Thanks for the memories: Andiepants

I can't believe it's over! eP has been a wonderful place to design for, receive inspiration from, and chat with other scrap-minded individuals. My time here has been brief but soooo well worth it. Thank you so much Kim for the opportunity to serve on the DT here. 

Here are a few of my favorite eP projects from over the last year.

Loved this tissue cozy made for my third grade teacher

and the top

This was my first page made for eP and also perfect for this time of year:

Loved the altered bag I made for my sister:

and finally my most favorite pages of all time:

I sincerely hope you enjoyed my stroll down memory lane. Thank you so much for all the lovely comments over the last year and all the support. 

{{hugs}}

Andiepants

Layered Bee Sympathy Card

Hello eP land!

There has been a LOT going on in my new office with my new co workers, multiple family members passing away and one co worker left. 

Of course in craft-land this means we make cards. Today I would like to share one of the sympathy cards that I made for my co worker whose uncle passed away. This co worker ahs been paramount in making me feel welcome, so when I found out that he lost someone very close to him I definitely wanted to let him know how sorry I was for his loss.

When I saw this bee, all I could think of were the french bees with the crowns. However, my first project with it turned out nothing like that. Although I used papersoft for the main part of my yellow, I inked a majority of the edge in wild honey and then stenciled my images in ripe persimmon and rusty hinge. I then used my water spritzer to splatter some water on the card and react with the Distress Ink. Then I stamped my brown images using various Stampers Anonymous stamps and a new set of Wendy Vecchi stamps.

I used Distress Glitter in Antique Linen on the wings of the bee to give the card just a touch of glam even though it is for a male. I love the embossing folder on this bee. The brown corrugated piece is from my 7gypsies scrap pack. I ran a nail file over it to distress it a bit. I love the texture with the canvas from the banner. Those Maya Road banners are adorable. 

Hope you enjoyed my masculine sympathy card today. Love my bee. If you haven't tried one of the new Bigz dies with the embossing folder I would DEFINITELY recommend it. 

{{hugs}}

Andiepants

Graphic 45 Halloween Decor

This year for Autumn my new neighbor bought an adorable wreath to hang on their front door! Of course being the crafty goddess that I am, I thought to myself...I should make something for my front door!

I immediately started digging for inspiration, but when my new G45 paper showed up from the eP store...I KNEW that's what I was using.

First I started with a 12x12 sheet. Use your favorite punch or deco scissors for the top 2 edges. Crease the bottom corner so it rolls and use score tape along the edge that will be on the outside.

Roll your paper using the inside edge as your working side and slowly roll it into the exposed score tape. Make the roll as tight or as loose as you want. Cut 2 squares of 8x8 from a coordinating paper for the 2 smaller cones along each side and repeat the process. NOTE: I would punch holes and insert my hanging ribbon NOW. I did mine after it was embellished and it was a pain.

Use an Archival ink to add color to resin pieces. Resin is non porous so distress ink and pigment ink will wash right off. Wendy Vecchi archival ink is perfect for this but since I don't have orange I used my StazOn.

I used Archival ink in Potting Soil to accent the piece and highlight. 

Fussy cut a pice for frame and a few pieces for the cones themselves. Add some dollar store raffia, some pheasant feathers from your hubby's last hunting trip, and embellish with loads of Petaloo!!!

I also used some glossy accents to add rusty hinge distress glitter randomly along the flowers and the paper pieces.

Here's a close up of the completed frame.

So get crafty this Halloween ePeers and make something spooky for your home!!

{{hugs}}

Andiepants

Embossing with Dimensional Paint

Happy Place

To say I was inspired by one of our entries to the eP embossing challenges would be an understatement!! 

When i saw Judith's adorable card I was inspired to try a new technique with some of the Art Anthology dimensional paint. 

I wondered what would it look like if I painted the background and then used the paint through a Prima stencil?

The paint is a little more loose than embossing paste so you don't develop a super crisp image but I love the subtle embossed image again the background. 

I also loved the way the mist puddled on the dried paint and created highlights in the indentations.

I used an old TA mist for the subtle yellow and Dylusions sprays in Calypso Teal and Dirty Martini for the splatters and green accents.  I used some Petaloo color me crazy flowers and Prima Cartographer flowers. The Key hole and resin pieces are Prima as well. 

Loved this fun pic of aubrey Sue for this super fun bright layout. Hope you enjoyed my take on embossing!

{{hugs}}

Andiepants

Art With Your Heart Out

Hi there eP land! Greetings from the deep south.

Wow has this been a whirlwind for me! I won't get into gory details but suffice to say that the pants have not settled yet. (Andiepants that is ;)

With all that is going on I decided a little art journal therapy was in order.

Remember the book I made for the fabric challenge?

Well this was my first page. It was just painty, inky, stenciley, good fun and some journal therapy thrown in for good measure. In fact, my friend Patty has a blog called "Art with your Heart out" so that's what I did...art with my heart out.

I started with some distress paint in Antique Linen

I covered both pages and a little on the backside of my small  insert piece.

Next I used some matte medium to add some Timmy tissue-Melange

I used my Ranger heat gun to dry in between each layer.

Next I sprayed both pages with water and added a couple of drops of reinker in walnut stain. 

Then I used my Prima mask and Distress ink pad in Wild Honey to add another layer.

Then I played with my Wendy stencils. I used Flourishes and Fancy Flowers to add interest to the background. With the fancy flowers on the small insert I first used Rusty Hinge distress ink and then layered Ferro Metallic effect paint in Amber gold through the smaller flower on top to create a layered effect. I LOVE the way it turned out.

A simple Sharpie for the journaling and poof...I was done. The whole thing was so therapeutic. I started my journaling and realized how negative I was. So I finished getting all the negative out on the left side. When I went to the right side I focused on positives. What are all the positive things about our move. I named it New Adventures because my hubby has started a Facebook page titled New Adventures where he posts things that are all about Louisiana.

I hope you enjoyed my little adventure into arting with my heart out. Maybe try some art therapy of your own and see what happens.

Til next time

{{hugs}}

Andiepants

Shabby Altered Umbrella

Hello eP land. By the time y'all read this I will be on my way to the deep south!

As a parting homage to Michigan I decided to do an OTP (off the page) umbrella. We get LOTS of rain in Mi. Even if it's not raining, it looks like it's going to rain. And if it's cold enough...it's snowing instead.

Of course I have lots of stuff hanging around my room to alter but instead I decided to take a cue from my previous co-designer Miranda Edny and make my own 3D object to alter. 

 Any coordinating paper line would be adorable for this but I chose to use Olivia's Sweetshop from my stash. I loved the green and teal combo with the splash of pink thrown in for good measure. The cupcakes are just adorable. 

The blue flowers is by Prima and you can find LOTS of Prima flowers in the eP store for all your lovely projects! 

I started by cutting a pattern over and over and over using my Silhouette. Echo Park umbrella. (I only paid $0.75 for it)

Then I scored each one down the middle and used my bone folder to get a real nice crease. I lined up the edges and stacked them all together and used a distressing tool to distress all the edges and underneath.

For the straw I watered down some Antique linen distress ink and made a wash to tone down the colors. I used embossing paste to add the flowers so they had a nice sturdy base to anchor them down and then covered them with splotches of gesso here and there. I used bakers twine to hang the piece a voila!!! A gorgeous shabby umbrella. 

I hope I have inspired you to make your own OTP! Until next time...

{{HUGS}}

Andiepants

Gelato Canvas and Wendy Vecchi products

Well it is official. Andiepants is becoming a southern bell!!! We will be moving to the lovely state of Louisiana very soon!

With all of our friends and family up here in Michigan it is very difficult to say goodbye, so one of the things that I like to do is to leave a little something with my friends and family as a token of my love. 

My friend from church, Delores, had a bit of spell and is currently in a rehabilitation facility re-learning how to use her arm. She misses her friends and her church very much. She is such an inspiration to me. Back in her hay-day she rode through the entire continental U.S. on the back of a Harley, all except for Alaska. As a hobby she paints these GORGEOUS china pieces and alters children's bouncy horses into carousel horses.

So for Delores I decided to make her a canvas. Something she could hang on her wall

This is actually a canvas I began a long time ago with the background stamping. It was just sitting in my cubby waiting for the right moment. So I doused it with water and used my gelatos, blending with my fingers.

I started with just blues and then decided it made a pretty sky and I wanted a scene of some sort.

Next I covered all the edges with Tea Dye distress ink. I used my finger to smudge in and over the white areas to give it an antique look.

Then I bust out my Wendy Vecchi crackle paste. This stuff ROCKS!!!

I used the crackle to make the "clouds" of my scene.

I forgot to take pictures of the next step. For this part I sprayed some water on my craft mat and added some drops from a Distress Stain re-inker in Antique linen. Then I used this wash to cover the entire canvas. This helped the gelatos to blend better and highlighted the cracks in my crackle clouds while giving the whole thing an antique appearance.

Then I bust out my stamp it stencil it by Wendy Vecchi. I used her archival inks to color it in  and went back over the base of the stem with gelatos to help highlight the grass. I ADORE how this turned out. I went with red in honor of Donna Downey. I love her:)

I then used gesso and water to create a water white paint and flicked the paint onto the bottom of the canvas to mimic flowers growing in the grass. 

Using my Tim Holtz layering stencils, I took a phrase from some Stampers Anonymous stamps and I added my title with a smudge stick and black gelato 

and voila...

My parting gift is complete. I  hope it inspires her as much and she has inspired me.

Til next time...

{{hugs}}

Andiepants

ePlay Challenge - Fabric!

Welcome to the June ePlay challenge!! This month we are inviting you to play with fabric!

If you are anything like me I have TONS of scrap fabric laying around. Everything from silk to denim to brocade. I was actually inspired by denim to create this challenge but when it came time to do the project I found this fabulous brocade scrap the my mother in law had recently given to me for my scrappy purposes and it was perfect. 

I have been wanting to have an art journal but I want one big enough to really play in. I decided I needed to make my own and this is what came of it.

The cover needed a little something so I used some Wendy Vecchi embossing paste in black through a Prima stencil and highlighted with some inka gold.

This is the silver metallic Wendy paste with quite a few drops of forrest moss Distress ink and a drop of peeled paint. I should have added more green as the green is very pale...but this was my first attempt at mixing so I learn.

Here is my step by step tutorial for creating my art journal (total cost $6.40):

1. Take a pad of Bristol or Water color paper and carefully remove all of the sheets. (I used a 40% off coupon and spent $6.40)

2.Add a few pieces of artistic paper, tags, smaller papers...anything you want for interest.

3. Gather no more than 4 pieces of paper together and fold in half. Crease with a bone folder. These are  called your signatures. Your book will be made up of multiple signatures.

4. Use a centering ruler to make marks at the center and one at each end...about 1/2 inch in from the edge. These will be for your holes.

5. Using an awl and a squishy pad (this is the technical term) punch holes in your signature at the marks. Make sure they are right along your creased fold.

6. Using a large needle (mine is a leather working needle) and waxed thread to sew, sew your individual signatures at the binding.

7. Then sew the signatures together and clip the book together.

(visual of clips)

8.Take your glue and paint a thick coat along the binding of the signatures.

9. While that dries, take your book covers (I repurposed an old dictionary that I bought at a flea market) and measure out the fabric leave enough room in between for your book innards. This will depend on how many signatures you have.

10. Use your glue and adhere the fabric to the flat surface first being sure to burnish as you go.

11. Adhere the edges around the inside of the covers.

12. Use a piece of your paper to attach the signatures to the cover. If you look close you can see the yellow...I used the cover to the paper pad. Adhere one side to the signature and the other side to the cover. Burnish well and leave something heavy overnight for the entire thing to dry. Do the same for the back cover. 

and voila! I wanted to keep it somewhat flat so it was easy to open so I didn't add a whole bunch to the front. Also, the fabric I chose is very busy too.

So what can you do with fabric? Let's see! Add your blog to the linky tool at the bottom and show us what you can do with fabric. You may just win a little something to spend in the eP store!!

Good luck!

{{hugs}}

Andiepants