Christmas Mayhem

Poor Santa! All full of Christmas cheer and promises of plenty for good boys and girls and look what he has to put up with: three very silly children, one of whom is in on the secret but goes along with it all for the sake of her little brothers.

And poor Grandma! All ready to scrap the annual Visit with Santa photo and look what she has to work with: three very silly children and a Santa who is obviously looking for deliverance.

Just like my grandchildren, this layout seemed to be determined to be uncooperative. It started one way, then it decided to go in another direction and then another and another… I’ll have to admit I like the end result.

I started with the layered circles in the background and took out some flowers from my Christmas stash. I didn’t like how they looked against the small faces, so I put them back and went to the papers that I had used for those circles.

I started to cut some strips to used as borders or banners when I took another look and realized that the “Merry” sheet contained that gorgeous image that you see on the side.

As I was cutting it out, I had an “aha” moment, inspired by the ribbon tail on the side. I broke out my Cameo machine and cut a few of my favorite flourishes out of chipboard and altered them with embossing powder to match the colors in the photo. The results were just a tad too bright, so I went over them with Walnut Stain Distress ink and put them aside.

I added few layers of matting under the photo and arranged it, along with the fussy cut piece on the circles. Suddenly, those flowers seemed to be perfect, so I glued them down and began to add filler flowers in spots.

I tucked a few wood pieces (colored with Lindy’s Moonshadow Mist) here and there and added one more to the top corner of the photo, then closed the gaps with a few more of those small flowers.

I cut the flourishes into pieces to resemble bows and tails and placed them here and there to finish off my cluster.

I still needed a title. I started digging into the package of ephemera and came up with perfection: “Christmas Mayhem”, which I backed with packaging and placed on the photo…

A few close-ups:

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*****Supplies*****

***Très Jolie December Kit***

Blue Fern Studios – Christmas Cheer Collection – 12 x 12 Double Sided Paper – Ecstatic #BFS-P-69577

Blue Fern Studios – Christmas Cheer Collection – 12 x 12 Double Sided Paper – Merry #BFS-P-69537

Blue Fern Studios – Christmas Cheer Collection – 12 x 12 Double Sided Paper – Joyful #BFS-P-69587

Blue Fern Studios – Christmas Cheer Collection – Ephemera – Die Cut Shapes #BFS-EPH-69617

Lindy’s Stamp Gang – Moon Shadow Mist – Gossamer Gold

***Other Embellishments***

Prima Marketing – A Victorian Christmas Collection – Holiday Lights #583415

Prima Marketing – A Victorian Christmas Collection – Rudolph’s Nose #583446

Factory Direct Crafts – Laser Cut Wood Christmas Cutouts #201503

Silhouette – Cut File – Grape Vine – Design #20194

***Other Mediums***

Lindy’s Stamp Gang – Embossing Powder – Terra Cotta Red

Lindy’s Stamp Gang – Embossing Powder – King Midas Gold

Ranger Ink – Tim Holtz – Distress Ink Pad – Mini – Walnut Stain #TDP40279

Ranger Ink – Tim Holtz – Distress Ink Pad – Mini – Black Soot #TDP39860

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As always, I want to thank you for peeking into my blog; your visits mean a lot to me.

Golden Girl

The May Mixed Media package from the Tres Jolie Kit Club, containing an artist’s palette and plenty of embellishments and mediums (including three jars of Lumiere Halo paint) gave me the perfect opportunity to create a project featuring this photo of my granddaughter, taken by my daughter-in-law.

I started by covering the entire palette with black gesso from Liquitex, taking care to brush side to side. (Because this is much thinner than most brands, I prefer to use it as a primer.) Once it was completely dry, I sprayed the front of the palette with Nuvo mist from Tres Jolie’s April kit.

After determining my final photo placement, I used the texture paste and stencil that were included in the kit to create a brocade-like flourish that would show above and below the image. This dried to an almost transparent surface, so I applied chalk ink (again from the April kit) with a thin paint brush to make it stand out a bit more.

The corrugate squares are backed with a very thin wooden layer, so I used my heavy duty scissors to cut and tear them into pieces to go along the sides of my photo. I covered large sections of each piece with black gesso, and then painted them here and there with Nuvo mist.

I selected several of the plaster flowers and coated them with the same black gesso. Next, I took out the Halo paints and started to paint the surfaces, using all three of the colors, and then lightly misting them with water. I used my heat tool to dry the surfaces before applying more layers of color, repeating these steps until I got the results I wanted.

Meanwhile, I created my title with my Cameo, using the Cotton Candy font. Because the machine requires very thin chipboard, I duplicated the design so I could cut two layers. Using a blending tool, I covered the surfaces with Archival ink and then glued the layers together. I gave the surfaces a heavy coating of matte medium, and then poured on the glitter.

Time to assemble: I glued down both sides of the corrugate in layers, and then attached the photo that I had backed with several layers of packaging to ensure that it would lay flat. I cut several of the straws into smaller lengths before gluing them down, leaving a few pieces for my corner cluster.

Once I had determined the final placement of my flowers, I adhered them, along with the metal keyholes, using Art Glitter glue. (The plaster flowers are very heavy and I needed an adhesive with strong bonding properties.)

I added some texture with cheesecloth and Art Stones from my stash.

The title was placed to the side of my photo.

I poured out a small amount of each of the Halo paints and diluted them with water to color my embellishments in layers, again using my heat tool between applications.

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*****Supplies*****

***Tres Jolie Mixed Media Kit***

Darice – Studio 71 – Wooden Palette Set #30061945

Prima Marketing – Stencil – 6” x 6” – Flourish #564278

Prima – Sunrise Sunset Collection – Paper Roses – Gold #565169

American Crafts – Metallic Straws – Stripe – Gold – 5 Pcs #373832

American Crafts – Metallic Straws – Dot – Gold – 5 Pcs #368997

Darice – Glitter Tube – Gold – .75 oz #1146-36WAL

Prima – Finnabair – Art Extravagance – Texture Paste – White Sand #963002

Darice – Corrugate Cut-Outs – Square – 3 Pcs #30011909

Graphic 45 – Staples Collection – Ornate Metal Key Holes – 2 Pcs #4500546

Prima – Archival Cast Collection – Relics and Artifacts – Plaster Embellishments – Flora #942663

Jacquard – Lumiere Light Body Metallic Acrylic Paint – Halo – Pink Gold #555

Jacquard – Lumiere Light Body Metallic Acrylic Paint – Halo – Blue Gold #556

Jacquard – Lumiere Light Body Metallic Acrylic Paint – Halo – Violet Gold #557

***Embellishments***

Cheesecloth

***Mediums***

Liquitex – Professional – Black Colored Gesso

Liquitex – Professional – Matte Medium

Liquitex – Professional – Matte Gel Medium

Ranger Ink – Archival Ink Pad – Jet Black #31468

Prima – Ingvild Bolme – Chalk Fluid Edger – Tin Can #891152

Nuvo – Mica Mist – Antique Gold #571N

Prima – Finnabair – Art Ingredients – Art Stones #963705

***Tools***

Prima – Stencil – 6 x 6 – Flourish #564278

Ranger Ink – Tim Holtz – Mini Ink Blending Tool #40965

Silhouette America – Cameo – Electronic Cutting System

***Other***

Art Glitter – Dries Clear Designer Adhesive

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As always, I want to thank you for peeking into my blog; your visits mean a lot to me.

Sistahs!

September evenings can be a little chilly on Cape Cod and what could be a better solution than sharing a flamingo fleece blanket with my sister-in-law? My brother captured this moment with his phone and sent it on to me.

The mojo is still a bit lazy, so I looked through some of my past work for a bit of inspiration and came across this layout from August 2012 https://www.scrapbook.com/galleries/332343/view/3702533/-1/144/0.html and this lift is what I came up with.

As you can see, I found the perfect paper to frame and embellish my photo, a design so bright and bold that I chose to use a very muted sheet from the December Tres Jolie Kit as my background.

I was able to use one piece of the Carta Bella paper to cut two circles to use as matting with plenty left for my banners.

The title is a Cameo cut from thin cardstock that I colored with a couple of layers of Distress ink.

The Darice flowers (also from the kit) blended perfectly with the image and paper. I started filling in the gaps with small blooms from my stash.

 I cut a Creative Embellishments chippie (a gift from my good friend Maggi Harding) into four pieces, inked them with Distress ink and misted with a bit of Color Bloom and adhered them on the sides of my cluster.

I finished it all with scattering a few shells around the flowers.

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Supplies

Maja Design – Joyous Winterdays Collection – Ephemera #JOY-948

Carta Bella – Summer Splash Collection – Flamingo Fun #CBSPL83004

Darice – Sweetwater Roses – Mint #30062031

Wild Orchid Crafts – Sweetheart Blossom Flowers

Open Roses

Shells

Ranger Ink – Tim Holtz – Distress Ink Pad – Picked Raspberries #131275

Ranger Ink – Tim Holtz – Distress Ink Pad – Hickory Smoke #129691

Prima – Color Bloom Spray Mist – Cotton Candy #573737

Silhouette Cameo – Cotton Candy Font

Kreaxions – Circle Cutter

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As always, I want to thank you for peeking into my blog; your visits mean a lot to me.