"Take A Mini Vacation Read Fiction" Bookmarks

Hi everyone I belong to a fiction book club and when last week in my Dover Sampler e-mail a vintage ad image showed up I thought it would be fun to turn it into a bookmark.  I decided in the blank space to put the words "Take a mini vacation read fiction".  Since some people are not talented enough to read upside down to have the book in the woman's lap upside down. Here are a few of the bookmarks which after I chalked the background and colored with pencils the image I laminated. I had so much fun with my pan chalks and pencils doing different color combinations.

Time to head out to the book club and deliver these. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Thanksgiving Quick Napkin Cards

Hi everyone I'm busy clearing off my sewing table and getting ready to create some Christmas gifts. I thought I would share with you quick cards you can create using napkins.

Originally Carol Duvall on the television show in the 80's " Home" shared this technique using napkins to make note cards. It was fun to watch her craft segment.  At your public library you may be able to pick up her book. Sorry I don't remember the title.

There are all kinds of inexpensive napkins available. After a napkin is ironed on card stock you could even cut out a portion.. Enough jabbering.

After you have picked out your napkin you will want to carefully remove layers until you have single ply. Save the pieces you pull off as you can use those in another project. Then cut a piece of inexpensive plastic wrap to size. (I'm still using plastic wrap given to me years ago when I did Press N Seal demos to show how superior it was to generic plastic wrap. LOL!) First place parchement paper or copy paper on your ironing surface  then your card stock. On top of that the plastic wrap. Then position your napkin. Place parchment paper or copy paper on top. Using no steam iron by placing down the iron and let it sit and move to another area. Do not iron like you would normally do in the beginning or you will have a mess. Once you have checked and the napkin seems to be fairly secure you can iron like normal. At this point I like to turn my card stock over and iron like normal to make sure the plastic has welded the napkin onto the card stock. 

The card on the left is a panel. I edged with ink and the ink bleed some but I like that look. The card on the right the right corner wrinkled so I decided to be frugal and do some creative cutting and use  a scrap of burlap on my base. 

Have  fun and if you decide to do this technique share a link in the comment section so I can admire your creation.

Thanks for stopping by. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Here We Come A Caroling

Hi dear readers as much as I love to get inky and stamp there are times I need to use digital images since I either don't have an image of what I want to use or it is the wrong size. In this case it was the fact that the only caroler stamp I have is of snow people which right now I am not sure which box the majority of my wood mount stamps are in.

Sometimes I don't like how a card looks when I photograph it which is why I now use re-positional adhesive so I can change things if I don't like the arrangement. In this case though I basically ended up adding more detail.

Except for the stars and tree the images are from the Melonheadz Christmas Caroler set. I wrapped gift ribbon around the lamppost and crotchet thread around my tree. My sidewalk was card stock airbrushed since I don't have gray card stock and then a stencil used.

I was experimenting with rubbing alcohol and paint again for my background. I had bought Prussian Blue paint at a thrift store and when I opened it the paint was really liquidity which no amount of shaking changed. I painted my canvas paper and then while the paint was wet splattered rubbing alcohol over it. I didn't like how it looked so misted my paper and took a house painting brush and swiped over it. I love my result. I can see a lot of potential using thin paint and rubbing alcohol.

What techniques have you tried lately?

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Stopping By The Woods

Hi my dear readers. Ever since I learned about poetry at an early age Robert Frost has been one of my favorite . My favorite poem by him is "Stopping By Woods On  Snowy Evening". I decided to make a card based on that poem. Although my Just For Fun stamp has more than one person in the sleigh.

I tried a alcohol technique and it didn't work. Being the queen of frugal I went ahead and painted my forest on the dark blue background.On the bottom of my background I applied heavy gel and fine glitter. I didn't realize that if the heavy gel is put on too thick that it will crack. In this case it was a happy accident. I cut out my frame and used my airbrush to color it.

My stamp was being stubborn and I was ready to throw it out. Then I remembered about putting down a piece of foam underneath so took the stamp off the stamping platform and stamped. I decided to leave the image as it was without coloring. I also decided that the horse peeking over the frame would give more of an idea of motion.

I'm happy the way this card turned out. Sometimes I have an idea but never really sure what the outcome will be.  Sometimes also a card will evolve while I'm working on it.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Joy To The World Sheet Music Card

Hi all I saw in a mixed media book where sheet music was used for a collage along with heavy gel and acrylic paint. I decided to not use actual sheet music but to scan in a piece and print it 3 x 5 for a card using my laser printer. Of course if you are not going to use paint and gel you could print your scanned piece with an ink jet printer. Here is my result. Just wish the photo would have done it justice as it looks better in person.

Lol! After taking this picture I cleaned the dried heavy medium off the bottom of the scanned piece. Didn't notice it before but my camera magnifies everything.

Following the technique in the book I brushed heavy medium over my scanned piece of sheet music. When dry I brushed thinned metallic turquoise paint over the top portion. Once dried I mixed yellow paint with heavy medium and brushed it on. I decided to leave white where just the words are.

I stamped on a scrap of white card my holly which is a Just For Fun stamp with Dirty Martini Dylusion waterproof ink. I then painted with glitter paint and metallic paint. While unpacking boxes I found the scrap of dark blue paper to use for a mat.

There you have it my different sort of Christmas card. You could use any sort of sheet music and embellishments to create a simple card.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Poor Woman's Crackle

Hi everyone while looking through a library mixed media book I saw the glue crackle technique I had tried years ago and discovered why it had not worked out with metallic paint.

While unpacking stamps I found this La Blanche stamp which a friend had bought for me. The funny thing was I discovered later that I had from Dover a digital image of this stamp.

I know stop the yammering and show the finished card. Be prepared to be blown away. This card exceeded my original expectations. I love when that happens.

I realized my black card stock was too lightweight so I used my airbrush with a black marker on my 110 weight white card stock. Before I owned a airbrush I painted the card stock with black paint. Of course if you have heavy weight color card stock you can use that. Be aware there may be some curling. Georgia Pacific 110 card stock doesn't appear to curl as much as other brands I have used in the past.

With a clean dry brush heavily brush white glue on your card stock. I use Elmer's glue but other brands of white glue may work.  With another clean brush brush your choice of paint so that it is just floating on the glue. If you overwork the paint it will not work. The resulting pattern will depend on what direction you apply the paint. In this case I did sort of a wavy vertical direction.

It took two days for the glue to dry. I did once a skin had formed took my hair dryer. I still had some stubborn areas and the hair dryer caused some curling. I went ahead since it was not tacky at this point and placed it under my airbrush machine. A pile of books would work.

After stamping my image with Ranger archival ink I rubbed Tea Dye Distress ink with a sponge dauber everywhere but the face area. I used my finger picking up flesh color soft pastel I had scribbled on a scrap of paper to do her face. Then took a Tombow marker to color the lips. It doesn't really show in the photo but the spades are outlined with a Jellyroll clear glitter pen.

I used my regular tape runner to adhere my stamped image to the mat. Then brushed heavy gel on the back of the mat. I placed my finished card under a pile of books to make sure that the mat adhered tightly.

Hopefully I will eventually get better lighting in my playroom and can start taking photos of  my experimenting or different techniques I use.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

More Experimenting With Hard Gel Medium

Hi all I did more experimenting with heavy gel medium. My faux encaustic sky didn't turn out like planned but I like it. I also put my piece when dry the wrong side in my embossing folder but it all worked out.

Sometimes when adhering something on glitter it hasn't stuck or if it has it ends up later on falling off. So far the heavy gel has kept the snow person on the card. We will see if he/she is still on the card before I mail out my holiday cards.

Without further ado! Here is my finished card. Not the way I had planned it but I like it. I hope the person I send it to will like it also.

For my sky I put drops of acrylic paint on canvas paper. Then loaded my plastic pan scraper (the pan scraper is wider than a palette knife) with heavy gel medium blending in the paints and medium. When dry I embossed with my Darice folder. Brushed on white paint and while still wet wiped it off with a paper towel leaving the white in the design.

Took a photo and printed it out. Did some creative cutting. I brushed heavy gel in places and used it to create some snow drifts. It didn't flatten like other mediums do. I thought I had grabbed white glitter but it was multi-color crystal glitter I sprinkled over the wet hard gel. Was going to add more hard gel and white glitter to discover I am out of white glitter.

The snow person is a Just For Fun stamp. I used waterpoof ink to stamp with since I was coloring with markers.I colored with Tombow brush markers and Prismacolor markers. After cutting out I adhered with a dab of the heavy gel.

It was fun playing around seeing what the hard gel will do. I'm back to unpacking and organizing my "playroom" if I'm lucky I will be done by the holidays. Lol!

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Fall Is In The Air Time To Play With Paint

Hi everyone I had so much fun this weekend playing with both water color paint and acrylic paint. As well as experimenting with hard gel medium which I just bought.  I also had fun organizing and sorting through more stamps. I found my stamptangle stamps from Just For Fun and had fun inking up both the pumpkin and one of the leaves. Without further ado here is what my final result was.

Unfortunately my light is so dim in my playroom that I was not able to take photos while I created my background. Instead of using masking tape I used painter's tape as it is has less of a tendency to tear card stock when you pull it up. The next time I do this though I will have a tab as it was a pain to find under the layers of paint where some of the tape was. Much less pull it up.

I started by painting canvas paper which is textured with yellow paint. When the paint was dry I randomly placed torn pieces of tape. I am clueless where my orange tube acrylic paint is so I mixed yellow and red for orange. Once that was dry I randomly placed more tape and painted red. When that was dry I placed more tape and painted walnut gel stain. When that dried I pulled off the tape and applied gel stain and wiped it off before it dried. Once dried I took a palette knife and applied hard gel medium. The medium created a rich look to the colors.

Next was to see if hard gel medium could be used over water color paints. I stamped my leaf on brown packing paper using Ranger Archival ink. I then painted with water color paint and when dry coated my leaf with the hard gel. Once dry I cut out my leaf and was able to curl the leaf and have it stay curled. So happy to know that I can seal over water color paint.

Then it was on to experiment with painting a detailed stamped image with acrylic paint. I painted the pumpkin and then with a paper towel wiped off enough paint so that the stamped details showed through. I used Dylusion Black Marble ink which was not as dark as the Ranger ink to stamp with.

After adhering my leaf with some hard gel onto my background I curled my pumpkin and adhered it only down at the sides to give it dimension.

I hope you won't be afraid to experiment and to try new things. As well as with Fall in the air and cooler weather to get into your craft room and play.

I'm off to play more with the hard gel. As well as unearthing more of my craft supplies. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Snowy Evening

Hi everyone! Hope life is treating you well. I finally started unpacking and organizing my stamps as my old method was not working. When I found the Just For Fun Buck stamps I knew I wanted to use one on a card. Looking through my photos I saw a winter scene which I thought would be perfect.

Stamping with a stencil didn't work but I discovered I could paint more than one color on a stencil and then use a finger to fill in the stencil with my finger. This created nice multi-color stars. I decided to go ahead and use my airbrush with a black marker. I then brushed a light layer of glitter glue.

I went and did some cutting of my photo as I didn't want straight edges.

I stamped the buck on kraft card stock with Stazon Timber Brown ink. I pop dotted him onto my snow scene.

There you have it my mixed media winter card.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Pumpkin Patch

Hi everyone my embossed wax resist didn't turn out using pigment color powders with water but I decided to use it for a base. While sorting through stamps I found not only my stamping platform but this cute Pumpkin Patch stamp by Just For Fun.  And in my sewing room a scrap of burlap was on top of a dresser in that room.

I went ahead and wrapped the scrap of burlap around a scrap of card stock. 

I didn't think to stamp and cut out the pumpkin patch image to use as a mask before I airbrushed with markers my scrap of cotton fabric. I stamped using Memento ink and then painted with water color paint the pumpkins. I rubbed chalk over the sign. Then traced over my stamped lines using a gel pen for definition. 

I love how the Faber Castell pan paints worked on fabric. $3 well spent at a thrift store a few years back.

It is beginning to feel like Fall and I will probably be spending more time unpacking and organizing my crafting things. I definitely want to do more stamping.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Embossed Wax Paper

Hi everyone I was playing with using wax paper for embossed wax resist. Since I liked how my background turned out on my last card I decided to swipe ink on the wax paper after I finished doing my wax resist transfer.

I used flock glitter I have had for my body and antennae. I used my airbrush to color the rest of the die cut butterfly parts.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again! 

Waxy and Witchy

Hi everyone Autumn is officially here and that means that Halloween is just around the corner. I don't really do a lot of Halloween cards but when I saw the  Sicara Witch by Scrap N Dipity image I had printed in sepia and never used I knew she would be perfect for a Halloween card as well as for the background I had in mind.

A friend living with me kept bringing home wax paper. I still have several boxes of wax paper left years later. Being the Queen of frugal I have to do something. I balled up wax paper, flattened it out and swiped Distress ink over it. I then decided to wet the paper and sprinkled some Brusho crystals on it.  The water flattened the paper but when I used my heat gun not only did it start to re-wrinkle a little bit but the wax paper became more transparent. It worked perfect since I had planned to adhere it to a scrap of yellow card stock. The yellow shows through more now.

My sentiment is from a Silhouette file I downloaded from the store I think when I first got my cutting machine. After printing and cutting out the sentiment I took my Antique Lace Distress ink pad and holding the pad diamond shape using just a triangle area lightly applying the ink in a circular pattern. Sicara is colored with pencils and a gel pen used to color  the star. She is a modern witch so her dress and hat is purple. Light purple is considered a lighthearted color so I thought it was appropriate for this young witch. Purple is also considered a color or spirituality, magic, mystery and power.

Thank you for stopping  by do come back. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again.

Packing Tape Stencil Play

Hi folks first off my apology for the quality of this photo. Photographing gems and glitter can be problematic.

Doing packing tape transfers has been around for decades. However, using them with stencils was new to me. It is really simple to do. You just need to make sure that the packing tape is down securely in the stencil areas. I took a grungy piece of wrapping paper I was going to throw out to try this. Being frugal I didn't toss it. Lol! I even kept the wrapping paper backing which came off in one piece to use at a later time.

After soaking my packing tape and peeling the backing off the gift wrap I used a clear glue to adhere it to a scrap of glitter card stock. Because the card stock is white core I inked the edges with Forest Green Stazon ink. I was not sure what I was going to do for the center of what looked to me like a flower and decided since I'm hand delivering to use some of the many gems I have. I mail most of my cards so don't use them often. Laying on my work table was a bunch of coffee filters I used for my photo print play. I saw this one and thought it would be perfect.

Some stencils will work better than others. Simple stencils are the best.  I can't wait to try my circle stencil with some polka dot wrapping paper. Only bad part of discovering this technique is I might be tempted to save more wrapping paper. As well as pick up free magazines at the library. ;-)

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Beachy Keen Peachy Fun Play

Hi everyone the last couple of days I've been playing. I saw a painting done on a board and decided to try it on fabric adding my own spin since I was doing a smaller piece. I also wanted to do more play with packing tape transfers. I decided to trace and detach a section of a Beachy Keen digital stamp in Silhouette Studio. I was too lazy to try to lay down several strips of packing tape and have it looking good. I  also wanted to see what would work coloring on the semi sticky side of the image and still be able to be adhered with clear glue. I discovered the last packing tape transfer I did could have used a little bit of help with some extra stickiness.

I tore my piece of cotton fabric to size and painted it. I used a dark blue oil pastel for my blue line. On the board a pencil had been used for the line but I decided to try the pastel. I decided to forgo the washi tape across the bottom and use a stencil instead after painting the center and painting Iridescent medium over the dried paint. I glued Washi tape on the right instead of the left as my stencil worked better that way. After rubbing the paper backing off my packing tape I started to color. I had taken a piece of packing tape and rubbed an oil pastel on it and then glued it down to paper with clear glue. I wanted to make sure the oil pastel wouldn't bleed or smear and that the glue wouldn't leave any evidence that it was used. I used a soft brush to add my glue to the packing tape and it didn't leave any brush strokes. It does have to be a thin coat of glue.

The coloring was the most time consuming. Especially since I had to keep washing out my Fantastik brush tip coloring tool as I have no idea yet where the rest of them are. I would load color on it from the oil pastel stick and color. It was really tricky getting the right amount of pale orange for the skin tone so that my girl didn't look like she had been playing with artificial tanner.

If you wish to color a black and white toner based transfer image know that anywhere you don't color your background will show through. There are a few places I should have added the color heavier but on the whole I'm pleased with my first attempt of coloring a packing tape transfer image.

Now I'm off to doing more experimenting with using a stencil with a  image. May try it with a magazine page.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Embroidered Flower Card

Hi all I've been playing with my embroidery machine. I think I need to loosen the tension a little bit with this design on lightweight cotton fabric. Being frugal I decided to use my sample on the front of a card.

I was playing with red and yellow Brusho on glossy photo paper with a stencil on a angle. It didn't totally cover the photo paper as you can see in the lower left hand corner but I really didn't want to cut the photo paper shorter.

I poked holes in the photo paper and the yellow card stock in order to thread a scrap of ribbon through and tie a bow.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting!

Luv Cat Birthday

Hi everyone today I am guest designer over at Hiding In My Craft Room my previous design team. I have a cute birthday card to share with you using an image from Ike's Art the sponsor for this week's challenge. One lucky person will win a $15 gift certificate.

Here is my card using thee sweet Luv Cat image. Since the theme is any occasion I did a birthday card since I will soon be in need of several of them. Without further ado here is my card.

After I printed my image out I went ahead and rubbed paste wax over the image and buffed before coloring with Tombow Dual Markers. After coloring the heart I outlined it with a glitter pen.

For some reason my trimmer doesn't like the blue cardstock and shreds it. Although I do need a new blade. I decided to use that to my advantage and have a distress look on the edges. Naughty kitty! Lol!

Happy Birthday is printed on a wax food divider as I didn't think to add it to the image. I used photo corners to attach my printed panel.

Now it is back to finding and apprehending all the missing craft supplies. Do come back as I have more projects in the works to share.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Thanks

Hi everyone it is me again! My neighbor's mom brought me over a bunch of plants so I decided to create a card for her.

I air brushed glossy photo paper and then placed a stencil on it, On top the stencil I placed a coffee filter. Sprinkled Brusho on top and then misted the coffee filter. I got a little heavy handed with the turquoise powder. On the whole though I like how my print turned out.

In Studio I welded the word Thanks together. I filled it with a pattern. Then I drew a oval. After my machine cut it out I outlined the letters with a gel glitter pen.

I had left over printed flowers I colored these two with chalk.. 

I used my sewing machine to poke holes.. Then I did the back stitch with crotchet thread.

That's all for now. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Joy

Hi everyone today I have my Joy card to share with you. I was thinking of what things bring me joy and I was thinking of swinging with my feet trying to touch the sky and tree branches.

Last week I was playing with creating photo prints and had an happy accident. I had placed my coffee filter on parchment paper and when I misted it to dissolve the color powder the paper wrinkled creating this pattern.  I thought  the resulting print looked like trees and thought this silhouette image would be perfect!

Oh you want to see the card. Silly me! Ta Da

My circle image is from a Dover sampler. I printed it out with my laser printer and did a packing tape transfer since I wanted the background to be clear.  Once I removed the paper backing the tape was still sticky so I adhered it to my photo print and cut out the circle. I didn't like how it looked on a plain background so went ahead and used the rest of the print blending as best I could my image. Next time I'll cut out the image before removing the paper.

Although a few people have done packing tape transfer with inkjet prints I have not had any luck. So I'm limited to black and white prints. I do want to experiment and see if markers would transfer to the tape.

I don't remember what font I used for "Joy" All I know my cutting machine is happy to be set up and used once again.

I'm off to do more playing, unpacking and organizing. Perhaps eventually I'll find my gelli plate and other crafting goodies. I did find the extra tape for my tape gun.😀

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting Till We Meet Again!

Scrap Challenge Time

Hi everyone it has been a long time since I've entered any challenges. I thought it would be fun to enter a Hiding In My Craft Room scrap challenge. I will be entering this card in the Super Scraps Saturday challenge. Details can be found here:Super Scraps Saturday

I will confess I'm a negative die cut hoarder. I often think I bet I can find a way to use the negative.  Yesterday when I remembered that Saturday was the beginning of the Super Scraps challenge I decided to use the negative from the card I just created.

When I saw that the challenge is sponsored by Oddball Art! I remembered that I had an extra copy of an image from when I was on the design team. I colored the image with chalk then dry brushed the wings with glitter paint. Unfortunately the photo does not do the glitter justice.

I used leftover cardstock for my card base.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Flower With Photo Paper Print

Hi everyone another post from me. I'm making up for being gone so long.

Today I have a card using one of the photo prints I made using coffee filters and Brusho. This photo print is more subtle but I love how it turned out using the yellow and red powder. There was a little green and turquoise left on the parchment paper so my coffee filter picked that up.

The flower was a black and white image I downloaded from Dover years ago. I went ahead and printed out two copies of the image to use. I airbrushed with markers the bottom layer and cut it out. I then cut out the top flower and air brushed it. Using my blender pen to soften the edges where I had used a marker to cover the white. I mixed glitter with Dimensional Magic for the center of my flower. While that was drying I airbrushed the leaves and outlined them. Then adhered them to bottom image. Once the Magic dried I rotated my flower and adhered it with a foam dot. This gave my flower more dimension.  Instead of using white cardstock like I usually do for my card base I decided to go in my stash and cut a piece of texture card stock which is a fairly heavy weight. I have misplaced the plates for my embossing machine so couldn't use a commercial die to cut out my photo paper. I knew where my cutting machine was and a friend just returned my rectangle folding table so I set that up and used it to cut my shape out of my pulled print on photo paper.

Thank you for stopping by. Do come back later as I just may have a post this week using the scrap of photo paper from cutting out my shape. First though I need to find the refill for my tape gun.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Coffee Filter Play

The weather was triple digits today so I hid in my sewing and craft room. I got a newsletter from Splitcoaststampers which had an interesting article about creating prints using coffee filters. In the article they suggested using the coffee filter as well as the prints. I had fun playing with coffee filters. color powders and glossy photo paper.

Here is the card I created with one of the coffee filters as the background. After all I'm the Queen of frugal wasting nothing.

After sewing the coffee filter on one side on the card base and adhering the other three sides down I adhered strips of designer paper. on the top and bottom. I printed out my image which was one time available as a Dover free sample on my inkjet printer. After cutting it out I applied paste wax over the image to make sure the ink would not smear. Then I buffed the image with a paper towel and then rubbed Distress Antique Linen over it to soften it and give it more of a vintage look.

Thank you for visiting. Do come back later as I will have more projects to share. Especially since I'm finding my crafting supplies.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Embroidered Butterfly Card

Hi everyone my air brush no longer worked right. It would work and a minute later just up and quit. I decided to replace it and it finally came yesterday. Alas my embroidery thread I ordered is lost somewhere so I was happy to get my eBrush. Especially since the metallic embroidery thread I bought at Walmart was too frustrating as the thread kept breaking. I should have remembered about the thread from years ago when I used it for sewing by hand.

I tried to embroider on paper and all went well until it got to the butterfly's antennae. :-( When the paper ripped. I bought at a thrift store black Sateen material so decided to use that.  Now that I've tried it I know if I embroider on it for pillows I will need to do adjustment so the fabric doesn't pucker. Being the frugal person I am I went ahead and cut the butterfly out.

Without further ado here is my finished card.

I used my airbrush with markers to color the butterfly and card base. I also colored the body of the butterfly by hand. I sewed  sheer fabric from a curtain sample book I bought at a thrift store. Then used glue dots for the butterfly.

The weather has warmed up to triple digits so I'll be staying inside working on my sewing area and craft area as well as doing some playing. :-) I've missed my play time.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Embroidery Card Hello

Hi everyone I have today an embroidery card to share with you. I bit the bullet and bought myself a sewing/embroidery machine. It has been decades since I have done any sewing. My old "demon" sewing machine just could not be exorcised. I was just going to buy a replacement sewing machine but have always wanted an embroidery machine. Anyway it came Friday and I had to play over the weekend.

After getting down the basics and watching a YouTube video after the installation CD was the wrong file format I tried my first embroidery design. Since I only had white embroidery thread which came with the machine I dug through my scrap pile. I decided to use a coffee filter since this was practice for the stabilizer.

I love the way it turned out. Although it is on a scrap  I think I will find a way to use it.

As some of you know I like to experiment. My next endeavor was to see about doing embroidery on card stock. After realizing that I needed to cut the card stock I started to play.

Here the card stock is still in the hoop. I first did the frame and then the center.

Here is my card. Drum roll please!

I decided to see if I could sew designer paper onto card stock. The pattern is really subtle.  My sewing is not perfect but this was my first time sewing on a card.

I love the heart embroidery panel. Just wish I would have left a little more room on the sides when I cut it down. I printed the Hello out and glued it down. I was going to stitch it down but changed my mind after I had adhered it to the card stock embroidered panel.

If you are going to embroider or sew on paper or card stock you will want to use a fine needle and you will want to go slow so you don't rip the paper. Also you will need to change the needle more often as stitching on paper will dull it sooner.

That is all for now. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again.

Snailing Along In My Garden

Hi everyone my apologies for being missing in action.  The house and yard is taking all my time and energy. Plus alas I have not yet organized and unpacked things. :-(

Blaze a bareroot rose I planted this Spring. Eventually it will climb the fence.

When I moved in I noticed a snail on a stake in one of the flower beds. It looked like someone had tried to spray paint it but either not successfully or the weather did some changes. Although I threw out a  lot of stuff found inside and out I kept the snail thinking he could be given new life.

This is how it looked in the flower bed.  I scrubbed it good and then used liquid sandpaper before starting the transformation.

After it was dry the fun began. I first used a Sharpie on the antenna. Later I went back and used a brown black paint. The snail was painted with copper paint. The flower I used turquoise glitter paint. Which is still wet in the picture..

After the paint was dry I went ahead and used antique gold paint just on the shell part using a stencil brush and a circular motion. I did a light coat allowing the copper to show through.

With a toothpick I added white glitter paint for the eye.

I used purple glitter paint on the edges of the flower. Added turquoise paint in the middle and stuck a gem in the center while the paint was still wet.

Here it is in the flower bed.  I probably need to seal it with a sealer with UV protection. I love how it turned out and it gives a little bit of whimsy.

Off to go start work in the "playroom".where it is cool My granddaughters are planning on coming over and spending some time with me in August during another school break. They go to year around school.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Experimenting Painting On Plastic

Hi Everyone I've been so busy with my new house. I'm still working on painting the kitchen cabinets. What a lot of work that is. In between snow and rain as well as frigid temperatures I've been raking and bagging up leaves. That has been a lot of work also.

 I picked up some Americana metallic paint which comes in a glass wide mouth jar. I thought I was buying the matte and it wasn't even though the colors come in the matte. I have some ideas but thought I would play first.

I wanted to see about painting on plastic. My first attempt was a disaster. I took a outlet plate which is cracked. The first time I didn't sand the plastic. When I put the second coat on the first coat peeled off. I was able to wash the paint off and start again.

A stencil brush, paint and plate

After sanding with a 80 grit piece of sandpaper I painted with the stencil brush using circular motions.

This is the plate up. I  painted soft gold and then dry brushed vintage brass. I need to use extra fine sandpaper around the openings in the plate. As well as see what happens if I lightly sand it on the front with extra fine sandpaper.

I sanded and ended up putting another coat of paint on. I think it looks a little better.

Thank you for stopping by. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Painting

Hi everyone sorry I have been missing in action. I have been a painting fiend. Not painting on paper or canvas though.

It is amazing the difference paint can make.

All the walls were a glossy white and woodwork a dark brown. The dark brown woodwork would not have been too bad if there had not been white splotches all over it.

My bedroom is now teal blue (darker than in the photo) with white floating shelves for nightstands. My vintage light fixtures are finally on the wall. They are not in this photo as they were installed afterwards. These are the only flannel sheets I own. Later I will buy new sheets. As well as sheer drapes and drapery rods to make a canopy.

As well as painting I have been removing paint on light fixtures. After removing the paint on the hallway light I replaced the light globe. Then I decided to paint the walls and start my gallery. I need to get a short rod to add below this rod  as well as find which box the photo paper is in. I have three more frames.  I love the walls painted in warm Caramel.

The big project is painting the kitchen cabinets which I am working on now,

This is how they looked like

This is how they will look. Lots of cleaning since there is even sticky stuff on the inside. Then lots of patching. Then sanding. Two coats of paint and they look like this. I am using a dense roller to add texture to the drawers and doors.

I don't have pictures but the entry is painted pale yellow. The woodwork lavender and the dark brown  closet painted the same teal blue as the bedroom.

I can't believe I have lived in this house for almost five months now.

That is all for now. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again.

Thinking Of Spring

Hi everyone my area has had record snowfall and my thoughts are turning towards Spring as I put away the Christmas decorations and rearrange and organize. I figured it was time to replace the poinsettias on the porch light fixture.Since I had left over floral foam it was an inexpensive project to create a Spring looking arrangement.

Now to find a lavender butterfly I have in my stash to wire on the light fixture.

Are you ready for Spring?

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!