Thursday, June 27, 2013

Perfect 10 ~~~Imaginarium Designs~~~

Hi There! Today I'm sharing the first of three projects I created this month for Imaginarium Designs (ID). Be sure to check my blog in a few days for details/close-ups of my other June projects for ID. First up is a layout, which I have called "Perfect 10". I've been meaning to scrap a picture of my son's precious little baby feet for years (he is nearly 3) - and finally got it done with this layout! Is there anything cuter than tiny baby toes?!?!?! I used the gorgeous 13 Arts "Frosted Life" collection for this layout -  I've been hoarding it and decided to finally use it. I love the combination of the soft tones of this collection with the black & white picture. This layout was also created for the June Round Robin at Scraps of Darkness (stop by the forum and join in on the fun - you don't have to be a kit subscriber to play along in their challenges).
I started out the layout by using a Crafter's Workshop 12 x 12 Template (Cubist) with some gesso in the centre of the base page. Then I did lots of layering of different "Frosted Life" papers. In addition to the ID Chipboards, I've used some bits of cheesecloth and some flowers from my stash as embellishments. I dabbed the flowers/leaves with gesso to mute the colours to blend with the overall muted tones of the layout.
I used half of the ID Criss-Cross Frame and did some trimming of the ID Cross-Hatch Heart and ID Lou's Heart Shapes to frame the picture and embellish the layout. I was so happy with how the chipboard pieces on this layout turned out - an experiment gone right (trust me I've had a lot go wrong....). First, I painted the chipboard with black acrylic paint, then I splattered them with watered down gesso, and, finally, I rubbed them with three different colours of gelatos to get the multi-toned effect.Here are some more close-ups of the ID chipboard pieces!

Imaginarium Designs Chipboard Used
Criss Cross Frame - IDDL0008

Cross Hatch with Centre Heart - IDDL0009
 

Lou's Heart Shapes - IDDL0015
 

Main Letter Set - Upper Case - Small - IDA0006

Numbers - IDN0001

Other Materials Used:  Patterned Paper - 13 Arts "Frosted Life" Collection - Found Sky, Cold Wall, Found in the Sky; Gelatos - Buttercream, Cotton Candy, Bubble Gum; Claudine Hellmuth Studio Gesso; Folk Art Acrylic Paint - Black; Crafter's Workshop 12x12 Template - Cubist; Flowers - Prima(?); Cheesecloth; Aleene's Tacky Glue; 3D Foam Adhesive

That is it for me today - I hope you liked my layout. Also, don't forget to stop by and leave a comment on my post on the Imaginarium Designs Blog for a chance to win some fantastic Imaginarium Designs Chipboard! Thanks for visiting my blog today - I appreciate your visits and comments so much!

Friday, June 21, 2013

Perfect Day - Ideas for Scrapbookers Summer Blog Hop

Welcome to the Ideas for Scrapbookers Summer Blog Hop! 
 It is finally summer - and what better way to celebrate than with some gorgeous summer scrapbooking inspiration? 

If you're hopping along, you should have arrived here from Sheila's blog
If not, go back and start here: 
Then follow the rest of the order:
Sarah (You are Here!)
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I'm sharing a layout with you with some pictures from the first truly beautiful, perfect 'summery' day we had this year. So strange to see my sweet little guy playing in his sprinkler only one week after we actually had a little snow flurry! Anyhow, crazy weather aside - here is my summer-themed layout, which I've called "Perfect Day".
I used some elements from the ScrapThat! June Kit to create this layout, as well as a number of items from my scrappy stash. I wanted this to be a really playful layout - so I started out with the base page and added a paper bag and then did some paint splattering in aqua to get a 'sprinkler/splash' effect. I cut strips of the printed vellum to use as the photo mats and added in a piece of scripted packaging as the mat behind the main photo.
To embellish the layout, I added the amazing Prima Zipper Flower and bird clip from the ScrapThat! FAO and Main kit, respectively, as well as an unaltered chipboard bird and transparent foliage stickers (from Michael's). The banner elements are cut from Prima packaging. I also included several glass pebbles from my stash around the layout to play on the water droplet effect.
 In addition to the title, I randomly placed words around the photos to further embellish the layout and add to the playful nature of the design.
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Your next stop in the Ideas for Scrapbookers Summer Blog Hop is:

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog!  I hope you enjoyed my playful summer layout!

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Exciting News! I'm Joining the Scraps of Darkness Design Team!

I am so thrilled to share that I am joining the Scraps of Darkness Design Team! Scraps of Darkness is an amazing Kit Club for the "alternative scrapper" - and they have some of the best add-ons in the industry (I can't wait to work with their colour and creativity add-ons!). You can find the announcement on the Scraps of Darkness blog. I'll be starting with the July SOD Kit - so be sure to watch my blog for some exciting new SOD projects.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Tattered Wild Sunset Rose Tutorial

Today, I am sharing how I created the flowers used on my "Grandpa's Girls" layout, created with the ScrapThat! June Kit - "From Sunrise to Sunset". I've decided to call these flowers Tattered Wild Sunset Roses since I used the Tim Holtz Tattered Floral die and the flower colours remind me of a sunset!

1. Materials Required:
     -Coffee Filters
     -Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Die
     -Die Cutting machine (I used a Cuttlebug)
     -Mists in your choice of colours
     -Jewels/Brads for centre of flowers (I used the Versailles Flats included in the June Kit EAO)
     -White Craft Glue or Glue Dots
2. Cut the coffee filters with the Tattered Florals Die and your Die cutter.
3. You'll need a lot of flowers to do all the layering - I cut a total of seven coffee filters to yield 28 flowers.
4. Spread out the Die Cut Flowers and mist them with your choice of colours - I've used Tattered Angels Glimmer Mists in Lemon Zest, Butternut Squash, Oriental Poppy, and Candy Apple Red, as well as Smooch Spritz in River Mossy and Black Velvet.
5. Let the flowers dry completely. You should have a good assortment of flowers in a variety of variegated colours.
6. Choose the flowers you want to layer for your flower - use a variety of colours - for the larger flowers on my layout, I've used 2 large, 2 medium, 1 small and 1 extra-small flower, plus the centre jewel.
7. Layer your flowers, offsetting the petals of each successive layers - I used Glue Dots (Craft) to adhere the layers together, but you can use white craft glue as well.
8. A close-up of all the assembled flowers on the layout - the 28 die cut flowers let me create 3 large and 2 small flowers.
That's it - these aren't hard to make and really make a huge impact on a layout. Here they are on the completed layout! I finished off the flower cluster with some leaves cut from the brown ribbon in the June Kit and some raffia-wrapped floral wire from my stash.
I hope you'll give these flowers (or a variation of them) a try - be sure to leave me a comment and link if you do so I can see your creations!

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Sunrise Sunset Tags - Details and Close-ups (ScrapThat! June Kit)

For my third project with the ScrapThat! June Kit, I created a pair of tags - imaginatively called "Sunrise Sunset Tags".... Lots of fun layering and misting on these Finnabair-inspired tags!  I started off the tags using Prima Julie Nutting Doll Tags as the base. I then cut about a third of the tag off the bottom. For the Sunrise Tag, I reattached the bottom with some 7 Gypsies Vintage Pins. For the Sunset tag, I reattached the bottom with some medical tape that I stamped to create my own "washi" tape. I used the buttons included in the EAO for the "titles" on the tags.
For the sunrise tag, I started the layering off with some cheesecloth from my stash. I then used some paper from and the larger doily from the kit. The Chipboard shaped was coloured with black marker and then stamped/heat embossed with Ranger Holographic Embossing powder. I used the flowers/leaves from the Main Kit, plus some white mini-roses and the butterflies from the May Kit to finish off the embellishing. I then misted the tag with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Lemon Zest, Butternut Squash, Tattered Rose and Oriental Poppy, as well as some Smooch Spritz in Wood Stain  to create my "sunrise".
For the Sunset Tag, I started off the layering with the black plastic mesh from the Main Kit. I then used some  paper and part of the Crystal Sheet included in the Main Kit. The smaller tag in the layering is leftover from the December Kit and the Burlap is from the April Kit. I topped off the layering with a chipboard piece from Michael's. For the embellishing on this tag, I used the metal butterflies from the EAO and the Petaloo Spring Darjeeling flowers from the FAO. I then misted the entire tag with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Candy Apple Red, Oriental Poppy and Lemon Zest, as well as some Smooch Spritz in Black Velvet to create my "sunset".
Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! I hope you've enjoyed the details/close-ups of my June ScrapThat! projects, which I've shared over the last few days!



Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Dreamer - Details and Close-ups (ScrapThat! June Kit)

Today, I'm sharing the second layout that I created with the ScrapThat! June Kit "From Sunrise to Sunset". This layout is based on the Prima BAP for May and, I have to say, it may be one of my favourite layouts ever.

I started this layout by masking the corners with The Crafter's Workshop mini-Cubist template and with Martha Stewart White Texture Effect. I used three colours of Gelatos (Mango, Lemon and Metallic Melon) to add a tiny bit of colour to the masked areas (as well as to the drywall tape in the centre cluster). I then splattered black acrylic paint on the layout, focusing mostly on the bottom left and top right corners (per the corner decorations on the BAP sketch).
I cut apart the Sunrise Sunset White Hot page and used the elements for the layering. I also added in some drywall tape to the layering - I love how this ads dimension and mimics the background page pattern. To create the holes in the paper, I used my Crop-A-Dile Big Bite - I then randomly tore off sections so they would look like torn notebook paper. I distressed the edges of all the papers and created random layers as the mat for my photo. I printed the photo twice and fussy cut both images, layering the two pictures to create extra dimension for the photo (should have taken an angled picture of this so you could see the layering better!).
For the embellishing, I added some pieces of the crystal sheet included in the Main Kit, as well as a few mini-tiles (leftover from our bathroom renovation!).  I also added a bit of doodling at the bottom right and along the left side of the layers and a few random staples around the layers.

In the bottom left, I coloured the canvas flower included in the Main Kit with black acrylic paint. I took off the button and added a bottle cap and added a stamped circle (Prima Sunrise Sunset stamp) to the centre of the bottle cap. I cut the black plastic mesh from the main kit into leaf shapes and added it around the flowers on the layout.

In the top right, I painted the small doily with black acrylic paint and used the white Sunrise Sunset zipper flower and some more of the mesh leaves. I also added a Prima Industrial Lamp from my stash. The title and mini barbed wire Chipboard elements are simply coloured with black marker.
Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today. Be sure to come back tomorrow to see my third project created with this gorgeous kit!

Monday, June 3, 2013

Grandpa's Girls - Details and Closeups (ScrapThat! June Kit)

Today, I'm sharing the details and close-ups of the first of three projects created with the ScrapThat June Kit  "From Sunrise to Sunset". This layout is based on the ScrapThat! June sketch and features an old photo of me and my sister with our Grandpa (I think the picture was probably taken in the summer of 1977). How cute were my sister and I as little girls!?
I started off the base page (Sunrise Sunset Del Sol) by using the Prima Donna Downey Poppies and Peonies stencil with some Modeling Paste. I then misted the page with four colours of Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist (Lemon Zest, Butternut Squash, Oriental Poppy, Candy Apple Red) that coordinated with the colours of the base page so that the stenciled flowers would take on a similar colour as the base page. Here are a couple of close-ups of the stenciling/misting.
For the torn layers of this page, I used the X-Radient, Celcius and White Hot papers. I am loving torn paper lately and have been using it quite often on my layouts - it is a nice alternative to regular edge distressing. For the borders along the bottom of the picture I tore a strip of paper for the top layer, fussy-cut the scalloped 'lace' from the White Hot paper and punched the bottom border with a Martha Stewart edge punch. I used the Sunrise Sunset Alphabet Letters (Main Kit) for the title and distressed the edges of the letters a bit with my craft knife. Here is a close-up of the layering.
I handmade the flowers on this layout using my Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Die, coffee filters, mists and the Dress-it Up Flats included in the Embellishment add-on (you also see three of the Flat jewels along the right side of the layering). I'm going to have a full-tutorial on these flowers later in the month! I finished off the flower cluster with some leaves cut from the brown ribbon included in the Main Kit and some twisted pieces of raffia-wrapped floral wire (from my stash).
That's it for today. Come back tomorrow for the details of my second layout with this gorgeous kit!