Nursery Rhyme Wall Art

Hello, Crafty Friends!!

Today marks midway through our week!

HAPPY HUMP DAY!!

I am so tickled to get to share with you today's project! Did you know that there's a National Library Week?? Yup, a whole week in observance to libraries!! It's always great to promote and show your support for your local library!  And today, I will help support my local library and repurpose old books.

 Limited space makes it hard for some libraries to accommodate their ever growing number of books. So, from time to time our local library (I'm sure others do this a s well), clear out and sell their old books. Most of which are tattered or outdated, to make room for new ones. Sales raised from these books go right back into the library system to fund new books or to help with other financial needs... internet may be free for the public to use,  but that doesn't mean that its free to the library. And certainly, any renovations made, also come along with a few dollar signs attached.

So whenever possible, my children and I go to our local library and check out the sales. I know what you're thinking craft with old books? Don't I love books? Why would I take apart and butcher books to craft with?? Simple... remember when I said most of these books are tattered and outdated?? Well, the books that are not sold get dumped into the recycle bins. Which is good that they are recycling, but the library doesn't receive any money for just tossing them... and I would be creating, crafting, and repurposing something  that already has been used and giving it new life as ART. Or in this case, WALL ART. 

These are super quick and easy to make too!!

Supplies Needed

Old Books (Hardback or paperback)

Xyron Creative Station w/ Permanent Adhesive Refill Cartridge

Xyron Mega Runner

1- 12"x12" sheet of Black Cardstock (DCWV- Double Sided Cardstock Stack)

4 - 5"x7" Shadowbox Frames

Cricut Explore Air

Cricut Nursery Rhymes Cartridge

Craft knife (Fiskars)

Scissors (EK Success- CutterBee)

These books don't appear to be in bad shape but were really really outdate... put it this way one of these books was called the "No Cooking Cookbook"... it has a copyright date of 1962. That was several years before the first reasonably priced and sized microwave became available (1967). Yeah, I think it's safe to say, no one will miss that one! LOL

And, I got these from my local dollar store! Yuppers, $1!! Who knew they carried shadowbox picture frames (with mats included too)??!! SCORE!!

Ok, now this was probably the hardest part of the whole project... which really wasn't very hard at all.

Removing the pages from the cover. Seriously it took two slices. One in the front of the book and one in the back, running down the first page to the spine... and then again along the back of the book.

 I will be saving this hard cover to make another project with later.

 I used the chipboard insert as a template for my book pages, added adhesive to them with my Xyron Mega Runner, and adhered my pages directly onto them. Then trimmed off the excess with a scissors.

So super easy, right? Wow... 1, 2, 3, and 4 done in less than 2 minutes!!

Then I used my Cricut Explore Air and Cricut's Nursery Rhyme Cartridge to cut out silhouettes of some of my favorite childhood nursery rhymes... " Hey Diddle Diddle", " Little Jack Horner", "Little Boy Blue",  and "Mary Had a Little Lamb". 

I cut them all from one 12"x12" sheet of black cardstock. Sizing each image to fit into the 5"7" mat/ frame.

Since these will be hanging on the wall, I wanted them to stay put. So, I ran them all through my Xyron Creative Station using the 9" permanent adhesive refill cartridge. And placed them all back into their frames.

And, here are my finished pieces.

I love how these came out. The layout is simple but the old book print makes them distinctive and unique!! This was a great start to  many more "print" crafts! 

I hope you enjoyed this project!

And don't forget to go support your local public library!!

HOPE YOU HAVE A VERY HAPPY LIBRARY WEEK!!

Sassy Silhouette Barbie Inspired Tags

Hello Crafty Friends! Today's project is a set of Barbie inspired gift tags. They are pretty big they are about 5.5" inches long. And will really draw attention to any gift.

For these tags I used Designs on Cloud 9's Sassy Girls Tags

Sorry, the "sassy" is not included in the file. I made it using my ecal software and a font that was already installed on my computer called Lucida Handwriting. If you have Microsoft Office then more than likely you have it installed on you computer too.

I cut all my paper pieces using my Sizzix eclips machine. But before assembling all the pieces I airbrushed them with my eBrush machine.

For the "Sassy" I ebrushed just the edges. The same as if I were to shade them with my ink daubers and ink pads. But this took only a matter of seconds instead a couple minutes. What an AWESOME time saver!!

I also airbrushed all the harlequin backgrounds for the all the tags with my eBrush machine. But this time I got some help of a stencil.

I created an SVG file for those of you who are interested. I will post the link below. All I ask is that you do not share them or claim them as your own. You may however direct other to my blog to download their own copy. Thanks for understanding.

Download the harlequin stencil for free here.

I also used my eBrush & stencil to make coordinating harlequin ribbon.

Tah-dah!! So pretty!

Assembled the base. Now to tie on the ribbon.

Super Sassy & Super Fabulous!

Here I have the rest of the set

These would be perfect on gifts for posh friends or for that avid Barbie lover in your life!

Thanks for stopping by & have a super fab day!!

Halloween Treat Bags

I'm in slap forehead mode! I totally forgot to post this on my blog last week. And, to add insult to injury I had two project to share!

Halloween is fast approaching... and with Kyan being in the first grade it's time to up the ante. Last year I topped off giant pixie stix with bat cut outs, which I thought came out 

cute... until I saw what the other mom's made. Popping my big crafty bubble and squashing all hopes of mother of the year. Sigh.

This year didn't want to look like I didn't put no effort into it. I definitely didn't want an overkill either. So I opted to make toppers for goody bags. I used A2 sized cello resealable envelopes as my bag and filled it with assorted Halloween treats (Halloween themed pencils, erasers, plastic jewelry, and of course candy).

Here is how it turned out. 

I used Design on Cloud 9 files to make all the shapes here. The topper itself is from the Short Borders 2 set. The scalloped circles are from the Scallops set. For the centers I used Haunted House Silhouettes, Cemetery Silhouettes, Skullies, & Haunted Halloween Party (retired) sets.

I did not fold the topper over like traditional bag toppers... instead I opted to just use it as a front and stapled it to the front of the bag along the top. I saved on paper this way. Then  I covered the staple up with the scalloped circle. And, ta-dah, instant treat bags! I also adhered sticker labels to the back. This did two things... covered up the sharp side of the staple and let the recipient know who the goodies came from.

These were super easy to make. The hardest and time consuming part was deciding which shapes to use for the centers. 

Project #2 to be continued... I'm off to pick up my munchkin from school! 

See you all real soon!