Graphic 45....is Paradise

When I first saw the Graphic 45 collection Tropical Travelogue, it was love at first sight.  The rich lush colors and patterns, the gorgeous vibrant images...all spoke to me, and I knew I wanted to design with them.

Knowing we were going to Mexico after Christmas sealed the deal, so I created this double page layout as a class for The Urban Scrapbook, which I titled "Paradise."

The photos are BabyOfTheFamily on the beach in Puerto Vallarta...paradise!

 Here are a few details and close-ups...

I added some Stampendous Mica Flakes to the edges of the beach sign with Glossy Accents, and also covered the palm leaves above the sign with Glossy Accents.   I edged all the fussy cut white flowers with Glossy and added clear chunky glitter.

The waves are super simple to create...just tear and roll the edges of the paper.  I added Martha Stewart clear microbeads along the tops of the "white caps" with Glossy Accents.  (I went through LOTS of Glossy on this layout!)

The Urban Scrapbook has just brought in some amazing and beautiful German Glass Glitter...and the turquoise colour with flecks of red in it were perfect for these papers.  Of course, my husband would say that the Germans make the BEST of EVERYTHING :)

German Glass glitter adhered on the top curve of the umbrella with Glossy Accents....plus I covered her bathing suit and cap with Glossy to achieve that "wet" look.  (Why can't I look that elegant in the water with a bathing cap????)

A glittered and Glossy fish.

These title cards are cut from "Seaside Holiday" and I glittered the top edges.

Is this enough glitter for you?  Nope...I also used Craft & Glitz microfine Glamour Glitter in "Sky Blue" to add sparkly borders to the background papers.

Here's how....

Adhere 1" wide SookWang double sided adhesive tape along one edge of the background.

Remove adhesive backing of tape and get your glitter ready.

It's a good idea to work with this glitter on top of a scrap piece of paper....in your  neighbour's back yard...because microfine glitter gets EVERYWHERE.  (Note:  Do not put your teenage son's clean laundry away, including his basketball uniform, after you have been working with glitter.)

But who cares about the mess...when sparkle is your goal!

Who can resist this gorgeous stuff?!?!

Dump it (yes, that's one of my scrapbooking terms) on top of the exposed Sookwang tape.

Be generous when it comes to glitter...you will get most of it back into your jar.

NOTE:  Avoid working with glitter late at night when you are so tired and need to rub your eyes....because eyeballs and microfine glitter do NOT mix well.

Rub the glitter into the tape in circular motions...this is called "Burnishing".  This will create friction and heat the glitter so it will stick to the tape and NEVER come off.

I use a Martha Stewart glitter brush to wipe the excess glitter off the border. Then just DUMP it back into the jar.

Aside from the glitter mania, I wanted to share a tutorial on how I created the palm tree......so get ready, I went a little overboard with step-by-step photos!

First, the palm leaves....

I learned his technique of altering the Kraft Glassine paper from Tim Holtz's 12 Tags in December...when he made some holly leaves for a tag.

I altered a piece of Kraft Glassine paper with alcohol inks:  Gold Mixative, Oregano and Meadow.

Here is a before and after of the Kraft Glassine....love the Gold shimmer.

TIP:  Heat set the inks into the paper with a heat gun after you apply them.

I freehand drew 5 palm leaves on scrap paper first and used them as tracers. (Yes, sometimes I'm a little bit of a perfectionist :)

After cutting out the leaves, I fringed them by snipping them with fine-tipped scissors.

Now for the trunk.....you need chipboard, Sticky Back canvas (Claudine Helmuth), Vintage Photo Distress ink, and a mini mister of water.

I drew a trunk template and then cut the trunk from chipboard.

Cut a 1/2 inch notches in the bottom of your canvas and rip 5 strips.

WARNING:  It gets pretty noisy when you are ripping canvas..so I don't recommend this technique for you scrappers who are crafting in the middle of the night!

Pull one or two strings off of one edge of each canvas strip to fray the edge.

Start wrapping your chipboard trunk with the strips, leaving about 2 inches extra (to attach leaves later)  Remember to wrap the strips with the FRAYED edge UP.

I have yet another photo....so why not include it??

Wrap tightly all the way down the trunk, with about 1/4 " overlap of layers.

 

The trunk in these photos is for demo only...a "stunt" trunk...because I didn't take photos while I made the REAL trunk :)

After the ENTIRE tree is wrapped, you will ink it with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

We use Distress Ink on the canvas because the ink reacts when we mist it with water and the color bleeds beautifully through the canvas, giving you a beautiful brown color.

Love the Mini Mister!

After misting (pretend the ENTIRE trunk is wrapped please).

Here you can see the difference between the canvas that is misted (bottom trunk) and the color of the non-misted trunk in the middle.  (yes, "non-misted" is another technical term in the scrapbooking industry).

Let it dry completely, or if you are impatient like me, you can speed things up by gently heating with a heat gun. (I don't like the term "gun").

Now you will add your beautiful leaves at the top and wrap the extra bit of canvas around them.

You then will ink this white extra bit of canvas and mist it to blend in.

To keep the leaves in place, squeeze a little Glossy Accents (if you haven't run out yet!) in behind the canvas at the top of the trunk  in front and behind the leaves.

A final close-up of the leaves on the layout...

And here is the whole enchilada....as the Mexicans would say :)

Thanks for sitting through this extraordinarily loooooong tutorial!  I hope you enjoy this wonderful Graphic 45 collection as much as I did :)