ILoveToCreate Teen Crafts: Joyful Christmas Ornament

(Note from Mom: Avalon does it again! Love this sparkly glass ornament using Tulip Fashion glitter and Aleene's Tacky Glue Spray! Check out her latest teen craft project for ILoveToCreate. Am I proud? Does Santa like cookies?!

Uh, yes, yes he does.)

ILovetoCreate: Joyful Christmas Ornament
Avalon Potter
"Teen created, Mom approved."

I thought I would squeeze in one more holiday project because it is one of my favorite seasons. A few years ago my mom took a clear glass Christmas ornament and put crystals inside making a snow globe for your tree. It was one of my favorite projects she ever made, so I thought why not adapt her old project into something new! My project is a clear ornament that you spray wit Aleene's Tacky Spray Glue and coat the inside with Crafty Chica glitter! I enjoyed making these as gifts for my little cousins because it is fun, easy, and you can personalize each ball with different colors and tag to make it special for the person you give it to.

Materials
Clear ornament with opening top (preferably plastic in case of accident)
Aleene’s Fast Grab Tacky Spray
Tulip Fashion Glitter (green and red or colors of choice)
Colored paper to match glitter
White printer paper
Paper to make funnel
Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue Stick
Ribbon to match color of ball

Tools
Printer
Hole punch
Scissors

Instructions

1. Gather your materials.



2. Open up your ornament and lightly coat the inside with the Aleene’s Fast Grab Tacky Spray.

3. Make a funnel with a piece of paper and insert the bottom into the opening of the ball.

4. Pour a sufficient amount of the color(s) of glitter you choose into the ball. Feel free to mix colors or choose different colors then I used.


5. Close the ornaments top and shake until the ball is completely coated with sparkles. Shake the excess sparkles out of the ball.

6. Using a font you like print out in large letters the word or name you want as the tag. Use a similar color as the one you used in the ball. If you used two or more colors chose one for the font and another for the colored paper behind it.

7. Cut out the word and cut out your colored sheet of paper a slightly bigger into a rectangular card for the word to sit on.

8. Use your Aleene’s tacky glue stick to glue the word to the colored paper.

9. Punch a hole in the corner of the tag.

10. String some colored ribbon that matches the ball through the hole and tie a knot.

11. Tie onto the top of the ornament in a bow to complete the ornament.

ILovetoCreate Teen Crafts Falling Leaves T-Shirt

Avalon has a fab new project this week for ILoveToCreate! She did such a great job with this from concept to execution and her dad helped her since Mom's been a little busy with the new job. I'm endlessly proud of her. Just a quick FYI...I'll be debuting on Jewelry Television's Jewel School tomorrow sharing three fun, fast and fashionable projects from 9am until noon EST. If you don't get Jewelry Television, you can watch the show streaming live on their website.

Falling Leaves T-shirt ILovetoCreate Project Copyright Avalon Potter 2010

Once again I bring you another fun, easy and stylish project using ILovetoCreate products. This past week I’ve seen the leaves falling outside and the beautiful colors surrounding me, and when I saw the Tulip fabric sprays and foam leaves in the local craft store I knew exactly what my project would be. I would make a shirt inspired by the leaves scattered all over the ground using fall themed Tulip fabric sprays and glitter. I had a great time making this project with my dad, we really had some quality time together making this and I hope you will have just as much fun.

Materials:
Cotton tee (white and prewashed to remove sizing)
Foam shapes( doesn’t have to be leaves)
Three or more tulip fabric sprays
Tulip glitter dimensional fabric paint in silver
Tulip craft sponge
Double sided tape
Tulip fashion form

Instructions:
1. First gather all your materials, then take you shirt and put it on your tulip fashion form.


2. Next lay out were you want your foam shapes to go, you the size, shape or amount you use depends on what you want to do.

3. Attach your shapes with double sided tape and make sure all of your corners are down because you don’t want excess fabric spray leaking under your shapes and deforming the way they will turn out.


4. Make sure you cover the area underneath the shirt to prevent getting any spray on the floor! Then one by one spray around and on your foam shapes you can leave white in areas but I filled mine in with glitter.


5. Let the paint dry then the next day take of the foam shapes and apply the glitter paint with a sponge on the white spots where the foam shapes were.

iLoveToCreate Glitter Cupcake T-Shirt

iLoveToCreate Glitter Cupcake T-Shirt
Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter™ Teen Craft
“Mom crafted, kid approved.”

My mission was to make two coordinating fashion items using Tulip Fashion Glitter and Stencils for a print ad going into teencentric magazines. I took the resident teen to the craft store. Avalon loves muffins and cupcakes, so when she saw this cupcake stencil she simply had to have it. We decided on black long sleeve t-shirts and did a black, pink and silver look. I love the way the cupcakes pop against the dark background. Tulip has a huge array of fun stick on stencils from which you can select the one that suits your style. Here’s how to make the cupcake shirt! (Mine is a simple variation on the theme with two flame heart stencils.)

Bad Shirt Prototype One: Circus Clown Chic!
Bad Shirt Prototype Two: So many colors, so many wrinkles, so little style!

Before I got to the ‘Mom’s shirt is going to be black and match’ final version, I thought maybe Mom’s shirt should be white and contrast the black. Alas these two incredibly horrid 80s inspired t-shirts above were the result of said bad idea, I think I can save one of them but I’m not quite sure yet. E...gads. I managed to mess up the first version of the black shirt with an unfortunate glue globbing incident just as I was dabbing on the last bit of glitter, sigh. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes and realize that design is a process and even good designers sometimes go horribly, horribly wrong.

Materials
Black long sleeved t-shirt
Tulip Cupcake sticky fabric stencil
Tulip Fashion Glitter Bond with applicator sponge
Tulip Fashion Glitter Silver
Tulip Fashion Glitter Black
Tulip Fashion Glitter Pink
Tulip 3D Fashion Slick Paint Poppin’ Purple
Tulip 3D Fashion Glitter Paint Ruby
Tulip 3D Fashion Pearl Paint Peppermint

Tools
Sea sponge or bubble wrap
Tulip Fashion Form

1. Pre-wash your shirt to remove sizing. Put shirt on cardboard shirt form and pin arms
together in the back.
2. Use a sea sponge or some bubble wrap to dab layers of paint on the left side of the shirt. Use one color at a time building up the layers. The paint will look much brighter when wet, allow to dry.
3. Decide where you want to put your images. We selected three cupcakes moving down the left side of the shirt. Adhere your stencil to top area (the stencil has a sticky back so just place it where you want it and smooth it down.)
4. Use sponge to apply adhesive to open areas on the stencil. Take care not to get glue on outer edges of stencil.
5. Generously sprinkle glitter on areas you wish to glitter spreading it out to fill area with your fingers. Allow to set for several minutes before dumping off excess.
6. Clean your stencil and dry and repeat two more times.
7. Allow shirt to dry overnight and shake off any excess glitter.
8. You can use a lint removal brush to remove any stray glitter after the shirt has dried.

The Impatient Crafter for iLoveToCreate Teen Crafts Spooky Sparkly Flower Clip

Spooky Sparkly Flower Clip
Margot Potter for iLoveToCreate Teens!
"Mom crafted, kid approved"

If your teen is still not sure what to wear for Halloween, here’s a little idea that’s big on possibilities. This sparkly flower clip is a breeze to make and you can easily remove the faux web and spiders so it becomes everyday friendly. I purchased my flower clip at H&M, but I’ve seen these all over the place this season. You can opt to make these in any color, but I chose black for Halloween. Pin this to a thick black ribbon for a Morticia/Vampire style choker or to fashion a wrist corsage for a Dead Prom Queen, glitter up a bouquet of black roses for a Corpse Bride or attach a few glittered flowers to a headband for Frida Kahlo, or a bunch of them in various colors to a huge hat for a La Catrina Day of the Dead costume. You can find old prom dresses and wedding dresses for a song at your local thrift shops, then just shred and spray with black fabric spray. Easy peasy!

Materials
Large fabric flower pin/hair clip
Faux spider webbing
Three plastic spider rings
Tulip Fashion Glitter Bond
Tulip Fashion Glitter in black
Liquid Fusion glue

1. Pour a puddle of glitter bond on a non-stick sheet or a plate and dip the flower into it. (You’re looking to get a thin bead of glue on the edge of all of your petals; you can also opt to carefully squeeze the glue on the petal edges.)

2. Pour a small pile of glitter directly on your flower. Allow to dry for ten minutes and dump excess glitter on newspaper and back into jar. You can also opt to dump glitter on a non-stick sheet or a plate. Dip flower into glitter and let dry for a half of an hour and then dump excess glitter back into jar. Let glitter dry overnight.

3. Cut of a small section of faux webbing. Tie it around the width of the flower loosely with a knot in the back (you don’t want to lose your flower shape.)

4. Dab glue on the back of the body of your spiders and press the webbing into the glued areas on spiders. (Don’t glue the spiders to the flower or you won’t be able to remove them later.) Allow to dry.

Avalon looking Spooky Sparkly!

I Love to Create Recycled Magazine Mixed Media Decoupage Bangle Bracelets

Designing Diva Pattie Wack had a super fun make it/take it for I Love to Create at CHA Summer and on the last day of the show I sat down with her and created a one of a kind decoupaged mixed media bangle. I ran out of time and had to leave it unfinished...and fast forward to yesterday morning when I decided to make a similar project and finish the first one.

I adore these wooden blanks from DIY Bangles and I’ve been playing with images from magazines since my second book The Impatient Crafter Gets Inspired. I’m particularly fond of using a section of a fashion image and adding layers on it to see how far I can take it while still being able to tell what the original image was. If your teen has a pile of fashion or teen mags sitting around gathering dust, this is a great project for them to do and to personalize with images and embellishments they love. The base layer is made from thin tissue or handmade fibrous paper.

This same idea would be fab for frames or other room décor items...so don’t be afraid to take it to a bigger scale. Think how cool a dresser would be layered up like this!

So...without further ado...let’s get started!

Recycled Magazine Bangles
Margot Potter for I Love to Create Teen
Copyright 2009

Materials
Wooden bangle
Recycled magazines
Fuzzy yarn
Patterened and solid tissue paper in coordinated colors
Tulip Iron-On Crystals in 2 sizes
Traci Bautista’s Collage Pauge Instant Decoupage™ in glossy
Traci Bautista’s Collage Pauge Instant Decoupage™ in sparkles
Aleene’s Quick Dry Tacky Glue™
Jet Black Archival Ink
Flourish rubber stamp

Tools
Foam brush
Tulip Cordless Heat Setting Tool
Scissors

1. Tear small pieces of your tissue paper and adhere to the wooden bangle. Spread a thin layer of Collage Pauge glossy on the back of the paper with a foam brush and use your fingers and the brush to apply to the bangle. It’s okay if there are some wrinkles. Spread a thin layer of medium on top of the paper as you work.

2. Cover the entire bangle inside and out with collaged tissue. Allow to dry.


3. Cut out images to fit the flat oval surfaces on your bangle. I pressed the image on the surface and used my pointer finger to press it along the edge, then removed the paper and cut along the indentation I made so the image fit the surface.


4. Adhere images with a thin layer of Collage Pauge glossy and allow to dry.


5. Put a thin smearing of Extreme Paint in Paradise Pink on the front of each image. Allow to dry.


6. Paint the entire bangle inside and out with Collage Pauge sparkle. Allow to dry.

7. Stamp images using archival ink and a sparsely detailed flourish stamp.


8. Run a thin bead of glue along a length of yarn and work your way around the bangle wrapping and adhering the yarn to the spaces in between the images. Allow to dry.


9. Use heat setting tool to adhere crystals to images. I used two sizes and two on each image, alternating their placement.

I Love to Create Recycled Denim Book Covers

Recycled Denim Book Cover Margot Potter for I Love to Create Copyright 2009

When I asked my daughter if she needed to make book covers for her school books she looked at me what that, “Are you daft?” expression on her face. Yes, it’s official, I’m daft and I’m old. Undaunted by these facts, I was certain that book covers hadn't gone the way of record albums and After School Specials and then we saw some ready made stretchy covers at our local Big Box store.

A ha! Maybe I'm not so daft after all!

I thought we'd try and make some recycled covers instead of buying ready made. Back in my day, we whipped up covers to protect our school books using brown paper shopping bags. Those brown bags aren’t as easy to score these days. No worries! I have a huge stash of recycled jeans from a class I taught last year and that’s where this project was born. I got these jeans for pennies at my local Goodwill. You can do this for school books or for any books that get a fair amount of use to protect them. I love the little pocket for your pencils and pens or anything else you want to take along with you. Teens can personalize these any way they like and make a different one for every book.

Recycled Denim School Book Covers
Margot Potter for I Love to Create Teen Crafts
Copyright 2009

Materials
Pair of recycled stretchy jeans (You’ll be using a pant leg and a pocket)
Aleene’s Quick Dry Tacky Glue
Aleene’s Patch and Applique Glue
Tulip Fabric Spray Paint Emerald and Fuchsia
Tulip Soft Matte Fabric Paints in Azalea, Ebony and Glacier White
Tulip Pearl Dimensional Fabric Paint Clover Green
Tim Holtz idea-ology Mini Masks Regal
Star Stencil
Hero Arts Writing Stamp

Tools

Ruler
Stencil Brush
Fabric Scissors
Foam Brush

1. Cut a leg from a pair of old stretch jeans. Cut a pocket off of the back of the jeans, leaving the backing so it’s still a pocket.

2. Place your book on the jeans and determine width and length of your material. You want the material to be able fold over on both sides about 2.5” and to be able to overlap the edge of your book cover about 2.5”. The fabric when folded top and bottom should hit at exactly the width of your book. Measure twice and then cut to size.

3. Run a bead of glue along the top and bottom edge of your folded fabric, stop gluing approximately 2.5” from each edge. Allow to dry.

4. Slide the front of the book cover into each side of your folded and glued fabric, creating protective sleeve.

5. Adjust the fabric tension and glue the edge down on each side. Repeat for the back cover. Allow glue to dry.
6. Glue pocket on front of cover with Patch and Applique glue. Allow to dry.7. Decorate the pocket using a variety of fabric paints, stencils, rubber stamps and splatters. I used the Tim Holtz flourish mask with pink and green fabric spray paint, the Tim Holtz flourish stencil with the azalea paint, smeared and flicked on the green paint on the pocket with my pointer finger and stenciled the stars on with the stencil brush and black paint. 8. Use a foam brush to apply fabric paint to a rubber stamp with text and stamp on the center of the pocket. Allow to dry.