Tuesday's Tip

I have purchased various chip board collections in the past. I think many of us have them, but do not always use all the pieces. I find there are certain favorites that I tend to use up. As much as I love the parenthesis chipboard shapes, I find them a challenge to use at times. I recently saw a fun way to incorporate these shapes into art - as photo corners. They can be painted, glittered, stamped and Washi taped! I plan to dig them out and start using them!

Fence Posts

Or, I should say, former wooden fence posts were what we used to make little goodies for our Scramp Camp attendees. KJ's wonderful husband (Mike) cut their old fence posts into wooden houses for us to decorate - specifically in the style/likes of one of the attendees. After washing and sanding, I used a coat of gesso to start with a more uniform background.

These were the fronts of 2 of the houses I made. The one on the left was for my friend Diane (lover of theatre and cats) and the one on the right for Maryjo. I layered old book and music pages, and added a bit of molding paste. After all was dry, I painted with acrylics. The door, fence, and roof are thin balsa wood. I found the chipboard windows at Alpha Stamps (they have great stuff - one of my favorite company's).

I even decorated the backs! You can see some of the texture better on the house on the right. The image on the left was from the Moulin Rouge patterned paper pad. I also used rubber stamps and ephemera to embellish the houses. It was quite addicting making these houses!

Tuesday's Tip

I have been busy with stencils lately. Most of the stencils I use I have bought from companies like Club Scrap and Crafter's Companion. However, packaging can also act as a stencil. The packages from chip board letters and shapes can act as a stencil. You can use the negative space to draw through. The negatives from punched papers can also be used!

Mini Book

Before heading to So California, I did get a quick project done.  After making a Club Scrap mini book project, I thought the concept would be easy to adapt to other sizes. I had a 12 Days of Christmas set stamped up and laying around, and thought why not try to make it into a book. The above photo is of one of the inside pages.  The base of the book and its pages are Club Scrap card stock. The pattern is from an older Cosmo Cricket Christmas set. The 12 Days postage is an old All Night Media stamp kit.

I used a few beads and number charms to embellish the linen thread. The chip board numbers were colored with Smooch ink. I then put a thick coat of Glossy Crackle Accents (Ranger) and smudged in some sepia paint in the cracks (it actually looks better in person - I would use this technique again!). Although I am not a 100% pleased with the outcome (I do not like the proportions and I would change up the page backgrounds) - I will display this book with my 12 Days... collection.

Herringbone Technique

This Herringbone technique has been making its way through the Club Scrap board...It utilizes narrow strips of cardstock on an adhesive base. Carpet tape is what is recommended by Nikki on the website. I didn't have any carpet tape handy so I used Judikins Eclipse tape and Club Scrap's Bookbinding glue.

As I made my initial panel, I thought it might be fun to try the technique on 3 dimensional embellishments. So,,,I pulled out some chipboard embellishments (both positive and negative images), slathered it in Bookbinding glue and made the star embellishments on the above cards.

The top 2 images are close-ups of the chipboard embellishments. This is a pretty easy way to use up scraps...