My Greatest Gift Layout

Good evening fellow scrappers!  For those of you that celebrate it--I hope you had a very Merry Christmas alongside your family/loved ones!

I had a peaceful one at home with my parents, husband, our furry son Toby & newborn son.  This was a special Christmas for us all since my husband & I were celebrating it alongside our first child & for my parents their very first grandchild.  :-)

So when I read about the latest challenge going on over at Colors...Stories...Inspiration (C.S.I)--I decided to set some time aside to play along.  One of the journaling Christmas prompts instantly grabbed me which was 'What was the best Christmas gift you ever received?' Well for me, it's been my son--so I based this page on him.

Here's the case this challenge is based on.

For my evidence I used: snowflakes, beads, texture paste, something shiny & puffy paint.

For my testimony I used: Xmas prompts--the best Christmas gift you ever received.

This pink flower is handmade.  I made it by using the Carnation tutorial that I did a while back.  If interested in this tutorial--please go here.

As usual, I had a story to tell with this page--a lengthy one!  So I stored it in a scroll which has become my fave way of storing my journaling.  I have a brief tutorial on this as well.  If interested, you can find a tutorial for these journaling scrolls here.

Most of these flowers are from my stash.  The large turquoise fabric flower was plain--I added the gold glitter with Stickles to some of it's petals to match the Prima turquoise poinsettia in the upper left hand corner.

As previously mentioned, this poinsettia is by Prima.

The large snowflakes used on this page I bought at my local Target.  Every year for Christmas they stock these in all colors.  They are meant for Christmas trees but they also work wonderfully for Christmas or Winter themed scrapbook pages.  They come in packs of 4 for $1.00.  Sold!

The background was made by using a combination of splatter stamps, glimmer mist & Shimmerz.  I used the Splats stamp set by Recollections & a grungy splatter stamp by Vilda Stamps. I randomly spritzed the background with Riptide glimmer mist & Cotton Candy Spritz.

Here's my smallest winter tree--both flowers seen here are from my crafty stash.

Here are my two larger chipboard winter trees.  These chippies are by Dusty Attic.

I gave these trees a lot of texture by using several techniques & mixed media.  You can find a tutorial on these trees here if interested.

Thanks to all of you who stop by for a visit--as always...it's greatly appreciated!

Enjoy the rest of the week, have a wonderful New Year & I'll be back in 2013!

Mixed Media Chipboard Winter Trees

Hello fellow crafters!  I put together this tutorial to show how I added texture to these Dusty Attic chippie trees found on my 'My Greatest Gift' page.

Let's get started!

Step 1:  This step can be optional.  I personally wanted to give my trees a bit more dimension so I lifted a couple of the branches up with my nails!  lol  Yep, Dusty Attic chipboard is pretty thick, so I just stuck my nails in the middle of each branch & just peeled back.  I admit I have very strong nails--don't know what I eat to make them like this...but they NEVER break.  They grow like claws & unless I cut them; they just keep on growing.  If you don't have claws like mine any sharp object will work, such as scissors or maybe a thin craft spatula or even a small kitchen knife...it doesn't take much strength to just dig in there & peel back.

Step 2: So this is what my tree looked like when I was done peeling back a few of the branches.  Now the fun begins.

Step 3: Start by applying gesso.  I used a foam brush to apply the gesso.  In the areas where you want your beads apply the gesso extra heavy.  Once done applying the gesso, take your beads & drop them in the areas where you heavily applied the gesso.  The beads should 'sink' into the gesso--but not be drowned in it.

To add more texture & some glimmer I randomly spread some Shaved Ice & Aged Rose Embossing Enamel both by Stampendous onto my tree.

Step 4: Heat set your tree--this will melt the embossing powder & shaved ice & dry the gesso so your beads will stick.

Step 4:  Check out that texture!  Love it!!  Now at this point you can stop if you wish.  But if you want to add even more pizzazz go onto Step 5.

Step 5: To add the impression of snow on the branches, I used white Puffy Paint.  Puffy paint can be found in any arts & crafts store...try the t-shirt section! That's where I found mine.

Step 6: Heat set the puffy paint.  With heat, the puffy paint...well, puffs!  That's where it gets it's name.  When puffy, it gives off the impression of snow.

You're done!  You can leave the tree as is or add even more color.  On my 'My Greatest Gift' page, I randomly added Pearlz Pretty In Pink paint by Shimmerz to my trees & the puffy paint.  I just wanted my trees to be more on the pink side.  It's all up to you, the artist, on how you want your trees to look!

Hope you all found this tutorial useful.  Happy creating!

Merry Christmas 2012

From my family to yours--wishing you all on this Christmas Eve a very Merry Christmas!

May you all enjoy this holiday surrounded by your loved ones.

Christmas 2012 Layout

Hello once again fellow bloggers & scrappers!  Tick tock, tick tock...Christmas is just around the corner!  I still can't believe how fast this year flew by.  Would you believe that I have YET to do some Christmas shopping?  I'm so very much trying to avoid going either the day before Christmas Eve or right on Christmas Eve--but at the rate I'm going--it's looking like I'm heading in that direction--tsk, tsk, tsk...

This week Clear Scraps teamed up with Authentique for a project inspiration blog hop.  Both DT's have created some amazing projects with products from both of these innovative companies.  Today, it's my turn to present my project.

I was given the "Peaceful" collection by Authentique to work with.  This turned out to be perfect timing since we have recently taken our yearly Christmas photo.  I don't usually find the time to scrap my Christmas photos till July!  So am happy to have gotten an early start this time.

I did some good ol' fashioned paper tearing & rolling on this page.  Here you can see the tearing I did in the upper left hand corner.  I manually tore the papers at an angle.  I then inked the edges with brown chalk ink & with my fingers ripped, wrinkled & curled my paper.

The cute little bird I cut out from the "Solitude" paper that is part of the Peaceful collection.

I'm in love with these cute little mini gift boxes.  I found them at my local craft store Michaels in the mini ornament area.  They're perfect for mini trees & even better for scrapbook pages!

This large acrylic snowflake is of course by Clear Scraps.  It's actually a page from their Snowflake Mini Album.  The pages from these little albums can also be used as embellishments as you can see here.

To see how I gave the snowflake it's texture, feel free to see the tutorial here.

Here's my other snowflake.  I have this one peeking out from underneath my cluster of embellishments.

I randomly applied dots of Xmas Red, Lime Green & Star Dust Stickles to my background.

A big thanks to all of you who stop by for a visit.  Make sure to check out the other DT projects on both the Clear Scraps & Authentique blogs.  They'll be going up all week long!

Enjoy the rest of the week!

Diamond Dust & Acrylic Tutorial

This tutorial explains how Diamond Dust can be used to give your acrylic embellishments some fabulous texture.  In addition to the Diamond Dust you can add a bit more visual interest to your embellishments with either acrylic paints or alcohol inks.

So let's get started first with the acrylic snowflake found on my "Christmas 2012" page.

Step 1: Outline the border of your snowflake with a white Sharpie Paint pen.  This will help your snowflake to stand out more.

NOTE: The color you use to outline your acrylic embellishment also depends on your project.  Just make sure you use a permanent marker such as Sharpie--these markers are meant for non-pourous surfaces & will not smear on your acrylic

Step 2: Apply adhesive to your snowflake.  This adhesive can be any as long as it dries clear.  This part is important because you want to keep the transparency of your acrylic snowflake.

Apply Diamond Dust.

Step 3:  At this point you can leave your snowflake as is or add even more texture.  It all depends on your project.  For my page, I wanted the snowflake to stand out a bit more.  So with a small paint brush I spread a bit of white & silver acrylic paint on top of the Diamond Dust.  Let it dry & you're done!

NOTE: The acrylic paint you use can be any color depending on your project--keep in mind that paint goes on opaque & will remove the transparency of your project.  This is why for my snowflake I 'dabbed' the paint on instead of brushing it on--therefore still keeping the transparency of my snowflake to a certain degree

How you adhere your snowflake to your project is also based on your preference.  You can adhere your embellishment with the Diamond Dust side facing up or down--again, this is based on what you feel works best for your project.

On my "Christmas 2012" page--I adhered my snowflakes with the Diamond Dust side facing down.  I wanted the outline of the snowflakes to stand out more--so adhering them this way worked best for my page.

On my "Family" page, I did Steps 1 & 2 on the acrylic title--only difference is that I added color to the Diamond Dust with alcohol inks on this one instead of acrylic paint.  Just dab alcohol inks with the applicator directly onto your Diamond Dust.  This technique adds a more subtle color to the Diamond Dust.  Unlike acrylic paint, alcohol inks gives color to the Diamond Dust while still maintaining it's transparency.

As you can see--for my "Family" page I adhered my title with the Diamond Dust side facing up--again, I felt that this suited my page best.

Hope you all found this tutorial helpful!

Family Layout

Good evening fellow scrappers!  It's time for another Once Upon A Sketch (OUAS) reveal!  This month's theme was "It's December".  December is a month full of different celebrations based on culture & religion.  In my family, December is all about celebrating Christmas & in spending quality time with family.  For me though, it's all about the family.

I've also decided to submit this page to the December White Christmas challenge going on this month over at Berry71Bleu.

This particular Christmas will be extra special since our family has grown with the addition of my newborn son.  :-)  So I decided to scrap our very first 'family' Christmas photos.

I went with a white, blue & silver theme for my page.  I wanted to try a different holiday color palette other than your basic red & green.  I really liked the end result!

Here's the sketch provided to us by Nadia that my page is based on.

The title is an Expressions Clear Word Title--Family by Clear Scraps.

To give the title it's texture, I first highlighted the edges of the letters with a black Sharpie.  I then spread adhesive onto the letters & applied Diamond Dust.  Once dry I applied Stonewash & Silver alcohol inks directly onto the Diamond Dust.

In person, this technique gives off an amazing shimmer.  To see a more detailed tutorial on this technique, please go here.

The chipboard frame & border is by Imaginarium Designs.  The frame is called Four Circles Border With Lines. & the frame is called Swirly Frame 3" x 2".

For the chipboard--I painted them both with metallic periwinkle acrylic paint & then randomly applied acrylic Silver paint.  I further dressed up both chippies with dots of Opal White liquid pearls & on the border I applied a couple of clear rhinestones.

The silver leaves are by Prima.  The flowers consist of items from Prima & Manor House Creations in addition to mulberry, organza ribbon & jewel cabochon flowers from my stash.

As what has become a kind of tradition with me, my journaling is stored in the scroll.  Lately I've been thoroughly documenting the photos that I've been scrapping--my journaling is more like story telling lately!  A scroll allows me to tell a lot without taking too much space--so I've been using this technique on just about all my pages lately.  If interested in a tutorial on how I make these scrolls--you can find it here.

I got a bit messy with the background!  I first spritzed it with Anchor's Away Coloringz by Shimmerz.  I then applied gesso--I spread it heavily in certain areas.  In the areas where I heavily applied it I added beads, silver chunky leaf glitter by Martha Stewart & shaved ice by Stampendous.

Once everything dried...I applied a bit more Anchor's Away Coloringz & I was finally done!  Loved the texture all of this gave me!

Behind my photos is vellum that I manually ripped, inked the edges & then wrinkled up.  Wrinkling vellum & then unfolding it almost gives off this 'icy' effect which worked great for the theme of my page.

The large silver poinsettia is by Prima.  There's actually a bit of white tulle tucked underneath the poinsettia--but it's barely noticeable in the photo.  You can however, see the thin silver ribbon that I curled & also tucked behind my poinsettia.

Thanks to all of you who stop by for a visit.  Make sure to visit the OUAS blog & check out the other talented DT's take on this month's challenge--do play along if you can!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Christmas 2011 (MCS GDT)

Good evening once again fellow scrappers!  Am back to share my final layout made with the My Creative Scrapbook (MCS) December Main Kit.  I greatly enjoyed guest designing for them this month & enjoyed this kit even more!

For this page, I scrapped a couple of candid Christmas photos from last year that were taken during our annual Christmas card photo shoot.  When you try to take photos with a pet--believe me--you end up with several 'candid' shots!

This is the MCS Main Kit that I worked with.  Everything you see on my page except for the dark brown jute came with the kit.

MCS offers it's customers 4 different kits each month!  Talk about versatility.  They have the Main Kit, Limited Edition Kit, Creative Kit & Album Kit.  So there's something for everyone.

I once again broke out my Xmas Red, Lime Green & Star Dust Stickles and added visual interest to my page by accentuating most of my sticker embellishments & background with dots of Stickles.

The 'Christmas' is a sticker that I first adhered to a transparency & then cut out.  This way I was able to place it on top of my large cream Prima flower.  TIP:  Try adhering sticker embellishments to transparencies/acrylic & then cut them out.  This way you have the flexibility of placing them anywhere on your page.

The buttons were chipboard stickers that came with the kit.  All I did was tie a bit of red & white twine through the button holes & then adhered them to my page.

Thanks for stopping by!  Do take the time to visit the MCS blog & check out the other talented DT's take on this month's kits.

Enjoy the rest of the week!