How To: Upcycled House Ornaments and a Holiday Blog Hop!

Hi all!  I'm so excited because it's the FIRST blog hop with members of the Jessica Sporn Designs Creative Team. 

Today I'm hopping along with 

Karen Gaunt

Sherry Canino
Denise Alloca and

Kristin Van Valkenburgh

to share some holiday creations using my stamps and stencils. 

I hope you've been enjoying the Creative Team posts - I know I have! 

AND.... 

We have a great three giveaways - one lucky commenter will win my Blessings stamp from Rubbermoon, 





another will win this little holiday ornament, 

and another will win this lovely wall hanging by Creative Team member Denise Alloca.  Denise couldn't participate in the hop, but created this beautiful project for her tutorial & post on December 22.  

My little ornaments were inspired by some cardboard I received in a food delivery package, as well as Kristin's brilliant "Tiny Homes" tutorial.  She inspired me to pull out my glitter and use these stamps in a very different way than I had previously envisioned! 

I filmed my process -- hope you enjoy the video.



Now hop on over to Karen Gaunt, Sherry Canino, Denise Alloca and Kristin Van Valkenburgh

to see what they've created!

All comments on all the posts count - so don't forget to leave your kind words!  

If you are entering the GIVEAWAY, please add your email address in the event I need to contact you.

To avoid SPAM, please write it like this: jessicasporndesigns (at) gmail (dot) com

Thank You!

         Visit Stencil Girl Products and RubberMoon Stamps to see all my designs!

If you haven't already - please connect with me here:

InLinkz.com

Your comments make me so happy and let me know you were here. I read and treasure every comment and will happily answer any questions as soon as I can.

Easy Distress Ink Stenciled and Stamped Valentine Tags

Last year, I took a wonderful online class given by Marjie Kemper called "Inventive Inks."  I had accumulated lots of beautiful tags as I practiced her inking techniques.  

If you have some pretty backgrounds laying around, here's a quick project to make unusual Valentines.  (Somehow, my Valentines are always quirky, as you can see here.)  

First, over-stencil your backgrounds using a deeper version of the color you have underneath.  I did this with more distress inks, or you can use paint.  (I used my Hearts, Flowers and More stencil but you can use something in your stash.) 

Then, create some embellishments by stenciling or stamping using black ink or paint on music, book or ledger paper.  (I used motifs from my Coffee, Mugs and Love, and Teacups and Teapots stencils on old music paper.) If your paper is fragile, as mine was, first give it a coat of clear gesso or matte medium to strengthen it.

These motifs are from the Build a Villa collection at Rubbermoon.  I painted them with Peerless watercolors.  

Then, let your muse take over as you cut out your motifs, assemble, embellish, doodle and add words.  

You should end up with a stack of funky, quirky Valentines!

Have you made Valentines this year?  I'd love to see them so please leave a link in your comment! 


Your comments make me so happy and let me know you were here. I read and treasure every comment and will happily answer any questions as soon as I can.

If you haven't already - please connect with me here:

InLinkz.com

If you are entering a GIVEAWAY, please add your email address in the event I need to contact you.

To avoid SPAM, please write it like this: jessicasporndesigns (at) gmail (dot) com

Thank You!

Handmade Holidays Day 5 - Gelli Print Garland, Watercolor Resist Holiday Cards and Banner

Welcome to Day 5 of Handmade Holidays!  Every day this week, you'll find unique art and craft ideas.   Remember that every post has a giveaway, and all the comments for all the days count!  

For today's post, I have three projects for you.  The first project is a simple holiday garland using your excess gelli prints or other patterned paper.   All you do is punch shapes out of your prints, glue your shapes back to back over a piece of string or twine, embellish with glitter glue and dimensional paints, and add inspirational words.  Voila!  a pretty, festive, whimsical garland to adorn your mantle or stairway.  I was inspired by this post by Alicia Burke, in which she used some of her cards.   But then I added my own flair.

Next, here's a holiday card project.  You can use any image to make your cards.   I used the Three Trees Stencil from Stencil Girl Products. 

First, I stenciled the tree designs using acrylic paint.  Then I used a Sakura glaze pen to doodle and create resists.  When I washed around the stenciled designs with watercolors, the doodled areas resisted the watercolor.  

Here’s a video of some of my process making these cards.

You can also watch Watercolor Holiday Cards on YouTube here.

I added some glitter glue here and there, and was about to add the words from the stencil when…..

I spied some corrugated cardboard in just the right shapes to contain the trees!

I cut the trees out, and then painted the cardboard with Golden Fluid Acrylic paint.

I’d had this Bark Paper in my stash forever.  It was time to use it.

I added the trees to my cardboard substrates, pulled out my glitter glue and other items from my stash, and started playing.

 

Before I knew it, I was taken over by my muse.  I originally thought I would use each of these as an individual card or wall hanging.   But then I strung them together as a garland.  I love them this way!

I filmed some of my process.

You can also watch Holiday Garland with Corrugated Cardboard on YouTube Here.

Hope you enjoyed this easy project and it gives you some ideas for the holidays!

I hope this post gave you some fun ideas.  I am giving away one of the Three Trees stencils!  to a lucky commenter.  Remember, for extra chances to win, make sure to comment on all the Handmade Holiday posts!  I will pick all of the winners on Saturday morning, 11AM EST. 

Please leave your email address in your comment (like this: jessicasporndesigns at gmail dot com) to be considered for the giveaway!

And the winners are:

Corrine Gilman’s Brooch:  Lou Lou in Texas!  

Art is you Trade:  Suzie Q 23!  

Clay Ornament:  Karen!  

Hamsa Stamp:  Lisa Meyers! 

Three Trees Stencil:  Lu 

Make sure to check back for more projects and giveaways every day this week!

Your comments make me so happy and let me know you were here. I read and treasure every comment and will happily answer any questions as soon as I can.

If you don't already, please sign-up for my newsletter HERE, and follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Bloglovin and YouTube, so that you never miss a giveaway, and always get the latest Jessica Sporn Designs News!  

 

How to Create Quick Holiday Gifts with Stamps and Stencils

If you're like me, the winter holidays creep up on you!  They're definitely coming fast for me;  I'm leaving for our home-away-from-home in Guatemala on the 13th, and won't be back until January 2!  So I'm going to get right to it.  Here are some past tutorials for Hanukkah and Christmas gifts.  Most of these posts have step outs or videos.  Enjoy!

Holiday Gift Bags and Gift Card Holders

Mobils

Quick and Easy Holiday Tags

Gift Card Holders and Journals

Do you have links to favorite holiday projects?  Leave them in the comments. Make sure to check back every day next week, because Monday through Friday, I'll have new ideas and tutorials for you, as well as some giveaways! I'm calling it "Handmade for the Holidays."  See you then!

Your comments make me so happy and let me know you were here. I read and treasure every comment and will happily answer any questions as soon as I can.

If you don't already, please sign-up for my newsletter HERE, and follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Bloglovin and YouTube, so that you never miss a giveaway, and always get the latest Jessica Sporn Designs News!  

 

Holiday Creating with the Three Trees Stencil from Stencil Girl

I'm on the Stencil Girl Talk Blog today showing how I made this accordion book using envelopes and the Three Trees Stencil from Stencil Girl.  

To see more photos and a video of the project from start to finish, hop on over to Stencil Girl Talk and take a look!  

Here are some other ways I've been playing with the stencil -- all part of my current obsession with Stenciling and Stitching!

I stenciled the trees and some of Carolyn Dube's words on fabric:

 and made gift bags:

For the background fabrics, I also used Terri Stegmiller's Broken Circles, Kae Pea's Tribal Leaves, and my Retro Flowers and Circles Stencils. 

I made some wine gift bags using Mary Nasser's Longitude and Latitude, and Seth Apter's Timeless Stencils in the background:

A patchwork runner for my sideboard:

And a gift card holder!

 

It's going to be a colorful holiday for sure!  

In addition to the Three Trees Stencil, I also used:

Buildings, Teacups and Teapot, Hebrew Calligraphy and Hamsa, Garden Flowers and Leaves, and Dots and Dashes.  

I hope this post and the video on Stencil Girl Talk give you lots of ideas for how to use the Three Trees Stencil.  If you use it, please share your designs with me! I'd love to see them.

Your comments make me so happy and let me know you were here. I read and treasure every comment and will happily answer any questions as soon as I can.

If you don't already, please sign-up for my newsletter HERE, and follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Bloglovin and YouTube, so that you never miss a giveaway, and always get the latest Jessica Sporn Designs News!