Scrapbook Layout and Greeting Card Sketches to Have Fun With

I hope you're all enjoying your summer. I'm leaving for a two week camping trip this weekend with my family and friends and can't wait! This will be a much needed break after my craft room makeover, trying to clean out our shed and organizing my main living spaces. I'm always amazed at how much "stuff" my family accumulates.
  This week I decided to make some sketches for future projects. I had certain borders and flowers in mind, but after making the sketches I realized that many different looks can be created from them.  

  If you decide to use a sketch or more than one I would love to see your interpretation when I return from vacation. I welcome you to place the number(s) of the sketch you used and the URL to your project in the comment section as a reply to "Links". There is an example below. Have fun!

 
 1) Scrapbook Layout Sketch

  2) Scrapbook Layout Sketch
with rolled corners and border punched edges

 

  3) Greeting Card Sketch

 

  4) Greeting Card Sketch

  5) Greeting Card Sketch

Example for sharing your project in comments

Happy Crafting!

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

Christmas Craft: using mismatched earrings

     Don't throw those earrings away when you lose one and if they're special to you, what better way to have them then on display instead of in the back of a jewelry box. I used a lot of sparkly earrings and the light that comes off this little tree is gorgeous. Unfortunately my camera found the sparkle a little overwhelming and faded everything out, but you get the idea. I decided to use burlap in contrast to all the shine, but this might be something you could try doing on a mirror or foiled background if you want to make the most of the sparkle and reflection.

   Give it a shot. I would love to see what you create.

"At Sea" Mixed Media Collage

Hello and welcome to Heartedly Handcrafted! "At Sea" is my first mixed media canvas collage and my first major piece of arts or crafts anything. I had been watching YouTube videos for craft ideas and fell in love with this art form. Then I decided to start this blog to share it with you. I think YouTube had created an arts and crafts monster. I'm obsessed and want to try it all.

Everyone has a junk drawer, garbage, broken decorations, etc. Some people have an earring without a match, an old watch, seashells from that beach vacation, old fake flowers, kids small toys (like Lego), a drawer knob and so forth. These can all be used to create your mixed media canvas collage. 

You don't even need an actual canvas. A scarp piece of wood, metal, old picture frame, a box, book, anything that you can stick stuff too will work. What you will need to by is some strong glue such as E6000, Mod Podge which you can get at Walmart now, Gesso and some craft paints. 

I purchased inexpensive crafts paints at my local craft store. I also made some sprays. How to create your own sprays can be found under the blog tab Craft Supplies, Ideas and Tips or you can just google it and decide which idea you like best.

The people who became my inspiration, their blogs/websites and one of their demonstration videos for two of them:

Anna Dabrowski - Finnabair  
Leanne of Luvlee Scrappin (video). 
Gabrielle Pollacco (video)

Happy Crafting!