Polished to Perfection

Directions for making a Gingerbread Tote

I love making Secret Santa gifts or housewarming gifts.  This is a Gingerbread House Tote that I created using Murdock Country Creation's Gingerbreadhouse paper I love its whimsical feel.  Tomorrow I will show you the Hot Cocoa Pack Wraps that I made to go inside the tote.  Here is the view of the inside of the tote:

     Supplies you will need:

Antique Green Polished Stone Paper (Green Tea -also works), Cinnamon Stick Polished Stone Paper Gingerbread House Paper - (Murdock Country Creations), Snow Writer (Deco Art), Glamour Dust (deco Art),lime green brads (American Crafts),1” wide green grosgrain ribbon (not shown in photo- so you can see the Gingerbread House),Glue Lines (Glue Lines), and chipboard. Christmas Cheer ribbon, Christmas Cheer Tags, Trees & Baubles Paper all from Creative Imaginations. Score-it Board for scoring box.

Directions:

       1.       Cut the Antique Green polished stone paper to 8 ½ x 11”.

         2.       Score 1 ¼” in on the long side (repeat to both right and left side of paper)

         3.  Turn your paper 45 degrees and score at 4 ½” ( repeat to the left and right side of the paper) 

         4.       Cut the 4 short score lines to form the flaps for the bottom of your tote.

         5.       Place adhesive on the tabs and fold into a tote. Add adhesive where necessary.

         6.       Trim the Trees & Baubles border paper into borders and cut the tree border into two 6”      strips. Adhere one strip to front of tote and the other to the back of the tote. Add Happy Holidays tag and secure with brad.

        7.       Cut a 18” piece of Christmas Cheer ribbon and adhere around the top of tote.

        8.       Cut a 12” piece of 1” wide grosgrain ribbon for the handle and adhere a 12” strip of the  3/8”  Christmas cheer ribbon (note: this ribbon is reversible with polka dots on one side and Christmas words on the other side) to the center of the grosgrain. I recommend using Scotch Tacky Adhesive to attach the two ribbons or you can sew the ribbon in place.

9.      Adhere to sides of tote hiding edges of ribbon under Christmas cheer border on tote.

10.   From the Gingerbread House paper cut out the section of paper that is the Gingerbread House and adhere it to a 5 7/8" x 9" chipboard.  Use the leftover sky from the paper to cover the excess chipboard below the gingerbreadhouse.  Since the backside of the gingerbreadhouse will be exposed showing your chipboard cover the backside with Cinnamon Stick Polished Stone Paper.  Cut out the gingerbread house.

11.  This is a great project for using up the snow writer left inside your bottle. Use a palette knife to scoop snow out of the bottle and frost the roof of the gingerbread house as if you were frosting a cake. Next place snow on the ground in front of the house to cover where the sky paper meets the gingerbread house.  Place the cover back on the snow writer bottle and add snow to the trees, tops of windows and base. Cover the chipboard edge of the roof with snow writer as well. Sprinkle with Glamour dust and set aside to dry.

12. Now place the gingerbread man and girl from the Gingerbread House paper on chipboard and cut them out.  Place these in the snow in front of the gingerbread house.

13.   Once your Gingerbread House is dry insert it inside the tote to complete your Gingerbread House Tote.  Fill the base of the tote with white shredded paper and add Candy Canes and Peppermint Cocoa packets which I will give you directions for tomorrow.

Have fun creating these!! See you tomorrow!!

More Paint Cans with Murdock Country Creations Scenic Paper

Finally, today the trees in my backyard are in full color, the weather here in New England has been spectacular- Like 2 months of Indian Summer.   I thought this can would be perfect decorative element in a Lodge themed room or as a gift basket for a man. The scenic paper is from Murdock Country Creations, Picture Perfect and Fall Brillance. See yesterday's post for instructions on how to assembly the can.  I highlighted all the trees with the following Spica MicroGlass Flake Pens - Green, Yellow, Orange and Red - it made the trees shimmer like they had dew drops. Unfortunately, they are very hard to photograph.  The argyle and solid colored ribbons are from American Crafts.  The sheer swirl ribbons are from Creative Expressions. I found these great mini oak leaves at Joanne's Fabric.  Here is a view of the backside of the can.

Now for a Summer paint can I used Murdock Country Creation's Moosehead Lake paper and Garden View paper. I used 2 sheets so that I could pop-up the rocks 3-D.  I thought this can would be perfect for a Spring or Summer Wedding.  I highlighted the some of the flowers with Stickles glitter Glue.  And then I also used Spica Microglass flake pens for a more sublte shimmer.

The Ribbons are from American Crafts.  Thanks for visiting!!

Chickadee Paint Cans with Murdock Country Creations Paper

Last week I was teaching the Nautical Paint Can and I decided to make a few more samples using Murdock Country Creations Scenic paper- Winter Day and Amongst Friends. Since I live in Maine and the Chickadee is our state bird I thought this would make a great Christmas Gift.  What I love about Murdock's paper is that it is all in a 2 page format so you get  24" of continuous design.  I used a gallon paint can from a hardware store.  Trim your paper to the height of the can.  Next I decided how the paper would wrap the can.  It is much easier if you place the design in such a way that you are only cutting one hole for the handle in each sheet of paper.  The first sheet I usually use the full 12" width of the can.  I used a 1 3/8" SU circle punch to punch the holes for the handles.  It has a deeper throat than most circle punches.  I highly recommend a Xyron Cheetah runner for adhering the paper to your paint can, they are available in a 2" width or a 4" width.  I used the 4" width for my project.  What I love about this adhesive is that it is somewhat forgiving, so if you start placing your paper on the can and it is not straight you can simply peel back what you have done and reapply the image to the can.  After I finished placing the paper on the can,  I added two rows of ribbon to the top and bottom of the can.  3 ribbons Ised on the can are from American Crafts, the Happy Holidays and the Candy Cane Stripe are from their new Christmas line.   Did you check out the beautiful Sheer Swirl ribbon this is from Creative Expressions and comes in lots of great colors.  For the finishing touches I added Snow Text Writer from Deco Arts over the spots on the pine boughs where the snow had been painting.  I left some of the painted snow uncovered so that it formed a shadow for my snowtext writer.  And of course I then added crystal glitter from the Art Glitter Institute to the snowtext writer while the snow was still wet for a little bling.

Here is a photo of the backside of the can:

More Beach Memories

For those of you who have never used stampbord, you are in for a real treat.  Ampersand Art Supply makes these beautiful clay boards, which you can stamp on and then scratch into the surface to create highlights or add detail to your image. I love dimension and this is a great way to add embellishments to your cards and scrapbook pages.  Give your old stamps new life on a new stamping surface.  Stampbord is available in a variety of sizes including coasters,and jewelry boxes.  To create this card, I used Murdock Country Creations -Meditation Scenic Paper.  I cut out the seagull from the paper, placed it on chipboard and placed it on the card. The summer sky stripe is from The Paper Company and the polished stone paper is Robin's Nest from Murdock Country Creations.  To make the stampbord embellishment, I used a make-up wedge to randomly apply three or more shades of blue ink to the stamboard.  Using the wedge I smoothed out the ink and heat set it.  Remember that the clay surface is not like stamping on paper and even dye based inks will need to be heat set before moving onto the next step.  Next I stamped and embossed the image with Ranger extra fine detail black embossing powder. Using the scratch tool, I scratched the image creating areas to leave white and areas to add color to. I used my Copic markers to color the pylons, starfish and life preserver. This stamp has been in my collecton for awhile, it was a design from PSX, I believe it has now been picked up by Inkadinkadoo.

                              

For the second card , I used the same paper and switch to a circle stampbord.  The verse is one of my favorites from Impression Obsession. The sandcastle is from Ann-ticipations. There is something so calming about the roar of the oceans surf. I used gold foil tape from Ranger to trim the outside edge of the stampbord.

Memories of the beach

It's hard to believe that summer is almost over. Today I thought I'd share with you one of my favorite altered items.  My altered beach paint can.  My kids love to collect shells at the beach and this project is a great way to use all those beach finds. First I started with Murdock Country Creations scenic paper- Pemaquid Rocks and  Pemaquid Ocean View.  This paper is perfect for altered items since all the paper is a 2 page format. Which gives you 24" of continous landscape to work from.  The paper is created from original acrylic landscape paintings. I cut the paper to fit a gallon size can.  I used my SU  1 3/8" circle punch to punch holes where the handle go. The SU punch is just deep enough to punch the perfect holes. If you do not have a SU circle punch, the gromet maker from Making Memories works great as well.  One of my personal favorites for adhesive is Xyron's Cheetah runner, for this project I used my 4" runner. I purchased the netting in the floral department at Wallmart.  One package will make 3 cans, if you don't have shells, you can also purchase these in the floral department. next you need a little patience as you adhere your shells to the landscaped can.  I used E6000 and some super glue. Place your shells over the seam of the paper where the landscape doesn't match. Allow your shells to dry on can before applying the netting. Lay your netting flat on the table, place your can standing in the middle of the netting. Bring netting up over your shells, leaving the scenic paper exposed, tuck extra netting under outside edge of your shells.  To secure your netting to the top of the can. use screen vein (the rubber line that holds your screen in the window frame) you can buy it at the hardware store.Wedge the netting with the vein on top into the rim of the paint can. Fold excess netting into your shelled area as you work your way around the can. Trim excess from the top of can.  You may need to trim your netting around the shells too.

Cheryl's has a blog too called Inspire Me to view her blog and see photos of her class projects visit www.cherylhorton.typepad.com

Congratulations to my first blog candy winner.  The random number generator picked number 29.  And the winner is Cassandra Bernard!!! Congratulations!!  Thanks to everyone who has subscribed to my blog.  And a special thanks to Allison for listing my blog on her site as a new discovery!!