7 Dots Tutorial, Guest Designer!

Hello, 7 Dots Studio followers!  Sandi Clarkson here with you today as a Guest Designer for 7 Dots,  sharing a tutorial on how I built my "Perfect Day" layout.  The photo (that I've been wanting to scrap) is of a granddaughter and her horse.  I plan to give her this layout as a gift. 

First I selected some favorite papers from the Soulmates collection as well as my photo.  I love the neutral tones, so perfect for an outdoor-sy type of page. 

Then I tore 2 sheets in a ragged fashion taking care to make one a bit longer than the other and adhered them to my Maybe Today background paper. 

I tore 2 more square-ish layers and selected a few embellishments to use. 

Next I prepared my background with a thin coat of white gesso and created texture with a stencil and molding paste. 

I altered a piece of chipboard from my stash with various shades of brown ink, acrylic paint and some aged gold heat embossing here and there as an accent. This piece will frame the photo. 

Going back to the background paper, I misted 2 different Prima Color Blooms colors, Tea Stain and Antique Gold and allowed them to drip. After using a heat gun to dry, I did some background stamping with a bokeh patterned stamp. The brown circles you see are embossing powder that I later brush partially away. 

I added a few more strips from my already torn paper before adhering my photo to corrugated cardboard and adding to the page. Everything looks a bit messy at this point but I know from experience that the end result will look great. 

After the photo was in place and elevated, I began adding my flowers and miscellaneous embellishments.  Some of my florals are actually quite old but the colors were perfect, so I used them! 

As a finishing touch I added more Stampendous gold heat embossing on random sections of the page.  The layout has a lot of sparkle in real life.  At this point, I had planned to do some more painting around the photo but I was pleased with it, so I decided it was done except for gessoing everything to blend. A few pearls complete the page. 

So, here it is again in it's completed form. 

And here are a few close-ups:

7 Dots Products Used:

Soulmates Maybe Today

Soulmates Power of Love

Soulmates Sensuality

Soulmates Elements 6x12

Thoughts Keeper No. 6

I want to thank Tusia and 7 Dots Studio again for having me as a Guest Designer this year. As one of the two designers representing the USA, I am quite humbled to have been chosen to be here today!