Altered Arts Magazine: Spring Vase

Welcome to my Altered Arts Magazine Design Team Post.

Sometimes, you need a quick solution.  How about this quick and crafty flower vase for your spring clippings?  Turn an empty spaghetti sauce jar into a lovely container.

SUPPLIES:
Empty large jar (7" tall x 5" diameter)
Scrapbook paper, Stained Stripes, Willard Collection-Fancy Pants
Fairy image and floral border, Winged Things Collection-Mailbox Muse
Green Flourish Bling, Zva Creative
Adhesive

Directions:
1. Cut scrapbook paper to fit around the jar, and tall enough to cover any writing or depressions in the glass.
2. Cut out and glue the border to the top of the scrapbook paper.
3. Cut out and glue the fairy image to the front center.
4. Embellish with bling!

HAPPY SPRING!

Be sure to check out the Altered Arts Magazine site and follow them on FaceBook for more crafty projects.

Make art every day!
Becky

Designer Crafts: BUTTONS GALORE Challenge & Give Away

Welcome to the March Designer Crafts Connection Manufacturer Challenge and Give Away!  This month, it's all about the buttons, with Buttons Galore & More.   This month, we have many talented Designers sharing projects made with buttons and a fabulous prize package. The give away starts today and ends on March 17th.  Leave a comment to enter.  There will be a prize for one participating Designer and one Reader who comments.  Drawings are random, so leave comments on all the blogs for more chances to win!

I had this BLAHzey black crocheted back that needed some perking up, but I wanted it to be a little quirky and still classy, a perfect fit for those Buttons Galore & More! 

I had plans of adding stems with green rick rack, but after I completed one, it just ruined the "classy" so I removed it.  This is an easy way to add a pop of color and whimsy to something just a bit too boring.

SUPPLIES:  Fabric flowers, 3 lime green buttons by Buttons Galore & More, Black embroidery thread, 8 ply cotton, large hole needle, and your drab garment or bag.

Directions:
1. Use all 8 plies of the thread.
2. Remove the center of fabric flowers, use two layers of flowers behind each button.
3. Sew the button and flowers to the garment using a cris-cross only once, tie off on the inside of the bag.
4. Be mindful of placement and adjust as necessary when sewing.

Use the DCC hop button on my side bar to see many more fabulous button projects!
If you have the time, stop by and see the Buttons Galore & More NEW RELEASES
Follow them on FaceBook for projects and give aways!

Viewtainer has donated the containers for the contest winners

VIEWTAINER containers have clear walls, come in fun bright colors with an easy dispensing cap and NO spilling! Proudly made in the USA!
Company Overview

General Information
For more information contact us at:
Email: contactus@viewtainer.com
Phone: 1/888-865-9935
Website: www.viewtainer.com
Blog: http://viewtainer.typepad.com/blog/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Viewtainer
Twitter: @Viewtainer

Altered Arts Magazine: Quick Pendant

 Welcome!  This is my first post to share for the Altered Arts Magazine Design Team this month. I'm excited to be back online and apologize for my absence.  I had an injury on Jan 28th and I am still recovering; nicely but slowly.

This cute pendant was created with a glass bottle stopper from an oil and reed diffuser.

 

Supplies:

Glass bottle stopper

12 gauge copper wire

glass beads

leather cord with closures

wire cutters and needle nose pliers.  

Here is a close-up of the beads I used, they heart tear drop or almost heart shaped with little wire loops.

DIRECTIONS:
1. Clean the glass stopper thoroughly of any oil from the diffuser to make it safe to handle.
2. Cut a 6" piece of wire and string beads on to it.
3. Wrap the beaded wire around the first indent in the neck of the stopper and twist tightly with needle nose pliers.  Trim the twist to about 1/4" then fold over in the back.
4. Wrap the copper wire along the top of the neck of the stopper until it looks solid.  (about 9 inches)
5. Use the wire to create a loop in the back, twist and secure.
6. Attach the leather cord with closures.

P.S. The kittens are a bit stir crazy from winter and have missed being in the studio too. As soon as I got upstairs, they were franticly chasing the wire I was trying to twist and that lovely box of beads is scattered all over the floor.  oh well!  It's good to be back!

Be sure to follow the Altered Arts Magazine page on Facebook for many altered art projects from the entire Design Team!

Craft on!
Becky

Altered Arts Magazine: Journal Cover

This journal cover was made for Altered Arts Magazine with some very yummy preferred partner products!

Journal Cover

Supplies:

5 3/4” x 8” chipboard journal with blank white pages, Kunst & Papier

12x12” decorative paper; Old Curiosity Shoppe Collection, Graphic 45

“Flute” paper, Canvas Home Basics

Ribbon; Urban Couture, Basic Grey

Dye ink, Red Pepper-Adirondack Earthtones, Ranger Ink

Distress Ink, Black Soot-Tim Holtz, Ranger Ink

Leather flower embellishments, So Happy, Prima

Bling Flourish, “Say it with bling”, Want 2 Scrap

Bird Cut out, “Wings and Things”(Cyndi Duncan), Mail Box Muse

Double Sided Super Sticky Tape, ThermOWeb

Instructions:

1. Cut 2 pieces of decorative paper to the size of the journal covers. Adhere one to the front and one to the back. Ink the edges.
2. Cut Flute paper triangle 5” x 2 1/2” and a rectangle 3 1/4” x 4”.
3. Gently fold the rectangle but do not crease and hand cut a heart shape from the bottom center as the bird house “door”.
4. Apply red ink to the triangle roof piece and black ink to the rectangle piece.
5. Attach a piece of ribbon around the rectangle using double sided sticky tape.
6. Attach the “birdhouse” pieces to the journal cover.
7. Cut out the bird image.
8. Glue the flower embellishment into place and slip the bird slightly behind the flower.
9. Attach the bling flourishes. 
    
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Thanks so much for stopping by the blog today.

Merry Christmas to all!

Make art everyday!

Becky

Spotlight on Crafting Rocks!!

I am thrilled to be a Spotlight Designer on Crafting Rocks!
Thank you, Westcott!

Hello and welcome to the Designer Crafts Connection hop!
We are a diverse group of Craft Industry Designers, sharing our creativity through hopping.
We hop on the FIRST MONDAY of each month.  This month's theme is Holiday Gifts.

To visit the next blog, please use the DCC Hop Button at the end of this post or on my sidebar.

 For my hop, I'm sharing my Altered Arts Magazine DT post.
This little cutie can be a refrigerator magnet, pin or ornament. 

Victorian Magnet / Ornament or Pin

Supplies:

2x2” wrapped canvas (Canvas Home Basics) (AAM preferred partner)

Handmade flower Item# 556518 Prima Marketing (AAM preferred partner)

acrylic paint: New Grass -EcoGreen Crafts

pink self-adhesive pearls: Say it with Pearls- Want 2 Scrap

Misc: wide vintage lace, brown suede paper, hot glue & gun, Magnet dot

Directions:

1. Paint the front and sides of the canvas with acrylic paint, let dry.
2. Cut vintage lace 4x4” and hot glue to the canvas, carefully wrapping corners and adhering with hot glue on the back side.
3. Cut a 2x2” piece of brown suede paper and hot glue to the back side to give a nice clean finish.
4. Apply the pink self-adhesive pearls around the edge of the canvas. (A large flower design was used for this project but cut apart to apply straight around the edge of canvas)
5. Hot glue the Handmade flower (Item# 556518 Prima Marketing) to the front center of the canvas.
6. Hot glue a magnet, pin back or hanger to the back of the project. 
   
   
   Thanks so much for hopping around today!  Please visit the other designer blogs for more wonderful and crafty gift giving projects.  

Printing on Fabric and a GIVEAWAY

I am helping a friend with a quilt block for the American Legion Auxilary Historical Project.
I thought it may be helpful for others to know the process I had to go through to get the results desired. 

She wanted the emblem with a photo of a lifetime member printed onto the 7x7" piece of cotton quilt fabric provided for the project.  The print area is to be only 6.5 x 6.5".

Step 1: Create a document (openoffice.org draw doc) large enough to accommodate your design area with plenty of border. I used 12x12".  My printer is an Epson 1900R photo printer.

Step 2. Make a square 7.7" and 6.5x6.5" and position them in the center of the page.  Put the smaller box inside the larger box to show your border area.

Step 3. Print the document.  Mark your paper with an arrow to show the top so you won't lose orientation.

Step 4. Spray the paper with spray adhesive, let dry to become tacky.  Add another coat of adhesive if necessary.

Step 5.  Iron fabric to remove all wrinkles.

Step 6. Place the fabric onto the paper within the print range (over the blocks you printed onto the paper).

Step 7. Insert your image to be printed into the smaller square in your document.  Delete the original squares but leave your image in the place where the small square was located.

Step 8. Use Scraperfect's Perfect Crafting Pouch!  (scraperfect.com) to treat the fabric, the ink will print bolder.  Also use the pouch to remove sticky areas outside the printing area.
----GO HERE: to see video tutorials of the Perfect Crafting Pouch
*NOTE-I had to cut a 12" x 2" strip of fresh card stock and adhere to the top of the page to get it to feed correctly through my printer.

Step 9. Re-insert the paper into the printer and print your document with image.

VIOLA!















Step 10.  Remove the fabric from the paper and assemble the quilt as usual.
**HEAT set your printed fabric with an iron, but my printer is inkjet and may not be as permenant as I'd like.
If you know of a product that can be prayed or added to help make it more permanent, please leave a comment.
ALSO, LEAVE A COMMENT TO WIN A PERFECT CRAFTING POUCH OF YOUR OWN!
Thanks so much for stopping by the blog today.
I hope you had a fabulous Turkey Day!
Give thanks and craft on!
Becky