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Sunday, September 12, 2010

Coffee Filter Jack-O-Lantern


I have a Halloween workshop coming up next Sunday afternoon and decided to convert the Vintage Pumpkin into a Jack-O-Lantern.  Click here to see the exact same pumpkin without its Halloween outfit.  I used removable adhesive on all of the Halloween parts.  That way the same pumpkin can be used for the rest of the fall season.

For the eyes and nose, use the star punch.  Cut off the tips of the star to make the eyes and nose.
For the mouth, I used a piece of the skinny rick rack from the Tasteful Trim die.
For the bat, I used the Spooky stamp from the Wicked Cool stamp set and the bat punch. 

This little Jack-O-Lantern is really too cute to be spooky.

The class will be in south Fort Worth on Sunday, Sept. 19th from 2 - 5 pm.  You can make this pumpkin and other Halloween projects.  Please contact me for more information about the class.

Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng
Richland Hills, TX

Coffee Filter Frosty



This is the third project that I showed as a Workshop Wow at Stampin' Up!'s Regional in Fort Worth on Friday.  Click here to see the other projects.  After making the pumpkin, my friend, Mary, and I were brainstorming on Christmas projects that we could make.  That's when I realized that I could make two pumpkin shapes into a snowman.  That's how I came up with Frosty.  Mary, thank you for your inspiration!

I used two different white coffee filters for this project.  One is 9 ¾” and the other is 7 ¾” in diameter.  Yet both say they are for 8-12 cup coffee pots.  The bigger one is for a commercial size coffee makers. The key thing is that you want one circle that is 2 – 2 ½ inches smaller than the other one.  So if you have one size of coffee filter, you can cut it down. Or wait and see what I did instead!

Supplies

Card Stock:  Basic Black, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White
Candy Cane Christmas Designer Series Paper and Fabric
Punches:  1 ¾” Circle, Heart to Heart XL
Bitty Buttons
Crop-A-Dile
Big Shot:  Scallop Circle #2 Bigz Die, Merry Details Sizzlit
Classic Ink Pads:  Pumpkin Pie
Vanilla Shimmer Smooth Spritz
Color Catcher
Glue Dots
Multipurpose Liquid Glue
Toothpick
1 1/2” Washer
Needle and Thread
Polyester Fiberfill

Body

Spritz both filters with Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz and let dry.  You only need to cover what will be the outside of the Frosty.

 
Glue a washer (I used one that is 1 ¼ inch in diameter) to the center of the bottom circle on the inside.  The washer helps keep Frosty from falling over.  Because the filter paper is so thin, you may want to glue a piece of white card stock between the washer and filter. I used my 1 1/4" circle punch to make the circle.  If you don't have the right size punch, it's easy to use your scissors to trim the card stock to fit.  This really is a white filter.  The color didn't come out correctly.

Using needle and thread, baste around the edge of the circle.  Be sure to start and end on the outside of the circle (the part with the shimmer smooch).  I basted a little more than 1/4” from the edge.  

Place fiberfill in center of the circle.  Carefully gather the paper around it by tightening the thread.  Tie off the threads. You can see how this is done on the pumpkin tutorial.
 

Repeat for the smaller circle.  You won’t need the washer in the center. Notice the top knot on the head?  That’s because I didn’t cut off the excess even though the circle was too big.  I just basted about an inch away from the edge.  At this stage, Frosty's head reminds me of a head of garlic.  Did you know that Frosty usually wears a hat to hide when he is having a bad hair day?

  
Glue the head on the body.  You’ll need something like hot glue or lots of glue dots. I used a thick fabric glue.

Cut a scarf from the Candy Cane Christmas Designer Fabric and tie around Frosty’s neck. The scarf is 1 x 12".  I actually tore the fabric instead of cutting it so it would have a frayed edge.

For the heart, punch a small heart and attach to a bitty button.  Add a knot from the Candy Cane Christmas Designer Fabric and use a mini glue dot to attach Frosty's heart.

Hat

The hat takes a little bit of patience.  Please adjust these sizes if you make a different size Frosty.

 
Using scrap card stock, cut a template using the 1 ¾” circle punch.
Basic Black:  cut a strip that is 5 ¾ x 1 ¾, punch out a 1 ¾” circle, and die cut a 3 ½” scalloped circle.
Candy Cane Christmas Designer Series Paper:  cut a strip that is 5 ¾” x ½”.
Cherry Cobbler:  die cut the bird from Merry Details


Hat Brim:  With a pencil, mark the center of the scalloped circle.  Use this mark to center and draw a 1 ¾” circle.  Cut out the center of the circle leaving a ½” margin.   Clip to the line to form small tabs.  Fold back the tabs.


 Side Band:  Mark ½’ on the Basic Black strip.  Score and clip to the score line.  Cut off the last tab.


It’s easiest to do this next step if you have a round object that is about 1 ¾” around.  I used a bottle. 

Put the brim on the bottle, adhere the black strip to the brim tabs and form the ring at the same time.  It’s a little tricky to do both steps at the same time. 


Glue the hat brim tabs to the 1 3/4" circle to form the top of the hat or crown.  To do this, I put glue on the tabs, place the circle on the top of the hat and then used the bottle to add light pressure.

Glue Frosty's hat on with the same glue you used to attach the two snowballs.
  
Face

For the face, out of Basic Black cardstock, punch 2 large circles and 5 small ones.  I used the large and small hole punches on the Crop-A-Dile. 

Color one end of a toothpick with Pumpkin Pie craft ink for the nose. The classic ink can run if you use a liquid glue to hold the toothpick in place, so you'll be happier using the craft ink.  I used the entire toothpick because I thought the length would help hold Frosty's nose in one place. 

And Frosty is now ready for winter!


Have fun making your snowmen.

Visit my online store to get your supplies for this project.  Remember that when you purchase $25 or more in product, you are eligible for my Rewards Program.

Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng
Richland Hills, TX
My Online Store

Coffee Filter Fall Frame


This was the fourth project that I showed as a Workshop Wow at Stampin' Up!'s Fort Worth Regional on September 10th.  Click here to see the other projects.  If you read my original post, you know that this project started out as a mistake.  In fixing the problems (which you'll see), I ended up liking the final version better.


I started out with this inexpensive frame made of MDF.  My original idea was to cover the frame with distressed coffee filter paper and then add fall colored leaves for a country or rustic look.  As you can tell, this frame decided it wanted to be a little more special.  However, the first steps are still the same.

Supplies 

Four 8 - 12 cup coffee filters (7 ¾” diameter):  3 unbleached and 1 white
Stamp Set:  French Foliage
Classic Ink Pads:  Soft Suede, Early Espresso, More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Not Quite Navy, Elegant Eggplant
StazOn:  Black
Stampin' Sponges
Unfinished frame.  This one is made from MDF.
Clear water-based varnish.  While I used J.W's Right-Step Water-Base Clear Varnish in a Matte Finish, other clear varnishes should work too.  Test your varnish on a piece of scrap to make sure that it works.

Distressing Coffee Filter Paper

While this technique has been around for some time, here are the steps and the colors that I used.


First crumple the paper and open it back up leaving in most of the wrinkles.


Run the Soft Suede Classic Ink Pad directly across the filter paper.


Spritz with water and let dry.


Repeat the inking and spritzing with Early Espresso.

Covering the Frame


Cover the front and sides of the frame with the distressed coffee filters.  I used three coffee filters to cover this frame.  I recommend using the same clear varnish that you will use to decoupage the leaves on for this step.  Avoid getting the varnish or glue onto the back of the frame. 


On the back, I used the flat edge file from Stampin' Up!'s distressing kit to sand off the excess paper.  Since it's not glued down, it will tear off with a clean edge as you can see here.

This is the stage where I decided the project wasn't working out the way I expected.  It didn't look like fall and adding leaves wasn't going to help.  So I decided to go in a different direction and started sponging on color.  The colors I used were More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Not Quite Navy, Elegant Eggplant.  Go from the light colors to the dark ones, which is how the colors are listed.  As the colors get darker, sponge in smaller areas.  Otherwise you won't be able to see the lighter colors.


I started with More Mustard. 


Here it is after I added the Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive.


This is how the frame looked with all of the colors sponged on.  It will get quite a bit darker when you varnish the frame so don't go too dark.  Even after you varnish, you can add more ink if you wish.  If you look carefully, you can see where I randomly stamped the script from the French Foliage stamp set with Black StazOn.

Leaves


Your eyes are not going bad.  The picture looks that way because I die cut 4 layers at the same time.  I used a white coffee filter so the leaves would show up against the frame a little better.


Flip over some of the leaves so you have more leaf shapes.  I stamped each leaf with Black StazOn and French Foliage.  Don't worry about the leaf parts not lining up exactly.  Sponge on the same colors as you used on the frame.  I used 4 oak leaves and 3 maple leaves on my frame. 


I decoupaged the leaves on by painting varnish on the frame and laying the leaf in the position that I wanted.  If you want to sponge on more color to your frame, this is the time to do it.  I then added a final coat of varnish over the entire frame. I loved how the varnish made some of the leaves look like they were blending right into the frame. 


Here is a close up of the leaf near the bottom right hand corner.  You can barely see the French Foliage script on the right hand side between the two leaves.

I hope you enjoy making this project.  I'm looking forward to trying this technique using other themes and colors.

Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng
Richland Hills, TX