I try to do a few different things for my Kaisercraft blog posts. This month, I used Finders Keepsers collection and altered a paint pallet.
I used a stencil and gesso on the background. The collectables and the images has been added in layers. I have also used a photo slide under the camera for decoration.
The Storybook collection is a fantastic and masculine collection. This layout was created for my monthly post in Kaisercraft's blog.
This layout was created using a lot of diecuts, made using Kaisercraft's dies. I have also used the diecuts as stencils, and created patterns on the background with ink, gesso and sprays.
Kaisercraft Products: Paper: P2069 Read | P2068 Bookplates | P2602 Pages. Collectables: CT852 Story book. Ink: IP728 Safron | IP733 Green | IP730 Avocado | IP723 Vintage | IP722 Red Gum | IP725 Petal Pink | IP719 Black. Epoxy Stickers: ST911 Monochrome. Kaisermists: KM104 Lime Green | KM117 Apple | KM101 Charcoald KM111 White. Die (used as stencil and die): DD731 Card creations.
One of the collections this month is the Story Book collection. This collection inspired me to create a gentleman's travel desk.. This is one of the items I am showing with this month's papers in my monthly blogpost for Kaisercraft.
The travel desk has been made from scratch, and has been built out of card board. It is decorated with paper from Kaisercraft's Story Book Collection.
This little travel desk folds together to a 30cm x 15cm x 15cm box. The box locks together with strong magnets.
The box looks like a set of draws on the back.
The box opens and the draw can be pulled out to create the desk.
The collection had papers with books, old pens, letters and a frame, which can be fussy cut and can be added to your creations.
There is a small door in one of the shelf, that can be opened, to reveal the room inside.
The desk from the back when it is opened.
In one of the shelves, I have created a small draw, with a few bits and bobs and a small frame.
Inside the draw, I have added a paper with pattern from an old typewriter.
Today, I have created a mixed media Easter egg, for Hobbykunst's blog. I have used a usual paper Easter egg (quite traditional for Norway). The egg has been mounted on the inside of a used packaging tape roll.
There is lots of flowers emerging from the inside of the zip. I have used flowers from a lot of different manufactures (Prima, Wild Orchid and Papirdesign). The flowers has been sprayed dark, then white and purple. There is also a lot of gesso added for effect. I have added some coloured flowers after painting for effect.
I have used different techniques to create structure on the side. Then I have dry painted to get enhance the structure. I have also added wooden gears, painted silver with Metamica.
The base is recycled, and created from the inside of a tape roll. I have added chipboard letters and added metal tape over the top. Then I made the shapes of the letters come trough under the tape. I painted it black with acrylic tape, and dried of most of the paint, so the paint was only left in the nooks and crannies.
Metal tape tutorial
I have added a tutorial I made a long time ago. This was my first ever film tutorial.
This is in Norwegian, but you should be able to understand the main idea without knowing the language.
After painting the egg, I added some effect on the side by using one of Prima's stencils and adding texture paint. This was painted with silver paint, to create an illusion of metal spill on the sides.
I have used different mediums to create texture on the side of the egg. After this, I painted it black, and dry painted with different kinds of acrylic paint, distress ink and inka gold.
The flowers are from different brands, and were in all sorts of colours. The good thing about using flowers like this, is that they are spray painted, so you can use all your old flowers in odd colours.
The egg opens in the top. Here you can see how, I added extra space to the top of the egg, to give room for the flowers.
The egg has been painted with white acrylic paint inside.
How I take and edit photos of my work
I don't really use a photo tent for my work. This is just because a lot of my work is to large for the photo tents you can get in the shop as some of my work is up to 70cm wide or tall.
You really don't need a fantastic camera to take good photos. A lot of mobiles do take a lot of good photos these days. Although a good camera helps. I use an SLR camera.
I use a large piece of cardboard as a backdrop. Sometimes I use different backdrops, but often I like it to be plain white. This is also one of the criteria for photos for the Kaisercraft designers. I often let the backdrop curve behind the item, so there will be no lines between the paper under and behind the item I am taking a photo of.
There is very little light during the day in the wintertime in Norway. Some parts of Norway have no light during the winter, while other parts (like where I live) have a few hours light each day. I really try to take the photos while there is daylight. If I don't have the luxury of daylight, I use four or five lamps with bright white light as well as a the flash on the SLR camera. I often use several light sources to avoid shadows on the backdrop.
After taking the photo, I do edit the photos slightly. This could be to remove some of the yellow light (if the light source is yellow) or blue light (if the photos are taken outside). Also, I straighten up the photo and crop it (eg. not getting the sofa and the dog in the photo). There are free programs you can find online to do simple editing, or more expensive programs you get pay a lot of money for, where you can do a lot more.
Kaisercraft's designteam are showing double layouts with the Finders Keepers collections in the blog today.
I got inspiration from one of the quotes in the paper pad "Throw kindness around like confetti". I the photo is a stages photo, where I created confetti with papers from the collection and through them in the air (and I now have confetti all around the house).
One of the new collections from Prima this spring is the Salvage District collection. This is a layerd layout, created with Palais Royal, Palace Garden and Distric Chateau from this collection.
Kaisercraft has published their montly challenge and this is my take on the sketch. This layout is created with the wonderful, bright and colourful collection Finders Keepers.
