THIS IS IT / SMASH BOOK

 For those of you that don't know what a smash book is... it is simply as quick and easy way to collect pictures, tickets, memerobilia, receipts and journal whatever is going on in your life at the moment. You can purchase Smash books already made, and you can add your goodies to them, but I thought it would be fun to smash an entire year of my life and June being my birthday month I needed to get started on this book ASAP. I found this chipboard set at Michaels that I knew would work perfectly. Each page could be a month of my year.

I put on my favorite creating music... MJ's....This Is It... dvd and turned up the volume and away I went. First priming the chipboard with gesso and then I added metal embellishments, fiber tape, grunge board, flowers, lace, doilies, etc. 

As you can see... I titled my book "This Is It"... I thought it was fitting for a year of my life

Then I primed the entire surface and all embellishments with gesso. 

Pulled out my Lindys Stamp Gang sprays (these will be sold in my Etsy store soon) and I chose Mojito Green, Cotton Candy Pink and MoonShadow Treasure Island.

Remember when using your sprays to heat set each color before using the next or the colors will run together and you won't get the true color you are wanting.

I love how the cover turned out and I am excited to start smashing my June items on the first page. 

I hope this inspired you to get out there and have a smashing good time creating. In case you need some creative inspiration... sit back and watch MJ 

xoxo Toni

Altered Time

I have been on a look out for a clock for my art studio and came upon this gem for only $5.00. It was perfect for my style... old, grungy, steampunk inspired with sprockets.... so it was a must buy.

Decided it needed some altering. The main products I used for altering were... UTEE gold, bronze & black. I also used black gesso as well as metal tape. 

I first wanted to make wings which I covered chipboard with the metal tape, burnished it real good  and ran it through my Vagabond to die cut different shape wings, then ran it through once again my embossing folder "Sprokets". Wiped a thin layer of Rub & Buff Ebony over the highlighted spots on the wings to give it depth. 

Next was diecutting an assortment of sprokets and gears. I painted chipboard with black gesso and ran it through the diecutting machine. 

Then the fun part... I just love embossing. I used UTEE gold, bronze & black. Used Versamark and swiped random spots on the gears and applied the UTEE. Of course it setup bright and shiny but I wanted more of an aged look, therefore I took a wire brush ( you can use sand paper, or Tonic  Scratch Tool etc. ) and went to town on the gears in certain spots so not to look uniform. 

You can see by the pictures above the difference between the two textures... This technique is actually one of my favorites from Tim Holtz where he embosses metal pieces and then scratches away bits and pieces and it makes your object look distressed and worn. Of course I couln't scratch these gears because they were made from chipboard therefore the wire brush was perfect for the job. 

Then I decided the clock itself needed some embossing. I wiped random spots of Versamark and applied gold UTEE to the actual clock and heat set.

 Then it was time to embellish the clock... gears, chain, wings, and glass vials filled with copper mica, and gold glass glitter, and Ideology Pen Nibs were added. 

 Hope you enjoyed the post and I especially hope this inspired you to go alter something . 

xoxo Toni

Onesie Mini Album/ First 12 Months

I am surrounded by mothers-2-b  with little buns in the oven right now and I love it. For this project I was inspired by the cutest clothes hanger I found and Joann's Crafts for $1. Thought this would be an adorable prop for a mini album that I wanted to make for a co-worker. I drew up a simple pattern for a onesie and cut 7 chipboard pieces out for the individual pages. First page is the cover and the back then allows mommy to record all the delivery statistics. Each page thereafter flips over the clothes hanger and provides space to journal and include pictures of every month for the first year of Baby Cali's  life. Hope you enjoy the slide presentation of the mini album.

There were several products that I used that can be purchased in my Etsy Shop

Sheer Ribbon Elastic Lavender	Mulberry Puffy Flowers	Prima Say it in Crystals
Mini Pearl Strand	Maya Road Bingo Numbers	Tulle Double Ruffled
Bakers Twine	Maya Road/Sew Cute Mini Chipboard	LULLABY BUDS/Claire de lune

MUMS the word

Hi Everyone... I've had some requests for a tutorial using my puffy daisies  that I sell in my Etsy shop which you can find HERE. This flower requires the use of 6 puffy daisies, hot glue, your preference of misting sprays. I used Lindys Stamp Gang " Pink Ladies Pink" and "Bells of Ireland Green". 

The Rock Candy Distressed Stickles adds that pretty look of dew kissed petals. This can also be purchased in my Etsy shop HERE

Until next time.... happy crafting.

xoxo Toni

WOYWW

Hi y'all... it's WOYWW (Whats On Your Workdesk Wednesday) ... mine might be boring to you but exciting to me. This last week I spent time moving to my very own apartment. Yep... my daughter has got her own place so it was time for mom to downsize, kind of... lol... 143 boxes later and trying to convince my movers that I AM NOT A HOARDER... this is my craft room in the making. I'm so excited to get everything in its place. The room is small but I will make it work. Next week hopefully the pictures of my WOYWW will be a project I'm working on. Stay tuned. xoxo Toni

A Creative Christmas

Well this has been a very busy season for me. Getting a new job, trying to plan moving to a new home and keeping up with all my new wonderful customers on my Etsy store. I'm so grateful for the passion of art and creativity. At times like this when life brings so much stress and worries, I am blessed that I can look over at my craft table and no that I can release some of that negative energy into my inks, paints and glue. Thank you Jesus for the love for creativity... thank you for the inspiration for creativity that is ALL around me... thank you for the finances to buy that little bottle of glitter... thank you for leading new customers to my studio store.  

To all my followers, friends, family and customers I wish you a Beautiful Christmas & a Wonderfully Happy New Year xoxo Toni

Secret Santa

Christmas greetings and today's project from Saturday in the Studio is a gift bag and tag for my Secret Santa gift at work. 

Today I am working with two products that can be purchased in my Etsy shop, the Manila Tag measures 6.25" x 3.25" and gives you plenty of creative room to use for decorating a collage, mini art, tag for gifting and so much more. You can stamp, ink, alter, paint, distress, embellish and the surface accepts wet and dry techniques. Also, I'm featuring 2011 Christmas Seasonal Series Distressed Inks, all available in my Etsy store and they come in 3 festive colors: Evergreen Bough, Festive Berries, & Iced Spruce.

 I used all three of my Distressed Inks to color up my snowflake stamp and stamped my bag as well as my Kraft color tissue paper. I then embossed some more snowflakes in black.(I wanted to keep it a bit masculine as it was for a male employee that works with me) 

I then decided to run my Distressed Ink over my craft sheet and spray water to create droplets and then ran my manila tag over the colors and heat set. Applied a Martha Stewart Snowflake punch to the tag for interest. Distressed the edges with Iced Spruce. Added the words "Christmas Greetings" from my Ideaology Seasonal ChitChat Stickers. Them I embossed David's name and some snowflakes randomly in black on the tag. Tied natural & black jute cord to the tag and bag. 

Stop by my store for many other products for your crafting needs. You can also purchase Etsy gift cards for that crafting friend so they can go shopping after Christmas. Enjoy putting your own personal touch to your packages this holiday season. xoxo Toni

Saturday In The Studio

Due to all the holiday busyness, I am a couple days late on posting "Saturday in the Studio". This weeks feature product is Maya Road Vintage Wood Spools. These are so cute and come 6 in a package. I decided to create a Christmas tree ornament with mine. Here are the quick and easy steps to making this ornament. You can purchase them here at my Etsy Shop

The following supplies were used: Maya Road Vintage Wooden Spools, sheet music paper, black jute, ribbon of your choice, gold & silver tinsel glitter, black & gold confetti tulle, gold ornaments for embellishment

I first used Vintage Photo Distressed Ink and stained the edges of the spools, then cut strips of the music paper and glued it around each spool. Next I glittered all around the edges of the spools with my tinsel glitter... (this year I think this is my most favorite glitter... so vintage looking) . 

Using the black jute I ran it up the holes of the bottom two outside spools, then ran it up the 2nd row of spools and then finished by running both ends of the jute through the top spool. Leave about 2 inches and tie a knot. 

 Then using my glue gun I glued 3 spools together for the foundation, then two for the next row and 1 for the top row.  To finish off I added some pretty gold and black confetti tulle that you can also get in my Etsy shop and adhered some mini Christmas bulbs. And there you have it another quick and easy ornament for your tree. Hope you enjoyed ... Merry Christmas

Christmas Burrrr lap Bags

 It's "Saturday In The Studio" and this week I'm featuring my burrrr lap bags. There are so many uses for these bags. They can be used for every holiday imaginable. I chose to make some gift bags for some co-workers and here is a tutorial to show you the process. The first thing I did was stamped my words using white gesso onto the bags. Acrylic paint works just as well and would probably clean up easier on your stamps than gesso, I just like the way gesso is so thick.

Then I attached the cinnamon sticks to the jute using the following steps. 

Lastly I stapled the jute and my choice of ribbon to the back of the bag just to hold it in place. Wrap the jute first in a regular bow, and then wrap your ribbon around and tie a nice big bow. You don't, of course need to use cinnamon if you choose not to. Some other choices would be, ornaments, bells, candy canes, etc. These bags are really inexpensive and can be customized so easily. They can be purchased here in my Etsy shop for $2.25 and they measure 10" x 10" Use them to fill stocking stuffers, homemade baked goods place a poinsettia plant or mini Christmas tree inside and tie with a festive bow. Hope you were inspired to be creative. xoxo Toni

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas

Hi everyone... time for another project using those wonderful Oxford Impressions Large Letter Stamps

This is a glass ornament that I glued mica flakes and glitter inside and then embossed the numbers "25" with gold embossing powder on the front. Added gold diamond ribbon for some added bling, which can be purchased at my Etsy shop.  "I Am Roses" Poinsettias were sprayed with Lindys Stamp Gang "Golden Sleigh Bells" and added some Christmas ribbon and greenery. These stamps are so versatile. Stop over at Oxford Impressions for some wonderful inspiration.

HOLIDAY WEEKEND SALE

My Etsy shop is getting in on the holiday savings and offereing 10% off entire order. Stop by to see all the great art and craft supplies. So many items to get your home and packages ready for the holiday season. Don't forget to use coupon code HOLIDAYCASH

SATURDAY IN THE STUDIO

I've had many customers of mine that have inquired on techniques or ideas on ways to use some of the products in my  Etsy shop. So, starting 11/24 I will be launching "SATURDAY IN THE STUDIO". A weekly post featuring a product in my Etsy store and giving some inspiration on ways to use it. More and more of my customer are branching off and creating out of their box... so proud of you... and experimenting with mixed media products even on their scrapbook layouts, so I thought this would be a fun way to interact with you. Questions, comments are always encouraged. Let's grow, be inspired, and get messy together. 

Hugs ♥ ♥ Toni