Betty the Glamper...she's almost done!!

Good morning lifers! 

I hope you had a fabulous weekend...I know I did! 

As many of you know, we recently bought an old pop-up camper and decided it needed a little love (not everyone is down for fake wood and a rainbow of country mauves and blues.) 

Today, I wanted to show you some updated pics! I spent most of last week at my sewing machine making her new curtains, pillows and covering the ugly cushions. 

In total, I made 8 pillows, 9 curtains and recovered 6 cushions...I don't think I have sewed this much in my entire life. Lol. 

Oh...did I mention her name was Betty? Why Betty? Well, my sister (who we are traveling with in a few weeks) is redoing her camper as well and we wanted their names to be "related" somehow. We thought about starlets or maybe Wilma and Bett or Starlight/Starbright, but eventually we landed on: BETTY AND VERONICA!! It's actually pretty perfect for our personalities and the looks of our campers. 

Wanna see?  

I fell in love with this big stripe because it felt like the old changing "tents" that you used to find at beaches back in the day. The stripes, coral pattern and anchor pattern materials all came from Hobby Lobby. The navy blue sailboat and the cushion fabric both came from Hancock in the Home Decor Section. 

Wanna money saving tip?! For pillows, don't buy pillow inserts! They can cost anywhere from $8-$15 each. Instead, go to your local thrift store and buy ugly throw pillows (the uglier they are the cheaper they are and the funnier looks you'll get at check out! Haha!) throw them in your dryer on the sanitize cycle (or high heat if you don't have a fancy dryer.) Then simply cover your pillows for a fraction of the cost. My 8 pillows cost a whopping $16 at my local thrift store. 

You can see on the top of this curtain, I added a strip of the cushion fabric to the too. I did this for 2 reasons: (1) it ties the whole thing together and (2) my striped fabric was about 10in too short for the length I needed and I was not about to try to line up all those stripes to add more of the same fabric! 

We painted 2 coats of Valspar primer and paint all in one over the ugly faux wood. We chose the outdoor version since the camper will have to endure temperature changes. The white REALLY brightens the whole thing up and is a really cheap and simple change. We bought just a quart and didn't even use the whole thing. 

I love how my brighter colors POP of my darker cushions. Plus...better for stains! 

If you're thinking about Glamping (glamour + camping) here's a few money saving tips we've found along the way! 

(1) like I said above...instead of buying new pillow inserts, buy used throw  pillows at your local thrift store and recover to match. Just remember to check them closely for scary stains and santize them in your dryer. 

(2) remember your space is small. You might be used to buying gallons of paint, but 1 quart is more than enough for your little space. 

(3) Check what you have in hand already! We all have gallons of paint leftover from various projects. You might have what you need sitting your garage right now. We painted the vent covers gray (sorry no pics of them!) using a gray spray paint we already owned. (We learned this lesson the hard way...we totally had paint sitting in our garage that we could have used!)

(4) Check your local Habitat for Humanity Restore or other similar charity store that specializes in home products. We were looking at new handles (we needed 8) at a big box home improvement store and the ones we liked were $3-$5 each. Uummm....no. My hubby went to our local Restore and found them for $1 each. Much better right?

(5) don't forget the coupons on the fabrics! Hancock Fabrics has coupons and sales through their website and in print, while JoAnn's and Hobby Lobby both have apps. Look closely though...usually the coupon can only be used on one "cut" of fabric, so it might require multiple trips or a helper to go through a different line to get the savings.

(6) When it comes to fabric, spend a little more for your cushion fabric. It's gonna get a lot of use. For pillows and curtains, a canvas or duck cloth works great because it's sturdy, but not too expensive. 

So there you go....Betty is about 80% done. I can't wait to show you the finished project and the pics of her in action in just a little under 2 weeks. 

Have an awesome day and remember...make your art intentional...not an after thought. 

Xoxo, 

Keri 

Tattered Angels Week-Day 5!!

It's our final day together crafty friends!

I hope you have enjoyed this week as much as I have and have learned a few tricks to add to your creative toolbox.

Tip #5-Change up your Metals!!

This technique works best with Glazes because of the acrylic base of the paint and the finer glitter.

As you can see here, this golden metal piece from Fabscrap just wasn't working for me, so I added a little bit of Shindig Glaze on top of it to tone down the brassiness. 

You can also use Glazes on plastics, such buttons, if the color is just not quite right.

My FAVS!!

Although I didn't use them in the particular project, I can't leave a Tattered Angels week without telling your my Favorite Chalkboards (shimmery) and Baseboards (matte)!

As you might remember, we talked about on Monday that Chalkboards and Baseboards differ from Glimmer Mists and Simply Sheers in that they will give you a more intense and opaque color, whereas mists and sheers are exactly that..sheer.

JUST A LITTLE NOTE: The name Chalkboard can get a little confusing. It gets it's name because it has the solid feel of a chalkboard, not the writing surface characteristics.

Here are my TOP 2 Favorite Chalkboards and Baseboards.

(1) Cardboard (Baseboard-matte)- Essentially the color of corrugated cardboard, this will turn just about anything into a solid sheet of kraft paper with a smooth matte finish. The brown color is so yummy.

(2) Red Rocks (Baseboard-matte)-This color could not be more appropriately named. It is a very true maroon-red without a lot of purple so that it feels like a neutral.

(4) Chalk (Chalkboard-shimmer)-  This is the most multi-purpose of the Chalkboards to me. I use it to highlight images, to lighten other Tattered Angels or to splatter on a project to lighten up it up if it's gotten a little too dark.

(4) Teal High Heel-With a name like that...what's not to love!? It's just fantastic!

I'm sad to say that our week together has come to an end. 

I hope you have learned something new and maybe lost a little "fear of the unknown" you might have had about Tattered Angels.

Come join me again soon...as I live The Creative Life.

P.S. Here's the link again if you want to see the full selection of Tattered Angels colors and products!

Tattered Angels Winter Catalog

Tattered Angels Week-Day 4!!

Day 4!! Here we go!!!

Tip #4-Use with your Stamps!

Depending on which product you are using, there are 2 ways to go about using this technique.

(1) If you are using a spray-able mist, then you will need to either spray it on a non-stock surface or (my personal preference) is to spray it on a scrap piece of felt, essentially making your own ink pad and then stamp like normal.

(2) If you are using a Glam or a Glaze, simply paint it onto your stamp and stamp as normal, like I did!

You can see I stamped my "2" using Camel Glam and once it was dry, because of the composition of the paint, I was able to spray over it with the Moss Glimmer Mist and my Glam color stay true!

NOTE: Because of the loose consistency of Tattered Angels, it's always best to test your stamping on a scrap piece of paper before doing so on your project so that you can "feel out" how much paint your particular stamp will need to give you the best image. 

My FAVS!!

For the longest time I didn't use Glazes because I thought "How is it any different!?" but now, I use it all the time! The fine glitter adds a solid shimmer and gloss to your project, while the small applicator brush helps you control and get your color EXACTLY where you want it.

(1) Cowboy-This dark caramel color is VERY multi-purpose. Use it to distress, to darken metals or just to splatter to add dimension.

(2) Aloha Green-This green is perfect when you want to add just a little bit of shimmer and color because the light green doesn't compete with your project.

(3) Pinata-The FIRST Glaze I ever used! As you can see, it's a fun POP of pink. The first time I used it was coloring over some pink flowers. It really brought them to life!

(4) Saffron-This is the Glaze I use the most. Like Cowboy, it is very multi-purpose, but since it's a little bit light in color, I tend to use it more.

(5) Shindig-I would call this my 2nd Favorite! The color is hard to show in a picture, but it leaves your project with a fantastic dark steel gray shimmery finish.

Well...tomorrow is our last day together...see you then!!

Tattered Angels Week-Day 3!

Happy Wednesday!

We've had two fun-filled, glimmery days...are you ready for another?

Tip #3-Think Outside the Bottle!

Monday we talked about how great Tattered Angels products worked with each other, but you can stretch your TA dollar even farther by looking beyond those little Angel bottles. 

You can easily mix Tattered Angels products with your favorite acrylic paint colors to add some sparkle or mix with your favorite texture medium for a unique sparkly "chunky" look.

Here...I mixed my Golden Goddess Glam with an army green acrylic paint. 

You can see the fun glittery flicks it adds to the paint and because of the base of the Glam, when I heated it with my heat gun, it added texture to my plain acrylic paint. 

My FAVS!!!

Glimmer Mist is the original product that Wendy Senger made in her kitchen one day when she just couldn't find what she was looking for in her local craft store. (She made it in her BLENDER! I've seen the pictures...it was a mess! LOL)

With so many awesome colors, it's really hard to pick my top 5, but I'll try!

(1) Coffee Shop-My FIRST EVER Glimmer Mist and still at the top of my list. With a reddish-brown base and a copper shimmer, it is PERFECT to add a copper/weathered patina to any project.

(2) Mallard-My most recent LOVE! It is a dark blue-green with a lighter turquoise shimmer. (If you need one with a little more green....try Bahama Blue!)

(3) Coral Reef-Using this yummy coral color 

always makes me happy 

and adds a BIG punch of color to any project.

(4) Kraft-Just like the name suggest, this can turn just about any project into the appearance of kraft paper. The base is a darker kraft, while the shimmer is a lighter kraft so it adds a lot of dimension.

(5) It's Black-This is the darkest Tattered Angels color ever and adds a HUGE punch because of it's black base with black shimmer. It's THE Little Black Dress of Tattered Angels. (Need something a little softer? Try Black Magic (golden shimmer) or Beetle Black (silver shimmer.))

We're over half way done with our week...how sad! :(

Keep tuning in for more tips, tricks and my top 5 Favs!