Papercrafting: Dyed Coffee Filter Flowers Part One

 

I've seen so many Reels pop up in my social media feeds showing how to dye coffee filters for projects and I was excited to try my own. Once you start playing, it's very addictive! It's also a fun and inexpensive craft that is only limited by your imagination. 

Supplies:

• Coffee Filters (I got a 100 pack at Dollar Tree)
• Acrylic Paints (Craft Smart from Michaels)
• Water
• Bottles (Dollar Tree)
• Shallow Tray (Dollar Tree)
• Stamens (80% off JoAnn after Christmas!)
• Dimensional Glue

First, gather your supplies. I chose these colors of acrylic paint (Craft Smart, Michaels) and Dollar Tree has these three-compartment plastic trays that are PERFECT for this! They also carry the small bottles shown which are great for mixing colors. 

I squirted some of the paint into the bottles as shown. Then added water. There's no right formula. I wanted a more watercolor look vs intense colors so I mixed to a thin consistency. Shake well to blend. 

I then prepped my coffee filters and filled the tray with a little bit of water. I tend to crumple my coffee filters to disguise the fluting they come with and give them an even overall texture, plus I have this theory that "working" paper, scrunching, crumpling, etc. strengthens the paper. 

I did the colors standalone in two of the three sections of the tray and mixed them in the third. 

Then I added the coffee filters to their dye bath. I didn't time how long they took to absorb the dye...it's the kind of thing you can do in between other projects. When I was happy with them, I took them out and lay them on some cardboard to dry. 

And here they are all done! Now you're ready to make flowers and I'll show you how in Part Two tomorrow! 

 

Dollar Tree Crafting: Glam Fairy Cottage

 

I hope all of the Mothers and Others had a nice Mother's Day. We had a lovely day with The Mumster and our son joined us electronically from Chicago. 

I had fun with this project. One I hadn't even had on my radar but on one of my Dollar Tree stops, a woman behind me at the register was buying these adorable Fairy Houses and that was that. The store I was at had a LONG line so natch, I just popped into another one on the way home. I can navigate around here by where Dollar Trees are. There's my favorite one by my Mom's, the four on the way to/from my Mom's, the one by me...

Supplies:

• Dollar Tree Ceramic Fairy House
• Waverly Matte No Prep Acrylic Paint (I used White and Steel)
• Craft Smart Multi Surface Acrylic Paint Bright Silver
• Creatology Gem Mix
• Clear Dimesional Glue

They have a few different styles of Fairy Houses and they even have furniture! 

I love my neutrals and I knew where this one was going so I went with a white/gray/silver color scheme. I painted the house white all over.

Now that I had my base, I wanted to accent it a bit so I used the Waverly paint in Steel todry brush the stones, shutters, door, and flower pots. 

Then, I went over the same areas with Bright Silver CraftSmart paint. Now for some fun! 

Don't sleep on the kids crafts section at Michaels! I find a LOT of fun embellishments there like this Creatology Gem Mix. It comes in many different colors and I need to go back and get the multi-color mix because I'm in love with these. I used Glossy Accents (Ranger) glue to adhere these along the roof line, on the windows, and door, and also the flowers in the pots. 

I have a cloche I keep on my dresser and change out seasonally. I thought it was perfect for my little cottage. 

The hammered aluminum base makes it pop.

Tops down view.

And there we go! Fits in with my year-round silver and white scheme. Maybe it's a Gnome Home for my guy sitting behind it? 

After I dropped my Mom off on Sunday, of course I had to stop at my favorite DT by her.

I am in LOVE with these sticker seals which I'll use on handmade cards! The little birds remind me of Cactus Wrens which we see on saguaros all the time and who can resist pom-poms! The tray will be PERFECT for dyeing coffee filters and the baking cups for paper flowers. 

Mr. Chocolate just gives up trying to understand my brain. I don't blame him! 

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Cardmaking: Easter Bunny Cards

 

Got my Easter cards finished and sent off to friends and family. And I even used papers I already had on hand from what Mr. Chocolate insists is my "Michaels annex". 

Supplies:

• Bunny SVG File (Creative Fabrica)
• 110lb Cardstock (Recollections, Michaels)
• Coordinating Spring Palette Papers (Craft Smith, Michaels)
• Coordinating Spring Glitter Papers (Recollections)
• 65lb Foil Cardstock (Recollection)
• ATG Tape Runner
• Adhesive Rhinestones

I had this paper stack in my stash and it was perfect for Spring and Easter. It has a mix of foiled and plain abstract papers. 

They coordinated perfectly with these foil cardstock papers by Recollections. I cut panels of each, layering the patterned paper atop the foiled as my focal images were cutting on my Cricut Maker. 

To make the focals, I uploaded the SVG from Creative Fabrica to Cricut Design Space, sized, and used the offset function to create the foiled paper layer, then the glitter paper for the detailed bunnies. 

I attached the glitter layer to the foiled layer using my ATG tape runner, then used foam dots to attach to my layered panels, which I attached to the card using the tape runner. I had fun mixing and matching the foil and glitter layers. 

I went monochromatic for some, and contrasted others. To finishe, I added a few adhesive rhinestones!

Finally, I created the inside of the cards in PicMonkey, and off they went! 

Jewelry Making: Ocean Inspired Jewelry Gifts

 

Mr. Chocolate is going to visit his dad for a couple of weeks and FIL Chocolate has a lovely woman companion for whom I wanted to send something along. They're both widowed and neither are interested in getting remarried but it's been so great for us to know that he has someone to do things with. 

They live on the Washington Coast so when I looked in my bead stash, I went with colors inspired by that. 

Supplies

• Bead Landing Blue Green Swirl Glass Beads (Michaels)
• Bead Landing White Glass Beads (Michaels)
• Bead Landing Silver Spacer Beads (Michaels)
• Silver Bead Caps, Head Pins (usbeadwarehouse.com)
• Stretch Magic Cord (Michaels)
• Jump Rings
• Ear Wires
• Jewelry Pliers 

I'm one of those Makers who buys things on sale without necessarily having a project in mind but let's come back to that point later! I didn't do a lot of in process pictures but these are very straightforward basic jewelry making projects. 

For the earrings, I strung a white bead, then a swirl bead, and bead cap onto a decorative head pin then made a closed loop and attached to a fish hook ear wire. For the bracelet, I always cut the stretch cord longer than I need because for me it makes knotting easier and I've had to re-do one too many a bracelet when I don't. So if you track costs to the penny this may be wasteful to you but my frustration level is worth it! 

I love these clamps I got at Dollar Tree (automotive supplies) that I use on one end of the cord to keep the beads from falling off. Then used another bead cap, white bead, bead cap, swirl bead, spacer bead until sized to approx 7 inches, my standard women's bracelet size.

The colors and swirls remind me of ocean waves so I think they'll be perfect "at the ocean". After I showed these to Mr. Chocolate, he asked if I would make something for his dad too. Twist my arm!

The best thing about being a hoarder, I mean Maker, is having choices in my stash. Living where I do and having now been through two bead show seasons (Tucson is a world leader in bead and gemstone shows) I'd picked up some Fancy Mixed Jasper that I thought worked colorwise. I used the same silver spacer beads and chose a silver bead as the focal bead. 

But why are there two bracelets shown? Because that's how things go in Casa Chocolate. I'll nake something as a gift. Mr. Chocolate sees it and says "I want one". And that's exactly what happened here so twist my arm! I made him one too! 

This really reminds me of all the colors you can see on the Washington coast. Heathers, and evergreens and the ocean that sometimes looks green, the overcast skies etc. 

I love that gemstones all have a story. 

Papercrafting: Birthday Card in Two Colors

 

I finally got back to making! Have a couple of early July birthdays and didn't plan on making matching cards but while looking through the paper stack I realized that the same paper came in two different colors and...

Supplies

• Recollections Background Paper (Watercolor Stack)
• Recollections 110lb Cardstock
• Recollections Foiled Papers
• Birthday SVG File 
• Birthday Balloon Stickers
• Tape Runner
• Double Sided Foam Tape

I decided on the patterned papers then pulled coordinating solid papers and cardstock from my stash. 

I wanted to accent the gold foil in the background papers and chose gold for the top layer and silver for the layer that would show the present. 

I cut out the SVG file layers, ending with the gold layer, and attached with my ATG Tape Runner, foam tape, and spray adhesive and did the same for the pink card. 

I saved the present cutouts and added some washi tape and rhinestones to accent the cards, then chose some balloon stickers (Dollar Tree) from my stash to embellish te middle balloon. Et, voila!

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