Making Roses with Translucent Vellum!

Hi there!  A couple weeks back I shared with you my projects made with the ScrapThat! May Anniversary kit and I mentioned that I would be sharing a little tutorial with you all, a little step by step on how I made these vellum roses (pictured above) with the sheet of translucent vellum in the May ScrapThat! kit!  I always love to find unique items to work with in a kit and when I saw the sheet of vellum, I knew I had to make something fun with it!

 

Step 1:  I began by cutting out a small section of the vellum and running it through my Quickutz Revolution machine using the Spellbinders "Spiral Blossom #1" die cut. 

 

This is what the cut vellum will look like when you pull it out of the die (above)

Step 2:   I took a little make-up sponge and dabbed some Tim Holtz "Victorian Velvet" Distress Ink on the petals (you can use any color ink you like, I just used an aged pink color to suit my layout).  I just worked the ink from the flat edge up.....you want it to fade out slightly, it doesn't have to be a perfect fade, when it use rolled up the effect will be just fine.

Step 3:  Finally the last thing you should do before rolling it all up is to lightly curl the tips of the petals with your finger tips, the vellum will hold the shape.  Now you just begin rolling up the whole thing working from the outside of the spiral in.   See, the sort of rounded center of the spiral?  This is your base for the flower.  I just gave this a good coating of Tombow liquid adhesive.  This stuff is great!  You just wait for it to turn clear (it starts out white)....when it's clear, it has a nice strong tackiness.  So when you roll up your bloom just press the whole design down onto the glue patch at the end.  Hold it for about a minute to insure a good hold.    You may need to crinkle the sections between the petals to get a nice shape to your bloom, I ended up with a little pleat in between each petal.   Now just add the leaves in the kit and decorate with some of the sweet little pearl swirls and  you have yourself a great little embellishment!

 

Here are the blooms on the finished layout...

 



Mixed Media Canvas (With a Video Tutorial!!)

I've really enjoyed dabbling with mixed media designs lately and although I've done some mixed media designs on my scrap pages I thought it was time to try out a mixed media canvas! And I'm so excited to share with you the step by step video I prepared to share with you how I put this project together!!  I've been reading books on mixed media, exploring different techniques and one that I just have to give a try was this couture figure mixed media design.  I was at Chapters over the weekend and had picked up a book called Collage Couture by Julie Nutting, so I would say this is where I drew much of my inspiration for this canvas design I made up here.  For this mixed media piece I used a whole lotta Websters Pages In Love collection papers and some Dusty Attic Chipboard as well.

I first began by sketching out a figure on some paper and then sketched out a dress design.  Below is a picture of the sketch I made... 

I then layed a piece of white paper over my sketch and began drawing out the individual pieces that would make up my couture figure.  Below is my template for the figure..... 

I know that sketching doesn't come easy to everyone so if you are not up for drawing out your own figure, you are welcome to print off the above template to make up your own couture figure.  If you right click on the picture above and 'Save Picture As' to your computer, you can print out the template and cut out the shapes to make your own couture canvas.  Just print it out on an 8.5 x 11 inch piece of paper, cut out and then trace the pieces on the patterned paper of your choice.  ....Here are some close-up photos of my finished layout (You can watch a video below and see how I put the whole canvas together).... 

The quote I used for this one I thought was fitting because of the playful movement of the figure I drew up, I found the quote on Pinterest.....it says....

"There was something in her movements that made you think

that she never walked but....

Always danced"

So, grab yourself a cup of coffee and enjoy a little video I put together showing a step by step on how I put this mixed media canvas together, I hope you enjoy it!

Mixed Media Canvas with Gabrielle Pollacco from Gabrielle Pollacco on Vimeo.

I'd like to take a moment to thank all the kind people who leave their sweet comments here at my blog, I read them all and really appreciate them....sometimes the comments are annonymous or they don't link back to your blogs so I can't always respond,  but I'd like to say how much your comments mean to me, thank-you!

I'm making a  series of these canvas's as wall decor for my scraproom (I've got another one to share with you all tomorrow!)  Hope you'll come back for a peek! xx