Always Take the Scenic Route / Hip Kit Club

Hello again, friends!  I'm back today to share a new layout for Hip Kit Club.  I used the 2017 October Hip Kits again, and they continue to inspire.  I'm loving these extra-large chipboard words from Dear Lizzy available in the Embellishment Kit.  They are definitely a focal point on a project.  To make this one stand out on my white background, I mixed some of the Lapis Dance Shimmerz from the Color Kit with some modeling paste. I used a palette knife to smudge a bunch of it horizontally across the center of the page.  I mixed in a little aqua spray to make the color a bit more turquoise.  This way the "adventure" word would just pop right off the page.   I centered it and then arranged my two photos above and below it.  I overlapped the title onto the photos since they both had some open space.  I did do a bit of gold machine stitching over the paint before adhering the title.

I jazzed up "adventure" a bit by adding some gold Color Shine from my stash and then going over that with a metallic gold gelato.  I scribbled down some color and smudged it in with my finger.  Look how pretty the gold thread is behind it!  I embellished a lot with leaves...mostly from Pinkfresh Studio.  I used chipboard, puffy stickers and die cuts as well as a few wood veneer leaves.

I decided to create a secondary smaller title around the larger one.  I found this quote on Pinterest and it was perfect:  "always take the scenic route."  I used some of the small blue Pretty Little Studio alpha stickers and combined them with the Pinkfresh Studio Gold Dipped wood veneer/metallic gold alphas.  They're gorgeous!  My journaling fit nicely underneath them. (They're in the Project Life Kit).

I tucked in some different styles of leaves under the edges of both photos.  They really have a Fall feel, and they look so pretty mixed with gold.  I added in some gold thread and did a big of fussy cutting from the roll of floral washi tape.  I added a few more Pinkfresh Studio pieces under this photo.

Here's the top photo...more of the same thing.

I love this big title!  It makes such a bold statement.  And you can color them in so many ways.  They take color very well.

Here's one more close-up...I really love how it all turned out.

I hope you all enjoyed this...it was fun to make!  I have a process video here for you....I hope you like it!

Thanks a million for stopping by, and have a wonderful week!

Leaf Hunter / Precious Remembrance Shop

Hello again, friends!  I'm back today to share a new layout for Precious Remembrance Shop using the cute mason jar stamp from the Oh So Fun Stamp Set and a small stamp from the Date Stamp Set.  I also used a few of the die cuts from the new Love Coupon Bits & Pieces pack.  I’ve had my eye on the mason jar stamp for a while, but I never really know how to incorporate it onto my layout.  So I decided to just dive right in and use it and make it work for me.  I was in the mood to use watercolors, so I pulled them out and applied it straight to the stamp using a brush.  I love how it came out.  The watercolor look creates a messy effect and doesn’t leave a perfectly crisp edge.  That’s what I love about it!  I used two photos of my daughter looking for leaves because the colors matched.  Leaves and mason jars really don’t have anything in common, but I just liked how it all came together.

Here you can see how beautiful the watercolor looks.  This was a lot of fun to do, and it’s a great way to use your stamps in a different way.  I like to stamp on scrap paper, fussy cut the image out and use it as an embellishment.  I was able to arrange all the jars where I wanted them instead of stamping directly on to the background paper.  Once I stamped the jars, I came back in with my brush and added some shading to make the jars look more realistic and dimensional.  I also added some splatters after gluing them down.  I also added a bit of machine stitching through them all with white thread.  Here you can also see the circle/heart die cuts I added in.  I also fussy cut a few butterflies from a Paige Evans Turn the Page paper to scatter around the page.

I used some Bella Blvd alpha stickers for my title, which I decided to keep small.  Another fun aspect of stamping, watercoloring and fussy cutting is the dimension.  When the shapes dry, they naturally curl up.  That allows for the image to rise up off the page like this.  I love that!

I added a few subtitles here and there from a few sticker sheets that went with my photos.  I really love how the rainbow effect turned out here.  You can easily mix and match colors as well by painting on a few colors at a time onto the stamp.  It would be easy to create an ombre effect with this stamp.

Here’s another close-up of the stamp’s detail.  The watercolor picked up those details but still blurred them out a bit.  This would look completely different if you stamped with an ink pad.  So don’t be afraid to change things up and get a little messy with your paints!  You could get a different look with acrylics as well.

One final look at the pretty watercolor...just because it turned out so nice :)

I hope this inspires you to try watercolors on your stamps.  It was a lot of fun, and I didn’t want to stop stamping those mason jars!  Be sure to check out my process video if you’d like to watch how I made this page.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a great Sunday!

Cherish This / Shimmerz Education Team

Hello friends, and Happy Weekend!  I have a new layout to share today for the Shimmerz Education Team using lots of Shimmerz Paints.  I started off with a floral patterned paper from the Simple Stories The Reset Girl collection.  I let the colors of the flowers inspire my color scheme for the layout.  I pulled out several Creameez, Inklingz, Coloringz and Vibez which I'll talk about as I go along.

I fussy cut lots of the floral clusters and used those as a starting point.  I used a floral die cut and cut even more flowers on my Silhouette Cameo on white cardstock.  I used most of the Shimmerz colors I picked out to paint them.  For the blue flowers, I used Creameez Refresh Mint, Inklingz Me & Blue, Coloringz Well Blue Me Down and Vibez Jeni B Bleu.  The pink flowers were painted with Creameez Piggy Pink and Vibez Sweet Heart.

I wanted to create lots of flower layers here, so I did a lot of overlapping and tucking in with petals and leaves.  On the background I used the packaging technique and smudge around a lot of the blue paints.  I mixed Jeni B Bleu with Refresh Mint for that.

I love how this background turned out.  Here you can see a bit of gold.  That's Inklingz Miner Miner 49er.  I painted some stems with it and also added some splatters.  I added a few white foam heart Thickers around the page.

Check out this dimension...it seems like all flowers want to pop off the page.  I painted the white flowers while they were still stuck to my Cameo mat.  When I pulled them off, the edges curled up.  This is fantastic for creating 3D effects.  I tucked in a bit of pink thread around the photo as well.

I used a few little bird stickers for added embellishment.  I didn't want to go too overboard with extra bits and pieces since the flowers were pretty busy already.  My title is a combination of a Bella Blvd chipboard word and some Simple Stories alpha stickers.

Here's another look at the dimension.  I couldn't decide where to put the title at first...I wound up hiding it (sort of) in the leaves and keeping it straight.  I thought about curving it in the middle but it just didn't look right.

One more close-up just because :)

And that's it!  I hope you enjoyed this...it was fun to put together and create.  It's fun to let the paper inspire your color scheme.  Be sure to check out my process video here:

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies Used:

Creameez--Piggy Pink, Refresh Mint, Trippin in the Tropics

Inklingz--Me & Blue, Miner Miner 49er

Coloringz--Well Blue Me Down

Vibez--Jeni B Bleu, Sweet Heart, Glorious Day

Lovely / Cocoa Vanilla Studio

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  I’m SO excited to share my first layout using the gorgeous Bohemian Dream collection for Cocoa Vanilla Studio!  It is truly mesmerizing.  I couldn’t decide which papers to use first, so I just used a bunch of them :)  I used a fun wonky heart cut file from my collection and cut it on white cardstock.  I added a bit of clear gesso before peeling it off the mat.  I used several patterned papers from the 6×6 Paper Pad to back the open hearts with, and I love how it turned out.  I used some gelatos to add color around all the hearts.  I just scribbled a little bit onto the paper, dipped my finger in a smidge of water and blended it.  I also used some ink sprays.

This gorgeous Abundant floral paper is my ultimate favorite!  The colors…the flowers…incredible.  I used it on the biggest heart.  I also did a bit of machine stitching in colored thread around each of the hearts to add some texture and interest.  Choosing embellishments was hard because everything is so pretty!  I created a small floral cluster up at the top with a circle die cut and also tucked a few flowers on the sides of the photo.  These are all in the Die Cut Ephemera pack.

Here you can see the beautiful flowers around the photo.  This one here is from the Chipboard Accent Stickers.  I also added a few sentiments from the Accessory Sticker Sheet.  My title is a Chipboard Title Sticker from the collection.  They come white and you can customize them in any color you want.  I used a pink gelato.

Here’s the flower cluster up top.  I added some adhesive foam and tangled thread under it to create some dimension.  How pretty is this navy blue color?  It’s amazing against all those brights!

Using the smaller papers is perfect for backing cut files like this.  Many times you can use small scraps to to this.  Some of these hearts are a little bigger, but the 6×6 Papers worked perfectly.

Here you can see the title.  Just add a bit of color and use your fingers to smudge it.  Instant ombre effect!

Here's one more close-up of these gorgeous flowers...I never want to run out of them!

I hope this inspires you to cut into this beautiful collection and make a fun layout!  I seriously could not cut into it for two whole days because it was just too pretty.  I’m glad I did, though, because I love how my page turned out :)  Be sure to check out my process video to see how I created this.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a great day!

New Day / Paige Evans Design Team

Hello again, friends!  Today I have a new layout for the Paige Evans Design Team to share.  This week we are featuring butterflies on our projects. I knew right away I wanted to use one of Paige’s cut files for my layout. This one is called Butterfly and it’s beautiful. I enlarged it to fit across white cardstock and cut it on my Silhouette Cameo. I started with the Turn the Page 6x6 Paper Pad to back the open spots. This is a great way to use up those small bits of scraps you have leftover because the open spots are small. I also used some papers from the Take Me Away 6x6 Paper Pad and the Oh My Heart 6x6 Paper Pad. I used the leftover pieces from my cut file from my last layout from a paper from the Fancy Free 12x12 Paper Pad. My background paper matched the colors perfectly and it’s from the Take Me Away 12x12 Paper Pad. I traced around the butterfly and added some white gesso around the edges with my fingers to create a white haze. I used some ink sprays and watercolors to add some color to the background.  Then I fussy cut a lot of butterflies from Turn the Page Paper 04 to scatter around the layout.

My favorite thing about using butterflies is how easy it is to make them dimensional. Just add a dab of glue to the center and you can make the wings pop off the page for instant dimension. I created even more depth by adding some adhesive foam under the cut file. It creates a nice shadow and helps to bring the image off the page.

Mixing and matching colors is fun and easy when you back a detailed cut file like this. I love the beautiful colors and how they look together. Here you can see the watercolor peeking out from behind the big butterfly. The smaller fussy cut butterflies were the perfect size to place around the page, and I also added in lots of rose gold stickers from the Turn the Page Sticker Book. Then I tucked in some matching tangled thread in a few places.

I tucked my photo underneath the butterfly here. There was some open unimportant space in the photo, so it worked out nicely like this. I used several more stickers from the Turn the Page Sticker Book here to emphasize how I felt about the photo. It was my daughter’s first dentist appointment, we were very proud of how she handled it. The “all grown up” piece is from one of the Turn the Page 2x2 Paper Pads. I simply trimmed it down and ran my edge distresser around the edges.

I love the gold clear stickers from the Turn the Page Sticker Book!  They always add the perfect touch and pop of gold to a layout.  I used this one for my title and kept it simple.  I didn't want to add another big title over the butterfly, so I used this.  That "good job" sticker is also from the Sticker Book.

Paige's collections are making me fall in love with purple again!  I couldn't resist adding it in for this page.  I also had to add some purple watercolor to the background :)

I hope this gives you some fun “butterfly” ideas to try on your next layout! The Turn the Page collection is full of them, so you likely won’t run out!

Here's my process video if you'd like to watch how I made this:

Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Keep Your Chin Up / Hip Kit Club

Hello, and Happy Sunday, friends!  I'm back today to share a new layout for Hip Kit Club using the beautiful 2017 October Hip Kits.  I was immediately inspired by the Pinkfresh Studio Chase paper from the Main Kit and the large chipboard titles by Dear Lizzy from the Embellishment Kit.  I had my photo ready to go, and as I was sorting through the Pinkfresh Studio die cuts in the Main Kit, I saw the circle piece that says “Keep Your Chin Up & Never Give Up.”  I knew I had to use it since my daughter is pulling my chin toward her.  A perfect match!  I used a sheet of watercolor paper and used all three Shimmerz from the Color Kit.  I fussy cut the arrows from the patterned paper and arranged them in a circle.

I jazzed up this large chipboard title with some of the Old Yeller Shimmerz and then added some gold embossing at the bottom.  I wanted it to look like it was dipped in gold glitter, and I love how it turned out!  I tilted it and added a flower cluster at the bottom.  I fussy cut that from one of the exclusive Project Life cards.  It matches perfectly!  I also added a few of the Pinkfresh Studio die cuts here.

I added a bit of adhesive foam under the photo, the title and the flowers here.  I touched it up with a bit of coral tangled thread, a fabric die cut and a fun Pretty Little Studio phrase sticker.

These arrows turned out really nice.  I machine stitched through them to accentuate the idea of the circle and bring your eye to the photo.  That big title really created some awesome dimension.

Check out these beautiful Fall colors!  The Old Yeller Shimmerz might be a new favorite of mine.  It’s so shimmery once it’s dry, and it’s the perfect golden color.

Here’s one more look at the large title.  These are fun to play with…they’re different and really make a statement on a page.  And they take paint really well, so you can alter them and make them whatever color you want!

I hope this inspires you and gives you some fun ideas to try with your October Kits!  They are truly beautiful and just full of so many goodies!  Be sure to check out my process video if you’d like to watch how I put this page together.

Thank you for stopping in today, and have a great week ahead!

Happy Halloween / Thermoweb

Happy Friday, friends!!  I’m really excited about sharing a fun Halloween mixed media layout today for Thermoweb!  I used lots of Thermoweb products here, and the first one you probably notice is the shiny Deco Foil.  I used two colors on this layout: Deco Foil Transfer Sheets in Champagne and Gina K. Designs Fancy Foil Sweet Mango.  I think those colors look really good against the black background.

I began with a sheet of the Gina K. Designs Black Onyx Premium Cardstock.  I cut a fun spider web cut file from Paige Evans on my Silhouette Cameo and jazzed it up with some of the Deco Foil.  I added lots of gold ink spray and orange acrylic paint to the background to really help the photo stand out.  I went light on the embellishments since the background and spider web was the main focus.

I wanted the spider web to look splotchy and messy.  To get this look, I used the Deco Foil Liquid Adhesive first.  I just squirted some onto the shape and smudged it around with my finger.
Once it dried, I laid a sheet of the Champagne Deco Foil on top of it and applied pressure with my fingers.  The foil just peels right off, and it sticks to every part that was covered in the adhesive.  To get more coverage, apply the adhesive generously.

Look how beautiful it turned out!  This would look so cool with any color combination.  The gold really stands out on the black cardstock. I wanted lots of gold and orange showing through and around the spider web, so I sprayed down some gold ink spray and splattered some watered down orange acrylic paint.  It dried beautifully on the black cardstock.

I went minimal with embellishments so I wouldn’t cover up a lot of the spider web and background and I used some of the Crate Paper After Dark collection.  There are cardstock and puffy stickers as well as a few glitter Thicker stars and one chipboard star.  Here you can also see that I added in some orange foil. Next, I punched these tiny circles using a confetti punch.  I used one of the iCraft Easy-Cut Adhesive Sheets and a sheet of the Gina K. Designs Fancy Foils in Sweet Mango to create them.  You simply peel the backing off the adhesive sheet, stick to some cardstock, apply the foil, peel it off, and your area is covered.  I wanted to create the look of little orange confetti, which I glued down using the iCraft Mixed Media Adhesive.

To add a bit more interest and texture to the background, I machine stitched some lines using metallic gold thread.  I also used another Crate Paper chipboard piece here.  This cute owl just seemed perfect right here.

Here’s one last look at the right side of the photo.  I used some of the 3D White Foam Squares to pop my photo right off the page.  I also added in some gold metallic thread.

I hope this inspires you to try a dark background with some of your Deco Foils!  It looks so cool, and the effects of the foil’s shine is just amazing.  Give it a go next time!  And be sure to check out my process video here to see just how I created this.

Thanks so much for stopping in, and have a great weekend!

Love This / Hip Kit Club

Happy Monday, friends!  I'm back to share a new page for Hip Kit Club.  I used the 2017 September Hip Kits, and I also used another cut file designed by DT Member Jessica Fabiano.  I used the sketchy frames and cut them on different patterned papers from the Main Kit.  Just about everything I used on this page is from Paige Evans' Turn the Page collection.

I used some light pink cardstock as my base and added lots of Shimmerz to it.  I used all three colors from the Color Kit after smudging down some white gesso.  I used the packaging technique as well as spraying and splattering directly on to the paper.  I went pretty simple with the design by tucking in some fussy cut flowers around the photos.

I resized the frames in the Silhouette software before cutting them so they would fit over my photos.  I added some adhesive foam and tissue paper behind them to add some dimension and interest.  These flowers were pretty easy to fussy cut from patterned paper.  I also added some of the butterflies from the Chipboard Stickers and Puffy Stickers as well as some sequins.

I love these colors...just so pretty!  I wanted to bring out the colors in the papers, and the Shimmerz on the background did just that.  I kept everything pretty minimal on this page...sometimes you don't need a lot.

I also went simple with the title.  I combined some of the Hip Kit exclusive alpha stickers with some of the Turn the Page stickers from the Sticker Book.  I traced around "this" with a gold metallic pen to make them stand out a little more.  I also added in some of the Amy Tangerine puffy heart stickers and some tangled thread.

Here's one last close-up of the left side...a pretty butterfly and some sequins :)

I hope this inspires you create a fun background to match your papers and embellishments.  It was fun to make :)   Here's my process video if you'd like to check out...

Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a great week!