PaperFections

Copic Airbrushed Background-Birds

Today over on Ellen Hutson's the CLASSroom blog I'm showing you how to stretch (literally!) the use of your dies and also how to mask and create a Copic airbrushed background for the United We Flourish Hero Arts-Essentials by Ellen Better Together stamp and die set. I hope you'll join me there! Read more →

Figurine Refinishing

Hello Crafters! Today I'm sharing a sweet figurine I've had for many years. It was originally painted bronze and gold and looked fantastic in our old house, but since moving into our new house last year, it just didn't fit in with our new gray and silver scheme. So I turned to my Tommy Arts Paint to save the day (and the figurine)! Before, with the plaster figurine painted all the same color, none of the details really stood out. I love all the depth and details you can see after she was repainted! To start the process, I painted the plaster figurine with a base coat of Tommy Art's Rock Gray chalk based mineral paint: Tommy Art chalk colors are high-quality, rapid-dry, chalk-based mineral paints. Each chalk color offers superb coverage, opacity, porosity, and lightfastness. Tommy Art chalk colors adhere to most surfaces without preparation and are available in more than 35 colors. Next, I painted the girl's hair, the bird, and the base of the figurine with Tommy Art Brown Black chalk paint: The two different colors really helped bring out the details! Next, I painted Tommy Art's White Coating over the Brown Black chalk paint, focusing on... Read more →

Textured Pumpkin

Happy Fall, friends! The weather is cooling down and starting to feel like Fall, so that put me in the mood for some Fall crafting! Some of my very favorite Fall decorations are pumpkins ... I have them scattered all over the house! So naturally, when I spied this plain bisque pumpkin at the craft store, I had to scoop it up and find something fun to do with it! To transform this pumpkin, I turned to my Tommy Art paints and began by giving it a base coat of Brown Black Chalk Color (I left the stem unpainted for now, so I could use it as a handle to hold the pumpkin and turn it as I painted. You can see the original color and texture of the pumpkin/stem in the photo below.) The pumpkin started out very smooth: Tommy Art Chalk Colors are high-quality, rapid-dry, chalk-based mineral paints. The chalk color offers superb coverage, opacity, porosity, and lightfastness, which adheres to most surfaces without preparation. Available in more than 35 colors, these chalk-based mineral paints are suitable for a wide range of decorative styles and come in three color ranges: pastel, neutral, and intense. Next, to give the... Read more →

Thankful, Grateful, Blessed

The past week has been very humbling here in my south eastern part of Texas, to see the sometimes very destructive capabilities of Mother Nature. My family and I are definately counting our blessings and extremely grateful and thankful most of our friends and family are safe. I will be reminded of this time whenever I look at this DIY Fall sign I made: Here's how it came together: I started with an 8" x 11" inexpensive whitewashed plain wood plaque I found at Michaels. Next, I used my computer to generate and print the words I wanted, in two different fonts (please see this post for the fonts and where to get). After positioning the words, I secured them with washi tape on the right side: Next, I lifted up the printed words and placed X-Press It Graphite Transfer Paper under them (graphite side down, facing the plaque): Then I traced over the words. This Transfer Paper has graphite on one side (facing the plaque) and is white on the other side, so you can also run it through your printer, printing directly on it! This would save you one extra step, but I just wasn't in the mood... Read more →

Inchie Arts Little Village Kits

Hello, Friends ... Today I'm joining up with Inchie Arts and Ellen Hutson for a fun week-long product feature! Inchie Arts has developed some new kits for making city and neighborhood scenes called Little Villages (so far, there are two kits!). The kits were designed for unlimited scenic possibilities! Here, I've created a snowy night-time Christmas village scene: (Click on any photo for a larger view. Bold products are linked below in the supply section). The kits are die cut matboard pieces made out of the same sturdy archival white matboard used for Inchie Arts' signature Art Squares. Today I used the Little Village 2 kit (there is also a Little Village 1 kit). Below are all of the Little Village 2 pieces punched out of the 3-1/2" x 5" matboard piece from which they are die cut (the pieces come still attached in the matboard rectangle, but punch out cleanly and easily): Both kits come with an ATC (2.5"x 3.5") Art Square base, but I decided to use a little larger white 4" Art Square to create this holiday home decor piece. Since this is a holiday piece, I wanted a lot of shimmer, so I dug out some... Read more →

Light up Rudolph Art!

I had too much fun this week, making this 4" x 6' framed light up art piece using new Essentials by Ellen Leaping Deer die and Season to Sparkle stamp and die sets, along with Chibitronics Chibi Lights! Head over to Ellen Hutson's the Classroom for all the details! Read more →

Framed Ice Skates

Hello, Friends! Today I have a wintery framed Christmas art piece to share with you, using Pink Ink Stamp Company's beautiful Pair of Ice Skates image: (Click on any photo for a larger view. Bold products are linked below in the supply section). I started by stamping the image onto a white Inchie Arts 4-inch Art Square with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. Next, I colored the foliage with Copic YG61 and YG63. I used Copic’s NEW! Lavender Multiliners to color in the berries of the foliage. I like the fine point for coloring small spaces, and this Lavender color does not match any of Copic's blue-violet or violet marker colors, so the Multiliner gives you another color option in your BV and V color range! This new Lavender Multiliner is available in five different sizes: 0.03, 0.05, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5. Here, I used 0.3 (fine) and 0.5 (bold): I like having an assortment of Multiliners on hand to add pattern, doodles or to fill in lines of a stamped image that may not have stamped 100%. I also used a Sepia Multiliner to color the branches of the foliage (shown below), as well as the soles of the ice skates.... Read more →

Do Something Creative ...

Hello, Friends! Today I am sharing a custom sign/framed artwork I made for my new studio: I created the sign in a Word document using some fabulous fonts from a great new website I discovered, Little Big Crafter. Both of the fonts I used came from The Craft Room Mega Bundle, which includes 20 fonts, 20 unique quotes and designs for kids, plus some SVG cut files! And when you purchase the bundle you will also receive $5 store credit to spend on whatever you please! If you like this bundle, grab it before May 9, when it won't be offered any longer. And it keeps getting better, folks . . . Little Big Crafter is offering my blog readers a 10% discount code to use on anything in their store! Just enter this code at checkout, for your 10% discount: PAPERFECTIONS10 ... Enjoy! For my sign, I used the Will Shering Sans font for the "Do Something" and "Everyday" words, printing them in pretty colors that coordinate with my studio and the butterflies (more on those a little later): The pretty "Creative" word was created with the Zombis Night font -- I printed it in a very light gray,... Read more →

Masking Using Die Cuts

Today I’m excited to share a masking technique easily made with stamps’ coordinating dies! As you read this, my family and I will be settling into a new home we recently purchased. So I decided to create a piece of artwork to commemorate the occasion using Taylored Expressions Happy New Home stamp set which includes the coordinating dies! I hope you'll join me today over on the Taylored Expressions blog for the full tutorial! Read more →

March New Beginnings & Copic Opaque White 4 Ways!

Happy March, everyone! Today I am sharing a Spring home decor project with you, using some of Pink Ink Stamp Company's latest stamp release! This photo holder/stand was a gift from a dear friend nine years ago, shortly after we moved into our last house. I thought it was only fitting to spruce it up a bit, since we will be moving into a new home in one short month ... thus, the great "New Beginnings" sentiment! So I made a watercolor background on a 4" x 6" piece of watercolor paper using Tumbled Glass Distress Reinker: Once the background was dry, Copic Opaque White was used to paint the clouds -- I thinned it with a bit of water and painted it on the watercolored background with a brush: Next, I stamped Pink Ink's Row of Bulbs and New Beginnings sentiment with Versamark Ink onto an Inchie Arts 2-1/2" x 3-1/2" ATC Art Board and gold heat embossed it. I always love how nice and crisp Pink Ink's red rubber stamp images stamp and emboss -- such pretty fine details! And the Art Board stands up to the heat embossing, Copic coloring AND the Opaque White being heavily painted... Read more →

2016 Peace, Joy, and Love!

I have one last project to share with you this year . . . A fun 8" x 10" custom canvas: I used some of my favorite colors, along with glittery gold and silver accents and some fun new products! Here are the easy steps (all bold products are linked below in the supply section): 1. I started with a blank 8" x 10" white canvas and started planning my layout, using Essentials by Ellen Brushstroke Peace, Joy, and Love dies, along with a Heidi Swapp 6x6 stencil: 2. Next, I airbrushed over the stencil with Copic RV55 for the rose and YG25 for the leaves: I added some shading to the rose with deeper RV66 and YG17 to the leaves. 3. Next, I die cut the Brushstroke Peace, Joy and Love words from Tim Holtz Deco Sheets (gold and silver glitter paper), which are adhesive-backed, so I didn't have to worry about how to adhere them to the canvas! 4. Now for the fun ribbon accents -- I used Imagination International's new Hot Ribbon in Silver (which is glittery metallic!) and Honey (which is a pretty bright golden satin!). This ribbon has a heat-activated adhesive on the back that... Read more →

Roly Poly Christmas & Giveaway Winner!

Hi, Friends! With school being out soon for the holidays, I wanted to share a fun project that can be created with/by kiddos that I’m sure they will enjoy making (and keep them busy!). These coasters would make great teacher or hostess gifts, too! So get out your adorable Taylored Expressions Roly Poly dies and fabulous 100% Wool Felt and head over to the Taylored Expressions blog today for all the details and instructions on how to make them! AND, there's a giveaway there, so be sure to leave a comment for your chance to win! Also, here's the announcement for the winner of my Ellen Hutson LLC giveaway from this blog post: Random.org chose this winning comment number: Congratulations to #22 Karen Ladd, who said: 22 karenladd said... I love a lot of the same products as on your list, especially my Big Shot and Taylored Expressions products! My wish list includes the Misti, since I've been seeing so many wonderful video tutorials, and I always want new dies! I'd love to try out the Misti, too! ;-) I've sent you an email, Karen -- If you will respond with your mailing address, the warehouse will get your awesome... Read more →

Gobble Til You Wobble!

Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away ... are you ready? Maybe this little guy will help: He is a generously-sized 7-3/4" tall x 7-1/4" felt hot pad or coaster for your holiday table! You can get the full tutorial on how to make him today over in Ellen Hutson's the CLASSroom. I hope to see you there! Sharon Read more →

Essentials by Ellen Holiday Release 2 & Giveaway!

Hello, and welcome to the Holiday II Essentials by Ellen Release Hop! I’ll be showcasing several of the new stamp sets and dies on my post today (and so will a lot of very talented designers!) ... AND there's a giveaway, so keep reading! GIVEAWAY I get to give away an Essentials by Ellen stamp set -- the winner may chose ANY Essentials by Ellen brand stamp set (maximum value $15) currently in stock at Ellen Hutson.com! To enter my giveaway, please leave a comment on today’s post with a valid email address by October 27th! (This giveaway is now closed and the winner will be announced Friday, Oct 30 over at the CLASSroom blog). Thank you so much for your very kind comments and for entering! There is also a crazy good Grand Giveaway in the CLASSroom! To enter, be sure to leave a comment there, also by October 27th with a valid email address. Winners will be announced at the CLASSroom on Friday, October 30th! PROJECT #1 (All bold products are linked below in the supply section. Click on any photo for a larger view.) My first project uses Julie's fun new Advent stamps with her new Santa's... Read more →

Scrapbook in a Jar

Hello and happy Friday, friends! I finally took the time to finish a scrappy project I had in mind from our summer vacation this year and this is what I came up with: A scrapbook in a mini mason jar (or several jars)! I hope you'll join me today over in Ellen Hutson's the CLASSroom for all the details on this project! Happy weekend! Read more →