eCraft Monday Design Team Project

 

Hi everybody!  Less than 3 weeks until Christmas!!!  Are you ready?  This time of year always seems to go by in a blink of an eye!  Every year, I try to accomplish my “Christmas Crafty To-Do List” and one of the items on my list is a gift for the teacher!  A few years ago when my son started attending pre-school, I asked a friend of mine who is a teacher what makes for a good teacher gift.  Her recommendations were…No Ornaments…No Coffee Mugs…Gift Cards…YES!  In our area, the teachers don’t have as much funding as they once did for classroom supplies.  Often, the teachers will send home a request to the parents to send in supplies.  The problem is that there are families that cannot afford to send in the supplies.  These teachers tend to provide the missing supplies out of their own pocket because they don’t want these children to be left out.  So, because of this, I always give a gift card to an office supply store.  However…my crafty nature, just won’t let that be it!

 

For the past three years or so, I have also given the teachers a set of handmade tags for their Christmas gifts, and they love them.  This year however, my son has the same teacher that he did last year.  On top of that, last year, for the last 3 days of school, he had a substitute teacher because her family all came down with a horrible flu.  Because of this, she did not get any of her Christmas gifts until after the New Year when the kids returned from Christmas break.  So, I know that she still has the tags that I made her last year, so I wanted to come up with a new gift for her this year.

 

Hello Pinterest!  I got incredibly inspired by the melt art pictures that I saw here.  Here are some of the ones that inspired my gift.

Source: cmybacon.com via K on Pinterest

Source: offbeathome.com via Kirsten on Pinterest

Source: weheartit.com via Lindsay on Pinterest

 

So, I set about to create some Melt Art for the teacher.  I did want to personalize it for her, so that is where my eCraft helped me out!

 

 

I used the eCraftshop Pro software to cut out the N from the Lettering Delights LD Mon Cherie font and cut it out of a piece of chipboard from an old gift box.  Yes, I recycle those too!  I used this because it was white one side and I wanted that for the monogram.  After cutting out the N, I swiped the edges of it with some white pigment ink so that you would not see the kraft colored edges.  I then covered the entire N in embossing ink and used Clear UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) and melted it with my heat gun.  My heat gun got a work out with this project!  The UTEE gave the N a glossy appearance and just added that little something that it needed.

 

(BTW, my hubby doesn’t normally come into my craft space, but he did one day and saw this sitting on my desk.  He loved it!  When I told him that I was giving it to the teacher, he insisted that I make some for our kids.  That will wait until after Christmas, but I just love getting the feedback especially from him!  Thanks honey!)

 

 

This project is not complete without a card to go with it!  After all, I need to put that gift card somewhere!  I decided to make a Thank You card instead of a Christmas card for the teacher because I really wanted to express to her how much we appreciate all of her hard work.  I decided to create this cutie little boy from the Lettering Delights Dress Up Paper Dolls Set.  Since, this little guy is small, it only makes sense to eliminate the cut face parts and use my Peachy Keen Stamps!

 

 

I used the Winter Wonderland Faces for this.  I just love that this set is not only for winter images, the boy and girl faces are perfect for this type of image too and fit in with what I wanted to do! I picked which size to use by lining it up before inking.

After stamping, it is time to color the face. Even though I used a flesh colored piece of cardstock, that white in the eyes makes a big difference!  I used my Signo Uniball pen for this.  I also used a marker to color in the mouth and some Inkadinkadoo chalks from Michaels to highlight the cheeks.

 

 

I also used the wonderful Adhesive Sheets from 3L Scrapbooking Adhesives to assemble this little guy!  This is great for adhering those little pieces!  Some of 3L’s Foam Squares also added dimension!  I love their foam squares because they aren’t too thick!  They work great for layering and they now have “Thin” foam squares so you can stack layered images with these and they won’t stick out too far from the card and make it difficult to fit in an envelope! I will show you how those work really soon!

 

The sentiment label is from eCraftCentral.com and you can get it HERE.  I am loving this shape lately!  It is one of my new favorites!  It can also be found on the Jen Allyson Designs SD card. The sentiment is actually handwritten by me, something that I don’t do very often, but I thought it would make it more personal.

 

The background is a page from an old book that I tore up and then inked up with some Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink.  On the inside of the card, I wrote out a note that expressed our appreciation and warm wishes to her and her family.  Now, that I have checked that off my list, I can move on to the next thing on my “Christmas Crafty To-Do List”.  Come back next Monday to see my next project on my “Christmas Crafty To-Do List”.  Also, don’t forget to come back each day this week to see more projects by the rest of our Design Team!