Hey Santa! Is she naughty or nice

I fell in love with the Bella Blvd CHRISTmas collection as soon as I saw it.  It reminds me of making little salt dough ornaments at Christmas time when I was a kid and in particular, making a little baby Jesus in a 'manger'.  I pretty much begged Joanna to get this collection in!

It seems a little ironic that that the first layout I create is all about Santa and presents and nothing to do with the holy family!  Anyway, I wanted to use this new range but I always wanted to scrap this photo and the colours worked nicely so why not.  The Paper Teapot has a facebook group that runs monthly challenges and this month it is my turn to choose a challenge so I decided that I wanted to have a triangle as a main design feature.  I often see lovely layouts with triangles but tend not to use them so it is a challenge for myself as well.  Since it is December, and a Christmas photo, it seemed that triangles that looked like trees would be cute so that is what I went with. 

I wanted to add some stitching so went around the trees with white thread and then around the border with a red shiny thread.  I actually over embellished this page, to the point where I thought I had gone overboard so I removed some elements!  Some of the embellishments are from my stash and some are from Pink Fresh Oh Joy collection. However, my favourite is the little reindeer which is from the Bella Blvd clear cuts pad and I fussy cut him out.  Ain't he sweet.

Hello beautiful...wild child

Here are another couple of pages I created for the zebra challenge.  These two are quite different to the Prima page and probably more typical of my style.  I used Cocoa Vanilla Studio Wild at Heart collection which is just gorgeous!

Here are my two pages.  Hello Beautiful was the first page I completed even though in theory it goes after the other as it is AFTER my little girl had a hair cut to fix up the crazy haircut she gave herself which is shown in Wild Child.  

For Hello Beautiful I wanted to use a cut file Wood You Be Mine which I purchased from the Cut Shoppe AGES ago, which is actually a woodgrain effect but it looked enough like a zebra for me.  I tried it out with colour behind but decided I really liked the look of the white on white except for behind the hearts and I do really love it...but it doesn't really look super zebra does it!  Stitching is becoming one of my favourite additions to a page so I went down the page in a bunch of places.  Instead of doing a thin matt around the white cardstock, I went for a thick heavy frame that went over top of the white cardstock, it is a really effective way to use a lot of colour and patterns without overwhelming a photo.

My second layout is slightly more zebra as it has my little girl in with her mohawk hair cut and the background is stripy.  I stuck with the same idea of a thick frame and neutral background and this time used frames/clusters of paper.  Originally, the four clusters were all straight but I couldn't resist doing one crooked, it really fits the page.  

I cant wait to get stuck into creating some more pages with this range, it seems Cocoa Vanilla collections just keep getting better and better!

Let's be wild together

As part of The Paper Teapot design team, I had to come up with a monthly challenge and for some reason I chose zebra.  I don't know where I even got the idea from, it just came into my mind. It seems an odd one I know, but the idea is to take any element from this and use it to inspire a project.  

I really wanted to use Prima Wild and Free for this challenge but it didn't arrive in time for my example post.  Once it turned up tho, I knew what I would like to do and that is to cut strips of paper and layer along one side.  I like how this mimics a zebras stripes (albeit the wrong way round) and also reminds me of the steps leading to the waterfall we visited in the photo as well as the rocks there. 

I only had the 6x6 paper pad as well as the cutapart sheet as I knew I would struggle to use the beautiful gold foil on one side!  So this design worked perfectly.  Here is my layout.

To accentuate the strips of paper, I used my sewing machine to sew black thread along each line.  I also used my machine to sew lines for my journaling.  I can't believe how few embellishments I used on this page, just a few stickers from the sticker sheet and the journaling card!

This was a lot of fun to create and I love how it turned out despite lacking my usual over embellishing!

School Photo

The Paper Teapot runs monthly challenges and this months challenge is a sketch one.  Here is the sketch which is one from Sketchabilities.

I wanted to use my son's school photo with Crate Paper Cool Kid which is totally not what I imagine most people would decide on when looking at this sketch!  At first I planned on turning the sketch on the side but then I went with it, just mirroring the main design.  I like what I did but it didn't really stay true to the sketch so maybe I'll have another go and make a pretty page.

49 & Market...My sweet kitty and XOXO

Hi Natalia here with two layouts I created with 49 & Market papers.  I was pretty nervous when Joanna sent me these as I'm not very good with shabby chic or mixed media so I wasn't entirely sure how things would turn out.

Here is the first layout I did, with what I would consider to be lots of mixed media hah!  I was inspired by Sharon Newport with this one, from modge podging old book paper to using watercolours on my page.  I did forget one vital thing tho...I didn't clear gesso my base page!

I love how this range has purple in it, as I had purples flowers in my wedding bouquet and my cake flowers.  I enhanced the purple by using purple water colours and purple flowers.  

My second  layout is of my darling cat Charlie who died last July aged 18.  He had been part of my life for such a long time that I have been putting off scrapping any pages because I knew I would find it hard.  Anyone with fur babies will understand!

I decided to make a plainer, less exploratory page for this so the only mixed media is on the chipboard which is a Blue Fern dangle that I cut in half and even then, it is just paint.  

This was another page with undertones of purple but I tried to keep from it being to purple as I wanted the bring out the warm reddish tones as that seemed more cat like!  This page was more about the fussy cutting which I still love to do.  The trouble with fussy cutting can be knowing when to stop, it is so tempting to just keep adding more and more...

I still have some paper left, and I'm trying to decide if I try some more mixed media as the paper is very very sturdy and holds up really well.  

Gelatos and stencils.

Hi everyone,

I promised to show you the five techniques I used on my Art Journal page a while back.

So here they are plus a bonus method I didn't include on my Five page.

Technique 1.  Use the gelato like a crayon.

This is the most basic technique.  Place the stencil over the paper and scribble the gelato over top. 

Then with finger rub the gelato into the stencil; different looks can be attained depending on how thoroughly this is done.  If it is smoothed out evenly this will look different to how I have done it which was to push the gelato to the stencil so that there was a ridge along the stencil edge.

Here is the end result...sorry the photo is not very good.  After finishing all the techniques, I rubbed the excess around on the tag in the general flower shape and it was very effective.  So this is a good way to get a shape on a page that can then be modified.

Technique Two: Use the Stencil as a stamp.

This can be used after rubbing over the stencil using the first technique..there is a lot of leftover gelato on the stencil so it makes the most of the product.  Just spray the stencil with water, I only used a spritz, but the more that is used the watery the image will be and the more the gelato will spread.

Then simply place the stencil onto paper and press on.  This will give a reverse image to the stencil and be quite water coloury in style.  I also pulled my journal out and pressed a few extra images onto there and also rubbed over the stencil with my hand to remove as much gelato as I could.  Use a paper towel to gently absorb the extra water or a heat tool, or it can be air dried.  

Technique Three: Mix with modelling paste.

This is a great way to alter normal white modelling paste to pretty colours and the depth of colour is dependant on how much is added and of course, if more than one gelato is added then there is no end to the modelling paste colours that can be created!  I used an old package to mix my paste on because I like to recycle.  I scraped a bit of gelato onto the package and then squeezed out some paste and mixed the two together.  The better this is mixed, the smoother the colour, but sometimes it can be quite effective to leave streaks of gelato through the paste.

 Next spread the paste over the stencil.  Again, this can be done smoothly and carefully or rough and ready and the results will differ.  I did this sort of carefully but to be honest..I'm more likely to slap the paste on and not worry to much if I miss a spot or if it's not smoothed out.

Leave to dry.  I love how this looks and the dimension the texture paste gives.

Technique three: Using with a sponge.

This is pretty similar in result to the using as a crayon technique but doesn't give such a vivid result because there is an intermediate medium (the sponge) between the gelato and the paper.  I used a Faber Castel sponge that came in a tool set, but any sponge would work.  Dab the sponge onto the gelato and then rub through the stencil.

This is easier to control than using as a crayon because there is not as much excess over the stencil and it is easier to get into the nooks and crannies.  The sponge can be rubbed or dabbed depending on the surface to cover.  

To my eye, this gives a classic stencil look, quite soft and the amount of colour can be controlled.

Technique five: Using as a water colour.

If you love watercolours but aren't confident in creating a shape free hand then this is a great method. Again I used old packaging to make my watercolour mix on but this method could also be done by touching a wet brush to a gelato.  I scraped some gelato onto the plastic and then sprizted some water on and mixed very well.  

To create depths of colour, have some water nearby to dip brush in to get more water and use the original mix for the darker areas, or mix some more gelato in after painting the light areas.

I'm no watercolour expert but I love this technique! I need a bit of practise but it's an awesome way to get the watercolour look when you have no skills!

Technique six: Ghosting with a wet wipe

This is my bonus technique that I didn't have on my five techniques page and is lots of fun.  To start with, the paper has to be coated with gelato.  To do this, I scribbled over the tag and rubbed in with my finger, I had previously gessoed this tag which I didn't bother with any of the others.

Next stick the stencil down with washi tape over the paper and use a wet wipe to remove the gelato inside the stencil.  

The more that it is rubbed, the cleaner the end result will look.

It was a lot of fun to pull out a stencil and gelatos and see what I could create with just those and the different results are all very cool.  There are of course other techniques with a stencil and more with the gelatos so I find these are very versatile products to have in my stash.  If you have some of these but have been too scared to pull them out, then please do and let me know how you went!

Happy Easter

I had an idea for an Easter layout that I wanted to try out.  This is one of the few times in my life I have created a layout without a photo in mind so when it came time to finding a photo, I realised I have few really nice photos of Easter...just lots of ones with small ones running about hunting!  However, I did have this photo of my son aged about 2..I really wanted to do Easter crafts with him but it was after childcare (a full day!) and he was so tired.  Why oh why I thought it was a good idea I cannot say.  I think you can tell from the photo that he just was NOT interested ;-)

For the layout, I wanted to cut some egg shapes and then fill with paper but have a few eggs with fancy things on them.  The eggs were easy.  I found a free shape online and then used the Replicate window to add the rest of them using Row of Four then selecting all the eggs in the row and duplicate below. Done!

 

Now I just had to decorate. I used Bo Bunny Soiree 6x6 paper pad.  One egg, I used a Prima adhesive rub on to add foiling.  The second decorated egg is actually the Bazzil plastic paper embossed with tiny hearts. Another egg, I used my fringe scissors (okay, okay, herb cutting scissors) to make a fringed egg like the hearts that are so trendy at the moment.  The fourth decorated egg has a piece of crepe paper ruffle on it.

I finished off the page with a pretty doily and Soiree papers backing my photo and a cute bunny, possibly Prima and some strip journaling I typed on my typewriter.