Thursday, February 22, 2018

Soul Mates


Hello lovelies,

Welcome to the new year and a couple of updates to my blog!

A little inspiration for the month of love...

"Soul Mates" single scrapbook layout - Tutorial

This layout is to celebrate our 10th year together. Henry and I were married on 6 December 2008. Can't believe how fast it all went. Up and down and from here to the Middle East and back 3 times.  A lot of adventure and interesting things happened. We are still together and best friends and it feels like we have found our rhythm. I thank God for this amazing husband of mine..such a big old softy. I love this photo so much...him pulling on my dress like a schoolboy while holding a bouquet of flowers for me and me blowing him a kiss. I am such a romantic, I know. :) 



Step 1
Create a background with a palette knife and two colours of craft paint. Add some splashes of Dala drawing ink in another colour. Add splashes of Vegas gold All purpose ink on top of that.

Step 2
Mix gold embossing powder into Dala texture paste. (it gives it a little extra texture and colour). Use your palette knife to add paste to your stencil to add dimension to your background. Before lifting the stencil, add more gold embossing powder. Now lift the stencil. Use a heat tool to set your stencil work. If you don't add the extra powder before heat-embossing, it will give a matt effect and won't shine like gold. Mixing the powder into the paste will only add colour to it and it will end up looking matt. I like both effects. It just depends on how and where you use it. Try out both. 

Step 3
Select your paper for layering behind your photo. Cut flowers from the flower cut page and select your paper elements and page title. Also, decide on your paper washi strips you would like to add as a trim. 

Step 4
Decide on your stamp elements and where you would like to place them. I used two colours (dark brown and gold) of embossing powder and clear embossing ink to add my stamped elements. I stamped top left, off-centre right and bottom middle to give me enough space to add my photo. 

Step 5
Altered photo: my photo was a basic printed sheet of paper in sepia colour. I wanted to colour match it to my paper as well as with my original colour photo and wedding dress features. I used a variety of inks to add little colour elements to the photo. I glued it to white cardstock to give it a white frame and used white drawing ink on the frame section to give it a glossy shine like a proper photo would have. I quite liked the end result. 

Step 6
Now you just layer all your paper elements starting with washi strips as trim on the bottom layer and then your paper layers with flowers in between ending with your photo on top. Note: I distressed the paper layer edges with my scissors. I ended off with a little cluster bottom right with little heart people from our Friendship collection, a small clock face, heart envelope, a little brown paper flair and black sentiment. I first had the page title bottom right but moved it, in the end, to show off more of my stencil work and stitching. 

Step 7
Stitching - I drew swirlies all over my page and then pierced it for stitching. I used brown cotton thread, doubled up so it gives me a thicker stitch. The real stitching matched the brown stitches in the Heart People paper element I used. I also stitched around the page title.

Final step:
I ended with a variety of diamante all over the page. 

On my desk






I used:

  • Ivytree Elements Paper from the Love Collection (172)
  • Ivytree Studio Finesse Border and Floral stencils
  • Dala textured paste
  • Americana Acrylic Craft Paint
  • Ranger embossing powder
  • A variety of stamps and inks - Dala drawing ink and Vegas Gold All Purpose ink
  • Diamante (my favourite thing!)
  • Brown cotton sewing thread and needle
  • Piercing tool
  • Metal ruler and craft knife, scissors
  • Adhesives: Heritage Scrapbook Glue
Till next time...






Visit Ivytree Studio to see more of what we are up to: www.ivytreestudio.co.za
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Thursday, February 1, 2018

Travel notebooks - my new thing!

Hi there lovelies,

I have found a really easy way of journaling and keeping up with my scrapbooking. Planning things out and writing my story in these little books, have given me such joy and I plan to do loads more of these projects.

The following ideas can help you fill these books:

  1. Listing - just making lists in these books as you think of projects and all those "good ideas" you want to remember.
  2. Project Life - keeping up with scrapbooking in these books are just so easy. 
  3. Using up your stash - just decorating TN's for later use is a hobby in itself.
  4. Prayer and Bible journaling - I do this a lot in these
  5. Using them as planners
  6. Using them as mini art journals or for doodling
  7. Gift books - filling them with quotes and little treasures and then gifting it to someone makes for a very personal love gift.  

Leave me a comment if you can think of more ideas for these little books.






Products used: Love Collection Ivytree Studio

'Till next time