Floral Door Hanger

     This is my first project for Not Just Cards, a great challenge blog for showcasing your creative makes. No theme, no prizes, just a wealth of inspiration.

     I got to play with some new stash for this project. The MDF door hangers are a new product coming to Stix2 later this month and this is my first time using flower foam.
     I painted my hanger with a dark blue acrylic paint, on both sides, and let it dry.
     To get the crackle I painted the tag with Stix2 PVA glue, keeping the brush strokes all in the same direction. While the glue was still wet I painted over it with a light blue acrylic paint, again keeping all brush strokes in the same direction. As it all dries the cracks start to appear, the more glue you put on the bigger the cracks will be.

     While I waited for the glue to dry I die cut my flower foam. Then using a dauber I added colour to the edges of all the petals, on both sides.
     Once coloured and dried off I twisted all the petals to give them some dimension, I didn't use any heat on these ones. I left them all for a while, then went back and opened them out gently and used a large ball tool to stretch each petal and shape it.

     The die I used had a hole in the middle so I didn't need to poke on to get a small bunch of stamens through the centre of each flower, each flower being two sets of petals. The hole was a little large for a small flower but with the help of some hot glue I managed to get them to stay put.
     The leaves are also foam, coloured with two shades of green and a little brown.
      I put all the flowers on the hanger to see how it looked, took a picture just in case I was distracted, then used hot glue to add them permanently. The Hello was die cut and coloured with the same ink I used on the petals and then stuck on with a strong PVA.
      There are all manner of projects over at Not Just Cards so please take a look, then come and join us with your creations.

I would like to enter this project in the following challenges:

Crafty Creations - Anything Goes
Lemon Shortbread - Anything Goes
Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes
Crafting From The Heart - Anything Goes

Christmas In The Sun......

.......is clearly not good for a snowman.  Our new challenge at Christmas At Sweet Stampin' is Christmas In The Sun. Half the world has a Summer Christmas and I'm ashamed to say I've never really noticed what their cards are like, this is my effort at making a sunny Christmas card.
      On a plain white card I masked the top left corner and used a stencil to add the suns rays in yellow Distress Ink.
      At the bottom I stamped a cloud, which just happens to look like a pool of melting snow. This was also in Distress Ink so I used a water brush to move the ink around a little.
      I stamped a snowman's head on black card and cut out his hat, then cut out a small carrot. These were added to the cloud, along with two googly eyes at a jaunty angle.
      It actually took longer to go through my Christmas stash to find the greeting stamp than it did to make the card, I knew I had a 'warm wishes' somewhere.
      And there you have it, a CAS, lightweight sunny Christmas card with a little humour.
      You don't have to follow our theme at Christmas At Sweet Stampin' but we would love it if you did.

I would like to enter this poor little snowman in the following challenges:

The 12 Months of Christmas - Anything Seasonal / optional - Plaid
CraftyHazelnut's Christmas - Anything Seasonal / optional - For man or Boy
The Holly and Ivy - Anything Christmas
Crimbo Crackers - Anything Goes

Simple Wrapped Journal

     This is based around the Eileen Hull Sizzix die for a Wrapped Journal, with a few adjustments to suit my stash. As this project is built from scratch it makes an ideal item for Altered Eclectics, where all things altered, recycled and mixed media are welcome, anything but cards and ATC's really.

 
     The base was cut from greyboard using the die, it's a Bigz die so it will cut through most materials.
     For the papers I found an A4 booklet of double sided papers in my stash. Using PVA I covered both sides of the greyboard, but when I folded the board the paper split. Now this I think was partly the papers are not all that thick and partly I was too impatient to let the glue dry completely so the paper was still damp, a silly mistake. I did not want to start again so out came the washi tape, a strip of this over all the joins and all was well.
   

     A little ink along the edges to add to the distressed look made quite a difference too.
     To close the book I chose to use a ribbon tie but it needed to be fixed to the journal, I didn't want a hole in the spine to pass it through so I die cut a label to go over it.
     The ribbon was stuck to the cover with red line tape, then the label was stuck over it also with red line tape, this is the strongest thing I could think of to hold the ribbon firmly in place.

     The cover die cuts holes for you to thread cord through to hold booklets, but this one wasn't having those so I had to make a spine to stick my pages to. I planned for four pages in this book, two flat and two with pockets.
     The spine was glued in place with a very strong PVA and left to dry thoroughly.
     I cut and folded my pages using the same paper pack, for the flat pages I also cut labels to stick on for somewhere to write. These labels were inked around the edges to soften them, allowing them to blend into the page.   

     A panel added to the front cover matted on a die cut label finished off the outside. Another panel added to the inside front cover and a die cut ticket slot pouch on the inside back cover, complete with tags finished off the inside.
     There were topper panels in the pack so I cut some of these out and added them to tags, these also have inked edges and a tiny organza ribbon coloured pink with an alcohol marker.
     The pages are alternated pouch, flat, pouch, flat and there is enough space between pages to stick a few items on and still be able to close the journal.
     These would make ideal little keepsake gifts you could theme to special events. This has been a learning experience so hopefully as I make more of these they will continue to improve.
     Don't forget to come over to Altered Eclectics and show us your creations, we would love to see them.

I would like to enter this project in the following challenges:

Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

Crafting From The Heart - Anything Goes

Creative Fingers - Anything Goes

613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes optional More Than One Fold