DIY Valentine Button Heart Card

Wanna make a super cute handmade card for your love for Valentine's Day? Good, cause that's what I'm teaching today. Grab your supplies (card stock or blank card, pencil, glue and an assortment of buttons in hues of red and pink)

Step One: Trim and fold your card stock down to the size you want. If you're using a blank card, you're all set.

Step Two: Using a pencil, very lightly draw a heart outline.

Step Three: Arrange the buttons along the heart line. I like to do this to see how many I'll need and I'm also able to rearrange them if I don't like the placement. Or you can just wing it for that I'm-an-artist-and-I-don't-care look. (No judgement here)

Step Four: Glue all the buttons down. Let dry overnight.

Step Five: Uh, you're done dude!

Happy Crafting!

DIY Ceramic Tile

*Please know that I am apologizing ahead of time for the photos. I didn't realize how dark they were until after I had finished taking them. Doh!*

It's really quite easy and very inexpensive to make these cute little ceramic tiles. You can use them as a coaster or even a trivet.

Here's what you'll need for supplies:

Card stock or paper

White ceramic tiles (4.25x4.25)*

Mod Podge

Resin or clear acrylic sealer

Stickers or ephemera

*(I purchased mine at Lowes for $0.19 each)

Tools:

Paper trimmer

Paint brush

Sponge Brush

And now for the fun part!

Step One: Wash off all of your tiles and dry well. They may not look dirty but you still want a nice clean surface for the paper to stick to.

Step Two: Cut your paper to fit the tile. I cut mine at 4 1/8".

Step Three: Using your paint brush, paint a very thin layer of Mod Podge onto the tile. I like to get mine so it's barely wet. From past trial and error episodes I've noticed if you use too much the paper will absorb too much of the glue and you wind up with bubbles under it. Not too pretty!

Step Four: Carefully align your paper on the tile, making sure to press down on the edges to ensure a proper seal. Let dry - usually takes a few minutes.

Step Five: Continue adding thin layers of Mod Podge to the paper, letting it dry after each layer. I usually add 3-4 coats before I start to add my stickers.

*Make sure you coat the entire piece of paper and over lap some onto the tile. The reason for the heavy coverage is so that when you add your resin or acrylic sealer on top, it wont seep through and discolor your paper. (Again, I learned this by trial and error. Mostly error.)

Step Six: If you haven't already figured out how you would like to arrange your stickers and whatnot, you can do so at this time. Or even as your glue is drying. If you plan on layering things, like I have done pay close attention to make sure everything will fit and look nice once it's on the tile. I usually take a blank tile and arrange everything to see how it will look.

Step Seven: Add your embellishments. Stickers, die-cuts, whatever. Mod Podge them down and add a thin layer on top as well. Let dry and add multiple coats to the whole thing as well. (Just like we did with the paper)

I like to add one element at a time and make sure it is stuck down well and has a few coats over it before I add the next, especially if I plan on overlapping things.

If you've never used Mod Podge before, it dries clear. I promise.

Here are my two Mod Podged coasters. They are just waiting on resin.

As you can see around the embellishments, the Mod Podge isn't quite dry and still has a milky appearance.

Step Eight: I usually let my tiles sit overnight before I seal them with resin or sealer. When I made all of the coasters for Christmas gifts, I ended up using the acrylic sealer but I don't think I will use it in the future. It smelled horrible and gave me a headache while I was using it. And days later it still threatened to asphyxiate the gift recipients. Not cool. Good thing we all work in the ER ;) Anywho, protect your area with newspaper, wax paper, etc. If you're going to use the spray sealer, follow the directions on the can. It will take several coats! If you plan on using the resin, mix according to the directions and use the sponge brush to coat the tile.

Step Nine: Let dry overnight and you're good to go!

You can also buy those small felt stickers to put on the bottom of the tile so they don't scratch or mark up your furniture, although I had no issues with mine.

Happy Crafting!

I will be posting the final end result pictures on tomorrows DIY post.

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment!

Also, don't forget that I'll be giving these two coasters away at the end of the month.

Click here to see the contest.

DIY Week! And Giveaways!!!

I'll be heading home for a visit next week and while I'm gone I will be scheduling a series of DIY crafts for you to enjoy. I'll be showing you how to make the following items:

♥ Custom Ceramic Tile Coaster ♥

♥ Button Heart Card ♥

♥ Felted Soap ♥

♥ Paper Bag Mini Scrapbook ♥

♥ Set of 3 Glitter Robot Magnets ♥

And the best part about DIY week is the GIVEAWAYS!!!

To enter the contest, leave a comment here or on any of the DIY posts next week listing some project you would like explained step by step. This year I think I'd like to feature a DIY project once or twice a month and I need some ideas!

Follow our blog, Tweet or blog this giveaway for an extra entry.

There will be 5 winners! (One for each of the items listed above)

I will be drawing names January 31st, along with the winners of the soap giveaway.

Stay tuned and good luck!

Update: Custom Ceramic Tile Coasters

As promised, better photos of the tiles. They still need a coat of resin and some felt on the back but I love them already. Super, super easy. Super inexpensive.

Custom Ceramic Tile Coasters

First and foremost, I apologize for this photo. I took it with my phone. It's 02:30 and since there is no sun out, it'll have to do. (I'll take some better ones tomorrow.) The colors are super vivid and pop out at you.

I've been trying to think of something inexpensive to make the girls at work for Christmas. This is only one item that will be going into the gift bags I will be making.

Super, super easy. I went to Lowes the other day and purchased some 4.25" white ceramic tiles. I was looking for unglazed ones but couldn't find any. Tonight I cut 4" square pieces of cardstock and paper and Mod Podged them onto each tile. I used a very thin layer since I didn't want the paper to warp. I then glued down some letters that I had from one of my scrap pads. So far I added 2 additional coats of Mod Podge on top but tomorrow I'll probably add another 2-3 layers. Once that is all dry I'll paint a thin coat of resin all over the top to seal it.

These would work great for any type of gift (holidays, birthdays, etc.) I have a habit of keeping my movie ticket stubs so I think I'll end up making a set with those.

Happy crafting! :)

Fridge Flair Magnets Tutorial: Step Two - Put It Together

So as you can see I've set everything out on a paper towel. On top of an old cookie sheet. It just makes clean-up easier. One thing to know about resin if you've never worked with it: if you don't clean it up before it hardens, it's there for good.

Today I'll be filling in some pendants, a bracelet and some bottle caps. I used regular floral cardstock for the inside spaces of the bracelet and pendants. I just traced the outline, cut it to fit and glued each piece in place.

I snagged some robot stickers this weekend and will be making these into magnets. I used my 1" circle punch on some old scrap cardstock and slapped a robot sticker to it. I then glued that to the inside of the cap. I also waited 24 hours for the glue to dry before I added the glitter inside the rim.

Since I didn't have a large amount of stuff to finish, I made a small batch of resin with my little plastic measuring cup. It was perfect. I try to arrange things close together that way I'm not dripping resin all over the place.

Very slowly I added a little bit of resin at a time. Remember, you can always add more. Trying to remove it is a pain in the ass and can get quite messy. When everything was filled with the resin, I moved the cookie sheet to the laundry room (since it's out of the way) and will let the resin sit overnight to cure. Tomorrow: adding the magnets!

Fridge Flair Magnets Tutorial: Step One - Gather Your Goods

It's tutorial time! Part One anyways.

Gather your goods.

The following is a list of things you will need to make bottle cap magnets like you see above.

Bottle caps. Duh. I get mine from local restaurants. Just go up to the bar and ask for a bag. Most places will gladly hand them over as they just throw them out anyways.

Oh yeah, make sure you wash and dry them when you get them home.

Unless you're going for the whole beer scented magnet thing.

I use Easy Cast for my resin. By all means, if you find one you like better please use that. I find the Easy Cast is well, easy to use. Just pour equal amounts of both the primer and hardener, mix and let set.

Love this stuff! Super strong. Kinda smelly. Amazing hold.

Initially I started off using the rolls of magnet tape and found out they don't hold very well. I switched over to the small round magnets and won't be going back anytime soon.

1" craft punch. I use this to punch out digital tiles and cardstock.

A mug. An old one preferably. I use this to mix my resin in.

Glitter glue. Comes in almost every color you can imagine. I use mine to line the inside rim of the bottle cap.

Wooden craft sticks. Great for mixing resin.

I hang on to my old medicine measuring caps to help measure out equal amounts of primer and resin. And getting the right amount is key to having your resin set correctly.

Digital tiles. Go for the 1" ones. You can find all kinds on Etsy. Just do a search for them.

Stickers. Any and all kinds. Just remember that the inside area of the bottle cap is 1" so you'll probably want to stay on the small size.

Most of the supplies I purchase at Michaels or Hobby Lobby. You can really find them just about anywhere. Also, you don't have to use exactly what I'm using. It's just a suggestion. :)

Stay tuned in this weekend and I'll be posting part two of the tutorial, Putting It All Together.

(All images via Google images.)

Stay Tuned!

I've had quite a few questions about how I make my Fridge Flair magnets so I've decided to make a step by step tutorial that will be featured some time next week!

I know a lot of crafters would scoff and say, "I'm not giving away my crafting secrets!" but I'm all for it. After all, how are you going to learn if no one is willing to teach you?

I'll be doing 2 different types (cardstock with stickers and photo tiles with glitter)

They're super easy to make and also very low in cost. I think the most expensive thing would be the magnets. Trust me, you want to invest in some good ones. But more on that later :)

So if you'd like to follow along, stay tuned!

A Work in Progress

First and foremost, let me apologize for the photos. I took them late last night and the light was obviously less than perfect. With that being said, on with the show.

I checked out the March/April issue of Creating Keepsakes from my local library. I hate to say it but out of every issue, I usually only find one or two layouts that I end up liking. Most of the others just aren't me. I found My Other Passion on page 81 created by Jen Jockisch and immediately wanted to try it. It's bright, it's colorful and it's about one of my passions as well... books! Jen's layout was done in 12x12 but I decided to do mine in 8.5x11.

It all started with some 1" round punches of various colored cardstock and paper.

Jen's background is solid white and I wanted to incorporate books into mine. I opened Word and using the CK Alis Hand font, I added books I've read until I filled the page. I then printed it out on bright white cardstock.

I know I've read a lot of books but I didn't realize how much once I started listing them. This page is about a quarter of the amount of books I've read. Or ones that I have listed on Goodreads.

Once the cardstock was printed I trimmed about 1/4" off each side and about 1/2" off the top and bottom and I also rounded each corner. I decided to use black textured cardstock as my background and cut that down to 8.5x11. I then glued my text page onto my background.

I played around with the positioning of the circles until they all seemed to fit. I then took a photo so I could remember where each one went once I started gluing them down.

Jen had her circles all down the left hand side. I tried this at first and wasn't pleased with the way it looked. (I'm also using smaller circles than she did.) So in the end I decided on a cluster in the bottom left hand corner. It frees up some more space for me to use.

I'm still waiting on a Cricut. Maybe I'll get one for my birthday next month. The only thing I would really like it for is to do letters. Anyways, since I am Circutless I found some stickers that have been kicking around for a while. The were all different colors so I grabbed my trusty old black Sharpie and went to town. These ended up in the top left hand corner.

And so we have our finished-for-now product. This last photo looks so much better than the others. I took it outside this morning in natural light. I still have to take a photo of some of my books and I'll add some journaling as well.

I'll keep you guys posted.

Happy Hump Day!