Ahoy! Old Techniques!

Ahoy, me hearties! I am finally sharing the process photos for these very nautical layouts. Both layouts include papers from the ‘Hey Sailor’ DCWV paper pad. The papers in this pad are all glossy and some have gold foil, the patterns/designs are mostly cream, navy and black. There is everything nautical included, ships, anchors, whales, etc., and I bought it thinking that it would be great for scrapping our many holiday trips to the Albany, Whale Station.

These layouts are the first I have made with the papers and they are nothing to do with a whaling station! The first layout is of my son-in-law who works at the Black Anchor Tattoo Studio, see the connection? Anchors! This paper had the perfect design, mood and feel for scrapping this photo of him, taken at work for marketing purposes. I selected five papers for this layout, a cut apart sheet, some black with gold anchors, a cream with navy anchors, a stripe which is lengths of rope and a framed design to use for the background.

The photo I had available was quite distant and I wanted to have a close up of his face included in the layout, so I cropped and enlarged the photo. This turned out a little grainy and not to the quality I wanted, so I used an old technique to enhance the photo, putting a layer of vellum over the photo. The vellum reduces the graininess of the image. I stitched it roughly together using my sewing machine, I wasn’t precious about it, wanting it rough and ready to work with the look I was going for.

Next, I stepped back in time with another old technique…sanding! The glossy surface didn’t appeal to me for my background and I grunged it up with a sandpaper pad. I got some lovely texture with the sanding, as I worked on my cutting board and all the cuts and nicks on the board were picked up in the sanding process.

Next, I built up layers mounting my photos on the patterned papers and using some of the cut apart embellishments. Then I added several wooden embellishments leaving some plain and inking others black. The last touch was adding some Tim Holtz chipboard quotes.

I love how this one turned out, the papers and sanding really captured the mood I was going for. By the way, as a proud mother-in-law, I just want to say that the photographer did a great job taking Dane’s portrait but he did make him look quite stern and serious. Dane is the sweetest, nicest young man, and a very talented artist who works very hard, and is always ready with a smile and a joke. I’ve rarely seen him looking this stern.

For the second nautical layout, I used an AB Studio paper for the background called ‘Rustical Journey‘, some scraps from an AB Studio paper called ‘Diary, sheet 7‘, and a few DCWV leftover scraps from the layout above. The chosen background paper worked beautifully with the photos of my daughter and son in law dressed up for a Halloween work event.

The first step was using some old nautical stamps to make some tag embellishments. The wooden stamps have been sitting unused for many years!

I used Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black to stamp the images and then used some Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks to add some colour. To add a little bling, I mounted one tag on gold foil cardstock.

Next, I worked on building up some texture on my background paper using stencils and distress inks. The green stencils are from Kaisercraft and the white from a Uniquely Creative kit. *Note: Did you know that Uniquely Creative are now producing their own papers/collections? Oh my, they are awesome, with the same quality as the AB Studio collections. The papers are thick cardstock and each collection has cut apart sheets for those of us who love to fussy cut. Great to see an Australian company doing so well, check them out on their website. I will be posting soon about using one of the latest kits, their third collection, the gorgeous ‘Urban Garden’ collection. Not affiliated with the company, just a subscriber and big fan of their products.

The last stencil I used was a beautiful lace image, I lightly inked the image by swiping the ink across the stencil to create a soft grey, rather than the harsh black of the inkpad. I also lightly stamped in the pirate and his treasure chest, making sure it was slightly washed out to give an old-worldly effect.

The tag edges were inked and some recycled (from a gift) twine added.

I used some gold enamel dots which have a look of what you might see on the sides of a treasure chest, the bolts, just to add some bling. These are from the local cheap shop, about $2AU. Then I popped on some quotes, inking the edges and added some gold glitter chipboard Thickers for the title.