Beaded Love Shadow Box

  Once in awhile I host little “Migraine Parties” at my home.  They were dubbed that about 7 years ago, and the name just stuck.  All it means is that you call in sick to work (possibly with a migraine) and then come over and play for the day.  I love having friends over to craft with me because their energy fills my craft room and the laughter and creativity lingers in the space for days after they’ve gone home.  It’s fabulous!

 

Last time I had one of these parties, Julie Imsland was over working on her shadowbox – the one that NO ONE wants to win, even though they don’t have to DO anything other than take a picture and send an email …….for shame…but I digress….. 

So, another PWA designer happened to be there that day, I call her Miss Yvonne, but her real name is Yvonne Grimes.  Miss Yvonne was so inspired by Julie’s box that she actually drove HOME to look in her own craft stash and then came back with a box to work on!

Here’s what Miss Yvonne had to say:

“I was inspired by Michele A-Z’s shadowbox and Julie’s $1 spot find to look through my $1 store frame stash and came up with this shadowbox that was perfect for collage images.”

Beaded Love Shadow Box   By Yvonne Grimes

Materials:

Wood shadowbox frame

Acrylic paint in desired color

Lumiere paint in desired colors

Tim Holtz Grungeboard letters, heart, and flower

PWA Opaque Micro beads in desired colors (I used red and pink from my stash)

PWA Bubble Beads

Assorted seed beads in desired colors

PWA Collage Sheet “Be Mine”

Cardstock (to back collage image)

Handmade or textured paper, contrasting color to paint & beads

Thick foam tape or dots (or layer thin foam tape to desired thickness)

Gold ‘german scrap’ borders

Small dried or other flowers

SureTac Glue

Krylon gold pen

 

How To:

Paint the entire frame with a base color in acrylic paint. After it dries apply one or two colors of Lumiere paints over the base coat. Apply with an almost dry brush so that you don’t entirely cover the base color. Set aside to dry.

Paint the grungeboard letters, heart, and flower with the same colors.

Apply “bead soup” (Suzanne’s word for it!) to the grungeboard letters and heart after the paint is dry. Apply a thick layer of SureTac glue to each piece of grungeboard. Then drop seed beads, bubble beads, and lastly micro beads onto the glue to entirely cover each piece and then set them aside to dry. (I put mine on a non-stick craft sheet or piece of foil so I can pick the whole thing up and move it.) Once the glue is dry, gently tap off the unstuck beads.

Use your finger or a dauber to apply a very thin layer of Lumiere paint directly to the grungeboard flower. I used contrasting colors so it would stand out against the frame.

Attach german scrap borders using SureTac glue around the outside of the frame and around the two sections where the collage images will be mounted.

Attach small piece of german scrap border using SureTac glue to bottom of each section where the collage images will be mounted.

Choose your collage images and trim to fit in the desired section of your frame. Mount each collage image onto a piece of cardstock cut slightly smaller than the image to add stability, and use foam tape or dots to mount each collage image into its niche.

Cut pieces of homemade or textured paper to go behind each grungeboard letter and the heart. Outline with gold Krylon pen if desired.

Mount the beaded grungeboard onto the background paper, and use foam tape or dots to mount each letter and the heart into its niche.

Use SureTac glue to attach the grungeboard flower and other flower embellishment onto the frame where desired.

Attach ribbon to the frame hangars.

I love to watch how we all inspire one another!  I think I’ll be saving this one to award as blog candy for the blog hop that is coming soon! 

Never Too Late For Love

Valentine’s Day may have come and gone but it’s never too late to show some love to a friend.  PWA Designer Michelle McCarthy created an atc with so much detail and interest I had to ask her to share the “how to” and she quickly fired back an entire tutorial with pictures and everything!  Woweee!  Be sure to read all the way to the end because Michelle shows how to create that cool background!

Supplies:

CS for top
CS for background
Any punch
Any colored Micro beads
O'so Sticky Tape or sheet
scissors

Directions:

1.  Using any punch of choice, punch out from your chosen top CS.  Make sure you leave space around edges to trim later.

2.  Turning punch negative upside down, cover opening with piece of O'so tape, leaving front side with exposed tape.

3.  Now dip and cover in chosen micro beads

4.  from back, unpeel O’so tape and attach second or background piece (For instance, I wanted the heart to be solid red, so I added the red CS to "fill in" anything the micro beads may have missed.)
 

5.  Now using your scissors, trim away around your punch, thus creating a frame around your micro beads shape.  And there you go, O'So simple!

 

Bonus!  Technique for background of ATC:
 

1.  It really has to be seen in person for you to totally get the effect.  All you do is add any shape or piece (I used the punch out from the heart I used to create the upper technique).

2.  Apply to a background piece with a little glue to keep it down.

3.  Run the whole piece through the die cutter with a chosen Embossing Folder.  Now sit back and admire the technique!  It's embedded into the larger piece of CS and is very cool!

             

Thanks so much Michelle!  I LOVE this card!!

Winter Joy

Baby it’s cold outside!!  Here’s a frosty card to go with all of the snow we’ve been getting in North Bend.  It’s a shaker card made with one of our templates and inside are micro beads, FruFru and some snowflakes too!  This looks to me like something Chriss Grabb made, but it’s not signed so I can’t be totally sure. 

Hugs,  Suzanne