Love Card by Mel Connell

Hello Again All. 

I am back again with a very very simple but very pretty card that you can make for a Wedding, or a special Birthday, and Anniversary, well for many many occasions really. 

Start out by making your card bas. This is a tri fold style card, Cut a pice of cardstock at 6  x 11inches and then score at 4" and then at 4" from the first score line, this will give you one panel that is slightly smaller and this becomes your front. 

Cut one of your Favourite Couture Creations boarder dies from the same colour cardstock at your card base. Double side tape this onto the edge of the small front panel. 

From here just cut panels of your favourite paper from the Vintage Rose Garden Paper pad, distress the edges of all pieces and stick into place laving a small boarder of cardstock showing. 

Add some Gems or pearls to the boarder, and cut out a greeting from the printed sheet in your paper pad to the front. This sheet is brilliant, small words or quotes pre-printed ready to go, just cut them out and add them to your project. 

Couture Creations products used:

CO724062 - Vintage Rose Garden 12 x 12 Paper Pad

CO723247 - Momento, Ornamental Lace Dies - Chandelier set 

CO721985 - Double sided tape - 6mm

CO721955 - Pointed Non stick Scissors

CO721990 Gemstones - Vintage Gold

Louise Nelson Technique inspired layout.

Hi Again Everyone. So glad you stopped by t check out what I have been playing with this time. We have been getting the most yummy mixed media products in Tomorrow's memories lately and I know I an having a blast playing with it all. 

A couple of my new favourite products are the Prima/Finnabair Art Basic and Art Extravagance products and Just new to the store are the Tim Holtz Distress Sprays. OMGoodness just way to much fun stuff to play with. 

I learned a fantastic technique last year from the wonderful Louise Nelson. I just loved this class that I did with her and have been wanting to use this technique again since. 

Having both these fabulous mixed media products in I knew they were screaming out to be used in this way. 

So you want to start with a thick sheet of chipboard, I used 12x12 but it could be 8.5 x 11 or any size you need really. Gesso the whole sheet. 

Choose some pretty chipboard shapes, I have used the gorgeous flower heads from Your Creative Wings, this chipboard is in store at TM's now. Lots of fabulous designs to choose from. Make sure these are gesso'd also. and glue them down. 

Spread white crackle paste from Prima over the chippy pieces, I went a bit crazy and spread it over my entire sheet. Some parts will be thicker than others, but this is good, you will get different sized cracks form. Try and let this dry naturally if you can, pop it outside in the sun for a wee while. You will get better cracks if it drys naturally. 

Now the super fun part. Spritz your entire page with water, add drops of your favourite Distress Spray colours (unscrew the top and drip it on), spritz with more water until it spreads and puddles. 

This can take some time and you want to build up layers. Add and let dry, add and let dry. This you can dry with your heat tool to speed up the process. 

Once your happy with your colour I mixed up a spritz of gold spray using the Primary Elements powers and some water and put it on a Kaiser spray bottle. (these by the way work so well, such a great little spray bottle). 

Give the whole piece a light mist so you have just a hint of gold shimmer over it. 

I used some small splatter stamps from Kaiser, and gold embossing powder to add the look of splatters but using the stamps gives you a bit of control over where they go and ow they look. you gould however just splatter on some of the gold Distress Spray. 

Add a heat embossed title and a sprinkle of sequins across your page. ( another thing I fell in love with after my class with Louise last year. Sequins, oooooh yum!!)

Once it is all dry add a small photo, or a big one, totally up to you. 

You end up with this gorgeous soft watercolour effect in the background that seeps into all the cracks of the crackle paste which is all kinds of fabulous. 

If you do get the chance, this layout is in store for you to have a look at. 

I want to thank Louise for letting me use her technique and share it with you. Please stop by her blog, the link is up above, as she does just wonderful things. 

Thanks once again for popping by to see what we have been doing, and hope to see you either in store or online soon. 

Mel xxx

Treasure the Time Layout by Mel Connell

Welcome to November one and all. Thanks for stopping by once again to check out what we have been up to over at Couture Creations. 

I have been having so much fun creating with the new Couture Creations Paper range Vintage Rose Garden. It is just so lovely. 

First up I embossed an A4 sheet of acetate in one of our A4 embossing folders. I torn pieces of this off to use as embellishments on my layout. 

Next up chose two sheets of paper that you would like to work with. I used less patterned pieces for this. Tape them together on three sides leaving to top un stuck. Distress the edges and ink with brown ink to shabby it up a little bit. 

From the top middle cut into your top sheet toward the bottom of your pages. with a spritz of water to soften the paper a little roll these back to expo the second layer of paper. Dry these off with your heat tool to hold the position. You may also need a little adhesive under the rolls. 

Using the Time sheet rom the Vintage Rose Garden paper range cut out all the clock and floral spray elements to use as embellishments on your layout. 

Also cut your self some leave or branch dies in coordinating green papers to use a fillers. I cut in Kraft cardstock two Cog Border dies also. 

Adhere all these dies cut and hand cut patterned paper pieces to either side of the paper rolls. Don't forget to add in the torn pieces of embossed acetate. 

To finish off sprinkle round a few paper flowers to fill in any spaces that need a little something. I added my photo for this to the centre of a dies cut Doily and placed this at the bottom of the paper rolls to cover any rough edges that may be there. 

The end result is a very sweet layout that is perfect for more formal photos like Balls, Weddings and Christening photos. Or just that special picture of that special someone. 

Couture Creations Products used:

CO723242 - Madeline , Ornamental Lace Dies - Mirror Mirror

CO723739 - The Metricon, Intricutz Dies - Cog Border

CO723040 - Nesting Dies, Circles

CO721963 - Foam Mounting Tape - 18mm

CO721985 - Double Sided Tape - 6mm

CO721955 - Non stick Scissors

CO721957 - 15x15" Self Healing Cutting Mat

CO723623 - Sponge Dauber

CO724062 - Vintage Rose Garden, 12 x12 Paper Pad  

Crate Paper "Open Book" Layout.

Hello everyone, just stopping by to share a layout I have done using the new Open Book paper range from Crate Paper. This yummy collection is available ins toe right now at Tomorrow's memories if you wanted to get your hands on some. 

This is a fun bright range with Photographic Elements on it, like the cute little image of the girl with glasses, so i thought I'd use small pictures and create a clustered look.

I have cut out strips of the paper and made some double point banner strips, layered over this with a folded piece of pattern paper to create a secret fold out journalling spot. Sometimes you have something to say, but don't really want everyone to read it, so making the secret or hidden journalling places if wonderful for that. 

I added some of the cut paper elements and some paper flowers and my pictures to the front of this fold out part. 

On my background I have used the New Prima white crackle paste through a stencil to get some texture. try to let this dry naturally if you can, you get much better crackle effect that way. then splatted on some of the Prima colour bloom sprays. 

I added some hand stitched detailing around the edge and you end up with a fairly quick, cute, fun layout. 

I'd love to see your take if you give this a go. 

Thanks for stopping by again. 

Mel xxxx