{A Flair for Buttons}

Lots of new flair in the shop.....

Have a great rest of the week! 

No More Floating Flair! - Embellishment Clusters

Hello, Hello! Ashli Oliver here to bring you the next installment in our "No More Floating Flair" mini-series. Last time we took a look at how to Use an Existing Pattern or Design Element to Ground That Flair. If you missed the introduction to this fun little series, be sure to take a peek at my last post for all the details. 

Right, ok.. Now that we are all on the same page...

Let's dive right into it, shall we?

Today we are going to take a look at:

Incorporating Flair Into Handmade Embellishment Clusters

Now, we could talk for a bit about topping off a lovely flower, or adding flair to the center of a punched shape to finish it off, but -  I am pretty confident that we have all tried that a time or two. Plus, Ashley showed a little flower card recently that is a beautiful example of how this can work so well with flair. You will want to check it out for sure!

Today, we are going to focus more on the cluster part of this handmade embellishment fun.

Here I have my background paper, along with some lovely paint splotches, and my chosen photos. Since this layout is all about a Kite Festival that we attended, I have a couple of fabulous flair pieces from the Lovely Words 9 Set:

I also have the conundrum of 2 landscape photos in the mix with 1 portrait photo. That does indeed leave an odd gap. But, that odd gap is perfect for a fun cluster of embellishments. First up, a piece of pink paper fills in the gap and helps set the color scheme for the page. To balance out the horizontal shape of that paper, we have a kraft banner tag. Not only does it help direct the eye down toward the photos, but it also ties in the kraft from the background. Then, a Pinwheel nestles in to fill the gap. 

I find that pinwheels can sometimes overwhelm an embellishment cluster, especially when you are wanting a smaller element such as flair to be in the mix. So, why does it work here? The center of the pinwheel is a smaller circular shape than the flair itself. This helps reinforce the circle element (remember, from our last lesson?) but it is not so big as to overpower. But, as great as all of that is...we still have some floating flair! Even though it is "grounded" on that pink paper, it is feeling disconnected from the other elements and the photos.

There we go! I'd say it fits just perfect in that little banner. But, it's getting a little lost in there. And, I don't think that we are doing it justice at this point:

What would be a good way to help it stand out, give it more of a sense of purpose, and not cover up that cute red detail? Another paint splotch!

Ah yes.. that is much better. With the title nestled in above, this creates a nice little cluster. And notice how with the combined placement of the title, the pinwheel, and the flair enhanced banner, we have a visual trio? A trio is always a surefire way to create cohesive balance and a good thing to keep in mind when working with clusters.

Another thing worth mentioning is color choice. For this particular layout, I have chosen flair that happens to be more muted in color. I wanted to bring in some pops of pink and red so I made sure to add that in the form of scraps. Not only does this provide good contrast, but it also helps insure that the flair won't stick out like a sore thumb as the eye will be drawn to the color in the page first. This allows the flair to be a beautiful accent and to not unnecessarily dominate.

For conversation's sake, let's say I didn't want to have these bright pops of color. What if I wanted a more monochromatic page, echoing the colors of my flair more closely? Would that work? Certainly! In that instance, I would create the balance of contrast in tonality and shade. Perhaps making sure to include a few strong black and white elements in the background layers of my cluster. Or, maybe even a dark sticker or punched shape under the flair. 

Now you may be thinking... "But what if I want my flair to dominate?" 

And you have a great point! Flair is so beautiful, it certainly is worthy of being an accent all it's own. However, when it comes to clustering, I have had more success when I keep the above mentioned design principles in mind. There certainly is a time and place to put that flair center stage. In fact, we will be looking at that in our next installment. But for now...

Let's move on! We need another cluster to balance out the page. Onto the bottom left we go...

A simple tag creates the base layer and serves as some good "grounding." It also helps to balance out the tag element in our other cluster. Then, a little chipboard banner layers nicely over the tag and photo, reinforcing the color scheme. 

Now for that flair. Placed to the right of the banner and along the edge of the photo would certainly do, but I do detect some floating action. It is too far right of the layered elements and too close to the opposing photo. These two things make it look like more of an afterthought than an intentional embellishment:

Oh, now that is better! A simple punched scalloped circle gives our flair a sense of belonging and the new placement above the banner helps it to float less. But, I still think we can improve upon this...

Now we are talkin'! Slightly off-set from the scalloped circle and layered over a kraft tag. Not only does this get our flair in a more central area of the embellishment, it also gives it a seat to rest on with it's placement above the chipboard banner:

A few more scraps nestled in, along with some hearts help this cluster abide by the rule of 3 and gives our flair some friends to sit with. 

And here we are with our finished page! Notice the flair is on opposite sides from one another on our layout? This keeps the photos central and helps draw the eye about the page. With lovely bits of scraps and such for our flair to sit with and nestle upon... we are free of floating flair!

YAY! 

Now for a quick review:

• Flair badges add the perfect finishing touch to any handmade embellishment and/or cluster.
• When clustering items, give your flair a friend or two. The friends will sit together and will not be prone to floating.
• When working in a cluster, take care to notice the rule of "3." Incorporate little bits and elements to achieve that effect and you will create instant balance and harmony.
• Pay attention to your use of color when using flair in your clusters. If your more dominant colors are within the layers of your scraps, your flair will not overpower the grouping.

I hope you are now inspired to go play with some flair and create some handmade embellishments and clusters to incorporate into your next layout!

We would love to see your creations. Feel free to leave a link to your project in the comments below. And, if you are sharing on social media, use #NoMoreFloatingFlair when posting.

Thanks for joining me. I can't wait to see you next month when we will discuss the intriguing design principle of "tension" and how that can be applied when working with flair.

Bloomin' Flair!

Hey there!  Today is my very first post and I am super excited!  So recently I was at the Stitch, Craft, Create event and I stopped by the Inky Antics booth.  A lovely lady, by the name of Bev, was showing me how their honeycomb paper works.  When I saw the great things you can do with it, I knew I could totally add some fab flair to it.  So here it is.   

 

 Hope you enjoyed!  Have a great weekend!

My Chalk Family!

Hello "REAL" people, it is Mary-Ann here.  I just wanted to share "My Chalk Family!" layout with you.  Just recently I attended an open house at a new store front location and got my hands dirty with some really cool product.  I felt like that really clean girl in a fancy fluffy dress, not wanting to play in the mud puddle with all her friends.  But, with much encouragement from my mixed media friends, I jumped in....with only one foot!  I enjoyed seeing the creations of others and decided I would buy Gesso.  What?  I am still not sure what it is but I like it.  I tried my hand at what I thought was reaching WAY outside the box, for me!  This is what I started with.  

 

Lily Bee papers, Gesso, a template and my super cute chalk art photos!

 

 

 

Then I thought that the white Gesso was to stark on my choice of blue paper, so I dug deep and found some old blue embossing powder when I dug out my heat gun to help dry my Gesso.  Maybe that is why I am not hard-core mixed-media, I have not patience when allowing things to dry.  I like instant gratification folks and my heat gun helped.  So did the powder!  LOOK!

 

After I changed the Maya Road wood frame with distress ink, I added Gesso and embossing powder to the bottom.  Which I actually turned on its side.   I added stitching to help hold some of my embellishments in place.  I layered papers, tucked tags and added random chipboard pieces.  I also added the perfect color flair from A Flair For Buttons - My Life Words 1.

 

I added some more little touches of My Mind's Eye enamels, Jillibean Soup Sugar Picks and twine. 

 

 

Here you can see that I changed the wood banners with ink and embossing powder like before and the word "awesome" with green paint.  I added another flair and a chunky heart! 

Ta-da, a Mary-Ann style layout with a mixed media twist!  Thanks for getting a "little" dirty with me!

Mary-Ann

 

 

 

 

A Flair for Buttons is featured in the July/August Creating Keepsakes!

I am so excited to share with you that CK featured my flair in the upcoming July/August 2013 issue. There is an adorable layout by Jill Cornell using my flair on page 17 and a feature and link on page 18 to my little shop!!! I am so thrilled!

And on page 26 another Flair for Buttons fan Valerie Massey is featured using my flair! How exciting!!!

My DT has been busy, busy, busy and they will have more inspiring projects for you in the next few weeks using my flair.

Here is a look at a few new sets in the shop! Don't forget that you can always customize your own set by choosing the number of flair you would like and mix and matching from ANY of my sets. I also do custom work as well. Great for wedding favors, college mixers, birthdays, etc.

 

Bring your kid to work day!

Hi, it is Mary-Ann here today to share one of my favorite layouts with you.  Is it the layout or the photo?  My husband decided to bring my son to work with him.  With all the loud equipment and noises, he was required to wear protective ear phones.  I guess it was sooooo quiet that within minutes he was fast asleep on the job.    It is times like this that I wish I could pick him up and rock him like he was a baby.  Fear not, I am not that delusional, I realize that I would either drop him or be admitted for back surgery soon after.

This layout was created with this months Studio Calico kit - Roundabout.  Its a collection of Crate Paper, Basic Grey, Studio Calico, Simple Stories along with my own stash of October Afternoon, Silhouette Cameo, washi tape and of course, A Flair for Buttons.  I layered tags, layered acetate and rounded it out with several circle embellishments.

 

 

 

At least one or more Flair can be added to any layout.  "Dude" is just perfect here!  You can get your Flair here!

I used the following on this layout.........."Whatever Flair."

Hope to see you again soon!

Mary-Ann

 

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No More Floating Flair! - A New Mini Series

Hi there! Ashli Oliver (soapHOUSEmama) here with my first post as a DT member at A Flair For Buttons. I am excited to be here and even more excited to share a new mini series that we will be bringing you twice a month!

Let me give you a little background information first. When I brought my first package of scrapbook flair home, I had a little trouble getting those adorable shiny circles on my page. Most of the time, they just seemed to be floating there. In the odd chance that I actually was able to "ground" my flair, it still seemed a bit random. Well, I am pleased to say, that I have long since crossed that bridge! Hooray! In fact, I can hardly scrap without flair these days. And that brings me to our new mini series...

"No More Floating Flair!"

Twice a month, we will take a look at different ways to incorporate flair into your scrapbooking. We will discuss using clusters, handmade embellishments, banners, and more! Also, if you have any questions or a special request, please leave a comment letting us know.

Alrighty. Now that we are all on the same page, let's get the first installment in this fun mini series under way:

Using an Existing Pattern or Design Element to Ground that Flair.

There are many ways to do this. You could use a polka dotted paper, circluar stickers, stamps, or stencils. I love using stencils, so that is what we are going to look at today.

Below, you can see my starting point - photos, flair, background paper, and a stencil:

Notice the background paper also contains a circular pattern. I find that this repetition can help combat a floating flair fiasco.

Now we have our pattern stenciled on and the rest of the design roughly laid out. See that flair to the left? The Relax Flair set is a perfect compliment to my photos and it does look lovely all lined up. But, it is floating a bit, yes? It is far away from the other circular elements on the page and isn't touching any of the other page elements...

But what if we layer them right on top of the circles that are stenciled on? Perhaps even over some of the paper elements that are layered over our stencil pattern?

Yep! That is better and would certainly work fine, but I do think we are still floating a bit. The flair essentially covers up the entire painted dot and it is still not showing much relationship to the other page elements. What would be a good way to ground those circles, add color and texture, and incorporate all of that into the rest of the page? Thread!

See? That lovely color of embroidery thread added nice contrast, a repeated circluar element and texture to boot. Perfect! Don't have embroidery thread? No worries, you could also use a small ribbon, twine, stickles, or even try doodling a circle with a pen. To further reinforce this circluar theme, I have also punched some scraps in a circle shape and found a circular die cut to use as part of my title:

Once I had that all settled, I still had one piece of flair left to use and in order to bring a sense of balance to page, I added it next to my title area. This helps draw the eye about the layout as we now have flair on the left and right. A little more embroidery thread and some doodles and we are all done!

Notice that last piece of flair I added by the title isn't on a painted dot and doesn't have the thread around it. Why does it still work? It is grounded by slightly overlapping the circlular die cut element of the title and I have also added some of the thread underneath it for continuity. Floating flair be-gone! Whoot!

So, let's review. 

• Use an existing pattern or design to ground your flair.
• Repeating shapes will reinforce your design.
• Add contrast and texture with other materials to create interest.
• Balance your page elements using your flair badges to create movement.

I hope this gave you some new ideas for incorporating flair into your scrapbook layouts. We would love to see what you create! Feel free to share a link to your project in the comments of this post, or if you use Twitter or Instagram, use #NoMoreFloatingFlair to share your work.

See you next time where we will discuss incorporating flair into handmade embellishments. Fun, fun!

New Flair...

More new flair!

Using a sticker as an embroidery stencil for a scrapbook page

Hello!

I've been working on a bunch of projects before I move later this month.

I'll miss daily life in Brooklyn terribly but I've decided to stop blubbering and have a go at living happily in the wild west.

I have my cowboy hat ready and even scheduled some driving lessons.

I already feel sorry for whomever my driving instructor is.

Earlier this week I found the world's coolest advertisement- an ugly black and white taxi sticker with the New York City skyline in the background.

I decided to poke some holes in it and turn it into an embroidery stencil.

First resulting page:

I loved this first page but thought the night sky in the background clashed with the photo's twilight setting. I used regular embroidery floss minus 2 strands so it was easier to stitch some of the details like the windows. It's too easy to pop a stitch so use a thinner needle and thread, work with short thread lenths and be patient- not my strong point.

 

The Amy Tangerine letter embroidery stencils are amazing. The letters are perfect for a large title that doesn't interfere with the background. Layering a few semi-circles under the "right now" button helped it stand out against that fabulous sunset orange color.

On my second attempt I used a quote from a hand-made sofa cushion I spotted at the Brooklyn Museum as my main inspiration:

My desk is even messier than usual now that I'm packing. These bits would have ended up in the trash as they are lonely left overs from other projects but I liked them too much. I used the border from a neon pricing sticker sheet, some leftover washi tape, the sticker stencil (now completely trashed) and some of my all time favorite alphabet stickers- American Crafts "doll", October Afternoon mini market alphas, and Jillibean Soup Alphabeans which are THE perfect size and font.

I have 10 blacked out Instax prints. I'm not sure why I have so many as it's a super easy camera to load. They make great backgrounds for Project Life and I have totally cheated by printing a regular photo and cutting it down to fit within the frame- at least they are being used.

I used the following Flair Button packs for these projects:

My Life Words 5 pack

 

NYC flair I used the Brooklyn Bridge badge for my page so it's not in this photo.

Anything can be turned into a funky stencil.

I've used a sticker here but I've also used chipboard designs, flat toys (my fave? those flourescent star stickers they sell for kid's bedrooms) and cups to make circles.

It's also a good idea to use a foam pad (like in the Amy Tangerine stencil set) or an old mouse pad to make poking holes into the paper easier and to avoid ripping paper which leads to poped stitches.

Have a great week!

Michelle

 

 

Lots of new flair in the shop!

I have been busy....and I like it! So inspired these days so I am just going with it and creating flair like crazy! Here is a look at some of the new sets out in the past two weeks! Thanks for stopping by! 

 I also have this in pink for those girl bowlers! :)

 These can be done in your school colors as well!

 

Photobooth fun

These photobooth photos are a couple of years old but I've been waiting for the perfect paper.  October Afternoon's fair line released last year was perfect.  I hoarded every bit of it.  Shelley has some cool photobooth flair in the shop.  Really, anything with a camera on it would work too!

The frame, glasses and moustache are all chipboard from the OA set.  I misted them and finished them off with Glossy Accents.

Grab some of the photbooth flair for your summer fair photos and make sure you check out the new sets in the shop!

A Mother's Day layout

I spent Mother's Day watching my daughter playing her first select softball games, which was great! I always love cheering my kids on in their sport. The best part of the day though was when we got home and she surprised me with flowers and a touching, heartfelt note. The next day...they were on a layout! :)

I used a piece of flair to embellish my butterfly and incorporated the entire design element into my sub-title. 

I used the Sweet Flair set, which is available in the shop along with lots of other great sets!