Spring Garden Memory File Featuring Color Pop!

Happy Spring!!

Anna sent me a package of Heidi Swapp Color Pop Products and told me to do with it what I wished. Spring is in the air so I thought a memory file that I could put pictures and notes about my garden would be a great project for these products. Here is what Anna sent me...

The below pic shows what the front cover of the memory file looks like.

I used one of the color pop folders and misted it with Tropical Teal  Colorshine. I also layered color pop banners at the top along with some Teresa Collins banner strips and added the Scrabble Tiles from the Basic Grey "Fact & Fiction" line to spell out the word "SPRING." The black butterfly on the upper left was sprayed with Black Velvet Colorshine then wiped back to reveal the resist pattern. The two birds at the very top are from Recollections and were sprayed with Sweet Cherry Colorshine and I added iRock rhinestones for their eyes. There is another bird from the same line on the left side of the tag that I sprayed with Bronzer Colorshine. The rosy pink flower in the upper left corner is from Prima "Hello Pastel" and the leaves are from Iamroses.com. The blue, pink and black butterflies are also from the Prima "lifetime" Collection. The red bird on the far right is from Melody Ross. I used a color pop tag that says "beautiful" and attached it to one of the black and white color pop frames to make the center piece where a photo can be slipped in. I layered parts of color pop banners and HS trimmings on the far right side of the frame and also layered color pop banners on the left side of the tag. On the right side of the tag I used a Teresa Collins border piece. I spelled out "Garden" with chipboard pieces from the Basic Grey "Fact & Fiction" line. On the bottom of the frame/tag piece I layered a trimming from Pink Paislee that I sprayed with Dylusions Spray in London Blue, and another border piece from Teresa Collins. The two hearts at the bottom are from Pink Paislee and I sprayed one of them with Gold Lame Colorshine and the other with Sweet Cherry Colorshine. The buttons on top of them are from My Mind's Eye and I tied bakers twine into each of them. The brads that are on the tag are from the Teresa Collins "Memories" line. At the very top above the word "SPRING" I placed labels from Tim Holtz that say "Cherish The Memories of A Photograph." Inside the tag that says "beautiful" I tucked a bouquet of tiny roses that I sprayed with Sweet Cherry Colorshine. Closeup shots are below...

 The sticker that say "love and the sticker with the little flower on it to the right of the word "Garden" are from Teresa Collins.

The pink seam binding was sprayed with Primrose Colorshnie and was used to hold another memory folder on the inside.

When the folder is opened the next page is pictured below.

The inside of the folder was also sprayed with Tropical Teal Colorshine. I adhered a small memory file from the Serendipity line. On top of this I layered one of the HS tags that I colored with Tim Holtz Distress Stain in Squeezed Lemonade. Then I placed two of the mini instaframes that I placed washi tape from my stash along the bottoms. Along the top of the mini folder I layered a color pop banner with some yellow HS trimmings that I fluffed with my heat gun. On top of that on the far left I layered some of the Teresa Collins die-cut flowers from the "Memories" line and put a brad from the same line through them. The bird is from Recollections and I sprayed it with Mint Green Colorshine and placed an iRock rhinestone for it's eye. To the right of the mini instaframes I put a banner from Fancy Pants (yellow patterned) and on top of that, some small banners from My Mind's Eye. Above the tiny banners  I placed a sticker from HS that says "scatter sunshine." The banner running along the top of the teal part of the larger memory file is from Teresa Collins. The pink bird below that is from Prima Resist Canvas and I colored it with Tim Holtz Distress Stain in Picked Raspberry then wiped it back to show the resist pattern and added an iRock rhinestone eye. The flowers to the right and below the bird are from the same line as the bird and were sprayed with a combination of Sweet Cherry Colorshine, Mustard Colorshine, Spiced Marmalade Distress Stain and Squeezed Lemonade Distress Stain, then wiped back to reveal the patterns. On the top of the bird is another of the butterflies from Prima. The stem and leaves of the flower are from the same Prima line and were colored with Dylusions Spray in Cut Grass.  The butterfly on the flower is from Prima.  A color pop banner was sprayed with the Dylusions Cut Grass Spray and placed below the Prima flowers. On the right side of the small memory file, a tag from the HS was adhered where it hangs off of the folder. I pulled the wings of the butterflies up and colored them with Chromatix markers from American Crafts.

Close up shots are shown below...

The next photo below shows the smaller memory file opened.

On this page I again layered color pop banners on the top and used a small portion of a clear pop banner. Underneath the clear pop banner I place another banner from Fancy Pants "Park Bench" line. To the left of that I placed another mini instaframe, which I also layered with banner pieces from Teresa Collins at the bottom and at the top another piece from TC and a piece of Pink Paislee trimmings colored with Picked Raspberry Distress Stain. On the bottom I used another banner from the Fancy Pants line, adhering it with my Tim Holtz mini stapler.

The picture below shows the upper part of where the smaller memory file is opened inside the larger memory file. This picture shows the bird and flower already described above, and also shows where a HS fotostack was placed. I again layered banners from the color pop line and from Teresa Collins and another bird from Prima colored with Sweet Cherry Colorshine. I tied two parts of it shut with seam binding colored with Tropical Teal Colorshine and Squeezed Lemonade Distress Stain. Prima butterflies were also used on the fotostack. 

Close up shots below...

In the photo below,  the next memory file that I attached with the pink seam binding that shows on the outside of the main memory file is shown. At the top, I lateryed clear pop banners and a Teresa Collins blue border strip, and some HS trimmings fluffed with my heat gun and another color pop banner, sprayed with Black Velvet Colorshine. Two instaframes from the Serendipity line were adhered to the front of this folder, which was sprayed with Sweet Cherry Colorshine. On the left instaframe, I layered clear pop and color pop banners on the top, and on the bottom I used HS trimmings and a Teresa Collins border strip. A sticker from HS that says "Celebrate the Little Things" was put above the border strip. Another Prima Canvas bird was attached with dimensional foam and it was colored with Spiced Marmalade Distress Stain. On the right instaframe another Prima butterfly was adhered on the right top corner. 

Close up shots below...

The photo below shows the above memory file opened and shows where the seam binding was put through it so that it could be attached to the main larger file. I put washi tape from my stash below the seam binding to keep the folds sturdy so it would not tear. An instaframe was place on the left and a layered banner piece from HS was cut in half and part was used on the top of the instaframe. On the bottom I place a small piece of a color pop banner on top of the instaframe and underneath it another HS banner piece with a piece of HS trimming painted in Broken China Distress Paint. On the right I adhered an accordion file with pockets inside from Teresa Collins so I could put pressed flowers and notes inside of it. At the very bottom of the folder I layered lots of color pop banners, a small piece of yellow trimmings and a piece of Artisan Ribbon from Pink Paislee that was colored with Mint Green Colorshine.

The next photo shows the top part of the memory file when opened. I used two banners from Fancy Pants and a Teresa Collins border strip cut in two pieces across the top and at the bottom a border piece from Fancy Pants.

The next photo shows the next small memory file from the color pop line which I sprayed with Mustard Colorshine. At the bottom, I used a piece of paper from HS and cut it into a fence with the Tim Holtz die "On The Fence." I painted some HS trimmings with Mowed Lawn Distress Paint and adhered it under the fence and fluffed it with my heat gun.  Die cut flowers from Teresa Collins were placed all in the fence for a big pop of color along with two more birds from Prima, one painted with Picked Raspberry Distress Stain and the other with Tropical Teal Colorshine.

The photo below shows the above memory file open. I adhered a mini fotosleeve book on the inside of this, placing an instaframe underneath it on the memory file which was sprayed with Mustard Colorshine on the inside. A Fancy Pants border and a Prima butterfly were placed on the bottom of the instaframe. Fancy Pants banners were placed on top of the fotobook and a Fancy Pants border strip in between them, with 2 pieces of color pop banners on each side of the FP border strip. On the top, above the fotobook I placed a Teresa Collins file folder. Behind the small Mustard colored file folder is half of one of the color pop Memory files that I sprayed with Tropical Teal Colorshine.

The photo below shows the other side of the Fancy Pants banner.

This photo shows the last page of this Memory File. I used a color pop Frame and layered some HS flower trimming on the left bottom corner with a Teresa Collins brad through the middle of them. At the top I placed a HS sticker with the definition of "Beautful" on it. Below the small yellow memory file is a piece of color pop paper that I traced to match the back of the half folder behind it, adhered the two together with a taper runner, and painted it with Golden Fluid Acrylics in Teal then wiped back the paint to reveal the resist. I normally use paper towels and windex on these types of paper because it tends to wipe the color on the resist part better than baby wipes and sometimes baby wipes can make the painted part peel up and expose the white underneath.

I am really looking forward to using this Memory File to place pictures and notes from my garden this year! I can also add the packets of seeds that I have planted in places in the file, such as the large area on the right side of the photo above.

I think this was a great way to use many of Heidi Swapp's memory file products. They are so flexible and easy to use almost anywhere, in almost in project, and you can integrate almost any other products you might have in your stash with them as well! THAT is one of the main reasons I love Heidi Swapp products.

Have a wonderful week!

xoxo
Kellye

  Mixed Media Wrist Cuff


This is the first project I'm posting as DT Member for Anna's Beachside Scrapbooking. Anna specifically asked me to introduce more mixed media projects for her followers, as well as layouts and cards, altered art, etc., so we can reach all of the many different customers who have all kinds of needs. I hope you enjoy making one of these wrist cuffs as much as I enjoyed making it and that you find the inspiration to make something that is all you. I have to give a little shout out to Christy Tomlinson because she inspired the making of this bracelet. I ended up doing it a bit differently than she did, but the substrate used to make the cuff is the same as she used in her class, Artsy Bangles. A regular old empty water bottle. Make sure it has dried out on the inside as well.

This is the cuff I created. Start off by finding skinny water or vitamin water type bottles that have smooth sides and no ridges or bumps down the side of the bottle.  Then, cut off the top and the bottom of the water bottle and cut down the side of what is left of the bottle, so it can then be trimmed to the desired width of the cuff.

This is what the bottle looks like after it has been cut to the size cuff that is desired. It can be made as wide or as skinny as you like. The wider the plastic cuff, the more muslin you will need to cover it. I found that I preferred used my paper trimmer to cut the plastic so that I could cut it straight after trying to do it with scissors and getting really uneven edges every time. 

Continuing, cut a piece of muslin to about 6-8" x 9-12" approximately. This depends on the size of your cuff. I found these bandanas at Michaels a long time ago on sale, stocked up, and I've been using them to make flowers for years. I usually don't cut my strips of muslin to size, rather I cut a little snip where I want it to cut and then just rip it apart.

After the piece of muslin that is going to be used to cover the plastic cuff with is sized and ready to go,   decide on a color palette. On this cuff I used Heidi Swapp's Colorshine Spray Mists and I really love how vivid the colors are. On the cuff above I used Primrose and Mustard as the base colors of the cuff. In the end you really can't see the Mustard much as the colors blend together really well on fabric and I used quite a bit of Colorshine because I wanted to saturate the fabric so that the underside became colored as well, thus the major blending of the colors. If you wanted to avoid this you might want to spray the fabric lighter and spray it on both sides instead of saturating it. These colors blend together well because they are water soluble. I use a Ranger Heat-It Tool to dry my muslin pieces. 

Next, take a stencil and placed it over the fabric. I sprayed Gold Lame over it to add more texture to the cuff. I also took a script stamp that I have had forever and stamped across where the fabric would go across the top of my cuff. I used Ranger's Archival Ink in Black so it would be waterproof and would not bleed if I put more sprays on top of it. You could also use Staz-on, but I prefer Archival Ink.

This is the stencil I used to make the bubble pattern with the Gold Lame Colorshine. It is a Studio Calico Stencil.

I then stamped on top of and below the script stamp using a Tim Holtz number stamp and Black Archival Ink. This part of the fabric is what will show on the inside of the cuff. I later stamped this stamp on the top of the cuff too to give it a bit more texture.

Next, take the muslin and the plastic cuff, and place the fabric side you want to show on the top of the cuff face down on your work surface. Then, place the top part of the cuff down onto the back side of the fabric and fold the long edges over onto the plastic snugly so that the muslin lays smooth over the cuff.  This leaves two pieces of muslin at each end of the plastic cuff that will be used to create a fastener. I creased the fabric tightly over the edges of the cuff so that it would fit snuggly around the plastic when I started applying adhesive but do not try and iron it with the fabric on the cuff or it will melt it. Just run your hand along the fabric while holding it snug against the plastic edges.

I then had to decide how I wanted to adhere the muslin to the plastic cuff. I could have used a matte medium or mod podge, but I didn't want to have to spray a fixative onto the fabric, so that when I put the medium on it the colors wouldn't smudge into a big mess. Most ink sprays are water soluble and will blend when they mix with each other. So, I decided to experiment with spray adhesive. I sprayed the back side of the fabric very lightly, and about 10" away from the fabric so that it wouldn't build up a big tacky mess. I put the cuff in place so that my design lined up with the top of the cuff and wrapped the folds over onto the backside of the cuff, smoothing them down, and made sure it was adhered from seam to seam, and that the seams were straight down the length of the cuff on the inside. I also wanted to make sure the fabric was smooth across the top of the cuff before I let it dry. There was a bit of tackiness left on the inside of the cuff and I didn't want it to irritate the wrist while wearing it so I took an adhesive eraser and got it off easily after everything had dried.

Now I had to figure out how it was going to fasten together. I decided that I was going to set eyelets in both ends and lace seam binding through them and tie a bow. I made the cuff where you could just slide it off of your arm, so the bow wouldn't have to be untied and tied every time you want to take the cuff off. It was also made adjustable with 2 different sizes.

I cut the ends with my pinking shears to give it a cute finish. Then, the 2 ends were pinned together to hold them where I wanted them to meet together, so the holes could be made for the eyelets.  I marked where I wanted to punch the holes out for the eyelets with a pencil, so that I could line it up when I used the cropodile to punch the holes exactly where I wanted them.

Here you can see eyelets have been set into this end which will be the end that sits on top of the back of the cuff and is visible on the bottom of the wrist when the cuff is worn. The other side has 4 eyelets set into it so that the cuff is adjustable. The eyelets used are from We Are Memory Keepers and are the large sized eyelets in black. The picture below shows how the fastener was created. The bottom part of the ends is shown in this picture on the right side and is not seen while wearing the cuff unless it is worn on the larger size and then a small portion would be seen.

I then cut a generous piece (approximately 2 ft) of seam binding and sprayed it with Colorshine in Mustard, Mint Green, Primrose and just a tad of Ranger's Dylusion Sprays in Fresh Lime. This photo does not represent the amount I cut, only a portion of it so that you can see the colors.

Then I made the large flower that covers the top side of the cuff. Although I like this cuff a lot, I think next time I will make the flowers a bit smaller even for a large one. This one is just a bit too big for me because I have really tiny wrists, but I still like it. I think it would look great on someone who was taller than me (I'm a shorty at 5'2"). To make it smaller I would want to make the length of the strip of muslin shorter.  Another idea would be to make three smaller flowers and place one in the middle of the cuff and the other two on each side.

To make the flower,  first tear a strip of muslim approximately 2-4" wide and approximately 18" long. The width and length of the fabric determines the size of the flower in the end, as well as how tightly you twist the fabric during the construction of the flower. Next, punch a 2-3" circle out of any card stock as long as it's the more heavy weight kind and not like pattern paper weight.

I misted this piece of muslin with Heidi Swapp Colorshine in Mustard, Mint Green, Tropicana Teal and  hints of Gold Lame and the colors blended quite nicely.

Using hot glue, take one end of the fabric strip and glue it to the cardstock circle. Then start twisting the fabric in one direction around your pointing finger holding the fabric with your thumb and other fingers (or however is more comfortable to get it done for you) and then keep gluing it down while wrapping it into a circle around the middle piece glued down, as in the picture below.

Continue to roll the muslin and glue it to the sides of the fabric you have already rolled and glued down until you come to the end of your fabric or you get to the size flower you want, in which you would then cut off the remaining fabric, leaving a tail to glue on the underside of the cardstock circle with hot glue. If there is any cardstock left showing around the flower just trim it off with your scissors.

This is the finished flower. Later, I added a button from Tim Holtz as you can see in the finished picture at the top and the bottom.

I then took a scrap of the fabric that was left over, and using Fabri-Tac, glued it down to the bottom of the green rolled flower to give it a more finished look from all angles. Then, the flower was formed so that it would fit against the cuff tightly when I glued it down. I also sprayed the green flower with Ranger's Perfect Pearls Mist in Perfect Pearl.

This picture shows the cuff from the back side, where the finished fastener can be seen. In this picture, it is shown in the small size, but it can be extended out approximately another 1"-1 1/2", by untying the bow and putting the laces into the eyelets that are set further out and retying the bow. Simple as that. Then you can slide it back on your wrist and love wearing it! 

This is a 2nd example of a cuff you can make with a water bottle. The only difference is that I made the cuff skinnier and put three smaller flowers on it, instead of one big one. It is also adjustable. For the center flower I used Heidi Swapp Sweet Cherry and the outside flowers were sprayed with Mustard. I also spray Rangers Perfect Pears Spray in Perfect Pearl on all three flowers. The buttons are vintage.

Here is a side view of the cuff. I used leftover fabric from the large green flower in the other cuff to cover the actual plastic on this cuff. Using a Tim Holtz chicken wire background stamp and Rangers Black Archival Ink, I stamped both the outside and the inside of the cuff in random places.

In this picture you can see the stamping on the inside and the outside of the cuff.

This picture shows the view of the bottom of the cuff where it fastens. There is no need to untie the bow to take it off and on, unless you need to adjust the size.

I hope you enjoy the first project that I am sharing on Anna's site and that it gets you inspired to create your own mixed media jewelry!   :)

Have a great day!

Kellye

xoxoxo

A Treasure Chest with LSG!

I made this fun project using one of those chests that you can get at Michael's or Hobby Lobby. It had a Parisian theme on it with the Eiffel tower and all and I just didn't like it. So I decided to do a Treasure Chest on it using Lindy's Stamp Gang Products. I used mostly the Magical Mica powders after I had established the base of the chest but also used Moon Shadow Ink and some of the Starburst Stains. I entered it into the LSG "Under the Sea" Contest, and there were so many wonderful entries.
Here are a few pictures I took of the Treasure Chest and it's contents...

Here is a video from YouTube of the chest....

I hope you enjoy this project!
Have a wonderfully, crafty day!
The Distressed Crafter
Kellye
LaceAndMetal