The Cutting Cafe Blog Hop

Welcome!

The Cutting Cafe design team is having a blog hop and we're excited to have you join in the fun!

If you are following along you should have arrived here from the You Tube Channel of Sheryl Wilder. Wasn't her project fantastic! If you aren't hopping and would love a chance to win FREE STUFF then by all means start here at TCC's design team post where you can read the rules and start hopping. 

So for my card today I used several patriotic themed PDF files. The card measures 5.5 x 5.5 and I fussy cut the letters from the USA Word Shaped Card instead of using the SVG file. I used Faded Jeans Distress Oxide ink then came back with a darker layer of Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink. The sweet little girl (Mikala Ann) is from the Ready for the 4th of July Elisha Jean and Friends....Printable Stamps set. There are four images that print on one page so I did one of my favorite techniques - paper piecing. I love to do this when I'm in the mood. ;) I added some shine to her skirt and shoes with a Wink of Stella glitter pen and to the stars on her shoes as well as the star pin in her hair. I forgot to mention that I stamped stars on the letters with Versamark Ink then embossed them with white embossing powder by Wow! It adds some texture and you can't have enough stars when it's the 4th of July. I punched 3 stars from blue glitter paper and added 3 Kaisercraft blue gems for more sparkle. The sentiments are from the Independence Day Sentiment Set....Printable Sets and the circular 4th of July sentiment, which I backed with red cardstock, is from the 4th of July Hershey's Kiss Bottoms Printable Set. Speaking of that a great party favor for a 4th of July get together would be a bag of Hershey Kisses with these fun sentiments attached to the bottom. So cute! Here's an example from Regina Easter, owner/designer, of The Cutting Cafe.


Designed by Regina Easter for The Cutting Cafe


My patriotic card will go to my sister and BIL who both served in the U. S. Air Force. They are the only living veterans in my family so I try to always remember them with a card to thank them for their service.

Up next is the talented Debbie Fisher so enjoy her terrific DT project. Wishing you good luck in the drawing and Regina will announce the winner on the 7th of July in our next design team post. Until then for all of the U. S. peeps out there I'd like to wish you a safe and happy 4th of July.

Crafty Hugs,
Lisa xx

Inspiration From Within Your Home

Altered patriotic metal stars

Inspiration From Within Your Home

That's the new challenge at Top Tip Tuesday and I'm hosting this one. We're looking for projects that you create using inspiration from something in your home and we want you to also include a photo of what inspired you. 

Here's my inspiration photo

This is our patriotic themed guest room and the flags in the room inspired me to makeover this trio of metal stars. Originally they were black and now they've been updated with designer paper, craft paint and Mod Podge. 

Here are a few process photos

Each star received a coat of Gesso  and then I began to decoupage and paint.  

There are templates out there but I didn't use any of them, I opted to fit the paper to the star. Does that make sense, hope so. Basically I just molded the paper to the star, cut the excess off and gave it a good coat of Mod Podge. Once it was dried I used Vintage Photo Distress Ink to age it a bit. I repeated this process for the other small star but changed it up a bit for the larger star.

For this one I used a combo of craft paint and a small scale star designer paper. Martha Stewart's stencil tape was used to separate the areas. It's great because it's a low tack tape and won't peel off the paint when you lift it. I used inexpensive craft paint and gave it several coats letting it dry in between. 

Here's what it looked like after the painting/decoupage part was finished. I added a paper rosette to the center to finish it off and Vintage Photo Distress Ink to age it a bit as well. 

Here's the trio after all three were altered and put on display.

They rest on the shelf of the headboard my hubby and I made using inspiration I found on Pinterest. I fell in love with the idea of using a door for a headboard so we set off to find a door and then turned it into a queen size headboard. Here's the link in case you like this idea too. :) While I'm on the subject of Pinterest (which I love by the way) here's another cool idea I saw and put into use for my patriotic bedroom.

I love this table top patriotic themed tree! I decorated it with glass ornaments and Fourth of July party decorations which I found at Hobby Lobby. No kidding, even the flags were purchased there. The glass star ornaments were a Lowe's find and they are perfect. The fluffy white garland was a Wal-Mart find and my tree skirt is actually a quilt that my MIL made for my son when he was a toddler. Here's the link to the tree that inspired my tree. 

Here's one more Pinterest inspired idea and then I'll go, I promise. ;)

 I love the idea of using trunks as a nightstand. 

For more inspiration check out what my teamies created by clicking here to go to the TTT challenge blog. We're looking forward to seeing what inspires all of you and please don't forget to include an inspiration photo in your blog post. 

SPONSOR

Fred She Said

 

Prize is a $20 gift voucher to the online store.

Thanks for hanging in there, have a wonderful day!

Lisa xx