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

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

Fringe Trim on a Snowy Banner!

I have a tutorial to share with you today with a fun technique I used on this "Snow" banner I created using the "Snow Day" collection from Crate Paper. You can find the "Snow Day" collection in the Noel Mignon store. I love the bold, fun colors in this collection that are sure to brighten up any dreary winter day. I hand drew my mitten template and cut the snowflakes out using the Christmas/Noel cartridge with my Cricut. I wanted something to hang across my china hutch and I love that the banner isn't necessarily for Christmas but something I could keep out through January and February and March and April (sometimes winter in Iowa lasts that long, you know?!) (Be sure to click on the images to see them larger.)

Here's another look at my banner and all the fun bits and pieces of ribbon, tulle and paper. 

To keep things consistent, all of the mittens were cut using the "Mittens" patterned paper (aptly named, huh?) I chose to bring out the teal, yellow, pink and green of the patterned paper and used somewhat neutral patterns from the Crate Paper collection to create accordion medallions edged with silver Stickles. The kraft centers were punched using a scalloped circle punch. The chipboard letters are Melissa Frances and I also used mica flakes to add to the snowy look. 

I used the "Shadow" feature on the snowflakes and backed them with kraft cardstock. The Cricut cartridge was Christmas/Noel.

The ribbons are by various manufacturers including American Crafts, May Arts and Basic Grey. 

I strung the banner on a wire and curled it to help hold the pieces of it in place. 

And here's my tutorial on how to create the fringe trim I made on the mittens. The trim color coordinates on each individual mitten with the accordion medallions. As I was putting the banner together, I tried to come up with ways to give it extra dimension and texture. That's how this fringe trim was born! 

First I cut five 1" pieces of Melissa Frances white crepe paper. 

Next, I stacked the pieces on top of each other and then machine stitched down the center. 

I used a fine tip scissors to cut small fringe on either side of the machine stitching. 

The piece should look like this after cutting the fringe. 

Next, I used my fingers to ruffle up the trim and it looked like this when I was finished.

I used Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist on this particular piece of fringe. I sprayed one coat and let it dry with a heat gun to speed the drying process. Then I repeated this step. 

Once dry, I ruffled the fringe a bit again. 

Here's a look at the fringe on one of the mittens.

And here's the completed banner again...I love the pops of color! 

I can't wait to try this technique out on a layout or card!

Until next time,

Jill

Paper Rolling

Happy 4th of July! I created this layout for the Independence Challenge that starts next week over on the challenge blog and have a couple tips and techniques to share with you today. I'm going to turn 30 in January (yikes!) so I thought over the past decade of my life and jotted down a list of things that truly showed me gaining independence. I'm excited to see what my 30s will bring and it's amazing how much I accomplished and struggled during my 20s. I used the bright, fun Sun-Kissed kit to create this layout:

I placed the Jenni Bowlin butterfly rub-on on vellum and cut it out. I love the look this gives the butterfly as it allowed it to somewhat "flutter" off the page. :)

Here's a look at part of my title...the Cosmo Cricket chipboard alphabet was from my stash but the journaling block and flower are both in the kit.

I used a Maya Road kraft envelope to hide my journaling and dressed it up a little with a glittered flower, button and twine.

Here's a look at my journaling using one of the Echo Park journaling blocks...

And here's a tutorial for you on rolling patterned paper...First, I selected four different papers to work with. I wanted them to have some pattern to them but not have a lot of extra color. In my particular design, I wanted them to basically be monochromatic.

I cut the paper to 2" squares and cut 3 squares from each paper.

Next, I started rolling the paper from one end. You could always roll around something but I just used my fingers to work with the paper.

At the edge of my paper roll, I placed three glue dots to hold the paper in place.

Here's what one roll looks like....

And here's my finished embellishment on my layout. I adhered them to the page with glue dots and wrapped a ribbon around them to help tie them together. 

That's it! A fairly simple technique to give some extra dimension and color. I think these would also be cute as birthday candles on a birthday layout. 

Enjoy your holiday weekend! :)

Using Patterned Paper as an Embellishment

One of my favorite ways to create is to use patterned paper as an embellishment. The easiest way to do this is to cut design elements from patterned paper. On this layout using the Lemonade Stand kit, I cut out flowers from the KI Memories patterned paper. I cut the flowers in half and then adhered them at the top as a border. I used foam adhesive on half of the flowers for extra dimension. 

To help carry out the textured edges of the flowers, I used part of the Hambly transparency along the bottom of my title. The rounded edges of the transparency and flowers help carry the eye around the layout.

Another tip here is to machine stitch across the chipboard letters. Doing this can be hard on machine needles so I use a separate needle for stitching on chipboard.