Doesn’t that make you want to go to the beach right now? Since I couldn’t go to the beach, I decided to make a watercoloured mermaid page.

I started with a page of watercolour paper. I painted on some teal watercolours, concentrating the colour at the bottom and gradually lightening as I went up, to give an ombre effect. While that dried, I cut a shell on my Cameo using a free cut file from Paper Issues called Feels like Summer. I also cut some waves of my own design. I backed the shell with a whole bunch of beautiful papers that I pulled from various paper pads, as well as some painted vellum. I love adding media to vellum- it always created the most beautiful effects. I layered the shell on some foam, lace and thread. 

I used 2 new to me techniques on this layout- using watercolours as ink and foam as a stamp. I used my deep cut blade to cut a swirly cloud by Paige Evans from craft foam and used repositionable adhesive to attach it to an acrylic block. I swirled some purple glitter watercolour paint on some packaging and dipped my stamp in it. I love the effect this gave!I stitched down the waves at the bottom using turquoise and purple threads in varying stitch patterns. This adorable chipboard mermaid is from Crate Paper Cute Girl. I dressed her up a little in a glitter heart puffy sticker and some pearls and gems, which I also scattered all over the page. I printed my photo with my Instax printer, which I am still in love with. I decorated the frame in washi tape and tiny star sequins, and layered the photo on some pattern paper, lace and washi tape. I added the swirly gold washi tape to plain paper to make it like a pattern paper for layering.

I thought I’d make a big bold title on the shell. I used Dear Lizzy Serendipity thickers, and to make them pop, I dabbed a bit of white gesso over the shell where the words were going to be. The 3 came from the Cute Girl ephemera pack- I splattered Heidi shine liberally on it (and the rest of the page), and added star sequins. The clear pink stickers are Heidi Swapp. I fussy cut Beautiful from a paper pad cut apart sheet.

Thanks for looking, and don’t forget to pop over to the ARTastic challenge blog to post your own beach inspired layout using paint.

xoxo

A

Isn’t it dreamy? I’ve been wanting to scrap these photos for a while and this month’s inspiration at ARTastic challenge blog was the perfect starting point. Our inspiration was called Abstract by Robert Klippel:I was inspired by the white background and the combination of colours. The challenge was to use pen. And what’s better than pen? Sketch pen!

I had drawn a stack of teacups a while back, inspired by a picture I saw on Pinterest, that I digitized. I did an offset and used the sketch and cut technique to make the stack of teacups into an embellishment. The only thing that I forgot to do was cut lines in the cups so I could tuck things in between the cups, but I just used an exacto knife to cut those. Then I used watercolours and gold ink to add some colour to the teacups. Finally I took the pen and drew over areas that I painted and that weren’t completely filled by the sketching.

Next, for my background/title, I used a piece of white cardstock in my Cameo to cut the word Fancy (Magnolia Sky script) and some little stars. I backed that using some shaving cream marbled paper in blue. I then took a couple of hours to stitch all around the letters and stars with white embroidery floss.The last thing I did with my Cameo was print and cut a bunch of embellishments. I discovered the best thing every for Silhouette users. It’s called ACdigitals.com and for $3 you can download a digital pack of embellishments from all of my favourite brands (Crate Paper, Pink Paislee, etc.). It was really hard, but I managed to limit myself to 6 packs. On this layout, I used Maggie Holmes Chasing Dreams and Pink Paislee’s Moonstruck. I printed and cut some flowers and some words/phrases on white cardstock.

I absolutely adore the flowers in Moonstruck. The little birds are really cute too.

This photo I popped up on foam. My cat is so fancy! This layout is perfect for him. A little splattering of gold Heidi Shine, and this layout was complete.

Are you as inspired as I am? If so, show off your work by linking up on the ARTastic blog!

xoxo

-A

I have been hesitating posting this layout, because I’m not sure I’m 100% happy with the title. I look at it in real life and it looks fine, but in the photos, it is barely legible because it’s so shiny and it needs movement to stand out. Otherwise, I love the way this page turned out. The challenge over at ARTastic blog this month was vintage and/or children. The inspiration was this art piece called The Kite by Ethel Spowers:Obviously not having any children in my life, I chose vintage. Generally I find it difficult to do vintage style and make it me. I was stuck on a photo to use for something vintage, until I remembered that my dance troupe did a flapper inspired choreography.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find any photos, but then I remembered there was a video. And I’m kinda glad because it gave me the idea to do a film strip! I took a bunch of screen shots, edited them sepia style, and used the print and cut feature on my Silhouette Cameo to print them the right size for the film strip cut file that I made. 

I was going to go with a black, white and gold art deco theme, but then I saw this paper and decided I just had to use it. I thought it would also look great with pink and red roses, so I started fussy cutting. I have a whole paper pad of vintage style rose patterned paper. I also print and cut some roses on vellum, which is a technique I definitely will be using again to make vellum embellishments!

I added a strip of striped washi tape to ground my title. I love those black glitter foam alphas from Heidi Swapp, and I’m happy with that part of my title. For the flapper part, I cut them on my Cameo from some gold foil tape. See it looks ok in this photo cause the light is hitting it just right, but on the full page photo, it’s barely visible. I didn’t want to add gesso because I didn’t want to flatten the roses or warp the vellum. I’m trying to decide if I want to replace them with gold mini alphas, or add some vellum under the word. Or keep it as is? Thoughts?

The last added touches were a little 25c circle die cut- no real meaning, just wanted something round and teal and vintage, and some gold mirror acrylic dots. Both My Mind’s Eye, the dots from Yes, Please and the die cut from Then and Now.

Other than my title issues, I LOVE the way my design turned out. I love the roses and the colours and the film strip. I managed to make it vintage and feel like me and my style.

Thanks for joining me!

xoxo

A

This is my last post for the Stick It Down challenge blog design team! I used this awesome sketch by my team member. I knew I wanted to do a layout about our koi. We have a pond in our condo and these fish have been around for longer than Dylan and I have been together. They stayed for a while in their pond back in Kingston, but then moved up to Ottawa recently. Unfortunately, they have all passed away now. They lived a good long life and I wanted to commemorate that. However, I could only find 3 pictures that I took of them. We are looking forward to getting new baby fish soon, and I vow to take more pictures of them!

I started off with this perfect paper that I found in a Michael’s brand paper pad. At first I wanted to do some sort of large ombre quote with hand cut letters in a rainbow of colours, but then I saw this paper, and decided to do something different. 

I applied some gesso to the paper and then some shimmer sprays and watercolours using the packaging technique. Once dry, I used a fish scale stencil and a palette knife to apply some white shimmer texture paste. I layered some strips of patterned paper to cover up a quote on the side of the background paper that I didn’t really want on my layout. Plus, that’s what the sketch suggested, so it worked out.

I used a strip of paint chip patterned paper from Crate Paper’s Flea Market, a strip of homemade marbled paper, and some gold patterned water and scale paper from Michael’s mermaid and unicorn line. I stitched them in place and distressed the edges. I layered some tags and stamped the date.

My focal piece (other than the photos, of course) was this gorgeous koi cut file that I got from the Silhouette Store ages ago. I got it because it was a really pretty peach watercolour inside, and I thought it was a print and cut, however, the design was just an outline. So I modified it a little bit to make it into more of a paper piecing bit. For the body, I took some peach marbled paper and splattered it with 2 shades of gold and black. For the fins, I backed that with vellum and stitched lines. I love love love how it turned out. I also added a little spot of black for the eye after it was pieced together. I popped it up on some foam under the body, but left the fins floating free. I also layered some thread underneath.

For my title, I used some Heidi Swapp teal alphas to spell out Koi, then used my Silhouette Studio software to find the perfect brush script font for the word fish. I cut it out on some white foam. I’ve always wanted to try this technique because I love the look of foam script words, but I wanted to be able to use my own fonts and words. I’ve cut foam on my Cameo before, but it was a more simple shape. It didn’t cut all the way through, but scored it deep enough that I was able to rip it out without tearing the word. It left the edged of the word a little ragged but I was able to fix it up a bit with scissors. I also tried the technique that I saw on the internet where you take the end cap off the blade to get a deeper cut, however, it ended up just shredding the foam and not finishing cuts. Overall it was better with the end cap on and ripping it out; I would NOT recommend the other way. I loved the look so much though, that I ended up ordering the deep cut blade and it is on it’s way!!

I layered my photos on white cardstock, some vellum, some marbled paper, and a black scalloped puffy sticker border from Crate Paper’s Cute Girl. It tied in the black in the koi. I embellished with some tiny fish and bubble stickers, MME’s Sugar Plum enamel stars and dots, and some clear bead dots. I used a MME fish scale brad. Oh, and I almost forgot! The felt heart that I got from one of my other team members in my secret santa package. I’ve been wanting to use it for forever, as it is adorable, but this is the first layout that I put it down and it felt right.

I”m going to miss being on the Stick it Down team, but I had to step down because I have some of my own projects that I have been wanting to work on. So stay tuned! Also, keep an eye out for the process video for this layout, on my youtube channel.

xoxo

A

This month’s sketch at Stick It Down is a pretty mixed media background with lots of the same word repeated over and over.

It also make me think of using a large title and I’ve been wanting to use a large cut file ever since I upgraded from my Silhouette Portrait to a Cameo 3!

I browsed through my Pinterest until I came across a page by Paige Evans, where she made a cut file using the quote in a cat shaped design inspired by a print she found on Etsy. I found the print and made my own cut file from that.

After I cut it, I backed it using papers from the Crate Paper Cute Girl 6×6 pad. I stitched around the whole design using various stitches and colours of thread, especially using a zigzag stitch where my cut is the fuzziest (cheeks and tail). I also did some back and forth stitching in teal for whiskers, and used a puffy glittery heart sticker for the “nose”. Cute, if I do say so myself. I applied some watercolours, and shimmer spray using the packaging technique and a brush to splatter and blend. 

Then I pulled out a bunch of different colored ink pads and the adorable stamp from Cute Girl, and stamped all over. I used teal, purple and light and dark pink inks. To make the words in the cut file stand out, I used a pencil to outline inside the words. It’s very subtle, and you don’t notice it without a close up, but it makes a HUGE difference in making the design stand out.

I ripped some vellum to layer under the photo, and stitched it down. It created a little pocket, so I stuck a tag in there. The tag, chipboard stickers, puffy stickers and frame are all from Cute Girl.

I layered some more ripped vellum, and pink tissue paper under my photo, and popped it up on foam.

The grey Cute chipboard piece actually said Cute girl, but since this layout is about my cute boy, I just stuck a sticker over the word girl. I added some yellow thread underneath it first though, to give some separation between the two grey elements. I used a wooden button, and some enamel dots from dear Lizzy’s Little You, as well as some more puffy hearts. The rubber accent, is once again, Cute Girl. I wish I had a million of those! They are adorable.

I’d love to see your take on this mixed media challenge. Hop on over to the Stick It Down blog to upload yours!

xoxo

A

This month, the ARTastic challenge was to use pops of red, and the inspiration was Wild Poppies by Kenneth MacQueen:

You’d think I would go watercolour style for this, right? Well I was just too excited to use my shaving cream marbled paper! I had made a bunch of 8.5×11 pages of marbled paper, and I chose one that was mostly blue. I also had a 6×6 paper pad from Michaels- Boho style, which had a page with triangles of patterns edged in gold. I’ve been wanting to do a triangles layout for ages, and thought this was the perfect time. I fussy cut a bunch of triangles, arranged them flowing diagonally down the page, and sewed them down. Then I applied a bunch of white gesso to the centre and got my mixed media on. So I did in face use watercolours, I just used my shimmery ones with the packaging technique.

The boho collection at Michael’s also had these clear stickers, I added a bunch around the page, and under where the photo would go. I printed it on my instax, and added a few of the 6×6 papers behind the photo as layers, as well as a fussy cut phrase from a cut apart sheet from the same pad.

I also layered some tissue paper, under the paper layers though, because I wanted to fade out that purple sticker a bit. The shine bright washi tape I thought went well with the diamond paperclip.

I kept the embellishments to a minimum because the background and stickers were so busy, just some washi tape, an enamel camera, and a fussy cut sentiment on foam.

I needed a big pop of red at the bottom of the page, and I really wanted to use that elephant sticker. The shiny gold word is a Heidi Swapp sticker, and it was a bit illegible until I added some gesso under the word. “IT” is made  from Dear Lizzy Serendipity thickers.

How does this painting inspire you?

Post you layouts to the ARTastic challenge blog linkup!

xoxo

A

This totally adorbs layout is brought to you by Stick It Down’s single page sketch this month, which is a horizontal design with three little hearts with thread, a small vertical photo, and clusters framing from the sides. Of course I ended up moving a few things around to make everything fit, but I really liked the starting inspiration.

I really didn’t know what I wanted to scrapbook on this page until I was about halfway through with the background. I definitely knew I wanted to use my shiny new shimmer watercolours from Michaels (yay for 50% off regular priced item coupons) and I also wanted to use my new fizzy bubbly stamp. I dripped the watercolours from the top of the page, and when it was dried I stamped and gold embossed the top. The stamp was actually top and bottom bubbles around the word cheers!, but I didn’t want that, I just wanted the bubbles so I dabbed the embossing ink on only that part of the stamp.

I picked this photo because it was all colourful like the background and also because it’s vertical. From there I got the idea do little cat embellishments instead of hearts and to make the title one large but short acrylic word (from Heidi Swapp).

I didn’t want them to be all the same either. But I still liked the idea of putting thread underneath them. I used a Heidi Swapp chipboard frame to make the middle cat pop (which is from a pack my friend Chantal sent me as a Valentine’s day gift <3). The heart is a Crate Paper Shine wood veneer that I dabbed blue ink on, and then I stamped a paw print on it. I didn’t end up liking it (not cause of the stamp, which my friend Jessie custom made for me- that I used all over the page in light grey). I just didn’t like the colour I used or the wood texture. So I covered it up with a puffy sticker from the dollar store, and I think it looks so much cuter. The wood enamel button and enamel dots are from Crate Paper Little You.

I also really wanted to use this adorable Crate Paper Cute Girl card and Simple Stories Carpe Diem frame, which meant there wasn’t a lot of horizontal room left, which is why I moved the title over to the right on top of the embellishments. I did use a date stamp however. I don’t know when the picture was taken but because it wasn’t from an event or special day, just an everyday cute photo, I just used the date I made the page.

I love these Heidi Swapp clear pink and gold word stickers, and these Michael’s brand mini alphas are amazing- all those colours are from the same pack and there 5 sheets- some blue green watercolour gradients and some pink purple. Of course I had to make some sort of cat art pun- Meowna Lisa, cause this photo is also documenting that Cat Mona Lisa picture that I painted (inspired by Romero Britto). I used some scrap pieces of pattern paper that I had cut and layered for another layout and didn’t end up using, but I felt the colours worked really well for this layout. I also layered some tulle under the photo. Mostly because I couldn’t find my tissue paper and the tulle was already out. But I thought it was pretty cute anyways, and good to do something different every once in a while.

So I couldn’t handle all that white negative space at the bottom of the page- I tried though, I really did. I stopped and then the next day I decided to add a few small clusters. There was also a few marks on the paper from my nail polish that I wanted to cover up- oops! I’m not sure why the thread looks read in this photo, cause it was hot pink. I used 3 different word sticker- this one that says Be Silly is from Webster’s Pages Painted Passport- I didn’t like the rest of the phrase (It said Be Silly, Be Honest, Be Kind, which seems a little silly for a cat page.) I popped it up on some pink foam for dimension. It was such a tiny sticker that I knew the foam would be visible, so I used a fun colour. The other two clusters are similar- one is a gold word sticker that says CUTE from MME’s Necessities Metallics, and the other is gold hearts from the same clear pink sticker sheet at the FABULOUS sticker. I made the floating clusters small and simple (word sticker, thread, and a bit of watercolour splatter) so they wouldn’t take away from the original design. But I really like the way it looks like they are dripping from the top of the page.

If you are as inspired as I was by this month’s sketch, go check out the Stick It Down blog and link up your take on this.

xoxo

-A

I’ve been excited to scrap pictures from this hot air balloon ride for forever! So when I saw the inspiration and challenge assignment at ARTastic, I knew it would be perfect for this. The inspiration is this abstract blue and white painting called An Image of November by William Rose.

The criteria was to use a stencil. Since the painting is abstract, it really is up to interpretation. I see a cloud city, which reminded me of being up in the sky. I also took inspiration from the colour scheme- blues and whites and pops of gold.

I started with a mandala stencil, which I cut out of scrap cardstock with my Silhouette. I then sprayed teal, green and purple shine spray through the stencil, directly onto my background. I used another stencil to push gold texture paste through to make tiny stars all over. For my title, I wanted a whimsical, floaty effect. I used different blue, white and silver alphas (though I had to paint one set blue, and added blue to another). I cut the ampersand from blue glitter tape with my Silhouette, and glued it over some tangled thread. The away is from Paige Evans’ Take Me Away collection, and I liked how its in two pieces so I could space them like I did.

I printed my photos with my Instax printer. I popped it up on foam and tissue paper, as well as white tangled thread to give it a floaty, cloud effect. I also tucked a silver starburst that I stitched on- it’s from MME’s Then and Now die cut pack (as is the small green hot air balloon). I love mixing metallics- gold and silver look good together, and I’m so happy that it’s in right now.

I auditioned several paper for my balloon- I ended up liking a blue polka dot paper, but found it too dark, so I covered it in white gesso. It lightened the paper, but you can still see a tiny bit of the pattern, and it gives it texture and structure. I used white embroidery floss to stitch lines and used a bit of watercolour, and silver and gold paint on top.

I also used the embroidery floss to attach the balloon to my “basket,” which is a frame that I cut from a burlap weave patterned paper from Kaisercraft, and gave it support with chipboard.

I put the photo of us in the balloon in the basket frame. I can’t get over how cute it is :).

My last finishing touch was the landscape that we were floating over. Our hot air balloon ride was over the Atlas Mountain in Morocco. I used an indigo washi tape and ripped it in half down the center. I also stitched it down to make sure it stays down. I smeared some purple and gold shine spray above to make it kinda a sunrise (ok, the purple was an accident when I was spraying the stencil… but as Bob Ross says- “We don’t make mistakes, just happy little accidents.”) An I am super happy with how it looks.

I hope this painting inspires you as much as it inspired me! Remember to link up at ARTastic challenge blog for a chance to win some awesome prizes.

xoxo

A

This was a fun layout to make. It is for the Stick it Down challenge blog, based on this sketch:

I had a lot of 2×2 photos that I wanted to use, I liked the grid pattern of the hearts, and I liked that I could fit all those photos into the patterned area of the sketch. When I was making this layout, I felt like fussy cutting as well. Flowers, in particular, as I had a lot of flower pattern papers that were calling my name. I stuck my photos down in the bottom right, touching in a grid pattern. I then stitched around every one, and lifted and distressed the edges.

I kept the mixed media to a minimum here, as it was going to be a super busy layout. I just splattered a bit of watercolour and gold shine spray in the upper left corner. I fussy cut flowers that had similar colours to the photos- I wasn’t sure if I would be able to make it work with so many busy photos but I think I managed to make it happen. This would definitely not have worked on a not-white background. Instead of journaling, I just used a strip of washi tape with shiny gold DREAM. Cause dancing with my ladies and my BFF is a dream come true :).

I kept the title small and simple, as I didn’t want to draw attention away from the photos and flowers. Gold MME Necessities alphas with a bit of distressing (I had to move some letters to make it fit). Instead of sequins, I used a couple enamel dots.

Here I had gone a little bit overboard with the mixed media- I had some wet Heidi shine on there and I smudged it and then I tried to cover it up by making the splatters bigger, but it was just too much and too busy. Somehow, covering it up with words cut out from a sheet from Crate Paper’s Flea Market paper pad solved the problem. I stitched through the words for texture and to make them stick over the mixed media.

So since I made the photos be the big square, I wanted to use a small square embellishment in the upper left cluster. This chipboard FRIEND piece was perfect for that spot. To finish the cluster, I added a rose from the same chipboard sticker set (Cute Girl by Crate Paper). I also used one of the butterflies I had left over from a previous layout. The tangled thread and stitching added the last touch of texture to the cluster.

I love how this turned out, as I had been dreading making this page cause of all the photos that didn’t quite match. But one sketch and idea later- this came together quickly, which was great cause the last layout I made took me 7 hours.

I hope I inspired you to think outside the box for photo placement, and to not be afraid of mixing tons of bright colours. Don’t forget to upload your take on this sketch on the Stick It Down link-up.

xoxo

A

I’m in love- with this layout, with Paris, with Dylan…. and this layout for the ARTastic design team really was a labour of love. It took me about 7 hours to make- it involved a lot of hand stitching, mixed media, backing tiny cut files, etc. The inspiration art was Carousel Delight by Karen Pierce:

Isn’t it gorgeous? I love carousels, they are always so pretty. This reminded me of a beautiful carousel that I photographed at Montmartre in Paris, so I decided to scrap that. The challenge was to use butterflies. I had a picture in my head of how I wanted this layout to turn out, and I’m happy to say that it came out very similar. 

I also tried filming it, not realizing how quickly my phone would fill up filming in 1080p, even if it was time lapse. But 7 hours is a lot! I’m learning.

I started with a carousel cut file that I made a while back for a craft project. I cut it from white cardstock, painted the horses with gesso, then watercolours, and then gold embossed the poles  and manes and hoofs. I hand cut a triangle for the roof of the carousel and painted it with various green/blue shimmer sprays. I should have used gesso, as it would have been easier to blend, but it turned out pretty nice anyways, with no warp.

I then hand stitched around the roof and several lines down the slope. For the title, I used my alpha painting technique to get the colour I wanted. I cut love from a sheet of Amy Tan Oh Happy Life paper with various words and phrases, then stitched it down with a back and forth. 

The most time consuming part was cutting all the butterflies, painting them, letting them dry, and backing them with vellum. It didn’t help that the first set I cut were way too detailed for the size, and took forever, and didn’t look good cause they were all ripped and mangled. So I simplified, which made the cut go that much faster. It also took me a while of playing with placement to figure out that I needed to back them with vellum, otherwise it looked like a jumbled mess. Finally, when I got them how I liked them, I stitched them all down with various stitches.

The other touches I added were washi tapes across the top and bottom of the carousel and around the horses’ necks, as well as the photos, which I printed on my Instax printer. I added some hearts and a laurel from Paige Evan’s Take Me Away thicker sheet.

I wanted to use some french ephemera from C’est La Vie, cause Paris.

I also cut a couple of butterflies from marbled MAMBI paper. Some clear purple sequins added the final touch to this layout.

I hope you are as inspired as I was by this month’s challenge, and upload your creation to the ARTastic challenge blog!

xoxo

-A