THE ALTERED FLEA: crafts

Showing posts with label crafts. Show all posts

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Game Night with Old Friends

I'm participating in the DecoArt Mystery Box Challenge.

Please visit the site and vote for your favorite!

Hint: My project is #9

My MahJongg group had just left when I received a mystery box in the mail from DecoArt. I quickly opened it, revealing its contents: a paper mache box in the shape of a house, luscious fluid acrylics in four vibrant hues, DecouPage and Liquid Glass. It was the perfect starting point for my project, “Game Night with Old Friends.”

Game Night was, and still is, popular among friends and families. Vintage games are resurfacing including MahJongg, Scrabble and Rummy-Q. So I used iconic game pieces to turn my paper mache house into a FUN-KY candy holder, perfect for our next Girls Night Out.

Products Used:

Paper Mache House Box (by Darice)

DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics: Quinacidone Magenta, Hansa Yellow, Cerulean Blue, Titanium White & Carbon Black

DecoArt DecouPage

DecoArt Media Liquid Glass

Supplies:

Rubber Stamps (from River City Rubberworks)

Staz-On Black Ink Pad

Paint chips

1” foam brushes

Paper Cutter

2-sided adhesive tape & glue dots

Embellishments: Iconic game pieces

The How To

Paint sides and roof of paper mache house with DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics. I painted each side a different color.

Stamp images on paint chips using Staz-On ink. Cut paint chips to fit box sides and adhere stamped images to house using DecouPage by brushing medium on back of paint chip and paper mache house.

Add embellishments using DecouPage (it's also a glue!), adhesive tape or glue dots.

Paint Scrabble trays with Media Fluid Acrylic. Spell out “Old Friends” using scrabble tiles,

and place on trays.

This MahJongg rule book from 1958 was a great flea market find.

Place finished house onto BINGO card and display on game board. Fill box with old-time

candy and share at your next Game Night.

How many games can you find in this project? Do you spot your favorite game?

Disclosure: I was provided product from DecoArt but all opinions and ideas are my own.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Fabulous Father's Day Photo Canvas

Daddy. Papa. Abba. Pop. Mr. Cool.

No matter what you call him, your father is always going to be the first man in your life. The one who taught you how to ride a bicycle. The one who always tells you how pretty you are. The one you can count on. My Dad celebrated his 90th birthday earlier this year and we had a big family get-together. It was a special day. I am so proud to be his favorite daughter. Since I have two brothers and no sisters, I can say that with certainty.

Our two daughters must share the role of favorite daughter with my husband. And because he is such a wonderful Dad, we've created a fun photo canvas for him for Father's Day.

We gathered together a ~~plethora~~ whole lot of supplies including coordinating paper, paint, chipboard letters, brads, twine, ribbon, corrugated cardboard, rub-ons, and a whole lot more. And of course, a few of our favorite photos of Mr. [Mc]Dreamy.

Then we had a snack. Have you ever noticed how well crafts and chocolate chip cookies go together?

The first step is to paint the sides and edges of your canvasses. We used 9" x 12" and 4" x 12" canvas panels.

Then cut the paper 1/2" smaller than the canvas panels. Adhere the paper to the canvas using Mod Podge. Cover entire surfaces with another coat of MP. Let dry.

We wanted to create a banner to back the chipboard letters, and decided to cut it out of corrugated cardboard for a more rugged look. I drew triangles on the back of the cardboard to use as a pattern.

Make banners out of corrugated cardboard

I really like the way this banner turned out.

We thought it would be fun to add a few adjectives for "d-a-d" and came up with these words:

Dependable.

Adventurous.

[Mc]Dreamy.

Yeah, that about describes Mr. Wonderful.

We tied kraft tags to the letters with jute.

Then we layed out, moved around, and re-positioned the photos and embellishments until we were ~~blue in the face~~ happy with the layout. Before we changed our minds, we adhered everything in place. To add some interest, we layered the photos onto coordinating paper, and adhered them with foam dots to pop them up a bit.

We found the greatest rub-on that reads, "Make Life an Adventure." Perfect! We adhered a mini canvas (5"x 3") to the large canvas, and added a strip of corrugated cardboard, buttons, a wooden heart, ribbon and a king's crown charm!

To tie the canvas panels together, we used small eye hooks. I marked off 3" from either end, and twisted the eye hooks into the bottom side of the small [top] canvas and the top of the large [bottom] canvas.

Then we looped twine and ribbon through the eye hooks, tying them tightly bringing the eye hooks close together.

And here's a photo of the finished canvas.

Do you think he'll like it? We hope so.

Besides, how many ties does a Dad really need?

Friday, June 1, 2012

Coffee Notes [Altered Chalkboard]

You can never have too much of a good thing. Like good friends. Good coffee. And a good place for notes. Combine these three, and you get a Coffee Notes Chalkboard!

While casually strolling the clearance bins at "T" last week, I spotted large chalkboards at 70% off the regular price of $2.50. A quick calculation told me that is only 75 cents each! At that price, I ~~quickly pounced on~~ picked up the seven that were left in the bin, and ~~raced~~ made my way to the checkout line.

Since I wasn't planning to use this as a scoreboard, I gathered crafting goodness from my stash with a coffee theme including chipboard letters, stickers, scrapbook paper, ribbon, ric rac, buttons and twine.

With Mod Podge [don't leave home without it], I adhered paper and ribbon to the top of the chalkboard and added two coffee stickers to the board as well.

Since this is, after all, a chalkboard, I needed a place to hold chalk. This mint tin container was the perfect size.

I Mod Podged the tin container with paper, ribbon and ric rac. Typed out the word "chalk" using my handy label maker [which I've owned since the 3rd grade]. Using the chipboard, spelled out "notes" and, just for fun, placed the "s" onto the altered tin container. Using adhesive squares, I adhered the container to the chalkboard. And, of course, included a few pieces of chalk.

I tied twine around the chalkboard, finishing it into a bow, and added two buttons (a coffee pot and a cup) to complete the altered project.