“Friends”- A Seaside themed altered Layout

Hello everyone!

People who know me may need to brace themselves at this point……I made a scrapbook layout!! Yes, I know I’m not a scrapper, and no, I don’t plan on starting now……… However, I recently took an online class in altered layouts from the fabulously talented Stacey Young. All the techniques and tricks can be translated into any kind of altered art, but I wanted to showcase lots at once……which means a large base…which then turned into a 12×12 layout!!

I called it “Friends”…

I’m not going to show a detailed step by step for a couple of reasons.  Mainly, these are techniques taught by Stacey, so its not my place to rip off her tutorials by reproducing them here! Also, there would be so many pictures its silly…………….

What I will do is show you some closeups and explain what I did….

The scrapbook paper base is a sheet from the Postale collection by 7 Gypsies . This paper is brilliant for this sort of thing, as there are not too many pictures or images to detract from the main ‘business’ going on, but there are still fab elements that show through the inks etc. This can be seen to nice effect here…

The lines and alphabet add a really nice detail.

I started off by scraping gesso through a harlequin stencil, then splatting and spraying inks over the whole sheet. Once dried, I tore the paper and rolled it back on both sides, to create a little niche on either side…

(I will show you a teeny tutorial on exactly how to achieve this rolled back effect on the blog tomorrow….so remember to check back!)

Once the rolled back bits are secure, its simply a case of what I call ‘kitchen sink crafting’……. glueing lots and lots and lots of ‘stuff’ to the background!

I’ve used shells, fishing net and fishermans rope …..

Along with hessian and twine. I’ve also used lace :

And German Scrap…

Once everything was glued securely, I covered the lot with Gesso, and here and there with texture paste and bead gel. Once that was dry, its time to start in with colour…..I used lime and turquoise spray inks, then added a little gold here and there.

As I have said, I don’t scrap, so for my central image I’ve used a picture from the Trousseau collection. This has been added to multiple layers of sinamay, cardstock and more hessian….

Each layer has been distressed, torn, gesso-ed and coloured…..

The finishing touch is the metal heart. Again, gesso-ed and coloured, with a twine bow and a word added….

So…..an altered layout with a seaside sort of theme! The same kind of thing can be done with flowers, or metal charms etc for a more steampunk look. It doesn’t matter at all the initial colours, as everything gets altered you choose the final shades!!

Hope you like it…. and remember to check in tomorrow for part two, how to create the rolled back niches!

Love Trish xxxxxxx

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