Ye Olde St. Patty's Decor by Laura C

Have you enjoyed our National Craft Month posts this week?

Hopefully you are inspired to get crafty this month!!

One of my favorite things to do is altered art projects, so for

our special National Craft Month posting, I mixed the fun of

altered art with the idea of home decor for one of my favorite

holidays.....St. Patrick's Day!  And so,  St. Paddy's Pub was born:

This project is the kind of thing National Craft Month is about,

to me....just playing!!  With paper, and ink, and tools....it's

all about fun!  I have a few close ups of the steps along the way:

I started with a divided box I picked up on clearance, it's

similar to a Tim Holtz Configurations Box, the edges are

 painted with an Adirondack Paint Dauber (I used Lettuce)

And here is the side view:

I covered the sides and the B&W strip in each cubby

using Core d'nations embossed cardstock, you can do

this yourself or use a pre-embossed type, then sand to

bring out the embossing.  And then I started the cubby

decorations, using bits and pieces of different items:

I used a lot of different Idea-Ology products.....everything

you see here plus a few others on the finished project.
Lost & Found Paper pad, Cash Keys (charm on the calendar
with shamrock sticker inside),Clock Keys (lantern "hanger"),
Corked Vials (small glass jars in small cubby), Game Pieces
 (bingo #17 in red), Plaquettes (porcelain looking #17) , 

Ornate Plates (in lower cubby with Ruler Ribbon inside),
Locket Keys (metal piece on Pub Sign under shamrock),
 Ruler Ribbon (inside ornate plate), Memo Pins (stuck into
wooden spools lower right cubby) and Hanger Clips (holds
small piece of burlap with shamrock sticker in lower cubby),
Salvage Stickers--Crowded Attic (label on mini vial).

  Kim can order you any and all of these fun goodies!
The vials are colored using Adirondack alcohol inks
in Meadow and Sunshine, the calendar is distressed

with a Tonic distress tool, and Distress Ink in Walnut Stain

and Black Soot.  Tiny Attacher staples finish it.

In the close up of this cubby, you'll see I added one of the 

Idea-Ology Woodlands Miniatures dyed with re-inker in a

Mini Mister bottle mixed with water, accented with Paper Twine,

and you can see the Mini Lantern hanging from the clock key

(Yes it's lit up....the battery pack is attached to the back!):

A close up of the left side....

 

I used saved corks (love to recycle!) in addition to the

Tim Holtz goodies.....each cubby is outlined with

Tinsel Twine.....this is FUN stuff....so many different uses!

The top of my little "pub" is a medallion stamped on black

cardstock and embossed with WOW embossing powder 

(the Metalline Green color), the letters are cut out of the the 

Lost and Found pad, inked with Black Soot Ink, layered onto 

chipboard and then painted with Rock Candy Crackle Paint to 

give them an old antique tile look, you can see in the close up:

 

And a close up of the last two cubbies....a little twine,

and Glossy Accents on the bottle cap....and Distress

Stain in Peeled Paint on the wooden spools:

And a final look from a different angle at the finished project:

My "go to" adhesives for a project like this are Scor-Tape

and Glossy Accents.  They really hold, and are both

available in Cutter's Creek. Same goes for the products

used in my project....many are already in-store, and the

others can be ordered any time!  

Hope we have inspired you this week to join in our

National Craft Month fun with some projects of your own!

Tell us what you are inspired to make!! 

Mandie's Keepsakes Box

When I started this project it was going to be a quick and pretty little box. I had a very simple idea in my head for what I wanted to do... and then I found myself adding a little more here and doing a bit more there, and found myself spending many hours creating this little box.

It started lift and a plain wooden "book-look" box that I had purchased a couple years ago, on clearance for $.29. I had purchased several because they were so cheap and cute. Fast forward to a few weeks ago and I decided to FINALLY alter one of them.

To begin, I sprayed the "Pages" part with lots of Glimmer Mist. I started with the Walnut Gold, added some Coffee Shop and then finally some Tattered Leather. Then I used my Black Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabber to paint the rest of the outside of the book. Then I decided to work on the inside of the book first.


I started with some fabric remnants that I picked up at a local craft store. I loved the silky patterned one so I simply used my Scor Tape and adhered it to a sheet of chipboard that I cut slightly smaller than the inside measurements (to allot for the fabric's bulk). Then I used my Glossy Accents to adhere this piece to the inside bottom of my box. Did you know that Glossy Accents is an excellent adhesive as well? I then repeated this to line the inside of my lid. Next a grabbed the music note fabric and cut small pieces of chipboard to do all of the inside sides on the box. Since the music note fabric was plain white cotton I wanted to make it co-ordinate just a bit more. So, I grabbed my Bazzill Splat Mat, my Heat Tool, a Mini Mister filled with water and my Glimmer Mists! First I sprayed the ribbon with water to make the dyes soak in better. Then I randomly sprayed Mel's Diner, Wheat Beer and Meadow Green all over my fabric. I used my Heat Tool to dry it and then cut it to cover my chipboard and used more Scor Tape to adhere it. Then used the Glossy Accents to attach all the pieces to the sides. I also used some giant binder clips to make sure my pieces stayed tight to the surface to dry.


Next I started working on my cover. Remember the Mosaic card I posted here a few days ago? Well, this is the original project that I had cut all those pieces for. I just cut strips from my Echo Park Paper "For the Record" 6 x 6 Paper Pad. This technique would really be great with any of Echo Parks lines! Then I inked all the edges of my pieces by swiping them over my Walnut Stain Distress Ink Pad. Then I very sparingly added Glossy Accents to the back of each piece as I created my pattern. I made sure to leave space for my title piece. Then I used my Glossy Accents to cover each piece of paper to give it a glass tile look and let it dry.


For my title, I had picked up these really cute "mistables" at a LSS a while ago and they've been sitting on my desk waiting for just the right project. I think this qualifies. So I used my Wheat Beer Glimmer Mist to cover the whole thing. Then I used my Barn Door and Walnut Stain Distress Inks around the edges. Then I added a layer of the Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint. When it was dry I added more Walnut Stain Distress Ink to the cracks (just liberally apply it with your Ink Blending Tool and then use a damp cloth to wipe off the top). Then I added 2 layers of chipboard behind it to raise it up a bit more. After I adhered it to my box with more Glossy Accents I then added the Glossy Accents to the top of this as well.


So here is where I will mention what I will call my "Glossy Accident"... I had actually already completed most of my box when I was adding that final title "tile". When I set it aside to dry I didn't realize that it was sitting at the tiniest angle... and when I came back to it to take photos I gasped. The Glossy Accents had slowly traveled over the edge of my tile, through the other tiles and down the side of my box. Well, I'd invested too much time in this box to toss it aside and start again, so I decided to roll with it and disguise it as much as I can! So I added Glossy Accents to the whole top of the box. First I very carefully outlined the whole top of the box with it and let the outline dry on a completely level surface (yes, I checked it with a level to be certain). Then I filled in the rest of the "grout" space with a thin coat. When that was dry I added one more layer to all of my tiles to be sure they all stood out. I love the finished effect!


Ok, so now I will tell you how I decorated the back of my book box. I wanted it to sit flat so I needed a flat design. I created a stencil from one of the shapes in one the For the Record papers. Then I used my White Adirondack Paint Dabber to fill in my shape. When it was dry I removed the mask and then I randomly added my Glimmer Mist using the Wheat Beer, Coffee Shop, Walnut Gold and Tattered Leather to it. Then I painted the Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint over the area and when that was dry I added Scor Tape around the edges, peeled off the backing and covered it with antique gold glitter. A quick simple way to make sure your glitter goes on perfectly straight!

Here's a look at the spine of the book. I simply added my paper (this was a 12 x 12 sheet from the same line) and added some May Arts Velvet Ric Rac to the edges. After that previously mentioned "Glossy Accident" I added the Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint over the top as well to mask that little boo-boo.

I's so thrilled with how my little book box turned out, now I just need to find some special treasures to tuck inside!

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