Love Letters

Hi everyone! Melissa here with a new design team page for the amazing Shimmerz Paints! I made this for my husband for Father's Day. It's a photo from when his dad finished making an arbor, which he later covered with rose vines.

I love the quality and gorgeous colors of Shimmerz, and with them I can get just the results I want.

The chipboard, paper, and a lot of the textural elements, are from Reneabouquets.

To make this page I applied clear gesso to Blue Fern paper .I applied texture paste with a stencil, and some webbing type ribbon at the top and bottom. I painted on layers of white gesso over the ribbon. I put the layers under the photo together, I taped on card stock under the image to make it stronger. Below that is a layer of watercolor paper, and at the bottom is corrugated cardboard.I tore off most of the paper from the surface of the cardboard, and painted it with gesso. I put layers of foam core board between everything, to add dimension. I painted the cardboard with gesso ,added another layer on the webbing, and sprinkled on Ultra Thick embossing powder,(UTEE) I melted it with a heat gun. It's better to add the UTEE before the layers get put together, to avoid damaging the photo.

I picked out Beautiful Board, dabbed on gesso with a brush, then painted it with Shimmerz Paints, and when dry, topped it with a thick coat of Clear Rock Candy Crackle Paint. The colors I used are: Green Olive, Christmas Cheer, Celery, and Key Lime Shimmerz. The brown is Penny 4 Your Thoughts Inklingz. I used a wet on wet technique, I brushed on color, then while wet, dropped in different colors. The crackle paint gives it an even, spread out appearance. At the end I added a partial layer of Pixie Dust Shimmerz, to add negative space, the page was getting too busy. You can also see gold mica powder, I dabbed it on to sort of tie everything together.  The pink on the roses is Hot Stuff Inklingz. Other light colors I added to the cardboard,watercolor paper, and webbing are: Angel's Kiss, First Blush, and Dear John Letter Inklingz. I used a little Ultramarine Shimmerz to the left of the photo, on the watercolor paper.

  

To add visual interest I added micro beads, glass glitter,metal glitter,mica flakes,seed beads,glass beads, pearls, Swarovski crystals,rhinestones,a glass pebble,pressed flowers and leaves, metal from Tim Holtz,a flower from Prima, and bling and metal from my stash.

I added the mermaid, and water type charms, because the house is close to the water.

Thank you so much for looking, and have a great week!