"Less is Bore!" Mixed media tray (canvas)

Follow me on facebook! "Less is bore!"

Hi all! 

Because I felt that my blog needed an actual scrapped banner instead of the digital one I had, I made my own in a Finnabair mixed media style. 

A wooden tray was all I could find in the desired size. I turned it upside down though, which seemed easier for stenciling. 

First, I coated the tray with white gesso. Adhered a piece of 'open' ribbon to the left and then stenciled different stencils using modelling paste. I stenciled the 'art is..' text, some bricks, a church window and damask.

The wooden frame was covered with a mix of modeling paste and '13 arts magic powder'. I added this a bit on the left corners too, to make the transition from the ribbon to the background more smooth.

Unfortunately it didn't provide me with the crackle texture it should have. Need some practising with it, obviously. 

When that had dried I added some more frames, embellishments and letters. Covered everything in gesso. Multiple layers on the colored letters.

When that had all dried I decided the top right corner needed more embellishing. Covered those in gesso too.
For more structure I added glass beads texture gel on some things and crackle paint on others.

I let it dry and added several different colors of mists. I used some Lindy's, Dylusions, Tattered Angels; whichever colour suited my idea. In between colours I dried with my heatgun! 

 

After the first session of spraying I wasn't very pleased so I added another colour and just kept changing things until I was happy. 

When I was finished I rubbed some golden colored Inka Gold on every single part that stood out or was textured.

I added some more crackle medium on the letters and some embellishments. The sometimes multiple layers of different colours mist provided me with some lovely, surprising effects!

Later I used a cream colored Inka Gold on my letters because they didn't stand out enough, as you can see in the picture above. 

I'll leave you with some close-ups. I'd love to hear what you think! And I'm always happy to answer your questions!

Happy scrapping! :)

Mixed media canvas, "Leaves" challenge by Scrapki wyzwaniowo

Hiya there, 

Hope you're having weekend already, like me :)

I had some recent fall pictures of my boy Connor that I wanted to scrap, and I saw the november challenge over Scrapki Wyzwaniowo! The challenge is 'leaves'. You can still join in, so go on over there and have a look!

scrapki-wyzwaniowo november challenge

Because this particular layout will be a gift, I glued it to a canvas. Which gave me the opportunity to use much thicker embellishments, yay!

Connor shows it right here :)

I started out with this piece of paper from Kaisercraft in currogated cardboard look. With my big foam tree stamp I stamped a tree with brown Tim Holtz distress embossing powder.

Honestly I started embellishing after this already, but I should probably pretend to tell you that I did some stamping next with a text stamp and brown ink.

I splattered some ink sprays all over the page. A very wrong red one too. Which turned my sweet forest scene into a forest massacre... :'( 

Managed to fix that up some by smearing some Inka Gold copper over those particular areas. In retrospective I wouldn't have splattered so much because it takes away from the total design. In my opinion. But if you have a different opinion I'd be glad to hear it ;)

Basically I used a lot of leaves... Even metal ones. The words/sentences (one is from 'scrapiniec') are painted with Tim Holtz copper crackle paint.

I added a little wooden fox, mushrooms, some slices of wood, a bird, some acorns.

Thanx for reading and commenting! Happy scrapping! 

Mixed media layout "No one else will ever know the strength of my love for you..."

Hiya fans :P

Had the chance to scrap another layout this weekend. And this one is sooo sweet, it'll hurt your teeth... 

Ready? Set... Go!

Here's a close-up so you can see the quote I used. "No one else will ever know the strength of my love for you. After all, you're the only one who knows what my heart sounds like on the inside."
I typed that myself on an old typewriter. Mounted the quote onto a wooden frame, which I coloured purple with Inka Gold. Then I covered both frame and text with one step crackle medium. (Way thicker on the frame ofcourse, I needed my quote to remain visible! So I brushed that area thinly.) Patience is the key here, do not try to speed the crackle process up with your heatgun, because you'll end up with broken bubbles.
So, once dry I inked it with some aqua ink.

You also see part of the angel's wing I stenciled. I used glass bead texture gel mixed with a pearl medium. The tiny butterflies are mirrors, which I gave a layer of pearl alcohol inkt first, and afterwards I covered them with glass beads texture gel.

The blue heart you see peeking out from underneath it all was also a mirror. I gave that a coat of the same mixture I used to stencil my big damask swirl with. A blend of crackle paste and an aqua blue Dylusion spray ink/mist. In my opinion the paste didn't crackle as much as I hoped for. But the stencil was hard to handle because it was so big and I didn't want to risk smearing too much in unwanted places, so.

I used modelling paste to stencil the text on the top left and bottom right. Afterwards I sprayed and inked those parts, as well as the rest of the page lightly here and there, with lilac and blue. 

Almost forgot to mention that I practically distress every page I do, by tearing up the edges and sides with a

 special tool. I ink the sides too.

The flower wreath is a piece meant for home decor. I bent it into a heart shape and added blue flowers to the existing pink ones.

I suppose that's all there really is to it! Let me know if you want to learn more. Comments are always very welcome.

Happy scrapping! 

"Cute" Mixed media layout

Hi all,

It's time for another update already. This next layout was a simpler one for me.

I had a small and normal sized picture of Connor wearing a brown and blue striped hat, really showing off the intense blue eye colour he used to have back then. 

The paper I wanted to use was light and dark blue. So I started by colouring the bottom piece brown. With a Lindy's Stamp Gang ink spray and a regular ink cubicle.

First I figured out where I wanted my pictures, then I stenciled the feathers with a brownish Inka Gold. I've said it many times, I know, but I looooove my Inka Golds. They're pleasant to work with, nice and creamy, and the result is always sharp and shiny.

So this is what my page looks like after stenciling the feathers.

After the stenciling I decided to add a little stamping in brown and blue, with some brick and wood like patterns.

Then it was embellishing time! A few ribbons here and there, a few words I sprayed with London Blue Dylusions Ink. Some felt circles, real feathers and other small knick knacks. An owl I secretly wrecked because I wasn't patient enough. (Do not speed up crackle paint by drying it with your heatgun. It will only bubble, not crack. Also don't spray it with spray ink before it's dry. You'll have no control over the end result. Which is why I hid most of my owl with feathers, LOL.)

Here's a small close up that'll hopefully show you how well the Inka Gold feathers turned out.

Let me know what you think! Questions and comments are always welcome!

Happy scrapping!

"Butterfly Kisses" Mixed Media layout

Hey all,

As promised im back to show you my latest layout. It's called "Butterfly Kisses". On the picture my boy Connor is 3 weeks old and being kissed by his nephew.

I didn't take step by step pictures because I didn't have my phone with me. Also, it's a good thing I didn't because my initial idea went horribly wrong. 

The paper is by 7Dots, Nature Walk. For some time already I had sought out the backside of this particular paper to scrap with this picture. The backside was black with a sandy coloured swirl. Very pretty. I wanted to use the Prima Finnabair doilie stencil with black gesso to begin with. 

So I tried. Upon removing the stencil I had one big, black blob :'( I decided to smear out the black gesso but that was horrendous. So I decided to flip the paper over and work from there. Strange enough it all came together rather quickly after this debacle! 

I glued some strips of old sheet music to the paper with gel medium and dried them. Afterwards I  wiped some white gesso over them because they were too yellow.

I stenciled my doilie with black PAINT instead of GESSO :P

I stamped the border swirls and parts of a text stamp with black ink. 

Tried out my glass beads texture gel and crackle paint and crackle paste on the wooden chalk tags. And later on almost every other surface ;)

Layered the picture on a piece of blue patterned paper and some cardstock. Added the blue denim rose ribbon, which I coloured partially with black mist. 

I guess that's about it! The picture above shows some of the materials I've used. If you have any questions or comments, please dont hesitate to leave me a reply.

Happy scrapping!

"Dreamer" Mixed Media layout

Hi everyone, 

Aaannnddd she's back already! These past few weeks I've been able to scrap 2 layouts per week! It's got to be some kind of record for me. Though I have to admit that some layouts 'flow' more natural than others.

Recently I saw a tutorial that I wanted to sort of mimic. I already had the perfect picture in my mind and the 'vibe' I was going for. Here it is, my "Dreamer".

Another layout about my little man Connor. He's a dreamer, obviously. No matter what he's doing, he'll suddenly go into this blank stare modus. It's like he's switched on standby ;)

I started out with a sheet of paper from 7dots "Nature Walk" series. It has a light damask pattern. (Leave it to me to completely cover that up by being a little too enthusiastic with my crackle stencil.)

However I started out by adding some doilies to the surface (first determine where your picture will go) with Gel Medium.

After this had dried I stenciled a crackle pattern all over the page. I chose to do it with gesso/modeling paste but wished I had kept it a little more low-key. So I would advise you to do this in a light ink.
I stenciled some swirls in 2 opposite corners. (I'm not a pro... The gesso seeped through the stencil and kinda messed up the swirls. Which is why I sort of hid them later on, LOL.)

Once dry (hello heatgun! ) I added a square wooden frame, which I cut into 4 pieces so I could put one of the corners on the opposite side. I added another wooden shape and corner.

 Now that the basics were done it was only a matter of embellishing. I added flowers, leaves and another swirl.

When all was glued in place to my liking I gave everything, from the wooden ornaments to the leaves and flowers, a pearlescent paint coat. To add to the dreaminess of it all.

I'll leave you with some close-ups and hope that I explained it clearly. Also, make sure you learn from my mistakes ;)

I'd love it if you dropped me a line! Happy scrapping! 

"Proud to be stout" Mixed Media layout

Hi all!

So, as promised I'm back. Didn't get a chance yesterday to finish the project I was working on, but I finished it just now. The basic ingredients are some stencils: a 6 by 6 brick one and a Tim Holtz one with the alfabet (which I forgot to include in the picture). I also used construction tape, the magic mesh like stuff. And next to some spray inks and inks, I used a structure paint in cement look.

The layout is called "proud to be stout."

You'll probably understand the first part, but 'stout' is the Dutch word for 'naughty'. Which my little boy clearly radiates on this picture. .. (But he can be a little angel as well, don't worry...)

I used the structure paint through the brick stencil. (Alas it seeped through the cracks so I had to fix that up somewhat.) I also painted the big and small chipboard hearts with the structure paint. Once dry I inked them a little because they were a little too bland for me.

As usual I'm a star in covering up all my efforts of stenciling, but here's still a bit of the border I did with the construction tape. You can use gesso or modeling paste, whatever you like. I did the text with modeling paste.

After these parts dried I coloured them with spray inks. I decided to try and paint them on with a brush instead of spraying, because I find the result of spraying always lacking depth of colour somehow.

Then I put the hearts and picture in place and added the blue ribbon on the top left and bottom right. I added a felt swirl and some flowers, leaves, a feather and some other embellishments. 

After I had taken the picture already, I added some crackle medium to the crown on my son's head. I love crackled everything these days ;)

So, I hope you'll enjoy my layout and if you have any more questions, feel free to ask them. 

I would love it you left me a comment!

Happy scrapping! 

Less is bore... encore

Hey all!

Reviewing my 'vintage' blog entries, I am discerning a pattern... Somewhere around August I recover my scrap mojo and go crazy... 😛
Needing to feed my recent scrap hunger, I joined a few scrapbooking groups on Facebook. Also I've already become a huge Pinterest addict. (However I admit to having wasted precious time by pinning instead of scrapping.)

A few weeks back there was a creative fair in a town nearby. Though it was small I bought some nice new papers and discovered the brand 'Scrapberry's'. New papers and new pictures seem to do the trick in inspiring me.

I'll do my best to update my blog from now on. And if anyone would like to know how I've done something, just ask. I'm working on another layout right now and with a little luck that'll be finished tomorrow. I solemnly promise to blog about it! (Logging in with another account than my google account proved to be so problematic I almost gave up... again...)

For now I'm  signing off. If you're not living in Europe you still have the day ahead of you. Over here in the Netherlands it's evening, and since my little boy is a crappy sleeper I'm not going to bed very late.

Happy scrapping!