Home Made Texture Paste

Hi there friends!!  I have had a lot of requests on how I make my texture paste (aka modeling paste).  It's really quite simple and I store it in a cleaned up salsa jar!  Here is the recipe that I use:

1-1/2 Cups of baby powder

1/2 Cup of white craft paint
1/4 Cup of white craft glue

Now, here are a few tips.  Just purchase cheap baby powder, you don't need to use the name brand stuff.  You can purchase cheap white craft paint, no need to go buy the expensive stuff.  White craft glue, like white school glue will work just fine.  NOTE:  I used Aleens Tacky Glue and my paste is WAY sticky!!  I have to water it down every time I use it on a project!  Live and learn lol!!  You can adjust the consistency of the texture paste, if you want it thicker, add more baby powder, if you want it thinner, add more craft paint.

If you want your texture paste to have some "grit" to it, add a little bit of sand.  This texture paste is also easily tintable by just adding some acrylic paint.  I also like to add some of my embossing powders to it as well!  The sky is the limit!!  I have used this paste on a canvas for texture and I have also used it with my stencils and it works perfect.  It also drys well with my heat tool and will also bubble when you get the heat tool too close.  Sometimes I like that bubble effect!  The choice is yours!

Mixed Media Christmas Tree

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to all of you!  I hope that you all enjoyed this holiday season!  I am fortunate to work in an industry (education) that I get time off during the holidays, but the time always seems to go by much too quickly!  Jim and I were really excited this year because we got to have ALL the kids home with ALL the grandkids for a weekend!!  That hasn't happened in over 3 years, so that was the best Christmas present of all!!

So, in keeping with the season, I have created a mixed media Christmas tree!  The inspiration for this project did come from pinterest, but I cannot find where.  So when I do, I will be sure to give credit where credit is due.  But I will say that whenever I use an image for inspiration, my creation doesn't end up looking like what inspired me!!  That is the beauty of art!

So, from my family to yours, Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!  May all your dreams and wishes come true in 2015!!  Stay safe, be happy, and create some magic!!

Mixed Media Hearts

Hello there friends!  I know it's been a while since you all have heard from me, but I promise, I've been busy!  School starts early here in Indiana, we went back at the end of July and I have blinked my eyes and Christmas is just days away.  And no, my shopping is not done lol!!

I've had alot on my plate it seems these past few months.  So, I have been spending alot of time in my craft room.  Sometimes to craft and sometimes to just shed the crap off from the day, and that would be literally and figuratively lol!!

I do have a few pages to share with you, but I thought I would share this one with you first.  It is a representation of me.  I have a mother's heart.  I am a mother to two wonderful sons and step-mother to a beautiful daughter.  I have two beautiful grandchildren, and another on the way!  They fill this mother's heart with countless emotions.  But the love I have for them defines me.  It guides me.  It helps me to rise above and compels me to take the higher ground, even when I don't want to.  They make me a better person.

With that being said, here is my artistic representation of my "sappy" paragraph above!  I hope you enjoy it and that it inspires you to create an artistic representation of yourself!

I will make sure that all the supplies that I have used are labeled for you!  Enjoy your evening and I hope you enjoy my creation!!

Always,

Leslie

Secret Garden Vintage Tag

Hi everybody!  Today is my day to share over at She's A Sassy Lady!    Here is the creation that I shared!  I just LOVE tags, and I also love all things vintage!!  Tags are so awesome because you can use them on a page, as a gift, or just collect them for yourself!!  So, today, I just used materials from my own stash, which means this really cost me $0 to make!!

We all have that "pretty" paper that we just don't want to cut up!!  We just like to look at it!!  Lord knows I have MANY papers like that!!  So, why not make that into a tag!! My "pretty" paper is called Secret Garden 2 by Fabscraps.  I just LOVE the woman surrounded by violet flowers and vines!  I used 2 different sized tags.  The large tage is a #8 size craft tag and the smaller tag is 4 3/4 x 2 3/8.

I simply traced the shape of the larger tag on the part of the paper that didn't have an image on it, and traced the shape of the smaller tag over the image of the woman.  I also cut out the title Secret Garden from the paper as well!  Then, just adhere the paper to the tags.  I also went over my tags lightly with some Milled Lavender Distress Ink.  When I added the smaller tag on top of the larger tag, I used small pop dots to just give it a little lift. Now come my favorite part!!

I have added a small cluster of flowers to the bottom right of my tag.  It adds such a nice touch!!  You don't have to go too crazy, unless you want to!!  I used 1 larger flower with two smaller flowers and just 3 leaves.  I found some light purple tool and some pink pearls and tucked those in behind the flowers.  And I took some floral wire, wrapped it around a skinny paint brush and stuck those behind as well!!  For the top of the tag, I just took a small amount of plain lace, inked it with the Milled Lavender Distress Ink!!

And here is the finished product!!  Perfect for a vintage page!!  Or you can save it, and now that pretty paper you have been hanging onto is even prettier!!  I hope you enjoy my creation and that it inspires you!!  Have a great week my friends and keep on crafting!!

Sunflower Card

Hello!!  I know I haven't posted in a while, it's been a long few months, but I'm back!!  And I have a very special project to share with you today!  Today is my day to over at She's A Sassy Lady and this is the project I created! This card is dedicated to a dear friend of mine, Susie, who passed away in June.  Her favorite flower is the Sunflower.  Susie loved making cards and sunflowers, so what better way to honor her memory than to make a sunflower card!

I started out by stamping my sunflower on vellum using espresso dye based ink.  I then stamped my sentiment, from the CTMH Treasure Life stamp set.

I have been experimenting with blending colored pencils!  Just plain old crayola colored pencils!  I used odorless mineral spirits and a paper nib to blend the colors!  You can purchase odorless mineral spirits at Walmart for just a few dollars!

The card base is just plain brown cardstock, as is the yellow.  I cut the yellow card stock down by 1/4 in so that they would layer nicely.  The first yellow layer I put through my cuttlebug to add texture and the second yellow piece was attached to the vellum using my xyron.  That way you can't see any adhesive!!

I used some foam to pop up the top layer of the card!  I don't like to pop things up too high, just enough to bring attention to the stamped vellum!  Then, to finish this card off, I wrapped some twine around the card twice and finished it off with a bow!

I hope that you enjoyed my creation today!!  I really enjoyed making it and I know my dear friend is looking down and smiling!!  Have a great week my friends!!

Mommy's Baby Boy

Hello Everybody!!  Today I shared this layout over at She's A Sassy Lady!!  I am so grateful to be part of the DT, thank you Sheila!!  Well, last month I shared a baby girl page, so it's only fair that this month I share a baby boy page!  There is a special story behind the making of this album that I am frantically working on!  But let me show you the process before I share the story!

My goal, now that my craft space is almost complete, is to use more of what I have on hand!  When I start a page, I like to lay out the papers to see how well they play off of each other!

Then I start cutting things up!  These pages are for an 8x8 album so I was limited as to how much I could embellish!  In my humble opinion (lol) I like to mat my pictures on black cardstock because it can really make your photos pop!!  The journaling was printed on plain white printer paper, I just changed up the colors on a few words to make it cute for a baby boy layout!

I really loved this journal spot!!  If you are making a little girl layout, you can just change the font color to what ever works with the colors in your layout!  And here is the final product:

The title was cut using George on my Cricut at .75 and the flowers were from my stash!  So this layout cost me nothing to make!  Everything I used were materials that I had on hand!

This layout is part of a project that is very dear to me.  A woman that I work with didn't think that she and her husband could ever have children.  Back in about February she wasn't feeling well and had gone in to see the doctor.  Come to find out, not only was she pregnant, but she was due April 17!!  I have not seen her since she found out the wonderful news.  She has not been able to work due to health concerns.  As soon as I found out, I knew that I just had to put together this album for her.  What a miracle this has been for her! And, I am thrilled to let you know that her miracle arrived on Monday, a bit early, but healthy!!  So I better get cracking and get the rest of the album finished!!

I hope that this project inspires you to create something special!  Have a great day everybody!!

Baby Girl Layout

Hello my crafty friends! Today is my day to share over at She's a Sassy Lady!!  Today I would like to share a layout that I did when my grandaughter was born.  It's so hard for me to believe that she will be 3 years old next month!  My craft studio is currently under construction. The kids moved into their own home last weekend, and I have gained my craft studio back, but it is just not workable yet!

I really hope you enjoyed today's post!!  Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope that I have inspired you to create some beautiful pages of those special little ones in your lives!!