The Nightingale

There is a wonderful children's fairy tale written by Hans Christian Anderson about a Nightingale who lives in the garden belonging to the Emperor of China. I won't spoil the beautiful story, but the tale ends when the plain Nightingale with the beautiful voice agrees to live in outside in the garden and sing to the Emperor until the end of his days. The Emperor agrees that he will never again cage the Nightingale, no matter how beautiful the cage may be. When I saw this beautiful and detailed wooden bird cage, and the sweet little bird wooden cuts from Unique Laser Designs.   I was reminded of the old story of the little brown bird with the golden voice.

 I began with the Bird Cage - Fancy, with so many pretty and intricate details.

Then I added the Bird on Fancy Branch. I chose to keep the bird natural and unpainted. The wooden die cuts are absolutely beautiful on their own, and I like how the tones in the wood seemed to fit the image of the plain Nightingale. In addition, having a plain, unpainted die cut on a card or project with a lot of other vivid embellishment and texture is a great way to really highlight the unique and special addition of a wooden laser cut.

I painted the Bird Cage with white acrylic paint, then covered it with sparkling white glitter.

I added the Bird on Fancy Branch at the top, then adhered the cage, and two more paper die cuts to my patterned paper and black card stock base. Then I added the beautiful "jewels" of the Emperor's empty cage. The tale of the Nightingale is complete.

No matter how many photographs I took, I was unable to truly capture the beautiful sparkle of the cage, and the dazzling shine of the jewels when the light hits them just right. But you can see the pretty details of such a special wooden die cut and how you can transform it into a jeweled cage.  I used gemstone embellishments that resemble rubies, emeralds, sapphires, Chinese peridots and light blue tanzanite.  It's a nice reminder that even a jeweled cage cannot hold the beautiful voice of the Nightingale.

Live your life in color!

Materials List:
Unique Laser Designs
    Bird on Fancy Branch 
    Bird Cage - fancy, 
Other
    Black card stock
    Pattern Card stock, Moxie Frosted
    Red card stock
    Light pink card stock
    Paper Lanterns die, Memory Box
    Delicate Chain die, Poppystamps
    Chloe Stem die, Memory Box
    white glitter
    adhesive
    assorted jewel bling

Paris By Thirteen

On this last day of 2014 I am sharing my last post for Unique Laser Designs.  It has been great working with this group of talented people!

I asked Unique Laser Designs for an Eiffel Tower especially for this project.  In August I was able to go to Paris with my kids, my mother,  and my thirteen year old niece.  I am planning on giving this project as a memento of my niece's trip.

            

The two towers are cut out of chipboard, while Flourish A was cut out of wood.  These embellishments were simply embossed with embossing powder.  Tags can get busy due to their size and I felt that this simple treatment helped to showcase the laser cuts.

Have a wonderful 2015!

Flourish A

Welcome to our newest Designers

Wow - can you believe that Christmas is only one month away ?  Where has this year gone ?  Hopefully you're well on your way to having your Christmas shopping done.  If you're still looking for that special, one of a kind gift, don't forget that we offer many different gift items, from Christmas ornaments to custom engraved wine boxes and lots more.

Today I want to introduce you to the newest Designers to join our already wonderful team of talented ladies.

Blog / Pinterest / Facebook

Hi, my name is Sabrina Jackson and I live in Southern Arizona with my husband and our two beautiful girls.  I am a Christian and love spreading the word of God through my creations.  I have been crafting my entire life from flower arranging, to sewing, knitting and crocheting and I started paper crafting about 8 years ago. Was bitten by that bug and have not looked back, lol!  

I create mostly cards and tags, but love going outside my comfort zone ever so often. I am looking forward to using Unique Laser Designs in my creations!

Blog / Facebook / Pinterest / Twitter / Instagram

My name is Erin Reed.  I am a military wife, a stay at home mom (my children give me wonderful pictures to scrap with), 2 boys and 2 girls.  I was a teacher (high school science) before I stayed at home, and I love to scrapbook!!  My first love is my family, they mean everything to me.  My second love is crafting, especially scrapbooking.  My style of crafting is funky, shabby layers.  I love to just get messy and just play with my projects!

We are very excited to share the new creations from all of our wonderful designers with you in the future.  To these new ladies - Welcome !

Artist Trading Block

Please let me share my newest project with you.  I have made my first Artist Trading Block.  This project was fun to make, I encourage everyone to give an Artist Trading Block a try!

The block was hand made from chipboard sheets that I had been hanging onto.  The block was then covered in patterned paper before I adhered the Unique Laser Designs Circle Stencil.

I had cut the Circle Stencil into four equal parts.  Once the parts were adhered to the block,every thing was given a coat of gesso. The insides of the circles were not coated as heavily, allowing the patterned paper to peek through.

Then I began filling in circles with stickers, brads, metals or just crackle medium.  I sprayed all the sides with mists, wiping off any mist that coated the filled in circles.

Once the box was assembled, I added Unique Laser Design's Angel Wings to the box.  The wings had been treated to paint and embossing powder.  

Are you ready to try an Artist Trading Block on your own?  I highly recommend them!  If you would like to see more of my block or further information, please visit my blog.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Unique Laser Designs Products Used

Circle Stencil

Angel Wings

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Marbling Mixed Media Tutorial Using Unique Laser Design's Cork Feathers!

Today, I will share how I created my Week #39 Title card for my pocket scrapbooking layout using these Unique Laser Design's SUPER AMAZING cork feathers. 

Unique Laser Design's Cork Feathers

Okay, let's get started:

Started with a piece of 4 x 6 patterned 
scrapbooking paper.

Pulled 2 shallow pans from my kitchen.

Purchased this Linit Liquid Starch
at my local grocery store.

Poured just enough liquid starch to cover the bottom of one pan.

Added just enough tap water to cover the bottom of the other pan.

Selected these paint colors from my stash that compliment my pocket scrapbooking 
layout this week. NOTE: FLUID PAINT performs
 better that regular acrylic paint
for this marbling mixed media technique. 

Added drops of paint, one color at a time in the pan with the liquid starch. Golden Fluorescent Pink fluid 
& Americana Electric Pink acrylic paint drops.

DecoArt Diarylide Yellow fluid acrylic paint drops.

DecoArt Cobalt Teal fluid acrylic paint drops.

DecoArt Raw Umber fluid acrylic paint drops.

Used the end of a paint brush to swirl the colors together
to create my desired marbling pattern in the surface.

Placed the patterned paper (pattern face down) 
on top of the marbled paint surface & immediately removed from the starch pan. 
Immediately placed the marbled side down 
into the pan of water to rinse off the
excess starch & removed from the
 pan of water immediately.

Dried completely (a heat gun works great).

Added an additional layer of color with KaiserCraft's Script background stamp
and Ranger's Dandelion Archival Ink.

Added "Week #39" using 'Sketchbook" 
Thickers by American Crafts.

Added dates with the Dear Lizzy roller date stamp.

Outlined "Week #39" with a black
 Signo Uniball pen.

Added a scalloped doodle stamp by 
Roben-Marie Smith (Paperbag Studios).

Added three cork feathers from Unique Laser Designs.

Doodled around the scallops & feathers
 with a white Signo Uniball pen.

Doodled two black border lines with a 
black Signo Uni-Ball pen.

Added bling rhinestones
 to the centers of the scallops 
with a UHU glue stick.

Distressed the edges of the patterned 
paper with black Heidi Swapp Archival Ink.

And, VIOLA' ~ My Week #39 
Pocket Scrapbooking Title Card is COMPLETE!

I hope you enjoyed this marbling mixed media technique. Please check out 

Unique Laser Design's cork feathers or visit the official website at Unique Laser Designs. Thanks for dropping by.

XOXO,

Shelley

My First Unique Laser Designs (ULD) Guest Designer Mixed Media/Art Journal Layout!

I just KNEW I had to kick off my first ULD Guest Designer project with a BANG! There was no other way to do it than with……drum roll, please…….ULD's chipboard "SPLATS". I couldn't get my acrylic paint on those yummies fast enough! LOL!

"King of Kings" Mixed Media Art Journal Layout

Let's jump right in with my mixed media art journal layout process:

Start with a 12 x12 piece of canvas textured white cardstock.

Use a brush stroke to paint a black, semi-gloss background.

Create a textured backdrop using a brick wall stencil & gesso.

Position three pieces of paper on top of your background as shown above.

Use the Golden high flow acrylic paint to create paint splatters.

Loosen the cap of the Golden 'florescent pink'
acrylic paint bottle. Apply paint straight from the bottle using a 'flicking' method.

Remove the three pieces of paper.

Use a paint brush to lightly smear some of the paint on the brick.
Dry with a heat gun.

Position two more pieces of paper as shown above.

Apply 'indigo blue' paint in the same "flicking" motion,
remove the two pieces of paper,
and lightly smear the 'indigo blue' on the brick. Dry completely.

Flick & smear Golden 'dioxazine purple' acrylic paint. Dry Completely.
Add more 'florescent pink'. Dry completely.

Flick Golden 'green gold' acrylic paint. Dry completely.

Apply Golden 'iridescent' acrylic paint using a 'flicking' motion. Dry completely.

Apply gesso to Unique Laser Design's "Splats" shapes. Allow to dry.

Add Golden high flow acrylic paint to the ULD "Splats". Dry completely.

Adhere "Splats" to the background using matte medium.

Add smaller "Splats" on top of larger ones to give a nice layered look.

Outline all "Splats" with a black Uni-ball Signo pen.

Use gold foil Thickers to create your "King of Kings" sentiment.

Use matte medium to adhere the alphas to the background.

Free draw a crown on a 4 x 6 golden colored piece of card stock.

Trace the crown with a black Faber-Castell Pitt artist pen.

Add bling rhinestones to the crown.

Trace sentiment with a black Uni-ball Signo pen & silver Sakura Gelly Roll pen.

Distress the edges of the white card stock with black ink.

Close-up of the layers & texture.

Close-up of the sentiment.

And, VOILA' ~ King of Kings
Mixed Media Art Journal Layout!!!

I hope you enjoyed this mixed media art journal process! You can find the ULD "Splat" pieces HERE or check them out at Unique Laser Design. Have a wonderful week everyone! 

XOXO Shelley :D