Want to go for a ride?

I love the style of this old-fashioned bicycle.  It's one of the chipboard die cuts available at DIY Design Studio and it is a lot of fun to use.  

My first idea was to try and distress the image with ink.  The StazOn is good for distressing chip board because it's permanent and dries quickly.  It just wasn't the look I wanted today.  So I decided to paint them instead.  Perfect for my project.

I liked the gold bike so well that I decided to paint the other one, too.

I added some rhinestones just to blint them up a little bit.

For the gold bike, I chose the Life Time pad of Prima paper.  You've seen me use this one before.  It's one of my favorites because of the range of shades and splatters.  They are beautiful papers.

I needed a piece of paper 6 x 4 1/4.  I opted to make the darkest section the body of my card and then use the part with the sentiment as a layer.  

I added some light brown ink to the edges of each piece so that they stand out once they were pieced back together.

This paper pad has a sheet of tags and embellishments.  I wanted to use a mini brad on the mini tag.  I could have used the cream color but it matches the paper a little too much.  I painted it the same gold as the bike to pull it into the card more.

Because the bike is chipboard it really stands off the page.  Foam adhesive squares hold the little embellishments up off the page to balance that out.

Card one - great for a note card or special occasion.  But it's almost Christmas and the other bike is red, sooooo...

I painted some chipboard snowflakes white to go with the second bike.

I found this piece of snowy scrapbook paper in my stash and added a washi tape sidewalk, then glued on the chipboard pieces. 

Products Used:

Die Cut Chipboard Bicycles

Die Cut Chipboard Snowflakes

Inks and/or Acrylic Paints

Adhesive Gemstones

Prima Life Time paper pad

Dimensional Foam Squares

Double-Sided Adhesive Tape

Glue

Scans of each card

Camelot

I went to see my first play during my Freshman year of high school.  What better introduction to theater than to see Camelot?!  I love the romance and the action and, oh the music!  

I wanted to capture that Medieval feel with today's card.  Castles always have tapestries and banners so I used two different size banner dies with three of the images from the Mists of Avalon collage sheet and two pages from the Life Time Prima paper pad.  

What is royalty without a little pomp and circumstance, right?  So I added shine to these tapestry banners with some gold glam stickers and gems.

I just happened to have a crown and sword die cut in my stash and it really gives this card the Camelot feeling!  Both shapes were cut out of gold paper.

Please stop by again tomorrow for more inspirations from the DIY Design Studio Team!

Bee-ing Happy Creating a Journal for a Friend

Bee-ing Happy Creating a Journal for a Friend

Recently I attended a workshop with Cheryl Boglioli Gel Press Ambassador where we used the Gel Plate and a Sizzix Travellers Journal Die to create a fun journal. I wanted to make another journal having purchased the die to share this method and idea with a friend who I know loves bees as I had just brought a magazine that included a Bee die. I thought this would be perfect to share for our Die Cut Theme this month.

I worked with honey tones of yellow and orange paint along with white and black to decorate the covers of my journal by layering paint on my gel plate and taking prints and starting with the darker tones working to the light tones, subtracting the paint of various layers from the plate using stencils etc. including a hexagonal pattern to represent honeycomb.  My first layer was black.

I kept layering on color with my Gel Press Plate and Stencils until I was happy with the look of my inside and outside covers.  Any excess paint I had on my brayer I painted over a page in my journal with.

Once I was happy with the look of my journal covers I constructed my journal gluing the two halves of my die cut journal together.

I created signatures using bee patterned paper in a PAPER COLLECTION and Watercolor Papers.

   

To finish my cover I die cut 3 bees out of glossy black card stock and stamped out the sentiment BEE Happy on a white piece of paper in black ink and then proceeded to cut this out before coloring it yellow with a Paint Pen.  Using the same Paint Pen I outlined some of my honeycomb/hexagonal stenciling.

Now it's just a matter of fastening the signatures in place inside my journal and adding a band to keep my journal held shut working with elasticized cord weaving it through the allocated holes.  This style of binding I love as it requires no stitching.

I will hopefully have the binding completed and some pages decorated to share with you next time.

Danie xx

In the FALL mood

We are a DIY store, so let's DIY Fall!

I like to have a simmering pot or mini crock pot of spices to give the house a great autumn aroma.

Below are a couple recipes and ideas for gifting a welcoming aroma for the home during fall and winter holidays.

Add the following combinations to water and allow to simmer to bring out the gorgeous aromas.  

You can also use cheesecloth to gather your spices (dried), tie with twine and place into a mason jar with our wonderful lids, give with a bag of oranges or lemons as a hostess gift. 

For a truly special gift add our ornate Vintologie Silver metal jar jewelry added to the jar with a label.

You could also use our Autumn Felt flowers.

 

We also have die cut instructions for creating beautiful flowers as adornments as well.    

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   
Orange Cinnamon scent

2 cinnamon sticks 

1/2 tablespoon nutmeg (or a whole nut) 

1 orange (large slices) 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups water

Orange Spice Scent

• 1 orange rind  fresh or two rinds dried
• 2 whole anise stars
• 2 tablespoons whole cloves
• 3 bay leaves
• 1-2 cups of water

Southwest Autumn

• 3 lemons thickly sliced
• 3 star anise
• 1 small knob of fresh ginger cut to release scent (or grated)
• 1/4 teaspoon dried orange peel
• 2 dried chili peppers
• 10 peppercorns
• 5 cups water

Thanks for visiting today!