Altered Canvas: Stashbusting Tale of Crazy Michaels Lady

One of the most dangerous sections of Michaels for me is their used to be  $1 section that’s now 2 for $3 (sorry Michaels, I’m still not over that although it hasn’t deterred me).

Despite my grumbling about the whole 2 for $3 thing, that section is a treat for me. It gets even better when that section goes on sale. Yes, that is me... the crazy lady doing the happy dance and talking to herself in that section and digging through the bins trying not to drop stuff because she didn't think she needed a basket because she came for just one thing. You’ve been warned.

Last year, I went a little wackadoodle over rub-ons. Completely justified since they don’t take up a lot of room and can be used on everything and I really truly will use all of the ones I bought ( someday).

Then when I was there on a trip not too long ago, I did an extra happy dance because that section had these cool mirrored pins in all kinds of shapes , ON SALE, and one of the shapes was a key that happened to go with key rub-ons I bought last year! Breathe.

Now this would have been cute as a pin,  but I’m not much of a pin wearer. So naturally I snapped the pin back off.

I had an 8x10 canvas in my stash that I covered with some shabby paper by Little Black Dress and then went to my scraps and pulled out some coordinating pieces. Layered them on the canvas w/ Mod Podge.

Reduce. Re-use. Recycle. I used the paper the pins came on and glued those to the canvas. Didn't even tear them or cut them just used as they came.

Tore a sheet from a notepad ( from the same section) and stuck that in the middle. Enter my last year’s rub-ons, an adhesive scrabook border and done and done.

Easy, inexpensive, and “green” since I used packaging from the pins.

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The Artsy Girl  Connection

Martha Paint and Vinyl Makeover!

Mr. Chocolate recently cleaned out his den and gifted me some framed pieces he replaced with other stuff. That plus a trip to Michaels 2 for $3 section gave me an idea!
I am in love with the Martha Stewart line of paints by Plaid. This frame was a plain black and I wanted to age it up a bit so I used Martha’s Satin finish Gray Wolf and dry brushed it.

Nice and aged looking now! I also love rub-ons and Michaels has a whole new collection of them in their 2 for $3 section. I couldn’t resist these cutlery images:

I cut the large fork, knife, and spoon, and put those on three sides of the mat from the picture that had been in the frame.  Then I chose a piece of scrapbook paper from my stash, and cut a cup image using the Wall Décor and More cartridge on my Expression. I cut the detailed image in brown and the shadow image in black. I put the shadow image on the paper and the detail image on top of the glass (slightly offset) to give it more depth.

Then using the same cartridge, I cut the phrase “café” in black and put this on top of the glass as well.

And now I have a new piece of art for my kitchen for the cost of about $1.50 since I had most everything on hand!

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COFFEE Creations Party At The Shabby Creek Cottage

Composition Book Supplies Journal

If you’ve read my blog for more than a minute, you know that I love to roam around Michaels, JoAnn’s and assorted other craft stores looking for nothing in particular and finding goodies. But, I also need to keep track of things I use regularly, and things I need for projects I want to try.  I love technology as much as anyone but sometimes you just need to go old school and have things written down in something you can carry with you. So I made a “Supplies Journal”.

This is hardly a new idea…altering composition books, but I’ll still show you what I did.

Started with your basic composition book…I pick these up around back to school time for next to nothing. Covered the front and back with Recollections “Batiked My Interest” Collection…this paper’s called Coconut. Source: Michaels…4 sheets for $1! I Mod Podged the paper on so it would really stick:

I covered the inside with a coordinating brown and cream paper and used the scraps of both papers for the cover, along with a rub-on of my initial, some Michaels $1 self adhesive metal bits, KandCo self adhesive vellum scrapbook borders, and one of these :

Added some coordinating leftover typewriter alphabet stickers to spell “Supplies” and then punched a hole in the front and back covers so I could thread ribbon to tie the journal together. You don’t have to. I just did. This is also the perfect place for me to keep my coupons when I go after those supplies I need!

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