Saturday 27 February 2016

Pages and Pocket Pages with Simple Stories


In my kit from ATDML this month I got lots of summer paper one from a favourite Simple Stories range - Summer Vibes and also some papers from their new You are Here collection (there is a gorgeous map paper that I have an idea for too).  It prompted me to finish off some of my album from last summer when we went to France and Puy du Fou.

I had the background of this page already done, as I started it when I was experimenting using indigo blue gilding flakes with a studio calico stencil - you can see where I inked through the stencil and then I used the revers of the stencil to add some more areas of flakes too.  I then wet my card stock a fair amount and went in with some dabs of barn door distress stain and a paint brush.  I wanted to pull our the red from the picture.  I added a little bit of woodgrain paper and then just a couple of embellishments to make a really simple page.





 Of course I had several photos of this amazing arena, so I used the same water colour technique on some white cardstock for my journalling and then added some of the ephemera from Summer vibes, as well as a wood grain heart from October Afternoon and little sticker.




I did say that I had a lot of photos, so here are some more of my pockets and more of the photos and stories, ephemera and October Afternoon chipboard.

Thursday 25 February 2016

Wall hangings with arrows....and Baker Ross



I quite like this quote...but I was sent some wooden arrows by Baker Ross, and I initially thought paint, and then I could hand paint words on it - however I need more practise at painting words :)  So I painted over that and went for a favourite messy style for the arrows.  I covered them in white gesso and then used a mixture of inks, some chalk base sprays like the prima bloom ones, some with lots of strong colour - like cosmic shimmer and then some home made ones with my Marion Smith kit...I just used lots of colours and a bit more gold :)

I added some older chipboard pieces and flowers to the ends of the arrows and painted over the chipboard with gesso and then sprayed that too, I separately painted and sprayed my alphabets with different colours.  I did have to be patient and allow drying time (and after it had dried I added a little bit of stamping too)!  The final touch was to add some gems to the centres of the flowers and then hang them all together.








Wednesday 24 February 2016

Leather Flowers with Baker Ross


I was sent a pack of leather offcuts from Baker Ross (you can find them here) - they come in a mix of colours, and I thought I could make scrapbook embellishments or cards and die cut them.  I had a little look around the web and found a lovely tutorial by Martha Stewart to make leather flowers (you can find it here).  I used the same process of soaking and drying the leather (I used pencils in a piece of cardboard) but I used my tattered flower die from Tim Holtz - I cut 2 large flowers, 3 middle sized flowers and 1 small flower.

After you've die cut the flowers you soak them in water, some of the die will come out and leave them for a few minutes - you can always re-soak if they are not malleable enough.  Then squeeze and twist them, trying to concertina the petals a little bit so the leather looks more like a petal.  You then dry them upside down on pencils - so the leather side is on the top of the pencil - I did think about elastic banding them on the top to get a tighter flower shape.  Leave them overnight to dry and then layer them up into a flower.  I used glue to stick the layers together, but sewing would be a more full proof way of holding them together, and added a broach pin


Sunday 21 February 2016

Off to Explore with Simple Stories



I got this set of papers with a Christmas voucher I got for ATDML and since we do lots of camping and I saw this beautiful range from Simple Stories (Under the Stars) I decided to use it to complete a bit more of my album on last summers holiday.  I started with an inky background and then added some layers of stamps in different colours.  At this point I checked out the challenge for the Virtual Crop Weekend on the ATDML blog, and it was to use 7 patterned papers...I went in thinking that was easy and it wasn't til I made my home made geo-tag that I actually managed to get up to the correct number!!  I layered up lots of the papers, and cut out some of the embellishments from the 6 by4" cards, adding dimension with foam dots.  I made my own geo-tag and inked it to hide some of the imperfections.  I used a mix of October Afternoon and Simple Stories alphabets and then some studio calico star veneers.

There are lots of free classes on the blog if you want some inspiration, or you can come and join in with the challenge and post your page on Facebook.  Here is a link.





Monday 15 February 2016

Hearts with Simple Stories


I've seen lots of heart shaped patterns about so decided to have a go at creating my own.  I think you could use this with white gel pen as well as the thread that I used.  I created my own heart template and then drew around it on the back of my cardstock.  I then used a pin and a ruler going down the page a cm at a time and punching a little hole where the ruler touched with the pencil mark I had made - this keeps your spacing quite even.  I then used thread and randomly made a pattern, the back is very neat and it looks like I've stitched around the heart carefully, all the mess is on the front.

I then layered up lots of Simple Stories Summer Vibe papers (from A Trip Down Memory Lane) and bits and pieces that tied up with the theme of my page.

This is my youngest enjoying ice creams on holiday in France.




Sunday 14 February 2016

Valentines Day Home Decor


Baker Ross sent me some polystyrene hearts and decoupatch papers...and I decided to make a wall hanging.  I started by covering the hearts in their papers, layering loads of glue and paper on.  I then used some florists wire to join the hearts together - a little bit of glue on the end and then push the wire into the polystyrene.  Once that was done I use a Kaisercraft stamp (and some masking so I could split the 3 words apart) and made little flag banners that I inked with tea dye and linen distress inks.  I also punched out some hearts from some papers and added lace using a mixture of glue and pins.  This makes a great Valentines gift or even a mothers day gift too.



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