May

My great-aunt, May

I used an old photo of my great-aunt May, taken sometime in the 1910's.  I'm not sure why she was dressed up like an 18th century boy (perhaps for a game of dress-up or a school play).  I tinted the scanned photograph to go better with the background papers.

For this layout I used papers from the Blue Fern Studios, Timeless collection and some plain brown Basic Grey papers for some of the die-cuts.

I used the backside for the background of the layout

I used the backside for the outer mat of the layout

I used the card on the middle left behind the window chipboard piece

I used the backside for some of the square die-cuts and foliage die-cuts

I used the backside of this for the dark brown large doily
 and mini doily die-cuts and the mat behind the photo

I carefully ripped the Freedom paper, trimmed and distressed the edges before tinting the exposed white core of the paper with some diluted ink.  The pink was a mixture of Milled Lavender and Tattered Rose Distress inks.  I then added a hint of brown ink to the edges ( a mixture of Distress inks I can't quite remember because I tried a bunch of stuff before I got a colour I liked).  I glued the ripped, distressed pieces to the Abode paper with Beacon's 3-in-1 glue (it's messy but I like using this glue because it has some initial tackiness so things stay in place but I also have some time to slide things around slightly if they aren't quite positioned right).

These are the chipboard pieces I used:

Blue Fern Studios - Lisa's Window

Blue Fern Studios- Mixed Chains

Dusty Attic - Elegant Swirl #13

For the window I painted it dark brown and then applied Tattered Rose, Distress Crackle paint.  I rubbed various colours of brown and grey ink overtop to highlight the cracks more (wiping off the excess).  I also used a waterproof brown marker to accentuate the edges.  I then cut  a piece from the Calling Card paper and glued the window on top.  Once this was dry I applied Ranger Glossy Accents into the "window panes" to look like glass.  I weighted the edges of the window down while this was drying because the paper and window started to warp.

I tried heat-embossing the swirl pieces with a couple of different powders but didn't like it so I mixed some paint to roughly match the colour of the window and painted over them. Then I dry-brushed white paint overtop so the colour didn't look so flat.

The small chain piece under the window was heat-embossed with Rust, Embossing Antiquities.  I also used the brown marker to accentuate the edges and dry-brushed it with a little of the same paint I had mixed for the swirls.

These are the dies I used:

Spellbinders - Fleur de Lis Squares

Spellbinders - Floral Assortment

Cheery Lynn - Canadian Kaleidoscope Doily

Cheery Lynn - Canadian Kaleidoscope Tiny Doily

Tattered Lace - Ferns

As usual, I glued all the die-cuts over a dark version (in this case, black) offsetting them slightly to accentuate the edges.  I inked around all the edges as well.  For the brown fern leaves I dipped my finger in the paint I had mixed earlier for the chipboard swirls, tapped off the excess on my craft mat and dragged my finger across the leaves. I also used this paint to highlight the edges of the roses and the details of the metal corner piece at the bottom left of the photo.

At a few random places along the edges of the layout I applied blobs of white glue, sprinkled on some mica flakes, beads, and embossing powder and melted it with my heat gun.  I then glued a bit of netting, a few more flakes and embossing powder and very briefly heated it (the netting will melt and dissolve if too much heat is applied).  A few small flowers were added at the end.

Mica Flakes - Henna

Mica Flakes - Mulberry

Thank you so much for taking a look!