Loves Tea & Paper

Lazy Hazy Days of Cuba

About every 5 weeks I create a sketch as inspiration in the Two Scrapbook Friends forum. I don't always remember to share them here, but I did remember today. :)

I tend to keep my sketches fairly simple. It allows CAS scrappers to just dive in, and for those who like to embellish or create backgrounds, this is a springboard, I hope. It was for me! This is the layout I created:

By the way, if you are viewing this via a tablet or mobile phone, just tap on the image and should pop to full screen so you can see the whole thing.

You can see that I used all that white space on the sketch to create a bit of a background. By painting in select spots of a TCW template, the background sort of looks like waves or fish, perfect for this photo taken in Cuba. 

A few clouds created with modelling paste spread roughly through the cloud template, finish the scene. They got especially puffy when I hit the modelling paste with a blast from the heat tool - instant texture!

This paper collection is from Fancy Pants and I enjoyed layering the glassine envelopes amongst the patterned papers. A smattering of sequins adds texture, colour and shine!

Thanks for popping by and let me know if you use my sketch - I'd love to see your creation!

Blessings, 

Ann

TSF DT Reveal: Bo Bunny Snowy Day (part 2)

I am back with more of the Bo Bunny Snow Day collection. If you missed part one, you can click here to see it. 

Remember I mentioned that this collection is very versatile. I think today's post will show you the extremes to which this collection can be taken!

First, check out this canvas I created: 

I really love how this came together - you know how you struggle over a project sometimes? That didn't happen with this. Creativity was flowing, ideas were percolating and voila! In fact, I think when the buttons slid out of the bag, they landed on my work table in that configuration, and that's probably where the ideas all started! 

To create the house, using several patterns from the collection, I traced a stencil from The Crafter's Workshop and then cut it out and pieced it together. I added more dimension using liquid applique. 

The twinkling night sky is adorned with snowflakes created with brads, pearls, hand-drawn with a white gel pen, mist.
The icy edge along the top edge of the canvas was created by running a length of glassy glaze into which I sprinkled some glitter, and then tilting the canvas up to allow the glaze to run down - instant icicles!

Can you see the clouds? Again, I used a stencil and traced them and cut them out. Then I dry embossed them and outlined them with black pen. 

From cold and frosty, to sunny and warm...

(Just click on the image to see it bigger on your screen.) When I saw this patterned paper, I saw golden sun images, not snowflakes, so I dug into my stash of Cuba photos and thought the colours on this one were ideal!

To further accentuate the idea of a golden sun, I used a template and created this sun accent. 

Lots of texture under and around the photo.

The subtitle went on a cluster of pennants in the lower left - accented with some doodling.

When I was researching things to do with gelatos, I came across the suggestion to make your own accent/washi tape, so I tried it. The wider strip is masking tape that I traced onto with a stencil and marker and coloured in with gelatos. 

I hope you enjoyed seeing what I created with the Bo Bunny Snowy Day collection. If you are local to the K-W area, you can see them in real life on display at the Two Scrapbook Friends store. Just about all materials used on these projects are available for sale, or easily ordered, at Two Scrapbook Friends. 

Thanks for popping by!

Blessings,

Ann

 

EP So Happy Together: Home Is

Here is another layout I made with my kit from Two Scrapbook Friends, Echo Park's So Happy Together:

This was another patterned sheet with an exterior frame and interior artwork that left not a lot of room for photos. I trimmed the frame and layered it on a sheet of white cardstock and then started to play. I fussy cut the blue chevron paper following the pattern and then traced it on other patterns, lined them up and glued them to down to create one multi-patterned, multi-coloured chevron border strip. You can see a woodgrain misted in behind the photo, some clouds that are fussy cut from paper.

I layered several elements from an element page to create the title and journaling area. One of my favourite little bits is the text block that says 'So Happy' and the reason I like it is because I cut it from the bar code strip and used it - cute and clever, eh? So, another page for my Cuba album using a super, versatile collection! Yeah!

MSW Reveal: Life's Journey

At first glance, this month's sketch from Lucy totally made me think shabby chic, and while I can create that vintagey style page, I only like to for certain photos, none of which I have at hand right now. 

So, since I didn't want to go shabby, vintagey with it, I decided to play!

When Brian and I were walking through Varadero, we stopped for a cold drink at a small roadside counter, and the couple next to us asked us to take their photo, and then they returned the favour. You can see a bit of a mural behind us and I drew from those colours for this layout. 

The papers are more By the Sea from Quick Quotes - I think that's the last of this, now, but it sure worked well for some of my Cuba pix. I flipped the sketch 180 degrees, placing my photo on the left side and the cluster in the upper right. 

To create this cluster, I cut a piece from the flourish die cut (see in the large photo, the wave that runs below the photo? That was a flourish that would span a whole page. I trimmed the end and then used it elsewhere) and traced it onto my page. Then I filled it in with watercolour paint, and outlined it with black pen. I layered on the photos - these are just cropped down, not specially printed in a small size. Lots of times, your 4 x 6 photos can crop down to these specialized sizes and when you can do that you both save money, and probably narrow the focus of the photos. I layered the flourish, some chipboard diecuts and some punchinella into the cluster. In the background, you can see I washed on some light orange. To do a wash, you want a very wet brush, loaded up with lots of water and just a smidge of paint, to create a thin coat as you brush it on. 

This is the lower cluster. I used a diecut from the collection as my title - a rare thing for me, I know, but this page will go into a travel album of our trip to Cuba and not every page needs a big huge title. You can see more punchinella forming a border, and grounding the photo area. Some stickles outline the diecut title and blue microbeads frame it. Crystal Effects highlight the waves of the flourish. You may also see on the watercolour wash some places where I used a linked circle template and just stamped through it to add more interest to the background. Some pen stitching and orange drops radiate from the circle, creating a sun-like effect. 

Visit my MSW team mates to see what they did with the sketch by clicking on the links in the sidebar. 

Thanks for dropping in and Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians! We are blessed to live in this country, today and always.

 

 

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Practical Scrappers: Another Hot Day in Paradise

Over at Practical Scrappers, we're posting layouts with a pool or water theme, which gave me a perfect excuse to scrap another Cuba layout! 

This is a new line from Little Yellow Bicycle called, appropriately, Splash. It's a bright summery line that works for beaches, pools, and tropical holidays. 

I started with a sheet of white cardstock, as I often due, and applied Mr. Huey's mist through a chevron template, repeating this 3 times to create a background. I must say, I love how easily Mr. Huey's spritzes compared to some of the other mists in my stash! This is not a paid endorsement - LOL!

I don't know if I'm just itching to play outside this summer or what, but this is the second or third sun-themed layout I've created in the last while. This time, my sun is created from a beachball sticker that matches the Splash line. It was a perfect circle, so I flipped it over, sticky side up, and started to stick the sequins to it. I wasn't sure this was going to be sticky enough over the long term, so I decided to run a circle of 3-in-1 first and then adhere the sequins, starting from the outside and working my way in. The sun's rays were made by cutting a long text-based border strip into varying lengths and placing them so they radiate from the sun.

I added a bit of texture medium to layout. If you haven't worked with texture medium, it does exactly what the name suggests, adds texture. It has the consistency of the putty or spackle you use to for filling small holes or cracks in a wall. 

In this shot, you can see more texture medium. While it was still moist, I pressed a circle template into, to create an interesting, bubbly texture, and I turned the template over, pressing the bits of medium on the template back onto the layout, which created the very light circles. You can also see that I stapled my photo onto a piece of white corrugated paper that I misted with the same Mr. Huey's. Then I created a small confetti burst alongside the photo using buttons, dewdrops, Stickles and stickers.

This layout made me happy while I created it, and makes me happy when I look at it. :-) 

What have you created lately that makes you happy? Let me see it by leaving a link in your comments. 

 

 

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Practical Scrappers Feature: Escape

Back in December, each Practical Scrapper was asked to post a special feature or article. It was a lot of fun and very popular with our readers, so we've brought it back. I am thrilled to be first up!

You might remember ago, Practical Scrappers did a blog hop and we were all using a sketch or layout by the fabulously talented Liz Qualman. Well, I recently went back to Liz's blog and saw this sketch, and just knew I wanted to use it:

 

I've been all over the pennant/flag trend recently so this sketch really appealed to me, and I liked that this layout was multi-photo. I went searching through my Cuba photos and realized I had a few 4 x 6 photos that would trim down nicely for the horizontal band of photos. Here is what I created:

 

The colours in the Paradise line were perfect for these photos of things Brian and I saw while strolling through Varadero. I love distressing and inking my edges, especially on masculine or outdoor layouts and with this being both, I had to include those techniques and a little tearing.

 

I loved the sentiment on this acrylic diecut for a title/subtitle for my layout. Sometimes adhering clear or acrylic pieces can be a challenge, but this was easily handled here - I used clear liquid glue (love my Beacon's!) to adhere one end to the photo. Because I raised the photo on foam adhesives, the other end of the diecut needed to be raised up. I could use foam for this, because I had layered that sweet chipboard bird on the diecut, hiding any evidence of foam squares!

 

A journaling spot or tag just wouldn't have worked on this layout without cluttering it up, so I elected to journal write on the page. To make it stand out from the patterned paper background, I lightly brushed some gesso on the spot where I planned to write. First I stamped some lines on the dry white primer, and then I wrote my journaling, choosing pink since there were little smatterings of pink elsewhere on the layout.

 

My favourite element on this layout is my banner. I love that I mixed in some non-banner elements, like the leaf and cloud in with the more traditional banner shapes. I fussy cut the letters from a patterned paper and adhered them on the inked banner shapes and then adhered them with foam squares. I then adhered baker's twine that I whimsically looped from shape to shape. Something about this banner just makes me happy!

I hope you have a chance to make something that makes you happy!

 

 

Pin It P.S. For those of you who celebrate, Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Inspired by an Ad

It was nice to scrapbook a few more photos for the Cuba album. When I won a few sheets of Bo Bunny Barefoot & Bliss at a crop at Two Scrapbook Friends, I was pretty sure they'd work for this album.

This layout was started while cropping with my friend Joyce and I finished later at home. Joyce and I had been browsing the summer issue of Scrapook and Cards Today and the ad by Bo Bunny (p. 13) for the Barefoot & Bliss line undoubtedly influenced the photo and patterned paper placement on my layout. Yep, I looked at the ad as a sketch and scraplifted it. I changed it up a bit, incorporating 2 photos rather than 1. I experimented with my new trimmer and it's wavy blade, to play up the water, but of course, there are wavy lines on the original, too.

I did do something a little different (this is the part I did at home). I added LOTS of Crystal Effects to my layout, covering the bottom third of the paper. Once it was dry, I bent it to create cracks and lines and then rubbed ink into the lines to make them show up. I love this watery weathered look!

You know how I love clusters, by now... Here's the one I made for this layout, using an assortment from my stash - some Bo Bunny trinkets and buttons created for this line, but also crocheted flowers the colours of which are just perfect for this paper. I also had these cool felt punchouts that I got in a RAK and I layered smaller elements in or on them. There are 3 types of tiny flowers, fabric, peper, and acrylic. I added bling to them all because I LOVE shiny things.

I hope the original artist knows how much she inspires others and takes it as a compliment when others love her work enough to want to copy it. I know her piece inspired my layout and it'll bring back great memories of our trip for years to come.

Be blessed,

Ann

Wonder Full!

This layout started out with a Julie Bonner sketch, posted over at the SEI blog.

I again started with a blue cardstock base - this time because it works great with the pp. The beautiful brown pp is from the SEI Corinne line.

This is another layout for the Cuba album - Brian drove the 1st shift in the jeep for our excursion. There were some pretty crazy roads!

 

 

 

The title WonderFull comes from this glittery die cut that is part of the Corinne line. I machine stitched the outer edge of the layout, and hand stitched the free-form stars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see some machine zigzag on this journal strip, and the diecut star that I modeled my handstitched ones on. Some brads and a bit of banner all cluster together.

The horizontal strip is a scrap of QuickQuotes paper, as is the star diecut.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking and I hope you are enjoying some creative time. Blessings, Ann

 

Cuba layout - Sketchabilities

 

When I was at a crop a few weeks ago, there was a sketch available at each spot as a creativity starter. The sketch is by Karan Gerber, of sketchabilities.

The layout starts with AC white cardstock onto which I layered a pp from the QuickQuotes By the Bayou collection. I borrowed Bev's circle cutter and a punch (Xreations) to assemble the focal section. The horizontal band was made using a strip of QQ pp a blue border strip from Christa's stash, and a white Bazzill border from mine. (Aren't crops great for borrowing from your friends?!) Christy had her white ink pad along and Bev had a blue one, so I used those after I distressed some edges.  

I added a Fancy Pants transparency around the photo of Brian walking on the pier and then layered the cork elements on top. The  cork diecuts came in a rak and I poked brads through some of them for some extra colour and interest.

I added the title twice, one after the other, because waves roll in one after the other.

The title added to the scalloped edges of the Bazzill border strip is a run on that I cut apart, and the bling title sits below it. Both are from TPC.

Here's a close up of the cork diecuts with inked edges and a glittery brad. The punched edge of the half circle with some white pen stitching and inked edges. I even added white caps to the blue wavy border.

 

 

 

 

Well, that is 2 watery layouts in a row - with St. Mary's lighthouse last time, and the Caribbean blue on this one.  It's a coincidence I just noticed. Will there be water photos in the next layout, too?Tune in to find out!

Thanks so much for dropping by and I'll see you soon!

Blessings, Ann

Down at the Boardwalk

Here's another layout for the Cuba album, this time using some BoBunny Olivia. No sketch as my starting point here - just me playing around. Although Christa's colour challenge over at My Sketch World got the colour theme started for me. I had purchased a bit of this line thinking it might work for the Cuba pix and so when the challenge was issued and it worked with that line, it was time to pull it all out.

You can see in this photo, that I used my finger knife to cut into the paper, allowing me to slip the photo in behind the pattern.

Did you notice I also used the sewing machine and I even stitched over those fun puffy letters!

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this detail, you can see more stitching, crooked and wavy on purpose. Almost no layout is complete without a punched border, so I got it out for this one, too. I love those stripes and the colour punch they add!

16 flowers and lots of buttons and pearls along with some felt leaves make up the cluster in the lower right of this layout. I love the wooden brads that I added for some of the flower centres. How fun are they?

You can visit the forum at My Sketch World and find many more challenges going on this month. See you there!

 

Thanks for dropping by and I'll have more to share with you again soon. Very soon!

Blessings, Ann