Imaginisce Monster Mash Home Decor Projects and a Layout

Imaginisce is having their Monster Mash release party, and there have been lots of fun Halloween projects on the blog that you can check out.  I had the opportunity to play with this fun new collection back in May when I was asked to make sample projects for their fall catalog.  I already showed you the Christmas Cheer projects I made, now here are my Monster Mash projects:

This wall hanging was inspired by the cute characters in this collection.

I wanted to show off each one, so I bought five pre-cut pre-routed wood blocks from the craft store, painted them purple, and used Mod Podge to adhere the patterned paper to the front.

Then I added the character die cuts using dimensional foam adhesive and embellished a couple of them with the I-Rock Tool and Hot Rocks.

Each of the blocks were glued onto a long black ribbon using the I-Bond glue gun,

and then I tied a variety of matching ribbons onto each section.

Most of the ribbons are from May Arts.

I also made a couple of simple treat bags.

And a fall themed layout of by boys four years ago painting pumpkins.

This collection is great for Halloween, but it's also perfect for fall-themed projects.

The burlap is from Canvas Corp.

And again, I popped up the die cuts with foam dimensional adhesive.

Be sure to stop by the Imaginisce Blog to see more fun Monster Mash projects!

Thanks for visiting!

-Tiffany

Back To School with Imaginisce- Magnet Board Gift with Tutorial

Imaginisce is celebrating Back To School on the blog- and it's perfect timing.

My kids just went back TODAY!

YAY!!! :)

I created a super super simple teacher gift and I've included a photo tutorial so you can make one for your child's teacher, too!  It's a magnet board!

With cute little matching magnets

To get started, you will need:

- a stiff metal sheet (you can find these already made from the craft store)

- a 1 1/4 inch circle punch

- a 2x4 cut to the length of your metal sheet

- magnets

- glass pebbles (from the floral section of the craft store- 1 1/4 diameter)

- paint

- Mod-Podge (how many tutorials have I done with Mod-Podge? :)

- foam brush

- paper plate

- Crystal Effects or E6000 or Glossy Accents (all dry crystal clear)

- patterned paper

- I-Bond glue gun and black glue sticks

Cut a slanted notch into the 2x4 for the metal to go into.  Paint the board black (or desired color).

When the paint has dried, put some Mod-Podge onto a paper plate, and using a foam brush, apply a thick coat to the front of the wood.  Place the paper over the top, and then smooth out using a hard plastic item, such as a ruler or a vinyl applicator or a plastic gift card.  Smoothing it gets a good seal and gets the bubbles out.

 Then paint another layer of Mod-Podge over the top of the paper and wipe off the excess and smooth out the brush strokes.

Repeat the steps with the other paper strip.

Then, to make the magnets:

Punch out several images from your patterned paper.

Apply a TINY bead of Crystal Effects (or Glossy Accents, or E6000) to the back of the glass pebble.

Gently press the punched image face down into the Crystal Effects.  Turn it over to see if you've pressed out all the air bubbles.  Press until they're gone and wipe off the excess. (E6000's the least messy glue I've done this with, it's thick).

When your pebbles have dried, add the magnets.

Use black glue sticks to make the project more clean looking.

Voila!

Just put it together and add a ribbon and you've got a darling gift any teacher would love to receive.

Thanks for visiting!

See more "Back To School" projects over on the Imaginisce Blog all this week!

-Tiffany

CreaTV for Northridge Publishing "Make It Your Own" Challenge

I had the great opportunity last month to film some segments for My Craft Channel and CreaTV for Northridge Publishing, and I'm telling you- filming is so much harder than it looks!

I've done a ton of teaching, and love talking to people and doing classes, but

I was surprised how awkward I felt talking to a camera :)

Here is one of the shows I did, this one is the CreaTV Scrapbook Trends "Make It Your Own" challenge.

I was given Pamela Young's scrapbook layout from the May issue of Scrapbook Trends (pg. 94-95) and asked to create a project inspired by her layout.

This is what I came up with- enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF-MJjDKkF8&feature=share

-Tiffany

Doodlebug Santa's Village Home Decor and Gift Idea

I got some exciting news today!! I'm getting published for the first time!!!  I've never submitted anything for publication so I thought I'd try.  I submitted a card and a layout, so you'll see them in May 2012 in the Create: Idea Book- All About Baby.  YAY!! :)

I'm also super excited to share this cute project with you that I made using the Santa's Workshop collection from Doodlebug!  I was inspired by this ad that's in Scrapbook Trends magazine.  

 I saw this cute house in the ad and I thought "I want one of those!"

..... so I made one :)

Here's some of the items I used to create this project, so when I mention one of them you'll know what I'm talking about.

(Doodlebug's Chunky Sugar Coating Glitter in Lily White, white acrylic craft paint, sponge brushes, Mod-Podge, Aleene's Glitter Snow, Diamond Dust and a hot glue gun.)

Are you ready?

Here's my project!

Told you it was cute! ;)

It's made of wood and the storefronts are cut using the Cricut and the My Community cartridge.  The original buildings were a bank, a market, etc and I used my gypsy to remove a lot of the lines and writing on the buildings so I could make them my own. I cut out and assembled all the pieces except the Doodle Pops stickers, traced them onto wood and cut them out.  Then I painted the wood white, and Mod-Podged the storefronts onto the front of the wood the same way I did with the Turkey tutorial.  If you want to see step-by-step how to do that, see the tutorial  HERE.

When the Mod-Podge was dry, I added the Doodle Pops stickers.

The rooftops were "snowed on" using Aleene's Glitter snow.  It's like toothpaste that you can apply any way you want and it dries hard as a rock.  To get the "snow" look I dabbed it on with a popsicle stick and let some of it fall over the edge.  Then while it was still wet I sprinkled it with Doodlebug's Chunky Sugar Coating Glitter.

 The wreath is a Doodle Pops cardstock sticker, and the other characters are all from the Santa's Workshop cardstock sticker sheet.

 I also used the Fancy Frills stickers for various things, like this white door "awning," and see the cute candy cane doorknob?  It's a brad!

I hot glued the stores onto the base board before moving on to the rest of the snow.....

Doesn't this snow look nice and soft and fluffy?

Well it's not- it's hard as a rock, too.  I ran out of Aleene's Glitter Snow, and of course since it's winter time it was sold out in the store, so I found Diamond Dust, which looks like a jar full of clear shards of glass, and mixed Mod Podge with it and spread it all over the base of the board like frosting a cake, using a popsicle stick.  Then again, I sprinkled it with Doodlebug's Chunky Sugar Coating Glitter.

 I love how the glitter's iridescent, and has pink and blue hints to it when the light hits it.

 Santa and Mrs. Claus!  Cute, huh?  The doorknobs on all the buildings are all brads.

 And the sign's a Cute Cuts cut-out.

This rooftop has more Fancy Frills stickers.  The snowflake is a Doodle Pops sticker.

 and this elf is a Doodle Pops sticker, too, as well as the tree with the rhinestones.

 Here's what the rooftops look like close-up with Aleene's Glitter Snow.

 This building I added the chimney to, cut by hand.  The top of the building, and window awnings, and the trim at the bottom are all Fancy Frills stickers, and the poinsettia is a Doodle Pops sticker.

 More cute doorknob brads.

I hope you like it.  It's sure brightening up our house!

I hope your holidays are merry and bright, too!

-Tiffany

Fun Home Decor Wood Turkey Tutorial! (Mod-Podge anyone?? :)

 Hello!

Am I the cutest thing or what?

I had fun with my Cricut on Saturday.  I don't have a lot of "Thanksgiving" decor- so I thought I'd make a 3D version of the cutest turkey on the Create-A-Critter Cricut Cartridge.

  He's made of wood!  Fun, right?  And he's covered with sparkly and soft fuzzy Doodlebug goodness!

Here's how I made him:

Using my Gypsy I separated the body and hat image to cut each one individually on different types of paper.

 The "Hide" feature is my favorite part of the Gypsy.  I love being able to cut parts of images if I need to.

The Cricut images were all cut at 11"

For the body I used Doodlebug's Crushed Velvet cardstock (so he has a soft fuzzy body) and Sugar Coated cardstock in Bon Bon (for some sparkly wings).

I used Crushed Velvet cardstock for the hat, too, in Beetle Black.

 I have the Cricut Expression and the rollers will leave small lines in the Crushed Velvet cardstock which can be brushed over with your hands and they disappear, or you can cut the image upside down (flip feature) and flip the cardstock over too so that the rollers roll over the back of the cardstock instead of the front.

 All the cardstock for all the layers is Doodlebug.

Once you have all the layers cut out, place them over one another (don't glue them together), line them up well, and then cut off the bottom of the image so that you have a flat bottom for the wood pieces to stand upright on.

Keep the cute little feet.  You'll cut those out of wood, too, just not attached to the body.

 Lay all your pieces on a sheet of wood (this is a scrap from another project).

I used wood that's 3/4 inch thick.

 Trace all images with a pencil and set paper pieces aside.  Cut out the wood images on a Band-Saw.

 Here's all the finished wood pieces.  I changed the design of the wings at the last minute.  I wanted the wings to stand out instead of the chest of the turkey standing out.  If you notice the brown sparkly body image above, I just cut the wings out of that.

 Now for the fun part!

I love painting and glittering!  Paint the outer edges of your wood pieces, and paint a little on the front just around the edge in case your paper doesn't cover the entire front of the wood piece exactly.

 While your paint is still wet, DUMP glitter all over the paint.  I used Doodlebug's Sugar Coating glitter.  Do this over a Tidy Tray that's been rubbed with an Embossing Buddy (to control static) so that you can save the leftover glitter and put it back into the bottle.  The glitter goes a very long way.  After tapping off the excess and putting the extra back into the bottle you'll be surprised how little glitter is used, but due to the wet paint, the piece gets fully covered.

 Repeat on all pieces that you want glittered.

When the paint has dried, pull out the Mod Podge!

 You'll want to do each item one at a time.

Paint the front of the piece with a layer of Mod Podge.

 Quickly place the cut piece of cardstock from the Cricut machine over the wet Mod Podge and smooth with a credit card or other smoothing tool to get out all air bubbles.  Usually when using Mod Podge you would then paint over the paper as well to seal the paper.  I skipped this step because I wanted the paper to still be glittery or velvety.

 Repeat with all other pieces.

 Also- you'll want to pay attention to all the edges.  Make sure Mod Podge gets under the whole edge so that when dry, the paper doesn't lift and curl.  Don't worry about the mess- Mod Podge dries clear (I used Gloss Luster and it dries clear.  Some Mod Podge products have color or sparkle in them, so get one that dries clear.)

 I then cut a 3/4 inch strip of the Crushed Velvet cardstock using my paper trimmer to wrap around the outer edge of his body so that his head and body would be soft as well.

 Then I hot-glued each layer together, added some googly eyes, and a Making Memories ribbon and buckle for the hat.

I glued his cute feet to the front of him so that he looks like he's sitting.  Cute feet, right? :)

 Gobble gobble!!!

Hope I've inspired you to create something for your home and to try something new!

Supplies used:

Doodlebug Sugar Coated Carstock in Bon Bon, Ladybug and Tangerine (wings, red feathers, beak and the red hangy-down thingy (does that thing have a name?  ha ha! :)

Doodlebug Crushed Velvet Cardstock in Bon Bon and Beetle Black (body and hat)

Doodlebug Spot Glittered Cardstock in Tangerine (feet and back feathers)

Doodlebug Sugar Coating glitter in Bon Bon, Ladybug and Tangerine (for the edges of each layer)

googly eyes

Making Memories ribbon and buckle

-Tiffany