Love is the Key

There's something special in the air these days. Some of you say "snow?", some of you say "hail?"

 I say "LOVE".

As in Authentique's "Lovely". And to celebrate the loveliness, I created a tiny canvas of paper and some wonderful flowers from Petaloo and trims from May Arts. We are all doing a cross-promo this week and here's my little contribution.

The canvas is 5x7", and I "painted" it with Victorial Velvet Distress Ink. I rubbed the ink on the canvas's edges, then used a paper towel to smear and fill in the canvas with color.

After I stamped and fancy-cut the wings, legs and top, I created the tutu with layers of ribbon, book pages, and Petaloo's Darjeeling flowers. More ribbon wraps the canvas and holds the key.

 I also love love love the tiny hat pins from Petaloo. Adorably small, and perfectly pink, I used a beaded and a silver pin in the top corner.

I hope you've enjoyed this little bit of loveliness. Don't forget to stop by Authentique and Petaloo all this week for more creativity!

Materials Used

"Lovely" by Authentique

"Darjeeling Flowers" by Petaloo

Ribbons by May Arts

Distress Ink by Ranger

Love builds a garden.

Authentique is debuted its newest collection on Friday. It's all about love, and PINK. I made this project as a part of our Authentique-LoveMyTapes cross-promo last week and wanted to share it with you here.

I created the flowers with a couple of different techniques. For all of the flowers, I covered one side of a square of paper with washi tape - sometimes I covered the whole paper, sometimes I left stripes of paper for added texture. For the daisies and other petal forms, I used the "Tattered Flowers" die from Sizzix. For the roses, I used my favorite cut and twirl technique.For added texture and shine, I spritz some of the flowers with Goosebumps Shimmer Texture Spray.

I used more washi tape to create the stems - twisting it around florist's wire, and wrapping leaves in as I went.

Authentique always creates fabulous sticker sheets to coordinate with the papers, and I used the trims to decorate the jar. Washi tape twisted around itself creates great twine. 

I had a great time playing with tape - it's something I haven't tried before and it's a great product! So versatile and easy to work with. Be sure to visit the Love My Tape site to see what their design team is making with our papers.

~ Products Used ~

"Lovely" - Authentique

Washi tapes #880, #383 - Love My Tape

Tattered Flowers and Mini Leaves dies - Sizzix

Goosebumps - Imagine Crafts

Pinspired Haunted Treehouse

Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday. Ghosties, goblins, bat and cats, boney feet and witches hats. Who can resist?? Not me!

Authentique has started a "Pinspired Monday" series, where each designer finds inspiration on Pinterest, and uses it to create a project. So off I went to Pinterest and this is what I found - a haunted house!

Which led me to create...

a haunted treehouse!

The treehouse itself is built with a Configuration cabinet, lined with papers from our Enchanted line. Once the sections are covered in paper and the edges covered with paper tape the real fun begins - creating each scene!

The Apothecary's Shoppe is my favorite. I loved mixing potions and poisons for these tiny bottles.

All of the potion bottles have labels made with stickers from the Enchanted collection.  

I used a combination of different things to fill each one. 

~ Allow 24 hours for the bottles that use Glossy Accent in them to set properly. ~

~ Sand and distress the stickers before adhering them to the bottles for extra creepiness ~ 

~ Rub ink on the corks to make those look older too ~

~ Potion Recipes ~

"Poison"

"Slate" alcohol ink

Glossy Accent

cat litter

~ pour a small amount of Glossy Accent in the bottle and add cat litter. 

~ twist and turn the bottle to mix and coat the inside of the glass

~ add a few drops of alcohol ink

~ twist and turn the bottle to mix

~ set bottle on its side to set, occasionally turning the bottle to remix and smear the sides

"Witch's Brew" 

"Red Pepper" alcohol ink

Glossy Accent

~ pour a small amount of Glossy Accent in the bottle

~ add a few drops of alcohol ink

~ twist and turn the bottle to mix

~ set bottle on its side to set, occasionally turning the bottle to remix and smear the sides

"Eye of Spider"

Black Sparkly Fluff

~ tip a small amount of Sparkly Fluff into the bottle 

"Beware" vapor

"Meadow" alcohol ink

cotton ball

~ add a few drops of alcohol ink

~ twist and turn the bottle to coat the sides of the bottle

~ put a small amount of glue on the inside lip of the bottle

~ attach a small amount of cotton from the cotton ball

~ hold in place and lightly pull to make wisps

~ Products Used ~

Paper - Enchanted - Authentique

Configuration Cabinet - Tim Holtz

Wooden Tree - Kaisercraft

Black acrylic paint

Black embossing powder

Assorted tiny bottles with corks

Bird Cage - Idea-ology

Crows

Skeleton

hickory dickory dock!

this week authentique paper and basically bare are having a little get-together. i received some really whimsical kits from basically bare and was immediately inspired to create a special nursery canvas.

i started with a 9x12 canvas board and painted the edges with brown acrylic. then i tore and roughed up a sheet from authentique's "lively" collection and glued it in place.

the clock and owl are kits from basically bare. i used glue&seal to adhere papers to the bare pieces, then sanded the edges. a little bling and "hootie" the owl is ready to sigh, "there he goes".

i have lots of chipboard letters that belong to different paper collections, none of which matched the papers. so i chose the letters for the title, painted them all with brown acrylic and then flocked them with brown "sparkly fluff" from the craft lounge.

there goes that mouse again...

i used a piece from basically bare's flower kit to create the mouse. a googly eye and a curly wire tail and he's off and running.

thanks for stopping by the caravan today and be sure to stop by again!

~ materials ~

basically bare - clock, owl and flower kits

authentique paper - "lively" collection

the craft lounge - sparkly fluff

bits of this and that

CHA-cha-CHA day 3

*** CHA-cha-CHA CONTEST ALERT ***

visit the caravan and leave a comment to get entered in a fabulous drawing! 

the more you visit and comment, the more chances you have to win!

the prize package includes 6x6 authentique paper bundles and some nifty extras to inspire your own creations! 

the winner will be announced on july 22!

welcome gypsies! CHA is seriously under way and authentique has been celebrating with "christmas in july" all week on their blog. so i thought i'd share a little of my christmas spirit on mine too!

authentique's new "festive" collection + a canvas = a keepsake of my favorite elf!

this little cutey is on display in the authentique booth this week!

merry christmas to all and to all a good night!

looking for more merriment? stop by the authentique blog for more "festive christmas in july"

~  materials  ~

red 3D glitter gel paint - viva

"festive" paper collection - authentique

twine and tinsel twine

joy!

by the sea

welcome gypsies and happy friday!

today's project features something old, something new, and a little something blue! as the first post for authentique's "earth friendly friday" i am thrilled to have created something coll and new from old stuff!

poor sad cigar box. this was a left-over from my local scrapbook store. they didn't want it anymore and i knew i would be able to do something with it. three years later and i finally am! i used authentique's glory collection for this project because is just screams summer!

i wanted to celebrate summer early, so i created a shadowbox. after cutting a window in the box's cover, i lined the inside and covered the outside.

then i fancy-cut my waves, pennants, lighthouse and friendly shark fin, as well as a beautiful mermaid and pieced them together. some distress ink around the edges adds a little accent and sets the paper layers off nicely

finishing touches are made from lots of sea shells in different sizes, twine and crepe ribbon, and some die-cut spirals cut from an old cardboard box.

finally the feet. i wanted something really unique and beachy, so i went with smooth rocks 

- not from the beach but don't tell.

so an old cigar box, rocks, shells, and some shipping cardboard combine with one of our newest collections into a brand new fabulous something. i hope you are inspired to upcycle something today!