Thursday, June 30, 2011

Travel Light by We R Memory Keepers

Just a quick share today.  I made a fun layout using We R's new Travel Light line.  I know I have scrapped this photo before of Bill, but I just love it so much I can't help but do it again.  Don't pass out, but I HANDED sewed on a layout.  Yes sir....I did!


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Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Crate Paper & Me

It was about this time last year (within a few days) I had gotten a big suprise from Crate Paper!  If you remember this post, to say I was excited is an understatement. I've been lucky enough to work with the fabulous team at Crate a year now.  I've made some fabulous friends and gotten to get to play with some awesome stuff.  I am looking forward to seeing what they have up their sleeve for the next show and their new DT (coming soon I believe)  I will miss being with the team, but look forward to more fun things to come!  So with that said I thought I would share a few of my favorite projects from the past year.  Happy Tuesday!


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Wednesday, June 22, 2011

DIY With Crate Paper- Vintage Printers Tray

Hey gang, I wanted to go ahead and post my DIY Tutorial on the Vintage Printers Tray here on my blog for those of you who had missed it.  I get a lot of questions about this tray so keep them coming and I will keep answering :)


 


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Hi Crate Paper fans, Jen Chesnick here with you today with a new DIY project! Today we are going to play with the Portrait collection and with a little elbow grease and some spray paint we are going to turn this old worn out tray into something beautiful for the home. Let’s get started!


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The Essentials: Portrait Collection Paper, Chipboard & Label Stickers. Antique Printers tray or something similar you can re-vamp with style. Misc ephemera from your stash; think of all those bits and bobs we all tend to have lying about. Extreme Tac tape adhesive, Craft Glue & U-cut foam. Chisel, Dremel power tool , spray paint, sand paper & wood glue (Actual Tools!)


 


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To start, I enlisted my husband to bear the brunt of most of the elbow grease for me while I played photographer. This was a fun way to get him involved in one of my many projects without him feeling silly! He loved using his power tools on this one and was such a great sport. Now you don’t need help to do any of the “fixing” of the tray as everything can easily be done by one person, alone. Just don’t tell him that, ok?


 


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We started with a chisel to remove damaged pieces from the tray. The wood was soft and worn so it was really easy to cut out the rough spots. We also used our Dremel to sand down the edges against the remaining wood. If you don’t own one of these tools I highly recommend one for crafting or other DYI projects.


 


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Cutting out the damaged pieces also left open more space for photos. Since most the pieces came together to create 1x4 rectangles, there really wasn't a whole lot of space “inside” the tray to place items. So, after we finished removing the damaged spots, we left them open and used wood glue to fill in the empty notches to ensure the remaining pieces were secure.


 


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Now that the hard part is over, we moved outdoors to spray-paint our tray. Again I enlisted my husband for the task at hand! In the pic above you can see how all the squares have turned out pre-paint.


 


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We used satin indoor spray paint on the tray. Now you certainly should prime your piece beforehand if it is older wood with stain similar to this and you'll want solid coverage. I wanted my tray to still have a shabby vintage feel to match the vintage vibe of Portrait, so I chose not to prime my tray. It's time to paint the tray! Be sure to give it a nice even coat of paint! Less is more when it comes to spray paint. You can always go back and do another coat.


 


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Once you are done with painting I recommend letting your piece air dry outside for a least a few hours. Not only will you get a nice finish, the fumes will die down as well. In the photos below you can see how the paint turned out. I used a small piece of sandpaper to “knock down” the edges a bit to make it feel a bit more worn. I wasn’t too concerned with the coverage of paint on the inside of the tray since it was going to be covered with paper anyway.


 


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 Now for my part and no, my husband did not have anything to do with the decorating of the project outside of saying “That’s so busy! No don’t put that there, put it here” true story. 


 


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Let’s take a closer look at some of my favorite squares. I loved adding these metal tags to the “outside”of the tray. It gives it a nice 3D feel and it’s just another area to decorate. I used chipboard and label stickers to embellish the tag. I used a very high tac craft glue along with U-Cut foam to secure the tag to the tray.


 


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For some more 3D embellishing, I layered chipboard florals from Portrait along with these coordinating flowers. I punched out some butterflies to just give it another added touch.


 


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Another metal tag layered heavily and more flowers adds another cluster of dimension underneath my two “snapshots”.


 


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Of course, this project cannot be finished without the wedding date! Using my circle punch, I punched out the center of the label sticker to create a spot for it. I fanned out the alphabet stickers to give it a more rounded appearance.


 


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See the film strips? Don’t they just add an extra level of awesome-ness? They match Portrait so perfectly! To get them to stay rolled, I simply rolled them up and using a stapler, I attached them together. Using craft glue, I secured them to the back of the tray.


Well there you have it Crate Fans! I hope you enjoyed my little DIY project. I do hope to see "your own version" soon!


 


 



Monday, June 20, 2011

Kaisercraft + Glue Arts on a Monday

Good Morning gang!  I do hope this week will be a good one.  This weeks team up at Glue Arts is with Kaisercraft.  I received Pink Gelato to play with and my my my is it pretty.  I am not one for light colors and purples and pinks, but this line is SO pretty.  I had a good time playing with it and I hope you get some fabulous inspiration this week from our team at Glue Arts.  Enjoy!


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Monday, June 13, 2011

Glue Arts + Crate Paper, Wedding Card

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 It's wedding week over at the Glue Arts blog and they have teamed up with Crate Paper! I made this dress card, stop by for a full how-to!



Friday, June 10, 2011

Friday Funday with Pebbles and Maya Road

TGIF folks! I have a fun tutorial today for you, maybe something you can try your hand at this weekend.  As you know I love altered and 3D crafts of all kinds.  I have had this Maya Road sheer house album for quite sometime.  So I had an idea, why not turn it into a 3D house?  Wanna see how?


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Supplies to "build" the house:


Maya Road Sheer House album or something similar in shape


Glue Arts Hot Glue Gun


Glue Arts Extreme Tac- the best for 3D


Thick Cardstock- I used Bazzill Swiss Dot


Pattern Paper- I used Pebbles Line Happy Go Lucky


Border Punch


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To start I used the front and 1 piece of the album for the front and back of the house.  I trimmed down two other pages to create the sides of the house.  Using extreme tac on the "rough" side of the album apply your pages to paper.


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Using my x-acto knife I cut around the sides.


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For the roof I measured from the tip to the edge for the length.  Be sure to cut on the correct side of the page.  The side that is the same width as the side of your house you want to keep intact so you don't have to make any extra cuts.  Apply your paper and trim out.  Keep in mind your pattern on this one too because they will be butting up against one another.


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Now that our sides are all done let's build our house.  Trim your cardstock down to about 2 2 1/2 inches and fold in half.  Trim your piece down to the length of the sides of your house as shown.  I used my glue gun to attach the pieces to either side as shown.


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Repeat the process for all four sides.  For the final side I simply put my hand inside to make sure the glue stuck after I applied.


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Alright so your house is built, but not so pretty right?  So depending on the punch you use will determine the size of border you will create.  I left a 1/4" gap in the middle and punch down each side.  This is going to create like a sort of siding to cover up your gaps in the house.


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Fold your border in half and trim down to size.  I used my glue gun again and applied the border to each side of the house to cover the folds.


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Now for the roof.  You are going to follow the same process for the sides for the roof.  Using cardstock create your fold and attach your two roof pieces together.


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To apply your roof you will follow the same process (again!) as we did for the house base.  Using cardstock fold in half, trim down and apply to the insides of your house to attach your roof too.


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Once I had my roof attached I punched more border strips and trimmed them down to cover up all my edges.


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So the tedious part is done!  Now for the fun decorating part. 


Supplies Used:


Pebbles Happy Go Lucky Paper


Pebbles Felt Embellishments


Pebbles Toothpick Flags


Pebbles Brad


Pebbles Pearls


Silhouette SD


Butterfly Punch


Chipboard for base of house.


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A lot of my house decorating was done using my Silhouette.  I used it to frame out my window squares with paper and title work.  I finished off the windows with a sweet felt birdie.


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I also used the Silhouette to create my tree.  I layered chipboard along the back to make sure it stayed stiff.


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I cut out a small yet sweet banner for across the top and punched out some tiny butterflies to embellish.  I added some Pebbles Pearls to the tops and corners of my house to cover up any edging show through.


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For around the house I cut out grass and layered it together to give it some depth.  I cut a base for my house using misc chipboard, covered and attached a fence made with cardstock.


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to finished I added some sweet flags and finished off with a matching brad.  WHEW!


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