'Blossom and Shine' By Elisa Ablett

Hi Everyone,

Elisa here from the design team with my latest layout based on this month's 

Metals and Petals challenge. 

The Challenge details and album can be found in the Scrap Matrix Shares Group  on Facebook, join today for inspiration and keep up to date with the new products coming into the store!

I utilised the gorgeous papers from the 7Dots Studio Garden Party collection again for this challenge and the gorgeous Berry Jane Davenport Inkcredible Ink.

I also tried my hand at sewing on my layout!!!

Products from Scrap Matrix Store :-

    

http://scrapmatrix.com/6x6-13-arts-his-hers-memories/

http://scrapmatrix.com/ecutcheons-1-white/

http://scrapmatrix.com/eclectica-ets21/

http://scrapmatrix.com/just-unpacked/paper-ranges/

http://scrapmatrix.com/ayeeda-splash-inks/

http://scrapmatrix.com/distress-oxides/

http://scrapmatrix.com/prima-mechanicals-grungy-butterflies/

Here are some close ups of the finer details.

Cover your metal butterflies in gesso, then splatter ink over the top and let dry. If you have a sewing machine or like hand sewing, add grungy sewing and threads to your layout by sewing your German Scrap Medallions onto tags and then glue to your layout.

Spritz water into small puddles onto your page and then drop ink into the puddles and let the ink spread causing crystallisation around the edges. 

Let dry and then stamp over the top to create grungy flowers. 

Snip your quotes into smaller pieces to fit with your design!

Use a distress tool to smooth ink through stencils over the whiter areas of your layout. I used a couple of colours from the Distress Oxide Range including Bundled Sage and Black Soot.

That's it from me today, make sure you leave me some love in the comments and I hope to see you soon over on the Scrap Matrix Shares Page!

Elisa xx

Colouring Petals and Mixing with Metals by Monique

Hi everyone, welcome to our Scrap Matrix Blog!
Monique here sharing my latest layout - created for the Scrap Matrix "Metals and Petals" challenge.

I had loads of fun with this layout - using some beautiful Stamperia Paper and colouring flowers with some Prima Paints.....

This is what I created:

This is how I created my background:

First, I mixed some Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Paints in Green Patina with some texture paste, and applied it to my layout using one of my favourite 13 Arts Stencils. 

Next, I mixed some more Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Paint, this time in Mudsplat, with some more texture paste, and applied it using my Carabelle Studio A4 Stencil called Calligraphic Composition.

Can I just say I loved the way the Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Paint mixed with my texture paste?  Wow - such solid colour!

Next, I broke out one of my new Paper Artsy stamps and stamped on some more yummy texture using a dark brown archival ink.

There we have the background!

Next, I simply cut out some tags, and a photo mat from the gorgeous Stamperia "Clockworks" paper, and layered them under my photo.  I added some string to some tags for extra texture, and also cut out some clock images from another piece of paper in the range to add to the paper layers.  Stamperia paper is so good for this - it has such beautiful images and is so beautifully layered with images that you can have so much fun fussy cutting out divine embellishments.

I wanted to add a few flowers - no, I really don't have much of a problem adding flowers to my boy layouts, especially ones with a steampunk feel!  Anyway, I got out some Petaloo Mini Paintables  and my Prima Metallic Accents Watercolour set and painted them in a lovely teal colour to pick up the colours in my background.

I then started to put everything together.  I picked out some chipboard cogs from the Blue Fern Studios Cogs and Gears set, and painted them in Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Paint in Mudsplat and gathered together my metals - including some Prima Mechanicals Rustic Washers and Steam Punk Gears.  

When I was putting everything together, I was having trouble deciding where to place my flowers, so I took photos of what I was trying to make my mind up about, and compered them side by side.

I quickly decided I preferred the bottom photo.  The main reason for this is the pop of teal/mint forms a visual triangle around the photo, which then draws the eye to the photo - the main focus of my page.  In the top photo, the visual triangle draws the eye down into white space, and the eye is left floundering, wondering what to look at.  This is a very useful technique when you are deciding on your placement of embellishments.

Again, here is my layout once I was satisfied with the placement of all my embellishments:

Here is a full list of the products available in the Scrap Matrix Shop

Carabelle Studio A4 Stencil - Calligraphic Composition

Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Paint

Prima Mechanicals Steam Punk Gears

Prima Mechanicals Rustic Washers

Petaloo Mini Paintables - White

Prima Metallic Accents Semi-Watercolour Set

Well that's all from me today, I hope I have given you some inspiration.  You still have plenty of time to enter the "Petals and Metals" challenge.  When you are finished, simply upload a picture of your creation to the "Petals and Metals" folder on our Scrap Matrix Shares page.  I  must say I am absolutely loving all the gorgeous creations I am seeing so far - so keep them coming in Scrap Matrix fans!