Milliemade: 2014

Saturday, July 26, 2014

CCL Graphic 45 YouTube/Blog Hop

I'm so excited to be a part of Creating the Crafty Life's Graphic 45 YouTube/Blog Hop this month!

If you are coming from Stephanie's YouTube channel, onestepupcreations, you're on the right track! If you just happened to come across my blog and would like to hop along, please start over at Misty's channel, ziggy13mity1 as she is our Hostess!

Hands down, Graphic 45's collections are my absolutely favorites to work with. I discovered them a few years ago when I was searching for some Wizard of Oz papers and boy did I find some! To this day, their now retired Magic of Oz collection is STILL my favorite of them all (so far).

But there are many that run a very close 2nd and An Eerie Tale is one of them! Misty is carrying it in her store right now. Check it out at MB Treasurista.

What I love about this particular collection is that it's probably their most feminine Fall/Halloween collection yet. The colors and images are gorgeous and very versatile. For my project, I decided to alter one of two paper mache books I found at my local Goodwill store. I got them for just a couple of dollars and one of them went from this:

TO THIS! I love fairy tales and that was the focus of this piece. I started out by giving the book a good couple of coats of gesso and then some black paint. After that, the fun began! The book measures approximately 7.5"x 11.25". I gave the pages a coating of metallic gold ink and then embossed them for texture. Next, I covered the top pages with "Unsolved Mystery" and rubbed it with some ink in an eggplant color. The whole book was edged in black cotton lace from Hobby Lobby and some bling from AC Moore. The satin "bookmark" at the bottom was dyed with Ranger's Adirondak Color Wash sprays.

For the center, I made some of the flowers using "Magic Spell" and "Abracadabra". The orange blooms are from Michael's and the off white cherry blossoms came from Misty's store. The vines were cut from a Sizzix die and glittered with green Stickles. It's a a little hard to see, but there's a clock behind all those embellishments. It was inked and embossed in gold.

I fussy cut several of the images from the collection to create the scene in the middle. The crowned little reader in the corner is not part of the collection. She is an illustration by Jessie Wilcox Smith. You've seen her work before. Her sweet images have shown up in a few G45 collections (Do you know which ones???) and her work is just beautiful.

At the top, I attached a pretty cotton doily that I dyed using Ranger's Adirondak Color Wash sprays in Wild Plum, Sunset Orange, and Lettuce. I used my Sharpie pens to color the metal butterfly and applied some more Stickles. A crown sits on the left of one of the chipboard pieces from the collection. He's hard to see, but on the right, there is a little owl stickpin.

Love working with this paper! Be sure to visit the rest of the YouTube channels and blogs for a few chances to win some great prizes.

Winners will be chosen randomly from one of the videos/blog plus there are some hidden prizes from the ladies too. Make sure to comment & subscribe/follow on all of the hop stops! Here is what's up for grabs for the grand prize:

Friday, July 11, 2014

CCL Paris in July ATC Swap

Bonjour! That's it for me in French!

This month over at Creating the Crafty Life, one of our members is hosting a "Paris in July" ATC swap! The guidelines are simple: the cards must be Paris themed, in shades of blues or pinks, fully embellished on the front, and standard ATC size (2.5"x3.5").

Before I began, I did a little research to find out what sort of things are happening in Paris during the month of July. This year, the Tour de France began on July 5th in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England and will end in Paris on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées on July 27th so I chose this event as the theme for my cards.

Each swapper will receive 4 cards. I made two extras: one to keep and one for our hostess.

I have a drawer full of metal gears in all sizes so I adhered them to the cards to mimic the gears on a bicycle. The background is a sketch of the Arc de Triomphe which is located on the western end of the Champs-Élysées. I also used a vintage photo of a cyclist from the race. To finish it off, I attached

two very small ribbon roses on the right, the dates of the race, and a vintage street plaque on top.

Each ATC will be sent in a special envelope and a little card explaining some details about the race. Thanks, Christy, for hosting such a great swap! These cards are so quick to make and fun! And it's a great way to share your art with others. :-)

Have a great weekend!

Blessings!

Melissa

Friday, June 27, 2014

CCL Red, White, and Blue Holiday Challenge: Patriotic ATCs and Tag

I'm in a patriotic mood this week so I completed two more projects to enter the challenge over at Creating the Crafty Life.

A friend of mine over at CCL is on a big ATC kick and it must be contagious because after watching her video, I needed to make some too. :-)

For those who don't know, ATC is short for "Artist Trading Cards". They've been around a while. Cards are typically 2.5"x 3.5" and are supposed to be traded never sold. It's a great way to use up scraps and a challenge because of the small size. I created the ones below from scraps of Authentique's Glory papers.

The next project I created was a tag shaped like a 4th of July rocket.

Both projects were quick and relatively easy to do. The hardest and longest part of my creative process is ALWAYS deciding what to do and how to do it!

!!!HAPPY 4TH EVERYONE!!!

Blessings!

Melissa

Saturday, June 21, 2014

CCL Red, White, & Blue Holiday Challenge: Patriotic Altered Canvas

!!!HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SUMMER!!!

This month, Misty over at Creating the Crafty Life is hosting a Red, White, & Blue Holiday Challenge. It's a fun challenge and the prize is awesome as usual.

We can make anything we want as long as it incorporates the colors red, white, and blue. I decided to alter a 5"x5" preprinted canvas that I picked up at Joann's a while ago in their $1 bin. The canvas started out looking like this:

Cute, but not very patriotic so, after several coats of gesso, inks, papers, paint, and modeling paste, I turned it into this:

Most of the papers for this project came from Authentique's Glory collection from last year. I found the image of the pretty lady on the Internet. Everything else is from the "hoard vault" (my stash).

I dyed the little crochet doily using Tim Holtz's Distress Inks in Fired Brick and Faded Jeans. The flag and the blue star on the bottom left were cut from a Tim Holtz Movers and Shapers die I scored at AC Moore this week on clearance for a whopping $1.50! I wanted a fire cracker/rocket on there somewhere so I made one from the papers and used hemp to make the whatchamadingies on the bottom (sorry, the name escapes me right not-will edit later...)

In the back, I painted the canvas a light blue, then used my script stencil to apply some modeling paste for dimension. The metal piece and blingy halo were also clearance finds from Michael's and AC Moore. The white fringe on the bottom has been in the vault for quite a while.

The challenge runs until July 6th, so, if there's time, I might be able to squeeze another project in. Up for grabs is this great little prize package:

To enter, you must be a member of the CCL community. It's free to sign up and it's a great way to connect with fellow artists and crafters from around the world. Sign up, then view the guidelines for the challenge here.

Blessings,

Melissa

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

G45 BY THE SEA: SHIP IN A BOTTLE

This is the third project using Graphic 45's By the Sea collection. I wanted to do a ship in a bottle but since my chubby fingers couldn't fit into a narrow necked bottle, I decided to recycle a pickle jar. Even with the extra room, it was still a little bit of a challenge for my pudgy hands. But I'm happy with the results.

I constructed the boat origami style and then attached

the pretty blue check papers. I used a dowel for the sail

and did a lot of fussy cutting. I love the little boy images.

They remind me of my own sons. :-)

The top and bottom of the jar is wrapped with twine and

I attached a pretty crystal bobble for the knob at the top.

For the "ocean" I used blue cellophane, cut into strips and

melded together with my heat gun. I was able to insert the boat

without glue because its just tall enough to reach the top

and bottom of the jar without being crushed.

I used one of the chipboard tags from the collection, a

Tim Holtz compass piece, an anchor from my son's toybox,

and assorted roses and shells. I cut a fence from some corrugated paper

using a Tim Holtz On the Edge die.

Blessings,
Melissa

Saturday, May 31, 2014

CCL TP Mini Album Challenge

This past month, over at Creating the Crafty Life, they're having a TP mini challenge. A TP mini is an album made of a several empty toilet paper rolls. They're quick, easy, and a lot of fun to make not to mention a great way to recycle.

I've had DCWV's Colorful Life papers in my stash for a while and decided to use it for the project below. This mini will hold some of my favorite art quotes. Enjoy!

Millie

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Graphic 45 By the Sea Projects 2014

Last October, our family headed to Mystic Seaport for the long Columbus Day weekend. It was such a great trip and when I saw Graphic 45's beautiful By the Sea collection, I knew exactly what to do with it.

I created three coordinating projects: a mini album, a box to store our memorabilia, and a sextant for the top of the box because I just had to be different! Below are the photos.

I love the colors for this collection! Perfect for summer

and patriotic holidays!

For those who don't know,

a sextant is a navigational device used by seaman

It looks something like this:

It took me a while to figure out how to make one

out of chipboard but I think I got the gist of it. :-)

The sextant sits on top of the box. I didn't glue it down

so I could remove it whenever we wanted to look

through our souvenirs in the box.

I kept the inside of the box pretty plain partly because

I was exhausted from constructing the sextant and

the mini (haha)!. It's actually an old cigar box

I found at Goodwill for .99 cents.

I made a pocket from some fishing net and attached a

photo of one of the many ships we saw that

weekend.

I owe a great deal of thanks to Gloria Stengel. I absolutely

love her mini flip book design and have made

several of them using different collections. The one below

is the most complex version I've made yet.

Her original design is approximately 6" x 6". I adjusted

the size and made some modifications to the design, but

the basic structure is still there. It's a great design

and easy to put together. And Gloria's tutorial

is excellent!

The whole project took about two months to complete but it was worth. Love how it all came together.

Blessings,

Melissa

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Celebrating Spring! Graphic 45 May Pole

Around these parts, Spring is taking it's dear sweet time making it's entrance so I decided to create a little bit of my own.

For this project, I created a May Pole using papers from Graphic 45's Sweet Sentiments, Secret Garden, and a sheet of the Cherished paper from their adorable (but retired) Little Darlings collection.