Etsy School: Paper & Scarf Marbling

Hi! I mentioned last month here, how I held a class for Etsy employees on cardmaking with watercolor and masking techniques. Since then, I've taken two other classes held by my talented colleagues.

Curious about Etsy School? Learn what they're all about here.

Today, I'd like to focus on a paper and scarf marbling class where I learned different marbling techniques and since have been drawn into an obsession of creating my own marble patterns. There are so many possibilities and I can't wait to try creating more patterns. I have plans of using these as mini scrapbook covers, Project Life cards, and greeting cards for my Etsy store.

How cool, huh? You can learn how to do this yourself too from the lovely Clare McGibbon. She has a great Etsy How-Tuesday post. It's an awesome how-to, so go ahead and check it out!

Thank you, Clare and Etsy, for supporting education amongst employees!

Thanks for stopping by!
- KRAFTY pearl

SEI Spotlight: Iron-on Sheets

Hi! I've recently been obsessed with SEI Iron-on Sheets. I was over on the SEI blog last week sharing how I used the easy-to-use sheets to create this onesie here.

Materials used: SEI Iron-on Sheet in Pink Polka Dot

Seriously, how cute is the little heart shape on the tush? Go on over to the SEI blog to see how the onesie came together.

Thanks for stopping by!
- KRAFTY pearl

A Heart Air Balloon Themed Baby Shower

Hi there! Today, I thought it'd be nice to share friend's baby shower, I recently co-hosted with several other lovely ladies. The baby's gender is unknown and the mommy-to-be loves to travel, so we decided to go with a hot air balloon travel theme. We were inspired by these pins on Pinterest. We had so much fun making all the decor!

Here's what we made:

A backdrop: A banner with a bunch of heart-air balloons and clouds as the guest of honor's backdrop. The large hearts and clouds were hand-drawn, traced into a template, and cut with scissors.

Materials used: American Crafts pattern cardstocks, Close To My Heart solid cardstocks, Close To My Heart alphabet stamp set, Sizzix pennant dies, EK Success heart punch, twine

A centerpiece: A hot-air balloon nest with an egg as a guestbook table centerpiece.

Materials used: Party streamers in various colors, two 8" Styrofoam halves, American Crafts pattern cardstocks, Close To My Heart solid cardstocks, skewers, nest, ball jar hollow cap, wooden egg, Kaisercraft paints, hot glue gun

A guestbook center: A guest sign-in scrapbook decorated by each of the guests.

Materials used: Same as above. Plus, I went into my oldie but goodie stash of KI Memories quote die cut sheets.

Thanks for stopping by!
- KRAFTY pearl

Happy Birdies

I was once again inspired by the pair of mourning doves that started nesting on my window sill in March. Here I altered the KaiserCraft MDF birdhouse key holder with a nest, the birds, the eggs, paint, pretty pattern papers... the whole shebang!

Used: KaiserCraft birdhouse; KaiserCraft KaiserColour acrylic paint in tropical water and antique white; KaiserCraft blooms; KaiserCraft acrylic stamps; KaiserCraft, Echo Park For The Record Fancy Foral pattern paper and Jillibean Soup Gruyere Cheese pattern paper; My Little Shoebox alpha stickers; Martha Stewart microbeads and glitter; Offray ribbon; Whisker Graphics twine; Mod Podge; glue dots; birds, eggs & nest from floral aisle of local Michael's; heart shaped buttons also from Michael's; M&J Trimming pom pom trimming and sequins; Recollections pearl stickers; beads left over from previous jewelry making days

For MDF painting tips, refer to this post! Here is a closer look at the other details:

To create the nest:

• I bought the birds, eggs, and nest from the floral aisle at Michael's. You can find them online as well.
• The eggs were plastic and came speckled brown. Apply glitter with a coating of Mod Podge. Tip: Stick a toothpick in the egg at the end not visible in the nest before applying Mod Podge and glitter so your fingers stay sticky-free.
• I wanted the nest to be decorated and appear a little dewy. So I applied Mod Podge to the nest, sprinkled some clear Martha Stewart microbeads and colorful beads to the rim of the nest. Tip: Mod Podge dries clear, so no worries if you've got a little too much of it as you're applying the beads. After all, you do want them to stick to the nest!
• Stick birds, eggs, and nest to each other using glue dots or more Mod Podge.

To fill the birdhouse window:

• Stamp two identically shaped images on two pieces of pattern paper. The smaller images in this KaiserCraft stamp set perfectly fits into the opening!
• Mod Podge the two together, aligning it back to back as mirror images with a 6" piece of twine centered between.
• Continue to coat with a few more layers of Mod Podge and let it dry. It will harden and appear more like a dimensional charm.
• Adhere the two ends of the twine to the back of the bird house and voila! You have yourself a cute little spinner charm!
• To mimic the dotted pattern paper, I first painted the window frame in tropical water, then I layered sequins over the frame the teal color peek from the center of the sequins.
  

So, whaddaya think? Hope you likes!

Thanks for stopping by!
- KRAFTY pearl

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More Than a Picture Frame

I totally love the KaiserCraft BTP line. Inspired by my guy, I created this keepsake for us with the KaiserCraft BTP MDF 9-frame photo display. This display frame is unlike the others because the back board and the frame comes in two separate pieces making it so easy to cut papers to fit in or to paint the openings! I like that their products are a blank slate and you can personalize it and make it your own however which way you wish! I also love the accompanying KaiserCraft KaiserColor acrylic paints that coat the MDF so well.

Used: KaiserCraft Beyond The Page 9-frame photo display; KaiserColour acrylic paint in gold, slate, white; KaiserCraft, Echo Park and Jillibean Soup pattern papers; Bazzill dotted Swiss cardstock; Martha Stewart and EK Success punches; Crayola air-dry clay; Bic Mark-it markers; Me & My Big Ideas and Heidi Swap rhinestones; Mod Podge (my trusty pal!), Recollections pearls; M&J Trimming sequins

About this project:

• Painted the top in gold (KaiserCraft KaiserColour in gold) very light-handed with KaiserCraft fine flat brush. Applied about 3 coats for full coverage, allowing a couple of minutes drying time between each coat.


• Painted the sides of the frame in white (KaiserCraft KaiserColour in white) with a KaiserCraft fine flat brush. Applied about 5 layers, letting a couple of minutes drying time between each coat.


• Mod Podge is ALL over this project as an awesome adhesive and sealant for MDF.


• Once all the paint and pieces were adhered exactly where I wanted it to appear, using the frame as an overlay guide, I used more Mod Podge to glue the frame to the back board. To keep the frame tightly adhered to the back board as its drying, cut small strips of wax paper and use medium sized binder clips to grip the corners and sides. The wax paper will keep the clips from leaving marks on your painted frame.


• For long-winded MDF painting tips, refer to my last post!

Here's a more detailed look at what's going on starting top, across, and down each row!

Box 1: Painted KaiserCraft wood flourish label holder using a cheap chip brush to apply 3-4 coats of gold acrylic paint, letting each coat to dry a couple of minutes each. Cut a 6 1/4" x 1" piece of pattern paper and punch a border.
Used: Echo Park sticker, KaiserCraft wood flourish label holder, KaiserCraft KaiserColour acrylic paint in gold; Me & My Big Ideas and Heidi Swapp bling, KaiserCraft and Echo Park pattern paper, Martha Stewart punch

Box 2: Just cut paper in about 3 1/4" x 4 1/4" rectangles, and the frame will fill in the gaps.
Tip: Just cut doily in half. Because the Kaisercraft comes in two pieces, you can just put half a doily under the frame and glue the frame down. There's no need to cut the doily in fours to appear perfectly aligned in the box 2 and 3. I loved this display tray for this very reason!
Used: Jillibean Soup pattern paper, Echo Park number stickers, Me & My Big Ideas bling

Box 3: Cut polka dot paper into a thin strip to appear like a ribbon.
Used: Bazzill dotted Swiss cardstock, Echo Park letter stickers, Echo Park pattern paper

Box 4 and 5: To unify the two boxes and create a single scene, I Mod Podged a punched heart and glue dotted it to the frame. (It's ok to think outside of the frame!)
Used: Southworth fine linen paper, KaiserCraft and Echo Park pattern paper, Martha Stewart punches, Recollections pearls, Bic Mark-it markers, M&J Trimming sequins

Box 6: 4x6 photo split into two using Photoshop where 75% is my guy and I and 25% is of the gorgeous fluffy clouds of Hawaii.
Tip: By breaking up the photo in this ratio, it also visually broke up the repetitive frame. You can try other ratios if you want to create more "frames" without actual frames!

Box 7:

This is one of my favorite 'technique' areas on the display. I was learning pottery when I first met my guy... so it was a part of our story. I really wanted to mimic the look of a ceramic piece without actually having to create a piece for the display for several reasons... no access to a kiln any more... the piece would be heavy and difficult to secure to the tray... And so, after some research I decided that I can very easily recreate the ceramic look with just simple non-toxic Crayola air-dry clay! It's light and fluffy... easy to knead and shape. Totally love it!
Used: KaiserCraft pattern paper, Echo Park sticker, Crayola air-dry clay

Box 8 and 9:

Before adhering the frame to the back board, I painted these areas using KaiserColour in slate. Two coats of paint was plenty because it's a dark and opaque color. I then printed a meaningful term to us and adhered it directly to the paint. What is "h♥ppiness"? I'll explain more when I discuss word art, so look forward to that post in a few weeks!
Tip: Painter's tape will help keep color where you want it, so don't paint without it!
Used: Me & My Big Ideas bling, Recollections pearls, EK Success punch, Southworth linen paper

This really is more than a picture frame and will be an everlasting keepsake. What do you think?

Thanks for stopping by!
- KRAFTY pearl

Personalize Your Wood Grain!

I totally love the look of faux bois! And it's often used in card making and scrapbooking. There are lots of papers and cardstocks out there that have really pretty wood grain pattern:

1. My Little Shoebox's Woodsy paper
2. Art Warehouse's Wood Embossed Great Outdoors paper
3. Karen Foster's Wood Pattern paper
4. Creative Imaginations Real Wood Veneer paper
   

But this past Valentine's I really wanted something personalized for my card. So instead, I decided to draw my own tree and wood grain:

Notice anything within the wood grain? Here's a closer look. Do you see it now? Embedded within the pattern, I wrote 'i love you' in script!

I loved the result so much, I decided to doodle another piece... 'i adore you' with 'you' centered in the heart:

I also decided to put it in a shadow box as the main focal point but I could do so much more to it. (I bought a nice and simple Ribba shadow box from Ikea. Absolutely love these shadow boxes.) I could put a picture to the left of the heart. I could decorate it with more embellishments. The possibilities are endless.

What's great about drawing out your own wood grain pattern is that you can actually write camouflaged words or designs within the wood grain, really making the piece of art your own!

Here's a quick how-to:

I found the EK Success Zig Memory System Writer Dual Tip Pen Writer the most useful in drawing out my lines because of the sharp consistent point, though I also love doodling with Bic's Mark-It Permanent Markers Fine Point. But feel free to use whatever fine point pen you're most comfortable with controlling your lines.

First, start with your designs or words.

Second, draw concentric lines around your designs and words leaving a fair amount of space between your lines. The lines doesn't have to be perfect because that's the beauty of wood grain patterns, they're not perfectly spaced.

Third, continue to draw lines around your words or designs and let the imperfections guide you for a perfect faux bois doodle.

And there you have it, a pretty piece of art personalized with your own message and design!

So whaddaya think? Is it a cute personalized keepsake or what?

Until my next post!
- KRAFTY pearl