Merry Christmas Layout by Mel Connell.

Twas the night before Christmas.........

Hello again everyone. Firstly can I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. May it be full of family and friends, sparkle and cheer. 

I wanted to do a layout with a photo of my gorgeous Christmas Tree, using my very very favourite dies from this year. ( Of course they are christmas one, I'm not called Miss Christmas for nothing). 

I loved that the Vintage Rose Collection Paper range has some deep red prints, and with all the gorgeous green prints you are set for Christmas gorgeousness. 

I cut some Pine needles and Christmas Branch, Christmas border, holly branch flourish and the stunning 3D bow. This little bow set if fasting becoming my absolute favourite die set. 

I have gone a little sparkle crazy and heat embossed my pine branches and the holly flourish with glittery embossing powder, they just shine so beautifully. 

Layer up all your Die cut elements, add in a few paper flowers, sprinkle around some of the Couture Creations Gemstones, and hey presto. Super pretty, very Christmassy layout. 

Merry, Merry Christmas too you all. xxxx

Couture Creations Products Used:

CO723889 - Christmas Lace - Ornamental Lace Collection, Christmas Border

CO723914 - Merry Little Christmas - Intricutz Dies Collection, Pine Needles

CO723931 - Merry Little Christmas - Intricate Dies Collection, Christmas Branch

CO723916 - Merry Little Christmas - Intricate Dies Collection, Holly Branch Flourish.

CO724062 - Vintage Rose Collection, 12 x 12 Paper Pad

CO721984 - Double sided tape, 12mm

CO721996 - Gemstones, Crystal

Hanging Decorations by Mel Connell

Hi Everyone welcome back. Today I am here to tell you about my super quick and easy hanging decorations. It's that time of the year again and we are busy decorating our homes for the Christmas season, putting up trees and hanging tinsel. I sadly am not able to have my tree out this year and wanted to make something I could hang around my home to make it feel a little more festive.

This is a classic old idea but such a fun and cute one. Perhaps this could be a great  activity with the kids one weekend between now and Christmas day, I'm sure they would love making them. 

What do you need? Well several of your favourite Couture Creations Doily dies, your nested circle dies, some pretty paper, string/thread or ribbon and some beads or bells as I have used. 

For each ball you will need four doily dies and four circles cut from your papers. Glow your circle into the centre of your doilies, and then score each one right down the middle and fold. 

Make sure you have a crisp fold line. 

Glue two piece together with the patterned paper facing out. Repeat for the second two. Give them a moment to dry a little. 

While your waiting cut a lengths of your twine or thread or ribbon and thread a bell or bead on it. 

Run  line of glue down the inside of one of the folded and glued halves of your ball, lay your thread through it so it is going to dry into the glue line. Add more glue and stick the two halves of your ball together. 

Your could dd a bow at the top or add paper flowers, but I wanted mine to be fairly simple. I intend hanging mine in the scallop of my green tinsel boughs I am going to be hanging around my house this weekend. 

Thanks again for stopping by to see what the Couture Creations DT has been up to. I wish you well and would love to see some hanging decorations that you might make. 

Couture Creations products used:

CO723314 - The Treasure- Ornamental Lace Collection, Memories Set

CO723040 - Nesting Dies, Circles

CO724062 - Vintage Rose Collection, 12 x 12 Paper Pad

CO724037 - 2 Way Glue Pen

Love Card by Mel Connell

Hello Again All. 

I am back again with a very very simple but very pretty card that you can make for a Wedding, or a special Birthday, and Anniversary, well for many many occasions really. 

Start out by making your card bas. This is a tri fold style card, Cut a pice of cardstock at 6  x 11inches and then score at 4" and then at 4" from the first score line, this will give you one panel that is slightly smaller and this becomes your front. 

Cut one of your Favourite Couture Creations boarder dies from the same colour cardstock at your card base. Double side tape this onto the edge of the small front panel. 

From here just cut panels of your favourite paper from the Vintage Rose Garden Paper pad, distress the edges of all pieces and stick into place laving a small boarder of cardstock showing. 

Add some Gems or pearls to the boarder, and cut out a greeting from the printed sheet in your paper pad to the front. This sheet is brilliant, small words or quotes pre-printed ready to go, just cut them out and add them to your project. 

Couture Creations products used:

CO724062 - Vintage Rose Garden 12 x 12 Paper Pad

CO723247 - Momento, Ornamental Lace Dies - Chandelier set 

CO721985 - Double sided tape - 6mm

CO721955 - Pointed Non stick Scissors

CO721990 Gemstones - Vintage Gold

Louise Nelson Technique inspired layout.

Hi Again Everyone. So glad you stopped by t check out what I have been playing with this time. We have been getting the most yummy mixed media products in Tomorrow's memories lately and I know I an having a blast playing with it all. 

A couple of my new favourite products are the Prima/Finnabair Art Basic and Art Extravagance products and Just new to the store are the Tim Holtz Distress Sprays. OMGoodness just way to much fun stuff to play with. 

I learned a fantastic technique last year from the wonderful Louise Nelson. I just loved this class that I did with her and have been wanting to use this technique again since. 

Having both these fabulous mixed media products in I knew they were screaming out to be used in this way. 

So you want to start with a thick sheet of chipboard, I used 12x12 but it could be 8.5 x 11 or any size you need really. Gesso the whole sheet. 

Choose some pretty chipboard shapes, I have used the gorgeous flower heads from Your Creative Wings, this chipboard is in store at TM's now. Lots of fabulous designs to choose from. Make sure these are gesso'd also. and glue them down. 

Spread white crackle paste from Prima over the chippy pieces, I went a bit crazy and spread it over my entire sheet. Some parts will be thicker than others, but this is good, you will get different sized cracks form. Try and let this dry naturally if you can, pop it outside in the sun for a wee while. You will get better cracks if it drys naturally. 

Now the super fun part. Spritz your entire page with water, add drops of your favourite Distress Spray colours (unscrew the top and drip it on), spritz with more water until it spreads and puddles. 

This can take some time and you want to build up layers. Add and let dry, add and let dry. This you can dry with your heat tool to speed up the process. 

Once your happy with your colour I mixed up a spritz of gold spray using the Primary Elements powers and some water and put it on a Kaiser spray bottle. (these by the way work so well, such a great little spray bottle). 

Give the whole piece a light mist so you have just a hint of gold shimmer over it. 

I used some small splatter stamps from Kaiser, and gold embossing powder to add the look of splatters but using the stamps gives you a bit of control over where they go and ow they look. you gould however just splatter on some of the gold Distress Spray. 

Add a heat embossed title and a sprinkle of sequins across your page. ( another thing I fell in love with after my class with Louise last year. Sequins, oooooh yum!!)

Once it is all dry add a small photo, or a big one, totally up to you. 

You end up with this gorgeous soft watercolour effect in the background that seeps into all the cracks of the crackle paste which is all kinds of fabulous. 

If you do get the chance, this layout is in store for you to have a look at. 

I want to thank Louise for letting me use her technique and share it with you. Please stop by her blog, the link is up above, as she does just wonderful things. 

Thanks once again for popping by to see what we have been doing, and hope to see you either in store or online soon. 

Mel xxx

Treasure the Time Layout by Mel Connell

Welcome to November one and all. Thanks for stopping by once again to check out what we have been up to over at Couture Creations. 

I have been having so much fun creating with the new Couture Creations Paper range Vintage Rose Garden. It is just so lovely. 

First up I embossed an A4 sheet of acetate in one of our A4 embossing folders. I torn pieces of this off to use as embellishments on my layout. 

Next up chose two sheets of paper that you would like to work with. I used less patterned pieces for this. Tape them together on three sides leaving to top un stuck. Distress the edges and ink with brown ink to shabby it up a little bit. 

From the top middle cut into your top sheet toward the bottom of your pages. with a spritz of water to soften the paper a little roll these back to expo the second layer of paper. Dry these off with your heat tool to hold the position. You may also need a little adhesive under the rolls. 

Using the Time sheet rom the Vintage Rose Garden paper range cut out all the clock and floral spray elements to use as embellishments on your layout. 

Also cut your self some leave or branch dies in coordinating green papers to use a fillers. I cut in Kraft cardstock two Cog Border dies also. 

Adhere all these dies cut and hand cut patterned paper pieces to either side of the paper rolls. Don't forget to add in the torn pieces of embossed acetate. 

To finish off sprinkle round a few paper flowers to fill in any spaces that need a little something. I added my photo for this to the centre of a dies cut Doily and placed this at the bottom of the paper rolls to cover any rough edges that may be there. 

The end result is a very sweet layout that is perfect for more formal photos like Balls, Weddings and Christening photos. Or just that special picture of that special someone. 

Couture Creations Products used:

CO723242 - Madeline , Ornamental Lace Dies - Mirror Mirror

CO723739 - The Metricon, Intricutz Dies - Cog Border

CO723040 - Nesting Dies, Circles

CO721963 - Foam Mounting Tape - 18mm

CO721985 - Double Sided Tape - 6mm

CO721955 - Non stick Scissors

CO721957 - 15x15" Self Healing Cutting Mat

CO723623 - Sponge Dauber

CO724062 - Vintage Rose Garden, 12 x12 Paper Pad  

Crate Paper "Open Book" Layout.

Hello everyone, just stopping by to share a layout I have done using the new Open Book paper range from Crate Paper. This yummy collection is available ins toe right now at Tomorrow's memories if you wanted to get your hands on some. 

This is a fun bright range with Photographic Elements on it, like the cute little image of the girl with glasses, so i thought I'd use small pictures and create a clustered look.

I have cut out strips of the paper and made some double point banner strips, layered over this with a folded piece of pattern paper to create a secret fold out journalling spot. Sometimes you have something to say, but don't really want everyone to read it, so making the secret or hidden journalling places if wonderful for that. 

I added some of the cut paper elements and some paper flowers and my pictures to the front of this fold out part. 

On my background I have used the New Prima white crackle paste through a stencil to get some texture. try to let this dry naturally if you can, you get much better crackle effect that way. then splatted on some of the Prima colour bloom sprays. 

I added some hand stitched detailing around the edge and you end up with a fairly quick, cute, fun layout. 

I'd love to see your take if you give this a go. 

Thanks for stopping by again. 

Mel xxxx

Love You Layout by Mel Connell

Hello again everyone. 

This is my second creation for October for Couture Creations and I have just completely fallen in love with the new Vintage Rose Garden paper range and the Floral lace dies. They are just gorgeous. 

Are your easy to create along? Get ready this one is a bit fun!

You will need one of your favourite sheets of paper from the Vintage Rose Garden paper collection, a Coordinating glitter and sheets of sticky JAC paper and some black cardstock to get you going. 

Use your favourite Floral lace die, I used Love Abounds. Cut about 9 of these from black cardstock. 

Peel off one side of the stick JAC paper and lay your die cuts down all over the JAC paper to create your own pattern. 

Now here comes the really really super fun part. Cover the entire piece of JAC paper with glitter. The glitter will stick to all the past inside and around your die cuts. 

Tip off any excess glitter into a craft tray or onto The Couture Creations Non -stick Craft Mat to put back into your glitter jar. 

You may need to use a small paint brush to brush off any glitter that is clinging to your die cut pieces. 

Mat this onto black cardstock and then into the centre of your Vintage Rose Garden sheet of patterned paper. I did a 8.5 x 11 inch layout cut this would ale woe for 12 x 12 inches, you will just need to use two sheets of JAC and join them together. 

Cut from white cardstock two of the smaller dies from the Ornamental lace Memories set, ink these in a matching colour to your layout. Add some faux stitching with a black pen. 

I added my small photo to the centre of one of these. 

Die cut out of white cardstock 1 butterfly from The Van Roe Collection and heat emboss this with a colour that tones in with the rest of your layout. 

Layer up all your die cut pieces, your hand created background and a few embellishments to match.

Couture Creations Products Used:

CO723722 - Decorative Dies, The Van Roe - Beautiful Butterfly

CO723314 - Ornamental Lace Dies, The Treasure - Memories Set

CO724003 - Ornamental Lace Dies, Floral lace - Love Abounds

CO723838 - Non-Stick Craft Mat

CO724062 - Vintage Rose Garden Paper Collection

CO721963 - Foam Mounting Tape - 18mm

CO721984 - Double Sided Tape - 12mm

Remember

Hello everyone. 

I am so excited to say that Tomorrow's Memories recently got in the Prima/Finnabair Art Basics and Art Extravagance products in and the DT have been playing with them. 

I was so super excited to get started and wanted to do a bit of a Finnabair inspired layout. I have loved her work for ages and was so amazed by her technique and style when she came to teach at our store last year. 

So grab a paint brush, some water, a few sheets of paper and cardstock and get ready to play. 

Start by giving your self a strong background to work on so layer up two sheets of paper and cardstock, I left a little border around the edges. 

Glue them together with the Soft  Matte Gel.

Tear some strips from left over papers that coordinate and layer these up sticking them down also with the Soft Matte Gel. 

Using the gold crackle texture paste as some pattern using a stencil and allow this to dry.  You can do a little or go a bit OT and add a fair amount. 

I worked out where I wanted my photo mats to be and layers these up with a few doilies, and add this amazing truing of mason jar light chipboard from My Creative Wings. It's just beautiful chipboard. 

Next up add in all kinds of embellishment, flowers, metal pieces, gems, tickets anything really. 

I glued down all my embellishments with the 3D Gloss Gel. It is super strong and will hold just about anything in place. Let this dry really well, you don't want anything to come loose in the next few steps. 

Once all your embellishments are in place your going to give them all a layer of gesso. The Heavy White gesso is just brilliant. Start slow and build up if your not too confident. dry brush all your little bits and pieces. You can make some more heavily covered than other. Let this dry reply really well. You can speed it up with the heat tool if you'd like.  

Next come the really really fun part. I used one of the new Prima Colour Bloom sprays and some of the Primary Elements pigment powders. Put a little of all the colours you would like to use out on your non stick craft sheet and add water to get a runny pool of colour. 

With more water add the colour all around your layout, add water to make really wet puddles, then hold your pages up and let the colour run down.

Again work slowly. Add a layer and let it dry, add another layer and dry etc. 

With your paint brush flick drops of the colour around your layout too, this just looks so cute once dry. 

I hope you like this fun technique that is inspired by Finnabair. All these gorgeous new mixed media products are available in store now. 

I'd love to see what you come up with is you give this a bit of a go. 

Go create, and see you soon. 

Mel xxxx