Month: September 2014

Halloween Tutu Garland Tutorial!

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Title Page Halloween Garland 2

Hi Everyone!

It’s Halloween time!! One of my favorite times to decorate.

This year, to pretty-up our fireplace I decided to make it wear a tutu!! The fireplace can’t complain like the cat does when I dress it up.

All the supplies I had laying around the house to keep costs down and reuse things I would normally throw away. I had 4 panels of sheer purple curtains from my living alone days and a bunch of black tulle that I have been keeping all these years waiting to be something.

Put them together and you have…

drum roll please 😀

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WooHooo Garland!

Halloween Fireplace Tutu Garland!

So here is what you need:

1. Twine, string, yarn or thin rope
2. Fabric (I used a sheer purple curtain and some black tulle)
3. Scissors

Step One: Prepare your fabric by cutting it into strips. To achieve the ripped effect, I cut a notch in the top of the fabric, then tore it the rest of the way. Just make sure you are tearing with the fabric, it should tear straight all the way down. If you go against the fabric it will not tear.

I made my strips different widths but stayed around one inch. The length depends on the look you are going for, I made mine approximately eight inches so they were about four inches long in the end.

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Step Two: Measure the length of your fireplace mantle, depending on what you use, you may want to double it. I used twine, so I decided to double it, then tied it off. It was now a big loop.

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Step Three: Lay out your twine.

Step Four: Start with one fabric strip. Fold it in half, and lay it under the rope with the loop above the rope line.

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Step Five: Grab the two end pieces of the fabric, fold it over the twine and back through the loop.

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Step Six: Pull the two end pieces tight.

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Step Seven: Pull down and adjust.

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Step Eight: Repeat, alternating strips if your using different colors.

It should start to look like this:

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keep going

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and going until you have the length you want and hang.

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I would tell you to resist the urge to wear it like a tutu and dance around to “This is Halloween” from the Nightmare Before Christmas…but that would be no fun and I would be a hypocrite! 😀

I love the way it turned out. It does take a bit of patience depending on how long you’re making it.

This one wound up 48 inches long and it took me about 4 episodes of Game of Thrones but I kept getting up and taking breaks.

A great distraction for kids, just plop them down in front of the tv with a bunch of cut up strips and they will probably get one made up in no time.

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Have you started decorating yet?
What is your favorite decoration?

Downloadable Halloween Tags Available at Etsy

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HI Everybody!

Warning: shameless self promotion post 😀

Just a quick FYI, I have created some fun downloadable tag sets for halloween, they are great for Tags, Cards, Flags or Bookmarks! Check them out on Etsy!

Check them out here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SugarBeetCrafts?ref=hdr_shop_menu

Halloween Tag Set 1 Preview Halloween Tag Set 2 preivew Halloween Tag Set 3 Preview

Also Available for Halloween the Bat Makeup and Pencil Bag:

ScreenHunter_344 Sep. 25 13.38

Have a wonderful week!!!

Thanks for putting up with my shameless self promotion! 😀

UpCycling an Old Frame into a Kitchen Reminder Board

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Title

Hi Everyone! Hope you are all having a great week so far.

Todays project is up-cycling an old picture frame into a Kitchen Reminder Board.

I was totally going to throw the frame away because I am borderline craft hoarder and finally talked myself into throwing something away (which is really hard for me lol), but then my boyfriend said “You’re not going to turn that into something?” ….Yes, Yes I am.. and boy am I glad I did!

I wanted something in the kitchen to just quickly jot down stuff as we ran out. I tried pen and paper but then I would lose the list then find it 3 months later behind the refrigerator. You know how it goes. 🙂

I think the frame is much happier in its new frock…and out of the landfill.

So here we go:

Materials Needed:

 Old Frame
 Acrylic Gesso
 Mod Podge
 Paper or Fabric
 Blank Background page
 White Erase Pen

Instructions:

1. Clean off your old Frame.

Old frame in need of some TLC.

Old frame in need of some TLC.

2. Cover your frame with gesso. Let Dry.

Frame 2 Frame 3

3. While waiting for the gesso to completely dry, cut out your pieces of fabric or whatever you choose to cover the frame with.

Originally, I was going to use cut out flowers from magazines, and just add small pieces of scrap fabric. But as you can see, I fell in love with the fabric and decided to use that instead. It goes more with the vintage vibe of our kitchen.

Cut out your pieces

Cut out your pieces

4. After the frame is completely dry. Add each piece of fabric or paper by applying Gesso to frame, adding fabric then apply Gesso to the top.

Frame 5
4. Repeat until it’s covered. Make sure each piece is covered with the Gesso as a sealer.

Coat and Let completely dry

Coat and Let completely dry

5. Let it dry.

6. Add blank paper to the frame as a back ground.

Frame 7

7. Add a Dry Erase pen.

Frame 8

8. Ready to use!

Frame 9

Recycling! Re-Using Paperboard as Art Canvas

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title page img

Hello Everybody!

It’s time to talk trash!

Did you know 40.4% of our garbage is paper.  40% is a whole lot… let’s talk about that in terms of pounds, well its is 71.6 million tons! And according to the EPA only about 40 million tons of paper and paperboard were are recovered for recycling.

We can all do our part

We can all do our part

Some of the recovered paper is used to make things like paperboard. Paperboard is not quite cardboard but much stronger than paper. It is what everything is packaged in.

The EPA states that “Approximately 70 percent of paperboard is used to package food and other consumer goods.”  Paperboard is everywhere and if you  really think about it, it is mostly unnecessary.  Cereal boxes yet the cereal is in a bag..inside the box? Individual sized everything? unnecessary! Too much over-packaging!

I personally, was very tired of adding to the garbage or even the recycling with all this paperboard, that in my crafting mind I could do something with.

So I decided to kill two birds with one stone, pardon the expression…I love and respect birds. 😀

I decided instead of throwing the cereal boxes and well most packaging into the recycle bin I was going to reuse it. I discovered they make wonderful art canvases, journal pages and bookmarks.  Art supplies are expensive!! I do not necessarily need the super expensive nice canvases for my art. Part of what makes my art my art is recycling and reusing what’s around me in a different way.

Recycled Beauty Art Page on Cereal Box by Brandie Bell

Recycled Beauty Art Page on Cereal Box
by Brandie Bell

Once cut down, the possibilities are endless!

They are thick enough to make stencils & stencil masks, the ink sprays and acrylic paints I used did not seep through. Create your own works of art with decoupage, paint, fabric, embellishments, it is even strong enough for those steam punk projects. Cut out Tag shapes and make your own tags.

The skinny sides make great bookmarks!

Here is how to do it the way I do:

1. Cut down the boxes right away. Easier to store and easier to start projects if the cutting is already done.

Cut up and Store paperboard

Cut up the boxes. I cut off the tops and bottoms but keep every side.

I have a nifty storage box (box my cat door came in..I liked the way it opened. I keep them in. One day I will decorate it and use it as a cover for all my projects. You can make one with a cereal box just cut down the center.

store         store 2

2. It’s best to prep your box, art work just comes out better.  But this step is really up to you. I cover the image side of the box with Gesso.

prep 1

prep 2

prep 3

Once dry you are all set to craft away!

Recycled Beauty Art Page on Cereal Box by Brandie Bell

Recycled Beauty Art Page on Cereal Box
by Brandie Bell

I hope this post gets those creative juices flowing!

How do you use recycled products in your art? I would love to know and maybe even blog about you! 😀

Free Bead Loom Pattern: Heart Bracelet

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loom bead pattern

 

Hi Everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend! If you have never tried beading on a loom, you should totally try it. It is super easy and super addicting, especially when you can create your own patterns.  I created the heart bracelet pattern a few years back when I decided to make bracelets for a few friends and family members. It’s the first pattern I ever attempted so I decided to keep it simple. I do really like how they came out.

I used the same pattern but varied the colors, some were black, red, and grey another was black, metallic blue and clear. The variations are endless.

If you are not familiar with Loom Beading here is a great tutorial by Jewelry Supply on YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ScjJsOIQP3w

Bead looms are not very expensive unless you want to get fancy. They usually range from about $9.00 and up.

Here is the bracelet:

 

loom bead heart bracelet

 

 

Making the pattern:

Each dot is a bead, fill in the holes until you’re happy with your pattern, then get beading!

Loom Bead Heart Pattern

 

Create your own! Just repeat pattern until its as long as you want. Is even an awesome bookmark.

Free heart pattern

Right click image Save Image As Save to your computer

Here is a blank sheet to play with:

Right click Save Image As Save to your computer

Right click
Save Image As
Save to your computer

Do you loom bead? How did you first get started?