Take Time To Create

Christmas Craft Project

Santa Mixed Media Canvas

Christmas is almost here, and this Santa mixed media canvas is perfect for your holiday decor.

Hello Everyone!

Lately I have been inspired to make mixed media canvases, and with Christmas fast approaching I have the perfect subject for my art.

I had this beautiful paper and glittery star that became the focal point, the rest was just details.

Now I will be honest, I didn’t take any pictures of me actually doing the mixed media, but I think I can explain well enough and as always please ask if you have questions.

I really enjoy making mixed media canvases, all inspired by Finnabair.

Materials:

12x 12 canvas (I got mine at Michaels, but you can always get one on Amazon here: Canvas)
Paper (I don’t remember where I got this beautiful paper by KaiserCraft, St Nicholas Collection, Papa Noel, but you can find great paper just about anywhere)
Large star (I found mine at the Dollar Store. It was just so beautiful that I couldn’t pass it up. )
Large letter, glitter, beads, and other do-dads, stickles, acrylic paint, stencil
Mod Podge, modeling paste, Mica Powder, clear gesso, clear spray sealer

Instructions:

Trim your paper to fit your canvas and spread Mod Podge on the canvas. Place your paper on the canvas, smooth out. I turned my canvas over and let it dry overnight.

Starting with santa paper on canvas

The next day I covered my paper with clear gesso to give it some tooth. Then I applied modeling paste with a swirl stencil to add some detail (you can’t really see it, but it is there.)

Then I sprinkled on mica powered and spread it around. (I am in love with these Prima Marketing mica Powders. You can find the colors I used here: Gold, Copper, Pale Silver)

I am in love with these Prima Marketing mica Powders

Once that was all dry I went to town. I added modeling paste to the star and glued it to the center.

I highlighted the stencil with painted and I painted around the edges with a shimmery white color.

Then I added the letters (they were pink, but I painted them and added glitter)

I added the large gems and small beads and micro beads with globs of modeling paste. Then I poured on lots of glitter to stick the the modeling paste (I figured that Christmas decor needs a lot of glitter)

Our santa mixed media canvis is coming together

I added rows of pearl beads, and key metal elements, and I added stick details to the star. Once everything is dry I sprayed it with a clear sealer, the mica powder is not adhered to anything and it will wipe away, so the sealer is necessary.

a close-up of our Christmas star

I really like how this turned out. I think it is an interesting piece.

Close-up of our Christmas star

finished santa mixed media canvas

What holiday should I make a mixed media for next? New Years? Easter? Valentine Day?

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DIY Christmas Tree Earrings

December 13, 2016 / TakeTimetoCreate / 0 Comments

DIY Wire Christmas Tree Earrings

Make the holidays merry with these easy DIY wire Christmas Tree earrings.

Hello Everyone

Do you ever dream about crafts, or is that just me? The other night I was dreaming about making wire Christmas Tree earrings, I know a little random but since I dreamt it I just had to try to make them.

Now the funny thing is is that I have never made anything like this before. I don’t usually work with wire, but I found that I love this technique and I have more ideas to make more jewelry.

I just love how my Christmas tree earrings turned out

Materials

Thin Wire- You can find it on Amazon here: Artistic Wire
French Hooks- You can find it on Amazon here: French Hooks
Star beads- I found mine at Oriental Trading- link here: Star bead, but the local craft stores might have something similar
Pliers and clippers and round objects in various sizes (this is to wrap the wire around)

Instructions:

You need to have a variety of round objects in various sizes. I started with a large marker and started wrapping, then I went to smaller marker then a pencil

I am starting to wrap my Christmas tree earrings

A smaller wrap for my Christmas tree earrings

Switching to a smaller wrap

The whole idea is to make the tree get smaller as you wrap it around. I wrapped it around each object about 3 times. The wire I used was a bit thin, but it is a nice dainty look, but next time I think I will use a wire that is a bit heavier duty. This wire likes to bend a bit too easily for my liking. but I did like how it turned out.

Once I finished wrapping I added a french hook. Then I spent some time adjusting the wire to make sure it looked like a tree. I hind sight I probably should have used green wire, but I didn’t have that in my stash, so gold it is, lol.

When I looked at it I thought it was a bit too plain, so I thought I would add a star bead to the top.

I think the star bead is just what the trees needed! These earrings will be perfect the holiday parties this year.

The finished Christmas tree earrings

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This post DIY Christmas Tree Earrings appeared first on Take Time To Create

diy-pillows-burlap-coffee-sacks

December 8, 2016 / TakeTimetoCreate / 0 Comments

Sewing Craft Project Burlap Pillows

Used burlap coffee sacks make for a great sewing craft project… they also make make great pillows. They are fun and unique and perfect for any decor.

Hello Everyone!

Finished burlap pillow case

Today is a cold, wintry day and I am inclined to stay inside all day (I do have to go to work, but when I get home I am going to snuggle down and say warm) anyway, as I think about staying home I am reminded of this sewing craft project I did where I made pillows from Burlap sacks. I did this a while ago, but I still love them so much. I think they are perfect for my decor.

Materials:

You will need the used burlap sacks that is used for coffee. I originally purchased mine on eBay, but I did find some on Amazon. You can use this link: Burlap Coffee Sacks. There are a lot of vendors for these sacks so you have your pick! But they usually come with random patterns, I don’t think you are able to pick your pattern. So keep that in mind when purchasing.
Pillow form. I found mine at Ikea, they have the best prices for pillow forms
Needle and thread, or sewing machine.

This sewing craft project starts with burlap bags

Instructions:

Cut your sack to the dimensions of your pillow form. If you want the pillow to look more full then cut the sack a bit smaller. (I have to be honest here, I didn’t actually sew these pillows. My fabulous mom sewed them for me. haha, I don’t know what I would do without her.)

Once it is cut, pin the right sides together and sew the right sides together. Leave a little hole so you have room to put your pillow form in.

Stuff your pillow and stitch the hole.

Here is another finished pillow

That is it, very easy to make a custom pillow for your home. You can use this technique for almost any fabric. I love how easy it is to update your decor, and reusing items that might otherwise land in the landfill is a double awesome!

BTW if you are wondering how I painted my couch green you can check out this old post: Painted Couch

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Painted Christmas Houses

December 6, 2016 / TakeTimetoCreate / 0 Comments

Painted Christmas Houses

You can find these really cute ceramic houses just about anywhere, with just a little paint and glitter they are ready to be put on display.

My finished Christmas houses on display

Hello Everyone!

December is rolling along and it is time for me to think about decorating. The tree is up, and if you follow me on Instagram you probably have seen our tree by now. (@taketimetocreate).

With any holiday I always feel the need to create some new items. This year I made some painted Christmas houses. I found the unfinished ceramic houses at our creative reuse center Who Gives A Scrap (I love that place!) With a little paint and glitter they were ready to go.

Materials:

Ceramic House (You can get these at a creative reuse center, craft stores, and sometimes the thrift stores will have some unfortunutally painted ones that need an update)
Paint and glitter found at the craft store. I really liked this paint, it was white with a little pearl look to it. Perfect for Christmas.

paint-and-glitter

Instructions:

Take your plain ceramic house and paint on a layer of white paint. You can always spray paint the houses, but I just decided to hand paint instead. This is what it looks like before the paint.

(btw, The houses did come with detailed instructions to paint the house in all the colors, but I did not want to take the time to do any detailed painting. haha. So white paint here I come. )

My Painted Christmas houses before glitter

Add the paint. This is what it looks like with the paint. Go over everything, all the little details. Don’t forget the inside of the windows. Touch up where ever you forgot.

My Painted Christmas houses before glitter

Then I decided to add some glitter detail to the snow and trees. Just pick a clear holographic glitter that goes with your paint. I put a layer of mod podge on then sprinkled it with glitter.

Adding Glitter to the painted Christmas houses

Once they are dry they are ready to be put on display.

I think they turned out really cute. You can put lights in the bottom, but I didn’t have any. So this weekend I will pick up some and then they will look even better!

Close-up of the painted Christmas houses on the mantle

Here are the finished painted Christmas houses

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Organization- Adding Metal Strips for easy organization

December 1, 2016 / TakeTimetoCreate / 2 Comments

Hello Everyone! In any craft room organization is key. It is important to know what you have, and where it is so you can complete your projects easily with minimal headache. These metal strips will help you achieve your craft room organization goals.

Metal Strips for Craft Room Organization

My finished Metal Strips

I don’t know about you, but I have all these little odds and ends that are all over my crafting area. I use them all the time, but I didn’t have a good way to store them I wanted them close by, but out of the way. I know, that sounds like a contradictions in terms, lol. My strips are on the wall right above my work table. Perfect reaching distance.

Another view of my craft room organization

This is such an easy project, just grab some metal strips from the hardware store.

Drill holes so you can attach it to the wall. Secure the strips to the wall.

Add all your little bins!

Different containers for my craft room organization

Different containers on the metal strips

The little clear plastic tubs I found at the dollar store (you can see it online here) Just add a magnet to the lid and you are good to go. Just make sure the glue dries overnight before hanging it full of stuff.

The metal tubs I also found at the dollar store (here) They are great! With a clear lid and lots of space they are perfect for your metal strip. Just make sure the paper sticker of off the magnet, it will attached better without the sticker.

I added magnets to some of my other odds and ends like wire and micro beads.

Round containers for my craft room organization

Now I have everything on hand, but it is out of the way.

I think this is a great solution for all these little bits and pieces. Now it is time to add some more strips for the rest of my do-dads.

What is your favorite organizational technique?

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DIY Ornaments from Magic Towels!

November 29, 2016 / TakeTimetoCreate / 1 Comment

Hello Everyone! With the holidays right around the corner it is time to start thinking about decorating. And since we are on a crafting blog, this post is about DIY Ornaments. This is an easy project that takes magic towels and turns them into ornaments and it is fun to do with the kids.

My Finished Dory DIY Ornament

I hope you had a wonderful relaxing Thanksgiving holiday. We had a great time, we went to Florida for the week and it was perfect. Stay tuned, I will do a travel journal about the resort we stayed at.

With Christmas right around the corner I thought I would start doing some holiday crafts and today’s is a DIY ornament.

Materials for your DIY Ornaments:

Magic Towels (I used a Dory one and an Avengers one, and I got both from the dollar store)

We start with a simple magic towel.

Ribbon
Stuffing
Hot glue gun and glue sticks

Instructions:

Cut around the shape that you want to make into an ornament. And cut out that same shape in a plain colored wash cloth.

Next, we cut out the parts we want to turn into ornaments.

Then you start gluing. Glue the pom-pom ribbon ) around the edge and then glue the black ribbon to the top. I used hot glue for all my gluing, but if you are doing this with kids then you might wan to use fabric glue. You can also sew these together, but me and my sewing machine are not getting along right now, so my hot glue gun came to the rescue.

Then glue the plain wash cloth to the back, but make sure you leave a little gap so you can add stuffing. Add a little stuffing and glue the gap closed.

Then, add ribbon and glue together.

And that is it. These are great for kids and easy to do. Kids will like having their favorite characters on the tree.

Here are the finished ornaments.

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Guest Post-DIY Sugar Scrub

November 17, 2016 / TakeTimetoCreate / 0 Comments

Guest Post By Kim- DIY Sugar Scrub

Today we have a great DIY for your dry skin. This is a great way to replenish the moisture and exfoliate at the same time.

Once again I have my sister, Kim, doing a guest post, which I love!! She is sharing a diy Sugar scrub, which is awesome. When I read this post I giggled because it is similar to the recipe that I use all the time. You can tell that we are sisters, haha. I will post my version at the end.

It has been a while since I have done a guest post, you can read my last guest post here. I have a few in progress but this is one that is a great gift idea for the holidays. Also with so much focus on politics something to pamper ourselves is good.

This is what it will look like when all is said and done.

First let me give you a little background on beauty products. Many exfoliating skin care products contain microbeads for the abrasive properties. These are plastic spheres that are less than 5mm in diameter. These are rinsed down the drain and cannot be captured by water treatment plants thereby they make it into waterways and interfere with fish and other wildlife. President Obama did sign a ban on these but it will not take effect until at least mid 2017 and only covers beauty products You can read about that here. They can also be found in cleaning products but that is another post.

I wanted to share with you one way that you can stop using micro beads right now and have great skin.

Disclaimer: I am not a dermatologist and have no skin care training. I just know this works great for me and I love how it leaves my skin.

About a year ago I started to switch out some of my beauty products for more natural versions. I wanted good results but to be friendly to my skin and the environment. I have some issues with skin sensitivity so I am careful what I use.

Here is what I started doing for an exfoliate.

A sugar scrub with coconut oil. I love it and it leaves my skin hydrated and soft. I use it 1-2 times a week I like to rub it on my face and neck right before my shower and then rinse it off in the shower. If you use this route you need to be careful because some of the oil can stay on the floor of the shower and be a little slippery. I have also used this as a full body scrub and it is great on feet and elbows.

I have used to different recipes and I have provided links to them here. Also I have pinned a bunch more on my “Go Natural” and “Skin Deep Beauty” boards on Pinterest.

The first one I tried was very basic as I wanted to see how it would work. Just 2 parts regular sugar and 1 part Coconut Oil. You can read about it here.

I don’t have any pictures but it was great and now I am excited to try different scents and combinations. Maybe a salt scrub also.

Next I tried another recipe for vanilla scented. You can read about it here.

This was a good recipe but I found The ratio to be off and I needed to add more sugar. I do love the vanilla scent when I use it. A better quality vanilla would probably have a stronger scent but I wasn’t going to use my good vanilla for a scrub and this was plenty for me.

These are the materials you will need.

Be sure that you melt the coconut oil before mixing with the sugar but you don’t want the oil too hot. I live in a warm area of the country so I only needed 10 seconds in the microwave to completely melt the coconut oil.

After mixing your ingredients it might look like this.

Then mixed together you can see that there is a lot of oil. So I added more sugar and the vanilla.

A less oily mixture.

Next time I will be using the first recipe but adding vanilla or whatever oil or extract i am in the mood for. Also Coconut Oil is great as it doesn’t go rancid quickly. I had my last jar in the shower for a couple of months and it was still fresh and great to use to the last bit I could scrape out of the jar.

As we approach the holidays and the craziness of the end of the year remember to take time for you.

Linda’s version:

I love doing sugar scrubs. Here is how my version is slightly different than Kim’s

I don’t use any vanilla, I like the scent the way it is
I don’t even melt it, lol. (I try and stay out of the kitchen as much as possible, lol)
I just dump equal amounts of coconut oil (I don’t melt it before hand because coconut oil melts in your hand and I am lazy as well, haha) and granulated sugar and brown sugar. I used brown sugar as well because if I use too much granulated sugar it is too rough on my skin. (I usually make up my scrub as I wait for the water in my shower to warm up)
Then in the shower I just take a scoop and smear it all over, but be careful it does make the shower slippery.

Enjoy!

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Gift Idea- Mini Canvas Photo Magnets

November 15, 2016 / TakeTimetoCreate / 0 Comments

Gift Idea- Mini Canvas Photo Magnets

Hello Everyone!

Can you believe that Christmas is right around the corner? With Christmas so close I thought I would start showing you some easy DIY gifts.

Today I am going to show you how to make these really easy, really cute, mini canvas magnets. These are perfect for Grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends, and even for your self, lol.

Materials:

Mini canvases
Mod Podge, brushes, scrap paper, magnet, glue
Paint, photo

Instructions:

First pick up some of these adorable mini canvases. I couldn’t resist, they are so cute. At just 2″ x 2″ they are perfect for magnets.

After you are finished admiring the cuteness of the canvas paint is all in a neutral color, including the sides.

paint-canvas

Now it is time to cut out your picture. To help with this make a template by cutting out a square in some scrap paper the size of your canvas. Then use that template to find the best image for your magnet. You may even discover that the picture you chose won’t work because it is too big or too many details get lost. (on a funny side note when my teenage son saw me doing these magnets the other day he laughed and said that he was freshly dented in that pic. He still has the scar to this day. ahhh kids, they do keep us on our toes)

Then glue the picture down using Mod Podge. You can add a layer of Mod Podge to the top if you wish. Then I sponged some of the same paint color I used previously to add a nice boarder. Glue a magnet to the back an you are done. A great gift that can be done in 10 min.

Are there any gifts that you would like me to do a tutorial for? Let’s make this a DIY holiday season!

This post Gift Idea- Mini Canvas Photo Magnets appeared first on Take Time To Create.

How to make anything look old and rusty

November 10, 2016 / TakeTimetoCreate / 1 Comment

How to make anything look old and rusty

Hello Everyone!

I have finished the third angel that I was working on. This time I made it look old and rusty, like the angel had been out in the weather for many years

I really liked how this turned out. It was a lot of fun and I can’t wait to make more things look old and rusty.

finished-rust-painted-angel

Materials

Figurine (I used a resin angel from the dollar store)
Paint (you can get rust paint from the craft store, but the colors I used was orange. brown, and yellow

paint

Coffee and Cinnamon and mod podge

Instructions:

First paint the angel with black gesso, Cover everything, this makes a good base for the paint to adhere to.

After the gesso is dry sponge on some yellow paint. I used a chalk paint. The idea here is to not be too perfect, because rust is not perfect at all, haha.

Then sponge on orange and then brown. I went from light colors to dark on top. Emphasize some areas more than others.

Now it is time for the really fun part. Mix up some ground up coffee and some cinnamon. sponge on mod podge on the angel in a random fashion, emphasizing some ares more than others and pour on the cinnamon/coffee mixture. Your crafting area will smell pretty awesome. Let it dry and then gently brush off the excess. This is what makes it look really rusted! It is pretty cool. Then spray a matte sealer to keep the coffee/cinnamon on and then you are done! Add to your decor and you now have a custom piece.

I put her on our mantle (you can see how we built it here) and if you are interested you can see how I made the lantern here.

add-to-your-decor

Here are all three angels that I altered standing next to each other. I think they are all wonderful in their own way. You can see how I did them here and here.

all-three-painted-angels

Mixed Media Canvas Celebrating Family

November 8, 2016 / TakeTimetoCreate / 0 Comments

Mixed Media Canvas Celebrating Family

Hello Everyone!

Today I have another mixed media tutorial. I love making mixed media art, it relaxes me and soothes my soul. This is another Finnibair inspired canvas. I love her work, she inspires me so much and I learn a ton from her techniques.

This canvas celebrates family. Family is so important and I wanted that to be the focus of this canvas.

I have made other mixed media canvas and you can visit them here:

Frozen Mixed Media

Dragon Mixed Media

Angel Mixed Media

Materials:

Canvas, black gesso, brushes
Mica powder, spray bottles, stencils, modeling paste, acrylic paint, spray clear coat
Flowers, letters, beads, cheese cloth and anything else you want to put on your canvas.

Instructions:

First you add all your flowers and letters and doo-dad on a canvas. I put black gesso on my canvas before I started. Then I went to town. Add stencils, cheese cloth, flowers, letters, beads, buttons, and broken jewelry. Anything to add interest and texture. I didn’t really care about the colors, just texture because I knew it would all be covered up.

Once you have everything secured with modeling paste then cover it all with black gesso. Cover all the ins and outs and little spots, you want it all black with nothing showing. This will take a while, but it is worth it to take your time and do it right.

Once it is all dried it is time for the fun part. I added piles of mica powder all over the canvas. Then I took a spray bottle and sprayed water to spread the mica powder and create a shimmery, metallic look. I did this a few times and once I was done with how it looked I dry brushed acrylic paint on the canvas. I just highlighted the tips of the flowers and the Family letters, The dry brushing was just to add some more detail to the canvas.

After the paints dried I added some metal flowers to add detail. It was the missing piece to bring it all together.

I really like how it turned out, what do you think? These are so much fun, I can’t wait to show you the next mixed media project I am working on.

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