Recycled Denim Journal Project

Recycling is what I do best. Here is a great project which can give a journal or drawing book new life, and a great way to recycle old, ripped or discarded jeans.

The first recorded use of indigo as a color name in the English language was in the year 1289. There is something so magical about the color of indigo which has a mix of blues and violets embracing it. Indigo is a color which has many facades. It can be romantic, mysterious, and mystical. It can call on fairies, goths and bohemians. Its vintage and modern all wrapped in one.


Materials:

-Jean/Denim pocket and scraps
-Discarded hard cover book, journal or drawing pad
-Ribbon
-Large metal safety pins, Michaels Crafts Line
-Adhesive page flags, Michaels Crafts Line
-Paper stickers, Flora and Fauna, Brenda Walton for K & Company
-Acrylic paint, ink spot color, Folk Art Paint
-Glues: hot glue, sturdy craft glue
-Tools: scissors, hot glue gun
-Other: metal tags, metal flowers, tiny metal cabochons, rhinestone bow, rhinestone pieces, jewelry findings

Directions:

1. Using the jean pocket scrap I covered my book's front cover and spine. hot glued in place. It fit perfectly around the front. I then folded the uneven edges over the cover and onto the other side.

2. For the back cover I added left over jean scraps from my scrap bag and hot glued in place. I layered a cut piece of muslin fabric to the inside covers to finish it off.

3. Now add decorative page tabs to the inside pages.

4. Tie a large ribbon around the center of the book, attach metal number tags to the ends. These are the book marks.

5. Embellish the cover of the book with large metal safety pins, paper stickers, tiny metal cabochons, rhinestone bow, rhinestones and metal flowers.

6. Enhance the book pages with ink spot color paint, ephemera, images and your fave mementos.






Tips/Tricks:

-Cover a blank journal or drawing pad and carry on your travels. Fill it with your adventures.
-Dye your jean scraps for more color choices.
-If you don't have jeans cover your book with fabric and make your own pockets.









This journal I created represents, friendship, love, and the magic of life. It will be filled with mementos that I acquire along my journey in creating a wonderful life.

I hope you enjoyed this project and come back for another visit.

xoxo

Lisa

DIY Vintage Transfer Pillows

For a few months I have been wanting to make DIY Vintage Transfer Pillows. I turned muslin fabric craft totes into vintage pillows w/ black/white copies, wax paper, heat and stuffing! Whole project cost $10 for 4 pillows!

This project can be done a variety of ways. Instead of wax paper, you can use stencils, stencil brush and black paint. Try a black and white photocopy, transfer paper, stylus and a black sharpie. Iron on transfer paper works as well.

Materials:

-Wax paper

-Printer paper

-Ink jet printer

-Image or lettering of choice

-Bone folder or painting scrapper

-Muslin fabric craft tote

-Pillow stuffing

-Paper spray adhesive of choice

-Tools: scissors, sewing needle, sewing thread, heat tool

Directions: 

1. Choose a few images or lettering labels you want to print. (visit my flickr gallery for a bunch of free collage images) 
2. Cut a few pieces of wax paper to 8.5 x 11 inch sheets. Attach the cut wax paper to the same size computer paper using spray adhesive. Load into your computer printer. Make sure the wax paper part is the area that gets printed on when it comes out of the printer. (Doing this makes printing the wax paper easier) 
3. Before you begin printing, make sure you switch your printer settings to mirror images, so that the wording or images print in reverse. 
4. Carefully remove the printed sheets from the printer, making sure to hold the ends, away from the ink, as the ink stays very wet. 
5. Place the wet side of the wax paper onto one side of the muslin fabric craft tote, then using a bone folder or painting scraper, press/rub down onto the paper until the ink has transferred to the fabric. 
6. Remove the paper and using a heat tool or blow dryer, add some heat to set.
   Cut the tote straps, fill with pillow stuffing and stitch close. 
   
   
   
   

    Iron on Paper Transfers:

1. Replace the wax paper and printer paper with iron on transfer paper and print. (remember to click on the mirror settings on the computer before printing)
2. Then iron onto the fabric, stuff, stitch.

For Transfer Paper and Sharpie:

1. Print your image on regular printer paper. No need to mirror image.
2. Place a piece of transfer paper onto the fabric and layer the printed image onto it, with printed side facing you (Blank side down against the transfer paper).
3. Trace the image onto the fabric using a stylus or pencil. Remove both papers.
4. Fill in the transfer with a black paint pen or sharpie. 
   
   
   
   

    Stencil and Paint Transfers:

1. Buy paint stencil online or at craft store.
2. Using a stencil brush and black fabric paint, stencil on the fabric.

Tips/Tricks:

-Try color images

-Photocopy ticket stubs such as a first movie date, wedding table number, broadway or sport tickets for a fun memory pillow.

-Create fabric banners, or print on wood.

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial, so many possibilities, Love to see what you make. I have my pillows on the couch and sitting chairs.  I've even used them to showcase my jewelry wares. Now onto the next crafting adventure.

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  

 

Fabric Remnant Banner

My store Piddlestixs, is almost 150 years old, its housed inside a former theater/playhouse, WWI weight station and General Store, so it has lots of character and history. The decor of my store Piddlestixs is unique and houses many eclectic themes from Wonderland, Circus, Kawaii, Tea and Steampunk/Apothecary. Piddlestixs has lots of re-cycled and up-cycled items and supplies for sale. In deciding on what kind of store banner I wanted in the front of the store, I opted for a vintage style banner to keep with the various themes and history of the store, the result was a banner using fabric remnants, chipboard lettering, seam binding and silver German glass glitter.
Materials

-2 sizes of fabric remnants, (found in fabric sample books or you can use fabric scraps)
-Black seam binding or silk ribbon
-Crushed velvet ribbon
-Decorative chipboard lettering
-German glass glitter, silver 
-Glue: hot glue, modge podge
-Tools: hot glue gun, scissors, pinking sheers and pain brush

Directions

1. Decide on the name for your banner, I chose Piddlestixs, which is 11 letters, so I counted 11 larger pieces of scrap fabric and lined on the floor. Repeat this step for the smaller set of scrap fabric pieces.


2. If your remnants aren't already pinked, use pinking sheers and trim 3 sides of each of the remnants both large and small.


3. Measure a long strip of black seam binding or silk ribbon,  place over the larger remnant's top edges, now hot glue to the large remnant.


4. Next hot glue the smaller remnant piece over the ribbon and the larger remnants.

5. Line the top of the smaller remnants with crushed velvet trim, for a more finished look.


6. Now add your chipboard lettering to each layered remnant, hot glue in place, coat with modge podge and german glass glitter.

Tips/Tricks
-Use Fabric tac in place of the hot glue.
-Use caution when using hot glue.
-Use wood letters in place of chipboard lettering
-Use scraps of fabric, sheets, bedding, curtains, table cloths or clothes in place of remnant books.

The possibilities are endless, this is a great recycle/upcycle project using items you might already have lying around  the house, studio or store!


Enjoy,
XOXO
Lisa!