Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Simple but Beautiful DIY Milagro Style Scrapbook embellishments- Week #38









I have been bringing my son to art museums since he was a toddler. One of our outings brought us to a museum which featured art heavily influenced by the Mayan and Aztec cultures. It seemed appropriate to document those photos during September,the month that Mexican Independence day is celebrated. I chose to pull inspiration from the art of Mexico since both cultures are a part of it's roots. I found myself fascinated by Milagros and I wanted to recreate something similar on my scrapbook page.






What are Milagros?

Milagros are small folk charms that are of a variety of materials including wood, wax,gold, silver and tin. It's the shiny charms that inspired the scrapbook embellishments that I am sharing with you today. I loved the look of the tin and the metallic paints on the little Milagro charms. You can see what inspired me on my Pinterest board: Inspiration from Around the World-Mexico.


It's easy to achieve that shiny, metallic painted tin look!

One of my favorite ways to add a shiny metallic look is to use Decofoil. It comes in thin sheets and with a little adhesive, you can adhere it to a variety of surfaces. I used the Decofoil in conjunction with Icraft's foam adhesive sheets. The foam sheets are thin and you can easily cut them with a die cut machine. 


Once you have the die cut foam shape, you simply need to peel the backing off and lay the foam piece, sticky side down, onto the silver or dull side of the Decofoil sheet. The foil comes in a variety of colors. This rainbow foil seems a bit busy, but if you use small shapes, the color doesn't feel so crazy.


Another alternative is to use the Decofoil transfer adhesive. It's a liquid glue that does require a bit of patience( due to the drying time). It takes about an hour or two to dry before you can use the foil with the shape. I chose to use it on some resin pieces that I had cast. If you don't have resin shapes, try it on chipboard, die cuts, or wood veneer. 


Customize chipboard, resin or wood veneer with acrylic paint.

I did learn the hard way that I should have painted my resin pieces prior to using the Decofoil.  It is possible to paint them after you add the foil, but doing so beforehand would have really been much easier. Should you need to touch up a piece with paint after you add the foil, you can easily wipe off any stray paint marks with a baby wipe or damp cloth.


Once everything is dry, the assembly of the Milagro is simple!

Assembly of the Milagro is easy and can be finished within minutes. Simply begin layering up your pieces and adhering them as you wish from largest piece to smallest. Depending on what you choose to use, you might find that you need a strong liquid adhesive.



Search through your stash to find the perfect objects to create your own Milagros!

My Milagro scrapbook embellishments consist of die cut foam shapes, metal die cuts and resin objects. 



The elements you choose will determine whether your Milagro will look bright and fresh or if it will have a weathered look. This particular piece, for example, has a lot of delicate filigree edges. Once I painted it and added the foil, it had an aged appearance. The great thing about these scrapbook embellishments is that you can mix and match the weathered and fresh style Milagros without any issue.



I layered the Milagros into embellishment clusters. I chose a few matte embellishments to place within each cluster. The matte piece keeps the cluster from feeling too bright and busy. 


Once your Milagros are complete, choose the rest of your scrapbook supplies and create your scrapbook layout.

I chose scrapbook papers with a muted color palette taken from the Mexican Coat of Arms. The patterns, colors and Milagro style scrapbook embellishments all come together to form a subtle tribute to Mexico and the art we saw at the museum that day.

I love the way the Milagros turned out. I have to admit that I adore a bit of something shiny on all of my scrapbook layouts. Do you love adding in shiny objects or do you prefer to leave them off your scrapbook layouts?

Supplies Used
Patterned papers: Cocoa Daisy, October Afternoon, Basic Grey
Adhesive: Decofoil Transfer Adhesive and foam sheets by iCraft
Foil Sheets: Decofoil by iCraft
Dies: Spellbinders
, Studio Calico, Die-Namicsrel="nofollow"
Rubber Stickers: Pinkfresh Studios
Other: resin,silicone molds, acrylic paint



This scrapbook layout is based on a design from the Scrap Free Scrapbooking Ebook by Jennifer Priest. I had the opportunity to test the book when Jennifer first wrote it. It was so awesome, that I became an affiliate! You can get your copy here.









Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Mexican Inspired Stripped Layout - Week #37

Hi, Rose here an today I am going to share with you a very easy Mexican Inspired stripped layout. While this layout is simply about documenting one of my favorite tools of the trade, I wanted to incorporate a little bit of Mexican Flair. I created a miniature version of Mexican Style linens. Finding a good quality pen is reason to be happy, am I right?


Mexican Inspired Stripped Layout


Materials



First, decide which color will be used as the base (I chose black) and cut off 1 inch off the vertical edge. Then cut the remaining cardstock colors into 1 inch and 1/2 inch strips, you'll only need about two of each color in each size.

Next, start adhering the strips in desired color patterns, alternating between the two varying sizes to give it interest, being sure not to cover up all of your base color.



Adhere two white strips to the ends of the scrapbook page, use your scissors to fringe the edges. 


For added interest, tear and adhere silver glitter washi tape to break up some of the bolder strip patterns.Add journaling and call it done!

I really enjoyed creating this layout to celebrate and commemorate the enjoyment I find in using my these colorful pens! Find other great techniques in this Scrap Free Scrapbooking ebook.

Have you tried this stripped technique? Leave a comment below, I'd love to see your projects.


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Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Substitute Paint for Paper in a Layout Sketch - Week #36

Hi everyone! It's Nancy, back with another layout to show you how to use one of my favorite scrapbooking resources, the Scrap Free Scrapbooking eBook by Jennifer Priest.

Layout patterns in the book are designed to make your scrapbooking quick and easy, and to create the maximum amount of layouts with the least amount of paper. But what if you could use the layouts without using paper at all - or barely?


If you look at the patterned paper in the layout patterns as "blocks of color" instead of as paper, this opens up whole new ways to use the patterns. For this project, I decided to substitute acrylic paint for most of the patterned paper in one of the layouts from Cutting Pattern 7. 

how to substitute acrylic paint for paper


My layout is about my recent visit to the new Disney Springs (formerly called Downtown Disney). With predominantly Spanish style architecture and an exuberant atmosphere thanks to its theme park influence, it's perfect for a latin fiesta style color scheme. I chose mine based on inspiration from some photos I found online of sugar skulls and cover art promoting an album of latin music. 


I used the orange - reflecting the Spanish tile roofs of the complex - for the background. The blue color reflects the water in the stream winding its way through the complex, and the green highlights the many palm trees shading the sidewalks. The bold pink calls attention to the journaling written on it, as well as the red umbrellas at the Sprinkles bakery. 

I painted the colors in messy swatches to replace the blocks of paper that make up the layout's design. In areas where the paper blocks are designed to overlap in the pattern, I had to decide how to handle it. The pink and green were supposed to overlap in this design. I chose to take the pink all the way across and stop the green when it got to the edge of the pink. 

Cardstock like this isn't designed to handle heavy wet media, so it warped a bit, but that won't matter when the layout is in an album. 

With all of that color put down with the acrylic paint, I only had to use my Westcott Titanium Trimmer to cut one piece of 8" x 8" paper for this entire layout! The white block serves as a mat for the photos and the title, separating it from the bold background. 


Supplies Used:
  • Cardstock (Orange, White)
  • Delta Ceramcoat Acrylic Paint (Lake, Festival Pink & Apple Green)
  • Colorbox Archival Pigment Ink (Royal Blue)
  • Colorbox Archival Dye Ink (Wicked Black)
  • Sharpie Fine Point Pen
  • 28 Lilac Lane Limited Edition "Fall Jewels" Mix
  • Webster's Pages Painted Passport Word Stickers
  • Pink & Main stamps (Directional Borders)
  • Stampendous stamps (Cling Daisy Mix)
  • Technique Tuesday stamps (Going Places)
  • Black Letter Stickers
  • PPA Matte Adhesive
As long as the paint isn't applied too heavily, you can use Archival inks to stamp across the top of it, or adhere items on top like stickers or beads. 


I used a fine point Sharpie to journal right on top of the paint. I made the edge of the paint somewhat wavy when I applied it. Then I followed the edge of the paint to write my journaling, creating a nice wandering journal line!

This was a really fun, fast, and no-stress way to use the Scrap Free Scrapbooking eBook, and I love the results! What can you think of besides paint to replace your patterned paper blocks with?