Etched Glass For Christmas! Pic Heavy

Hey there peeps!  I finally got up the nerve to try something I have always been wanteing to do - etched glass.  I have always been intimidated by process.  It just seemed so daunting and hard to do.  I decided to give it a go this holiday season. Here's my first project.

Here's what I used!

• Etching Cream
• Q-tips
• MS Elegant Cake Art Cartridge
• Calligraphy Collection Cartridge
• Vinyl
• Various Glass objects -  glasses, wine glasses, dishes

For the Pyrex dish, I wanted to etch the back of the dish.  So I designed my wording on my Gypsy and flipped the image so it cut backwards.  This made the sticky side on the top of my vinyl.  I stuck it to the bottom of my dish and pressed down so all the edges sealed real well.

IMPORTANT!!!- When you select your design, make sure you put a box around the design so you can make a good template.  This box helps keep a safe border of vinyl between your etching cream and the rest of your glass object. 

Using the Q-tip, layer the etching cream inside the vinyle with your design cut out of it. 

Once 5-10 minutes have passed, wash the remaining cream off with warm water and soap.  Before you do, you can scrap the cream off and put it back in the container.  This will help your cream last longer.  Tada!!!! You are done!

When I went to the store to buy the materials, the clerk told me that once I started, I would be addicted.  Man was she right!  Soon I was thinking of all kinds of things to do.  I decided to make some glasses of all different kinds for Christmas gifts.  Here are some pics of what I made.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my projects and mostly, I hope this post inspires you to make something with glass etching.  Until next time...

Smooches!

Robin

Turkey Toss Basket 2012

Hi everyone!  I have been crafting this Fall quite a bit.  But as usual, my crafts go out to others and many times I have forgotten to take pictures.  But this time I didn't.

I am fortunate to work at a school who values everyone's contribution to making the school a success.  Each year at Thanksgiving, different departments are assigned a custodian to make a Turkey Toss Basket for.  We bring traditional Thanksgiving food items and anything else we want to make our basket the best of the competition.  For my department, I volunteer my crafty services to put our basket togther.  Here is a picture of my creation this year.

Here's how I put the basket together.  I bought a large utility tub from Lowes.  I cut the word "Drinks" out of outdoor vinyl in maroon and gold which are our school colors.  I used my Cricut and the Martha Stewart Elegant Cake Art Cartridge for the fonts and to cut the vinyl.

Once I applied the vinyl (this was my first time double layering vinyl - I need some more practice! : ), I stuffed the bottom of the tub with newspaper to build it up.  I then laid a piece of orange burlap on top of the newspaper.  Then, I layered in the food and household items.  I took a plush fall garland and wrapped it around the rim of the basket. 

To take our basket to the next level and keep the whole family involved, I made a "Bucket of Fun" for the kids.  It included some coloring books, a few toys and supplies to make Thanksgiving cupcakes.  I decorated the bucket with text messages and speech bubbles from the Smiley Cards Cartridge.  I then cut "bucket of fun" from the Martha Stewart Elegant Cart Art Cartridge.

UPDATE:  I just wanted everyone to know that we did indeed win the contest!  I really do have an awesome team that I work with.  Yeah us!!!!

Thanks everyone for checking out my post.  Leave me some blog love and until next time...

Smooches!


Robin

Teacher Appreciation Tag and Card

Hi everyone!  I am here with my first two projects from my retreat this past weekend.  Since it is Teacher Appreciation week, I thought it was appropriate to make some tags and cards for my fellow educators.  So here they are!

Carts and Materials

• Doodlecharms - green apple
• Plantin Schoolbook - red apple
• MS Elegant Cake Art - loop border
• Stamps - "Teacher Appreciation" set by Jaded Blossom
• Twine - The Twinery
• My Stash - lace, buttons, inks and paper

I started with a sparkly green card for the base.  I layered the loop border on with 2 kinds of twine and some pretty wide lace.  I then layered on some apples for that teacher influence.  Finally, I ran the twine through a large red button and then tied a bow.  I really like the way it all came together!

Now, for the tag!

I started with a natural card base.  I inked the edges with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Vintage Photo.  I then added the loop border and lace.  I added the apples and glued on the button and twine.  I stamped the sentiment on a punched out tag, ran some ribbon through the top and and called it done. 

I have to send a shout out to my friend Stefani for letting me borrow her Teacher
Appreciation stamp set by Jaded Blossom.  It really helped complete the tag and card.  That's all for now.  I'll post another project soon.  Until then...


Smooches!

Robin



12 Tags of Christmas - My Version of Tag #2

As many of you know, Tim Holtz is in full swing with his annual 12 Tags of Christmas.  These tags are truly works of art and he encourages us to make our own version of the tags.  I have loved each and every one but I decided to start my attempts with Tag #2.  Here it is!

Carts and Materials (Warning: This list is long!)

• Christmas Cart - Reindeer (cut 3 times)
• George and Basic Shapes - circle (for wreath base)
• MS Elegant Cake Art - border
• TH Distress Inks - Peeled Paint, Fired Brick, Stormy Sky, Vintage Photo
• TH Distress Stain - Picket Fence
• Versa Mark Embossing Ink
• Stamp - SU Hand Penned Holiday
• Punch - MS Pine Branch
• Perfect Pearls Mist in Perfect Pearl
• My Stash - twine, acorn charm, red seam binding, TH Fragments Charm, round paper clip, tag

Making this tag was more involved for me because I didn't have everything that Tim used in his tag.  He used his line of paper that already had the vintage look and an embossed saying.  I had to create mine.  I started with some free Christmas sheet music I found on the internet.  Once printed, I aged it with my TH vintage photo ink.  I then lined it up with my tag and cut out the shape. 

I covered the entire tag with the TH Distress Stain in Picket Fence.  You need to let this soak in the paper for a few seconds and then hit it with a heat gun.  I wanted to create the embossed design on the right side of the tag.  I found a "Merry Christmas" stamp I had from SU and stamped that with my Versamark pad.  I covered it with UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Powder) to make it really stand up and then hit it with the heat gun.  In an effort to make it stand out even more, I went over the raised image with TH Distress Ink in Stormy Sky.  I wish I had had a stamp with more coverage.  I think my stamp is too fine to really show up.

I tried to create the illusion of a holly sprig and berries with my inks.  I turned out ok.  After everything was dry, I spritzed the tag with Perfect Pearls Mists in Perfect Pearls.  The splatters look like snow flurries.  I edged the whole tag with the TH Stormy Sky ink.

Next, I cut the reindeer at 3" 3 times and glued them all together.  I distressed the top layer with TH Vintage Photo ink.  I layered 2 circles (one smaller than the other) inside each other to make a ring,  I covered the ring with pine sprigs punched with the MS punch.  I really like the way it turned out.  I also put a charm on a piece of twine and tied it around his neck.  I put some pop dots on the back and attached him to the tag.

To finish off the tag, I attached a strip of burlap to the tap with some red seam binding.  Once in place, I attached a tag made from a TH fragments and scrap paper to a round paper clip and looped it through the seam binding.  Now, finally, the tag was complete!

This puppy took some work but I am very pleased with the final results.  As always, leave me some blog love and tell me what you think.  And please check out Tim's 12 Tags of Christmas on his blog.  His creations are breath taking and you can learn tons of techniques.  Click here to go to his blog.  Until next time...

Smooches!

 

I Want My Own - Gifts For My Wine and Whine Party

I am having a girlfriends gathering at my house that I am calling Wine and Whine.  It's a time for us together together and just destress and let off some steam.  I asked everyone to bring their favorite bottle of wine and I am providing all the yummy appetizers (I love to entertain!). 

When you have a group of women together and drinks are involved, you can forget whose glass is whose.  So I made monogrammed wine glasses for all my guests!

Carts and Materials

• Martha Stewart Elegant Cake Art - font
• Cindy Loo - flourishes
• Vinyl - Cricut Vinyl in red, pink and black

It took me a couple of times to get this right.  I found these glasses at the dollar store and the vessel is a really good size.  My first cut of vinyl was too large.  It went down to the bottom part of the glass and therefore started to ripple and curl.  I also started with a frame around the letter which also was not a good idea.

I traded the frame for accent flourishes and made the monogram smaller.  I used 4 different flourishes to make them a little different from each other.  I cut my "R" out of red vinyl and used pink for all the others.

These glasses came together quickly and easily.  I hope you have enjoyed this project and I am sure these glasses will get some miles put on them this evening!


Smooches,

Parisian Explosion Box

Hey Party People!  I attended my mother's birthday luncheon this weekend and the party had a Parisian theme as she is planning a trip to Paris for her 60th.  She invited all the guest to go with her and I can't wait to go.  To keep with the theme, I decided to make her an Explosion Box with a Paris slant.  Here is what I came up with.

Here's the details.

Carts and Materials

• Summer in Paris - Eiffel Tower, fleur de lis, crown, Paris
• MS Elegant Cake Art - Happy Birthday
• Paper - Timelesss Collection by Teresa Collins
• Ink - Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Tattered Rose

I used a 12" x 12" sheet of paper from the Teresa Collins Timeless Collection for the base.  It has a beautiful pink flocked damask design on the piece that I used for the outside of the box.  I cut out 4" x 4" squares at each corner to make the base of the box. 

I cut the top at 6 1/4" x 6 1/4" so that it would fit nicely over the box.

 On the inside, I added various pieces of bling from my stash (I love bling so I have a lot of it!).  I then added a crown (cut at 3" wide) and a fleur de lis (cut at 2.73" wide) that I covered with MS Coarse Glitter.

I made a pocket from a scrap piece of paper to put money in.  It could also hold a gift card.  I then cut a small card to put opposite of the pocket.  I distressed both pieces with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Tattered Rose.  I cut out Happy Birthday (2.55" wide) and Paris (3.54" wide) and added them to the piece as well.

Now to the centerpiece - the 3-dimensional Eiffel Tower!  This cut came as a 3-D cut.  They made it with one detailed cut and one solid cut.  I chose to cut out 2 detailed cuts which worked but was murder to put together.  But I finally got it together and placed it in the middle of the box.  I added some flowers and some bling and my project was complete.

I made a video I wanted to share about how I put this all together.  I included a little snippette of video from the party of my mother opening the box.  She really loved it!

Let me know what you all think of my first Explosion Box!  Leave me some blog love and I'll talk to you later!

Smooches,

Deb 2010 Altered Notebook

I'm back! I'm back! I have been crafting a lot but just haven't had the time to get the pictures on my blog. But here is the first of a couple of posts this week

As most of you know, I am a member of Delta Sigma Theta, an sorority that is almost 100 years old. My chapter has a Debutant Cotillion every year where we prepare and present young ladies to society. I made these journals for the Sleepover, which is the first event the girls have as a bonding time. It's made from a 3x5 little mini-notebook that you can get from any office supply store. The journal was meant for the young ladies to have to write down their feelings and thoughts about the night and to get the other girls information.

My original design had 2 layered butterfiles with crystals on the body and the wings of the 2nd butterfly raised up for demension. It was beautiful - when you only had to make one! When I started making the 25 I had to make for the girls, I quickly revamped the project to what you see.

Carts

• Words - Rock Princess
• Crown - Sentimentals
• Butterfly - MS Elegant Cake Art

I embossed the black background with the Swiss Dots folder. I also added the piece of ribbon to the edge to cover the different colors of the cover base (they were red, yellow, blue, green and black).

Hope you love them. If so, let me know!

Smooches,

It's an Infestation!!! Card

When I jumped back into crafting earlier this year, I was surprised about where my inspiration for cards, layouts and projects come from. I would be out somewhere and say "That would make an awesome card/layout" or "I can make that project!". Of course I would use my E and G to make these things, affectionatly known as Peaches and Herb.

So goes this card. I walked into Joann's and was stopped in my tracks by all the new MS Halloween Crafts. I love Martha's style and her creations never cease to amaze me. She has some bat cutouts that you can stick on the wall for Halloween. When I looked at the package, I said
"That's my next card". And here it is! This card looks simple but there are actually 5 carts and some welding at work here. Here are the details:

Cartridges:

• Happy Hauntings - bats
• French Manor - chair, table and lamp base (which is actually the birdbath)
• George - lampshade (which is a trapezoid)
• MS Elegant Cake Art - jagged frame
• Base Camp - rectangle (for plain frame)

I started this card by making the frame on my Gypsy. I made a rectangle that was 4x5.5" and set the jagged frame inside it. When cut out, this made a nice frame for the card.

Next, I made the lamp. I know there are lamps on some carts but I didn't have one on the carts I own. So I made one. I took the birdbath from French Manor and a trapezoid from George and welded them together to make the lamp. I really liked doing it this way so I could tilt the lampshade like it has been hit by the bats.

I wanted a table and chairs that looked like they were in the hallway of a house. So I went to the Cricut Circle French Manor cart and chose the perfect cuts. I glued the chair on sideways to again, imply that the bats have taken over.

Lastly, I cut out lots and lots of the 2 kinds of bats from Haunted House. I glued them on the card in various places so it looks like an infestation.

I put small pop-dots on the back of the frame to lift it up and give a shadow effect. I love doing that on Halloween cards. I put it on the card and it was done. I love this card and I hope you do too! Leave me some blog love!


Smooches,

Robin
The Scrappin' Delta Diva