Finishing Touch Ideas - the blog

New Layouts

Thank you very much to my wonderful friends who came over to scrap using FTI products.  Here are some of the layouts below.

 

 

More layouts to come. :-)

Ngaire's Christmas Layout

Haven't scrapped your Christmas photos yet?  Looking for some inspiration?

Ngaire Bartlam has created a fabulous layout using the FTI chipboard hearts as Christmas trees! 
Click here for the list of the items used to make this great layout.

  

 

Emeline's Layouts

 

This rhyme keeps ringing in my ears i just had to lay them out on a layout ! I used FTI's raw alphabet chipboards for a fun mix.

 

The jumbo brown flower is the highlight of the purse ! It is so pretty in this unique color!
I laced the edge of the purse with lace and brown velvet ribbon. These are attached using double sided tape. Stitching can be used as an alternative.

 

I absolutely love the colour combinations of aqua + brown !i wanted to showcase the pretty ribbons, hence i arranged them in a linear vertical manner and embellished with flower chipboards.

 

 

The puzzle design is an extension of my journaling/ title. it is our hope for our son that all things all into place nicely (if not perfectly) for him in his life path.I used my children's jigsaw puzzle and traced the pattern onto pattern paper and cut out the shapes. I layered FTI's rub ons to bring out the fabulous colours on the rub ons.

Michelle's Layouts & Off the Page

 

Inspiration - I have had this horizontal clipboard for a while intending to alter it to make a useful place to keep my endless lists.  I pop riveted extra bulldog clips at the sides to hold post it notes securely, and made a frame with the mix of blue and green ribbons.  I'm really looking forward to using it!

   

Inspiration - These photos are of my mum with her adored firstborn grandchild -  a long awaited event.  I think she despaired of me ever getting around to it after 7 years of marriage!  The colourblocked cardstock was a perfect match for the blue and green candy striped ribbon, and I added more stripes of ribbon around the large blue flower, and white gel pen journalling and frames around the photos to continue the stripe/white/blue/green theme.

 

 

 

Inspiration:

The blues and greens in this set of photos were perfect for this month's kit.  I used a stamp to create a matching background for the large cardstock mat.  I anchored the mat and linked it to the photos and the background with the  floral corner and ribbon straps.

 

 

  

 

 

Inspiration:

I wanted to show the versatility of the FTI range of embellishments for making cards.  The felt ribbon can be used as the full width, or various elements can be cut from it, and small scraps of all kinds of ribbon are perfect to use.  The bitty buckles are very cute, and an ideal size for cards.  The range of Rub On Skinnies is huge, and has a ready-made sentiment for every occasion.  Add flowers and brads to hold it all together, and its easy to create quick cards you'd be proud to give. 

Shop of the month-Ribbon Palace

Thank you very much to Ribbon Palace for their fantastic layouts that were created with Finishing Touch Ideas products.

    

 

Emeline's Layouts

Emeline-I've wanted to do a monochromatic layout and was inspired by FTI's White chipboards and velvet ribbon. They look and feel luxurious and brings out the pure sweet innocence of a child which i wanted to convey on the page.

 
Emeline-Love the blue rub on !! I managed to find a paper which complements the lovely blue shade and attached a white chipboard on top of the rub on for added interest.

Emeline-i matted the photo onto the velvet ribbons and tucked flowers and chipboards beneath for dimension

Emeline-totally inspired by the ribbons and ric rac, i used them to tie the photos together.

 

Shop of the Month-Scrapbookit

Some amazing layouts and off the page items were created by the very talented girls at Scrapbookit this month!  I love the monochromatic look of the layouts.   The daisies and the box of cards are 2 great gift ideas that anyone would love to receive.

Layouts below made by Nikki Antonello

Nikki enjoyed using the felt ribbon and new Striped ribbons on her projects... The Felt was great inspiration to use on her layout, cutting smaller pieces out and layering....

 

A great give idea is to decorate a box using ribbons and chipboard, adding real or hand made flowers...

  

 

Layout created by Sally Clark

I also struggled (which surprised me!) with using minimal patterned paper and set myself the challenge to use NO patterned paper.  I was very happy with the result and now need to do a similar layout for Dylan.
 
Points of interest:
*Use a dinner plate to create large circles.
*Mix and match rub ons from the same sheet.  The sheets are great because they have different fonts and lettering styles so you can really get an eclectic look around a photo by just using 1 word from a different saying or verse and mixing them up.
*Wipe ink over the chip shapes and wipe off with a tissue.  Due to the semi-gloss fiish on the shapes only a light tint of the colour will stay behind which creates a subtle yet effective result.  I did 3 layers of clear embossing powder over the inked swirl.
*Mat photos on a wider than usual mat which then allows for extra room for embellishing the mat to accentuate the photo. 
*Use ric-rac to 'frame' the photo.  As the ric rac is a very fine one, I was cautious about using glue as it might seeps out from beneath the ric rac when pressure was applied to adhere it.  I also didn't think glue would hold the corners at right angles like I wanted.  I folded the ribbon into a right angle and pushed a brad through both layers to hold in place and then adhered to the page with the brad.  This worked well so I then decided to mix and match the brad colours and use brads to hold the ends in place also.
*Cut a number of different sized circles, ink the edges with a dark ink and layer around layout.
*Journal in a circle and use different coloured and sized brads to frame the circles on the layout.
*Use alphabet stamps for simple journaling using the same colour ink as the edges of the circle.
*Add buttons, etc as flower centres.
*Tint some parts of the black and white photo with Stampin'Write markers in soft colours.
*Stippple the edges of the white 12x12 page with a pale colour and add accents in a darker tone of the same colour.

           

Box of Cards - Great gift idea for elderly people who don't get time to shop for cards or can't afford to buy them but love to give them to family...

I painted a paper mache square box in 2 shades of blue.  The lid I painted in the darker blue and wrapped a ribbon around the top to signify a present.  Made a bow with ribbon, pushed a brad through the centre and attached to the top of the box.
 
Painted the sides of the box in pale blue and painted some of the chip shapes in dark blue and adhered a different shape to each side of the box.  Painted the inside of the box in dark blue.
 
Made 5 cards from blue cardstock, (finished size 3x3 inches) to fit inside the box. Inked the edges of card fronts and decorated each card with ribbon and a rub-on.
 
1. Trimmed a strip of braid and folded to form a double leaf shape.  Adhered to card.  Adhered a strip of the same braid as a stem.  Put a brad in the centre of a flower and inked the edges of the flower before mounting with mounting tape above the stem.  Rub-on sentiment inside the card reads "If friends were flowers, I'd pick you."
2. Cut 1 petal from a large flower to form a heart shape (the petal was pretty much a heart shape anyway just made the top split a bit bigger) and ink the edges.  Screw up into a very small ball, smooth out and run inkpad lightly over shape.  Cut 2 small slits in the centre of the shape and thread ribbon through and tie in a bow.  Mount to card using mounting tape and finish with a rub-on sentiment.
3. Thread ribbon through a small buckle and adhere to LHS of card.  Apply rub-on to RHS do card.
4. Cut a small square of card stock and trim 8 pieces of ribbon a little wider than this square.  Adhere 4 ribbon strips along top and side.  Weave ribbon and adhere at back of square.  Mount to card front and attach a small bow to top of woven 'gift'.  Apply rub-on sentiment above present.
5. Apply rub-on sentiment to top 1/2 of card front.  Trim a piece of dark blue card to fit bottom 1/2 of card.  Attach 3 brads in a row to bottom RH corner of scrap dark blue card and attach to card front.  Adhere a piece of ric rac over the top edge of the dark blue card.
 
TIP...Some of the ribbons are very slippery and synthetic and can fray very easily.  Light a match and gently melt the edges of the ribbons to prevent fraying and this also give a nice even finish without worrying about how to secure the ends of ribbon.  I will now keep a box of matches on hand for this very purpose!!!

Shop of the Month-Scrapsidaisy

Thank you very much to the team at Scrapsidaisy for these lovely layouts that have continued along the black and white theme.

Georgie Mierau: what inspired me to do this layout was the fact it was black and white and bikers no matter what age always wear black......and sometimes white !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tracey Kidd: Learning to sk8te was inspired by the bright rub-ons which suited the skating theme and a boy page perfectly. I wanted to keep the background simple so I just used plain PP and a piece of notepad paper so the rubons and chipboard numbers would stand out on the page.

 

 

 

 

Michelle Green: My inspiration for this page came from the beautiful colours in the flowers and rubbon which match perfectly with the colours in the photo of my gorgeous baby girl.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Julieann Saxby: I was inspired to create my page by the lovely new "HUGE" 6inch blossoms.

I love using flowers on my pages so the  huge black one & medium white one that were given to me to create with were what inspired it all.

I have previously purchased some of the Floral felt ribbon & was a little afraid to use it. However I found it easier then I had imagined once I gave it a go.  I attached my felt ribbon with little brads in various colours.

Kristy's Layouts

Kristy decided to concentrate on wedding layouts using the black and white theme. 

So this is Marks wife Hayley who am close friends with and she looked truly amazing the day they got married, Again I wanted to keep the layout simple but elegant I used the felt cut in half in white, some white ribbon crossed and a heart 3d with foam dot, The black flourishes sanded back a little and the three tear drop shapes 3d with foam dots aswell, half the white flower machine stitched down to add interest.

So on this layout I used a pic of my husband and his best mate Mark on his wedding day, I wanted to keep the layout simple but manly so I used the floral grey ribbon with the hint of elegance being flowers, black ribbon to make it bold,  a combo of the black and white chipboard letters and the white and black brads to finish it off.

Again here I love this pic from my wedding day and used the chipboard flourishes and used 3d dots to raise them of the page, I used half of the black 6 inch flower and finished the centre off with a white heart and a smaller black heart 3d with foam dot to lift it off the white heart.

A new Marriage I love this picture of my husband and I and not wanting to take too much away from the photo I used the 6 inch, 4 inch and 2 inch flowers cut inhalf to show them off, the black ribbon with the fleck of white and the pearl ribbon slide as my necklace was pearls.  I also used the chipboard letters in a combo of white and black.  I used the Purple, Orange and Pink cardstock to pick out the colours from my boquet, while the black and white FTI stuff added the touch of elegance it needed

We are sorry to say goodbye to Kristy as she has a break while waiting on the birth of her third child.  We wish you all the very best.

We also welcome Tracey onto our Design Team.  Keep an eye out for Tracey's creations in the next month.

Emeline goes off the page

Emeline has gone off the page with her creations this month.  Have a look at the card and the fantastic wall hanging which was made with one of our new 6" flowers.

i used black felt ribbon over a laced cardstock to create a dimensional effect and used brads to secure the ribbon in place. The black and white definitely signify elegance.

                                     

On this layout, i used ribbon stripes to frame the picture and used mini brads to use as journaling points

                                                                      

I used large brads as fillers for the scalloped cardstock. These brads are truly very versatile. They are so great even to use it on its own!

I used Jumbo black flower as a base and layered hearts chipboard onto it. I love the different sizes and shapes of the hearts!