Under the Boardwalk, Altered Book Project

Here is a great altered book project I created, perfect for using vintage ephemera. images, mixed with modern day papers, inks, found objects and recycled items.

Under the Boardwalk was inspired by the history of boardwalk communities by the shore. It was inspired by my adventures to the Jersey Shore particularly Ocean Grove, Asbury Park, Seaside, and LBI. Vintage beauty pageants, and Victorian Seaside Splendor. By 1950's amusements and confections, candy apples, calliope music and summer nights.

If you love to recycle and use recycled items in your works, this is a great way to do that.

To make your own follow these instructions below: 

Materials:

• Sails and Shells Paper Pack, Canvas Corp.
• Seashore style ephemera, and vintage images, Lisa Kettell Designs
• Vintage or modern bingo cards,and wood bingo tokens Lisa Kettell Designs
• Chipboard style card stock, Canvas Corp.
• Basic office folders
• Paper Straws, Recollections Line, Michaels Stores
• Vintage style embellishments, 7 Gypsies
• Inks, Tattered Angels
• Found Objects: broken glass bottles, wood shapes, branches, cake balloons.
• Other: crepe paper, German glass glitter, tiny star fish, shells, muslin fabric, ribbon.cocktail honey combs stirrers,color clothes pins
• Tools/Glue: hot glue, hot glue gun, glue stick scissors, small paper hole punch, white floral wire

Directions:

1. Cut 2 pieces of the chipboard style card stock to 8 by 10 inches for the cover. Then cut out 4 pieces of basic office folders and 4 pieces of chipboard style card stock about 5 by 7 inches, for the interior pages,
2. Begin layering the cut interior pages with scrapbook paper from the Sails and Shells paper pack, Glue in place with glue stick.
3. Assemble all the pages together and punch 1 hole into the pages with a hole punch about 2 inches in from the top and another hole 2 inches from the bottom. Make sure you punch the holes 1 inch from the side. ( the side I'm referring to is the area where the book pages will have its binding.)
4. Thread each whole with white floral wire and twist around 3 small branches. This is your binding.
5. Start decorating the top cover with bingo board, scrapbook embellishments, paper straws, found objects, images, additional scrapbook paper cutouts,
6. Cut various strips of scrapbook paper from the Sails and Shells paper pack and cut fringe into them, then hot glue to the cover sides and interior sides,
7. Age ribbon, scrapbook paper and objects with inks from Tattered Angels.
8. Finally add the remaining embellishments: honey comb stirrers, ribbons, clothes pins and bingo tokens.

Tips/Tricks:

• Use old book covers or bingo boards instead of basic office folders or chipboard paper.
• Layer the whole cover with paper straws.
• Create these books with your kids or family on a rainy summer day.
• Turn this book project into a family vacation heirloom.
• Make a theme book. Example: fairies and pixies, flowerland, candyland, wizards, Santa Claus, etc.

I Hope you enjoyed this project and have fun making one of your own. If you do please post pictures and share, so we can all see the magic.  Stay tuned for more fun projects.

Thanks So Much,
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

Sunburst Carnival Journal Project

"Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings These are a few of my favorite things"- Sound of Music We all know just how much I love the Carnival and Cupie Dolls, that's why I'm excited to share with you this fast and easy project I created that everyone can do in a few short minutes with a few simple supplies, its called a Sunburst Carnival Journal. Transform any journal or notebook into a carnival journal w/a few simple supplies and steps. Materials: -XL Cupie head from Lisa Kettell Designs -Medium Sized Wood Craft Sun or Moon -A Journal -Craft Glue of Choice -Optional: Glitter, Ribbon, Bakery Twine, Lettering, Broken Jewelry Directions: 1. Place the medium sized wood craft sun onto the center of the journal, glue in place. 2. Attach the XL cupie head on top of the wood sun, glue in place. 3. Add extra embellishments such as glitter, ribbon, lettering, etc. Tip/Tricks: -Use hot glue for faster gluing -Coat XL cupie head with glitter or embellish with broken jewelry -Line the bottom edge of journal with colored measuring tape (found in the sewing section of craft stores) -Add found objects to journal -Cover a composition notebook with scrapbook paper or wrapping paper, then add wood accents and cupies Hope this project inspired you to create a journal of your own, cupie heads and other embellishments are available. xoxo Lisa

CHA Day 1, Part 2

The next part of my journey into CHA I had to stop at my 2nd family: Beacon Adhesives!
Here I am with the amazing Mark Wilson of Creative Distribution who came all the way from England to CHA for the Beacon Booth.

Everyone in this group are truly amazing from their products to themselves, Mike, Karen, Hala, the whole team is just wonderful. Their customer service and pride in their products goes beyond normal limits, anytime I have a question I get a solution fast.

I recently tried a few new products and love working with Quick Grip, Zip Dry, Kids Choice and Decoupage Gloss Sealer, which I use to seal in my glitter. For a complete guide on Beacon Glue's visit their link: http://www.beaconadhesives.com/tips.html and download their free glue/tips guide. Also here is a quick link to their adhesive selection: http://www.beaconadhesives.com/cchart.htmlI'll be back with more Beacon photos and the Top 25 Product spotlight in the next day or so...

After Beacon, I headed over to search for my 3rd family, my Aussie family, on the way I got distracted by some other fab booths gracing the floors, here is one of them, Best Creations, look at how cute these papers are:I'll be sharing more photos of their papers in the spotlight! I just love love love these! I then spotted the new sports line of ribbons at Offray, How much do I love my sports, so yes I am thrilled with these new ribbons:

Along the way, I ran into my childhood friend Alex, we always seen to meet at CHA and were both from the same area, lol. Alex is an amazing creative talent, and works with Martha Stewart, he gave me a quick preview of some new Martha products and you will just faint, trust me! Here is a quick preview of some new products, my fave are the molds and clay products she has created, I'll be showing casing more of this in my spotlight, as this is one of my must have new fave items!After spending some time here at EK Success, I found the one and the only RUBY ROCK-IT, my Aussie Family!All I had to do is look for the massive birdcage, it was like living in a real life assemblage filled with Ruby Rock-it bliss. Upon entering the ceremony had begun, the gifting of the shirt, fam to fam. We presented Warren with his own NJ shirt, lol, the girls Joanna and Rachel will get something more blingy!
Followed by the meeting, lol. The Ruby Rock-it crew did it again with amazing new products, all I'm gonna say is OMG, I couldn't leave their booth with all the must have goodies, I'm especially loving their paper doll, British Steampunk and Nostalgia lines, I already overdosed on their Le Jardin collection last year! Its safe to say their new products will be in my Top 25 Spotlight! Here I am with two of the greatest girls I know:The whole crew!Great Minds think with Great Shoes!LOL!
After closing out the day at Ruby Rock-it, Mom and I headed over to meet the crew at Beacon for dinner, the choice amazing Mexican at: La Casa Garcia, such a great dinner with great people!
After dinner, we headed to the hotel to get ready for another fun filled and long day at CHA. This concludes highlights from Day CHA Day 1, stay tuned for Day 2, Day 3, Day 4 and highlights, along with the Top 25!
xoxo
Lisa!