Our Little Butterfly - A Craft Artist 2 project tutorial

Hi all

Here's another tutorial for you. I have used a digi kit from the Victoria Nelson collection I recently had on Create & Craft TV and it is created with Craft Artist 2 professional. As ever you don't have to use the content I have or indeed follow the design to the letter, I want you to be inspired to create with any of the digi kits you have and make it your own .... unleash your creativity. Maybe you will be inspired to do a real life page using my design for a scrap lift or combine the two and go hybrid.

This is the project I am creating today

Our Little Butterfly

I used the Butterfly meadow digi kit and my page set up is a 12 x 12. I dragged and dropped the background in to place and then added the beautiful tree from the embellishments, dragging out the corners to resize it to the full height of the page.

While the tree was still selected I went to the blend mode tab found just under the colour box on the right and chose colour burn to blend the tree into the background so it added to my design but didn't dominate it. It also fills in the 'white space' that I intended to leave.

After clicking add at the bottom of the photo tab and adding my photograph I dragged it into position on my page, resized it to about 4'' x 3'' and then while it was still selected went to the styles tab on the right. From the drop down menu I selected lines and chose the heavy weight line which applied a line around my photo and then recoloured the line via the colour box. This is a way of framing a photo to make it pop without using an intelligent frame and without having to create a mat for it.

I wanted to maximise the use of the lovely materials in the kit and also add layers behind my photo to lift it. I dragged on some material and while it was selected I picked up the scissor tool on the top tool bar. I then proceeded to cut a random mat of the material (do this behind the photo so you can guage the size, I have it on the grey space in this picture so you can see what I did easier!) You need to cut of the material to off the material and click on the sections to discard. I used quite a raggy free form line to replicate a rip.

Once I had cut the mat and while it was still selected I went to the brushes tab on the right and chose edges from the drop down menu and then selected grunge to make the material look even more distressed. While it is all selected you can go to the line tab at the top on the right and increase or decrease the points value of the line to adjust the effect how you want it.

To further create the illusion of torn paper I then drew a rectangle with the shape tool and filled it with white, I sent it behind the pink material and roughly followed the cut lines again with the scissors. I then went back to the brushes > edges > grunge and increased the line (the shape you have drawn will increase in size when the effect is applied) I then pushed in the side nodes of the white shape so little bits could be seen around the edge of the pink material.

I drew an imaginary box around both layers with my cursor and then grouped the two layers together.

I positioned the pink mat behind the photo using the arrange tab and then repeated the above to create a purple mat behind it.

To create even more layers I roughly cut some more of the materials, adding the grunge edges as before but this time didn't add the white behind as this would have become too dominant in the design. I also at this point used the shadow section in the styles tab to add shadows to my layers to bring it all to life.

I then started to add some of the beautiful flower embellishments, turning them with the ball tool and flipping them with the horizontal and vertical buttons in the arrange tab, placing them around the photo to break up the hard lines.

I used one of the journal card ovals to lift the end of the material strip and recoloured the flourishes which I added behind the top edge of the mats, again to lift the colours.

I twisted and flipped some of the delicate long flower arrangements, putting the bulk of them behind the large rows to lead the eye across the design with the delicate twigs and flowers.

.... and then added ribbon from the Bird Garden kit, resizing it and following the horizontal line of the bottom of the photo, again leading the eye across the design.

I added some extra detail with a pearl and the metal heart and added the pretty tag from the kit to look like it is hanging from the top of the page, this pulls the eye up through the design and balances it out.

And lastly I added a bit of journaling using the text tool, writing it out, clicking edit points on the bottom and then wrapping the text into a line, using the centre button under the text tool to align it.

And that's it a pretty page with lots of layers. I have mentioned a few times about scrap lifting my designs if you want to and even I do that with my designs sometimes ;) These are a couple of alternative layouts I created following the same design.

 



 While you were sleeping is created using the Daisy Trail Butterfly Creations kit 

 

 

Be you is created using the Kreative by Karen Ruth digi kit.

 

 

Thanks for popping by and I hope you feel inspired to get creative. I will be back soon and hope you are all well and happy, until then, as ever

 

Happy Crafting



Love
MJM x

Hola!

Hey all

Well here we are nearly at the end of the 2^nd month of 2014 already …. Eek!!!! Time sure does fly especially when you’re having fun … and I HAVE been having fun ;) So I thought I would pop by and share some pics with you so you can see a little of what’s been going on in my little world!

As a lot of you will know the last two years we have been on a working holiday on a cruise ship to the Amazon and Caribbean (I taught craft classes and hubs made ‘em laugh!) but this year we decided it was time for some us time so we have been on our jollies to our beloved Mexico …

We went on some great trips (all by public bus, we try and avoid the tourist trap as we have visited so many times we know how to get around under our own steam ;)) Highlights were Playa Del Carmen, Isla Mujeres, Xcaret and Chichen Itza as well as many visits to the locals beach we frequent in Cancun where we have so much fun with our Mexican friends especially the day we went (un knowingly) on their bank holiday … crazy times!

I am on inspiration overload from all the artwork, culture and colours we experienced, as ever, on our travels

And completely relaxed from such a lovely time. This picture shows the boat we travelled on to the Spa under that waterfall for a Mayan massage at Xcaret, bliss, although the stripping off of the clothes in the boat was an experience, I won’t go into details but let your imaginations fill in the blanks LOL

We had (lots of) good food, (lots of) good wine and lots and lots of laughs. I love my husband and I love our Mexico.

So I have returned recharged and raring to go …. Well now the shock of being back in the cold and the jet lag has worn off LOL.

Friday saw my return to Create and Craft TV after my break with some Serif shows with Craft Artist 2 professional and the Darling Buds digi kits

I had such a blast with everyone and it really is like visiting family going to the studios.
I’m also thinking about posting little tutorials from some of my Serif work so watch this space ;)

On my return this little beauty got packed and sent on its way to Scrap365 magazine HQ

It’s one of those pieces of work that I cannot wait for you to see, I love it but you’ll have to wait until the June/July issue to see it in all it’s the glory. In the meantime though did you get your copy of the Feb/March issue of the magazine available now?

It is a great issue, full of inspiration and has a little contribution from little old me looking at hybrid scrapping or as our clever Ed has called it ‘Scrap Fusion’

This is a sneak but of course you will need to buy the mag to see it in its full pictorial glory. There will also be a blog extra going live on Tuesday to sit alongside the article. I have created a step by step screen shot tutorial to address the digi side of the layouts so I hope you’ll join me then for some inspiration ;) so go and grab a copy of the mag in the meantime if you don’t already have it and be inspired!

Well that’s me for this post, I have lots cooking at Art Tart towers and intend to be here on a slightly more regular basis from now on to share bits of me with you …. Hmmmm that sounds a bit wrong but you know what I mean!

Thanks for popping by and I hope you are all well and happy
Until soon, as ever, Happy Crafting
Love
MJM x

Oops I did it again!!

Oops I did it again!! Is that song in your head now? ... sorry ;) So I knew it had been a while since I had been here but cannot believe how long that while has been, again! .... Where does time go? Oh I know it’s called life LOL

Life’s been a little busy since I was here last so I am going to attempt a whistle stop tour of what I have been up to. Don’t worry I have split up my posts into chunks so I won’t hit you with a month and a half in one go! So shall we start from where I left?

We were off to the Rewind 80’s festival last you heard and attempting a weekend under canvas for the first time! Well we went, we had a fab time and we survived

 

The weather couldn’t have been better after all the rain we had had up until then, it ended up being the weekend of the summer and temperatures reached 30 where we were in Henley, in fact the sun was so fierce it was like being back in the Amazon and it actually burnt me through my cut off jeans on the Sunday!!

The Pimms flowed freely and the bands were great my faves were Adam Ant, Midge Ure, Tony Hadley, Rick Astley (yep that’s a surprise to me too!) Jimmy Somerville, Sinita rocked it and looked amazing! Marc Almond (how I wish I could bottle the joy that oozed from that man!) and OMD closed the weekend in style.

And the Glamping? Well the cloudhouse was brilliant be decked with a double bed already made up for us and festooned with fairy lights and I think we coped really well, I enjoyed it lots but don’t think Hubs is over convinced to be running out and buying a tent just yet LOL and the saving grace of the weekend were the posh loos we paid for run by a company called ‘When Nature calls’ worth every single penny and more!!

The next thing, once were home, was we built an instant garden

No kidding! 4 days of hard graft and buying plants et voila ;) The border had turned to jungle, the point of no return and the weeds had loved the wet summer so hero hubs did some man gardening and cleared it all out, weed control material was laid followed by many bags of gravel and confused woofs, plants in pots, Angelina in place and the new addition, a present from hubs, our happy little Buddha! I am very proud of our little garden area and even more proud that the plants have actually been growing and I haven’t managed to kill any....yet! I was not blessed with green fingers although I do believe there is a gardener somewhere in me trying to get out LOL

We then had the girls to stay

Our lovely nieces! My sister and the girls visited mum and dad near the end of August and I took great pleasure in having them all round for a family Sunday lunch to christen the house. The girls stayed with us for a couple of days, we visited Flamingo Land, as you can see the weather was ‘fresh’ but we had a great time and we visited the Maritime experience in Hartlepool, well worth a visit!

Just  before the girls came to stay I went to the Serif offices for training on the new Craft artist 2 software (that’s for another post) and I was prepping for a 4 day deal on Create and craft TV with the Daisy Trail Aviary kits from Serif

 

Aviary English garden digi kit

Aviary Exotic digi kit

 

Aviary Fables digi kit

 And kits from the Lovely Angie Hinksman

Created with the Cool Britannia kit from Angies collection, That's my friend playing behind Robbie, Colour Sgt Beckett MBE, so proud of him and the blended photo in the background is the band playing at the Jubilee concert.

So that takes us into the beginning of September and the end of this post that kind of grew with my waffle ... sorry but I can’t help myself once I get chatting ;)

I’ll leave you in peace now with this little thought

created with Angi Hinksman true Romantics digi kit

I hope you’re well and happy, thanks for stopping by and hopefully see you soon for the rest of my ‘little’ catch up (and the posts will be there, I am scheduling them now LOL)

As ever until soon

Happy Crafting

Love MJM x