Christmas Tag techniques rub off onto my canvas.

I think Tim would be proud of me. I utilized several ideas from his 12 Days of Christmas tags to make this gift for my best friend. Yes, there is a reason to go through the whole process of making all 12 tags, because you come out the other side with a lot of fresh new ideas that are bound to find their way into your projects.

This was my first attempt at working with a canvas block and I must say canvas is fairly forgiving and nice to work with. I really loved the canvas brads, that Tim created, that I wondered what working with a photograph would be like. This is a 5x7 canvas block, that you can find at most craft stores. I printed the photograph on Sticky Back Canvas by Ranger Ink (this is my new favorite craft item...I love it!!). Since I was not adding paper layers with the photo, I cut enough of the canvas to cover the whole canvas block instead of cutting out just the picture.

I will attempt to describe the various things I did, in case you want to try one. Unfortunately, I didn't take step by step pictures.

Since the canvas is close to white, I covered the whole canvas around the photo with Antique Linen Distress Ink (sponged it on) to give it a cream base. I wanted to carry the feel of the photo to the ends of the canvas, so I started with my "sky colors" of distress ink at the top (Weathered Wood, Faded Jeans and Broken China) coloring various parts of the upper area. I tried to leave the lightest distress ink (Weathered Wood) around the photo graph for a soft highlight area and went darker blues toward the edges.

Next, I grabbed my earth tones (Tea Dye and Vintage Photo) and started adding layers to the bottom using the same concept as the blues, darker toward the edges. These colors started off a nice base to my canvas. But I wanted a bit more intense color, especially around the edges, so I grabbed my color spritzers that I used on the roses in Tag #12.

To make my color spritzers, I added the following to a Mini Mister bottle: whatever base color Glimmer Mist I had on hand (used Denim Blue for blue and Coffee Shop for brown) and then added a tiny scoop, the size of a pea, of Perfect Pearls to the Mister (used the Blue Pantina for the blue and Gold for the brown) Perfect Pearls has a bit more shimmery intensity than just Glimmer Mist by itself. Note: my blue spritzer was just not bright enough for me so I added 4-5 drops of Alcohol Ink (Color was Stream) and the blue came out a bit better. Always test your spritzers on scrap paper, until you get the intensity of color you want.

For the right side of my canvas, I grabbed a Mini Mask from the Idea-Ology collection and stuck it in the upper right corner (note, masks do not stick to canvas but if you spray straight down instead of at an angle, they should work fine). I put a square piece of paper over the photo part of the canvas to block the spray from hitting it and then spritzed the whole mask area.

I used different cut or ragged edges of paper to work as a mask for my spritzers. The blue above the photo is just a jagged edge piece of paper to create an uneven sky color. For the brown spritzer, I just covered the photo section of the canvas and sprayed at the bottom corner with no other mask. I love how it sprayed little brown droplets in the lighter brown part.

Finally, I added my accents. I cut the flourish from the Home Accents Cricut cartridge and sprayed it with my brown and blue misters. It has that nice metallic finish. I added flowers by Prima and the Phrase bars are by All My Memories.

I did my best to explain the process I used to create this and hope you try a canvas project soon too. If you have any questions about what I did or used, just ask me in the comment section and I'll leave an answer for you.

Fall is my favorite season!!

Tammy, from Lil' Lambs Boutique, sent me the Basic Grey Indian Summer Deluxe Kit of the month. What fun items she packed into this kit. All the rich colors of Fall, in the papers, got me to thinking about how much I love the Fall Season. Although there are a lot of leaves to contend with, what joy and pleasure I get out of seeing God painting the trees first. Reds, Oranges, Yellows...I love them all.

Every Fall, our family takes a vacation to the mountains. If we hit the week just right, we're in peak season of fall foliage. Although, even if we're off by a week, it's still great to see the trees start to change and turn more colorful as each day passes of our vacation. Below is a picture of the "fire trees" as we call them. These are 2 trees that we watch every year on our vacation. When the sun hits them just right, they look like they're on fire. They are so beautiful. I told my husband that if we ever moved to a place where we needed to plant some trees, we would have to wait until Fall to pick them, so we would know what colors they would be. :)

If you've been following my blog, you know I've been on a new technique kick for the last month or so. It's been great learning to make new and different things. I wish my brain could come up with all of these. Alas, it often can't so I'll just share with you where I found them.

Below I made a flower called a LeFleur Flower. The instructions on how they are made can be found here. Aren't they cool looking? Extra patterned paper can be used to make wonderful coordinating flowers for your layouts. For an extra boost to my 3 flowers, I added Rock Candy Crackle Paint to them. Not only do they have the shine, but now they have the crackled effect to boot.

I love Crackle Paint and my collection of colors is rapidly increasing. Tammy certainly helped me out by adding some Antique Bronze Crackle paint to the kit. So I decided to make some Antique Bronze leaves.

First, I printed out a picture of a leaf shape from clip art. I carefully cut around the edge lines, leaving the middle in place, so I could create a mask. Second, I lay the mask directly on my layout and then brushed on the Crackle Paint. I lifted the mask very slowly and then let it dry. Third, I used some makeup sponges and different shades of Distress Ink to fill in the inside. Finally, I added some Rock Candy Crackle Paint (clear) on top to finish it off.

Something else to notice in the photo below is my reverse distressed edges. Instead of tearing the outside paper of my layout, I created a distressed edge on scrap paper. I laid the paper onto my layout a bit from the edge and then used sponges to add the Distress Ink. Now I have a "torn edge" but I still have a square layout.

What season do you enjoy the most and why?

Fringe Flowers

Here are the promised instructions for the Fringe Flowers I used on my Pure Innocence layout below.

Step 1. Find the color strips you want to use for your flowers. I used a paper cutter to cut the width of the strip and then tore the lengths by hand. The brown strip below is approximately 4 1/2" x 1/8" and the pink strip is 4" x 1/2". At this time, if your paper choice has a white back, you have the option of inking it a different color. I used Distress Ink: Worn Lipstick for the back of the pink and Aged Mahagony for the back of the brown.

Step 2: Take the thicker strip and with a pair of sharp scissors begin to cut the strip into fringe. You want to cut pretty close to the top of the strip. This will prevent your final flower from sitting up high off of your page. But don't worry if you don't get it close enough, you can always trim a little off the bottom later, if necessary.

Step 3: Begin at one end and start rolling into a tight circle. You can see here where I inked the back side of my strip. Remember: if you have a different color on each side of your strip, you want to make sure the color you want showing on your final flower, is wrapped on the inside of your roll. Continue to roll all the way to the end and then put a dab of glue to seal the roll. I highly recommend Glossy Accents by Ranger. Although this is typically a finishing glaze, it is also perfect for tiny dabs of glue that dry within 3-5 seconds. The tip on the bottle is very thin, so precision glue lines or dots are very easy.

Step 4: This step is optional but I think it makes a nice effect at the end. I inked the top of my fringe roll with the Aged Mahogany Distress ink. Holding your fringe roll, just quickly rub the sponge over the top, back and forth. It doesn't matter if the fringe pieces move. It actually helps you get to the inner parts of the fringe, to ink the tops.

Step 5: Start spreading out the fringe in all directions until you have your flower, as seen below. Next take your thin brown strip and roll it into a tight circle, put a dab of glue on the end, to seal your circle. You can leave it flat or take the tip of your scissors and push the center out a bit, to give it some dimension.

Step 6: Take your glue and run it all around the inner edge of your dark circle. Next, press the circle into the center of your Fringe Flower and there you go!

Remember, if your flower sits too high off of your paper, you can trim the "stem"on the underside. I actually trim mine at an angle so I can lay the flower at a tilt on my paper. I would not advise cutting the "stem" until you are ready to glue it to your layout. After trimming, immediately cover the cut edge with glue so the outer layers of your Fringe Flower won't fall off. Then press into your layout.

I hope you take some time to try some of these. They really do make cute flowers.

Treasure the Moments - More Details

I really, really enjoyed making this layout. The picture is of myself and my oldest daughter when she was only 2 months old. I treasure those peaceful moments we had together, where we could just sleep and I could smell her hair and listen to her breathe. So as promised, here are more detailed pictures of the gorgeous Basic Grey Wisteria paper kit I received from Lil' Lambs Boutique and a visual explanation of the transparency butterfly.



One of the easiest visual effects you can make, without using embellishments is adding dimension to your patterned paper. Here, if you'll notice I used my swivel exacto knife to cut around the edges of the top petals of each of the flowers, in the patterned paper at the bottom. I placed a piece of foam under each petal and slightly bent the edges. Instant dimension! Try it, you'll love the effect.



Here is my butterfly I created from a transparency sheet. The trails of the butterfly and the dragonfly are rub ons by Basic Grey.



There are many ways to acheive this same effect. This is how I did it. Not every ink type works well with transparencies. Solvent inks work best with the quickest drying time. If you only have pigment inks, don't worry you can use those too, you just need an extra step.



Take your stamp and coat it with your solvent ink pad and then press your image onto the transparency. This should dry pretty quickly. If you're in a particular hurry, you can use an embossing heat gun to dry it faster. Remember, do not hold the heat in one particular place for too long, or your transparency will melt. If you only have pigment inks, that's okay. You can still stamp your image and then pour some clear embossing powder over the image and emboss with your heat gun. This will seal the image onto the transparency.



After your image is dry, turn the transparency over to create your colors. I used Colorbox Chalk ink here because the color is saturated and intense. Again, if you use anything other than solvent type inks to color in your image, you may have to emboss it with clear embossing powder. After stamping the back of my image with the Wisteria Chalk ink, I embossed with clear powder and then cut out my image.



White pens, such as Ranger's Inkssentials White Opaque Pen do a wonderful job adding some highlighting details to your transparency. And it's as easy as that. You can bend the middle of the butterfly to have it pop up off your page or leave it flat. Either way you have a beautiful addition for your scrapbook page. Add a transparent delight to your next page or project.