Aussie Scrap Source

Technique Focus: Paints

This week we're setting the challenge to the design team to use paint on their layouts.

This is just some of the paints in stock at Aussie Scrap Source - Lil Davis does acrylics, metallics, glitter and kits, Hero Arts have cool watercolour paint wheels which give beautiful soft subtle effects, Junkitz have a box of little tubes of really useful colours  which are fabulously portable for crops and Heidi Swapp has paints that perfectly co-ordinate with everything else in her range.

This week Nic Howard shares with us some of the paint techniques she has used in this layout

The new release 'Scarlett's letter' papers by BasicGrey feature a lot of foliage images. Nic thought it'd be perfect to use with pics of her husband under the Kiwifruit vines. 

Paint Techniques:

• Nic used paint to dry brush a white edge all the way around the edge of the background paper. (The one next to the black).
• Nic used paint over the top of SEI letter stickers. When she lifted the letters, it left a painted negative image.
• Finally, she cut the foliage image out of one of the 'Scarlett's Letter' papers, turned it over and used it as a mask. Nic then turned it back to the right side and stuck it down to the layout.

Check back next week to see what the rest of the design team come up with.

Weekend Inspiration: SEI

Donna was inspired to create this layout the moment she laid eyes on this lovely new range of SEI patterned papers - 'Cupid's Candy Shop'. These papers are sweet and girlie and the multitude of hearts in varying sizes and colours simply demanded that she hand-cut at least a few little hearts. In creating this layout, Donna started with the 'Flirty Flavours' patterned paper to form an oversized photocorner. She also added a few SEI buttons to the mix and a little doodling on random hearts within the paper design. The tabs and frames and the die cut tags were gradually layered to build up an interesting array of colours and shapes around the photo. Donna has also used a few pearl brads and epoxy stickers, all by SEI, to finish off the layout and add that little bit of extra dimension. This layout is made completely using SEI products demonstrating just how versatile and complete the SEI range of products really is!

Suz Doyle also had a play with the Cupid papers, and because she couldn't decide which one she liked best so covered big BasicGrey monograms with a variety of them.  Heidi Swapp rubons on the versatile new Deluxe Designs Chip Bases made a great spot for a bit of short journalling.

For Mel Goodsell, this photo worked perfectly with the SEI so girly range. She hand sewed SEI so girly buttons to help frame the photo while the SEI so girly coaster tags on the left worked well to balance the layout. A touch of Heidi bling finished off the layout nicely.

In this layout, Mel again combined several products from the SEI so girly range - patterned papers, buttons, coaster tags and cardstock tabs, frames and labels. The Heidi Swapp Sassy Sweet decorative tape was added around the entire edge of the photograph to create a decorative border.

We also share some layouts we've found online, and thank the artists for allowing us to upload them here for our weekend dose of inspiration.

We were instantly drawn to this layout by Jamie Gavin with it's bright colours and creative doodling. We love that Jamie overcame an unexpected pen leak by further decorating her layout with splatters of white ink. The splatters add a whole new dimension to this fun and girlie layout.

'Angel Eyes' created by Melanie McFarlin is a simple layout with an emphasis on the photo of her "adorable little boy". The simplicity of the design and the cute boyish papers make this layout eye-catching and fun, but with an obvious sentimental focus as well.

 

'Let's Play Outside' is a stunning layout created by Anabelle O'Malley. This layout also incorporates SEI's Doodley Doo Boy papers in a fun and funky design. We loved the way Anabelle was able to include multiple photos without overcomplicating the layout itself. The oversized arrow framing the circular piece of patterned paper is also quite ingenius in our opinions. We also adore the simple doodling around the arrow and also throughout the journalling.

Everyday Moments: Creativity/Hobbies Week 2

Caz’s eldest daughter Darcy has 3 loves. Chocolate, cooking and telling people what to do. She is torn between becoming a wedding planner or a Chef Pâtissière when she grows up. So she was in her element when Jess and his friend Josh wanted to help make double choc chip cookies one day. Luckily they were having so much fun that they didn’t mind being bossed around.

Another layout focussing on the photo. Title is ‘On the Dot’ by We R Memory Keepers. Patterned paper by Basic Grey and ribbon is Frannie by Strano Designs.

Another hobby Rachel loves is cooking and entertaining. She loves to experiment in the kitchen and adores her Donna Hay Magazine, for simple but delicious food, and even more than cooking for her family, she loves to create a feast for friends and family. A good bottle of wine and this is something Rach loves more than most other things, so she chose to represent it here on a page. These photos are of her Christmas dinner a great meal with so many great family members, and a most wonderful day.

Tamar says she actually has no idea how she functioned before she became a coffee addict - and she doesn't like it black. She likes TALL GRANDE HUGE with full strength milk and if would drink it all day if she could! - whenever the creativity start waning at night her husband goes out and gets her a coffee - a quick hit always helps!

Tamar's layout is a bit whimsical - a quick thinking photo captured the other night when they were chilling out at starbucks - she knew it would come in handy at some point. Those BasicGrey papers are great for cutting out accents. Tamar placed the strips and flower onto pop dots for dimension.

This layout was all about Mel's husband's new hobby - fishing. She chose to keep the page simple using just a few elements to tie everything together. The Strano ribbon (marina) was the perfect colouring to match in with the blue sea featured in the large photograph on the layout.

Mel's Journaling reads: So you bought a huge fishing rod for your new hobby. You were determined that this rod was going to catch us a big feed of flat head for our dinner. So, we fished and fished and fished. You fished, I fished. We took it in turns. It seems like we were fishing for hours, but still nothing - no fish, no flathead, nothing! I guess there is always next time. Let's hope so.

Fabulous Flowers: Design Team Challenge

A gorgeous array of fabulous flowers and beautiful blooms are what the design team came up with in response to their floral challenge. We hope you enjoy their efforts.

Steph loves doing collages, and the chance to combine CA Floral Chipboard and BG Romani was a perfect match. She has painted the Chipboard with Acrylic Paint and applied dimensional fluid to the chipboard to give it a raised effect. She was also used the natural chipboard without altering the colour so it blends in and compliments the background. With the HS mask Steph has cut that up and placed pieces of the leaves and berries under the Heidi Swapp Acetate Letters. The Cherry Arte butterfly has been stamped on and coloured in with a black zig marker.

For the florals challenge Caz chose the gorgeous Lil Davis printed flowers. This one has ‘loves me’ ‘loves me not’ printed on each petal in turn which reminded her of the relationship that her 2 daughters share at the moment. She separated the top layer of the flower, cut it in half and folded half over to make the quarter flower. She then trimmed individual petals from the remaining half and stuck them down as though someone was tearing them off and throwing them to the ground. All paper is from the Crate Paper Carnival Collection, chipboard title by Heidi Swapp.

Donna makes no secret of the fact that she is a huge SEI fan. It was therefore no surprise to anyone to see Donna reach for her stash of SEI and pull out these gorgeous Puffilicious flower stickers. Donna has combined the 3-dimensional stickers with patterned paper cutouts taken from the SEI Penelope's Potpourri range. The result is a fun and funky layout with plenty of dimension, glitz and gloss.

Mel combined a variety of techniques to create a variety of finishes for her flowers on this layout. To begin with she painted the Deluxe Designs Plain Jane chipboard flowers with a selection of paints (taffy, pistachio and white) and added a splash of bling, mini alphabet letters, hand cut circles, rubons and dimensional magic to each individual flower. A combination of Basic Grey Gypsy Romani patterned papers was all that was needed to complete the page.

Nic has always enjoyed using the Heidi Swapp Florals. The bright colours give life to any layout and they are incredibly easy to use. She has combined 3 different colours in her layout "I Want.." Some of them have been sewn through, some have been kept whole, and some have been folded in halves or quarters. Punched circles from bright Scenic Route papers and SEI Rhinestone brads finish this layout off nicely.

For the floral challenge Rach used the Junkitz Flowerz, using the Ivory ones. She decided to do something different with the centres of the florals and created them by folding over Strano ribbon that matched the colours in her photo. She then secured them in places with an SEI Pearl Brad (citrus). In doing this she has created a border feature across the bottom of my page, as well as balancing the layout with a large floral in the top right hand corner.

Weekend Inspiration: cherryArte

This weekend inspiration comes from the beautiful papers, chipboard and rubons from cherryArte. cherryArte patterned papers are wonderfully versatile and, although full of colour and life, they generally still cleverly manage to take a back seat and let the photos shine.

Caz has chosen the Boys Boys range of CherryArte products to document her son Jesse’s daily lament about having no brothers. How unfair that ALL his friends have brothers and he only ended up with sisters. The title is made with various Heidi chipboard alphabets and a CherryArte rub-on has a white circle sticker surrounding a section of it to highlight Jesse’s age at the time.

For this layout Mel selected the Seasons range of patterned papers combined with Cherry Arte dragon dream rubons and Heidi Swapp Scrapbook Scenery diamond drama 1 stickers. For the journaling (which she placed inside a Basic Grey bookplate - how cool are those bookplates!!) Mel used the black Cherry Arte rubon numbers to allow for point form journaling.

Suz couldn't resist this photo of Cheryl's two boys and combined it with the perfectly suited cherryArte Boys Boys range of papers.  A dash of fab cherryArte chipboard arrows and letters and the relationship between these two was summed up pretty succinctly.

Mel handcut out the flowers from the Cherry Arte Fall Flowers patterned paper for this gorgeous layout of her daughter, and positioned them ever so slightly over her photograph. The flowers go well with the theme 'outside girl' and the bluey green tones make a great contrast against the Basic Grey double dark background paper.

We've also found some pretty amazing layouts using cherryArte papers around the online scrapbooking community, and we thank the following artists for allowing us to share their creations here.

We loved the large style poppet that Tania Davey created on this page using the Golden Haze range of patterned papers. The layout presents a real warmth and is just plain fun!

Maxine Hazebroek's page is incredibly soft and sweet with a dash of florals adding a true girly touch. We loved the warm classic coffee papers set against the black and white photos.

And there's more! Life is better upside down by Pam Callaghan is very eye catching. The clever use of circles with a dash of Incense (East of India range) direct the eye to the photos in the centre of the layout.

The Seasons range of patterned papers is often used on beach & Summer layouts, but here Beth Root has cleverly used the range with a more tradional photo.  The results are spectacular!

 

Finally in this layout Loretta Grayson has let her photos tell the story by just adding a splash of the Midnight Rouge collection. Combined with her title and small journaling tags, the layout is certainly striking.

Everyday Moments: Hobbies/Creativity - Week 1

Caz’s son Jesse is obsessed with Pirates. In particular the movie “Pirates of the Carribean’.  He lay-byed this ship from the movie himself and then paid it off with his pocket money (which at $2 a week took quite a while) so it is one of his most prized possessions. He spends hours on end, playing with his pirates, dressing up as one, drawing intricate ships with lots of rigging and pirates on them and watching the movies over and over again. It is definitely his biggest hobby.

Caz kept the layout simple to showcase the photo. The title is from Heidi Swapp. The patterned paper from Basic Grey and the stitched ribbon is by Strano Designs, this months onsert sponsors.

Since becoming a scrapbooker 4 years ago photography has become a hobby of Marni's.  So for this her first in the last series of Everyday Moments layouts she has decided to dedicate it to the art of photography.

Marni used Photoshop Elements to create a montage of some photos she has taken over the last 12 months. She used Strano Designs ribbon and machine stitching to create her own patterned background. As well as this she also used a Heidi Swapp bling frame to draw your attention to an important photo. To finish the layout off Marni used a combination of Heidi Swapp alphabets to create her title.

This photo was taken at the scrapbooking convention last August of Rach by a friend. She loves the photo and it sums up how great the hobby of scrapbooking is! It is more than just sticking photos on paper and telling her story, it is getting the opportunity to catch up with friends, make new ones, laugh, share, work together and have fun.

At the time Rach was working in Canberra and her good friend and boss Cheryl gave her these Strano Lanyards, so Rach decided to go all Strano out on the page, using a new product from Strano that allows you to die cut ribbon with no fray!! It is awesome and she created flowers, photo corners and letters using her Quickutz.

Keep your eyes on your local store, this stuff will change the way you use ribbon, its amazing!

This is one of those moments you just have to document – and in years to come we will say – Remember when Talia used to … Its all about how one night she stayed up till 10.30 creating cards for her friends at daycare - The photos are blurry taken late at night but Tamar couldnt resist and it was an everyday moment that she really loves to scrap about.

SEI- chalk background is perfect for lots of colour and by making the ribbon border around the main photo Tamar has placed the emphasis on her daughter who the story is about - The Lil Davis flock ribbons are lovely to work with!

 

Crocheting is one of Mel's new hobbies that she is trying to master. For this page she selected the Basic Grey Blush patterned papers, the chocolate tones of the papers to help pick up the chocolate wool in the photo. Mel has used the Strano onsert provided and added one strip of the ribbon under the title and a small splash of ribbon next to her journaling.

Product Focus: Flowers Flowers Flowers

Flowers are everywhere and whilst they may change colour, size and shape, they never go out of fashion entirely.  Here are just some of the flowers we have in stock at Aussie Scrap Source.

We're challenging our design team to make beautiful things with these flowers and more, and come back next week to share their creations with us.  Suz kicks off this week with this layout using some of the newest floral papers on the market, BasicGrey's new Perhaps range.  She's covered Deluxe Designs Plain Janes with them, and knotted up the co-ordinating Perhaps fibres to make the centres of the flowers.  Leaves of Heidi Bling and Strano ribbon and a string of Magic Scraps bugle beads finished off this soft floral layout beautifully.

Check back next Tuesday to see what other fabulous florals the design team cultivates.

Weekend Inspiration: Queen & Co

This weekend's inspiration comes in the form of some fabulous layouts and beyond the page items using Queen & Co products. 

Suz Doyle created this layout showing that beads can be for boys too.  This layout celebrates a friendship between her son and an older friends son.  "There's something special about Sam."  Alex told her one day.  "He knows everything about all the superhero".

Suz has covered Heidi Swapp red ghost letters in striped coloured beads from the Make Waves and You Go Girl colour ranges, and had some fun with Alpha Bettys, Hook Ups and brads to embellish her page.

The Queen and Co products used on this layout (Fontastics Scrap in the City colourful chipboard letters, Hottie Fab Flowers and Pinky Swear Mini Sprinkles) were a perfect combination for Mel to use with the Heidi Swapp Gypsy Romani patterned papers.  Adding a splash of flowers combined with hot pink hand stitching finishes off the page perfectly.

This layout comes from home grown talent Tracy Wyldman who has made delicious use of the Scrap in the City range of pinks and greens. The very bright Fontastics have been toned down to work with her photos with just a couple of rubs of sandpaper and we love the frame she's made with the Fab Flowers and brads.

It is a tough job to be as cute as this layout we thought!  Michelle Tan created this using Hottie Fontastics and a range of Fab Flowers and Bon Bon Brads and some very very cute photos!  We love the way the embellishments 'frame' all four photos to visually unify them.

Check out these though for proof that Queen & Co is so much more than just the product inside the packaging.  Johanna Peterson altered this empty Beadifuls bottle and turned it into an amazing memory, complete with sand, shells, photo and beads.  It's both beautiful and innovative and we thank Johanna for allowing us to share it here.

and Wendy Reed has turned this empty Queen & Co container into the sweetest little tooth fairy box using Alpha Bettys, flowers, beadifuls and a great imagination.  How delighted would  a little one be to exchange teeth for coins in this little box.  Thanks Wendy for this wonderful idea.

Everyday Moments - Relaxation - Week 4

Nothing is more relaxing for Mel than hanging out with her two children when she can and why not create a layout purely to celebrate this. Mel decided to keep this page simple using two photographs as the main focus and adding a large title (the Lil Davis vintage wood shapes are perfect) plus journaling. By selecting the Basic Grey Romani (Gypsy) patterned and plain papers it gave the page the bright and happy feel that Mel was looking for.

If Marni had to choose one place on Earth that she felt more at home than her own home it would be the water. She has been a water baby since she was born and nothing has changed. Marni finds that when she is in the water she feels relaxed and at ease (hence the regular baths LOL). This photo was taken when Marni and her husband visited Fiji in 2005.

Marni wanted to keep this layout bright and light using Lil Davis Vanderbilt paper but in the end she decided to add a little black through Heidi Swapp chipboard letters, and Basic Grey rub-ons for contrast. She got a bit creative and arty with this one, using felt, paint and watercolours to help achieve the look she was going for. Marni also used the triangle/group of three design principle a few times on this layout. She used the Basic Grey rub-ons to achieve this "triangle" twice. Note how the use of the "triangle" draws your eye to the photo.

Caz’s kids seem to relax the best when they are with their friends. It’s then that they can best be their own person, it doesn’t matter how silly they are as there is always someone else to join in.

Caz has used lil davis ‘rockstar rub-ons’ and lil davis ‘outlined chipboard alphabet’ in black to create the title. The chipboard letters all come apart so you can either seperate them out and use the insides or the outlines, or purchase different coloured packs and mix and match the outlines and inserts. Blocks of paper are from the Basic Grey Oh Baby Boy range.

These photos are a series Tamar snapped while out to dinner on New Years Day - she liked most of the shots and there was no real favourite so she used them all.  They really enjoy going out to dinner - its one of our ways they relax as a family.  Tamar just likes that she doesn't have to cook, think about what she is going to cook or clean up if they have eaten out .

Tamar has used the Heidi Swapp chipboard frames and cut them to made the photo corners and added bling - The chinese character for peace was lost on the busy Basic Grey background so I outlined it with black to make it stand out.

For this layout Rach wanted to capture what she and her sister did when they played as kids, so she focused on the journaling.  By using bright colours and pinks she captures the childhood girliness and brightens up the layout even though the photo is old. She used a large chipboard word to create the title and then finished it off with the FK onsert.

Design Team Challenge: Hidden Journalling

Remember that hidden journalling challenge we threw at the design team two weeks ago?  We took a break from our regular programming for our CHA extravaganza, but now we're back.  And we think the design team have taken the extra time to come up with some brilliant solutions to keeping photos the focus whilst still including the story behind them.

Caz decided to hide her journaling behind a film strip of photos on this busy action packed layout. She created the film strip by cutting a length of black cardstock and then punching small square holes up each side using a hand punch.  From a coordinating piece of patterned paper she cut a rectangle twice the size of the film strip, folded it in half sideways and then mounted the film strip on the top. She then printed out a strip of journaling and attached it under the photos.

The black writing in the title was added to the photo before it was printed. The white chipboard is by Heidi Swapp with two mixed fonts. The ‘Go Big’ Heidi Swapp Credit Card exclamation slide has a yellow circle added to it to reflect the colour of the inflatable sea biscuit.

Gaining some 'real estate' was the main reason Nic chose to have hidden journaling on this layout. By using a file folder, she has allowed herself that little bit more room for her journaling. We R Memory Keepers papers create the basis for this layout with alphas from Lil Davis And Scenic Route.

'Bella Ballerina' is a layout of simple design - it is uncluttered and maintains a sense of elegance. It was for this reason that Donna chose to hide her journalling under a very elegant Heidi Swapp Chipboard clock. A single set of BasicGrey Magnetic Snaps allow the clock to be removed and repositioned simply and easily. The magnets were positioned between some patterned paper and the underside of the clock and also beneath the journalling circle and the SEI cardstock. The result is simply 'magic'...hidden journalling with an unexpected twist!

Mel created her hidden journaling for this layout using a Plain Jane chipboard flower as the base. She covered this with patterned paper from the Crate Paper cowgirl collection kit and attached it to the layout with a brad. This allows the flower to be moved to reveal the journaling.

For this layout Mel machine stitched her photo into position, leaving the top of the photo unstitched to place journaling tags into. Heidi Swapp decorative tape combined with a selection of Lil Davis, Basic Grey and Strano ribbon were used to complete the top of each journaling tag. The journaling contains all the little things that her daughter 'loves' at age five.

CHA: New Manufacturer : Introducing - Tinkering Ink

As promised, here's the product from a new company that launched at CHA, and will be available to order at Aussie Scrap Source just as soon as it hits our shores.  Five lines of scrummy new papers - with some great ones for the boys in there too - and some very unique embellishments.

And the DT can't wait to get their scrappy little hands on all of it!

and not just all these amazing papers, but these very cool embellishments i'm looking forward to seeing in real life.  Apparently they're like a blend of felt and rubber.  Sounds very very fun!

CHA: no, wait! there's more!! Paper Loft : We R Memory Keepers : Picture It Page Frames

Cheryl's back and she's brought more pics and catalogues back with her.

We R Memory Keepers.  Stunning new metallic lines.  Can't wait to see these in real life.

Two very cute new Paper Loft lines:

and new Picture It Page Frames are very funky.

here's some pics of them that Caz from our DT took at CHA.

 

And there's still more. 

Check back tomorrow for exciting news of a brand new company we're bringing in!

CHA Day 7: Crate Paper : Heidi Grace Designs

Today concludes our week of posts showing off the wares we'll be bringing back from CHA in Anaheim.  But never fear - Cheryl will be back in the office soon to answer all your questions re ordering times and delivery dates!

Crate Paper have come up with these two enticing looking new ranges:

Heidi Grace Designs has a huge selection of news ranges out, and lines within those ranges.  We have just a few of each line to show you:

   

there also new file boxes, storage boxes, stamps and intriguing somethings called gel stitches.

 

    

CHA Day 6: Sassafras Lass : Arctic Frog

Sassafras Lass never disappoints with their whimsical colour creations.  Check out these two new ranges as well as fab rubons and funky new clear stamps.

Arctic Frog has come up with another two fabulous crisp colour palettes sure to appeal.

CHA Day 5: Junkitz : Deja Views

And there's more!  New ranges from Junkitz:

and Deja Views from C-Thru Ruler Company brings you 'little ones':

as well as something for the furry little ones in our lives.