CCL Monthly Theme Challenge - BEADS!

It's that fun time at the beginning of the month when Creating the Craft Life reveals the monthly theme! June's theme will be ALL THINGS BEADS! How fun is THAT?! I love doing things with beads, and CCL's challenge for you is to create any project using beads (at least 10!) and make sure you use BLUE in your project! For inspiration, here is my sample for the challenge: a chunky bead charm on a tag.

This tag will be part of an owl-themed mini-album that I've started working on; I'll be sure to share the album once it's complete. If you would like to know how to make a chunky charm like mine, be on the lookout during the 3rd week of June on CCL, because I will be posting a video tutorial of how I made this chunky charm! There are tons of swaps, challenges, tutorials, ideas, and SUPER FRIENDLY PEOPLE over at CCL, so if you haven't taken a moment to join us over there, be sure you do! :)

'Til then,

Krolli

CCL Monthly Theme Challenge - Altered Items

Howdy, crafty friends! Time for June's theme challenge from Creating the Crafty Life! This month our theme is altered items. HOW FUN IS THAT?! As a member of CCL's design team, I have created an altered project to share with and hopefully inspire you. The challenge is to not only alter an item, but to include LACE somewhere (anywhere) in your project. Here is what I made:

I snatched this wooden flower basket from one of the dollar bins in Michael's. Right away, I though it would be perfect for a pin cushion, and I love the fact that it doesn't look like a "normal" pin cushion. I took the handle off and painted & crackled the flower faces. I adhered lace to the sides and created a butterfly out of the same lace, using mesh bling for its body and flower stamen for its antennae. I added more trim here and there along the lace edges, then filled the inside with rocks. I attached a fluff-filled bit of black leather to the inside top of the basket, creating the pin cushion. Last thing to do was stick a couple of pins in it for effect! Hope you like!

'Til then,

Krolli

Run Away from Cheap Tape Runners!

Let's talk about adhesive runners. (Or, I just call them all tape runners, but I'm not entirely sure that's always correct.) Ok, I have been around the mountain and back when it comes to these things and I've finally found a couple that I like. But first, let me show you some that I grabbed from my stash:

Most of these are junk and I hate them. I'm a cheap person -- I have three kids in a single-income family, so I'm always attempting to wiggle out of whatever expenses I can. Consequently, I frequently find myself learning the hard way that you get what you pay for. Generally speaking, the cheaper the runner, the more stupid it will behave.

There is one in the pile above that I do like. It is the Creative Memories tape runner. The thing I do not like is that bad boy cost me somewhere in the area of $8.00. The other chink in its armor is that I have to attain refills for it either through a Creative Memories consultant or by ordering online. Ordering isn't so horrible, and I've never experienced problems with their shipping, but what if I want it right here, right now? I suppose the answer is a no-brainer and just buy a bunch of refills and keep them stocked up, so as never to be caught high and dry. But I'm not always good at that. Also, the refills are $5.50, which is way more pricey than some of the cheaper actual runners. On the other hand, the tape in CM's runner seems to last a lot longer than the cheapo ones.

As far as the cheapo ones go, there are many, MANY different runners on the market. I have paid anywhere from $0.99 to $6.99 for runners, trying to find one that I'm good and happy with. Some consist of tiny gluey dots (hated it!), some are comprised of some sort of gluey film (hated it!), and some have actual little white strips of double sided stickiness. That's where I've found my happy place in Tape Runner Land. Here is the one I've found to be my favorite:

 It is Scrapbook Adhesives E-Z Runner.  **But be forewarned -- Scrapbook Adhesives produces all the other kinds I've mentioned. I just always buy the "red one" and I love it. The only complaint I have is that it doesn't seem to last very long. (Although it still lasts longer than any other of the really cheap runners.) But, for being such a cheap individual, I really am adhesive-happy, so I probably going through these a lot faster than necessary, admittedly. It just really depends on how much you use it. This particular runner is around $6.00, but you can get it at Jo-Ann's with a 405 off coupon most of the time. Also, I am fortunate to have a Flower Factory right by me and they will sometimes carry this runner for around $3.00. Sweet deal.

There's a big daddy tape runner worth mentioning. It's the ATG, which is just short for Adhesive Transfer Gun. ((**Some people say "ATG Gun" and this makes me twitch because it's like saying "Adhesive Transfer Gun Gun," much the way "ATM Machine is like saying Automated Teller Machine Machine, but that's my nerdiness roaring its ugly head and I'll push it back away now.**)) I don't yet own an ATG, but it's certainly up there on my wish list. I've borrowed them on occasion at crops and they are COOL! The *only* reason I do not own one is because, say it with me, "Carli is cheap!" But I plan to arm myself with that good ol' 40% off coupon and bite the bullet before too long. Here's a photo of a Scotch ATG I want:

These guys last FOREVER. I guess one might complain about it's bulkiness, but they aren't really heavy or anything. And I feel a little excited, in a power-hungry sort of way when I'm using one. Maybe that's a much smaller scaled man-with-power-tool syndrome. At any rate, you will find these for around $35.00 and the refills just depend on where you shop and which type pf tape you buy.

Just remember this, my friends: Not all adhesive runners are created equal!

Til then,

Krolli

CCL Monthly Theme Challenge - Layout sketch!

Hi, friends! I am posting my example for the Creating the Craft Life monthly theme challenge for May, which is Layouts. I had fun with this one -- working from a sketch is so much easier for me, because it gives you a jumping-off point.

So, here is the sketch that CCL members will be challenged to use in May:

And here is what I came up with:

Be sure to head over to CCL in May and become a member if you haven't already! Create your own layout using this sketch, upload it to the event page, and you'll be entered to win something! :)

'Til then,

Krolli

CCL Monthly Theme Challenge - Cards

Hello, crafty friends! I am ecstatic to announce that I was recently selected to join the creative design team for Creating the Crafty Life (CCL), a wonderful online crafting community. You can find (and join for FREE!) Creating the Crafty Life at www.creatingthecraftylife.com. Each month, CCL will have a specific theme challenge where members are invited to post your creation. April's CCL theme is cards, and the challenge is to create a spring card. Here is the card I made as a sample for this challenge:

I made the butterflies out of ribbon/lace trim and beads, and I think they are the cutest addition to this card! I can't wait to see what everyone posts -- please remember to post your spring card over at CCL any time during the month of April and be on the lookout for tips 'n' techniques, tools of the trade, and free tutorials while you're there!

'Til then,

Krolli

Smish Smash, I was making a craft!

Today's project details a sort of smash book/junk journal that I made for a swap. The assignment was to alter an agenda or journal and make a matching pen. Instead of altering a pre-made book, I created one from scratch, so that my partner can use it as a smash book. For those of you who don't know what a smash book or junk journal is, well... get on this wagon, because they are FUN, FUN, FUN! Especially if you have a tendency toward disorganization. Or, actually, it's great for the people who do keep their stuffs in order too.  What you do is gather materials that you like or think you might utilize at some point in your life (in the paper-crafting or similar genre; facts being facts, you cannot fit a dress or fancy piece of furniture or any other super bulky item into a smallish book) and fit them together into a collected journal. You can include papers you like / flat embellishments such as chipboards, dies, cardstock cutouts, etc. / ribbons / tags / photos. Really, the options are limitless, as long as your inclusions can fit into your book. You can put them in whatever fashion or order you like. It can all be "smashed" or "junked" in there in a beautifully messy stash, or it can be sectioned into categories of your preference. Anything goes.

There are several ways to create the journal, or the housing for all that "junk." For this journal, I simply cut chipboard to size and made covers, then bound everything together with binder rings. This works nicely to me because you can add and subtract items from the journal with ease. Here's a photo of the journal I made:

You don't have to make your cover(s) fancy; I just stepped it up a bit since this is an item I made for a swap. My next junk journal will be for myself and I'm thinking of Mod Podge-ing a bunch of images that are relevant to *me* all over the front and back covers. Very easy and very effective in the smash universe. The important thing I'm wanting to show here is the simplicity in using chipboard for covers and binder rings for puttin' all that mess together.

The inside cover has a pocket and the first "page" is also a pocket, so this gives you an idea of how you can hold items that aren't specifically paper. I put some stamped images in one pocket and vellum quotes, tags, and tickets in the other pocket. You can include paper clips, photos, ribbons, etc. in any pockets.

Fearing I would get in trouble for swaying too far from the assigned swap theme, I printed a calendar for the next page. Nothing says "agenda" like a calendar, right? Crisis averted. For said calendar, I just found one on Google (*swooooon*) and printed it onto paper that coordinated with the covers:

Once I got the all-serious calendar out of the way, I proceeded to smash away, sticking various papers that I thought my swap partner might be able to use for projects or inspiration. Once again, the great thing is that if she looks at them and wants to puke out, she can pull whatever she hates out and replace it/them with her preferences. Then, in effort to bring things back down a notch and add some more journal-y/agenda-y feel to the project, I cut some regular notebook paper down to size and stuffed a load of that in there.

That's the smash book in a nutshell, but I wanted to make sure and show the matching pen! I used a normal ball point pen that already came with the tip and grip in a blue that matches the rings on the binder. Awesome! I inserted a tube of paper that matches the covers of the book and added glitter to the clip of the pen cap. The bow/butterfly that I adhered to the pen cap is the same lace trim on the covers too. And finally, I made a beaded butterfly charm to bauble from the pen cap. I made sure to mostly decorate the cap because that way if the pen runs out of ink, she can transfer the cap to a new pen and always have a pen that matches her journal.

I would love to see your junk journals, so please feel free to comment a link!

'Til then,

Krolli

Blocks for my Blockhead Sister

I'd like to share a project that took me from this:

To this:

It all started when I saw a package of plain wooden craft blocks on clearance at Hobby Blobby. I saw them and they screamed at me, "Buy me! I'm fun!" I don't know if it's because I have some inherent love of wooden toys (I think I might have been tapping into some childhood glee-filled memories) or I'm just weird, but those blocks were in my cart with zero hesitation. And then I got home and put them on my scrapbook desk. A week or so later I moved them to a drawer to get them out of my way. A few months passed and I finally graduated them from the drawer to a catch-all basket that is generally filled with "someday projects."

And there they sat for over a year. *Blush* Yep, that's how I roll. Well, I am kind of broke as we dash toward Christmas & New Year's and my sister decided to be born somewhere in all this mess,  so when I saw the scribbled reminder on my calendar, I panicked. "What can I do?" I asked myself, "Don't be a fool!" I cried in return, "You have a thousand promising leads for handmade gifts!  JUST PICK SOMETHING AND DO IT!" Thus, the block idea.

My sister is an avid collector of books. She walks into used book stores and transforms into some sort of publication serial killer. She smells books. She looks at books with funky, tilted eyebrows. She rubs books' bindings and smiles eerily to herself. Once, I had my Norwegian friends send her a copy of Harry Potter in Norwegian and I thought I'd pushed her over the edge into a pool of otherworldly happiness. But, I digress. Point is, the woman likes books and so, in turn, has a place in her home where she keeps them. Simple enough concept.

After spending our childhood in Italy, we grew a love for Italian arts, including their old theatre characters. I decided that the blocks would make a great decoration for her bookshelves and that I should portray some images of our beloved characters and miscellaneous pictures to coordinate. After Google and I threw back a few drinks together, we came up with the following set of images:

You're a good friend, Google. We should hang out again sometime. Anyway, what you see here is the aftermath of me printing and cutting the images to size. They looked a little humdrum, so I decided to ink the edges in such a way that made them appear older. I was really happy with the effect:

Then it was just a matter of Mod Podge-ing the squares onto the sides of the blocks; each block was the happy recipient of two unique images, and then I covered the remaining sides with various coordinating papers.

While the Podge was drying, a thought struck me. What would hold the blocks? How would I give them to her? I imagined thrusting a handful of blocks at her, trailing with a, "Happy birthday!" and it just wasn't settling quite right to me. The blocks needed a "home base." Somewhere that she could set them in a collective manner if she wanted to. And also so I could hand them to her efficiently. I dug up a red dish thingy that was pretty much already perfect the way it was. But what fun is that? So I altered it slightly with some lacy trim, a beaded charm, and some beaded stick-pins, which provided a really nice touch. Now she has the option of setting the blocks up in the dish or separating some of them out next to the dish. Or if she wants the blocks to all be free-floating, she can opt to use the dish for crackers or something. That's when I realized the gift was a two-fer. Awesome. You saw the finished project up at the top, but here is a zoomed up photo of the beaded stickpins & charm on the corner of the dish. I hope she likes it!

'Til then,

Krolli