Thankful with 13@rts

Hello 13@rts friends!

Today is the second last day of 2015, how fast time has flown! For me especially, it is a big year because our little girl has arrived. There are so many changes in the family, in my life and as I look back, there were just as many blessings that we have experienced. So for my last post for this year, I want to take time to say "thank you" and be grateful for all that has happened, good or bad.

This is a card I made for a close family friend whose birthday is also just around the corner. He has walked through difficult times with my husband and me, and loves my children as his own. Because this is for a guy, I have done away with flowers and made it very simple with strong clean lines.

I used Olga's Winter Tales for this card simply because the papers are so beautiful! I particularly love the deep reds and rich greens, and I couldn't make enough projects from this collection. For this post, I thought I really want to feature more of the papers and despite it being a Christmas theme collection, you can use it for just about anything.

Some details of the background. For this card, I used only two paints - White Glitter paint and Green Glitter Splash ink. To get that lovely mint green, I mixed White Glitter paint with Magic Powder, followed by a drop of Green Glitter and spread it over the holly stencil from the same collection. When it dries, you can see a lovely shimmer with both silver and gold flakes. I also topped it up with some splatters of Green glitter straight from the bottle.

For this chipboard from Blue Fern Studios, I used the remainder of my mint green paste and spread it over. Then I gradually mix in Green glitter paint to the remaining paste to use as a thick paint, one drop at a time to get many different shades of the green as layers of paint. Until the last layer was painting directly from the bottle.

I love the fussy cut holly from the Christmas tag paper and layered them on top. Then I brushed a thin layer of White glitter paint over to make the whole card look consistent with the use of glitter.

So that's all I have for today. Wishing you and your family a wonderful new year ahead!
 

Peace with 13@rts

Hello friends, we are just a week away from Christmas!

Hope you're finishing up those last minute shopping and getting ready for the merry making and catching a break from a whole year's work.

Today I'm up on the blog to share a winter layout with you. Coming from tropical Singapore, I've always had a deep fascination for winter - the cuddling around the fire on a winter night, holding hot cocoa in my hands and with my loved ones around me sharing warmth and laughter. Winter is such a time for families.

Here is my page:

I love the world looks like when it wakes up from a night of snow. Everything is covered in a soft white blanket and all is quiet and peaceful. I found that photo from the internet because it conveyed such a sense of serenity. I tried to do a monochrome layout with varying shades of grey by mixing matt black paint with white in different amounts. I also painted with Chalk Grey mist and Old Silver metallic paint to obtain those gradations in color. Underneath the painting is stenciling some snowflakes with a paste I made from Magic Powder and White and Silver glitter. When it dries, it leaves a beautiful iridescent finish. I also made splatters with my black and white matt paints.

Some closeups: 

My title piece is from Winter Tales chipboard words and I painted it with White Silver glitter paint, followed by the leftover paste I used for the stenciling in the background. The snowflake chipboard underneath was treated the same way. 

After all the paint and paste is dried, I went over another layer with modeling paste for words to create that subtle contrast in the background.

To add on more texture, I sprinkled glass glitter, plastic microspheres and sealed them with liquid medium. I would have happily added silver microspheres as well if only I could find them in the tornado of scrap supplies on my desk. This is what happens when you get so caught up in crafting that you forget about packing up!

With that, this is all I have to share for today. Hope you like what I have created. Happy crafting!

Holiday Cheer with Maja Design

Hello friends!

I'm in today to share a Christmas project for Maja Design. I'm not much for Christmas papers as you would know by now, but their "Home for the Holidays" collection is absolutely delightful! For this month of December, I will be creating with this collection just to get into the festive cheer.

This is the tag I've made:

I've done some layering of papers from the 6x6 paper pad, as well as with the die cut tags and postal stamps. Again, my background work was simple - with some festive words stenciled with modeling paste and colored over with a matching blue in watercolor and paint

Some close-ups:

A chipboard ornament which I colored with glitter ink and stacked on top of a die cut snowflake from one of the more neutral colored papers from the paper pad. I chose red to highlight the color in the bottom-most piece of patterned paper and to use it as an accent color that really popped.

Layering of the tags which I fussy cut out. To create the snow falling on the tags, I added generous amounts of white glitter paint and allowed it to dry.

This postage stamp really warms my heart! It reminds me of exactly what we do in cold weather with our loved ones - we cuddle!

That's all I have for today. Have a great day ahead!

December Inspiration for Blue Fern Studios

Hello friends!

Can you imagine, Christmas is less than 4 weeks away? I'm totally excited, and the cool weather has definitely put me in a festive mood.

Today, I'm up on the blog to share my creations for December, using the fabulous Vintage Christmas collection. While there are so many beautiful festive images for the season in this collection, there are also more generic papers that can be used for other themes. 

For my first share, I've made a page of my boys based on the sweet December sketch by Michelle:

My background was mostly hidden by the clusters with little bits peeking out, so that the images on the paper do not get covered up. This time, I've also kept my layering to a minimum so that more attention can be given to the details in the embellishments.

Some close-ups:

One of the pieces from Clip Frames which I altered using Blue Fern Studios' own embossing powder. Love it that other than the red, it has a gorgeous gold tint to it. Lots of stamping in the background too to bring out a botanical feel.

Some fussy cut flowers which I tucked behind my photo. It has Christmas bits in it with the holly, but who would have know how nicely it blends in here!

A Deja Vu Tweets chippie which I altered with gold ink and painted with Imagine Ink in Persimmon.

My second project and video tutorial is a Christmas mini album. When I first saw the Vintage Christmas papers, there were so many beautiful images I could cut out and use for an album so I knew I had to make one. As you all probably know by now, I'm not a Christmas project person with the exception of cards so this is really quite a first for me! Since the papers themselves are so gorgeous, I had to leave them as they are and build up smaller layers, so my tutorial focused more on playing with the chipboards. 

More close-ups:

I decided to add Liquid Pearls to my Gingerbread House after the video was made. 

Views of the inner pages:

And more close-ups:

And finally... here's the video. Have fun watching!

That's all I have for today. Happy crafting!

Jelissa

Sweet Baby with Maja Design

Hello friends!

I'm finally able to share a layout I made of my little girl - it took awhile to get those photos printed! I was very tempted to use the Vintage Baby collection, but thought I would have a bit of fun with a collection that's not baby-based.

Here is the page, made with the gorgeous pinks from Summer Crush:

I choose this particular sheet "Off to meet him" as the background color matches my photo's perfectly. I also liked how Marie has drawn the images such that my photo and clusters can be placed in the centre without being too cliche or flat. My background is very simple painting with pink and brown, and I had added my stenciled lace after the painting so that I get a nice contrast of white against the colors. Usually my stenciled designs get lost in the colors I add so this is one way of letting them stand out.

Some close-ups:

My layers of papers, made from scraps from the same collection. I also have a piece of chipboard which I tucked in between and colored with various dimensional and distress paints.

My floral cluster to make it more feminine. Underneath is a spare die cut leaf which I had from a previous project made with Enjoying Outdoors.

And my title which I had colored with gelato and watercolor pencil to match that of the ladies in the corner.

And that's all I have for today. Thanks for dropping by the blog!

love,

Hope with 13@rts

Hello friends! How has your weekend been? 

We've had a fabulous one, traveling across the Causeway and into Legoland Malaysia with a few of our church friends. Both husband and I are not very comfortable with driving in - because of the jam at the immigration (which we had spent up to 3 hrs in when we used to travel in for our weekend dive trips) and also because Johor isn't as safe as it used to be. So with 2 pre-schoolers and an infant in tow, you can imagine how reluctant we are. So when friends told us that they were planning a trip, we jumped in immediately because there's safety in numbers, and we could do with some lovely company. In any case, it was a wonderful and successful trip - the boys (from age 3 to 13) had so much fun playing together and the adults had a nice break away from the office. I'm still kinda glued to the baby though, and have sort of resigned to the fate of a walking milk dispenser.

And today, I'm up on the 13@rts blog with a Christmassy creation. It's only about 1 month away and I'm really looking forward to all the festivities, merry-making and getting together with friends. I'm not much for green and red and gold, but this card was so much fun to make.

I used very simple supplies for this card as I wanted a minimalist sort of look with plenty of white space. To create some texture with a white-on-white effect, I spread modeling paste over one of the new Christmas stencils and sprinkled distress glitter on top while wet. I also die cut and embossed a white snowflake from cardstock paper.

Some close-ups:

I rested my white cardstock background on a sheet from Olga's Winter Tales collection. Love the wood grain design because it conveys such a cosy feeling of evenings by the fire in a tidy little cabin. I had also cut out tags from the collection and layered with a gold leaf and a chipboard from Blue Fern Studios, colored with Woodbine glitter paint. The flower was painted with green glitter paint and I sprinkled some of the gold microspheres inside. The title "Hope" is what I'm praying for this season - that hope will overcome all the evils of this world.

I dripped some Green glitter paint down the top. Wasn't sure what effect I was trying to achieve as snowfall on roof is not green, but it looked good all the same!

And that's all I have for today. Have a great week ahead!

love,

Blue Fern Studios DT 2016!

Hello friends!

Just dropping in for a quick shout out before we depart for our short family weekend trip (with a few other families too). I'm back on the team for Blue Fern Studios for 2016! 

Joining me are these fabulous new designers, some of whom I'm already team-mates with:

Bec Genet - Australia

Cathi O’Neill - Ireland

Elena Volchkova- Ukraine

Karine Gagnon - Canada

Karolina Czajkowska - Poland

Maiko  Kosugi - Japan

Maja Nowak - Poland

Marie-Eve Bernard - Canada

Nicole Dorion - Canada

Pascale Bernard - France

Renea Harrison - United States

And returning artists:

Debbie Burns - United States

Keren Tamir - Canada

Marilyn Rivera - United States- Video Educator

Sandi Clarkson - United States

Wilma Voermans  - Switzerland

Yuko Tanaka - Japan

I'm looking forward to a great new year ahead with fabulous products to show you. Stay tuned!

November inspiration with Made With Love

Hello friends!

I'm glad to be sharing my latest creation for Made With Love after a short break. Today I have a layout for you, made using papers from Blue Fern Studios and Kaisercraft.

This is definitely not my usual color combination, but I love how my DT co-ordinator Aida put together this kit. She must have known what was in my mind and I love it that she's constantly challenging me. This layout is simple enough for most of you with little or no experience with mixed media to put together. The background was simply gesso, followed by stenciling with modeling paste, and coloring over with Distress Stain (Seedless Preserves) and Art Anthology Sorbet paint (Imperial). I watered down the distress stain and used the sorbet paint to add both dimension and texture, as well as the darker gradations in tone for a more varied look.

Some close-ups:

Title snipped from Kaisercraft's Provincial collection, and the typewriter is fussy-cut from Blue Fern Studio's Autumn Anthology collection. I layered those little tags from Kaisercraft as well just to fill out the space.

Tucked behind my layers is a Prima Marketing Paintables. These are thick watercolor paper sheets with designs printed on them and you can color them with your favourite inks - I used watercolor pencils on mine and painted them with water. You can use mists as well or other kinds of transparent pigments.

A die-cut rose montage from Heidi Swapp. It came in plain white so I colored it with Aloha Velvet paint from Art Anthology. Layered undernearth are plain white flowers which I colored with Imperial and Amber sorbet paints.

So that's all I have for today. Hope you like what I've shared.

Supplies used (available from Made With Love):

Art Anthology paints
Blue Fern Studios papers (Autumn Anthology)
Kaisercraft papers (Provincial)

Heidi Swapp die cuts
Prima Marketing Paintables

Vintage Summer card with Maja Desi

Hello friends!

 I'm back on the Maja Design blog again today with a simple card to share with you. Don't be surprised, even in a small simple card there are design principles you can follow to make your card visually more pleasing to the eye.

When layering my papers, I like to alternate between a neutral shade like grey, off-white or beige and what I like to call a "character color". Basically, it's the color that sets the theme and feel of the project and gives it its "character". In the case of this card, my "character color" is the soft purple with tinges of pink and it has given the card a romantic and feminine hue as it is going out to a very special lady. So following this guide, I alternated off-white with purple, and on the purple itself, varying between intricate designs like paisley swirls and simpler mini fleur di lis. The contrast between these elements lends a lot of dimension and pleasure to our eyes.

Some close-ups:

I stamped on my sentiment on a solid purple background and juxtaposed it next to the banner with more off-white so that it's obvious it's the message I want to send to my recipient. The banners were arranged to form an inverted triangle with the floral cluster, so that gives the visual flow of the card.

A little bit of the background mediums work: stenciling, painting and some stamping. I used a lace border stencil for a more feminine touch, and a little splash of blue just to create a color accent. I also placed the cut-out from the info strip diagonally across my sentiment for a smooth visual flow as that is the direction our eyes would follow when reading from one line to the next. My chipboard from Blue Fern Studios was altered with simple heat embossing using one of the fabulous EP.

Well I hope these guidelines are useful for you when thinking about creating your next project. Until then, happy crafting!