Christmas Home Decor piece with Creative Embellishments

Hello, Creative Embellishments fans! 

Are you decorating for Christmas yet? 

If so, I have a little crafting inspiration for you. 

Sandi Clarkson here sharing another fabulous Home Decor wood piece designed by CE owner Nicolle Grabowski. This is a 3/8 inch birch wood piece that I've altered for the Christmas Season. It could actually be used all year as general Word Art and either altered in your favorite colors or left bare as an accent against dark walls. 

 

Originally I had planned to go with a mint green base but wasn't happy with it. Finally I went with a teal watercolor from 13 Arts and then covered it with a clear distress glaze to seal it. I've used the same technique to alter my Poinsettia Set using red for the flower petals (bracts actually) and olive green for the stems being sure not to skip the sealing step. 

I stacked my poinsettia pieces using a couple of broken sets from last year and after adhering them to the base piece, I used yellow Stickles to create the yellow flowers in the center of the plant. Although I'm not a fan of Stickles, sometimes it provides just the right amount of pizazz. I used green for the stems and red for the poinsettia bracts. While those 3 sets were drying, I added some dry brushed white gesso over my teal paint to give it some shabby character. 

Additionally, I used some Nuovo drops for accents here and there. 

All three flower sets got some Aleene's Snow Glitter as did portions of the actual letting for a finished look. A couple of pinecones were added for just a little more wintry feel. 

Because I'm not sure if this will be used on my tree or on a wreath, I wanted to go ahead and add some ribbon for hanging in case I go that route. I thought some gold ribbon would add the most festive feel. So, I looped it through the top of the B leaving enough ribbon to make a bow and then looped it again thought the top of the second loop of the V. 

Just a few little touch-ups and my project was finished. 

I hope this inspires you to get crafty! 

Thanks for coming by! 

For those of you in the USA, I hope you have a great, safe Thanksgiving. 

Sandi

Creative Embellishments products used:

Believe Home Decor piece

Poinsettia Set

Merry Christmas Canvas ~ Rockefeller Center, 2016 ~ 13 Arts

Hello, scrappy friends! 

Sandi here with you today sharing a canvas that I created for 13 Arts group post featuring anything Christmas. 

I haven't done a canvas in a while, so thought that would be a fun project to do. The hard part was choosing a photo (Rockefeller Center, NYC, 2016) and then spending hours fussy cutting elements. 

Using modeling paste and texture powder, I created a crackle paste which I applied and the air dried for 24 hours. Next I added my Pastel Mint and Pastel Cinnamon colors along with some Pearl Gold. 

I choose a couple of papers from the 2 paper pads and distressing those and adhered those to several pieces of corrugated cardboard for height and dimension. Under that I had already adhered a fussy cut piece of the Dreamland transparency. 

I added color and Aleene's snow to my evergreen trees before including those. 

Once everything was added and glued down, I enhanced the focal area with the Sap Green mist. When that was dry, I splattered my white gesso and Old Gold Glitter. 

Love how the pine cones and stars bring a Christmas feel to my canvas. 

I hope you will drop by the 13 Arts Blog for more Christmas inspiration from the Design Team. We are posting our Christmas creations on the 18th and the 25th. 

Thanks for coming by! 

Sandi

Materials used: 

Dreamland Ephemera Pack

Dreamland Paper Pad A6

Sunrise Paper Pad, A6

Dreamland Wonder of Nature paper

Wonderland Stamp A7

Dreamland Transparency

Badge Set, 6

Art Book

Down Under mini Watercolor set

Pastel Mint Mist

Pastel Cinnamon Mist

Sap Green Chalk Mist

Gold Pearl Mist

Old Gold Glitter

Aleene's Glitter Snow

Gold Stars Self-adhesive, 56 pcs

Natural pine cones

White Gesso

Modeling Paste

Texture Powder

Gel Medium

Silicone Brush 50 mm

Splash Brush

4mm round Watercolor Brush

Family is a work of heART ~ Creative Embellishments

Hello, Creative Embellishments fans! 

Fall is in the air here in the Northern Hemisphere. 

I so love seeing the leaves change color and put on a gorgeous show! 

Sandi Clarkson here with you today sharing my newest project created for Creative Embellishments. 

This Floral Circle 2  was SO fun to alter!  

All papers and mediums are 13 Arts except for the waxes and I really put them to use replicating Fall's change of Color. 

There is some End of Summer paper behind this 8 inch round panel but I altered the chipboard prior to adhering to the paper. I was able to develop texture on my chipboard by simply adding multiple layers of the same (or different) water inks and then drying when it was still in puddles. Love how that turned out. 

And don't you love my sweet photo of grandson Jake with his family? His wife Olivia is the sweetest lady and manages all these boys with ease. 

The Family is a work of heART was misted black and then I added gold wax for some shine. I mounted in on paper and then fussy cut around the lettering so the the title would stand out more. 

Various color waxes were also applied randomly all over my round panel. That really helped in making transitional color to mimic leaves. 

 

I added a few matching ephemera pieces from the End of Summer collection and then added some florals of various color to help soften the layout. 

Some cheesecloth was tucked in a few spots to provide additional texture. 

Ah, I love, love how beautifully I was able to alter this amazing piece. 

Have you seen this month's Challenge? 

I used that as inspiration for this project but saved it to share today.

Anyway, there are some great prize opportunities. I hope you can play along this month! 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

See you next time! 

Sandi

Creative Embellishments products used: 

Floral Circle 2

Family is a work of heART

"Together" Home Decor piece ~ Creative Embellishments

Hello, Creative Embellishments fans! 

I'm excited for today's post. 

Sandi Clarkson here sharing my latest Home Decor piece for Creative Embellishments. 

These Home Decor pieces are made from 3/16" plywood and are perfect for altering or in some instances, for using bare to showcase multiple layers of decor. 

I knew right away that I wanted to order the gorgeous Large Leaf piece as soon as I spied it in the CE storefront and do something Fall-ish with it. However, when it arrived, I liked it SOOO much "as is" that I waited awhile before altering it. In the end, I knew it would be awesome once I started adding some Fall touches to it. But I most certainly will order another one simply to use "naked."  

After deciding what direction I wanted to rotate my piece, I applied a thick layer of crackle paste and allowed that to dry overnight. You will get the best crackle effects if you allow it to air dry. 

Once my crackle was dry, I began adding color using my 13 Arts water inks in olive, brown, yellow amber as well as my Woodbine mist. I painted all of it with a brush and dried each color separately but knowing that they would blend somewhat without letting them get too muddy. 

It was so hard to decide on a photo but ultimately another horse photo took the win. 

I felt the photo needed some strength to balance out the dark background. 

Tucked under my photo is a blackened Punchinella Panel. I had planned to use my Punchinella Pieces but couldn't find them quickly enough. So much for my great filing system! So I just cut away a section of the panel, painted it and tucked it under the focal area. 

I've also used a couple of pieces of the Acorn Clusters which were painted brown with olive green leaves. Then I added some waxes and some more paint to give them character. I tucked one on the upper left and one on the lower right of the photo. 

For my title piece I used the word Together from the Family Word Border Set. It was also painted black and accented with gold wax. 

Ahhh, don't you love that crackle?! 

As far as further embellishments I used some green roots, a metal key and a bow from last year's ribbon. 

Here is a close-up of the focal area. 

I finished off the piece with some splattering of gold paint and Ranger's Wild Honey. 

This Decor piece was so, so fun to create! 

The stars must have been perfectly aligned because the whole process went so easily and creating was just a dream. 

So relaxing! 

Thanks so much for coming by. 

I hope you have a chance to play along with the November Challenge! 

It's a great one. For all the details, please visit the CE Blog. 

See you next time! 

Sandi

Creative Embellishments products used: 

Large Leaf

Punchinella Panel

Acorn Clusters

Family Word Border Set

Fly High ~ 13 Arts November Challenge layout

 Hello, 13 Arts fans! 

Sandi Clarkson here with you today sharing my take on the November Challenge. 

Actually, I am the Challenge hostess for November and I created the lovely mood board which you will find a couple of photos below. You are free to draw inspiration from it in any way you like. The colors, the specific images or the general Feeling it evokes. 

Although I had planned to use the Moose image along with more Autumn colors in my project, this is the direction I ultimately went. I think the dark bottle green pairs so nicely with the coraly-pink and marries well with these sweet softball photos of our granddaughter. For a little drama, I went with two of the same image. 

Here is the Challenge image. You can find more details on the 13 Arts Blog in the right hand sidebar. 

I hope you like it. 

As always, I prepped my paper with 13 Arts Clear Gesso and did some Stencil work with both the Horoscope Stencil and the wreath part of the Unforgettable Stencil. I really like that the 13 Arts modeling paste is pure white. That way I can either color it or not and still have the lovely white dominating the project. All the Color products listed below were used on the wreath which only peeks out here and there. 

For my papers I've used the Dreamland Dried Flowers paper  and the 

Sunrise Beautiful Day paper. These two collections really play nicely together. My fussy cut ephemera is Sunrise but the Sticker are Dreamland. 

With this latest release, Aida also included some flair Badges which are so fun to include! 

My photo layers were from both collections paper pads.

I've included the circular chipboard from the Dreamland chipboard and painted them white to mimic the  bucket of softballs. 

I thought some dried grass would provide texture. It was from my stash and purchased at a big box craft store as are my 3D florals. 

My final touches were the inclusion of some Gold Microspheres and lastly, splattering of watered down white gesso. 

I hope you can find time to play along with us this month. I know November and December can get crazy busy but crafting always provides me with a calming effect.

Thanks for dropping by! 

Sandi

13 Arts products used:

Dreamland Dried Flowers paper

Dreamland Paper Pad A6

Dreamland Stickers A4

Sunrise Beautiful Day paper

Sunrise Paper Pad 6x6

Sunrise Ephemera

Dreamland Chipboard 6x6

Badge Set

Sunrise Stickers

Sunrise Ephemera pack

Gold Microspheres

Citrine Color Glow

Pistachio Green Rainbow Duo

Travel the World mini watercolor set, Ocean Tide

Mini Watercolor, Down Under

Horoscope Stencil

Unforgettable Stencil

White Gesso

Modeling Paste

Gel Medium

Silicone Brush 50 mm

Splash Brush

4mm round Watercolor Brush