Saturday, January 31, 2009

Clocks x3

*****Our give-away is still open! See post below*****




In January it seems like we focus a lot on time . We wonder where the previous year went. We buy new calendars. We make goals on how we're going to spend our time: more time with family, more time crafting...



With this in mind, we thought it'd be fun to all make clocks for our one craft-three ways post this month. (For another clock idea, check out this post by Anisa!)

Here they are:


Left to right, largest to smallest are Cami, Anisa, Angie.

Anisa's is a painted wood circle and the lovely paper is velvet-embossed.


Angie's is a wooden frame painted, embellished with cardstock designs cut using the Cricut and patterned paper behind the clock hands.


As for mine, I have a funny story to tell.



Crafts don't always go the way we want them to. Everything was going well with my clock. I painted a wooden circle with the paint I'd just used on my walls. The hands I'd made looked good after I'd embossed them with Ultra-Thick Embossing Enamel. I'd cut perfect circles out of scrapbook paper and thought I'd attach them with Mod-Podge. Things went horribly wrong as the cardstock started to warp and it began getting smeared, very obviously, over my careful paint job (during which I ruined a pair of jeans and almost ruined a sweater. Lesson: wear paint clothes while using paint!). I quickly removed the cardstock (my patterned paper survived), cut another circle of the same size and used a different adhesive. Unfortunately, Mod-Podge soaks into paper quickly and it had enlarged my original circle which in turn left a tacky paper-fuzz ring on the wood and it could not be removed or covered up with the original circle.

At this point it was time to go to Anisa's house so that we could get the clocks photographed together, so I thought I'd figure it out later, edit my finished clock into the photo for today's post.
I had a lot of fix-it ideas, but favored the idea of placing beads all around the cardstock to cover up the mess Mod-Podged mess. There are no brown tube beads at my local craft store so I looked around some more. I got the idea to use embossing powder to cover up the mess. I bought it and started heat embossing around my cardstock circle.
The embossing wasn't great, but I noticed another problem that my heat gun was causing. The acrylic wall paint was beginning to bubble and the Mod-Podge was turning an aged and dirty yellow color.
Right now, my clock is gross. My good-looking clock hands curled after I left the clock out in the cold garage for a few hours and the paint on the wood is beyond help. I am literally going to have to start all over and I will, right after I go buy sand paper... :(

Monday, January 26, 2009

Silhouettes

I have been seeing silhouette profiles everywhere lately.  I did a weekly discovery post on them a couple of months ago.    I just thought I would show you how my family turned out!!!

This was such an easy and inexpensive way to decorate my living room.

Supplies:
Digital Camera
Printer
Pencil
Scissors
Adhesive
Black Cardstock
White Cardstock
Picture Frames (I purchased mine from a thrift store and painted them black)

What I did.....
1.  I took profile pictures of my family next to a plain wall.
2.  I uploaded the pictures to my computer and printed them the size I wanted them.
3.  I cut out the profiles
4.  I traced my cutouts on my black cardstock.
5.  I cut out my profiles again.
6.  I cut the white card stock to the size of my frame (most 8x10)
7.  I used adhesive to adhere the profile to the cardstock.
8.  Stick it in a frame, hang it on your wall and enjoy!

Monday, January 12, 2009

Dabbling in Digital

I am a scrapbooker:) I am a traditional scrapbooker and I will never concert to digital. I love the hands-on approach and I love texture.  I love ribbons and buttons and things with dimension.  However, I thought it would be fun to dabble in a little digital scrapbooking with my December Daily album.  I downloaded some free kits from Shabby Princess.  Then I bought some more kits from Shabby Princess.  I love their stuff and I love that they have a lot of great freebies.  Here is one of my finished pages. I just ordered the prints today and I may have a heart attack when it comes back with all of these fake buttons on it. But it was nice to be able to scrapbook in my car or sitting in my bed late at night.


Here are a few more sites that I like for digital scrapbooking.



Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Winter Wood Crafts

I love wood crafts and tole painting. I just wanted to show you some of the winter wood crafts that I have hanging around my house. These cute little guys are hanging out on my front porch.

I have a rod iron in my family room with these fun little guys hanging from it.



These little guys are on my buffet table.
Some are old and some are new, but they are all hand crafted by me!
-Anisa

Friday, January 2, 2009

Christmas Crafts

Here are the Christmas craft gifts that I made. I made this Coke apron for my Sister-in-law, Sydney who has a Coke kitchen. Cami helped me make this necklace and earrings for my beautiful niece, Natisha.
I don't usually make Christmas gifts, but this was really fun!
-Anisa