With the holidays approaching it is important to take time to relax and a bath is perfect for relaxing! I made these altered bottles for bath soaks which look great in your bathroom!
They are easy to make and they can also make a perfect handmade gift, or you can sell them at a craft fair.
For this project find a really great bottle. I found mine at Who Give a Scrap. It is on on the larger size, that worked perfectly for me. Make sure it has a lid and that you clean it thoroughly.
Once the bottle is clean and dry add your embellishments. I added burlap and lace around the bottle to start.
Then I added a lot of flowers and beads to create the look I was going for. You can add flowers, buttons, keys, and found objects. Anything would look great on the bottle.
Once it was all decorated I added the bath salts and the cork. Now I have a great gift, or even something for me.
It is that time of year when all the junk mail comes to your house. I recycle what I can, but sometimes it is just too pretty to throw away. So I save it.
And that is were the problem comes in, I have a stack of junk mail that needs to be dealt with, so I turned a few pieces into art journals.
This is just the tutorial on how I created the art journal, if you want to see what I did to the inside let me know in the comments and I will show you the art (when I am finished with it, lol)
Here is the video tutorial:
So what you do is start with really great junk mail. I had one from Capital One and Tiffany’s. Side note: I have only been to Tiffany’s once and I bought the cheapest pair of earrings there about 10 years ago and I still get their mailers, lol. And their mailers are beautiful!
Once you decided on what you want to alter grab some gesso. I used white, black and clear. The black is fun so I can use some light colors, it breaks up the book. I also added clear gesso over some of the images, that way I keep the image but the page is prepped to take all sorts of mediums.
The cover of the Tiffany book is so pretty and festive! This will be my holiday 2017 art journal. When looking for junk mail to make into an art journal look for mailers that have slightly thicker paper. If it is too thin then the pages will buckle and it won’t hold up.
The white gesso didn’t cover all the images completely, but that is ok, I will fill the page with other art and it won’t get in the way. But if you want the image to be completely gone, the add a few layers.
I left some words uncovered, I thought they we fun and it will help me start the page.
The Capital One mailer was a great size and it will be fun to do more landscape journal pages. I kept the images and some words, and it makes for a great starting point.
It was a lot of fun to prep my new art journals. What piece of junk mail do you have that is too beautiful to recycle? And did you just keep it or did you re purpose it?
Christmas craft fair season is upon us! Yikes, I am not ready! Anyone else doing craft fairs and are you ready?
One item I like to see are earrings. On a side note I only make and sell things I will use/wear/display in my home. Too often people try to make only what they think will sell and not what they actually like or that they would wear or use. This is my opinion, and I sure it is different from other opinions. Now I want to sell it all, but I know some things won’t sell and that is ok. And since I like it I will be more likely to use in my daily life.
They are fantastic, I love how portable they are with the handle and each bin comes out so I take out what I need. There is a lot of room and they fit my needs perfectly.
The organizational bins behind the plastic storage is the metal strip my husband hung along with the magnetic containers from the dollar store. You can read the blog post here: Organizers
The earrings are really cute and fairly simple to make. All you do is add a French hook to a cute charm. I used a zipper pull and some other charms I had in my stash.
I like to use a variety of charms, not just Christmas ones. You never know what people will need or want.
Once I have a pile made I will package them and get them ready for the craft fair. If you are interested in seeing how I make my packaging and how I display my earrings let me know and I will write a post about it.
Have you seen the latest You Tube trend of creators doing an Ebay Mystery Unboxing? This was too tempting to resist, so of course I had to try it, lol.
But before I get into the unboxing, I want to tell you about a Giveaway I am doing on Instagram.
I will be giving one lucky person a Tropicals Prima Watercolors set. Head over to my Instagram to enter ––instragram.com/taketimetocreate. Give away ends on Nov 12.
Anyway… on to the unboxing. You can check out my reaction video here:
I have to say, this was so much fun to do. If you have seen other Ebay mystery boxes you might know that some You Tubers have gotten junk. Absolute junk! I mean trash and other horrible things. I was very apprehensive in opening my boxes.
But I lucked out! I purchased 2 boxes from Ebay one was $25 the other was $40 and they both promised to have craft and art supplies in the box. You can pick a random box or a themed box, I went with crafting/art themed ones. But buyer beware, these are mystery boxes and you never know what you will get.
When I opened my box I was pleasantly surprised! They were both filled with awesome goodies and I can’t wait to try them out. Whew! I am so glad they were worth it.
Check out a sneak peak of some the awesome goodies I got! So many wonderful things to tryout and experiment with.
What do you think of the Ebay Mystery boxes? Are you going to try it out?
Start with your glittery snowflake and add some tulle as a base layer. Or you can add glitter mesh, or ribbon, or lace, anything really. You just want to make sure you have an anchor for your focal point. Glue the tulle on with hot glue.
Then you want to glue on your focal point to the center of the snowflake
Then you glue on accents and decoration all around your focal point. Poinsettias, floral picks, beads, jingle bells, and small ornaments work great for this step. Anything will work, you just want to fill up the empty spaces and make it full and festive.
There you go, nice and easy and they looks so festive and glittery. A grouping of the snowflakes would look really great on a wall, or it could be the perfect gift!
I thought it would be fun to show you some other variations I created. I just love making these, I can’t seem to stop, lol
Have you ever been waiting for a product for so long that you thought it would never show up? That is how I felt with the Viviva Colorsheets watercolors, lol. I contributed to the Indiegogo campaign for these awesome colorsheets and I couldn’t wait to try them out! I was waiting impatiently for them to show up, lol.
Before I get into the review here are the affiliate links to what I used:
Prima Marketing Water Brush: http://amzn.to/2i9XLJI
I purchased the set with the wooden cover, and it is beautiful! I am so glad that I did. Then you open it and there are 16 different colors for you to use.
Now here is where I add my disclaimer, lol. I am a casual watercolorist, and I like to just paint in my journals and small projects. My skill level doesn’t require the top of the line, lol.
For this set I was really looking for something that I could travel with that was easy to use. When I travel I just like to take a water brush and some basic supplies, and this seems like it will fit the bill.
For my first round of testing I decided to try it out on these fantastic Prima Marketing Watercolor cards. I love the designs, so very cute. In hindsight I think I should only use watercolor pencils on the cards because they didn’t hold up to a lot of water like I hoped they would.
There is a lot of color in each block and a little goes a long way.
The colors are rich and vibrant and I think they will work perfectly for how I plan to use them.
So far I am pleased, and I can’t wait to travel with them and see how they do in other environments, so I guess the wait was worth it, lol.
As many of you already know I am headed to Disney World soon to participate in the Crochet Crowd’s Wish Upon A Stitch! I am so excited! So to prep for the trip I have been making new Mickey Ears like this Black Roseone and I just finished a DIY Magic Band and Magic Keeper!
This is the new Magic Band 2- so that means you can pop the middle part out and put it in a Magic Keeper! I love the versatility of the new Magic Bands.
I made a Mulan Inspired Magic Band this time (Last Time I did a Steampunk Beauty and the Beast– here is the link to the Blog Post and Video)
Here is the video tutorial:
Materials (Affiliate Links)
Glue Syringe: http://amzn.to/2yeV8Q9
wax stick for rhinestone: http://amzn.to/2yWy9qh
Sally Hansen Wine Not color: http://amzn.to/2yabiZn
I painted a base coat with nail polish then I painted 3 coats of this beautiful red color and I painted the edges with a copper color. Use nail polish, it seems to work the best with magic bands. The last one I had held up really well and so I am doing the same thing this time.
Just like last time I added a watch face because I wear my magic band on my left hand and I didn’t want it to interfere with my watch.
Once the nail polish was dry I glued (I used E6000) on charms and rhinestones and whatever else I could find. I found a Dragons, Chinese Coins, Rhinestones, flower, and a sword for symbolizing Mulan.
Once the glue was dried I painted a final coat of base coat on the magic band. Let it all dry and you are good to go!
Fair warning-It may not work with all the paint on the magic band… I had no problems last time, but you never know with the new version. I will try it out and let you know how it goes.
These Magic Keepers are so cute, but plain black. I just have to paint everything, and I think it looks so cute now that it is done!
I painted a layer of clear gesso to prime the plastic to prep it for water marbling. For water marbling I just had a bin of water and then I placed drops of nail polish and swirled them around. Once I was happy with my marbling I dipped my Magic Keeper in the water and it turned out so cute!
Once it was dry I added some holographic nail polish on top to add some sparkle, you can never have too much sparkle. Once it is all dry I added a layer of base coat on the top to seal it, now it is good to go for my week at Disney!
Have you ever decorated a Magic Band? How did you decorate it?
Is there anyone out there still obsessed with Harry Potter? I love all the books and movies, and when I found the lantern that I used in this mixed media I knew what quote would work perfectly for it.
You will want texture, so for the grid stencil I used a dish mat and stenciled it on the background.
The find everything you can get your hands on and glue it down with modeling paste. I found broken toys (there are Hex Bugs and Bakugan and more in there) broken necklaces, bracelets, lace glow sticks, beads, buttons, and more. The lantern was a night light that I disassembled and added a cork for the bottom.
Remember, colors don’t matter because we will cover it all with black gesso.
Once you are happy with the placement cover everything with black gesso. Make sure you get in all the nooks and crannies and cover it well.
Now it is time to paint. I used metallic paints and painted near the light with brighter colors and went darker from there. I wanted to make sure the light was coming from the lantern and casting a glow on the rest of the painting.
For the quote I just printed it on my computer and adhered it to the painting. When everything was dry I sealed with a spray sealer.
And there you have it, a Harry Potter Mixed Media Canvas to show off your love of all things Harry Potter.
In case you missed my other Harry Potter inspired crafts you can see it here:
DIY Halloween Floral Mickey Mouse Ears! What more do you need for a trip to Disney World?
As many of you already know, I love Disney! It is my happy place and I love being able to go. In Oct I will be crocheting with the Crochet Crowd at Disney World! I am so excited!
As I get ready for this awesome adventure I decided I needed new Mickey Mouse ears! I like to make a pair for each day I am there, so get ready to see more ears, lol.
This first pair uses black eyeball roses from the dollar store. They are so cute and since I will be there during Halloween, these ears will be perfect!
This is a pretty easy project, which is great because I will need to make a few, lol
Cut out your template, save it when you are done in case you want to make more ears
Cut some felt in the shape of your ear template.
To help thicken up your ears add some thick foam to the center of your ears. The flowers need a little help stabilizing.
Hot glue your foam and felt to your headband. Be mindful of the placement, you don’t want your ears too close together and not too far apart. Then I added ribbon along the edge to cover up the foam.
Now it time for the fun part, hot glue your roses on to your ears. I used 6 bundles of roses from the dollar store. (4 were ones with eyeballs and 2 were just plain black roses) Go to town filling you ears with roses. I do the front and backs when I make ears, I think they turn out nicer that way. Add spiders and any other spooky element you want.
I did add some hair combs to the headband to help keep it on my head. They are not heavy, but the combs help them stay on your head.
Now you are ready to rock your new ears! This is a big, bold look that will be perfect for Disney!
Fall is in the air and I am just loving it! I especially love seeing all the sunflowers, they are my favorite flowers! They are so pretty, and bright. Seeing all the sunflowers I was inspired to make a Sunflower Mixed Media Canvas.
Let me tell you how I made this canvas!
First I started with a canvas board and covered it with different ribbons (I adhered it with modeling paste), then I covered it all with black gesso.
I painted the canvas with a few different shades of blue acrylic paint. I loved how it looks like a sky, but it was a little bright, I did end up toning it down by the time I was finished.
Now it is time to add all the goodies!! I had this pack of rusty nails that I found in my Grandpa’s shop, I couldn’t pass up this great texture. (be careful if you are using rusty nails, I wore gloves and washed my hands often)
I added book pages, burlap, other metal items, flowers, hinges, clear round dots, keys, brads, hot glue, and anything else I could find. Just use what you have in your stash and around the house. I adhered it all with modeling paste (I tinted the paste with some brown acrylic paint).
Once everything was all dry I primed the elements with clear gesso then I sprinkled mica powder on (yellow in the flowers, green in the grass and stems, and blue in the sky) I added water to activate it and I loved the look. Once that was all dry I dry brushed acrylic paint all over to add more color and details.
I am in love with how it turned out! I used such a random assortment of products, I will list them all below for you. As always, let me know if you have and questions on this project.
