Pink Paislee Twilight for boys ...

Hi Ladies, it’s time for the last of my boy layouts for my2angels.

Sorry you had to wait a bit for this one, but since I was planning on using the Pink PaisleeTwilight range, Tracy thought it might be more appropriate for this month than last.

Personally, we don’t do Halloween here as such – it’s an American custom and although we were happy to do it over there, it seems a little silly back here in Brisbane.

But I adore the paper ranges that come out to celebrate it (and what everyone else does with them – you should see Tracy’s stunning haunted house she is working on (she will be uploading it in a few days).

With a little creativity though, it is possible to use these ranges for non-Halloween layouts. They are particularly good for teen boys, as they usually have wonderful grunge elements and are often in more masculine colours.

As much as I love the gorgeous ‘green’ of the original Twilight Horizon die cut page, I decided to cut out the centre and replace it with the reverse side of the Postcards paper. I did this because I knew I was going to be doing some masking and I wasn’t sure how the stronger colour green would look and I felt the black would get lost totally, since I was masking in black.

For a little added interest (and – lol – to use up the last of my twine) I stitched some twine around the inside of the frame.

I matted the main photo with the reverse side of the Dusk paper and then attacked it with my eyelet setting thingies – they have a name and I can never remember it – though there is now a border punch that does pretty much the same thing. I inked all the edges of the photos and the mat (Black Soot Distress Ink) and then stuck all of them onto the layout.

Once that was done it was time to mask.

For my masking I’ve used the barbed wire mask from the Tim Holtz Idea-Ology Masks Borderline set.

Originally I tried it out with a little black ink, but found I much preferred the look of using Glimmermist.

There are 2 really good blacks in the Glimmermist range and this one is the Heidi Swapp Black Magic one. Graphite is another good black glimmer mist to use

To prevent getting the Glimmermist on your photos (and anything else you want to protect), simply put a black sheet of paper over them – I cut mine into the shape I want to protect – that way you get the most out of your spray pattern.

To finish off the masking I used a silver gel pen to outline the barbed wire. As you move the layout around to look at it the silver gel pen (Antique Silver by Zebra) shimmers and shines out – really catching your eye. It’s a great effect.

The scrapware chipboard barbed wire was next. A base coat of silver chalk ink went on first.

To this I added some ‘highlights’ using the silver gel pen (which is a much brighter silver than the chalk ink) and the finishing touches were a bit a daubing around the edges of the chipboard with some black ink (Black Soot Distress Ink) on a make-up pad (these are really great to use when you want a softness to your inking rather than a solid coat of colour).

The main alphas got one of my ‘treatments’.

This usually involves a mix of different inks (and sometimes other things as well), some Crystalina Kindyglitz and a heat gun.

The alphas are the Scrapware Chipboard Antique Lowercase Alphas and the smaller ones above them are the very useful in small spaces Carolees Creations Tiny Black Alpha Stickers.

Loving the title – it comes from my middle son making a caustic comment about the wisdom of taking marital advice from some shirts he brought home (for his father mind you) from Italy. All I can say is they are brave men those Italians.

Looking at the alphas without a flash:-

and now with the flash so you can see the heat-dried Kindyglitz better.

To finish off the layout I added one of Tracy’s little white felt men from last month’s store purchase gift – how appropriate was he? – and a couple of the silver little boy charms.

So that’s it for my month of boys with Tracy and my2angels.

I’ve had a wonderful time giving my 3 terrors some quality scrapping time (though my littlest angel did have a little sob the other night wondering when I was ever going to scrap her again) and I hope you have enjoyed it too.

Ngaire

PS It's Tracy here, we sold out of the PP die cut a couple of days ago BUT we will have some more in by next week... back to the haunted house I go ...