Buttons

At the last retreat, I assisted Ifa with her lovely class which incorporated clear buttons. Some were idly sat on my desk space, when a bit of paper shuffling resulted in one becoming stuck on a torn scrap of washi tape, which inspired me to use it to deliberately create custom patterened buttons for my pages this month.

I'll make no apologies for bringing you pages made with snowy photos that I took back in January, in April - as I'm sat here with the rain lashing at the window and the wind howling around the walls, I could easily be forgiven for thinking we were in the deep depths of Winter anyway!

My papers this month are from the Amy Tan "Yes, Please" range.

Here's my first page:

You can just see a couple of my washi-covered buttons in the bottom right hand corner.  Here's how I easily created them in moments:

1. Pop a strip of washi tape, sticky side up, on to your work area, and pop a button on top. Easy! As you can see on the right, you don't have to stick to just one design of tape on your button. Mix it up! Go wild! Dig in to that washi!

For larger buttons where your chosen tape isn't wide enough to cover it in one go, pop one small piece of tape over half of the button, then simply tear another small strip and marry up the pattern on the other half, as below (you can just see the button in the picture underneath the tape; I joined the tapes along the button holes):

2. Burnish the tape on to the button firmly with your thumb and finger, and then trim away the excess tape from around the edge. Using a pokey tool or a pin, push through the button holes and remove the tiny scraps of washi tape from inside. I preferred to push through from the back as it ensured that the rest of the tape wasn't accidentally lifted from the button in the process.

3. And ta'daaaa! You have your own custom buttons using the pretty washi tape that we all love and hoard!!

The semi-transparent nature of washi lends itself very well to the buttons and create a lovely effect when popped over layers of paper or photos as you can see a portion through the design; I popped some onto a photo here to illustrate this:

The particular tapes I have used here are the gorgeous ones from MME's My Girl, Notable and Unforgettable triple packs.

Here's a close up of them on my page:

For their mat I used a slice from the chevron arrow sheet in the Dear Lizzy die cut sheet pack, and utilised the bits I popped out else where on my page - you can see some below the title (above) and some at the top of the page:

The "Phrases" veneer from Studio Calico's Sundrifter range are lovely for adding that extra bit of detail to your pages - I love the wood-burnished look of the fonts on them and the pack contains a huge array of phrases and symbols.

Here's the second frosty page that I used my washi buttons on:

This time I used some of the Phrases veneer to make a little weather-forcast style snow symbol:

 I used some of the gorgeous little Amy Tan puffy stickers as sub-headings for my journalling and others such as the hearts, flowers and arrows to add interest around both of my pages:

I didn't opt for a title per se on this layout, but instead grouped a strip of one of the Amy Tan papers that had a definition printed across it along with some pretty die cuts from the Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm die cut pack to convey the message:

So that's me for April - I am sat with my fingers crossed that we will have defrosted and I will be able bring you some warm, sun-shine filled pages for May! .......Well, a girl can dream ;)

More ideas for masks...

When I read that Sarah and Lianne were on their way to CHA in the summer, I hoped (and requested!) that they would order some of the Crafter's Workshop templates for the shop.  My wish came true and as soon as they hit the store, I popped some in my basket for this month's blog work.

I love how you can create your own backgrounds with masks by just using some mist or ink, but I also wanted to explore the effects created by using different media and also going beyond backgrounds and finding other ways to incorporate the patterns into my pages.

The three masks that I worked with were:

Tile Texture

Chickenwire

Chickenwire Reversed

Layout 1: Say Cheese

I firstly took the chickenwire template and very lightly inked, with a black distress ink, through the template onto my background paper.  I did have a bit of a practise first on a scrap though, to work out how much pressure and ink to apply to create such a subtle effect.

Using the same template, I decided to try embossing a die cut shape to make my own embellishment.  So with an asterisk shape which I cut from kraft card, I stamped with a watermark ink and sprinkled with aqua Zing! embossing powder (details of all products can be found at the end of this post). 

This created a pattern on the shape which coordinated perfectly with the Echo Park papers that I had picked out for the layout.

The completed layout which documents how difficult it is to get the 'perfect' photo of my three children as they get older:

Layout 2: Feed the Chickens

The chickenwire templates also inspired me to make an embellishment.  Using the Reversed Chickenwire template, I painted through the template with some brown acrylic paint onto a piece of kraft cardstock.  With the paint, I  could make some areas darker and thicker than others and add some texture/lines with the brush as I applied it.  Using my die cutting machine, I designed a tag shape with a chicken shape placed in the centre of it.  I then laid the tag with the negative chicken-shape over the painted card, moving it around until I was happy with the pattern showing through.  If you look closely you will see that I tried to find a join in the lines to fit where the eye should be.

My children love to feed the chickens at a farm that we often stay at in Wales and this tag made the perfect embellishment for my layout all about how much they began by just feeding the chickens but on our most recent visit, actually went right into their house to find freshly laid eggs for breakfast.

Layout 3: The Big Ones

Whilst making my chicken tag, I also cut out some people tags too.  I experimented with using a watermark ink through the Tile Texture template both on top of the people shapes and also onto some scrap kraft card.

I heat embossed after covering with a layer of pale blue and pale pink embossing powder.

Whilst the embossing powder was still hot and a liquid, I sprinkled some aqua onto the blue and some dark pink on to the pale pink before heating again to set both colours.  This created a mottled effect as shown below.

I've kept the embossed people for another project, but for my last layout, I used the pattern on the kraft card to back the cut out people-banner tag shapes.

Not wanting to waste any of the embossed pattern that I had made, I also used a Martha Stewart pinked circle punch to make some small embellishments to keep for another time too.

 

The blue boy and pink tags feature as embellishments on this final page.  I repeated the banner shapes across the centre of the page with strips of the patterned paper.  I took this photo of Evie and Oliver a few weeks ago on Evie's birthday.  I love how happy they look together and made a page about how close they are and how much Oliver needs his big sister now that he has started 'big school'.  They're now collectively known at home as 'the big ones'.

I hope that I've given you some ideas for using masks/templates in some different ways on your layouts or other projects.  As ever, thank you for reading.

My products:

Studio Calico Ephemera

I often surf my way though products in the shop, and hover over an interesting-looking embellishment product but decide not to add it to my virtual basket as it's hard to be exactly sure what is included in the packet from the little thumbnail released by the manufacturers. This month though, such curiosity got the better of me, and I ordered myself a pack of the Ephemera from Studio Calico's Heyday range. I wasn't sure what to expect, but was really pleased when the packet arrived, and excitedly set to playing with my new goodies, so thought I'd share with you what I created.

I was pleased that, at £3.99, the pack was excellent value for money. It was teaming with lots of really usable die cuts that could work with lots of recent ranges from a variety of manufacturers. I coupled my pack with the gorgeous new Soleil release from Basic Grey, and some new Everyday Eclectic and For The Record Documented from Echo Park, all of which were perfect for recording some summer evening memories; but I can see that the oranges, pinks and turquoises working equally well with any of the pastel/brights releases we have seen over the past few seasons. This makes the pack a perfect, purse-friendly answer for a spot of stash busting - something new to add a twist to your existing papers.

Being the good Samaritan that I am, here's a scanned close up of the Heyday Ephemera packaging to give you a good idea of what is included, a whopping 71 pieces in all:

It was a pleasing surprise to find that you actually get two of each of the resin flower brads, and five of each of the pearlescent butterfly sequins.

Here's my first page:

 

I used one of the journalling tags as a mat for my title, but to ensure that the MLS newsprint alpha stickers showed clearly I added a trip of grey MME washi tape and some of the pretty new teal striped tap from Bella Blvd:

I completed my title with some mini alphas, and the little "photo" tag from the Ephemera. Another tag from the pack nestled above it to add another layer of texture and interest.

I find it hard to create a page that doesn't have a cluster of embellishments of some sort, and here some different washi tapes from MME, Bella Blvd and Queen and Co and a scalloped circle and strip tag (that I added some journalling to with a Slick Writer pen), make the base for some pins, two of the flower brads and some wood veneer shapes.

Returning to the pack of ephemera, I added a couple of the cloud shapes to the top of my photos, anchoring them with a spot of faux stitching, and layered one of the butterfly sequins on top of a diecut one before slipping it under a corner.

My second page contains some snaps from the fun fair:

 

With my pictures/theme in mind, I was instantly drawn to this off-kilter pink diecut, and decided to utilise it as a mat for my title; using the diagonal pattern as a guide for placing the Newsprint alphas. 

I always find it hard to break against some deep, inexplicable need to create straight-lined designs when I scrap, but was able to convince myself that as it fitted the topsy-turvy funfair ride theme, I could do it.......(maybe just this once though *twitch twitch*) 

To make the whole thing stand out further, I nestled on top of three of the banner tags, strung together with some grey twine:

I found the perfect journalling spot in the pack - the red and yellow circle design seen here reminded me of the flashing bulb lights on the mechanical arms of the ride, as did the star and arrow die cuts that I added next to it..........

For the final touch, I added the girls' initials to two of the balloon diecuts, and popped them in the top left hand corner of the page, and an image of two little children holding hands in the bottom right.

I really dug into the pack and added them quite liberally to my two pages here, but still have a whole load of embellishments left to use again. The pack really is versatile and excellent value for money - and I have a feeling that my days of deliberating are over and I may find myself going with that urge to "click" rather than "hover" again in the future - try it, you may be pleasantly surprised!

My supplies included:

Studio Calico Heyday Ephemera	Basic Grey Soleil	Basic Grey Soleil	Basic Grey Soleil
Echo Park Everyday Eclectic	EP For the Record 2 Documented	Echo Park Everyday Eclectic	Bella Blvd Designer Tape
Bella blvd Designer Tape	MME Sweetest Thing Decorative Tape	Queen & Co Pink Polka Dot Tape	American Crafts - Amy Tangerine - Mixtape 2
Studio Calico - Abroad - Wood Veneer Shapes - Cameras	Studio Calico Wood Veneer Stars	Studio Calico - Wood Veneer Shapes - People	MLS Vintage Shop
Pink Paislee Bitty Block Alphas	American Crafts Slick Writers

InLinkz.com