Loves Tea & Paper

Inspiration Elevator Reveal: What's Next

2013-05-15T08:03:48-05:00

The purpose of this challenge group is to take our scrapbooking to the next level, to stretch our creative process and to grow as artists by embracing challenges that make us think, work and grow. You can view all of the challenges on my blog by clicking on the Inspiration Elevator tab in the sidebar on the right, or check our our new Inspiration Elevator Blog, here.

This month, our challenge comes from the talented Laura Whitaker. Laura's challenge, in her own words, is as follows:

"As we welcome spring, scrap something to do with a new beginning, it could be an opportunity, a relationship, or even the world's reawakening after it's long winter's nap. Don't forget to journal and describe why you have chosen your topic."

We would also like to welcome our May Guest Designer, Denise Morrison. Her arsty, eclectic style inspires her followers to see how "Life is Yummy" at her blog!

We are thrilled to announce we have one more designer joining our group this year - welcome to Michelle Hernandez!

I hope you will stop by and see what our designers on this adventure have created:

Ann Jobes (I'm so glad you're here!)

I thought about this new beginnings theme for some time. Would I scrap a photo of my tulips and hyacinths and talk about spring? Possibly, but then spring came on kind of late and the garden has been sporadic...

Here's what I decided to create:

If you're viewing this on a tablet or mobile device, click on the photo to see the full image

This layout is almost an art journal page scaled up, in a way. I started with a piece of Super Stock, available through Canadian Scrapbooker magazine - it's really heavy, 130 lb, and it held up well to everything I put on there. The paper curled slightly inward, but there's no pilling and no warping.

This page is about a possible new beginning in my future, and there is a lot of symbolic significance to just about everything. My job as a technical writer - well, it may be ending sooner than I planned. I work with and for my father-in-law and the reality is that a lot of men his age are fully retired. So it's not improbable that he may want to scale back. One of his largest clients no longer utilizes his services, making him available for more of the smaller projects I work on, and he has had a recent diagnosis that may affect how much work he takes on in the future. All these add up to having me wonder how much longer I'll be a technical writer... And what I will do next ... But as my journalling concludes, with God in it, the next beginning will be wonderful.

I purposely blurred the photo on my layout - I wanted my laptop to be blurred, because as the major tool I use for my job, it works for me symbolically to blur it - will it be a tool for my next job? I also wanted to blur the screen because the list of clients is confidential.

I started by going through my Thickers collection, collecting up a bunch of question marks in a variety of sizes and fonts and adhering them to the white cardstock. I had them right side up and upside down, for interest. I then coated the whole page with gesso to prime it. I then played around with acyrlic paint and many stencils to create the background. The very last stencil I used was a butterfly stencil and I applied modelling paste around it. Some gesso, Inka-gold and gold pen finished off the background.

Can you see the question marks in all that texture?

Thank you for popping by my blog today. If you take on Laura's challenge to create something around the theme of new beginnings, be sure to use our link feature on the Inspiration Elevator blog so I can see what you made!

Blessings,

Ann

Tutorial: Tinted & Textured Background

2013-05-10T06:14:00-05:00

I'm sharing this tutorial at the My Sketch World blog and thought I'd share it here, too.

I created this layout for the May 1st layout sketch:

In this tutorial, I am going to show you how I created that background.

You will need:

A background stencil (lots of things work as stencils besides store bought templates, such as the bags produce is sold in, a leftover sheet where you've used all the chipboard or diecut pieces, something you created on a diecut machine, or the piece left when you use your punches, etc.)
Modelling paste (this one is light paste - the difference between this paste and the heavy paste is like the difference between whipped butter and a block of butter; this goes on very smoothly and dries quite quickly without being heavy)
something to spread with (this can be a hotel key, old credit or gift card, a spatula or putty knife, even a plastic knife from a take-out meal)
gelatos or watercolour crayons
sheet of cardstock, at least 80 lb (I like the white on white effect, but you could use a coloured piece)

Adhere your template to the cardstock using painter's tape or washi tape to prevent the template from moving.
Using your tool of choice, spread or scrape the modelling paste over the template, ensuring it is spread evenly. (You can see that I used this template on a previous project. If you are working with mists or watercolour paints with your templates, it's a good idea to clean them in between, because these are water activated and can taint your next project - if you're adventurous, ignore all that! In this case, I had used acrylic paint, and it's fixed there, so I don't worry about red paint contamination on the white modelling paste.)

3. Once you've filled in as much of the template as you'd like (remember you can do the whole template, or just part(s) - depending on your project), gently peel off the tape and carefully lift away the template. When I'm working with pastes, I wash the stencil right away, especially stencils with small cutouts, so they can't be ruined with dried up product. 4. Allow your page to dry. Work on another part of the layout for awhile. If you are in a rush, you can put the heat tool on it, but be warned! If you get too close you can cause the paste to bubble, an effect you might not want (I like it on clouds), and if you aren't moving the heat tool around at a distance, you can scorch the paste and turn it brown. I tend to apply the heat from the bottom side of the paper, and then just give it a last bit of heat from the top to finish it off. Wasn't that fun? You've created a unique raised effect on your background!

5. Now it's time to jazz it up a little! You could just mist over it, or splatter some paint, but I'm going to show you how I tinted the hexagons using gelatos. Gelatos are a watercolour product, packaged in a tube that rolls up like lipstick. They are soft and creamy when applied dry and they can be layered. They are also water activated, and you can create dreamy watercoloury effects using them. For this piece, I got right in there with my fingers. I simply dipped a finger in a nearby dish of water and dabbed my finger on the end of the gelato to pick up some colour and then dabbed the colour onto the raised image created with the paste. 6. Feel free to layer on more colour using the same method. I layered a teal first, followed by brown.

7. I'm picturing this being the base for either a masculine page or a page with a vintage photo. Can you see some gray in the spaces between the paste? I applied the gray using the same technique, but not on the raise spaces but on the plain spaces instead. I didn't prep the page with gesso first, so the gelato doesn't move on the paper well. I'm fine with that for this page. I just wanted you to know that it will behave differently on plain cardstock versus pre-gesso'd cardstock.

This is the finished technique, and the page is ready for more treatments, layers and photos!

For the hexagon background, I fussy cut that cluster of hexagons so that the page is no longer a square, but a funky shape ready for more layering.

If you try this technique, please let me know. I'd love to see it.

Thanks for popping by!

Blessings,

Ann

Lazy Hazy Days of Cuba

2013-05-08T15:49:10-05:00

About every 5 weeks I create a sketch as inspiration in the Two Scrapbook Friends forum. I don't always remember to share them here, but I did remember today. :)

I tend to keep my sketches fairly simple. It allows CAS scrappers to just dive in, and for those who like to embellish or create backgrounds, this is a springboard, I hope. It was for me! This is the layout I created:

By the way, if you are viewing this via a tablet or mobile phone, just tap on the image and should pop to full screen so you can see the whole thing.

You can see that I used all that white space on the sketch to create a bit of a background. By painting in select spots of a TCW template, the background sort of looks like waves or fish, perfect for this photo taken in Cuba.

A few clouds created with modelling paste spread roughly through the cloud template, finish the scene. They got especially puffy when I hit the modelling paste with a blast from the heat tool - instant texture!

This paper collection is from Fancy Pants and I enjoyed layering the glassine envelopes amongst the patterned papers. A smattering of sequins adds texture, colour and shine!

Thanks for popping by and let me know if you use my sketch - I'd love to see your creation!

Blessings,

Ann