GARDEN OF LOVE

Happy New Year!!!
Hello everyone, it's Martha Lucia here today and it's so good to share a card I've made using the Tree Bare, one of my favorite cut out embellishments! When I saw this cut out in the Unique Laser Design Store, I just knew I had to get my hands on it.

I started by creating my card in a 6"x6" size over textured white card stock (close). Then I created all the pieces to decorate my card in my Cricut Explore using the Design Space. With this program I cut the grass, the fence, the clouds and the small hearts.

After this small process, I started to work with my Tree Bare. This product is available in wood, chipboard and cork. I chose mine in chipboard to use with distress inks and markers to give texture and color. I used the Tim Holtz Distress Ink colors Antique Linen and Vintage Photo to get the wood color and for the end of the branches I used  PITT artist pen big brush from Faber Castell in colors Light Green and Earth Green.

Then I took all my paper pieces and began the big process, but don't be scared. It was very easy! I just cut a square of bashful blue cardstock and pasted it over the base of my card. Also I cut a frame in textured cardstock (red) and pasted it over the entire base and using dimensionals and glue dots I stuck each of the parts beginning by the clouds, tree bare and last one the fence.

After this part, I pasted the fences and using Tombo Multi Liquid Glue I started to paste the hears over the branches.

To finalize the project, I cut and embossed a little butterflies with the embosslits Beautiful butterflies from Stampin Up and pasted these with dimensionals.

Materials:
Tree Bare - UNIQUE LASER DESIGN, Cricut Explore, Cardstock, Adhesives, Big Shot, Embosslits Beautiful Butterflies.

I really liked the simplicity and colors of this project and how the tree bare gave the real touch to my garden of love. I hope you liked too. Happy crafting!

{{Hugs}} 
Martha Lucia

My 3 Wise Men Ornament

Hi everyone, it's Martha Lucia here, with something very special to me. I want to share a gift that my friend Shilo send me with and special order. This year my mother in law wants her Christmas tree decorated with only Unique Laser Designs Ornaments, and I was very happy helping her to make these. With this order, Shilo send me this, 3 Wise Men Ornament, and I was shocked as soon I opened the package.

  

Do you want to know how I made this? Let me show you.

The first step was painting the ornament on both sides with White Acrylic Paint and letting it dry. My 3 Wise Men ornament is en MDF and you also can get this in chipboard. 

Using a small paint brush, cover the front side of your ornament, with a medium coat of Distress Crackle Pain and again let dry. It took me about 2 hours. Remember to wash you paint brush immediately if you want to use it again.

When the crackle paint is dry you will note all the crackle details over the entire image.

To give color you can use Distress Ink in different colors or only one color, as you prefer. Using the blending tool to apply the ink. 

Easy peasy, especially when you have to do 52 different styles of ornaments!!!! I really love to make this model of ornament but you can see this and other beautiful designs in Unique Laser Designs Store and the best part is that you can use different techniques in each one and use them like ornaments for the tree, for your presents, cards or special gifts.

See you next week with another idea and don't forget that you can always find great tutorials here to make your creations Unique using Laser Cuts.  

Materials:

• 3 Wise Men Ornament - Unique Laser Designs

• White Acrylic Paint
• Distress Crackle Paint - Tim Holtz
• Brush Painters
• Dristress Ink
• Blending Tools

{{HUGS}}
Martha Lucia

Music Notes: Happy, Happy, Happy!

Hi everyone, it's Martha Lucia here, with something fun and easy for our parties. Today I want to share a card and a party favor using the Music Notes, one of the most adorable pieces of  Unique Laser Designs Store.

To begin the process I inked my cardboard music note with black soot distress ink.

This process is very easy and very quick and you can use any color and any kind of ink, because the cardboard is very friendly with the inks.

My card is a regular size, 4-1/4" x 5-1/2". And for the base I used Basic Black cardstock.

The second layer is a whisper white cardstock that I decided to decorate like a background, using a musical stamp set with the emboss resist technique. To align my stamps and layers I used the Get- It - Straight Laser Square.

I pasted this layer over the base of my card using a lot of stampin dimensionals. 

Then I took another piece of whisper white cardstock with the same width (4") and with a pencil I created a free curvy line on the top, that I cut with scissors. The main idea was to have a little space between both pieces to see the background and give a third color selection to the card.

I pasted the upper part with stampin dimensionals and re-sized  the bottom part to keep this equal like the second layer. Then I stamped my message and pasted to the card.

I pasted the Music Notes from Unique Laser Desings over the white part with Multi Tombo Liquid Glue and let it dry for a few seconds.

Now my card is finalized.

To make the party favor I used the Pillow Box Punch Board from We R Memories. I stamped the music notes tone to tone over the cardstock, sponged the borders with the same ink, tied a bakers twine around the pillow and pasted two more Music Notes from Unique Laser Designs.

As always, I want to show you how the Music Notes look in their original stage and you can't imagine the hundred of possibilities that you have with these beautiful pieces. They are available in cardboard, wood and cork and in two different sizes, 1" and 1-1/2". I used in my project the 1" size. 

See you soon with another Unique idea and remember if you are looking for fresh product ideas, you have to visit Unique Laser Designs Store...it's the smart choice!

{{Hugs}}

Martha Lucia

Desktop Display

Hi everyone! This is Martha Lucia with my first project in Unique Laser Designs! I am very excited to share this with you. My project is a "Desktop Display" that I altered with a few things. Let me show you.

I start by selecting two products from ULD Store, which was the most difficult part because I was shocked by all these options. But I needed to start with something, I took the wheelbarrow and the shaped circles in wood. 

Then I used different colors of Tim Holtz distress ink to color the circles and after they dried, which only took a few seconds, I stamped them with  Memento Tuxedo Black with a text stamp.

For the wheelbarrow I used a patina technique with VerDayProducts in Bronze Color. I love this effect over the wheel and handles.  The steps to get this effect  are too easy, I only needed to paint the wheelbarrow with bronze paint and after it dried I sprayed it with VerDay Patina Solution. Note the details:

The base of my desktop was natural wood, so I painted it with a Red Wood Stain from Ikea. I let it dry and then I cut a little small piece of designer paper for the stand.  

To decorate the stand I cut some words  in card stock Rich Razzleberry using my die cutting machine and framelits or cutting templates from Little Yellow Bicycle.

As I was thinking of a display, I decided to decorate some journal cards with gold glimmer paper , staples and bakers twine, so I can interchange the board message every day. 

To keep these cards in place I created to decorate a paper clip with metal on topper, using a piece of Polished Purple Metal Sheet from Add a Little Dazzle and the design of one embossing folder. I pasted the piece of metal with Sticky strip to keep this in place over the black part of my paper clip.

The last part of my project was the assembly. And I decided to top the wheelbarrow with some little paper flowers. I pasted the circles and the wheelbarrow with dimensionals to give more dimension to the project.

Now I want to show you what the original products I chose looked like and invite you to visit the ULD Store because you will go crazy with all the special pieces that you can find to create and embellish your projects. 

Products Used:

• Shaped Circles
• Wheelbarrow
• Desktop Display (Heidi Swap)
• VerDay Bronze Kit 
• Polished Purple Metal Sheet (Add a Little Dazzle)
• Distress Ink (Tim Holtz)
• Red Wood Stain Behandla (IKEA)
• Paper Flowers (Crafty City)
• Cutting Templates (Little Yellow Bicycle)
• Journal Cards (We R Memories)
• Designer Series Paper & Card Stock (Stampin Up)
• Big Shot 
• Multi Tombo Liquid Glue
• Dimensionals
• Paper Clip

I hope I have inspired you to create something for you or a present during this holidays. Come back soon to see more wonderful ideas!

{{HUGS}} Martha Lucia!

Colorful Fall Layout

Hi again everyone! 

I’m back to share my second project as Guest Designer for Unique Laser Designs! For this project I decided to do a layout using their beautiful wood leaves. They smell so good! I really hesitated to do anything to them at all because the wood grain is so lovely but I had a specific project in mind so went ahead with my original plan.

First, I gave them a coat of Gesso.

Then, I spread some Aleene’s Turbo Tacky Glue over a small section at a time, then placed my pre-treated eggshell over it, and gently pressed it down. Do this until it’s completely covered with eggshell pieces and leave just a little space between pieces. I got the Eggshell Tutorial from Gabrielle Pollacco a few years ago. The pretreatment is the most tedious and time consuming, so you really have to want to try this technique to do it! (I will cover that part at the end of the tutorial for those that want to try it.)

Once you get them all done, let them dry completely. Then you’ll have to carefully break off the eggshells that hang over the edges.

Next, I gathered all my Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks that I thought I might want to use for my leaves. I knew I wanted an Autumn theme so these are the colors I came up with, as well as a little gold Metallic Mixatives and Alcohol Blending Solution.

After being satisfied with the colors, let them dry and add a layer of Ranger Glossy Accents. This seals the eggshells in and leaves a beautiful clear coat over the mosaics. Here are the finished leaves.                                              

Now, for my layout. It took me quite awhile to choose my background paper to compliment the photos I wanted to use as well as the leaf mosaics. I distressed the edges and added Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink to the edges with the wood tool and felt.

This is the first non-human layout I’ve made and it was a challenge for me using so many pictures. It took me several hours of deciding how to place them because I wanted to be sure and feature the beautiful wood pieces I’d just decorated. I also had trouble deciding whether or not to mat the pictures but in the end decided I didn’t want to cover anymore of the background paper than necessary so I just inked the edges of the pictures with the Tim Holtz Vintage Photo.

I then did a little dragonfly stamping and stamp-embossed a dragonfly at the bottom as well as some pretty leaf vines. I then added the title and a few birds and beautiful butterflies from Reneabouquets.com.

Thank you for stopping by! 

All of the trees pictured here were photographed by me on our property with the exception of the aspen, which is at our neighbor’s that is right next to our driveway.

PRODUCTS USED:

ULD W-1186L Leaves 

Daler Rowney Gesso (from Walmart)

Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks – Currant, Butterscotch, Citrus, Sunshine Yellow, Rust, Meadow, Ginger, Red Pepper and Gold Metallic Mixatives

Ranger Glossy Accents

Bo Bunny Forever Fall Bouquet (background paper)

Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink Pad

Fiskars Butterfly Magic Clear Stamps (lower dragonfly)

Inkadinkado Foliage Trails Clear Stamps

Hot Off The Press Dragonfly Clear Stamps (small dragonflies)

A La Mode Embossing Powder

Reneabouquets.com butterflies

To pretreat eggshells: Save up several and soak them in warm water and a bit of anti-bacterial water for at least an hour or overnight. Pull out the membrane and be sure to get all the little bits or the shell pieces won’t glue to your chipboard. Then let them dry for a few hours on paper towels. Then you are ready to go!

A trip back in time

Let me take you on a little field trip back in time.  Isn't it just natural to want to use these wood pieces in a layout about George Washington's home of  Mount Vernon?

     

                   

 the curly tree, the large Polaroid frame, and the picket fence 

I used Tim Holtz Distress Stains (walnut for the tree, wild honey for the fence, and picket fence for the Polaroid frame) to color these wood shapes from Unique Laser Designs.  This method of coloring maintains the natural beauty of the wood without covering it up.  I added some red bling to complete my cherry tree, but then I really didn't feel like I needed to add anything else.  This was such a simple time in history, I didn't want to add too much.

This layout design is very loosely based on one I saw in the most recent Close to My Heart catalog.  I added my own style with the wood embellishments and surprise---my version has a lot more photos! My versions ALWAYS have a lot more photos.  

One of my favorite things about using Unique Laser Designs products on scrapbook pages is their thin-ness.  I really don't like bulky scrapbook pages, and even layered on top of each other as in this layout, I'm still easily able to slide the page into a clear protective sleeve.

So, I took my ULD shapes way back in time...where are you going to take yours?