Acrylic Painting

It has been over a year since I posted on this Blog, and I thought I should revive it. But it will have other mediums as well as scrapbooking, card and box making.

I've decided to take up acrylic painting after watching MixedMediaGirl making some incredible art.
At first I was having trouble since I couldn't find the right paints or medium to make the paint behave they way I wanted. Finally I found a store in Toronto that sold them. I started with pouring onto canvas, and have now ventured on to ceramic tiles and wood.

 Here are a few of the items, and there will many more to come.

4x4" ceramic tile

9x10" canvas

4x4" ceramic tile

4x4" ceramic tile

9x12" canvas

Bamboo Tray

8x10" canvas

9.5x7" wooden plaque oval

Simple Baby Carriage Tutorial

I put together this very simple tutorial, as some people are asking me how I make the embellishments for my Baby Explosion box.

So here it is:

In case the tutorial isn't clear, I used a 1 3/4" circle die (punch), a 1/2" punch, a 3/8" punch and a 1 3/4" scallop punch. I used purple and white cardstock, and some patterned paper. I used a Zig 2 way glue pen to adhere the paper to the cardstock, and cut away the top 1/3 using the bottom 2/3 for the carriage body.

I punched 2 white 1/2" circles, and 2 purple 3/8" circles, then used the 1/2" punch on the purple cardstock, to make the rings. I used an X stamp on the small white circles, and adhered the purple circle onto the white on. I put the 2 wheels onto the bottom of the carriage.

I added the lace ribbon to the hood of the carriage which I made from a quarter of the scallop punch.
The purple ribbon was used as a bow on the carriage, and for the handle bars. I used mini glue dots to adhere the ribbon.

Sounds complicated, but it is really easy.

GIVE IT A TRY.

Hello Winter

Up here in Toronto, Canada we usually have pretty cold winters. This year has been another story. There has been hardly any snow, and and it's been pretty mild. This past week though, the temperatures have been about -14C with the wind chill factor.  It's pointless to talk about the temperatures without the windchill in the winter or the humidex in the summer, because the way it feels take precedence over what the thermometer shows. Anyway we still haven't really had that much snow, but it is actually beginning to feel like winter. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a big fan of winter, but I worry a little about all the talk of the greenhouse affect.

If you don't live in North America, you many not know about Groundhog Day, no not the movie, the actual day, February 2nd. For some very strange reason, people put their faith in a rodent to know whether Spring will be here sooner or later. If that Groundhog sees his shadow, he runs back into his borrow and that apparently means there will be 6 more weeks of Winter. However, if he doesn't see his shadow, he stays out and that means Spring will be along soon. Now does that make any sense at all? Other than the fact its a rodent making this decision, surely when the sun is shining and causing shadows, it should mean the opposite.  There are probably about 4 Groundhogs that make these prediction, but our local one lives in Wiarton, Bruce County, Ontario and his name is Willie. He predicted that Spring is arriving very soon.

There have been very many colds and flu at my school, both teachers and students alike are being struck with it. So my idea this year is to make these sweet little tissue boxes for the staff at school for Valentines Day. Again I have to thank Angelina Clark from http://intatwynedesigns.co.uk for the great idea. I was considering adding a little addition on the back to put in a few cough lozenges, but it looked too bulky and would probably catch on something in the purse.

I've also been busy making some cute little Post-It Note books. I'll write another post about them soon.

Happy Groundhog Day

Holiday Gifts for teachers at work

Thanks to Angelina Clark over at http://intatwynedesigns.co.uk, I made these cute holiday gifts for the teachers at school.

Instead of the gift card aspect, I simply made the top into a card.

When I took these photos I added a cheap copy of Ferrero Roche, but I have since switched them out for the real thing!

Then I found this lovely idea to make snowman tea lights. I'll add where I found the idea later, since I've forgotten at this time. Anyway it was pretty easy to make these two gifts, and I'm sure the staff at work will love them.

Now I'm getting busy with making the 31 student gifts. I'm making 2 types of decorations for them. When they are finished, I may make a tutorial for them.

Tutorial Trials

I thought I'd give making a card tutorial a try. The first had to be deleted as almost nothing was in frame. Please understand, I don't have any of the equipment needed to do this! Just a Samsung tablet that a friend got free when she signed up to a new bank account and she gifted it to me.

So the second one I just redid the card again. I just added a little more adhesive. It was okay, but in order to get everything in, I filmed it vertically. Of course the best videos need to be horizontal.

Now for the third. Figured out how to film horizontally so I gave it a try. This time it worked really well. I did forget however my scissors, so I had to go quickly to get them. Other than that I think it was a good video.

So here it is and don't forget to comment.

Thank you.

Christmas cards

Here are a few that I have been working on.

Birthday Card

I've seen many of these double Z fold cards on Pinterest, so I thought it might be time to give it a try. All the tutorials on YouTube were so long, but in all honesty it's a pretty quick card to make. Having said that, I chose a stamp that needed coloring, so it took longer than necessary.
My friend Ida is celebrating her birthday and I've been invited to her party. It was hinted that she was looking to buy something from the Jays Shop since she is a huge Toronto Blue Jays fan. So a gift card is tucked into this card.

Hope you like it Ida

Back to card making

So now the summer is here I've been making a few cards. The one above is using a sketch mojo459 from mojomonday. I'll be adding a few more Christmas ones, as I go along. I wanted to post this one, as a test since I'm trying to make a blog post from my phone. Let's see if it works.

Card Swap Group

I joined a card swap a number of years ago, ensuring I sent at least 5 cards to my secret person during the year. I did it for a couple of years, and of course I sent more than 5. I also sent to others who celebrated birthdays and holidays. The first year I was matched up with someone who must have been a beginner. She sent me only 5 cards, and 2 of them were identical except for colour. The others were very basic, as though put together by a child.  The next year that person didn't sign up for it, and I got someone who was a bit more experienced, and it became fun.

The group was closed down by its owner, and although I have no one to send cards to, I still make them. A couple of weeks ago, one of the people who used to be in that swap group posted a call out to join a Facebook group. I decided it would be a great idea. The only concern I have is that at least 3 cards should be sent out a month. Hopefully I can keep up with that during the school year.

So here are the first cards:

Christmas in September

Black and White

Kite

Just because I am a little concerned that I won't get cards made in time, I have signed up for the October swaps already. Here are 2 of the 3 I signed up for, I have plenty of time to get that last one done.

Fancy Fold

Hallowe'en

So I am back in the card making mode, and I love having my creativity back!

Christmas in September

I saw this sketch and I knew immediately what I wanted to do with it. It turned out almost exactly as I imagined, I just ended up changing the colour of the background paper. So it came together probably the fasted I've ever made a card.

I love MojoMonday sketches, they inspire often, and they are offered weekly.

This is the one I decided to make:

I am sending this, along with some other Christmas cards to someone in a Facebook card swap group. I'm also sending these:

For a Black and White Swap

For a Kite Swap
I used a Wobble under the kite, so if you flick the bottom of the kite it wiggles

So after a really long time of not crafting, I've finally gotten back to it. Only problem is summer is just about over, and I've got to go back to work next week.

Kindergarten Graduation

I've spent the majority of my days in Room 5 kindergarten class @tdsb_wilkinson this year. About half of the kids will be graduating from senior kindergarten to grade one. We will be having a little ceremony for those kids along with the other 3 kindergarten classes this week. They learned 2 new songs to perform at the ceremony, nothing cuter than 5 and 6 year olds singing to an audience.

I made these little tags to double as book marks for room 5 graduates. I used my Cricut machine, patterned paper in the school colours, some red and white twine, and lots of patience for some intricate gluing.

I'm really happy with how they turned out.

Happy Valentine's Day

I had a lovely day on Thursday when we celebrated Valentine's Day with the kindergarten kids. It was a PD day for parent/teacher interviews on Friday so we had to share on Thursday.

We had an assembly that included some singing, some information on famous black Canadians, and some dancing. We also had Crazy Hat day. What a shame there are no photos of mine... NOT!

I made those dear little owls for the children, and some of the parents that let their kids look at their Valentine boxes, (tissue boxes with tissue paper and hearts), came to me to let me know they loved them.

The children did a few Valentine activities, which was good because it was an indoor recess due to the wind chill factor being -32*c brrrrr. I handed out my little treat boxes to the staff, with chocolate inside. The free cutting file for them is here. Thanks SVG cuts.

My favourite card that I received from the kids was this one, (I know we aren't supposed to have favourtes, but those ugly dollar store Disney ones are nasty!)

Handmade, just for me. LOVE IT!

And now here is the card I made for my son, since he is the love of my life, always.

I used the Cuttlebug Script embossing folder on the dark purple cardstock, 3 other purples for the banners, and the Lovey Dovey stamp from Stampin`Ups A Little Somethin` and 3 little purple jewels.

I LOVE the way it turned out. I bought him a red mug and a chocolate cake as well.

Happy Valentine`s Day Everyone

Valentine treat.

I was trying to decide what to make for the children at school for Valentine's Day. I saw some interesting owls to craft on Pinterest, which gave me an idea.

I have been saving my empty toilet rolls to take in for the kids to make stuff with, but I wanted to ensure there was enough for one each, so I was on my way to 30.

I realised that I could use them as a container for the kiddies, so I came up with this idea.

First I had to clean off the remaining paper on the rolls. Some brands make that easy, others do not. I used a knife to scrape the tough glue off the roll.

Next I chose the papers that I would use and cut them at 4"X 6".

I glued them onto the roll, it was a little bit tricky.

I punched a circle to fit the bottom of the roll, and glued it in place. This was very frustrating as the rolls don't always stay round, sometimes they get a bit squashed.

While the glue was drying, I punched out black and white circles for the eye, and adhered them to each other.

I cut out a large brown circle then folded it in half, and ran it through my die cut machine again to give me 2 oval shapes.

I also cut out a heart and a beak by hand.

Then I pinched the tube together at either end of the top.

I pushed down the front and back to make points of both sides, and squeezed the corners between my thumb and finger.

Next I adhered the wings, eyes, beak and heart.

I had already sorted out a few candies to give the children, so I got them ready.

I opened the top, rolled up the baggie, and popped them in and pushed the top back down again.

This is what I will be giving the children. I figure they can keep it as a keepsake after they have eaten the candies.

I already had the toilet rolls, patterned paper and cardstock on hand, so the only expense was the candies.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

OWL ALWAYS LOVE YOU!!