The Kiss ~ GDT for Donna Salazar

It's a dream come true to be designing this month for Donna Salazar. If you follow my work, you know that I adore using her products!! I'm a girlie grunge gal for sure.

In case you missed the announcement on Monday, I was asked by Donna to be her Social Media Coordinator. I'm so excited and honored to be a part of the DSD Team! Thank you Donna and Natasha for this amazing opportunity!! 

From the time Elizabeth was a young girl, she dreamed of finding that one special guy. She committed to waiting to share her heart until that knight in shining armor came into her life. She found that young man in Andrew. Our pastor knew of her commitment and asked Andrew during the wedding ceremony if he had a large S hidden on a shirt under his suit, because he certainly must be superman to have captured Elizabeth's heart. They waited to share their very first kiss until they were man and wife. While this isn't the first kiss they shared that day, I just had to showcase this special photo taken in the archway at the reception backlit with streaming golden light.

Donna's Natural Beauty Collection is absolutely perfect to showcase this special photo. Below you will find my tutorial for the crushed voile peonies. 

Donna's Spellbinder Flower Dies are my absolute favorites, and I have used Grand Peony, Carnation Creations, and Bitty Blossoms to create these beauties. To bring in accents of gold to the background, I misted and dripped Pralines & Cream Smooch Spritz on the background and border. 

I just adore Donna's new Want2Scrap stencils and used the Polka Dot Heart with blended fiber medium above this cluster. This dotted heart kind of faded into the background so I rubbed Pewter and Denim Mix'd Media Inx softly around the edges. I'm always looking for subtle ways to accent the theme of my photos and this heart was a perfect way to reflect the love shining in this photo. 

I'm all about girlie grunge, and cut this sweet butterfly from Donna's Want2Scrap Corrugated Board with her Wonderful Wings Spellbinders dies. I used Jasmine Mix'd Meda Inx and Fairy Dust Glitter to color and topped with a Bitty Blossoms flower created from Donna's Mulberry Paper from the Mix'd Media Stax 2 collection. I extended the wings with chipboard from Want2Scrap and grunged them up with puffy paint dabbed with Mix'd Media Inx. My butterfly trail is a snippet of Donna's Build Your Own Bling by Want2Scrap. There's no easier way to distress edges than with Donna's Distrezz-It-All tool by Zutter. I'd be lost without this handy tool!! Really!! I use it on nearly every project I create. 

The top cluster includes more handcrafted flowers cut with Donna's amazing dies. The Bitty Blossoms and smaller carnation are created with Natural Beauty and Family Jeans papers. I tucked in some of Donna's Hand Drawn Swirls chippies. I'll be sharing a tutorial for these grungy, textured leaves later this month. 

I was inspired by the brick tutorial Lisa Gregory shared last month. I needed some smaller letters for my title, and the letters in Donna's alpha stencil were just right. I used fiber medium colored with Mix'd Media Inx and instead of applying to paper I used a craft mat, creating several sets to have enough letters for my title. Once dry, the letters peeled right off my mat - so easy and I was able to get just the right color and size letters needed for my title. I spread Clearsnap Glue Gloss around the edges of my page and sprinkled with Donna's Fairy Dust Glitter by Clearsnap. 

Crushed Voile Peony Tutorial

These gorgeous peonies take some time, but are really easy to create!

Supplies:

Supply List:

Crushed voile fabric (home decor fabric)

Grand Peony dies

Candle

Tweezers

Die cutting machine (not pictured)

Cardstock scraps (not pictured)
Bowl of water (not pictured)

Step 1. For each peony, cut two of each size petal. I have found that I can cut up to 4 layers of this thin crushed voile at a time. I make a sandwich to cut them. On your cutting pad, place a scrap of cardstock, then up to 4 layers of fabric trimmed a little large than the die, then the die with the cutting edge facing down. Use whatever cutting plates you would normally use to cut paper and run through your die cutting machine. Depending on how much pressure your machine has, you may have to run it through several times to get a clean cut. Just check to make sure the cardstock is cut all the way through before removing the fabric from the dies.

For each whole flower, I cut two each of five different size petal layers. Grand Peony has seven petal dies and I used all but the very largest and smallest. Depending on the size flower you want, you can vary which sizes you cut. You can also use more or fewer layers depending on the look you are going for.

If you don't have Grand Peony, you could create a similar flower using Rose Creations.

***Tip*** It's a good idea to cut a couple extras in case you get a little carried away in the next step. 

Step 2. Light a tea light or small candle. Hold the petals close to, but not touching the flame, moving each petal across the flame one at a time. The petals should roll up toward the center of the flower as they melt. You don't want to melt too much, just the edge. Be sure to have a bowl of water close by so you can quickly dip the petals into water if you accidentally get the fabric too close to the flame. (It's not a project for unsupervised children.) The petals will be uneven and some will end up smaller than others, but that's ok, since in nature, peony flowers have such gorgeous variation in the petal size as well. If you really melt a petal too much, just toss it and grab one of those extras you cut. For the smaller size petals, I use tweezers to hold them. 

Step 3. Glue the flowers together starting with the largest petals first. Offset each layer so the petals of the section you are gluing, fall between the petals of the section below it. (As shown below.) I use Beacon Fabri-Tac Glue, but any quick drying liquid scrapbooking adhesive should work as well. 

Here's a third layer.

Keep on adding layers until you have an entire peony put together.

Step 4. Add a Bitty Blossom flower to the center. You could use a variety of things for the center. I've used stamen, and you could also use a gem or button.

Thanks for stopping by today to view my layout and tutorial. Donna will be posting more of my work throughout the month of July. 

Product List

Paper:

GCD Studios: Donna Salazar Designs - Natural Beauty - Soaring

GCD Studios: Donna Salazar Designs - Natural Beauty - Wall Vines

GCD Studios: Donna Salazar Designs - Natural Beauty - Nancy's Mushrooms

GCD Studios: Donna Salazar Designs - Family Jeans - Family Eyelet

GCD Studios: Donna Salazar Designs - Mix'd Media Stax 2 - Crepe Paper, Mulberry Paper

Want2Scrap: 8" x 10" Corrugated Board

Chipboard:

Want2Scrap: Donna Salazar Designs - Hand Drawn Swirls

Want2Scrap: Style B Kissimmee

Stamps:

Art Gone Wild: Donna Salazar Designs - Cotton Lace

Color/Ink:

Clearsnap: Donna Salazar Designs Mix'd Media Inx - Black, Denim, Jasmine, Pewter

Clearsnap: Donna Salazar Designs Mix'd Media Inx CHOX - Driftwood

Clearsnap: Donna Salazar Designs Smooch Spritz - Pralines & Cream

Clearsnap: Donna Salazar Designs - Fairy Dust Glitter - Pralines & Cream

Masks/Stencils:

Want2Scrap: Donna Salazar Designs - Alphabet

Want2Scrap: Donna Salazar Designs - Love Stencil with Polka Dot Heart & Arrows

Dies:

Spellbinders: Donna Salazar Designs - Bitty Blossoms

Spellbinders: Donna Salazar Designs - Carnation Creations

Spellbinders: Donna Salazar Designs - Grand Peony

Spellbinders: Donna Salazar Designs - Wonderful Wings

Punches:

Martha Stewart - Flourish Lace

Bling:

Want2Scrap: Donna Salazar Designs - Build Your Own Bling

Want2Scrap: Rhinestones - Mother of Pearl

Darice: Sliders - Antique Silver Crystals

Art-i-cakes: Charms with Glass Accents

Tools/Machines:

Zutter: Distrezz-It-All

Adhesive:

Clearsnap: Glue Gloss

Art Glitter: Designer Dries Clear Adhesive

Beacon: 3 in 1 Advanced Craft Glue

Beacon: Fabri-Tac Glue

Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive

Ranger: Glossy Accents

Tombow: Mono Multi Liquid Glue

Mixed Media:

Liquitex: Gesso

Liquitex: Blended Fibers

Beacon: Fast Finish Decoupage

Viva: Pearl Pet - Cream

Tulip: Puffy Paint - White

Other:

Crushed Voile Fabric

Vintage Doily

Lace

My post is also up on Donna's Blog.

Thanks for stopping by! I treasure your comments.

~ Blessings ~