Today I wanted to share a fantastic project by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer!
New life for an old globe.
You know how fond I am of taking found items and sprucing them up! Julie took an old globe she found at a thrift store and used some paint and vinyl cutouts to create a really great update to the globe. In fact, the direction she took this project will allow this globe to be used no matter how or when boundaries are redrawn for country borders, or what areas are renamed. She uses some great step-by-step photos so you can follow her project.
As you can see, it’s another way to use an electronic cutter for an artsy project. Using the letters for both a masking technique, as well as adding phrases, is such a great use of her machine and her creativity! Julie uses a Brother ScanNCut machine, but you can use your Cricut or Silhouette!
Welcome to another Make It Monday blog hop. If you came from Lisa Harris’ blog, you’re in the right spot! Isn’t her Santa’s Helpers Workshop brilliant? If you didn’t see her post, make sure you make it back to her blog!
Today’s Artful Adventure idea may come in handy, so take note! With all the printables that are available, why not use them to create something? You don’t even have to spend much time or effort on jazzing up a printable to make it unique. The point of using a printable is the fact that you should be able to just print it and be done. However, I’m not sure I could do that. I always want to add a touch that makes it unique and makes me feel like it a little more personalized.
The Creative Christmas Bundle has a number of printable items! Today is the last day the bundle is available for the special price of $29.99. I decided to use My Dream December digi kit by Margareta Carlsson. There are quite a few images to choose from in the kit, which is predominately red and white, with some pink and whites, as well. They are clean, crisp designs and I felt that any additions I made would be easy to spot.
I simply printed out the image I wanted on nice printer paper. I usually try to keep a pack of presentation paper around for times like this, but I couldn’t find my pack! You usually get great color printing on presentation paper! Oh well, this will end up being more true to most of our lives — regular printer paper! The image was not resized, it is the original size of 3″x4″.
My Dream December image printed on printer paper.
Next, I simply trimmed the image, and placed it on the card base to get an idea of how it would look. You can either use card stock, or make it easy on yourself and have a pack of cards and envelopes on hand.
Trimmed to add to a 4.25″ x 5.5″ card base.
Since I only wanted to print the image without resizing, it left quite a bit of border outside the image. I decided to dry emboss border lines in the white margins.
Scored using paper trimmer track and stylus.
Dry embossed by scoring.
Gold ink was sponged in from the outer edge and gave more definition to the embossed lines.
Inked edges with gold ink; then adhere image to base.
I used Bonding Memories Broad Tip Glue Pen from Close To My Heart to adhere the image to the card base. The paper will not get all wet and wrinkled with this product, so it’s perfect for using since we are using a much lighter weight paper than card stock for the image.
To decorate the tree:
A glue pen was used to add a bit of glue for glitter on the star
Stickles glitter glue was added along the lines of garland
Now onto the next stop on this week’s Make It Monday blog hop! Pop over and see what Beth’s got up her sleeve this week. She is showing us how she is using products from the Creative Christmas Bundle in her December Daily album. In case you’re not familiar with December Daily, it is an album created to capture the memories of each day throughout December! Yep, just like it sounds! But before you go, I have one last thing to share with you today!
CYBER MONDAY DEAL from Close to My Heart!
For the first time ever, Close To My Heart is offering a Cyber Monday Sale on Monday, December 1, 2014.
There has never been a better time to buy Close To My Heart’s exclusive Cricut® Collections
20% off, TODAY Only
Whether you love scrapbooking, cardmaking, or creating 3-D projects, our four exclusive Cricut® collections make the perfect addition to any craft room! Sale starts at midnight (MST) on December 1 and ends at 11:59 pm Monday night.
Each bundle contains 3 stamp sets which coordinate with the Cricut cartridge, and each one has other items included, depending on which bundle you select.
PLUS, with an order of $50, you are qualified to get the stamp of the month for just $5; and also a C or D sized stamp set for $10. That means a savings of about $35!
Add a little decorative element to your home for Halloween by creating some “magic potions!” I know many of you enjoy doing your own lettering and drawing, and you can use this idea as you like. However, when pressed for time, or if you just want to use the get it done version, here’s how to make it happen. When I saw these cute little label stamps, I knew I had to do something fun with them!
Magic Potions Stamp Set, #C1509
Each of these label shapes can be cut with a Cricut die cut machine from the CTMH Cricut Artiste Collection cartridge, #Z1790. You can see that the page of the accompanying booklet and the cutting size are marked right along side the stamps. Since they are clear, they are easy to see exactly where to place your stamp on the label.
I grabbed some random bottles and decorated them! You can see I did a very basic version of dressing these bottles. There is so much more you could do, but I wanted you to see that just doing something simple can be very effective! These would look cute with candy in them. Since these bottles are rather tall, I filled them with water and added food coloring to the water to create the colors I wanted in each one.
CTMH Scaredy Cat papers with the Magic Potions stamps.
I love the Black Shimmer Trim! It was perfect for this project to add a little zip to the top of each bottle. All you have to do is pull off the backing tape, and it’s ready to adhere to your project!
Paper rosettes make a nice backing to the labels, or just use some of the coordinating papers from the Scaredy Cat collection, #X7185B.
Magic Potion stamp with paper rosette from Scaredy Cat paper collection.
Cutting the labels with the die cut machine makes easy work of decorative labels. Inking the edges finishes this label nicely.
Magic Potions stamped label with inked edges.
Coordinating decorative papers, as well as plain colored card stock make it easy to create projects have a cohesive look when doing a grouping of items.
Coordinating papers make the perfect background to add even more interest.
There are so many possibilities for these label stamps. Wouldn’t they look adorable on treat bags? What do you think you’d make with them, my little pretty?
Here’s a peek at the Scaredy Cat printed paper. There are also pieces of coordinating card stock not shown.
Back to school sales are a great time to pick up composition notebooks, as well as many other basic supplies. Often there are bargains that won’t be matched at any other time of year. Since composition notebooks are rather inexpensive, I guess that’s why they are not very pretty! Never fear, they are easy to dress up. Not only can you fix up one for yourself or anyone at your home, you could even make one for a quick little gift, because who couldn’t use one to keep notes?
For this makeover we are going to use the new Chalk It Up line from Close to My Heart (CTMH). This is just one of the double-sided papers in the pack. Here are basic supplies I decided to start with:
Basic supplies: composition notebook 3 pieces of decorative paper or card stock, any ephemera you choose.
For the front and back covers, cut two pieces of paper at 6 3/4″ x 9 3/4″. For the binding you’ll cut one piece of a coordinating card stock or decorative paper at 2 1/4″ x 9 3/4″.
Lining up the out edges of the paper against the notebook, adhere in place with your chosen adhesive. I used the Bonding Memories Glue Pen by CTMH. It has a very wide tip and makes it easy to apply adhesive to paper. You notice you have a bit of an overhang if your notebook has curved corners. Just flip the cover open and trim along the edge, using the notebook cover as your guide.
Snip off excess around the curves.
To adhere the binding cover, I used some sticky strip because I thought the backing may get the most use and it may be hard to keep in place with glue. I ran the strip on the long edge of each side. I carefully aligned it just over the edge of the binding (the measurement was a little big wider than the original binding). Flip the notebook over and your ready to place the back of the binding cover down. That’s it! The basic makeover is complete. Now just decorate to taste.
Cover the edge of the original binding
Sticky strip used along the outer edge of the binding cover
The Chalk it Up Complements pack is a set of coordinating chipboard pieces and I had already chosen a piece to use. I love the phrase it has on it, Every Accomplishment Begins with the Decision to Try!
From the Chalk It Up Complements set.
I decided to use an initial “k” because if I decide I want to give it away, I have two family members who also start with a k. However, I think I’ll probably keep it. We can always gift to ourselves, right? Anyway, I cut a lowercase k from the alphabet that is from the CTMH Cricut Artbooking Collection cartridge, in the same color I used for the backing.
Lowercase “k” from the CTMH Cricut Artbooking cartridge.
It looked like it need something more and it got three hearts from the Chalk It Up Assortment.
Hearts from the Chalk It Up Assortment.
At this point I wished I had used some ribbon or something along the binding edge because it just looked so naked! I spied the black arrow washi tape and gave it a try! I was happy with it and I pronounced it to be finished! It was a fun, easy project, give it a try!
Composition Book Makeover
Be sure to stop over at Take Heart Ideas to see what other inspiration pieces are available for the current Back-to-School theme challenge, and play along with us!
Welcome to another Make It Monday blog hop. If you came from Lisa Harris’ blog, you’re in the right spot! Isn’t her Santa’s Helpers Workshop brilliant? If you didn’t see her post, make sure you make it back to her blog!
