Altered Tickets

This is my first time altering tickets. I have to say it was really fun! Such a small space but I had two ideas that have been brewing for a while that I finally tried on the tickets. I did a vintage theme ticket strip and a bird "winged things" ticket strip. I haven't made several of something in a assembly line way in quite awhile. I first made one ticket strip completely, then I made each part 4 times and laid it all out. After all the pieces were made it was a quick process to assemble. I did the pointing hand on my Silhouette as a print and cut. I cut banners out of manila cards and stamped "Live your life" and "Inspire" on them. I cut circles out of sheet music and stamped "dream". I had the film strips in my stash from (goodness knows when!)

For the vintage one I first started out by embossing the ticket strip with a Sizzix Tim Holtz (TH) embossing folder. I used a rolling pin instead of dragging out my big shot..

After I embossed the strip I then used my TH blending tool to ink it. 

I really like how it all came together..and vintage is my most favorite style! 

The second one was a little harder for me to embellish. I knew I wanted to use my new brayer and do some pinkish colors. I started out by using my brayer to paint each ticket. It was a lot of fun!! I found 5 brayers for $1.00 at a rummage sale and I've been waiting to use them ever since! I just painted (with acrylic paints) the colors onto the brayer and then rolled right over the ticket. 

I stamped "soard" onto grey cardstock and then banner cut each word. I sprayed little white flowers with grey mist. I punched flowers out of sheet music and inked them. I had little mini white tags I inked grey  and wrote "free" thinking that the saying would kind of read Soar free...ah-it was hard for me to embellish these ones! Lastly I used Prima brads. 

I'm so glad I got these done..and now for summer break from Swaps :] 

Happy Creating,

Melissa 

Handmade Flowers

I've always loved flowers...especially since they are so versatile. I needed to make a few different kinds for my swap at 2Peas in a Bucket. I signed up for 4 groups. White textile, black textile, white paper and neutral paper. I made the black textile flower out of felt. I picked up thin sheets of felt at the dollar store. I first cut circles out and then cut each circle in a spiral.

I rolled each spiral starting at the open end, rolling in towards the middle. I don't roll mine super tight as I want some of the layers to be loose to show more petal. 

I made the next flower out of some embroidered trim that I had in my stash. I first began by weaving my threaded needle through the straight edge of the trim. 

Then I pulled the thread tight leaving enough thread at both ends to tie the two together in the middle of the gathered trim. That make the flower. I sewed a button in the middle to complete a flower. I'm really happy with how they turned out. Now on to my paper ones! :] 

Scrappin Tricks to Use My Stash

I don't buy glittery "gold" items often (really ever) so when I wanted to do a page with gold embellishments I didn't have any to choose from. Especially letters. To make my own letters I chose yellow ones and put stickles on each letter. To dry I lightly stuck them to my stamping block. They dried pretty quickly (by the time I was ready to use them!). You just need to be careful not to bend them too much. My yellow alpha stickers had a very smooth and slightly glossy surface, so when I bent the stickers to put on my layout the stickles flaked off one letter. I reapplied the stickles when I was finished with the layout. I also covered the butterfly at the top with stickles.

For the background I didn't have exactly the right color to mists my white paper with. So, I mixed 3 colors (Tattered Angels Spicy Mustard, Mister Hueys Custard and Artso Gold) into one of Rangers mini misters. Yesss...I got the color I wanted-not too brown-not too orange!

Most of the time my paper gets bubbled or wrinkled from the alcohol inks or mists I spray on it with. To help reduce this I use washi tape and tape it very tightly to a piece of chip board. You can use any flexible surface that's small enough for you to hold. I then bend it, spray it and lastly blow dry it (with my hair dryer). Depending how much you saturate it, it shouldn't bubble too much.

I used strips of scraps from my stash and some AC Glitter Strips. I turned my photos black and white and made them smaller in Monkey Pic (awesome free photo editing site). Hope this inspires you to use your stash in a different way too!

Happy Creating,

Melissa