Helmar Creative Team

Word for the Year

Hi everyone, Sandee here to share my word for 2015 and a tiny canvas that I created to display it up on the wall of my craft studio. I think it's a great idea to find one word to use as a guide for your motivation or as your inspiration. My word this year is MORE...as in to live more, to laugh more, to create more, to have more fun!

This is the canvas I created:

 

First I collected some charms which have special meanings that embody the word MORE to me, but the cross was gold and the rest of the charms were silver so I had to change that. I decided to silver leaf the cross using my Helmar Tacky Glue. I use cheap ( childrens ) paint brushes to paint on a layer of glue to the charm and then let it dry until the glue starts to become translucent. Then I lay the silver leaf on top and use a soft brush to burnish it.

 

Here's a picture of my charms, the cross blends together so much better now that it is silver.

Next came the word itself. The letters are actually brads but I didn't need the brad part since I was going to adhere them to an old shoe buckle that I was using as a frame. I snipped them off and used my Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots to fill in that concave area so that they would adhere to the flat metal bar. I love that the Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots lets me adjust the spacing as I go along!

 

Next I began adhering the buckle frame and the charms to the canvas with my Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive, but I needed to use the Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots once more because I had another uneven surface, and Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots is amazing for fixing any surfaces like that! That flower is balanced beautifully over the knot I had created.

Here is my finished canvas. I hope you create one for yourself with your word for the year.

 How are you going to display your word?

Grungy Textured Chipboard Tutorial with Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA Glue

Hi everyone! It's Tracey here to share a wedding card I created for a special young couple. 

 

I'm delighted to be back with you guest designing this month here at Helmar. I just adore using Helmar products and have a fun Grungy Textured Chipboard Tutorial to share with you.

 

Cherish Wedding Card

 

Tips and Techniques

This shabby chic texture on my chipboard title is created with Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA Glue.

Please scroll down for my step by step tutorial. 

 

The base of this card is a handcrafted tag I received, but yes, you know I had to add my own special touches to it to make it my own. I applied more of the Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA Glue on either side of the butterfly and sprinkled with chunky glass glitter and microbeads. Because this glue dries clear, it is perfect for adding chunky textured embellishments to my projects.

 

Here I added mica flakes around the bottom flower cluster. I've found the best way to adhere Mica is to squeeze out a dollop of Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA Glue onto a craft mat. Pick up a single flake with tweezers and dip the back of the mica into the glue then place onto the paper. I adore how the print from the background paper shows through the translucent mica.

 

I added a few extra flowers and inked leaves using Helmar Premium Craft Glue.

 

The paper layers are also adhered using Helmar Premium Craft Glue.

 

Grungy Textured Chipboard Tutorial

 

 

Supply List

Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA Glue

Chipboard

White Gesso (or acrylic paint)

Spray Mists in colors of choice

Heat Tool

 

Step 1

Paint chipboard with white gesso.

 

Step 2

Apply Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA Glue to the surface of the gessoed chipboard. Because this piece is so intricate, I used a paint brush to apply the glue. If you are texturing a larger, less intricate piece, you could apply the glue directly from the bottle.

 

Step 3

Heat the wet glue until it bubbles and raises up creating texture.

 

Step 4

Brush with mica color mist of choice (purple here), then heat to dry. Brush randomly with second mica color mist (I used gold) and heat to dry. The mist settles into the crevices to highlight the amazing texture created by the heated glue.

 **You could spritz on the mist, but I like the control of brushing on the liquid and the benefit of less waste.

 

Thanks for stopping by today!

I hope you've been inspired to grab your Helmar PVA glue and create some texture!

 

 

~ Blessings ~

 

Helmar Products

Craft & Hobby PVA Glue

Premium Craft Glue

 

For a complete product list, please stop my my blog,

Garden of Grace.

Australia Day Door Banner

It's Australia Day once again and most of us will be heading outdoors to celebrate with friends and family but there are still some that celebrate at home or if the weather is bad have to stay at home and this little door banner will bring some patriotic fun to the day.

What you will need:

Red, white and blue papers or green and gold if you prefer. Buttons or doilies and ribbon or cotton tape to hang.

Helmar Premium Craft Glue

Firstly cut strips of paper, I made mine 4.25", 3.5" and 2.75" in width. I used music paper and 12x12 paper and cut two strips per half circle.

Once your strips are cut, score them each .5" and then fold in a concertina style.

Cut three half circles from paper/cardstock. Using two stips of the concertina paper, glue together to form one long strip.

Glue the center of the paper together and once it grabs spread it out. Glue the remaining concertina pieces on top of each other from largest to smallest. Place a half doiley on the top and then attach a strip of ribbon or cotton tape so that they all join together.

Once it's dry you can hang on your door or anyhwere else you may desire.

Happy Australia Day everyone!!!!

 

 

Banner Up with Helmar 450

 

 

Hi, Veronica here today for Helmar to share with you a project I made for Allison my friend's daughter. 

Allison and Noel will be having their engagement party at a brewery and they met at FSU in Florida.  Allison wanted the FSU colors of Burgundy and Gold.

 

I used Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adheive.  Why?  Because if you want something to be glued down and not come apart then this is the glue of choice.

 

 

I used a template for my banner base.  I then used my cricket to cut out my gold letters.

 

I made 4 banners in total.  Sometimes if you don't know exactly where the banners will be placed;  its best to make the banner shorter in length.  If you end up having lots of space across -  you could always tie the banners up side by side.

Helmar Product Used:

Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive

 

Thank you for stopping by today,

happy scrapping ...

 

Sharing Art with ATC's

Hello Helmar fans! It's Kisha here and I'm so excited to share my first post for the New Year with you today. Along with sharing this post, the ATC's you see here will also be shared with other's as mini works of art.

 I like the idea of using my fabric scraps as the base for the ATC's.  However, before they can become the base the fabric must be stiff or almost paper like.

To achieve this paper like texture, I used Helmar Fabric Stiffener and Draping Liquid. I simply cut my fabric pieces to size then brushed on the Fabric Stiffener and allowed it to dry over night.

Once the fabric is dry you will be able to dry emboss it adding more texture.  I love the effect the embossing folder has on denim.

Next, let's begin adding the layers and embellishments.  I adhered all of my layers using Helmar Craft and Hobby PVA Glue.

Next of course everyone loves a little dimension on their projects. Using Helmar Zapdots White Round 1/2" for an added pop to each card is perfect. Also for those smaller more narrow embellishments, I use the negative of the pop dots (the section shown where the round has been removed).

Here's an upclose view of the felt and denim ATC's

I hope you have been inspired to create your own mini works of art to share with other crafters and friends. 

Until next time...

Enjoy!

Reworking that stash

Hello all!  Nicole here today to share a tip of how I'm trying to rework some of my stash.  I've been a die hard scrapbooker for about 12 years.  Over those 12 years I've collected quite the supplies.  Every once in awhile I do try and go through everything and lighten the load a bit, but there are quite a few things that seem to make it past the cut.  Take for instance these chipboard letters.   They are circa 2006.  I've had them so long that the company that made them is no longer in business.  Anyway, I've hung on to them because they are a classic font and I love the size.   

For my layout I chose to cover them with pattern paper using Helmar Acid Free glue.  

I applied a few drops around the letter and then spread it out with my finger to get even coverage over the whole face.  

I did this with all the letters and placed them onto the pattern paper.  

 I roughly cut each letter out with a pair of scissors.  You don't need to be too neat, but just try and remove most of the pattern paper around each one.   

I took my small file set and filed the remaining pattern paper off the sides and the middles of the p and a.  

As one last step I roughly outlined each letter with a white Uniball Signo pen.  

Here is my layout where I used my "new" letters as a bold title.  This is my youngest at the end of summer with his little "donald pwant" that grew despite my lack of a green thumb.  

Here are a few close ups:

Helmar products used:  

Helmar Acid Free Glue,

 Helmar Permanent Adhesive Runner,

Helmar Zapdots.  

Thanks for stopping by the blog today.  I hope I inspired you to use a few things you've been hanging onto for awhile :)  

Happy Crafting!  

 

Mini Paper Heart Embellishments

Here's a cute little project that is good for many projects and something that can be used all year through. I was inspired by a Pinterest photo and again by Roxycar11 on Youtube to make these sweet little puffy paper hearts.

What you will need:

Helmar Premium Craft Glue, book paper, embroidery thread, glitter glue and small decorations such as flowers etc.

Firstly make a small heart template and cut out your heart shapes, if you have a punch to make hearts then by all means use that. You will need two heart shapes per heart.

Apply Helmar Premium Craft Glue to one of the hearts.

With some small offcuts of bookpaper, scrunch up a couple of pieces into oval shapes and glue to center of heart.

Place the tips of the hearts together and hold

Once you feel it 'grab', hold the top edges together and then as you feel that 'grab', pinch the rest of the heart edges together.

Once the heart is glued securely you can sew a running stitch around the edge using the embroidery thread. A blanket stitch also looks nice if you prefer.

Add a little decoration to the middle of the heart, some glitter around the edges and you are done, a sweet little puffy heart that you can use in your crafting or bundle a few together into a box and give as a gift.

 

Thank you for stopping by today :)

Note Cards and Holder with Tamiko

Every year I keep telling myself I am going to write more.  Reach out to people that I don't only want to hear from during bad times like illness and funerals. I also said I was going to start not only, making more cards again, but also gifting them. So I came up with this... 

  

 I started first by deciding what size cards I wanted to make.  Went with A2 (4.25 x 5.5 inches).  I did the calculations for a open box/pocket. Going with matted front, back and sides. I used the paper I got from a kit of the month, at Frosted Designs called A Moment In Time it's delicious colors are right up my alley!  I decided that I would build a flat bottomed pocket and attach a back panel.  Easy peasy!!

After cutting my papers to size, I layered them using Helmar Craft and Hobby PVA Glue and my old faithful  Quickfix Adhesive Runner! I love heavy card stock and these adhesives  are my 2 goto items to when I am playing with paper and making cards!  Can I tell you a secret?  I even carry the tape runner in my art bag, its awesome for small collaging; smashing in my planner/journey; Especially good, when you don't/can't carry liquid. (smiles)  Check out my pictures below!

 

 

layering my papers.. 

 

using the glue to adhere the papers to base.. 

 

finished box constructed.. :)

 Here are a few cards I am including.. cute and simple!

 

I think I need a little bird.. I like birds.. 

 

 

I made note cards, no sentiments. Cute and Simple!

 Thank you so much for visiting my post!  Here's to starting off the new year right with great intentions, crafty inspiration and awesome adhesive!! :) 

 

King Cake Pillow Boxes

Greetings and salutations! Jennifer, here, with a fun way to share the King Cake tradition of Carnival (aka Mardi Gras) even if your friends are far away.

If you're not familiar with the King Cake and its traditions, it's a sweet bread or coffee cake in a ring shape decorated with the colors of Carnival (purple for justice, green for faith, and gold for power) and it usually has a small item--a bean, coin, or plastic baby to represent the Christ child--hidden inside. Whoever gets the piece with the baby is the King or Queen of the party and has the duty to provide the next King Cake!

Carnival starts on January 6 and runs through Mardi Gras (aka Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday which is the beginning of Lent). I created these King Cake pillow boxes as a way to send my friends a virtual slice of cake without sabotaging any of their healthy-living resolutions!

I started out by creating a template for a 4-sided box with curved back and sides and flaps that meet on the "inside" of the ring slice. After cutting several out, I used my scoreboard and bone folder to crease the straight folds and freehanded the curves with the bone folder along the pattern lines, using a soft notebook cover as a cushion. 

Once everything was creased along the fold lines, I flipped them over to the right side and used stiff-bristle brushes with gold, terra cotta, and brown ink pads to stiple the box to resemble a golden brown pastry. A lot of King Cakes have a filling rolled in so I used the brown ink to create a cinnamon-sugar swirl along the side pieces.

To mimic the glaze on the King Cake I drizzled white dimensional paint along the top piece of the "cake," allowing some to drip over onto the "outside" to make it a little more realistic. Then I hit the wet paint with green, yellow, and purple glitters for the colored sugar used in the real thing. After ample drying time, I punched matching holes in the flaps to make it easy to open and close the box later on.

Using a thin layer of Helmar Professional Acid Free Glue on the two sets of flaps, I secured the fixed side of the box to the top and bottom pieces, pressing the seams together and wiggling them into place until they line up just perfectly.

Stringing a length of bakers twine between the two holes in front is easier now than when the box is filled.

Inside the boxes, wrapped in tissue paper, are some Mardi Gras beads, a dubloon from a past parade, the ubiquitous plastic baby, some sweets, and a velvet ribbon bookmark with a pretty charm. I kept things small so the sides of the box wouldn't bulge out and ruin the shape.

Tied closed and placed on a platter, I doubt anyone will confuse them for the real King Cake, but they'd make a great party favor if you didn't want to ship them to faraway friends!

Wishing you creative days!

Whimsical wedding card

Hi everyone, Sandee here ringing in the New Year by showcasing my favorite glue with a whimsical wedding card. 

 

I have to admit that Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots is my very favorite glue and I think I use it on almost every project that I create! A little dollop adds the most amazing dimension and since it dries crystal clear, you can't see it! I usually add it to the center of my embellishments so that when I press it down, it spreads outwards and doesn't show.

This is a great way of making a CAS ( clean and simple ) card just a little bit more fun by adding some dimension. And by using Helmar Tacky Glue, I am assured that everything is adhered firmly!

Happy New Year!