Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Cinnamon sidecart (Kaneel & Zijspan) Mixed media layout

Hey everyone! 


So I have returned with the next layout in my 'scrapiniec alphabet challenge'. 
We're having some time off, the dental  laboratory I work at is always closed from Christmas until New years and my husband Pascal is a school teacher. 
So yeah, we get to sleep in alternating, one of us has to go downstairs to take care of Connor (who's almost 3 years old) while the other can catch up on some much needed sleep. (Our little man hardly ever sleeps through the entire night and wakes up around 6.30 every day.)

Thinking about what to do with all my letters, I suddenly got an idea for the 'Z': ZIJSPAN. Which is Dutch for 'sidecart'.
My husband loves to ride motorcycles and didn't want to wait until Connor was old enough to take him along. So, he bought a motorcycle with a sidecart!
A lovely, vintage, blue, German 'AWO' motorcycle from the fifties. 
And Connor and he have been going for rides ever since Connor was about a 1,5 years old. Connor enjoys the 'speed' very much, even though it's hardly any faster than a moped, LOL. (They are overtaken by cyclists even...)
And the husband? He loves to share his passion with his little man.

Anyways, gears popped up in my head too for this layout, obviously. So I altered the Z a little by adding some (half) gears. Quite happy with the result so far.


Then I made my own blend to recreate the tire tracks (with a Tim Holtz stencil) by mixing a gray structure paint, black gesso, some 13Arts Magic powder to give it more structure, and cinnamon. (Which in retrospective could have been left out easily, it didn't show. But it smelled great when I dried the tracks with my heatgun, hahaha.)


After application I sprinkled some sand on the tracks.


I stamped some numeric and text stamps (not entirely random) over the page with black ink. When I found out this particular piece of paper wasn't very sturdy (Echo Park collection something something, from my stash, a few years old at least) I adhered it to a piece of plain black cardboard. Then I distressed the edges and inked them with black as well.

Then it was time for the gears, which I wanted to have 'surrounding' my picture. I glued them down and let them dry overnight. (Bedtime anyway, so.)
Next, I gave my gears and the 'Z' a coat of anthracite Inka Gold. (Which was hard with all the teeth and points and holes. Took me forever! Spraying them beforehand would have been easier I think.)


After unsuccessfully trying to mix gel medium with cinnamon (my almost 3-year old boy asked me if it was poop...) I simply applied the gel medium on my gears and shook the cinnamon on top. I let it dry and tapped the excess off. And them brushed some more. And sneezed. (But the effect is worth it!) 
After I painted the edges of my Z with a dark blue glimmermist I gave it the same cinnamon treatment as the gears. 
To make my gear-wreath more exciting I twirled some iron wire along it in loops and glued down some (non functional) Christmas lights. Added some chain, brushed some silver micro beads/ nail caviar on the gears (blended in gel medium), added a bit of turquoise alcohol ink to emphasise the rust and then added some crackle medium. Once that dried I inked it a little to bring out the cracks more and dull the shine somewhat. Next day I brushed some brown/gold Inka Gold over the micro beads because the silver stood out too much.

Meanwhile I basically gave the Z the same treatment. I adhered it to a piece of currogated cardboard (which I altered with 2 shades of silver/anthracite and a rust colour Inka Gold and... yes... here it comes... cinnamon! ;) )
Made the rest of the word 'Zijspan' on my Dymo labelwriter and added a few word stickers from 7dots 'Nature Walk'.  (Altered their color a little and covered them in crackle medium.) 



Glued a little licence plate from Prima with the text 'Dreamroad' to the bottom of the page and altered it with alcohol ink and crackle medium. 

There you have it, my cinnamon sidecart layout. Hope you like it. Comments are much appreciated. 
Also, you can keep up with me through my facebookpage Less is bore! 
Or you can follow me on Instagram: ladyguinevere77

I'll leave you with a few more close-ups! 







Happy scrapping everyone! 

Sunday, December 27, 2015

Mini chopping boards mixed media Christmas presents



Hey everyone! 
Over here in the Netherlands Christmas is over and we're having a lazy day with our own family of three. Hope you had a lovely Christmas surrounded by loved ones. We did. Sort of ;)

Only a couple of days before Christmas I decided to turn these cute little amuse chopping boards into finnabairesque gifts. (For measure: they are a bit smaller than my hand.)


I took a picture of the crackle paste coat I applied at first, but that has vanished somehow. Unfortunately this crackle paste as well as the 13Arts magic powder do not go give me the crackle effect I desire, but at least I have some structure. I let this dry overnight before I proceeded.

So sorry I didn't take any pictures of the next steps but basically they're quite simple.
Pick out the embellishments you like. I took the first letter of the names of my uncle and aunt, our host and hostess, R and Y.
She owns a bird so I went with that theme for her, and he's sort of a locksmith so that was my theme for him.
Added some drywall tape (mesh) on his, some lace paper on hers. Some micro beads (nail caviar) on both theirs.
Then I painted all of it with black gesso. Dried it with a heatgun, then sprayed both with various glimmermists (drying in between steps) and finished it with different shades of Inka Gold.
Added some chain and a key to his, and some pearl string with a little 'made with love' charm to hers.

Honestly, I like the result! And asides from a little more preparation and drying time, they're made almost as quickly as a card. If you know the receiver will appreciate (your) handy work, it's a much nicer option.

I'll leave you with some pictures and close-ups.
If you want to keep up with my work, like my facebookpage Less is bore!
         
                    Happy scrapping!













Tuesday, December 22, 2015

"Worth the weight" Mixed Media layout

                    Worth the weight



Hi everyone! 
Are you enjoying the holidays? Or do you still have to work a little, like me? It's still doesn't feel like Christmas is almost near. The older I get, the faster time seems to go by...

I'm not someone who participates in scrap challenges a lot, but I couldn't pass up the challenge over at "Scrap around the world." Sadly it's their last challenge. It runs until the end of the month so you can still play along!
The moodboard colours spoke to me, I thought of a sheet of paper by Prima (Royal Menagerie series) I had recently bought and wanted to use with a picture of purple, pregnant me ;) 
The flowers and leaves would be easy to incorporate as well, since this would be a girly layout for a change.
I even thought about using the sentence "The future looks bright" but somehow the 'F' didn't match ;) 


I started by choosing some chipboards from Scrapiniec. (The "W" monograce being one of them, in order to fulfill my second scrapped layout with a letter, from the monogram alphabet I won.)


My layout title would be "Worth the weight/wait" so I chose to stencil clocks with modeling paste. Once dry I sprayed some golden glimmer mist over the areas I stenciled.

Altering the chipboard was the next step. I sprayed the swirls with the same golden glimmer mist, then added some golden Inka Gold and golden micro beads blended with a gel medium.
While working on my previous layout I discovered the monograms look at their best when the inside swirls are a different colour from the outline. I sprayed the letter with golden glimmermist and gave the outline a pink/purple coat with Inka Gold.
I added a clockface from 13Arts to the chipboard clock and altered both of them as well.

Time for embellishing... I adhered my fussy cut picture to a little piece of journaling paper and started embellishing alongside the outlines. (Using the picture only to refer to the placement, I didn't glue it down until I had the sides fully embellished.)
Because my motto is "Less is bore!" I couldn't stop... Seriously, sometimes I wish I could add less. Ugh. 

The rest of the title (it's a joke referring to the weight rather than the wait) I made by writing on a wooden tag with a versamark marker and heat embossing the words with golden embossing powder.

When everything was in place I sprayed some more golden glimmermist over all the embellishments. I gave the die cut cherubs and wooden tag a coat of crackle glaze to age them. 
I added the gel medium blended with golden micro beads on the flowers.

And that's that. In case I forgot to explain something, don't hesitate to ask. If you like it, leave me a comment. 
I'd love for you to like my facebookpage Less is bore! as well!

I'll leave you with some more close-ups of my page and wish you a very merry Christmas surrounded by loved ones, and happy scrapping :)









Tuesday, December 15, 2015

"Santa Baby" Mixed Media layout

Hi all!
Can you believe that ever since I took up scrapping almost 12 years ago, I have never ever created a Christmas layout???? Even though I have tons of scrapping embellishments and suitable pics, I just never did a Christmas layout. They felt lame somehow.  
So... I decided to do my first one ever and make it a very non-traditional Christmas layout.


Boy, did I fail at that :P LOL! 

No matter how hard I try, I can't keep things subtle. Or clean and simple. Noooo... 
My layout captures ALL the Christmas layouts I should have made during those 12 years in ONE. Sprinkled with glitter, gold and snow. Covered in puke from Elfs that ate way too much christmas candy...

And to think it all started out with this beautiful and delicate piece of Scrapberry's paper from the Legend series. That, and the sweet picture of 11 old month Connor I took to send as our family Christmas card.


At first I stenciled some Tim holtz swirls to the left side, using modeling paste. Dried them. 
For the other stencil I cooked up a special blend of modeling paste, pearl medium and 13Arts magic powder. (Hardly visible effect afterwards with those thin lines, but the reverse stencil I used at first was too much.)



And here's where every little bit of hope for a subtle layout vanished... I used a red and olive/moss green glimmermist. Okay. Now how was I going to blend those? Connect them? Downplay them? 


By adding golden Inka Gold on all the raised areas. (That's when I got stuck using golden embellishments for the rest. Silver nor copper just didn't seem right.)


With my 'jingle bells jingle bells jingle bells' stamp, I stamped 'jingle bells jingle bells jingle bells' in black on different areas of the page.

Now my background was done, it was time to decide what to use and how to alter it.
Since I was elected the lucky winner of the entire Scrapiniec Monograce Alphabet (with the promise of scrapping a layout with every single letter...) my title would be 'Santa baby', using the 'S'. 
I sprayed it with red mist, added some golden micro beads (nail caviar) blended with Gel Medium and later on some white crackle paste (as I do not own any snow paste). Once finished I lightly painted the interior swirls silver/gold.
Obviously I altered many more items. Gave letters ink sprays and glossy coats, topped off with crackle paints, micro beads and 'snow'. 
The oval wooden frame and wooden snowflake were treated with Mega Flakes. They do lend a beautiful, rich effect, like being real precious metals. (Very messy to work with though. Even for me.)
The big flower on the bottom left was originally white, I gave that a red mist spray as well. Added a little black ink on the edges, 'snow' on the tips and gold Inka Gold on the leaves/petals as well. 
Added some ribbons to the bottom, some 13Arts glitter leaves to the left, some golden embellishments, a few ancient christmas light embellishments, frosted berries, a little Santa hat, you name it...

I'll leave you with some close-ups and the remark that I loooove comments. But I'd love it even more if you would 'like' my Facebookpage Less Is Bore! to keep up with me.

Happy scrapping! 









Saturday, December 12, 2015

"Enjoy today" Mixed Media layout





Hi all! Finally got a chance to finish my layout and blog about it.
These pictures are technically not so perfect but I turned them into a collage with an app and that gave it a whole different effect. These pictures were too much fun NOT to scrap!
The journaling tells that it was a regular day when Connor and I walked to the nearby store for groceries. We walked by a square tower every time, with a little border around it Connor likes to climb. One thing led to another and we were doing 'peek-a-boo' around the corners soon. How much fun Connor had is clearly to be seen on the pictures.

I started out with a lovely paper sheet from 13Arts. Mixed Finnabair teal mica powders with clear gesso to use through a stencil with circular shapes.


Leaving me with this effect. (I wanted to sort of stick with the circle theme because of the 'bubbliness" of the picture.


Then I decided to mix my recent favourite medium glass beads texture gel with a dark blue Inka Gold. However, applying this through a stencil with small holes is not easy. I wouldn't advice it ;)


The outcome was nice though.
I sprayed some silver glimmermist through a stencil with small dots. I punched holes in the top and bottom of the page. Later I taped yellow patterned paper to the back and filled in the holes with silver crackle paint.


The big swirl and text are from Scrapiniec. Basically I altered every piece of chipboard/wood/plastic before I adhered it. I used turquoise Inka Gold, glass beads texture gel, gold and silver crackle paints. 
I added some turquoise stars and yellow and turquoise iridescent circles, some big broad blue ribbon and glittery blue swirls as a final touch. 


Here are some close-ups so you can see the textures.





Hope you like it! Comments are always appreciated! You can also follow my facebookpage Less is Bore!

Happy scrapping! :)