Just had to share this………

I’m really happy with this layout. Yellow isn’t normally a color I would choose to use but these Basic Grey Papers were left over from a kit I got and so I wanted to use them up rather than find them a home. The layout records my love of Tea – as far as I’m concerned the day doesn’t start until I’ve had my cup of tea! The photo has an overlay on top of it which is pre-printed with glitter. Its also mounted on chipboard to give some extra dimension. The flower I made from organdy fabric – cut flowers shapes out and then heated with my embossing gun. The heat makes the fabric crinkle and creates a great texture to the flower. Five of these layered up with a brad through the middle makes a great addition to any page.

Just remember working  out of our comfort zone in colors can some times create great results!

Handmade Flowers – Mum & Dad

Week 11 of my 13 class. If I didn’t know I was moving straight onto May Flaum’s summer camp class I’d be sad to think it was coming to an end but I know I’ll be busy the whole of July with the scrapbooking camp May is running.

I’ve made flowers and more flowers and even more flowers this week. At one point my hands were a multitude of colors from the glimmer misting and hand work involved. One important thing I’ve learnt is you can work chipboard really well when its wet to form different shapes. It dries really nicely keeping the form you created so instead of a flat flower you have one with some dimension – just spray it with some water or glimmer mist. Another thing I learnt which I’d never though of doing is running my chipboard through my cuttlebug in one of the embossing folders to give some texture. Really great way of adding interest. Why didn’t I think of that before!!

In the end I didn’t use many of my flowers on the layout assignment for the week because you ask? Well as Nic Howard said less is sometimes more and three just seemed enough and I didn’t need any color. The final layout is very similar to the one in the handout. Nic provides very precise instructions but usually mine ends up very different. Yes the papers and things I used are different but the basic design is very similar.
The frame around the picture is made using grunge board again. Its meant to have beautiful mitered corners but that didn’t work out very well for me and there were gaps so I added extra square blocks on top to hide my mistakes! Next time I think I’d paint it cream rather than the blue. I chose blue to pick out the color on the layout but I think in the end the blue of the frame sort of dominates the picture. Once done its done and I’m not changing it!
On this layout I even broke out the old foam stamps with my paint and stamped the swirls – golly haven’t done that in a while! Had to dust off the box and dig out from under the pile of other stuff – think I’ll do it again soon as it does look cool.
I should really be talking about the flowers – the large one is made of parchment paper. I punched five scalloped circles, inked the edges, put a brad through the center and crumbled each circle up individually. You then open the circles out to form the flower. Quick and simple. I’ve done this with patterned paper as well. The two smaller ones are just 3 circles of patterned paper in 3 graduating sizes, Edges inked and a brad through the center. I then wetted the layers prior to crumbling them up to soften the edges and make them easier to form into shapes. 
Check out a previous blog for some links on making flowers or go to utube and search handmade paper flowers and you will have full night of movies to watch!

Sketches on Blog

 

I love reading blog and have many set-up to my google reader so I don’t miss anything they post. There are lots to choose from out there but I love the ones which share sketches to try. Yesterday the Prima Flowers blog posted a sketch for June so I decided to play along.

Now the layout i ended up with  I don’t think I can enter for the competition part as I didn’t use prima products mainly – the ones I had didn’t work with the pictures I chose but I’m still happy with the layout and that is what matters to me with these sketches. I also got some more practice at embellishment clustering from my dimensional details class and used my new Martha punch (got to get my monies worth). It also features my three favorite colors so I was able to upload to the big picture scrapbooking student gallery for Stacey Julian’s competition for doing a layout using your three favorite colors – do you never know I may still win something yet. If you want to try and win for a layout using your three favorite colors here’s the link for that – big picture scrapbooking blog

Embellishment Clusters

So this weeks class is all about clustering embellishments. This is one of the difficult things to do as go one step too far and your embellishments take over the layout rather than enhancing it. I mean scrapbooking is really about the pictures and not all the extra stuff we add.

I find building cluster difficult as I want to be able to place everything so I can move it around until I’m happy with it and then glue it down but this doesn’t always work when your using stickers and things like that. You can if you have the energy use corn starch to get rid of the stick but I just don’t seem to get round to doing that so I try and cut them out of the carrier sheet and use this to work out placement. Once I’ve built my cluster I’ve found when I remove it to glue it down I never get it 100% back to where it was so I’ve been taking a quick picture to use as a reference point.

Rules for building clusters are basically start with the flat items first and then add layers on top of this one by one to give vertical dimension. Remember to think about balance and visual triangles when your doing this. Odd numbers of things always work better.

The layout I created I’m really happy with in the end. I created two overlays in photoshop and printed on overheads (the graphics I used were from Katie Pertiet at DesignerDigitals.com and her graphic flower clusters and DreamsWordArt. Always be careful to print on the roughside of overheads when your doing this. The petal border was a Prima pre-made embellishment that I got on clearance, as were the small cream flowers. I made the purple flower using paper from a dictionary and spraying it with glimmer mist. The centers are from Jolee which I found on clearance also. The other flowers are from my stash. I love those strings of pearls they are a great way to add a swirl out of a cluster of flowers. I added the single cream flower at the top right of the layout to draw the eye through the picture. Papers are Basic Grey on a neutral background cardstock.

One thing I’m finding about this clustering is that its essential to make some of your embellishments and to shop the clearance section as otherwise the cost of each layout is getting very high. Since starting this class the average cost of each of my layouts most have jumped considerably. I’m trying to use my stash but as my style is developing and moving in this direction what I had isn’t working for me. I think I need to have a garage sale to sell some stuff I won’t use so I can replace it with new stuff. Or I need to get a job with a company like the Prima Flower people so I can get an unlimited supply!

Homemade Flowers for layouts

The cost of the beautiful flowers made by Prima Marketing can be really high if you don’t use a coupon or find them on sale.  So I have been looking at ways to make my own so I can add them without worrying about the cost of my layout! I thought I share a couple of cool tutorials I’d find on the web with everyone. I haven’t tried these yet but there on my list of things to do.

Crepe Paper flowers

Flowers from Patterned paper - paper folding

Rolled Cardstock Flowers

Dimensional Flowers

Remember I also shared how to make flowers previously but here’s the link again :-

Paper Flowers using punches