  I punched two holes in the top of the wreath on either side of the center owl and tied some of the fun colored raffia from the fall fiber set and dabbed a little glue on the knots to secure them.






Alpha Stamps Supplies Used:




Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Gargoyles!

Today I'm sharing this fun 3D Gargoyle project I created for Alpha Stamps.  I started by taking two of the Gargoyle Front View Die-Cut Chipboard shapes and cut a slit in the top of one and the bottom of another.  Since I am not the best at measuring and such, I made copies of the gargoyle shape so I could have some practice pieces for making my slits as I didn't want to ruin the good chipboard ones.  I covered both sides of the chipboard gargoyle with background paper.  As I learned the hard way....cover your shapes with your background paper first and then cut the slits (I also tend to do things backwards).  I then used a blending tool and colored the edges with black soot distress ink.

Here's a side view showing how the two shapes are stacked together.
I took some of the black fibers from the Noxious Fumes Fiber set and wrapped it around the wire on the crow to hide the silver colored wire.  I then cut a small slit in the head of one of the gargoyles with an x-acto knife and glued the wire into it.  I really love how the crow is hovering over and observing everything.  (Or is he really there whispering naughty ideas to the gargoyles).

And here's a view of the backside gargoyle
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The great thing about this project is it creates four little niches that you can add all kinds of fun things to.  As you can see I still have a bit of work to do, so I'll be sharing a little bit more with you in the next week or so.

Alpha Stamps Products Used:
Gargoyle Front View Die-Cut Chipboard
Gargoyle Faces Collage Sheet
Paris Post Collage Sheet
Cemetery Collage Sheet
Dead Tree Cut-Outs
Bat Cut-Outs
Spider and Web Chipboard Cut-Outs
Haunted Night Scrapbook Paper-Alpha Stamps is sold out now, but a great alternative is the Happy Haunting-Full Moon Scrapbook Paper
Noxious Fumes Fiber Set
Small Feathered Crows
Tiny Skull Charms Pewter & Gold
White Turquoise Skull Beads
Christmas Red Stickles
Cat Eyes - 5mm Yellow
Flying Owl Buttons


Saturday, August 24, 2013

Colorful Peacock ATC

I created this colorful Peacock ATC for Alpha Stamps.  I started with the House Shaped Die-Cut Chipboard which I colored with Spiced Marmalade Distress Paint.  I then used a swirl stamp and stamped with Picked Raspberry Distress Paint and Tarnished Brass Distress Stain.  I then added a Valance Curtain Die-Cut Chipboard that I covered with the peacock fan from Midnight at the Oasis Collage Sheet created by the very talented Lara Carson for Alpha Stamps.  Since the image was not quite large enough to over the whole shape I used some fun sparkly stickers to cover up the bare spots.  I then fussy cut the peacock image from the Peacocks Collage Sheet.  The background image is from the Wood Theatre Frame Collage Sheet and the fun palm fronds in the urn came from the Aladdin Collage Sheet.  To balance out the ATC I added a real peacock feather and some paper flowers that I colored using mini spritzers that I made using peacock feathers and spiced marmalade re-inkers.  I then spritzed Perfect Pearls Mist in Perfect Pearl to give the flowers some shimmer.

Alpha Stamps Products used:

The swirl Stamp came from the Tiny Textures stamps from the Tim Holtz Collection (CMS042).


 

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Mermaid Banner


I admit I'm horrible blogger.  I apologize for not updating my blog for many, many, many months.  Unfortunately the first thing to go to the wayside when life reared it's challenging head was my blog.  I  had to take wee little break earlier this year while my dad was dealing with a serious illness.  Thankfully the Doctors finally figured out what was ailing him (after two hospitalizations) and he is doing much better now.  So thank you for sticking around and finally a new project to share with you.  I created this fun Mermaid Banner for Alpha Stamps using the new fabulous Die-cut Chipboard Scallop Shell, Sand Castle, and Mermaid Tail.





 To create the background for the mermaid tail and sand castle I ripped some of the Fresh Mini Paper Set into strips and sewed them together using a zigzag stitch setting.  This is the first time I've ever used a sewing machine and it was easier than I thought it would be, of course mom helped a lot! 
I have to admit my favorite part of the entire project was the little garden I created using  Colorful Flower Sequins and the Seashell Sequin Mix.

Alpha Stamps Products Used: