American Crafts Botanique!

My oldest son, Jake, moved out of our home, relocated to Southern California, and began his college career.  He has some short-term and long-term goals he wants to accomplish in his life.  We couldn’t be prouder of him and we wish him the best-est of luck!  We miss him terribly but we are all looking forward to him living the life he has imagined.  He deserves the best life has to offer him. 

With Jake moving out, this opened up a room for his younger brother, Raiden, who had been sharing a room with his sister, Gwen.  Since, then I’ve been trying to make the both of them more comfortable in their rooms.  Papercrafting can add little personal touches to a child’s room in an affordable way.

For example, the little box pictured above will hold little treasures on my daughter’s dresser.  It’s 5-1/2-inches tall and 3-inches wide.  It’s a cut file I purchased for 99 cents at the Silhouette Online Store called 4 stack drawers by SnapDragon Snippets LLC. The flower at the top of the set is a 3D Peony which was the Free Shape of the Week from the Silhouette Online Store a few weeks back.  This flower is my favorite 3D flower right now. 

Since owning my Silhouette Portrait, I am pleasantly surprised every Tuesday by the free shape offered.  The FREE cut files are always something I WANT to use coupled with a project using it on their blog—pretty COOL!   Sometimes they also post instructions on how they used it in the software and the final results.  This information is very helpful for new users and I suggest you check it out from time to time.  Here’s a link to their blog:    http://blog.silhouetteamerica.com/

To make this cut file more sophisticated, I used American Crafts Botanique (Full Collection) from AC Digitals.com.  It was just the right mix of graphic papers with pretty garden images to complete the look of this little box. 

Click on the above collection image to be taken directly to the product pages at AC Digitals.

Here’s the description from AC Digitals:

Botanique is a sophisticated collection with an English garden touch, featuring a soft color palette and plenty of beauty.

Buy the full collection and save 20%! The Botanique Full Collection includes the following individual kits:

• Botanique Element Pack #1 - includes 56 elements in PNG format
• Botanique Element Pack #2 - includes 56 elements in PNG format
• Botanique Paper Pack #1 - includes 10 12x12 papers in JPEG format
• Botanique Paper Pack #2 - includes 10 12x12 papers in JPEG format

Art Journal Girl Coasters Set

I created the above coasters gift set using the first art journal girl from Nancie Rowe Janitz’s Art Journal Girls: My Soul Listens—now available at jessicasprague.com.  She is an 8-x-10-inch art journal girl straight from Nancie’s own art journal. She’s delightful to print on canvas, frame for home decor, gifts, paper crafting, or working her into your own art journals.  I’m hoping Nancie comes out with more art journal girls, so I can add to the above coasters set.  They’d be great to trade for swaps, etc. 

To make each coaster, I mod-podged the images, at various image sizes, to chipboard, layered more mod-podge, and followed up with layers of polyurethane for shine and durability as they ARE coasters after all. The box is made from chipboard as well with Nancie’s Art Journal Girl images attached with pop dots for dimension.

I thought the set could reside on a shelf until ready to use for special occasions. What do you think?

The entire project was a print-and-cut using my Silhouette Portrait—of course, right?  I used Lori Whitlock’s A2 Card & Envelope Magazine Holder #2 as the coaster holder but used her shaped flat cards from the A2 Card & Envelope Magazine Holder #1 and #2 sets.  These are fabulous cut files recently released in the Silhouette Online Store. 

Below are a ton of pictures from this coaster gift set.  Hope you like!

 

Click on the above collection image to be taken directly to the product page at jessicasprague.com.

Boo To You!

The above door decor was inspired by a project I’d seen at simplykellyb.  The door decor rosette is a whopping 18 inches in diameter!  I had to put my hybrid spin on it by printing some papers and elements from the Cosmo Cricket Haunted Paper Pack Collection and Haunted Candy Candy available at jessicasprague.com.  The word art was matted by a die cut from the paper collection using the CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge.  Some Tim Holtz Walnut Distress Ink was applied to the rosette and perfect pearl pigment powder (spray) applied to activate/accentuate the distress ink. A 3D flower was die cut from the paper collection using the CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge with a black sharpie using the Cri-Kits insert.

This year I thought I’d have some fun with die cut paper on my pumpkin!  I die cut from the Cosmo Cricket Haunted Paper Pack Collection using the Happy Hauntings Cricut Cartridge.  The “ribbons” were made by ripping some white cotton fabric and coloring them using glimmer mists.

Hope you all have a boo-ti-ful, happy, and safe Halloween!

What?! It’s October already?! YIKES!

September flew by!  Here’s some projects I’ve been working on during the month.  Also, I’ve discovered the joy of ATCs and will be posting some soon. I can’t wait to share.  They’re so fun and addicting.

Happy Halloween Hybrid Card

Creativity by Crystal:  Crystal's Too Cute To Spook Papers and Crystal's Too Cute to Spook Elements available at jessicasprague.com.

Other Supplies:  CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge, Tim Holtz Rosette die by Sizzix, buttons, brads, and embroidery thread.

My Beautiful Girls Hybrid Bracket Album

Jodie Lee:  Gorgeous Hybrid Bracket Album available at jessicasprague.com.

Other Supplies:  CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge, Tim Holtz Rosette Die by Sizzix, Martha Stewart Embossed Button Punch and flower punch, and Zutter Bind-it-All and 1/2-inch O-wires.

Comic-Book-Sized Panel Home Decor Frame

Splendid Fiins: Splendid Tutorial 6 Super Comic Photos, Super Elements v1, and Super Comic Book Size Panel Layouts available at jessicasprague.com.

Other Supplies:  Frame stand made using Fancy Frames Cricut Cartridge, chipboard, and pop dots.

Halloween Rosette Ribbons

Just thought I’d make something fun to wear this Halloween Season!
Creativity by Crystal: Crystal's Too Cute To Spook Papers available at jessicasprague.com.

Other Supplies:  Tim Holtz Rosette Die by Sizzix, Stampin’ Up label punch, EK Success Circle Punch and Scalloped Punch, Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink, Ribbon Die by Sizzix, felt, ribbons, chipboard, and recycled pins and crochet coasters from the thrift store.

September Home Decor Project

Oh!  How I love to find things at my local thrift store—Amador Hospice Thrift, especially during their half-off sale—it’s sublime! 

The coffee table pictured below I procured during their last half-off sale, for $3, brought it home, and eagerly got started with the Mod Podge.  I’m absolutely in love with it! 

TIP:  When printing digital elements/paper for decoupage projects, it’s best to print them on paper that is fast-drying, smudge resistant, water resistant, and fade resistant.  I use Epson’s Presentation Paper, Matte.  After applying several layers of the Hard Coat Mod Podge, I also use a few layers of varnish, specifically DecoArt’s DuraClear Varnish, Gloss. 

Girl Friday Conversation Table Makeover Supplies

Girl Friday Candy Candy, Girl Friday Borders, Girl Friday Elements, Girl Friday Paper Pack by Cosmo Cricket at jessicasprague.com.

Crystal’s Rounded Corner Templates by Creativity by Crystal at jessicasprague.com.

Other supplies:  Hard Coat Mod Podge, DecoArt DuraClear Varnish, Gloss, and Epson Presentation Paper, Matte.

Look what ModPodge and Digi Can Do!

We’ve been doing some late spring/early summer cleaning around the house lately and sprucing things up a bit.  It’s really improved my family’s mood and is helping us get ready for the coming Summer season with all of the activities we have planned for the kids’ time off from school.  The reward for me has been updating things here and there using ModPodge and digital products from jessicasprague.com.

We started by updating  the look of Gwen’s activity table in her room. We printed some of the Gingham Paper Pack in Crystal Wilkerson’s Funky Fresh Paper Collection #2, cropping them in different sizes, and then ModPodging them to the table in a random fashion.  Gwen got a kick out of watching me add the papers and helping me do the layout of the pieces.  I wish I had snapped a before-and-after picture, but I was so excited to get started, I completely forgot.  Before, it was just a plain white table, so now it’s much more fitting for the princess that is Gwen—LOL!

After updating for Gwen, we had to do something for Raiden, too.  He was feeling a bit left out.  I found the shelf below at EcoThrift for $1.75—can’t beat that.  We took it home, printed paper from Crystal Wilkerson’s Oh Boy! Papers The ABC’s, and ModPodged them inside the frame of the shelf.  My little boy, Raiden, was thrilled helping me create this shelf custom-made just for him. 

Clicking the above pictures will take you directly to the paper kits we used in the store.   I’ve got a lot more planned for our home, so be on the look out for more home decor posts.  Hope you’re enjoying your summer vacation with your children—we are!