Background Lifting

As soon as I saw the little pots of paint that came with the Tide Pool Embellishment kit I knew it was the chance I had been waiting for to try out a background like the one I had seen by Sanna Lippert in the June edition of Scrap 365. She gave two layouts similar treatment and you can get an idea of what she does by seeing a video on her blog of the other layout here. Sanna's blog is truly inspirational - I think she is the queen of background treatments.

Here is my version

I used the kraft cardstock from the kit and sponged the paint across from left to right, trying to make sure it tailed off at the end in a pleasing way. Sanna's background is far more clever as she actually then painted with white from right to left which gave a lovely fade. But I wanted the cardstock to show through in order to match the paper, tag and the colour of the pony!
I paused for a few minutes between colours but not for long so there would be a nice overlap. Fortunately acrylic paint is very quick drying.

Once the paint was all done I added some other layers - in the way that Sanna did by using stamps and ink. I also dragged Versamark through various stencils and sprinkled white embossing powder over the top before using a heat tool. There may well be a point where you think "agh it looks terrible" but just keep adding more and hopefully you will find it pleasing. I like the effect. I did also add some wonky circles with black pen.

I knew I wanted to use the "the little things" tag in the top left hand corner so added letter stickers and a paper clip.

I had gathered the photos, papers and tags on my desk and noted that they were randomly placed in a kind of a line. I rather liked that so decided to keep it for the layout. I had added the lovely white doily to go underneath and so needed to assemble my montage before sticking it down as it needed to then go up on foam pads.

Firstly though I doctored the photos.  I cut a slit in the one of the single horse so that I could insert the metal clip. I used "the cutest thing ever" rubon on the other photo. I accidentally dropped it on to the photo when trying to place it straight and it began to stick so I had to leave it at a bit of an angle (sulk)

I really enjoyed making the background and I probably wouldn't have been so adventurous if I hadn't had the little paint pots in my Quirky kit :)

When you have got lots to say...

I don't really think my layouts through that much before I begin but it was just as well I had so much space on the left hand side for writing as it turned out that the story was rather long...

My jumping off point was a free Silhouette cut offered by the uber talented Lilith Eeckels - you can find her blog post here. So I cut the blue cardstock, liking the way that it meant I could use even more patterned papers on one layout! I used papers from both kits and embellishments from all the kits - but also my actual ticket for the ferry I went on to Shetland. I am rubbish at keeping real ephemera but I really ought to try and do it more often as it adds a unique dimension to pages. (And I am not bothered about the archival quality of my work. I know my family is not sentimental and many scrapbooks will be jettisoned upon my demise!)

I clustered together some of the papers with the photo, adding a peg, a clip and a cute seashell (the symbol of pilgrims, which is what I was on this journey)

The compass was a tongue in cheek addition as the page is all about being lost

I also couldn't resist the "hello sailor"

which I was able to slot in with one of the papers behind the cut out section.
Then I wrote the story which turned out to be much longer than I had expected. Just made it before running out of space!

I added a sprinkling of sequins top and bottom for a bit of fun. I'm still not sure whether the sequins on the right hand side should have been closer to the bottom red diamond. But I am not moving them now.

The photo isn't of the story. That is because I was too busy running round Aberdeen with 2 bags and a roll along suitcase trying to find my way into the ferry terminal. But it was taken just as we were leaving Aberdeen with me safely on board and I thought the tale of people being "helpful" was much more fun to tell than just "here is me on the boat".

Doing the double

I don't often make double layouts. Probably because I feel that I can tell the story and share enough photos to prompt the memory on one page. But every now and then I do. In this case it happened because the photos just didn't seem to work together and I couldn't decide which photo to leave out. Moving them onto two pages was a lightbulb moment. And it meant I could add far more writing without overwhelming things as well.

It may seem rather indulgent as there is still an awful lot of white space, but I am glad I switched things up

On the rare occasions when I do the double I tend to treat each page as a mirror image of the other rather than trying to move page elements across the middle (e.g. chopping a photo so part of it is on one page and part on the other). I find this works so much more easily for me. In this case, just for a change, the main focus area of each page looks almost identical.

Each one began with a wash of mist. I used 3 colours - the peach from the kit, gold lame Colour Shine and Scarlet Glimmer Mist. I started with the gold in each case but on one page painted it at the top of where the papers and photos would go and did it the opposite way round on the other. I then added some peach mist to my little bowl holding the colour and painted that layer, overlapping slightly, then did the same with the red to give an ombre effect.

I then cleaned out my bowl and added a little bit more of the gold which I painted onto the tags and the gold/white striped paper. I do like the subtle sparkle it gives.
While I was in a painty mood I decided to work on the thin coloured strip of paper. This was the cut off strip from one of the papers (I forgot to note which one, sorry). The colours were not quite right so with a set of watercolours and the gold mist I made them a bit more muted.

Once everything was dry the fun began

I added a few strips of paper and backed the tags with some of the Websters Pages paper.  All the papers and cardstock were given a distressing with Pumice Stone ink and a small sponge. I added in some left over painted crepe paper on the left hand side and painted some more of the white with red mist for the right hand page. I tucked in some of the Elle Studio Snippets ("Shine" is the name of the card but I thought it would fit with my page). The blue diamonds are leftovers from a Silhouette cut out that will feature on another layout but the blue went so well with everything else I thought I would add some to this layout.

I enjoyed going through all the nautical embellishments from the Tide Pool embellishment kit and deciding which to use, along with the Kraft label stickers, more of the rub-ons and some Prima sparkles.

The journalling - words from a song by the Rend Collective was printed on white card using Carbontype font and then cut into snippets.

The other side of the layout is pretty much the same...

with a title cut on the Cameo using the Kaisercraft Dream Big paper and Amatic font.

and there you have it.
If you have never tried a double page spread, why not give it a go?

Pillow Talk

Hello, Kathy here today

Leo sent me a "selection box" of gorgeous stash from the newest kits and I'm having a fab old time delving in to see what I can find to create with.

I was all geared up to make a card when my new pillow box die (which was still unopened) fell off the shelf as I was grabbing for a blank card....well, maybe it was a sign....

So it seemed rude not to go with the flow and use kit and new die to make this little gift box.

The Carta Bella "Seashells" paper is textured and really thick, so just perfect for a pillow box

I chose to keep with the beach shades and cut a strip of the Shimelle AC "Granville" paper long enough to go right round the box with a bit of an overlap. I used a Martha Stewart border punch along one edge.

I felt it needed something else, another colour to balance things out a bit, so found some nice dark blue paper from my stash and did the same as with the turquoise chevron paper.  Once these two strips were attached, I tied some cream Seam Binding around it with a simple knot.

For the tag, I glued a scrap of the "Seashells"onto a small piece of turquoise card from the kit, then cut the tag with a die.

The teeny tiny letters are from the Websters pages sheet and the star is one of the cute little wooden embellishments - I added a bit of glitter glue and some Glossy Accents for some extra bling and tied the tag to the ribbon with a really thin piece of raffia

From the Kit:

Carta Bella "Seashells" paper

Shimelle AC "Granville" paper

Turquoise card

Websters pages tiny alpha

Wooden star embellishment

Back soon with more....
Happy Crafting

Getting a bit painty #1

Leo is encouraging us to try and be a bit more arty with these kits - adding in sponge brushes and paint and suggesting we paint with the mist as well. I have found that I use a lot more mist as paint or in sprinkles, than I do spraying it out of the bottle these days. Partly because I can't be bothered to keep washing out nozzles (and I am rubbish at that) and also because I have (slightly) more control over where my mist goes.
So I decided to experiment with painting with mist... on a layout about mist.
My photo was taken (far too) early in the morning on my journey to Shetland. The big island decided to act a bit coy that day.

I decided to limit myself to the Lite kit (Along the Pier) for this, apart from the Peach Heidi Swapp mist. If you don't get both kits I am sure you have some mist in your stash somewhere. Or if not you could use Distress Inks as watercolours, or acrylic paints watered down to get the same kind of effect.

I thought that the Studio Calico Tickets Please paper would be a good neutral base (and was grey like the day!) With the main kit Leo added some sketch ideas and this is loosely based on one of them. I was also inspired by the Elle Studio Shine "So bright" paper as I thought that rays of sunshine would be a nice ironic twist to my story.
I chopped and layered some of the papers, including cutting out a disc from the Shimelle "Granville" paper, tucking in a ticket and writing on the Elle Studio Snippets journalling card.
I wanted to extend the sun rays so grabbed a large sunshine stencil I have and some white embossing paste and set to work. I love the texture of the paste (and, ok, I find smoothing it out in large quantities quite hard) so decided to leave lots of lines within it.

Then when the paste was dry, I poured out a little of the Colourshine Mist into a bowl and using a sponge brush, painted it on. You can't quite see all the sparkle and shine in my photo, but trust me it is there

Afterwards I went round the edge of the papers with a fine grey pen. It just subtly separates out the patterned papers. The base paper had a snippets detail in the top right hand corner so I also outlined each of those little bits to stop them looking so flat. A gorgeous Flair badge on the top and the layout is done

Falling in love with rubons

I have been scrapping long enough to remember the bad old rub on days. When you would spend hours (well probably about ten minutes but it seemed like hours!) with your little lolly stick going over and over the same spot and coming up with nothing stuck on but a big dent in your scrap page.

But the rub ons that come with the Beachy Peachy kit? oooooo they are sooooo good.
So I used quite a few on this layout

I began with my white cardstock and sprinkled some of the Heidi Swapp Peach Colour Shine onto the page, along with some blue Glimmer Mist that I have in my stash. While the blue mist was out I painted two thin strips of the crepe paper and left it to dry for a while.

I then assembled my papers, handcutting the Crate Paper Notes and Things so that the file tabs were visible. (the "memories" tab was cut off a section of the paper which I turned over to its gold stripe B side). The pieces were layered up with the Websters Papers Ocean View paper (which I adore) and two strips of crepe paper.

Then came fun with rub-ons. I used the stitching ones mostly

(also the Websters Pages letter stickers)

I added two more along with the fab Anchor in the kit (stuck down with Glossy Accents)

I added a few bits of paper to the top right hand side (as I seem to do a lot!) and wanted to use a rub on as well. In order to make it fit the page I melded two of the phrases together!

All that was left to do was to add some journalling

More CSI inspiration with the new kits!

Hi Leo here again.
There's another challenge up on the Colour, Stories, Inspiration site this week and lots of the colours in the case file are in this months' new kits so I've had a go at creating a layout following the case file and trying out a few ideas I wanted to play with.
Here's the latest CSI case file:

Here's the layout I've made using a mix up of bits from the main kit 'Beachy Peachy' and the embellishment kit 'Tide Pool'.

I thought the white crepe paper would make nice fluffy clouds so I hand cut some cloud shapes out to use as embellishments:

The greeny blue, navy and yellow from the case file colours I added to the 'painterly' pattern paper from the main kit just using a small amount on the dry foam brush and brushing it over the paper. Once it was dry I then went over the top with some of the Heidi Swapp colour mist from the main kit and found that the acrylic paint acts like a resist the acrylic paint colours come through the mist and makes an interesting effect.

Do have a play around with the mist and the colour shine mist in the main kit to create paint effects as well as using it as a spray. To paint with it, shake up the bottle really well first to mix in the mica and then pour out a little onto a saucer, dip in the foam brush and then paint away!
Hope you're having fun with your new kits!
x Leo

CSI - Colour Stories Inspiration

Hi, Leo here!
There's not long to wait before new kit time, kits are being packed up right now ready to be sent out early next week...... eek very exciting. I can't wait to share all the new goodies with you. My particular favorites this month are the Crate Paper 'Notes and Things' rub ons and stickers in the main kit and the Elle's Studio alpha stickers in the Lite kit, they're all perfect for so many different projects they really will be stash staples!
I've been putting together some of my picks of all the new released goodies coming out too which I'll share sometime with you this week here.
OK onto what I've got to share today. This month Quirky Kits are sponsoring CSI, that's 'Colour, Stories, Inspiration. You can check out the website here, http://csicolorstoriesinspiration.ning.com/ It's like a fun little social gathering place for scrapbookers sharing work and ideas. There are a whole bunch of new 'case files' to complete every month. A case file gives you lots of ideas for putting together a layout including the colours, the journalling, the theme etc. These little projects are perfect for using up your left over kit bits and pieces so that's how I started out with my layout bundling up all my leftover kit bits and pieces then picking out what worked with the colours and ideas in the case file.
I've put the case file here for you along with the sample layout I made up following it using bits and pieces from Quirky Kits. You can join in directly with the CSI girls and community members too by registering on the CSI website. There's a week to complete each 'case' so there are plenty of challenges though the month to either task yourself with completing them all or picking and choosing from depending on what inspires you or what you've got to use up.

Current CSI case file:

My finished layout for this case using bits and pieces from past Quirky Kits:

Have fun.
x Leo