Melanie Monday Column 10-12-09

"Together" is my last layout from the Shining Madonna kit.

To get the structure of this layout, I simple used a spare piece of 12x12 diecut paper and traced the pattern onto a piece of paper included in the kit and cut it out. I painted it with the Tim Holtz Antique Lined Crackle Paint. I used a heat embossing tool after the paint started to "crack." Doing that really makes the paper bend nicely and give it more texture and oomph to the page. After the paint was dry, I used some brown distress ink and the ink blending tool to get into the cracks and around the edges. The result I wanted to get was so the paper looked like the concrete bridge in my photo-which I did, the distress ink really gives it the perfect finish.

I cut the blue paper to match the diecut sheet and glued them together, added it to a piece of brown cardstock to really set the page. I also distressed the edges of the brown paper to match the look of my page. I use a Heidi Swapp distressing tool.


After attaching my photo, I sewed the canvas Pink Paislee tag right to the picture. Sewing looks great on scrapbook pages and is such a simple way to add texture! I think canvas looks best with frayed edges so all I did was pull a couple strings to get that look. The truth is I really don't sew on clothes, only paper. I bought this sewing maching and it is the best $30 I ever spent (it was a really good sale price at that time). So, if you don't have a sewing machine and want one to play around with I would recommend this one. Actually now that I think of it I did make pillows and curtains with this machine. Ok, back to the layout...

I love adding flowers to my page. Since Prima does a wonderful job of making their flowers so full, I went ahead and pulled each flower apart to get all the layers and spread them around my page, adding some Prima Pebble for flower centers.

I usually try to put a title on each page, these 7 gypsies letters are so cute and match just perfect! I used pop-dots on some of the letters to make them stand out so the title is not so flat looking and to match all the texture on my page.


The butterflies are the perfect embellishment for this page, they are so cute and dimensional. You must see these butterflies in person. They have 4 layers on each of them. To make them look like they are fluttering about, I used the Prima bling that comes in the swirl packs.


I really enjoyed the Shining Madonna kit. It's no wonder why this kit is so popular, you get a ton of mixed products that match perfectly and the embellishments are so beautiful!

I hope you enjoy your week and be creative!

~Melanie