Mel Designs

Patriotic Party Favors

Here is a super simple solution to making easy party favors using materials you probably already have on hand. If you have Marvy Uchida's Extra Giga and Giga paper punches, you can make several of these in a couple of hours.

Supplies are minimal. You will need some double sided patterned paper in a patriotic theme or just combine coordinating patterns in red. whites and blues.

I used Marvy Uchida's Scalloped edged Clever Lever Extra Giga Paper punch, Giga paper punch, extra jumbo punch in flower and extra jumbo punch in scalloped circle.

Once you punch all your pieces. Roll the large pieces into cone shapes by bending the edges in as shown above. Glue edges together and slightly bend out so that you have a cone shape. On the smaller cone, layer together the scalloped circle and flower and glue it to the front of the cone. Use a vintage game piece to add a little dimension.

Finally, glue the cones together, smaller on top and add a stamped sentiment. Fill with excelsior and small wrapped candies such as peppermints.To double the fun, create a patriotic party string using the same materials.

Live Life Creatively,

 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

Stamped Memo Holder

With your favorite stamps, some wooden clothespins, a wood paint stick and some 1 1/2 wood circle shapes you can make this inexpensive organizational tool to coordinate with your home's decor. Also, perfect for gift giving, this magnetic piece can be hung on your refrigerator and is handy for holding notes, stamps, unsorted mail, etc.

First, choose your color palette. I like the combination of DecoArt's Desert Turquoise, Georgia Clay and Golden Straw. It looks stunning combined with White.

I painted the wood clothespins various colors and the paint stick and circles white, since I will be stamping the circles. I choose Hampton Arts Clear Stamps, "Circle Birds" combined with black Stazon ink.

Pages from an old book "The Campfire Girls as Detectives" from 1933 to be exact, add vintage interest with their naturally aged brownish pages.

My mom is always looking for old books on her fleaing excursions and she found this one, really beat up and the pages will literally crumble into ash in your hands but perfect for crafting! I selected phrases and cut them into small strips.

 
I used Aleenes Collage Pauge to adhere the vintage text phrases as well as the random pieces of text to the paint stick. The other adhesive you will need is Aleenes Original Tacky Glue. We will use this to glue the circles to the front of the clothespins and to glue the pins to the paint stick.

  


Noticed how a paper pieced some of the stamped images. I think it adds a little more depth to the whole thing. I also added misc embellishments including small crystals to give the whole thing a little bling.

When you line up the clips, make sure you leave enough room between so that you can clip up larger envelopes, etc. You don't want your piece to look too crowded.

And there you have it....

Live Life Creatively,

 

 

 

Floral Clay Roses Craft Stick Cuff Bracelet

A few weeks ago, I posted my version of the adorable craft stick bracelets that I have been seeing on blogs, pinterest and other sites. I loved making this buttoned up version of them so much that I decided to grab some of my other supplies and make a slightly more sophisticated cuff.

Making the wood cuff itself is simple but requires some advance planning as you need to let the bracelets dry out overnight. Here's how I did it...

Bring a pot of water to a boil on the stovetop. Place several sticks in the pot and boil for five minutes. If you are making one bracelet, you might want to boil four or even five sticks until you get the hang of forming the wood. I was a little impatient and broke several sticks before getting one formed and placed into the glass.

Let the sticks soak in the hot water for about 15 minutes. Then, carefully shape them into a cuff shape. This is the hardest part. You need to work patiently and carefully to prevent breaks and stress fractures in the wood.

Form the cuffs by placing them inside a glass. Let them dry out overnight before removing them.

To embellish my wood cuff, I created roses from cernit clay by Jacquard Products.  I used white, pinched off a quarter sized piece after conditioning it with my fingers, and rolled it into a ball.

Then, roll into into a thin string.

Use your fingers to flattern the string out and roll inward to resemble a flower, slghtly forming petals.

Do this until you have five flowers. 

I used Lumiere to paint my cuffs and flowers.

I used Metallic Olive Green for the cuff and Pearlescent Magenta for the roses.

Dry brush the roses with metallic gold. Use a strong glue like Liquid Fusion to glue the rhinestones to the center of the roses. Use the Liquid Fusion to glue the flowers to the cuff. 

And your cuff is complete,

These bracelets are really fun and easy to make.Thanks for letting me share them with you.

Live Life Creatively,