Photos and Plates Make Upcycled Home Decor

Upcycling items doesn’t have to be time consuming or difficult! Here is a decorative plate used to create a bit of wall decor with a copy of one of my favorite photos of my grandmother.

Upcycled plate with photo for home decor

Decorative plate with cutwork edge is recycled into home decor with family heritage photo.

When I was washing this plate, I realized it was actually meant hold a pillar candle. Guess how I figured it out. There was a label on the back that said so! So much for my detective skills.

 

Decorative plate with cutwork edge for a n upcycle project.

This decorative with cut work edges was chosen for this project.

That floral paper is a piece of scrapbook paper from the CTMH La Vie En Rose ensemble! I love it. Here is a peek at the paper pack.

Close To My Heart La Vie En Rose Paper Pack

Close To My Heart La Vie En Rose Paper Pack

After measuring the center of the plate, I knew how large to cut the scrapbook paper to use for the center of the plate, and also decided how large I would print the photo of my grandmother. I printed the photo on inkjet Presentation Paper to get a nice photo to use. If you have a photo on photo paper, that you don’t mind cutting, you can certainly use a regular photo.

Circle of scrapbook paper and heritage photo for the center of the page.

A circle of decorative scrapbook paper cut for the center, and the heritage photo printed and cut in a circle.

After cutting these out, I used Liquitex Matte Medium to adhere them to the plate. Apply a thin layer on the plate and then lay the paper down and smooth down. Apply a thin layer over the top of the paper and smooth it down. Lay on the photo while still wet. If it is already too dry, just add a bit more of your medium. Then layer another thin layer over the top, and be sure to smooth out any air pockets.

Be sure to wipe any excess off the edge of the plate before it dries. Baby wipes are always great to have on hand in your crafting area!

Scrapbook paper cut and placed in the center of a decorative plate for upcycled project.

The scrapbook paper was cut in a circle and placed in the center of the plate.

Decorative paper and photo adhered to the center with matte medium.

Decorative paper and photo adhered to the center with matte medium.

Select a ribbon or other piece of fiber to use hang your plate. I decided to make the loop long, and create the bow at the top of my plate. You could certainly just run the ribbon through the holes and create your bow at the top of the loop if you want to.

Finally, I added some crystal pieces that had come from an old lamp. They are rather large, and that is part of the reason I selected a bold pattern for the scrapbook paper, as well as made my hanging loop so long. Each one helped balance out the other parts of this project.

Decorative plate turned into home decor by adding scrapbook paper, photo, ribbon, and crystals.

Decorative plate turned into home decor by adding scrapbook paper, photo, ribbon, and crystals.

Photos can live in other places besides frames and scrapbooks. I hope you’ll give something like this a try!


make it monday-pink logoThe Make It Monday Blog Circle is always great for some inspiration and ideas!

My project used some ribbon today, but if you just came from from visiting Alison Day at AlisonDayDesigns.com, you found out 5 ways to put your ribbon stash to good use, plus a bonus video

Next up is Lisa Harris from MyCreativePursuits.com where she shares how listing can be a great addition to your memory keeping! Check it out!

Cheers to YOUR Artful Adventures!

KS

Easy Digital Pocket Page Cards or Tags

With the holidays here, since it has become so popular, I was thinking how much fun it would be to show some of my family how to capture some memories with Pocket Page scrapbooking. The cards come in a zillion colors and styles, and pretty much offer something for every taste or occasion. Not only can these cards make scrapbooking easy, but the cards can be used for so much more. Since they have images, words, or even phrases, they can make quick work of a card making project, or even a “traditional” scrapbook page, and can be a great addition to a mixed media piece, or art journaling! Here was a previous post showing different uses for pocket cards.

Did you know that you can create that same pocket page look digitally? It’s really not difficult! Close To My Heart’s online software, Studio J makes it easy! Or what if you want to create your own pocket cards? You can do that, too!

Watch the video and see how easy it is.

 

A Gift for You!

I would like to let you all know how much I appreciate you following my blog. It is my desire that as I share things I like to do, that you’ll pick up some tips and tricks along the way; and that you’ll want to try new things. As a special “Thank You” to you, I’d like to offer these two pages of pocket page cards. All you have to do is print, and cut. You can even size them down to an 8×8″ square and print them on a letter size paper, to use any way you’d like.

Yuletide Pocket Cards 1

Right Click the button to download, or click to view, and then download.

Yuletide Cards #1

Yuletide pocket cards

Right Click the button to download, or click to view, and then download.
Yuletide Cards #2

Create your own Studio J pages here.

Creative Christmas Bundle Preview

 

May you enjoy the holidays, and thanks for stopping by! (Leave and message so I know you were here!)

Cheers to YOUR Artful Adventures!

KS

 

 

Composition Notebook Makeover

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:

Chalk It Up notebook supplies

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″.

Cut pieces for notebook

Cut 2 pieces each 6 3/4″x 9 3/4″; Cut 1 piece 2 1/4″x9 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.

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

Cover the edge of the original binding

notebook binding cover

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

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

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.

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

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!

Cheers to YOUR Artful Adventures!

KS

August Stamp of the Month 2014


Teacher Gift and Project Perseverance

Have you ever wanted to create something for a gift and thought it was going to be easy, only to find it didn’t work out quite the way you envisioned? Today is the last day of school for kids in our district, and I thought I’d create a special gift for my grandson’s teacher. It all started with something I saw online. I wish I had an idea of whose work was my inspiration, because her items were gorgeous! She had used an electronic cutting machine and cut word art from vinyl and placed it on wood she had painted black. This description just isn’t going to do her work justice, so I’ll just stop now!

Everyone raved about how personal and appreciative a teacher would be with a gift of this nature. I decided I would make do with things I had on hand. So my plan was:

  1. Paint a 12×12″ canvas black
  2. Cut a word art file to use as a stencil
  3. Paint the word art in white

Simple, right? That was the idea.

After I had envisioned how great this would be, I went down and grabbed out a 12×12 canvas, and was thinking how great it was that I had everything I needed right in my craft room. I reach for one of my new tubes of heavy body acrylic paint so that I can quickly get a good coat of paint on my background. There is no black! Seriously? I looked around to find another black, and decide it’s worth a 2 mile trip to go get the paint I want. I got to the craft store and found the paint I wanted was sale! Score! I walked out with one tube of paint and a package of sawtooth picture hangers to use on the project.

Back at home, I quickly covered the canvas with the paint. It went on like a dream, covering easily. At that point I decided it was too hot in my craft room and had to move the fan, because I needed the outlet to plug in my Cameo electronic cutter. While looking for a plug on the other side of the room, I leaned over the table, supporting myself with my hand on top of….. wait for it…. my freshly painted canvas! (Now if I would have thought fast enough, I could have made a handprint on something to use later.) Baby wipes are standard issue in my craft area, and I cleaned up nicely and hurried to fix my canvas. Whew, crisis averted.

I started my cut file and cut out of a 12×12″ sheet of card stock. Thank goodness for scrapbooking and having plenty of card stock! Oh it was beautiful when it was cut! I carefully worked and worked to remove the letters so that I would end up with a stencil. As I began looking at it, I realized that letters like A, R, P, 0, etc. needed to have little parts added back in so that the whole letter wasn’t just a solid blob of white when it was painted. Great, now how was I going to get those to just lay there and be able to stencil? Aha, I decided to use a glue pen that if I let dry first, it would make them removable, like a sticky note! I glued tiny parts of those letters and let them dry.

Finally, I was ready to start painting the stencil using heavy body acrylic to keep oozing at bay. I put it on top of the canvas, and then painstakingly inserted the little sections of the insides of the letters. I began gently dabbing in the white paint so that it wouldn’t ooze under the stencil. Some of the insides of the letters came up with pouncing my brush. Okay, I could use black paint and go back in and create the middles of letters. As I continued, I was very careful about keeping those little critters down.

The moment of truth came as I gently pulled up the stencil. Oh no! It was a mess. With all the care I had given to gently tapping in my color, it still was a mess around almost every letter. I just looked at it in disappointment. On the bright side, the white paint over the black looked like I wanted it, not took opaque. That way it had a bit of the current “chalkboard” look to the lettering. Not to be deterred from this great plan for a gift, I persevered.

Next I took out a tiny little brush and I went around every stinkin’ letter with black paint to clean up the edges! Project saved.

teacher word art canvas

Even though things didn’t work out like I had anticipated, I didn’t give up! I’m glad I didn’t, because in the end, it is a perfectly imperfect piece!

 

I bet you have a great “How I Saved My Project” story or two, and good for you! If you are the kind of person whose projects go off without any problems, hats off to you! Otherwise feel free to share a story with us! I’m sure I’m not alone with my clumsy crafting!

KS

 

No Tricks, Only Treats Today!

I’m sorry you missed this offer!  Stay tuned for other free offers!

You can sign up in the box on the right for other free offers.

 

I’ve had so many people tell me that the buttons and bows on the digi page I did looked like a lot of work!  Guess what — it was!  I decided to gift you a copy of my layout!  All you have to do is sign-up in the box at the right, and press the orange button.  You’ll be taken to the page where you can download a set of the pages.

You’ll have a chance to select:

  • a set for My Digital Studio 2 (MDS2)
  • simple PNG file
  •  or even a set of layered PSD files.

How’s that for a ScrapAhead™?   Enjoy!

Here was what the finished pages looked like.   Add your own titles, text and photos and you have your own pages!   If you are not seeing the signup box, please click here: