Crafty Secrets March Linky Party

It's time for Crafty Secrets March Linky Party, and I was honored to be invited as their Guest Designer for March.  The theme for this month is: GO GREEN!   Spring, Gardening/Botanical theme with a "upcycling" twist. Everyone is ready for a dose of springtime by this time of the year.  Have fun creating with flowers, green, growing things, garden journals or farm images in your projects this month.  Easter banners, Easter baskets, or home décor would also be great ideas!   And here’s the twist:  Use an “upcycled” item in your project: a bit of corrugated cardboard, packaging material, paper bag, twist ties, jars and bottles or anything that would normally go to the landfill.  For instance, you could create these little wire hangers (as seen below) out of old wire hangers or even craft wire.  Just get creative!

Now.....as I mentioned above, I was absolutely DELIGHTED to be invited as a Guest Designer at Crafty Secrets this month.  I really enjoy playing and creating with their sweet digital images and other products.  They are high-quality, bright, vibrant, and OH SO DARLING!  I made a little wire hanger decoration using an image from the Crafty Secrets Feathered Friends collection along with a  darling little wire hanger.  These can be found on Ebay, or on-line at different craft shops.

I printed the Feathered Friends image onto ivory linen paper, cut it, and matted it onto patterned paper.  Next, I attached the image to the wire hanger using ink-stained miniature clothespins.  Once I had my image secured, I embellished the wire hanger just a bit.  I literally used only a few simple items (paper leaves, painted berries, and a jute bow) to finish my project.  I really wanted the lovely Crafty Secrets image to be the focal point.

I've used these sweet Tiny Wooden Clothespins to secure my image/paper to the wire hanger.  While you can buy them ink-stained (for a higher price), I'd like to share with you how you can make them yourself and save money.  It's SUPER easy, and I will show you how I do it.  First of course, you need to buy your Tiny Wooden Clothespins - the Kraft Outlet sells them for $1.49 for a pkg. of 24 pieces.  I use Tsukineko Walnut Ink from Michaels (of course, using a 40-50% off coupon), and place the Tiny Wooden Clothespins on a protected surface (I use a paper towel).  I simply spray them, and then roll them over a couple of times to ensure that every part has been covered with the ink.  I let them dry on the paper towel, and.....there you have it!  Aren't they adorable?  And they look antique or aged which is really cool.  I hope this is helpful, but if you have any questions, I sure don't mind answering them.

The very first step is just to lay out the plain Clothespins onto a dry paper towel, place mat, or waxed paper a few inches apart.

Spray the Clothespins thoroughly with Walnut Ink, and then turn them over to ensure both sides are completely covered with the ink.

The final step is to simply let your inked Clothespins dry completely.  That's it!

This next card uses some fun Friends & Flowers Heartmarming Vintage Cuts that I placed on patterned paper, vintage sheet music, a kraft "best friends" ticket (from my stash), some vintage lace, a Melissa Frances resin oval with a mini pearl sticker (pink heart) in center; as well as some paper flowers and an ink-stained miniature clothespin (as shown in the tutorial above).  I just love how the Crafty Secrets images remain the focal point because of how they just POP right off the page.

Now it’s your turn to create a NEW project, featuring any Crafty Secrets goodies, and link it up on the Crafty Secrets BLOG by Sunday, March 15 at Midnight Pacific Time.  To thank you for playing along, you’ll find a  FREE gardening digital paper and printable over on the Heartwarming Vintage Blog that you can download and use in your project. Or use any Crafty Secrets goodies you might have in your stash to play along.  They also have dozens of FREE DOWNLOADS that you can use in your project.  You do NOT have to follow the theme in order to play along, but it’s always fun when you do.
 

THE PRIZE:

One lucky participant will be randomly selected to win this lovely prize package from Crafty Secrets valued at more than $25.  Here are all the YUMMY prizes you could win: 

Digital Garden Papers: 18 sheets of designer paper including 2 collage sheets of gardening seed packets, vintage gardening text sheets, a garden maze and beautiful botanical papers.  Digital Garden Printables: 16 images, ready to print in a resizable format.  Garden Girls Digital Art Stamps: 18 digital stamps taken from vintage etchings featuring 3 sweet garden girls, images for building scenes and sentiments.  Bunny Gift Bag and Tag Set: Printable Bunny Bunny Kids Bag with Gift Tag can be re-printed to make adorable mini purses to hold greetings, money, gift cards and small gifts.  WOW!

 

We really hope you will play along!  Grab a free image, or do some shopping in the darling Crafty Secrets Store.  We can’t wait to see what you will bring to the Heartwarming Vintage/Crafty Secrets March Linky Party!  Your next stop on the Blog Hop is at Kathy Clement's Blog, and I know she will have something WONERFUL to share with you all.

Thanks for visiting my blog!
Karen

I'm linking my project here:
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

P.S.  Here is the entire Blog Hop List in case you get lost along the way:

Special Guest Designer: Karen Letchworth - You're Here!
Kathy Clement
Darlene Pavlick
Diane Hover
Elizabeth Lincoln
Ginny Nemchak
Gloria Stengel
Melody Clement
Michele Kovack
Shanti Fowler
Sheila Rumney
Vicki Chrisman