Tutorial: Marbled Paper

Yesterday Brook came over and we had an absolute blast making marbled paper!!  Today, I'm going share how we made our super neat paper!!

SUPPLIES

Cheap Shaving Cream

"Posh Rainbow Ink" (Food Coloring works too)

Old Cookie Sheet

White Paper or Cardstock

Stick, Pen, Paintbrush or Other Utensil

Lots of Paper Towels!!

Step 1: SHAVING CREAM LAYER 

Squirt a bunch of shaving cream onto your cookie sheet that is about the size of your paper and about as thick as your thumb.

Spread the shaving cream (just like cake icing) to make an even layer.

Step 2: ADD INK OR FOOD COLORING

We used some Posh Rainbow Inks that I bought on clearance at Michael's months ago.  However, I've heard that food coloring works just as well!!

Squirt small droplets of ink (or food coloring) onto your shaving cream layer.

This takes some practice, but we found that just shaking the bottle and not squeezing it worked the best.

Add your various colors so you have a significant amount of ink on the shaving cream.

Step 3: SWIRL THE COLORS

Drag your utensil (we used the wrong end of a pen) through the ink and down into the shaving cream and swirl the colors.  There are soooo many different patterns you can make!!

Step 4: MARBLE THE PAPER

Lay your paper or cardstock face down and gently press it into the cream mixture.

Be sure the paper is completely pressed into the shaving cream because you don't want any blank spaces!!

Peel your paper (or cardstock) off of the mixture and set aside for about 10 minutes.

Press as many sheets of paper into the mixture until you don't have any cream left!!

Step 5: REVEAL THE MARBLED PAPER

Be sure to wait 10 minutes before moving onto this step!!  If you don't then you'll get smeared ink on your page and it'll be really messy!!

After the page has dried for about 10 minutes, take a paper towel and gently remove the excess cream mixture from the page.  

Brook found that wiping the page in one direction using even pressure worked best to remove the cream.

FINISHED!!

These are the first two pages made with this batch of inked cream...

Here's a close up of one of the pages...

These are the next 2 pages we made...

Isn't that awesome!! I can't emphasize how much fun we had making these marbled papers!!  I can't wait to find a cool project to use our pages on!!

Thanks for reading!!  Until next time...

Shopping Show & Tell #3

As you may have heard, I'm opening an Etsy shop in July where I'll be listing various vintage inspiration kits, vintage supplies, and other vintage items.  In order to start this endevour, I've had to buy some things to include in the assortment packs.  While purchasing these items, I've met some really nice people with great online shops.

In this post, I just want to share some a few of these resources with you!!  I think everyone wants affordable craft supplies from reliable sellers, don't you agree?

Come July, I'll be offering vintage sewing inspiration kits packed full of fabric, trim, embellishments and more.  In order for me to put these packs together, I needed vintage fabric!!

I found Nikole's shop, Happy Notions, and decided she could probably put together a nice assortment for me.  I convo'ed her and she really went the extra mile to help!!  She ended up providing me with over 50 different patterns of reclaimed sheet fabric!!  Just check out the assortment she sent...

Here are a couple of the other items in her shop that I really like...

Vintage Sheet Fat Quarter Bundle - You Pick 15

Vintage Sheet Scrap Pack - 1 Pound Assorted Fabrics

Next, I wanted some colorful items to add to my ephemera assortment packs.  I figured vintage wallpaper would be amazing, but new it was usually kind of pricey.  However, I really lucked out when I found Donna's shop, Under The Red Roof.

Donna was so generous and sent me a huge assortment of 8x10 wallpaper sheets and some scraps I'd asked for.  Although this picture doesn't do it justice, here's a photo of my order...

Here's a couple items you can find at Under The Red Roof...

Vintage Wallpaper Mega Pack

Bingo Advent Calendar Kit 

~ Chrystelle's ~

I still wanted more colorful things to include so when I found  Chrystelle's listing for some bright vintage carnival tickets, I knew they'd be perfect!!

I placed a custom order for a large assortment of tickets and ended up getting over 400 carnival tickets!!  Here's a picture...

Here are a couple of my top picks from Chrystelle's shop...

200 Vintage Carnival Tickets - 4 Colors, 50 Tickets Each Color

Vintage Scrapbooking Kit - Chocolate

These 3 shops are owned by wonderful ladies who are willing to go the extra mile to help you find what you need.  I've had great experiences with all of them and know you will too!!

I am not getting any form of compensation for mentioning these shops!!  I simply purchased items from each of them and was so pleased with their products and services that I wanted to share them with my readers.

Thanks for reading!! Until next time...

Tutorial: Memory Keychains

This project is so much fun to make and very rewarding when you're done!!  I know you're all going to love this tutorial!!

SUPPLIES

Wood shapes ("Woodsies")

Crop-a-dile (or other strong hole punch)

Acrylic craft paint

Decorations (photos, scrapbook paper, ephemera, lace, etc.)

Keyring

Chain

Charms or beads (optional)

Metal jump ring

Pliers

Step 1: MAKE WOOD BASE

The wood shapes I purchased were inexpensive and relatively thin so I chose to use 2 for each base.  If your wood shapes are made of a heavier wood, you could get away with just using one.

Pair up 2 wood pieces that are the same shape and size.

Punch a hole at the top center of one.  Line up your two pieces and mark where to punch the hole on the 2nd piece and then punch that hole.

Add a layer of glue (preferably wood glue) to the back of the two pieces and press them together.

Clamp the 2 pieces together using clothes pins or other method and let dry.

Once the glue has dried sand off the excess glue and any rough edges.

Step 2: DECORATE

There are so many possibilities for decorating these keychains!!   I'll list some of my ideas after the tutorial.

Paint the edges of your wood base using acrylic craft glue; you may need 2 or more coats.

Using a decoupage medium glue and seal your decorations onto the wood base, making sure to seal the painted edges too.

Step 3: ADD KEYRING & A CHARM

This is where we turn the little decorated wood shape into a keychain!!

Using pliers, add about 1" of chain to the keyring.

If you want to use a bead, rather than a charm, you'll need to add a headpin and a pair of round-nose jewelry pliers.

Once you have your bead/charm and keyring ready, add them to the wood base with a metal jump ring as shown above.

FINISHED!!

As I mentioned in the tutorial, there are so many possibilities when decorating your wood base!!  Here are just a few of the ideas I was able to come up with:

Vintage ephemera (shown in tutorial)

Photo(s) of a loved one

Mini scrapbook page

Map or image of a favorite place

Mini collage of something you enjoy

Your name

This list could go on and on!!  I'd love to hear your ideas so feel free to add them by commenting!!

Thanks for reading!!  Until next time...

WOYWW #8 and A Tutorial

This is going to be an especially looooonngg post, but I promise it will satisfy your curiosity as well as your creative hunger!!

Welcome to my 8th edition of WOYWW!!  If you're not familiar with WOYWW, click the button above.

This week I've been busy deconstructing antique books.  At the bottom of this post there is a tutorial on how to take apart books and remove the individual pages with as little damage as possible.

Before I get to the pages, let me tell you why I'm taking apart so many books...

Basically, I'm a craft supply shopaholic and found some great deals online.  Soon I'll be selling excess ephemera in my new Etsy and Artfire shops.

Now lets get to WOYWW...

Here are just a few of the deconstructed books.  The piles in the bottom row are all part of an 1880 hymnal that I was in the process of taking apart.  The small stack in the back is another 1880 hymnal that I'd already finished (I have 10 total).

 The ginormous stack on the blue case, is made up of pages from 3 antique books dating from 1877 to 1942. 

Here's a close-up of the 1877 dictionary pages...

When I start listing some of this ephemera on Etsy and Artfire, my plan is to offer a wide variety of themed packs such as the ones below.

For those of you that have been wondering where I disappeared to, now you know what I've been up to!  Don't worry, the Crafty St. Patty's Party will resume shortly and the March Madness Giveaway will begin tomorrow!!  Included in each of the 10 prizes will be some of this 100-year-old ephemera!!  Pretty cool, huh? 

TUTORIAL: DECONSTRUCT AN ANTIQUE BOOK

Note: This is a very messy project so be prepared to clean up when you're finished!! 

SUPPLIES

Antique Book

Craft knife & mat (optional)

The book I'm taking apart is a Lutheran hymnal from 1880.

Step 1: REMOVE COVER

Using whatever means necessary, remove the covers and as much of the spine as possible.

You may want to use a craft knife to separate the covers from the first and last pages.  With really old books, the covers will almost fall right off!

This was just something neat I found inside the spine of one of the 1880 hymnals.  It looks as though the covers and spine were actually made from old newspapers!!  And to think that we consider recycling and reusing a new thing!! 

Step 2: BREAK INTO SECTIONS 

Take a close look at your book and you'll see that the pages are actually "signatures" sewn and glued together.  If you're familiar with book binding you'll already be familiar with signatures.

In order to remove more of the spine and glue and also to help make the next step a little easier, separate your book into smaller sections.

Note: When you create your sections, make sure you do it between the signatures and not in the middle of one.

Step 3: SEPARATE SIGNATURES 

Gently pull apart the signatures from the binding.

This part is really messy.

Step 4: TEAR (CUT) PAGES

You'll notice that most of the signatures will still have some glue on them so you'll need to try and remove as much as you can.  It usually scrapes off, but if you're having a tough time, try opening the signature and removing the glue while it's open.

Open the signature to center.  Depending on your own personal preference either gently tear or cut the signatures down the center.  If you choose to cut the signatures, I highly recommend a craft knife and cutting mat.

FINISHED

Ta da!!  Now you have hundreds of great antique ephemera pages!!

Unfortunately you're also left with a huge mess to clean up!!  This little photo doesn't even begin to cover the mess from this project!!

If you're nit-picky like me, you'll want to separate the pages by topic!! hehehe

Be sure to stop by tomorrow so you can enter my March Madness Giveaway for your chance to win one of 10 crafty supply packs valued at $10 or more each!!

Thanks for reading!! Until next time...