French Country Kitchen Display

Hello, Annette Green here today with something quick and fun for those vintage junkies out there like me. This display piece will be going in my kitchen as soon as I can get the hubby to hang it for me. (I'm not allowed to use hammer and nail on our walls anymore, ever since I got a little antsy one time and started pounding away at drywall, no studs.)

This little display piece measures only 7 1/2 inches wide by 14 inches high.

It started off as this. Looks as if it's handmade to me. Probably some sweet and handy husband made it for his wife. I picked it up at my local Goodwill for just under $2. I had no plan for it at first and put it aside until something struck me. 

Then Graphic 45 came out with the new French Country paper. Can I stop right here and tell you that this paper is absolutely delicious? I mean it. You know that feeling when you open a new pad of paper and you literally oooh and ahhhh at every single sheet, running your hand over the surface, taking in the colors and images... I get a warm and happy feeling inside. Of course I ran to purchase another pad of it right away because I can't possibly CUT the only one in my possession! 

Anyway, once I covered my little cabinet with these beautiful papers (using Glue & Seal to adhere it, and inking edges with Walnut Stain) it had the feel of an old-time kitchen cupboard. So off to the antique store I flew in search of some old kitchen gadgets in which to fill it! (And I took the cabinet with me so I could properly size things.)

A small pastry cutter with a red wooden handle and very old salt and pepper shakers. Everything is glued down with E6000. (that stuff will hold anything!)

An old rusty nutmeg grater, and a tiny can of Brier Rose strawberries. The rooster cookie cutter isn't old, but fit well with the theme.

In a basket full of old spoons, I found this cute child's spoon with a teddy on the handle.

Love these old cutters. The heart is a cookie cutter and the round one is donut maker.

To top it off, this rusted wooden-handled scoop. Probably for flour back in its day.

As time goes by I'll probably find a few more things to fill in the spaces, but for now I'm happy and ready to hang it in my kitchen.

Thank You!

It's my last posting as Guest Designer for the Eclectic Paperie and I want to say a special thank you to Kim for this fabulous month! I've had a blast designing with Spellbinders Paper Arts™ Die D'Lites and hope that you have enjoyed my creations!

For my card I used Basic Grey's Lucille paper pad with Spellbinders Die D'Lites Fantastic Flourishes Two and my sentiment is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black.

Happy Crafting ~ Darsie

Cherish Happiness

So...will you miss the weekly Product Spotlight?  Since I include all new product details in our weekly newsletter (you can sign up at the bottom of our home page), I thought everyone would rather see more projects!!  And today it's my turn to share and I'm super excited to share my very first journal page spread...that I really like!  LOL!  Such is the case when you're just learning...a whole lot of so-so pages before you hit the one that makes you happy!

I wish I had taken photos of this project in the works but once I started going I just kept working and didn't even stop...thankfully, my memory still somewhat works so I'm happy to fill in the details! :-)

I started by finding a pretty clean two-page spread in my Dylusions Journal and then I applied a layer of Gesso.  (I've also been adding masking tape to the spine of my pages to keep paint from leaking.)  I then used Adirondack Paint Dabbers (Cloudy Blue, Aqua, Willow, Eggplant) to add a sky and grass.  Eggplant was just added to the edges....adore that color!

Then I used Archival Ink to stamp the Poppy Background images all across the bottom of both pages.  Then I got to work on using my paint dabbers again, this time adding Terra Cotta, Salmon, Cranberry, and Mountain Rose to the mix and coloring in all of the flowers.  After doing this, however, I lose some of the outlines of the flowers.  Guess what i used to add them back in...My Copic markers!  Yes, it worked perfectly!

Once all of my paint was dry, I got to work with some stencils!  I used Classic Words, along with a Viva Pearl Pen for some very cool results.  Then I threw on some designs from the Chevron, Dotted Flowers, and Blazonry stencils, by using the paint dabbers.  Next came random text from one of my fav Tim Holtz text stamps and then...rub ons! 

I have a giant bag of rub ons and since I've been watching a bunch of Donna Downey videos, where she's decided to use up her stash of stickers and rub ons, I was reminded to check my own stash. I found this amazing "Cherish Happiness" sentiment that I just had to use on this page. I also added a "I'm learning" ('cause I am!) sentiment from the She Sprouted Wings stamp set.

My last two elements were to add this sweet dragonfly image (from this Sweet 'n Sassy stamp set, Nature Silhouettes) and a tag with the date...and the words "happy place!"  How fun is that!

I hope you enjoyed today's project and if you're just starting on your own altered journal journey...keep playing, keep experimenting, and keep working...you're going to get to your own happy place!

Enjoy!

Coasting along...

Hello everyone, Alison here.  I'm sharing a simple tutorial with you today, just to take you through how I built up the look of my coaster mini-book.  We know them as beermats here in the UK, but I'm working in translation, so "coasters" it is!

Really, this little book was intended to showcase the amazing Donna Downey stamps from Unity - both the hedgerow flowers and the fabulous sentiment sets.

I love these stamps and find them so inspiring, as well as very versatile.

So I started with my bare coasters, and gave them a rough coat of pale blue acrylic paint.  I deliberately left bare spaces at the edges for a rustic look.  It also means there's variation in the textures of my "canvas".

The next step was to use a piece of card to add some rough strokes and lines in another colour.  I used a dark brown, and the idea was to create the look of meadow grasses, shifting in the wind.

The strokes are pretty random, and I made several "cuts" in a row so that there were different amounts of paint being applied for each blade of grass.

Now some stamping - yay!  The first of the hedgerow stamps - these are the Wayward Blooms - done in Memento Teal Zeal.  As you can see, the stamp is huge (so cool!), so these are all partial stampings.

 I added some extra interest using some Tim Holtz tissue tape from the Hobgoblin set.  If you tear it lengthwise, then stick it down with the two straight edges against one another, you get a nice interesting rough edge to it.

Now the next stamp - Delicate Flowers - this time done in Coffee Archival.  If you take a look at the finished album pages, you'll see that on opposite sides I alternated which colour each of the two flower stamps was done in.  A little variation within an overall design which was intended to be as simple and serene as possible.

Final step in the background layers was to use the white Inkssentials gel pen to highlight the blossoms of the Delicate Flowers.

Such a calming activity - you enter a kind of trance state just dotting them on.  And I think it really lifts the look of the whole page.

So then it was just a matter of layering the Donna Downey quotes - stamped in Coffee Archival, and edged with Vintage Photo DI - onto some dark brown cardstock, and working out where they looked best on each page.

I used sentiments from both the Empowered Words and the Art and Possibility sets, as I wanted each of them to include a "handwritten" word.

And however you define "Art", I have to say making this little book really did make me happy!  I hope you've enjoyed seeing some of the process.  Here's where to go if you'd like to see some more close-ups or any more making-of details.

Don't forget to check out the current challenge here at eP - we're looking for projects including Folded Paper of some kind.  All the details are here, and we'd love to have you play along.  Thanks so much for stopping by today, and see you again soon.

Click on the link to go straight to the product:

Thinking of You!

Hello, everyone!  It's Broni here and I'm your hostess today!

I've had this fabulous new Cattails D'Lites die for a little while now and was waiting for just the right opportunity to use it.  As it turns out, a great color challenge was all that I needed.

I decided to do minimal stamping on my card to show off the  Cattails, so I started with a little Distress ink spritzing and blending.  I swiped Spun Sugar and Crushed Olive on my craft sheet, then spritzed it with some water using my mini-mister, and dragged my cardstock through it.  When it dried I spritzed the cardstock directly to create more of a watercolor effect.  After letting it dry again, I distressed the edges and sponged on some of the same inks using my ink blending tools.

I sponged some Frayed Burlap behind where I was going to place my Cattails D'Lites die cut and also along the edges using my Mini Chevron 6x6 template.  I love the look of this!

I stamped the "Thinking of" in Walnut Stain and added a die cut "you" as well. I wrapped the card front in twine, tied it through a button, then added the Cattails using some Scotch foam mounting tape.

So that's my project for today!  I hope you found some inspiration and maybe an idea or two that you can use!

Until next time~

~

Follow Your Passion . . .

 Happy Friday everyone!

It`s Tracy here today and I am so excited to be back to share a little altered art project I have created.

and my inspiration came from . . .

Art and Possibility {Donna Downey} by Unity stamp company

along with the beautiful

Lily bee Design - 6x6 Persnickety Papers

for the inserts

Chipboard Coasters

and a little

Tando Creative Mini House Printer tray.

I did get slightly carried away and didn`t get as many pictures as I would have liked to share with you all,sorry!

But as you can see I used a few papers from the pack, cut to size and fixed in place.

Next I grabbed some white card, stamped the sentiments, chopped them all up, inked the edges with  my blending tool loaded with Tim Holtz Walnut Stain Distress ink pad and finished with a little Cosmic Shimmer Clear embossing powder . . . WHEW it was frantic for a while!
I would be lost without my hot glue gun, I used it to fix the embellishments in place and Glossy accents for the sentiments.
It was almost finished when I had one of those lightbulb moments!
 

 The printers tray was telling me . . . yes telling me . . .
" Please I want to be the cover on a book, a cover, a cover "
Who am I to argue, lol . . .so I looked around my shed and came up with some old cardboard packaging, drew around the tray, cut it out, splodged some Gesso over it, distressed, stamped and voila a backcover was born!

What was I going to use for inserts I thought, scratching my head . . . whoop,whoop I remembered Kim sent me some square coasters in my design team parcel, thank you Kim!
Plus I also had 3 canvas inserts that came with a Maya Road canvas album, love touchy feelly books.

 This is the inside of the printers tray with another beautiful sentiment and scraps of Persnickety papers.

 On the right a canvas insert, stamped, distressed with Tim Holtz Distress ink pads and Stains,a Prima Linen Burlap Rose and Maya road Vintage leaf pin sitting alongside a scrap of metal.

As you can see the coasters and canvas sit snugly inbetween the covers after being punched with my trust Crop O Dile and I am looking forward to showing more pages as time goes on.
Just remember
do what makes you happy
make art everyday
paint your dreams
be Bold.
be true.
 inspiration is everywhere
follow your passion

I hope you enjoyed looking
till next time
Tracy
xoxox

You can find supplies over at the eclectic Paperie shop just click below :

Art and Possibility stamp set {Donna Downey} Unity Stamp Company
Lily Bee Designs Persnickety 6x6 paper pad
Maya Road Vintage Leaf Pins
Maya Road Vintage Linen Burlap Roses - Sunset
Chipboard Coasters
Tim Holtz Distress ink pads - Spiced Marmalade, Walnut Stain
Tim Holtz Distress Stains - Walnut Stain, Vintage Photo
Claudine Hellmuth Studio Gesso
My canvas inserts came from a Maya Road Canvas binder and the great thing is . . . I still have a canvas binder to alter!!

Winner of the Get Altered (Altered Books) Challenge!!

Altered books!  Wow...the entries for our last Get Altered challenge were stunning!  I'm amazed by the work that went in to each of the books that were submitted and can hardly believe the designs that each of you made...with a book!  What a fantastic challenge and so much fun to see everyone's artwork...seriously, thank you so much for sharing!

Our winner for our last Get Altered - Books challenge is....

Laura Carson

 I was really impressed by all of the details that went into Laura's book...from the many fancy embellishments to the oodles of folded pages.  This would definitely be a conversation piece if placed on one's table!  It's a beautiful piece of artwork and I'm happy to share it here on the eP blog!

Laura, please contact me at kim@eclecticpaperie.com to claim your $15.00 gift certificate to eclectic Paperie!

A huge thanks to everyone that submitted!!  Please continue to share your work, it really is a delight to see the projects.  And you might be the next gift certificate winner!

eTeam Picks Challenge - Folded Paper

Welcome to eclectic Paperie’s Get Altered Challenge! 

The Get Altered Challenge is held on the first Thursday of each month and each challenge is an opportunity for you to be inspired by one of our eTeam’s creations, this week it’s Donna-Marie. 

 My challenge is to create a piece of art which includes something folded.

 I don't know about you folks but I am OVER loaded with passwords and user names!!!! I made this box to hold all of my passwords and user information right next to my laptop.

I started with an opened Keurig Box

I took the part you open off at the perferated seam as well as the rest of the top and painted the box with Black with Gesso.

I then used Authentique Renew to start making my box sturdy and pretty :-)

I added paper to the inside and chip board layered with the paper to the outside.  The outside chip board makes the box sturdy enough to hold all the goodies!  I left the front part just painted black (it was hard to get the exact size paper to fit).

You can see here that I used my Cropadile to add in two eyelets to the left side.  I used elastic string to tie through.  The elastic string came from an old gift package and it is tight enough to hold my wrtiting utensils.  A few paper clips on the front hold some fab Timmy metal pieces as well as his glorious feet added to the bottom.

By now you are probably wondering where the heck does the "folded" part come into play wellll...

Inside the box are all these yummy yum yum mini folders from Authentique.  These folders actually inspired this whole project.  They fit perfectly into the Keurig box (well almost perfectly... I did trim about 1/8 of an inch off one side so that they move freely inside the box).  (You can grab some of the Renew die cuts in the Renew Card Kit!)  I also cut down some envelopes in half to create the other little mini pockets inside.  I decorated the front of the folders for some added fun.

Here is a close up of the items inside...the Authentique mini folder is open and the envelope pocket was covered with Authentique paper, ribbon, buttons and embellies.  I made cards to put inside the pockets with lots of clips to add my written information quickly.

 

The paper clip embellies were super fun to make!  I just glued with Glossy Accents small paper punches, flowers, or buttons to the top and let dry overnight...voila my own matching embellished paper clips!  I also used Tim Holtz's hanger clips, his big heavy clips and mini bottle labels.

 

I have to say that I use this little mini box of information almost everyday!!

 

I hope you can join us here at eclectic Paperie making something fun for yourself :-)

Be sure to share your work, so that you can be entered into our challenge prize drawing!

The Get Altered Challenge is about exploring your creative journey, about stepping outside of your comfort zone, experimenting with new products, and creating altered and mixed media art.  Share a unique card, a scrapbook or journal page, a canvas, or any other project where you’ve used paint, ink, paper, and embellishments.  We want to see your work and hear about your inspiration!  All of those who play along with our challenge will be entered into a prize drawing for a $15.00 gift certificate to the eclectic Paperie store.

So grab your supplies and play along!  Here are a few things to keep in mind for this challenge…

-You do not have to use products sold in the eP store…but we do love it when you do!

-Share a direct link to your creation, not just your blog, using the Linky Tools feature at the end of this post.  If, for any reason, the Linky Tools doesn’t cooperate, please add a link in the Comments section of the blog.

-When uploading to any online galleries, please use any of the following keywords; eP, eclectic Paperie or Get Altered Challenge.  Link your creations to the eP blog.

-If you’d like to be considered as one of our featured projects and be entered into our prize drawing, please be sure to add your link no later than 6:00 pm EST on March 7th.  eP will announce the winner/featured project right before the eTeam Get Altered Challenge).