How-Tuesday on Etsy & My Book!!

On Tuesday, Etsy featured the cardoard chandelier project from my book on their blog! Instructions and templates are all available right here. It's a fun weekend project and when you are done, voila, you have a chandelier!
Oh, and you will hearing a lot about my book tour over the next few weeks. I'm heading out all over the country and I hope to meet a lot of you!!

Paper Made! is available for pre-order on Amazon now.

Making it: Watercolor Striped Cards

Welcome to the first of what I hope will be many DIY projects on my blog!

I've been a bit of a nut for watercolors lately so I've been playing with a bunch of different techniques. So when 3M sent me a few rolls of their Scotch Blue painter's tape to craft around with, I came up with this very simple technique for decorating greeting cards. So let's get started!

You will need:
Premade blank cards (or cardstock to make cards)- make sure it's thick enought o handle watercolor
Self healing cutting mat
Craft knife
Ruler
Painter's tape
Watercolor paints
Small paint brush
Containers with water for your paints
Newspaper to protect your work surface
Decorative washi tape (optional but awesome!)

Step 1: Tear off a piece of tape a couple inches longer than your card and affix it to the self healing cutting mat. I love these mats because they have gridlines on them but if you don't have a cutting mat, you can use a piece of cardboard. Use your ruler and a craft knife to cut stripes in a range of widths.


Step 2: Carefully pull up all your tape stripes!


Step 3: Protect your work surface with some newspaper and affix your tape stripes to your card as desired. Make sure they are well sealed to the card and there isn't any bubbling in the tape. Start painting in between the tape stripes. I chose a palette of blues. Don't worry about perfection with the painting- it actually looks much cooler when the stripes look more like a wash of color.


Step 4: When you are finished painting and happy with your colors, let the paint dry for a few minutes and...


Step 5: Start pulling up your tape stripes!!


Step 6: If you would like to, add stripes vertically to the card as well. For this, I chose a palette of greens. It results in sort of a plaid effect.



If you want, add stripes of washi tape too!I loved this for the contrast from the wash of the watercolors to the intense pop of the tape. There are about a million variations to these designs. Add stripes on a diagonal, experiment with the width of stripes, the colors of the stripes...go wild!

Fall Leaf Napkins Tutorial on Parents.com

Fall is suddenly here and I am ready to nest. As soon as the cold weather hits, I start thinking about gathering friends and family together for big dinners. I always like to use cloth napkins; they coudn't be easier to make! I'll teach you how to print on napkins using fall leaves as your printing medium over on Parents Magazine website.

Guest Post: Pip from Meet Me at Mike's

Hello!  It's not Kayte! It's me! Pip!  Kayte is letting me post over here today, and I thought I'd show you a really simple 5 minute project for Valentine's day!

You can make these with things you have hanging about your craft room, and you can totally impress someone you LOVE with your crafty know-how!  It's true!  I give you... Doily Hearts! 

      

And thank you for having me!

 

xx Pip

Thanks Pip for this amazing tutorial! This is totally adorable! And a perfect project for all of those out there like me who are totally snowed in! 

New Craft Stylish Post- An Artful Scarf from Scraps

Here's my latest Craft Stylish project, my attempt to duplicate a friend's pricey museum shop scarf. It was pretty time consuming but the results were worth it. The secret ingredient: water soluble stabilizer. It disappears when you submerge it in water leaving just the beautiful web of threads and scraps.