Spring Inspiration

On Ranger's blog site they have a little challenge/inspiration Earthy palette going on.  Since the theme was Earth Day, I tried to upcycle for this project.

So to start, I had this piece of chipboard from the back of a paper pad, that through serendipity of paint on fabric, ended up with this great background.  What can't be seen from the photo is all the great texture.  Love lumpy bumpy!

 I used a piece to make a tag.

 I coloured the edges with Broken China Distress Ink

 I then took a white paper bag and used my distress marker on my mat, sprayed with water and created this background. After it dried, I used my punch to cut out flowers.

 Next, I then used alcohol inks on a piece of plastic packaging.

 And cut out a butterfly.

 I did the marker technique again on another scrap of paper bag but in green.

 I free hand cut out leaves.

 To complete, I used Tim's paper tape and folded it onto itself to make a paper ribbon.  I didn't think the butterfly was vibrant enough, so I added more dark blue alcohol ink. Very happy with the results, which I may use for a layout.   And so here is my finished tag!

Scrapfest Kitchener 2013

This past weekend, I had a fantastic time participating in Scrapfest in Kitchener.  I am lucky to join the team at Pointer Scrapbooking and we set up the booth on Friday afternoon.  After the mad frenzy of setting up the booth, I was up to do the first Make n' Take. This session I showcased this box and walked participants through using stencils, Distress Inks and the Scor-Pal tool.

Love this stencil I used from the Crafters's Workshop!

While at the show I shopped a little, I could not resist getting some of these paints from Ranger to play with soon!  Love all the properties and will report back what I've been up to shortly! I haven't even opened them and I know I NEED more colours!

Pinterest Inspired

Those who know me, know that I am addicted to the site Pinterest.  There is so much inspiration and tutorials for the crafters. Many recipes for the cook in me and so many handy tips.  Here are two things I recently did that I got off Pinterest.

This blanket is for my nephew, who's father is a huge football fan.  I had intended it for Christmas but as we all know that time of year just gets way too busy for everyone (in other words - what was I thinking!).  I now hope to give it to him for Easter. Anyhow I took the original pattern and increased it by about 15% using polar fleece instead of chenille.  There was no pattern for the white parts, so I winged it. I used satin stitch to attach the white stripes to the blanket and added a single crochet to the edges to "finish" the blanket.  I'm pretty happy with the end results.

One of my other addictions is washi tape and people have been pinning all sorts of great storage ideas. By far my favourite for my crazy stash has been the use of a pant hanger. Here is my crazy tape obsession. Top two tiers are washi and the others are either cellophane tape or fabric tape - which are just as yummy!  Now that I see them all layed out, I can play with them much easier 'cause I'm the kind of crafter that has to see it, to use it!