My Favourite Things April Team Blog Hop

Welcome to our monthly team Blog Hop featuring MY FAVOURITE THINGS. If you have just hopped onto my blog, you can start here as this is a circular hop, but if you get lost you can find your way by going to Brae's blog at http://thebrae-er.blogspot.com for a full list of participants. If you came from Alyson's blog then you are in the right place!

We hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts, as we love to get feedback from our viewers....whether it was something that you really liked or some new technique that was used that you would like to learn how to do....by leaving us comments, we get to hear what you like, and what you want to see. Thank you… now on to our hop!  

You may have seen my recent post of the book I created for my parents.  While I was searching their house for some more photos to include in that project I discovered a drawer full of past portraits that they had been given of the grand children and great-grandchildren.  I know that my mother loves getting these photos but obviously has nowhere to put them.  This brought me to the following project.  The main reason I am including it as my Favourite Thing is because I LOVE IT!  I am so happy with how this turned out that I want to make one for myself too.  It is my favourite project for sure.

I started with a cabinet door that I found at the ReStore.  It cost me only $10.  It's very plain and simple which is what I was looking for.  I knew that I wanted to change the colour of the raised edge so that it looked like a frame so I started by sanding it down.

I couldn't decide what paper to use because I wanted it to be fairly neutral but also include some flowers.  I searched my retired products and found some of the Claire My Complements Canvas Shapes and the floral paper from the Pemberly kit.  I added some Cashmere cardstock that I embossed with the new Chevron Embossing folder.  These are a lot of fun.  This was my first project that I used the embossing folder on (I just bought a machine so I could finally use the folder).

Once I decided what products to use I had to figure out how I was going to layout the board.  I went through all of the How To Books until I settled on one.  I choose layout 01 from the Make It from Your Heart Volume 1.  I made a few modifications but I thought that I could make this layout work nicely for this type of changeable display.

 Now that I new the paper and colours I would be using I needed to figure out how to add colour to the frame part. I decided to try some Heidi Swapp colour shine. I started by pouring out a little and adding it with a sponge.  It seemed to work ok but I wasn't completely happy with the colour.

I tried spraying on some other colour shine but that left some blobs that I didn't like and it still wasn't the right colour.  I tried using some CTMH cashmere pigment ink.  That didn't work either.  I tried adding some re-inker to some Pearl Paint but that just turned pink!  In the end I washed all of it off (it left behind a little bit of a stain) and then started over.  

This time I used the brown Stazon ink pad and just rubbed the pad along the area. I can't believe how well it worked.  It acutally looks like melamine woodgrain!  I should have thought of this right from the start as I've used the ink before when I didn't like the colour of a picture frame.  In fact I'm really tempted to use it on some furniture that I have but I'm not convinced that it's really a good idea.

I cut out all of the flowers from the three CTMH Cricut Cartridges.  Did you know that for the month of April (2014) you can get a free CTMH Cricut Cartridge?  Just ask me how before the end of the month.

I added some bling to the flowers including adding one of my favourite accessories, the Sparkles Flourishes.  I really like to cut these or add them as is.  They add such a nice touch to anything. 

I used some older clips from my stash that I adhered with Liquid Glass, my favourite super heavy duty adhesive.  Now my mom can change out her pictures quick and easy.  Maybe we can even do that for her when we bring over any new pictures.  I can't wait to see this up on a wall in their new house!

The next stop on the Hop is Brae Montgomery. Thanks for hopping along with us - we hope we were able to inspire you to create your own projects from those that you have seen along the way. Join us again next month when we will feature "National Scrapbooking Month".