Easter treats

With Easter coming up it is always time to do a little decoration, I used these really cute houses from Craft Concepts (call print blocks for a list of suppliers). Made of wood they are small and neat to decorate quickly, here I have used glitter and flocking. I don't think folks think of glitter as an all over surface much, it can be so versatile if you stop thinking of it as a highlighting embellishment and instead think of it as a medium. The same goes with flocking, my little brown bunny is covered in caramel flocking. Just a tip, pass the flocking through a sieve if it is lumpy, you will get a much better look. Flocking does goes lumpy over time, and really needs to be fluffed up before use. My little bunnies are the Tim Holtz movers & shapers mini bunny, you could use those fluffy chenille chicks instead if you cannot find the die. Also my little birds nest is simply some florists wood fibre, rolled into a nest shape, spritzed with glimmer mist and two cotton buds sprayed and glued in place as eggs( snip off the stick first). You can also see I have spritzed over the glitter, this helps make not so sparkly, it works much better as a surface for ordinary projects if it is not so bright and glittery. Seems odd I know, but if you take away the shine you are left with the texture, and I love that.

Cherish Love

Recently my nephew became engaged and married a wonderful girl he met in Vietnam, it has taken me a while but finally I got around to Scrapping a few photos. This one is of his engagement, I have converted the photo to black and white because the colours were so bright and gaudy that the were hard to use traditionally. The photo came up really nice in black and white though and suited a strong use of colour, I choose purple, not sure I am happy with the strength of the colour, but it is what it is lol

I have used Krylon spray gesso, my favourite thing at the moment, to create the background and subdue the purple cardstock, I have made flowers with Spellbinders Bitty Blossoms and Carnation Creations, along with Foliage 2 ( for a full list of materials go to http://downunderdirectinspiration.blogspot.com.au/

A close up of flowers and muslin bow

childs play

Today I am sharing the latest layout for Paper Trenz, see no flowers, this is all about carnivals and bunting, not my usual layout, but fun to do, you will learn how to make the rosettes and bunting along with a cute carousel horse, and you will never look at bamboo skewers the same way again.

Give Paper Trenz a call the class is on thursday the 21st February 

First Post for Imaginarum Designs

Hi Everyone...

I am so excited to bring you my first post as a design team member and I hope I get it right. I have a layout and an Off the page item for you. Lately I have been doing a lot of boy layouts, so this one of my Daughter was nice to do, in lots of pink and white, with the unusual addition of grey

I have used a fairly easy treatment of the chipboard on these two projects, glitter. The way I do it though is from years of experience. I colour the chipboard in a colour the same shade as the glitter, in this case white (white gesso) and then coat it in dimensional magic or glossy accents. Then I shake lots of glitter over the top, the glitter sinks down into the dimensional magic and it captures it, so no glitter loss later. The colour under the glitter stops little micro bits of brown chip showing through in the gaps of the glitter. I just find I get a lush full coverage this way, with a luminous shine, with very little glitter escaping over the rest of the layout.

 

My second Project is using a frame from Couture Creations, and was done as a gift for my mother, of my children. This time I have used the classic colour combo of turquoise and brown, one of my favourites, which lends itself to the peacock colours so well. I have coated the feather in a combination of Lumiere paints, then when dry, I covered it in dimensional magic( thin coat) and sprinkled a few clear micro beads around the centre for texture. I have also used ZVA flourishes, which I love to coat with a little gesso to take away the shine, and then spray with a glimmer mist, to colour. This gives you texture without the shine, the neat thing about this is you can always wipe it off if you don't like it.

Here are some close ups of the feather and and flourish.  

Hope you enjoyed my first post