NYC Graphic Art Tutorial

 My kids' high school was putting on Annie the Musical and they needed some raffle items for the intermission fundraiser. I always make something inspired by the production they are putting on. After days of the song "N- Y- C- just got here this morning..." I was inspired to make this alcohol ink graphic art piece. It turned out phenomenally and I'm so happy with it. It was hard to part with, so I might just make a new one soon!

Here is a quick tutorial on how I brought this beauty to life.

First off Supplies:

• Kilz2 Primer - I get this at Home Depot
• Unfinished Wood Art Panel - From Michaels
• Heat Gun
• Oracal 651 Vinyl
• Transfer Tape
• Silicone Tool
• 91-99% Isopropyl Alcohol - This is dirt cheap at Walmart or any drug store
• Picture Frame (if desired)
• Krylon Kamar Varnish
• Krylon UV Spray

Alcohol Ink colors used in this video:

• Tim Holtz Ranger Glacier
• Tim Holtz Ranger Monsoon
• Tim Holtz Ranger Sailboat Blue
• Tim Holtz Ranger Alloy Sterling

(these can be purchased on Amazon individually, but I've had the best luck buying that at Michael's or in sets with all of the colors online).

I will give a quick run down of the the steps, but please watch the video of how this was created here:

YouTube Video

I started off with the wood panels from Michaels and gave them each 3 coats of Kilz 2 Primer. I like working with these wood panels because they are precut to the standard picture sizes, so they will fit in most (not all) picture frames if you take out the glass. They also come sanded and ready to go, and the price isn't too bad either!

I've included the steps on how to create the graphic in Cricut Design Space for you in case you want to make it your own. But if you like what I have, and aren't feeling like recreating the wheel here is the NYC graphic. Just right click the image and save it, the upload it into Cricut Design Space or whatever cutting machine software you are using.

I use Oracal 651 vinyl as the stencil because I have found I have the best luck with this vinyl at creating a good mask and not getting any seepage under the vinyl. 

An additional step I take is applying another coat of Kilz2 after I've applied the vinyl to the surface. This allows the Kilz to seep into any of the microscopic gaps and dry, creating a blockage for any of the inks that might try and finds it's way under the vinyl. 

When adding the alcohol ink, it's really best to just play with the inks for a while and see what you like. Everyone eventually comes up with their own technique for what they like. The key is to move the ink and alcohol around until the alcohol evaporates to get the cool alcohol ink effects. Check out my YouTube for more videos on my alcohol ink tutorials.

I apply the inks right over the vinyl and the Kilz, let everything dry then slowly peel up the vinyl to reveal the design. If any of the ink did seep through, you can first try to wipe it up carefully with isopropyl alcohol and a qtip or cotton swab. Be very careful not to touch the the design with the swab or a finger covered in alcohol. The inks are touch proof at this point, but they are not alcohol or scratch proof yet!

To seal the picture I always use Krylon Kamar Varnish, 3 quick coats, with 15 minute dry time in between. Alcohol inks are very prone to fade in the sunlight so I also add Krylon UV resistant spray, 3 coats as well. It's important that you use the Kamar Varnish BEFORE the UV the spray. The UV spray will reactivate the inks if they are not sealed first (I may have learned this the hard way!) 

I found this frame in my supplies that fit the board perfectly. The wood panel won't fit in all frames, so make sure you check the actual measurements of the frame before you buy it. I remove the glass insert the wood. And there you have it! 

Please comment if you have any questions. I'm always happy to help. Feel free to follow me here or on YouTube as well!

Crescent Moon Cat Ornament Wreath

 There's something about a kitty playing with an ornament that is maddening and adorable all at once. I saw a Christmas wreath a few years ago that was a cat reaching for an ornament and I knew I had to make something similar. The inspiration hit around Halloween time, so I put a little spooky, black cat, crescent moon twist on it.

 

Everything supply needed for this was from the Dollar Tree except the yarn and the cardboard I used for the cat, but you could totally use some Just Chenille black yarn from Dollar Tree as well.  

Supplies:

Dollar Tree wreath form 18" or smaller if preferred

Black Yarn, the thicker the better

Cardboard/Chipboard - cereal box is the best consistency or you can buy chipboard on Amazon

Any floral pieces you like

Floral wire

Ornament

Ribbon or thread to affix the ornament

Tools:

Cricut -or other cutting machine to cut the Cat shape 

Bolt cutters or wire cutters- whatever can cut the thickness of the wreath form

Here is the cat graphic I used for cutting the image. I used two layers of chipboard and hot glued them together to make it sturdy.

Here is a video tutorial for the whole process. Have fun with this and put your own little flare on it!

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If you like this content, feel free to follow me here and on YouTube. I'll be sharing a lot more crafts. 

And if there are any crafts you want to see created, drop me a comment and I'll see what I can do to create a tutorial for it!

DIY Make Your Own Reusable Stencil with a Cricut

I got a Cricut for Christmas! After making vinyl decals for everything and everyone I could think of, I started to delve into other projects I could create with this amazing machine! It truly is a work of art all by itself! I found tutorials for etching glass with vinyl as the a stencil, I tried it and loved it. 

Then my creative juices got flowing and I tried making stencils. After much trial and error I figured out stencils. So of course, why not combine the two projects and make vinyl stencils for glass etching!? 

I take no credit for the actual tiara on glass project, that is not my original project, it's just being used to show the process. 

First you will want to find a Tiara or crown silhouette online. I did a google search and found this one. It's important that it's one solid picture with no cut outs, the cut outs won't transfer to a stencil very well.

 Upload the image to the Cricut design space, select and erase the background.

Save it as a cut image, select the image and insert it into the design space.

Resize the image to your desired size and hit Go.

Position the cut on the mat and hit Go

Turn the dial on the machine to Custom and select Stencil - 0.4 mm in the drop down list 

(depending on your material this could take some trial and error to find the right setting)

The material I used was a plastic divider from the office supplies department at any store. I also had good luck with laminator sheets (heat sealed by itself). I tried thin cutting mat material but was not able to cut it without a deep cut blade. This material seems to work just fine so I didn't feel the need to run out and get a deep cut blade. If you try other material that works well for you, feel free to leave the suggestions in the comments. I always like to have options, the cheaper the better! 

Stick the material on the cutting mat and cut your design

Bam! Instant stencil!

Using a dry erase marker, find the center of the mirror and stencil and make all the marks you need to apply it perfectly

Tape off any areas that won't be covered by the stencil. (I did this step now to act as a guide for laying down the stencil once it's sticky but you can do it after you apply the stencil as well.)

Now to make the stencil sticky so the etching compound won't bleed beyond the stencil. I wanted the stencil to stick to the surface, be easily removable, and reusable. Krylon Easy-Tack did exactly that! I didn't try any other products, so I can only vouch for this particular one for this project. Let me know if you use any others.  

Take the stencil outside (or into a well ventilated area) and apply a coat of Krylon Easy-Tack. Allow it to dry for a few minutes. When it is tacky, but not wet, apply it to the mirror. 

Then apply the etching compound (I won't go into detail here because there are plenty of tutorials out there on this process. No need to reinvent the wheel right?)

Once the glass is etched rinse the mirror off and clean the mirror with glass cleaner and you're done! 

The stencil method is so much easier to remove than using vinyl and less wasteful because you can reuse the stencil after removal. 

You can use these stencils for glass etching, painting, or whatever else you can think of! The Easy Tack keeps them sticky for several uses, and when it stops sticking you can reapply the Easy Tack for more uses. 

Fun, Easy, 20 Minute Pillow Tutorial!

I have come into a large stash of 27" squares of upholstery samples. This is a pretty decent size piece of fabric, but not really enough for one pillow and if you use two pieces, one for each side of the pillow, it leaves a lot of waste. So I figured out this super simple method to make one piece of 27" square fabric into a 15" pillow.

My fabric samples are discontinued upholstery samples, but you can use just about any fabric that you want, in varying sizes as well. This tutorial is meant to show you how to turn a large square of fabric into a pillow, with very minimal waste.

Start with your fabric, right side up. My fabric is 27" by 27" 

Fold all of the corners into the center, to meet at the center. 

Sew along each of the 4 sides, leaving half of the last seam open for stuffing. 

You could potentially stop here, turn it right side out, stuff it and close it. But I wanted mine to have more dimension, so I took it a step further. 

Fold each corner flat (think the opposite of how it will be when the pillow is finished). Mark a triangle that is 2" high and 4" wide on the corner with a fabric marker/pencil/chalk. 

Sew along that line and clip the corner off.

It should look like this. 

Turn it right side out..

And stuff it!

*This is where I took a break and waited patiently for Amazon to deliver my stuffing and forgot to take a picture when I finished up the other pillow.*

Once you have the pillow stuffed, close the seams with pins and close up the seam with the blind stitch (or whatever you choose to call it). 

These pillows look great with the seams up front, 

Or in the back! 

I love this pillow design! With all of the funky, trendy fabric samples, I've been making pillows for all my friends and family. It's a simple, easy and clean looking design. 

DIY Custom DVD Storage

Our Entertainment Center situation was getting out of hand. We had an old TV stand meant for a 30 some inch tube tv, holding our 46" flat screen TV. On top of that, we have over 300 dvds, which my husband needs to display, on a shelf, in the living room. We wanted a new tv stand, but we needed something that worked with our DVD storage, or new dvd storage. After searching everywhere we couldn't find anything that could meet our needs. So we started looking into making our own storage. We found this post for making your own DVD shelving. I sent the Hubby off to Home Depot, $20 of wood and a $30 Kreg jig later, we had ourselves a plan. 

We mounted the tv so that the shelving did not have to hold the tv.  After that, we measured the space that we wanted to fill and built the shelves accordingly. We used common wood and stained it to our desired color.

This was the finished result: 

But we didn't stop there. 

Because we still had more DVD's to store, we decided to add towers on each side.

Again, we built them according to the space we had available.

All of the pieces are connected as one unit. It is pretty sturdy, but we used some L brackets to anchor it into the wall, just in case.  

We ended up with way more DVD storage space than we needed. So we have room to grow and until them we can keep our knick knacks up high where the kids won't destroy them! 

DIY Ombre Sunset Love Birds Wood Art

This is my favorite wood art project so far. I loved the lovebirds but I really wanted them to have a sunset in the background. I browsed a couple Ombre painting techniques and came up with my own technique. I've been using more of a "color wash" (watered down paint) technique on wood, so the grain shows through. I wanted to keep this effect in my sunset project. 

I starts with four sunset-ish colors. I put a glob of each on my "palette".  Start out with a piece of wood that is sanded to your preferred texture. My wood of choice is old, weathered fence paneling. 

With a damp foam brush paint your sun, and a circle of orange, pink and purple around the sun.

Keeping the foam brush damp, take some pink paint and drag from the pink circle halfway into the purple area. Blot the two colors together. 

Continue blending the rest of the colors and let it dry. 

After it dries, give it a few swipes with a fine grit sandpaper. Trace your love birds onto the wood.

And fill it in!