etchall and StencilGirl Blog Hop

Hey y'all - we have a great hop going on right now with etchall® and StencilGirl. I had such a great time with this project. I am always in need of a cute plate to give cookies away on. Since I tend to give plates away to the same people all the time, I am forever looking for something fresh and new to use.

 It's blog hop time and this month etchall Design Team Ambassadors and DCC members have teamed with the StencilGirl Design Team for a product match made in heaven.  For 3 days, etchall DT Ambassadors will be sharing how to etch designs with stencils, and StencilGirl DT members have found a new way to share stencil designs!  Join us over the next 3 days for endless inspiration...

For my project I picked up some inexpensive plates at the local discount store. St. Pat's day is coming up so green was perfect. I don't want to cause any heart palpitations but, yes, I cut my stencil to fit my project. 

I used the new etchall® Stencil Spray for this project. You can reposition and re-use the stencil once the adhesive is tacky. I used an old box to contain the spray - because I am seriously crazy with spray glue. Really. A box contains all the mess and I can just toss it out when I am done! Spray an even coat on the back of your stencil and then allow to sit until the adhesive is tacky but no longer wet.

I positioned the stencil and then used masking tape to cover all the areas I did not want to etch. I pretty much covered the entire plate with tape!! Once that was done I very carefully used a small cup and added the dip n' etch to the plate to just cover the stencil. Let set for 15 minutes and then pour the liquid back into the jar. Rinse carefully and blot dry with a paper towel - do NOT remove the stencil yet!

I used gold Rub N buff to add the color to the etched area, then removed the stencil. I totally did NOT take a photo of this step for some reason!

That's it! Your plate will now look like a brand new designer item.

Did I mention there was a give away! There sure is y'all. Read on to find out how to enter.

GIVEAWAY
One lucky winner will receive an etchall® Glass Etching Bee-ginner Kit,
reposition/reuse stencil spray
AND a $25 Gift Certificate to StencilGirl Products!
Enter to win by leaving a comment below.
Then be sure to visit the other blogs in the hop and comment to win.
The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to WIN!
One winner will be chosen at random from all blog comments!
(One comment per blog please.)

You have until Tuesday, March 20th at 11:59PM Central Time to leave your comments.
Winner will be announced on
StencilGirl's Facebook page and etchall’s Facebook page on Wednesday, March 21.

To see all the great projects click on the links below. 

March 14
Mary Beth Shaw
Gwen Lafleur
Mary C. Nasser
Debi Adams
Tina Walker
Cindi McGee
Nadine Carlier
Joe Rotella

March 15
Belen Sotelo
Cindy Gilstrap
Kiala Givehand
Janet Joehlin
Anita Scroggins
Erin Reed
Candy Rosenberg
Susie Bentz

 

We have some amazing  projects to share so be sure to check them all out. 

Be sure to take advantage of the great discount from etchall® to stock up!

Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Cookie Exchange

Who is ready for some COOKIES!!!! I love cookies, and I love to bake and give them away at Christmas time. I am so happy to be a part of this great group of folks for the 2015 Christmas Cookie Exchange hosted by The Everyday Home - read on for some great recipes and yummy goodness!

This is my all time favorite Christmas cookie recipe. It is loved everywhere I take it and it is always the first cookie gone from the tray!

Scandinavian Almond Bars

• 1/2 C butter (no substitute)
• 1 C Sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• 1 3/4 C all purpose flour (I like King Authur)
• 1/2 C seedless Raspberry Jam (Dickinson is my fave)
• 1/2 C sliced almonds
• 1 C powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla (home made is best!)
• 2-3 TBSP heavy whipping cream

1.  Beat butter for 30 seconds on medium speed in electric mixer. Add Sugar, baking powder and salt; beat til just combined. Add in egg and almond extract until blended. Add flour in all at once. 
2. Divide the dough into four equal portions. Shape each into a log 13" long and transfer to parchment lined baking sheets, two to a sheet, 4 to 5" apart. Flatten each log slightly so they are about 2" wide.
3. Bake at 325 for 12-14 minutes or until edges are firm. They should not be brown! Cool on sheets two minutes, then transfer the parchment to wire racks to cool. 
4. Spread 2 TBSP raspberry jam down the center of each cookie strip and sprinkle with almonds. 
5. Mix powdered sugar, vanilla, and enough heavy cream to make a glaze. Drizzle over the bars. Cut bars into 1" wide strips. 

These bars go onto every cookie tray I send out at Christmas.

An InLinkz Link-up

See you at the CHA Mega Show Blog Hop

A fabulous group of CHA Members got together to bring you this blog hop AND you have a chance to win over $600!  Many thanks to the amazing Lisa Fulmer for organizing this hop. I know a lot of time and effort went into the organization so kudos to her!

I am super excited to go to CHA again this year because,,,,, on top of all the other amazing things I get to do while I am there, I will also be doing a Make N Take at Eileen Hull's Booth, which is in a secret location ( so mum's the word!) details will be coming soon! 

 For the hop I am working with some BRAND SPANKIN' NEW items from Deflecto Craft. You are going to love these new product, I promise!! 

I received the Rotating Organizer and these amazing Interlocking Storage Organizers. You are going to love how flexible these pieces are!!

This piece has six large bins and it holds a ton of supplies! The tops snap on and off for easy access. The best thing of all - it ROTATES! Just spin it around to reach the bin you need.

I filled mine with odds and ends supplies that I can keep handy on my desk. That way I can pull them out quickly to use on a project. I also dressed up each piece with washi tape to add a little pizzazz to it :)

These great containers will stack together for easy travel, or you can store them apart in your studio if you want. Each piece has a top and a bottom that can be removed to make different storage combinations.

They are a pretty good size too, I put six rolls of twine in the one on the left, with room to spare.

You can also use them together as one big container! How amazing is that?? These are my Tombow pens and I have been looking for a great way to tote them around with me!

As you can see, they are uber flexible storage! For this combo I used two together, then the third one by itself. Just a note- they are the PERFECT size for holding bottles of Stickles.

Make sure you visit the CHA BLOG for all the details and a complete list of participants over the next week. 

Did I mention there was a FABULOUS PRIZE???

CASH onyone???

Well, gift card, but you get the drift.

Their are just three entry options to win our $600+ Visa gift card:

1. Leave a comment on my blog (mandatory) answering the question - "What is your favorite "can't live without" craft supply or tool?"
   
2. Tweet about the giveaway  (tweet text includes #CHAshow hashtag; can tweet daily for extra entries)
   
3. Answer a multiple-choice poll about how often you "cre8time" for crafting  (double entry value)

Anyone and everyone in the US and abroad is eligible to enter, even you and your team. CHA staff are the only folks who are not eligible.

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DIY Handmade Christmas Ornament

This is one of my all time favorite ornaments. I love how this came out! It was so much fun to make too. I taught a class on this and everyone loved it.

I used etchmask® stencil material to cut my stencil. I used my Cameo machine for this. Have you seen the new Cameo 4 machines? OMGoodness y'all they are amazing!! You can check them out here. If you are in the market for a new cutting machine I can't recommend the Cameo 4 enough. 

Etchmask cuts beautifully in my Cameo! Once it is cut I like to trace around the cut design with a marker so I can see where I am placing it. Then I apply my etchmask Transfer Sheet to the top, remove the paper backing and apply to my surface.

After removing (weeding) the etchmask where I want to actually etch, I applied my etchall® etching creme and waited 15 minutes. (When I am working with small ornaments I like to keep a paper towel under them to keep them from getting scratched as I work.)

After 15 minutes remove the etching creme back into the jar to use again (you did know that etchall® etching creme is reusable, didn't you) and rinse the ornament. Since I was going to color my etched design I was very careful to not lift the edges of the etchmask as I was rinsing.

Since the surface has been etched, it now has some "grab" to it and will take color! I used Brilliance Cosmic Copper which has a little mica powder in it for some shimmer. 
NOTE: This does take a fair amount of time to dry! I waited a bit and then used my heat gun on it to finish it off.

I used my white Signo pen to add some accents to the colored design, then set the whole thing aside for a couple of hours to let it dry before removing the etchmask.

Of course, it wouldn't be Christmas without some ribbon so I added a nice big bow to the top, some Maya Road snowflakes, some rhinestones to the design, and of course some glitter. Gotta have glitter!

By leaving the etchmask® on while I inked the design, I got a nice dark border around the etched space- this would not happen had I removed the etchmask and then inked.

Be sure to check out all the amazing products that etchall® offers.

Jewelry Making with ETI - Environmental Technologies

Designer Crafts Connection and ETI are having a blog hop and there is a fabulous prize up for grabs, be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom of the post to get all the information on how to win the prize.

We are definitely hopping this month. This is the first of TWO hops for Designer Crafts Connection Members. We hope our projects will inspire you to try something new too AND there's a giveaway to get you started.  All you have to do to enter, is to comment on the blogs.  Each time you comment will increase your chance to win. You can hop thru the DCC webring via the blue DCC logo in each blog sidebar...  If you get lost, head back over to the Designer Crafts Connection Blog page and start over :)



For my project I chose to work with the Jewelry Resin and Jewelry Clay. I have been hoarding saving a couple of pendants for several years now and this was just the project to use them on!

I picked up these Spellbinders bezels a looonnnggg time ago, seriously they have been hanging out in my drawer for a long time.

I started by mixing equal amounts of each part of the jewelry clay together, then I colored half of the mixture a teal blue.

 For this piece, I filled the center with the Jewelry Clay and presses a vintage button into the center. While the clay was still wet I pressed micro glitter all around the clay to color it.

For this piece I used the colored clay, filled the center and then pressed a metal jewelry charm into the center. I covered the wet clay with Fairy Dust Glitter to make it sparkle.

For the last piece I covered the bottom with tiny wooden stars from Um Wow Studios, then sprinkled micro beads all around. (Don't judge me - you know you still have some of those Micro Beads in your stash too!).  Because I wanted a fair amount of dimension in this piece, I did NOT glue the stars down.

I mixed the Jewelry Resin in a 1:1 ratio and mixed according to directions, then poured it over the stars filling the entire piece.

Because the Jewelry Resin is made to de-gas itself (meaning get rid of the bubbles) I knew there would be movement in the resin as it hardened and I counted on this to move some of the stars around. As you can see, some of the stars are flat on the bottom, some are in the middle and some are all the way at the top! The beads dispersed themselves as well making for a very cool effect.

Now- we have a great prize up for the following along on the hop - the more comments you leave the more entries to win you will receive! And look at this great prize,,,,

Seriously, who would not want to win this???  Use the Rafflecopter link below to enter on each blog. Happy hopping and good luck!!


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Cool 2 Cast Blog Hop

Hi everyone, how is your week going so far? Who believes it is November already? Are you hard at work on your Christmas projects? I have made a good start this year and I want to share one with you this today.

I was given some fabulous product to work with this week that I had not previously had the chance to work with- Cool2Cast Casting Medium. I have to say that this stuff is pretty cool!

Tiffany Windsor teamed up with Bella Crafts Quarterly to publish a new eBook Cool2Cast and to celebrate we are having a book review blog hop! Yippee! To see all the details on the book, and find all the wonderful people participating in the blog hop check out Cool2Create here.

I had a pretty good time playing with the medium and I pulled some things from my stash to use as my mold. Who remembers those super cool things we all had to have (but never used) from Ranger that went with the glass slides from like 10 years ago???

These thing,, remember these things? And I bought every single kind they made, because they were so unbelievably cool and I was going to use them in so many ways. Yeah, right. Still UN-opened packages in the box of "stuff" on the shelf.
Don't judge- you know you bought some too.

Anyway, I thought these would be amazing molds.

I was right, so my purchase was not a waste after all (which is exactly what I am going to tell the hubs tomorrow). The Cool2Cast medium poured right in and set beautifully. Because these little things are pretty flexible, they popped right out.

I pulled out a mini canvas and some Gelatos® while I was waiting on the molds to set up. When they were completely dry, I inked one with Adirondack ink as recommended, stamped on top with StazOn, then gave it a spritz of Heidi Swapp Gold Color Shine- because that stuff is like Ranch dressing and everything is better with a little bit on it.
I added a little bit of paper from the new Bo Bunny Candy Cane Lane line, and some embellies from my Christmas bucket. DONE!

I hope you give this medium a try- because it is awesome! I can't wait to play with it again. Be sure to hop on over to Cool2Create to play along with the blog hop- there is an amazing prize up for grabs!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!
Anita

Home Decor Challenge- Kunin Felt, Beacon Adhesives, and Buttons Galore and More

Kunin Felt, Beacon Adhesives and Buttons Galore & More are pleased to sponsor the DCC's September blog hop. Twenty DCC members will be able to participate. Each designer will receive a shipment with a unique variety of felt products and buttons, plus a separate shipment of Fabri-Tac Glue.Kunin has a new line of premium 8oz felt, Ecofi-Plus, along with other prints, patterns and embossed felt fabrics...and BGM buttons and Fabri-Tac are the perfect partners! 

There are prizes to be won, so be sure to check out the info at the bottom of the post!

Our theme was Home Decor Projects and I made a wall hanging for a spare bedroom we are

in the process of redecorating.

I used a bare wood frame from Michael's and painted it using the trim color of the room.

I used Glitter Felt and Classic Felt from Kunin Felt for the center of the frame. I sewed the pieces together and mounted them on a piece of foam core. I used Fabri-Tac from Beacon Adhesives to secure the foam core to the back of the frame. I added some random doodling around the edge of the frame using paint pens and markers.

 To make these flowers, I used white Glitter Felt from Kunin and then gave it a spritz with some Chalkboard ink. These flowers SERIOUSLY look way better in person than they do in this photo. I must have taken 20 pics and could not get one that looked great :( 

Anyway, as anyone who knows me is aware- I have some very real button issues. I have drawers, and bins, and bottles of buttons. I really LOVE buttons.  So I used copper wire and shiny black buttons to complete my flower spray here. I used Fabri-Tac to hold all this down. 

Love felt? Here is how you can reach the lovely people at Kunin Felt

Kunin
http://kuningroup.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kunin-Felt-Products/259966984033282
https://twitter.com/KuninFeltFC
http://www.pinterest.com/kuningroupgeorg/

Please stop by and say hi to my freinds at Beacon!

Beacon
http://www.beaconadhesives.com/chaven.html
https://www.facebook.com/beaconadhesives
https://twitter.com/BeaconAdhesives
http://www.pinterest.com/beaconadhesives/

You know you love buttons too- so hop over and give a shout out to Buttons Galore & More

BGM
http://buttonsgaloreandmore.net
https://www.facebook.com/buttonsgalore
https://twitter.com/ButtonsGalore
http://www.pinterest.com/buttonsgalore


a Rafflecopter giveaway


For more information check out the Designer Crafts Connection Facebook Page. The Giveaway info is at the top.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Have a great week!

Anita

Smoothfoam Blog Hop with Clearsnap!

Welcome to the Clearsnap and Smoothfoam Blog Hop! Hop along to each blog in the hop list to see inspiring ways to use Smoothfoam with Clearsnap’s ink, created by our teams of designers. Be sure to comment on each blog in the hop, then use the Rafflecopter widget at the end of this post to enter to win a prize pack of Smoothfoam and Clearsnap goodies!

If you arrived from Meihsia Liu - Simply Paper Crafts   then you are on the right track. If not you might want to go back to the beginning and start over.

 The list is at the bottom of the post!       

 

 Clearsnap graciously sent me 4 bottles of their Spritzers! I was super happy, because I had not had a chance to play with these yet. I wanted to make a wall hanging for a quote. So I started with a 12x12 x 5/8 Scrapbook Page Mount. I gave it a coat of gesso and set it aside to dry.

 Once it was petty dry, I sprayed a coat of Glacier Lake Spritzers and used a paintbrush to spread it around, just like I was painting. I wanted a fairly even coat of the ink for the background. Then I gave it a few more spritzes. 

AND THE MOST AMAZING THING HAPPENED!!!!

Do you see how it looks, seriously, like a galaxy, with the white spots?

IT DID THAT ON IT'S OWN!!!!

No kidding. The ink just kind of moved around on the gesso, and it looked like that. 

BAM- background done. 

 I am so super happy with how cool this is, the hubs will be lucky if I don't surface the living room walls with gesso and start spraying it with ink. Really.

I wanted to add a little bit of a darker color in there too, so I held the bottle 

of Moody Blue VERY close to the Smoothfoam and gave it a spritz here and there. 

This took a while to dry. I helped it along with a heat gun a little bit (held a long way from the surface, we are working with Smoothfoam after all), but in the end I had to just set it under the ceiling fan and let it dry. When it was 30 seconds from dry, I sprinkled Microfine Glitter on small sections here and there to add a little sparkle.

I used chipboard alphas for my quote and I inked them with my 

Colorbox Cat's Eye Metallic Inkpad in Silver. I accented with a Signo White Pen. 

 For my star I used a Smoothfoam 1x6x12 Sheet, traced a star on it and cut it out. I sanded it to the shape I wanted, painted with glue and covered with

Sonic Silver Velvet Glitter from Sparkle N Sprinkle. For my star trail, I applied Glossy Accents to the background and added a mix of glitter and micro beads (you know you still have some, don't judge me!). When that was dry I added a few mini brads.

To accent the corners I used chipboard pieces from Blue Fern Studios, sprayed them with more Glacier Lake and Moody Blue and accented with a white pen. 

So there you have it!

I am super happy with how this turned out. I added some seam binding around the edges to finish it off, and some ribbon at the top to hang it from. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Be sure to leave a comment at all the blogs and enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway

for a chance at the amazing prize being given away!

Here is the order for the hop in case you get lost along the way

Hop List:

Smoothfoam Blog

Clearsnap Blog

Suzanne Austin - What's in a Lousyananut

Julie McGuffee - Life in the Craft Lane

Jennifer Priest - Hydrangea Hippo

Lisa Fulmer -  Lisa Liza Lou

Meihsia Liu - Simply Paper Crafts

Anita Scroggins - The Flamingo Chronicals 

Steph Ackerman - Live Laugh Scrap

Carmen Flores Tanis -  Flores Tanis Studio

Tami Sanders - tami sanders * paper crafter 

Beth Watson - Beth Watson 

Sabrina Alery - The Honor Roll

Marilyn Gossett - Marilyn Gossett Designs

Denise Hahn - In My Blue Room

 

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