Mosaic Candles

Here are two candles I made!

 Aren't they pretty?

 You can see the tutorial here.

Have fun! :)

Leslie Rahye's Very Merry Steampunk Holiday BLOG HOP!

 Hi Everyone!
     Michelle here with another fun Steampunk blog hop hosted by Leslie Rahye!
The theme is Christmas! Yea!
I hope you will enjoy my tutorial, then visit the rest of the Steampunk creations.
 

 For my card, I decided to go traditional Steampunk. I trimmed some holiday paper by Prima to fit a folded card and gilded the edges with a gold leafing pen.

 Next, I cut a rectangle of some pretty green cardstock to fit inside the card. This would be the tree. I barely folded it in half, just a pinch at the top, then with a pen and ruler, drew a line from the pinched center to each corner. Thus making the perfect tree.

 I ran the tree through my Big Shot with a gears embossing folder by Couture Creations.
I used the gold leafing pen to highlight the raised gears design.

 I glued some Red and Gold dusted Dew drops from The Robins Nest 
in and around the gears.

 I edged the tree with the gold leafing pen and placed it on the card with double layers of foam tape.

I finished the card with some clocks and gears washi tape for the tree trunk.
Ta Da!
Don't you just love it? So easy right?
I hope you have a very Happy Holiday and enjoy the blog hop!


(When you are done with the hop, feel free to come back here and see some more Steampunk inspiration!)

~ Michelle

Gingerbread Bird House!

 

I turned a plain wooden birdhouse into this adorable Gingerbread creation. 

Want to see how? Come see my tutorial here!

Butterfly Card

Hi everyone! This week I am featured on The Robins Nest blog with this butterfly card tutorial. Enjoy!

Vintage Santa Charm Swap reveal!

Charms and ATC by: Michelle Frae Cummings - I provided the bracelet for the charms and a extra special "festive" birds nest pendant to all the participants.

 This is the reveal of the last charm swap for the year 2013!
The premise was to make a charm with a Vintage Santa image that can be worn on a charm bracelet and also make a matching ATC tag.
Enjoy!

Charm and ATC by: Jasmin McCraken

 

Charm and ATC by: Ashani Samuel

Charm and ATC by: Carol Hoffman

 

Charm and ATC by: Shelia Goldsberry

Charm and ATC by: Maria Soto

 

Charm and ATC by: Sarah Carlson

 

Charm and ATC by: Sue Cox

Charm and ATC by: Kathleen Leanna

 Thanks for coming by!
You can see past charm swaps here.

Festive Glittery Christmas Tags

Looking for some handmade Christmas tag inspiration?
See my post here for a great tutorial!

Holiday Decorations - Over The Door Advent Calendar

 
The theme this month for The DCC group is: Holiday Decorations.
I figured it was a good time if any to make this advent calendar. Over the years I have made and used numerous types. This year I wanted something I could use all year, and not just for Christmas.
 I wanted something I could use to count down Birthdays, the last month of School and other special events. So I came up with this idea.

Stamped Image Design Masking Technique

 

 

Today I am featured over on The Sin City Stamps blog with this tutorial. 

I hope you'll pop on over and say hi! :)

Vintage Santa Ornament

This ornament idea was inspired by all the vintage Santa ornaments I love to look at but are beyond my price range. I'm talking about those beautifully made ornaments that grace the tall Christmas trees inside upscale garden nursery shops.
I hope you will enjoy my tutorial and be inspired to make your own. :)

 Materials used for this project:

• Smoothfoam 3" ball.
• From The Robins Nest- Green Glittered Chipboard, Gold Dusted and Red Dew Drops.
• Miniature Santa image- mine is from small printed Kleenex.
• Turbo Tacky and Tombo glue.
• Silver metallic paint
• Gold glimmer spritz
• Cracker box piece.
• Tiny silver decorations and fine iridescent glitter.
• Silver craft wire, Gesso, 100 grit sandpaper, dimensional glaze,  glitter glue, tube connector from a glow bracelet, pencil, craft knife, scissors, emboss tool, melon ball scooper, paper plate, clear spray sealer, foam brush, craft mat and disposable cup.

 Begin by drawing a oval shape with a pencil onto your Smoothfoam ball.

 Cut along the line of the pencil with your craft knife. Then score the cuts as shown from line to line. Use the craft knife as a lever to 'pop' out pieces of the Smoothfoam. Once you have all your pieces out, finish carving the oval hole with your melon ball scooper. The sturdiness of Smoothfoam will not crumble while you carve.

 Next, trim your Santa image from the tissue. It will be 3 ply. Remove just one sheet of tissue paper. Leaving the Santa image with a backing. Glue your image onto the undecorated side of your cracker box packaging. (Sorry my middle image on top is reversed!) Place your Santa image inside your hollow ball for sizing, trim image as desired to fit. - I trimmed off the feet.

 Place your ball face down on the open end. Paint with gesso. Let dry. Then go over the ball lightly with the sandpaper. This will smooth out any ridges as well as prime the ball for painting.
First paint the ball with metallic silver craft paint. Let dry. Then spritz the ball with gold glimmer spray. Dab off with a paper napkin to give the antiqued burnished gold effect. Let dry before spraying one coat of clear spray sealer.

 Cut your bracelet connector to size. Twist a bit of wire as shown for the ornament top. Poke a hole with your embossing tool at the top of the Smoothfoam ball. Fill with the Tacky glue. Add a bit of glue to the top and place the plastic tube piece. Insert wire piece. 

 Place ball as shown in a disposable cup. Coat the inside of the ball with the Tacky glue. Let it start to set for a few minutes. Then add your silver decorations and iridescent glitter. Really mix in up with your finger. Give it a final dusting with your glitter. Leave in the cup while you cut 5 small trees from The Robins Nest glitter chipboard. Place trees inside the ball. The still wet glittery glue mixture will hold them in place.

 Accent your Santa with a little bit of glitter glue and then the dimensional glaze.  When this has set, add a loop of wire (as shown) to the back of the Santa with tape.

 Place your Santa inside the ball, pushing the wire (prongs) into the bottom and some into the Tacky glue.
Place a thin line of Tombo glue to the rim of the ball and carefully place The Robins Nest gold dusted dew drops.

 When the everything is dry and set, carefully place The Robins Nest red dew drops at the top and around the outside of the  ornament.

Now you have your own Vintage inspired Santa Ornament!
Isn't it pretty?

Fall Harvest Masquerade Mask

Today I am featured on The Robins Nest blog!
I hope you'll join me there for this fun "Fall Harvest Masquerade Mask" - tutorial!

Creating card backgrounds using Dry Wall Mesh Tape!

 

Here is a card I made using dry wall mesh tape and Sin City Stamps.

You can see the rest of the card and tutorial here.

:)

Mickey's Halloween Trick or Treat Party! 2013 @ Disneyland.

 Although we live in southern California, we don't have Disneyland passes like we used to. Just before ours expired, they raised the prices. :(  But we still have a Disney credit card which earned us a great discount on the annual Halloween party! Here, Dyllan and I attended the party a few days before Halloween.

Leslie Rahye's 3rd Annual Very Spooky Halloween SteamPunk Blog Hop!

 Hi Everyone!
     Welcome to another SteamPunk blog hop hosted by Leslie Rahye!
I love SteamPunk and I love Halloween so this was perfect for me!
I hope you love it too!

To make the above pendant, you will need:
A small rubber skull toy from the party store.
This came in a grab bag of spiders, snakes and other freaky things.

My...What Big Eyes You Have!

I seriously did not even know that extra large googly eyes existed until friend and fellow artist, Ken Oliver posted about them on Face Book! So the last time I was at Michaels craft store to pick up some glue, I bought these too. Cost? Less than $5.
I knew they needed to go on our front door for Halloween.
 You see, our front door it completely metal.
The part that is inside the house is like a second fridge, a place where all the school photos, postcards, special artwork and whacky magnets go.

Now, with the exception of the giant eyes, you probably already have the rest of the materials.
This project took less than 10 minutes to do.
Super-duper easy.
You just need a metal door or painted sheet metal that you can hang on your door, make the sheet metal look like a tombstone...ooh...scary!
Magnet buttons, not the sheets, those don't have enough strength to hold everything up.
E-6000 glue
Thick poster white paper or a sheet of mixed media paper like I used.
Pencil and scissors.
The photos kinda tell it all. Except when you have applied the glue and magnets to the back of the eyes, prop them so they are level to dry, or the unset glue will cause the magnets to move.


Trace you teeth as shown, then cut apart.

Add more magnets

Add eyes and teeth to your door or metal sheet.
On Halloween night, I'll replace our front door light with a black light for some extra spookiness..... :)

You are Invited to a "Vintage Santa" Charm Swap!

You are invited to a Vintage Santa Charm swap!

Premise:
Make 20 charms no larger than 1".
 You must use any vintage Santa clip art/image somewhere in your charm. - Make them all the same.
All charms must have a lobster claw attached.
I will provide charm bracelets for everyone.

Charms must also have sort of 'winter' sparkle added....German glass glitter, snow, chunky or fine glitter, rhinestones...

If you want to sign up, aim to make 20 charms.

 If you have any extra after the head count, you can use them as holiday gifts. :)

Swap items due: November 18th, 2013
Please individually wrap or place your charms in small zip lock bags along with your name and contact info.
Feel free to design a tag to go along with the theme of the swap.

-Any packages that arrive after the due date will not be included in the swap. 

(I have a short window to mail them to everyone before the Thanksgiving Holiday)

Must include money for return shipping, check, or by pay pal. .....$7 for the U.S.
If you send pre-paid postage, I will be unable to provide you with a secure tracking #..

I will be using priority mailing for all packages.

 Sign up by emailing me with your full mailing address,
name and mailing address, even if you think I already have you on file.
Including your blog or website is optional.
michellefraecummings (at) gmail (dot) com

See sign up list and past charms swaps here.

..

Rainbow Fan Tutorial

OK. I was first inspired to make this Rainbow fan on Pintrest. But their idea was to spray paint the fan blades with paint, which seemed all to permanent for me. So one day while taking the fan apart to clean all the collected dust balls off I  thought, Why Not Alcohol Pens?
I can always change it with a few swipes of nail polish remover and do something else!

 I cleaned the fan blade with pure white vinegar and let dry.

 I used multicolor pens to spread out the color palette. Made for a colorful pattern and saved me from using up my pens. Don't worry if your color squares are not perfect, you will not see this once you reassemble the fan.

 Do the rest of the colors.

 Assemble the fan.

Turn on and enjoy!

Venetian Masquerade Mask

 Today you can find me here, on The Robins Nest blog.
There you can find the tutorial for the above "Venetian Masquerade Mask" and details on their current craft making contest!

Enjoy!