Valentine's Decor: The Year Round Tree

 

Last year, I told Mr. Chocolate I'd ordered a "Halloween Tree" which prompted a sideways look. He figured I'd ordered a black Christmas tree (which I debated and still love for a Halloween tree) but some part of me must have known the future because I decided to go with a lighted cherry tree. At the time, it was intended to just be a Halloween tree and then once I had it up and decorated, guess who didn't want it to come down when Halloween was over? So it then became a Fall tree I decorated with layered paper leaves and silk Fall flowers. It went away for Christmas when the Christmas tree came out and when we were taking it down, guess who asked if the tree he'd given me a look about was coming back? I debated about doing generic Winter but then I knew I was going to want to do something for Valentine's day so I skipped ahead and made layered heart ornaments and decorated some clear acrylic ornaments for it. 

Supplies: 

• Cardstock
• Foam Tape and Foam Dots
• SVG file
• Digital Cutting Machine
• Acrylic Ornaments
• Adhesive Foil

The image I used was from Creative Fabrica (3d-layered-heart-21). 

I wanted to go with a non-traditional color palette and I decided on black white and gold so I grabbed those papers out of my stash. 

I imported the file into my Cricut Design Space software, sized and then cut each layer, repeating the color pattern: black white gold

You can see that each layer becomes more delicate bottom to top. I used foam tape on the less detailed layers, then switched to foam dots as they became more detailed. 

Black base layer then white layer.

Then gold layer and repeat with the remaining three layers. 

I'm so entranced by these layered cut files! I love how you can peek through them and the depth they create! Once I assembled all of the hearts ( I did 8 ) I added coordinating black and white ribbon with hot glue so I could hang them on my tree. 

I love the lights against the layers, especially at night. I also had some clear acrylic ornaments left over from Christmas projects and decided they'd be perfect with this version "the tree". 

I had some bright silver adhesive foil in my stash and used an image from Cricut Design Space for these. 

I did 9 of these and the foil is so easy to work with I didn't even bother with transfer tape and just removed the hearts from the carrier backing and placed on the ornaments. 

I saved the parts left behind because look at the cool pattern you can still play with! To finish these, I added some black and white twine. 

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Fall Crafts: Layered Leaf Cards (Intermediate to Advanced Skill Level)

 

My first love was and remains card making. And the more I play with my Cricut Explore Air 2 and layered SVG files, the more I stay in love with card making. SVGs are Scalable Vector Graphics which means they can be re-sized easily in things like Design Space. 

Supplies: 

• Layered Leaf Images (I used a bundle from Creative Fabrica)
• Cutting machine (I used my Cricut Explore Air 2)
• Scrapbook Paper (I used CraftSmart "Dark Elegance" which I bought last year at Michaels and is no longer available but you can use comparable dark papers)
• Recollections Gold and  Copper Foil cardstock (Michaels)
• Coordinating Plum Cardstock (Stash)
• Cream Recollections 110lb Cardstock (Michaels)
• Copper Foil
• Fall Themed Embellishments ( I used K&Co border stickers from my stash)
• Coordinating Sequins (Michaels
• Foam Squares
• Dimensional and Double Sided Adhesive
• Paper Trimmer and Scoring tool

The first step was to decide on the focal image for my cards. I knew I wanted a leaf theme, especially since living in the desert, I miss the changing leaves of my former Pacific Northwest home. I found this set of layered leaves at Creative Fabrica.  If you do choose to purchase, full disclosure...I get a small benefit if you go through my affiliate link. 

Download, extract, and import chosen design into your machine's software, in my case Cricut Design Space. If you don't have a cutting machine you can print out the PNG images and hand cut using scissors and an X-Acto knife. 

I selected the leaf from the bottom row, leftmost image. 

I deleted two of the 5 layers in my Design Space Software because I liked how just three layers looked. Then I cut each layer from the colors I chose ( plum, foil gold and copper). 

To assemble, attach the middle layer ( gold ) to the base ( plum ) using foam squares. Since the top layer is more delicate, I used a spray mount. 

Here's the middle layer mounted to the base. Since you need to work fast with the spray adhesive, I didn't take pics of the top layer but you get the idea...spray the back, lay atop the middle layer and done. 

Once I had my leaves assembled, I made my cards by cutting the cream cardstock to make 5x7 cards, cut panels of the copper foil cardstock to 4.75x6.75 then selected papers from the Dark Elegance Stack and cut to 4.5x6.5. I added the Fall themed border stickers and then mounted the leaves to the cards. 

To finish, I grabbed some coordinating sequins from my stash and added them along the stem of the leaf using Glossy Accents dimensional glue. 

But of course I wasn't done! Copper is such a fall color to me that I wanted a touch more so I'd picked up some copper foil on a trip to Michaels and thought I'd do the interior sentiment using the foil tool that works with my Cricut. 

For this step, you need to make sure you get the foil as taught as possible atop the paper you want to foil so I used painter's blue tape to tack it down. The Cricut foils also come with tape strips to do this. 

It still needs a little give so don't worry if it's not absolutely flat. Then select a font or image for whatever you want to foil, follow the instructions for the tool / in Design Space and send to your Cricut. 

I chose the word "Fallsgiving" since this time of year for me is about celebrating the gifts of Fall. It was also a great way to use up the copper, and plum scraps from this project which I used to mat the sentiment! I adhered these to the inside of my cards using my tape gun. 

My way of giving a little bit of Fall to friends and family! And the pictures don't do the metallic goodness of the colors justice so if you are seeing this on here first and know you're getting one, just wait! 

Halloween: Crackled and Jeweled Floral Sugar Skull Wall Art

 

I FINALLY got back to my craft room to make something last week! After the Summer from H*LL, the near septic abscess that tried to kill me followed by weeks of recovery, a move, and then surgery to remove the abscess host ovary and more weeks of recovery, it hasn't exactly been a productive Summer. But doctors know things and it was almost like clockwork when my energy level finally started coming back around week 5 post-op. 

Supplies: 

• Wood Art Board (Target Clearance but available at Art Supply Stores)
• Acrylic Paints (Folk Art and Craftsmart)
• White School Glue (Elmers but store brand will work too) 
• White Vinyl, Transfer Tape (Cricut)
• Jewels (Art Minds, Michaels)
• Dimensional Glue ( Glossy Accents, Ranger)

Before all of this started, I'd stumbled on these fabulous Art Boards at Target which screamed "buy me" especially since they were on clearance for something like $3 so of course I bought all the ones they had! Seven of them for what two cost at regular price. 

I had this mega pack of purple jewels from a previous project so it became the inspiration for my color choice of Purple, Black and White which will fit right into my primarily Black and White Halloween decor.

 

I painted the board with a coat of Folk Art Violet Pansy. I didn't care about a perfect finish because that's not my thing and besides, I knew I was going to add black with the purple showing through the crackle. 

My go to process for achieving a crackle finish is good old white school glue. I stock up on it during school supply season! Apply it straight from the bottle and then spread it trying to use complete strokes in one direction. 

You want a medium coverage of the glue. Too thin and it won't crackle. Too thick and you won't have a smooth surface. Let this coat dry to tacky. I use my handy craft tool...an old blow dryer set on cool, to speed up the process. You don't want the glue completely dry. Go over the glue layer with the black paint, using the same one direction brush strokes as the glue layer. If you're patient, you can let this air dry. If you're me, grab the blow dryer again, this time set on warm to help the crackling process. 

Q: "Can I use my heat gun?"

A: NO! It's too hot and everything will bubble and peel which might give you a cool effect but it won't be THIS effect. 

Don't worry if the glue shows through. Once dry, it dries clear. Even though I help the drying process with the blow dryer, set it aside to dry completely which gives you time to work on the vinyl piece. I found this image on Creative Fabrica ( Disclosure: I am an Affiliate so if you use this link to purchse, I do receive credit to their store).

Download your image  then bring it into the Cricut Design Space Software ( these files work with all of the different cutting machines but I used my Cricut) and size accordingly. I cut this from white Cricut Vinyl, using my Explore Air 2. 

Weed your vinyl (if you're new to vinyl, weeding is the process of removing the vinyl from the negtive spaces to reveal your image) and then apply the Transfer Tape (this is clear tape, I used the Cricut brand, that allows you to position and apply the vinyl to your surface). 

Position your transfer tape lightly on your surface until satisfied then use a scraping tool ( I use the one that came w/ my first ever Cricut or they sell them at craft stores and you can also use an old credit card etc. ) to apply your vinyl to your surface. Peel off the transfer tape.  I do this slowly vs ripping off like a bandaid in case there are spots the vinyl isn't sticking. It allows you to maintain the positioning and fix any issues. 

Then it was time for the jewels! I used a strong glue (Glossy Accents by Ranger) to adhere these and just randomly placed using the different sizes and shades. 

Et, voila! 

I haven't hung it up yet because I haven't started my Halloween decorating yet but I absolutely LOVE how it turned out and I have some other projects planned using this color scheme! Happy Haunting Season! 

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Papercrafting: Layered "Moonogram"

 

I mentioned that I'm going to be a "Fairy Grandmother" since my bestie's daughter is having a baby. The nursery is coming together with a very cool ombre wall done by one of our other friends and has Moon elements. I made this layered "Moonogram" to complement that theme. 

Supplies: 

• Black Cardstock
• Lavender Glitter Cardstock
• Coordinating Scrapbook Paper ( Let's Wander Stack by Recollections from Michaels)
• Shadowbox Frame (Michaels) 
• Moon SVG (Creative Fabrica) 
• Digital Cutting Machine ( I used my Cricut Explore2) 

As always, I needed to choose what papers I wanted to use. I had a general sense of what I wanted to do but the papers were key! I went with black, since like me, the mom to be is non-traditional and has a lot of black and white in the nursery, a lavender glitter paper and a sheet of very celestial looking paper from the Let's Wander Stack by Recollections. 

The next step was to design the "Moonogram" so I popped over to Creative Fabrica (disclosure, I am an affiliate there) to look for a Moon themed SVG and found this bundle which was perfect: 

I uploaded the "Man in the Moon with Stars" and the "Man in the Moon" images to Cricut Design Space. Then I chose the letter of the baby's first name in a font that would work well with the Moon images and used the Slice function in Design Space to make the cut out layer of the letter adding stars as well. 

I assembled the "Moonogram" layers using foam squares. 

Then I cut the background paper to fit the frame and attached the "Moonogram". 

The paper, with the gold foiling was already pretty but I'm a more is more person so I wanted to add some more bling and when I saw these jewels at Michaels ( on sale for $5!) they had to come home with me for this project. 

I like how they almost look like raindrops. To finish, I used the interior of the star images from the top layer of the "Moonogram" and attached those with foam squares. 

I need to adjust the letter ever so slightly to straighten as I look at these pics but I'm so happy with how this turned out! 

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