Today I want to share with you a quick, easy and colorful project, one that you could easily enlist the help of children for.

(I made these for my daughter’s room, but now I kind-of want to keep them for myself!)

Let’s get started!

Here are the supplies you will need:

•  Three (3) Studio 71 3×3 inch Mini Canvases (white) (These come in groups of three when you order them at ConsumerCrafts.)
• Victoria Lynn White Pearl Floral Spray
• Queen & Co. Bling Pearls (white)
• Core’dinations Cardstock (white)
• Glue Dots Craft Adhesive
• Studio 71 Wooden Mini Easel (optional)
• 24 Count Crayola Crayons
• EK Success Large Butterfly Punch
• Multi-Purpose Heat Tool
• Scissors

The first thing you need to decide is your color palette. I chose the whole rainbow! I split the spectrum into three sections: Red/Orange, Yellow/Green, and Blue/Purple. I found it worked well to use 3-4 colors per canvas to get a good variety of color.

Peel back and discard the paper on the crayons you wish to use.

Take off and discard the plastic coverings on your canvases.

Place a piece of scrap paper underneath your canvas, to keep your work space clean.

Here we go!

Hold your heat gun over the top of the tip of your crayon, and allow it to start to melt.

Let the drips from the crayon cover the canvas as desired.

Keep in mind, the heat from the heat gun will keep the crayon on the canvas liquid, and the drops on the canvas will spread.

Add additional colors as desired.

This is where it starts to get fun!

Keep adding color, and let the colors mix and swirl.

While the crayons are still molten on the canvas, you can tilt the canvas, and allow the crayons to mix and drip. I let mine drip right off the side of the canvas!

Look how cool the texture of the canvas is with the melted crayons!

Let the canvas dry, and the crayons harden.

Then you can add color splatters to the canvas.

Heat the crayon away from the finished canvas. This will keep the color already on the canvas from re-melting.

When the crayon starts dripping, hold the dripping crayon over the canvas, tap it, and allow it to splatter!

Are you having fun yet?

Repeat with your other canvases, and your selected colors.

Let the canvases dry. It doesn’t take long.

Using white Core’dinations cardstock, and a large butterfly punch, punch two butterflies per canvas.

Trim the antennas from the butterflies.

(I would like to thank my eight year old daughter Mikayla, for assisting me. She was my photographer, and the hand-model in the next photo.)

(We both clearly need manicures!)

Take a glue dot, and stretch it out to cover the body of the (bottom) butterfly.

(Designer note: make sure your working area is free from stray crayon residue, or you will be punching a bunch of extra white butterflies to replace the ones that inadvertently got colored while you worked on them. Just saying.)

Trim two strands of the pearl sprays from the bunch, and place them in the (stretched) glue dot.

With your second (top) butterfly, bend the wings upwards at the body section, and adhere it to the bottom butterfly, using the stretched glue dot.

Add a strip of adhesive Bling pearls down the center of the butterfly body.

Adhere the finished butterfly to your finished canvas using glue dots.

Trim those pearl spray antennas as desired.

That’s it!

You can choose to display your creative, artistic, FABULOUS canvases on easels:

Or on the wall:

Either way, you might have to sign the bottoms of those canvases, because people aren’t going to believe you actually made them yourself!

Supplies:

• Core’dinations 12″ x 12″ Paper – WhiteWash Collection – Color: Barn Siding  – Pack of 20 Sheets (available through our customer service department at 1-888-552-7238)
• 10” Straw Wreath
• Poly Satin Ribbon in Ivory
• 6″ White Sparkle Tulle
• Hot Glue Gun & Glue
• Spray Adhesive
• Martha Stewart Fine Crystal Glitter

I used my paper trimmer to cut the 12″ x 12″ sheets into four equal 6″ x 6″ squares.  I then made a template of a circle on each one (I traced around a CD, but it doesn’t need to be exact by any means).  I then tore out the circles by hand.  Because the paper has a color core, it gives a great antique look when torn.  For an even more antiqued look, sand the circle to distress it and reveal more of the Core’dinations ColorCore center.

To turn these imperfect circles into flowers you want to start at the outer edge and carefully rip them into a spiral.  It is helpful to keep the size of the spiral consistent, so you might want to pencil in the spiral shape before you start tearing.  This process took a while, but it’s an easy one to do while you catch up on some TV.

Next you can start rolling the roses.  Start rolling the flower beginning with the outside edge.  Roll as tightly as possible, keeping the bottom edge aligned at all times.  You can either roll the white or the deep red side toward the inside.  I did both and mixed them up.

When the flower is rolled completely tight, carefully pinch together, then let it go and it will spring into shape. 

You can experiment with how much you want it to open up and manipulate it to how you like.  When you get the rose to its desired size, hot glue the base together.  For more rolled paper rose techniques, click HERE.

Once you have all of your roses assembled, line them up on a piece of newspaper or a drop cloth and lightly spray with the spray adhesive.  While the roses are still tacky with the adhesive, sprinkle them with the Martha Stewart Glitter.  I love, love, love Martha glitter so I used a heavy hand.  Obviously the glitter is not necessary, but even if you don’t glitter them, you will want to give them a little spray just to keep the roses in place.

Next, while your roses dry (about 15 mins) wrap your straw wreath with the satin ribbon.  I like the one I used by Darice, because it is not slippery – it is more of a floral ribbon.  Hot glue the ribbon into place.  Warning- the wreath will shed some, don’t be alarmed.  The ribbon will keep it from continuing to shed. 

Start to assemble your roses onto the wreath.  This part is like a puzzle.  I just kept fitting them in and once I found a spot I liked, I hot glued it in.

Continue to place roses until you have the desired fullness.  You will be surprised by the weight of the overall wreath (that’s a lot of heavy cardstock!).  Overall I used about  75 roses on a 10” wreath.  I added a white tulle bow to hang and finish it off beautifully!

Voila!  This wreath is not only perfect for Valentine’s Day but versatile enough to stay up all year-round!

To do this technique, you’ll need:

• Darice Embossing folders that have a “window” in the design (I used the Star Frame)
• Cutting Mat
• Craft Blade
• Darice Tape Runner
• Tacky Glue
• Punches that go with your theme - I used the Martha Stewart “anywhere” star punch.
• Darice Card Blanks
• Core’Dinations Cardstock

The technique is really, really simple. First you emboss your Core’Dinations cardstock in your choice of color. (Core’Dinations is the best cardstock for this technique because there is a colored core versus plain white.)

(Note how I didn’t trim the cardstock yet- that can wait until you get ready to mount it to the front of the card blanks.) Next, use your dry adhesive to attach the cardstock to the card blank. Use a fair amount- don’t be stingy!

Now open up the card and place it right-side-up on the cutting mat. Use your craft blade to cut out the inside of the window, cutting through both layers.

Turn the card back the right way and use the sanding block to lightly distress the embossed portion to reveal the colored core underneath. Determine the approximate middle of the window. Use your punch to cut a two matching shapes. (I used two different shades of blue.)

Glue the first shape (in this case the star) in the middle of the window. Take the second punched shape and bend it from the midpoint to create a 3-D effect. Use a little dab of glue to layer.

Cute, right? And you can add your sentiment inside:

Here’s a version using the butterfly embossing folder and Martha Stewart punches:

Go make some cards!

First off, let’s see just how the system works together to get that perfect “around the page” look. Well, first of all, you need to cut an accurate piece of paper! My first attempt was foiled by mis-cutting the paper. (Note to self: not everything can be eyeballed!)

The inclosed directions are for the following lengths:

• 3.25 in / 8.25 cm
• 5 in / 12.7 cm
• 6.75 in / 17.15 cm
• 10.25 in / 26.04 cm
• 12 in / 30.48 cm

This also means that if you’re looking for an in-between size, you’re out of luck- the system only works on these increments. My suggestion is to laminate this cheat-sheet and keep it handy(- or bookmark this post so you can find those measurements again.)

First, you punch your corners. The “wings” make sure you punch perfectly! Then, you follow up with punching your border edges. Now, the border punch built to be almost fool-proof. The punched image is foiled onto the top of the tool, with images also printed on the deck. This allows you to line up your image with your punched paper for perfect repeats. There is even an image guideline for the corners, so that everything is lined up perfectly.

Use the images on the deck to perfectly line up the paper.

This photo shows what it looks like when the image is not lined up properly.

My first try was with the smallest increment- a square of 3.25 inch cardstock. I mounted it on a 3.25 square so you could see how the punch makes the paper about 1/16 of an inch smaller- so it’s easy to make a perfect mat.

Then I made a mat for a text block that 3.25 inches by 6.75 inches:  this will accommodate at text block that’s 2 1/8 inches by 5.5 inches- great for using on a scrapbook page.

Then I made a little discovery- if you cut a square of  paper 2 inches wide, you could made a sweet medallion just using the corner punch. I placed one on a card, and used some DCWV adhesive-backed paper to make a little border.

Use a 2″ square of paper to make a medallion. Layer 2 to get a Celtic look.

I also cut a 2″ strip by 5 inches, and used it to make a bookmark.

I love the scrolls and how they just lend themselves to adding rhinestones or dots of glitter/glue.

You can also cut around a card front, but you might need to trim the card down to size before you start to punch. These card blanks from Core’Dinations are 5X7 inches- so I had to trim one edge down 1/4. This way you get a nice edge around three edges…but I really didn’t like the way it looked at the top. I added one of those “book marks” to the top of the card. I’ll add a greeting to this area later.

Lastly, I got it in my head that I might be able to use the border punch to replicate a “paper lace” look. So I cut 2 strips of paper, 2 inches and 1 1/2 inches, respectively, and just punched up both sides. Voila! Paper lace!

On the whole, I think these are fun stamps, and they are pretty versatile, too. You can use just the corners, just the borders to make paper lace, or combinations to make mats, borders, and embellishments.

I’ve tried my best to label what I’ve used on each area of the canvases, but keep in mind that you may see things in each post that I’m not covering in that day’s post.  Rest assured that I will cover it in one of the other posts in the series.

Materials used (throughout all three parts in the series):

• Stretched canvases (I used 11×14 and 8×10)
• Acrylic paint (assorted colors)
• Assorted brushes
• Paper plate or waxed paper

Materials used (specific to Part 3):

• Shelf liner (assorted)
• Plastic canvas
• Paper doily
• Crocheted doily
• Jumbo Lego
• Credit card
• Wire mesh
• Perfect Pearls
• water spray bottle
• water
• permanent black ink pad

Once again, prepare your paint by pouring some on a paper plate or waxed paper.  With today’s assortment of goodies, we have the opportunity to use the items in more dual-functionality.  Because so many of the items on this list are open-weave type items, they can be used as either stencils OR to apply paint…giving you two different types of texture on your background, both of which are very cool looking.

Shelf liners are super fun and come in a variety of textures.  I used both solid, ridged liner and open-weave liner on my canvases, and you will see that I used the solid one with ink as well as paint.  Doilies, both paper and crocheted, are another favorite – and can be used in both ways as well.

Shelf liners, crocheted doily as paint stencil

Paper doily, corrugated cardboard

Doilies are also great for using with spray inks, and I used a homemade Perfect Pearl spray over a crocheted doily on my canvas in a couple different places to add additional dimension.

Perfect Pearls spray ink over crocheted doily

Old credit cards (gift cards, etc) are also great for spreading paint on a background, and you can see it used with the yellow paint and green paint on these canvases.  Plastic canvas (which comes in assorted sizes) and wire mesh are two other favorites, and were also both used on these canvases (magenta paint with plastic canvas, white for wire mesh).

Credit card, plastic canvas

Credit card, wire mesh

Finally, you can see on this canvas where I used a few of these items on a black stamp pad – the shelf liner, a lego, some plastic canvas, a t.p. roll…to stamp over the paint for additional layering.

When you put it all together…with the techniques from all three parts of this series, you are able to create your own unique backgrounds, whether it be on canvas, paper, or whatever other surface you desire.  Keep coming back, as other members of our awesome design team pick up different techniques from this series and carry them out in their own projects throughout the month!

I love nothing more than being covered in ink and paint – and I have learned that sometimes the best ways to apply them to my substrates are to use free items which are already floating around in my house!  This post is the second in a 3-part series on creating textured backgrounds with paint and ink, and in this post I will show you how to recycle some common household objects in your art process before tossing them!

I’ve tried my best to label what I’ve used on each area of the canvases, but keep in mind that you may see things in each post that I’m not covering in that day’s post.  Rest assured that I will cover it in one of the other posts in the series.

Materials used (throughout all three parts in the series):

• Stretched canvases (I used 11×14 and 8×10)
• Acrylic paint (assorted colors)
• Assorted brushes
• Paper plate or waxed paper

Materials used (specific to part 2):

• Toilet paper tube
• Paper roll tube
• Plastic mesh packaging material
• Bubble wrap
• Corrugated cardboard
• Flexible plastic packaging from craft products
• Mail – post card advertisements
• Plastic grocery bag
• Used paper towel

As in the first part of this series, begin by pouring a selection of acrylic paint colors on your palette of choice – I prefer to use a paper plate or a piece of waxed paper myself.  Then begin experimenting with the items listed above, as well as any other recycled items you may think of.  For the bubble wrap, you will use a paint brush to brush some paint onto the bubble wrap, then use the bubble wrap as a stamp, pressing it down onto your background surface.  (This works best if your kids haven’t already popped all of the bubbles – trust me!)  Save other types of packaging materials you receive as well – I had a type of plastic woven material which I used as a sort of stencil on my canvas.  With the toilet paper tube, try glopping (a technical term) some paint along the length of it, then using the tube to spread the paint across your canvas.  Then use either your t.p. tube or paper towel tube and dip the ends into your paint, and stamp them onto your canvas – an instant “tea ring” stamp.

Woven plastic packaging used as stencil; corrugated cardboard used as stamp; bubble wrap used as stamp

To use corrugated cardboard, simply peel one side of the smooth facing off, to reveal the ridged corrugations in the middle.  Brush some paint onto the corrugations, and us the piece as a stamp, pressing it down onto your background, to get a lined effect.

Punchinella is a popular crafting item right now – it is the ribbon which is left over when sequins are made.  I don’t have any, but I like the idea of using it as a stencil for paint and acrylic mediums; so I took a piece of flexible plastic packaging, and used my Crop-a-dile to punch several rows of holes in it … instant “punchinella”!!  This is a great way to recycle some of those plastic packages from Grungeboard, Sizzix dies, etc.  And for things like this, with openings, you can use both the positive and negative space – use it as a stencil, and you get little circles of paint; or apply paint to the plastic, then put it down on the canvas, and you get the opposite effect.

Holes punched in plastic packaging

Junk mail can even be used for applying paint!  Try squirting some paint directly onto your surface, then using a postcard to scrape the paint across the surface, covering it as little or as much as desired.  Whatever strokes or texture you create will dry in the paint.  To take it a step further, as mentioned in a previous post, use one of the other items mentioned to lift some of the paint OFF to create even more texture.

Finally, many of these items can also be used with ink as well.  I demonstrated the toilet paper roll ends in paint on one canvas, and with jet black Archival ink on another canvas.  Applying permanent ink or spray inks over acrylic paint is yet another way to add layers and dimension to your background.

TP roll in paint - both on side and on end

Can see TP roll end stamped in black ink

So here I’ve left you with a few more ideas for adding texture to your backgrounds, using recycled objects which you undoubtedly having laying around your home.  In my next and final part of this series, I will discuss re-purposing some things that have other intended purposes for creating texture.  Isn’t this SO MUCH FUN?!  I *LOVE* this stuff!!  Are your hands full of paint yet???

You may want to create your own background for a scrapbooking layout, or you may want to create a large sheet of work to later cut up into smaller pieces to use for ATC’s (check back later in the month for a couple posts specifically on ATC’s!!).  Or, like I will demonstrate in this series, you may want to create a foundation on canvas as a beginning layer for a piece of canvas art.

The series will be broken into three parts – Kitchen Objects, Recycled Materials, and Re-Purposed Materials (things that have other intended uses).  I’ve tried my best to label what I’ve used on each area of the canvases, but keep in mind that you may see things in each post that I’m not covering in that day’s post.  Rest assured that I will cover it in one of the other posts in the series.

I *love* paint and ink.  Seriously love.  I am never happier than when I am in my studio, hands covered with layers of ink and paint, working on one (or several) pieces of art.  And it pleases me to no end that one of my 3-year old twin daughters has recently been asking, rather frequently, if she can “make art” with me.  I used to think that I needed all kinds of cool tools and gadgets for using to make my art.  My best friend and I were just talking a couple weeks ago about this one scrapbooking tool in particular which the industry had managed to convince us that we just HAD to have several years ago…which we both paid $15 for…and which neither of us EVER used and recently both tossed.  I’ve come to realize that often, the most basic items are the best when it comes to making beautiful art.  And that’s what this series is going to be about.

Materials used (throughout all three parts in the series):

• Stretched canvases (I used 11×14 and 8×10)
• Acrylic paint (assorted colors)
• Assorted brushes
• Paper plate or waxed paper

Materials used (specific to Part 1)

• Cleaning sponges (assorted)
• Steel brush
• Mesh scrubbie
• Metallic coil scrubbie
• Paper towel
• Grocery bag

Begin by selecting a few paint colors you’d like to work with, and squirt some out on your surface of choice.  I tend to use either a paper plate or (more often than not) a piece of waxed paper.

Here are some ideas of things you might look for in your kitchen, to use for applying paint and/or ink, to add texture to your backgrounds:

All of these make great paint/ink applicators

You can experiment with applying paint using any of the “kitchen” items I’ve listed above.  In the photos below, I’ve demonstrated how paint looks when applied to a canvas using some of the listed items.  The way I do this is to use a brush or foam applicator to apply some paint to the sponge/brush/scrubbie, then apply the paint to the canvas, dabbing as desired.  (You will see other items labeled on the photo as well – these will be discussed in future posts.)

Steel brush, Mesh scrubbie

Splatter with metal brush, coil

In addition to using found objects for applying paint, you can also use them for removing paint.  The sponges pictured above would be great for lifting off excess paint, leaving a textured image behind.  Both plastic grocery bags and paper towels (even the ones you’ve already wiped your painted hands on!) are also great for dabbing on your canvas to remove excess paint and creating more texture as well.

I hope I’ve given you some ideas to get you started, and in the next part of this series, we’ll talk about using recycled objects with paint and ink for creating texture on your backgrounds!

• Cricut
• Walk in my Garden Cartridge (read a review of that HERE.)
• Core’dinations Card Stock (I used the Super Assortment pack)
• Wire Flower Stems
• 3D Pop Up glue Dots
• Dry adhesive/tape runner
• Round Nose pliers

I started by cutting the daisy shaped flower out of my cricut cartridge in various sizes.

This is a pic of the daisy shapes once they are cut. I chose to cut my flowers at 2″, 2.5″, and 3″. I used the shadow feature on all of them. Then, I cut another 2″ daisy without the shadow feature.  I also cut circles for corresponding centers for the flowers.

Next, curl the edges of your flowers as if you were curling ribbon on a present. I used a craft stick as a tool for curling it. You can see what I mean in the pictures below:

Repeat this step and curl the edges of all your flowers. Next, gently poke your wire stem through the center of your largest flower and continue poking your other flowers, too. Layer them with the largest on the bottom and the smallest on top. Once you have all your flowers layered, take your wire pliers and curl the end of your stem as shown in the pic below:

Now, to finish securing your flowers to the stem, flip your flower over and curl the wire on the back of your flower, the same way you did on the front.

Next, take one of your circles and adhere a 3D pop dot to the back of the circle, then attach the paper circle to the center of your top flower, like the picture below:

Next, to create the leaf, I simply cut a leaf shape from the cricut cartridge and then folded it in half, then crumpled it. This gives it added texture. I then applied a small amount of dry adhesive to the tip of the leaf and wrapped the leaf around the stem as shown:

There are so many ways to use these flowers. You can use them as embellishments on cards and scrapbook pages, picture frames and so many other projects. Next week, I’ll be posting a project I created using these adorable daisies!

Today we’re featuring Core’Dinations Color Core Cardstock! It’s the only cardstock on the market that has a colored core- no boring white here- so you can sand, emboss, tear and texture your papercrafts with stunning results.

What you’ll get is 4 packs of awesome paper: Jenni Bowlin Vintage Brights 12×12, Black Magic Assortment 6×6, Black Magic Assortment 12×12, Super Assortment 4.5×6.5.

But don’t just take our word for it, watch this little video. And there are some GREAT ideas here, too:

Did you get inspired? Wonderful….now quick, comment to enter to win the giveaway and you can be working with these marvelous papers soon!

Congrats to yesterday’s winner Amy, enjoy the rings!

This weekend I spent hours working on a paper rosette tutorial using the MS Scoring Board. Then, as I was researching something else, I ran across a video on YouTube that does it WAY better than me. So I figured I’d share that video with you and then throw my two cents in. So here’s a great video tutorial by UKmaryanne:

Aren’t those darling? However, I’m kind of lazy and I don’t always have the inclination to sew. SO- instead, I go ahead and cut my circles (I like to use the Scalloped Circles Nestabilities die) and then use tacky glue to adhere the scalloped circle to my accordion-folded paper, like this:

Then place your scalloped circle (it’s often called a “seal”) on top of the rosette and weigh it down so that it doesn’t pop back up into a tube. I find my coffee mug does a fine job! It only has to stay there until the glue sets up well.

Here’s a tip: If you are doing a lot of these, you may want to get a set of coasters and place them in between your glued rosettes.

Once they are dry, you’re ready to go! Now, if you are using 12 inch paper, the largest width you can use for a strip is 1.5 inches. Keep in mind that a 1.5 inch strip will make a rosette that is about 3.5 inches across. But if you want a larger one, say for a centerpiece, you’ll need to add extra paper to the length. That’s easy enough- just cut another strip of the same width, score and fold as you normally would, then add it on. So then, for example, my 6 inch rosettes were made from 2.75 inch wide strips, but I had to add another 12 inches of paper, making a 24 inch LONG strip. Make sense?

But if you want to make large rosettes, an easier way may be to make fan-folded flowers. I remember making these in grade school from notebook paper!

For this version, cut your paper strip 4″ wide (this will make a 4″ rosette.) Score with the MS Scoring Board every 1/2 inch, then fan-fold.

Using Bowdabra wire, tie securely in the middle of the folded paper:

Open it until the edges meet. Glue with a tacky glue and clip with binder clips or paper clips until it’s dry.

Presto! Flower rosette! Now, I will say that with this technique, using scrapbooking paper is preferred over cardstock. It just folds better.

But experiment and have fun- that’s what crafting is all about. Stay tuned for fun projects using this technique!

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