Photo Tutorial by Valia Katzaki {Design Team 'Moment To Shine'}

Hi everyone! It's Heather McMahon back with you today to welcome
you to another photo tutorial in our Design Team 'Moment To Shine' series. 

Today we have a stunning layout by Design Team member Valia Katzaki
 from Greece. Valia was inspired by our current challenge here.

We saw a sneak peek of Valia's layout in the mid-month reveal & 
now she is sharing a photo tutorial of how she made her beautiful project.

Valia was inspired by the colours of the mood board, but chose to 

tone them down to match her gorgeous vintage photo. 

Lets learn a little about Valia....

"Hello! I am Valia Katzaki & I live in Athens, Greece. I am happily married with 

3 children - a teenager & 2 toddlers; a lethal combination!

 I started scrapbooking 3 years ago & I have been hooked ever since! I love 

flowers & chipboard embellishments & I always incorporate these onto 

my layouts, even when I am scrapping my boys. I love muted colors but I 

occasionally enjoy experimenting with brighter ones. I love shabby & romantic 

styles but I really enjoy getting my hands dirty with mixed media too. I just 

try to make my projects 'me'.

My blog is here handmadebyvalia, Facebook is here, Pinterest is here & Instagram is here." 

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1. Choose your base paper. Prepare the paper by applying a coat of clear gesso. 

Clear gesso makes the paper more durable against wet mediums. The paint 

is also more manageable because it doesn’t soak into the paper.  After the clear 

gesso dries, apply some crackle paste with a spatula through a stencil 

& allow it to dry naturally. 

2. After the paste is completely dry & the crackles appear, spray the paste with 

the Vanilla Breeze & Soft Teal mists.

3. Spray with the Deep Teal mist then stamp with brown ink to give some 

depth to the background & to make it more dramatic. 

4. Prepare the papers for layering under your photo. Distress the edges with your 

scissors & ink them. Add a small die-cut Moroccan panel, a page from an old 

book & some chipboard. Spray two flowers with the Vanilla Breeze & Iridescent 

Gold mists. Paint your chipboard with Apple cider Blingz, remembering to stir it 

well first as the glimmery particles tend to stay at the bottom of the jar. Apply a 

coat of gel medium to the Mechanicals then sprinkle on 13 arts gold 

Microspheres & press gently to ensure they stick well.

5. Assemble your page. Add flowers, leaves, a die cut doily, some die cut 

skeleton leaves & torn pieces of a doily. The one I used is an original 

vintage doily knitted by my grandmother in the photo. 

6. Apply more crackle paste in random patterns across your page & use a 

paintbrush to paint some areas with all 3 mists. Make random splatters 

with these mists as well as the Gold Foil mist & add some more stamping too. 

7. Slightly dry-brush some gesso on the flowers to add to the vintage 

look. Apply gel medium on random areas of your page & sprinkle 13 arts 

gold Microspheres over it. Your layout is now ready! 

Valia has created many layers by using a variety of mediums.

Although this is a vintage layout, Valia has added gorgeous touches 

of shine & glimmer to lift the page.

The final project.

Here are the products Valia used to create her project.

Supplies List

Timeless Memories Paper Pad & Chipboard Stickers – Prima

Clear Gesso, White Gesso & Gel Medium – Liquitex

Stencil  - Prima

Stamps - Harlequin & Cartographer - Prima

 Border Die - Tessatina - Memory Box

Flowers - Capistrano Milk Shake - Prima

Leaves - Chantilly Velvet - Petaloo

Chipboard - Frond Set 1 - Creative Embellishments

Mechanicals Bottle Caps - Prima

Dies - Pineapple Doily & Leaves  – Prima

Mists - Color Bloom Soft Teal, Deep Teal & Gold Foil – Prima

Mists - Vanilla Breeze & Iridescent Gold - Tattered Angels

Crackle Paste - Decoart

Ink - Timber Brown – Stazon

Ink - Old Paper Distress Ink - Ranger

Floral Lace Trim - Prima

Apple cider Blingz - Shimmerz

Gold Microspheres - 13 arts>

Vintage Doily - stash

Please leave a comment for Valia if you enjoyed her tutorial

& remember every comment you leave puts you in the running

to win our $50 FOLLOWERS' PRIZE from The Dusty Attic!

Remember - there are only 6 days left to enter this month's challenge!

To be in with a chance to win 1 of our 11 amazing prizes you'll need to be quick!

You can find the challenge details here.

Complied & posted by Heather McMahon