Published in the September Issue of Scrapbooking.com

Hi everyone. It is always such an honor to share that I've been published. Scrapbooking.com has featured two of my projects in the September Issue. You may click on the links below to view them.

Girlie Grunge Trinket Box ~ Mixed Media Department

Cherish Family ~ Papercrafting Department

Be sure to check out the entire Scrapbooking.com September Issue for inspiration HERE.

~ Blessings ~

October Scraps of Darkness Kit Now Available

It's time for the new kit release at Scraps of Darkness. 

If you've followed SOD through the years, you probably know that Melinda always does a Scraps of Darkness Halloween kit in October.  And if that's the case, you also know that she never does a "cute" Halloween kit!  

Stop by the Scraps of Darkness blog for all the details and photos of the fabulous add ons HERE.

This kit and add ons can be purchased at the Scraps of Darkness Store HERE.

Girlie Grunge Christmas Card for Donna Salazar

Christmas is around the corner, so I thought I'd get a jump start on making my cards by pairing Donna's yummy goodies with the new PhotoPlay Dear Santa collection. You can hop on over to Donna's blog HERE for close-ups and all the details.

Here's a little sneak peek:

~ Blessings ~

Donna Salazar Designs Products

Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L®

E-Z Stars

Pigment Powder - Gold

Lace Ribbons

Texture Ribbons

Clearsnap®/Colorbox®

Mix'd Media Inx® ~ Stormy

Mix'd Media Inx® CHOX ~ Midnight

Mix'd Media Inx® Embossing Powder ~ Jasmine

Smooch Spritz® ~ Evergreen

Twinkle Dust Glitter ~ Sugar Shimmer

Emboss Gloss® 

Spellbinders®

Rose Creations

Partner Products

Home & Hobby by 3L® ~ Premium Double-Sided Tape - 1/8" Permanent

Adhesive Sheets - 4x6”

DODZ™ - Medium

3D Foam Snowflakes

Photo Play

Dear Santa

 Cozy Up

Let it Snow

Element Sticker

Other Products

White Cardstock ~ Stash

Liquitex ~ Clear Gesso

Higgins ~ Drawing Ink - white

Close to My Heart ~ Everlasting Life - Holidays D1440

Helmar ~ 450 Quick Dry Adhesive

Martha Stewart Crafts ~ Mini Scoring Board

Spellbinders ~ Artisan X-plorer (Retired)

Darice ~ Heat Tool

Whimsical Birdhouse with Faux Bark for Helmar

Hi everyone!! It's Tracey here with my final project as a Helmar designer.

I would like to thank Helmar for allowing me to design with their amazing adhesives over the past two years. I was a huge fan of Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesives before I joined the team because it adheres so well to all of my mixed media projects. Once I received my first generous package of Helmar adhesives I began to realize just how wonderful all their products are. It's been so much fun creating projects for all you Helmar fans out there!

Today I'm sharing a fun and whimsical home decor project with you. Earlier this summer I discovered that my mom has developed a fondness for decorative birdhouses so I started to look for ideas. I found a faux bark technique used for fairy houses and thought I'd give it a try on this birdhouse featuring Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA Glue.

Tips and Techniques

I found a roll of Viva Paper towels that only has ridges in the design (no swirls) that I thought would work well for the tree bark. I mixed together a solution of about half water and half Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA Glue. I poured some onto a paper plate that had a slick finish that wouldn't absorb the glue mixture.

Lay one sheet of paper towel into the glue mixture at a time, squeezing out the excess glue. Place the wet towel on a craft mat and scrunch it with your fingers to form vertical folds. Lay the wet, scrunched towed on the surface where you want to create the faux bark. Continue to apply the scrunched towel sections until you've worked your way all around the base with one layer. Additional layers can be added if desired to build up gnarls and roots.

Here's a close-up for a better view of the texture. It doesn't look like much, but the paint brings it to life. 

Place your project on waxed paper or a non-stick craft mat to dry completely before painting. I left mine overnight, but depending on how wet the toweling is, it might take longer to dry. 

Start by painting the background black. You can spray paint this part. I had a couple old bottles of black craft glue I wanted to use up, so I watered it down and brushed it on. Be sure to get into all the crevices. Allow the paint to dry. I used a heat tool to speed up the process. Then use a foam brush to lightly apply brown paint to bring out the textures. The color and amount of paint are up to personal preference.

Isn't this texture so life-like and wonderful?

My mom adores cardinals and rabbits, so I embellished the tree with both.

Moss is adhered to the roof using Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive.

I cut out small pieces of kraft cardstock to fit between the roots for a place to put the rabbits. I adhered the paper with Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive, along with the rabbit. Then I used Helmar Super-Tac EVA Glue to adhere moss, bits of bark, and twigs here and there around the base of the tree.

I created hanging vines from the roof by adhering strings of moss with Helmar Premium Craft Glue.

I hope you've been inspired to grab your Helmar glue and some paper towels to create a faux bark project of your own.

Helmar Products

Craft & Hobby PVA Glue

450 Quick Dry Adhesive

Premium Craft Glue

Super-Tac EVA Glue

Other products

Round Wooden Bird House ~ Michaels

Moss ~ Craft store floral department

Viva Paper Towels

Acrylic Craft Paint ~ Stash - black, brown

Darice ~ Yard & Garden - Resin Mini Rabbits

Darice ~ Nature’s Friends - Mini Cardinal Feathered

Darice ~ Heat Tool

Thanks for stopping by! I treasure your comments.

~ Blessings ~

Mixed Media Tag & Card Set with VIDEO TUTORIAL ~ Scraps of Elegance September Kit

Hi everyone, today I'm sharing a gift card and tag set I created with the fabulous September Scraps of Elegance kit. One of my sweet scrapbooking friends is expecting her first baby. Tiff is an elementary school art teacher and a mentor when it comes to combining colors so I wanted to create something extra special for her. Her baby decor colors are green, pink, and watermelon, so the tag is also designed to be a wallhanging for Aly's room. 

I've created a process video sharing the steps and techniques

used to create my shabby chic, mixed media wallhanging tag.

I'm featuring a background technique using the

Rebecca Baer Moroccan Tile & Vine Stencil.

(Similar techniques are used to create the card.)

Enjoy!

   

If you enjoyed my video, please subscribe to my channel HERE.
Thanks so much for subscribing!

Here's the fabulous Lisa's Sweet September Kit:

I've also used the following for my card & tag set:

Creativity Add On

Elements Add On

Floral Add On

Color Add On

Scraps of Elegance Links:

Store: http://www.scrapsofdarkness.com/

Rebecca Baer Stencils: http://www.scrapsofdarkness.com/brands/Rebecca-Baer.html

Blog: http://scrapsofdarkness.blogspot.com/

Online Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/scrapsofdarkness/

Close-ups

Here you can see the texture details. I'm really enjoying the US ArtquestPrills that have been coming in the kits. (Also available in the SOD Store) These tiny pearl-like beads as you can see, are all different sizes, giving additional visual dimension and texture. Dry brushing and pooling with mist as shown in the video adds depth to the texture they create.

Here you can see the layered design created with the Rebecca Baer Stencil.

Here's a shot of the card. As you can see, the techniques used here are similar to those employed for the tag.

One final shot.

Product List

Scraps Of Elegance - September Main Kit: Lisa's Sweet September

Blue Fern Studios - Autumn Anthology Collection: Gazebo

Graphic 45 - Gilded Lily Collection:  Creme de la Creme

Blue Fern Studios: Laser Cut Chipboard - Heart Crowns

Prima: Debutante Flowers - Alcinia

Prima: Chalk Fluid Edger Pad - Pastel Brown

Creativity Add On

Faber-Castell - Designer Gelatos Series - Manhattan Set, Gold Champagne

Stampendous - Encrusted Jewel Kit- Bronze, Golden Sand Embossing Powder

US Artquest - Prills - Lettuce Entertain You

Elements Add On

Rebecca Baer - 7.75" x 7.75" Stencil - Moroccan Tile Medium ST-8004

Magnolia - Gold Berries Stem

Color Add On

Blue Fern Studios - Imagine Ink - Persimmon

Floral Add On

Prima - Debutante Flowers - Lucca

Previous Kits

July 2015 ~ Dovecraft ~ Bohemian - Lace Ribbon

April 2015 ~ Prima ~ Butterfly - Chenille #580650

Store

Resin Icons Prima ~ Feathers #573355

Other Products

ColorBok ~ Victorian Parlour - Clear Stickers

Liquitex ~ Gesso - Clear, white

Ranger ~ Perfect Medium

Higgins ~ Drawing Ink - white

Spellbinders ~ Foliage Flourish Dies

Close to my Heart ~ Casual Expressions - Occasions D1525

Home & Hobby by 3L Premium Double-Sided Tape - 1/2” Permanent

Helmar ~ 450 Quick Dry Adhesive

Helmar ~ Super-Tac EVA Glue

Helmar ~ Liquid Scrap Dots

Tombow Multi Mono Liquid Glue

Darice Heat Tool

Tim Holtz ~ Grid Blocks

Thanks for stopping by! I treasure your comments.

~ Blessings ~

Fall Banner for Donna Salazar

Can you believe in all my years of crafting, I've never created a banner? . . . that is until now.

I'm up on the Donna Salazar Blog with a girlie grunge banner. Donna's creative team has the wonderful opportunity to work with collections by the new PhotoPlay paper company this month. I've paired Donna's products with their Autumn Day collection for my banner.

Here's a sneak peek:

Stop by Donna's blog to see how I've created this sweet banner HERE.

~ Blessings ~

Donna Salazar Designs Products

Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L®

Dodz™ XL

Pigment Powder - Pink

Pigment Powder - Gold

Pigment Powder - Brown

Lace Ribbons

Pennant Set

Clearsnap®/Colorbox®

Mix'd Media Inx® ~ Jasmine

Mix'd Media Inx® CHOX ~ Midnight, Sparrow

Mix'd Media Inx® Embossing Powder ~ Jasmine

Smooch Spritz® ~ Pralines & Cream

Spellbinders®

Bitty Blossoms

Partner Products

Home & Hobby by 3L® ~ Premium Double-Sided Tape - 1/8" Permanent

PhotoPlay
PhotoPlay ~ Autumn Day - Plaid
Photo Play ~ Autumn Day - Multi Stripe
Photo Play ~ Autumn Day - Element Sticker 

Other Products

Flower Pods ~ Stash

(Can be found in the floral department of craft stores)

Hemptique ~ Hemp Cord - 20#, white

Black and variegated hemp cord for twine flowers ~ Stash

(Found in jewelry department of craft stores)

Eyelets ~ Stash

Helmar ~ 450 Quick Dry Adhesive

We R Memory Keepers ~ Crop-A-Dile

Darice ~ Heat Tool

Vintage Rose Jay Pendant with VIDEO TUTORIAL ~ Scraps of Elegance August Kit

It's reveal day for my second video tutorial with the August Scraps of Elegance Kit.

I thought I would change things up a bit this time. The August SOE Creativity Add On is filled with brass Vintaj pieces and Ranger Vintaj Patina along with the Reliefing Block. Before I started scrapbooking, I dabbled in jewelry making - mostly beaded pieces. As soon as I saw these fabulous items, I knew they would make up into a gorgeous necklace.

Now if you're thinking, jewelry making is not for me. (Gasp!) Not a problem - you can use the same process and products to create beautiful, one of a kind metal pieces for your papercrafted projects. These pieces are so beautiful, you may just take up jewelry making so that you can display them on a regular basis!

Vintage Rose Jay Pendant Tutorial

If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe to my channel HERE.

Thanks so much for subscribing!

Here's the gorgeous August Scraps of Elegance Kit:

Creativity Add On

Scraps of Elegance Links:

Store: http://www.scrapsofdarkness.com/

Blog: http://scrapsofdarkness.blogspot.com/

Online Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/scrapsofdarkness/

Close-ups:

Product List

Scraps Of Elegance - August Kit - Mallika's Whimsy

SOE Creativity Add On
Ranger ~ Vintaj - Patina, Quartz
Ranger ~ Vintaj - Matte Glaze - .5oz
Vintaj ~ Natural Brass - 20x14mm Embossed Keyhole
Vintaj ~ Natural Brass - 47mm Rose Jay
Vintaj - Metal Reliefing Block

SOD August Creativity Add On
Ranger ~ Vintaj - Patina Kit, Weathered Copper - Moss/Verdigris/Jade

Other Products
Vintaj - Filigree 15x21mm
Darice ~ Tri-Chip Shell Beads
Darice ~ Signed, Sealed, Remembered Altered Art Jewelry - Head Pins, Jump Rings
Solid Oak ~ Steampunk Chain, Antique Gold
Chain-Nosed Pliers
Round Nose Pliers

Thanks for stopping by! I treasure your comments.

~ Blessings ~

"Goodbye" Card for the September Craft Hoarders Anonymous Hop

Welcome to the September Craft Hoarders Anonymous Hop! 

I hope you are enjoying the inspiration from this group of amazingly talented "craft hoarders!" It's such a treat to be part of this group of artists who are as sweet as they are talented!

You should be coming to my blog from Amber Milone. After visiting me, hop over to Donna Idlet next! To start at the beginning of the hop, and for the full list of Bloggers,  please head over to Gloria's Blog!

I'll be giving away a $5 JoAnn's gift card (US only),

so be sure to scroll down for the details.

Life is full of unexpected happenings and sometimes those events are tragic. The Stanley family lost their sweet 15 year old daughter to a tragic farm accident last month. I wanted to create a card that reflected happy memories of Sarah, from her beloved cowgirl boots and denim to fluttering butterflies.

"Goodbye"

My stash includes bits of handcrafted items I've created along the way in addition to my hoard of paper, flowers and other embellishments. I had this lace-edged Girlie Grunge Denim Rose left over from a tutorial I created for Donna Salazar Designs, and it was a perfect fit for this card.

Here's my video showing how the roses are created.

"Girlie Grunge Denim Rose"

Remember that JoAnn's gift card I mentioned?

I will be giving it away to one of my YouTube subscribers.

To be eligible:

~ Subscribe to my YouTube Channel HERE - both current and new followers are eligible.

~ Leave a comment here on my blog or on my denim rose YouTube video letting me know you subscribe to my channel. (Be sure to let me know your YouTube user name if you leave a comment here.)

~The prize is eligible for Subscribers residing in the US.

I will be announcing a randomly selected winner on October 1.

Now for some details on how I used my crafty hoard to create this card.

Sarah adored fluttering butterflies, so I colored this sweet Prima resin piece with Mix'd Media Inx. 

I'll let you in on a little secret. I owned a collection (er hoard) of chunky glass glitter and microbeads before they became the hot item they currently are in mixed media crafting. I like to scatter them around my clusters and adhere them with Helmar Super-Tac - a super strong, fast drying adhesive that dries clear. I apply it with an old paint brush one section at a time and lightly sprinkle with glitter and microbeads.

If you had a chance to view my video, you saw how easy this Girlie Grunge Denim Rose is to create using Donna Salazar's Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L products.

I have a couple drawers full of chipboard, and this wagon wheel is a Dusty Attic piece I picked up a couple years ago. I simply heat embossed the wheel to give it an aged iron look.

I have a friend who owns horses and enjoys giving her pages a western horse feel, so when I saw this package of wooden western items I picked it up for her. Needless to say the cowgirl boot was not in the package. It was just the thing I needed to help personalize this card for Sarah's family. I inked the boot with Donna Salazar's Leather Mix'd Media Inx (the perfect color!) and added the heart charm from my stash. The cross is a Momenta piece. No special treatment here. It is simply glued down to reflect Sarah's sweet faith.

I have a collection of sentiment stamps and used this one by Close to My Heart to stamp onto Denim. I have a way of messing up stamped sentiment images, so I try to come up with creative ways to stamp them on something other than my background paper. Here I've stamped the image on denim first, then cut around it. Finally I distressed and inked the edges. I also stamped some grungy flourishes across the background paper.

A while back I created lots and lots of twine flowers. I still have some floating around and tucked one into my cluster. A step by step photo tutorial for these flowers can be found here.

This Tim Holtz metal border sticker gives a bit of dimension as well as a western feel.

The card edges are distressed.

I've had this Authentique paper in my stash for years. Sarah adored both denim and butterflies, so this paper couldn't have been more perfect for this card!

I hope you've been inspired to dig into your hoard of papercrafting supplies and use some of them up on a new project!

Your next stop on the Craft Hoarders Anonymous Blog Hop is Donna Idlet. If you have dropped by my blog and would like to start at the beginning, be sure to hop on over to Gloria's blog HERE. 

Products

Authentique ~ Genuine - “True”

Card Base - stash

Tim Holtz ~ ideology - Industrious Stickers, Borders

Dusty Attic ~ Wagon Wheels DA0697

Tim Holtz Idea-ology ~ Industrious Stickers - Borders

Petaloo ~ Penny Lane - Forget Me Nots, slate blue

Wild Orchid Crafts ~ Stamens, white

Wild Orchid Crafts ~ 8mm Rosebuds, white

Prima ~ Shabby Chic Treasures - Resins, Butterflies #891992

Momenta ~ Metal Stickers - Crosses

Darice ~ Mini Wood Embellishment

The Charm Shop ~ Silver Heart

Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L® by Donna Salazar ~ Canvas Ribbons (Denim)

Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L® by Donna Salazar ~ Lace Ribbons

Darice ~ Twine Cording, brown

Liquitex ~ Gesso, clear

Clearsnap/Colorbox by Donna Salazar ~ Mix’d Media Inx - Truffle, Leather, Denim, Indigo

Clearsnap/Colorbox by Donna Salazar ~ Mix’d Media Inx CHOX - Driftwood

Clearsnap/Colorbox by Donna Salazar ~ Smooch Spritz - Caramel Latte

Ranger ~ Perfect Medium

Stampedous ~ Fran-tage - Glass Glitter, steel blue

Stampedous ~ Fran-tage - Embossing Enamel, aged taupe

Prima ~ Clear Stamps - Debutante #579210

Close to My Heart ~ For Every Occasion Stamp Set

Close to My Heart ~ Look to the Light Stamp Set

Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L® by Donna Salazar ~ DODZ™ - 3D

Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L® ~ Crafty Power Tape

Helmar ~ 450 Quick Dry Adhesive

Helmar ~ Fabric Glue

Helmar ~ Super-Tac EVA Glue

Darice ~ Heat Tool

Zutter ~ Distrezz-it-All

Thanks for dropping by! I treasure your comments.

~ Blessings ~