"When our eyes see our hands doing the works of out hearts, the circle of creation is completed inside us, the doors of our soul flies open and love steps forth to heal everything in signt"

-- Michael Bridge

Monday, December 19, 2011

Lawnscaping #24 Challenge: Texture...YES, PLEASE!

Happy Monday friends. I've missed you all. Hope you're all doing well. Crazy time of year, I'm just trying to be with my family and enjoy it at this point.

I woke up this morning and saw on Facebook that the new Lawnscaping Challenge (#24) is Texture!!!

Texture is one of my favorite things to incorporate into my projects! And I just so happened to create a card that I think fits the bill!



So, for this card, I started by stamping and paper piecing my most fave new Lawn Fawn Stamps - Frosty Friends - and setting them aside. Next I created a heat embossed snowflake background (using a new Hero Arts Snoflake stamp I picked up in my Thanksgiving Day travels) on some Neenah Solar White paper (the embossing powder was clear) and Distress Inks. Then I decided to make another fun snowglobey card using Bo Bunny Button Packaging (again - I’m sorry, I love this effect!) and Martha Stewart’s Chunky Glitter! I added some bows to the snow-girls and then used Glossy Accents to glue the packaging down. YAY for recycling!!!

The Cuttlebug REALLY helped me out here. Turns out one of the circle dies fit the recycled packaging perfectly! Gave me clean effortless edges. I just cut the circle into the 4 1/4 X 5 1/2 card front and it fit right over the packaging.

I finished the card off with a puuuuurty banner from Lawn Fawn's Bannerific and was thrilled that the "Merry Christmas" sentiment from Bows & Holly fit into it perfectly!!! And I have to say - I LOVE love LOVE those little birdies from Making Frosty Friends! They have to be my most favorite Lawn Fawn Birds - all cozy in their lil scarves!!

Here is a closer-upper view so you can see the embossing & great texture that I was able to incorporate:

Anyway, thanks for peeking in on me today! I don't know if I'll have another post before Christmas - if I don't please know how much I hope you all have a wonderful holiday! Filled with God's promises, hope, and love!!! Thanks for being my friends and for supporting and encouraging me along my creative journey. I love you guys for that! Merry Christmas and God Bless!!!!

Friday, December 9, 2011

Lawnscaping RED Blog Hop!!!!

Hi there friends!! Welcome to the Lawnscaping ALL ABOUT RED blog hop!!!! You should have hopped over to me from the fabulous: Patricia’s blog, and I’m so happy you’re here!!

I’m super excited for today’s hop & can’t wait to see all of the goodness that’s in store for us all this weekend! I mean, lets be serious - with Lawn Fawn involved how could every project NOT be amazing right?!?

A few things you should know, the hop runs from December 9th through December 11th! Make sure you comment on everyone’s blog because Lawnscaping has lined up some fabulous prized (AS USUAL) and you don’t want to miss your chance at winning one!!! The amazing sponsors for this hop are LAWN FAWN, MOLD MUSE, and WHISKERS GRAPHICS - you can find all of the full details on Lawnscaping Blog!!!! The more blogs you comment on, the more chance you have to win. You may even make some new friends along the way, Lawn Fawn fans are by far the sweetest and most creative peeps out there!!!

Anyway, so you’re here to check out my project!!! I went with the RED theme and decided to go different that what I though everyone else would be doing. I made a Christmas gift for my daughter’s preschool teacher using various Lawn Fawn Stamps, Festive Berries Distress Ink, beer bottle caps (that I’ve literally been saving for A YEAR), Fancy Pants’ Off to School Collection, Envirotex Lite Resin, a 1" circle punch, a roll of magnets, a metal tin, and Copics. Basically, what I made her was a cute little decorative tin of magnets using Copic Colored Lawn Fawn Images and beer bottle caps. Here is a look at the outside of the tin:

and here is a look at the outside:


The paper is a school themed paper, and I just used some Festive Berries Distress Ink on the edges of all of the paper. Just for added redness.

Here is how you make them:
1. Save your beer bottle caps for a LOOOONG time (and even harass your friends for theirs). Twist off caps work best because you have to glue the magnet on it.
2. Get a Metal tin (you can find them at your LSS, Michaels, Joanne Fabrics)
3. Punch out 1" circles of the patterned paper you like (1" fits PERFECTLY into the beer bottle cap).
4. Distress Ink the circles around the edges.
5. Stamp a ton of images (LAWN FAWN, OF COURSE) onto white paper (I used Copic white paper) and color the images in with Copics.
6. Fussy cut the images out (also known as paper piecing) and position them on the 1" circles that you cut and then cut off excess.
7. Use Glossy Accents to glue your circle into the bottle cap (this is important otherwise the circle will shift when you add the resin).
8. Follow directions on resin package. I had to mix two liquids together. Then you VERY CAREFULLY (we're taking super sticky stuff here) pour them into the bottle caps filling them almost all the way. I did this on my Craft Mat.
9. Let them dry for a day or two.
10. Add Magnets to the back of the bottle caps using Glossy Accents.
11. Decorate you tin!!

Here is a loot at the backs of them:



That's it. It was quite time consuming, but I just love the result. Nifty ORIGINAL gift idea for a teacher. They each will hold up 2 or 3 sheets of paper onto a fridge, filing cabinet, etc. Like I said, I made them last year and the teachers flipped!!!

I hope you enjoyed my project, it was super fun to make. I love recycling & re-purposing items in my crafting! It makes it so much more fun to see something that you’d just throw away morph into something totally cool. Thanks for popping in! Next on the hop is the super talented Shien Shien hop over and see what she’s up to. Remember, if you get lost anywhere along the hop, just head back over to Lawnscaping’s Blog & they’ll get you back on track! YAY Lawnscaping!!!