Footprint Fun

I have a fun Halloween craft you can do with your kids to share today and a "spooky" way to dress it up when you are finished. Creating animals and other creatures using footprints and handprints make for wonderful keepsakes capturing a moment in time when your children are little.

I had a great time creating these spooky ghosts with my girls. Take a look....

And here we are crafting away...I simply cut black cardstock to 8 x 10 so it could fit in a frame and then painted my girls' feet with white acrylic paint. Just stamp their feet and allow the project to dry. (This is also a great project to duplicate for grandparents and other family members).

 

When the ghosts were dry, we added googly eyes using glue dots and then I drew around the edge of the cardstock with a white gel pen and added the date. I also labeled each ghost with little alphabet stickers.

I then took a plain wooden frame and painted it black, then added crackle medium and went over it with white paint. I added "Boo" with a couple different Thicker fonts and adhered a border sticker at the top of the frame.

Then I cut a couple pieces of cheesecloth and glued with a hot glue gun. One of the pieces I tied off with a piece of twine and then added a patterned paper "curtain" of sorts. To distress the cheesecloth, I cut it up a little bit and then rubbed black ink on it.

 

A super fun, quick, easy project...the girls love looking at their ghosts too! Try making a ghost family with your entire family!

Thanks for looking! :)

Jill

Treat Bags!

 Hello friends!! I have had so much fun playing with the Something Wicked kit and wanted to share an idea I had for some cute little treat bags. These are made with kraft glassine bags and lots of yummy papers and embellies from the kit.

The first thing I do is to determine the size of the bag. The bags I had were just a little too tall for what I wanted to do, so I just folded under the bottom of the bag. No biggie.

  

Then I made a base for it to sit in by cutting two pieces of paper. The first needs to be about 1/4" wider than whatever bag you are using and as tall as you want. The second needs to be 1/4" larger than the first piece on the right and left sides and bottom. Score this line on all three sides and fold so that you can glue the first and second pieces together. 

After the base is made, you can cut a circle in the top, and add whatever decorations you like.

 Here is a cute little monster bag with a black bow glued right to the glassine bag.

 I LOVE the Fancy Pants journal spots sheet - it makes for great treat bag covers!

 Layer lots of fun elements up and personalize to whomever the recipient will be, if you like.

 And here's the final product! I'll fill these all with some yummy treats and give them to friends on Halloween. FUN FUN FUN!!

That's all for today!

Happy Scrappin'!

xoxo

Britt

Hearts and Burlap

Hello there! Welcome to another installment of Tips and Techniques. I am sure many of you have heard of Pinterest by now. Today I am going to show you how I took an idea from Pinterest and used it to create a layout. Here is my inspiration piece:

First you will need to cut a view pieces of burlap. I cut five to use for my banner but you can cut as many as you would like.

Next I cut out a small triangle from the banner to create little pennants.

I drew out a template and used it to create the little hearts.

This next step takes a little time to do but it is so worth it in the end. Grab a needle and some thread and hand sew the hearts onto the burlap.

Do the same steps for the rest of your banner pieces. Once you are done. Take a moment to admire your work.

Now for the easy part, use your banner on a layout or card. Here is how I used mine.

I hope that you will find this technique helpful. Happy creating!

-Diana

How to make a spooky leather cuff bracelet

A very creative friend of mine introduced me to making leather cuff bracelets earlier this year, and I've been addicted ever since! I have quite a few leather cuffs that I like to rotate out, and since it's now Halloween season, I thought I might need a spooky one to wear! 

Start buy getting leather scraps. You can buy them by the bag at Michael's or Hobby Lobby, or order them online. 

Cut a strip that is long enough to wrap around your wrist, with a little overlap for a button closure. You can get really fun with the edges on these if you want (zig zags, scallops, etc.). I just did a nice straight edge for this one though.

Cut out circles that will be made into flowers out of a contrasting color. (You can also use felt flowers!). 

Cut petals on the circles.

Using tweezers, hold the flower petals over an open flame (be careful!) and let it singe the edges. They will curl up! 

Nest them back on top of each other and set aside.

Use a rub on or stamp (with permanent ink) directly onto the leather. Rub ons typically eventually crack over time & wear and tear, but I like the distressed look. 

I added a charm from my stash, using a brad and poking a hole in the leather with an Exacto blade.

Poke holes through the center of each flower, and the spot you want it in on your cuff, and attach with a brad. 

You can also sew on buttons; I poked holes in the cuff again with a blade and sewed on a button with some twine.

If your button or charm can't be attached with thread or a brad, try using E6000 glue. It holds up just fine!

Cute, huh? :)

(To attach it all together, I just sew on a button close to the end, wrap it around my wrist, and mark on the overlapping piece of leather where the button hole should go. Then I cut a button hole with a blade or scissors.)

Easy card/envelope tip!

You know what drives me crazy??
I get so annoyed when I go to mail a card I've made and I can't find an envelope to fit!

I try to make standard sized cards, but I am always running out of standard sized envelopes.

You now what I do have a ton of though??

I do have tons of these ugly legal-sized envelopes!

These legal-sized envelopes measure about
4 inches wide x 9 1/2 inches tall.

And now I think I will make cards to fit these envelopes!!

To make a card to fit, I cut a piece of black cardstock
8 inches wide x 9 inches tall.

Then I folded it in half to make a card measuring
4 inches wide x 9 inches tall.

Then I pulled out my Study Hall kit to decorate the front of the card.

When I am done, I have a pretty card that fits perfectly into
my legal-sized envelope!

So if you are like me and always run out of your smaller, cute envelopes, try changing up the sizes of your cards to fit the envelopes you do have!

Just something to think about!
:)
Have a great day!

Chevron Stripes & Stitching

One new trend that I'm seeing everywhere is chevron stripes. Today I have a really simple tutorial on how to create this look on your own projects and layouts. The "Study Hall" kit was perfect for utilizing this type of technique and my subject is far from "back to school" but all about being a "scholar." :) Little Miss Lily loves to make her "thinking" face all the time and says "Hmmm...." while bringing her finger to her lips. Another little quirk captured! :) Here's a peek at what I created with this technique. 

The first thing I did was select a variety of patterned papers and then traced and cut out diamond shapes from them. (You could also use a die-cut machine for this as well.) 

After inking all my diamonds, I laid them out so I could see what it would all look like before doing any adhering and stitching. 

Finally, I threaded up a needle with embroidery floss and did a very rough, running stitch of white and red floss on the top and bottom of the chevron stripe. The key here is imperfection! I also machine stitched along the patterned paper on the inside of the stripe, which you can see more of in first photo. 

And, here's my finished layout! 

A close-up of the title (pretty sure I'm in love with the Fancy Pants chalkboard stickers)...

My journaling on an Elle's Studio pennant. 

And that's it! Give this one a try...it was really simple! :)

Jill

Split Splat!

Hiya! I hope you all had a great weekend!

I've got a tutorial for you today about the different mediums and techniques you can use to make splatters on your layouts. Now, this is obviously not a science - do whatever works for you - but these are some of the things I do to get that effect.

Untitled from BrittnyKvilhaug on Vimeo.

Here's how that final technique turned out. LOVE IT.

So now go find all the liquids in your studio and play around to see what cool things you come up with.

Happy Scrappin'!!

xoxo

Britt

Mixed Media Flower Canvas- a mini tutorial from Virginia!

Hello lovely friends! I hope you've had a great week and are looking forward to a fun weekend!

I know that we've had a lot of requests (coughcoughShannoncoughcough) on the message board for mixed media tips; Britt has shared several great ones here on the blog, and I wanted to throw in a few too!

I started off with a background I'd already created and cut a simple flower, with circles cut from the Salt Water Taffy kit and some text paper.
Tip #1: to make it look less like paper just glued to a canvas, add some paint on TOP of the patterned paper. You can see that the big red outer circle is completely painted over, and I've added some streaks of red around the outside of the whole flower. I also began adding a few rub ons (from the Salt Water Taffy kit) around the edge.
Here you can see where I began adding paint to the stem and leaves. This is all just acrylic craft paint.
Tip #2: paint with your mists! I unscrewed the lid of my mists and dipped my paintbrush inside, and began painting on the stem and leaves with a green mist.
Tip #3: let your rub ons do the work! I bought some great Hambly rub ons from Noel a while back, and began adding them onto the outside of the flower. I have a small stash of rub ons now saved just for canvasses!




Tip #4: Outline with pen & marker! This step is crucial to making everything really stand out and look defined. I grabbed this marker a while back from my LSS. It's a big thick marker, and it's made for this kind of art.
It dries quickly and is permanent, so I do small sections at a time. Just outline a little and then rub with your finger to get a smudgy affect.
And here's my final piece!

(Final tip- don't forget to finish your canvas edges! I did mine with the washi tape in the Salt Water Taffy kit!)
I hope you guys start trying out mixed media! Make sure to share your results with us! :)