Summer Love with Maja Design

Hello friends!

Summer is upon us! Although here in Singapore, it's nearly summer all year round. Right now, I'm enjoying a nice, cold bowl of iced fruits in syrup, catching up on summer dessert recipes, and attempting to bake a cake for the little one's birthday in a couple of days.

While all that is going on, I've a sweet, sweet treat from Maja Design to share with you. Marie has drawn up a gorgeous collection for summer and it's unbelievably cute! Today's project is one of the many that I've made from her Summer Crush collection and I can't stop making more. Here's a step-by-step on how I made the layout.

Step 1:
Summer is all about fun right? So I had these mini rosettes made using papers from the Summer Crush collection with one of my Sizzix dies and they are just too cute.



Step 2:

For some reason, straws came to mind as well and I rolled these up. Just lightly spritz with water to make the heavy patterned paper easier to roll and glue down the edges with Glossy Accents. I then brushed the ends with gel medium and dipped it into gold embossing powder.

Step 3:

I primed these chipboards from Blue Fern Studios and painted them. For the title "Love", I used 13@rts' Metallic Pink and Raspberry matt paint and blended them. For the arrow, I applied Shimmerz Texturez in Patina and went over with a layer of Silks Glaze in African Jade.

Step 4:

Assembling my paper layers and embellishments together so that I can start working on my background.

Step 5:

Spread a very thin layer of gesso over the area where I wanted to work on, followed by some stenciling with modeling paste to follow the general flow of my layout. I constantly placed my paper layers down as a guide over the stencil to see where else I should add the modeling paste.

Step 6:
Misting with Tattered Angels' Glimmer Mist (Trunk Bay) and watering it down. Some parts I painted straight from the bottle for gradations in tone. Finish with some random stamping, and start gluing everything away!




Here is the completed page:

Love the summery feel this piece has! But I have a confession - I cheated on the photo because it was taken in fall during our Perth trip. But it was the perfect kind of weather which I wish Singapore would have in summer (or throughout the year for that matter!) - balmy temperatures, refreshing breeze, blue skies dotted by little white clouds, and that amazing picnic in the park... I deliberately chose the patterned paper with the sunburst because it adds to the composition - sun rays radiating out from my main cluster and that pattern is repeated in my mini rosettes.

More details in the close-ups:

Lots of touching up with mediums.  I made more splashes with 13@rts Light Turquoise chalk mist all over the page, followed by Acrylic Splash! Ink in white. 

Everything was also given a dab of gesso for a vintage washed out look, followed by African Jade Silk glaze. And lastly, a generous patting of a yummy paste made from Gold Pearl paint and 13@rts Magic powder.

Loving the patterns and colors from the Summer Crush collection.

Another floral cluster with a metal piece and some resins.

That's all I have for today. Thanks for dropping by!

love,