Celebrate 30 by Lauren Tomecek

#couturecreationsaus

Welcome back fellow scrap-addicts! I've got a bit of an artsy layout to share with you today, celebrating my recent 30th birthday. Hope you like it.

1/ Start off by die-cutting all the pieces you will need. To create the frame I cut four of the Light Box Frames from the same colour Core'dinations cardstock. Because this is a fiddly piece I found it easier to remove if I used to quick release paper between the die and my cardstock. I also cut one Moulin Rouge piece from vellum, again using the quick release paper. Make sure you keep the quick release paper die-cut too. Lastly, I cut two lots of the Roman Set from Core'dinations cardstock and covered these in crackle medium.

2/ Cut off the bottom section of each Light Box Frame, so the frame becomes square. Trim your photo to fit inside the four frames (I think this was 3 3/4" x 3 1/2" from memory). Tape the frames to the corners of your photo to create a single decorative frame.

3/ I had a beautiful piece of watercolour printed paper which matched my colour scheme perfectly, however I wanted to add a soft purple border to the page. I grabbed some ink pads and sponge daubers and set to work to create the effect you can see below. I found it works best if you move the dauber gently and lightly around the edges in a circular motion, rather than up and down like a stamp.

4/ Get messy with your background. I used some Gelatos and blended them into the background with water (hence the very warped background paper), then sprayed white mist through a mask, before adding the silver paint circles and teal paint splatters.

5/ Paint your chipboard pieces. I have used two lovely designs from Imaginarium Designs and painted both of them with metallic silver paint.

6/ The next step is just to assemble all your embellishments. I adhered my two Moulin Rouge die-cuts first, with the quick release paper version at the top left of the frame and the vellum version at the bottom right. Be careful what medium you use to stick these to your page, I used spray adhesive and it caused both die-cuts to blend into the background quite a bit. From there, I added the washi tape, punchinella, ribbon and twine. Once I had this basic design sorted I placed my photo frame using some foam tape to lift it from the page. Then just build up your flowers and place the Roman Set die-cuts, chipboard, brads and sequins.

7/ Finish off your title using letter stickers. Create some strip journaling and edge that in a light coloured ink to blend it into the background a bit more.