Friday, August 26, 2011

Teddy Bear Baby Gift

I've still been enjoying the Bears Parts and Pieces from My Scrap Chick. I made this cute frame for a good friend's new baby. I designed the whole thing using Make the Cut...even the positioning of the bears. That really helped with scaling them to the size I liked. I'm lovin' the ease of use of the My Scrap Chick patterns as well as Make the Cut!

Friday, August 19, 2011

Shabby, Funky, Eclectic Hutch

For the past two weeks I've been revamping this hutch. It all started as we were re-purposing our office/ guest room/ homeschool room to a Mac Room. My husband collects vintage Macintosh computers. He really needed a place to be able to set the machines up and work on them. The hutch was used to store all the school supplies. Since we moved the school books to a closet upstairs, we didn't need it in that room anymore. I was ready to Craig's List it when my hubby said..."You could paint it and use it in the craft room." The thought of a project was irresistible. So I set out to transform it to something fun and funky. Here is what I started with...



DISCLAIMER!-Just to let you know, I had no idea what I was doing. I checked a few blogs and just went for it. Definitely learned some things in the process!

I found a really cute hutch online that inspired me here. I didn't have the same cute designs to work with, but liked the black and white. Many of the blogs mention that a furniture piece has great "bones." My hutch is a 1970's pressboard cabinet. Does that mean it has osteoporosis?
 Since the inside was paper covered pressboard on fixed shelves, I decided to spray paint it.
 I ripped out the ratan. Woohoo! The hardest part was deciding how to fill it in. Read on to see my solution.


  I painted a darker brown first, hoping it would show up when I sanded/distressed it. (It didn't work so well....) I tried using a foam roller. Didn't work so well either. Paint went on really thin and when I went to put another coat on, it seemed to pick up paint instead of spreading it evenly. I started using a roller with some nap and that helped a great deal!

And here's the finished product...

I filled the gap from the rattan caning with black beads.

 I used a tablecloth I found at a garage sale for a dollar, to make the valance.
 The Eiffel Tower was cut using Make the Cut. It took three sheets of Vinyl. I'm really pleased with how it turned out.


Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Teddy Bear

I have thoroughly been enjoying the "Bears Parts and Pieces" from My Scrap Chick! I've had some velvet paper sitting around waiting for the right project. It cut without any problem in the die cutter, yea! Here is a card I made for all the baby girls that are showing up right now. I sponged the edges to make them "pop" a bit. The hardest part for me is to glue the pieces together, since there are so many different options. The bottom pieces are the most difficult to get it the right spot. I'm getting better at eyeballing it though.
Wish you could feel the fuzziness through the screen. It's a subtle, but fun, extra on the bear :) I'll have to try fun flock next.

By the way...I updated my Make the Cut. The latest version (3.3.3) is awesome! I'm most excited about the single line cuts and puzzle making add on. It still works on my machine...woohoo and phew! I am looking to upgrade to the new "Zing" so I can quit worrying about it. Will wait to see how everyone likes it once it's out.