Showing posts with label Tutorials. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tutorials. Show all posts
Monday, March 2, 2015

Go Green! March Linky Party, DT Challenge & Giveaway!

Hello Friends!  Welcome to the Crafty Secrets March 2015 Linky Party, DT Challenge and a great Spring Giveaway!  I think everyone is ready for a little dose of Springtime right about now, so our theme for the design team challenge this month is "GO GREEN!"  We are featuring flowers, green growing things, garden journals, St. Patrick's Day projects or Easter projects this month.  The unifying theme is GREEN.  And just to make the design team put on their thinking caps, we added in an optional challenge of using something recycled or "upcycled" in our projects.  What fun!  I've had a sneaky peek at all the wonderful projects this month, and I know you are going to be thrilled!

Sandy also has a wonderful Spring Giveaway for a lucky winner who will be announced next Monday, March 9/15. To enter just leave a comment and say what your favorites are in this gift pack.



You don't need to follow the theme this month in order to join the Linky Party, but it's always fun when you do.  We make it easy for you to join the festivities by providing you with a free download that you can use to make up your project, if you wish.  Here's the 2 free downloads for this month's party.

This beautiful paper is from our Digital Garden Paper Kit and the sweet little girl is from our Garden Girls Digital Art Stamp Set.  To download, simply click on the image and save to your computer.  We can't wait to see what you make with this month's free gift!

And what fun is a party without prizes?  This month's prize is really fantastic!  One lucky participant will win a wonderful prize pack.  One quick note about prize eligibility: You can use any product or theme you choose to join the Linky Party, but to be eligible to win the prize pack, you must use Crafty Secrets products in your entry.

Now, take a look at the fabulous prize package we have for you this month:

Our digital Garden paper pack with 18 sheets of garden themed designer papers, includes two sheets of seed packet images, vintage garden catalog sheets, a garden maze and beautiful botanical papers.





In addition, you will receive our gorgeous Digital Garden Printables  with 16 ready to print images in a re-sizeable format.   These are some of my very favorite Crafty Secrets images, and I think you will love them, too!

 
And that's not all!  To help you get ready for the Easter Bunny, we will include our darling Bunny Kids Gift Bag and Tag Set.  These would be so cute on the table at your Easter celebration.


That's a prize package that's worth more than $25, so you will definitely want to join in the fun! 

OK...now that the details are out of the way, let's get this party started and see how our design team has met this month's challenge.

We have a lovely guest designer joining us this month.  Karen Letchworth is the blog administrator over at Word Art Wednesday.  Her personal blog, My Cup Runneth Over features Karen's delightful vintage cards and projects.  You'll definitely want to check it out.  Let's meet Karen!


My name is Karen Letchworth, and I'm honored to be Guest Designing this month for Crafty Secrets.  I've been in love with Crafty Secrets for as long as I can remember, and really enjoy working with their sweet products.  I retired from a hospital administration job a few years ago; and now enjoy being a home-schooling Mom, wife of 30 years to a handsome police officer, and spending lots of time in my craft room.  I hope you will stop by my blog, My Cup Runneth Over, and that you will all be sure to play along in this month's Crafty Secrets Linky Party.  I can't wait to see all your sweet Crafty Secrets projects!

  Karen used our beautiful Friends and Flowers Vintage Cuts on the focal of her pretty card.  Visit Karen's Blog to see all the details and to get her tutorial on how to use tea stain to add the perfect vintage vibe to your projects.


As DT Leader, I did some serious upcycling by adding paint and texture to a cardboard fruit basket and filling it with decoupaged eggs.  The papers are all from the beautiful Garden Papers Kit and you can see my blog post with the details on how I put this fun project together.

Darlene Pavlick came up with the most creative upcycling project!  I just love this wonderful planter she created using our Digital Garden Papers Kit!  I'm not going to spoil the fun and tell you what she used to make this!  You'll just have to visit her wonderful blog, Dar's Crafty Creations to find out!



Diane Hover from Nellie's Nest wows us once again with this frilly, festive and fun trio of Easter Baskets she created using the  Birds and Blossoms Digital Creative Scraps with a great Image Transfer Technique and and Tutorial!  You have to check out her photos to see how the images become semi transparent and blend into the painted pots so well.


Elizabeth Lincoln has a wonderful tutorial on how she created this 12" pillow shaped gift box with this glorious collage featuring our Vegetable Garden Digital Art Stamps!  I am just swooning over the sweet little watering can and garden implements she's added.  You can learn how she pulled it all together on Elizabeth's Blog - Paper Pass Times.


Ginny Nemchak gave a Plain Jane notebook a major facelift by combining these sweet images from our Best Buds  postcard set with papers from our Retro Christmas and Vintage Typography CDs.  She'll show you how she combined all these fabby layers at her Polly's Paper Blog.


 Gloria Stengel made an accordion fold home decor/mini album using some really fun bits of "trash" that she turned into treasures.  She used papers from all our CD's along with our pretty Love Mail Scraps.  If you visit Gloria's Scraps of Life Blog she'll share her tutorial for making this gorgeous bit of home decor and links to all the products she used.

Melody Clement created this super cute Easter Basket using our Adorable Easter Eggs Digital Prints and a stamp from our Spring Chicks Digital Art Stamps.  Take a little trip over to Paper Melody's Blog for all the details.

With Saint Patrick's Day right around the corner, Michele Kovack created a stunning greeting card using an image from Seasonal Vintage Image and Journal Booklet and printable papers from the Garden Collection.  Pop over to Thoughts of a Cardmaking Scrapbooker to get all the insider information on Michele's beautiful card.


If you've always wondered where the Easter Bunny lives, well, Shantaie Fowler has the inside scoop!  She created this wonderfully whimsical bunny village using our Double Sided Papers and Spring Bunnies Digital Art Stamps.  Hop on over to Shantaie's Inking Pink Blog to learn what surprising item she used as the base for her bunny houses.




Doesn't this gorgeous bottle look as though it came straight from a Victorian lady's dressing table?  Sheila Rumney used the jeweled butterfly and some pretty roses from our CD#2 Creating With Vintage Illustrations and shows how to add script writing from the Artsy Banner set behind the roses, erase parts and create an altered label.  Check out her Photoshop tutorial at Shelia Rumney Design and Photography.

Check Out the New Lower Sale Prices! 

Sandy has slashed prices again on all warehouse stock and there are so many fabulous deals! So if your wish list has been larger than your pocketbook, now is a great time to build up your crafty stash and save some serious money!

 


Now it's YOUR turn!  Simply create a NEW project featuring CRAFTY SECRETS products and link it up below before midnight PT, Sunday, March 15th and you could be the winner of our wonderful prize package this month.   We'll be hopping by to take a look at your wonderful creations, and we just can't wait to see what you make.The prize winner will be announced here on Tuesday, March 18th...and don't be surprised if we share some of your creations on our Facebook Page or even on the blog!  Now go get your craft on and link a project using the Linky Tool below:

On behalf of Sandy Redburn, I wish you joy and creativity!

PS - Don't forget to leave a comment to be entered into our Spring Giveaway!

Cheerio, Kathy

Visit Our CraftyVintageGirl.com  Store 

Join Us on Facebook!

This Blog: http://heartwarmingvintage.blogspot.com
Our Website: http://www.craftysecrets.com
Toll Free Phone or Fax 1-888 597-8898
Local Phone 604 597-8817


Crafty Secrets Head Office
15430 78 A Ave.,
Surrey, BC V3S 8R4


USA Warehouse
250 H. Street, #436
Blaine,WA 98230

Monday, February 9, 2015

DIY Banana Art, Creative Love Ideas, Free Printables, Our $2.95 Image Booklets

Hi Everyone, I'm excited to share some fun ideas today like my 'banana art', which I saw a couple of years ago and finally tried it for the first time yesterday. It's much easier than I expected and so fun for leaving love notes and doodles. Bananas will never be safe in my house again! I have a little tutorial as well as other ideas and links for expressing love - plus a reminder you have 1 week left to enter our Feb Linky Party (with free Valentine printables for players) and Image Booklet photos.



Decide on a design you want to use in words, an image or both. Take a piece of paper and press it on a banana to get an idea of how big you can make your design, keeping in mind you can have words or a design wrap around the banana.  Print it out or freehand draw it on white paper. Cut it out and tape it securely to a banana as shown below. Tip: if you decide to freehand, you could write words or draw right on the banana - but I can't write this pretty (it was originally from a 1800's valentine) and I always thought it's what I would use if I ever got a tattoo. Instead I opted for a banana tattoo!  



Gee, mine doesn't really look that secure but I used shipping tape to tape it down and all of the design was flush with the banana skin. I used the new Cherish Digital Set which will be added to our online store by morning  and on introductory special for $7.95. The digital sizes are larger than the Clear Cherish Stamp Set.

Then use a needle or safety pin to carefully poke tiny holes through the paper all along your design. You can see some of my pin holes in the photo above. I lifted the paper away twice to check progress. The photo below was taken as soon as I removed the paper, so it doesn't take long to start oxidizing and turning brown.

As you can see below the pin holes get darker and eventually become black after a few hours. I should have taken another photo but I'm impatient and went up to my office. It took me about 15 minutes to complete the design, it was easier than I expected and now I want to play with bananas!


 I first saw the banana tattoo idea a couple of years ago on Instructables and they have a great video and did this cool Cat in the Hat which any kid would love to have in their lunch box.


I also love this Marilyn banana by Stephan Brusche but you would have to peel her 'skirt' up just before serving.


Below is my previous List of 32 Creative Ways to Say I LOVE YOU which I revised and have  adding some links.  #2 Photofunia is amazing and free! ; #5 My Banana Art Tutorial ;
#6 Post It Note Template-Tutorial#10 Apple Voice Recorder Free App#12. Iron on Transfer Tutorial  ;    #13. Love Coupons in Our Digital Valentine Kit#16 Dry Erase Love Frame Tutorial #17 Ten Reasons to Love You Free Printable#20. Vellum Candle Wrap Tutorial ;
#23 Art Magnet Tutorial  ;   #24 Love Theme Food  ;  #29 Mini Heart Album  


I'm adding this older Free Printable Valentine Wish Card here as so many of the links were no longer valid from the 2011 post. Just click it on until it gets as large as possible with the left side of your mouse and then right click on it to save to your computer. For personal use only please. 

 DT Member Darlene Pavlick designed this cool collage card for a vintage challenge using our 4 page Bird and Blossoms Digital Download. This is such a popular seller we need to create more bird printables!

DT Member Sheila Rumney made this pretty spring friendship card also using images from our Digital Birds and Blossoms 4 page Download.


DT Member Diane Hover made this fabulous set of Valentine  cards for a friend using our Digital Valentine Kit and the best part is she won't ever use up her favorite image or paper, she can make them every year!

 If you are not aware, I'm going digital and selling off all printed stock and it's all further marked down including all 9 titles of our Vintage Image and Journal Notes Booklets now $2.95 and as I had 3500 to 5000 of any title re-print at different times I have several cases of some titles and can offer great quantity discounts on cases of 144 of a single title. Duh - after all these years I finally pulled them apart and took photos of all of the 32 inside pages fanned out.








 


 
 


 Whew - finally at the end but please take time to check out our Febuary Linky Party and DT Challenge if you haven't. It runs for 1 more week, there are some fabulous projects, plus you can download free Valentine images and paper if you join in and I'm adding extra goodies to the prize pack!

Wishing you joy and creativity
Sandy Redburn

Visit Our CraftyVintageGirl.com  Store
Join Us on Facebook!


This Blog: http://heartwarmingvintage.blogspot.com
Our Website: http://www.craftysecrets.com
Toll Free Phone or Fax 1-888 597-8898
Local Phone 604 597-8817


Crafty Secrets Head Office
15430 78 A Ave.,
Surrey, BC V3S 8R4


USA Warehouse
250 H. Street, #436
Blaine,WA 98230





Monday, November 3, 2014

Welcome to Our November Linky Party, DT Christmas Challenge and New Retro Card Set

Hi Everyone and welcome to our Nov Linky Party and DT Challenge. This month our Design Team  is doing a Christmas theme and I even joined in and played, plus we have Guest DT this month Birgit Nelson joining us!  Any theme is okay if you want to join our Linky Party which runs until Mon., Nov 17/14. See details below on what you can win and also a link to our Blog Giveaway!

Please visit each of the Design Team Members Blogs to get all the details on their projects

Birgit did a wonderful tutorial on making Button Cards using our Retro Christmas CD 
and has created many samples to inspire you!

















 

 I love the chalkboard look and last year I did a tutorial on inverting some of our stamps on our Winter Wishes Digital Set. This year I played with our Christmas Express Digital Set and used a 4" x 6" piece the green chalkboard paper from our Chalkboard Paper Set - which I've made our FREE Gift this month when you place any order in our www.craftyvintagegirl.com store.   I hope you will try it out as many photo editing programs have a 'Invert' button and it's so easy to just hit your back button if you don't like anything and try again. You can see below I left 3 in black and inverted all the rest which turns them into white and I just added them to the green 'postcard back'. You can see I had to copy the border of the kids and paste it on again.



You can find the 'Invert' button under the 'Filter' Tab, and then under 'Adjustments'.





As soon as you click it on your image will invert and it can be a little hard to see the white but it will show up as soon as you place it on a darker background and then you can move it around, re-size and tilt the direction if you like.




Next, I left them in plain black on this photo from my sundeck a few years ago. This photo doesn't go in the right direction but I wanted some snow to add the snowman and girl to.


  


 Here's the sample I did last year and a longer tutorial explaining more details.



 Here is a new card set called Retro Kitchy Ad Cards  and you can enter our Blog Giveaway and see all our NEW Kitchen Kits and Digital stamp sets and just leave a comment and say which style you like best - the Retro or the old Vintage? 2 lucky random.org winners will receive the one they pick with both the Kit and Stamp Set and I will add this set of cute printable cards!

 Okay, now it's time where you can enter our Nov Linky Party and automatically WIN either our coming soon Vintage Santa Digital Stamp Set, or Bedtime Kids Stamps.  Both will be large sets and filled with a mix of great art and words. 






Wishing you joy and creativity

Sandy Redburn
Crafty Secrets

Visit Our CraftyVintageGirl.com  Store
Join Us on Facebook!

This Blog:
http://heartwarmingvintage.blogspot.com
Our Website: http://www.craftysecrets.com
Toll Free Phone or Fax 1-888 597-8898
Local Phone 604 597-8817

Crafty Secrets Head Office
15430 78 A Ave.,
Surrey, BC V3S 8R4