Moss Vine-Wreath with Bird's Nest and Initial

Hello Everyone!

Although it rained we are still having excellent weather here in western PA. I was very happy the rain clouds moved on just in time for me to take some pictures. I wanted a wreath that was very natural, but with a bit of whimsy. Hence the green flowers with butterfly-like petals. Too bad I didn't have a green fairy, but maybe later. I would also like to add some mushrooms. Heck that can be another whole different project for another day. I think I'm loving this as it looks really cute on our red door and white house with green shutters.

I seem to be short on birds so I stole the bird off another project. I will just replace it later. I love the nest because it had two twigs out both sides that I could place into the vines. Therefore I didn't have to stick it at the very bottom and hot glue myself to it.

The only thing I wasn't sure about was the initial, but when all was said and done it goes well and makes the entire project that much more cute.

To keep with the natural theme I used burlap for the bow. In the center I tied rope and then covered that with floral tape.

BEWARE that cutting this particular Moss Roll will leave little pieces of metal in your clothes. It hurts and cannot be easily removed. I found this out the hard way

I mixed fake and real moss to give more shades of green. I decoupaged the Initial.

I assembled the entire wreath and then hot glued everything together. The initial is not connected to my wreath but hangs separately behind it.


Happy Crafting!

Copyright © 2014 Angela Conklin - Heartedly Handcrafted
All Rights Reserved

Magnetic Burlap Card for Easter - From Card to Decoration

Hello everyone! I'm back in the crafting saddle again and ready to share a new card! A lot of thought went into this one and my goal was to use mostly burlap; so the background, the eggs, the grass, and basket accents are all burlap.

I was looking at greeting cards on Etsy and read in one of the descriptions that the card being sold didn't include an envelope. The reasoning behind this is because it was being sold as a decoration. I'm all for cards being a decoration, but was it really a decoration? It was a beautiful card that could definitely be framed or something, but does your everyday person frame their cards?  The recipient could just leave it on a mantle for a while, but is that truly a decoration or just a pretty card sitting on a mantle? I've also heard people state, "There is no way I would spend that much for a card that will just be thrown away". Well, even if it's not thrown away, what do you do with it? For the non-crafty person or the very busy person, that's a big question.

After some thought I decided to come up with something that really does make a card a decoration. It may not be the best answer and definitely not the only one, but this was my idea. I also want to add that people may be doing this already and I just haven't seen it. 

Make a card that the front lifts off to stand on it's own.

I placed magnetic strips between the decorative part of the card and the card itself. This allows the receiver to easily lift the front off of this #Eastercard and place it on his/her refrigerator, filing cabinet at work or where ever she wants. Then when Easter is over it can be placed with other Easter decorations and put back up next year.

 

 I had bought a pack of magnetic sheets for printing on and just cut some strips from one page. The strips are strong enough to stick to the refrigerator, but easily pulled from one another.

I cut the eggs out of paper-backed burlap (just free handed them as they don't need to be perfect just close in size) and then used markers to decorate them.

And here it is on the refrigerator :)
#Easterdecoration

Happy Crafting Everyone! 

Copyright © 2014 Angela Conklin - Heartedly Handcrafted
All Rights Reserved

Burning Aleene's Tacky Glue to Make Paper Look Like Metal

     I came across this video (link below) on YouTube while looking for a new craft to try. I did a couple of things a little different from the video. The first difference is that I used white card stock since it was what I had on hand. The second difference is that I did not have gold paste to bring out the texture so I used a gold mica powder. A shiny Dollar Tree eye shadow like L.A. Colors would give the same effect.

     One problem I had was finding the right candle that was not burned down too far. If your candle is not brand new it is difficult to generate the heat to get the glue to burn. Possibly I'm just impatient, but I didn't have all day to sit and wait for the glue to heat up. I resorted to using a small lighter which worked since I could get the flame right on the glue, but I kept burning my fingers no matter how careful I was. The lighter also made it difficult to hold the butterfly glue-side down as I had to turn it on it's side to keep from burning my hand holding the lighter and to see what I was doing. Your best option would be a candle stick in a holder or possibly even a tea-light candle. Your next best option would be a long lighter if you don't have a candle (used for lighting your outdoor grill) or of course a new candle in a jar, but even my newer candles had the wick too low to get the glue to burn.

     I consider the first butterfly I did (the one on the right) as a fail. I put too much Aleene's Original Tacky Glue on the paper thinking I would be able to get more texture from it. Instead, due to the extra glue, the glue was able to settle flat. No matter how many times I pinched and pushed it into the shape it would return to flat with no texture what-so-ever. Another problem I had was using too little glue. With too little glue you can not get any texture and just end up scorching the paper. The plus side of having too little glue is that you can always add a little more to that spot and that is exactly what I did.

     I'm currently making a canister and decided to try the burned glue technique on the lid. I'm extremely happy with the result (above). I would recommend to people who love to craft to try this technique because it's an inexpensive way to get some beautiful texture.

Note: To get my butterfly shape I typed in Black and White Butterfly Templates in Google images, picked a shape I liked, copied and pasted the image into Word, made it the size I wanted and then printed it out. I then used the template to cut the shape out on card stock. Of course if you have a paper punch and it's the size you want then you're good to go.

Creating the Look of Metal using Aleene's Original Tacky Glue:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGsefNXGmCw