Paper inspiration - Cards

When I walked into the scrapbook store on Friday I promised myself that I would not purchase any more paper.  HA!  Really ... telling a papercrafter that they cannot buy a piece of paper when they walk into a scrapbook store is like telling me that I'm not allowed to create canvases anymore.  Who was I kidding?? ha ha.

I used a little bit of this paper line in my previous post and it is from BasicGrey and is their "25th and Pine" line of papers.  How can you not love the little hits of retro combined with a whole lot of color!  I love that there is pink in this line.  It reminds me of walking into a 50's retro kitchen with pink counter top and one of those old school retro fridges. 

I also combined in a few other pieces of paper because silly me, I didn't buy the whole line of paper.  Next time I'll know better :-)  I tend to go pretty simple with my cards because these are the small ones and there is not really a lot of room on the front.  I love to punch the card with a bit of contrast and that is where the navy blue skinny ribbon came in.  For me it ties the whole look together ... literally.

Thanks for dropping by

I'm on a roll ......

The inspiration continues and I am so thankful that today I had a few moments to continue on this crazy creative journey I am on!

For those people that know me and those who are new to my blog I have to say that I'm a bit of a snow worshiper. It's fluffy, it's pretty in its original form and best of all you get to do really fun things with it like getting right in it and creating a wonderful snowman.  Thus is the inspiration for my canvas today.

I have to thank the fabulous Charmagne Gibb, whom I took a mixed media class from, for the great idea for the snowman.  She taught us to create little rosette flowers with cheese cloth and when I decided to make the snowman I knew I needed something circular and white. Perfect!!! All you do is take long skinny strips of cheese cloth and twist it. Once it is twisted you lay down Mod lodge on the canvas and then lay the cheesecloth down in a circular pattern.

The snow at the bottom of the canvas was created by cutting out a piece of cheese cloth and laying it down on the canvas.  I then added molding paste over top to set it down.  I went back after and added a little blue to the molding paste to create a bit of movement in the snow.

Thank you for stopping by!

Grand finale - Part 4 - Canvas, canvas, and more canvas

Pwepf ... I am quite tired at this point.  Between all this blogging and all my creativeness it was quite a weekend.   Next ......... ha ha ha.  I am actually quite rejuvenated after this wonderfully fabulous weekend.  Did I mention I had a great creative weekend??? Okay I know enough  ...

So here is my grand finale items which I am so immensely proud of.  As of late I felt that my canvases were a bit lackluster, so to speak.  Today though I feel so inspired and I cannot wait to do more.

These are 3 little mini canvases 4 x 4 inch plus one wood block sign.  #1 and #2 I used a tissue paper background.  #3 and #4 I used napkins I purchased from SuperStore.  You may be able to see that they are a chevron pattern which as you know from my previous post is my favorite print.  I just have to say that napkins work fabulous for backgrounds you just have to be careful when applying so that they don't rip.

Other methods I used: Stenciling, stamping, embossing, and smudging with gelatos.

Happy viewing .. hope that these help to inspire you as much as they did me.

ChelleB

#1 - Poinsettia

#2 - Oh Christmas Tree

#3 - When pigs fly

#4 - Merry Christmas

Hallelujah - Part 3 - A Bingo Christmas

Part 3 of my crazy crazy creative weekend.  Yes I did all these projects in one weekend.  Thank you Starbucks for the great energy boosts!!!

I can't really say much more than I FELL IN LOVE with this paper line.  My favorite holiday (Christmas) mixed in with my favorite era (Retro), mixed in with my favorite print (Chevron) all in one!  I was smitten to say the least.  Simple Stories/December Documented/Bingo-Chevron is the paper I used for the Bingo Cards.  The other background paper is from BasicGrey and is their 25th and Pine paper line.

One problem ... I love Chevron and I love Bingo cards so it was super hard to cut through one side when I knew I loved the other side .. ha ha.  Oh the troubles us papercrafter's face!!

So here are they are.  Cute, fun and whimsical.

Thanks for popping by!

ChelleB

Hallelujah - Part 2 - Blueprint Christmas cards

This post is a carry on from the previous one.  Many, many, many creative juices were flowing this weekend as you will see.

Project #2 was to use my brand new Tim Holtz Christmas Stamp Set #3 - Blueprint.  Oh I have been ogling over these for quite some time and I finally had to break down and spend a few of the dollars I have for me each month :)

These are pretty much self explanatory other than I used Faber Castell's Gelatos for all the coloring. I'm still getting used to these but I sure do love them.  I love being able to create a watercolor effect with these.  I also used my great little Dymo Caption maker machine for the holidays wishes.  Brown Kraft paper and card/envelopes seemed fitting for these because I didn't want to take away from the splendor of these beautiful stamps.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hallelujah the creativeness is back ... and with a vengence I might add!!!

Long time no see!  As I mentioned in my last post I was a bit lost for a little while but now I have found my creative person again.  I am soooo thankful because this weekend was one of the best ones I've had in a really long time.  2 days I locked myself up in my little corner of the living room and made a complete mess and I LOVED it!!  Ink, paper and Mod Podge was scattered from one end of my desk to the other desk to the dining room table.  I work well in very tight spaces apparently.  2 desks and one dining room table and this is the teeny space I worked in.  Is anyone else like me??? I'm so weird!!! Who works in a small space like that? ha ha.

So even though I worked in the teeny tiny little space I still managed to create so much fabulousness.  Project #1 was using my brand new Dee's Dinstinctively die's.  Merry Christmas and Poinsettia were my base inspiration for these 4 cards. I used pre-printed cards that already had the background design on them which, wow, saves you so much time in the end.  I believe they were DCVW from Michael's.  I picked them up about 2 years ago.

Since I have many more projects to post I am going to separate posts for each type of projects. 1 down 3 more to go :)

Oh Canada

Today we give thanks to the all those men and women who sacrificed their lives so we could have freedom in our country.  I am a very thankful Canadian today among millions of others who pay tribute to those who have fallen in order to secure our safety and freedom.  Thank you.

Today I am also thankful that I found my creative person this weekend.  Where was she?? I have no idea but I am sure glad to have her back. Sometimes I think we get ourselves into this mundane state of just living day to day but it takes something little that snaps us out of it and for me it was watching Christy Tomlinson's You tube video from 2011 and her Christmas canvases.  Wow, now that gal is inspiring.  I have always been so focused on making sure everything was perfect and lined up a certain way and that I drew between the lines.  Throw that out the window!!!!  Art is not about perfection.  Art is about letting your freaky creative self fly and boy did I ever .. WOO HOO!!!  Yes I am quite excited about what I accomplished as you will see in my upcoming posts.

For the time being I wanted to share a special project I worked on about a year ago. Today is a perfect day to launch this beauty out into the world because I am a proud Canadian.  So here she is:

My ode to Canada chipboard book

As always my main source of inspiration on this piece was the master works of Tim Holtz.  I mean how can you not be inspired by that man.  He does it like no other.

Front page:

All these cut out were from the Canada Cricut cartridge.  The double page "Canada" spread as you can see had a gazillion (well maybe not quite that many but it seemed that way) little pieces of all the little pieces of land up north.  Yes I glued those on all individually by hand, it did not come on a magic little piece of paper that I just stuck down .. ha ha.  That by far was the most challenging.  99.9% of the paper is from one of Tim Holtz paper packs.

I'm so proud of this project and it has a special little place on the coffee table in my living room.  As was the purpose for me creating it.

Hope you enjoy looking at it as much as I did making it.

ChelleB

New to me

Although my main interests focus on art/scrapbooking I have always had a passion for furniture.  I see an old piece of furniture that needs some love and I can't help but want to take it home with me. Over the past year I have worked on a few pieces of furniture but my latest accomplishments were two night stands I picked up at a recycling sale at our local college.  I love the idea of having a trunk show in a parking lot where you can bring your previously loved pieces for someone to love some more.

I picked up two of these beauties and saw a lot of potential even though they were pretty beat up.

My first step was to give them a good wipe down.  Cobwebs, dust and dirt looked as though it had lived on these for a while.  After they had time to dry from the moisture of wiping them down I then prepped them by sanding them with a low grit sand paper.  I removed the handles from the drawers.  After they were sanded I gave them another wipe down to remove any sanding particles.  I purchased a very good quality furniture paint from Rona.  The colour I chose (if you can call it a colour) was a standard white.  I wanted these to fit into any decor as I tend to change out my colour scheme quite often. 

 This picture was after the first coat of paint.  I gave these two good coats of paint.

Here is the finished product.  Although it may not look like a lot of change from start to finish believe me it was a big change.  No more rough spots, everything was nice and smooth and a solid white.

I'm contemplating replacing the drawer pulls as these were the original ones that were brass and I just painted over them.  I'm thinking a clear crystal knob would look quite nice and glam them up a bit!

Anyhoo, one job down and about 3 more pieces to finish.  I will keep posting them as I complete them but it may not be for some time as I have to get back at my altered art canvases.  So much to do, so little time.  I also work full time during the day so trying to squeeze this all in can be a bit challenging :)

My dream is to one day own a scrapbooking store and do furniture refinishing on the side.  Big dreams I know but I will get there :)

ChelleB

Tattered Florals and New Inspiration

This past weekend I was very fortunate to attend a fabulous retreat hosted by Lorrie Strebel.  A wonderful person whom I've know for about 5 years now. She puts on a amazing retreat. 30 something crafters attended a weekend of creativity, sharing and general appreciation for each others creative talents.  I wish I could do this every day!

As I prepped for the weekend I stumbled upon a challenge by the super talented Tim Holtz.  All I needed was his Tattered Florals die and lucky me, I already had it.  I knew I wanted to challenge myself with altered canvas and what better way to get started than with flowers.  I mean who doesn't appreciate flowers in one way or another.

So here we are.  I'm quite proud of this beauty, she was my third canvas that I created this past weekend.  I call it "Garden of Love" because I put a lot of love into this canvas.  I'm a huge "Tim" fan and anyone who knows me is very aware of that .. ha ha.  I find so much inspiration each time I use his products and I used quite a few on this.

1. Tattered Florals die
2. Frayed Burlap and Weathered wood distress ink pad.
3. Grunge paper
4. Paper from his resist Kraft paper pad
5. Alcohol inks
6. Weathered wood distress stain

 

The canvas size is 12 inches wide by 16 inches high.

 

I used quite a few other products including:

1. Miscellaneous metal embellishments (Ebay and Dime store emporium) The metal flowers were embossed with a few different embossing powders to cover up their aged gold appearance.

2. Felt

3. Adhesive back cork board

4. Burlap (Michaels)

5. Teresa Collins paper (Background)

6. Texturized acrylic to create "Garden" combined with teal acrylic paint.

7. Value store gems/bling

I pretty much took anything and everything I had in my stash and used it on this project.  If you would like details on any of the flowers please let me know.  I would love to post specifics of all the products I used by this blog would be really really long if I did :)

I'm looking forward to growing my talents in altered canvas.

Love for the momma

With Mother's Day approaching and my Mom's birthday later this month I knew I wanted to experiment with something new.  I usually venture to make her a card each year but this year wanted to make something for her that she could have as a keepsake.  My new passion is working with canvases so I wanted to use one in my project and here it is.

 

This is a 5 x 7 panel canvas, using the Graphic 45 Secret Garden 6 x 6 paper pack. I love the dimension of this piece and how it all just seems to flow together.  I know my Mom will appreciate it very much, she is definitely my biggest fan :)

 

Graphic 45 Secret Garden

My starting point was drawing a template for the flower petals.  The size of the petals is approximately 1 5/8 height by 1 inch width at the largest point.  I took the template and transferred the outline onto the paper in the paper pack.  I cut 5 leaves out of each design.  I didn't quite use all the designs but the majority of them.

I also used a couple of different papers just to get some more dimension into the petals.  I used papers from the following paper lines:

Lost and Found 
Background and and some petals (this paper has wonderful texture)

 Farm Girl - Denim
Dark denim blue petals

The next step was to apply Tim Holtz distress inks to the edges of each petal.  I used frayed burlap.  I then molded each petals by taking a pen barrel and pulling it along the paper.  The same way you would curl ribbon.

Next I applied the Lost and Found paper by My Minds Eye to the front of the canvas.  I distressed the edges of the paper and inked it up with Frayed Burlap before applying it to the canvas with Modge Podge.  I let that dry for about an hour. 

Next I applied a small circle (about 2 inches) of sticky back cork to the center of the canvas.  

Starting from the outside and working in I applied each petal to the canvas.  The outside row of petals were about 1 inch apart and on the next row I reduced this by about 1/4 inch and continued reducing the distance working my way to the center.  To help the petals stick to the canvas I bent the bottom of the petal so it lay flat against the canvas.  I used Tombow mono to apply the flowers.  Once I had created my flower I let it sit for about an hour to let the petals get a good grip.

Next I applied a piece of peach dyed twine around the outside of the edge of the cork to finish it off.

Lastly I glued a Prima Trinket Bottle cap to the center of the flower and finished it off with a image button I purchased on Etsy.

In order to have an area for writing I cut two pieces of paper from the Graphic 45 paper pack and glued them to the back of the canvas.