Friday, June 29, 2012

Button Star

In honor of Independence Day next week, today I'm going to show you an easy tutorial on how to make a button star.  (I'm using the star shape and red, white, and blue buttons for the Fourth of July, but you could easily adapt this to any shape and colors.)

The first thing you want to do is sketch or print out your shape.  I used an 8x8 canvas and created a star that was slightly smaller using the Shapes Tool in Word.



The majority of this project is very kid-friendly, except for this next step.  You need to cut out your shape.  I used a ruler and x-acto knife, but you could also use fine-tip scissors.


You now are left with a star stencil.  The star shape can be used for another project; you will only need the negative space that's remaining when the shape is removed from the sheet.  Place the shape where you want you star to be on the canvas.  I ended up cutting a few inches from the bottom of my 8.5x11 sheet to allow it to lay flat on the canvas.  You may also want to tape the paper down to keep it from shifting.


Finally, the fun part!  Add buttons to fill in the star-shaped hole.  We used red, white, and blue for Independence Day and for my son's bedroom (where it will live most of the year).


For the next step, you want to make sure you have lots of adhesive!  I used several sizes of glue dots and my boys and I started adhering buttons.  We roughly went row by row, and cut away the template as we moved down the star. 


When I'm working with my boys, I'm not super fussy about everything being perfect, so the star shape ended up being slightly modified from the original template.  I'm ok with that, but if you're more of a perfectionist than me, you may want to do the outline and let your children fill in the middle.

When we were done, we used some Glossy Accents to adhere a line of baker's twine around the perimeter of the star.


And it's done!


Here it is with the super easy framed "C" we created yesterday:


We're in the process of redecorating my son's bedroom...there's a definite theme happening.  :)

I think this process would be equally adorable with a heart, or a flower, or the same star shape but in Christmas colors.  You could make a pumpkin in the fall, or an Easter egg with pastel colors...the possibilities are endless!

Have a great weekend!


Friday, June 22, 2012

My Nest

Today I'm going to take y'all on a video tour of my craft room.  We moved to our house last September, and I just got everything put away where I want it.  It's sad, I know.  So, before it gets too messy, I wanted to take a video to share where I craft.

Before you watch the video, I want to share a couple things:
  1. I say "um" WAY too many times (I'm working on it, I promise!)
  2. I talk with my hands...you'll notice the shadows in some of the angles
  3. I took this video while my three boys were watching a cartoon in my bedroom, so you may hear them in the background
  4. My cats totally hijacked a couple scenes...my scrap room is also their favorite napping place
So, without further ado, here is my scrap space.  And after watching this, you'll totally understand why I started Craft Your Nest!


Friday, June 15, 2012

Father's Day Word Art

To wrap up Father's Day week here at Craft Your Nest, I'm going to share a canvas piece my boys and I created for my husband.  A couple weeks ago, we got him an early present - an iPhone - when his phone died.  For Father's Day, I wanted to give him something more "from the heart" as well.


To start, I had my boys brainstorm some words that they felt described my husband.  I then chose five of those words, each containing one letter from the word "daddy", to use for our canvas. 

The longest part of the process was going through my chipboard alphabets and choosing letters for the words.  My alphas are stored in a couple drawers and are completely unorganized, so this step consisted of dumping dozens of letters on the floor and sorting by font.  I don't have a picture of this step, but I'm sure you can imagine the mess.  :)

Once we got the letters chosen, we took them outside with several bottles of Mr. Huey's Color Mists.  At this point, the letters were roughly placed on the canvas - just to make sure everything would fit.



I then pulled off the letters that would spell daddy:


After putting the rest of the letters in a shallow cardboard box, my 8-year-old misted them with Mr. Huey's "Overdue".


He took his misting seriously and did a very thorough job.  :)


With the help of my six-year-old, I misted the letters in the word "daddy" with Mr. Huey's in "Heirloom Blue".


We then moved inside because I live in south Georgia and it was getting crazy hot outside.  I misted my 8x10 canvas in "Manilla" and splattered a few drops to give it a worn look.


I brought the letters back to the canvas and played around with them until I found a spacing that I liked.  Because of the size of the letters combined with the size of the canvas, I knew the letters in "daddy" wouldn't line up, but I'm ok with that.  I think the blue is bold enough that it works, but you could certainly use smaller letters or a larger canvas if you wanted the letters to align perfectly.


After adhering the letters with my trusty E-6000, I used some Diamond Glaze to accent the blue letters.


And in less than an hour (including the time spent hunting through chipboard), the canvas was complete.   My husband has to work on Father's Day, but my boys and I are going to surprise him with lunch and they'll present the canvas to him then.  I have a feeling it will go on display in his office.  :)


Are you making anything crafty for the Dad in your life?  I'd love to hear about it!

Friday, June 8, 2012

Ribbon, anyone?

For this Friday, I've got a quick and easy challenge for the Nesters.  If you're anything like me you've got an abundance of ribbon and twine and fibers.  I've got a basket full of them, and I sometimes even forget what I have (eeks!).  I've started to re-organize all my supplies so I can better see (and use) what I have, but for now, it's sometimes a bit like "Where's Waldo?" in my craft room.  :)

Today's challenge is to pull out your ribbon, or twine, or fiber, and use one or more on a layout!  It's so easy - a perfect challenge for the weekend.  :)

Here's my sample layout:



I used some herringbone ribbon and baker's twine on this layout about my boys and their "shared" clothing.

Happy crafting!

Friday, June 1, 2012

Layer Up

Happy June from Craft Your Nest!  Even though summer is in full effect here in south Georgia, today I want to talk about layers...layers of patterned paper, that is.  For the first challenge in June, I'd like to see your layouts with 4 or more layers of patterned paper!

Here's my sample:


This layout was completed using a couple Scarlet Lime kits that I had on hand and it has five layers of patterned paper, plus some border stickers and tag elements.

Here's a close-up:

Those butterflies really make me happy.  And even they're layered!  ;)

Have a great weekend!
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