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

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

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

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

      

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

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.

The back wall was created from chipboard and die cut using 

Tim Holtz's Distressed Doily Die. I covered it with the

Little Darlings Cherished paper. The flowers in the 

background were fussy cut from the Sweet Sentiments

paper. The ribbons on the pole were cut from

papers from Secret Garden's 6x6 pad. 

The lovely girls were stamped from the "Clara" stamp

which is part of G45's Nutcracker Sweet Stamp Set #1.

Their dresses were paper pieced using papers from 

Sweet Sentiments and Secret Garden's 6x6 pad. 

The flowers are from Hobby Lobby. The trims and doilies

are from friends. 

!!!!WELCOME SPRING!!!!

Blessings!

Millie 

Easter/Paris Themed ATCs

This month over at Creating the Crafty Life, Misty is hosting an ATC swap. For those who don't know, ATCs are tiny works of art that are always swapped and never sold. They're like trading cards for grow ups. :-)

We had a choice of doing either a Paris theme or a traditional Easter theme using the beautiful pastel colors of spring. I couldn't make up my mind, so I melded both themes together and this is the result.

Voila! Easter in Paris! I found the egg shaped ATC cards through an Etsy seller. I edged the sides with Dusty Concord Distress Ink, then covered the front and back with the pretty Kirby Teesdale paper from Paper Studio (Hobby Lobby).  

The flowers in the back are from a beautiful trim I found at Goodwill last year (10 yards for $7.99!!!). The glittery Eiffel Tower is a Jolee sticker.

I found the springy Victorian ladies online, resized them, and printed them off on some pearlized card stock. The sentiment, "Joyeuses Pasques" (Happy Easter) was also printed on the same card stock. The purple flowers are from an online seller (who's name escapes me at the moment) and the yellow roses are from the $1.50 spot at Michael's. I used an EK Success punch for the green branches.

This is my first set of ATCs and I think I'm hooked. It's a great project if you're looking to satisfy your urge to make something but are a little short on time. :-) 

Blessings!

Millie