Create a wish...

My wish...SPRING!
Oh spring, spring...where for art thou spring?

My little spring thing last week really didn't seem to have any effect on Mother Nature, so I'm trying again. This time, I'm making a wreath to grace the door and scare away the winter spirits.

First, I took a straw wreath and wrapped and wrapped it with this pastel variegated yarn.

Next, I took a Linnie Blooms canvas bloom and made a cut in it to the center.  I colored it with gelatos and spritzed with water so I could spread the color with my fingers.  These new spring blooms come in 2 sizes and I colored 5 of each size for this project using all shades of pinks and orange.  Some of the flowers have LOTS of color, some just a bit.  Some are more orange, some are more pink. A flowery hodge-podge!

Once dry, I dripped some  hot glue onto one section next to the slice...

and overlapped the adjacent petal to give the bloom some curved dimension.

Next, it's painting time!  I painted these ADORABLE Easter shapes and letters from Unique Laser Designs.

I "marble-ized" the solid egg and bunny by blending gelatos over the dried acrylic paint and then splattered the letters with pink paint after covering them with a few thin coats of Distress Stain Picket Fence.

I added some seed beads to the center of the blooms and then tucked the blooms in with the wood shapes, a burlap ribbon, and some twisted paper leaves (attaching all of them with hot glue).

This is my ode to spring.  Mother Nature are you listening this time?

I've added this project to the linky yarn party at bugaboominimrme, click here to join in the fun!

~Kelly

Create with purple...

It's "Favorite Things Friday" over on the Scrap It Girl blog today, and today's question is "What is your favorite color ink?"

That is such a silly question for me because any question mentioning "favorite color" is, was, and always will be 
PURPLE
I dug up this old layout from a few years ago.  It is truly me.

So, join in the conversation...
share your favorite color to work with HERE

~Kelly

Create spring...

Everyone keeps saying "spring is here".  Well, the calendar might say so, but my yard still says "frozen".  I decided I'm going to "let it go" (can you hear me singing?) and make spring things anyways. I'm playing with more goodies from Linnie Blooms and Unique Laser Designs.

I used a watercolor pencil with a wet paintbrush to flick splatters of green color onto these small triangle pennant shapes from Linnie Blooms.

I stamped chevrons (and then flicked more green watercolor) onto this bookmark canvas from Linnie Blooms.  I stapled some random scraps of green ribbon for grass.

I added some alpha stickers to the triangles and hot glued them onto a wire.  I colored these cute wood tulips from Unique Laser Designs with Copic markers and then added some Stickles for fun.

Now, I'm going to go hang this in my window and hope that Mother Nature gets the hint.

~Kelly

Create for MORE birthdays...

March is a busy month at the Starsky house.  Three birthdays, including mine.  Unique Laser Designs is a new company, and they sought out some help from the Scrap It Girl Design Team to get the word out about their new web site and plethora (I like that word) of laser cut shapes.  They sent us all some free samples to play with and we are having a fabulously creative time!

When I saw these wood shapes, I was eager to make a birthday banner that we can leave up all through the spring as we celebrate even more family birthdays.

Here are the shapes all naked.  They smelled fantastic!

I added some black Ranger acrylic paint and Tim Holtz Picket Fence Distress Stain and then splattered some apple green paint on top and lastly edged with some turquoise.  These were covered in just a couple of thin coats of paint/stain because I wanted the grain of the wood to show through.

For the 3-piece wood cupcake from Unique Laser Designs, I painted the base and frosting with an orange paint marker.  I used a Tim Holtz Sizzix rosette strip die (but didn't make a rosette) to look like the cupcake liner.  To the frosting shape, I spread some glue on top and then sprinkled white Flower Soft and seed beads. The cherry on top...a layer of ruby glitter glue.

I added some strips of birthday patterned paper and used the Tim Holtz Sizzix rosette strip die (to really make rosettes this time) as a base for each letter in BIRTHDAY (those letters are from Unique Laser Designs too).  I punched some circles and folded them over the metallic yarn I used to string all of the shapes to make this long (very long) banner seen below.

Unique Laser Designs keeps adding more and more shapes to their collection.  I have a cart started, and every time I think I am ready to complete my order she (Shilo, the owner) starts teasing us on Facebook with more shapes that are coming.  Not only are these shapes a great addition to home decor (and VERY reasonably priced), but they are really thin and perfect for scrapbook pages and cards without adding a lot of bulk to the project.  I like my scrapbook pages flat, but I wouldn't hesitate to add one of the small shapes to a page and still feel like it would slide into a page protector without difficulty. 

I have a lot more goodies to play with and I am thinking "spring"...even though it certainly doesn't feel like it here in Wisconsin.  More snow this morning...ugh!

~Kelly

Create a pocket for wishes...

I often find inspiration for my creations from music and today is one of those times. My daughter introduced me to this inspirational song from Chantal Kreviazuk called "Weight of the World". As soon as I heard it, I began to have images of this design developing in my head. 

It is a mix of patterned paper, paint, chalk, stencils, ink, watercolor pencils, lace, ribbon, metal wings, vellum, flower and swirly punches, a paper doily, sticky pearls, and washi tape.

But one of my favorite elements is this pocket. Using the Linnie Blooms Canvas Flourish Pocket, I created polka dots with a watercolor pencil. I covered the dots with Glossy Accents and let them dry. The Glossy Accents moistened the dots, but also, once dry, acted as a resist for when I inked the whole pocket with Distress Stains. I glued on some trim scraps (rik-rak, pom poms, and lace) and added a few blooms and a button.

Inside this pocket, secret wishes...wishes for dumping the weight of the world and wishes for taking off flying.

Wishing for more crafty time today? I hope your wish comes true!

~Kelly

www.kellystarsallthingscrafty.blogspot.com

Create for a birthday...

Birthdays are popping up all over this month.  Now, if only spring was popping up all over.  I created this treat jar for a co-worker and it allowed me to play with lots of supplies for lots of reasons.

First, I am the hostess for the March challenge over at Scrap It Girl.  Easy-peasy...just show us a birthday creation...card, page layout, poster, treat jar, home decor, whatever.  You could win the fun prize pack, seen HERE.

Second, I did some production packing for Bella Blvd and received a truck load of fun items.  I used patterned paper from the new Lucky Stars, Freestyle, and Molly collections, and you can spy some washi tape, alpha stickers, Family Forever Candid Cards, etc.  I mixed and matched and just wanted this to be a bright, party explosion.

Third, we are celebrating March Madness this month over at the blog for Chicagoland Scrapbooker.  We all tend to go a little "mad" over something in our craftiness.  Me--it's distressed edges.  I think roughing up the edges of paper just gives the right amount of dimension and texture.  I tend to like my page paper projects flat so they can slide into an envelope or page protector easily.  Distressing the edges gives some "pop" without anything popping and falling out and making my cards undeliverable and my albums too wonky.

So, what are you crafting while you wait for spring to show up?

~Kelly

Create one from the heart and two for fun...

I'm creating Valentines big and small with my Linnie Blooms canvas shapes today.  I have not ventured my mixed media onto canvas before, so I started with an 8"x 8" size so I wouldn't feel too overwhelmed.  I knew that I wanted my embellishments and textures (along with the quote) to be my focus, so I wanted a more subtle background.

I spritzed some Distress Stain (worn lipstick) with water and just splattered, brushed, and dripped it onto the canvas and then let it dry overnight so that the splotches and bubbles dried just as they were when wet.  I wrapped the canvas with some metallic yarn and added the sentiment with a Sharpie marker.

I used Copic markers to color the house/arrow and heart.

I stamped (with gray ink) the background of the canvas with some Close to My Heart stitched hearts, wrote my sentiment  (wherever you go-go with all your HEART), and then layered, layered, layered.  You can spy some punches, button, stamps, burlap, tulle, twine, stickers, and a bingo card. 

One Valentine present done.

When I looked at my Linnie Blooms canvas pocket one day, for some reason I saw a beak.  So this became...

THIS! (with the help of my daughter). 

 With oil pastels, she colored the pocket and I colored the wings (a Linnie Blooms canvas sunflower cut in half).  We added some eyes and some punched half circles for layered feathers and she is going to stick a small treat in here for her teacher.  WHOOOOOO wouldn't want to get this cute owl?

And one last Valentine--a silly one!  Using up patterned scraps with these painted Linnie Blooms canvas hearts and LOTS of googly eyes--inside the card it says "EYE" love you lots!

Three Valentines done  (more to do).  Whether your Valentines are layered, from the heart, cute, or silly...they are OH so special when they are hand-made.

~Kelly