framed spring inspiration

I wanted to make an inspiration board to display little bits and bobs that would be easy to change out for the season or for direction for current projects. My mom found a great moulded wood picture frame at the thrift store -- except it was missing it's glass and backing material. Not great for framing, but perfect for my inspiration board!

I adhered old book pages to a piece of foam core, and then white-washed the pages, dripped white paint over the entire surface and then spilled a little coffee on it, too.

I filled it with vintage-inspired botanical and biological themed pieces -- and a glittery Eiffel tower, because everything is better with a glittery Eiffel tower added!

Most of the pieces in the frame were Kaisercraft paper, and the Eiffel tower was a laser cut wood piece from Kaisercraft, too.

At the top corner: pale coloured tags from a piece of Kaisercraft patterned paper from the Secret Bird Society collection. The cupcake topper piece to the left is also trimmed from the same piece of paper. I cut out that cute illustrated left, adhered it to a wood pick, and backed it with a scallop punched from the same paper, but I used the backside -- it is a lovely pale ledger. I added a bit of aqua crepe paper to the back of the pick and tied a piece of grey and white baker's twine.

The stack  of tags are tied up with some vintage seam binding that I dyed and crumpled up, and the whole thing topped with a leaf I covered in German glass glitter. So beautiful! That leafy little baby *sparkles*.

I clipped a card from the Kaisercraft Hunt and Gather collection paper, Document, with this lovely vintage botanical illustration. I trimmed some other cards from paper from the rest of the collection, and stacked them all up and clipped together with a silver glitter binder clip. I used small straight pins to hang things from the board. The little pins remind me of pins used in collections of biological specimens like butterflies or insects. 

This sweet little vintage looking bear image was the left-over piece cut from the glossy vintage frame I used in my thank you card. I layered it over a white scalloped tag, and topped it with a shiny black adhesive pearl from Kaisercraft. The paper bow at the bottom was tied from a cut-off strip from a piece of Kaisercraft paper! I love it when paper companies include a cute little detail on the cut-off strips -- I love being able to use every last little bit of papery goodness!

Here is "lucky number 7" and another cupcake topper. The playing card was a Kaisercraft paper b-side element I trimmed, then crumpled and aged up. I pinned it to the board with a pearl-topped straight pin. The cute little bird is from the same Secret Bird Society paper (Kaisercraft) that the leaf illustration in the cupcake topper shown above was from. The bird cupcake topper was backed with a scallop punched from a shabby rose paper from Kaisercraft's These Days collection. The paper ruffle at the bottom is another great cut-off strip!

I stuck a handful of pins into this board, just waiting for when I find new elements to add to my inspiration frame.

Another vintage-inspired card from the Document paper clipped up with a silver glitter binder clip.

I cut a wee pennant banner to hang from the top of the frame. Love the way the two shabby rose prints complement each other, with a bit of that turquoise b-side print thrown in.

Another of those great cut-off strips crumpled up here and pinned to the bottom of the board. This one has the days of the week printed in it! Love!

Added a few more pins just waiting for new bits and pieces to be stuck in place.

One of my favourite pieces -- the glitter Eiffel tower! Love this little wood die cut. This was my first time using one of these, and I will definitely be on the look out for more! It looked pretty cool as a wooden embellishment, but it was easy to paint and glittered up SO WELL. I love that these wood die cuts are thin so they don't add too much bulk or weight, but way more durable than chipboard. I painted this a couple of times, and added a good thick layer of liquid adhesive for the glitter, and it was so nice that it didn't buckle or warp from being wet, like chipboard usually does.

I totally love this piece! I love having an inspiration board of eclectic, but co-ordinated pieces to look at while I'm working on pages. The light and airy colours and vintage feel of the Kaisercraft products are perfect reminders of the start of a new season.

Supplies: patterned paper (Kaisercraft); wood die cut (Kaisercraft); pearl embellishments (Kaisercraft); punches (Fiskars); tags (Kaisercraft, Martha Stewart, the Paper Company); binder clips (Making Memories); pins (Making Memories, Tim Holtz, Ditz, Little Yellow Bicycle); glitter (Martha Stewart, german glass glitter); vintage book pages; vintage seam binding, silk leaf, white paint, postage stamps, baker's twine.