A Window to my world...

Well here it is the end of August and time for my altered project! The summer has flown by for me! Our theme for August was suppose to be summer or beach and as I worked on this project, I changed my mind a few times and just as I finish it I realize it is not to summery, so I guess you will have to just realize I live in New York and summer is the month of July and then it is basically over! LOL

So here is what I did...
In the back of our garage the previous owners of our home left some old windows from where they replaced the windows in the house..
Well I did some scrubbing and cleaning and the window still looked like this..

So after scrubbing and cleaning it, I repainted the whole frame white! A word to the wise, since I was not to wise, tape off the windows or trust me cleaning the panes is not FuN!

After painting it white, I then painted right over the white with a maroon paint (I used decoart acrylic craft paints, cheap!!!)

After painting the window with the maroon, I took some sandpaper and sanded the paint off in
several places. I followed the sanding with antiquing over the maroon with watered down burnt umber paint which I applied and then gently wiped it back off leaving only small amts to give a nice rustic antique look. Then I took a satin varnish after the antiquing dried and applied that to all the painted wood to seal it.

Next I choose my photos and taped them on Scrapbook papers with double sided tape that were cut to the window sizes. Next I took the scrapbook papers and glued them in place. Then I Printed the quote of that I wanted in the center bottom window and then placed it below the window. I then took black acrylic paint and watered it down to an inky consistency and then following the printed quote paper behind the window I painted the words on to the window! Next a wire placed on the back and my Window to my world was ready to hang! I am sorry the photos are not better but I really fought the glare from the glass!

I hope you enjoyed this and please let me know if you have any questions! I would love to see what YOU do with Windows!!!!

Fancy cyber cropping with me?

Spread the word & tell them i sent you {pinkalishious}

Happy Dayz
Sarah x x

Puffed Up Paper Stars

Hey everyone!! Yatie here, back with another altered project. This week I have a tutorial on how to make puffed up paper stars which you could use as embellishment for you scrapbooking layouts or other paper projects. 

Ok, first off these are the things that you will need:

1. Paper strips, patterned or otherwise (9" x 3/8")
2. Glue tape
3. Scissors

Take one strip and tie it into a knot at one end.

Try to pull it slowly and carefully to make the knot flat.

Cut off the short end 

Take the longer end and fold it over the flattened knot, following the fold of the knot
and aligning the edges. 

Keep folding it over and over until you come to the end of the strip.

Snip off any excess.

You can tuck the end into one of the folds but I choose to apply glue tape and adhere.
Easier and faster.

Now you'll have a flat folded star with 5 sides.

This is the difficult part to explain but I'll try my best. Using your fingernails, push in the
sides of the star, midway between one corner to another. 

Go around the sides and push them all towards the middle with your nails. The star
will automatically start to puff up.

You'll get a cute little star like this.

Here's a bunch of them. Cute no?

Here's a layout I did using those cute little puffed up stars.

So that's my tutorial for this week. Hope you'll try this out.

Happy crafting!!
Yatie
 xx

Wedding Frame

Hi everyone,
This month I am back to share my latest altered project, which is a frame I created for my mother in law's birthday last week. The frame itself was one of the Kaisercraft BTP recent releases, which is a long shallow shadowbox type frame, however you could achieve the same with many different frames.

Firstly I sanded down the wood frame and painted over it in white paint, keeping the layer thin and rough, to give it a weathered look. I allowed some of the wood to show throw and sanded back the paint in other areas. I then went over the white paint in a thick coat of Helmar 2 part crackle medium. As I don't have a heat gun, I blasted it with my hair dryer to dry quicker (Naughty). This further added to the aged, vintage look of the frame.

 Using the base wood board, I worked out the placement of my photos and patterened papers by doing a bit of experimenting with the positioning of the photo windows. Once happy with the placement, stick your photos into the windows. I used double sided tape to keep it neat and tidy.

 You can then decorate your frame as you wish, using chipboard, flowers, bling or anything else you want to use. I also added some rub on sentiments to the photo windows prior to sticking the papers into the frame as it was easier to do it before than after.

 Some close ups. Once all the decorations and photos are in place, I simply used Mod podge dimensional magic to stick the base board to the frame. I weighted this overnight with bottles of paint to ensure it stuck firmly.

One negative of these particular frames are that they do not have a hanger or hook at the back, however you should be able to find something in a hardware store to do this, otherwise they look lovely sitting up on a shelf or perhaps even in a large frame stand.

Have a great week
Holly xo

Say Hi to anam stubbington

She created these pages with my minds eye paper's for the minds eye blog here http://mymindseye.typepad.com/ & have kindly let us use them for the red white & blue challenge also!!

Here is what she has created












& here is her blog, go check her out!!
http://www.anamstubbington.typepad.com/

Thanks for looking
Sarah x x

MORE july submission's!!

We have more challenge entries check them out here
http://alterdprojectinc.blogspot.com/2011/07/july-challenge-submissions.html

Happy Days
Sarah x x

Binder Mechanism Project

So in the july's NOOK kit we had a binder mechanism give us & i have just found inspiration in using it. What you need is a few bits of pp, cardboard, your binder mechanism & any other embellishment's you may want to use. & its easy!!

Here's what i collected, echo park pps yeah!


Cut your pieces of cardboard to the required size & glue them together




Cover then with pp


Just one side, as this side will be coverd by sticking it down onto other pp


Like this


Add the other side of the folder paper, each paper i used 12 x 9.5


So you have the access of the back over lapping the front cover, you'l see what i mean in a minute, & the access on the front, you'l fold over like this


Then i googled a star shape, printed it out & used it as a template for the front cover


Your project should look like this now, see what i mean by the back page of the folder over laps the front?


I then added the binder mechanism by using hot glue & random brad's


I glued on the star & added the title with some sticker's & some stamp fonts


The flower is a hair band, but its also a good thing to have to keep your folder closed when stored




Thank's for looking
Sarah x x

Flower Power

This evening I was out in the garden taking time to smell the flowers. I love flowers, all types of flowers, it just does not matter...they all are pretty to me. I have so many flowers in my stash and I love them all, but do not always like to spend the money on them. So I have been making some of my own. This is how you take a "one" bought flower and make it into something glorious. I also call these "sugar" flowers. As they look like they are made of candy...

Here are my starting materials (without the bought flower)

Old pages from a book
organza material
spray mist
rock candy glaze (you can use glue, mod podge, etc
a die to cut flowers
micro beads
brad

Cut out a round circle from the organza, in this case I cut a large and small one. Light a candle and VERY carefully melt the edges of the round circle by coming close to the flame, but do not touch it.

The using your dies (or machine) cut out 4 different sizes of flowers from the old book paper. Set them out and spray them lightly with a mist. While still wet, roll them into balls and let sit for a minute. Unroll them and make them, almost flat. Layer them with the organza between the layers.

Glue everything together and add "bought flower" and brad to the middle of the flower (don't look close, I forget the flower when I took the picture!). Paint the edges randomly with rock candy glaze or other medium. Smother the flower with micro beads. Let set for a few minutes and then shake off excess beads and save them.

Let dry and "TADA" it is done! I am not sure what I am going to do with this one. Maybe make it into a broach. Here are two examples of this technique used in projects.

Three flowers are used on this frame.

Have fun creating your own!!! Hope everyone is having a great summer (or winter) and keep on smelling the flowers!

Love Jennifer