Make your own custom “flairs” or brads

 

 

So, I’ve been getting into the world of paper scrapping/project life embellishments lately and since this is all new to me, I’m finding that I’m getting quite obsessed with little things that never really interested me that much when I was a digital scrapper.

 

Amongst them are flairs. Oh boy! The little button type ones, not the pins. I could go nuts in some of those Etsy shops. Unfortunately they are also quite expensive. I’m not saying that they are unreasonably expensive, because they are quite work intensive to make, but I really can’t justify spending about a dollar a piece, however cute they are. At least not at the rate I want to use them!

 

So I looked into making my own, but of course that didn’t pan out at all, as the machines are $300 and up and then there are the supplies, etc. Totally not an option unless I want to go into selling them, and well I’m not at this point in time!

 

There are some smaller, cheaper kits available, but apparently you can’t buy more supplies once you are through your kit, which makes them even more expensive than the cute ones on Etsy.

 

So, I thought I still have some of the mod podge  dimensional magic, so I thought I’d try and make my own buttons. Well, without boring you with too many details, it didn’t end well.  Smudging, bubbles, everything running all over the place and then once fully dried, the whole thing distorted and never laid flat again. Total fail on that one!

 

It did cross my mind to do what I did with some fridge magnets years ago - just use the clear glass pebbles for flower vases and such, but they are just too high for a project life folder and it would really bulge them and not look good at all.

 

So, I almost gave in and decided I was just going to get a couple of sets from Etsy and treat them like gold (read: hoard them in my stash and not use them) - when I came across these little beauties!

 

 

They are clear, 1” round bubble Epoxy Bubble Stickers! See how they are not too high at all?!

 

 

Perfect,  right! And they are self-adhesive, so any kind of issues of  ink jet printed pictures smudging are non-existent! And they don’t turn yellow and are therefor ideal for scrapbooking and crafting!

I got 200 of them for $14.90 + s/h and now can make my own “flair” buttons to my heart’s content! That’s 7 cents per “flair”/brad (as opposed to $1,) plus whatever paper or ink I use to print or add to it, but that is minimal!

I used my Silhouette Craft Cutter to make some buttons as a print & cut and then just attached to the bottom of the clear bubbles! Voila, custom “flairs”!

 

 

And these are super easy to make up on the spot too. You can add photos to it, anything you can print and punch or cut into a 1” circle. Or draw. Or stamp for that matter! Or any kind of scrap paper you want to use! You could even use the clear bubbles as they are and adhere them for emphasis on photos, layouts or journaling cards!

 

 

So needless to say, I am a happy scrapper right now! With about 200 flairs/brads/decorative buttons at my disposal! And not only is all this much cheaper, it is so much more versatile, which I totally love!

 

Chances are I am the last one to catch on to these epoxy stickers, but maybe there are a few others of you out there, who don’t know about them yet and would be as excited as I am, to have them in their stash!

 

After doing a search on Amazon, and have since found them even cheaper than the ones I purchased (5 cents a flair/brad) and in smaller quantities for the 1" round (50), square and oval (and a few other shapes) in case anyone is interested!

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Project Life

Yes, I got sucked into it too.

Mostly by the realization that I hadn’t done anything much with my photos since I stopped designing. You would think that I would have scrapped more, but no, somehow it went by the wayside with the hundreds of other project I did instead. And I got my creative outlet with the Art Journaling and crafting I was doing.

 

But, there were all the photos. And a glaring gap in albums for the year 2011 and it looked like 2012 was going to be much the same.

I thought of just putting together some photo books, but somehow that wasn’t very satisfying. Then I came across Project Life and it seemed like the answer for me. I could do as little or as much as I wanted, I could embellish or go for the clean and simple look, or both! And I could use a lot of my physical scrapbooking stuff as well as my digital! Perfect!

So my Project Life was born! Unfortunately none of the Becky Higgins Core Kits were available at the time, so I stocked up on the photo protectors and just got started. Yes, it meant not starting at the beginning of the year, but for this year, I just don’t care.

Like with so many things in my life, I wanted to give up the preconceived notion of what had to be in place before something could happen. I am trying more and more to start where I am, with what I have and do my best!

 

And you know, it was actually really easy to retrace the month that had already passed. Between my photos, my calendar and some Facebook updates to help, I managed to reconstruct things pretty well!

 

I’ve been learning along the way while doing this project, my likes and dislikes, what works for me, what doesn’t, how I want to organize things - even my scrapping style. I have never really paper scrapbooked before. I was always digital and have only started being hands-on again at the beginning of this year when I started art journaling.

But I have to say that even though Project Life was fairly work intensive initially, mostly because I felt the need to catch up on 3 months all at once, and I was making most things myself, I’m having great fun with this project! 

I spent a good amount of time with my Silhouette Craft Cutter initially, where I designed and cut a lot of tags, embellishments, words, arrows, letters etc. Even though that took a lot of time, it also saved a lot of money and it will the process much faster for me from here on out!

 

 

{Just imagine whole sheets of everything. I wanted to get a lot of the cutting out of the way while I was doing it!}

 

 

{I love tiny tags, so I made lots!}

 

 

{Ok, so I love tags in general!}

 

 

{I cut decorative borders and elements in a variety of patterns and papers.}

 

 

{And words!}

{I also made some  DIY decorative tape - tutorial coming soon!}

{And numerous sheets of alphabets in all sorts of sizes, colors and fonts!}

 

But maybe best of all - my children are having great fun with it too. They love to come and see what I’m recording, read what I have written, look at the pictures and add their own little cards, stories or pictures to it. They seem to be much more involved with this particular project than my digital scrapbook layouts. Don’t get me wrong, they LOVE those too, but Project Life gives us more of a chance to be hands-on together!

I also love that I now have a place to put so many more of the little bits and pieces I had kept in various boxes and folders. Report cards, little “he said/she said” quotes from the kids, ticket stubs, etc.

It all has not only a place now, but it has a story! And I am much faster at this than scrapping a full page for everything, which is always a bonus!

 

So, here are some photos of my project life folder. So far I have completed April, May and I’m almost up to date on June!

 

 

 

 

 

{For this page I scanned in the Letter from School with Max’s Test results. I also included this letter in the envelope page protector in the back though!}

 

 

 

{On this page I have a general day overview for the month, documenting anything slightly out of the ordinary. I also did a little card documenting some of the books the family read this month. And a card on how the garden progressed and I also scanned the pictures the kids brought home from school. The first  one is a self-portrait the kids drew at the beginning of the school year and the second is one they did in May!}

 

 

{Mother’s day! Since most of the cards I got from the kids were way too big to go in this folder, I quoted them on some cards. I also took screen shots of the electronic card  and gift I got from my husband!}

 

 

For the report cards I made an extra effort - well, they are our first report cards! I scanned in the outside of the report card pockets as well as the report cards themselves. Then I designed a print and cut in the Silhouette software and recreated the actual report cards with envelope, only on a 3”x4” scale. The report cards pull out, just like the real ones!  I also documented the weather for the month, which is somewhat of a page filler but still a great thing to look back on in years to come!}

 

 

 

{Tickets to a game are stapled onto a journaling card. The journaling is visible when you lift up the tickets!}

 

 

{I also like to include current events and news!}

 

 

{And when facebook tells a story too! In this example I had already written about the kid’s stomach virus. But then a day later my husband and I went down with it too, so I added that status screen shot!}

 

 

 

{It’s hard to get photos of myself into this album too, as I am usually the one taking the photos. So I took a car mirror snap shot with the phone while running errands!}

 

 

{I love to photograph the kids while they are sleeping. Not only for the cuteness, but also to show how their sleeping styles are changing over the years!}

 

{Some road trips really have nothing much to document other than that it happened. The scenery can be a little dismal and uninteresting around here, so I took a photo of the road ahead and used it for journaling.

 

So, this was a rather long and picture rich post! If you are still with me- thank you!

Are any of you doing Project Life? How are you getting on with that? Any tips and tricks to share?

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Gesso Stenciling: 2 Ways To Create Texture

 

Most of you are probably familiar with Gesso. For those who are not, it is a primer for paper and canvas. It provides stiffness and “tooth,” so paints adhere better.

In some instances Gesso also provides a barrier for the paint or ink and stops it from being “sucked” right up by the paper or canvas.

Gesso is most commonly white, even though it is also available in transparent, black and a whole array of colors now.

 

I often use Gesso in my Art Journaling as well as in my mixed media canvases. Not only for all the above reasons, but also because it can be a great medium to cover up things I want covered, or, applied a little thinner, cover things just enough to give it a great workable surface, but the print or image underneath is still visible!

Lately however, I have been getting into using Gesso for texture! Gesso always provides a little texture, even if just applied in it’s primer function, but it’s mostly just a slight roughening of the surface it’s applied to. I’m talking about real texture!

 

 

So, today I will share with you two ways to use Gesso for texture and embellishment on your art journaling pages or mixed media canvases.

 

You will need:

• Gesso ( I use Grumbacher Gesso (Hyplar) Artists Acrylic Medium)
• Stencil of choice (I’m using a Dylusions Stencil in this example)
• Old gift card or credit card
• Art Journaling page or canvas
• Heat Gun

 

 

1.) Place the stencil where you want your texture to be on the page/canvas, scoop a little of the gesso onto your card and then scrape the gesso across the stencil. Random strokes works best, as it creates a less defined edge. Make sure you hold the stencil down well, so it doesn’t move and smudge your stenciled image.

 

 

Carefully lift off the stencil.

 

 

Let it dry and you have a nice little texture on your page.

 

 

 

See how it’s raised as high as the stencil was thick. Once it’s dry, you can paint over it for subtle texture, or make a feature of it by highlighting it with inks, paint, shimmers or by running your stamp pads randomly and lightly over it. This will highlight the edges as well as random raised parts in the texture which makes for a great background. As it is gesso it will also still take stamps, pens, inks, etc.

 

 

2.) Or, you could do this:

 

 

 

Yes, that is the Gesso too, not puffy paint!

How do we do that? Simple!

You do everything as above, only once you pulled the stencil off, instead of letting the gesso just dry, you use a heat gun. You can get in pretty close and within split seconds, you will see the gesso stencil image puff up like this:

 

I just love how perfectly round they puff up!

And you can control where you want your puffiness by where you point your heat gun, so you can puff up some areas but not others if you so choose!

 

 

Once all the areas are puffed up, just let your image cool down and the puffed gesso will dry in place. The great thing about it is, that it is pretty sturdy. It will actually hold that shape, even when you paint over it , but it still has a flexible feel to it, so if you wanted to push the pattern down randomly, it won’t crack or crumble!

 

 

In this example, I pushed the dots back down a little, so the ink and shimmer could pool inside the dots too!

 

In this next example, I left most of it raised!

 

 

There are just so many possibilities to work with this stuff and get cool effects! Try coloring your gesso and then scraping it into a stencil! It makes for some awesome images and texture!

 

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Print Transfer Technique

A  quick and easy way to transfer some print material to your art journaling pages, that I came across mostly by accident and have since used on many an art journaling page!

You will need:

• Art journaling page
• Mod Podge
• old book pages or sheet music
• bone folder or popsicle stick (or you can use the back of your nail if you like)

I generally use this method when I’ve already layered on several paints, inks, stamps and splatters, so the transfer print sits on top of the page.

1.) Tear your piece of printed paper to about the size you would like the print to appear on your page. No need to be accurate - just roughly the size.

2.) Smear some Mod Podge on your page where you’d like the print. Again, no need to be accurate. Just more or less will do. I generally use my finger, but you can use a brush if you prefer. Use a generous amount, but not too much.

3.) Now you have to work relatively fast, depending on how much Mod Podge you used! Place the piece of print on top of the mod podge and burnish it either with the bone folder or the back of your thumb nail.

You just need to go over it a few times.

4.) Take the end of the piece of paper, and slowly start pulling. You will see that the print has transferred to the page. If it’s not transferring much yet, just press it back down and give it a bit more burnishing.

Keep on pulling as much or as little as you like. Very old paper tends to be more porous, so it tends to rip easier and leave more paper behind, but that’s ok. You just go back and and start pulling from another spot. You can leave as much or as little paper on as you like.

I quite like it when some of the paper remains, especially since the print that transfers onto the page is of course mirror imaged, but the print you don’t pull off isn’t, so it makes for interesting texture and visual interest!

Different kind of print/paper react differently to this method, so have fun experimenting!

Here I have a newer print and it transfers the print with barely losing any paper - also very nice!

5.) Once you pulled everything off that you wanted to, let the mod podge dry completely.

And that’s it! Pretty simple, but very effective!

Of course you can do this with newspaper images too, just remember that whatever you are transferring will be mirror- imaged.

Oh, and one more little tip. Should you at any point after drying decide that you didn’t want to leave as much paper on the page, just wet your finger, or give the spot a quick spritz with some water (just a mist, not too much) and gently rub with your finger. The paper will continue to come off, leaving more of the print behind!

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