Good morning everyone!! I hope your summer has gotten off to a good start. I know I always love this time of year. I made an altered initial for my sister for her birthday this year. I always feel like I don't really know what she wants because well she pretty much has everything, I could buy her like an Amazon gift card but well that's kind of impersonal, and I am her crafty sis, so it has to be something good!

Here are some examples of what I'm talking about:

The first thing I did was hot glue a tube to the back of the letter to give it more stability when standing. I also thought that you could add some dried flowers or something for height when using it to decorate! Here are some pics and step by step instructions (forgive me for not taking a pic for each step!!) Pardon these pics too, I had to take them all inside because it has been dreary out!

Next, I chose my papers and traced the letter on it then cut it to fit. I used Martha Stewart crafts glue to adhere it to the letter, then my exacto knife to trim and get a good clean edge. These are some of the products I used: red chevron paper- The Paper Studio, element stickers from Carta Bella 'beautiful moments' line, mod podge in Glossy, Tim Holtz distress ink in vintage photo, StazOn Jet black ink, and chandelier stamp by Heidi Swapp.

 The next thing I did was take my ink blending tool with the TH ink in vintage photo and ink all the edges really good. Making sure to get in all the crevices and over all of the edges.

 Next I did a light coating of mod podge over the whole thing smearing it pretty thin with my fingers, then dried it with my heat tool. After that, I cleaned my chandelier stamp and used my Stampendous clear embossing ink and restamped over the image again, then sprinkle over it generously with UTEE and hit it again with the heat tool. This is what it looks like before you heat it:

 And this is what it looks like after you heat it:

 So for the next few steps I forgot to take pics, but basically I just started layering on some more embellishments. I fussy cut out of some paper a large key, and from Tim Holtz paper I cut out a clock and made it have hands with a brad in the middle. I also layered on a few more stickers from the Carte Bella elements sheet. After I put my papers and other stickers on, I did another thin layer of mod podge and I heat embossed the chandelier again. then I started to add my other elements:

 I used vintage buttons, 2 kinds of washi tape for the sides, a resin rose, a metal key hole from Tim Holtz, some ribbon and a layered flower with a pearl. I also stamped another few small stamps from my Prima set with the jet black StazOn, a small bird and a spoon. This is what it looked like after I was done embellishing:

So I hope you have enjoyed my post today! It was so fun and quick to do this project that I am thinking about doing a few more for my lady friends at work, if I can get going! I don't think it would take me too long. We'll see how this one goes over for my sis, and then I guess I'll decide. Until next time friends, keep scrapping and PEACE Y'ALL!! ~Katie