'A Beautiful Mess' by Elisa Ablett

Hi everyone,

Welcome to the Scrap Matrix Blog!

I am so excited to present my first share on the blog as part of the awesome design team for Scrap Matrix. I am featuring a layout I created for the September Moodboard challenge which is all about sharing your 'craft space', this is a fantastic challenge as you can interpret this in many ways, show us where you create, your storage ideas, the mess you make ... anything really to do with your 'creative space'.

We would love for you all to participate - head on over to the Scrap Matrix Shares facebook page, join the group and enter your layout into the album to be in with a chance to win a voucher to the store. Scrap Matrix Shares Facebook Group

The store is an absolute treasure trove of scrapbooking and mixed media products, including wonderful paper ranges including Blue Fern Studios paper, stamps, stencils and 13arts products.

and here is the layout I created for the design team reveal!

I wanted to showcase my craft room after a mad creating session - a beautiful mess! plus i wanted to feature multiple photos on the page, including a few of my favourite storage items, a small white storage rack that fits on my desk, my two trolleys from aldi that hold all my tools and mediums and an old wooden work bench that i adjusted so that i can stand and scrap as well.

Being creative is like therapy for me so this page represents my 'happy place' along with the things i like most about creating in my space...

I wanted to share with you a few of the techniques and products that I used to create the bright mixed media layout.

First of all, an overview of some of the wonderful products that I used to create my layout that can be found at Scrap Matrix - Blue Fern Studio 'Happy Accident' paper collection, Blue Fern Studio chipboard pieces, 13arts paint, 13arts stickers, Scrap Matrix Metal Filigrees, Flowers and Paper lace trim, Twine, Dina Wakely heavy body paint.

To begin my background I had to prep a the metal pieces and my chipboard with gesso and let them dry. I painted my chipboard title black once dry.

Once my paintbrush chipboard had been prepped with gesso and dried. I painted the handles to resemble wood with a lovely bronze sparkle paint from 13arts and then I used the Dina Wakley paint to paint the tips to go with my background.

I used one of my favourite paper collections from Blue Fern Studios - Happy Accident, I trimmed the bottom strips off and cut a few coordinating pieces from the second sheet of paper to go under my photos.

To achieve the background technique, I first added paint blobs on my craft mat and then sprayed them liberally with water (the Dina Wakely paint waters down nicely), I then placed my paper upside down on the craft mat and blotted my paper onto the watered down paint.

Next step is to add some lovely splatters to your page!

To add splatters, I love to use a fan brush, I added a lovely blob of 'Ocean' Dina Wakely paint on my craft mat then added water, mix with your brush and then tap your brush over your page where you want the splatters to go.

The two colours of Dina Wakely paint that I used are Ocean and Fuchsia.

To colour your metal pieces, I decided on using the bronze paint on the outside and the Ocean paint on the inside of the flowers. Let dry thoroughly and then add a coat of protective sealant over the top. Glossy accents, or spray sealant.

Add your paper lace trim to the outside edges of your layout and then add some stamping to your page - I used a lovely set of stamps available in store today by Paper Artsy - E3 by Tracey Scott 11

Next add some texture to your background by using a gorgeous 13 arts 6x6 Stencil- Her Style and black modelling or heavy gesso and a palette knife.

Last step before you assemble your page is to add some lovely gold accents and messy script writing with the Gold Pico Embellisher and place some 13arts stickers over your layout to coordinate with your theme for example... i used 'practice art everyday' and 'creative mess' 

Here are some close ups!

and here is the finished layout again after assembling all your pieces.

Well that's it from me today, thank you so much for popping by the blog to see my layout and the techniques used to create it.

If you want to see more of my work here is my blog link - http://2crazycrafters.blogspot.com.au/

Head on over and follow me and keep up to date on my work.

Also please head over to join the wonderful new group on facebook called Scrap Matrix Shares, this is where you can enter your project for the challenges and view more of the design team work and SHARE your work with us!!

Hugs xx

Elisa