Created by Gwen Blog - Page 46 of 108 - CUT to YOU (Created By Gwen)

"Chasing Scrappy Dreams" for Colour Blast

Hi, creative friends!!

Super excited to share my very first project as part of the Colour Blast team. I feel super blessed to have been invited to share my love of these stunning products with you over the next year!

I am so looking forward to sharing my “clean mixed media” style with you – proving you don’t have to get your hands dirty or product all over your page to do mixed media!!

Now onto my project!! For my first creation, I wanted to do a 12 x 12 layout working with the Colour Shimmer Cubes. I really wanted to do something very “me”, something shimmery and pretty and in my very favourite colour combo, pink green and gold.

To create my page I started with the packaging technique using the New Colour Shimmer Cubes. I chose Blush to start, so soft and OH SO shimmery. I put a generous amount of water into the cube and then once the colour was mixed, transferred it onto a piece of scrap plastic. I then ‘smooched’ it together and then across the centre of my page.

I love how you can control the depth of the colour by adding more water, the more translucent you would like it, the more water you need to add. I wanted it to be very soft so I have added quite a bit.

Once this was fully dry it was time for some paint splatters…

I have used Punch and Lipstick for this, I was going for tone on tone here and the 3 colours work together so well. (Yes, you definitely need ALL the pinks!!) To do this, I added water and simply mixed with a paint brush. Then making sure I had plenty on my brush, gently flicked it onto my page. I find too that I prefer the look of the splatters done one colour at a time and dried off with a heat gun in between. This will stop the colours blending together.

To finish up the background, I wanted to add some Gold and Bling is the perfect shade. Using the same technique as above, I have used my paint brush to gently flick it onto my page. I then set the whole thing a side to dry completely.

and here is a close up of the finished background – I do love how this turned out!

Now was the time to gather my papers and other elements. I am crazy in love with the Maggie Holmes Chasing Dreams collection and I haven’t had much of a chance to play with it so this was heaps of fun!

I went with a pretty simple photo mat and some fussy cut pattern papers. I didn’t want anything too heavy that would weigh down all those delicate splatters! Working across my page, I also added my title and ephemera pieces.

I also wanted to add some sequins on top of some of the splatters in similar tones. To me, it’s like the sequins are 3D splatters and really help them pop!

You can see here just how pretty they are… and they are super shimmery in real life!!

and there you have it.. my first Colour Blast project – I really hope you like it and it inspires you to work with the new Colour Shimmer cubes, they really are beautiful.

I give this project a “mess level” of Low

(One piece of scrap plastic packaging, 1 paint brush and 1 cup of water)

Hands, nails and workspace remain totally colour free!

Thanks for popping by

Gwen

xox

"Turning Ten" for D-lish Scraps

Hi Creative friends,

I hope you are all well! Here today to share a fun birthday inspired page for D-lish scraps.

This one features Miss Caitlin on her 10th birthday which was in January of this year and I have yet to scrap a single photo!! We had a whole day of celebrations starting with some school friends at a local “Bounce Inc” trampoline play centre. This is a quick snap I took before we all got jumping, such fun!

I began this page by selecting out some key elements I know I wanted to use, such as the chipboard balloons and the cute yellow deer from the Resin Embellishments. I then decided to take the bright colours from these to make up the colour combo of my page. I wanted everything to be bright and happy for this one.

I started with a plain pale pink background so that the bright elements I added would really pop! First I began creating my photo mat, which consists of lots of layers of paper and a teal striped paper baggie. This one was a 5 x 7 bag, which I have simply trimmed to fit my photo mat.

Next, it was time to lock in the design of the layout, I started with my title as I knew it was going to be pretty large. That combined with the photo mat I had just made needed to be decided on before I went about adding the smaller details. I just laid everything out and shuffled until I was happy.

Next, it was time to get working on some embellishment clusters. I have positioned two wooden hearts to the left of my photo to start. I have used so many of these Wooden Hearts, they go with everything right?!# These have been painted with some Colour Blast Water Colour Shimmer cubes in “Sunshine”. I then created a larger cluster to the right of my photo and another one towards the top of the page. To decide these, I just tried to balance out the balloons, the title and my photo.

I’ve also used some Jewelled Cabochons – these are super cute and that pink/purple colour is divine! Once I was happy with the clusters, I added a few splattered drops of watered down white paint just to soften the harshness between that super clean pink background and the embellishments. Now was also a good time to add the final touch, some .

I’ll leave you with one more close up of all the paper layers and that cute little deer!

I’m sure you all have photos of birthday celebrations yet to scrap, so I hope this layout inspires you to pull them out.

Products used:

thanks for popping by today

Gwen

HAPPY YOU | HELLO LOVELY | GWEN WRUCK

Hi Creative friends,

Here for another Cocoa Vanilla Studios share featuring the beautiful Hello Lovely collection and a joyful picture of Miss 10 inside a Butterfly house on a recent family holiday. I was drawn to this collection for its beautiful flower and butterfly icons, both the perfect fit for my photo.

I began this page at a crop with a friend and as I started working, I really wasn’t feeling like the page was working. I don’t often scrap away from home and I think I had left my mojo behind! So, instead of pushing paper around the page for hours, I thought, why not spend the time chatting and adding some hand stitching to the delicate background paper?

I began by cutting out the floral/star design on the B side of the Delightful paper. I then poked holes around the outer edge and then all intersecting lines and stitched away. Yep, it took a while, but I am so in love with how it turned out.

Next, it was time to mat my photo, I was able to squeeze a photo mat out of the remaining piece of this paper and for softness added a layer of vellum from my stash. I have kept the photo mat layers to a minimum as I didn’t want to cover up or distract from all that hand stitching I had just spent hours doing!

To create my floral embellishment clusters, I’ve taken the Glimmer paper and fussy cut out the florals from the B side, I’ve chosen the smaller ones in the design and teamed them with elements from the Die cut Ephemera pack and Accessory Stickers sheet.

I’ve also combined a few things from other collections, like the Free Spirit Woodies and Love Always Wood Veneer, Bits and Pieces and Enamel Dots – sparkles. I just love how everything works so well together, even if they are different collections. This is a great way to use up bits and pieces.

I’ve worked around my photo creating a larger cluster on the left and a smaller one on the right, layering as I went being sure to pop up some elements on foam tape for dimension.

I love the mix of textures too, from the flat stickers to the wood elements to the metal butterflies, they all add interest to the design.

I’ve added my title at the bottom of the page and to coordinate with the wood elements in the clusters, I have used more wood veneer. These are a mixture of collections with the word “Happy” coming from the Love Always collection and the “you” coming from the Wood Veneer Words from the Colour Me Happy collection.

I am really happy with how it turned out especially considering I didn’t think this one was working at the start! Proof, you can make things work if you go with the flow a little and stay flexible in your design process.

Gwen

"Hello Handsome" for Dlish Scraps

Hi Creative Friends,

Here today to share another layout for D-lish scraps, this one featuring my Ferris Frank the cat. I rarely get a shot of him in the garden, so when I noticed he had a taken a moment to lie on the grass I snapped it up!!

This page started with a cut file the wonderful Katie Howard designed and shared on Facebook (thank you Katie xo) which featured all those stars running along the top edge of the page. I combined these with some vellum stars I had from a previous Just Add Paper kit to create a page about the other handsome boy in my life!

To start, I knew I wanted the cut file star shapes to run across the top part of the page so I would need to balance out the design by adding my photo and layers across the bottom of the page. I started with some layers of yellow and teal paper as my photo mat. Once my photo position was locked in, I could add my title. To do this I’ve used Corbett Creations wood words for the “Hello” sentiment and the puffy alphabet stickers for the “handsome”. I so so love these – Did you see they now come in lower case as well?

Next, I’ve used a large teal star from my stash and the vellum stars from a previous Just add Paper kit. I’ve positioned these so that they flow towards the top of the page. I also popped one inside of one of the larger cut file shapes, it was the perfect fit! I just love the kits Amanda puts together, every month there is something new and different!!

I’ve also used some wood stars which were also from a Just add Paper kit which I’ve also placed into the cut file shapes, scattered across the page. To keep with the wood theme, I’ve used some wood beads which you will find in the Clearance section; worth a look anytime you are shopping in the store. AND…it wouldn’t be a Gwen page without a bow, this time I’ve used a grey one, you’ll find some here.

I’ve combined these with some wood elements from Cocoa Vanilla Studios and a Charm Creations embellishment thrown in as well to round out my layout. All that was left to do to finish the layout was add some Enamel dots always a perfect finishing touch.

Products used:

Corbett Creations wood words

puffy alphabet stickers

thanks for popping by today

Gwen

XOX | LOVE ALWAYS + WILD AT HEART | GWEN WRUCK

Hi Creative Friends,

Back today with a very special share for Cocoa Vanilla Studios. This week we are focusing on journaling and whilst I’m not huge on journaling most of the time, I was super excited to create this layout documenting my return to Ballet. I grew up doing Ballet right up until the age of 20, but then life got busy, I was at uni, then met my hubby and had a family. Turning 40 last year was a time of reflection and as part of that, I decided I wanted to get back into my pointe shoes… and I’m currently on that journey.

I wanted a very linear design for this page and to keep the journaling my focus decided on a very simple and clean design that ran up and down the centre of the page. I also knew I wanted a very soft colour palette to match with the soft tones in my photo so the Love Always collection was the perfect fit. For my background, I’ve used the Twin Set paper – I just adore these pale pink and white stripes.

I also knew I wanted to go with the XO Colour Me Happy cut files as part of my title and cut them out quite large on my Silhouette. I mounted these onto the Luscious paper from the Wild At Heart collection, I love this ombre in the perfect shade of pink.

Next, I found the sentiment “This Makes me So Happy” on the Lovely Things paper which I really wanted to use, but it was only 4 inches across and didn’t fit with the design I had in mind… I then had a bit of a brainwave to cut it up! I trimmed along the grey underline of the text and then lined the four pieces up in a single row. I then stitched these to my page.

Next, it was time to mount my photo, I wanted to balance out the colours I’d used in the top title so I also used the Luscious paper here. I’ve also used the Class Act paper, another favourite in this collection of mine!

Now was the time for journalling. I HATE my handwriting so it had to be typed. I have a vintage typewriter which is quite slow to use, but beautiful, so I first drafted my journalling onto my computer. This allowed me to edit and make sure there were no spelling errors etc and gave me an idea of how much space it would take up on my page. I then simply copied this text out using the typewriter. I’ve used the B side of the Lovely Things paper for this and then trimmed out the lines using a guillotine ready to add to my page.

Now was the time to place everything, starting with the XOX at the top, followed by the larger sentiment and then my journalling. I then added my photo and saw there was a little space left at the bottom of the page; perfect for some smaller embellishments. I decided on a little row of 3 of the vellum butterflies from the Vellum Accents pack, so soft and pretty. I also wanted something subtle for the top centre of the page and I found this sweet heart shape on the Wild At Heart Chipboard Accent Sticker sheet which was a sweet little addition. Underneath I placed the vellum butterfly, also from the Vellum Accents pack with some sparkles from the Bits and Pieces pack. I thought these really helped balance out the design and fill some of the space without being too overwhelming.

To finish out the layout, I added tiny word sentiments from the Wild At Heart Accessory Stickers there are so many sweet words on this sheet, it is one of my most favourites!! Lucky last I added some enamel dots sparkles in silver which co-ordinate with the sparkles in the top embellishment cluster.

This page came together really quickly, in part due to the focus being on the journalling, but also because every element is centred and flowing down the page. I hope it inspires you to document something your passionate about and as always, would love to see you share you page in the Cocoa Vanilla Studio Community.

Gwen