The Sweetheart

When I purchase a pair of jeans, I'm almost as pleased with the tags as I am the clothing. Such is the case with Old Navy Sweetheart brand jeans. They come with this darling sloppily sewn tag. I've been wearing the new jeans for months, and those tags have been hanging out in my junk drawer. When I got this China doll head as part of my design team package from Lisa Kettell, I knew I'd found a use for the tag. This paper clay doll head is an absolute sweetheart. Obviously, you could paint the head and be all sorts of artistic, but I like the delicate sensibility that the raw form brings. It seems fragile and old, but the material Lisa uses for these pieces is actually lightweight and tough--perfect for all sorts of applications. I envision them in magnets, jewelry, and here, I've featured one in a scrapbook page that I plan to scan and use in my art journal.

My base is a piece of Lisa Kettell scrapbook paper. It's a darling heavyweight 12 x 12 paper with fun bright stripes and a red crown. I took my color scheme from the paper. I stripped the wings off a butterfly I bought at Jo-Ann fabrics, and I glued them down with E6000. I then free-handed a dress out of silver paper. Over the top of the dress, I glued a remnant from my grandmother's sewing drawer. I also added the bit of measuring tape.

Next, I created a base for the China doll head, as it was too small on its own. I used a rub-on to create a halo behind the head. I then colored that halo in with Faber Castell Pitt Pen.

Next, I adhered the Sweetheart tag and a fun game spinner. In the upper left-hand corner, I adhered a triangle of homemade painted paper and a vintage image of a heart. As finishing touches, I glued a metal heart to the figure, and I added a rub-on "S" below the crown.

Finally, because my eye was not satisfied with the limited use of yellow, I added sewing machine stitching around the perimeter with yellow thread, and I painted through punchinella with yellow acrylic paint.

For more great ideas using Lisa Kettel products, visit her blog HERE and look for other fun projects by the design team.

Look for Lisa's China doll heads and other must-have supplies HERE.

Baby Bailey Baby Buggy Bumpers

Do you remember your first doll? Your favorite doll? Well, designer Lisa Kettell liked her childhood doll so much that it served as a model for the handmade, foam clay dollhead pieces she sells under the name Baby Bailey. I received one in my first design team kit, and I knew I had to make something with it.

If you know me, you know I like vintage ephemera. You probably also know that I'm somewhat intuitive. That is, one item suggests another, and another item suggests the next, and so on. So when I laid my hands on Baby Bailey, he told a story of a boy's childhood. I imagined a boy coming home from school, ditching his school work, and spending his time playing in his room or outside. Maybe he played cowboys and indians. Maybe rode an imaginary horse around the living room or yard.

I decided to make a wall hanging that such a boy might like. For my surface, I used the back cover of a vintage photo album. I then adhered a piece of Lisa Kittell's scrapbook paper. The paper has a worn leather look to it, and the script alphabet conjures practicing cursive. This led me to add a small square of brown lined paper, a wooden ruler, a piece of old book cover and its inside binding.

I looked through my stash to see what other sorts of doo-dads might suggest a boy's playthings, and I found an old broken metal horse. I adhered the horse with E6000. The horse suggested a western theme, so I looked through my old sheet music collection until I found "Night Herding Song," a cowboy's lull-a-bye. Keeping with the western theme, I added a chipboard star, to which I added a little bit of thread for the sake of authenticity.

While I knew that I wanted to work with Baby Bailey, it took me awhile to figure out how to make him stand out on my surface, which is a little more than a foot long. I painted an oval cardboard frame with Ranger crackle paint in copper. Behind the frame, I laid down a bit of tan scrapbook paper. Finally, I mounted Baby Bailey inside the frame and topped the frame with a watch face.

As finishing touches, I added big black snaps to the bottom of the wall hanging with E6000. Finally, I added the stencil B and the number 5, just to play on the primary school theme.

For more great ideas using Lisa Kettel products, visit her blog HERE and look for other fun projects by the design team.

Look for Baby Bailey Doll and other must-have supplies HERE.