Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Hello Love / Shimmerz Paints

Hey there, friends!  I'm back today with a fun layout for Shimmerz Paints featuring some older stash from my shelves & lots of beautiful Shimmerz Paints :)  I dug around and found the Basic Grey Prism collection from 2014!  How do I still have this?!  I immediately started punching circles from all the patterned papers.  I chose matching Shimmerz and decided on a design.

I used thick smooth white cardstock for the background, and I coated it with clear gesso first.  I played around with all the circles and finally settled on this arrangement.  I glued them all down and then chose three small photos.  One of my favorite ways to use paints lately is to match them up to a shape and let the color sort of run from that shape.  In this case, I matched up the Shimmer to the circles and that's where I added the color.

Colors Used:

I either sprayed or used a brush to apply the colors to the paper and added a bit of water to spread it around.  I went through the collection and picked out stickers, chipboard pieces and a few more bits of paper to embellish with.  I also used three Shimmerz Dotz in a few places.
I love how soft these colors turned out when I blended them beside each other.  I added in some black thread for some added texture in a few places.  I combined a Maggie Holmes clear sticker with some Pink Paislee Puffy Alphas here for the title.  I used a black fine-tip Sharpie for my journaling.
I continued on with the circle motif here below the photos using some chipboard, die cuts, stickers and acetate pieces.  I also added in some sequins from SpeigelMom Scraps.  I found this cute black acetate ampersand in the die cut pack from this collection and it was perfect to use in between the photos.
I did messily smudge some white gesso over the circles.  You can see how they look a little cloudy in places.  I love that look!  I splattered most of the colors on top of them and then I machine stitched through each row of circles using black thread.
I used a few of Crafy Jen Schow's stamps in a few places...I love stamping and don't do it enough.  I needed some pops of the mint color down on the bottom of the page, so I added some sequins and thread.
Here more close-ups of all the details :)



  

I hope this inspires you in some way.  Sometimes it's fun to pull out something you haven't used in a long time and use that for your color scheme.  This collection determined my Shimmerz colors, and I love how it all came together.  

Be sure to check out my process video to see all of the paints in action!

 



 Thanks for stopping by, and Happy New Year!

 

Friday, December 25, 2020

Christmas Hoops / Paige Evans DT

Merry Christmas, friends!  Today I'm sharing a fun and colorful Christmas layout for the Paige Evans Design Team.  I used Paige's Go the Scenic Route collection with two of her cut files.  I used the Christmas Tree and Christmas Tree designs with a rainbow variety of patterned papers from the collection.  I painted my own background using lots of Shimmerz and embellished with lots of fun little goodies :)

I started by cutting the trees on my Silhouette Cameo.  I wanted to create a little forest scene with the trees going in a horizontal line across the page.  I coated the textured white cardstock with clear gesso first and then used a few blue Shimmerz sprays to create a sky.  I went back over it with some white acrylic paint to add a cloudy effect.  I also splattered it all over the sky and trees to create some snow.


I arranged the trees and decided to try to embellish tone-on-ton.  I popped up the trees in the front with some adhesive foam to create some depth and shadows.  Here I added a little ticket die cut, a fussy cut bird, a puffy heart sticker and a tiny chipboard heart.  I wound up adding different colors to different areas in the end.

Here's the yellow section...more hearts and chipboard.  Here you can see the fun effect of popping up some of the trees.
I mixed and matched the title.  I wanted a solid color for "Christmas" so I pulled out the Pick-Me-Up Mini Thickers for that.  I used the Go the Scenic Route Thickers for "Hoops" and added a few more stickers to the left.  I smudged some white gesso over the blue letters to make them look a little snowy.
My photos were very colorful, so I tried to enhance them by adding lots of color all over the page :)
I machine stitched on some of the solid trees for some added texture, and I smudged some Nuvo Glimmer Paste on some of them for some added shimmer and glitter.  I added another sticker here that matched this area of trees.

This Glimmer Paste is the BEST!  It's so easy to use, too.
Here are few more close-ups of all the pretty colors :)



I hope this gives you some fun and festive vibes today of all days!  This was fun to make.  Everything I make with this collection is fun.  Be sure to check out my process video to see how this came together from start to finish:


 

 Thanks for stopping by, and Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Season's Greetings!

Thursday, December 24, 2020

Merry Christmas from Las Vegas / Hip Kit Club

Merry Christmas Eve, friends!  I wanted to share my newest layout for Hip Kit Club featuring the 2020 November Hip Kits.  I wanted to use more of the patterned papers, so I traced my square photo on four papers and created a horizontal square line across the page to get started.  I also wanted to incorporate more red and green since I used a lot of pink last week :)

I used thick smooth white cardstock for the base, and I coated it with clear gesso.  I smudge some white gesso over areas of the squares to create a hazy faded look.  I used the products from the Color Kit to add color above and below the squares.  I used the Nuvo Crystal Drops & Powder as well as the Lindy's Magical Powder.  The Crystal Drops are so cool...I just squirted it onto the paper and scraped it using my silicone brush like it was paste.  Love that soft golden color!

I used several of the vellum stars from the kits, and I tried to place them in color coordinating areas.  I also added in some puffy stickers and chipboard stickers.  I layered some white tissue paper and a few chipboard frames under my photo.
I used a die cut for the title and added on with the black scripty Thickers.  I love these so much!  However, I wanted to soften up the black a bit, so I just brushed some white gesso over them.  I added in a lot of puffy star stickers and some golden yellow thread.  The gold splatters are the Jen Hadfield Gold Glitter Spray that we got in last year's November Kits!
These little acetate houses are so cute, and I loved how they looked on this square.  I forgot to mention that I did machine stitch around each square using metallic gold thread.  And to add some pops of black to the top of the page, I used a few black and white snowflake die cuts.

I popped this star up using some adhesive foam and then added some dark green thread under it.  I also used my finger to smudge on some of the Nuvo Glimmer Paste...that stuff is AMAZING and makes anything look gorgeous.

I almost didn't add any of the golden yellow color, but I tried it and loved it.  Plus I really wanted to use this "twinkle" circle sticker since my photo is of lights.

Here you can see more of the glittery shimmer from the Nuvo Glimmer Paste...so pretty!  I smudged it on several stars :)
I love layering things...one of my favorite techniques to create dimension. 
I did use one floral chipboard piece here...mainly because it matched and looked Christmasy...haha.  I wanted mostly red things here on the red square.
Here are a few more close-ups of all the details :)

I hope this inspires you in some way today :)  I loved making it, although I had my doubts during the process...haha.  I do like how it turned out.  Be sure to check out my process video here:

 


Thanks for stopping by, and I'll be back tomorrow with my final Christmas layout of 2020!  Have a great Christmas Eve :)

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Christmas Magic / Hip Kit Club

Happy Weekend, friends!  I'm back with another Christmas layout for Hip Kit Club.  I used the 2020 November Hip Kits again to make a fun mixed media page.  I also used a few of the exclusive tree cut files that you can find HERE.  (You must be a Hip Kit subscriber and have an account to log into to access the cut files).  I decided to make my own background using the Color Kit, and I went with a pink sky.  I had an idea to make a forest of trees with a sky behind it.  

I started with thick smooth white cardstock and coated it with clear gesso.  I used the Lindy's Magical Powder Rudolph's Nose Red mostly and mixed in a few other pink watercolors from older Color Kits.  I smudged in some white acrylic paint to add some cloudy effects, and then I splattered it on using a brush to create some snow.  Finally, I used the snowflake stencil with the white paint to add some subtle snowflakes against the pink.

After everything was done, I did use my fingers to smudge some of the Nuvo Glimmer Paste on the background...here you can see the sparkly glitter!  So gorgeous and easy to do.  I cut several of the trees on my Cameo using textured white cardstock.  I backed some of them using patterned papers and left some of them as is.  I layered them at different heights behind my photos.
I created a little cluster down below the photos using some of the flower die cuts and acetate branch pieces.  I popped up a few of the flowers to create some depth and added some pink thread.  I sorted through all of the puffy stickers and added some of those in, including the word "Christmas."  I mixed and matched with a chipboard sticker to create the rest of the title.
I usually have a hard time adding black to a light and airy Christmas page, but I wanted to on this layout.  My photos had black in them, and these branchy leaf pieces were perfect to add in pops of that color.
I know I talk about adhesive foam a lot...can you see the effects of it here?  Just by raising these flowers up off the page a little bit just makes them look so much better than lying flat.  That's just my opinion :)
I love how the background turned out.  I literally just added the powder, mixed it with water and started painting it on the paper.  I added more color & water...turned the page different directions...used a brush and my fingers.  Any way to apply the color is good...there are no rules :)
I also used the exclusive stamp set here.  I wanted to use a few of the small trees to give some scale up against the larger trees.  I also wanted to add in more pops of black, so these stamps were perfect.  You can see the Nuvo Paste I smudged on top of them :)


I added stars to a lot of the trees.  I used cardstock stickers and puffy heart stickers.
I also added some of the pink sequins to the green trees.  I love that sequins are so versatile.

In case you missed me gushing about this Nuvo Glimmer Paste over and over in my videos, I'll say it again...that stuff is AMAZING! :D
I mean come on!

I had a great time making this page, and I hope it inspires you in some way.  I'm a firm believer in using nontraditional colors on a holiday page.  You can still make your layout look Christmasy without using only red and green.  Sometimes that works, and sometimes you might just want to change it up :)

Here's my process video if you'd like to see how I made this:


Thanks for stopping by, and have a great weekend!