"Loving Life" Scrapbook layout + process video by Louise

Hi Crafters

Louise on the blog today.
Here to share my inspiration for the November moodboard.

 "Loving Life"

This month we'd like to inspire you with this "Boho" themed moodboard.

Straight up ... this was really hard for me!
I'm definitely not a fan of the boho trend and I'm more a brights/bold kind of person.

So I did a little googling of "boho" and discovered arrows, florals and feathers.
Next I looked for a photo and decided this would be a good opportunity to scrap a picture of myself.

Finally I've gotten into my stash and put together this page.
You can see it here in this video ...

Thanks for watching and can't wait to see your creations.

Happy Scrapping.

Watercolour technique with Joan

Joan here today sharing a "Watercolor Technique".

For this watercolor technique I started my using a wash of orange watercolor in the upper right hand corner and on the left side of the page.  I just used a set of Crayola watercolors, you know the kind you buy for kids.

I wanted to create some texture so while the watercolor was still wet I used a piece of plastic wrap and scrunched it on top of the watercolor areas.  This was the hard part.  First fighting with the plastic wrap and second letting it set while it dried completely.

This is the result of the plastic wrap over the watercolor.  I love the added texture.

Next I used a stencil and applied some Super Heavy Gesso randomly on the page.

I'm not very patient so I used a heat gun to speed up the drying time. 

For my creative process I went through my stash and pulled any items that I thought might work for this page.  Through the process of elimination I finally decide what papers and embellishments I was going to use.

After putting the page together I decided it was missing something so I found the perfect ink and did some stamping around the edges.

Not quite satisfied with the page I added some mist and gathered some flowers ... just in case.

Adding the flowers to this page was the finishing touch that it needed.

Thanks for visiting.

We hope you'll get a chance to play along with our challenge this month.

Joan

Watercolours on a Layout tutorial with Lisa

Hello scrappy friends!
Lisa here today to share my first tutorial with you! I use watercolors on layouts quite often and thought I would share how I created my background on this layout:

Here are the steps to create this page:

1. Pick out the base of your layout. I used a sketch from Stuck!?

2. Pick out your papers, photos and embellies that will match both the photos and papers.

3. Gather your watercolors, a piece of plastic packaging, water and white cardstock:

4. Lay the photos, papers and frames on your white background and using a pencil, lightly mark where they will go:

5. I grabbed my watercolors and went to work. I decided to use the colors teal and orange on this page. I started with the color teal. Add water to the paintbrush and get teal watercolor on it. Apply this to the plastic packaging:

6. Turn it over and lay on your cardstock where you want the color and smoosh (rub) it around. Continue to do this until you are happy with the results. If you want a bigger area of color, smoosh the splotches of watercolor. For smaller areas, don't smoosh. 

7. Take a folded up paper towel and soak up the excess paint. Doing this will also lighten up the color:

8. Once dry- it dries pretty fast if you use the paper towel, start with the second color and do the same as above:

9. Dry with paper towel:

10. Lay the photos, papers and frames back on and see what you think:

11. I wasn't quite happy so I added some pink spatters to it:

Once it was dry, I proceeded to finish my layout.

Here are some close ups:

I layered some embellies using glue and foam tape to add some dimension:

I backed my frames with patterned papers:

A few more fun embellies and my title. I also added some black mist spatters:

If you have watercolors in your stash, dig them out and use them! If not, you can do this technique using mists, Gelatos or even acrylic paint watered down.

I hope I have inspired you in some way!

Happy Scrappin'!
Lisa

Water Colour Wash with Peg

Hi All

Peg here with a simple and effective water colour technique for making beautiful backgrounds. This is my page for the April challenge, I have covered up most of the journalling with my watermarks due to its personal nature.

So I started with a heavy weight cardstock (Bazzill Marshmallow) made for mixed media work since this is a very wet technique. I misted all over liberally with water and then dropped Tim Holtz Distress re-inker colours in yellows and blues diagonally across the page. Where it wasn't spreading enough I added more water. Then I dried my page thoroughly. I used a red re-inker with lots of water on my mat and the pressed the corners of my dry page into it. This step was done and dried very quickly to prevent, as much as possible, the re-activation of the cool colours and a mixing into brown. 

The journalling is the feature here so I created a wavy block in Photoshop and filled it with my story, leaving an area for the photo mat to overlap.

After matting my photo to look like a Polaroid, I added a small cluster to the white space at the bottom.

Some Glitz Designs decorative tape, stamps, and black stencilled butterflies finished the whole thing off.

It's a really easy technique, one to play with over and over again. I hope you have some fun with it and join us in our April water colour challenge.

Thanks for coming by

DIY background easy watercolor by Tamy

   DIY background easy watercolor by Scrapbook by Tamy.

Hi Off the Rails Scrapbooking readers! Here is Tamy, all the way from Brazil :) 

 I am here today to share something cool, pretty and easy with you.

You will need:

-Paint

-Water

-Plastic with a smooth surface

-Plastic or paper straw

-And a lot of breath to blow out lol

Get the ink and put a small amount on the plastic, splash some drops of water and mix until the paint is diluted and is looking nice and smooth.

Then splash this mixture on your page, in the places where you want the effect .With the straw, blow over the paint till it slide on the paper giving a stained effect , you can also make moves in zig -zag with the straw to create new shapes with the paint and the result will be more interesting.

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Please feel free to watch the video. It will be easier to understand.

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♥If you like it, please leave a comment ♥

God bless you

♥ Find me ♥
Tamires Giroto
XOXOXOXOXO

 Youtube <--> Blog <--> Fanpage <--> Instagram 

Watercolor Fairies with Carot

Hi, Carol here today sharing some projects that I have done.

"Watercolor Fairies"

I used watercolor wet on wet technique to create these backgrounds. And sprinkled some white inks on them. Love the mystical sky.

After creating the backgound sky, I painted the ground with black watercolor paint and added the grass.

Painted the chipboard title black.

Stamped this fairy with black ink and added glitter to the wings.

Diecut this fairy and added some glitter on the dots.

For these 2 smaller pieces, I diecut a fairy silhouette frame and pop up with foam tape. One of the fairy's wings didn't get cut out properly so i added glitter to those area. So even if you made a mistake in the diecut, you can improvise and make into something different. Now I like this "spoilt" one even more than the other. I made these 2 to be wall decor pieces. You can also adhere to a card.

Hope you enjoy my sharing. Have fun crafting. And do join us in our April watercolor themed moodboard challenge.

Thanks for dropping by.

Watercolour Effects on your Background with Mandy

Hi there!

It's Mandy with you today and I am so excited to be sharing my first tutorial here at Off the Rails Scrapbooking!

When it comes to using mixed media on your layouts, do you find it all a bit daunting and scary? I only dabble in mixed media, but I absolutely adore the beautiful watercolour backgrounds that talented scrappers such as Missy Whidden and Adele Toomey create. I wanted to show you how easy it is to create a watercolour effect on your background even for those who are new to mixed media!

I created this layout for the current 'Romance' mood board at Off the Rails...

I'm going to take you through my process for creating this layout.

What you'll need

Obviously you'll choose whatever papers and embellishments you like, but this is what I used to create my layout.

Step 1

Using a credit card or a similar type of card, start by covering your white cardstock with gesso. I used clear gesso, but you could also use white. Just swipe it over your cardstock until it is all covered (or at least the area where you want to apply the wet media). Then wait for it to dry, or use a heat gun if you want to dry it more quickly.

Step 2

Stamp your chosen colour of distress ink onto some plastic packaging a few times, then add a couple of sprays of water. I also sprayed some water onto my cardstock. Next, simply "smoosh"/smear the plastic packaging around on your cardstock. You might need to repeat this process a couple of times until you have covered the area that wish to cover. It's as easy as that, nothing difficult or technical involved!

Step 3

To add some further interest and contrast to the background I did some stamping with black ink. I stamped three plus signs to create a visual triangle on my page, but you could use any stamp you like, and you could add more stamping than this if you wish.

Step 4

Next, add a 10cm strip of patterned paper down the left hand side of your layout with another thin strip of patterned paper tucked under the edge (you could also use washi tape).

Step 5

Matt your photo, then adhere it to your layout overlapping it onto the strip of patterned paper. Next to the photo I've added a piece from one of the cut-apart sheets of patterned paper. Alternatively you could add a tag or a PL card. Underneath this I also added a strip of black lace washi tape.

Step 6

Next add your title to the page. I also added a subtitle underneath my photo as I liked that this balanced out the title at the top, as well as adding another gold element to the page. I mounted up the word 'together' with some foam tape to create some extra dimension.

Step 7

Next I added a pip berry stem over my photo to draw the viewers focus in. You could also make a circle out of twine or wire. I think that this is a nice way to frame the main subject of the photo. Because I had hot pink and white roses in my wedding bouquet, I also included a paper rose in each of these two colours on my page!

Step 8

Then it's time to add some more embellishments to your layout!

I finished my layout off by adding some glitter chipboard hearts and some gold Color Shine ink splatters.

Here's another look at my completed layout...

Here's a reminder of this month's 'Romance' mood board...

I hope that you get a chance to play along with one of our mood boards this month! Our sponsors for February are Candy Chelepy and Memory Maze.

Thanks so much for stopping by, I hope that you found my tutorial useful and enjoyed looking at my layout!

Mandy

My Happy Place