Achieving that 'painterly' look 🖌

Over the years I've been through a few different phases with my scrapbooking style but one that I just seem to come back to over and over is that lovely painterly look - I just a dore the messy edges and uneven flow of watercolour pigments so I thught I would lean right into that this month and use stencils and watercolour pens to liven up my pages this month.

For this first layout I used the beautiful tile stencil from Scrapmatts to fill in the border around my page.

I still used ink with the stencil (I find it easier to cntrol than actual watercolour paint) but I made sure to load on some edges and leave them unfinished or messy on others... the effect is subtle but really works to give the finished product a nice 'pinterly' feel. 

For my chipboard pieces on this page I simply used  water colour pens that allowed me to layer over sections to make some parts darker than others - giving the pieces that 'flowing' look.

And of course I chose papers that already had some watercolor flowers all over them - 

I just adore this set from Stampin' Up!

I also scattered some of these little gems about the layout to finish off with some sentiment. 

For the next layout I used a set of setncils to create a soft layered background look.

This wonderfully versatile set of stencils gives you 3 different size tress to use in building up a background effect - perfect for this kind of project (and very handy to have around at Christmas time lol). 

I used different colour water based inks to layer in the trees - deliberately overlapping them so they woud have that 'see-through' watercolour look. Another thing I did afterwards was some small water splatters to give them a bit of an extra painterly look (although I think most of this effect eneded up under my photo lol - you can still see a couple of the water marks on the second photo below). 

 

Giving the page a torn border is another way to add a watercolour look to a layout as that uneven two-tone edge is very reminicent of watercolour edges. 

Now I know what you are thinking - why go so much effort to have watercolour elements and not just use watercolour? The truth is that real watercolour is MESSY and you need some serious skills to control the flow of colour and form when using a brush - but these tricks make the look too easy! 😉

I used a classic watercolour look background paper here so the foreground was easy to add some shiloete shapes to and for this layout that meant thse beauful reed and grass chipboards.. 

These guys I couldn't resist adding just because of my 'Love Birds' theme for this page...

And to finish off I used this mix of chipboard words to add a title. 

And thats it from me today - I hope you have a lot of fun experimenting with your own watercolour and painterly styles - if you have any other tips for aching a nice painterly look, please drop them in the comments section below - I'm always keen to add to my bag of tricks! 

Cheers, Kel xo

 

Magical Moments

Magic happens right!?

It does for me when I get a few good hours to sit down and get creative 💕

Watercolours, flowers, gold ink, bling, butterflies and unicorns are the inspirations for this months project.

 This layout of my daughter and myself probably looks better in real life with the light catching on all the Bling on the page. These Acrylic Craft Gems are just that bit more sparkly that traditional rhinestones - I think they bring a very pretty and whimsical look to projects.

My favourite technique for adding bling is to cluster the rhinestones in sets of three different sizes.

These simple quick titles are a must on almost all my layouts lately... this one was VERY simple.

 I coloured it with a black marker and hit it with a white pen to create shine lines...

 - it's an old trick but a good one!! 👍

Title - CT049

CB1239 Scrap Words 25

CB2009 - Page borders 08  &  CB1020 - Card Borders 03

.  

I jazzed these groovy chipboards up with some gold ink.

 . 

And for the background I used these stencils with watercolour paints to pull in the colours that you can see in my daughters outfit from the photo.

 

I also ran the watercolour paint through the leaves stencil over the edges of the page and then, 

using the same colours, added hearts to the background. 🧡

Hearts Stencil - ST9050 - A5

And thats my share for this month. 

I hope you are all going well and treating yourself to some crafty moments as well.

Cheers from Kel

 

I've Got Adventure in My Soul

I've Got Adventure in My Soul

Good morning beautiful followers. I hope you are all having a fantastic day.

Today I am sharing a layout with you that I completed yesterday. 

My apologies I only have the one but I have been away on holidays and then back to work, leaving little time to create.

I have decided to use the CSI Case File No 275 for this layout.

I was inspired by the desktop screen and the watercolour screen saver and the colours in the wall hangings.

I've Got Adventure in my Soul

To create this layout I have used the Blessed collection from Kaisercraft.

 I have used oxide inks and water to create the background, to give the watercolour effect.

To create the clusters, I used a combination of flowers, collectables, bling and chipboard from Scrapmatts

I am loving the new titles from Scrapmatts, one of which I have used for my title. 

To colour it, I used a gold sparkle wink of stella pen.

Here are the list of items used to create this layout.

CB1255

CB5177

Thanks for stopping by and please check out the Scrapmatts website

http://papertoleaustralia.com/

for all the NEW PRODUCTS. 

There are some great new titles suitable for all your scrapbooking needs.

You can find more of our designers and their projects on the facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/scrapmatts/

Why not play along with the CSI: Color , Stories and Inspiration challenge for this month where Scrapmatts are one of the wonderful sponsors. 

You can find them on facebook

https://www.facebook.com/CSIColorStoriesInspiration/

You can find more of my designs at

www.craftontherun.net

Til next month

xx