Tiddly Inks - Fabulous Inky Friday

Greetings everyone!!  I'm popping in for a quick post this evening!  My Fabulous Inky Friday creation uses the seriously sweet Tiddly Inks image "You Are On My Mind".  I have a confession, I colored this image in February.  Yes, February.  I do that sometimes.  I'll print off an image, color it and then let it sit for a while.  Sometimes it's week sometimes, sometimes it's months.  As if the image was waiting for right creation to come along.  =)  kwim?

Anyway, I pulled this card together with a sketch from Paper Smooches, here.  It's the one in the left hand column, third one down.

Cute, right?  =)

I used my new MFT Pinwheel Die-namics stamp and die set.  My papers are Provo-craft, WRMemory Keepers and Bazzill.

Rhinestone swirlies, bakers twine and chiffon ribbon as my embellis!!

Thanks for popping by!

I hope you have a beautifully crafty day!!

Paper Canteen Daily

I have a secret to share...organization isn't exactly my strong suit.  I should add to that statement that I am very good at organizing areas of my house.  It's KEEPING them organized that's the problem.  I rarely put things back where they belong.  I'm not entirely sure why but I do keep exploring to find out the *glitch* if you will, in my system that causes me to do this so that I can eventually correct it.

But...during that exploration process I try to do small things everyday to keep me on track and organized throughout my day, especially in the summer when days sometimes melt (no pun intended) away with little getting done.  My darling husband put up a GIGANTIC white board in our kitchen without which I could not survive!!  Every night I write the next days date and weather and beneath that, a list of bulleted points that need to get accomplished.  I have an area of crafty assignments that need to get done, a psuedo-grocery or household needs list, a wish list for all sorts of things, some passwords for things like forums and whatnot that I can NEVER remember and on and on.  I told you it was a big board!  It's just fabulous and helps a ton.

But what I cannot do is take said board with me when I'm out and about for the day!  So I keep blank 4"x6" notecards available at my fingertips along with lots of pens.  I translate whatever needs to be done (at least out and about) onto my notecard and slip it into my tote when I'm heading out.  Some days my list is rather ho-hum, daunting or otherwise not exciting.  But after I wrote today's list...I looked at it and smiled!  So I thought I'd share it with you all.

I'm looking forward to heading out in about an hour for this super fun day!!

I hope you all have beautiful and organized days planned!!

July Bombshell challenge - Summer Daze

Happy Wednesday gorgeous Bombshells!!  I'm here with bringing you July's fabulous challenge issued by one of our fearless leaders Bombshell Kathi!

Your challenge is to create a "Summer Daze" themed project using Bombshell stamps.  Kathi issued a challenge twist!!  Create an embellishment from scratch!  As you can clearly see...I spaced on this part of the challenge as I must confess I was totally in the creative zone when I was working on this.

I brought out my Bombshell Mermaid Treasure set (loveeeeeeeee!).  And while I would normally trend towards the blues, greens, etc for her tail I wanted to run with the theme of Summer and make her tail super hot and fiery!!  So I reached for my Copics and Prisma markers pulling my hot hot reds out!  It's such a different and fun look, I think!

My Designer Papers are all from Flair Designs - Summer Daze line.  Super appropriate I thought!  I created the layout by simply piecing and cutting and playing around.  My watery stitched background is popped up on 3-D Jody Boosters as well as the large label for my darling mermaid which is also popped up using Jody Boosters (they are FABULOUS...and thank you Joanne for gifting me some!!) and the sentiment is from MFT.  I backed my sentiment with two layers red and bright yellow popping it up for added dimension.

My middle layer is Bazzill red Swiss Dot DP from Michaels, SU! Bashful Blue cardstock and more of the Flair Designs paper.  I ran a zig zag stitch and then added a thin SU! red grosgrain ribbon tied around my silvery anchor charm into a bow and a thicker SU! red and white striped ribbon in a knot. 

I added pearly swirlies in the background for further texture and called it a day!  =)

I hope you have enjoyed and been inspired to play along with us over at the Bombshell Challenge Blog!!

For The Kids - Tabletop Sandbox

Greetings everyone!!  Just popping in to share today's Grunge Art Class theme pictures!!  This afternoon my little grungy crew made the most AMAZING table top sandboxes!  We started with plain decorative boxes that I found in the clearance section at Michael's.  They were flowery and a bit tacky in design.  Think early to mid-1990's flowery patterned sundresses.  LOL!

I had the boys spray paint the boxes white.  I then provided them with a couple of different colored spray paint - in the interest of finances, I raided my husband's basement spray paint collection.  Bright yellow and fluorescent yellow/green.  The boys loved it!

 

Due to the intense humidity here in the Northeast, I knew the paint was not going to dry quickly so I brought scraps of newspaper for them to add to their creations along with Mod Podge.  I taught them how to add the scraps and paint on the Mod Podge with foam brushes to keep the newspaper in place and to add a nice shine to it!

We then made "treasure spoons".  I had the boys spray paint plastic spoons with the neon paint, then spray adhesive (which I applied just to be safe) and then they coated the spoons in gold glitter.  

Next came the sand!  I purchased light blue, dark blue, purple and black play sand at Michael's.  They each chose a mixture of each color sand.  They loved touching, digging and running the sand through their hands!

As a surprise for each student, I had put together small zip top baggies with trinkets I picked up at the craft store.  I found a ton of pre-packaged "theme" buttons - sports, transportation, bugs, space, garden etc.  I opened them all up and gave each child a small selection of each to bury in their sandboxes and dig up with their newly designed treasure spoons!!

 

It was definitely one of my most favorite classes!!  If you live in Eastern Massachusetts and would like to come to one of my Boys Only Grunge Art Classes please drop me an email at meredith.winston@gmail.com! It is $15 for a single drop in class.  I teach this class on Monday afternoons from 4-5pm.

I hope you and your littles are having a very creative day!!

Tiddly Inks and Make It Crafty New Release!

 It's time!!  It's time!!!  YAY IT'S TIME!!  Time for what you ask???  Time for this!!

Seriously...just WAIT until you see what stunning new images, creations and inspiration lay in store!!!  It's OH SO EXCITING!!  Christy from Tiddly Inks and Zoe from Make It Crafty  (both insanely talented artists and digital image GENIUSES!) have been crazy hard at work coming up with fresh gorgeous new images for you all and the teams have worked equally hard to present and create with these images to bring you the best inspiration and creative thinking!!!

You will most certainly want to head to the fabulous Landing Page to check out all of the fun that is going on!!  There's a very clever game set up for all to play along!!

 

 For my first creation (soooooooo fun creating this!) I've used a Tiddly Image - "Owlette" and a Make It Crafty image "Big Steampunk Treehouse".  I started by printing the MIC treehouse onto heavy white cardstock from The Paper Source.  I brought out my watercolor paints and had the BEST and most relaxing time painting this gorgeous image.

 

Once my paints were dry, I went back and added a touch of silver here and there with my silver paint pen on the areas that I wanted to have a bit of metal showing.  I decided that the sky needed to be darkened a bit so I sponged some Tim Holtz "Broken China" ink all over the sky.  I used some VERY vintage paper - it was actually the interior cover of an old book I have had for EVER for the clouds.  I use an MFT Die-namics to cut the clouds.  I did a lot of distressing and stitching to add to the texture of this creation.  

My TI image - Owlette is colored with my Copics and her skirt is paper pieced.

 

I added a number of fabulous gears that I purchased in a set - Tim Holtz, of course!

I found this very adorable owl charm in the jewelry section of my local craft store.  He had a ring on the top as he's supposed to be a charm but with a small pair of needle nose plyers I removed the ring and hot glued him to the chipboard bracket that I created for this card. 

My second creation features the STUNNING new Tiddly Inks Mermaid.  I colored her with my Copics - HAD to to make her hair oh so red!

I colored her fully with Copics and trimmed her out.  I coated her tail in Martha Stewart clearish/white glitter and set her aside to dry.  (so in love with her!!)

I then started on my MIC background which I, once again, watercolored.  I used the Steampunk Goggle image.  Just so fitting, don't you think?  I also used my silver paint pen for the specific metallic areas on the goggles. 

 

Once the paint was dry, I added a thick layer of Crackle Glaze to the "glass" part of the goggles and let it dry overnight.  I am always SO tempted to "check" the glaze but I have learned the lesson not to!!  LOL!  It's like trying to touch your nail polish when you KNOW it's not yet dry!

I then used the same vintage paper as I used in my first creation only this time I made it a large border around the entire edge of my 8"x10" creation.  I glued it all down and then coated it with Mod Podge twice with a spongy applicator.  I let it all dry and stitched the edges twice with a large straight stitch.

 

I added my creation to it's frame and placed the glass on top.  I then added two rhinestone flourishes to the upper left and lower right hand side of my frame.

I took out my hot glue gun and added this fabulous compass that I found in the jewelry section of Micheal's (on CLEARANCE at that! love it!).  I added a few loops of hemp twine to the upper ring for added dimension.  

I love how the flourishes and compass literally POP off of the glass because they are attached to the exterior!  

I hope you have enjoyed this fabulous release as much as I have!!  I KNOW you will all create something gorgeous and wonderful with the new releases from Tiddly Inks and Make It Crafty!!

MFT - Creative Challenge - On A Roll

 

Hey All!!  Popping in tonight with the most recent MFT Creative Challenge "On A Roll".  I thought, and thought, and thought....and thought some more...about what to do for this super fun challenge!  I went to my rolled Die-namics but as I was sitting at my desk thinking I glanced at my most recent MFT purchase and had an "AHA!:" moment.  You know those moments...they are SWEET.

I reached for my new A La Mode - I've Met My Match set.  Serious adorableness!!!!  And I decided in that moment (that AHA moment) to do a penny slider card.  My first piece in this creation was the tennis ball.  I used my 1" circle punch and punched three cardstock circles.  I adhered them together so that my tennis ball had a lot of stability.  I then coated my tennis ball in Aileen's Tacky Glue and coated it in a mixture of bright yellow and bright green fun flock.  When it was dry I took white acrylic paint and a very thin paintbrush and painted the white lines onto my ball.  I set it aside to dry.

I then cut the track for my slider out of white cardboard.  I keep the backs of any paper packs or covers from matte stacks for just such an occasion.  My ball was now dry so I heated up my glue gun and attached a button and then a penny making the ball ready for its rolling action!  

As it is SO hard to photograph this card in action, I've added a short video (my first EVER) that I recorded with my iPhone. 

If you blow it up the imagery will be a bit grainy because of my phone but if you leave it in a smaller form you will be able to see it pretty crisply!  I simply love the wow factor as the element - in this case, the tennis ball - rolls back and forth across the card front.  SO FUN!

I had such fun using my new MFT Dizzy Die-namics.  This time around I purchased the duo set but I plan on getting the large one soon!!  =)  Anyway, I layered my doily with the Sweet Stack Die-namic to hold my sentiment "Tennis Begins With Love".   I used a palette of blues, yellows, and kraft cardstocks.  Mostly everything was in my scrap drawer(s) and bins.  Yes, the scrap is starting to take over!!  LOL!  

I used a bit of blue and white nautical"ish" ribbon tied in a flat knot.  This ribbon is very thick and hard to tie into a nice bow so I went with a knot.  Which worked perfectly as I gave this to my darling hubby and knots are a bit less feminine in that respect.  I did add two yellow heart stick pins as well as a few rhinestones to polish off the ends of my penny slider layer.  

I really hope you enjoy and are inspired to join the fabulously talented MFT Design Team in their creative challenge!!

For The Kids - Coloring Play-dough

As part two of my post from yesterday I promised you that I'd show you how to color your natural colored homemade play dough! 

All you need is food coloring.  Or you can use Kool-aid drink mix as well.   I love using food coloring as the colors come out rich and vibrant and you get to get super messy in the process!  =)  Which is fabulous for the kiddies!  They simply LOVE it!

Form your dough into a ball and make a small well with your thumbs.  Think "pinch-pots" from art class or arts and crafts time at camp!  Don't make a hole in the dough as the well is a place for your coloring to sit before you start kneading it.  Start with a few drops of whatever color you'd like.  I slice my dough into small pieces as you saw in my former post here. 

Depending on the amount of dough you are coloring will depend on how much color you need.  Once you add the liquid food coloring to the little well in your dough, pinch the well closed and slowly start kneading the dough to incorporate the color.  Wear messy clothes, a smock or apron because there is no way you will escape this process unscathed!  ;)  And your hands...well...unless you want them stained for a couple of days...wear latex or rubber gloves!  I love the mess so I go into it bare handed!

Keep kneading and adding color until you have the desired color!!

Here are some pictures of the fabulous kiddies in my art class yesterday getting oh so messy whilst coloring their awesome playdough!


My darling son! 

 Lots of different colors!

Starting to get messy!

Having fun!!!

Awesome colors!!!

Some of the best boys in the world!!!

The one girl in my class...my sweet daughter...she's so fabulous and able to hang with the awesome rough and tumble boys!!  Notice all of the green and blue dye on her tshirt?  Ya...that's why she's wearing such a scrubby shirt!!  LOL!

 

Super rich in color!!!  Let's knead it a bit more!!! 

AWESOME MESSY HANDS!!!

I hope you've enjoyed, been inspired and DEFINITELY try this at home!!!