Next, it's time to cover up the foil with your nesting materials. I just used whatever I happened to have on hand; wool, dried moss, and feathers. I used the softer materials for the inside of the nest (fine moss and feathers), like a real bird would do. Use hot glue to attach these to the nest.
 The fun part is finding things to decorate your nest with to make it look extra pretty! I made vines by twisting floral tape into long ropes, then curling them around my pinkie to make curls. Yellow flowers really made the nest stand out. I embellished it with leaves and a few beads too.
Start by rolling plain white polymer clay into egg shapes in your hand, then follow the baking instructions on the package. Give them plenty of time to cool off before painting them.


Next, it's time to get your Ebrush and siphon kit out! Thin your gold paint a little with water before starting. Remember to clean your siphon well after using it.

 For the background, I chose a light colored patterned paper. You don't need to use a dark or busy background, otherwise, the words we put on later won't show up well.
 For the words to be facing right, put the die cut right on top of the patterned side. You don't want to deal with the frustration of ending up with backward words!
 Place the die cut on platform A, flat side down. Put your paper on top of this (the back side should be facing up). Remember with die cuts: D is on the bottom, then A (die cut on top of it), B, then A.
 Now stick it all through the slot of your Cut n' Boss and watch it do its magic!
 Here it is cut. I didn't need all that blank space on top, so I folded it before cutting so it would be straighter. However, you can use a ruler if you want to make it perfect...
 Now you need a second (solid)colored sheet of paper for the background. Then use a glue stick and stick it down. Let dry for a bit before cutting it out.
 Prepare to use your best penmanship to do the rest of the words. This is easier and turns out better when starting lightly with a pencil. Get all the spacing and centering worked out with pencil, then go over with a black sharpie.
 Lastly, tape the end of a toothpick(s) onto the back of the paper. You may need two for longer words.
And there you go: a quick, simple, and inexpensive way to spice up someone's birthday dessert!
 
P.S. The cheesecake was delicious!

Instead of using a card, I put together this little project as a way to show my boyfriend I love him this Valentine's Day.  Here's the materials you need:


Cut n' Boss and heart die cuts
decorative paper
Ebrush and markers
Small decorative bird cage
Hot glue
Embellishments (beads, lock, key, fringe, lace, etc.)
Jump rings
A colored pen to write with


Start with a sample piece of your decorative paper to practice on. You'll want to test this out with your Ebrush and see how different colors look on your paper. If you like the results, you can move on to a larger sheet and put all the colors you like on it.


I didn't leave any areas a solid color because I wanted the print on the paper to show. I did just enough to give it a bit of color.


Now you can start cutting out hearts with the Cut n' Boss! Remember to put the die cut flat side down on platform D. Lay your paper on top of that, then layer A, B, then A on top. I started out with about 15 hearts and later it ended up being 20 because I did some coloring with the Ebrush on plain white paper.


Take the color pen of your choice (I used pink!) and begin writing the things you love about your significant other! (You can also do this for family members or friends, but of course what you write would be much different!) I also wrote a couple favorite memories, and included some in-jokes in some of them.


Setting your hearts aside, you can start spicing up your bird cage a bit. I attached a heart shaped lock with a couple jump rings to the clasp of the cage lid.


Next I put a key above the lock by wrapping some wire from the cage around it with my pliers to hold it in place.


The bottom of the cage looked too plain to me, so I found some beaded fringe in one of my crafting stashes (you can never have too many craft stashes!) I attached it by putting a line of hot glue on the bottom of the bars. Tip: glue from top to bottom so the stringy parts can be pulled off easily from the bottom edges).


End your strip by overlapping the end where you started, and hot glue in place.


I hot glued some beads to the ends of the swirly wires on top. It needed some color there to balance out the trim on the bottom.


Now make your tag, either by buying some plain ones or cutting your own with the Cut n' Boss. Then add some color to it with the eBrush. I used a light pink sharpie first, then went around the edges with a slightly darker sharpie.


After writing "Things I love about YOU", attach the tag with two jump rings to the top of the cage.
Now you can add your notes to the cage in a neat pile. I put the sweetest ones on the bottom so the best ones would be saved for last.


Here it is finished! Either set on a table, or hang it up somewhere. If you have a bigger cage, use it as a centerpiece on the table for your loved one to find on Valentine's Day!
Have a great Valentine's everybody!

Since I have started my first project in my 2D design class, I've been addicted to drawing animals in lots of different designs with sharpies! (You can see a sample of what I've done in class below). Unfortunately, the ones for my class have to be just black and white. So I did a different animal at home to color in with my ebrush!
To get your drawing transferred, use a 6B pencil and draw over the lines on the back of the tracing paper. Then place it on some paper you want to practice on, 6B drawn side down, and rub hard along the lines with a hard, flat object. You should do at least 2 or 3 traced off pictures to work with.
Now you're ready to fill in your design with color, using the ebrush and sharpies!

At first I tried to keep the color within the lines by blocking it off with extra paper, but some still got outside the edges. So I went with it and purposefully made more color outside the lines on one side, so it looked like wind blowing the colors away.
Here's a couple more skunks from my class to give you some more design ideas! Don't be surprised if you become addicted...I'm really thinking about making a series of these to hang on my walls in my apartment.

Ever since I moved into my own apartment in August I have wanted to hang up pictures of my "baby." This is my hedgehog Sebastian. He's going to turn 3 years old in January, and since I've had lots of free time, I put together a special piece of art featuring this little guy!


Materials:
A picture of your pet and a printer
Craftwell Cut N' Boss
Die cuts
A gluestick
Scissors
Pens and pencil
Book page, or any paper with writing on it that won't mess up ink
Frame (I used a 5"x7")
Stamps (optional)
Collected pictures from magazines, flyers, mailing stamps, etc.


 First you need to choose a picture of your pet. I edited my picture to look faded, and removed the background with a regular paint program on my computer. The paper I used was printer paper with pages from a book copied onto it with a scanner. Use your print preview to adjust your picture to fit just right so you won't have to make multiple prints...

 After printing, place the backing of your frame onto the paper and line it up the way you want. Then take a pencil and lightly outline it, then cut along your lines.

 Next I chose heart shaped cutting dies for my picture. I played around a bit and did a heart into the picture itself. I made another heart out of a picture from craft flyer (I love grabbing these up in craft stores, they're excellent for collages!)

I found and cut out a picture of the perfect word for my hedgie, then glued it behind the heart shaped hole. The edges didn't show up well, so I outlined it with a fine tipped marker.

I wanted his name in it somewhere, so I asked my boyfriend where I should put it, and he immediately answered, "In the heart of course!" So I used the fine-tipped marker for writing Sebastian.

I love steampunk, so I put some things like clocks, keys, locks, and stamps in the corner where Sebastian's bum didn't quite reach the edge.

Lastly, I used a stamp and black ink for the really empty areas and drew in a chain for the heart to hang from. There was really no predicting to where I would finish, and at one point I just stepped back to look at it and suddenly realized I was done!

Here's Sebastian himself looking at the finished work...

He took a quick look at it, then went exploring. He's terrible at having his picture taken! His little nose is always moving to sniff everything around him...so cute.

Peek-a-boo!