Splash of Color Blog: Guest Designer and a Layout

Hi, My name is Lisa Gregory and by profession I am a registered nurse. I am married to my high school sweetheart and we have 2 children who are now successful young adults. I have been a crafter my whole life. I sew, embroider, crochet, paint and have dabbled in many crafty things in my life. Back in 2005, when my son was doing his senior project with his girlfriend (who is now his wife) They were creating a scrapbook of their lives. They elicited my help as I was the crafty one. We took a ride to The Dollar Tree (our local dollar store) who had a section dedicated to scrap booking....papers, albums, embellishments, flowers, and we grabbed everything we could find. I knew about the new way of scrap booking, but never gave it any thought until that trip to The Dollar Tree. After helping the kids create their albums , which by the way turned out fabulous, I was curious as to where I could get more "scrap booking stuff". So I drove to our local Michaels and Joanns craft stores. That is when I became hooked. Then I sought out the local scrapbook stores and found stuff I didn't even know existed until then. I shopped and shopped and shopped some more. I found Scrapbook.com and saw the kind of scrap booking the artists did. I was amazed at the styles. It just wasn't cut and paste and stickers. It was 3 dimensional, it was gorgeous, and oh so inspiring. So I created a gallery, created my first layout and the rest is history. My style has changed a bit throughout the years, but playing with paper and scissors is still so therapeutic for me. I am so incredibly honored that Cheryl invited me to be Guest Designer for Splash Of Color.

I have been using the Splash Of Color products for quite some time and absolutely them. I have accumulated quite the arsenal of Silks Acrylic Glaze, and you will find me using them in almost all of the projects I create. I especially love them to color the flowers and leaves I create for my projects.

I created the flowers using the cream piece of 12x12 card stock. 1 sheet made all of the flowers and leaves as well as the flourishes. I used Splash Of Color Silks Acrylic Glaze to color the flowers. I used Silks Acrylic Glaze in Fuzzy Peach, Nutmeg and Coral Berry and rubbed the petals with Inka Gold Metallic Rub in Old Silver after the Silks was dry. Then I used Silks Acrylic Glaze in Pretty Peridot and Viva Decor ~ Inka Gold Metallic Rub in Yellow/green to color the leaves. The flowers were die cut from one of Sizzix Susans Garden dies. The middles were created with a little brown Flower Soft and Splash of Color Pearl Pen in Copper Pearl.

The frame was die cut with a Sizzix die, and painted with Splash Of Color Crackle Paint in white. It is amazing and dries shiny!! Then it was rubbed with a very light coat of Silks Acrylic Paint in Nutmeg using a foam applicator and rubbing it into the frame. Because the crackle dries shiny, the paint sunk into the cracks and left a light coat on the crackle. I love the look.

I used some texture paint mixed with a little gesso to thin it out and spread it over the Prima mask using a wide palette knife. Then I rubbed more of the Silks Acrylic Glaze in Nutmeg watered down a bit over the dried stones. Then I stippled just a little more over the stones when they were dry. Using a charcoal pencil I outlined each stone for definition.