Patriotic Splash, Paper Cone Tutorial

"The American Flag is a symbol of our freedom, national pride and history" -Mike Fitzpatrick

"Patriotic Splash" is a paper project inspired by the seashore, vintage Boardwalk, and primitive summer patriotic holidays! This huge paper cone was made the w/sails and shells sampler pack from Canvas Corp., paper straws, wood accents, vintage ephemera and stained ribbon using Tattered Angels.

I recently came across a box of vintage ephemera containing old patriotic costumes, bathing beauty scenes, and seaside amusement. All ornate, detailed and some had color. Blues, whites, tans and creamy reds. Everyone of them screamed old boardwalk, old patriotic Americana with Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day scenes by the seashore. So inspiring and fun. The result was this project and a few others I will post soon, think bathing beauties and flags.

To make your own paper cone you could photocopy the template out of my mixed media art book: "Altered Art Circus", Quarry Books, Lisa Kettell. If that''s not available to you, here is the full set of instructions to make a paper cone and this project.

Materials:

• Scrapbook paper sampler pack, Sails & Shells, Canvas Corp.
• Paper straws, Michaels Crafts
• Wood accents, stars and crescent moon
• Vintage image ephemera cd, Lisa Kettell Designs
• Old bingo card, Lisa Kettell Designs
• Creamy white or beige ribbon
• Fine wood spray ink, Tattered Angels
• German glass glitter, silver
• Other: white paper floral wire, light blue paper shreds
• Tools: hot glue gun, hot glue, scissors

Directions:

1. Starting from one corner, roll a 12 by 12 inch piece of scrapbook paper into a cone shape. Hot glue in place and cut any excess paper. Fill with light blue paper shreds, set aside.
2. Hot glue a 12 inch piece of white paper floral wire to each end of the paper cone, arching it around the front. Cut various square shape images from the scrapbook paper, and hot glue to the white paper floral wire to form a banner.
3. Attach a crescent moon shape to a paper straw to make a wand, set aside.
4. Begin dying white or light color cotton ribbon with fine wood spray ink. Spray until desired ink color is achieved, let dry. Then tie to the crescent moon wand and insert into the paper cone, hot glue in place. 
5. Cut a 2 inch by 12 inch strip of seer sucker scrapbook paper from the scrapbook paper pack. Begin cutting fringe into the cut paper strip, when complete, hot glue to the paper cone rim.
6. Layer your cone with more images cut from the scrapbook paper, vintage image and ephemera.
7. Make a paper fan rosette from the scrapbook paper, add that to the paper cone.
8. Finally embellish with German glass glitter and a wire to hang your paper cone. 

Tips/Tricks:

• You can make smaller sized paper cones, paper cone wreaths, paper cone banners.
• Turn your cone into a seaside party hat or large table center piece.
• Add shells and more ephemera to your paper cone.
• Distress your paper with more inks. 

I hope you enjoyed this project and get inspired to make your own version.


Happy Monday,

Lisa xoxo

Mounted Toy Plaques

Come One, Come All to the Spring Circus Toy Ball....

Its the first day of Spring.  What does that mean? Nature waking up, longer days of sunlight, flowers sprouting, trees glistening and birds chirping. Spring is a time to clear out the old and ring in the new. Its this time of year that we plan for the warm days of summer.

Spring is also the start of circus and carnival season which lasts till the end of November.  The calliope music, the kettle corn, candy apples and the big top. Ornate performers, glowing amusements and boardwalk adventures are all waiting for us this coming months.

As a lover of circus themes and the author behind: "Altered Art Circus", Quarry Books, Lisa Kettell, I am preparing for a new season of adventure.  To kick off the season I have created some new projects to share with you.  One of the projects is called: "Mounted Toy Plaques"and was inspired by a project in my book, "Altered Art Circus".  Which involved recycling discarded plastic animal toys.

For this piece I recycled a small plastic animal toy, mounted it on scrapbook covered wood craft circle, and embellished.  Its really simple to do and I will tell you how.

Materials:

• Small plastic toy animals
• Medium sized wood craft circle
• Medium sized scrapbook embellishment frame
• Scrapbook paper
• Crepe paper
• Glitter
• Glues: hot glue, craft glue
• Tools: hot glue gun, hot heat tool, scissors
• ( I used the hot marks tool kit w/ hot knife point by Walnut Hollow) 

Directions:

1. Layer the medium sized wood craft circle with scrapbook paper, secure in place with craft glue.
2. Line the medium sized scrapbook embellishment frame onto the scrapbook lined wood craft circle.
3. Using the hot knife point with the hot tool, cut the plastic animal toy in half. Then hot glue to the center of the wood craft circle.
4. Decorate the mounted plastic animal with crepe paper, a paper hat, glitter and trims.

Tips/Tricks:

1. Use a piece of chipboard or cut a circle from a discard piece of cardboard or box.
2. Use scrapbook borders or trim such as pom pom in place of the frame.
3. Add tags, and additional embellishments to the piece.
4. Create several, connect with ribbon for a banner or small swag.
5. Make larger mounted plaques using larger plastic toy animals mounted on larger backgrounds such as round frames and book covers.
6. Instead of plastic animals, make one out of clay or layer an image.
7. All discarded plastic toys or doll heads will work as well.

To purchase small plastic toys for $3.95 for a bundle visit my artfire store:
http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/MoonfairesWorld 

If they sell out, email me at lisakettell@yahoo.com for a reserved listing.
xoxo
Lisa

Halloween Popcorn Box Hop

 
What does Halloween Time mean for you? To many, Halloween symbolizes so many things Magic, Witches, Wizards, Ghosts, Goblins, Jack'O'Lanterns, Pumpkin Pie, Costumes and Treats. Its that time of year where kids are adjusting to a new year at school, temperatures start to drop, sunlight is shortened, scenery is basked in the rich hues of amber, reds, yellows and hybrid violets, eggplants and black. Fall festivals, candy apples and themed carnivals get in their last hurrah for the year. We begin to make way to cozy nights indoors w/hot chocolate, cider, soups, buckets of movie popcorn, and holiday cheer. Every farm is celebrating with grandeur pumping out pumpkins, mums and stalks in a frenzy, corn mazes are waiting for you to explore and new adventures waiting to be started.

For me its all of the obvious, but it also allows me to celebrate my Grandmother's Birthday which is on Halloween, it's this time of year that my creativity begins to soar and allows the creations inside my secret world to come to life, this carnival inside my head begins to beam out all forms of creative magic for everyone to enjoy. When I was asked to join this blog hop, all my creative juices began to whirl, I saw the seer sucker red and white popcorn box and knew instantly what I was going to do.

Instead of pulling put the typical creatures and colors related w/Halloween to decorate my box, I decided on playing with its other themes; Carnival/Circus which I relate to the popcorn box, magic, adventure, back to school, ABC's, Storybook, the unusual, lanterns and lights. I pulled inspiration from my book, Altered Art Circus, Quarry Books and the essence of magic, the result is; "The Flight of the Giraffe", revolving around Lucy the Giraffe and her magical adventure.

Halloween time is the time of year where everything goes, magic comes to life and new adventures are being made. Now come set sail with Lucy and her friends for the adventure of a lifetime....

"Lucy Wistlebee is a ballerina giraffe from Maplewood, she is the niece of circus sensation Jeannie "the Giraffe" Bellows who toured the lands with the Carlisle Circus and other troupes, her fame enabled her to open the Bellows School of Dance where Lucy was also a student, where she learned tap, dance and ballet twice a week. During regular hours, Lucy was enrolled at the Lavendoor School of Magic, where she excelled in potion-ology, astronomy and carnival spells, quite often Lucy would get into some mischief with some of her classmates who formed the Willawig Club, designed to uncover secrets and hidden locations all around the school grounds and neighboring towns, Two years ago Lucy and her friends uncovered the forgotten Lionel Tunnels which connected the Savory Lighthouse to the edge of the school gate, once thought to just be school folklore.

This year Lucy was ready to compete in the Constance Bellamy Mid Summer Fair Competition, which she prepared for months. On Full Moon Eve, in the countryside of Peapack, the competition was held and Lucy won first place, what Lucy didn't know was she would embark on the adventure of her life when she meets Lionel Cromwell at the awards ceremy. Lionel Cromwell is a Professor of Carnival Magic Studies and the leading Wizard of Marble Magic which is a series of spells using the energy of marbles and orb wands, he is the leader of a secret underground society aimed at stopping bad magic and the descendent of Lionel Woodbridge who built the Lionel Tunnels.

Little does Lucy know that she possess a rare power and a marble which is the key to other portals which Becker Horricle wants to get his hands on, so that he can rule these portals and the world we live in. Lionel must stop Becker and protect Lucy, securing the rare Olibuate Marble and the 3 others which are found in the other portals. 

"You look stunning Lucy" boasted Abigail Dickles, who is Lucy's best friend and co-founder of the Willawig club. "Thanks so much Abigail, I feel like a super star after winning the competition" replied a happy Lucy, " You should" replied Abigail, the two began to walk to towards the big tent to find their friend Oliver. "Hey you guys, I'm over here", waved Oliver, soon the three where united, laughing and dancing with joy as Oliver won third place in the skelliwag competition, both were sharing a look at their awards, until the majestic sound of calliope music began piping loudly outside of the big tent.

The three walked outside the big tent to see where the music was coming from, as soon as they opened the curtain, they saw a glowing calliope flying machine with lights, rides and fun docked. "Wow that is amazing", "Oooh let's see if we can get closer" "Yes, let's" boasted the three, they started walking closer to the calliope flying machine and were soon greeted by Lionel Cromwell. "Aren't you Lionel Cromwell?" asked Lucy, "why yes I am", replied a cheerful Lionel, he then asked the kids if they wanted a tour of the flying vessel, they all agreed and hopped on board. Little did they know that one step onto the flying vessel, would begin the adventure of their lifetime.

Within minutes, Lionel lured the kids to a secret tent on the flying vessel and proceeded to tell them of Lucy's danger, the marble, Becker Horricle and what they must do to save her and the world, just then an explosion occurred lightening and thunder, lights out, weird mists, full moon hidden, he was here, Becker Horricle was here and on a mission to kidnap Lucy and take the marble.

"We must go now!" yelled Lionel, within seconds the flying vessel was under attack, Lionel and his crew hurried to get out of there to safety, soon they had escaped to another portal filled with sunshine, rainbows, golden landscapes and cherry cap trees, it was here that the lost world of Gnomes lived and Henrik Widdlebatt lived, the gnome wizard of Graspby, now they would be able to secure the second marble and gain help from Henrik...."
I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into Lucy's world of adventure and a preview of her story, now I'd like to introduce you to the Enormous Calliope Flying Vessel that they flew in. You can now make a replica of her vessel like I did right now with these simple directions and easy to find materials.

Materials:

• Popcorn box
• Paper cupcake cups
• Paper straws
• Paper lantern
• Sturdy gauge floral wire
• Small rubber or plastic animals
• Scrapbook paper
• Embellishments, Lisa Kettell Designs
• Buttons, Laura Kelly Designs
• Rit Dye, various colors
• Glues: hot glue, mod podge, plaid
• Tools; hot glue gun, scissors, hole puncher, XL zip lock bags,
• Other: scrapbook embellishments, white crepe paper, glitter, paint, bakery twine, Chipboard, wood block scrap

Company products I used: Laura Kelly Designs, Lisa Kettell Designs, Rit Dye, Plaid, Graphic 45, Crate Paper, Clearsnap, K & Co, Michael's.
Directions:

1. Open the popcorn box, insert a wood block to the inside bottom of the box, hot glue in place. Flip popcorn box over and hot glue a piece of chipboard to the outside bottom of the box. This will secure the box and give it some weight.
2. Punch a hole on 2 sides of the popcorn box, 1/2 inch from the top edge. Make sure each hole is punched across from each other. 
3. Thread a piece of floral wire through each punched popcorn box whole, thread a paper straw through each piece of wire, set aside. Now wrap a piece of floral wire around the lantern base. 
4. Now attach the lantern to the wired popcorn box by threading the ends of the popcorn box wire through a section of the wired lantern base, secure each side w/hot glue and a button, let hot glue cure.
5. Attach a paper cup cake liner to each side of the popcorn box.
6. Insert scrapbook paper to the inside of the main popcorn box.
7. Cut 3 yards of lightweight white paper floral wire, attach triangle shapes cut from scrapbook paper to the paper floral wire, leaving a small space in between, attach with hot glue. Set aside.
8. Pour about 1 Tablespoon of Rit dye in color of choice into an XLzip lock bag, followed by a 1/4 teaspoon water, insert white crepe paper, shake around until covered, pull out crepe paper w/plastic tongs, let dry on a disposable tin pan.
9. Decorate the rubber/plastic small animals using crepe paper, scrapbook paper, trims and embellishments. 
10. Begin to assemble your flying vessel with the wire banner, decorated animals, scrapbook embellishments, lettering, trims, buttons and carnival pieces.
11. Insert triple A or required battery to the lantern, hang or place in your favorite part of the house or studio. 

 
Tips/Tricks 

• Refer to my book Altered Art Circus for more fun ideas on decorating rubber/plastic toy animals
• Use collage images in place of the decorated animals such as Dresden scrap images and storybook images lined onto chipboard and cut out. Use my doll head embellishments from Lisa Kettell Designs to enhance them, I recommend the Bailey embellishment.
• Coat areas of your piece w/mod podge and sprinkle with glitter, shake off access.
• Make a triple sized lantern w/more popcorn boxes, or one XL popcorn bucket tub and attach three various sized lanterns. 
• Add Rit dye to mod podge for glaze coloring and coat your embellishments with it for a fun effect.
• Use colored streamer crepe paper if you don't have any Rit dye on hand. 
• Cut a plastic animal in 1/2 with metal cutting shears, small hand saw or hot knife, use caution when using these tools.

This is a great project to create with your children, or for a fun party, using any theme you like. Its a perfect re-invention project, recycled project and great for using project scraps over again. I re-use everything and recycle as much as I can. I hope that this project has inspired the creative magic inside of you.

I want to thank Laura Kelly for asking me to be apart of this fabulous blog hop and give a shout out to the Sponsors and Cre8Time for all they do to spark the creativity in all of us. Be sure to enter the raffle to win $100 from Disney!

Links:
www.laurakellydesigns.com
www.laurakellydesigns.com/laurakellydesignsblog
www.cre8time.org

And check out the rest of the wonderful blogs that are apart of this hop:

An InLinkz Link-up

xoxo
Lisa  

 

Percy's Magic House

Here is another altered art house assemblage I created using products in my line: Cupie-ology by Lisa Kettell Designs, I made this using a small wood doll house shaped closet found in the wood section of the craft store, layered w/scrapbook paper, trim, glitter and embellishments from Lisa Kettell Designs line of products. The main piece was the painted Bailey embellishment sold in a painted pack of three.

This is an updated project from my book, Altered Art Circus, Quarry Books, where I have some projects in there using doll house wooden closets and houses that are turned into circus carts like the cover of the book and assemblages.
 

The Story: "Percy Grimwald lives at the edge of Stony Brook Forest by Bluebelle Fields and Hickory Stone which sits beside the Twin Star River. Percy can be seen overseeing his garden filled with wiggly wots, piddlebat, tweenseed and licorice root. Every Tuesday he heads to the Twinkle Spat Farms for the weekly farmers market where you can find his latest crops, in addition to Tye Wiggs' Candy Stalks, Caramel Blue Raspberry Apple Sticks, and Peppermint Elixirs. Here you can by Cherry Doc Bulbs, Bat Dust and a variety of magical delights.

After the market Percy invites friends over for afternoon tea elixirs and treats made from delights in his garden, you never know what sparks are going to fly out his windows if the Twinie Pixies show up for tea and begin playing twizzle stixs, which light up and spread moon dust everywhere.....

 

Stay tuned for new carnival/circus carts using my latest products.


xoxo
Lisa

Carnival Mini Frame Assemblages

Here is a fun project I have been doing for ages, using frames of all sizes as the base for an assemblage. The frames in this post are smaller in size and available at Michaels Craft Store, if you don't find a color you like, paint it with a nice enamel or multi purpose paint, I like the consistency of Marth Stewart Paints or latex paints found in the discarded section of your local hardware or paint store.

The frames are then layered with scrapbook papers, trims and trinkets. The main embellishments are from my line: Cupieology, Lisa Kettell Designs.

The embellishments I used from the Cupieology line are;

•  XL Cupie Head, Candy Pink, 

• Mini Carnival Cupies.

I further decorated my mini frame assemblages with additional trinkets and handmade banners created from scraps of paper and floral wire.

You can purchase the Lisa Kettell Designs Embellishments to make your own mini assemblage frames and other projects at: http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/MoonfairesWorld/1/1/16631//

Along with other fun stuff to spark the creativity in you!

xoxo
Lisa

Design Team Project

By Amy Mayfield 

A fanciful fairy shrine

Summer is going by oh so fast that I can’t even believe it but I DID finally find some time to play with the Lisa Kettell Fairy Follies CD. This CD has more than 600 gorgeous images that you can print and play with to your heart’s content. I also used another marvelous man in the moon because I just love all their little faces!
So here’s my Fairy Whispers Shrine–if you listen closely, you might just hear their little laughter and whispered secrets.
Supplies Needed:
A Lisa Kettell Image CD
Moons
Gold tinsel
Xacto knife
Super fine gold and silver glitter
Paper Mache bird house
White glue
Rubber Cement
Clothespins
Teeny tiny wooden spools
Gold metallic paint
Hot glue gun
Star brads
I used bits of five different images and a paper mache bird house I picked up for 99 cents at Hobby Lobby. With an xacto knife, I cut out the front of the bird house to make a large, rounded opening. For the lady that lives in the little shrine surrounded by a sea of stars, I used some star brads to add a little dimension and placed a beaming moon, painted gold, to gaze down upon her. I finished off the interior with some glitter paper and a polka dot “sky.” To jazz up her crown, I added six-sided star brads in two sizes. For attaching paper so that it dries nicely and non-wrinkly, I’ve been using rubber cement with clothespins to hold them in place–a trick I picked up from Knickertwists over at Pixie Hill. It’s pretty much my new favorite thing.

I love tinsel so I trimmed the front of the shrine with several layers of gold tinsel applied using hot glue gun. I also covered the roof using white glue and super fine gold glitter. On the back, I used a clear stamp and some gold metallic embossing powder to overlay the Fairy Whispers onto this pretty picture. Because you can NEVER have too much sparkle, I added more tinsel to trim the edges and used teeny wooden spools, painted with gold metallic paint, as feet.

To finish it off, I printed a butterfly fairy that I sized down, cut out and coated the bottom with super fine silver glitter. I slightly scored the wings to fold them up and attached it with a line of hot glue down the “body.”

There you have it! Lisa Kettell Designs is having a FABULOUS June Sale in the Artfire Store so hop on over and don’t miss out on savings and super supplies! (I also can’t say enough about her book, Altered Art Circus. I picked it up long before I joined the Design Team and it has such wonderful inspiration and how-tos PLUS if you buy it on Artfire, you can get it autographed!)

___________________________________________________________________________________
How amazing is Amy's project? I absolutely love it! There are so many possibilities with this project! Here is a similar one I made a few years ago:
You can create enchanted ornaments, mini vignettes, circus or memory fun with this project. I hope Amy and Lisa Kettell Designs inspires you to create a shrine of your own!
xoxo
Lisa