Altered Arts Magazine: Quick Pendant

 Welcome!  This is my first post to share for the Altered Arts Magazine Design Team this month. I'm excited to be back online and apologize for my absence.  I had an injury on Jan 28th and I am still recovering; nicely but slowly.

This cute pendant was created with a glass bottle stopper from an oil and reed diffuser.

 

Supplies:

Glass bottle stopper

12 gauge copper wire

glass beads

leather cord with closures

wire cutters and needle nose pliers.  

Here is a close-up of the beads I used, they heart tear drop or almost heart shaped with little wire loops.

DIRECTIONS:
1. Clean the glass stopper thoroughly of any oil from the diffuser to make it safe to handle.
2. Cut a 6" piece of wire and string beads on to it.
3. Wrap the beaded wire around the first indent in the neck of the stopper and twist tightly with needle nose pliers.  Trim the twist to about 1/4" then fold over in the back.
4. Wrap the copper wire along the top of the neck of the stopper until it looks solid.  (about 9 inches)
5. Use the wire to create a loop in the back, twist and secure.
6. Attach the leather cord with closures.

P.S. The kittens are a bit stir crazy from winter and have missed being in the studio too. As soon as I got upstairs, they were franticly chasing the wire I was trying to twist and that lovely box of beads is scattered all over the floor.  oh well!  It's good to be back!

Be sure to follow the Altered Arts Magazine page on Facebook for many altered art projects from the entire Design Team!

Craft on!
Becky

Purple Cows: Bloom Journal

Welcome to my very first blog post for the Purple Cows Design Team! This week has been lots of fun getting acquainted with all of my new tools and the fabulous products they offer to work with them.

I created this "Bloom" Journal

PURPLE COWS SUPPLIES:
2 in 1 Combo Trimmer
Punch It!-Spring
Wind It!
Hot & Cold 13" Laminator
Melt Tool
Craft Iron Tips Gem Setting Kit
Aqua Wind It! Wire
3 x 5" Hot Pocket

Other Supplies:
The Best Glue Ever! -ScraPerfect
Glitter Blue Swirl Card Stock -The Robin's Nest
Teal Canvas - The Robin's Nest
Paper Flowers - Petaloo
Deep Lagoon Cats Eye Chalk Ink (Big Top Collection-ColorBox by ClearSnap)
Surf Pigment Stamp Pad -ColorBox by ClearSnap (Heat tool needed)
Composition Notebook, Paint Brush, Gesso
5x7" super sticky sheet adhesive, super sticky tape
Hot Glue gun, gold microbeads, fabric
Chipboard: I used packaging from my 2 in 1 Combo Trimmer
Finished Cross stitch or coordinating fabric
Small hole punch


1. Paint the cover of the composition notebook with Gesso or white acrylic paint.


2. Paint over the Gesso with The Best Glue Ever!. When it dries, the glue will remain super tacky-great for fabric and ribbon.
3. Adhere the fabric to the front cover of the notebook. Apply the glue to the inside of the cover and let dry. Fold the edges around.


4. Adhere a sheet of super sticky tape to coordinating fabric (5x7"), trim and adhere to the inside cover.

*I had a lovely finished cross stitch piece to use for this project. If you like yard sales or flea markets, keep your eyes open for some beautiful "hand-me-down" pieces for your projects.


5. Cut chipboard to size for the cross stitch piece. (I used cardboard from the 2 in 1 Combo Trimmer packaging because it was white already and a bit sturdier than the chipboard I had)

**This cardboard packaging was very rugged, but the 2 in 1 Combo Trimmer guillotine handled it like butter!

6. Use super sticky tape to adhere the cross stitch to the chip board, wrap edges around the back side and adhere.



7. Cut card stock to size: 1/2" wider on all sides than the cross stitch piece.
This one is 3 1/2" x 8 1/2".

8. Punch a decorative border around all edges.
*I LOVED how the Punch It! has guides and pictures to show you placement and keep you steady.

9. Cut the teal mesh fabric 1/2" larger than the card stock and pull fibers from all edges.

10. Assemble the cross stitch embellishment (cross stitch on top, then punched cardstock on top of teal mesh) and secure with hot glue.

11. Affix the cross stitch to the front cover of the notebook.

**I love how this little flower charm "book mark" turned out!



12. Ink the paper flowers with Deep Lagoon Cats Eye Chalk Ink.

13. Add depth with areas of Surf Pigment ink and heat set.


14. Layer the flowers and place into a Hot Pocket and laminate.
15. Trim to a small square.
16. Apply The Best Glue Ever! to the edges and dip into gold microbeads. Let Dry.

17. Use the Melt Tool (with the 20ss tip) on high setting to affix a nailhead from the Craft Iron Tips Gem Setting Kit to the center of the flower.

**Woohoo! Four Wind It! plates in one set!

18. Use the Wind It! tool to create the wire book mark with the Aqua Wind It! Wire.

**I was afraid of the wire! It is so thick and the Wind It designs so intricate. I thought I was in trouble. (Did I mention the colors of the wire being so gorgeous?) The wire is very soft and pliable. It was SO EASY TO WORK WITH. And, the Wind It! tool has a hole at the beginning and end of each design to put the wire into and hold it while you wind.

19. Punch a small hole into the corner of the flower charm and slip onto the wire flourish.

VIOLA!


Thank you so much for blogging today.
Please visit the Purple Cows blog from time to time for project ideas and inspiration.
This design team is AMAZING!

Artfully,
Becky

CLEARSNAP: Artful Journal

Hello everyone! I'm very excited to be posting as a Guest Designer this month for Clearsnap!
I got a little inky creating this journal, I hope you enjoy it.

Clearsnap Supplies:
Colorbox Archival Pigment and Pearl ink Cat's Eye: Plum Berry, Violet, Heliotrope, Deep Grape, Dark Cherry
Holographic Stars Designer Foil
Glue Gloss

Other Supplies:
Textured wall paper, pre-bound journal, Purple acrylic paint, glass beads, wire, 2x3 stampbord, Star rubber stamp by Rubberstamp Romance, Gold embossing powder, heat tool, indigo walnut ink, Raspberry alcohol ink, dremel tool, scrap ribbon, Double sided super tape sheet, clear pigment pad, gold embossing powder, metal watch face.

HOW TO:

First, disassemble the journal to remove the front and back cover so you can decorate them.
Trim the wall paper to size just slightly larger than the book cover.

Add stripes of color to the textured wall paper by applying the pad directly to the paper. Cover the entire piece of paper.

Spritz with indigo tinted walnut ink. I made this spritz myself by boiling walnut ink powder and adding a bit of Rit indigo dye.

This step moves the ink around and lets it sink into the low spots.


Dab gently with a paper towel to remove puddles, let dry completely.

Once dry, use the ink pads again to lightly add a different color to high spots.
Heat set. Cover the book covers with the colored wall paper, double sided super tape sheets work best for this step, trim as necessary.

Paint the edges with acrylic paint, dry brush a little paint on to the wall paper.
Add more color with Colorbox Archival Ink Cat's Eyes, heat set. Coat the edges with Glue Gloss to seal the paint.


Pounce the background of the stampbord with Heliotrope Colorbox Archival Cat's Eye, then shade the edges with Violet Colorbox Archival Cat's Eye. Heat set.

Stamp the sun image onto the stampbord, and emboss with gold embossing powder. Color the watch face with alcohol ink, let dry and attach to the center of the sun image. Hand cut a small circle of Super Double-Sided sticky tape and attach to the center of the watch face, apply Designer Foil.

Twist wire around a bead and create a hanging ornament. Use a dremel tool or small drill to drill a hole through the stampbord in the lower left corner, attach the beaded wire to the stampbord either with wire or a scrap of ribbon. Glue the finished embellishment to the front of the journal.

Reassemble the finished journal, by reattaching the binding and pages.

Thanks so much for stopping by the blog! Become a follower, there's new inspiration and ideas with every post. Check out the Clearsnap Blog for more ideas!

Cheers!
Becky Conley

Sakura Design Team Post & Blog Candy!

Today I am posting the project I made for my Design Team Application to Sakura.
Visit their blog for helpful tips and project ideas

FLOWER SHAPED CARD

SUPPLIES: I am being a bit generic about the products used here because most of them are scraps of left overs, I went through the scrap paper bin and picked 4 blue hues that worked together and one green piece for the leaves. The brad is a Basic Gray left over.
*Sakura-3D Clear Crystal Lacquer
*Spellbinders dies-Daisy Heads, Flower Creations, S3 die of 3 hearts, bee/hornet and grass hopper.
*Kaiser Craft wood flourish
*Ink- Adirondak:Stream, Meadow, Citrus, Lamp Black-Ranger
*Copper Wire, dimensional foam adhesive, liquid glue, sand paper, scissors, blue fine art glitter
*Flower shaped card-Darice
*Rubber Stamps - Flourishes BY ME! BCDesigns (BLOG CANDY! leave a comment on this post to be eligible to win the entire 8x10 sheet of high quality red rubber images: see below) Find them at HeartsinTouch.com

I started with a blank white shaped card.

Then covered it with patterned paper and stamped flourish accents in coordinating ink colors.

Then I cut and embossed 6 large die cut hearts from glossy cardstock, sanded the raised areas and inked them with Adirondak Stream. I cut off the bottom points and folded them backward at the center and glued them on top of the flower card as shown. I picked 3 flower die cuts by sizes that would work, sanded and inked them too. Assemble the three smaller die cuts with the decorate brad in the center.

Adhere the smaller flowers with 2 layers of dimensional foam adhesive in the center of the large flower. Ink the wood flourish with Citrus and glue in place on top of leaves. The grasshopper is inked with Meadow, the bee with Lamp Black. Use liquid glue to hold the copper wire at the center of the flower and dry adhesive to adhere the wire to the backside of the bee.

I applied 3D clear crystal lacquer to accent the edges of the large flower petals, raised areas of all die cuts-including the bee and grasshopper, and the stamped areas on the leaves. This step adds SO MUCH in the way of dimension and shine.

Since I can't seem to live without bling these days, I sprinkled a very light amount of blue art glitter over the flower while the crystal lacquer was still wet.


BLOG CANDY!
You can win this entire sheet of flourish designs in high quality red rubber stamps!
Just leave a comment on this post and a random winner will be selected. Of course, I'd appreciate it if you follow my blog too! (but only if you enjoyed this project as much as I did creating it :o)

If you are not the lucky winner, but LOVE these designs I've created, they may be purchased at HeartsinTouch.com for $16. Check out her shipping options.

Adhesive foam is not included in this give away.

Stay Crafty & Be You!
Becky