American Crafts | Altered Clipboard Tutorial

This week on the American Crafts blog is all about Mom's.  I have a tutorial that went up yesterday that would be the perfect to celebrate Mom.

An altered clipboard picture frame makes a great gift for Mother's day.  

All you need is supplies on hand from the Serendipity collection to

create this one of a kind gift.

1. To make this Clipboard Picture Frame,  place a Dear Lizzy Serendipity plastic stencil over the clipboard and spray it with a white coat of spray mist.  

2. Print a small photo and mat it with a piece of pattern paper from the 6x6 Paper pad.  Embellish with Accents & Phrases Gold Foil Stickers and Thickers. 

3. Use the metal dies to cut flowers from various papers from the 6x6 Paper Pad.  Roll the pieces up and secure with adhesive to finish the flowers.

4. Finish clipboard by adding an addition flower sticker, and rolled flowers.  Create a bow out of ribbon and adhere to top of clipboard.  

 Your clipboard is finished and ready to gift to that special someone on Mother's Day!

Supplies: Dear Lizzy Serendipity (369228) - Stencil, Dear Lizzy Serendipity (369206) - 6x6 Paper Pad, Dear Lizzy Serendipity (369209) - Royal/Foil Thickers, Dear Lizzy Serendipity (369211) - Accents & Phrases W/ Gold Foil, Dear Lizzy Serendipity (369224) - Dies, Studio Calico Mister Huey's (SC1-001) - Opaque White Misting Spray

Thanks for stopping by today!

Shimelle Canvas Tutorial

Hi Everyone,

I hope that you are having a great week so far!  I had a tutorial up on the American Crafts Blog yesterday using the new Shimelle collection.

I created this fun canvas to liven up my scrap room.  The colors and patterns in the Shimelle collection gave it such a bright and cheery look!

Supplies: Cardstock (71420 - Glitter Mustard, Cardstock (71274) - 8.5x11 Black, Shimelle (368151) - Baxter Paper, Shimelle (368137) - Crane Paper, Shimelle (368149) - Curie Paper, Shimelle (368158) - Dowdy Paper, Shimelle (368143) - Earhart Paper, Shimelle (368136) - Goodall Paper, Shimelle (368150) - Goodfield Paper, Shimelle (368138) - Grady Paper, Shimele (368157) - Granville Paper, Shimelle (368142) - Hall Paper, Shimelle (368147) - Harding Paper, Shimelle (368152) - Haynes Paper,   Shimelle (368145) - Herschel Paper, Shimelle (68141) - Hopper Paper, Shimelle (368139) - Hurley Paper, Shimelle (368148) - Jemison Paper, Shimelle (368140) - Keller Paper, Shimelle (36815) - Leavitt Paper, Shimelle (368146) - Resnick Paper, Shimelle (368155) - Swanson Paper, Shimelle (368159) - Winlock Paper, Shimelle (63210) - Silhouette Cut File - Word Banner, Cut Up (64200) - Craft Scissors 5" Blade

1.  Apply gesso generously to the front of a 12x12 canvas.

2.  Once the gesso s dry, apply watercolor paints to canvas and set aside to dry.

3. Using a punch or die cut machine cut out enough hearts to cover the front of your canvas.  I cut out roughly 4 medium shape hearts for this.

4. Line up hearts on canvas and adhere down using liquid or permanent adhesive.

5.  Use a die cut machine or template to trace a large heart onto glitter cardstock and cut out.  Adhere to front of canvas.

6.  In Silhouette Studio open up the Shimelle word banner cut file (made by American Crafts), resize to your liking and cut onto black cardstock.  Adhere to canvas.

All finished and ready to display!

Easy, cute, and a perfect addition to any room's decor!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Stitched Frame Tutorial

Hi friends,

This week is Stitching week over on the American Crafts Blog.  I was asked to create a project tutorial using with the focus on stitching (right up my alley).  I created a stitched frame, and I will show you down below just how I created it using leftover paper strips.

Supplies: Geyser (71469) - Cardstock, Dear Lizzy Daydreamer 6x6 (366767) - Paper Pads, Amy Tangerine Cut and Paste (366086) - Paper Pads, Jacks Paper (366755) - Daydreamer, Marbles Paper (366749) - Daydreamer, Bike Ride Paper (366751) - Daydreamer, Flying Kites Paper 366754) - Daydreamer, Hide N Seek Paper (366746) - Daydreamer, Hula Hoop Paper (366760) - Daydreamer, Juggling Paper (366757) - Daydreamer, Jump Rope Paper (366753) - Daydreamer, Paper Planes Paper (366748) - Daydreamer, Red Rover Paper (366744) - Daydreamer, See Saw Paper (366758) - Daydreamer, Treasure Hunt Paper (366752) - Daydreamer, Blossom Paper (366042) - Cut and Paste, Heart Throb Paper (3664) - Cut and Paste, Infatuation Paper (366030) - Cut and Paste, On The Edge Paper (366043) - Cut and Paste, Postmarked Paper (366044) - Cut and Paste, Section 1 Paper (366033) - Cut and Paste, Grainy Goodness Paper (366049) - Cut and Paste, Sorbet Paper (366048) - Cut and Paste, A Lister (366029) - Cut and Paste, My  Thoughts Exactly (366052) - Cut and Paste, Cut Up Scissors Value Pack (AC420) - Tools, This To That (AM617-13) - Adhesive

Step 1: Gather paper trimmer, cardstock, scissors, patterned papers, adhesive, sewing machine, and thread.

Step 2: Trim patterned papers into 3/4" strips (width), the length can vary. Tip: you are going to want different lengths when you start laying them in a pattern.

 Step 3: Starting from the bottom of your cardstock and working across, start adhering patterned paper strips in a brick like fashion.

Continue step 3, follow the brick pattern until you have filled up the entire page. I had little pieces on the ends that I went back in and filled up last.

Step 4: Use a sewing machine to stitch each paper strip down. I turned my paper sideways and sewed one line at a time in a vertical fashion using a straight stitch. You can also use a zig zag stitch for this, or use a combination of stitching techniques.

Step 5: After stitching the whole piece use your scissors to trim off any excess paper strips or thread you might have on the ends.

Display in a shadow box frame and enjoy!

This project is a great way to use up patterned paper scraps and make a beautiful piece of decor!

American Crafts Fabric Yo-Yo Circles Tutorial

Hi there,
Today I am sharing a tutorial for American Crafts that went up on their blog yesterday.

One of my favorite circular embellishment to make are fabric yo-yo's. Combined with the cute binder clips from the Amy Tangerine collection they help keep me organized around the office and home.

Supplies: Duet Patterned Paper (PLUDS -66817) - ,Combo Patterned Paper (PLUDS -66804) - , Amy Tan Plus One Adhesive Metal Badges (366906) - Flair, Binder Clips (366851) - Details, Mini DayBooks (366644) - DIY Shop, Narrow Wooden Tags (DIY-TAG-66643) - DIY Shop, Cutup Crafts Scissors (AC64201) - CUTUP, To That (AM617-13) - Adhesive

To create these fun fabric yo-yo's first gather up your supplies. To make these you will need fabric, scissors, needle, thread, and buttons or other embellishments.

First, cut a couple of circles out of different patterns of fabric. Don't worry about your circle pieces being perfect, once you sew them you won't notice any imperfections. Depending on how big or small you want your yo-yo to be, you can tweak the measurement of the width of the circle a little bit. The wider it is the bigger the yo-yo will be.

Now take a needle and thread and make a stitch along the open edge lengthwise. Just one simple stitch is all you need to do. It doesn't even have to be perfect. Just be sure that you do not have a whole lot of length between the stitches or your stitches aren't too long and try to have them somewhat evenly spaced.

Continue stitching around the outer edge and scrunch your fabric as you go. When finished, take the needle and thread left over and pull up while pushing down the material making it gather into sort of a ruffle, scrunching it down.

Now that it is all gathered and tight, sew the ends together starting from the gathered end working up toward the edge and then back along the edge to the middle. This forms your ruffled round yo-yo. Knot it and cut the thread and voila! You have a yo-yo!

Your yo-yo is done and now all you have to do is add your embellishment to the center. Some ideas to use for your embellishment are buttons or brads.  

For my finished yo-yo's I added flair from the Amy Tangerine Plus One collection. These are so cute finished and can be added to a card or scrapbook layout for a 'homemade' feel. For my project I decided to make magnets out of them to use on a magnet board in my office so I continued adding to them.

Next, I adhered my finished fabric yoyo's to some fun wooden tags from the DIY Shop collection.

Then, I adhered some magnets to the back of my embellishments. 

I then embellished these cute little daybooks from the DIY Shop collection by adding some cut patterned paper and binder clips. 

These cute little daybooks and magnet board will help keep me organized in the office and around the home!

What a fun way to spruce up a magnet board!

I hope you enjoyed my fabric yo-yo circles tutorial!  I'll be back on with some new projects for the American Crafts Gallery later this week!

American Crafts Banner Tutorial

Hi everyone!  Happy Wednesday!

I had a tutorial up on the blog yesterday that I would like to share with you.

I love using the Knock Outs punches on my projects.  They are very easy to use,

and small and portable enough to take with me to crops.

1. Cover pieces of smooth cardstock with DIY shop washi tape.  

Using Knock Outs punches, punch out several shapes.

Inspire Banner Tutorial

2. Gather punched pieces and DIY shop banner and pennant pieces.

3. Using a sewing machine stitch the punched pieces onto the DIY shop

     banner and pennant pieces.

4. Using Knock Outs 1.5" and 2" circle punches, punch out several pieces

from DIY shop paper.  Layer pieces together, adhere and then use scissors 

to fray the edges to create paper flowers.

5. Adhere glitter tape across the top of the pennant and banner pieces.

Embellish by adding paper flowers, fabric flowers and thickers.

Inspire Banner

supplies: Knock Outs Punch 2" Circle (KOP63112) - Punches, Knock Outs Punch 1.5" Circle (KOP63100) - Punches, Knock Outs

Triangle Banner Dear Lizzy Punch 2" (KOP63123) - Punches, Knock Outs Punch 2" Banner (KOP63117) - Punches, Knock Outs

Punch 1.5" Star (KOP63102) - Punches, Glitter Paper Tape Gold (AC-GT-96039) - Ribbon, DIY Black & White Washi Tape (DIYWT-66615) -

Washi Tape, DIY Gold & Silver Washi Tape (DIYWT-66613) - Washi Tape, DIY SHOP Kraft Notch Banner (DIY-BAN-66649) - DIY Shop, 

DIY SHOP Chalkboard Pennant Banner (DIY-BAN-66651) - DIY Shop, Maggie Holmes Glitter Foam Letter Stickers Daiquiri Gold

(MH-TH-81354) - Thickers, On Trend Fabric Flowers Pom Poms (683062) - Embellishments, DIY Shop Paper Pad 6X6 (366983) -

Paper Pads,  Smooth Cardstock White (AM71-793) - Cardstock, This To That (AM617-13) - Adhesive, 

Make sure to check out the American Crafts store to see their wide selection of punches.  I started with just a few and now I have a large collection of them.  I love their cute little shapes and ease of use.  Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you enjoyed my tutorial!

AC Topiary Tutorial

Hi there,

I had a tutorial on the American Crafts blog, yesterday showing how to make this easy topiary project using 6X6 paper pads from the Dear Lizzy Polka Dot Party collection.

Paper Topiary project

"This fun topiary is easy to make and easy to change out for seasons. I chose papers
from the Polka Dot Party collection to dress up my room for spring."

To begin gather your desired papers and supplies. You will need at least
two punches for this project as well as papers, stick pins, buttons, a base
and a styrofoam ball.

Step 1: Punch your papers. For best results use a variety of paper patterns
and two different size punches. For example I used 1 round punch, and 1
flower punch.

Step 2: Crumple up punched pieces by gently folding and crinkling
to distress.

Step 3: Dress up punched shapes by adding ZAZZ glitter.

Step 4: Start layering your punched pieces together.

Step 5: Start creating your topiary by adhering your punched pieces
to the styrofoam ball with a stick pin.

Step 6: Continue this process until the styrofoam ball is filled.

Tip: For a fun look add punched glitter shapes, a variety of
buttons and sequins to a few pieces before pinning on.
When you are finished place the topiary on a base and enjoy!

Supplies:

ZAZZ Glitter Glue Set (27420) - Glitter, Polka Dot Party Paper 6x6 (366214) - Paper Pads; Glitter Paper 6x6 (35798) - Paper Pads, Autumn Crisp Wood Buttons (366531) - Elements, Autumn Crisp Resin Buttons (366530) - Elements, Adhesive Layered Resin Flowers (366203) - Polka Dot Party, Epoxy Wood Buttons (78090) - Happy Birthday, Epoxy Wood Buttons (96604) - With Love, Fabric and; Epoxy Brads (96532) - Happy Birthday,