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Stenciled Wall Arch

June 17, 2017 / / 1 Comment

Hello Everyone!

Did you see my new logo? I am loving the watercolor logo, so pretty.

It has been a while since I did a home diy, so today is the day, lol.

I am sorry that the lighting in the pics is not great, there is not great lighting in my kitchen and office so they are not the best pics, but oh well, sometimes that’s the way it goes, lol

So let’s get started! Here is my arch way (please excuse the mess, haha) This separates the kitchen from the office (it is actually the formal dining room, but who uses those any more? We don’t, so it is the office) The arch is cute and just fine the way it is, but it needed a little bit more.

stenciled wall

I used a swirl stencil to start and the accents were applied with gold paint and an oil based white Sharpie.

stenciled wall

Start with a swirl stencil and some black acrylic paint. Go around the arch and it is ok if it isn’t perfect, that is what makes it great.

stenciled wall

stenciled wall

After you stencil the entire area go back over everything with the white Sharpie and then go over with a gold paint pen. This is the fun part, don’t try to be perfect, just go around things and add extra swirls and dots and details. stenciled wall

This is a quick and fun way to add detail and texture to your home and it looks so fantastic when it is completed.

stenciled wall

 

I did take a short video of the finished arch, and I have to say I really love how it turned out! I think it is the perfect accent for the wall and a great way to divide the two rooms. And the best part of the video, you get to meet my cat, Starlight at the end of the video, lol.

The post Stenciled Wall Arch appeared first on Take Time To Create.

 

DIY Dragon Egg Tutorial

June 10, 2017 / / 0 Comments

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Hello Everyone!

As you can see from the link above I am now on Bloglovin! In other exciting news, I will at some craft fairs and a comic con later in the year! As the time gets closer, and as I learn more information, I will share all the details with you! I can’t wait to show my crafts and to see you all in person!

I have a YouTube tutorial of this egg, you can watch it here:

This is a fairly easy tutorial that is fun and a great way to show your love for all things Dragon!

DIY dragon egg

 

Materials:

  • Old tin egg (my was left over from Easter)
  • Hot Glue
  • Black Gesso
  • Acrylic Paint

Instructions:

First cover your egg with hot glue then then take a silicone tool and smash the glue all around. I learned this technique from watching a video from The Frugal Crafter, I love learning new ideas from other crafters!

DIY dragon egg

 

diy dragon egg

Once the glue is dry then cover everything in a layer of black gesso. Make sure you get into all the nooks and crannies to completely cover the egg.

DIY dragon egg

Once the gesso is dried paint the egg using acrylic paints. I started with a sliver then I added a purple and ended with a white on top. Dry brush the colors on and try not to coat it too much, you want to see all the colors, including the black base layer.

DIY dragon egg

And there you have it, a custom dragon egg! I love how it looks in my Raku fired bowl that I did in my pottery class.

DIY dragon egg

The post DIY Dragon Egg tutorial appeared first on Take Time To Create.

Imagine Embroidered Garland

June 3, 2017 / / 4 Comments

Hello Everyone!

Do you feel like your creative space is always neglected, like it is a just a cluttered room that has no real style? I do, all the time. I go and work in my craft room and then leave. There is constant disorganization and no real style in my room.

So, I decided to make this embroidered garland to hang over my window. (I am not showing you my window because I don’t even have a window treatment covering it, just a Transformers sheet that was my son’s. Pretty sad, right?) I am putting the skills I learned in my embroidery class to good use.

Imagine embroidery garland bunting

 

The first thing I did was cut out my word out of felted wool. (I found a font I liked and printed the word I wanted to embroider). Then I did a different embroidery stitch on each letter. I really liked how it was all a little different, yet unified.

Imagine embroidery garland bunting

Then I started adding ribbon and lace and bits and bobs to a piece of burlap. I was going for a shabby chic look, that was monochromatic, and I think I came pretty close. Hot glue is your friend in this step, everything is hot glued down.

Imagine embroidery garland bunting

Next I added all the words to a string, leaving space between each letter. In the space I added ribbon, and charms and anything else I could find. I think it turned out really cute, perfect for the blank, boring spot above my window.

 

Imagine embroidery garland bunting

Here is a close up of all the letters. Each letter is a little different, but similar enough to belong together.

Imagine embroidery garland bunting

I am in love with this embroidered garland, and it is the perfect start to decorating my craft room. I am looking forward to creating not only a creative, crafty space, but a welcoming one as well.

Imagine embroidery garland bunting

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Mixed Media Class with Tara Pappas

May 20, 2017 / / 2 Comments

Hello Everyone!

If you ever get the chance to take a class from a professional artist, you should jump at the chance! You will learn so many new tips, tricks, and techniques.

BTW This is not a paid or sponsored post, all opinions are my own. I paid for the class with my own money.

During my weekend at Mojito Creek (you can see my post about the retreat here: Mojito Creek) I was able to take a class from Tara Pappas! If you don’t know of her work you should check her out on her website: Tara Pappas. She is an amazing mixed media artist that creates these beautiful, whimsical, fun paintings.  I have admired her for a while and when I found out that she was teaching at Mojito Creek I had to jump at the chance to learn from her!

I purchased this print and I love it! Penguins playing with the Narwal, it is fantastic! I think I need a few more prints for all my walls!

The first step is prepping the canvas board. She uses ripped up old books or magazines and Mod Podges them to the canvas.  I love how this creates texture and interest in the first layer.

Mixed media art

For the rocky cliff that my lighthouse is standing on I ripped up old magazines and attached them with Mod Podge.   The ripping of magazines and books is awesome. I love how it enhances the paintings. This is something that I don’t in my paintings.

But before I added the rocks I first painted the sky blue. I didn’t want to cover all the book pages so I lightly swirled on a couple of colors in acrylic paint and wiped off some with a paper towel.  Then I added the rocks.

I drew the lighthouse! I am actually pretty excited about that. It isn’t perfect, but it was my first time drawing one! Tara was very encouraging and supportive when I told her I was going to draw the lighthouse!

Then I painted the lighthouse and then added the light coming from the lighthouse. That is just cut up magazines. The swirls were added with a paint marker. The bear the boat is one of Tara’s characters. She had some fantastic characters that we were able to use in our paintings, I love how generous she is with her work and time. After painted the bear he was the perfect addition.  I really love how this turned out.

Mixed media art

Ahh the ship, let me tell you a little story about this painting, haha. This was actually my first painting. She taught us about the ripping of book pages, then she mentioned that we can make texture and water, then I was off, haha. I just went to town making this ship. This is the only in progress pic I took, sorry about that.

The water is made from the tissue paper in old patterns, and I just painted over it. The sky is painted with acrylic paint and blended. The ship is drawn on old books (my first time drawing a ship!) and painted with metallic paints. In fact the whole drawing is done with metallic paints.

Even though it looks nothing like what Tara was teaching us, she was so supportive and encouraging for me to just keep on doing my thing! 

I added the quote and I am very happy with how it turned out. Such a great class and I love how all the paintings (not just my paintings, but all the students) turned out a little different.

So if you get a chance to take a class from Tara I highly encourage it! I learned a lot and I can’t wait to incorporate some of the new techniques into my art. 
The post Mixed Media Class With Tara Pappas appeared first on Take Time To Create.

Travel Journal- Mojito Creek, Blackhawk, CO

May 13, 2017 / / 4 Comments

Hello Everyone!

Every once in a while you just need to get away, and that is exactly what I did last weekend. If you follow me on Instagram (@taketimetocreate) you will have noticed that I was at my happy place, Mojito Creek. I went up for the weekend to take a class from Tara Pappas and to craft my heart out!

Just for the record, this is not a paid or sponsored post, I just love the place so much that I wanted to tell you all about it.

Mojito Creek is an awesome retreat in Blackhawk, CO. It is a little ways from the casinos (about 20 minutes), and in my opinion that is perfect! If we wanted to go do some fun activities then we could, or we could just stay in the beautiful mountains and relax. That is what I chose to do.

I know you can rent the house for the weekend for a private party or you can come to one of the open weekends. I was there to learn from the artist Tara Pappas (www.tarapappasart.com) and to work on some of my own projects. Tara is an amazing mixed media artist and I will tell you all about the class we took with her in my next post. (I just don’t want this one to get too long, lol)

Anyway, this is my second time visiting Mojito Creek and I loved it just as much the second time as I did the first time I was there.

I drove up there last Friday morning and the weather was perfect! Bright blue skies, sunny, and not too hot. Weather can change pretty quickly in Colorado, and it does get cooler the higher you go in the mountains, but that day it was perfect. The house is at about 9000 ft so the wireless was not as fast as I was  used to, but that just encouraged me to but my phone down and get to crafting!

The kitchen and dining room are nice and big. We had 14 people up there that weekend and I didn’t feel like it was crowded at all. 

Look at all this space for crafting! I mean, it is fantastic how much room we had! Everyone had a huge table with a lamp, there was plenty of room to do just about any craft! I loved seeing all the various crafts that people were doing, some were making cards, other people were scrapbooking, while I was working on some mixed media projects. 

So much space! It can be configured differently when different groups are up there, but having the crafting tables up is my favorite configuration, lol.

When you need a break from crafting there is a nice little sun room tucked off to the side. This is my favorite place to grab my book and read for a while. I didn’t take pictures of the bedrooms but the beds are nice to sleep in, and my room mates were very nice.

The mountains are always beautiful and the flowers were just starting to come out. This was the perfect way for me to regroup and relax and when I got home Sunday afternoon I was ready to tackle my week.


The post Travel Journal- Mojito Creek, Blackhawk, CO appeared first on Take Time To Create.

Metallic Mixed Media Box

April 29, 2017 / / 0 Comments

Metallic Mixed Media Box

A mixed media box is great for storage and display. Using basic mixed media techniques you can have a beautiful and useful box.

Hello Everyone!

In case you missed my class at my local creative reuse center, Who Gives a Scrap, I thought I would share with you one of the project I did. It was a beginning mixed media class that was tons of fun to teach and the participants were awesome! I loved seeing the creativity and individually of all the projects.

mixed media box

One of the challenges of teaching at a creative reuse center is trying to use items that you can find, which makes a mixed media project perfect. I prepped my box ahead of the class, but I used items that I found there. The sky is the limit with a box like this.

mixed media box

The first thing I did is find a small canvas for everyone to work with. I found these boxes that had old film canisters in it, these came from a university that was just going to throw them away. I am glad that that they didn’t pitch them. The box is about 6×6 and is a perfect size for beginners to work on, not to big to be intimidating, but not too small to be frustrating.

For the background I took tissue paper from old patters (I must really love old patterns I seem to use them all the time, lol. You can see the rose I made for my mom here: Tissue Paper Rose). I used Mod Podge and crinkled everything up and glued it down. Once it is all dry cover the background with black gesso.
mixed media box

Then I found buttons, and beads, and a knob that I really liked. So I hot glued it all the the box. You could use a gel to glue it down, but I wanted it to dry fast so I used hot glue.  Once I got it all down I painted clear gesso over everything so I could paint the smooth surfaces.
mixed media box

I love metallic paints! I used them all the time. For this project I just dry brushed the metallic paints on, highlighting the peaks and the valleys stayed black. If you don’t gesso then the paint won’t stick to the smooth buttons and beads. mixed media box

After dry brushing the paints i was done. The project was easy enough for beginners, but more advanced crafters could really go to town. I had a great time and I can’t wait to teach my next class!
mixed media box
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Tissue Paper Rose

April 21, 2017 / / 5 Comments

Tissue Paper Rose

Use the tissue paper in old patterns to create a beautiful tissue paper rose. 

Hello Everyone!

Last weekend was my beautiful mother’s birthday! She is such an important part of my life and I wanted to express that with a handmade gift.

I created this tissue paper rose for her and gave it to her last weekend when we went to lunch and shopping to celebrate!

diy tissue paper rose

I created a video to go along with the tutorial, you can see that here:  You Tube Tissue Paper Rose Tutorial

This was so much fun to create, and it was my first time doing something like this and I am happy with how it turned out.

Materials:

BTW this list contains affiliate links.

Instructions: 

First prep the canvas board with gesso. I chose black gesso to give me a clean slate.

Get the tissue paper ready by ripping the tissue paper and rolling it into a tight strip.

diy tissue paper rose

Roll the strips into a tight circle and glue it down in a spiral. Try and keep it all tight and keep going until you get the size you like.

Make the stems by using the strips in a swirl motion. The leaves were made from a short strip with one end slightly trimmed in a rounded shape.

diy tissue paper rose

Next I put a layer of black gesso on everything.

No photo here: Then I decided that the black was too dark for the center of my rose so I painted over the black with white gesso

Then I added glass bead texture to the outside of the rose.

diy tissue paper rose

Here is where I got really bad at taking photos, lol. But you can see the process in the video

I painted the rose with 2 colors of pink and the background is a light blue to a dark blue to a purple.

I tried to stamp the background with some images but I didn’t love that so I mostly covered that back up.

Then add mod podge and adhere the mica flakes. The mica flakes add so much dimension and sparkle!

diy tissue paper rose

Dry brush a light shimmery white over everything and spray a sealer on when you are done.

It makes a wonderfully sparkly gift that was tons of fun to make. 

diy tissue paper rose

The post Tissue Paper Rose appeared first on Take Time To Create.

This post contains affiliate links.

You Tube Channel and Yarn Bowl

April 1, 2017 / / 2 Comments

YouTube Channel and Yarn Bowl

Creating a yarn bowl is a great way to use up all you scraps of yarn. 

Hello Everyone!

I am so excited to tell you that I have just started my You Tube Channel! As of today there is only one video, lol, but I will be adding more as the days go by. It is so fun to show you more with my videos and it will help my explain some of my processes better! I will also be videoing some of my art journals and hauls and all kinds of other things.

I would love for you to subscribe to my channel here: Take Time To Create You Tube Channel

Now on to the craft of the week.

Yarn Bowl

This is a pretty easy project that is similar to the leaf bowl that I made a few months ago. You can see that video here: Leaf bowl

Take any bowl with a shape that you like and wrap it with plastic wrap.

Yarn Bowl

Get your yarn ready by cutting it into smaller pieces if you want, I used pieces that were about a foot or more long. This is really up to you how you want your bowl to look. Then I used a lot of Mod Podge to glue it all down. In the future I won’t be using Mod Podge, I don’t think it holds the finished bowl stiff enough.

I think I am going to try Aleene’s Tacky Glue for my next bowl. I have seen on Pinterest where people heat up a glue mixture for their yarn bowl but since I don’t get along with my oven I am trying to stay away from that process, lol.  I will let you know hw my experiments go.

Yarn Bowl

Let it dry completely and carefully remove it from the bowl. Reshape as necessary. So very cute! 
 Yarn Bowl

What other ways do you use up your yarn scraps?

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Create a Purse from an old VHS Tape

March 25, 2017 / / 6 Comments

Create a Purse from an old VHS Tape

What do you do with all those old VHS tapes? Why you create a purse! Perfect way to add some interest to your outfit!

Hello Everyone!

I am almost embarrassed to admit, but I still have a lot of VHS tapes laying around my house. I hate to toss them, but I have no way of playing them (I don’t even own a VHS player…) So what do I with this pile of tapes? I decided to create a purse!

I will admit that is project did not turn out exactly how I envisioned it. But it did turn out cute and the next one will be better! In the instructions I will tell you what I did and how I will make it better next time, that way you can create it at home with out all my struggles, lol

create a diy vhs purse

Materials:

  • VHS tape
  • screw driver
  • cutters
  • fabric, buttons, trim
  • super glue

Instructions:

create a diy vhs purse

First you find an old VHS tape. If you no longer have one in your stash you can find them at thrift stores, or ask around I am sure someone has one somewhere.

create a diy vhs purse

This is the fun part. Unscrew all the screws and open the tape. Take out the innards and safe them, they will work great for a mixed media project. Next you want to cut off the plastic bits that are sticking up. This is one area that I messed up, I cut too much off the bottom and it doesn’t seal (there is a tiny hole in the bottom. Just be careful and you should be good.

Then I glued some faux leather fabric on one side, in hindsight I probably should have glued it to both sides, but I wanted to see the clear windows still. I think I can make this a little better next time.

create a diy vhs purse

Glue hinges so that you can open and close your purse. Try not to glue your fingers to the tape, lol (I may or may not have done the, lol) Also try not to glue the hinge shut, it takes a lot of careful prying if you happen to glue the hinge (once again I may or may not have done the, lol)

create a diy vhs purse

Then I added a decorated bottle cap and some string to secure the purse closed. Next time I will use elastic, but this works. Also next time I will add fabric to the sides so the tape doesn’t lay flat when open, it will help keep everything contained. Add a strap, I wanted mine to look a little funky so I added pom-pom trim.
create a diy vhs purse

create a diy vhs purse

Overall I am happy with how this turned out, and I am excited to make improvements to version 2.  What are you doing to up cycle your VHS tapes?

The post Create a Purse from an old VHS Tape appeared first on Take Time To Create

 

DIY Straw Flower Hat

March 4, 2017 / / 4 Comments

DIY Straw Flower Hat

With spring approaching a new straw hat is what everyone needs. And with a few markers you can personalize the hat and add just the right amount of flair.

Hello Everyone!

It has been a while since I did a Dollar Store project and an accessory project, so I thought I would combine the 2 into 1 project.

I have a terrible case of Spring Fever and when I saw these cute straw hats at the Dollar Store I knew I had to get one and decorate it.

diy straw flower hat

 

The project is simple enough and can be completed in under an hour.

Materials:

Instructions:

Find a super cute straw hat that you are willing to draw on.
diy straw flower hat

 

I didn’t want to spend a ton of money, so I thought a dollar was perfect. I also wanted to make this an easy project that could be completed quickly. And I accomplished that as well.

diy straw flower hat

 

Find a design that you want to draw and go to town. I thought pretty pink flowers were perfect for spring.

diy straw flower hat

 

Straw is a little harder to work on, but not impossible, just take your time and you will be fine. Pick a design that doesn’t have a lot of detail or it will get muddy on the hat.

This would be a great project with a group or for a girls weekend or with kids.

How are you handling your Spring Fever?

This post contains affiliate links

The post DIY Straw Flower Hat appeared first on Take Time To Create.

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