My Spring-Loaded Shadow Box Card featuring Imagine and Joy Clair

In The Studio

Thanks so much for stopping and be sure to leave comments (one per blog) during these two days of hopping so you can be entered to win a one of two $25 Joy Clair Stamps Gift Cards or one of two $25 Gift Cards from Imagine!!! Winners will be announced on the Joy Clair and Imagine Blogs at the end of the month.

With a spring in our steps and a hop onto the work table, let’s take a look at what I put together for the Imagine-Joy Clair blog hop!

I selected the Bee Kind and Wood Background stamps for this hop and had a lot of fun with this project. It certainly didn’t hurt that the Bee Kind set comes with the downloadable svg files which worked perfectly with my Cricut to save me some time!

Here’s the full supply list:

Joy Clair Bee Kind stamps & cut files
Joy Clair Wood background stamp
VersaMark pad
Imagine embossing powders in Black, Gold, and Clear
OnPoint Glue
Delicata ink in Celestial Copper

Along with:
Card stock in black, white, and yellow
Cricut & Cricut Design Space
Acrylic blocks
Heat tool
Tweezers
Helmar ZapDots
Trimmer
Wire
Paint brush
Wire cutters
Scotch tape

The spring-loaded bees were inspired by the Action Wobbles that were pretty popular a couple years ago. While these bees don’t so much wobble and bounce, For an actual wiggle I think cutting pieces of a plastic coil bracelet (the stretchy ones you can use to keep your keys on your wrist) and securing them with a heavier adhesive. I might have to experiment with that another time!

Now, where to next? Hopefully you came from Martha’s site and you’re on your way to Kerry’s. If not, why not hop back to the beginning and see what the other designers came up with for this blog hop?!

Today’s half of the hop:

Imagine Blog

Joy Clair Blog

Martha Lucia Gomez

Jennifer Vanderbeek <–you are here!

Kerry Urbatch

Mischelle Smith

Helen Gullett

Neva Cole

Jessica Pascarella

Nadine Carlier

Tenia Nelson

And tomorrow check out these great blogs:

Imagine Blog

Joy Clair Blog

Martha Lucia Gomez

Donna Idlet

Alison Heikkila

Lindsay Andreon

Roni Johnson

Steph Ackerman

Jessica Litman

Lori Kobular

Renee Zarate

Have You Seen It?!

Just for Fun

I have been a video-uploading fiend lately! (And I still have several videos that need editing and a list of more I want to film.) So the “it” I’m talking about is my YouTube channel.

Over the last week I’ve far exceeded my once-a-week upload habit by putting up a total of five videos:

Whew!

Now, that pace is probably not something I can keep up with weekly, it was just a good week for videos. Still, I do want to increase how often I’m uploading, so I’ll probably be shooting for twice a week by the end of the month.

Adventure! Mixed Media Journal

Adventure! Mixed Media Journal

A couple of the videos were design-team related, including the mixed media journal pictured above. That one’s actually part of an audition for a new team, but I’m pretty pleased with the project on it’s own whether I get the spot or not!

Sympathy Card using BoBunny papers

Sympathy Card using BoBunny papers

The Imagine Crafts team participated in a blog hop with BoBunny and while I’m not an official video-producer for IC, since this was an extra project for the month I figured I’d give it a whirl.

I’ve been on a bit of a card kick, lately, and I see no point in just keeping them around here, so if you’d like a handmade card to just show up in your mailbox one day, email me your address by using that little “Contact Me” link up at the top of the page (or just email me at jenn{at}scrapsoflife{dot}com)!

Of course, if you saw last week’s posts, they each had their own video links, but the Rose Festival video was a little sneaky-sneak on my part. We made it to several of the events this year and I took hours of footage that I managed to then condense into a mere 38 minutes and 47 seconds. I definitely need to work on my camera handling in random event settings, but practice makes perfect, right?

What I’d like to know is what you want to see videos of? Are you enjoying the View from the Countertop videos and want to see more kitchen footage? Would you like to see more crafty tutorials like the card and journal above? Or would you like to see more local events and general life stuff like the Rose Festival and the Pup-date? While I have some of all of them on my list to film, letting me know what you want to see helps me prioritize!

Also, I’m always on the hunt for new YouTubers to watch–who are you loving these days? Some of my favorites include MyFroggyStuff for their doll-craft tutorials, Sandy Allnock for her cards and COPIC videos, and both Pretty Shiny Sparkly and The Michalaks for general life/vlogging stuff. I check out my Subscriptions link each day to see if any of the channels I follow have updated and I get a little thrill when there’s a new video up from one of my current favs.

So check out the links above and subscribe to my channel if you haven’t already so you don’t miss an update! Not all videos have posts to tie back to, after all!

Until next time,

~Jenn

The Abyss Has Been All Topsy-Turvy This Month!

In The Studio

And it’ll probably stay that way for a little while longer–there’s just so much going on!

At the beginning of the month, the first of my two Helmar projects went up: a trio of fabric-covered tombstones.

jvanderbeek_helmar_halloween_fabric_covered_tombstones_supertac_glue

And then today, book-ending the month, my second Halloween project is live on Helmar, this time a quick pedestal project.

jvanderbeek_helmar_halloween-0357

Also at the beginning of the month, the FACES exhibit for the local Artist Collective opened at Grassroots Coffee here in Thomasville. We attended the opening night reception on First Friday and then went out to supper with friends who came up from Tallahassee. It may seem like a little thing, but it felt pretty big as it was the first Collective show I’ve had a piece in.

jvanderbeek_theclockhasmanyfaces2015_10x10

The Clock Has Many Faces by Jennifer “Scraps” Vanderbeek | mixed media on canvas 10″x10″

The exhibit runs through the beginning of January. The next theme is still life… not sure how I’ll approach that one, but it’ll be a fun challenge.

Of course there was the whole process of getting the house ready for Halloween, but I’ve also been a bit preoccupied getting the new Creative Mischief Kits ready to go. We had a slight delay from one of the paper manufacturers, but everything’s in and the two card kits are now ready to ship!

CPR Holidays Winter Whimsy Kit

CPR Holidays Winter Whimsy Kit

CPR Holidays Classic Christmas Kit

CPR Holidays Classic Christmas Kit

The CPR in the titles stands for “Cards Prepared & Ready,” an idea I had many years ago about simplifying the process of sending handmade cards by batching them up together. These are holiday kits, of course, with enough supplies to make 20 cards in each. You can find more about them and place your order at TheCraftyBranch.com

Finally, I’ve been working on my Halloween costume for this year. I can’t remember if I mentioned it before or not, but we decided to go as Wreck It Ralph and Vanellope von Schweetz this year.

Finding a pullover with both pocket and hood (when I would otherwise want neither) in the right color and size was a bit like searching for a teal unicorn. But I think my semi-DIY will do nicely!

I had to convert a long-sleeved hooded t-shirt into Vanellope’s hoodie by trimming off the bottom 6″ or so, adding elastic along the new hem to get it into shape, and then using the cut-off area to create the kangaroo pocket in the front. I finished it off with some hot-pink paracord to match the details on her hoodie.

Just needs the small "double stripe" on the one leg and I can call these done.

Just needs the small “double stripe” on the one leg and I can call these done.

I’ve almost finished painting the white tights I purchased to match the character design–I took a tip from a costume Instructable about cutting out leg-ish shapes from cardboard to act as forms for the tights while they’re being painted. So far it seems to be working just fine.

The one thing I haven’t started on, yet, is the candy scatter for my hair. I have everything I need for it, I just haven’t had a chance to put them together. I’ll definitely have it done by Halloween, but the scatter might be a bit sparse for the party tomorrow night–depends on how much I get done on my lunch break today!

Those slippers are super creepy to me. Anyone else?

Those slippers are super creepy to me. Anyone else?

For Todd’s part he’s been letting his hair get shaggy and even extending his sideburns to look more like Ralph. He bought a pair of brown overalls, a red v-neck tee, and a pair of really creepy barefoot “slippers” since Ralph doesn’t wear shoes. For the larger-than-life hands, he found a pair of Hulk hands on eBay for a good price and painted them a flesh tone. He’s planning to wrap his forearms with ace bandages over some sort of padding to bulk up a bit. We also have a heart-shaped cookie medal in the works for him.

I’ll be sure to have someone take our picture tomorrow night to show you how it all turned out!

Project Share: Victorian Memo Frame for Helmar

In The Studio

jvanderbeek_helmar-victorian_memo_frame

Hey, guys! Today I have a new, fun, and fairly quick project up over on the Helmar Design Team blog. Apparently my interest in Victoriana has not yet waned, and probably won’t for a while, so the fussy, frilly-ness of this project is mainly due to that. But, you know, it’s kinda fun to do fussy and frilly every now and then.

jvanderbeek_feb2015_roadmapofalivedinheart_mixedmedia_canvas

Also, if you didn’t see it earlier this month, my February Gauche Alchemy project was a very texture-heavy red canvas for the love/hate-themed challenge (and you might recognize the hearts from the last Helmar project). There’s still some time to create your own project and submit it for the February challenge. Remember, anything goes as long as it’s inspired by this month’s challenge board!

February Challenge Inspiration

February Challenge Inspiration

Finally, here’s that doll sweater I mentioned in the last post. This is the first “right” prototype of the pattern. I’ve since made it a second time in a longer, oversized-cardigan style and I’ve got a third one on the needles even longer as as coat.

Tessa modeling her winter-appropriate "bookish" look.

Tessa modeling her winter-appropriate “bookish” look.

Did I mention I bought more dolls? There were some unbeatable deals on Amazon a few months ago and I got a total case of itchy spending finger and picked up two girls for less than one would normally cost (Tezca and Lipoca). Then I found a Yeolume (Pullip’s daughter from the future, serious, the “storyline” of these dolls is rather amusing) in Tuesday Morning, and finally brought home a Byul (Dal’s best friend); again from Amazon, again at a great deal. She’s the one who needs a bit of work due to a broken arm and her replacement body arrived ahead of schedule so she’ll be in the dolly O.R. before too long.

It’s the little things, folks, that make us smile, right?

Creativity Shared

Everyday Adventures

We’ll tackle the next art on Thursday, but first I wanted to catch up on some projects that I’ve been working on away from the 64 Arts.

In this month’s installment of The Dirt (Gauche Alchemy’s newsletter) I shared a little bit about the faux terrarium I made out of found objects:

UpCycled Terrarium

UpCycled Terrarium

Then for the blog I made this (I think) very cool Cocktail Clutch out of an old book mailer and the Shaken Not Stirred Mixed Media Kit.

jwalker_cocktail_clutch_upcycle_altered_art

And then before that I got to play with some more outstanding Helmar Glues as part of a swap Gauche Alchemy and Helmar hosted.

jwalker_helmar_scrapdots_grapes_decorated_bottle

The grape clusters and vines are glue applied directly to the glass and (in the case of the clusters) dusted with shimmery glitter.

And speaking of swaps, I participated in a Button Fairy swap with the good folks at Viva Las VegaStamps. This was my first introduction to the concept of Button Fairies and I put together this girly, delicate, pink & pearl fairy for swappin

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I received a fun and funky button fairy in return and am contemplating make a few more just for fun.

Of course, there are plenty of other projects still waiting for their turn. Unfortuantely both the antique desk and the bedroom redo are in limbo–the desk still needs a couple coats of varnish. The bedroom, on the other hand, did get a new bedspread and throw (both from West Elm and our trip before last to Jacksonville) so the pink and grey is creeping in, but I haven’t gotten any farther than that.

Time is the answer for everything, of course, but with the wedding coming up in just 4 months (!!!) I think the bedroom might take longer to finish. I’ll stick to the shorter-term projects until then!

In what ways have you stretched your creative wings lately?