Something Old, Something New - Day One!

Xyron started updating their website about the same time we selected a new Design Team.  With each new DT we have done a fun "something old, something new" project - so we selected our most viewed projects on xyron.com and challenged our DTers to be inspired to create something new using the old projects as a guide.  All this week we will feature these projects AND tutorials on how to complete them on your own!

Viki Tiamat took an old, discarded piece of a...wait for it...WASHING MACHINE - and turned it in to this beautiful centerpiece:

using inspiration from this summer centerpiece project.

Head on over to Viki's blog to find out just how she did it and what inspired her!

Stacy Rodriguez updated this gift card and bag project idea:

and created this beautiful, colorful, multi-layered set that anyone would be thrilled to receive!  On her blog today Stacy shares a step-by-step tutorial on how to create the bag with leftover pieces of patterned paper.

Marjie Kemper went canvas crazy on her blog today! sing this four-canvas project as inspiration:

she created a lovely canvas-on-canvas project and shows you some great techniques for making your own.

Thanks for stopping by - stay tuned all week for more fun project make-overs!

Neighborhood Craft Night - Paper Wreaths

Handmade wreaths are ALL the rage these days - type the word wreath in to Pinterest and you will get hundreds of fabulous ideas at the push of a button!  With Spring on its way (allegedly - it is supposed to snow here on Thursday) I wanted to create something bright and cheery we could all hang on our front doors.

all photos courtesy of Busy Bee Photography

Supplies:
floral foam wreath (we used 9")
several sheets of coordinating patterned paper
Xyron machine (5" or 9" Creative Station or Creatopia)
liquid glue**
scissors
trimmer
assorted embellishments - buttons, flowers, etc

Cut your patterned paper in to 1 1/2" x 12" strips.  I used 25 strips total on mine - some used a few more, some a few less - depending on how closely together you set the strips.  Do not ask Bizzy to help.

Run all of the strips through your Xyron machine.

Take the first strip and loosely loop it around the foam wreath.  Line up the ends and press them together FIRST before pressing the rest of the strip to itself.  The adhesive will hold the strip to the loop.

Repeat with remaining strips, slightly overlapping each strip at the base (the part that touches the wreath).  Once the wreath is completely covered, trim the edges of each strip at a "V" - aka banner cut, fishtail, dovetail, notch, etc.

Decorate with embellishments as desired.

For a quick tutorial on how to create the rosettes used on this wreath check out the video below!

**Note - if you are going to hang this on your porch or have high humidity - keep some liquid glue handy. About a week after I made this a few of the strips popped "open" because of the humidity - so I just put a drop of liquid glue on the ends of those strips and it was a perfect fix!

Little Prince Blog Hop - Create your own Custom Cake Plates!

Hey gang!  Welcome to Day Three of the Little Prince Blog Hop - thanks so much for stopping by!

If you missed the first two days you will want to go back and take a peek - EVERY SINGLE STOP on this three-day hop is giving away a prize!  Check out Day One here and Day Two here - you have until midnight April 5th to enter.  Good luck!

I love to create my own party decorations - but it can be hard (and expensive) to find themed decorations.  Why not make your own?  Today I've got a quick tutorial for you on how to create your own custom cake plate.

SUPPLIES
Xyron Creatopia with Permanent Adhesive
One sheet 12x12 patterned paper
One cardboard cake circle (you can use any size up to 12" - I used a 10" circle)
Coordinating buttons
Xyron High Tack Adhesive Dots (these won't be available until June - sneak peek for you!!!)
Craft knife and self-healing mat
Sandpaper

Set your patterned paper face down on your work surface, then run your cake circle upside down through the Creatopia.

Peel off top film, then peel the cake circle from the backing and place adhesive side down on your paper (remember - your paper is face down on your work area). Use a craft knife to cut all the way around the cake circle, then sand edges to smooth.

Use your Adhesive Dots to apply buttons around the outside edge of the cake plate.  Tip: I only put buttons about halfway around before I put the cake on the plate - just in case!  :)

Place your cake in the center of the plate, add the remaining buttons - and you have your own custom cake plate in just a few minutes!

Are you wishing you had a piece of this cake?  Can you just taste the sweet fluffy frosting?  Well...I'm going to let you in on a little secret.  I was dreading this photo shoot because I KNEW if we brought a cake in to the house we would eat it and I am trying VERY hard to eat healthier.  I shouldn't have worried. If you look very carefully at the above photo you may notice that the frosting at the top of the cake doesn't go all the way around.  This is why.

Our mastidane puppy - Bizzy - is NOTORIOUS for eating things off the table when we aren't looking.  We tried to shame her by posting this photo on Facebook after my husband's last birthday - but it apparently didn't phase her because I had everything all set up for this photo shoot, turned my back for less than 30 seconds and...

Clearly she loves cake even more than I do.  Gotta love her!

As a thank you for coming by I'm giving away a great prize pack of Xyron goodies - including a roll of the Xyron High Tack Adhesive Dots!  You'll be the first to try them! I'm also including an Adhesive Eraser, Tape Runner, Glue Stick for Corners and Magnet Tape. A whole box of craftiness!  To enter simply leave a comment here on the blog.  You have until April 5th to enter - I'll announce the winner on my Facebook Page on April 6th.  Someone is going to be very happy!

Please stop by and visit the other Day Three bloggers (complete list is below) - next stop is the SUPER talented Irit Shalom.  You are going to love her altered frame!

Happy Hopping everybody!

starts at: www.homespunelegance.blogspot.com
Beth Kingston www.aintshecrafty.blogspot.com - that's me!  :)
Irit Shalom www.iritshalom.blogspot.co.il
Jillian Shelton www.paperalamode.com
Madison Womack www.ifeeltheloveproject.blogspot.com
Karen Ladd www.ahomespunaffair.blogspot.com
Elizabeth Mindemann -  http://www.ejoym.blogspot.com
Liz Matsko -  http://www.217Creations.com
Rani Childs - http://www.ldsolutions.blogspot.com

Neighborhood Craft Night - Teacher Gifts

When I hosted my first neighborhood craft night in October I knew it would be something fun to do on a Friday night, but I couldn't have imagined how much I would look forward to this "girl time" or what a bond I would feel with these women - many of whom were essentially strangers when we first started. My December travel schedule was a little hectic and with the holidays coming I wasn't sure I'd be able to fit one in (or if anyone would have time to come) - so when all of my "regulars" not only came but brought three new people, I knew we had something special.  This month's project - teacher gifts!  All photos (except the crappy one at the bottom) courtesy of Busy Bee Photography.

We created altered notebooks and post-it note holders using the GORGEOUS Teresa Collins Vintage Finds collection and - of course - my Xyron machines. You can find a quick tutorial on how to create your own notebook (with the lovely Teresa herself) here: 

and I created the post-it note holders using two pieces of 3x3 chipboard covered in patterned paper (and we made our own binding using a smaller piece of paper), but of course AFTER craft night I found an ENTIRE Pinterest page with tutorials that were MUCH easier.  Live and learn!  :)

Bizzy - the official mascot of...well...everything.  :)  She is like the "Where's Waldo" of craft night!

I got so wrapped up in the fun of it all that I forgot to ask Rachel to take a picture of the post-it note holder, so here it is - in all its low light, crummy camera blurriness.  I made it nice and big so you can revel in the awesomeness of the photo.  Ha!

Happy Crafting everybody!  Can't wait to see what the new year will bring!

How To Build A Headboard From An Old Door

FINALLY!!!! Don and I have been talking about these headboards for months, but our schedules and the weather made this much more than a weekend project! We are SO thrilled with the results and wanted to share this how-to with you, so without further ado I am tickled to welcome my first guest blogger...my husband Don!

Hey everyone, this is my first attempt at blogging, and it shows due to my lack of pictures of the process.  Regardless, I hope that you find this blog helpful in putting together your own recycled door headboard.  You can find the instructions here, and if you are unable to download it from the link just contact Beth at aintshecrafty@gmail.com and she can email it to you directly. Please let me know if I can answer any questions if you are thinking about building your own headboard or need some help along the way. Good luck and happy building!

We had been looking for headboards for both our guest bed and our own bed for quite a while. Beth loves catalogs like Pottery Barn and we both like antiques, but we aren't crazy about paying the sometimes ridiculous prices. Beth pinned this headboard several months ago, and after looking at the Anna White Queen Headboard plans that the original poster used we headed out to a local salvage yard to find some reclaimed wood.  What we found was something even better (albeit a little more challenging), some old doors with great distressing and character. We brought them home and after cutting them down to size (remember to see my instructions for detailed information and measurements for each step of the project) I built the legs and cap around the door.

After building the frame, the next step was painting. Since these are headboards that are pressed against a wall I only painted the front facing side, which was much easier and a big time saver because I could just lay it on the ground and paint one side. I painted the entire queen headboard black...

but for the king headboard we wanted to retain some of the original color and distressing, so I masked off the panels with painters tape and some of Beth's scrapbooking cardstock.

After the paint dried it was simply a matter of mounting the headboard to the bed frame - and we had some beautiful new headboards for a fraction of the price we would have paid for buying one.

Thanks for checking out my first blog post, I look forward to your comments or questions. I hope you enjoy building your own headboard! --Don

Trinity Paper Arts Week - Day Five!

We have had SUCH a great week featuring projects from the Xyron Design Team using Trinity Paper Arts - and we're going to wrap it up with Sincerely, a romantic collection featuring shades of blacks, greys, maroons, and some lovely patterns! Enjoy!

Jessica Barnett made this super cute card - and then was so inspired she made a few more projects as well! Check out her blog for another great card idea and two scrapbook layouts - this paper collection is perfect for so much more than weddings!

Van Nguyen came up with a fun gift idea - this darling note card set and holder. Head on over to her blog for a complete tutorial on how to make one for yourself!

Linda Neff made a CD album for her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend - the colors lend themselves perfectly to a project celebrating the love in your life! Want to see the entire album?  Her blog has the inside scoop and a photo of each page!

We hope you've been inspired this week - the Design Team has loved sharing their projects with you.  Have a wonderful weekend everybody!

Trinity Paper Arts Week - Day Four!

I hope you've been loving the projects from the Xyron DT this week - Trinity Paper Arts is SO fun to work with that I could have created a bajillion projects from just one paper pack!  Today we've got more great ideas from the Surf N Swim collection:

You know I'll always tell you guys where I get my inspiration - and this project has been 18 months in the making!  I fell in love with this layout from Lisa Truesdell in the January 2011 issue of CK, tore out the page, and have been carrying it around in my idea notebook for over a year and a half.  When I was looking at the colors of the Surf N Swim paper this photo of my nephew came to mind...and voila!  I scraplifted the beejeebies out of her layout - and I hope I did it justice.

Just a few notes:

I cut out the strips of patterned paper in varying lengths (9" - 11") and widths (3/4" - 1 1/4") and applied them to my paper using my Xyron 1.5" Create-A-Sticker.

For those of you who are scared of your sewing machine like I am - I actually just used some of the Tim Holtz Distress Markers rather than doing actual stitching. :)

I cut out a large heart on my Cricut, ran it through my Xyron 9" Creative Station using REPOSITIONABLE adhesive, applied it to the page after I'd adhered the strips and done the "stitching" across the paper strips (do the stitching around the heart AFTER you've sprayed the project and let it dry), sprayed the whole project with Maya Road mist, then the heart mask peeled right off.  It was SO easy to use!

This hello card idea came from my friend Vicki Boutin.  Vicki has recently come out with a book, Creative Foundations, that I literally cannot stop talking about or using - it has the MOST amazing techniques and easy-to-follow instructions...and this card is proof!  I used the crayon resist technique found on page 12 (you can go to this site and scroll down to see a photo - hers is a flower) to scraplift AGAIN, and the whole thing took me less than 10 minutes. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this technique and the result!

I am usually stumped when it comes to patterned papers that have one large image on them - but Angela Ploegman comes to the rescue and shows us all how to create a fantastic layout! Notice that her background paper has a large image on the left hand side...so she just created around it!  Genius!  Head on over to her blog for a supply list.

We've got one more day to go...tomorrow we've got the gorgeous Sincerely collection.  See you then!

Melissa Frances Chipboard Houses Tutorial

As I mentioned on my FB page a while back, I am OBSESSED with these houses. As I also mentioned, I am so disorganized during the holiday season that I meant to post this how-to BEFORE Christmas, but here we are. So - apologies for the lateness, but to make up for it I am giving away a few of these kits  (post your New Year's resolution by December 31st on the aforementioned FB page to enter) and I FINALLY present to you step by step instructions so you can make some of these houses yourself!  These would make WONDERFUL wedding or housewarming gifts too...chipboard houses ain't just for Christmas any more!  :)

PS - I would also like to give a shout-out to my mom (who we will refer to as Crafty Sharron from now on) who is here visiting for Christmas and helped me with the photos and made some fabulous houses of her own while I was working on this tutorial.  Thanks Mom!

Supplies needed:
Melissa Frances ornament cottage kit
Three (3) coordinating patterned papers - I used MME Lost & Found Christmas
Xyron 510 with permanent adhesive refill
1/8" Scor-Tape
Liquid glue
Craft knife and self healing mat
Two (2) coordinating misting sprays - I used Clearsnap Smooch Spritz Vanilla Shimmer and Perfect Pearls Bronze Mist
Coordinating acrylic paint and brush
Bazzill Basics textured vellum (optional)
Clearsnap Fairy Dust Glitter
Melissa Frances mini bottle brush tree
White cardstock and printer
Distress Ink - I used Antique Linen
Two (2) coordinating mini brads
Foam tape

Select the roof, house and base from your kit. Find the "top/front" of each piece (based on the way the pieces are scored).

Put the three pieces in the Xyron 510 with the top/front facing DOWN. 

Once you run them through the 510, peel off the clear film and then GENTLY peel the pieces from the backing.  Chipboard is created in layers so if you peel too fast the top layer of chipboard will come right off.

Place the adhesive side of your chipboard on the BACK of the patterned paper for each item (see photo of completed pieces below...for example - the yellow piece of paper that the roof chipboard is attached to has a red swirl pattern on the other side).

Use a craft knife to cut out each piece and sand if you want to.  :)

(photo of completed pieces)

Use your craft knife to gently cut along the score lines of the roof and house.  You don't want to cut too deep, but if you do over-cut don't worry - see my HELPFUL TIP at the very end of this post.

Apply misting spray to your base piece ONLY. Set aside to dry.

Apply misting spray to your window and door pieces. Set aside to dry.

Apply paint to your fence. Set aside to dry.

Take your house and roof pieces (NOT the base piece) and put them back in the Xyron 510 with the patterned paper side facing DOWN. Run through the machine, peel of the clear film, gently peel pieces off of the backing and lay with the patterned/adhesive side facing UP on your workspace.

Apply glitter to both pieces, rub with finger to cover and tap off excess.

(photo of completed pieces)

Tip: If you are using patterned paper that already has glitter on it, you can use the tip of your craft knife to scrape off the top layer of glitter, revealing the pattern on your paper.

On the back side of your house, place Scor-Tape around the edges of the door and window.

At this point I should stop, take a moment, and explain to you that I am usually not a crazy adhesive woman.  When I put a photo on a layout I use some adhesive on each corner, not adhesive all around the edges and then some in the middle for good measure.  I'm not stingy with my stickiness, but I am not going through five refills per project if you know what I mean.  HOWEVER - because this is a project that I want people to use and enjoy (and I know it will be put on a tree, taken down and put away, brought out again next Christmas, etc. year after year - not something that is going to sit on a shelf forever) I used A LOT of adhesive on this project.  A LOT. I recommend you do the same.  :)

Flip the house over, center your door and window, and press to adhere.

Flip the house back over and apply scor-tape to the back of the door and window.

Cut two small pieces of textured vellum (or use the red cellophane that came in your kit) and cover door and window openings.

Apply Scor-Tape to the bottom of your house*.  I do not use liquid glue until later in the project because I HATE to wait for liquid glue to dry.  Using Scor-Tape allows me to put the project together quickly and then go back and "shore-up" any parts of the project that need liquid glue. 

*Line up the edge of your Scor-Tape with the front of your house, so the rest of the Scor-Tape is "hanging off" the back edge of the chipboard.

Use your finger to "roll" the Scor-Tape on to itself, making a thinner strip. It won't look pretty - but it will hold fabulously!

Repeat on ONE end of the house.

Fold house in to shape and adhere to your base.  I adhered mine pretty close to the back of the base, but I have seen them put on kitty-cornered and centered, so the choice is yours!

Repeat the Scor-Tape process on the roof edges of your house.

Insert the ornament holder in to your roof and apply to your house.

(photo of house with roof)

Use liquid glue to adhere your tree and Scor-Tape to adhere the fence to your base.

If you are applying a "plaque" to your house, print out your phrase in several different sizes.

Use distress ink to apply color to your phrases, cut out and determine which size works best with your house.

Use your craft knife to poke a small hole on either side of your paper.  Insert brads.

Fold both ends of your brads towards the center of your paper.

Use a small piece of foam tape in the center of your paper and adhere to the front of the house.

***HELPFUL TIP*** These chipboard houses ARE fragile.  If during the process you tear your chipboard along one of the score lines or feel like the Scor-Tape isn't secure enough, once your house is COMPLETED you can easily go back and fill in the gaps with liquid glue.  Apply the liquid glue to the affected area then sprinkle some glitter on the glue and tap off the excess.  It will strengthen your project AND cover up any small errors.  Thank God for glitter!  :)