Eye Candy - Tutorial

I love all the new shiny bits and baubles that many of the scrapbooking companies have come out with lately and I new as soon as I saw them that I had to try to make my own.  I tried label paper with glossy accents, inking them, chalking them, pearling them, alcohol inking them, hot glue dots (which I had a hard time making a actual bauble), and more.  Each time the product wasn't quite what I was looking for.  Just using glossy accents left flimsy pieces that seemed to bend and stick to itself too much.  So this time I tried something a bit different.

First, I used Aleene's Tack it Over & Over glue (you remember - the stuff I use to make my own pop dots?)  and placed small dots on the backside of a vinyl sheet that was used up.

I gave it a moment to dry.  Meanwhile, I punched lots and lots of circles with a regular circle hole punch.  I love this because I used up so many little scraps!  Then I stuck each dot on the glue and covered a bit with glossy accents.  Don't be shy here.  It will shrink a little when it is done and you want a bauble not a shiny dot!  Although you can go over with a second coating of glossy accents.  Let dry and VOILA!  The dots come off easy due to the tack-it and stick to any project.  Best yet, I can make them in any color, number, etc.  Here is a picture of the dots that I made.  Looks like that dot candy from when you were a kid right??

Viewmaster Slides Tutorial and Handmade Embellishment Linky Party

I have loved the trend of Viewmaster slides as of late but I haven't been able to find them in my LSS.  So then I started thinking . . . Cassy . . . why not make some of your own to coordinate with your layouts.  So I started playing with punches and such and here is what I came up with.  I made several of different sizes for the following layout for my NAS DT reveal.  The layout also made Cookin' Up Creation's layout of the week!  YAY!

And here is how I made the slides:

1.  First I gathered supplies.  I needed a circle (mine was a 3" circle), coordinating scraps, a 1" square punch - or you could hand cut them, a rectangle and oval hand punch, and a 1" circle punch.

2.  Next, I place a small mark on the top, bottom, left, and right to line things up.  I used my quilting mat that I work on for that but a ruler would work just fine,

3.  Then I glued a 1" square next to each mark.  You will need 12 squares in total for a 3" circle.

4.  I then glued 2 squares in between each of my marked squares and I trimmed an old paper flower and punched a coordinating 1" circle and glued them in the center.

5.  And finally, I erased the marks and punched 4 rectangles and just nipped the edges in between each square with the oval punch to create the round marks.

Here is another layout that I created recently with a handmade embellishment.  I found the flower tutorial on Pintrest and couldn't resist making a smaller version.  I also trimmed the outside edge to make a more delicate flower when I was finished.

So share with us your favorite handmade embellishment.  Link back to your blog if possible and we will have a collection of amazing inspiration.  Also, I will again send out a small RAK for the random drawing for anyone who enters.  Remember you can link up to five projects, cards, or layouts!  Last week's winner was Jan!