My Art Mouse Trap Note Holder

Hello everyone, and welcome to my first post as a regular design team member for Gina's Designs Lasercut Chipboard.  I am so excited to be here as a regular designer.  I love Gina's chipboard, and the ideas just seem to flow from me whenever I look at her designs.

I was at my stamp club meeting a few weeks ago and we were altering mouse traps.  These make fabulous little note holders.  I had taken some of my Gina's Designs chipboard with me, and I thought, why not share my project with you.  

You can purchase mouse traps quite inexpensively from dollar stores, as well as hardware stores.  The first thing I did was remove the holding bar and the u-clip.  See photo below.

You can paint the base platform or cover it with paper by working around the spring and hammer, you can carefully slide your paper beneath it and glue it down.  Be very careful lifting the hammer so you do not get your finger pinched.  

Sand the platform first.  Then paint it with Broken China, Peeled Paint, and Tarnished Brass distress paints.  I added the ART image to the top section, adding more paint around the image to make it blend into the background.

I used an awl to hold the hammer up while working in that area. I next cut little pieces from the Diamonds Texture Sheet, painting it with the same colors as the platform.  I adhered them, as shown.

I cut away a small piece of the dress form so I can place it around the u-clip that holds the hammer and springs in place, and then I painted it and a key plate with Rusty Hinge distress ink.  I then distressed the edge of the dress form with Gathered Twigs distress ink, and heat embossed the key plate with Versamark ink and rust embossing powder.  

Insert two tiny brads through the key plate holes and adhere both shapes to platform.

Paint small dragonfly with Silks Cool Water, Teal Zircon, and Sunburst Silks Acrylic Glaze.  

Paint small butterfly with Ginger Peach, Sunburst, and edge with Bolivian Blue Silks Acrylic Glaze.  Add Peridot glitter to wings, and Amber glitter to butterfly body.  Adhere each as shown.

Cut two sections from the Border Sticks Lace strip, color with Rusty Hinge, Tarnished Brass,  Broken China, and Peeled Paint distress paint.  Adhere to top of platform.  Add Cream Pearl Pen dots to upper right corner and three in lower portion.

Use an awl to start a hole at the bottom center of the platform, insert a screw eye.  Heat emboss key with Versamark ink and  Rusty Nail embossing powder, then two clock hands with Patina embossing powder.  Hang from screw eye with a jump ring.  

Supplies used:
Gina's Designs:  Dressforms and Wings Shape Set, Keys and Plates Shape Set, Texture Sheet Diamonds, Butterflies and Dragonflies, Border Sticks Lace, Clock Hands Shape Set
ColourArte:  Silks Acrylic Glaze - Ginger Peach, Sunburst, Bolivian Blue, Cool Water, Teal Zircon
I Create, Therefore I Am collage sheet (Altered Pages)
Mouse Trap
Peridot and Amber Glitter Liner, Cream Pearl Pen (VivaDecor)
Ink Pads:  Versamark, Gathered Twigs Distress Stain
Distress Paints: Broken China, Peeled Paint, Rusty Hinge, Tarnished Brass
Embossing Powders: Rust, Patina, Rusty Nail
Mini screw brads, screw eye, jump ring
Beacon Quick Grip Glue

I hope you enjoyed my project and that I have inspired you to create one of these fun little note holders for friends, or keep some for yourself.  Add a magnet to the back to hang it on the fridge to keep your grocery list nearby, or hang it on the wall to keep your notes and reminders.

Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to visit Gina's Designs blog every day for more inspiration from the team, and check out the online store for more great shapes for all of your art projects.    

Have a wonderful and creative weekend!

Barbara

Altered Shamrock Catcher

Hello there, Sin City Scraps fans.  It seems there is always something to celebrate, so my first thought was, of course, St. Patrick's Day.  And I love my new stamp plate from Sin City Scraps, Fairies Plate 2.  There are so many images on these plates, and I still have not used them all.  Some of the flowery like images called out to me... SHAMROCKS.  And then, there are the fairies.  Well, what better way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day than to find a fairy and catch a few shamrocks for good luck.  And how do you catch a shamrock?  With a mouse trap, of course.  I am too much of an animal lover to use them for anything else than catching shamrocks or altered art.

In case you were wondering about fairies vs. leprechauns and St. Patrick's Day, I found this little bit of information on the internet at http://www.irishcentral.com/

The truth? There is no such thing as leprechauns in Ireland so apologies to any would be believers in magical crocks of gold. The whole leprechaun thing was more of a Disney invention that came along with the likes of bad ‘oirish’ accents in films such as ‘Darby O’Gill and the Little People’.....
But fairies....they do exist, Oh yes and here in Ireland we do not mess with the fairies, ever! They are known to live in very special places called fairy rings, which are raised earthen circular mounds that you will see all over Ireland.  You are welcome to visit them, walk around them, make a wish by all means .... But it is thought to be very bad luck to interfere with these mounds. Driving motorways through them, Bad Very Bad....Certain trees are revered too, especially hawthorns which country people will never chop down or remove for fear of disturbing the fairies who often live underneath and who are likely to wreak havoc if disturbed? ie, sour milk, cause crops to fail, animals to sicken and die.....
So don’t say ye haven’t been warned !

 So, now that the history lesson is over, let's begin.  Here is my version of a shamrock catcher.

First, I found these 4-packs of mouse traps at my local Dollar Tree store (with art in mind, of course). 

Choose a piece of plain green paper from the pad, stamp image with Versamark ink, heat emboss with Emerald Green embossing powder.  

Here is a little tip I learned years ago ... coffee filters make wonderful embossing powder catchers.  They don't seem to have any static in them and form a funnel shape easily for returning the powder to the jar.  Use them over and over again.  

Fussy cut the stamped image, leaving a tiny edge of the paper so you do not cut into the embossing powder, which will cause it to chip off.  Fold each petal in half, as shown.  

Cut along one fold line up to the center.  Accordion fold each petal, as shown.  Are you seeing a shamrock yet?

Trim a small piece of the white cording and spritz with the emerald green smooch spritz.  Adhere to the back of the shamrock to make the shamrock stem.

Stamp the fairy image with white pigment ink onto another piece of print paper, heat emboss with clear embossing powder.  Add Distress ink colors in shaded lilac and peacock feathers.  Fussy cut the fairy.  Glue her to the top of the trap, as shown.

I love the fairy saying on this plate, but it is too large for this piece.  So, what to do?  To make it smaller, I stamped it onto a piece of shrink plastic using black archival ink and added a light coat of peeled paint distress ink.  The color will intensify as the plastic shrinks.

I used a spellbinders die to cut out the phrase and punched a hole in the side for hanging.  Make sure to punch your hole a bit larger than what you need, as it will shrink to a much smaller size.  

Pre-shrunk shrink plastic

Use your heat gun to shrink the plastic.  It will curl and look awful, but it always straightens itself out.

When completely shrunk, you can flatten it with the back of your wooden stamp or acrylic block.

Completely shrunk shrink plastic

For the mousetrap:

Carefully remove the metal trap parts from the wood base and set aside.  I used a heavy duty awl to lift the staples up and out.  A screw driver may also work for this.

Cover the front of the mouse trap with another piece of print paper from the pad.   I used a good white glue to adhere the paper to the wood.  

Turn the trap over and use a small pin to mark your holes on the front again.  This will help you re-attach the metal parts.

I distress inked the edges of the trap with peeled paint, and added a coat of some glittery green nail polish to the edges.  I thought this finished off the sides very nicely.

Re-attach the metal parts to the trap base.  Place the shamrock beneath the clip to "catch" it.  I used a jump ring to hang my saying from the top of the clip, as shown.  At the last minute, I decided the metal was too shiny, so I added some gilder's paste in copper and verdigris.

Supplies Used:
Sin City Scraps Fairies Plate 2
Kaisercraft 6-1/2" x 6-1/2" Blae & Ivy paper pad
Spellbinders die-Labels 25 (size 3)
Emerald Green embossing powder
Clear embossing powder
Versamark ink pad
Black archival ink
Colorbox Frost White pigment ink pad
Distress Ink Peeled Paint, Shaded Lilac, Peacock Feathers
White PPA glue 
Maya Road white paper twine cording
Smooch Spritz Emerald Sprinkle
Beacon 3-in-1 glue
White shrink plastic
Copper jump ring
Emerald green glittery nail polish
Light green tulle
Baroque Art Gilder's Paste - copper, verdigris

I sure hope you like my project today.  I had so much fun making this.  So be sure to check out the Sin City Scraps online store for more of their fabulous stamp designs and stamping products.  And be sure to come back to the blog often for more inspiration from the talented design team.  

Have a wonderful weekend, and Happy St. Patrick's Day!  

Good luck to all,
Barbara