Hi everyone, what a great feature post for me! This is one of my all time most treasured pictures of my son so the layout had to be perfect!

I LOVE THIS TECHNIQUE! Using just a typical household product can add amazing textures to LOs.

Using the Echo Park Spring Feathers 12×12 pattern paper  as my background, I brushed a generous area with Stampin’ Up! paint, making sure some areas were thicker then others. While it was drying, I used Heidi Swapp Colour Shine Mist to add color into the filler! One caution: the mist does make the filler a little soupier so using it with detailed stencils can prove tricky with the filler bleeding under the stencil … However, the happy accident shown here just added to look! A safer option would be using a drop of re-inker; it’s colour proves more potent of course by design. Here I used Tim Holtz Bubbles and Dot Fade Stencils.

Then a quick few sprays of HS Mist (Teal and Amethyst) completed the background beautifully and the look I was going for was achieved.

With the pale blue pattern, I chose Chocolate Chip from Stampin’ Up! to mat this most precious photo! Some random blue buttons and Close to my Heart sparkles, along with a playful string of CTMH white Waxy Flax accented with the monkey from Stampin Up! Fox & Friends set (retired), finished off with a HS heart and sticker. (Note the tiny sparkle on the “i” in cutie and on the monkey just adds a little something. Don’t be afraid to add some layers on to your accents!) Experiment often!

I was so happy with the result!

I don’t know about you but when I have a vision and then the real thing turns out EVEN BETTER it is always EXCITING for me – especially with one of my most favorite photos!

Thanks for visiting!