Peace, Love and Pineapples - Fluttyby Designs Guest DT

Here is my second guest design team reveal for Flutterby Designs. I've picked the pineapple themed pieces out of the Good Vibes Only release for this one, because they were just perfect for these photos of our visit to The Big Pineapple on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia.

This card from the Everyday Etc. Photo Cards pack was my inspiration for the whole layout. I loved it as soon as a I saw it. The white space in the top left was perfect for adding a couple of extra embellishments. I've used a circle from a Kaisercraft paper pad and changed the quote from 'enjoy the little things' to 'enjoy the BIG things', plus a splatter of green ink to tie it into the background.

My main embellishment cluster has a page tab and flair from the Good Vibes only range, as well as a fussy cut pineapple from the Everyday Etc. Filler Photo Cards pack. I've used two other cards from that pack to create my photo mat. The beautiful die-cut is from Couture Creations.

Up in the top cluster I've used some off-cuts of the blue from the photo mat plus a sentiment from the Sticky Quick Quotes sheet. The flair is from Accent scrapbooking.

This layout gave me so much grief because it ALMOST worked but then just didn't no matter what I tried. This was my first attempt, below. What should have been a vibrant blue to match the photo mat ended up being a teal that just looked out of place.

This led me to HANDPAINT all the drips again to turn them green. I added a couple more embellishments but then decided it was overworked. Plus, as much as I loved the colours of the big photo mat at the top, it just didn't work with the layout. 

Barefeet Welcome

Here we have my fourth project from the Workshop Wonders class I attended at The Crafty Chain. This is probably the one I free-styled the most on, possibly because it was the last class of the day and I finished a lot of it at home. 

I'm not normally a fan of these off-set border type layouts, but I think having the paint splatters go across the whole page has made it a bit more cohesive. 

In this class we used a Vaseline-smeared stamp to create a background resist which we then highlighted using Shimmer cubes. It's not a technique I'd used before so it was interesting to try something new. 

My die-cut border has some extra Scrapmatts chipboard fitted in because I have a stockpile of them. :) I loved the effect of knotting the twine from the anchor.

I also popped some white muslin behind my photo matt, just to soften the overall effect.

This is the teacher's example.

Be Fearless Canvas

The third Workshop Wonders class was one I was really looking forward to doing, as it was a canvas taught by Leanne Jago. Leanne does amazing mixed media pieces and it was great to be exposed to her techniques to build up a range of different layers and textures. Unfortunately, her expected materials hadn't arrived in time for the class so we all had to improvise a bit with substitute products.

I'm not sure Leanne would entirely approved of the fact I've added some bling to the butterflies but I couldn't help myself. I just love adding sparkle to projects and I had these left over from the first class. :) This detail shot also shows off the aquarelle pencil for all that watercolour-black effect and some great bits of crackle texture. 

I'm normally not a bit fan of using vintage images in my work but when I saw this girl in my kit with her smug smile and hand on her gun I just had to use her. I thought her attitude went perfectly with the Flutterby Designs sticker sentiments. I also killed my brand new Posca pen trying to outline the girl to make her stand out, only to decide the effect was too subtle and used white gesso instead. 

This shows the multiple layers: gesso base/crackle medium/acrylic paint/white embossing powder applied to glue through a stencil/brown ink drizzles/acrylic paint smudged on with fingers/stamping/mist splatters.

This was Leanne's sample piece. You can see that I've stuck very close to her design but gotten quite a different finished product just with some different paint colours. 

A Day in the Sunshine

This was class two from The Crafty Chain's Workshop Wonders event, taught by Geli Duncan. I've used photos from a trip to Tropical Fruit World I took with my sister and son in August 2017. They worked with the colour scheme of the class so well and I liked being prompted to use different photo sizes to what I would normally.  

See this beautiful blue flower below? Geli taught us how to make that from scratch using plain white foamirian. Given I already have a literal huge drawer of flowers I don't think I'll be making my own anytime soon but it's always fun to learn something new.

The beautiful due is by Couture Creations and we each got a brand new included in the class kit. The background technique was a fun one to learn as well, though as is often the case for me I didn't extend it far enough past my photos. It's made on Kaisercraft specialty embossed paper using Twinkling H20's and baby wipes to create a beautifully soft blended effect. 

Below is Geli's samply layout. I stuck with something pretty similar, just changing the composition to match the different photo sizes I had. 

Anything is Possible

I was craving some crafting time over the weekend but my new scrap room isn't set up yet. Luckily, I had signed up for the Workshop Wonders event being held at The Crafty Chain! Four classes with four different teaches over the course of a day, it also included lunch, snacks and a lolly bar.

This was the first layout, by Kelly-ann Oosterbeek. It has a LOT of fussy cutting. I tried something different for me and left more of a border around the image so I could cut faster. Having an 'edge' normally annoys me, but it worked into the background on this layout. 

The beautiful butterfly stickers are made by Kelly-ann herself. I should have picked up a couple of packets but I couldn't work out what shade I wanted. I learnt a nifty trick, that if you want the wings to stay popped up you just place a pearl/rhinestone underneath.

Looking at the layout now I almost wish I had purchased a second sheet of the wreath paper, so I could fussy cut out a few more flowers and raise them up. I'm still undecided if I will add some more to this one or not.

Anyway, below is what Kelly-ann's version looked like. You can see I really didn't move too far from the sample here. I think I was too tired after all the cutting. :)

Some of the Best Memories - Flutterby Designs GDT

I am so excited to be guest designer for March for Flutterby Designs and get the chance to work with the amazing Good Vibes Only collection. Since it's a beachy/tropical collection, I pulled out my Hawaii girl's trip photos to start working with but quickly decided on a photo of the four of us before we set of on a zip-lining tour.

I pulled out all of the green elements from the Everyday Etc. Photo Cards and Everyday Etc. Filler Photo Cards, as well as some neutral/ black and white cards for contrast. With a bit of creative cutting and positioning, I created the photo mat and title. Some washi tape and a Page Tab were added to the left side for more interest. The 'Don't Worry, Be Happy' element from the Frame 50 pack was perfect to add on the right because I was so anxious about doing this tour, given I really don't like heights!

The background is a couple of different green acrylic paints smeared over the page with a pallet knife. once that dried I use white acrylic paint to create the zig zags. Green mist was flicked over the page and gold mica flakes adhered randomly.

I used up some of the scraps from the Photo Cards  and more washi tape to create a secondary embellishment cluster in the top right to balance the layout. The quote 'always take the scenic route' was chosen because the views from the zipline were just incredible.

A couple more embellishments were added then I used a black pen to draw a loose border around the whole thing and it was done! Thanks for looking.