Blooming Transparencies!

Did you treat yourself to these cute sprays of beaded flowers from Jillybeans' site and then wonder how on earth you'd fix them to your project? Here are a few ideas that might help you.

1. Use a liquid adhesive such as Diamond Glaze or Glossy Accents to stick the backs of the flowers and anchor the wire stems behind another embellishment such as a tag, envelope or title.

2. Sew the sprays in place either with a pale thread or contrasting fibre, depending on the look you want. You can stitch around the centre of the large clear flowers but be careful not to pull the thread too tightly as you might pull a hole in your background paper.

3. Tie a ribbon around the stem and secure at the back with a glue dot. Stick the flowers with glue dots too.


4. Make a small hole in your paper, thread the stems through from the front of the paper to the back and secure these on the back of your LO with tape. Your spray will sit more firmly if you bend the wire at the back by about 90 degrees before securing in place. Fix the flowers in place on the front of the LO.

5. Remove the stems from the large clear spray and just use the flowers for embellishments. Cut the wire (this can be done easily with either wire cutters or old scissors) leaving about 1" extending from the flower. Hold the flower with the back facing you and twist the wire round in a tight circle to anchor it before sticking the flower in place with liquid adhesive or glue dots.

It was this last method that I used on the following LO.

One of the members of the U.K.Scrappers forum (UKS) asked for ideas of how to use 12 x 12 printed transparencies. As I love these but have been at a loss for how to use them, I joined the thread for inspiration. Another member then challenged us to use one by the end of the month and this is my attempt.







The transparency is Life's Journey Dream Compass by K & Co which I have had for ages. I've done a search for it and the only place I can see one is an Australian site. Maybe someone knows of a source nearer home, if it's still available? The background paper is Daisy D's but I think it is so old it doesn't have a name!

The LO depicts my mother at different ages through her life. The circle at the bottom right of the transparency had printing on it but I cut this out and the resulting hole is a frame for one of the photos. I rarely give my LOs titles as they don't need to stand on their own - they mainly form part of holiday journal albums or family history albums and each LO is just part of the story in that album. This particular LO will be the start of a series of LOs about my mother's life; not all of them will have pictures. The start of the text on the facing page will have a title - Marjorie . . . a lifetime - heading it and because I wanted to mirror that, I printed the same wording and font on Safmat and laid it over the transparency to give just a hint of colour at the bottom left.

The pointer of the compass is a sunflower brad with a mini framedangoe coloured with silver and metallic blue rub ons. These are not the rub on transfers that are popular just now but pots of creamy colour that you apply with a finger or cotton bud. The ones I used were a freebie from Scrapbook Inspirations magazine but they can usually be bought from shops specialising in rubber stamps. The flowers and leaves, representing fading years, are mainly Prima and those lovely beaded flowers echo the sheerness of the transparency.

They also provide a lovely texture and movement.

I really enjoyed using them and hope you do too.