Ready to get crafty?

Our blizzard has now stopped and the thing called "Sun" seems to be rising in the sky this morning. Makes for a good day for some tutorials. How about it? Are you up for it? Both tutorials are from the layout below.

First up, is the "Quilted Background" technique. I created my Quilted Heart directly onto my die cut page. You can do this with any shape.

1. Create a mask for your quilted shape. If you are making an oversize mask, this a good time to get some of that old, old paper that you know you will never use. Draw your shape onto your paper and carefully cut it out. Keep the negative image.

2. Tape your mask over your paper where the image is to appear. Taping prevents the mask from moving and gives a clean end result.

3. Next, ink completely over your mask area. I used Distress Ink (Worn Lipstick) and inked with a makeup sponge in a circular motion. I like using the Distress Inks because they give a nice mottled effect using just the one color. Continue to ink over the mask until the background color is just as you like it.

4. To create the quilted effect, you need to prep your back ground with guidelines. I used General's Chalk pencils to do this. Create a very light criss cross pattern over your masked area. It's a good idea to leave the mask outline in place so you can draw over the edge without messing up your final product. Since we want the end result to look dimensional, you should slighty curve your lines as if the material is going around behind your shape.

5. After your guidelines are on your masked area, create little buttons, with the chalk pencil, in all the "crossed" areas.

6. Now draw darker stitching lines over your guide lines. Trust me, the guide lines virtually disappear, as long as you draw them lightly to begin with.

7. To create the indented effect for the buttons, I did the following: First I took a darker chalk pencil (charcoal black) and lightly outlined each button. For the crease lines, I used the same chalk pencil that I used to draw the buttons and drew one slightly taller curved line and one shorter curved line on the four sides of the button. Finally, I took a very light colored pencil (Cream or white) and added little highlights on the top parts of the buttons and the top of the button curve lines. This last step is optional.

8. Finally, lift off the outer mask and there is your quilted image right on your background paper. I added the ruffled paper edges which I described in my earlier post, here.

Next up: "Faux Pearl Swirls" For this technique you need transparency paper, Liquid Pearls or some type of dimensional paint like Puffy Paint (I prefer Liquid Pearls because of the fine tip to create small dots), and a swirl/flourish pattern.

I used my Prima flourishes to replicate. Small tip: Scan your flourishes onto paper and then you can use them over and over again. You can stamp a flourish onto paper and use it or find flourishes in some fonts that specialize in flourishes. Google "free fonts" and there are many websites that offer free fonts for download to your computer.

1. Place transparency over your flourish/swirl and tape one edge down so it will not move.

2. The Prima flourish example above is a great one to use two colors on. Start with the bigger pearls first and your darker color creating small dots following the pattern beneath (Ruby Red used here). Notice I only used part of the flourish/swirl here. You can follow as much or as little of the pattern as you like.

3. Take your second, light color (Petal Pink used) and follow the tiny pearl pattern.

4. Let dry thoroughly.

5. Cut transparency close to your new pearl pattern.

6. Adhere to your layout with adhesive. I used Vellum adhesive which shows clear behind the transparencies. Note: When photographing, you can see some of the edges of the transparencies, however once they are behind your page protector in your albums, they disappear.

I hope you try one or both of these techniques on your next project. Happy Scrapping!!