Scraptastic!

I know I don't often feature Scrapbook layouts on this blog mainly due to time constraints, but I do love scrapbooking, especially as it is responsible for so many great products to play with and innumerable cool techniques to learn, all of which filters into my other crafty interests.

I was going to make a card with the magnificent Thinlits Die Set Winter Borders and Rosette designed by my good buddy Paula Pascual. this is one set from Paula's new Everyday Collection released this month, I implore you to check it out (if you love delicate butterflies then look no further!!!)

When I say I was going to make a card, I promised Barbara at a show in Manchester that I would do just that, however I couldn't resist doing a little layout, I hope you will forgive me?

Below you will see the die set mentioned previously, an 8" x 8" square of card (all the card is from the My Mind's Eye Lost & Found 3 Collection) and three photo's of my daughter Poppy taken in the heavy snow we had in the UK a couple of years back.

At this point I have no idea what I am going to do!

OK! I now have a rough plan/idea so I'm going to start by die cutting a circle from Kraft card using the largest Circle Framelits die. I have combined both sets of Circle Framelits and between them I have every size I need ( 657551 and 658604). After die-cutting the first circle I place the die which is the next sized down onto the die-cut circle slightly offset. I repeat this twice more until I have three thin kraft card rings. Next, I use a brayer to apply a thin layer of gesso.

I cut a rectangle of the pale blue dotty paper and trimmed away one edge using the snowflake border die. I applied some rows of faux stitching using a pattern makers wheel and a white gel pen before attaching all the separate elements to the layout together with a die-cut silver snowflake border.

From the same dotty card I cut two halves of the snowflake rosette and proceeded to lighten the tips by dry brushing with gesso. Next, I concertina folded the two halves before attaching end to end to form a crown before folding in toward the centre to create the rosette. I usually secure this at the rear with a piece of scrap card attached with a hot glue gun to get a solid bond. I next die-cut a deep blue circle, a silver snowflake and a deep blue border strip whose edges I gently sanded to add a little contrast.

I attached all the elements to the layout together with the photos and a rectangle of green patterned card which has been lightly distressed. I covered a piece of mount board with the deep blue card and used the Block Talk Lowercase Alphabet Die to cut the letters and printed the word 'Princess' onto the green card using my PC. I have a set of similar alphabet stamps which would work equally as well. After attaching the words to my layout I started to add a little bling in the form of assorted adhesive pearls and gems.

Finally, I die cut a circle from card and used it as a template around which I attached a row of clear adhesive gems using my trusty tweezers before removing the card circle.

Here is the finished article, lots of fun to do as always, I think the green really lifts it especially as I could use pearl gems of a similar colour. I love the way the circles give it a sense of movement. 

So many photos...so little time!