Men Scan 2 Blog Hop - New Years Eve Treat Poppers

Don't recycle your empty cardboard wrapping tubes just yet.  If you're having a New Years Eve get together here's a great idea for either confetti or candy treat poppers.  This is simple project that would be great to do with the kids.

My love of vintage carries through on these tissue
wrapped New Years Eve Poppers.

First, I needed to create some decorative papers in the color palette and with the textures I wanted.  The portable Flip Scan © mobile scanner came in handy.  I took it's cover off, flipped it upside down to direct scan silver glitter I spread in a shoe box lid.  I also scanned some burlap, an old book and one of my wife's sweaters.

Because the scanner can be inverted you can lay it on
a variety of surfaces to direct scan.

My palette of decorative papers

I filled 4 inch cardboard tubes with a variety of treats.
  Wrapped them in natural white tissue papers and tied off
the ends with various ribbons.

Scanned images from an old book, burlap, glitter and a knit sweater
combined with a few metallic papers complete the look.

I cut the decorative papers into a variety of strips for both wrapping the tissue tubes and to create folded pinwheels.  I added some 12's and clip art of an old pocket watch.  To add a little sparkle I daubed a few elements with hot glue and dipped them into silver glitter.

Our guests, especially the kids will enjoy the treats and we have nice festive poppers that will look great for our party and will coordinate with our Christmas decor that we love to keep up for New Years Eve.

If you love this DIY be sure to follow my blog, subscribe by email or join me on Pinterest or Facebook. I'm always posting DIY's, mood boards, having contests and sharing fun stuff from my world of Embellishments.

Enjoy your Holiday and I wish you a Happy New Year!

-Aaron

Join my fellow Flip Pal bloggers of Men Scan 2

Suede Baum - http://suedesays.com/blog    

Ken Oliver - http://kensworldinprogress.blogspot.com/

Martin Amado - http://www.martinamado.com/

Mark Montano - http://markmontanoblogs.blogspot.com/

Men Scan Too - Flip-Pal Review and DIY Week 3

A retro style Believe sign created using the stripes
from a painted cabinet and a scan of a venetian plaster wall.

I'm two weeks into my blog hop experiment with the Flip-Pal© mobile scanner.  Last week I challenged it by taking it outdoors to scan garage siding and old fence boards to create a "reclaimed wood" look reindeer and frame  http://embellishmentskids.blogspot.com/2011/12/men-scan-2-blog-hop-flip-pal-review-and.html.  The scanner runs on batteries and offers the option to remove the lid so you can direct scan any flat object. So, I thought I'd scan a few unusual things in the studio and use the images to create a vintage look Believe sign so Santa knows the Christensen family is ready and waiting.

Who would ever think that this funky painted cabinet's
stripes would come in handy for a craft project?

Being portable, you can hold the scanner to any surface no matter whether it's horizontal or vertical.  I decided to scan my black and gray venetian plaster wall and an old funky cabinet I have.  The plaster would be for Santa's black outline and fill, while the stripes from the cabinet would serve as the background for ol' Saint Nick.  There would be no way to scan a wall or a piece of furniture using a regular scanner, so the Flip-Pal performed the unusual task.

I held the Flip-Pal© against the wall and scanned away. 

A single scan from the Flip-Pal© had to be stitched together with
multiple scans to create the larger version below.

The stitching software is included with the Flip-Pal©.  You simply highlight the files
to stitch and the software does the rest.  It will automatically save
the new stitched version for you.

In order to replicate the cabinet stripes I had to make multiple scans, overlapping each one in order for the stitching software to weld them together.

Rather than trying to break the spine of my vintage clip art book
and force it into a regular scanner, I just dropped the Flip-Pal©
onto the page and scanned away.

Once I had the stitched stripes, captured the Santa image and the fill texture, I used my photo editing software to manipulate them all into the fun Believe image.  I printed the image onto textured paper, spray mounted it to a piece of MDF, sanded the edges back and drilled holes for the tinsel ribbon.  Once it was completely dry I gave it a light coat of decoupage medium to act as a sealer.

My cabinet stripes and venetian plaster walls are terrific
textures and patterns for this handmade Believe sign.
PRINT AND SHARE DOWNLOAD AVAILABLE AT THE END OF THIS POST.

 The lil' mobile scanner allowed me to scan a wall and a piece of furniture which is pretty cool and very effortless.  The only issue I had with the scanning was the location of the "scan" button.  Although it's conveniently located where your fingers can reach it, it's easily bumped resulting in an unwanted scan.   But, it's not a big deal compared to the joy of scanning every vertical surface because you can!

Be sure to check in with my fellow Blog Hoppers,  the talented Suede Baum - Fashion designer and TV personality from the Project Runway, Ken Oliver - The Accidental Crafter, Martin Amado - Interior designer and HGTV design host, and Mark Montano - Author of The Big Ass Book of Crafts, to see what they've come up with for this weeks hop.

I hope you Believe and enjoyed my little project for old Santa.

FOR A FREE DOWNLOAD OF THIS IMAGE:
(It's a perk, as a thank you, for those who engage and follow in social media with me  Reach out to me and I'll send you a PDF link.

Facebook Fans:  https://www.facebook.com/Embellishments  Go to my page, click the message button and message me "Believe" and I'll reply with a link.

Twitter Followers: https://twitter.com/AChristensenArt  Private message me and I'll send the link over to you.

Pinterest Followers:  http://www.pinterest.com/AaronEmbellish  Pin the image above to a board and tag me @AaronEmbellish . I'll comment with a link.

Instagram Followers:  http://instagram.com/aaronchristensenart Tag me in a photo @aaronchristensen art.  I'll @ back at you with a hyperlink to cut and paste into your browser.

Subscribers on the Blog:  Email me Aaron(at)EmbellishmentsKids.com, I'll reply with a link.

Are you old school and shy away from all this social media stuff?  Leave me a comment below and email me Aaron(at)EmbellishmentsKids.com, I'll take care of you.


Thanks so much, enjoy!

-Aaron

P.S.
I'm excited to be able to offer you a coupon code for a discount on the Flip-Pal© if this little charmer is on your holiday shopping list.  Coupon codes are valid on theirwebsite until December 22, 2011.
To receive $20 off the purchase of a Flip-Pal™ mobile scanner with Creative Suite Craft Edition DVD use coupon codeMS2CS11.

To receive $15 off the purchase of a Flip-Pal™ mobile scanner use coupon code MS2FP11.

Join my fellow Flip Pal bloggers of Men Scan 2

Suede Baum - http://suedesays.com/blog    

Ken Oliver - http://kensworldinprogress.blogspot.com/

Martin Amado - http://www.martinamado.com/

Mark Montano - http://markmontanoblogs.blogspot.com/

Now, much like a superpower, with great power comes great responsibility.  I choose to be a Man Scanner of virtue, only scanning, non-copyrighted or approved source materials.  It would be very easy to take the power of the scanner to the dark-side and be an arch villain of copyright.  As an artist that has been the victim of copyright theft I therefore ask that you please do the right thing and respect copyrighted works. 
In full disclosure, I was provided a complimentary Flip-Pal© Mobile Scanner to use and review.  Even though I've received this item for free, I will give you my honest opinion about it regardless, that's how I roll.  I'd encourage you to explore the product's capabilities and features on your own to form your own opinion.  I've been invited to participate in their affiliate program.  By clicking through the links I've provided and making a purchase I may receive a small commission.  Monies raised by affiliate programs are used to fund postage and offset costs related to our free give-a-ways and contests.

Men Scan 2 Blog Hop - Flip Pal Review and DIY Project

RECLAIMED LUMBER FRAME AND HOLIDAY REINDEER DIY

It's been a week since my Flip-Pal© Mobile Scanner arrived and I've been putting it to the test.  After a few field trips with traveling"pal" and some in-studio challenges, I'm happy to share with you a couple of fun DIY's.

The Flip-Pal© Mobile Scanner's most valuable feature to me, is the portability.  It runs on four AAA batteries, which allowed me to take it everywhere, ready to scan when something caught my eye.  I was also pleasantly surprised how well the image stitching software handled the unusual subjects of my oversized scans, which you will see further in this post.  The removable cover allows for direct scanning of images by placing the face of the unit against your image source, which opens the door to all kinds of scanning possibilities.

To introduce the first DIY, using the Flip-Pal know that I specialize in designing and creating products for kid's rooms and children's spaces in addition to my work as a published artist.  I wanted to create something for use in a child's room, utilizing scans of "reclaimed" lumber, which is a hot material in design right now!  I placed the word reclaimed in quotes because some of the lumber didn't have to be reclaimed, I actually scanned it in place, by holding the scanner up against an old warehouse wall and a couple old garages in our Portland's 1920's bungalow neighborhood.   Following the scanner's instructions I made multiple scans, overlapping them to enable the stitching software to assemble one larger image. This photo frame project is an easy one, perfect for crafting with your kids.  It requires basic craft materials and abilities.

Having enjoyed putting together the reclaimed wood frame, I decided to add a second project and create a holiday reindeer wall hanging utilizing the same technique, to follow.  I'm a big fan of vintage decor, so I catered the design to have a retro appeal.  This second DIY requires use of power tools and a few specialty craft mediums.

DIY- RECLAIMED LUMBER LOOK FRAME

A decorative frame with a reclaimed lumber look.  It's a perfect accessory for a boys room.  Personalization would be easy to add and the color scheme could be tailored to suite your needs.

Materials list-

Simple pine frame blank, available at most craft stores $5.00 and under.

Matte decoupage medium

Raw umber acrylic craft paint

Chipboard or matte board

Brush, cutting blade knife, fine sandpaper and scissors

Glue Gun and glue sticks

Flip-Pal© mobile scanner

Remove the Flip-Pal scanner cover to utilize it's direct to surface scanning capability.  Assemble your supplies.

Lightly sand your unfinished frame to remove burrs and minimize rough spots.   Dilute the raw umber craft paint with water so it can be applied like stain to the frame's surface.  Wipe excess paint off and let dry.  Facing the scanner against the reclaimed wood of your choice, scan various spots of unique texture and paint effects.  If you would like to utilize larger pieces follow the supplied instructions on overlapping your scans for the stitch software to assemble.  Remove the supplied memory card, place it in the provided card reader/usb adapter and plug it into your computer.  Follow the instructions for MAC or PC to download the scans.  I imported the scanned images into my photo editing software and played with the colors and saturation to create the look and palette I wanted.  I also reduced the size of the "boards" to better suit the scale of the frame.  Print the finalized images on a quality text weight paper.  

Cut the printed images into individual boards.  Decoupage rows of your wood images in various lengths and thicknesses onto the frame, while staggering the ends.  Leave gaps between the "boards" so the background's raw umber color shows through.  You may want to layout your board rows before hand to achieve a color balance or just wing it and take your chances.  Once the entire surface is covered, give it a final coat of decoupage medium, let dry.  Adhere a "board" print to chipboard and let dry.  Cut the covered chipboard into strips.  Arrange those strips around the frames opening and cut to the desired lengths.  Use hot glue to adhere the strips.  If you choose to personalize the frame you could cut out letters from the board scans, also mounted to chipboard. Hot glue them in place.

DIY- RECLAIMED LUMBER, RETRO LOOK HOLIDAY REINDEER WALL HANGING

Materials list-
In addition to the items listed for the frame add:
Small glass ornaments to match
Small pine cones
Glitter
White Glue
Wire
Alcohol Inks- dark brown and black
Alcohol blending solution
Old soft hair brush
1/4 or 3/8's inch thick Mdf (medium density fiber board)

Tools-
Drill and small bit
Jigsaw or table top reciprocating saw
Safety glasses
Wire cutters

Image of Deer-

Download a larger PDF file of this silhouette here.

Print the deer silhouette.  Utilizing tiled prints and tracing paper, projection or grid enlargement transfer the image in your chosen scale to the MDF board.  While wearing safety goggles and observing proper tool safety, cut out the image using a power jig saw or a table top reciprocating saw.  Sand the edges to remove burrs and smooth out any ragged cut marks.  Dilute the raw umber craft paint with water until it's a stain consistency.  Brush and wipe the color onto the MDF, removing any excess.  Allow to dry.  Draw a horizontal line across the body of the deer to use as a starting point for your decoupaging.  This guideline will help start your rows off level.  Decoupage rows of the images onto the frame in various thicknesses and lengths, akin to the instructions for the frame starting on the line.  Continue decoupaging varying board lengths.  Once completed apply a final coat of decoupage medium and let dry.  Drill two holes to receive the hanging wire.

Like I mentioned earlier, I love the vintage look.  If you don't have small antique ornaments lying around you can create your own.  First sand small areas of the colored coating.  Second apply diluted layers of black and brown alcohol stain to the ornaments using an old soft hair brush.  You can reapply to build up layers or sand the dried ink back to achieve different looks.  The alcohol stains also antique glitter and glass bead ornaments.  Let dry.  Remove any wires from the ornaments with wire cutters.   Anchor your ornament collar by hot gluing the two outside ornaments first.  Fill in with assorted ornaments, being sure to hide the hot glue within the arrangement.  You could add metallic tinsel or jingle bells for variety or go with pine cones and whole tree nuts for a more rustic look.

Feed the wire through the holes and twist or braid it into a decorative look.  While I like the look of the deer as is, for the purposes of this DIY, I added the glittered NOEL.  There are a ton of options for this part.  Use precut letters, cut them from your die cut machinery or create your own by hand.  To do so, print in a light grey, the desired font in your chosen scale.  Decoupage it to chipboard and let dry.  Cut out the NOEL with a blade knife.  In a small plastic bin pour a generous layer of the glitter of your choice.  I chose vintage look aluminum tone glitter.  Cover the face and sides of your NOEL with a generous layer of white glue.  Immediately place the word face down into the glitter, pressing lightly to ensure good adhesion.  Remove the word, tapping off any excess glitter and let dry.

If you'd like the antiqued glitter look brush the edges with the alcohol stain.  Let dry.  Hot glue the NOEL in its final position.

You could choose to not add the NOEL  for a simpler look.

The NOEL adds that retro feel with it's flowing cursive font.

 The reindeer would look terrific on a front door, leaning on top of a mantel or dangling from a cabinet's nob.  You could cater the colors to match your color scheme utilizing photo editing software.  Many of which are offered free online.

While I'm obviously in the honeymoon phase of my Flip-Pal© relationship and am truly in love with it for all the right reasons, my fellow Men Scan Too scanners and I will post each Thursday during December to reveal creations and blog about this little gem in review.   Immediately, I'd like to encourage a power adapter option for those times when the scanner's size and convenience keep it indoors with an outlet close by.  Otherwise I'm truly impressed, let's see how this baby handles what I have in store for next week....

Be sure to check in with my scan happy partners in blogging the talented Suede Baum - Fashion designer and TV personality from the Project Runway, Ken Oliver - The Accidental Crafter, Martin Amado - Interior designer and HGTV design host, and Mark Montano - Author of The Big Ass Book of Crafts.

Thanks for hopping with me, I'd appreciate your comments and feedback.  Happy Holidays to you and your love ones!
-Aaron

P.S.
I'm excited to be able to offer you a coupon code for a discount on the Flip-Pal© if this little charmer is on your holiday shopping list.  Coupon codes are valid on their website until December 22, 2011.

To receive $15 off the purchase of a Flip-Pal™ mobile scanner use coupon code MS2FP11.

To receive $20 off the purchase of a Flip-Pal™ mobile scanner with Creative Suite Craft Edition DVD use coupon codeMS2CS11.

Join my fellow Flip Pal bloggers of Men Scan 2

Suede Baum - http://suedesays.com/blog    

Ken Oliver - http://kensworldinprogress.blogspot.com/

Martin Amado - http://www.martinamado.com/

Mark Montano - http://markmontanoblogs.blogspot.com/

Now, much like a superpower, with great power comes great responsibility.  I choose to be a Man Scanner of virtue, only scanning, non-copyrighted source materials.  It would be very easy to take the power of the scanner to the dark-side and be an arch villain of copyright.  As an artist that has been the victim of copyright theft I therefore ask that you please do the right thing and respect copyrighted works. 
In full disclosure, I was provided a complimentary Flip-Pal© Mobile Scanner to use and review.  Even though I've received this item for free, I will give you my honest opinion about it regardless, that's how I roll.  I'd encourage you to explore the product's capabilities and features on your own to form your own opinion.  I've been invited to participate in their affiliate program.  By clicking through the links I've provided and making a purchase I may receive a small commission.  Monies raised by affiliate programs are used to fund postage and offset costs related to our free give-a-ways and contests.

Men Scan Too! - A Men's Crafty Blog Hop

When author, TV personality and designer Kathy Peterson sent me an email saying she needs a man, I almost clicked the spam button.  Sure, she and I are Facebook banterers keeping each other's spirits high with humor and accolades, but this proclamation had me perplexed.  In reading further, that was just the tip of the iceberg, she needed five men.  Now, before I lead you on too far and tarnish the respectable and admirable reputation of the talented KP, let me share with you her exciting idea.

In association with Flip-Pal ©, Kathy was assembling her team of Men, five men who create.  Her invitation was for us to test drive the mobile scanner, that was awarded the Craft and Hobby Associations Innovation award in 2010.
  

The Flip-Pal© Mobile Scanner features battery operated portability and a removable front cover for on-the-go scanning.

To run it through it's paces with a different breed of animal, joining me are the talented Suede Baum - Fashion designer and TV personality from the Project Runway, Ken Oliver - The Accidental Crafter, Martin Amado - Interior designer and HGTV design host, and Mark Montano - Author of The Big Ass Book of Crafts.

While my resume of notoriety is dwarfed by these high profile men of design, Kathy knows that my magical world of Embellishments can put any product through a warfare of art and craft.  I'll put it to the test and share with you how it does keeping up with kid's design, prop making and the overall theme overload we see here in the studio.  I unwrapped mine today and have just begun to play with it.

Every Thursday during December, the guys and I will be updating our blogs with our Flip-Pal© experiences and sharing our creations.  To keep with the "man" theme, I wonder if we all scan our manly abs, could we start a Men of Flip-Pal calendar?  I better scan and crunch, scan and crunch
Crunch...1,2,3...Crunch 4,5,6... whew!  Could I please have a stunt double, or an ab stand in?

Here are links to my cohorts.
Happy Hopping!
-Aaron

Suede Baum - http://suedesays.com/blog    
Ken Oliver - http://kensworldinprogress.blogspot.com/
Martin Amado - http://www.martinamado.com/
Mark Montano - http://markmontanoblogs.blogspot.com/


In full disclosure, I was provided a complimentary Flip-Pal© Mobile Scanner to use and review.  Even though I've received this item for free, I will give you my honest opinion about it regardless, that's how I roll.  I'd encourage you to explore the product's capabilities and features on your own to form your own opinion.

Blanket Forts and Toilet Paper Ghosts - Rosenberry Rooms Shares my Story

Top children's retailer, Rosenberry Rooms recently interviewed me for their Very Rosenberry Blog.  The owner Susie Fougerousse had some fun and interesting questions to pose.  I enjoyed having the chance to share some behind the scenes stories and a little backstory on how my path as a children's designer began.

Take Your Cavities to the Theme Park

Thank you for keeping your arms and hands inside the ride until your dental visit comes to a complete stop. It's not a phrase your likely to hear anytime soon, but we're getting closer, with the debut of our second and third installments in the Dentistry for Kid's theme room makeovers.  As a children's space designer and prop maker dentist offices are right up my alley.  Oh, what fun....here we go.

The themed Adventurer room at Dentistry for Kids, by Embellishments Studio.

The Adventurer room is combination of Safari, Exploration and Jungle themes. Created to look like a den of a world class explorer, the room features decorative paint finishes, mural work, ornate crown molding, shutters and faux bamboo shelving. The room is visited by several birds, a friendly giraffe and a mischievous monkey. All of which were sculpted in our studio. Visitors will notice a treasure chest, dinosaur skull, genie lamp and a tiki, all great acquisitions of the explorer.

The jungle and exploration themed dental office, designed and created by Aaron Christensen.

The dentist, Dr. Dustin James is a big Disney theme park fan, so I designed every piece to have that retro 1955 feel as if Walt himself, oversaw the installation. While I don't possess the technology to add animatronics, I hope visitors get the sense that the animals are smiling and wanting to share their stories of adventure.

Whimsical props handcrafted at Embellishments Studio complete the safari themed dental operatory.

The other recently completed room is the Bayou themed room. In this particular operatory our options were very limited by the lack of wall space, so we turned that negative into a positive and utilized the ceiling spaces as much as possible.

A hound dog and his swamp friends, greet the patients at Dentistry for Kids.

This sliver of 3 ft wall was the only area where we could bring the theme down in dimensional form with our cajun shack, featuring Elvis the hound and his firefly eating friend, the frog. The rest of the room adorned with mural work or the dimensional props are up on the ceiling. To utilize the ceilings we carried branches across, resembling mangrove and cypress trees. An old wooden boat, hoisted up into the trees became the timeworn home to two baby raccoons and a visiting blue crab.

A mural and three dimensional props, enhance the bayou themed dentist office.

A waterlily carrying mother opposum, watches her baby swing over the shack, lit by the swag of lantern lights that add to the ambiance.

Mommy opposum carries a waterlily in the old tree.

Out of her mommies reach the baby possum swings into action, above the swamp shack created by Embellishments Studio.

These two rooms are in addition to the Farm room we created earlier this year. It features a farm fresh helping of sculpted animals, mural work and sloppy piggy fun.

The farm themed operatory at Dentistry for Kids, by Aaron Christensen

Hand sculpted chickens are one of the many props used in the barn like interior.

The bees are all abuzz, creating honey in the farm themed dental office treatment room.

A mallard duck, pours a stream of water to keep the baby pig slipping and sliding down the wall. These props were designed and created by Aaron Christensen

The farm room was a off-shoot from the garden theme we created in the office waiting room, where a train visits various theme areas in different parts of the room.

The waiting room at Dentistry for Kids features a train that circles the room high up on the wall. The train visits three themed vignettes. This is the garden portion.

An old west, desert themed area features a silly rattlesnake, cacti and some gold nuggets for discovery.

The boardwalk themed area offers sandy cliffs, with sea life, a visiting gull and a backdrop of a pier amusement park.

When I was a kid, I think counting the individual holes in the acoustical tile and try not to breath the odor of drilled teeth were the only things to do. And, I am sure my experience were similar for a lot of kids. It's great to know that a whole new generation of children, not only get to experience my work in the office, but that the entire space is dedicated to their fun and having a positive memory.

Since it's opening Dentistry for Kids has had an overwhelming amount of requests that they see adult patients. It must be there hope to rewrite their not-so-good childhood experience and relearn that dentistry can be fun. Needless to say, the office is now accepting adult patients for both its kids and teen offices.

If you have a pediatric or kids based business and need some visual magic, give me a call.  I'd love to help you EMBELLISH your space!

Best,

Aaron

A Sweet Nursery Retreat - for the love of trees and birdies.

It's no surprise that birds and trees are a very popular motif for nurseries.  Nature is always welcome in spaces for children.

Birds have symbolism around the world and throughout history.  The Owl embodies wisdom and virtue, the crane eternity, the eagle power and courage and the nightingale love.  I'm not sure what the twitter bird stands for, maybe a short attention span.  Regardless whether they be animated silly birds or decorative tweets on fabrics and furnishings they bring nature in and herald joy as in the joy of spring.

My client, whose gorgeous craftsman style home sits remotely out in the country, asked that I create a room befitting their home and thought a natural theme would compliment their style and their surroundings.

We settled on a design that featured poppies along the baseboard, a tree and some visiting birds.  The colors of bedding and room accents varied from pale red, a mauve to an antiqued poppy orange.

The nursery had very high walls that followed the wood beam vaulted ceiling.  To make the room more cozy and bring the viewers eye down we incorporated a tree mural.

 

 To break the wall's height issue we created a focal  point using vintage style frames which were hung framing the mural illustrations of birds.

The soft beautiful light was glorious in the late afternoon as it beamed in the wood encased windows.

A bird in flight carrying a ribbon helps frame the opposing wall and diminish the wall's height.  Stripes of complimentary colors graces a small sidewall that flanks a door going out onto a patio.

In the studio we created the striped etagere to house trinkets and help carve up the height of the room.

The softness of colors, the implied tree and the elegance of the colors make this room charming and cozy.  Baby Elizabeth surely will have treasured memories in her sweet retreat.