STEAMPUNK CLOCK TRINKET BOX

Hello everyone!  

I'm so excited to be a part of Andy Skinner's Creative Team again this year!

I'm sharing my first project for the new year on his blog right now.  Here is a sneak peek at my "Steampunk Clock" made with Tando Creative's beautiful Steampunk Clock Kit designed by Andy Skinner.

There is lots of layering of stencils and mediums to give this clock a unique and unusual look.  Check it out HERE on Andy's Blog.

If you'd like to leave a comment here or there or both, I love hearing from you!

Thanks for stopping by and have a fantastic week!

ADORABLE WINTER BLOCKS WITH DECOART SNOW-TEX

Hi again all!

With it being so cold outside, I'm spending some quality time crafting in my craft room or with friends.

Yesterday, I got together with a couple of my best crafting buddies and we created some really cute little Winter home decor pieces. Within about 3 1/2 hours, we were finished!  

Beginning with a 3 1/2" square candle holder turned on it's side; we found a background piece using scrap cardstock.  That was cut and glued in place using Fabri-Tac Glue.  Next, we sized and cut a thin piece of corrugated cardboard for the base of our little vignette.

Going through my stash of snowmen, snowflakes, pine cones, deer, trees, little fence pieces, bells, ribbons and tinsel trim; anything related to winter was so much fun!  After deciding on the scene I wanted to create, I used a palette knife or my fingers to apply DecoArt's Snow-Tex onto the surface my little evergreen trees, fence, snowman and pine cones.  Then I immediately added DecoArt Crystal Glamour Dust over the wet Snow-Tex to give that added freshly fallen snow glisten to the fluffs of snow. 

Once dry, I added Snow-Tex to the corrugated cardboard base of my piece and added a little bit of glue to the bottom of the pieces I placed into the snow.  I let the sit on the cardboard and dry while I worked on the outer ribbon and greenery of the glass jar to decorate the sides and top.

I glued three flat glittery snowflakes onto the interior sides of the glass jar using Fabri-Tac.  It dried clear and the snowflakes look as if they are suspended in air.  Then I added double sided tape around the glass jar about 3/4" from the top.  Next I pressed the tinsel ribbon in place on the bottom and the sides going up the glass jar leaving plenty to tie a nice bow at the top.  I added a couple of extra loops of the tinsel ribbon by gluing them in place.  Then I added on the wired snowflakes, snowman bell, the two little snow covered evergreens, pine cones and finally the little silver jingle bells. 

Once dry, I pushed the scene in place inside of the glass jar.  It's not glued in place so I can change out the scenes if I wish to do so. 

This was such a fun and easy project to do!  The Snow-Tex and Glamour Dust add so much to a winter project with absolutely little to no effort.  Just use a palette knife, craft stick or your finger to apply the Snow-Tex and then sprinkle with the Glamour Dust fine glitter while it's still wet.  It dries to a harden sparkly snow-like finish!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

KEEP ON TRUCKIN' WITH DECOART SNOW-TEX AND GLAMOUR DUST GLITTER

Me again back with another story about DecoArt's Snow-Tex.

This time, it's about my daughter's first grade class and their experience with Snow-Tex.

My daughter is a first grade teacher and she wanted to do something a wonderful interactive Christmas project for her students and their parents.  There is a wonderful art teacher at her school and the two of them put their heads together to make it happen!

My daughter drew and then traced the truck you will see in the finiahed canvases below on twenty 11" x 14" canvases.  Each student invited one parent, grandparent, guardian or whoever could come to experience this project with them.  (They could only invite one because of limited space in the art room).  They had a WONDERFUL turnout!

While sipping on lemonade or water and munching Christmas cookies and other baked goodies, the students and their attending adults painted, laughed, talked and shared such a special moment of art together!  It really was a magical moment and one that will be repeated for future Christmases!

Once the students had finished tracing their trucks with Black Sharpies, they painted all of the truck.  We sealed the truck with DecoArt Matte Spray Sealer.  Then each student was shown how to apply Snow-Tex randomly on the truck, the ground, wherever they wanted to add that dimensional look of real snow to their canvas.  While the Snow-Tex was still wet, the students could sprinkle DecoArt's Crystal Glamour Dust over the "snow" to give it a freshly fallen glisten.  

The kids absolutely LOVED adding the Snow-Tex using craft sticks.  You should have seen their faces as their "snow" started to mound up and add so much fun to their projects.  And when they added the crystal fine glitter, they were just amazed at how much that added.

FInally, they painted whatever saying they wanted to on their canvas.  Here you are only seeing four of the finished canvases but EACH one was equally fantastic with their own personal touches. And I can't tell you how wonderful that precious time was for the students and their adults to spend together working on such a prized possession!

These little first graders were beaming and smiling ear to ear; so proud of what they had created!  I feel very confident that these will be cherished canvases and displayed year to year around the holidays at the homes of these wonderful children.

Thanks to DecoArt for creating such fabulous products!  So easy ... even a FIRST GRADER can use it and with tremendous results!

Happy Winter Everyone!!!

LET IT SNOW! LET IS SNOW! LET IS SNOW ... WITH DECOART SNOW-TEX!

It's Winter and time for SNOW!  I love adding snow to Christmas and winter projects but unfortunately, REAL snow melts!  BUT ...  DecoArt has a wonderful product called 

"Snow-Tex" that is fabulous for creating that beautiful freshly fallen snow look.  Add a little DecoArt Crystal Glamour Dust fine glitter sprinkled over the wet Snow-Tex and you get that unmistakable glisten that comes with fluffy and powdery real snow.

I recently did a paint class with my daughter and we had a complete blast.  The wall decor that we did was taken from a really cute piece of art work on DecoArt's Social Art Working site.  

Did you know there was such a thing?  Well, there is and you can get some really cute ideas for your own projects or also for paint parties!  Click HERE to be taken to the main DecoArt Social Artworking page.  Click HERE to be taken to the page that featured the woody that my daughter and I painted in our class.

Here is the original piece.  Really cute!  Our party host, Kenda Baker, of Block Party by Kenda on Facebook, had purchased this pattern and expanded it for us to be able to paint it on a much larger surface area.

You can purchase not only the pattern for the art work but you can also order all of the supplies you need as well as get ideas for your classes or party time with friends.  One stop shopping, for sure!  And ... you can mix it up on the design to be whatever you want it to be!

Here is my finished piece.  Instead of painting on a canvas, we painted on two 26"  wooden pickets.  The finished piece is 26" x 11". I love it!  

After painting the entire piece and brought it home, I added Snow-Tex randomly along the ground and on the raised snowy areas of the woody.  I also added Snow-Tex to the bottle brush tree that is stapled onto the boards.

Here you can better see the dimension that the Snow-Tex adds to the painted areas.  I wish the Glamour Dust glisten would pick up better on the photograph because in person, it is just AWESOME!  The light just captures it and makes that snow look so real!

And look at that bottle brush tree stapled to the top of the car!!  How adorable is that?!?  The original art work has a painted tree on the top of the woody and it is darling.  But...being someone that really loves dimension, the bottle brush tree is just a stroke of genius! Thanks Kenda!

If you're in the process of creating some cute Christmas or Winter projects and you'll be adding snow, check out Snow-Tex!  It's SO EASY to use and you get fantastic results!

Happy Winter Everyone!