Fun With 5th & Frolic: Honeycomb Art & More

It has been a long month around here. Simon, my toddler, has had an ear infection for the past three weeks, and he has suddenly and coincidentally developed a severe case of separation anxiety as well. There have been lots and lots of tears, late nights and trips to the doctor’s office. We switched bedrooms around so that he is now sharing a bedroom with his older brother to help with his nighttime fears. Switching rooms required a major closet overhaul and reorganization project, and then the bedroom needed to be repainted while the furniture was out of it. On top of it all, my five-year-old sprained his knee and had to take a trip to urgent care for x-rays. I’m exhausted, and I haven’t had the time or energy to craft much of anything lately.

I was starting to get cranky…that’s what happens when I go to long without the opportunity to work on a creative project. Fortunately, the stars miraculously aligned for me today. Simon’s new antibiotics kicked in, and he started to feel better and loosened his grip on me for long enough to go off and play with his friends at daycare for awhile. Sutton stopped complaining about his knee, and I found myself home alone for a couple of hours with a brand new box of scrapbooking goodies from the soon-to-be-released Dear Lizzy 5th & Frolic line. Hallelujah!

As soon as I opened up that box all of my crankiness and stress melted away, and my creative gears started spinning. I love, love, LOVE these papers! I felt like every one of them was made just for me because they perfectly suit my style. The color palette of blues, yellow, pinks and neutrals and the geometric patterns paired with vintage inspired florals are totally to die for! There was even ruffled crepe paper, icy aqua glitter paper, and a pre-sewn Flutterby mini banner – just punch it out and string it up!

“This makes me ridiculously happy…” Indeed.

I honestly couldn’t even decide where to start, but I had about a dozen ideas of things that I wanted to make, so I sat down at my desk and started creating. I grabbed these adorable brads, wire clippers, ring bases and glue and quickly whipped up a few cute rings.

I have to admit that I have a HUGE problem actually using scrapbook paper that I’ve fallen in love with. I’m a hoarder of lovely paper. I just can’t imagine hiding it away in an album somewhere where I only see it on rare occasion. I believe that my favorite papers are worth showcasing and using in places where I’m going to see them all the time, so I decided to use my favorite pattern from the 5th and Frolic papers to create a new case for my iPhone.

I have a clear plastic case that I ordered for a few dollars on Ebay, so creating a new look is as simple as removing and tracing around the old insert and cutting out a new one. I liked the way that the case looked with just the geometric paper, but I wanted to infuse a little bit more personality and dimension, so I also added a leaf and feather embellishment. LOVE it!

In the midst of all the bedroom switching last week, we ended up with an extra gallon of aqua blue paint that my husband promptly decided should grace the walls of my girly bathroom. The color is pretty amazing, but with no artwork on the walls and an abundance of early morning sun, the room actually emits its own (sort of creepy) glow. I needed to introduce some additional colors into the room ASAP!

I wanted to mix and match a few of the great 5th & Frolic prints, so I decided to create a piece of art work that was reminiscent of a quilt. I cut a bunch of hexagons and pieced them together on top of a sheet of mat board using Mod Podge to adhere them. I finished the top of the piece with an additional coat of Mod Podge to seal it.

I trimmed the mat board to fit inside of a decorative laser cut wood frame that I had spray painted a coordinating shade of yellow.

 

 

The pieces are hung up separately with high tack foam tape, but they look like one single piece of conjoined artwork. I purposely kept the pieces apart because I’m still not sure if I like how ornate the frame is next to the straight lines of the “quilt” piece…but it does tie it in a bit with the shower curtain, so we’ll see if it grows on me or not. I’m so SO happy with the way the honeycomb paper pattern came together though!

Three super cute projects in under an hour and a half – not too shabby! I can’t wait for the 5th & Frolic line to debut at Joann’s on March 17th so that I can stock up on some more of this lovely paper for my collection. I’m definitely a new fan of Liz Kartchner’s designs!

To keep up to date with all the newest product information and releases, be sure to follow American Crafts on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Remember to follow Joann’s on Facebook as well for all kinds of great project ideas, tips and inspiration!

Disclosure: I was provided with American Crafts products for this review; however, all opinions and craft ideas are 100% my own.