Good morning! Today is Sketch Sunday!

I have to admit, I typically have trouble making layouts with sketches. I tend to start out with good intentions, and by the end have strayed far from the original sketch. Such is the case with this layout, once again.

I went to Pagemaps and got my sketch, I save them on my computer and it’s nice to quickly scan through and find an image that works for the idea I had in my head.

I switched my layout around a bit, but stayed with some of the same elements. I picked a fall/halloween theme and decided to use the fabulous Hocus Pocus line on my layout. My photos weren’t the best, but they are a special memory I still wanted to scrap, so I changed them to black and white, put a dark edge and spotlight on my daughter in a photo program, and added them to handmade bracket strips.

One of the fun things I did with my layout, was to use this Spider’s Lair diecut paper, but to add a creepy fun effect, I burned the edges of the paper.

If you try this technique, you would want to do it with a lighter, in an open space ( outside is good!), without any wind! I simply took the flame and lightly burned just a small portion before blowing it out, then lighting another spot. When I was finished, I knocked off all the ashy bits, and wiped the edges of the back of the paper. After I added it to my layout, I lightly folded  the edges up to give the layout a little extra dimension.

I also inked my Canvas Scallop Border,  sprayed my Artisan Elements Alphabet with Walnut Gold Tattered Angels mist,  cut out the skeleton torso from paper and popped it up with foam tape, and added additional foam tape to my spider bracket sticker.

In every gallery on many online SB sites, we’ve seen the use of doilies in almost any projects you can think of. They’re sprouting everywhere and I’m one of those who absolutely love doilies! I believe you share the same sentiments as I am.

So, here I am today on Thursday Trend, I’d love to show you where you can find beautiful laced doilies in one of the new summer collections, the Parisian Anthology. So, could you guess which of the paper has lace doily motifs on them?

Yes, it’s none other than the Lovely Lace paper! When I first laid eyes on this paper, I knew I would have so much fun playing with it and I wanted to share with you what I did with the doily motifs on the Lovely Lace paper.

The first thing that I did on the paper was I blended some distress ink onto the doily motifs. I used 3 different types of colors on the motifs. Just slightly blend the ink onto the motifs and the paper absorbs the colors very well. When you distress the motifs, it will actually make the designs pop up. And the effect is really beautiful.

This is how it will look like when it’s done.

Next, I cut out each and every one of the distressed lace doily motifs.

Thereafter, I cut all of them into halves or one third, made them into banners and machine sewed them onto my layout.

And here’s my completed layout using my favorite Lovely Lace paper with lots of lace doily motifs!

Products used:

Parisian Anthology Collection

- Architectural paper

- Lovely Lace paper

- Parisian Elements paper

- Ruffled Darlings Ribbon Strips

- Clear Stamps

- Dangle Elements Smoke

- Tickets

I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s post and thank you so much for popping by again!

For today’s Wednesday Word, I chose texture. I love the Sweetness line and wanted to create some pretty, textural cards with it. I really wanted to focus on using this line with a white or off-white background like I did on these cards, because I think the rub ons and colors in this line look the best against white and cream! It also creates a very clean look. However, just using a plain white background might look a little boring, so adding some texture to the background is a perfect solution.

To create texture here, I have dry embossed the background with a Cuttlebug machine and a swirl template. I added the Sweetness rub ons right over top of the swirls! I popped up the ticket with pop dots to add more dimension, some twine and a brad.

On the second card, I added texture as well with a music embossing plate. I also added little pearls to the rub on hearts!

One tip to make your stickers go farther is cutting them in half and using them on the edge of your project like I did with the yellow journaling sticker.

Don’t be afraid to add rub ons right over an embossed surface! I hope you will give it a try.