Sunday 20 March 2016

Almost a Teenager - Layout By Elisa Ablett

Hi Craft Friends!
Elisa from the DT here with my latest blog post for Colour Blast, a masculine layout featuring Colour Blast Paste - Steel, Colour Blast - Steel Shimmer Spray, Colour Blast Embossing Powder - Steel, Colour Blast - Snow White Shimmer Spray which can be found in the Colour Blast Shop.

Now for those who like to scrap the boys/men in your life and family , you may agree with me that sometimes creating masculine pages can be a little difficult, so I thought I'd share with you a few of my favourite techniques and tips to creating a more masculine page. I am even going further by creating a 'teenage' masculine page which if you can pull off you would probably score 10/10!! as you all know you have to pin them down just to take a photo.
 In my layout I used a 'monochromatic colour scheme' using varying shades, tints and hues of the neutral colours of - black, steel grey, light grey to white. A monochromatic colour scheme can be as subtle or intense in colour as you like and can be used to compliment colours in your photos or tone down a busy photo (think of all those patterned shirts that our boys and men folk like to wear). In my photo below of my son he was wearing a new steel grey shirt and i thought immediately of the Colour Blast - Steel products to compliment it in a layout. 

To get started on my layout, I chose a more masculine patterned stencil, don't get me wrong i would probably use this stencil on any kind of layout but for keeping a page masculine I would recommend using papers, stencils and embellishments that have a more masculine feel like crosses, plaids, houndstooth, grunge, graffiti, arrows, chevrons etc. For the start of my background i used a palette knife to spread my lush buttery 'Steel' Colour Blast Paste through my stencil, I kept the edges a bit messy in keeping with my grungy theme.




Next step, after drying time of course, spray Colour Blast Steel shimmer spray over your texture paste, I also used a paint brush and popped the lid off the spray and used a heavy water colour paint. I also tapped my finger on the end of the paint brush to achieve some lovely splats and splashes on the edges of the Paste.




Once dry I sprayed Colour Blast Snow White Shimmer Spray in the middle of the page around where my photo and layering will sit. Some more drying time...then grab your favourite masculine stamps in this case I used a grungy background stamp and small star stamp and black ink and stamp away in the areas that you want to provide a little more depth. The Colour Blast Paste is amazing in this respect because once dry you can stamp over the top of it.




Next step, adding some depth and texture to a masculine page can be as easy as framing your photo using some chipboard and layering. Emboss your chipboard pieces in the coordinating Steel embossing powder and i used a dauber or you can just use your finger and daub black ink into the crevices on your frames.










A great way to add some text or journaling to a teenage masculine page, considering they don't like sharing information very much, is a list !! I asked my son to tell me a list of all his favourite things at the moment or things about himself and I thought what a great idea to use it to frame his photo, kind of like a billboard or chalkboard at a cafΓ©....what's on the menu today...so I used a piece of chalkboard cardstock and a white montana paint marker to make my chalkboard list.






Start assembling your layout.... I added black cotton under my layering to add a bit more texture and depth and grungy feel to my layout. Another great addition to any masculine layout I think.



I wanted to balance the layout so I hunted around in my 'discarded backgrounds pile' and found a black piece of cardstock that I had stencilled on with Colour Blast Snow White Texture Paste. Perfect! it coordinates and adds that extra shimmery layer.
Last but not least....you may have noticed my 'hand stitched' heart on a round plastic canvas shape, I started out hopeful of cross stitching but gave up half way through a little bit frustrated that my grand vision was not taking shape (I am not usually a needle point or embroidering person lol) so I did my own 'grungy stitching' a little bit of a cross between cross stitching and macramΓ© I think but I really like how it turned out.
Another great technique to use on a masculine or teenage page is to add a personal handmade embellishment.




Well that's it for me today, thanks for dropping by the Colour Blast blog, don't forget to leave a little love by leaving a comment or becoming a follower so you don't miss any of the design team's inspiring posts.


Elisa xx










2 comments:

  1. Wow this is awesome Elisa! Love it πŸ’›πŸ’›πŸ’›

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fantastic layout. Great tips 😊 😊 😊

    ReplyDelete