Need your help!

This is one of my Goodwill finds. It was a plain pine wooden shadow box with a hinged door, knob and the backing missing. I had fun adding a layer of gesso,a new backing and a few layers of paint and crackle...now I'm stuck! What should I do with it?

My husband thinks it has a Tim Burton kinda feel to it but I don't know where I would take
that :). My first instinct was to add batting and fabric to the backing and some hooks and make a box for storing necklaces or bracelets, but I don't know ?!

Have any ideas, please let me know, I appreciate all my creative friends so much I know one of you will lead me in the right direction and give me some guidance. Here are a few more to help you understand the piece.




Next up, A few Steampunk ATC's for our swap over at The Scrappy Tree, there is still time to create one of your own and send it in to swap, check out The Scrappy Tree for more details. We are also still sharing our Reduce, Reuse & Recycle projects, so check those out too!






Thanks for stopping by today, happy creating!

K

Five dollar Friday!

I forgot to share my Five dollar Friday with you all. I recently spoke of me and my husband striking a deal for me to spend less than $300 on "Scrappy stuff" in a six month period.I know sounds impossible huh? Anyway, so today I needed to return some library books and that made for a beautiful $5 Friday!

My Day is shared below:

1. Library cards are awesome!
I checked out 15 Art/Craft books for 3 weeks and all for a low low price of Zero dollars.
Our Library, we are very lucky!

2. Our library also happens to be in a gorgeous park, called Central Park, so I not only took a walk and got some exercise in a beautiful setting but took a bunch of amazing pictures!!
No charge :)

3. I collected about 20 leaves, a few flowers, a couple rocks and some branches, all can be used on the mini album I need to create about this beautiful place, right? Price, FREE! Other than the price of sneezing cause my allergies were acting up :)

4. Next stop Michaels, I know I know, how can I resist? But, I did. I bought some over-sized clear pebbles for $2.99, but I used my Michaels card so I got 40% off, wow, that was a close call!!

5. City Hall, Yesterday I helped plant trees around our community for Earth Day and somehow I volunteered to help clip and fertilize roses in our community garden with the seniors. They are looking awesome now and I got to bring home a few buds to dry for future projects, Yeah!

6. Last stop, McDonald's, yep you guessed it, French fries, boy oh boy they are expensive now, but still in my five dollar budget, cool!

Well that was it, my $5 Friday :)

See you soon,

K

My attempt

So I fell in love with the fabric flowers that American Crafts posted a tutorial for http://americancrafts.typepad.com/studio/2010/04/dear-lizzy-fabric-flower-video.html
and had to try it. After burning my fingers time and time again with the hot glue gun, I managed to finish a few. I used pieces of fabric I had in my stash (which frayed more than the fabric paper reference in the American Crafts tutorial) but as long as you spin or twist the fabric, it still works, just more challenging. Also I used felt to back mine and just found random circles of stuff to make templates for so I could make all kinds of sizes, here are a few.

These are all about 2 to 1 1/2 inches wide, with cotton fabric and felt backs and random brads for the centers. The one in the top right corner is my attempt with tule, it didn't make a full circle but was interesting so I shared it too :)

A solo of the tule flower.
Anyway, these are relatively fast to make and have endless color combos to play with, just watch your fingers as you grab the outside if you are using a glue gun. The fabric-tac they suggested works but it takes longer to dry and grab the fabric so I chose the dangerous route :)

Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful weekend!

K

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day Everyone!

Check out this great LINK where bloggers are uniting to help save Mother Earth. You'll find great resources and ways to be GREEN!

Also, check out our GREEN projects over at The Scrappy Tree. Our Guest Designer Diana, shares some beautiful cards and a mini album made of toilet paper rolls, Scrappy Tree team member Gayle shares a lovely card made of pattern paper scraps and team member Julie shares a great technique using dryer sheets and shared two beautiful cards. We will continue to share GREEN projects throughout the month. I am working on some recycled altered pieces I picked up at the local Goodwill including a candle holder, cedar blocks, picture frame and much more,
stay tuned :)

Mini Album made of TP rolls by Diana

A card made from TP rolls by Diana


Card made of pattern paper scraps by Gayle


Dryer Sheet technique by Julie

Recycled cardboard card by Julie



Have a GREEN Day! Thanks for stopping by!

K

Cool Flowers!

Okay, I had to pass this one on. My friend Di told a group of friends about it and I thought it was way too cool to not pass on to everyone, check it out! Lizzy and American Crafts bring you the easiest, prettiest flower tutorial around.

http://americancrafts.typepad.com/studio/

Meanwhile, my new week is the same busy mess that last week was, which means way too busy for a slacker like me that would rather be crafty :) I hope everyone is having a better week than me so far, see you soon!

K

Busy Bee!

Hi Everyone! Sorry for the rude absence lately, I hope you all are well and enjoying good Spring weather. I plan to stop by all of your blogs soon for a visit. I have been super busy at work but I did fit in a few projects at night to unwind.

An Art Journal Page

I needed a little color and cheeriness, so I went for watercolors, bright markers, left over flower outlines from Easter and the saying, "Everything is coming up roses"



Next up, A mini album I made for a friend who is retiring, so I wanted to wish her luck!

Front
InsideBack Cover

I made this book with two blocks of Cedar wood for the front and back covers. I started by painting them both with Crackle paint and adding some LUCK themed embellishments. To build the pages, I began measuring the size of the block and folded pages for the inside then glued the front and back to the inside and backside covers. To finish it I added a poem about luck and other embellishments inside.


Lastly a LO I did for The Scrappy Tree's Inspiration Challenge this month by Julie. She always comes up with interesting and fun inspiration, not to mention her creations are super gorgeous! You can currently find it here but due to the changes at Ning, we will be moving shortly, we will let you know when and where.

The inspiration was an old T-shirt, that was nature themed and read Good Natured. The topic I focused on was my Daughter who is by far the most good natured person I know. I used Kraft Kuts pattern paper, Bazzill cardstock, bakers twine, aluminum roses and bird stamps by Artchix and rub-on birds by Glitz.


Thanks for visiting today, see you soon!

K

Happy Easter!

A few things I worked on today for my sister in law and mother in law for Easter. I used all Basic Grey (sugar rush) papers, a handful of thickers, a prima here and there, some American Crafts ribbon, BG bloomers, Bazzill Basics ribbon and a few images from Hudson Holidays.




I Wish you all a Happy Easter and a wonderful day shared with your loved ones. Thanks for visiting.

K

Mish-Mosh

Happy Friday to Everyone, I thought I would share a few things today.

First off, head over to my other blog (The Scrappy Tree) to see our ATC swap. We have lots of talented and fun people that are sure to make it a great swap!


Next up a field trip Friday from a few weeks ago, Gum's Antiques.
Gum's is probably one of the more interesting Antique Malls I have been in. The store sits off a main street, smack dab in the middle of the city, surrounded by schools, suburban areas and commercial business'. The main building itself is a large warehouse, with a corragated vinyl roof, attached to an old barn and another small structure in front. The main building used to be a green house and still has lots of foliage and ivy growing around it. The roof allows the sun to shine in with diffused light, which creates a wonderful natural glow to explore all the treasures inside. A 20 ft.rock sculpture with an attached pond and working waterfall sits in the middle of room, with a stone path that leads all around it. The ponds holds many turtles & Koi fish, which make you feel like you are outside strolling in a park, especially as the waterfall flows in the background. There is a beautiful planked bridge that sits over one section of the pond and gives you a perfect view of the water life activities. The sellers booths are set up along the sides of the building with red awnings covering and separating each section. Because it is a mall style antique store, the variety of things, new and old is endless and unique. The building is old and open to the elements but somehow the treasures inside are perfectly situated, well kept and priced very reasonably. The two story barn in back which is attached to the main building, holds even more treasures. The selling point to visit in my opinion, is definitely the deck that leads from the barn, on the second story out into the warehouse, giving a stunning view of the open space. The small building in front holds more of the case high end items, such as jewelry, collectibles and fine china. Overall this antique mall is like no other I have seen and very worth your time to visit if you are in the area. Not knowing I would find such a treasure, I tried to capture some pictures but only had my iphone, so the quality of the pictures is not that great but it gives you an idea of all the uniqueness of the building and the treasures worth exploring inside. See the slide show and address below.

Gum's Antique Mall & Collectibles

phone- 562-809-0373

21330 Norwalk Blvd

Hawaiian Gardens, CA 90716

A few treasures from Gum's I had to have :)
from left top: An Asian inspired bracelet made of bone (I will make jewelry out of it), some Mexican or Spanish inspired jewelry & accents, floral frogs (one for my friend Julz ), knick knacks , vintage buttons, vintage jewelry and pieces, novelty pieces, more buttons, plastic beads, vintage glass beads, old display case (that will become a wall hanging soon), tons of great vintage postcards and a year book and vintage paper doll books.


Lastly, here is a little book I worked on for a friend. She just had a new addition added, so now she has two adorable little guys :) I used one of my Backporch Memories kits, all Sassafras papers and stickers. I just love Sassafras, for kids projects especially! A Maya Road mini bare chipboard album and a handful of other misc. pieces.









Thanks for stopping by, I am still working on a few other field trips to the ArtBar I visited in the Santa Ana Artist Village, my Disney world trip and Valentines day in Temecula with my hubby.

See you soon!

K