Friday, September 5, 2014

Home Decor Designer Crafts Connection Challenge





Welcome to the latest challenge!  We are featuring three wonderful products today.  Kunin Felt, Beacon Adhesives (Fabri-Tac and Felt Glue) and Buttons Galore & More.  I enjoyed using these basic crafting elements to create some fun and easy home decor'.  I hope you enjoy the projects and maybe go away with some inspiration!


I got some fun Fanci-Felt in my product package.  I love Damask and was very happy to get some to work with.  The designs I am featuring today were created using Fanci-Felt (which also comes in different colors and designs than just shown here), and Classicfelt in Black and White.  Fabri-Tac adhesion has been a favorite of mine for years.  It has an almost instant bond, but will need to be used with supervision if you are crafting with kids.  The Felt Glue is a better choice for kids and the adhesion takes a little bit longer.  I would recommend having some spring clothespins on hand to hold edges together for complete adhesion.
Buttons Galore & More have many, many colors, styles and sizes of buttons.  I used buttons from the package I rec'd and found enough white and red to complement my project nicely.



 I started with a plain black wooden box and an inexpensive 5 x 7 wooden frame from Michael's Crafts.
The mirror you see in the lid is another little project that I will show later.  I etched it and adhered it to the inside of the box lid.  I love the way it looks!

 Would you like to know how I made them?  Here's how!

For the Box:

Box Lid:  Gather a piece of poster board and a pencil.  Lay the box top (upside down) on the poster board and trace around the outside of the box lid.  Cut out the poster board.  Center the Fancifelt over the poster board. This is an important step.  You need to get it exact.  Cut the felt, leaving at least a 1" border around the cardboard square. Wrap and adhere all of the edges around the square.Clip with spring clothespins until adhesion dries.  Center and adhere to to the top of the box lid.

Box feet:  I used four 1-3/8" wooden crab apples by Lara's Crafts.  You can substitute wooden ball knobs, or anything that appeals to you that has a flat side that will adhere to the bottom of the box.  Paint each wooden apple White using a chopstick or something similar for a handle.  Evenly place the wooden "feet" on the box and adhere, using Fabri-Craft.

Felt Trim:  Cut pieces from the damask pattern and adhere to the front of the box above and below the clasp.  Adhere a large red button to the trim as shown.  Adhere a smaller white button to the top of the red one.  I used the same technique across the top of the frame shown below.  Keep on scrolling for more instructions!


For the Frame:

Remove the cardboard center from the frame.  Set aside.

Paint the wooden frame Black.  Allow to dry.  Lay the frame face down on the black Classicfelt and trace around the frame onto the felt with chalk or a white pencil (for writing on fabric).  
Cut out the felt frame along the traced lines. Center and adhere to the face of the frame. Smooth and allow to dry thoroughly. Next is the FUN step!

 Applique:  

Do you have some big scraps left from the felt?  I would purchase the felt just for the purpose of making these applique's.  They are so fun!  I looked the patterns over and picked out pieces that I thought would be good for wings, head, skirt, etc.  I cut the pieces out and used the Fabri-Tac to adhere the pieces together. Once I got my design put together, I adhered it to a larger piece of contrasting Classicfelt.  White in this case; and cut it out leaving about 1/4" border.  This reinforces the applique and finishes off the back.  I cut pieces from the design and adhered them across the top of the frame as shown. A well-placed red button on each felt piece finished it off nicely!

Below is an appliqued Sachet Pillow that I made using one of my angel appliques.  I cut out other small design elements and applied them to the corners of the sachet pillow.  The ribbon is adhered to the top corners for hanging.  

Embellish:  In the photo below, I used buttons to embellish the angel.  There are some great sparkle adhesions at the craft store that would look great on these angels.  I have some clear rhinestones and 3/4" flourish sparkle that I am going to apply to another angel I have made.  Feathers might also look pretty for a little extra bling!


Remember the mirror that I attached to the inside of the box lid?  Well, here is what I did to make it REALLY pretty!  I used Etchall, the best etching cream in the industry, and beautified the mirror for the inside of my box.  What a lovely surprise!


Open the box, and see the etching!  There is another product I would like to apply to this box to make it even more useful!  I will save that for another blog post!

Hope you enjoyed the projects.  Come back soon!



Live Life with a Flourish,





Monday, September 1, 2014

Crafting some Memories! Make a memory album block!






I have a pictorial tutorial to share today.  This is a fun little project
that I created using a 3" block of a foam product called "Smoothfoam".  You can't see much of the actual product in this project, but it is very lightweight and a perfect surface for adhering the papers, as I did here.

With the Holidays upon us, we will be taking lots of pictures and capturing many happy moments.  We may even gather some tickets or little paper mementos from Holiday events.  This little memory cube is perfect for gathering those little mementos and pictures in a compact place. It will be a pleasant surprise to the person that receives one as a gift too!


 Here is the outside of the memory cube, all tied up with a ribbon.  Tiny magnets, like you would find in the jewelry department of your craft store would probably make nice closures for the pages.  I haven't tried it yet, but I will be making a trip to the craft store to buy some and make sure it works!


Above is the top view of the cube.  It is embellished with corners, a round scallop and flowers that I punched out with coordinating memory papers.
A little ink chalking around the edges always adds dimension.


 Here is where the magic starts to happen as it unfolds........


"Voila'!"  Here is the memory cube with all of it's secrets exposed!  3" x 12" rectangles were cut and scored at 3" intervals.  Each 3" section was embellished with a contrasting paper (3" square), or slightly smaller to allow the paper border to show.  Paper punches of flowers, mini envelopes, etc. were used to embellish each section.  This is where you can add your photos, themed shapes, mementos, etc.


The project shown above is the same idea, only these blocks are more for decoration.  I used a 12" square pad of themed memory cardstock papers and matching themed die-cuts.  If you look real close, you will see a key hanging from the side.  I used a CraZy TACKz to hang the key.  I poked it into the foam block, secured it with a tiny bit of glue...and now I have a safe place to hang that key.  This works great to hang anything you want to make it more 3-D.

That is it for today.  I hope you got inspired.  Think of the different themes you could lend to this design.  I am going to make one with Fall papers.  If you have any questions, drop me a line!



Live Life with a Flourish!

Marilyn


www.crazytackz.com