Video Tutorial – Nickel and Dime Style Bling Rings
Hey guys! It’s been a LOOONG crazy summer! I know I’ve been MIA entirely too long. We have had so much going on around here and quite frankly, I decided to cut a few things out of my life for a little while and not stress about them. It’s been a nice vacation from the blog, but I think I am ready to get back into some crafty action again! We’re still in the process of remodeling our kitchen. We took a break from the finishing touches while we had family in and out for weeks and weeks and did some traveling for Brent’s job. And then I got sick the last big of Sept on our way home from a trip (some respiratory flu) and was sick until just last week when I finally went to the ol; doctor and became a walking pharmacy. haha.. feeling much better now, though. Oh, and it’s been “that time of year” again…. CANNING SEASON… We did BUSHELS and BUSHELS of grapes and tomatoes, peaches, and 40 lbs of chicken again…. It’s been fun 🙂 And I made a working website for my Creative University Charm Swap Ladies … I’m hosting again this year and it is going to be FABULOUS! There are still a few seats left for Creative University… hop on over and check it out! So anyway… One of the exciting things I am up to is teaching at the Junior High here in town. I am now the 4H Afterschool Club Bling leader. I’m teaching crafts and jewelry to a gaggle of 12-15 year old girls. It’s LOADS of fun and loads of work. The opportunity was something I sort of fell into, or rather it fell into my lap, unexpectedly. A friend recommended me to the coordinator and a couple of emails later I was knee deep in the planning. I’m quite enjoying it, actually! Today we made “Bling Rings” out of Nickels and Dimes, scrap paper, bling, and Glossy Accents. ‘Cuz a girl just can’t get enough bling, right? I threw this little quickie tutorial together tonight to show you how easy they are to make. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8xhylBtKBw] Here are some photos from today’s 4H Club Bling adventure!
Vintage Cone
I saw an idea for a vintage cone on The Graphics Fairy blog a while back and decided that I wanted to make one, too. I’m finding myself drawn to vintagey goodness lately. Anyway, I dug out some styrofoam cones that I had stashed away in my craft closet for a Christmas project that I never got to, cut it in half, and started playing around with paper and Mod Podge. All images are courtesy of The Graphics Fairy. If you’ve never been there you have got to stop in and take a gander and download some of her FABULOUS vintage images. Lovely schtuff! I had a really difficult time taking photos today and it’s been very cold and dreary today so the lighting was not all that great, so please forgive the lousy photos. I tried taking them in my studio first and then moved upstairs to the front room in hopes of some decent light. It was a little better. LOL! Overall I like how it turned out, but I think I am going to add some off-white & bluish lilac sprigs to the top part to give it more “fluff”. This little altered cone is meant to be hung on the wall and I am still trying to decide which wall it will grace in my home…. currently I’m thinking it would really pop nicely on the chocolate brown walls in my front bathroom …. hrmmmmm….. You can’t tell in the photo but each little vintage card (images printed from TGF onto white cardstock and aged with Tim’s distress inks) has been glittered either on the birds or the flowers/leaves. In real life they shimmer nicely! Bird envelope pre-glittered. I plucked this crystal heart and jewels off of a junklace that I don’t think I will be wearing any time soon…. LOVE it. Thanks for popping by! Inky Smiles! PS.. the feather in my hair is hanging much nicer today since the hair got a good wash, dry, and straightening. Love it!
E is for mE… or sprEEEEng…. or ….
I made this cute little E a while back for the wall/window of E’s in my studio. I’m really enjoying altering things with Mod Podge and paper. The past couple of weeks I have Mod Podged fabric, ribbons, paper, wood, fabric over paper, ruffles, chipboard, all sorts of interesting things. And did you know?? You can Mod Podge carefully over rhinestone bling and it still SPARKLES! (I found this out on accident.. tee hee!) So anyway.. here’s my E. It’s made from a way old wooden E from Robert’s Craft. I covered it in black paint and then traced it face down onto some BG Urban Prairie paper which I cut out with scissors and Mod Podged (matte sheen) to the E and then trimmed up with my craft knife. The flower is made using a silk flower which I glued on to the E and piled a ton of multi colored seed beds into the center of and then covered with Liquid Glass/Diamond Glaze and let dry over night. You can see how I did the butterfly with this Faux Stained Glass technique. Instead of embossing the image I used a black StazOn ink. This altered E is a fun little addition to my studio. I love how the sunlight shines through the butterfly and leaves color on the wall/photobox behind it and is just perfect for sprEEEEEng … if it ever gets here! (We’re due for snow tomorrow… ) EEEEEnky Smiles! mE.
Woman vs. Mod Podge: A How To
I’m starting an online class today called Soul Restoration (part 1). Many of you are already familiar with the Brave Girls Club and their wonderful community. Some day my goal is to GO TO Brave Girls CAMP, but until then online Soul Restoration will do… I am excited to do a little “soul cleansing” through art. There’s nothing terribly wrong or anything, but thought that this would be a good way to get a jump start on finding the “old pre infertility nightmare crapola” me. And you can’t go wrong with doing something that involves healing through ART 🙂 SO for the next 8 or so weeks I may be MIA from time to time, but don’t worry, I do have some fun artsy things to share with you. {I may not be sharing my art for Soul Restoration due to the personal nature of it. I will, however, share some techniques that I am learning or exploring and creating with and some other fun goodies I’ve been working on.} Some of you may also know that Melody Ross (one of the creative geniuses behind Brave Girls Club) is also the Queen of Mod Podge. HA. Yes, that wonderful white gluey goo that adheres, protects, and encases mixed media art. I want to be a Mod Podge Queen someday. Today I am a Mod Podge Princess & Monster Conqueror I conquered the Mod Podge Glued On Lid monster. And you can, too! Even if you really want to get a jump start on your journal cover but don’t have a pair of strong masculine hands available at the exact moment you feel the desire to permanently adhere something. You, too, can be a Mod Podge Monster conqueror. Here’s How: Step 1: Attempt to pry open the lid with your hands and fail miserably. Say something naughty to the Mod Podge bottle in hopes that breaking its self esteem down will do the trick. Realize that doesn’t work, so bang the lid on your desk hoping to free up the glue that is holding the lid to the bottle. Step 2: Get on facebook and mention your predicament to your 87,896,543,321 friends and hope that someONE, preferably a crafter friend, has a quick n’ easy solution. Get a suggestion from your male non crafty buddy instead. Head out to the workshop {in your wooly socks} for some vise grips or channel lock pliers. Step 3: Realize the mouth is not big enough for the lid. Think of something else… (I’d already started step 4, so the glue was dripping down the side. Shush… just keep reading. :P) Step 4: Decide that you have run out of patience and just want to get your craft on and move forward. Race off to the food storage room for an empty mason jar. Grab your favorite Fiskars Fingertip Craft Knife from your “sharp things” bucket that hangs underneath your beautiful custom pink InkStak and decide it’s time for the Mod Podge to find a new home. Carefully insert craft knife into Mod Podge bottle. (Pause to snap a photo because you don’t really have an extra hand.) The plastic bottle should be easy to cut, smooth, like buttah. Realize that you’ve spilled a glob of glue on your desk and reposition the Mod Podge bottle over the top of the mason jar. Carefully rotate the bottle while cutting… the Mod Podge goo will pour into the bottle as you cut. Step 5: Squeal (or whatever) with happiness because you finally have access to your Mod Podge! Step 6: Pour the rest of the Mod Podge into the jar and use a variety of tools to scrape out as much of this golden glue as you can. Be sure to leave behind the evil crustiness that stuck the lid to the bottle. Realize you’ve made a royal mess of your tools and hope you didn’t get Mod Podge on your camera. Hurry off to a sink to wash your tools. Unscrew your craft knife and toss the blade… you’re probably going to need a new one anyway. Take the craft knife apart and wash with hot water. Step 7: Use a baby wipe or wet rag to wash the mason jar lid. We don’t want a repeat of this method using glass… Top with a lid and call it good. Get excited again to start on your Soul Journal cover. Rejoice! You have conquered the Mod Podge Glued On Lid monster. You are now a Mod Podge Princess & Monster Conqueror. So go glue something! Inky & Gluey Smiles! Disclaimer: No art supplies {with the exception of the Mod Podge Bottle and Craft Knife blade} were harmed during the making of this tutorial. Information is for entertainment purposes only. Should you need to open your Mod Podge bottle with a craft knife, the risk is yours.
Simple Christmas: Brownie Box Slipcover – Tutorial
Hello! This morning I had an email from a friend asking me if I had seen a particular template she had been looking for “a slipcovered brownie mix” or something like that… I did a little searching and found nothing but I remembered that some mixes we bought from Lehi Roller Mills last year had “slipcovers” on them. So this morning I set out to create my own template. This is a simple tutorial. I shot from the hip and just snapped photos as I went (on top of the mess I’m currently working on) which explains the messy photos. Here’s what I came up with. Lou Faye, I hope this helps! Slip Covered Brownie Box Gift This slipcover was measured to fit a Betty Crocker Brownie mix. I am sure it will work for other similar size cake and cookie mixes. If not, it is VERY EASY to alter this slipcover… just adjust the score lines. What you will need: Your brownie mix box A scoring tool (I’m using my ScorePal) Cardstock Adhesive Paper Trimmer Decorative Paper, Stamps, Stickers, Ribbons, Embellishments, etc, to decorate your box Step 1 Cut two pieces of cardstock to 8”x7 5/8”. Mark the 8” side with a pencil (a little tick or x will do) so you know which side it is. Turn the cardstock so that the 8” side runs horizontally. Step 2 Measure from the left side of the page, not the score lines. Starting from your left, score at 3/4” and then again at 6 1/2”. Repeat on second piece of cardstock. You may fold your cardstock now or wait until later. {I fold mine now and check the fit by wrapping the pieces around the box.} Tip: Did you know that when you fold a scored paper that the valley you created by pressing down and scoring should be on the OUTSIDE of the fold? This is because you have already “stretched out” the paper. Folding it on the inside of the fold can cause the fold line (on the outside) to tear and look yucky. Step 3 At this step I start to decorate my slip cover. Determine which piece will be your “front” and position it so that the folded edges face AWAY from you. (I had to cut a new piece for this shot because I dropped my stamp on my paper… keepin’ it real here, keepin’ it real!) Decorate your front how you’d like. Here I have stamped a Christmas sentiment from the CTMH stamp set, D1440 “Everlasting Life” in CTMH Cranberry Ink. And then I decided it needed a little bling so I pulled out my Sakura Star Dust glitter pen and highlighted the flourished words with it. Step 4 Lay out your cover pieces like this.. Apply adhesive to the FRONT side of the 3/4” side of the front piece. (clear as mud?) Steps 5 & 6 Step 5 -Join your pieces like this by laying the wide piece of the back cover over the 3/4” piece of the front cover. I forgot to take a pic of it so you’re seeing the next “step”. Step 6 – Apply adhesive to the FRONT of the 3/4” piece of the BACK cover. (clear as mud again? LOL!) Dang, those brownies are making me hungry…. Realize you’ve run out of adhesive when your tape snaps off 1’” from the top of the cardstock… pull out your super sticky red tape cuz you’re too lazy to change the ATG tape and finish applying adhesive. {Told you, keepin’ it real here!} Step 7 Fold the box so that the wide piece of the FRONT attaches to the 3/4” piece of the BACK. Press to adhere. Step 8 With both hands, begin sliding the slipcover over the box. My slipcover fit very snugly on the box and took both hands to gently work the cover down the box. I might increase the score lines by about 1/16” inch next time. Step 9 Now it’s time to embellish a little. Look to your left at your mess of ribbons {which you took out of your RibbonStack and put in a giant basket to tote with you somewhere and never made it back in your RibbonStack} and pull out something festive. I decided to go simple and just tie a ribbon around the box. Not bad, but it could use a little more bling… Let’s try adding a fabric strip and some fru fru glitter foliage. MUCH BETTER! Or print a cute little tag like this on some cardstock and layer it up on the front of the box. You can download a full sheet of labels HERE. Please note these are for PERSONAL use only. Do not redistribute. There’s all kinds of ways you could dress up your slipcover! Tie a spoon or whisk to the ribbon and put it all in a bowl, tie on some berries or twigs for an earthy look, or attach a handmade ornament. The possibilities are endless! Let me know if you create a slipcover box! I would love to see what you come up with! Inky Smiles!
Birds of a Feather: A Tutorial
Hey friends! Back with the promised shabby chic feather birdie tutorial just for you! I hope you all had a marvelous Thanksgiving and are recovering from the crazy Black Friday sales! Brent and I skipped them this year and slept in in our nice cozy bed. 🙂 When I made the Christmas tree for my studio I wanted something fluffy and white for it to fill in some gaps and thought feather birdies would be perfect but I wasn’t able to find any in the stores so I figured I could make some. These feather birdies are SO EASY and fun to make. Here’s your supply list: Glue Gun & Glue Sticks String (I used beading string) Pearlescent beads (10 mm and 2 mm) A Feather Boa (you know you have one in your closet) Scissors, Piercing tool or other pokey thingy Styrofoam balls (about 2.5” diameter) Something to press feathers down so you don’t burn your fingers (I used a bone folder) Craft Mat to protect your work surface Sparkly paper {Yes, I forgot to include the sparkly paper for the beaks so it’s photoshopped in. :P} Step One: Strip off a whole bunch of feathers from the feather boa and make a pile to the side of you. Step Two: Spread hot glue in sections on the styrofoam ball, careful not to burn your fingers in the process. Then carefully add feathers so that the styrofoam is completely covered. Keep covering it until you have a big fuzzy ball of loooove like this: Step Three: Using very sharp scissors, begin trimming down the feather fluff… kind of like giving a fuzzy pet a haircut. Don’t cut too much off, just enough to “smooth” and tame the frizz. Step Four: Time to build a tail for your birdie…. Snip off some nice “full” feathers from your feather boa and set them aside. Begin gluing the feathers on one “end” to form a tail. You might need to work in some extra fluff feathers to give it some body and trim up as needed. Step Five: Glue on one of your 10 mm beads to make a head. Step Six: Snip off some beads from the garland that was too wimpy for your tree and dip in some hot glue using a tweezer or your fingers if you’re not a klutz like me and then adhere to either side of your head to create eyes. tep Seven: Cut a small triangle from your sparkly paper, score from one point to the longest side with a paper piercer or other tool, fold in half (trim if necessary) and dip in hot glue. Adhere to front of bird head to create a beak. Voila! Your ball o’ feathers is starting to look like a birdie! How TWEET! Step Eight: Cut a small piece of string to desired hanging length and tie the ends in a knot like this Step Nine: Using your paper piercer or other pokey tool, poke the knot down through the feathers and into the styrofoam on the top of the bird. Be careful not to put it too close to the tail or your birdies will be nose diving from your tree. And there you have it! A loverly shabby chic feather birdie for your tree, wreath, or other happy place in your home! Now realize you and everything around you is covered in feathers, which, according to your husband ranks right up there with you and everything around you being covered in glitter…. I nky Smiles & Happy Birdie Making! PS.. If you make some birdies please link up and share what you’ve created! (I m trying to figure out the Mr Linky thing and add it to the blog posts… )
It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas….
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here! We got our first real teeny bit of sticking snow this past weekend and while parts of Utah more north than us got hit hard last night we got only maybe 3”more… YAY! I guess it is FINALLY time to put away the flip flops and capris and pull out the warm fuzzy slippers and polar bear jammies. I am SO excited for Christmas this year. I have no clue what I am giving Brent yet, but I have other family members taken care of. WOOT! On Saturday we put the outside lights on the house and hung the giant wreath on the peak of the house. I have already packed away my fall decor and set up our new huge Nativity set on the hutch in the front room and we’re going to be putting up our inside Christmas decor on Wednesday. I’ve been dreaming of a mini Christmas tree in my studio for a while now… well, ever since I saw this fabulous PINK “feather” tree at our new Hobby Lobby in Orem (25 or so miles north of me). I didn’t buy it right away because I figured it would go on sale (and I don’t pay full retail for much of anything)… well a few weeks later it still wasn’t on sale so I printed a 40% off coupon and went in to buy it. Thankfully some of the ornaments WERE on sale so I was able to pick some of those up, too. The tree came stuck in a boring little hot pink wooden square… but I changed that when the ugly Urn Vase Thingy got a makeover. I pulled the hot pink wooden square off the tree and then plunked that tree into its new home and hot glued some silver metal garland from Ikea in the base of the tree to cover the leftover Spanish moss that was stuck on. Glue, Wrap, Press (use something other than fingers to avoid burns, don’t ask me how I know this… ) The clear garland that picked up for the tree just looked too tiny and disappeared into the tree when I put it on it at home so while Stacey was doing this I opened up my box of jewelry making goodies and started making some custom beaded garland. I figured 10’ of hand beaded garland would have been plenty for such a small tree. HA HA HA Try 18ish feet for a 30” tree. LOL! Good thing I had a lot of seed beads and plenty of time on my hands the next evening. I added to this garland and about doubled the length, I just wished I’d spaced the big beads a little closer together. Once I got the right length of beaded garland I started putting the ornaments from Ikea and Hobby Lobby on. It was missing something so the next evening I went to Roberts Crafts and picked up some supplies to make some feather birdies (which I will have a tutorial on HERE after Thanksgiving – it’s all typed up and ready to go)… I topped the tree off with a “gemmed star” from Hobby Lobby. Then it was still missing something so I popped some flowers off of the stash of silk flowers I keep here in the studio for just such occasions, grouped them in threes, and backed them with gathered pink tulle. I am loving how my little studio tree turned out! It was worth the hot glue blisters, squint eye from stringing seed beads, and a contact high from spray lacquer…. The creative process making this simple little tree was loads of fun and adds a cheerful Christmas spirit to my studio. I hope you all have a marvelously happy Thanksgiving and I will see you back here later this weekend with a tutorial on making shabby chic feather birdies! Inky Smiles & Happy Thanksgiving! PS… The wire form that previously occupied this little corner has found a new home for the holidays… Linking to:
The Urn Vase Thingy Gets a Makeover
So I have been working on a little project and needed a base for it. When Stacey was here we wandered the aisles of WalMart one afternoon and found some fabulous deals on fall clearance items. In fact, the store workers were marking them down as we were approaching the aisles. AWESOME! I found a couple of these fabulous (yet ugly in their current state) urn/vases filled with scraggly sad looking fall foliage. I picked this one up for $5.00. I will figure out something to do with the fall foliage next year. 🙂 And while Stacey was working on her gatrillion owl bodies I gave this little guy a makeover. It’s a cheapish, plastic, should have been resin thingy… Not too ugly but sorta ugly.. but ok, the foliage is really ugly arranged like that. But look past the foliage… as Rafiki says, “Look beyond what you see….” It’s got good “bones”… I bet it would look really pretty painted a cool shade of turquoisey blue… Hrmmm… So of course I had to rip out all that badly arranged foliage… and the nasty Spanish moss stuff that was glued in there with some sort of nuclear war resistant glue… I got most of it…really… and some of the styrofoam, too. It’s all good. It will get covered up. 🙂 So I pulled out the paint and went to town… I did not take photos cuz I did not want my camera anywhere near that much wet paint. (I’m a messy painter.) I painted it with a flat paint by Behr and let it partially dry. Once it was mostly dry, but still wet and gloopy in places I started to randomly dump some Doodlebug fine glitter on it. Don’t be shy.. it LIKES glitter, unlike my sweet husband… blue glitter everywhere! Delightful! Once you’ve gotten your urn vase thingy covered in glitter just how you’d like it, step back and brush the glitter off your face, chest, legs, and out of your hair, and maybe vacuum the dog before the husband catches you glittering again. Then I took it outside in the garage and hit it with some spray laquer… well, I don’t think I thought that out well enough because when it dried it looked like this: Looks like the laquer ate through some of the gaps in pain and changed the color of the plastic underneath the paint. Not exactly how I wanted it to turn out, but I figured it would still work. So I stuck my tongue out at it and wandered upstairs to enjoy dinner and some of these DELICIOUS little treats that Stacey taught me to make. Oh and she made her famous SALSA, too! How lucky were we??? Did I mention we had a blast? Tee hee… Ok, I will be posting the pic of what the Urn Vase Thingy became tomorrow or Wednesday and then a fun little crafty tutorial after Thanksgiving. Inky Smiles!
UStream Fall Pumpkin Video Tutorial
Hey friends! Sorry I haven’t been around much this week… I didn’t get more owls sewn or even clean my studio up because I worked a couple extra days this week and have been learning the ins and outs of the Ustream broadcasting process. I also went to the dr again for my knee pain and had a lovely “little” cortisone shot in my knee. Let me just tell you… that was a whole new adventure in pain. LOL! It seems to be calming my knee down and I’m able to do a little more again, yay! However, it does look like I will need to schedule a scope surgery on the knee in the next couple of months. (I’m trying to work up the courage to just go get it done.) Anyway.. I did have a successful broadcast last night! It was good to see some of you there in the chat room! 🙂 I didn’t have too many technical difficulties and it seemed to go pretty smoothly. I was nervous as heck but now I think I can handle doing more videos like that. It was actually pretty fun and I only had one of my supplies “jump ship” on me during the broadcast.. one of my leaves decided to FALL (buwahaha) off the desk but thankfully my handy and handsome assistant (Brent, of course) was nearby to retrieve said fallen leaf. I lurve him. Oh and my hair cooperated! WOOT! I’m going to work on the sound and not yelling into the microphone and causing it to go bonk on me. LOL! Don’t have your sound up too loud or it will be a little “scratchy/screetchy” in places. I’ve got can lights/recessed lights in my studio ceiling so they shine right down on the desk (hence the circles you see in the reflection). Gonna work on that, too. I’m going to be doing another broadcast in a couple of weeks, too! Watch the video and see what we’re gonna be making! Here’s the link to my Ustream channel: Inky Smiles Craft Lounge And here’s last night’s video! (I apologize for the commercial in front of it… I wish I could take it off.. but the ads help us have a free broadcast.) http://www.ustream.tv/flash/video/10060084?v3=1 Enjoy! I will be giving one pumpkin away to a random commenter… leave a comment on this post and I will draw a name on Tuesday evening, October 12th. (And I won’t forget cuz I’m putting it on the calendar in my phone.. aka brain… tee hee!) ~Inky Smiles!
Pumpkin clarification & Ustream class/tutorial
I just wanted to clarify… I know that I said they were completely handstitched but they are MOSTLY handstitched.. lol! The pumpkins are sewn by machine to make the round and all the details are added in by hand stitching (instead of gluing). I will show you how it’s done when I do the UStream video next week. The “pattern” for this came from Fiskars online. My Ustream channel will be located here: The Inky Smiles Craft Lounge I am shooting for Thursday, October 7th @ 7:30 pm Mountain Time. (This is 6:30 West Coast, 8:30 Central and 9:30 East Coast) I am going to check it out and try to work out the technical details with Brent and get it together 🙂 ~Inky Smiles!