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 :-)

Queen of the Soiree

One of my favorite things to do is to up-cycle discarded books and give them new life. For this piece I used a discarded used hardcover book and turned it into a vintage style handmade altered book. 

I ripped the original pages out of the book and replaced them with chipboard pages that were layered in vintage ephemera.

The pages where glued and stitched into the book using my double button technique. I coated the covers of the book with handmade paper rosettes and vintage bingo boards.

The front cover was further layered with a vintage party image from my collection which is available on the mixed collage image cd. I further embellished the covers with lettering, card stock shapes, buttons, gilding, ink and German glass glitters.

The inside pages where layered with more rosettes, ephemera, doilies, laces, and trims. German glass glitter and inks were also added to the pages for more dimension.

After every page was layered with ephemera, rosettes and embellishments I added various aged lace trims which I dyed with Liquid Rit Dye Cocoa color using a spray bottle and brush. Finally I added crepe paper fringes, sequin trim and broken jewelry pieces throughout.

I'll share more sneak peaks of the book and inside pages soon. I hope this project inspires you to create and recycle some discarded books in your collection, the possibilities are endless.

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

Welcome to the Clearsnap and Trinity Paper Arts Blog Hop!!

 Our Design Teams have "teamed up" to share layouts, projects, and more featuring Trinity Pap[er Arts' paper collections and Clearsnap's distinctive inks and accessories. From sports to summer and everything in between, kick your sandals off, grab a cold lemonade and enjoy the inspiration.   Hop along to each blog listed below and leave a comment.

http://clearsnap.blogspot.com/">http://clearsnap.blogspot.com/
http://trinitypaper.blogspot.com/">http://trinitypaper.blogspot.com/
http://tamisanders.com/">http://tamisanders.com/
http://taylordconcepts.blogspot.com/">http://taylordconcepts.blogspot.com/
http://thoughtsoftraveling.blogspot.com/">http://thoughtsoftraveling.blogspot.com/
http://stitchcutcreate.blogspot.com/">http://stitchcutcreate.blogspot.com/
http://www.arteypoemas.com/">http://www.arteypoemas.com/
http://www.kitsnbits.blogspot.com/">http://www.kitsnbits.blogspot.com/
http://inmyblueroom.blogspot.com/">http://inmyblueroom.blogspot.com/
http://www.rukristin.blogspot.com/">http://www.rukristin.blogspot.com/
http://sabrinaalery.blogspot.com/">http://sabrinaalery.blogspot.com/
http://www.jaxbeanstalks.blogspot.com/">http://www.jaxbeanstalks.blogspot.com/
http://www.hydrangeahippo.com/">http://www.hydrangeahippo.com/
http://scrapbookingischeaperthantherapy.blogspot.com/">http://scrapbookingischeaperthantherapy.blogspot.com/
http://whatsinalousyananut.blogspot.com/">http://whatsinalousyananut.blogspot.com/
http://blueyecicle.blogspot.com/">http://blueyecicle.blogspot.com/
http://www.twotearsinmybucket.blogspot.com/">http://www.twotearsinmybucket.blogspot.com/
http://faerieenchantment.blogspot.com/">http://faerieenchantment.blogspot.com/

Each comment is an entry into a drawing to win the entire Trinity Paper Arts' "Surf N Swim" Collection!

PLUS, a second winner will receive Smooch Spritz in Gingersnap, Designer Foils in Blue, and Design Adhesives!

For extra entries, post about this blog hop to Facebook, Twitter or your blog! Just leave a comment on either company blog telling us what you did and each comment will count as your extra entry. And now, let's heat up the summer!!

Distressed Circus Boards: Ollie's Storybook Circus

Distressed Circus Boards were something I created for the Clearsnaps Design Team, a project designed with products found within the Clearsnap Product Line and some snippets of fabulous papers from Trinity Paper Arts, plus its apart of the Clearsnaps and Trinity Papers Blog Hop!

This project was inspired by elements of the circus, vintage game boards and my book, Altered Art Circus which is filled with circus and storybook themed projects, stories and recycled pieces. Since I love to recycle as much as I can, I used sturdy cardboard from a shipping box as my base, measured to 12 by 12 inches, then layered with vintage images, papers from Trinity Paper Arts, vintage circus supplies, embellishments from my embellishments line and distressed with fabulous inks and mixed media inks from clearsnap, along with my new all time fave product, Magic Stamp Moldable Foam, which allows you to make re-useable molds or impressions, with just a heat gun and a moldable piece.

Instead of a circus board try a memory board, a candyland board, wedding board, inspirational board, baby board, girl scout, steampunk or fairy board, so many possibilities to try. 

 Materials

-Archival ink pad, Pinkolicious, Mudslide, Colorbox

-Watermark ink pad: twinkle, Colorbox

-Fluid chalk ink pad: ice jade, Colorbox

-Mixed media ink: honey, truffle, vintage and schoolhouse, Colorbox

-Smooch accent ink: frosted aqua, Clearsnap

-Smooch Spritz: tea party, Clearsnap

-Glitter: ocean spray, Clearsnap

-Scrapbook paper, Trinity Paper Arts
-Vintage Images, circus follies collage cd, Lisa Kettell Designs

-Cardboard, chipboard or wood, cut to 12 by 12 inches

-Piccolo's, Globecraft Memories

-Air dry clay, Makins

-Various clay parts:XL cherry cupie head, bailey heads, lil chick, lil kewpie Lisa Kettell Designs

-Moldable foam stamp, Clearsnap

-Tools: scissors, paint brush, hot glue gun

-Glues: hot glue sticks, decaupage medium

-Other: ribbons, chipboard lettering, circus tickets, hardware, ephemera, mini light bulbs,       

 paper umbrella, clown cupcake topper, bakery twine, mini circus animals, coin wrappers,  chipboard, paper towel, etc.

 Directions

 1. Print a variety or circus images, posters and ephemera from the collage cd, in a variety of small sizes, no bigger then 4 1/2 inches by 4 1/2 inches. Once you pick a good amount of circus images, arrange to taste onto a 12 inch by 12 inch piece of cardboard, glue in place with decaupage medium.

2. Spray smooch spritz in tea party red onto a paper towel and swipe over some of the images and embellishments. I added color to the paper umbrella by lightly spraying smooch spritz in tea party red over it, then let dry.

3.  With a edge swipe technique, swipe the edges of your collage circus board with a school house mixed media paint, rub into the board using paper towel, add more dimension using archival ink in pinkolicious and mudslide, let dry.

4. Age your collage images using honey color mixed media ink and a paper towel, rubbing into a circular motion. 

5. Cut out some favorite circus images, glue to chipboard w/decaupage medium, cut out, place around parts of the board. Next cut out several small squares of chipboard glue together with hot glue til you have a 1/2 inch thickness, set aside.

6. Take several 1/2 thickness glue chipboard squares and hot glue behind each cut chipboard circus image, glue to your circus board. This gives your images dimension when gluing to your circus board.

7. Begin adding additional embellishments all around the board, creating mini vignettes around it. On the clay embellishments I added extra color using pigment inks, mixed media inks and fluid chalk ink pad. On the piccolo's and metal hardware I used smooch accent ink in frosted aqua to give more highlights to the hardware.

8. For the tags I used red toned scrapbook paper from trinity paper arts, cut into a tag shape, and aged the corners using vintage mixed media ink, the result resembled an old circus pullman cart.

9. No circus is complete without a clown, after some experimenting I pressed a clown cupcake topper into the moldable foam stamp block. The key to getting a deeper mold instead of a texture is to heat the moldable foam stamp block and extra 2 minutes, making sure you rotate the heat around the moldable foam stamp block sides and top to insure a perfect heat and no burn, then quickly press the clown cupcake topper into it and hold pressed for 20 seconds, voila, a re-useable mold. Now press w/makins air dry clay in white, let dry, paint and then glue to your circus board.

10. Finally add extra embellishments and glitter.

 

Tips and Tricks
-You can use a glue stick to adhere images to chipboard


-In place of vintage images, use various scraps of scrapbook paper then stamp circus scenes all 

-Try lining your whole board with circus tickets instead of images, age with a variety of              colorbox inks. 

-Alter a discarded or used game board using a variety of inks and embellish with all your fave pieces and found objects.
 
I hope this project inspires you to create a circus board of your own! Thanks so much for coming to mine!
xoxo
Lisa!


 

Design Team Project

Design Team Project

By Wendy Erman

The Sweetheart

When I purchase a pair of jeans, I'm almost as pleased with the tags as I am the clothing. Such is the case with Old Navy Sweetheart brand jeans. They come with this darling sloppily sewn tag. I've been wearing the new jeans for months, and those tags have been hanging out in my junk drawer. When I got this China doll head as part of my design team package from Lisa Kettell, I knew I'd found a use for the tag. This paper clay doll head is an absolute sweetheart. Obviously, you could paint the head and be all sorts of artistic, but I like the delicate sensibility that the raw form brings. It seems fragile and old, but the material Lisa uses for these pieces is actually lightweight and tough--perfect for all sorts of applications. I envision them in magnets, jewelry, and here, I've featured one in a scrapbook page that I plan to scan and use in my art journal.

My base is a piece of Lisa Kettell scrapbook paper. It's a darling heavyweight 12 x 12 paper with fun bright stripes and a red crown. I took my color scheme from the paper. I stripped the wings off a butterfly I bought at Jo-Ann fabrics, and I glued them down with E6000. I then free-handed a dress out of silver paper. Over the top of the dress, I glued a remnant from my grandmother's sewing drawer. I also added the bit of measuring tape.

Next, I created a base for the China doll head, as it was too small on its own. I used a rub-on to create a halo behind the head. I then colored that halo in with Faber Castell Pitt Pen.

Next, I adhered the Sweetheart tag and a fun game spinner. In the upper left-hand corner, I adhered a triangle of homemade painted paper and a vintage image of a heart. As finishing touches, I glued a metal heart to the figure, and I added a rub-on "S" below the crown.

Finally, because my eye was not satisfied with the limited use of yellow, I added sewing machine stitching around the perimeter with yellow thread, and I painted through punchinella with yellow acrylic paint.
For more great ideas using Lisa Kettell products, visit her blog HERE and look for other fun projects by the design team.

Look for Lisa's China doll heads and other must-have supplies HERE.

Posted by Wendy at 1:59 AM
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How amazing is Wendy's project, I just love love love it! Visit her blog for more inspiration!
xoxo
Lisa!

Design Team Project
By: Amy Mayfield

Madame Mariposa Chaperones The Butterfly Ball

I am tickled pink to share my first project as a member of the Lisa Kettell Design Team. I love to create shadow boxes and I honestly don't know that I've ever made anything that didn't involve glitter. I was inspired by the countless wonderful images on the Lisa Kettell Designs Fairy Follies Disc but this lovely lady just sent my mind whirring.

Materials:

Lisa Kettell Designs Fairy Follies Disc
Craft Glue
Shadow Box
Stickles Glitter Glue: Platinum, Onyx and Diamond
Scissors
Sticker Pearls
White cardstock
Adhesive foam rectangles

Directions:

Creating your images: I used three images from the Disc; The Fairy Lady, The Butterfly Ball and one of the Fairy Sheet Music Pages. I had to play with the sizes on my printer a bit to get them the size I wanted--I used custom size and played around with different inches. Once I had the desired dimensions I printed them on white cardstock and cut them out.

I coated the back of The Butterfly Ball image in glue and applied it to the back wall of my box, using a plastic squeegee to lightly smooth it. Once it was in place, I outlined the border and highlighted Butterfly Ball in Platinum Stickles and used Onyx Stickles on "the."

I used about six foam rectangles on the back of Madame and placed her inside the box. Once she was situated, I outlined her wings in Diamond Stickles...even a chaperone needs a little sparkle. Normally I would do a patterned paper around the inside of the box but I knew it would be hidden by the top.

To cover the basic black front of my shadow box, I flipped the lid upside down and traced the outline on the Fairy Sheet Music. Once I cut it out, I laid it on top of the lid to trace where the glass was and the cut out the interior. Coated the back in glue, applied to black "frame" area and smoothed it with squeegee. I topped it with a random butterfly I found in one of my craft boxes and outlined it in the Platinum Stickles. Then I pulled strips of pearl stickers apart and placed them around the edge.

Voila! You can be sure that under Madame's watchful eye no butterflies or fairy folk were taking part in ANY kind of dirty dancing.

The customization possibilities are ENDLESS on these images. You can use any kind of glitter or ephemera or jewels you prefer. I'd love to see what you create!

By:
amy’s blam
General Foolishness
http://amyblam.com