The Mess, Oh Me, Oh My The Mess I Make

I am what you would call a very messy scrapper. Organizational Challenged if you will. I truly admire these people who can sit down with a picture in their mind and say "Okay, I am going to use these pieces to make this page" and them they do just that. I can not. I have to have everything around me spread out and go through and try each item next to every piece of paper. It makes a very messy picture. To top it all off I don't have a  place in my house where I can scrap. My "Scrap Room" is my living room floor.

Here I'll show you:

Like This 

And This...

All of This for one Layout. Crazy Right? I Know. Sometimes I think that if I had a craft room I wouldn't be so messy, but I know that is not true.

This doesn't show the half of it, you can only imagine the mess that is behind me. 

I have heard it called a "Chaotic Scrapper". And that is exactly what it is--CHAOS. Now-That being said, The Layout that came from this giant mess is one of my favorites. I used products from 6 different companies (I think), since I have been trying to work through my stash. That shouldn't be too hard as I don't have very much compared to some. 

So, Do you want to see the final product that came from this GIANT MESS? I Do....

I think I am getting more confident with my spraying/misting. 

Pooh-Butt is my childhood nickname, I loved Whinnie the Pooh and so they
Called me Pooh Butt Marie

That Green Flower. I made it from Vellum and then Sprayed it with Mr. Huey's
It came out better than I expected. 

So, I used Amy Tangerine's Sketchbook Die Cuts and Dimensional Stickers, Basic Greys Fact or Fiction Snippets and the Orange and Blue Papers are from the Sweet Threads -OR- Kyoshi{?} Page Kit, October Afternoon Mini Market Alphas, Hobby Lobby Brand Flowers, Dear Lizzy 5th and Frolic Chipboard, Studio Calico's Mister Huey's in Bookworm Green and A Vellum Flower that I made.

So, I think I am finally getting this using multiple lines per page thing down. Tell me what you think? Are you a "Chaotic Scrapper" too? Leave me a comment below.

~Ashley Crafty~

P.S.- Stay tuned I will be doing a tutorial on the vellum flower next week. 

Misting the Day Away--A Tutorial

Mists have been a big trend this year, from ink blot dots to a fine mist over the entire page.. Studio Calico and Prima both have beautiful masks that can really bump up your pages.  Being on a limited budget however I can't afford to get every color I would like. So I have a couple of recipes that will help you create those custom colors to make your project stand out from the rest. 

So I present to you 3 recipes for different "mists" each with different effects and costs.  

The first is a shimmer spray without color. You can use this to add a beautiful sheen to anything and I do mean anything. I have taken to spraying die cuts and flowers with this one. This is the least expensive of the recipes and can be made with 2 purchases.  

You will need:

1. A fingertip Sprayer ($1 at Walmart)
2. Perfect Pearls
3. Water

Take and fill your fingertip sprayer about 3/4 of the way full. Add one scoop of perfect pearls and shake. That simple.

I suggest that you only use perfect pearls for any of these recipes as Perfect Pearls is the only glitter/shimmer product that I know of on the market that contains its own binding agent. With any other pearl product the sheen will rub off as you touch the elements.  


For the second recipe you will add only a Re-inker. 

You will Need:

1. A Tim Holtz Re-inker (I used Worn Lipstick) 
2. Perfect Pearls (I used Gold from the pastels collection)
3. A fingertip sprayer ($1 @ Walmart)
4. Water

Fill your Fingertip Sprayer 1/2 full of water, Any fuller and I find that the pearls do not want to mix in as well. Add one scoop of Perfect Pearls and start adding ink until you reach the opacity that you like. 

With the Barn-Door Re-inker I use 10 or so drops for a medium-dark spray. Use less or more of the ink and you will not only change the opacity but also the color. Worn Lipstick will go pink (5-6 Drops) to a Deep Red (12-14 Drops) 

I prefer Distress Re-Inkers from Adirondack but you can use any one of the hundreds of re-inkers on the market. 

Now for the third recipe. (Also my favorite).

You will Need:

1. Dr. PH Martins Bombay Ink Set
2. Fingertip Sprayers  
3. Water
4. Perfect Pearls (If you want shimmer)

This recipe is the same as the one above only you will add two drop at a time into the sprayer of water and shake after each set of drops. I suggest two sprayers because once you start mixing and finding the sheer number of colors possible you will want to make more. This ink is some of the most vibrant and versatile of any ink I have come across. This is not stamp ink but an artists pigment and pen ink which means that the colors are true and very mixable. My favorite color combination so far is to add the 9 drops of teal and 3-4 white into a sprayer less than half full of water. This results in a opaque ocean blue. 

Dr. PH Martin's Bombay India Inks can get rather pricey at about $30 for the color wheel seen above. However @ DickBlick.Com you can buy each color individually for about $3 a bottle. And one bottle will last a long time using them for mists/sprays. I will be adding photos of some of the projects that I used these sprays on to the gallery page @ 2peasinabucket.com  

So tell me what you think. Do you have another "recipe" for a Mist? Have you tried any of these before? Let me know in the comments section below. I would love to try them out. 

~Ashley Crafty~