Tuesday 31 March 2015

"Celebrate & Enjoy" Card Pair for 2 Crafty Chipboard







For this month's shares at 2Crafty I made some cards!!  You can see my post
with them in HERE, so please take a peek there if you want to know the
names of any bits I've used & how I've treated the pieces.  


I really loved putting together these little beauties, using gorgeous new 7 Dots
"Soulmates" papers to compliment the wonderful chipboard, along with
my favourite, Prima flowers & some art glitter & Color Bloom Sprays.  


I love how you can create a lush looking card without having to add heaps
 of product to it - just off-cuts of this & that.  I only wish I had the time
 to create more of them.  Hand-made cards are special I think.  


My bestie has a birthday coming up soon so she will definitely be getting one of these
 & the other one is destined for my mum-in-law so both have been spoken for!


Thanks for popping in on me today!
Life is really busy this year - busier than it has ever been I think -
so unfortunately my online social time has flown out the window,
so I do apologise if I have been lacking in reciprocal support.
I appreciate all my online friends so much but don't get
much time at all to spend visiting any longer...




Sunday 29 March 2015

"The Secret of Being Happy" Layered Canvas
- 2 Crafty Chipboard






Hi everyone!  Today I am sharing with you a layered canvas I made for my friend
from Australia, Di Garling {who many of you online scrapbooking ladies also know!}


This went up on the 2Crafty Blog today HERE so please refer there if
you are after any of the names of the pieces I have used or what I 
have done to treat the chipboard pieces.  


I purchased several of these 4" square wooden sentiment boards when I was
 away on holiday recently.  They were very reasonably priced at a craft store
 & I knew that they would make the perfect addition to my canvases, that are 
better with quotes than photographs, when making them as gifts, which I often do.  


I simply adhered the board & canvases together with hot glue, using my glue 
gun, before I began, then, for the background of I created a water-colour
 effect with several different shades of green mist.  


I love quotes.  I live much of my life holding onto scriptures & the words 
of the wise & find that having affirming statements where one can 
see them makes for meaningful daily reminders.  
THANK YOU FOR YOUR VISIT TODAY!
I really appreciate it!!



Thursday 26 March 2015

Crazy Cool Layout - Mixed Media Place
Typography Challenge






Hello to you out there!!  Hellooooooo!!!
Are you still there?!?  Uuuugh I have become such a bad blog friend :(
Life has got so busy this year that I hardly get to comment on other people's
blogs & it's a sorry state of affairs.  Please accept my humble apologies if
YOU are one of those people & rest assured it is nothing personal !!!


 I'm so happy to say that over the weekend, when I was on a roll, 
having completed 5 DT pages, I snuck in a 6th for the latest challenge at
 Mixed Media Place.  The challenge can be found HERE & is about TYPOGRAPHY.  

"We'd like to invite you to create any kind of project in which words & letters 
                      play the main role.  Play with different types. Alphabets. Calligraphy.
                          You may focus on the letters but also words and sentences.
                               A quote. An affirmative sentence. Or just letter soup.""


Well I own PLENTY of alphas & they are pretty out of fashion these days.  
It's all about die-cut swirly words, which are beautiful, but I need to 
plough my way through my stash of alphas slowly but surely &
I thought this would be a great way to do it!


 The photo is of my youngest son, who is not happy in front of the camera, 
& is not a smiler!  For the most part I may be lucky enough to catch a
 quick shot like this when he is unawares!!  Here he is trying on a
 ridiculously impractical pair of sunglasses at a local chain store.
 He has a really whacky sense of humour & I'm happy to 
have got this shot!


I used an ancient herringbone paper from Crate Paper along with stickers
 from "Stationer's Desk" which I was sent by Scrap 365 Magazine
 about a year ago, when we were featuring Prima on the blog.  
I got one of everything in the collection & am still
 ploughing my way through it!


The biggest alphas come from Prima & are the raw canvas ones, so I coloured 
them with a black ink pad.  The grey alphas are American Crafts & the little red
 ones are the lovely Webster's Pages ones they used to make.  I don't buy 
Webster's any more since their styling took such a modern turn, 
so am not sure if these are even still in production.  


I used Splash! inks from 13arts for my black & white splatters, Antique Gold
 from Prima for the old gold splashes you see {one of my favourite
 Color Bloom Spray colours} & some older Maya Road deep red
 mist.  I kept to a simple style so I would have plenty of space
for all my typography!  Thanks for stopping by today!!




Wednesday 25 March 2015

"Life isn't about Finding Yourself - it's about Creating Yourself" Layered Canvas for 7 Dots Studio






Hi everyone!  Hope you are all well!?
Today I have a new project up on the 7 Dots Studio blog HERE.  
Please refer to that post for all the AWESOME 7 Dots projects
I have used if you like the look of them!!


I created this back in January so am hoping that by the time this post is published 
my friend Mitra in America will have received it:)  I made it as a gift for her.
  She is a loyal & helpful friend & always encourages me in my artistic
 endeavours as well as being interested in me personally. 

 I hope one day we will meet & am sure it will happen :)  
Online friends are awesome...don't let anyone else tell you otherwise!!


This piece took me QUITE a long time to create! 
 I must say I felt like a REAL artist creating it - I kept adding a touch of this
 & a little bit of that.  I have to say that canvases are my jam these days. 
 I ADORE THEM!  They make such great personalized gifts that I 
have actually lost count of how many I have made for people
 for their birthdays & Christmases.  


Mitra sent me the vintage door handle.  It was painted green but I sanded
 it down, leaving just hints of green, which in real life look awesome :) 
 I started by spraying & painting my canvas{es} then stamping &
 collaging with paper shapes, then finally sealing everything.


I came up with the idea of LAYERED CANVASES when thinking about
 how we all layered papers.  I thought well why not layer canvases? 
 I adhered them all with hot glue from my glue gun!


So there you have it.  All the shading is done using gelatos, which took a while
 to win me over but they certainly did eventually!  Now I can't imagine life 
without them & they are one of my scrapbooking essentials.  I am
 looking forward to getting all the new colours in the clear barrels. 
 AWESOME. And with regards to the quote.  I believe in this 100%.

I had an unhappy childhood with my family despondent that I didn't
fit into "their" box & I am happy to say that I have reinvented 
myself now & become who I have always been in my 
heart & who I always wanted to be.



Thursday 19 March 2015

What to do when you create a layout you hate!
Plus a Look at Said Layout!






There is nothing more frustrating & disappointing than having an idea that you 
can't see through into reality.  It SUCKS & I KNOW you all know what I mean!!


I created this layout with the intention of entering it into this month's Prima
 BAP challenge, but as I went along with it it just got worse & worse!!


Prior to getting going on this I had had a 10 day scrapbooking hiatus due to being away.
For me this definitely has a negative effect on my efforts.  I guess it's like not going to 
the gym for your daily workout for over a week, then going back again.  
The first time is bound to be tough!  So what to do??


1.  Before starting on an important page create a tag or art journal page instead.
Consider it a "warm up"before the real thing.  Like a bit of creative stretching
before the marathon begins.  If I had done that I probably wouldn't have
created such a busy, unbalanced layout!


2.  Accept defeat but finish off the layout for your personal album, just don't enter 
it in the challenge!  As you all know, Prima challenges are pretty competitive 
& I really didn't think this layout did me any favours, but of course I am
 happy to add it to my son's album, so all is not lost!!


3.  Spend a bit of time online browsing your favourite blogs or Facebook Groups.
"Paper People"is a fantastic group of over 9 000 papercrafters from around
 the world & the sharing there never stops so it is my first port of call if my 
mojo is running low.  If you're not a member request entry!  


4.  Restrict your colour palette, or if it is too late, use gesso to tone things down.
Gesso is an absolute life saver for me at times when I get too enthusiastic with
my colours.  I have made up a watered down gesso mix into a spray bottle that
I use to literally "hose down" anything that ends up too loud & garish.  

5.  Whatever you do, don't throw away a page full of expensive supplies!
I have done that twice in 11 years, so really, it is an extreme action!!
I use a STRONG glue that is very unforgiving, as I am a decisive 
& brave scrapper, but on these rare occassions when nothing is
 making me like my work, I have to lump it & live with it.  

6.  Just like riding a horse & falling off - my best advice is to hop
right back on straight away!  You've had your warm up now 
after all & your second attempt is bound to be much better.
Mine was!  (See yesterday's post!!}

Any other tips on how to rescue creative disasters?!?



Wednesday 18 March 2015

Special Dad Layout - Prima BAP Sketch - March 2015







Hi all!  Just flying in with another layout to keep things moving around here!
Here's my entry into Prima Marketing's monthly BAP sketch contest for March.


LOVELY sketch by Jen Snyder.  REALLY easy to work with & tearing has always been 
one of my fave, go-to techniques (there's actually an art to good tearing - no kidding!}


I'm loving hand journaling like this of late.  Directly onto the layout gives
 me the heeby geebies as I always journal right at the end & hate the
 thought of messing up all my hard work at the enth hour.  This way 
I can see how it looks before attaching it.  Ha!


Some lovely mist spatters.  LOVE the new Prima Color Bloom Sprays with
 their half-trigger function for nice, big,juicy splats!  Am using 13arts 
Splash! inks for the black & white because, as you can surely see, 
nothing beats the glossy opaque quality of these lovely, thick inks.  


Aaaah those Prima leaf dyes make me VERY happy.  I could keep turning
 that Big Shot handle ALL day just to see those pretty skeleton leaves 
emerging.  Hubby does say that I am easy to please!


I'm happy I managed to keep this page fairly simple yet still with some layering 
& splashes.  I'm more into simple these days & flatter is definitely more popular now.  


This patterned paper "Caffeine Fix"is my FAVOURITE PRIMA PAPER of 2014.
I loved it so much I bought dozens of sheets.  Am I the only one that does that?!?



Monday 16 March 2015

Grow Old With Me - Scraps of Elegance
March 2015 Mood Board Challenge







I played along in a challenge!  And it wasn't a Prima one either!!
Haven't done that for YEARS but I did like the look of this mood board
by Anna Rogalska for Scraps of Elegance.  To play along you need to
 request to join their community page on Facebook & share your layout there. 


I made a screen save of the rules of the challenge, 
& you can find their Facebook page HERE.  


I used Prime "Tea Tyme"Charmuse paper which I gessoed from the 
centre outwards before splattering with Prima Color Bloom Sprays.  


I used a set of Prima flowers with some sparkly dangles.  I've had them for
 YEARS & this was most definitely the PERFECT page to use them on!


Around the photo I used some Prima 3 x 4 inch journaling cards that I flipped over
 to reveal the colours at the back, that tied in with the colours of the mood board.  


I also used some older SIIC swirls from Prima & used some new
 Prima bling from the Coffee Break Embellishment set.  


I cut the title from a Forever Green Journaling card & the typewriter embellishment
 comes from the Coffee Break 3D stickers.  It ties in with the layout as my MIL 
is still a lecturer at the ripe old age of 76 now.

Isn't that mood board just impossible to resist?!?



Saturday 14 March 2015

"Take Time to Smell the Roses"
& "For You" Cards - Studio 75





Hello!  Whilst I was away last week these 2 cards I created 
went live on the Studio 75 blog HERE.

This one is for a woman & uses the  "Miss Olivia" Collection , 
together with a gold doily & some Microbeads and die cut chipboard small clock .

  
I used my off-cut pieces for These cards, cutting the pieces to size to fit the
 square then inking up all the edges with bronze ink for a shabby finish.


 Under the tag I used some gauze for a soft look and through 
the hole in the tag I used a piece of old bandage :)


For the aged, patina effect on the chipboard I used nail-varnish!  
It always gives a nice glossy effect. So there you have one quick 
& Easy card -  I hope you will try something similar for yourself!
Find the chipboard clock faces in the store HERE .

Next I tried a masculine card, using the  Mr & Mrs Black Collection . 


Again I used my off-cut pieces but tore them for a more rugged look.


I splattered some black & white inks on top of my papers for a more artsy look,
before adding a loose circle of craft wire. Under my tag again I used some gauze .  


For some textural interest I added some red sparkly tulle we layers.
Nothing says "Celebrate" like a touch of glitter!


I achieved this effect simply collage your off-cut pieces together, inking
 the  edges before adhering. Next add your textiles & wire circles before 
placing your tag & sentiment,  using foam tape for a bit of dimension.  
Lastly add your splatters then finish off with your flair!

Find the tags HERE & the flair buttons HERE .
I hope you enjoyed my 2 simple collage cards today !!

I used: