Thursday, May 23, 2013

Welcome to the Studio!

Hi Crafters!
Anyone who reads my personal blog knows hubs and I bought a house last July and I finally have the perfect space to craft in!  Well, I decided to make a sign for my perfect space, and I'd like to share the creative process with you.  Sorry there are no videos, but I do have pictures of the creative phases.  Hope you enjoy, and if you have any questions, please feel free to email  or hit me up on Facebook!

So in this first photo, you can see all of the supplies I've pulled out for this project - some are things I know I will use, others are "maybe I'll use this, maybe not."

Supplies: 
Chipboard Cut Out - Melissa Frances
 Classic Flowers - Prima
Satin Ribbon - Stampin Up!
Ticket DieCut - Tim Holtz
Flocked Journal Cards - MME
Cardstock - Paper Source, Bazzill
Patterned Paper - Daisy D for Recollections Circa Fall 2007
It is important to note that most of the stuff in this project is from my very old stash from my days at Recollections before Michael's took the brand back in house.

So the first thing I had to do was attach the patterned paper to the front of the chipboard.  There are a few ways you can do this - since this is not a straight square or circle, I glued the chipboard to the paper and cut around with a exacto knife.  Took a little while, but I liked the way it came out.  Once your paper is trimmed and attached, sand the edges.  This way if you have any jagged or uneven cuts, you can smooth everything out.  Love this little trick.  Then you can cover up any "mistakes" with chalk or distress inks.

Once the paper was attached - I only did one side since the back will be against the door 100% of the time - you want to punch holes and fill these holes with Eyelets.  This is important mostly for ribbon.  In my case, I plan to attached a small chalk board later, so I did Eyelets at the top and bottom.  I used the large Eyelets and my Crop-o-Dile.  

Now if you notice, I have a set of holes closer together, and a set farther apart - the ones farther apart will eventually be attaching to a small chalk board. The holes that are closer together are for the ribbon that I am using to hang it. As you can see, there are also 2 pieces in the photo above, my studio has 2 doors - 1 sign for each door.  :) 

The next thing I did was cut out letters using my Cricut.  I cut out 1 1/2" letters using Ashlynn's Alphabet out of brown sparkly cardstock from Papersource and blue "bling" cardstock from Bazzill.      As you can see in the picture below, I used my Xyron "X" to adhere the letter layers together.

Once I got the letters stuck together, it was time to decorate the chipboard sign.  I cut a rectangle of patterned paper from another piece of paper from the Recollections line.  Then I glued down some brown lace along the bottom and laid down the word "Studio".  The top corner is a sticker from Glitz layered over 2 scalloped ovals cut from my Spell Binders dies.  The brown layer is actually the same size as the blue one, but it is cut in half and positioned so it looks like it's sort of nesting...neat trick eh?  Once that was in place I added "Jessi's" so the sign reads "Jessi's Studio".



 Once the top corner was laid out and the words put down, it was time for the fun part - embellishing!  I used kinds of flowers from my stash for this.  I glued in the leaves and larger roses.  Then, using a stylus tool, I pushed in flat flowers between, making them also look dimensional.  Also, if you look closely, you can see a ticket sticking out from behind the flowers...I could not find the booklet this ticket came from so I cut it in half and used one in each corner..love the way it came out, and I think I will remember this trick for next time.  Great way to save money on your embellishments!



The final step is to string ribbon through the top holes and hang it up.  Here is the completed sign!  To hang up your sign, you can get a 3M Command Hook - just make sure you get one to support the weight of your finished project.  I think the ones I have hold something crazy like 3 pounds.  My signs aren't that heavy, but I don not want them falling off the door either.  You can find them at WalMart, grocery stores, and any home improvement store.  I got mine at Lowes....after buying a new house, those people practically know us by name.  LOL!


Have you ever done a project like this?  Tell me about it!  I hope you enjoyed this project - it was loads of fun for me.  I've even made a second one for the other door - it has a few differences, but it's just about the same.  Hopefully I can get a studio tour done soon and you can see what they look like hanging up on my doors.
Is there something you want to see next?  Tell me about it!

Happy Scrapping, and I'll see you next time!
XOXOXOX
Jessi

Sunday, February 10, 2013

As Seen on Pinterest, Simple Heart Wreathe

Hello Crafters!

It seems settling in has taken me considerably more time than I expected, but good news is, I'm back and with a new project!

This project comes from Pinterest, courtesy of Frannie Dresham, the original pinner.  She found this great project on Twitter @FrugalDana - posted on her twitter on 2/10/2012.

I assumed this came from her blog, http://www.frugalfrontier.com (which is awesome), but I did not find any references or directions - truly my favorite kind of project....one I get to figure out myself. :)  SO I gave it a shot - not too difficult, I think.

The Wreathe itself is made of 8 paper hearts.  I've seen similar hearts in other projects I've seen on Pinterest so that was easy to figure out.  Now I needed to figure out how to cut the paper and the hanger, and then how to attach it all.  No problem! 

Here's what I did:

Supplies:
8 strips of cardstock - 12" x 1 1/2" 
Tiny Attacher (or stapler, glue dots, sticky strip, tacky tape or other strong adhesive)
1 piece of ribbon, 12" long
bone folder

Step 1: fold a strip in half.  If you are using a 2 sided cardstock, you want the inside of the fold to be the pattern or color you want on the outside of the heart.  Make sure to use your bone folder enforce your fold lines.

Step 2: Staple the folded end shut, just above the crease line.


Step 3: open your folded paper and pull the tails to a close, the inner pattern or color should now be showing on the outside, and you should see the makings of your heart.


Step 4: Staple the tails closed, securing the heart closed.


Step 5: Repeat for the 7 remaining strips until you have 8 hearts.


Step 6: Start constructing your wreathe.  Place the hearts side by side, matching the tails evenly at the bottom, and stapling the sides of each heart to the next one.  The staple will go approximately in the middle.

Step 7: Attach the hanger - before you close the wreathe (or, you can add the hanger when you first start connecting the hearts).  Staple one end of the ribbon to one side of a heart.  then wrap the ribbon over top of the same heart and attach to the middle of the other side, leaving a loop long enough to hang.


Step 8: Continue attaching remaining hearts until your wreathe is complete.


Isn't it pretty?  You can either stop here, or...

You can step it up a notch by adding an embellishment to the front of your wreathe.  Here I just diecut a heart - 2 1/2 inch heart from George on my Cricut - and glued it to the center using Beacons 3 in 1 glue.

 You can also watch me make this super easy project here:


I would love to see your projects and how you make this simple, but sweet wreathe your own.

If you'd like to see more projects form Pinterest, let me know or leave me suggestions.  I'd love to know what you think!

Happy Crafting!
Jessi Myers
xoxoxo