Claire Selby Cards

January 26th, 2012 is the official Craftsy Party Meetup day. What is Craftsy? It’s an online source for crafters and artists to learn and connect. What is a Craftsy Party Meetup day? This worldwide day is a great way to meet other crafters and artists in your own area. It’s also a great way to pick up techniques for knitting, crocheting, quilting and paper arts. To locate a meetup near you or to find out more info go to Meetup.com or Craftsy.com

On the 2nd day my true love crafted for me…. 2 Party Crowns! Great for the holidays, celebrations and just plain being a girl, crowns are fun to make, wear and decorate with. I crafted my first crown from a Vintage Crown image found at Graphics Fairy printed on cotton fabric treated for the printer. I then hand stitched it to a 12″ pillow made from Robyn Pandolph quilt fabric. The pillow sides are sweetly trimmed with pink and ivory cotton ribbons, seam binding and vintage lace.

For my second party crown I created a cone base from vintage sheet music painted with big blue circles. I then added the chunky transparent glitter to the entire crown by first thickly painting on Aleene’s® Original Tacky Glue™. Once dry I trimmed the Crown in pompoms, a ribbon rose and my hand dyed Pink Tinsel. Pink tinsel is quick and easy to make, check out my earlier tutorial HERE.

On the first day of Christmas crafting, my true love made for me Party Crackers! I found the gorgeous gold star artist paper at Aaron Brothers Frame store and that was my inspiration for the gold and silver party crackers. I have also found lovely papers at Kate’s Paperie for crafting or wrapping. A Cracker is usually filled with little gifts and shared by two people who pull the cracker apart by the sides, winner takes the loot! Here are the supplies I used for these festive crackers.

1)  2 empty rolls of toilet paper, one cut in half for the 2 sides

2) Piece of Art paper to cover the rolls

3) Clear Tape to tape the edges to the rolls

4) Aleene’s® Original Tacky Glue™ for trims

5) silver doilies, and tinsel

6) Victorian scraps and Art Chix Studio scraps

Claire Selby Glittered Ornament

For this large glass ornament I decided to trap a fairy girl image from Art Chix Studio inside along with glitter and Angel Hair tinsel! To place the fairy inside you need to cut out an image that is narrow and then gently roll it into a loose scroll, adding Aleene’s® Original Tacky Glue™ to the bottom of the image. Lower her in place with fingers or tweezers. You can then add glitter and tinsel or beads and buttons to the inside letting it dry over night. For the Outside I painted Pearl X pigment in salmon on the top and then glued White and blue glitter to the top and bottom of the ornament. This looks cute on display or on a Christmas tree!

Claire Selby Retro and Vintage style Ornaments

If you have a 12″ sheet of scrapbooking paper, than you have what you need to make two vintage style ornaments! I used my pinking shears to cut 2 cone shapes out of my 12″ sheet of paper. I then glued one into a cone shape, and added a few staples across the back to help it dry. Once it was dry I glued on the red paper circle cutouts using Aleene’s® Original Tacky Glue™. Next, I glued the vintage Santa face to a red paper diecut, adding it to the inside of the ornament along with Angel Hair tinsel. On the outside of the paper cone I added red and white tinsel and 1 pompom to the bottom. This ornament has that Retro 50′s style to it that I love! For the Vintage Style ornament I swapped the scrapbooking paper for Vintage Sheet music and added a German Dresden Bird Scrap to the front, very 1900′s! Fun and a neat project for the afternoon!

Cut a 12" scrapbooking paper into two cone shapes

Vintage style paper Ornament

Retro Style paper Ornament

I love creating wreaths every year and this year I wanted to do a Candy Cane wreath with lots of pink ornaments. I mostly could only find hot pink and red ornaments so I decided to glitter some white ornaments in pink glitter to add to the wreath! I think it turned out so cute, it is a little more pink in person because my camera’s flash makes it seem a tad more red. For Glittering your own ornaments it’s a quick and fun project, if you mess up or want to start over just wipe off with a damp paper towel before it dries! I used Aleene’s® Original Tacky Glue™ with a wide flat paint brush and just “painted” the glue on in a wave pattern. I then used the tip of the brush to make the perfect little spots! Glitter with a fine glitter, I used Martha Stewart, and just brush away any excess glitter with a small soft paint brush. The best part about  glittering ornaments for a wreath is you don’t have to glue and glitter all the way around, just the front and sides! I was happy to find the Aleene’s Hot glue sticks for gluing the ornaments to the wreath. When I use Large ornaments I like to wire them on and hot glue them in place. Have fun decorating ornaments for your tree or decorating packages or for use on a wreath! My daughter even helped by glittering a Candy Cane card, the perfect display for the center of the wreath!

Claire Selby craft and Adrianna Selby Artwork

Claire Selby Recycled paper craft

Don’t throw away those little scraps of paper!! They are a treasure trove just waiting to get delved into! With this adorable paper craft you can use a punch or cut out by hand, just go through your stash of left over paper and combine in a sweet colorway. For my Colors I choose palest pink, golden yellow, taupes and browns. This would be a great Baby gift or girls room decor. Most of the papers are Stampin’ up and other Acid Free Scrapbooking paper. The pale pinks are from Paper Source and a Martha Stewart paper pack. I had fun mixing the textures of my paper from sheer, to glittered, to even fabric scraps from a West Elm store! You will need a ruler to at least line up the bottom row and the side row that way everything is nice and tidy! I glued down all of my paper with Aleene’s® Original Tacky Glue™. I also used the tacky glue to apply vintage mica flakes and fine champagne colored glitter to 2 of the butterflies. For the last row I added some machine stitching to the butterflies. I’m so happy to be able to recycle my scraps of paper into a fun to make craft instead of just tossing them!

Claire Selby Recycled paper craft Closeup

American Girl party crafts

Handmade American Girl Kanani stand

For my Daughter’s American Girl Kanani themed birthday party, we celebrated hawaiian style with handmade flip-flops and party hats! For the party hats we used Acid free scrapbooking paper cut into about a 6″ semi circle leaving a small 1/4″ tab on one side. We formed the semi circle into a cone and glued the tab to the inside of the hat using Aleene’s® Original Tacky Glue™. We added glitter, ribbons and pom poms to finish. The adorable flip flops are made by tracing an american girl sandal onto craft foam, cutting out 2 right feet and 2 left feet. The ribbon straps are about 4″ long and glued to the bottom of the top foot and then sandwiched with the tacky glue to the bottom foot. We finished off the flip-flops with pom poms. All of these worked really well with the tacky glue!

For the Kanani Stand, recycled is best! I used half of a large cardboard box and stapled 2 child size hula skirts to the board. For the 2 columns I taped a pink plastic tablecloth to wrapping paper rolls, and secured them to the table with twine. We displayed all of our pretty handmade crafts on cake stands! How fun and inexpensive!

Party favors made by the girls!

Claire Selby Festive party crown $13

Claire Selby Festive party crown $13

Lots of birthdays in August, so to celebrate I made my Festive Party Crowns for the gals. First, I hand cut my circus-inspired shaped crown out of glittered 12″ Acid Free scrapbooking paper. Next, I hand inked vintage Tinsel to create the lovely pink shade, Here is my HOW TO. Then I handmade the Flower Medallion out of 2 strips of 2″x12″ acid free scrapbooking sheet music paper, accordion folded them and glued together with Aleene’s® Original Tacky Glue™. Lastly, I covered a flower die cut in the tacky glue and fine pink glitter and added them to the crown along with crystals and a bird accent. These would look amazing for a birthday party with each crown personalized. They can be made larger or smaller for girls, ladies and babies. My Daughter is modeling the ladies size. You can check out more of my Crowns HERE.

Claire Selby Handmade Pink Tinsel

Making the Flower Medallion

Tacky Glue perfect for Glittering or Gluing paper flowers

Claire Selby Festive Fall Crown $13

Baby Lady Bug projects

I made these pink, red and white Lady Bug inspired projects for a sweet gal at church who is having her first baby girl! And of course the theme is Lady Bugs and pink! I had fun decorating the baby onesie and baby hair clip with the Stampin’ Up Fleurettes. To top it all off I made the tiny Lady Bug Princess crown. First, I shaped the crown out of red polka dot paper cut into a cone shape. Next, I hand cut Vintage Sheet music into a flowerette and covered it in Aleene’s® Original Tacky Glue™ and chunky transparent glitter. Once dry, I added the flowerette to the top of a crepe paper flower and pink polka dot paper. How fun and festive! Keep crafting!

Baby Lady Bug Crown