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
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:
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.
What do you do with all those old records that are just laying around? Well, today I decided to turn some of them into a really cute chalkboard. BTW- I have a ton of records so be prepared for a lot more record tutorials, lol.
You can check out the video on how I did it.
This is such an easy tutorial, you can make a few at a time, perfect for dorms, offices, or even gifts.
Materials:
Record
Primer (I used Kilz 2)
Chalkboard paint (I used the spray paint version)
Tape
Instructions:
Clean the record before you get started. I really liked the center of some of the records so I taped over them to protect them from the paint.
The others I just left and painted over the whole thing. I really like both versions.
Then I primed the records. Actually, I just primed 2 of them and just painted the other 2. I think it worked out just fine without the primer, so that is up to you what you want to do.
Then I applied 3-4 coats of chalkboard paint on the record. Do this outside. Follow the instructions on the can they are all a little different.
Once they were fully dry and after 24 hours I conditioned the record by rubbing chalk all over it and cleaning it off. Then they were good to go! Old records repurposed into a really cool chalkboard!
Now, the question I always get asked, is how do you hang the record once you are done. You can use a plate hanger, or velcro command strips, or nail, or screw it in through the hole. Or you can get a picture display stand and out it on your desk. They are a ton of way to display your new record.
I am in love with how this turned out.
What have you made with old records? I am needing some ideas for the stack I have acquired!
Yikes! Can you believe it? School is just right around the corner! Or maybe it has already started for some people.
To help ease the transition I have a school supplies inspired DIY! These are perfect for dorms, or even the office. Do you want to know the best part? They are all a little geeky 🙂 Which is perfect!
The video can be found here:
Let’s start with the first project: Floppy Disc Pencil Holder
Grab your floppy discs from the basement and smile a little when you think of all the people that told you to throw them away, you knew they would come in handy someday, lol. Well today is the day!
I used duck tape to cover up the label and make it look a little cuter, but you could use washi tape or paint them.
Then just hot glue the sides together and then to bottom. Now you have a cute place to put all your pencils and pens
The next 2 are magnets. First is the Action Figure Magnets
Find some really awesome action figures from the Dollar Store and glue a magnet to the back (Loctight or E6000 or any strong glue should work) .
That is it. Now you have a really cute magnet to hold all your important papers.
The last project are these Canvas Magnets
Paint the mini canvas in any way you want, I did a galaxy, or stickers, or used a paint pen depending on what I wanted to do. In the video I show how I painted my galaxy if you are wanting to one like that.
Then you glue a magnet to the back and you now have a super cute magnet!
Now you are ready for school! What supplies are you making this year?
Here is the bag before any painting. It is a good bag and just fine the way it is, but I was determined to have a watermelon bag, lol.
I found these 3 great colors from Folk Art in Pink Melon, Citrus Green and Classic Green. I thought they were the perfect watermelon color!
but before you start to paint measure your bag. You to make sure that you have about 2/3 of be bag in pink and the rest in green. But this is just a guess, use your eye to make a good judgement as to how much of each color.
Then start painting. I started with the pink then went on to the greens. I painted in broad strokes and left the strokes in each of the colors as I painted. I didn’t want it too blended, I was going for a casual vibe. You can always blend more if that is your style.
You can leave it with out the seeds, but I thought the bag needed them. I just painted them on using a paint pen.
I am loving how it turned out! What fruit bags are you going to make this summer?
