Love This Layout

Hi!

How are you doing? We are still in quarantine, but this week the government allowed some commerce to start working and bringing their services. Hopefully, soon, everything will be more "normal". I have only gone to the supermarket, pharmacy, and postal office, trying to maintain the social distancing as much as I can. Here, on this post, I want to share with you a layout I made about me using some of the techniques I love the most. Check it here and continue reading to know all the details of how I made it and the products I used.

I'm in love with these beautiful papers from Simple Stories Simple Vintage Garden District collection. The colors are amazing, making it looks elegant and romantic. I started this page using an X-Acto knife to cut a huge flower wreath from one of the papers. I used the X-Acto to save the frame of the paper and used it as a background for this layout, the teal outside border.

After that, I reduced the pink paper with the birds to 11 1/2" x 11 1/2", distressed the edges, and used the X-Acto knife to make a few cuts around the bottom bird and some of the gray flowers. I did this to be able to place the patterned papers behind those details.

To add more texture and dimension to the pink paper, I decided to use the Vintage Script stencil by Dress My Craft with a mixture of Dazzlerz Spun Sugar paste and Coal Shimmerz to create a dark gray color. I used it on top and bottom of the photo.

For an extra detail, I did paint splatters using Shimmerz Miner, Miner 49er, Coal, and Great Fruit in the same areas I used the stencil. I really like the artistic look of the splatters and the touch of the paste. As you may notice, I like doing a little bit of mixed media in my layout, but not too much.

The photo was matted using some pieces of patterned papers from the collection and I tore the right side edges of them. Before I did so, I added a piece of white cardstock behind my photo to enhance it in the layout. I like how this white border helps the photo capture the attention of the viewer. A piece of another patterned paper was also use in the photo area, with the bottom edge torn for texture and to continue with the vintage and shabby chic look in the page. Also, all the edges of the papers were distressed for the same reason and a white doily was used in the center of the page to continue with this look.

In the previous photo you can see one of the cuts with the X-Acto knife to maintain the flower visible, on top of the papers because it was too pretty to be covered. Once all the papers were added to the layout, it was time to started embellishing it. I used a bunch of flowers from the wreath I cut at the beginning, and I still have a lot of those flowers available for future projects. They are really pretty! You can see in the next picture how I cut around the bird and the gray flower, and placed the papers behind them. I used a little bit of craft foam behind them to make them look 3D. This is a technique I love to use to save those beautiful details in the papers.

When all that was ready, I finished the layout by adding a few chipboards from the collection like the circles, title, banner, and two butterflies (rose and teal). The orange butterfly at the right side of the title is part of the patterned paper, I used the X-Acto there too, to make the butterfly looks 3D and more realistic. I used a little bit of craft foam behind the wings to makes it look like is flying.

The layout is already  busy with all the papers, layers, mixed media, and details, so I only added  two stickers from the collection to the clusters area. One is the pink ticket and the other the phrase on top of the photo. But to make it look really shabby, a little bit of glitter was needed. This is when I used Stickles Star Dust on top of the butterflies to make them look prettier and gives the page this nice detail. The last touch, a border around the layout, using gray thread and my sewing machine.

Now the page was completed; it was only missing the journaling. I used a Staedler gray pen to write it on the page. For the date, I used a Park Lane stamp and StazOn ink. The photos do not always bring justice to the project and sometimes don't show all the details and dimension, which is why I always mention where I used the foam adhesive and/or craft foam. In this layout I used it in all the places mentioned before but also behind the flowers in the cluster. 

Thank you for visiting my blog, I hope you like this layout and it inspires you to create! I haven't posted much this week because it was pretty busy, but I have a new layouts in mind and hopefully tomorrow I'll start working on them, so stay tuned!