Carey Burns

I decided that this year I will "make do" with the crafty supplies I already have. There's only so much space in the Pit of Despair! This project came together really quickly and while I used a vintage plastic reindeer, a new version can be substituted. Supplies: Tim Holtz Vignette Panel (largest size with backer board) Tim Holtz Christmas Stack golden star paper Tim Holtz Typography letters 'FLY' Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink Gold Mixative Tim Holtz Distress Stain in Walnut Stain Tim Holtz Matte Medium Glossy Accents Red acrylic paint Dark green acrylic paint Vintage plastic reindeer Sophisticated Finishes Rust paint Four felt adhesive dots Tools: Scissors Paint brushes Cotton swab Months ago, I nabbed a bag of vintage plastic reindeer at an antique shop and decided to rust one to see how it would look. I coated it in two layers of iron paint and then added the rusting agent. I liked how it looked and set it aside for later. While organizing my...

This project turned out better than I imagined it would! You can see how I made the bulk of it here along with a detailed supply list and now I'll bore you with the fireplace details! Be warned: there aren't a lot of in-process photos again because I was really in the process ... Supplies: ***All of these supplies are Tim Holtz except for the E-6000 glue, acrylic paint and LED light string*** Specialty Stamping Paper Distress Inks in Candied Apple, Aged Mahogany, Walnut Stain, Wilted Violet, and Black Soot Harlequin Stencil Glossy Accents Collage Medium Vintage Cardboard from Idea-ology package Boneyard E-6000 glue LED Halloween lights Acrylic paint in black, white, and orange Hook and loop tape Batteries Tools: Scissors Round Blending Tool Metal Probe Small hole punch First thing I did for this portion was to paint the larger Boneyard pieces with black acrylic paint. While they dried, I cut a piece of cardboard from an Idea-ology package down to a li...

A while back, I was given some unwanted laminate samples and I took them, not knowing what I'd make with them. They were in my junk bin and when I was purging items this summer, they made it to a zipper bag for the "free pile" of our upcoming yard sale. The other day, I thought "Hey, use them to make a more durable tag!" So this little taglet was born. In total, I made seven different ones and had six larger tags left. This tag is inspired by the taglet. New project on left, inspiration taglet on right Inspiration taglet Supplies: 1 laminate sample or paper tag Tim Holtz Ancestors Paper Doll: Witches Tim Holtz Botanical Tissue Paper Distress Collage Medium (matte) Tim Holtz Clippings and Big Chat stickers Distress Crayons: Twisted Citron, Picket Fence, Squeezed Lemonade, Tumbled Glass Distress Ink: Black Soot, Aged Mahogany Distress Marker: Black Soot Glossy Accents Tim Holtz Baroque Frame (rusted with Sophisticated Finishes) Tim Holtz ...

I've been putting in some extra hours at work and by the time I get home, I'm pretty much done for the evening. That means I haven't been crafting, much to my disappointment. For today's post I decided to share some of the fun tools I use to make things. 10. GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is one of my favorite image editors! It is free (nice!) and pretty similar to PhotoShop. I've made book covers, doctored up vintage photos for Halloween decorations, and created images for marketing materials for my day job. It was tough learning GIMP but I watched a lot of free step-by-step tutorials online so that helped. 9. My Recollections heat tool is my friend! I used to scoff at buying a heat tool when I have a perfectly good hairdryer...until I used a heat tool. It dries alcohol ink and Distress Stain super fast and gives you amazing control. Now that I have one, I don't think I want to craft without one. I haven't used it for embossing yet, but if I ev...

I made one Poison Bottle and loved how it turned out so I wanted to make another. After putting out a distress call on Facebook, a friend sent me an empty essential oil bottle. Gotta love co-conspirators! Supplies: 1 small brown bottle (I used an essential oil bottle) Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Vintage Photo and Black Soot Tim Holtz Adirondack Ink in Teakwood 1 Tim Holtz Spooky ephemera 'Poison' Ranger Perfect Pearls (Bronze tone with Perfect Medium and brush) A piece of jute or string of some sort Glossy Accents Tools: Tim Holtz Blending Tool and pad Additional Items: Cotton swabs Instructions: 1.  I removed the label, cap, tamper-safe ring, and dropper cap from the essential oil bottle and washed and dried the bottle and cap. I threw out the tamper-safe ring and dropper cap. 2.  Next, I put the cap on my painter palette and added drips of the alcohol ink. As it dripped down the sides, I used one cotton swab to hold the cap steady and the ...