One Fine Day / Paige Evans DT

Hello Hello!  I'm back today with a new layout for the Paige Evans Design Team featuring Paige’s beautiful Bungalow Lane collection. I started with my photo for this page and it has some dark and light blues in it. I chose three patterned papers to layer behind it in a vertical direction. At first I had planned on doing a blue-only layout, but then thought that yellow and orange would be a nice contrast against all the blue. I tore the papers and glued them together. I used smooth white cardstock for the base and I coated the visible parts with clear gesso. I wasn’t sure how much mixed media I was going to add, so I wanted it to be prepped. I used a few orange, yellow, and blue Shimmerz sprays to add the watercolor effect around the photo.

As soon as I saw this large orange flower, I knew I had to make it work.  I smudged a bit of white gesso on it to give it a weathered look.  I love bending up the edges on flowers and leaves...it creates such awesome dimension.

I layered a lot of bits and pieces around the photo including some of the large Floral Die Cuts, a few Chipboard Stickers, some Foam Phrase Stickers, and some sentiments from the 8-Page Sticker Book. I love this large light blue leaf piece and how it helps frame the bottom of the photo. Here behind these embellishments I added some dark blue Shimmerz spray to really make the colors pop. I also smudged a bit of white gesso on the blue leaves to give it a weathered look. I tucked in orange thread and wrote my journaling using a black fine-tip Sharpie.

I decided to use orange as the accent color. I used a sliver of orange patterned paper here under the photo as well as an Ephemera Die Cut and white tissue paper. I also tucked in part of a Chipboard Sticker frame piece. I added a bit more orange here using Shimmerz. I used a few of the small gold foiled hearts from the Cardstock Stickers here as well.

I love how these large leaf stems frame the photo so nicely.  I decided to use the "One Fine Day" Puffy Phrase Sticker for the title.  It fits because we were at dinner for my husband's birthday :)

This smaller leaf sprig is a Cardstock Sticker, and it's shiny metallic gold.  I tone down the shine a little bit by smudging some white gesso over it.  It's still shiny, but more of a matte finish.  Gesso can do so much!

This is a great idea for chipboard frames if they are something you don't normally use.  I don't use frames a lot in the traditional way.  I used this one as a layer, and I love how it turned out.

More close-ups of all the layering and details :)

I did do a bit of mixed media on the patterned papers.  I smudged white gesso down first and then used orange and blue Shimmerz above and below the photo.

Here on the left side I used a large orange Floral Die Cut and topped the center with a Chipboard Sticker.  I layered in more flowers and leaf stems to help frame the photo. I added a yellow button Embossed Puffy Stickers to the center of the blue flower. I did pop the photo and the large orange flower up off the page with adhesive foam to create depth and shadowing. I finished off this area with dark blue thread and a few more heart stickers.

This was a lot of fun to put together.  I loved tearing the papers to get the layout going and help determine my color scheme.  I hope this inspires you in some way today.  Be sure to check out my process video of how I made it :)

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day!

You Make Me Smile / Paige Evans DT

Happy Friday, friends!  I have a new layout to share for the Paige Evans Design Team featuring Paige's Bungalow Lane collection.  I love the denim blue color of Paper 17 so I used it as a background. I wanted to layer several other bold patterned papers to contrast against the blue, so I tore big chunks of Paper 6, Paper 11, Paper 21, and Paper 24. I distressed the edges, layered them together, and used that as my main background design feature. Before adding mixed media to the blue background, I smudged lots of white gesso down. This gave me a bit of white space to work on and it prepped the paper for paints and sprays. I used a few matching colors of Shimmerz to add blue, green, and pink color peeking behind all of the papers and embellishments.

I layered a few of these papers behind my photo as well as some white tissue paper and adhesive foam. Once I decided on the placement, I tucked in some of the large Floral Die Cuts. I also used a few of the stickers from the 8-Page Sticker Book. I added dark blue thread here for added color and texture. Here you can see the fun background colors. I also splattered white acrylic paint and a few sprinklings of gold spray. I love that pretty shimmer!

Below the photo I went with a few titles. I used a Foam Phrase Sticker, a large sticker from the 8-Page Sticker Book, and some of the alpha Thickers. I layered in yellow thread and more flowers from the Floral Die Cuts and Epoxy Stickers. I wrote my journaling with a white pen so it would stand out against the blue background.

I layered in another large blue Floral Die Cut here on the right side as well as more blue thread. I love all of the bits and pieces in this collection that refer to “home” so I used a small “Right at Home” sticker from the 8-Page Sticker Book below the photo. I was pleased with how the mixed media turned out here - I wasn’t too sure about the blue ink spray on top of the blue background, but I think the tone-on-tone effect worked out nicely! The gesso helps tremendously with that. I also used my fingers to smudge a bit of the gesso around the photo on top of the red and pink paper - this helps to fade out some of the color & pattern to make the photo stand out a bit more.

I did a bit of machine stitching here on this sticker just to add a bit of texture and interest.  I love how the yellow thread pops against the dark blue background!  Here you can also see the difference that adhesive foam makes--it pops things up off the page to create some depth and shadowing.  I love it!

I love this faded look here.  Gesso is a miracle worker...haha!

I also love torn and distressed edges.  I rarely make things perfectly straight.  I have much better luck with making things crooked on purpose...haha :D

Here are a few more close-ups of all the details :)

I hope this has inspired you in some way today.  I enjoyed making this and putting it all together.  Be sure to check out my process video here:

Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a great day!

Lucky / Paige Evans DT

Hello again, friends!  I have a new layout to share for the Paige Evans Design Team featuring her new Bungalow Lane collection.  This is my first layout using this new line, and I just love the colors!

I couldn’t resist creating a fun rainbow design. I started by choosing six patterned papers from the 12x12 Paper Pad. I cut arcs in each color to create the rainbow which stretches horizontally across the entire page. I decided to embellish with small pieces in a tone-on-tone manner to keep the rainbow theme flowing. I also added some matching colors of Shimmerz to create a watercolor effect on the background.

I used thick white cardstock for the base and I coated it with clear gesso first before adding any paint. I used a brush to paint the color on above the red arc and below the blue arc at the bottom. I wanted it to look like the layout was left out in the rain and the rainbow started leaking color. Once that was done, I glued down the rainbow arcs and then machine stitched through each one using matching thread. I also distressed the edges to create some texture. I splattered white acrylic paint to create a weathered effect. 

 

Once I arranged the photos, I started going through the embellishments. I tucked in a few of the Epoxy Puffy Stickers, Cardstock Stickers, Layered Stickers, pieces from the 8-Page Sticker Book, Foam Phrase Stickers, and Ephemera Die Cuts all around the photos in the color coordinated areas.

Here you can see more of the watercolor effect. For the title I used this large “Lucky” Foam Phrase Sticker. I love that it was perfect for my rainbow theme and it worked great on this white area. It has gold foiling, which is so pretty. I added more embellishments here at the bottom. I fussy cut a butterfly from one of the 2x2 Paper Pads and popped up several pieces with adhesive foam. I wrote the journaling with a black fine-tip Sharpie and tucked in a few colors of matching thread in a few places.

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It's so much fun going through all of the embellishments to pick and choose what to put where.  When you do a tone-on-tone design, it helps you narrow down your choices--meaning you only have so many blue things to add to the blue area. 

As a final touch, I hand cut a few little clouds using scrap Bazzill textured white cardstock. I distressed the edges and smudged a bit of a gray gelato to give them depth. I love adding clouds to a rainbow layout! I finished the page off with gold paint splatters.

A new addition to this collection is these Epoxy Stickers.  They are are really neat.

Sometimes I like to tone down the shine on pieces that have metallic gold foiling, so I use my finger to smudge some white gesso over it.  It's still shiny, but just a little more matte.

Here are more close-ups of all the pretty things :)

As far as the mixed media goes on this, I was very intentional about where I added the paint.  I wanted it just peeking out at the top and at the bottom, so I controlled how much I added with a brush.  Also, adding the gesso first was crucial to helping the colors blend and spread out so nicely.

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 I hope you got some fun ideas to try from this layout!  I love rainbow pages, and they always make me happy.  I'm looking forward to making more layouts using this beautiful collection :)

Here's my process video:

 

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day!

Hello Today / Paige Evans DT

Happy Friday, friends!  I'm back today with a new mixed media layout for the Paige Evans Design Team featuring lots of hearts. I mixed Paige’s Wonders and Go the Scenic Route collections to create a fun blue, pink, and orange color scheme. I pulled a heart punch from my stash and went to work with some of the patterned papers. My design idea changed several times and I wound up trimming the hearts to make them a little smaller. I also used the trimmed outline of the hearts on the page. 

I used Wonders Paper 3 for the background and I coated a lot of it with white gesso - this helped to fade some of the pattern and prep the paper for inks and sprays. I scraped a few matching Distress Oxides across the paper and added a bit of water to make the colors run and blend.

 

I decided to stack my two photos vertically and place the hearts around them. I distressed the edges of the solid hearts, glued them all down, and then machine stitched through the centers with gold metallic thread. I also used a few matching Shimmerz sprays to add some splatters as well as some Jen Hadfield Gold Glitter Spray. I embellished around the photos with a few Wonders Ephemera Die Cuts and Epoxy Phrase Stickers.

I made sure to not glue down the entire heart pieces so the ends would bend up off the page. Here at the bottom, I added an Ephemera Die Cut onto the bottom photo and I fussy cut “home” from another piece. I added “life” from the Epoxy Phrase Stickers. I tried to keep the embellishing tone-on-tone. I added matching colored thread in each of the three color areas and then finished off with sequins from my stash.

I love how the ink colors turned out here in this area. I splattered down white acrylic paint before everything was completely dry, and I love the effect that creates. I created a small title on top of the photos. I fussy cut “hello” and “smiles” from Paper 24. The “today” is from the Go the Scenic Route Puffy Word Stickers.

 I love how the edges of the hearts pop up off the page.  Instant dimension and texture :)

I really love how the inks blended here...it looks so dreamy with these colors!  Also, if you like to use thread like I do and you don't have the exact color you want, blend two colors together.  I added some red thread here to this pink and unless you get up really close it looks like that darker pink color.

I also really love the effect of white paint splatters.  Such a small detail with a big impact.

More close-ups of all the details :)

I hope this gives you some ideas to try on your next page.  I had fun making this, even if I didn't know where it was going for a while...haha.  Just keep playing around and eventually an idea will form!

Here's my process video:

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Have a wonderful weekend :)