Take-Out Twinkler

Since November 2009, I've had the pleasure of being a part of a design team designing projects for Aqua-Gems using their products--Aqua Gems Liquid Marbles and BrightSPOT Submersible LED Accent Lights. I've been given permission to share my craft designs here on my blog. To see all craft designs I've featured, click on the label "craft design" at the end of this post.

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This project is so fun to make because it's really easy and very inexpensive. It's a versatile project that has a lot of possible applications (see "Ideas" section below).

Materials:

• 1 translucent plastic take-out container (Dollar Tree has this pre-decorated one or you could buy a plain on and draw your design on with Sharpie markers)
• 3 BrightSPOT submersible LED accent lights (I used blue, red and pink)
• Aqua Gems (I used clear)

Directions:

1. Put a 1 inch layer of Aqua Gems in the bottom of take-out container
2. Set one BrightSPOT on top of Aqua Gems with bulb facing out about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch in from sides of container
3. Put another 1-2 inch layer of Aqua Gems burying light
4. Set one BrightSPOT on top of second layer of Aqua Gems on opposite side than first BrightSPOT
5. Put another 1-2 inch layer of Aqua Gems in burying light
6. Set last BrightSPOT on top of third layer in line with first
7. Fill container full with Aqua Gems burying last light
8. Close flaps of container and your done!

Ideas:

• String together multiple Take-Out Twinklers as a lighted “garland” and hang for a party
• Place multiple Take-Out Twinklers along a walkway leading up to the door to welcome guests to a nighttime party
• Tie helium-filled balloons to handle and use as a centerpiece on a table or make multiple ones for a larger room with many tables
• Jazz up the top by putting the stem of a single big showy flower through the small space in the top between the flaps. The Aqua Gems will keep it hydrated. A gerbera daisy would look great.
  

Click here to visit the Aqua Gems website for more information
or to buy Aqua Gems Liquid Marbles
and BrightSPOT Submersible LED Accent Lights for this project

Disclosure: I was paid to design the featured project. I AM NOT being paid to feature this project or product(s) on my blog and WILL NOT receive compensation for clicks through to the company website featuring the product(s)

Dancing Dear Abigail Girl

After finishing up the design work on the Dear Abigail Girl for DearAbigail.net, Abby wanted me to come up with an excited dancing version of our little gal. She wanted to pair the art with one of her favorite Marilyn Monroe quotes so she could use it as a Facebook button.

Here's the exciting news...

Abby wants this art to be available to anyone that wants to buy it for only $0.99 at the Rosehaven Cottage Digital Download Shop (click here to download it). It is also available without the DearAbigail.net lettering at the bottom (click here to download that version).

I can also add custom lettering to the bottom if you drop me a note at dustinginpearls at yahoo dot com with a special request--and it will still cost only $0.99.

Dear Abigail Girl

Over the past few weeks, I've had the privilege of working with Abigail at Dear Abigail to design and illustrate the "Dear Abigail Girl" to appear on a sidebar button on Abigail's newly burgeoning website for girls. Abigail had a great vision and articulated it so clearly. She wanted a curly-haired girl playing dress-up in colors that coordinated with her website's color palette. Because Abigail's website looks like a bulletin board, she wanted the illustration to look like it was taped up to the "bulletin board". So I was able to create that for her too. The Dear Abigail Girl is now being incorporated into the website by Abigail's coders and should make her debut soon.

Click here to visit Dear Abigail

Lighted Kissing Ball

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The above arrangement is another of the design projects I've been working on for Aqua-Gems using their products--Aqua Gems Liquid Marbles and BrightSPOT Submersible LED Accent Lights.

I've named this design "Lighted Kissing Ball". The above arrangement is made with fresh roses and lemon leaf leaves for greens, but I also made it up in a silk sample. Here are the steps on how to assemble one for yourself.

Materials list:

1 Gala Bouquet Holder by FloraCraft (from craft store)
1 Bright Spot light (used white)
Aqua Gems (any color--I used purple)
48 fresh roses (as shown) or 24 silk roses
Ribbon
Green leaves for filler (for silks use green leaves from stems)

Directions:

1. Carefully open bouquet holder at middle seam and remove floral foam (slide a dull knife around the middle if necessary)
2. Using a butter knife or flathead screwdriver, remove plastic plug separating globe from bouquet handle
3. Fill hollow handle with Aqua Gems
4. Turn on Bright Spot and push up into the bottom of the floral foam (cut out foam material if necessary)
5. Replace floral foam in holder with light shining down
6. Snap holder back together
7. Arrange flowers in floral foam so the edges touch and all foam is covered
   
8. String ribbon through hole in bottom of holder to hang

Click here to visit the Aqua Gems website for more information
or to buy Aqua Gems Liquid Marbles
and BrightSPOT Submersible LED Accent Lights for this project

Disclosure: I was paid to design the featured project. I AM NOT being paid to feature this project or product(s) on my blog and WILL NOT receive compensation for clicks through to the company website featuring the product(s)

Lighted Carnation Parfait Centerpiece

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The past two weeks I've been working on a confidential design job that I can finally write about. I've been designing projects for Aqua-Gems using their products--Aqua Gems Liquid Marbles and BrightSPOT Submersible LED Accent Lights. A number of the design projects I've created will be used in a large retail craft/fabric store account that Aqua-Gems has, but I've been given the green light to showcase them on my blog too!

The first is a lighted centerpiece I've named "Carnation Parfait". Here are the steps on how to assembly one for yourself.

Materials list:

1 parfait or sundae glass (I got mine at a restaurant supply store)
1 drinking straw
1 BrightSPOT light (I used pink)
1 package of Aqua Gems Liquid Marbles (I used pink)
6 standard carnations in a color matching the Aqua Gems you use
2 white standard carnations
1 artificial red cherry or cranberry on a pick wire (from craft store)

Directions:

1) Turn on the BrightSPOT and slide the drinking straw over the bulb of the light (see photos below)




2) Place a small amount of hydrated Aqua Gems Liquid Marbles in bottom of parfait glass and nest BrightSPOT in Aqua Gems (see photo below)



3) Fill the parfait glass full of Aqua Gems Liquid Marbles

4) Position straw just to the right or left of center

5) Cut the carnation stems to 3-4 inches in length

6) Arrange 6 colored carnations in a circle around entire rim of parfait glass (let edges of carnations hang over the edge of glass)

7) Place 2 white carnations in top center (re-position straw if needed)

8) Place cherry on top by sliding pick wire down into center

And you're ready to "serve"!

Click here to visit the Aqua Gems website for more information
or to buy Aqua Gems Liquid Marbles
and BrightSPOT Submersible LED Accent Lights for this project

Disclosure: I was paid to design the featured project. I AM NOT being paid to feature this project or product(s) on my blog and WILL NOT receive compensation for clicks through to the company website featuring the product(s)

One-of-a-Kind Vintage Doilie Corsages

I love wearing flower brooches on my retro-looking button-up sweaters. So I came up with a way to make flower corsage brooches from vintage doilies and mismatched or disassembled vintage jewelery. I've just released the first collection in the "One-of-a-Kind Wearable Art" section at the Dusting in Pearls online store.

Each of the vintage doilies are from my favorite local antique store with each one being unique and special. I found the vintage mismatched jewelery during my thrifting trips and thought they needed a new life as something special and pretty.

Click on any of the images in this post to see details and a larger image

The One-of-a-Kind Vintage
Doilie Corsage Pin Collection
at Dusting in Pearls

Print-Your-Own Thanksgiving Invitations

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I've just released a new design for print-your-own Thanksgiving themed stationery that is very versatile and can be used in a lot of ways. There are some pretty cool reasons for buying a PDF digital file download:

• You can print as many as you need for your personal use without any fancy software--all you need is a free downloaded copy of Adobe Reader
  
• If you remember someone at the last minute, just print out another one
• Once you've printed out the stationery, you can embellish it with glitter and lots of other fun things or just leave it as-is
• You can use the same file for multiple uses such as invitations, map/directions inserts in the invitations, AND place cards
  
• If you want to customize the stationery before you print it, you can do it easily by following the instructions below
  

Customizing Your Print-Your-Own Stationery

You can always print out the PDF file just as you receive it and then hand-write on the stationery. But if you want to save yourself time and turn the PDF file into your own customized invitations, this is how!

I used MS Word to do these (because most people have that program), but this can also be done using Photoshop Elements, Photoshop CS, or many other programs that allow you to insert or place a graphic into a document as an independent layer.

In MS Word, open a new document that is 8.5"x11" (letter-sized). Go up to the "Insert" menu at the top of your document so it expands like this...

Move your cursor down to the "Picture" sub-menu and hover over the right-facing arrow to the right of the title "Picture" to bring up the pull-down menu you'll need to insert a picture.

Within that sub-menu you'll have some choices. Choose "From File..." so you can navigate through your file directories to the PDF file that you've downloaded and stored on your hard drive. Once you've found the PDF file, select it and click OK.

The PDF file will now appear within your Word document as a graphic. It will probably be slightly smaller than its actual size, so you'll need to resize it larger.

To resize without distorting the correct proportions of a graphic, hold down the Shift key while dragging one of the corners of the graphic. Continue to drag until the graphic is as large as your document page.

The next step is really important.

Double-click on the graphic itself and define the "Wrapping Style" of the graphic as "Behind Text". What you are doing is telling the program that you want the graphic to act like a piece of paper behind what you are going to type. You want them to act independently of each other with the text sitting on top of the graphic.

Now go back to your "Insert" menu and select "Text box" to create a text box. Size the box to fit inside the graphics by dragging on any corner of the box, then start typing just as you would type a regular text-only document. Using a text box allows you to drag the entire block of text around on top of the other graphic as if the text is it's own editable graphic.

Once you've typed all the text that you need in the text box, select the text box (if it isn't already selected) by clicking on it once.

Now go to the "Edit" menu at the top of your document and select "Copy". An invisible copy of that text box will be copied to an invisible clipboard in your computer's memory.

Now go to the Edit menu again and select "Paste". A duplicate text box will appear in the center of your document. It will float on top of everything just like your other text box.

To drag and position it on the lower invitation graphic, click on top of the text and continue to hold down your mouse button without releasing. Then drag the text box into place.

Another way to reposition a text box or graphic is to make sure the object is selected and then use the direction arrows to maneuver it around your screen (this works well for finely adjusting a position).

Once you're happy with how everything lines up, it's time to print out your document.

Set your printer the highest quality print settings to get the best results. You can print on cardstock (Wal-Mart has some nice cardstock that's inexpensive) or on some other nice paper you have.

Print out as many copies as you need and you're set to begin embellishing and/or cutting them out! Easy!

Click here to download the "Thanks" postcards featured in this post

Print-Your-Own Halloween Invitations

Invite all your friends to a Halloween gathering with these sweet print-your-own invitations. Print as many as you wish (for your personal use) on your own printer, on the paper you want, and even embellish them to your heart's content!

Invitations are delivered in a digital PDF file that you print. When you purchase this item, a download file will be made available to you IMMEDIATELY after you checkout.

The PDF file prints on 8.5"x11" and has two flat postcard-style 7"W x 5"H invitations on each page you print. Once you've printed, simply cut around the dotted lines, fill out the invitation by hand, and send them out!

Each invitation will fit in a standard A7 envelope.

Click here to download!

Behind the Scenes: Mum Dreams

I love to take macro shots (close-ups) of flowers. Sometimes the shot looks great just as it is, but sometimes I like to tweak it a bit to make it into an art photo. Here's a quick way that I do that.

I open the photo in Photoshop (I use CS3 but this will also work in Elements and other versions). The photo becomes the first layer in the file.

Using the "Place" command (under the "File" menu), I place a texture file as a new layer. In this case, I placed my texture "Lilac Dream". I then resize the texture layer so it completely covers the photo layer underneath it. It ends up looking like this:


The next step is to make the texture layer "transparent" so you can see the photo through it and get the effect of the texture mixed with the original photo.

In this case, with the texture layer selected I went to the "Layers" menu (in CS3 you can see it in the right hand side of your workspace) and in the pull-down menu under "Normal" I chose "Screen". It made the image look like this:


You can also experiment by choosing any of the options in the "Layers" menu to see if you like those effects better. Remember, "undo" is your friend. If you don't like the effect just "undo" and try something else. Nothing is permanent.

I liked the "Screen" effect for this texture and photo pairing. It worked very nicely. At this point, I could actually leave the photo the way it is, save it, and I'm done. But I like to tweak things a bit more after this step by accentuating certain elements in the photograph that only I can determine by hand.

First, I rasterize the texture layer so Photoshop allows me to edit it. Then, I select the eraser tool and set the opacity to 5-10%. I choose a soft-edged brush at about 45. Then with the texture layer selected, I start strategically erasing certain shadows around the center petals of the main mum. I use a digital tablet and stylus so it feels like I'm "drawing", but you can do the same thing with your mouse. Gentle strokes from the darkest shadows out toward the lighter areas mimic brush or pencil strokes. With the opacity set very low I only take away a little at bit at a time and feather out from the darker shadows. I only erase just a little here and there to draw out some of the detail in the focal points of the photo.

This is what the final product looks like:


Click here to download a free copy of this image to use as a desktop, wallpaper, or to print out at home

Behind the Scenes: Constance

I've had a sketch in my sketchbook for quite some time (I called her "Constance") but have been stumped as to how to finish the dress.

As I was playing with some textures yesterday, I ran across one that is the scan of the outside of a beautiful antique botanical print portfolio. I named the texture "Library Paisley". Then I started playing with it to see if I could get it to change colors, and my experiments worked! I got a great red version that I called "Library Paisley--Red" (along with some other cool color versions like peacock, violet blue, and kelly green.


Today, it dawned on me that it was the perfect pattern I had been waiting for to use as the dress for my "Constance". I cleaned up the line drawing and elongated her legs in the process. Then I used the "linear burn" method that I wrote about in the "Downward Dog" post.

To apply the pattern to her dress, I used the masking technique in Photoshop straight from my copy of Photoshop CS3 Classroom in a Book (I couldn't have done it without my book because for some reason I have a mental block when using masks and it isn't intuitive for me). The cool thing about using a mask layer is that I can change the dress to be any other pattern I want with just a few clicks.

Then I set my brush on "Watercolor Heavy Pigments" and went to work adding color to the drawing that would coordinate with the dress.

Finally, I put the fully colored "Constance" onto a background of a scanned piece of old sheet music with the opacity dialed way down. I added type with the font Jellyka Saint Andrew's Queen (free at dafont.com) and skewed it to make it look like an autographed "photo".

Here is the final art (click on the image to view larger):