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

Selecting Color Themes for Your Projects – Monochromatic

Artful Adventures Monochromatic Scrapbook PageCompanies that make suites of products for scrapbooking, card making, papercrafting, etc.; have pre-selected color themes for you, so you don’t even have to think about what to use.  However, what if you are purchasing items individually, or have left over product?  What do you have that those things will coordinate with?  It’s all about selecting a color theme!  That’s why a company’s product line looks great, and that’s how you can select colors that will work for you as well!

In the last post we discussed how to use the color wheel and use a triad color scheme for a project or scrapbook page.  Today,  let’s talk about a different way to select colors – the monochromatic color scheme.  You may think that a monochromatic color scheme is 50 shades of the same color.  That’s true!  However, when you move up and down the spectrum, you find that there is more to a monochromatic scheme than appearing to be all the same color.

Monochromatic Theme

The open circle is the coral color

For this scrapbook page, I wanted to use a background color that was based on Calypso Coral, but I wanted it to have a little bit different look and feel than the other colors I normally use with it. I picked that color on the color wheel, and look at the other variations that are up and down that line of color.

Here are the colors that pop up!

Coral Monochromatic Scheme

Monochromatic scheme using coral as the base color.

For some reason, every time I have tried to upload this color strip, it seems to alter the way the original colors appear!  One color appears to be more gray than it looks here.

Using a color scheme as a jumping off point for your project, you can then use what you have and take liberty with adjustments as needed.  Here is a layout using this method.  You’ll see that the paged is not strictly made using only these colors, but you can also see that the majority of the page is based very close to this.

For an easy way to help you create a monocromatic color scheme, here is great website to use: kuler.adobe.com  (See below this next photo for a video on how to use it!)  Once you try this method and link up your project here or over at our Facebook Artful Adventures Group!

Artful Adventures Monochromatic Scrapbook Page

Creating Hybrid Cards

Mother's Day Hybrid CardFor those of us who love to create and enjoy making cards, sometimes we may not have as much time as we would like to get them done!  This past weekend, I was going to swap cards with my Stampin’Up! friends, and knew time was going to be tight to get my 17 matching cards completed.  You may not need 17 matching cards to swap with friends, but what about a holiday card, party invitation, birth announcement, or some occasion or event you want people to know about!

Making a hybrid card can be the best of both worlds, paper and digital. One idea is to just print out your digital image as a regular 4×6 picture which you have the option to print at many locations.  You can print them out at the drug store or wherever your favorite place is to make prints.  If you plan ahead, you may be able to order them or use an online coupon and save even more.  Of course, it will depend on how many you need as to how economical it will be to order and pay shipping, you’ll have to be the judge of that.

My Digital Studio (MDS) is a great digital software program which is easy to use and extremely economical.  It even comes with a Free Trial.  MDS has been recently updated and the price lowered to where I think it is such a value, especially for beginners!  MDS is what was used for this card, and it only took two digital “stamps” to create this card.

If you plan to print on 4×6 photo paper, make sure to plan your design around combining that photo with your card size.  Since we often create a card that is a half sheet of an 8.5×11″ paper, your finished card front is 4.25×5.5, so you’ll need to plan your photo accordingly.  I find it easiest to make the size of what I’m working on a 4×6 and just watch my rulers for the sizing I will use for the finished card.  After printing, they only need to have a little bit trimmed off, usually about

The digital images on this cards are:

  1. Vintage Overlay – Texture 8
  2. “Ex Libris” digital download (main image over the card)
  3. “Happy Mother’s Day” from All Holidays set

Also, during the digital design process, you can play around with adding embellishments and get an idea of what you want to do as you assemble the card.

The card base is a half sheet of an 8.5×11 piece of cardstock, folded for a final card size of 5.5 x 4.25 inches. After the “photo” portion of this card was printed, I trimmed the 4×6 because photo so that it would fit my card front, and adhered it.  Now the embellishments of a rhinestone in the center of the “o” in the word “mother,” and bit of ribbon simply knotted in the center and adhered with a glue dot!  That’s it.

Simple, Perfect Bows

It is so amazing to have you join me on each of these Artful Adventures. I really want to make sure to show you ideas you can get some use from!  That’s why today’s discovery is about learning a nifty method for a simple, perfect bows!  Some people feel like they are all thumbs when it comes to tying a bow.  I have always felt pretty adequate in this area, and loved tying those big bows on the back of my girls dresses when they were young.  However, I was never really able to show or articulate how I did it.  My dad always said I did something kind of odd in the way that I did it.  (Wouldn’t you know an old sailor would know if you were tying the perfect knot or bow!)  Anyway, watch as my friend Georgia Giguere shows you the most clever way to just about get a perfect bow EVERY time!  You will love this method for your projects!  Seriously, you are going to love this!

Turn a Printable Download into Gift Wrap

printable download small gift wrapThis week we have been on a tour of ways to use or jazz up a printable digital download.  Today I’ve got a quick idea for a bit of gift wrap for a very small gift!  Print out a printable and ta-dah! you have a little piece of gift wrap.  Now, if you are thinking, ‘Why on earth would I do that?’ consider this.

Have you ever had someone give you a little unexpected gift?  Maybe it really wasn’t expensive, but it just made you feel good to know they had been thinking about you, right?  Okay, and isn’t it always nice to have a gift that is wrapped — as if it was actually planned?  Maybe you don’t agree, but that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it!  Well, you may be like a lot of people and not have a fully appointed and just for wrapping area of your home.  Little gifts don’t need a whole roll of paper, and why not just print something from your printer? You may have a big roll of green, shamrock, March 17th, St. Patrick’s Day holiday related gift wrap, but I did not.

printable download gift wrap

Small project, small group of supplies!

Here is just a little gift and I went ahead and used the same Lucky printable I used earlier this week.  I like the fact that it has a limited color palette, and uses the subway art look that is popular.  I would normally select a much smaller print for a small gift, but I kind of liked the fact that it was more about the lettering and fonts than it was about the words.  If you’re wondering, the gift has nothing to do with the holiday, it was just a cute paper that was seasonally related!  Added bonus, a sheet of paper coming out of my printer was a lot easier to deal with than a big roll of wrapping paper!

top printable download gift wrapped

A peek of the top of the little gift.

One thing you may want to note, is the fact that your regular white printer paper is usually VERY white!  Notice that the ribbon, which looks white on anything else I’ve ever used it on, appears a little more cream color against the stark white.  That’s OKAY, I’m only pointing it out so you don’t write to me and let me know it doesn’t really “match” well.

Next time you have a small gift, think about printing a wee bit of gift wrap from your printer, and try out using a printable download, ready to go!

Please join me on next week’s Artful Adventures as we explore some watercolor techniques using markers and ink pads!  Until then,

Cheers to YOUR creativity!

Kristie