#Cre8time takes Flight...

Hello friends... Happy NEW YEAR! Today I resharing one of my favorite and most popular makes from last year.

As my health has made itself my main priority, this has left me with a fraction of the time I used to devote to creating with abandon. Now when my muse comes out to play when she is fully rested and rejuvenated... I have found myself creating things with wings and making some fun stuff to accent my studio.

I've had this papier-maché torso lying around for more years than I'd care to admit - I used to have three and I passed two on to friends. I have to admit I was a bit unsure of what to create with this last one since I've had it so long. The possibilities are endless... so I decided to create an altered torso.

I've painted her up with spray paints and StencilGirl stencils and gave her some handmade resin tropical flair and WINGS!

I created several molds using Amazing Mold Putty: an Art Deco style vintage mirror, a hand-carved polymer clay palm leaf, and some interesting shaped shells. 

I selected three stencil designs: Art Deco Wallpaper Stencil L319; Tribal Leaves Stencil L213; and Mimosa 6 Stencil S126.

The first thing I did is put a border of clear packing tape around the edges of each stencil, on the front and backside, and burnishing with a bone folder. I remember hearing this trick from another artist and thought it was worth a try -- works for me!

First I added some color to the wood accents on the torso. I used Carbon Gray Varathane Wood Stain - it's easy to apply and dries quick. I never heard of gray wood stain... I happen to love this color and the color it achieved. I have an unfinished wood cabinet that is soon to be tackled with this lovely colored stain.

When this is dry I use some plastic wrap to cover the wooden parts to protect area from spray painting with stencils! I used a coating of Mod Podge Matte finish to seal the papier maché torso in preparation to accept a good layering of spray paint.

I have a bright gloss green and a bright blue which I sprayed alternating in no particular pattern.

After I had a nice base layer, I continued adding color spraying through the stencils. The shapes are organic and look like shadows peeking through palm branches at night.

While the paint is drying, I get on with casting my accent pieces. I brush the inside of each mold with Ocean Blue Alumidust and also mix some into a batch of Amazing Casting Resin. This resin turns an opaque white when cured and with the Alumidust mixed in, it will result in a pretty pale blue.

I always make sure to have extra molds on hand to pour any leftover resin so it doesn't go to waste. This is all of the molds poured with resin cured. I needed two of the mirrors so all the small bits are extras for the rainy-day project bin.

Look at the AMAZING detail in the front and back of each shell cast in resin. The overpour {flashing} tears away pretty easy while resin is still soft and any remaining can easily be trimmed away. I sanded edges with an emory board.

I gave a little shine and brightness to the resin pieces by brushing the high points with Tonic Nuvo Embellishment Mousse. This color is a nice pearly pale blue... perfect for beachy themed projects! 

I finished off by adding a section of recycled jewels around the neck to dangle the resin palm leaf and a faceted gem. I crossed the mirror shapes and wrapped with wire to form wings and secured with wrapping wire around the torso. I brushed a little of the spray paint onto the wire to blend it in to the background pattern. I'm so happy with how this looks that I left off the other two shell pieces I prepared {they won't go to waste -- stay tuned}! I hope you love my tropical winged torso as much as I do. She make's a beautiful beachy addition to my creative workspace.

This lady is making a trip to Phoenix, AZ to be on display in the Alumilite Corp./Amazing Casting Products Booth #2214 during Creativation January 20-22, 2018. I'll be demoing all three days, so if you are attending -- drop by and say "HI"!

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Thanks for dropping by and I'd love to hear what you're favorite make from 2017 is... leave a comment with a link!   xo Sb

Making a #Cre8time Plan... #Upcycled Ledger Redux

Hello friends! I'm back with another project... that I planned on!! LOL! Yes indeed I'm on my way to becoming a planner nerd now. I'm starting with getting my planner together and I'm so thrilled to be able to share this with you.

Follow along as I share how I upcycled a Vintage Ledger into an amazing Purple-liscious Planner. Several of the supplies I've used in this project were provided from Sakura of America, Testors and Therm•o•web as part of the the Favecrafts Best Blogger Craft Event.

  

I have been wanting to start using a planner for some time, though I haven't really found one that spoke to me. I always buy one of those day-to-day calendars and they go unused. This year I decided no more and I would make an official planner.

While volunteering at my local artist salvage center, Trash to Treasure, I came across a vintage ledger - complete with a six ring mini-binder, unused grid pages and tabbed dividers. A match made in creative heaven! This ledger has been recycled into an amazing purple-iscious planner with some supplies from my craft stash, Testors One Coat Lacquer and iCraft Deco-Foil.

I gathered all my tools and supplies. Remove contents of ledger and mask off inside with a sheet of tissue leaving pocket exposed. Imagine my luck... I was sent my favorite color {thanks Testors}!!! Now if I could just get my MINI Cooper this same color – just putting it out there to the universe.

Mask off edges of stencil to protect exposed binder pocket and spray checkered border with the Purple-licious Testors One Coat Lacquer. Remove stencil and let dry. Flip ledger cover over and completely spray Purple-licious. Set aside to dry. My apologies I don't have pix of the spray painting... I did this outside quickly as it was getting dark.

Suprisingly with the heat and high humidity, this paint dried much quicker than I expected. Most was dry to touch in about 10-15 minutes – but I left it to dry for about an hour while I went ahead and worked on the contents of my planner.

Alter tabbed dividers by cutting strips of iCraft Easy Cut Adhesive sheets to width of tabs. Trim to size and apply over tab, folding around to backside. Burnish down with bone folder.

Using mini guillotine cutter, cut strip of iCraft Rainbow Deco-Foil about 1/4" wider than tabs. Remove adhesive backing on tab and align Deco-Foil strip with edge of tab and wrap around backside, completely covering exposed adhesive. The tabs are blingy and totally transformed. Each tab continues with the next color of the rainbow and just makes one happy.

Gently burnish and peel away foil backing. Repeat process with remaining tabs continuing with same strip of Deco-Foil (required two strips of foil to complete all tabs). Cut section of iCraft Easy Cut Adhesive to size of title block on ledger cover. Remove backing and apply, burnish down then apply Rainbow Deco-Foil.

I used two strips of the Rainbow Deco-Foil... nothing goes to waste! No heat, no wet adhesive, and super quick – so EASY PEASY!! I have 5 other colors and I can't wait to use them on more projects.

I added fun pockets with mini bags folded over, edges adhered and mounted to dividers using iCraft Easy Tear Tape. Now I'm ready to put everything back together. Even my post-it stencil masks have made it into my planner!

I cut my downloadable planner pages to size and punched holes for this six ring binder configuration. This binder is about 1/2" so it may only fit two months at a time for day-to-day pages. I'm OK with that. I replaced all the pages into binder, adding ephemera, clips, stickers and other planner goodies. I have loads more, but I'm just a newbie here. I will share more as I work along.

From Vintage Ledger to

Purple-liscious Planner...

The transformation is complete and it's time to plan more crafty goodness! I plan to use my Sakura of America Pens to doodle and color the inside of the cover. I LOVE how the cover is transformed from the blah black to this amazing purple-licious!!!

Supplies Used:

• Vintage Ledger {or an empty binder}
• Testors One Coat Lacquer - 1842 Purple-liscious
• iCraft Easy Cut Adhesive
• iCraft Easy Tear Tape
• iCraft Deco-Foil - Rainbow
• The Crafters Workshop Dylusions Chequered Dots Stencil
• Mini Guillotine Cutter
• Scissors
• 1/8" hole punch
• Downloaded planner page inserts
• Bone Folder
• Misc. selection of Sakura of America Pens
• Assortment of stickers, clips, post-its, mini bags, and other ephemera

This is an easy project - though consideration should be taken for use of spray paint and have time allotted for drying. Project can be completed in an evening and will continue to evolve over time as entries and journaling added. I know I'm going to have fun with my NEW "old" planner.

Thanks so much for visiting! I hope you drop by and check out all the Favecrafts Best Blogger Craft entries when the voting begins on March 31st. Happy Creating :) Sb