Elizabeth Craft Designs | Colourful Fitted Circles

12 January 201610 February 2016 | Marsha.

I’m over on the Elizabeth Craft Designs blog today, sharing this new colourful, vibrant project!

I don’t believe in new years resolutions, but I do choose a word for each year. Just to start the new year with intention. It’s a new chapter after all!

I have thought long and hard about how I want this chapter to feel and I came up with: bright, active, upbeat, happy, buzzing… vibrant. So that’s the word I chose!

I always like to create something that I can look at to remind me of my word throughout the year. I usually create a canvas or a scrapbook page, but this time I decided to add something vibrant and shiny to a shadow box frame!

The idea for it came from these scraps that I had left after die-cutting rainbows with the new Rainbow Sky die set:

I also happen to be studying the life and works of Sonia Delaunay for the Love Art Happy Life E-course that started January 1st! The shadow box frame is heavily inspired by her Electric Prisms. I love her art and it fits my word so well!

But before I started die-cutting Shimmer Sheetz, I experimented with coloured paper first. It’s a good thing I did, because I found out that a combination of layering and inlaying the pieces worked best for me.

Here are the steps to create the layered, checkered circles:

1 | Choose the paper/colours you want to use and then the sizes of Fitted Circles you want to layer. I looked at Sonia Delaunay’s work for colour inspiration.

2 | Cut squares of Clear Double Sided Adhesive to the size of the Fitted Circles you have decided to layer.

3 | Cut the paper in squares to adhere onto each quarter of the Clear Double Sided Adhesive squares. The paper squares in the photo are huge: you really don’t need that much excess paper!

4 | Position your Fitted Circles dies on top of the paper. The point where all four colours of paper meet, needs to be in the exact middle of the Fitted Circle.

5 | Die-cut the circles.

6 | Adhere the checkered circles one on top of the other.

7 | Optional: add leftover Rainbow Sky pieces!

I used the same steps to create the Shimmer Sheetz shadow box frame. I found that I did not need to use the Metal Adaptor Plate this time, but most times I do use a Metal Adaptor Plate for the best results when die-cutting Shimmer Sheetz.

Here’s a look at the result of my experiments:

Happy, vibrant crafting!

Supplies:

Elizabeth Craft Designs:
1075 Alphabet 2 Lower Case
1117 Fitted Circles (coming soon)
1151 Rainbow Sky (coming soon)
Shimmer Sheetz
Clear Double Sided Adhesive Tape or Sheet

Other:
Extra deep frame (mine came from local discount store Action and is 6.3″)
Coloured cardstock
Craft foam (black)
Label writer (Dymo)

Elizabeth Craft Designs | Monoprinted DIY Planner Dividers

31 December 20156 February 2016 | Marsha.

There is a new Designer Challenge up on the Elizabeth Craft Designs Blog! This time it’s all about calendars, agendas, diaries and planners!

I decided to create a new dashboard for my beautiful Electric Blue Filofax Finsbury A5. I’ve lived with this planner for a year now and up until now I’ve used the inserts and dividers that came with purchase.

I do not consider myself a planner addict in the sense of the recent planner craze. That means that I do not use my planner as a journal nor do I decorate my pages. I just use my planner to plan and carry notes, so I needed one that’s more of a catch-all and that’s how I ended up with a Filofax.

In August I added some Clipbook inserts into the mix and for 2016 I ordered custom week inserts from Loved by Gaby. I also finally found a 6 hole punch last month, so now I can punch holes in any paper I wish to add to the planner.

I say I don’t decorate my pages, but I certainly do use neon markers, tiny circle stickers, labels and post-it notes and sometimes I will add washi tape to block parts.

I do some colour coding, but I still don’t have a fixed system (yet). I just try to use the same colours for the same clients and then one type of sticker to highlight a similar task.

And now… Now I have finally added my personal touch to the planner with my gelli printed and laminated DIY planner dividers! No more boring standard Filofax dashboard!

I haven’t labelled the dividers yet, because I’m not sure if I’m going to keep the categories I’ve got going now. I guess I feel that a new year means new possibilities and so maybe even new planner categories!

It’s not a big deal because I know what the stuff in the back is and where to find the notes that I need.

I’ve added a year calendar to the back of the dashboard and some tables/info/cheat sheets to the back of some of the other dividers. I also created a new page finder that is large enough to carry my post-its.

So here’s to starting the new year with a clean slate (or a fresh new planner, if you wish)!

Enjoy the last day of 2015 and/or happy new year!!

Elizabeth Craft Designs | Fly with me to the Rainbow Shadow Box Frame

22 December 20156 February 2016 | Marsha.

Have you seen the Elizabeth Craft Designs sneaks for the upcoming release? If not… you are in for such a treat!!!

I’m over on the Elizabeth Craft Designs Blog today, sharing my first project featuring the exciting new Els van de Burgt Studio and Joset Design die-sets!

Last week my mom and I went to the theatre to see Dutch celebrity Paul de Leeuw perform some of his songs. One of his greatest hits is ‘Vlieg met me mee’, a parody of a Eurovision Song Contest song.

The main lyric translates as: ‘Fly with me to the rainbow’. It’s a silly, humorous, sing-along (love) song that brings back happy memories for me and it’s the main inspiration for this shadow box frame!

Here are the steps to create something similar:

1 | Cut a sheet of Soft Finish Cardstock to the size of your extra deep edge frame (my frame was 6.3″) to use as the mat. Use the largest Fitted Circle to create a window in the middle of it.

2 | Die-cut the Hot Air Balloon and the Rainbow Sky parts out of coloured cardstock.

3 | Use one or two of the chains and/or ropes from the Chains 1 and Ropes 1 die-sets to create the landscape. I cut two scraps of green cardstock to about 3″ x 6″ and used the chain/rope dies to cut each scrap down the middle.

4 | Ink the die-cut edges of the four pieces with Distress Ink.

5 | Cut a sheet of light blue paper to the size of your frame. Adhere the green scraps in an overlapping way to create the landscape.

Notice that in the photo my light blue paper and the green paper don’t exactly match up. This is not a problem, as this ‘shortage’ will be covered by the circle mat later on!

6 | Assemble all die-cuts and use Clear Double Sided Adhesive and foam tape to adhere them to the scene.

7 | Add the mat and the scene to the extra deep edge frame.

Mine came with a spacer to separate the mat from the image, but you can achieve something similar by adding craft foam or foam tape to the back of the white mat.

8 | Enjoy!

Happy Holidays!

Supplies:

Elizabeth Craft Designs:
1115 Fitted Frames 5 – Lace Circles (coming soon)
1117 Fitted Circles (coming soon)
1125 Ropes 1 (coming soon)
1126 Chains 1 (coming soon)
1150 Hot Air Balloons (coming soon)
1151 Rainbow Sky (coming soon)
PSF102 Soft Finish Cardstock 100Lb
Clear Double Sided Adhesive Tape

Other:
Extra deep frame (I found mine at Action, a local discount store, some time ago)
Cardstock (red, orange, yellow, green, light blue, blue, dark blue, purple, brown)
Distress Ink (Fossilized Amber, Shabby Shutters, Tumbled Glass)
Foam Tape

Elizabeth Craft Designs | Festive Leaves and Berry Branch Gift Tags

8 December 201513 May 2017 | Marsha.

Busy season has kicked in, so I’m on the look-out for easy to do handmade projects, that take minimal effort.

Today I’m sharing a minimal but stylish gift tag idea over on the Elizabeth Craft Designs Blog.

I was looking at a magazine and saw these beautiful gift tags with fresh greenery attached to them. I loved the idea, it’s easy to do, but you can’t really prepare this in advance, as the fresh leaves and berries won’t keep until the holidays.

Unless… you make them out of paper!

The individual steps for these tags hardly take any time, so I think this is an excellent project you can do one step at a time, whenever you have a spare moment!

Here are the steps to create the tags:

1 | Die-cut as many leaves and (berry) branches as you think you’ll need out of watercolour paper.

2 | Colour the leaves and branches with watercolours. Leave the watercoloured die-cuts to dry completely.

Don’t have time to wait for paint to dry? Replace the watercolours with a colouring medium that is instantly dry, like alcohol markers, brush tip pens or coloured pencils!

3 | Die-cut as many tags as you think you’ll need out of your favourite cardstock.

4 | Add Glossy Accents and/or Puffy Paint to the berries. Leave to dry completely.

Don’t have time to wait for the accents to dry? Replace them with Glitter Dots or self-adhesive crystals. Or… just skip this step!

5 | Adhere the branches and leaves to the tags with small strips of washi tape.

6 | Add some twine to the tags and use the tags to decorate your gifts or your home!

Happy crafting!

SUPPLIES:

Elizabeth Craft Designs:
1074 Leaf & Berry Branches
1033 Leafy Branch
958 Tags & More 5 – Sunburst
758 Berry Branch
703 Triple Leaf Set

Other:
Watercolours (Winsor and Newton)
Bakers twine
Glossy Accents (Ranger)
Puffy Paint White (Tulip)

Elizabeth Craft Designs | White and Gold Candle Holders

30 November 201512 May 2017 | Marsha.

There is a new Designer Challenge up on the Elizabeth Craft Designs Blog!

This time the theme is a colour combo: White – Gold – Silver.

My contemporary white and gold glitter candle holders started out like this:

Here are the steps to create the candle holders:

1 | Clean three glass bottles. They need to be clean on the inside and completely free of grease on the outside.

2 | Prep the glass bottles with (matte) white spray paint.

It was my intention to completely cover the bottles with spray paint, but I found that it took quite a couple of coats just to cover the green glass. It also started to rain, so I decided to make do with just a thin coat.

3 | Once the spray paint was dry, I continued to cover the bottles with white paint, but this time I choose gesso. Gesso covers well and it dries fairly quick.

Give each bottle three coats of gesso.

4 | Back a sheet of 270 gr Soft Finish Cardstock with Clear Double-Sided Adhesive Tape and die-cut as many Sea Glass shapes as you think you’ll need with the Jewelry Set 1 – Sea Glass die set.

5 | Adhere the Sea Glass shapes to the bottles. Cover the paper shapes with another coat or two of gesso.

6 | Paint the bottom of the bottle with a liquid adhesive (I like to use Mod Podge Matte for this) and cover the adhesive with Solar Gold Silk Microfine Glitter.

Leave to dry completely before you remove any excess glitter with a soft brush.

Repeat this step until you are happy with the result!

SUPPLIES:

Elizabeth Craft Designs:
508 Clear Double Sided Adhesive Tape – 64 mm
629 Solar Gold Silk Microfine Glitter
954 Jewelry Set 1-Sea Glass
PSF102 Soft Finish Cardstock 270 gr

Other:
Glass bottles
Spray paint
Gesso
Mod Podge Matte

Elizabeth Craft Designs | Awesome Happy Fun Glitter Lace Technique

24 November 201510 January 2016 | Marsha.

I don’t know about you, but I always feel the need to mix in some non-seasonal crafting during these last weeks of the year.

This scrapbook page that I’m sharing on the Elizabeth Craft Designs blog today, features Els’s awesome Silk Microfine Glitter and lace technique, that you can apply to both seasonal and non-seasonal projects!

Don’t know what technique I’m talking about? Watch Els demonstrate it in this video on the Elizabeth Craft Designs Facebook page!

Here are the written steps to the lace technique:

1 | Take a scrap of cardstock, slightly larger than you think you’ll need for your die-cuts. Adhere some Transparent Double Sided Adhesive Sheet to one side of the scrap.

2 | Remove the backing and cover the sticky with one or more pieces of fine lace. The technique works best with finer types of lace.

3 | Choose two different colours of Silk Microfine Glitter. Take two contrasting colours for the best results: a dark and a light tone or for instance two colours on opposite sides of the colour-wheel.

4 | Cover the lace with the darkest of the two glitters. Tap off the excess glitter and burnish the remaining glitter into the sticky adhesive sheet.

The Silk Microfine Glitter will change its sheen while burnishing, so you’ll be able to tell which parts are done and which parts still need further burnishing.

5 | Remove the lace and repeat the process with the second colour of glitter.

6 | Die-cut the glittered cardstock with any die 0f choice. I chose the Jewelry Set 1-Sea Glass die set because it’s still one of my all time favourites!

7 | Add the lace/glitter-embellishments to your scrapbook page or any other project that could benefit from some subtle sparkle!

The base for this page was originally a 12 x 12 patterned scrapbook paper that I monoprinted on using a Gelli Plate, acrylic paints, stamps and stencils!

Happy glittering!

SUPPLIES:

Elizabeth Craft Designs:
508 Transparent Double Sided Adhesive Tape – 64 mm
619 Fuchsia Silk Microfine Glitter
629 Soft Teal Silk Microfine Glitter
954 Jewelry Set 1-Sea Glass

Other:
Lace
Cardstock
Patterned paper (Studio Calico – Picture This)
Gelli Plate
Acrylic paint
Stencils en masks (Carabelle Studio, The Crafters Workshop, Stencil Girl)
Stamps (Stampendous N*Studio – Marks)
Brayer
White pen or marker
Floss (Karen Foster Scrapper’s Floss Spool Carnation)
Wood veneer words (Freckled Fawn – Word Wood Chips)

Elizabeth Craft Designs | Christmas Tree Frame with Fairy Lights and Shimmer Sheetz Ornaments

10 November 201512 May 2017 | Marsha.

Do you ever go to a store determined to find something cute and then come back empty-handed because every time you saw something there, you heard this voice in your head saying: ‘I can make that!’ Or: ‘I would totally buy that, if only it would come in another colour’… ?!

Well, it happened to me this week: I went to the garden centre to look at what’s new in Christmas decor and I found a wooden Christmas tree frame with fairy lights that I liked. Except the colours were not to my taste and then I thought: I wonder if I can customize it… Or… maybe I can just make something similar using my dies and Shimmer Sheetz.

Turns out it’s an easy peasy Christmas decor project to make!

Here’s how I created it:

1 | Get a piece of 3/8 inch square dowel and cut it into three parts to create a triangle shape. Glue the dowel pieces together with wood glue or a strong craft adhesive.

I’m not a wood worker and nor is my husband, but I just told him what I had in mind and he made something up. I don’t think he even measured it! The bottom dowel ended up 6.7 inches and the upright dowels are about 9.45 inches long.

2 | Paint the tree frame to match your holiday decor!

3 | Add a wooden building block or something similar to give the tree a trunk.

4 | Choose three or four colours of Shimmer Sheetz and use Ornament Set 4 to die-cut 5 or 6 ornament shapes.

Remember that you need a Metal Adaptor Plate to be able to die-cut through Shimmer Sheetz with intricate dies like the ornament shapes!

5 | Add Transparent Double Sided Adhesive Tape to the back of a scrap of Shimmer Sheetz before you die-cut the little ornament hanger. Remove the protective sheet and stick it on the ornament.

6 | Wrap a small string of fairy lights around the Christmas tree frame.

I found these micro-LED lights at the garden centre. I didn’t use anything to fix them to the frame, I was able to just bend the wire around the frame and it stayed put on its own.

7 | Use jump rings to hang the Shimmer Sheetz ornaments on the wire.

I like to use two pliers to bend the jump rings open (like you see in the photo above) and I close the ring (on the wire, with the Shimmer Sheetz ornament attached) by bending it in the exact opposite direction before closing it.

8 | Find your Christmas tree frame a place in your home and turn on the lights!

Have a wonderful day!

SUPPLIES:

Elizabeth Craft Designs:
1065 Ornament Set 4
508 Transparent Double Sided Adhesive Tape – 64 mm
Shimmer Sheetz
803 Cuttlebug and Big Shot Metal Adaptor Plate

Other:
3/8 inch Square dowel
Wooden building block
Micro LED fairy lights
Wood glue
Paint
Jump rings

Elizabeth Craft Designs | Ways with… Shimmer Sheetz

30 October 20151 December 2015 | Marsha.

Need fresh ideas for handmade gifts and gift tags?

There is a new Designer Challenge up on the Elizabeth Craft Designs blog today and this time the team has rounded up a couple of crafty ideas just for you!

All ideas feature glamorous, shiny Shimmer Sheetz and I used it to create this mosaic photo frame:

To create something similar:

Cut one inch strips of Shimmer Sheetz.
Adhere them to Transparent Double Sided Tape and cut the strips into 1 x 1 inch tiles.
Adhere the tiles to a photo frame in a (random) mosaic pattern.

Shimmer Sheetz is made of Mylar and comes in loads of beautiful iridescent and metallic colours. It’s acid-free, so you can safely use it on scrapbook pages and paper projects. It’s also garment quality (colourfast and washable), which means you can use it for clothing and quilts too!

Another cool thing about Shimmer Sheetz is that you can easily alter the look with paints, markers and inks that work on non-porous surfaces (think: alcohol ink).

For more ideas check out the Elizabeth Craft Designs blog!

SUPPLIES:

Elizabeth Craft Designs:
Shimmer Sheetz
Watercolor Paper
E116 Mini Mosaic
958 Tags & More 5 Sunburst
1062 Fitted Frames 2 Lace Squares
1064 Fitted Frames 4 Curvy Squares
508 Transparent Double Sided Adhesive Tape – 64 mm

Other:
Photo frame
Sewing thread

Elizabeth Craft Designs | Clean and Simple Card using Shimmer Sheetz Scraps

27 October 201513 May 2017 | Marsha.

Hi there! It’s my turn on the Elizabeth Craft Designs Blog again and today I’ve got a clean and simple idea to share with you!

Do you hold on to any scrap of Shimmer Sheetz you can salvage after die-cutting a sheet?

I do! Even the smallest snippets go into a zip lock bag, because I figure that I can always turn them into confetti if I need it.

Earlier this week I had die-cut a couple of hearts, but as I didn’t want to waste a whole sheet of Shimmer Sheetz on each of the tiny hearts I needed, I had cut the Shimmer Sheetz to small squares before I ran them through my die-cut machine.

That’s how I ended up with this pile of scraps:

And instead of adding them to my zip lock bag… I decided to use them right away to create these simple cards with a tiny messy glitter twist:

Steps to create these cards:

1 | Look at your scraps of Shimmer Sheetz. Are there any interesting shapes there that you can use right out of the box/bag?

If not: find a couple of scraps in coordinating colours and die-cut some new shapes out of them. Hearts are always a good idea, but leaf shapes, small flowers and even simple circles are great alternatives.

I was especially interested in the negative space that was left in the Shimmer Sheetz scraps, but you can use both the positive and the negative of the scraps. Just use whatever appeals to you most!

2 | Cut a sheet of Soft Finish Cardstock to 4 x 5.25 inches.

3 | Take some liquid adhesive and flick it on your card with a brush.

I chose Matte Medium for my glue because it’s already liquid and I know it dries clear. If your adhesive is too thick to create spatters, dilute it with a bit of water.

4 | Tap Silk Microfine Glitter on the glue spatters. Leave it to dry completely before removing the excess glitter.

5 | Adhere the Shimmer Sheetz scraps to the card with tiny pieces of Transparent Double Sided Adhesive Tape. Only put tape on the parts you know you will not stitch later on!