Creating ethereal elements for your projects is easy to do, even a heavy kind of project like mixed media.

There are a few things I like to add to my projects to give it light and life. Today, I’ll be going over those elements as I used several of them in this project. 

I’ll be listing many of the products that I used in this project at the bottom of this blog. A few things are from my stash and no longer available, like the lace medallions and flowers, but there are so many great embroidered laces available, and I’ll list a few options for you down there too. 

One of the easiest elements you can add for ethereal touches is acetate. The transparent nature just makes these elements appear like gossamer. The Aquarelle Dreams collection that I used for this project has acetate ephemera already cut out. But another option is to apply a rub on to acetate and fussy cut it out. Adding acetate to your projects isn’t terribly difficult. A few options include tucking it partially underneath something to hide your adhesive, or apply gems or small flowers over the area where you glued the acetate down. For this project, I layered an acetate dragonfly over a paper fussy cut one and added a gem over the top of where I applied the glue. 

Speaking of ephemera, nothing quite says ethereal like fine bits of ephemera or die cuts peeking out from under flowers. Whether you fussy cut your own ephemera, or get precut ephemera, you can’t go wrong with adding those extra layers to your projects. Pop them up with foam adhesive for additional height and to add more dimension. Delicate die cuts are light and air and can also add additional layers. Some of my favorite dies are script words, florals and leaves. For this project, I used the ephemera in the Aquarelle Dreams collection. 

My favorite way to add ethereal embellishments, especially in mixed media and mini albums, is by adding lace. I love tucking it under flowers or trimming the edges of things with it. Embroidered lace in particular adds a good dose of texture too. To attach it to your projects, sew it on or use heavy body gel when adding it under paper flowers. For this project, tucked lace flowers under the paper flowers and I also sewed a lace medallion to the center of the fussy cut dream catcher. My favorite place to buy lace and trims is Reneabouquets! She has an excellent selection of gorgeous lace and trim to choose from.

Adding sparkle to your projects brings in a lot of light, which can add to that ethereal and airy feeling. There are two ways I love to add sparkle. The first is with glass glitter. Glass glitter is made from real crushed glass. It can be silver, clear or can be tinted and can come in different shard sizes. (The original glitter glass was made in Germany, so you may also see it advertised as German glass glitter.) To add glass glitter to your projects, pipe on some Glossy Accents or other clear drying adhesive and sprinkle on the glass glitter. In this project, and many of my other mixed media projects, I add it to paper flowers for a sparkly touch. 

Finally, the other sparkly and ethereal touch you can add to your projects is gems! Whether faceted, drop style or glittery, the reflection of light from gems is undeniably gorgeous. But I’m sure that like me, you have a ton of sparkly gems to choose from. some of my absolute favorites right now are the gems from Pinkfresh. They come in a rainbow of hues and they have everything from metallic pearls, to glitter drops to classic faceted gems. I used their Iridescent Clear Drops on this mixed media canvas. 

I hope you found this guide helpful and that it inspires you next time you want to add some ethereal touches to your projects! Until next time, happy crafting!

Adrienne