Altered Frame using Plaid Crackle Medium

Altered frame using Plaid Folk Art paints and crackle medium

A couple weekends ago, I had the privilege of making this altered photo frame for the birth mother of my 4-month old son, as she needed a gift to give to her mother for her birthday.  (You can read more about that story and our weekend here.)  I had been inspired by this frame by Tammy Tutterow, and got a few of my ideas from her.  I started out with a random $5 framed print from Big Lots, which was about 12" x 12" in size.  After the backing, print, and glass were removed, the frame was painted with a base coat of Pink Balloon Folk Art acrylic paint.  Once dry, a layer of Folk Art Crackle Medium was applied and left to dry overnight (it doesn't actually NEED to dry that long...it just happened to be midnight when this happened!).  The next day, I applied the final layer of Folk Art Titanium White acrylic paint, and immediately as the paint dried, the crackle effect took place - it was very cool!

A close-up of the frame so you can
see the crackle effect - the pink paint
peeks through the white

Then I put a coat of spray adhesive on the actual print from the frame (I used it as the base for my project), and laid on a piece of Warm & Natural batting that I had cut to size.  I laid the piece batting side-down on a larger piece of plain canvas, and on the back side of the print (which was a cross between cardboard and mat board), I applied Glue Ring adhesive by Glue Arts.  (Let me just say, I had never used this before - and it totally ROCKS!  It has major sticking power!!!!)  I pulled the four sides of the canvas around to the back of the print and stuck it down onto the adhesive, and it held perfectly.  Now I had a wonderful blank canvas to work with, and it had just a touch of poofiness under it due to the batting - just the look I was going for!

I had Shelia put on the Distress Inks...Victorian Velvet, Spun Sugar, and Antique Linen.  I showed her how to apply the ink, and using an ink applicator and blending tool, she applied ink all over the canvas, starting darker at the edges and getting lighter toward the center.  I also had her cover the grunge board flourish in Spun Sugar Distress Ink, followed by Spun Sugar Distress Stickles.

I took a piece of natural-colored lace, rubbed the Antique Linen Distress Ink pad over it, then spritzed the lace with water and crumpled it so the ink would disperse a bit.  I dried it with a heat gun, and adhered it to the back sides of the canvas piece using the same Glue Ring adhesive.  At this point, the canvas piece itself was ready to go into the frame; I put a bit of Craft Krazy Glue around the lip of the back side of the frame, and pressed down, then used my glue gun to go all the way around, sealing the edge between the canvas piece and the edge of the frame.  (This was a unique frame that had no pieces to hold the piece in; the print was originally stapled into the frame.)

Shelia had a nice picture of her mom, in front of an elephant, on her phone, so I had her email that to me, and I was able to print that from my computer.  I first added some Spun Sugar ink around the edges of the photo, then distressed the edges of the photo, and finally inked the edges with Walnut Stain ink.  To color the white paper doily, I rubbed the Victorian Velvet and a bit of Vintage Photo Distress Ink pads on my craft sheet, spritzed it with water, and laid the doily on top of it.  I picked it up and laid it down again, to absorb the ink colors, and once it was saturated, I dried it with my heat gun.  

I glued the doily to the canvas using Beacon Fast Finish Decoupage.  I added a glittered cardstock frame from my stash, using the same glue.  I added the grunge board flourish, adhering it with Beacon Fabri-Tac, and added the photo to the canvas with Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots.  

Next, I cut a rosette using the Tim Holtz Rosette Sizzix die, from a sheet of My Mind's Eye paper, assembled it, and inked the edges with Vintage Photo Distress ink. I topped it with a glittered cardstock die cut from My Mind's Eye, and adhered it to the canvas with my hot glue gun.  I made a flower from crinoline using the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Sizzix die, following Tammy Tutterow's tutorial here, and added a heart button to the center with hot glue.  I used the hot glue gun to adhere the flower to the canvas as well.

I finished the frame by adding an Artisan Element from Pink Paislee above the photo, which I inked a bit with Victorian Velvet and Vintage Photo Distress Inks.  It was self adhesive.  Finally, I tied a piece of light pink organdy ribbon through an Idea-ology word key, heated the ribbon with a heat gun so it would crumple a bit and will not fray, and adhered it to the canvas with my hot glue gun. 

And that's it.  The project was finished - and Shelia loved it...and more importantly, per her report, her mom loved it too.  And THAT makes ME happy!!

National Crafting Month Giveaway and Other Fun Stuff!!

Hey everyone - did you know that March is National Crafting Month?! Yes it sure is!! Not that I need a special month to do crafts...but how great is it that there's a whole month dedicated to celebrating our love for creating beautiful art?!

So anyway, I wanted to let you know about several great things going on...

First, you've gotta head on over to Craft Test Dummies and enter your name in the drawing for the awesome National Crafting Month giveaway! While Jenny and I were at CHA, we had a bunch of crafting celebrities sign an apron, and that's just one small part of the giveaway package; she's put together an awesome bundle of goodies for some lucky winner!

Second, Glue Arts is hosting a great contest you might want to check out.  It's called, "Recycle, Reuse & Repurpose," - and you KNOW by now that those are ALL things that I LOVE to do in my crafting!!







Next, I wanted to let you know that my review of the LaBlanche stamps that I used in my UTEE Tag post here is up today over on Craft Test Dummies, so you should definitely go check that out and give me some love over there!  ;)

Finally, have you heard about Stumble Upon???  I just recently learned about it, and you should DEFINITELY check it out!  I've been finding all kinds of great new blogs and posts using it, plus it helps me get more traffic on MY blog.  It's free to join, and super easy to use.  And it's SO easy to share pages with each other - I LOVE IT!  Go check it out NOW!!!  :)  (My username is CraftyFriendJen, by the way, so come find me!)

Happy Crafting!!!

Product Review: Glue Glider Pro

I love adhesives...is that weird to say?  But really, I do!  As a crafter who ventures into all areas of crafting, I constantly find myself needing varying types of adhesives, and I am always on the look-out for better quality and easier-to-use adhesives.  I just recently got to use the Glue Arts Glue Glider Pro for the first time, and I have to say - it was love at first use!  So let me tell you some of the things I love about it...

First off, it's ergonomically great for me.  I happen to have extremely weak hand and finger muscles due to neuropathy, so I often struggle with adhesives that are smaller, require lots of squeezing, or are otherwise clumsy to hold...but the Glue Glider Pro is the perfect size, and fits easily in my entire hand.  It doesn't require a lot of strength to apply the adhesive, either.  Just press down with a bit of pressure, and pull - and it leaves a nice line of adhesive.

Also, the cartridges are very easy to remove and replace - another bonus!  I hate struggling to replace cartridges or switch them out when I want to change to a different adhesive type.

To remove cartridge, simply pull straight out - no buttons to push, very easy!

To replace cartridge, simply push straight in - SIMPLE!

The cartridge you see here is the Perma-Tac cartridge.  It is 1/4" wide, and lays down permanent adhesive rectangles every 1/8".  I tried the Perma-Tac cartridge out on some basic paper-crafting, and was very happy with it's sticking power.  I found a little bit to go a long way, and loved that I didn't need to lay down a full strip of adhesive to stick a full strip of paper - I was able to lift the applicator and lay down bits here and there, and the paper still stuck very well.

But the Glue Glider Pro is far more versatile than just this one cartridge - and this is another thing I love about it!  Check out this list of the different types of cartridges available for it - and they all fit in this same holder!

List of the cartridges available for Glue Glider Pro

The extra one on the list that I was MOST excited about is this one...

Fabric Bond cartridge

That's right - a Fabric Bond cartridge!  Per the package description, this "temporarily sticks fabric together, bonds permanently when ironed."  How awesome is that?!  Plus, the back of the package lets you know how well it works on different types of materials!

Back of package shows success on varying types of material

I can definitely see me using this cartridge in my fabric-crafting endeavors, for things like making bias tape, doing applique, or temporarily holding hems in place until I can stitch - rather than pinning!

All in all, I think the Glue Glider Pro gives great bang for your buck - you can get it for just $11.97 from Consumer Crafts, and that includes the 40-foot Perma-Tac cartridge!

And, my awesome friend Jenny over at Craft Test Dummies has given the Glue Glider Pro the much-coveted and not-often-given "Craft Test Dummies Seal of Approval!"  Check out her review here.

What about you?  Have you tried the Glue Glider Pro?  What do you think about it?  I'd love to hear!