Live laugh Love Together | Niki Rowland

Hiya Shimmerz Fans, Niki here today with another layout to share. I was inspired by layouts I've seen around lately with thick coloured stripes on the background so I thought I'd try that out for my layout today.

I choose four colours of Shimmerz paints that I thought would match my papers well. They are: Going Peach Side, Bumbly Bee, Orange Sherbert and It's Mint to Be. All these are original Shimmerz paints and I used them with a thick paintbrush straight out of the pot. There was no need to add any water as they are already the perfect consistency.

Once my stripes were painted and dry I added a little tone on tone stamping with a set of border stamps. I then flicked paint splatters in the same colours all over the stripes.

To make my layout I positioned my photo and title onto my layout and then added tone on tone embellishments. I've used Oh Happy Day by Simple Stories for this layout as well as an acrylic word by Bramble Fox.

 Thanks so much for joining me today. Don't forget if you place an order via the Shimmerz Store and put my name in the comments you will recieve a freebie - happy days!

Happy scrapping everyone xx 

Products used:

Shimmerz: Going Peach Side

Shimmerz: Bumbly Bee

Shimmerz: Orange Sherbert

Shimmerz: It's Mint to Be

Baby it's Cold Outside | Niki Rowland

Hi Shimmerz Fans! Niki here today and I have a cold, wintery, icy layout to share today. I almost always put a border around the edge of my layouts but for this one I decided to stick to mostly white so I have a super white background to do justice to the snowy photo.

I started off by making a water color effect background. I did this by using the packaging technique. I applied light shades of blue, pink and yellow. The colours I've used are:

Pool Me Close Shimmerz, Lemoncello Shimmerz, Pink Champagne Creameez and Freshly Minted Inklingz.

Once I had applied the paint to the background, I added splatters of the same colours to make my background a bit bigger and also to get some small dots of intense colour.

I then used a snowflake stencil and added white snowflakes using the very gorgeous Spun Sugar Dazzlerz. 

I also mixed the same colours I used to create my water colour effect background, with Spun Sugar Dazzlerz, so that I had a texture paste in each of the same colours. I then pushed all the colours through a dotted stencil onto a separate piece of white card. I overlapped the colours in some places so that I got a two tone effect. Once dry I cut this into strips and used it as part of my photo cluster.

I built my photo cluster onto my mixed media background. I added tangles of silver thread and I used cute ice skates and mittens Perspextives by Bramble Fox. I also added a title 'Baby it's cold outside' Perspextive underneath my photo cluster.

Here's another look at the completed layout. I finished off with a few small embellishments  (oh and that massive blue arrow I've had for years!) and fussy cut some snowflakes from patterned papers. I added another small title using alphabet stickers and handwrote my journaling above it.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you've enjoyed my cold wintery layout...let's hope there is some warmer weather coming soon!

Happy scrapping and don't forget to enter my name in the comments of your next order and you will get a freebie! xxx 

Products used: 

Pool Me Close Shimmerz

Lemoncello Shimmerz

Pink Champagne Creameez 

Freshly Minted Inklingz

 Spun Sugar Dazzlerz

Forward Together | Niki Rowland

Hey there! It's Niki here today and I have a school layout to share today. I know school photos and layouts are usually more common in September, but we have our school photos taken in November and I didn't receive them until January! I don't always like school photos, mainly because I don't like school uniform all that much, so my policy is that they have to be scrapped immediately, otherwise they never get done.

So I started off by working out approximately where the photos were going to go. I then created a water colour effect background using the packaging technique. I used three colours:

Key Lime Shimmerz,

Pool Me Close Shimmerz, 

and Mustard Seed Vibez.

To apply the paint to put a small amount onto a piece of packaging. I then add water if necessary. I tend to find that the Shimmerz Paints need a bit of water added to make them more fluid. The Vibez sprays don't usually need any water added. I apply one colour at a time and if time is on my side, I let each colour dry before applying the next colour.

After adding the large areas of paint, I then added lots of splatters. Once dry I then added my photo and embellishments. I really love the lime green colour in this layout with the birght yellow, it gives a slightly alternative take on the usual primary colours!  

I added paper strips at the top and the bottom of the layout. I got my photo and embellishments all stuck in place, and then realised I have covered up most of the background! This seems to happen to me quite a lot. So I added in lots of extra splatters around the edges of my photo and embellishments. I love the way the splatters dry...you can really see the beautiful shimmer in these paints. 

 Thanks so much for joining me today, I hope you have enjoyed this school layout and don't forget that if you place an order via the Shimmerz website, enter my name in the comments for a freebie. 

Happy scrapping xx 

There's Snowbuddy Like You | Niki Rowland

Hey Shimmerz Fans! Niki here today and I have a layout to share that has a winter theme. These photos are from a birthday party my children went to a few weeks ago at a snow centre. They basically zoomed down a very large snow slide on giant rubber rings - how much fun is that!

As I've been in Florida for most of December and quite a bit of January...I don't have many winter photos yet so I was delighted to have these snowy ones so I could get all frosty with my Shimmerz paints!

There are so many awesome shades of blue paint in the Shimmerz store! I picked out six and applied them to the bottom of my layout using the packaging technique.

I've used:

Winters Mist Shimmerz

It's Mint to Be Shimmerz

Frost Bite Vibez

Deep Blue Sea Vibez

Ride the Tide Creameez

Witches Blue Creameez.

I'm learning that to get a fabulous water colour effect background, the trick is to use several different shades of the same colour. This is demonstrated by how well this blue area turned out on this layout! It also doesn't matter too much if the colours mix together a little...becuase they are all just shades of the same colour, no muddy mixing this way.

I added lots of splatters in the same colours. I made a snowy hill for the bottom of my layout just by tearing white dotty cardstock. I kept holding this piece up against the water colour area I was working on to check for size. Amazingly I didn't get any blue fingerprints on it!

Once my background was dry I could start to assemble the rest of the layout. I used shades of blues and greens to add layers behind my photo. I bordered the whole layout with a dark blue border and I added lots of snowflakes, embellishments and sequins, also all in shades of blue. I did also add some white Perspextives and some silver thread, also a couple of glittery silvery hearts...this definitely added to the snowy effect.

 

Finally I finished off with my title which I created out of two different alphabet stickers, also in shades of blue.

 

Thank you so much for joining me today, I hope you have enjoyed my wintery layout.

Don't forget that if you place an order via the Shimmerz website and add my name in the comments you will recieve a free gift.

Happy scrapping xx 

Wonderful | Niki Rowland

Hi Shimmerz Fans! Niki here today and I'm sharing a Christmas layout today. I wanted to make a striped Shimmerz background to build my layout so that's what I started off doing. There is a process video for this layout too which is linked below.

I started with white card for my background and then began making the stripes. I wanted a sort-of ombre effect, going dark at the bottom up to light towards the top. I've used:

The Holly & The Ivy Inklingz

It's Mint to Be Shimmerz

Red Necking Creameez

Good ol'  Summer Time Creameez

Miner Miner 49er Inklingz

I started off at the bottom and painted the dark green stripe first. I also added flicks of the same colour before moving onto the next. I then painted the next colour and added flicks, and so on until the background stripes were complete. I was away on vacation when making this layout and I didnt have my heat tool on hand, so I patted each layer dry with a paper towel before applying the next colour. It didn't dry the paint completely of course, but it helped a lot.

Once my background was dry, I added my photo in the middle and tucked lots of embellishments around it. I was aiming for tone-on-tone embellishing so added red embellishments to the red stripe and green embellishments to the green stripes etc.

The supplies I've used are mostly Holiday Happenings collection from the December Hip Kit Club kit and I've also added the Merry & Bright acrylic title by Bramblefox. I added stitching through my puffy sticker alphabet and through the puffy tree at the top as I was worried they might not stick (especially as I added them before my background was completely dry!)

I've created a process video for this layout which you can view below. 

Happy scrapping xx

Products used:

The Holly & The Ivy Inklingz

It's Mint to Be Shimmerz

Red Necking Creameez

Good ol'  Summer Time Creameez

Miner Miner 49er Inklingz

Don't forget that if you place a Shimmerz order and put my name in the comments 

you will recieve a freebie :) 

Bedtime Stories | Niki Rowland

Hey there! Niki here today with this layout that is a little out of my comfort zone. I usually like to create on white backgrounds but today I'm working on a black background, eek!

I've seen these awesome Galaxy layouts around recently and thought I'd give it a go. So I took a piece of black cardstock and then set about adding lots and lots of light coloured flicks to my background.

I used original Shimmerz paints for this as they are highly pigmented. Sprays are more fine as they have to go through a spray applicator, but the original Shimmerz are in pots so I just took my paintbrush, dipped it in the pots and flicked away!

I used Shimmerz Sugar Plum, Shimmerz Peacocks Plume, Blingz Hi Ho Silver. I also added some flicks of white acrylic paint to add to the effect.

When all the splatters were dry, I then took Shimmerz Sugar Plum and a wetwipe and applied the paint directly to the background, swirling it around in a circle shape. I did two of these. 

Once the swirls were dry I added white machine stitching around and around in messy circles. This challenged my machine stitching skills!

Once my background was complete I added a black and white photo with some tissue paper behind it and a frame. I also added my title using irridescent glitter alphabet stickers. I then went crazy with stars - some punched from patterned papers, some stickers, some puffy stickers and I also added lots of enamel dots in coordinating colours.

I had loads of fun making this layout even though it was way out of my comfort zone. I love the way the paint sits on top of the background card and dries true to colour too - oh and the shimmer, did I mention the shimmer!!!

Don't forget that if you place a Shimmerz order and put my name in the comments you will recieve a free gift - happy days!

Happy scrapping xx 

 Products used:

Shimmerz Sugar Plum, Shimmerz Peacocks Plume, Blingz Hi Ho Silver.