Getting Blingy with The Buckle Boutique

Hello Lifers!

Today I want to share something super fun with you!

At Winter CHA this past January, I had the opportunity to meet Cathie from a little company called The Buckle Boutique.

They were debuting this new product they called Rhinestone Resin Self-Adhesive Sheets. These rhinestone sheets have something no other rhinestone sheet  (that I know of) has ever had...the ability to be CUT into anything you want them to be. They can be cut with scissors, craft knifes and even your Cricut.

I was so honored that Cathie wanted to send me a couple of sheets to see what I could come up with.

Here's a couple of things I came up with:

This started out as an MDF Chest of Drawers from Kaisercraft. With the sheets being self-adhesive, I just cut a piece slightly larger than my piece, adhered it to the side and then used my craft knife to trim it. My craft knife went through it with no problems!

Here are a few closeups. 

To make my chevron, I used a chevron punch my Emaginations (sorry...this company is out of business) and cut pieces from my rhinestone sheets and laid them next to each other to form my chevron stripe. (YES! You can cut them with a punch!!) 

The rhinestones sheets were also perfect to make some sweet, quick and simple pendents. 

Cut a piece of Rhinestone Sheet to size and adhere it to your bezel. Then glue a simple embellishment to the center and you're done! What is fun about this pendent is that it is actually double sided! So no matter which way it is flipped, there is something fabulous!

Here are a couple of my favorite tips for working with The Buckle Boutique's Resign Rhinestone Self-Adhesive Sheets:

(1) When using a punch, flip the punch over so that you can make sure that the lines on your stones are straight. 

(2) If you are trying to cover a surface like my Chest of Drawers, it is much easier to cut your sheet just slightly larger than your piece, adhere it and then trim with your craft knife. 

(3) For jewelry, use an ink to stamp your bezel shape on the back of your Rhinestone Sheet. Cut just inside your line and you will have the perfect shape without all the guess work. 

My next plan....cut out some shapes on my Cricut!

I can't wait to share them with you.

For more information and to see all of the fabulous designs, check out The Buckle Boutique. 

Until next time...remember...make your art intentional...not an after thought.

XOXO,

KERI

If Love Were Bricks....on the Susan K Weckesser Blog

Hello Lifers!

It is my day up on the Susan K. Weckesser blog and I am SUPER excited to show you my mixed media piece today.

For more details...head on over to Susan's Blog: My Sweet Earth . 

Have a great day!!

XOXO,

Keri 

Graphic 45 Design Team 2014 Audition

 Hello Lifers!

Today, I have something a little different on the blog.

I decided to take a BIG leap and audition for the 2014 Graphic 45 Design Team and they require something a little different from any other DT I've ever auditioned for: a blog post dedicated to your audition projects.

Oh....and did I mention...you have to submit at least 6 (!) projects?

So grab a cup of coffee (or a glass of wine, depending on when you're reading this!), get comfy, and hopefully be inspired. :) 

Steampunk Spells

When I decided to audition, I decided to design all new projects (as opposed to using older ones) and I wanted to challenge myself to use things I had on hand.

My project featuring Steampunk Spells by Graphic 45 uses a 8 x 10 Chunky Canvas from Canvas Corp that had just not worked out. So, I turned it around and turned it into a shadowbox. 

I've always LOVED the look of Steampunk, but it's never been a style I could embrace easily. However, I think G45's use of oranges and turquoise brighten up the usual neutral steampunk pallet and made it much easier for me to work with.

My favorite part is at the center...gears from Want2Scrap that I altered using nothing but Tattered Angels Paints. 

Gears--naked and dressed:

So fun, right? :)

Here are a few close-ups: 

My flowers were made 2 ways: (1) the colored flowers are cut using Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Die for Sizzix from Tim Holtz Nostalgic Kraft-Core Collection from Coredinations. I then embossed it with a gear embossing folder from The Paper Studio and Distressed it with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Walnut Stain. (2) The Metal looking flowers are cut using Spellbinders Dies and then colored using Tattered Angels paints (like the gears.)

 

French Country

Still feeling fall? Next up is some beautiful G45 French Country.

This project was made by doing a mixed media collage background using French Country Paper, Liquitex Matte Gel Medium and Tattered Angels Paints all on top of an 8 x 10 canvas from Hobby Lobby that I had on hand. 

I then cut about 40 flowers using Tim Holtz's Tattered Florals, wet them, scrunch them and Tattered Angels them (is "Tattered Angels" a verb? LOL)

I used a stack of mat board to lift my wrought iron piece up so that I could then tuck the flowers all around it.

Nutcracker Sweet

From Fall to Christmas!

For this project, I found an empty ribbon spool that once held 2 inch wire edge ribbon.

How "sweet" is this little scene!?

To make my 3-D scene, I fussy-cut out my characters from a sheet of G45's Nutcracker Sweet paper. I distressed them and then used pieces of bend mat board in the same of an "L" to make them stand. I was very strategic on the size and placement so the supports were not easily seen. 

A Place in Time 

G45's A Place in Time had so many options for styles-12 to be exact! Since I am tired of winter and longing for spring, I decided to use the paper for April, as well as a little throwback G45 line "Romantique."

For my base, I had this small 9 x 9 wooden tray that used to hold wooden veneers. (I've been hoarding this one for over a year just waiting for the perfect project!)

I colored my plain wood with Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Chartreuse. 

The green/gold color went perfecting to make this:

A few of my favorite close-ups:

The flowers are stems from Petaloo and the butterflies are from Heidi Swapp (colored with the same Chartreuse Color Shine as the base.)

Wanna guess what's in my little bottles? CHIA SEEDS! Don't they almost look like little pebbles?!

Phew! Are you doing OK? Do you need a break? 

No? Let's Keep going!

Magic of Oz

This collection has long since been one of my favorites from G45. They did a BEAUTIFUL job interpreting "The Wizard of Oz." I was so inspired by it that I made 2 projects with this collection.

First...I was inspired to make this amazing (if I do say so myself!) mini album.

From the outside, it just seems like a mini album, but the inside holds a secret...

Both the front and the back covers have 5 little flaps featuring the good on the front and then bad in the back, BUT...that's not the secret...do you see it?

All 5 of the center pieces open...making 5 even smaller albums. Each on has a small magnet to keep it closed and features one character on the cover.

Can you tell I LOVE this collection? No...then this one will change your mind.

This was the last project I made and I have to say it is one of my favorites of all time because it is so out-of-the-box...or should I say "out of the closet!"

Yup...that's a high heal shoe. It started out as an ugly plain black pump (purchased at my local thrift store for $4.) Then...came the glitter. I used the AMAZING Glitter Blast Spray Paint from Krylon in Cherry Bomb to transform it in to my own ruby slipper. 

Inside my ruby slipper is a mini tag album: 

And of course you can't talk about the "Wizard of Oz" with the Yellow Brick Road:

Or high heal shoes with bows and bling:

So there you go! My 6 audition projects for the 2014 Graphic 45 Design Team. 

To my readers...I hope you enjoyed looking at them as much as I enjoyed making them. These were definitely a labor of love. I hope to use these as tutorials soon, so check back to see how I did it!

To Graphic 45...thank you so much for this opportunity and for visiting my little blog. I hope you had fun.

To All..I will leave you the way I leave you every time we are together: Remember...choose to make your art intentional...not an afterthought. 

XOXO,

KERI  

P.S. Thank you for forgiving me for some of my pictures going outside the limits of my blog frame. I wanted my pics to be SUPER big! :)

Double Down Thursday...WHAT?!

Hello Lifers!

Well...this has never happened before, but I am on 2 BLOGS ON THE SAME DAY!

WHAT THE WHAT?!

Here's a little info on both...be sure to click through links for more info and photos!

SUSAN K. WECKESSER

It's my day over on the Susan K. Weckesser Blog!!

Today, I am sharing this great project featuring Susan's Whimsical Paper and Heidi Swapp's Memory Files.

You can check out the full details over at Susan's Blog: My Sweet Earth,

BELLA CRAFTS QUARTERLY

For those of you not familiar with Bella Crafts Quarterly it is a quarterly online craft publication that is completely FREE!! Yes...FREE! Want it printed? The lovely ladies of Bella Crafts will print it and ship it for just the cost of printing and postage. 

Today, I have the honor of being a guest blogger on their blog.

I am sharing this amazingly thrifty spring wreath that I made for $15...including spray paint!

Check it out here-Bella Crafts Quarterly Blog-for a complete tutorial and price breakdown!

Enjoy!!

XOXO,

KERI

Best Craft Blogger 2014 Contest!!

Hello Lifers!

AS many of you know, I had the AWESOME opportunity to attend Winter CHA in Anaheim, CA this past January (which..I still have not blogged about yet! LOL) 

While I was there, I was able to attend a blogger's networking event hosted by Prime Publishing. It was an awesome night of just meeting with manufacturers and getting to know other bloggers.

When we left...they issued us a challenge: What can you make from the manufactures you met tonight?

Winner gets crowned Best Craft Blogger 2014...oh and first prize is $1,000. :)

Sounds like a win-win, right?

I wanted to honor the companies sponsoring the contest, so I used about 85% of only their products (even though the rules said you had to use "at least one.")

Here's my project:

It includes hand-painted stenciled background and chevron heart and 3-D Burlap Flowers. 

For a complete tutorial (and of course to vote for me!) check out: FavCrafts Blogger Contest

Thanks in advance for your vote!!

XOXO,

KERI

Continuing the Journey

Hello Lifers!

I hope you had an AMAZING weekend! Here...we FINALLY had decent weather-YAY!

Along with the projects I teased you with on Friday, I have also been plugging away a little at a time on an art journal page that seemed to be taking longer than I planned (I think that is the story of my creative life. lol)

There is a  quote that I have seen everywhere:"Not all who wander are lost." 

After a little research (and the help of an insta-friend) I found out that the quote is a line from a poem by J. R. R. Tolkien "All That is gold does Not Glitter" from Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings. 

Here is the complete poem:

All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king

If you've read the books or seen the movies, you know this poem alludes to a HUGE part of the plot later in the trilogy.

For me...the quote had a different thought. I had been worrying that as I was stretching my creative wings, that maybe I was a little creatively lost. I hadn't found my "style" or my creative home yet. BUT...after reading that quote I had this thought: ART is a journey. How often do I say here that being creative is a lifestyle..not a destination? If I am constantly seeing my life as a creative JOURNEY...then I can never really be lost and wandering. I'm simply continuing my journey...wherever that may lead.

Here's is the project I came up with: 

Here is a little step by step of how I got here:

First I started with a pencil sketch:

Then I went over my pencil sketch with a fine tip Sharpie marker (my favorite...easy to find, inexpensive and works great!)

Next, I decided I wanted to fill in my blank spaces, so I decided to add some tangles. I am not great at coming up with my own ideas, so you will see me Googling "Zentangle Patterns" anytime I am working on a project like this. There are great ideas and a lot of step by step instructions.

Lastly came watercolors! This is the first time I had done a full piece in watercolors, so there was a little bit of a learning curve. 

One of the best tips I can give (as a newbie) is this: If you want the graduated look like on the blue/purple/green/gold scales section, using a thin brush, outline the inner edge of the section with a saturated color.. Then use a larger damp brush to blur the lines and draw the color slightly inward.  This will keep your more saturated colors on the edges and a washed out tone in the middle. 

There you go lifers! 

I hope this piece inspires you to not only try new things, but to let go of any worries you might have about being a wanderer. If life is a journey...we are all wanderers so you are not alone on the road. 

Until next time friends remember...make your art intentional...not an afterthought. 

XOXO,

KERI

Crazy Crafty Week!!

PHEW!!

It has been a CRAZY crafty few days here in the studio!

I finished 2 projects in 2 days and I have spent most of today editing pics and making blog posts for my friend Susan K Weckesser and a special guest blogger post (more info on that soon...I can't say anything yet!)

BUT...for fun...I thought I would give you a little sneaky peek on what I've been working on this week.

That's all I can share for now! 

(I'm evil aren't I? LOL)

I hope these give a little bit of the creative bug for this weekend. I'd love to see what you create!

See you soon! And remember...choose to make your art intentional...not an after thought. 

XOXO,

KERI