Friday, October 26, 2012

Something very girly

This month the lovely Leanne from Mad About Scrappin sent such a yummy kit to play with that I ALMOST could bear to ACTUALLY cut up the paper in the kit.

However...

I got stuck into it and came up with these two layouts.

I also created a layout for the Mad About Scrappin September challenge too using leftover bits and pieces from the kit.

Why not check out the store and see what other goodies Leanne has for you there.

I guarantee that you will find something there you will want to scrap with.

TFL, Michelle x

Photobucket
Pin It Now!

Monday, October 22, 2012

Creating with templates

Hello everyone.

Back again to share what else I have been busy creating thanks to the yummy goodies sent to my by Leanne at Mad about Scrappin.

This month I got a chance to play around with some templates.

Now I was itching to play with these when Leanne mentioned sending them.

Now.. I haven't personally had much of a chance to play around with templates much myself. I have dabbled with them with embossing and with paint and ink a little. So when I received these templates I decided to challenge myself a little and must say I had a blast playing with them.

For my first layout I played around with two inks. I mixed them together and used one of the templates to create my own patterned card stock. By varying the pressure on my blender I was able to make the pattern come out strongly or fade off just slightly. I also used a pearl ink so that the pattern also has a slight sheen to it when it moves.



Now for the next layout I really made a mess. I absolutely LOVE this clock template. It is now my best friend and I hope to be able to use it over and over. I have really created lotsa layers on this base using the template, recycled card as my base and some texture paste. Now it did take a bit to dry using the texture paste but was SO worth all the effort. Then once that was dry I gesso sprayed it all lightly and misted the whole base with several different glimmer mist colours. So much mess made but so much fun. The template really helps the background pop!

 
Just a quick note to remember too... don't be daunted by templates.. you don't have to use the whole template and mix it up and try things out yourself too.
 
Thanks again Leanne for getting me to play with the templates they were so much fun.
Don't forget to check out the goodies at Mad About Scrappin yourself.
 
TFL, Michelle x
Photobucket
Pin It Now!

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Teresa Collins-Vintage Finds by Melanie McKenzie

Hi everyone,
 
I've been busily scrapping the  Teresa Collins Paper range, Vintage finds. OMG it is just stunning. Love the colours and love the bingo cards you get with the paper range. Just so easy to use.
This is one of those ranges that you can either rough up with stamping and paint, as I have done. I wanted to use some different textures. .
 
 
Here is an example of the gorgeous little bingo cards that come with the range, and this range has little journalling words, which are great to cut up and use it as part of your journalling as I have done in the below layout.  

 
I loved using this kit,. It is a vintage range, but great colour scheme for the beach with the bieges, and such perfect colours for an older boy as well. Which I find it really hard to find paper for my eldest son. This paper is perfect.

 
Hope you love my layouts, hope they have inspired you, and I hope they make you get your stamps and paint out of your stash and get scrapping.
 
Photobucket
Pin It Now!

Monday, October 1, 2012

Cardstock is the new hero!


Do you have a mounting selection of cardstock sitting in your stash that gives little inspiration? Has your cardstock only ever been used as your base albeit an important role but not very awe-inspiring?

By simply making it the hero product you can create many cool projects using your overlooked scrapbook stash of cardstock. With a little bit of dressing up, you can take your cardstock out of the mundane and breath new life into it!

Over the next few weeks we will be showcasing some very simple and inspiring ways to utilise cardstock and maybe even get you using some of your tools like punches and your cuttlebug that are collecting dust like mine are.

So I hope you will join us in exploring the use of Cardstock and maybe just maybe re-think and re-invent new uses for this humble of scrapbook products.


Project 1
The Fun Fair:
An explosion of colour, shapes and pattern.

Cardstock comes in a wide range of colours covering the entire colour spectrum. There are bright, parchment and pastels including some metallic also available. You can get it in varying textures like linen, canvas or a woven cloth. They also come with an embossed pattern, which is great to add some extra texture instantaneously.

In this project I am going to show you in 3 easy steps how you can create a fun colourful page, filled with lots of pattern and shape without the use of patterned paper and other embellishments. The key is to select a collection of coloured cardstock that energise and evoke a sense of fun and then you are well on your way to creating a masterpiece entirely made of cardstock.

Below is a digital scrapbook page I created as a draft design. I often do this so I can iron out the composition of my designs and then it will become my reference guide to how I create my traditional page. So now that thats done, lets begin…

‘Clowning Around’
Digital Credits:
Embossed and Plain Cardstock Papers by Emma Stafrace
Essential Digital Stitches: C Smith Designs
Word Art: Foto WordMix No.1 by Anna Aspnes
Alpha: Blue Illusion by Kaye Winiecki

Step 1:
Using your Cuttlebug and embossing folders to depress a textured pattern on various coloured cardstocks. Making sure you use many different patterned folders to add a variety 
of raised impressions on your cardstock.

Step 2:

Cut the embossed cardstock into different the shapes of your choice. I am cutting mine into diamond shapes which were inspired by the bright and colourful lights at a recent travelling road show my family and I went to.

Step 3:
After adding some inked areas using a Crafters Worshop template I included some  customized word art by creating my own using a product called Grafix –Rub Onz. The great thing about this product is you can stamp, paint and draw on it so its versatitlity is fantastic. (To see how to use it check out a tutorial on how to use that here on my blog). Then I positioned the pre- embossed and cut diamond shaped paper discs to the base cardstock.

Step 4:
Once the cardstock diamonds were adhered to the base I ran some straight stitching in vertical rows running through the centre of each grouping this not only fixed them more permanently to the base cardstock it also added another element without being too overwhelming. And finally after printing off the title it was included to finish off the page. 

So there you have it I hope you enjoyed this really fun and easy look at creating with cardstock and perhaps inspired you to use it as your hero material in future projects.

Em Stafrace





Photobucket
Pin It Now!