March 4, 2015 By Steph Ackerman Leave a Comment

Create ART Iridescents Canvas Panel

Hi everyone, Steph Ackerman here today with a Create ART Iridescents Canvas Panel.

This fabulous product comes in some amazing colors of Ann Butler’s Iridescents. I used Aquamarine, Limelight, Sheer Copper, and Berry.

I placed a large flourish sticker on a canvas panel to use as a mask.

I used a foam brush to add assorted colors of Iridescents across the panel, gently mixing the colors where they met. The Iridescents stay wet for an extended period so you have time to more the colors around the panel.

Spritz some water on the panel.

Using a paper towel, gently pat the panel until some of the Iridescents are removed. Gently remove the sticker.

Punch circles and ink the edges with assorted Iridescents. Spell out create art with stickers and add to the canvas panel with foam adhesives for dimension.

I hope you try some Iridescents, you will love them.

Thanks for stopping by today.

February 20, 2015 By Design Team 1 Comment

Summer Iridescents Frame

Hey crafty friends, Einat Kessler here with a little inspiration!

This project started in a different direction completely! I wanted to alter an old frame I had with Ann Butler’s iridescents. I started painting it and my mind started wondering to tropical beaches and summer breeze…

I started with painting the cover with three coats of the beautiful blue color. Being impatient I dried it with a heat tool and noticed the paint is bubbling with a really fun texture!

Then I wanted to add some more texture with Ann Butler Art Screens and I used the wave pattern. I mixed a little modeling paste with the blue iridescent paint and stenciled it on the frame. That was the exact moment I decided to continue with a beach theme because those waves looked like sea weed in the water 🙂

Then I added a little more color with Ann Butler’s Crafter’s Inks to create more depth. Finally I added little starfish with the Stars stencils and some orange ink. I finished the frame with some seashells stickers and a title.

Now all I need to do is wait for summer…

Have fun creating!

Einat

February 16, 2015 By Ann Butler Leave a Comment

Faux Quilted Stamped Coaster

DIY Faux Quilted Stamped Coaster. By now you all must know that I love using my stamp lines to do Faux Quilting…on almost any surface: Fabric, Paper, Wood, Canvases, etc… Today I am going to show you how easy it is to make a…

Faux Quilted Stamped Coaster!

To get started you will need:

Ann Butler’s Background Basics Stamps by Clearsnap, assorted
Ann Butler’s Crafter’s Ink by Clearsnap, assorted colors
Colorbox Embossing Powder, Clear
Sharpie Fine Point Pen, Black
Marble Coasters
Heat Gun

Stamp with color of choice starting in a corner.

Sprinkle on embossing powder.

Heat set. Then continue until the entire tile is covered.

Add stitching lines with Sharpie.

That’s it…quick and easy!

September 23, 2014 By Design Team 1 Comment

Flower Pot with Ann Butler Faux Quilting Stamps

Hi everyone. Living in the midwest, it’s very hard to say good-bye to summer (especially when we see so little of it). Today’s project is a Flower Pot. I used Ann Butler’s Iridescents and Faux Quilting stamps to spruce up a plain old flower pot.

Supplies:
2″ Stripes Hearts Dots Faux Quilting stamp set by Ann Butler
Ann Butler Iridescents by Earth Safe Finishes in Aquamarine
Flower Pot
Staz-On ink in black, ribbon and glue to adhere ribbon
Oh and a cute flower!

Steps:
-I painted the first layer of Aquamarine Iridescents using a foam brush.
-You’ll see from the next couple photos that what I originally intended to do and what I did, resulted in something completely different. That tends to happen quite often for me.
I wanted to paint an overlay color, in this case a mixture of grey and a metallic finish grey. I lightly applied this layer. The initial thought was that I would be able to scratch away /or distress much of it so the Aquamarine would really came through. Well, the greys were a bit thicker than expected, even with the light brushing. So, I moved to plan B.

-After realizing that I wasn’t going to get the results I originally thought, I decided to use this Scratch Art tool that I’ve had for years. I made random scratch marks and lines all over the greys. Some were very deep scratches while others were not. I only did this on the bottom of the pot.

Apologies, but the photos for the last few steps are unavailable. I’m not sure what happened to them, but they did not download. Steps are pretty straightforward though.
-Next, I painted another layer of the Aquamarine Iridescents.
-Stamp the 2″ Dots around the top ledge of the pot with Staz-On ink in black. I then stamped the same 2″ Dots around the bottom of the pot. To ensure this was a straight line, I just took a piece of cardstock and masked around to leave a 1/2″ or so area to stamp.
-Using some scrap pieces of ribbon I had, I adhered this around the edges of stamped images, just to add a little something and to showcase the Dots border.
-Final step is to add some dirt and a cute flower. I had a tiny sunflower that came up in my back yard, so I used it in the pot. I thought this would make a fun addition to my office!

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day!
Paula

July 28, 2014 By Beth Watson 3 Comments

Ann Butler Designs Faux Quilted Makin’s Clay Bowls

You all know that I have been ++ enthusiastically creating traditional style faux quilted projects that mimic actual quilt patterns. With this latest project, I decided to step out of my comfort zone and see what I could create with Makin’s Clay. Ann works and designs for Makin’s and I had the pleasure of demoing for them at the CHA Winter 2014 Show. This clay is versatile. It is already conditioned right out of the package and since it is air dry, it is very easy to work with AND you don’t need a lot of special tools! I have another project that I created with the leftover pieces of Clay that I will share on my blog next week, so stay tuned!

Now, on to my project…

Materials:
Ann Butler Designs Faux Qulited Stamps by Unity – 2″ Stripes.Dots.Hearts. and 1″ Leaves All Over
Ann Butler Designs Crafters Ink by Clearsnap – Lilac and Limelight
Makin’s Clay – White Air Dry Clay and Tools – roller and cutters set
Non-stick craft sheet, assorted bowls, plastic wrap, acrylic stamp block,
plastic zipper bag, damp paper towel.

Instructions:
1. Roll out white clay to about 1/8″ thick on craft sheet using the roller tool. turn craft sheet as you roll, so your clay is as round as possible.
2. Place bowl upside down on Clay and cut around rim with straight cutter tool. NOTE: place excess clay in plastic zipper bag with damp paper towel, so that it does not dry out.

3. Flip circle over and smooth any rough edges with your finger. Place 2″ Dots. stamp on block, ink with Lilac and stamp in center of circle. NOTE: I eyeballed the stamp placement because once curved you won’t notice the alignment. Push firmly, but not too hard or your stamp pattern will be distorted in the clay. Continue stamping, alternating between Strips and Dots until the circle of Clay is covered.

4. Place plastic wrap on bottom of bowl, place stamped Clay circle upside down on the bowl. Press gently with your hands, so that the clay forms to the shape of the bowl. Set aside to dry overnight.

5. Repeat steps with a different size bowl using the 1″ Vine Stamp from the Doily Picnic set and Limelight Ink.

6. Once bowls dry, fill and enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by! – Beth

July 16, 2014 By Design Team 3 Comments

Welcome Home EZ DE’S Sign

Today, my dear crafty friends, I am going to share my Welcome Home sign and I really hope that you like it.

The idea of this sign came from those kid’s very first houses drawings; those rectangles or squares and triangle roof were my inspiration for this project. As Ann’s stamps are squares and triangles it was just ” must to do” project. And here it is as a finished sign; add it to a big flower arrangement or put in a nice jar and it can be used again and again.

Each house was hand cut in a different shape after I stamped Ann ‘s stamps over a white thick cardstock. Then I colored the house body with Ann Butler’s Clearsnap Crafter’s Inks and arranged the house in the final position. The roofs were stamped with triangle stamps and I tried to fit the roof color to the house and to its neighbours.

I stamped HOME letters with Ann’s delicious alphabet set and added some die cut brick walls around the letters.

Then I added a few of die cut pieces such as Welcome banner and a couple of flowers and butterflies painted with the very same Ann Butler’s inks.

Supply list:

Ann Butler’s products

Other products:

Cardstock- American Crafts
Dies- Die Versions
Bling- Flourish with a Bling
Ribbon- May Arts

May 24, 2014 By Ann Butler 47 Comments

Ann Butler Design’s Walnut Hollow Blog Hop

Welcome to the Ann Butler Designs and Walnut Hollow Blog Hop!

I am so delighted to be doing this blog hop with my Design Team and Walnut Hollows Team! Everyone was able to pick something from Walnut Hollow to decorate with the Ann Butler Design’s products from Unity Stamp Company, Clearsnap Inc and Earth Safe Finishes!

I chose to make some Garden Stakes for our Herbs, since it is not always easy for me to remember which is which.

Supplies:

Ann Butler Designs Faux Quilting™ Stamps ; 2″ Leaves All Over from Unity Stamp Company
Ann Butler Designs Iridescents™; Limelight from Earth Safe Finishes
Ann Butler’s Crafter’s Ink; Berry from Clearsnap Inc.
Ann Butler Designs EZ-De’s™ Flourish 2″ Alphabets
21″ Wood Stakes; Item Number: 40458-501by Walnut Hollow
Shrink Film; Clear by Grafix®
Chalk It Up by Earth Safe Finishes: Plum Preserves, Whipped Cream, English Tea Cake, Licorice
Small Nail

Tools:

Westcott Cutting Mat
Westcott Non Stick Scissors
Acrylic Block
Paint Brush
Heat Gun
5/8″ Hole Punch
Tweezers
Hammer

To get a deep rich color from the Iridecents™ Paint try base coating several of the stakes with different colors of Chalk It Up, you will be surprised at the different results you can get….from left to right: Plum Preserves, Whipped Cream, English Tea Cake, Licorice and then I let them dry.

I applied the Iridescent’s in Limelight to each stake to determine the color combination I wanted to go with….you can see the beautiful iridescent color on each of these stakes, all just a bit different in color because of the Chalk It Up base coat. You can also use the Iridescent’s™ Paint directly to the wood if desired.

Next I cut a piece of the Shrink Film 2″ wide by 11″ long and stamped out the word chives.

Punch a hole just above the first letter and trim off excess if needed. Hold the Shrink Film in place with the tweezers and begin to shrink it with the heat gun, following the directions on the package.

Continue shrinking until done and place an object on it if needed to help flatten the Shrink Film. Let cool and remove the object.

Stamp stakes with 2″ leaves stamp from the Leaves all Over stamp set, heat set to dry.

Add the nail near the top of the stake and place the “Chives” Shrink Film onto the stake…..

Make these fun stakes for each herb in your garden and you will always know what you have! Enjoy!!

Now for the Giveaway…..

Leave a comment below and on each of the blogs with this photo for a chance to enter the drawing for this Giveaway of Ann Butler Designs products! You will receive one entry for each comment you leave. Winner will be drawn on May 30, 2014 and notified on or before June 1, 2014.

Now be sure to check out all of the links below to see other fabulous projects!

Ann Butler (you are here)

May 24, 2014 By Design Team 42 Comments

Walnut Hollow Woodburned Card Box

Hi all! I’m excited to participate in the Ann Butler Designs and Walnut Hollow Blog Hop! Thanks for stopping by!

Ann Butler Designs is doing a giveaway with today’s BlogHop! To win the prize below, all you need to do is: Leave a comment. For each blog, leave a comment and your name will be entered into the giveaway drawing. Make sure you check the entire Blog Hop for more chances to win! Good luck!

For today’s project, I’ve created the Card Box shown above, using the Card Keeper Box from Walnut Hollow and Ann Butler Designs stamps. I just happened to have Walnut Hollow’s Woodburning Kit in my ever-growing stash of crafting supplies (don’t you love you when find something that you haven’t used in a long while?) This was SO much fun.

Let’s get started. Here’s the supply list that I used:

Walnut Hollow Card Box
Walnut Hollow Woodburning Kit
EZ-De’s Flourish 2″ Alpha
EZ-De’s 1″ Rail Fence Set
Faux Quilting Stamps by Ann Butler (I used MANY of these for the various designs- see below for detail)

Cover – 1″ Leaves all Over
Side 1 – 2″ Stripes.Dots.Hearts (used Polka Dots)
Side 2 – 2″ Doily Picnic (used mini floral design)
Side 3 – Various stripes – 1″ Stripes.Dots.Hearts , 2″ Stripes.Dots.Hearts, 1″ Leaves all Over
Side 4 – used the basket weave from the Ez-De’s 1″ Rail Fence setStep 1: Start by picking a stamp design and stamping an entire side. My first stamp was the 1″ basket weave. I stamped “somewhat” randomly over the entire side.

Step 2: I chose to do the woodburning next. You can choose to stamp all sides if you wish. If you have never used a woodburning pen, it’s pretty simple. There are a variety of tips that can be used – several come with the kit mentioned. For this particular design, I used a very small pointed tip. The woodburning process itself takes a bit of practice to get used to it. You hold it as you would a pen. I always keep a piece of wood scrap that I test on. I am by far “NO” expert on it, but I plan to continue playing around with it since I “have re-found” my tools! Using the small pointed tip, you trace the outline of the stamped images.

PLEASE note that this project is not something to be completed in a day, especially when you have lots of detail. I do a little at a time. It’s actually therapeutic for me. Also note that the woodburning tool will get extremely HOT.

Step 3: Continue stamping other sides, and woodburning each. For my “striped” side, I chose to take multiple stamps, place them on my block and line them up on the box, and stamp. I then flipped it around, stamped on the bottom of that side. I filled in the other areas.

You will also notice that I am normally not very precise. On the dots side, they are somewhat offset. When I burned them, I made some much larger and some smaller. To make them larger, you will just hold the burner tool down a bit longer.

Step 4: Cover / Top – I will be using this as a storage box for cards. So I used the EZ-De’s 2″ Alpha to stamp the word CARD across the top. Burning the letters can be a bit tricky, but take your time curving around the letters, especially as these have a bit more detail within them. I used a small burning tip for the letters as well as to write “pick a” above that. I then stamped leaves randomly using the 1″ Leaves and burned those.

Step 5: After all the sides are stamped burned, I used one of the larger tips to go around each edge of the box to distress. To do this, I just rub the edge of the tip in various directions.

Step 6: My last and final step was to modify a bit more of the small edging on the top of box. Since it’s raised, I chose not to stamp on it, but yet, use a decorative burning tip. I created a crosshatch burn all around the border.

And that’s it! Here are some close ups of each of the sides and the final once again!

I hope you’ve enjoyed the woodburned card box!

Please remember to stop by all the other blogs and check out some awesome projects using Walnut Hollow and Ann Butler Designs!

Ann Butler
Beth Watson
Connie Hall
Irit Shalom
Kristi Parker
Larissa Pitman
Lisa Rojas

Paula DeReamer

Roberta Birnbaum

Steph Ackerman
Vishu Reberholt
Judi Kauffman
Sara Shirman
Chris Wallace
Emma
Jennifer Priest
Melissa Cash

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Paula

May 16, 2014 By Beth Watson 2 Comments

Faux Quilted Bud Vase

I have had this idea floating around in my head for a while, but could not figure out how to get the “core” out of the foam block until I fixed myself an apple the other night – then it hit me – an Apple Corer! I just love moments of crafting clarity! The bright colors and bold black patterns really make this design POP! I hope you enjoy it…

MATERIALS & SUPPLIES:

Ann Butler Designs {Faux Quliting} Stamp sets – 2″ Diamonds & Plaid and 2″ Stripes. Dots. Hearts.
Ann Butler Designs EZ De’s Clear Stamps – 2″ Checkered Woven Hearts.
Colorbox Crafter’s® Ink by Ann Butler – full size ink pads in Tangelo, Lilac, Aquamarine, Sunshine, Berry and Limelight.
Earth Safe Finishes by Ann Butler Designs – Iridescent Paints in Aquamarine.
Smoothfoam – 2″ x 4″ x 8″ block.
Americana paints by DecoArt in Desert Turquoise.
Knife, Apple Corer, Graph Paper, Pencil, Ruler, Black Brush Marker, White Paint
Pen, Pink Letter Stickers to spell LOVE, Paint Brush, Test Tube, Acrylic Stamp
Block, Glue Stick

INSTRUCTIONS:
1.) Measure and cut 2″ from Smoothfoam block with serrated knife. Smooth rough edges by rubbing foam together. Remove. Section of the top of the Smoothfoam block with Apple corer. Paint with Desert Turquiose, let dry. Paint with Iridescents Aquamarine, let dry.

2.) Flip 2″ square clear stamp upside down and attach to acrylic block. Load with ink and stamp 6 solid squares, one in each color. Repeat to create another set of colored blocks, let dry. Stamp patterns on colored blocks with Night ink.

3.) Draw a heart on the colored blocks with black brush marker. Draw a rectangle inside the heart with black brush marker. Embellish with LOVE stickers and white paint pens lines and dots. Attach color blocks to back and front of Smoothfoam block.

4.) Insert test tube in hole at the top of the Smoothfoam block, fill with
flowers and ENJOY!

Thanks for stopping by -Beth

May 7, 2014 By Steph Ackerman 2 Comments

Stencilled and inked candy dish

Hi everyone, Steph here and today and I’m using Ann Butler’s line of Crafter’s Inks from Clearsnap as well as a stencil from The Crafter’s Workshop. These inks are amazingly vibrant and are perfect for using on many surfaces. They work on ceramic as easily as they work on fabric.

I picked up this ceramic dish after the holidays figuring I’d be able to use it somehow. I love the vibrant colors of Ann Butler’s Crafter’s inks so I decided to use them with The Crafter’s Workshop stencil on this ceramic dish.

Holding the stencil in place while I worked, and using art daubers, I inked the flowers with Sunshine, Tangerine, and Berry inks, and the leaves with Aquamarine ink, blending the colors slightly.

I moved the stencil around the dish, inking each section before moving on to the next section.

Once I finished inking the dish, I heat set the inks to be sure the design would stay on the ceramic.

This is a perfect accent piece to use as a spring candy holder. Another idea would be to wrap it up with cellophane and give it as a gift and since Mother’s Day is this weekend, wouldn’t this be a wonderful gift for Mom.

Thanks for stopping by.

Steph