Scrapbooking Top 50 DT - January Challenge Inspiration

Welcome to my Scrapbooking Top 50 Australia Design Team Inspiration layout. The sketch for the January Challenge is one that inspires us to add and experiment with layering. I chose a small photo of myself as a child to put on my layout. As I work with children in our local long day care centre when I found it, it made me think of how my parents made me feel as I was growing up and that how I was brought up had such a huge impact in my life. This inspired me to search for the right quote to put on my page and thanks to Pinterest I found just the right one "The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice". - 'Peggy O'Mara' and this is what I created using this months sketch.

Scrapbooking Top 50 Australia

Thanks to our January Sponsor.

Items I used included:

• Kaisercraft paper 12"x 12" from my stash
• Burdy embellies: heart. 
• 'Stormy sky' Tim Holtz Distress Ink
• Kaisercraft 6 1/2" paper pad 'Sweet Nothings'
• Kaisercraft 'Curiosity' collection die cut set.
• Ornamental frame - Merci
• Round Scroll work and metal button embellishment
• White cotton
• Coloured thick wool/thread
• White Gesso
• Wet Ones
• Watercolour paints
• Prima white wire thread
• Skeleton Leaves- Molli and Mimi
• Flowers- little Birdie (Boutique and Classic Elements) and Kaisercraft
• StazOn Black
• White cheesecloth
• Fineliners pens by Kaszazz
• Imaginarium 'Everyday' and Kaszazz 'Believe' chipboard words.

Heart:

• Edge the heart with StazOn Ink 
• Then use Stormy Sky ink to blend around edges
• Tie some matching thick twine or wool through holes.

Background:

• Paint White Gesso over the whole 12"x12" patterned paper
• Using a Wet One wipe off some of the gesso, this softens the colours of the patterns on the central area of the paper and the edges a more delicate effect.

Frame:

• Using White Gesso paint over the frame and leave to dry
• When dry chose the watercolour that is a deeper tone of the background paper and carefully paint over the gesso. If you work it too much the gesso with start to blend and move into the paint. You may like this effect I did as it let the diamonds show through.
• Leave to dry.
• When dry cut photo of your choice to size and then stick it to the back of frame.  

Layers:

• Chose the colours and patterns of the die cuts from the 6 1/2" paper pad for paper layers and cutting out flowers from paper like I did.
• Chose the assorted flowers and leaves that you feel suit the paper and style you envision. 
• Find other embellishments that you feel will suit, I chose an acrylic button style embellishment with scrolls on it and metal button.
• Experiment with the placement of the papers, frame, flowers, leaves and embellishments, taking a photo on you camera or phone so that you remember where they belong or several versions so you can review which one you like the best.
• Wind wire thread into the shape of the frame and curl the ends up/down to add dimension. 
• Cut a piece of cheese cloth to fit behind frame, distress the edges, spray with water and then paint with a matching watercolour paint to the frame leaving some white to soften the effect.
• On a journaling die cut add the quote using a fineliner pen. 
• Paint the chipboard words with White Gesso. I experimented with different colours starting with white, stormy blue then ended using Staz On Black Ink, as the black seemed to work best.

Assembling:

• Glue all elements down placing white cotton between the cheesecloth and frame and behind the quote.

I really enjoyed creating this page and hope you enjoyed reading how you also could create a beautiful piece of art with my instructions or by taking on the challenge and creating your own take on this challenge. Pop over to Scrapbooking Top 50 Australia and be inspired further by other amazing artists on our design team.

Tis the season. Scrapbooking Top 50 Australia

Wow, the colours in this months Scrapbooking Top 50 Australia Challenge are beautiful. Normally I am a traditional type of girl when it comes to Christmas colours and layouts but this mood board inspired me to have a bit of fun with my colours. 

I loved the colours in thong photo and how it made me think of the fun I have on our Australian summer Christmas holidays with family, blue skies and relaxing at the beach. The love heart in the leaf  also reminded me of the love I have for my family and spending time together outside in our beautiful summer. 

 

Scrapbooking Top 50 Australia December Challenge.

Items I used include:

• Water colour 12" x 12" paper
• Watercolour paints
• Small spray bottle/mister for water.
• Dylusion Ink spray 'Bubblegum Pink'
• Tattered Angel Glimmer mist 'Glacier'
• Royal Coat Dimensional Magic.
• Kaisercraft wood holly flourish
• 'Selfie' from Funky Flair.
• 'Tis the season' cut from a sheet of 61/2"x 61/2"paper from Kaisercraft 'Yuletide' collection 
• Clear Xmas tree stamp
• Stampendous Cling Vintage contract. 
• StazOn Black Ink pad
• Purple netting from my recycle stash
• Cheese cloth 
• White Drawing ink by Educational Colours Australia
• Blue and green cardstock for backing photo
• Cardboard and magic mount to mount flair and photo.
• Prima wire thread 'white'

 

Step 1:

• I sprayed the paper with water and began to add the watercolours using plenty of water, when I got puddles I moved the paper around to spread it or used a wet-one to absorb some of the excess.  
• I find this difficult at times but take the time to let each layer of watercolours dry between each colour application or you end up with mud. My last layer comprised of a light spraying of water and then splatters of yellow over the other colours.

Step 2:

• While the layers dried I stamped the Christmas tree stamp onto watercolour paper, cut them out and watercoloured them as well. Also cut out the 'Tis the season' tag from it's page and edged it with StazOn. 
• When trees were dry I sprayed Glimmer mist over them for a sheen of sparkles.

Step 3:

• I used purple watercolour to colour the wood flourish and then when dry added dimensional magic and set aside to dry, this took around a hour to dry. And then lightly splattered some of the purple onto my page and then some splatters of green and blue (of course waiting for each to dry before the next addition of colour).

Step 4:

• Trimmed the photo and backed it with green and blue cardstock, I edged each layer including photo with StazOn.
• Then glued some cardboard onto the back ready to be glued onto the page later. 

Step 5:

• I cut 4 pieces of cheesecloth, gave them a distressed look by pulling at the threads on the edges and middle and then edged the pieces with 'bubblegum pink' Dylusions ink spray and/or purple watercolours. Later I found I needed some small pieces to add to gaps I needed to fill. 

Step 6:

• While every thing was drying I cut a piece of netting and distressed the edges and began to play around with positioning and ideas of placement.
• When I was happy with the placement of everything I used StazOn ink to stamp small areas with the Vintage contract stamp.

Step 7:

•  Now it was time to put it together, I played around quite a bit until I was happy with the placement. When I was happy I took a photo with my phone so that when I moved it off to glue each layer down I could re-position each element. 
• I made circles of wire thread to frame and draw attention to our faces and used some of the threads I'd pulled off the cheesecloth to frame the tag.
• To finish off I covered the photo with a scrap piece of card and splattered white drawing ink with a feather brush over the page.

Here are some close ups:

 Thanks for popping over to see my latest layout, I had a great time creating this layout and I hope I've inspired you to experiment with some new techniques, use watercolour paints or some thing as simple as stepping out of using traditional Christmas colours as I did. Pop over to Scapbooking Top 50 Australia and see some other inspirational creations and maybe take on the challenge yourself and enter your own masterpiece in their December and future challenges.

White with 1- Grape November challenge.

I love scrapping my family and have had this photo of my daughter and grand daughter for a while, I've been to more scrapbooking workshops and my scrapping buddy and amazing friend and artist Fiona of Pastiche Scrapbooking Studio has inspired me to do this page using hand drawn patterns and bright watercolours. A big thankyou Fiona for inspiring myself and so many others.

 Items I used included:

• Embossed 12"x 12" embossed paper from my stash.
• Mont Marte Black, White Gesso and Impasto
• Black acrylic paint
• Small long nosed squeezy bottle
• Palette of Watercolour 'brights' 
• StazOn black
• Stampendous stamp 'Cling Vintage Note"
• Kaisercraft and miscellaneous flowers.
• Little Birdie butterfly
• Scrap Girl 'heart' flair
• Prima White wire thread
• Cheese cloth- white
• Tim Holtz Dyslusions Ink Spray 'Crushed Grape'

Firstly I prepared my paper with a coat of white gesso and while that was drying I mixed some Impasto, black gesso and water together and when it was at a consistency that could be poured from a small long nosed squeezy bottle with a small hole cut at the end. I felt that the impasto had slightly dulled the the colour so I added a small amount of black acrylic paint, mixing the paint and mixture together with a little more water and a good shake of the bottle. 

I drew free hand with the squeezy bottle making stripes and heart shapes using the tip of a palette knife to roughen the edges of the paint. 

After it had dried I sprayed the paper with water and then added 'grape' watercolour in different quantities in different areas until I was happy with the effect. When it was dry I used the same colour to splat around the painted areas. 

The next step was stamping some script around the painted area and cutting up 4 pieces of cheese cloth. I frayed/distress the edges; leaving two smaller ones white and spraying the other 2 with 'crushed grape' Dylusions ink spray. 

To complete the page I backed my photo with grape and black cardstock, layered the cheesecloth, added flowers, the butterfly and flair to my page. I felt it needed something to frame my photo so I wound the white wire thread into a circular shape and added over the page.

 Thanks for popping over to see my latest page and hope you join me in taking on the challenges such as White With 1 in the scrapbooking world.

Show us your stuff- November Challenge

I have had a photo waiting patiently to find the right page and right time to be scrapped, The 'Show us your stuff' November 'Travel' Challenge was that perfect theme and time. This photo was a perfect memory in time for me, spending time with my mum and dad in Switzerland on a holiday before we went to Basel to watch my daughter dance in The Basel Tattoo with OzScot Australia. It was a fantastic month long holiday where we were able to spend precious time together making priceless memories that will stay with me for ever.

Show us your stuff November Challenge Board.

Items I used included:

• Patterned 'compass' paper (12"x12") and 'chevron' paper and 'travel die cut' (Now Boarding) (6"x6") from Kaisercraft
• Mont Marte Impasto
• Mont Marte white gesso
• Wet Ones.
• Ranger Dylusions 'White Linen' and ' London Blue' mixed together.
• Distress Ink Tim Holtz; 'Iced Spruce' and ' Stormy sky' 
• StazOn black ink.
• Stamps: Stampendous 'Cling Vintage Contract' and Kaszazz 'Art Background'
• Rub on 'Moment in Time" Kaisercraft
• Flowers from my stash including Kaisercraft and Little Blue
• Homemade embellishments: Heart embellishment Funky flair 'clock' flair, Green 'Heavenly heart with butterfly'
• 2 Crafty 'memories' chipboard word
• Prima white 'Wire Thread'
• Map from my trip to Switzerland 
• Cheese cloth

 To prepare my paper so that the mixed media layers didn't absorb into the paper and prevent the spray and dripping of the paint from bleeding I sealed my paper with Impasto. After it dried I used a large brush and brushed on gesso lightly, building layers until I was happy with the finish. To soften any sharp edges I used wet ones to wipe over the surface.

Mixing 'London blue' and 'White Linen' inks together in a small spray bottle, I had made the colour I needed then sprayed lightly in some areas and heavier in others to obtain sections that would dribble and others that didn't giving the page more depth and interest. After it dried I added stamping 'Vintage Contract' with StazOn ink and then began layering my elements and photo. Firstly I placed my cheese cloth on which I'd stretched and distressed the edges of , then my photo and finally placing flowers, die cut and heart around the photo until I was happy with their placement.

To complete the page I inked my 'Memories' chippy with Distress ink 'Stormy Sky', rubbed on my Moment in time, placed magic mount on the back of my clock flair and placed it in the centre of the rub-on. The word 'TRAVEL' was made from the leftover letters of the alphabet I had stamped from the 'Art Background' stamp for a previous layout I had made. After cutting them out I edged them with 'Iced Spruce' distress ink.

 Something was missing so after coming back the next day I added some chevron paper which I'd torn and inked the edge with some more 'Stormy sky' and some white wire circular to frame the photo. 

Thanks for coming over and checking out my latest layout and hope this has inspired you to join in with the Show us your stuff and some of the other amazing challenges that are happening in the Scrapbooking world.

November Inspiration- Off The Rails Scrapbooking

When I was a child growing up in the Mid North of Sth Australia, my parents took my brother, sister and myself out to the great beyond most weekends. One of our favourite places was the local forest where we always visited the 'Cork Tree', we were fascinated that cork actually grew on trees. This layout was inspired by those wonderful family memories and the beauty in nature.

 

 Imaginarium

Items I used included:

• Gesso- Ranger from Kaszazz
• Kraft paper- Kraft bouquet
• Crackle paint- DecoArt white
• Imaginarium- Kate Doily
• Garden Grunge collection stamp -DinaWakley
•  Stamperdous Frans- Vintage Contract
• Lindy Stamp Gang- Magicals- Autumn leaves (cat tail cooper brown.
• Lindy Stamp Gang- Starburst Colour spots (Seamint green, Glory of the seas gold)
• Kaszazz 'Art' Stamp
• Twine
• Cheese cloth white- stained with Dylusions Ink- chopped pesto
• Dylusions Ink - Lemon zest, London Blue, Cut grass
• StazOn Ink
• Natural elements- leaves and gum nuts. 
• Water bottle to spray paper, paint and ink.
• Watercolour paints

Firstly I covered the patterned Kraft paper with white gesso then remove sections with a 'wet one' nappy wipe. When dry I sprayed the paper with water and using a feather brush dipped into the starburst colours, gold first then the green. Even if I hadn't been in the bush with no electricity for heat guns I still would of allowed this layer to dry naturally as I did as it allows the paint to dry were I wanted it and not be moved by the hot air. I then repeated this process with the 'magicals' copper brown.

I painted the Imaginarium positive and negative pieces with white crackle paint and let it dry to crack. Then I pulled at my cheese cloth until it looked distressed and sprayed it with 'Chopped Pesto. 'As it was drying I stamped my grung flower stamp and script onto my dried page, cut out my words and edged them with StazOn and then went for a walk to collect some natural elements. to add to my design. 

I layered and moved my pieces until I was happy with their placement and to pull all my elements together I used twine in circles.

Thanks for visiting and I hope I inspired you to join in the fun of scrapbooking your memories as I do. Jump over to Off the Rails Scrapbooking and check out the other amazing layouts and projects by the incredible artists on the design team.

October tutorial- Off The Rails Scrapbooking.

I have always enjoyed re-using or re-purposing items from my recycling box, I re-use wrapping paper where I can, ribbon, boxes, paper bags etc. Boxes are perfect instead of wrapping paper, giving your present a personal touch and making it very special for the person who receives it.
With my mums birthday coming up soon I thought it was a perfect time to decorate a box for her to place her present in. So while I was on my camping and geocaching holiday with my hubbie I thought I would take my scrapbooking supplies along and create this for my mum.

Items used:
Recycled items including:
-Cardboard box that I received my computer battery in.
- Photo of mood board printed for colour reference and picture inspiration 
- Bottle base found at my campground on the ground
-Ring pull from a can: found at my campground on the ground 
-Empty pill blister pack
-Twine from presents and miscellaneous places.
Natural elements from my camping holiday:
- feather from 'Kryal Castle' in Ballarat
-gum leaves and nuts
-flowers
Scrapbooking supplies:
-Ranger Gesso from Kaszazz
-Ranger Gel medium (matt) from Kaszazz
-Set of watercolours
-Deco Art media Crackle Paste White.

 1. Remove labels from box and cut out verse and recycle symbol. 'Green' one of our child care crocheted cats watched over the process of this project to be able to go back and share the techniques with the children ( the child care cats travel on holidays with our families and staff, writing about their adventures in their books.).

2. Place gesso on with spatula then let dry. Then add crackle paste to area you want to crackle.

 3. Using the flat side of the blister pack add gree water paint that has been mixed with Matt gel medium and then place the painted pack surface onto the gesso area of the box in a stamping style. Repeat with a yellow watercolour mix. 

4. Splat surface of box with orange, brown, green and yellow waterpaint.

 5. Thanks to my friend Fiona's inspirational idea, I have twine tied around my molding paste container ready for use. I have 1 string, 2 string variations.

 6. I looked around the campsite and found a variety of leaves, nuts, rubbish and flowers to use to decorate the box. 

7.I placed brown watercolour paint to the base of the broken bottle and when I placed it onto the box moved it slowly twisting it in a circular motion to obtain a circle and not just a dotted circular line.

  

8. Adding the verse and recycle symbol and the natural/recycled elements to my box finished off my project.

 

Thanks for popping over to checkout my latest tutorial. For more inspirational pieces of art drop over to Off The Rails Scrapbooking to view other amazing artists.

Kraft+ feather+ nature Nov Inspiration.

I have been doing some 'Scramping' during my holiday, sitting out on a picnic table surrounded by gum trees, rosellas, kookaburras, and the sound of the wind gently rustling above me in the trees just to name a few things I can see while I scrap my beautiful grand-daughter's photo of her playing in a gum tree.

This is the child care cat that came on holiday with us, 'Green' is learning to scrapbook so he can share it with the children when we go back to work.

Not the best photo it was sunny on moment and shady the next so it was a little tricky to get the best photo.

Items used included:

•  Kraft paper- Kraft Boutique pack
• Gesso- Ranger from Daszass
• Deco Art cracle paint white
• Dylusions Ink- chopped pesto
• watercolours
• corrugated cardboard from an old box
• cardboard to create layers
• Butterfly stamp clear
•  Kaisercraft paper from Kaleidoscope and enchanted garden.
• Twine- different sources
• gum leaves and nuts from around the camp site
• Peacock feather from our trip to Kryal Castle
• Flower- 'Little Birdie'
• Kraft tag- Francheville
• Fran's - Cling vantage note- Stampendous.

Check out and be inspired by other amazing scrapbooking pieces of art at Kraft+.