Doodle Cards -- Video Tutorial

Are you looking for a quick and easy project? Look no further! In my video tutorial, I demonstrate how to make Doodle Cards using text paper, cardstock, machine stitching (optional) and the newest Shimmerz Pearlz.

Here is the doodle flower card that I complete on the video.

I hope that you enjoy my tutorial!



If you are dying to get your hands on those beautiful Pearlz, you can purchase them right here.

Here are pictures of my other cards. I'm telling you...you won't be able to stop at just one!

Happy Creating! Oh, and if you make a card, let me know. I'd love to see it.

xoxo
Bethany Kartchner

Flower Frame with Shimmerz and Petaloo

I've always loved gardening so it isn't a big surprise that I also love making flowers in my art. I purchased a metal frame from Target a few months ago because I knew that it would be gorgeous with a few flowers.

And it is...

You can see the detail in the following close-up shots.

I've created a video demonstrating how I made the flowers using Petaloo flowers and Shimmerz Spritz and Pearlz.

This technique is incredibly simple, but I'm loving the subtle results.

I hope that you enjoy it!



If you liked this video and you live in the Phoenix, AZ area, don't forget about my Technique Arsenal class on making flowers on May 22nd. It is only $35.00 and I'll show you how to make 10 different flowers (paper and fabric). It will be a fast-paced class, but it is geared toward both beginners as well as more advanced artists. (By the way, I will NOT be teaching you how to do the flowers in the video as part of the 10.)

xoxo
Bethany

Letting it Drip with Shimmerz Vibez--New Video!

I hope that you had a wonderful weekend! I am feeling so renewed and replenished that I'm on a creative roll. I can't wait to show you all the fun I've been having!

I've got a new Shimmerz video for you!

In this video, I demonstrate an easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy technique using Shimmerz Vibez. This technique is so simple (and fun!) that your 6-year-old could do it with you. And since Shimmerz is an easy clean-up and non-toxic, you won't mind sharing a little with your sweetie. (Maybe...)

Have fun!



Here are some non-moving pictures of my finished projects.

Have a great day!

xoxo
Bethany Kartchner

New Shimmerz Pearlz and Vibez Video

Today, on the Shimmerz vlog is a new video. Yeah!

In it I show you how to use Shimmerz Pearlz as a resist with Vibez. I hope that you enjoy it!



xoxo
Bethany

Splash Hearts

I've been having so much fun playing around with my new Shimmerz Vibez. I made these Splash Hearts for Valentine's day using Vibez, muslin, watercolor paper and cardstock. I'm really pleased with the way they turned out.

 

  

  

  

I made a two part video if you are interested in making a Splash Heart for your sweetie this Valentine's Day.

I hope that you enjoy it! (I apologize for the doorbell and dogs barking. Oh and the crying baby. Sometimes life happens while I'm trying to be all professional. Darn it.)

Happy Creating!

xoxo
Bethany

Heat Embossing on Tissue Paper

As promised, here is my technique video on heat embossing on tissue paper.



You can see how cool the tissue paper looks on my paper cloth. (You will find a video tutorial on how to make paper cloth here.) The tissue paper just disappears and all you see is what I embossed. I love the results!


I also have a little secret...it is called Pearlz...


Shimmerz is having a grand reveal very very soon. You won't want to miss it! I'm working on projects right now...

Happy Creating!

xoxo
Bethany

Technique Video: Paper Cloth with Shimmerz Spritz

I'm practically bouncing while I'm typing I'm so excited to tell you that my first technique video is up on the Shimmerz Ed Team blog!





If you have some time, I'd love for you to check it out and leave your comments here on things I did well... Things that perhaps I need to improve...

Tomorrow I'll post my video on how to heat emboss on tissue paper. It is the same as embossing on regular paper, but if you've never done that, perhaps my video will give you some confidence to try it out?

Later this week, I'll post the projects that I did using paper cloth along with a more in depth discussion of my process.

Happy Creating!

xoxo
Bethany

Easy Felt Food for Children

I am very proud of my very first technique video. It is on making really easy felt food. I hope that you enjoy it!



I learned tons by doing this video. For example, I am a bit long-winded (I never suspected such) and I talk a lot with my hands. A lot. There is much to be improved upon...

Fingerprint Ornaments with Shimmerz

I'm in charge of the 2-3 year old Sunday School class at church and since Christmas is right around the corner, I wanted to do an easy and inexpensive ornament craft with them.

I came up with this Christmas tree.


Each "dot" is actually a finger print. Lyssie is very proud of her handiwork (or should I say fingerwork?)


If you are interested in making this craft with your sweeties here is what you'll need.

Materials

1. One 8 1/2 x 11 inch piece of white cardstock
2. Red and Green paints (I used Shimmerz royal red and celery because they are non-toxic and so pretty!)
3. Brown paint (I used acrylic.)
4. A star of some sort. (I used a brad, but a punched star would work too. Or you could even do a yellow fingerprint for a star.)
5. Ribbon for hanging
6. Pencil, eraser, hole punch and triangle template


Directions

Prep-Work
1. Cut 1 ovals out of your cardstock. I used my Creative Memories oval cutters. This made it really easy.
2. Trace a triangle very lightly in pencil (this marks the boundaries of your fingerprint tree.)
3. Paint your brown trunk.
4. Punch a hole and thread your ribbon through the top.

With the Children
1. Paint one finger with green paint and stamp it inside the triangle. Repeat until you have the look you want. You can manually stamp the child's finger, or give them more freedom to do it themselves.
2. Paint one finger with red paint and add ornament accents.
3. Add a star (if desired)
4. Write the child's name and date on the back. Erase your pencil triangle.
5. You're done! Wasn't that easy?

I had a question on my glitter ornament tutorial here. The question was how did I put the spray adhesive nozzle into the ornament. If you look at a can of spray adhesive, it has a spray nozzle that sticks up a bit, I simply aimed the spray into the ornament by placing the nozzle right into the lip of the ornament. I promise that if you buy a can of spray adhesive and an ornament, it will make sense.

I just found out that Shimmerz is featured on the Scrapbook Trends blog! They are doing a give-away so run over there and leave a comment! I hope you win! Good luck!

Fun Uses for Scallop Paper

Nikki Sivils makes some fun square scallop paper. Instead of using it as is, however, I decided to cut out the scallops out as a strip and layer them. I love how it turned out.

I did this layout for The Scrap Review using Nikki Sivils products.


Materials: Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker papers, brad and stamps; Ranger ink; American Crafts pen and thickers; Bazzil cardstock; my own mists

Here's a close-up so you can see the dimension that I achieved simply by bending the paper up.

A close-up of my journaling. I put it around the picture block so it acts as a border too.

On Bongo, I only used one scallop strip, but I stamped a cute heart on each bump. It adds some interest in an otherwise bland area.


Materials: Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker papers and stamps; colored pencil; Ranger ink; American Crafts pen and thickers; Bazzil cardstock

Here is a close-up of my scallop.


Bongo is a special layout because it documents a book that my dad wrote for my children last December. Each day he sent a new chapter via email for us to read. The kids loved it because he personalized it for them. When he came to visit for a weekend, he brought the last chapter and read it to them. Then he gave each of them a three-legged elephant stuffie. (This elephant played a major role in the story and was named Bongo.) It was really sweet to see them all huddled around him in eager anticipation as he read.

Christmas Crafting with the Kiddos

If you are looking for a beautifully easy project to do with your children (ages 2+) I've got an idea for you.

These glittered glass ornaments are really easy, quick and gorgeous. I wish I knew how to photograph glitter better because these pics just don't do them justice.


Materials

1. Glitter in many colors. I used Martha Steward glitter that I found at Walmart. I am totally in love with Martha's glitter packs. I own every single set. Yes, every. single. one. That's how great the colors are.


I think the glitter vials are so pretty that they deserve their very own photoshoot.


You will also need...
2. Spray adhesive (I used Elmer's)
3. Clear glass ornaments (I found mine at Hobby Lobby.)
4. Various ribbons for hanging.
5. If you'd like, silver and gold snowflake stickers (I used some by Harmonie)

If you are tackling this project with wee ones, you will also need patience for a few of these...


And a broom and dust pan for a few of these...


Directions

1. Remove the metal top from the glass ornament and put it somewhere safe. So you don't lose it like we did. (ahem...) This is a job for an adult or older more careful child (8+) as it is easy to break the top while doing this.

2. Spray adhesive into the ornament. The best method for this is to place to nozzle in the ornament and spray it all around. Try to coat every surface (inside the ornament, not outside) without leaving a major puddle. This is an adult job unless you want massive sticky spots all over your workspace.

3. Dump 1 color of glitter into your ornament. Start with your lightest colored glitter. (We used up to 3 different colors in a ball. In my opinion, the best results were with 2 colors. However, flashy Zoey (my 6 y/o) would disagree.) My 8 y/o, Dani, was able to dump glitter successfully. I didn't give anyone else the option. (Did I mention that I covet my glitter?)


4. Place your thumb over the opening and shake the ornament to distribute the glitter. Everyone was able to do this step successfully as long as their thumb was big enough to cover the hole. Little Lyssie (2 y/o) had a bit of trouble because of her mini-thumb. But she still triumphed in the end.



5. Dump your second color of glitter and shake. Repeat until the entire inside of the ornament is covered in glitter.


6. When you are done, replace the cap, tie on some ribbon and enjoy the fruits of your labors!


If you have some beautiful metallic stickers, they are really impressive stuck on the outside of the ornament. These are made by Harmonie and I must say that they are absolutely exquisite. That fine detail! They are tough little buggers too. I pulled them pretty roughly by one snowflake arm without any ripping. None! I couldn't believe it. You can find the silver ones here and the gold ones here. They really add that extra oomph to this project.




I had each child make 3 ornaments for teacher gifts this year.


It was a fun project! I hope that you enjoy it too!

Happy Creating!

xoxo
Bethany

Oh Christmas Tree

I completed this Christmas tree for My Little Shoebox this month. I think that it would be a great tag or ornament on my tree, don't you?


If you'd like to make a tree like this, here is a mini tutorial.

Materials:
My Little Shoebox pattern paper
Mod Podge
White cardstock
machine and thread
buttons and black floss
ribbon

Directions
1. Trace a triangle tree shape onto a piece of lined pattern paper. Cut it out and adhere it to a sheet of white cardstock.
2. Cut out a rectangle out of brown pattern paper. Adhere it to your white cardstock for a trunk.
3. Write the words to the chorus of We Wish You a Merry Christmas using black ink.
4. Add glitter as desired.
5. Fold a piece of ribbon (about 4 inches long) in half. Glue to top of tree. Adhere a die-cut heart to top of ribbon ends. You will make a sandwich with your cardstock on the bottom, ribbon ends in middle and heart on top.
6. Cut out clouds and words and adhere.
7. Cut out the tree leaving a small border of white cardstock.
8. Sew around edges. (Or draw a black line.)
9. Adhere buttons.

All done!

I hope this has inspired you!

Did you have a good Thanksgiving? We certainly did! I took a simple approach this year and enjoyed my time so much more. I contracted out the desserts (buying some of them while my sister, Mandy, brought some.) I cut back on the amount of sides and decorated the table very simply. It was so much less stressful and so much more fun. Everyone had a great time. I think that this is probably the way to go. (At least for me.)

I'm now in complete shock that Christmas is just around the bend. I swear that Christmas comes quicker each year. Right now I'm working on finishing Quinn's stocking (only 18 months late, I might add) and working on a few gifts for little Lyssie. I'll post my projects as I finish them. Have a wonderful weekend!

Birthday Moments

It has taken me almost a year to scrap this fun day in E's life. I struggle scrapping big events for some reason. I much prefer those daily little moments. These were taken at E's 2nd birthday celebration. She was seriously the happiest girl ever. You can probably figure that out just by all the smiles...


Materials: My Little Shoebox papers, overlays, chipboard letters, lace butterflies, Sharpie pen, thread and machine


I discovered a little trick for using loads of pictures on a layout. Usually, I don't need 8 full 4x6 photos, but I want small parts of many photos. For example, E's face as she opened her gifts wasn't as flattering as her face as she blew out the candles. But, I wanted to remember what she received on her second birthday. So, I took my circle punch and punched out the part of the photo that showed her gifts and used those circles on my layout as an accent. I also punched out various circles of her face as I found all the smiles endearing. This seems to be a good way to get lots of pics onto a one page spread. I hope this helps as you try to incorporate all those beautiful pics!

Happy Creating!

xoxo
Bethany

Washing Hands

I think that every mother of a just two-year-old has spent mucho tiempo in the bathroom watching her little sweetie wash hands. Lyssie spent months washing her hands. She was the cleanest little girl on the block, I tell you. But, like all phases, this one ended before I could even blink. I'm so glad that I snapped these pics of her with her joyous hand-washing face.


My journaling.


A close-up of my flower. For some reason this picture turned out quite overexposed. I really like how it highlights the flower though.


A week or so ago, Erin asked me to do a little tutorial on my dimensional flowers. I actually learned how to do from Lucy Edson and Tricia Peever. So they aren't much of a secret and I most certainly cannot claim them as my own. However, I am more than happy to share the knowledge.

This is what you need to do.

1. Cut circles out of pattern paper. You can punch them or freehand them. I usually freehand them because I'm too lazy to get out my circle cutters. Your largest circle will be on the bottom so you can gauge how big your flower will be by that. The more circles you cut, the fuller your flower will be. For the above flower, I cut 6 circles in 3 different sizes.

2. With your scissors, working from the outside of the circle to the center, make snips. These will be your petals. You can make your cuts close together or far apart. It just depends on what kind-of flower you want. When I make my snips, I don't remove anything from the circle, I just make little cuts.

3. Spray your snipped circles with mist or water and scrunch them up individually to make them look like flowers. once they have dried, place the biggest circles on the bottom and the smallest on the top. You can hold it all together with a brad or you can just glue each layer on separately and glue beads in the center. It is all up to you!

I hope that this mini tutorial makes sense. If you need clarification, please let me know. I'd love to see your beautiful flower creations so make sure you leave me a link when you upload your projects!

Happy Creating!

xoxo
Bethany

Embossed Edges

Embossing powder isn't just for stampers anymore. You can use it to add a beautiful gilded edge on your artwork. It adds a touch of glamor to any project.

I did this technique on the following page for the My Little Shoebox booth at CHA. Do you see the silver edge on the white mat around my picture?


Here is a close-up of the silver gilding. I tore the edge so it looks rough. The white "paper" is actually the front of a box of brownie mix. I painted it with gesso to make it white. I love how it turned out.


This is what you need to do to achieve this cool effect.

1. Tear the edges of your paper or cardboard.

2. Apply Versamark ink (or any ink that will stay wet long enough for you to sprinkle on embossing powder.) Ranger Distress inks and Colorbox inks work well too.

3. Sprinkle on embossing powder. (I used Judikins silver.) When I do this, I like to place a manila file folder under my project. The fold in the middle acts as a wonderful "spout" to pour the excess back into the container.

4. Using your heat gun, melt the embossing powder. You can tell that it is melted when it gets shiny and the granules run together.

Voila! You're done! Pretty simple, n'est-ce pas?

Have a lovely Sunday!

Glittered Vase and Flower Tutorial

Alaina asked me for the directions for this project.

That she saw here.

In this awesome magazine. I seriously love all the projects in it and I highly suggest it for your inspo-library.

All of the directions can be found in the article, however, I know that it isn't always easy to get a hold of Stampington publications so, I thought that I'd give you the directions as I submitted them. Especially since Alaina wanted them for a possible wedding centerpiece. (I'm so flattered!) Planning a wedding is a major ordeal and if I can make that process just a little easier, I'm game. Good luck sweetie! Oh, and I totally want pictures when you have a chance.

Hand clean and dry an empty soap dispenser. (I used Method brand soap available at Target. By the way, it will melt in a dishwasher. I figured this out the hard way.) Spray with Elmer’s Spray Adhesive, coat with glitter. Repeat until you have the coverage you desire. If you are having problems with extra glitter falling off, push the glitter onto the dispenser while the adhesive is still wet .You can also spray the entire piece with a clear gloss. (This will dull the glitter, however.)

To make the flowers, punch out eight hearts and one small circle out of Stampington Artist Papers using Creative Memories punches. (If you are using double-sided paper, you only need 4 hearts.) To make the flower petals double-sided, adhere the wrong side of two hearts together. Repeat for the other three petals. Ink the edges using a Colorbox pad. Adhere the four double-sided hearts in a flower shape to the wrong side of the circle. Adhere a vintage button to the center top of the hearts. Take strands of floral wire and thread them through the papers and through the buttonholes leaving long tails for the flower’s stem. Twist the floral wire tails together for the stem. (One end of the wire will go up into a button hole and down into another.) Look closely at the first picture if you are confused.

A ribbon bow covers up the threaded top of the soap dispenser.

If you have any questions, please let me know and I'll be sure to answer them as soon as possible!

Writing Tutorial

I've had a few requests for a writing tutorial based on this layout.


The first thing to do is to set up the background. I started with the border. You can get the directions for that here.

Next, draw the horizontal straight lines. Use a ruler and a pencil to get your spacing. Then you can just freehand the actual line. This makes it look neat, but still like you just did it on a whim.

Then, draw the wavy lines between the horizontal lines.

If you look closely at the lettering, you will see that I mixed upper and lower case, but that each letter extends the entire space. This is the key to coolness.

Now, this is how I did the lettering.


1. I took my pencil and lightly wrote my word. Space the letters a bit farther apart than normal. This allows you to do the outlining.

2. Outline the pencil lines (see the red pen.)

3. Erase your pencil lines and voila! You've got your cool word! When you've done this awhile, you will be able to skip the pencil step and just draw outlined letters. That's when it gets really fun (and much faster!)

You can dress up your letters too. Add some stripes or dots or color them in if you'd like. The sky's the limit!

Have fun!