"It Takes A Village" Mixed media wood blocks

 

 

 

 

 

Hi!  This is Joyce and I am excited to be part of the Susan K. Weckesser Design Team.  Mixed media and recycling is a passion of mine, so today I would like to share with you how to create your own village using the wonderful new mini-pop inks, stamps, and scrapbook paper that Susan has created. 

For this project, I used recycled children's wood building blocks.  I made mine reversible, and the roofs can be switched around also.  Another idea would be to make a holiday house on one side and "everyday" on the other.  You can use any size, shape, or combination of blocks, so get creative and have fun!

 

 

First, choose your blocks to make a little village.  Slice larger blocks in half on the bandsaw to make roofs.  

 

 



 

 

Next, tear up strips of old tissue patterns into sections approximately 1" x 3".  Using a foam brush and Decou-page, glue on tissue pieces to cover all sides of your houses and roofs.  Be sure to overlap edges a bit.  Let dry.

 

 

Take your mini-pop ink color and swipe it on all sides of your wood piece.  This covers quite easily and is bright and vibrant.  When dry, use Mystery for a vintage look by swiping the edges.  Continue with all colors until all blocks are colored.

 



 

Ink up the Celebration of Simple stamps with the mini-pop inks and stamp onto the Colorburst scrapbook paper for the roof fronts.  Cut out triangles to fit your blocks.  Adhere the pieces with the Decou-page.



 

Trace the house block shapes onto the Colorburst paper and cut to fit the blocks.  Use both sides of the paper for variety.  Glue the rectangle pieces with Decou-page onto the blocks. 

 

Drill holes 1/4" into roofs for chimneys (screws or springs) to fit.   



 



 

With the Doodle Stencil and a cosmetic sponge, pounce Decoart paint colors on house fronts and backs.  Use coordinating paint colors with the mini-pop ink colors.  Let dry.  Using the Mystery ink, go over edges of scrapbook paper. 

 

Cut out magazine words that relate to the home theme.  Distress the edges with Mystery ink.

 

Arrange metal scraps, keys, buttons, dominoes, and magazine words to your liking.  Photograph for reference.  Glue on all paper pieces and words.  Doodle around words and stenciled areas with a ultra-fine sharpie pen and a white gel pen.  Brush over all house surfaces with Decou-page.  Allow to dry.  With foam brush, cover all wood block surfaces with Decoart ultra-matte varnish.  Dry well.  Glue down all metal pieces, dominoes, keys, buttons with E6000 glue.  Also glue in the chimneys with E6000 glue, referring to photo. 



 

I hope you enjoyed this project and look forward to seeing what you've created with Susan K. Weckesser products. 

 

Joyce Shaulis     For the Susan K. Weckesser Design Team

 

Susan K. Weckesser products:

Celebration of Simple red rubber stamps http://www.unitystampco.com/

Colorburst scrapbook paper

Color Box mini-pop inks: Kiss, Cocoa, Fresh, Sky, Mystery, Ice http://www.clearsnap.com/

Doodle stencil http://susankweckesser.com/shop/page/2/

 

Other Products:

E6000 glue  http://eclecticproducts.com/

Decou-page, Decoart paints in True Red, Peacock Teal, Sour Apple, Ultra-Matte varnish  http://decoart.com/

white gel pen  http://sakuraofamerica.com/pen-gel 

 

 

 

 



Quick and Sweet Last Minute Gift

Good Morning Creative Peeps!

Today I want to share with you a quick last minute gift that you can do in under 30 minutes.

I have been saving this maple syrup bottle for months (much to the annoyance of my hubby!) because I knew I wanted to use it for something. I LOVE the lines of it and that cute little handle. :) 

With the holidays coming up, I am making 60+ little jars of my homemade salted caramel sauce for my hubby to give to his office peeps. So...I decided my little bottle needed to become a special jar of caramel sauce for somebody. 

I was lucky enough to have a total creative perfection moment...I was trying to figure out how to make the perfect circle for my bottle when I realized the center of my large Spellbinders gear by Donna Salazar was the exact same size as my bottle label AND was the perfect size for the "Good as Gold" tag from Susan's "Live in Color Tags" paper. WINNING!

After adding my label, I rolled a few flowers from Susan's Whimsical Paper line and hand cut a few leaves. I attached them to the corner with a hot glue gun. 

For my tag, I used a Spellbinders label die and Susan's paper, topped off with Susan's "Smile" Stamp from her "A little bit of Washi" stamp set from Unity. (I used Pickled Raspberry Distress Ink from Ranger.) I hung it from Canvas Corp black rope and added a little bow. 

Top it all off with a little "Golden Goddess" Glam from Tattered Angels to add some sparkle and your handmade gift is ready for whatever you want to fill it with!

Funny Note: For this pic, I filled it with a little colored water because I couldn't find my funnel to add my thick caramel sauce into the bottle! LOL. 

Want my recipe for my salted caramel sauce? Here is the base recipe I found at The Recipe Girl Blog: Salted Caramel Sauce. It is good this way, but I like to tweek all recipes...I let my sauce boil an extra few minutes because the color and flavor gets darker and it gets thicker as it sets. Plus, I like a little more salt than this recipe calls for. 

I hope you enjoyed my quick and easy project today! And trust me...make some homemade caramel sauce this Christmas...you will never go back to store bought!

XOXO,

KERI