Floating Frames How To: A Mixed Media Layering Tutorial with Reneabouquets

Layering multiple “open” elements can be a challenge, but it’s a fun one!

I’m so grateful to be back for another guest design for Reneabouquets! I absolutely adore the printed chipboards and gorgeous winged insect embellishments. In today’s tutorial, I’m going to take you through how to layer the Reneabouquets heart frames while also floating them on top of layers of flowers!

The way I like to layer these frames is with paper flowers in between the layers. This can be precarious, but if you plan out the placement of your flowers and chipboard frames out first, it is very doable! In fact, both of these Blue Lilac Heart Frames in this project are floating on top of paper flowers! You can keep reading to find out exactly how I do this, but you can also watch my YouTube tutorial video as well. I always find it more helpful to watch for more complicated techniques and thought you would find this helpful too. 

Now I’ve offset the frames in this composition as I think it looks really nice. In order to do this, you have to support each side of the lower frame with two flower clusters. You want these two supports to be directly across from one another, and for one of the flower clusters to be directly under where the upper frame will overlap the lower one. The cluster under the area where the frames overlap should also be more substantial. 

In this project, I put a smaller flower cluster to the upper left of the large heart frame and the other one along the majority of the right side of the frame. The larger heart frame got glued on with heavy body gel. I let this adhesive set up a bit before moving on to the next layers. This will ensure it won’t topple over as you work on the upper layers, saving you tons of frustration. 

And before I move on to the next steps, let’s take a few back. You probably want to know about some of the other elements on this mixed media canvas. I started out by adding some texture to the canvas through a stencil. Once that texture was dry, I added Distress Spray Stain, Distress Oxide Spay and Distress Mica Stain to color the canvas. I love that these sprays are water reactive and almost create a watercolor like look with minimal effort. 

I then added some Lovely Drop Lace across the center of the canvas. The way I tack this lace down to the canvas is by simply layering flowers over the top that I glue on with heavy body gel. This gel will help hold the lace in place. I cut up some smaller pieces of the lace to also add in amongst the flower clusters too. 

I also die cut some leaves from Spellbinders to tuck in amongst the flowers, cutting them from a blue patterned paper. I colored some Medium Elegant Accents Beautiful Board Chipboard pieces by painting them with a blue metallic paint and then covering it in Distress Embossing Glaze in Lost Shadow. This is a light gray and because it is a glaze embossing powder, it is translucent with a hint of color. It really made the metallic paint sparkle! Also, don’t be afraid to cut your chipboard elements up into smaller pieces—I did that with one of the larger pieces for this project. Finally, some leaf moulds covered in white gesso also got tinted with a light blue watercolor paint.

Now back to the next step in floating your chipboard frames. Build up some flowers over the top of the larger flower cluster—in this project, that is the right side. You want to make it wide enough that it will support the smaller of the two frames easily. I wanted to have the main flower and butterfly on a flower that comes up through the middle of the smaller heart frame, so I added a bunch of flowers to the cluster underneath that final flower. 

I added a small flower and embellishment cluster to the upper left of the larger frame so that I could place another butterfly there. Before adding butterflies and gems though, I added Gawdie Girl Diamond Shard Glitter Glass to the edges of all the flower petals.

On the flower cluster in the upper left, I placed a Baby Blue Tiny Treasures Sweet Pea Butterfly. The main flower got a large Ice Fairy Butterfly and then I placed one of the smaller Ice Fairy Butterflies at the bottom right of the canvas. I tucked in some Butterfly Kisses then popped on many iridescent gems. 

With all the different blues on this mixed media project, I’ve dubbed it Rhapsody in Blues! I hope that you learned some fun layering techniques for your next mixed media project. And if you want to watch me build up these layers, be sure to check out my YouTube tutorial video! 

Until next time, happy crafting!

Adrienne 

Shop the Supplies:

Reneabouquets

Scrapbook.com, Spellbinders & Sizzix

I am an affiliate with Scrapbook.com, Spellbinders and Sizzix. When you shop the links below, I receive a small commission from the affiliate, at no additional cost to you. This helps me balance the costs of the time and love I put into my projects and blog so I can continue to share my ideas with you for FREE. If you shop the links, thank you! I greatly appreciate it.

Below are products that I used or similar products.

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Amazon

I am an affiliate with Amazon. When you shop the links below, I receive a small commission from the affiliate, at no additional cost to you. This helps me balance the costs of the time and love I put into my projects and blog so I can continue to share my ideas with you for FREE. If you shop the links, thank you! I greatly appreciate it.

Below are products that I used or similar products.