August Flamingo Four

It's time for August's Flamingo Four!  This month, three other designers and I worked with these four items:

                                        1) Fancy Pants rub-ons

                                        2) Maya Road Vintage Trinkets

                                        3) miscellaneous empty box

                                        4) two chess pieces

Abigail's Take

I took the red handle off of the clear plastic box and replaced it with a piece of twine. I wanted it to be more of a shadow box. I used some Pink Paislee Secret Crush paper to make backgrounds for the shadow box. I used the rub-ons to decorate the paper, added the flower and then the chess pieces.

Erin's Take

We always get the oddest items for our Flamingo 4 projects, which is so much fun.  I never know what I am going to create until I let the objects sit and marinate for awhile.  I knew I wanted to do something with the box as a hidden object inside it, then it hit me, the chess pieces are the hidden items. I played with the beaded flowers and bam - pull them apart and you got wings.  This got me thinking of the Disney movie Fantasia on the scene with all the mythological creatures, and in it were the Pegasus mom and dad with the babies.  Dad is a black winged horse and mom is a white winged horse (the babies are all different colors of blue, pink, yellow, etc).  I envision the box as their secret love nest, the hidden romance of good and evil, light and dark, or something like that.  So this is our glimpse of the mythological hidden romance.

I pulled apart one of the beaded flowers and placed 2 petals on the white chess piece as "wings" and then placed the remainder of the flower on the black chessmen for his wings. They are nestled in a "bed of grass" which is Maya Road trim.

All around the box I used the rub-ons to decorate the love nest.  I overlapped and surrounded all sides of the box with the flowers, vines, and dots from the rub-on pack.

After taking off the red handle, I used wire to secure hold the front of the box open and then used Zip-Dry glue to glue the hinges in place so the box would stay in a permanent open position so it appears that we are peaking into the box.  I then removed the wire once the glue dried.

Alicia's Take

The chess pieces really presented a challenge for me this month!  I started out by coating the entire inside of the box with Staz-On ink in Teal Blue and let it dry.  Then I put a rub-on accent across the bottom of the lid of the box and around the sides.  I knew I wanted to adhere the Maya Road flower to the lid of the box, but I needed to figure out what to do with the chess pieces.  I decided to use them as "stamps" to stamp the circle images in Gesso on to the box. After they dried, I colored them with Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Sweet Cherry.

Here is a look at the back side of the box.

Now I have a little box to house some of my sequins when I travel to crops.

Cindy's Take

When I begin a Flamingo Four project, I try to focus on the most difficult item(s) first.  Rub-ons and flowers could go on anything... layouts, cards, tags, altered items, etc.  But an empty box and chess pieces can't, so I decided to start with those.  As I played around with them, I realized that the chess pieces fit perfectly in the box.  Hmm.. what if I filled the box with all sorts of game-related items?  

By happy coincidence, I had a deck of miniature playing cards sitting 2 feet away on my desk, so I pulled out the 4 aces and put them in the box.  The fit was perfect.  I added some poker chips, dice, and Scrabble tiles until the box was stuffed.  

On to the rub-ons.  One of them said "Play," which was perfect for my theme.  I transferred it on the box, then added a few white dots to draw attention to the word.  

Finally, the sequin flowers.  After experimenting for awhile, I took apart the flowers and put the sequins in the bottom of the box along with some additional gold sequins.  They provided a great bed for all the items to sit in and helped give the box a more finished look.  

Here's my project:

 

That wraps up another fun Flamingo Four! We'd love to see your take. If you make something using the same four supplies as our designers, send us a picture and we'll feature it here on the blog. To find the materials we used (and so much more!) visit the Flamingo Scraps store!

July Flamingo Four

It's time for July's Flamingo Four!  This month, three other designers and I worked with these items:

 

                               1) Pink Paislee Mistables patterned paper
                               2) Pink Paislee Mistables die cut card
                               3) Empty Maya Road spool
                               4) Pink Paislee "Nantucket" wood shapes


Erin's Take

This past April I got both of my boys a scooter and they LOVED them.  In the pictures you can see my boys, Morgan in front in orange and Brandon in the back, scooting down the sidewalk in front of our house as I sit in the front yard grass with Catherine enjoying a beautiful spring day.

I used the resist paper as my background, adding in orange and teal mist to pop out the colors.  Then I layered the cut-off tops of the trim reel (painted with gesso and misted orange) along with some of the wooden parts and the journaling tag under the pictures with a few added flowers.  I used the wooden words and arrow and misted them in the same teal color to match the paper.  I then wrote the journaling on the same teal color in cardstock to bring it all together.  The journaling says "Bruised hands, scraped knees, falling off, running into stuff, the wind in this face, laughter, and endless moments of fun with their first scooters.  They played until the heat of Texas summer set in, then they moved to scooting indoors in our hallways.  What fun these scooters have been in 2013."

Ramona's Take

This month’s supplies really stumped me.  After throwing several ideas around I decided on a old film canister.  First, I applied gesso to the spool and then painted it black.  I cut the filmstrip on the Silhouette.  I added 24 black and white pictures, sized 2 inches.  Over the photos I put pieces of sheet protector (also cut to 2 inches) and applied with score tape before adding the photos so it would actually look like film itself.

Here is a picture of the film canister closed with magnets.   I used the wood pieces from Pink Paislee to close it up.

Here is how the film rolls out of the canister to reveal the photos.  This could easily taken 48 pictures, but I wanted to save the back to add my other nephew Chase’s pictures to it.

This picture shows the fourth item from the Flamingo Four kit, the journaling card.

This shows the canister open from the top.  You just pull the filmstrip out and then have to roll it back up when done looking at the pictures.

Other products I used not included in the kit are: black cardstock, Tim Holtz Distress Paint Honey Mustard, sheet protectors, Dot Magnets and washi tape.


Melissa's Take

I spray painted the spool silver to start, and drilled holes into the saucer part of the spool. From there, I strung beading twine to create the hanging portion of the mobile and then glued the same twine, wrapped up the middle of the spool. I inked the resist tag and paper with Prima chalk inks in beachy colors. Then, I glued the tag over the wrapped twine in the middle and affixed the "explore" portion of the wood embellishment, along with the wooden star and some regular miniature seashells. Next, I colored all of the wood pieces with the same colors of Prima chalk inks and tied them to the twine, at the bottom. They needed more weight, so I took complimentary colored beach glass, wrapped it in twine and glued it above each of the wooden pieces. For the paper, I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut seashells, glued them back-to-back, and tied them to the remaining two twine strings. To space out the twine a bit more, I took heavy gauge beading wire and made a woven circle with it. 

Cindy's Take

When I saw these four items, the old Sesame Street song ran through my head: "One of these things is not like the others...."  Clearly, the tricky items this month would be the empty spool. I set it aside.  I dug through my extra photos looking for something summery and beachy.  I found a picture from 2010 of my husband and our son holding hands at the beach.  Perfect!  

I picked a sea star from the wood shapes and sprayed it with the last of my Clam Bake Glimmer Mist from the November Flamingo Four.  The color and the shimmer were just what I'd hoped for.  While it was drying, I used my hands to smear gesso on the patterned paper, then wiped it with a sandy brown paint and let it dry.  Next, I mixed light blue paint with some glittery paint and dipped the end of the spool in the mixture and stamped it onto the paper repeatedly.  It turned out exactly as I'd envisioned!  I tore the die cut card and layered it with a scrap of dark blue vellum and some grayish handmade (by someone else) paper and put the photo on top.   

After adhering everything, the final step was to add a title and an additional embellishment.  I found a Mrs. Grossman's "love" sticker and inked it to match the sea star, then paired it with a Scenic Route rub-on.  I added a second Scenic Route rub-on, a heart, to the left of the photo.

That wraps up another fun Flamingo Four! We'd love to see your take. If you make something using the same four supplies as our designers, send us a picture and we'll feature it here on the blog. To find the materials we used (and so much more!) visit the Flamingo Scraps store!

June Flamingo Four

It's time for another Flamingo Four!  This month, three other designers and I worked with these four items:

                                1) wood frame- Sheffield Custom Frames

                                2) snowflake stencil- Tattered Angels

                                3) dimensional quotes- miscellaneous

                                4) cupcake topper- miscellaneous

Melissa's Take

I'm not going to lie! This Flamingo 4 was a challenge for me. I started off with the frame, and painted it with gesso as a base, and then misted it with Primrose Color Shine. Then I took some modeling paste and tinted it with Georgia Peach Color Shine and used the mask to lay down the modeling paste. 

Next, I played with the cupcake topper and decided I liked the color, the texture, but not the stick or the clip for it, so I took it apart! From there, I decided it made a nice backer on the frame and gave it a great burst of color, so I used some glue dots to stick it to the back. I decided that I would feature one of the dimensional quotes, so I cut a small piece of chipboard, painted it with gesso and then sprayed it Primrose to match the frame. Once it dried, I attached it to the cupcake topper and then stuck the quote over it. For added interest, I attached a few flowers.

Abigail's Take

The first thing I did was to paint the frame with Tim Holtz Distress Paint. I used the Walnut Stain and let it dry completely. Then I used the Weathered Wood to go over the surface, but avoiding the nooks and crannies. Lastly I used the Snowflake stencil from Tattered Angels and misted over the frame with a light blue. I then I used some Pink Paislee Secret Crush paper to make a background.

I could have put the paper closer to the front, but I wanted to make kind of a shadow box effect.

I love the slight hint of a pattern created with the stencil and the faux vintage effect of the layering of the paint. 

Alicia's Take

For this month's Flamingo Four, I decided to create a frame with a bit of a "textured" look to it.  I painted the frame with a base coat of yellow paint, and let it dry.  Then I used the snowflake mask across the face of the frame and applied the pink paint to it.  After that layer dried, it was a bit too bright for me, so I watered down some apricot colored paint and did a light coat across the whole thing, then followed that up with a watered down whitewash coat as well.  Once I had it toned down, I decided to cut the stick off of the paper flower and adhered the "Life is in Bloom" saying to the front.  I adhered that to the frame and tucked the "Beautiful" metal embellishment behind the flower to create a little cluster in the bottom corner.  Now, all I need to do is find the right picture to put in it!

Cindy's Take

Last time, I struggled with incorporating the very heavy metal clothespin into my project.  This month, it was the cupcake topper that really challenged me.  That and the fact that none of my quotes had any of the same colors as the topper.  Then there's the stencil.  A snowflake stencil would be easy for a winter project, but there are no winter colors in any of the other items... and besides, this is June!  

As I played around with the frame, I realized that the opening was the perfect size to hold a gift card.  I popped a Baskin-Robbins gift card into the frame, then noticed that the pink of their logo matched one of the dimensional quotes I needed to use.  I cut down the quote from "Enjoy your life" to just "Enjoy" and started playing around.  What if I used the blue of the logo to paint the frame, then used just part of the snowflake stencil to stamp in pink?  That would have more of a summery tropical feel instead of a wintry snowflake feel.  It took awhile to mix the perfect shade of pink and to decide what part of the stencil to use as a stamp, but with three items used, the project was definitely coming together.

But what about the green and orange cupcake topper that was nearly as large as the frame?  It just wasn't working.  Eventually, I tore it apart.  I used the chipboard hook end and painted it the same blue as the frame and attached it as a hanger.  I cut the tiny bit of green tissue paper from the orange and used it as an accent color.  Here's the finished project:

When the gift card is removed, the recipient can use it as a frame.

 

That wraps up another fun Flamingo Four! We'd love to see your take. If you make something using the same four supplies as our designers, send us a picture and we'll feature it here on the blog. To find the materials we used (and so much more!) visit the Flamingo Scraps store!

April Flamingo Four

It's time for another Flamingo Four!  This month, three other designers and I worked with these products:

                   1) Pink Paislee 'Parisian Anthology' Corrugated Alphabet
                   2) Prima Raja Sequin
                   3) Maya Road Kraft Mini Calendar
                   4) Graphic 45 Metal Clothespin

This is my 7th time doing the Flamingo Four and I am definitely used to working with challenging items.  But my fellow designers and I agree that the metal clothespin in this month's Flamingo Four has been the most difficult item to date by far.  Let's see what everyone made using these tricky items!


Alicia's Take

I was really stumped on how to bring these items together (especially that clothes pin... man is that thing solid!)  But the sequin centers reminded me of the hand-beaded flowers that my husband's Aunt Carol made for my wedding bouquet, so I thought I would put together a little frame with our last name, and one of the little calendars with our anniversary circled to help my husband remember the important date.  I used some inks and colored the letters and arranged them on some cardstock to fit the frame.  I then added the sequin centers as accents to the letters and nestled that calendar in.  Because of the heft of the clothes pin, I just adhered it into the corner so the frame itself could help support it, with the sentiment "Remember" facing outward.

Ramona's Take

This set of items was extremely hard for me.  I knew I wanted to make something about how the months roll past so quickly, so I made a canvas with the months flying.  After going from dark to light, I needed to brighten it up, so threw on some purple Tattered Angels…still not bright enough…Tim Holtz Seeded Preserves Distress Paint….then some distress ink….nope…that did not do it.  I picked the brightest turquoise I could find, and using a stencil just started dabbing paint. Then I thought, "What if I outlined it with a black sharpie?"  That was the look I was trying to achieve in the first place.   I am thankful that Suzanne pushes us with the Flamingo Four… because this one did push me to my limits!

Here's a closer look:

How did it get so late so soon?
It's night before it's afternoon.
December is here before it's June.
My goodness how the time has flewn.
How did it get so late so soon?
― Dr. Seuss

Erin's Take

My son Brandon is three, and three is hard.  I'm not sure why they call it the terrible twos since three is worse.  Brandon's life changed a lot at three: he got a new sister and Daddy is in Afghanistan.  That is a lot for a little guy to deal with... or, should I say for Mommy to deal with!

The picture was taken at a Chuck E. Cheese photo booth, and I thought it was just too cool to not do something with it.  I created this layout to remind me of how chaotic his life (and our whole family) is at age three.

I used all the supplies given to us, including the packaging.  Here you can see them in their final form up close.  I used the monthly cards and cut out letters to create the new words of his name and of his life.  I used the box, string, and alpha chipboard (in 2 ways) for background, texture, and for the word three.  The sequin gems were used for texture and the metal clip was used as an addition to the words to describe my son.

Cindy's Take

Right away, I knew that the clothespin would be the hardest item for me, so I did some experimentation.  If I put paper over it, could I do a rubbing and get a decent print of the engraved word?  Nope.  If I inked the clothespin and treated it like a stamp, would the word show?  Nope. What would happen if I took the clothespin apart? Hmmm....

While I mulled over possibilities with the clothespin, I got right to work with the rest of the supplies.  I decided that I was going to use the packaging from the alphabet as the base of my project.  The clear window would be perfect for a picture, so I printed out one of my new niece, Allison and inserted it behind the window.  The box would be ideal for holding those little momentos that don't fit in a photo album, like her hospital bracelet.  

Next, I chose one of the round calendar shapes, then punched a circle from black cardstock.  I selected an A from the corrugated letters, covered it with lavender ink, and then brushed gold ink over the top.  I pulled out two of the sequins.

When I layered them all together, it looked like this.  

 

Here's the finished project:

 

Did you notice the clothespin?  I ended up dividing the two halves and gluing them toward the bottom of the box.  With the weight cut in half, the pieces weren't too heavy for glue to hold.  

That wraps up another fun Flamingo Four! We'd love to see your take. If you make something using the same four supplies as our designers, send us a picture and we'll feature it here on the blog. To find the materials we used (and so much more!) visit the Flamingo Scraps store!

March Flamingo Four

It's time for another Flamingo Four! This month, three other designers and I worked with these products:

          1)  4x4 canvas

          2)  6x6 paper pad - Pink Paislee "Indigo Bleu"

          3)  Wendy Vecchi Art Parts - Pocket Watch

          4)  Maya Road Acrylic People key chain

Abigail's Take

I have to admit, I am not a fan of the whole potty people stick figure trend. But, wait til you see what I made with them! I was gonna give it as a gift, but now I want to keep it!

The first "challenge" with this project was that it is tiny! 4x4 inches is not a lot of space! The first thing I did was use the potty people stick figures as masks for a color mist. I laid them strategically where the man and woman were holding hands. Then I used a piece of paper as a mask and I cut a heart shape out of it. I laid that down over the canvas and used a liquid glue to cover the heart area. Then I sprinkled some translucent glitter on it to make a sparkly heart. I was a little surprised at how much the glitter covered. I was wanting the potty people stick figure's hand holding to show through a lot more.  I decided to outline the heart a little more just so it would stand out. I spattered some black ink over the canvas and rubbed some teal ink around the edges.

The next thing I did was mist the chipboard pocket watch. I used the same mist as on the canvas, but it came out a lot different because of the original color. I also added a little bit of glitter glue to the pocket watch to add some shine and glam. The paper behind the watch blends nicely with all the colors and ties things together.

I love the butterfly resting on the edge of the heart!  I made this with a punch and a sheet of printed words in the paper pack. So many cute ones to choose from but I loved this one with the text on it soooo much!

Erin's Take

When I first saw items and pondered what to do, I thought of the people as a family, so it took it from there.  I painted my mini canvas with a distressed look of paint colors (blue, green, yellow, white, and brown) with the same feel and tones as the papers I used, and them let it dry completely.

I used a green and a purple alcohol inks to color the people, making the adults more mottled looking by touching them more times with my felt dauber.

I used the same paint colors (the lighter ones) on the pocket watch as on the canvas, then used the blue distress ink over it when it dried to give it an even more distressed feel.

I then assembled the people and the watch onto the canvas (with zip dry glue), then added the family tag stickers and the twine.

I love this little mini canvas!  I now have a special place for it in my scrap room up on the wall.

Melissa's Take

When I saw this month's Flamingo 4, I immediately thought the people needed clothes, and the paper was perfect for that. The big challenge for me was what kind of clothes to make... enter my new bookshelf that I've got out wedding photo and honeymoon photo album displayed at the top and I knew immediately what to do!

I dressed the smaller figures from the key chain to look like a bride and groom, painted the pocket watch shape with some Weathered Wood Distress Paint, and backed it with paper. The canvas was painted with gesso, and a square of the Indigo Bleu paper was glued to it. I then added the Weathered Wood paint to the edges and glued the pocket watch shape down, the people on the pocket watch, and added the "est. 2003" because that's when my husband and I were married.

I really love the way I did the bride's dress, with border punched layers that I curled upwards to give dimension, and the bow tie on the groom. Isn't it just adorable?

In the end, it looked great on my bookshelf! It adds some personality to an otherwise boring arrangement, and the size is perfect!

Cindy's Take

As usual, there were some tricky components in this set of items!  The 4x4 canvas makes a natural base, but its small size means that it would be very difficult to fit the other items onto it.  But a solution came to me quickly this time.  I love when that happens!  

I cut a yellow piece of the paper to just under 4x4 then dug through my stamps.  I found a Fiskars "enjoy..." stamp and a Scenic Route "TODAY" and stamped them together on the upper left hand corner of the paper.  I used matte Mod Podge to attach the paper to the canvas. While I was waiting for that to dry, I painted the pocket watch black.

 

I took apart the key chain and selected the woman.  I peeled the protective film off the acrylic, then put the acrylic back on the chain for a future use.  I put spray adhesive all over the protective film and pressed it to a sheet of type paper.  Then I fussy-cut out the shape.  I pulled out two different prints - a blue for her dress and yellow floral for her hair.  I cut the hair by using a scallop circle punch, then shifting the shape and punching the other side.

 

I layered these together and let them dry.  Then I used the Mod Podge to add a few more shapes to the canvas.  When that was dry, I turned the canvas over and attached the pocket watch.

 

Here's my finished project.  Enjoy today - an important reminder for us all.  

 

That wraps up another fun Flamingo Four!  We'd love to see your take. If you make something using the same four supplies as our designers, please let us know and we'll feature it here on the blog. To find the materials we used (and so much more!) visit the store at www.flamingoscraps.com!