Creepy Crawly Skeleton Journal

Hello, Crafty Friends!! Happy Friday the 13th!!

I'm back with Team Xyron to bring you this creepy crawly mixed media project. And surprisingly, despite its appearance, this project was fairly mess-free! Say what?! I know what you're thinking... How can mixed media be mess-free, right?? Well, the secret is in the Creative Station! Let me show you!

Supplies Used

Big Shot (Sizzix)

Eileen Hull Journal Die (Sizzix)

Chipboard 

Burlap Sheets (DCWV)

Cheesecloth

Creative Station (Xyron)

Black Cardstock (Bazzill)

Chalkboard Paint (Prima)

Pebeo Gilding Wax-  (Crafter's Companion)

Plastic Halloween Skeleton and Bugs Toys/ Favors

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Adornments- Wicked

Tim Holtz Ideology Word Bands- Halloween

Mixed Media Glue (Beacon)

Stapler

I started by cutting my chipboard and burlap materials into 6"x 9" (die-cuttable sized) pieces. I cut out 2 chipboard pieces and 4 burlap pieces.

Then ran the chipboard through my Xyron Creative Station. Once through I flipped it over and ran it back through again to get adhesive on both sides.

I peeled off the protective film then applied the burlap onto both sides of each chipboard.

Once my chipboard was covered on both sides, I used my Eileen Hull Journal Die and Big Shot machine to die-cut two journal covers.

Then I used mixed media glue to adhere the two spines together. Iused the pre-cut holes to line them up evenly and set them aside to dry.

This next step saved me a whole lot of mess and dry time. Usually when people add texture to their projects the "decoupage" it onto their project, slapping on a whole lot of wet glue with a paintbrush or squeegee, or spackle. That process is repeated for each layer. and the more layers you have the longer dry time takes.

To combat both the mess and drying time I found that quickly running my materials through the Creative Station to be an absolute dream!

With the cheesecloth, I didn't even have to completely unfold it. I simply left it double layered (Folded in half) and cranked it through.

I peeled it off like a fabric sticker and added it to my cover. I added creases and folds to the cloth while adhering to create even more texture.

SO SIMPLE, MESS FREE, and INSTANTLY DRY!!

Once I got my cheesecloth in place I worked on my embellishments.

I found these plastic skeletons and bugs and my local dollar stores. 

I deconstructed my skeleton. I snipped and separated the bones for easier posting and placement.

Next, I used more mixed media glue to piece together the skeleton into a desired position. And then I adhered the plastic bugs and set aside to dry again.

When the glue dried I painted the journal cover with Black Chalkboard Pain! I painted over all the plastic pieces and made sure to get between the creases.

I applied gilding wax over the raised areas and textured material using my fingertip.

Rubbing the guilding was over top really makes all the raised areas and textured material just pop off all that black!

Then I began the whole process again for the back cover.

I also added a word band that said "bone collector" to the front cover.  I painted it over with more chalkboard paint but rubbed it off so that the paint only remained in the recessed areas.

My cover is so creepy it's giving me goosebumps!

I didn't add texture to the inside but did paint it over with more chalkboard paint and rub over it with more guilding wax.

To fill my journal, I created black paged inserts.

I simply crease an 8.5"x 11" cardstock at the 5.5" and folded in half. I did this for 10 sheets.

Then stapled 5 of those sheets together down the center to create one insert.

Then threaded elastic card through the pre-cut holes and tied them off on the inside. Then simply slid my inserts under each cord to fasten the inserts into the book.

And here is the finished Journal...

FRONT

BACK

How cool is this?!! 

I. LOVE. IT!!

And I hope you do too!!

Thanks for joining me today!!

Hope you have a totally wicked Friday the 13th!!

Until next time...

HAPPY CRAFTING!!

~Mitsy

***Disclaimer***

This blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, I always give my honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products.

The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with each manufacturer, provider, or party in question.

Creepy Crawly Cupcakes

Hey there, Crafty Friends!! Halloween is creeping around the bend!! What kind of spooktacular plans do you have?? Me... I plan to have a little get together and serve a few of the creepy crawlies!  And decorating them is a cinch!! With these frightfully intoxicating cupcake wrappers from Lia Griffith and DCWV!!

You can find Lia Griffith's Cupcake Spider sets in Joann Stores or online HERE.

And the awesome thing about these sheets are that these come already perforated! There are 20 sheets, they all include 1 wrapper and 1 large and 2 small spiders each!!

You just punch them out and assemble!! I found it easiest and less time consuming, punching out 3-4 sheets out at a time. Just stack them onto one another a punch them out together!

The sheet included are gorgeous shimmery paper. They come white with almost a metallic iridescence to them. And are labeled food safe.

They do, however, take color like a dream! If you are going to color them to match a certain color scheme, use inks that are certified non-toxic. I only colored one side of my wrappers to be on the safe side. I used an ebrush airbrush with markers to lightly spray some color and customize my wrappers. 

Then glued the ends of the wrapper together.

I used mini clothes pins to hold them together till the glue dried (just a couple of minutes). I was doing several at one time so these little clip freed up my hands from having to hold it close while the glue set.

Once the glue dried, I inserted my cupcakes (that I made previously) into each wrapper. 

I bent the little legs on the  "Daddy Long Legs" and perched these creepy crawlies on top of each fluffy top of icing!

And here they are... 

My SCARY SWEET treats!!

These were remarkably easy to make! And if you skip coloring them all together assembly will come together in mere minutes (excluding drying time).

I hope you enjoyed this super quick how-to!!

See you all next time!!

~Mitsy

Happy Halloween - Black Cat Card

Just a quick drive by post to share my quick & easy Halloween card.

All stamps used on this card were from the new August release from Pink & Main called Witch Brew.

Embossing folders used are from Cuttlebug ( Boo to You & Frills)

This card was super QUICK & super EASY...

And, not to mention super FUN!!

See you all next time...

I'm off to go create!!

Scrap Happy Friends!!

Spider-Man Birthday Party

Hi Crafty Friends! I haven't posted in a while. I was recovering from my now 3 year old's birthday party.  As you can see he is a Spider-Man enthusiast. He loves all things Spider-Man. So, it was a no brainer that when I asked  him what kind of birthday party he wanted he jumped up and screamed "SPIDER-MAN"!!

An, like any other crafty mother on a budget, I opted to make as much of the party decorations as possible. My job was somewhat simple... Sean had only two requests. 1) Pizza & 2) A  candy buffet. 

I think I accomplished both. Yay, two points for Mom!! Pizza was easily taken care of . We easily phoned ahead and went to pick up our pizzas right before the party. 

The candy buffet on the other hand was a little more work. I want a little more than candy in containers. I wanted the theme to his birthday incorporated into the set up.

I think I did a pretty good job!

I even handmade these Spider-Man masks to pas out to the children!

And, believe it or not, I already had the materials to make them.

For the masks I used fun foam sheets that I bought tons of years ago and had like 8 packs hiding in my craft stash. I am a craft hoarder so when things go on sale for a really good deal I don't hesitate at scooping it up. I can always figure out what to do with it later!!

Here is my uber cute 1 year old helping mommy to size the masks... they are so stinkin' cute at this age!!

And here I made table tent labels for my glass jars.

 I opted for table tents instead of labels because the last time I hung the labels arount the jars and hung them around the lids they seemed to get in the way and I ended up removing them and placing them besides the jars anyway.

 To get this look I used Accucut's Table Tent #2 (3-D) for the base. And Design On Cloud 9's Journal Tags and Haunted Halloween Party.

Also from Designs cutting files I made this:

 which I also had in yet another previous post. Found here.

Then I backed the candy buffet with this awesome handmade cityscape skyline... also handmade and I also already had the materials for. Yay, for saving money! I did a previous post about it here. 

The thing is I try to only buy stuff only on sale. And these matboards I bought at Hobby Lobby at 50% off. I try to buy a variety of colors and just stick it in my stash because who knows when you'll need it! LOL 

This is another good reason to hoard... am I right or am I right??!! Buy when you can because sometimes things get tight and budgets get tight. And in doing so it always looks like you've spent tons of money and went all out on your child. When in reality it just took a little bit of time and elbow grease to throw your child a super fab birthday.

Hope you enjoyed my little birthday projects! And check back real soon!

Happy Crafting Everyone!! 

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!

Halloween Layout - Peek-a-boo

Hello again friends! 

Here's a layout I made to kick off the holiday season...

Halloween is my all time favorite holiday and which made this so much more fun to make.

I used the following files for this one (you may need to write this down): 

From Designs on Cloud 9 I used Monster Peekers for the witch, Frankenstein, bride of Frankenstein, & all the skulls. Spells for the stack of books, frog, & crystal ball. Bottles for the apothecary bottles. Cemetery Silhouettes for the bats.  Creepy Silhouettes for the spiders & cobwebs. Haunted House Silhouettes for the cobwebs made to be photo corners. Bubble Title for the cauldron. And Boo-tiful Borders for the cobweb borders (sorry guys, this one is retired).

Then I switched out all the character's faces... I used a file from Treasure Box Designs.

Close-Ups

I really love this border turned out!

She became my favorite character with her purple eyes.

This piece took quite a bit of time to put together. I didn't have any stamps that would work for labels for the bottles... so I handrew all them... not bad... actually kinda cute if you ask me!

First I cut the bottle out with black cardstock. Then, I wanted the bottles to look like the old dark tinted apothecary bottles so I used Opalite ink pads by Tsukeniko. These pads are made specifically to show up on dark paper and are labeled "The Reflective Interference Ink". 

I used the following colors on this project: Orchid Ice (purple),Golden Mist (yellow/gold), & Winter Rust (orange). 

I used Black Castle MF font for the date and title.

I love love love the way her eye lashes came out!!

When I saw these cobwebs I thought they would make awesome photo corners... turns out I was right!

Even though this little guy doesn't have eye lashes he came out uber cute!! but I did hand draw his eye brows & teeny tiny mouth. Dunno... It's something about the green skin color that makes everything just pop!! 

This layout has become my new favorite!

Hope you all enjoyed it!

And

Let's not forget about FREEBIE FRIDAY

You can download this cute little guy from DC9's website here.

AND

If you would like to win more free cuting files Designs on Cloud 9 is has started their weekly challenges again!! Yay! Like you needed an excuse to paper craft more...

This weeks theme is create projects using pumpkins. 

For more details check out DC9's Facebook fan page. Winner receives a file of their choice.

GOOD LUCK & HAPPY CRAFTING!!