Autumn Splendor with Simple Stories

 

This is one of my favourite Autumnal Collections...I love the vintageness and all the colours and papers in this collection.  I started this page with my new ALL and Create Hexagon stencil with some different distress oxides - browns, yellows and oranges.  I then die cut loads of flowers from some co-ordinating BoBunny papers using my Tim Holtz die, then it was just a dig out everything you like and stick it on..lots of fun, I inked a doily, added some hessian ribbon, some wood veneers, stickers, sequins and beads....just had lots of fun!

Here you can see some of the layered - there was a little bit of stamping in there too!

More layers and little bits that I found in my stash to add on top!

For this page I went with a little less and started with the tear at the top of the paper and used a little brad to hold it down from the heritage collection by simple stories.  I arranged my photos and added some of the die cut leaves and stickers as well as golden cotton and little gems.

Here you can see the tear where I crumpled and glued down the paper and tucked leaves behind.

Lots of leaves with gems in between to add a bit more sparkle!

Simple Stories Cozy Days

Just before we all went into lockdown again we managed to get out on a visit to Kew Gardens - both of my kids came (which is nice as now they are old enough to stay home alone!) and my parents.  We explored the top part of Kew Garden and went across the lake and into the woods to the Badger Set area and came across a beautifully carved woodland path. Loads of interesting bits of tree and beautiful carvings to clamber across, perfect for some Autumnal shots.

There are some lovely stickers in this collection and I layered them up with foam pads and added silver cotton and some die cut leaves (a gorgeous Tim Holtz set that has come in useful again and again).

Here you can see one of the beautiful carvings alongside my paint splatters and the October Afternoon (I miss them) alphabet.

For my next page with this collection I dug out my watercolours and tried to match them to the paper....the one that didn't work so well was the blue - I needed a really deep, dark navy and just couldn't get that with what I had, but the others worked pretty well.  I layered up my photos on the corresponding paper and then added lots of the sticker embellishments.  I cut out one of the phrases from the 6 by 4" card and then mounted it on vellum just to give it a rectangular layer like the photos.  I then went about hanging banners and adding flowers - so all in all fairly quick once the paint had dried!

Here you can see a few close ups of the clusters.

Once my main layer of paint was dry I added lots of little flicks of the 3 colours to tie the page all together.

I hope you've enjoyed these and are staying wrapped up and warm.

 

White on white with Storyline

Here is another page using the lovely Storyline Chapters collection from Heidi Swapp.  It started with that massive tear and I did the yellow and grey which I liked - added a bit of dimension....then struggled to find a photo (I normally start with the photo and then look for the papers)....so my yellow/grey turned into a yellow grey and blue and I tried to subtly pull out the wonderful blue of the Mediterranean sea - Venice is just so beautiful and I think it is fairly impossible to get a bad photo of the city.

Anyway, my white on white was using one of my favourite Tim Holtz leaf dies - it comes with a range of different leaves but I think this is my favourite one - I cut it out loads of times and then trimmed them to make them fit around my tear.  I then added my photo with the pastel colours from Storyline and a few prima flowers and pale blue thread.  I then added lots of little gems just to add a little more colour.  Then a Pink Fresh alphabet - now these are lovely little alphas - perfect size and you get tonnes of letters on a sheet which really impressed me!

Here are my close ups for you to take a look at.

I hope you are all keeping well and enjoying the garden sunshine!

This weekend ATDML have a virtual crop online so do come and check it out on the blog and the Facebook group - I have a class coming up but you can pull together your own kits and join us.  There are loads of challenges too.

The Duomo with a bit of mixed media

Carrying on with my Italian adventure we also popped in on Florence, actually we went across from Pisa to Florence and then via the Ferrari factory (yep special request!) to Venice.  The Duomo is just an amazing piece of artwork inside and outside and going up to the top was amazing - lots of little passage ways and breath taking art work - how did they do it!  Having queued and waited our turn, Mum stayed with her feet firmly on the ground and she is just in the V of sunlight on the last picture, taking a picture of us at the top.

This is more of the Storyline papers from Heidi Swapp and the top part of the page was my favourite paper...so I save some and tore it in half adding a lace border.  I then decided to dig my watercolours out, to keep the lines roughly in the correct place I painted a strip of water before I added the paint so the paint would only run in the wet bits, then I added the paint and tried my best to match the colours and let it drip down the page.  I used lots of the little tags and carried on with my hessian and thread theme from my other pages - I really like how the cream lace works with the colours in this collection.  The final addition was the title which I like little light box letters so I hung them from the top, just gluing them at the top incase the glue showed through (even though it was clear).  I really like the acetate so it didn't cover up much of my paint effect!

The weekend after next ATDML are having a mini April virtual crop, there are lots of classes which you don't need kits for - you can put together your own items and tonnes of challenges, so do check out their blog.  www.createdbyatdml.blogspot.co.uk and also the Facebook group ATDML #Create.

Hoping you are having lots of fun crafting and keeping well xx

Views of Venice with Heidi Swapp Storyline Chapters

Hello everyone, I've been having lots of dun with some of Heidi Swapp's Chapters collection - it's got a beautiful vintage feel to it perfect for my photos of Venice from last year.  With everything happening at the moment these memories feel even more precious and it was a wonderful holiday - Venice is just so beautiful.  We went on a gondola ride as all tourists do which gave us some beautiful snapshots of the city rising out of the water, there is something nice about travelling around in a boat with just the water lapping and no noise from cars!

On to the page I went with a classic washing line set up, I stuck my string down with some glue and added a few more textile elements in the way of hessian and some threads - I recently discovered a bag of many colour cottons....yes they will appear on lots of my pages as I explore them all!  I also added in a few elements from other American crafts collections - an old Crate Paper tag and one of the little frames from a summer collection plus Happy Travels banner which I think is from  one of Shimelle's collections.  So really the page is just lots of layers and then a good rummage through my stash to use up sequins and buttons...I'd forgotten how much I like sequins and those little embellishments!

Here are a few close ups.

I hope you are all keeping well and being very creative inside xx