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Hero Arts stamps always give a beautiful crisp image when used. Sue loves to heat emboss the images to create a lovely glossy look. Sue has quite a collection of branch stamps and this holly flourish was the perfect addition! It is lovely to hang things off such as the cute baubles cut from patterned papers and embellished. You could also hang stars or snowflakes for a different look.
Suz shows here how one basic design and a single cool stash busting technique can become the answer to your Christmas card crisis this year in just a couple of hours work. It’s all about the christmas trees in these cards. Suz covered a 4x12” piece of chipboard in Strano RibbonStiff – it’s a waterbased sealant and stiffener. She layered randomly co-ordinating ribbons right along the length of the chipboard and then brushed another coat of RibbonStiff over the top. After it dried she went over the entire surface with a thin coat of white gesso, just to soften the colours and bring them all together. She then cut the entire board into triangles approx 2.5” at their widest point.
After that it was a simple case of inking the edges and embellishing each tree – delicate lines of Stickles, some bling and a co-ordinating bow. The background of the card was as quick as inking Webster’s Pages journalling cards around the edges, tearing a short length of 7Gypsies tape for the tree ‘trunk’ and a stamped Christmas Greeting.
Janine is a self-confessed Christmas humbug! So for her to find a Christmas range that she fell totally in love with is quite a Christmas Miracle, but this divine range by Teresa Collins certainly hit the mark. The papers are sublimely elegant and contain Janine’s prerequisites to a perfect range, script paper, music paper, damask paper and paper with elements to hand-cut out!! Bliss!!!
When you have such amazing products to work with, creating these elegant cards became simple, especially with the inclusion of a few Prima Innocence flowers and Prima lace with a touch of gold and ruby red Glimmer Mist to add those perfect accents.
For these Christmas cards Louise wanted to keep the creative process quick and simple, but still with a festive flavour. Louise has created all her card bases from basic white cardstock and cut them to size to suit the envelopes she already had, and to give that coordinated look, she has decorated the envelopes to match her cards.
For these two particular cards Louise has used both the Hero Arts Creative Trees Stamps and the Elsie Flannigan Christmas time stamps to create a simple but effective look of Christmas trees, with a little funk. To complete decoration of the cards she has coloured in the design using water colour paints, and doodled a border.
For these two cards Louise has used the Elsie Flannigan Christmas Time Stamps. Louise has again doodled a funky border to coordinate with the stamp design and then coloured in the doodling and stamp images using watercolour paints.
Readers of Suz’s blog would be familiar with this gorgeous Tree of Life triptych which is the focal point of her lounge room. Recently she was inspired to make it a focus for her Christmas celebrations and after bouncing star or bauble ideas back and forth with her daughter, it occurred to her to give it a Partridge in a Pear tree theme (something about her daughter singing it over and over again lately possibly helped the inspiration!)
Suz knew that the fabulous vinyl would be perfect for this project. It’s designed to be cut in the Silhouette, and can be applied and removed from most smooth surfaces without causing damage. Both the words and the gorgeous ‘partridge’ (which Suz downloaded from the Silhouette image store) are both cut in vinyl and applied directly to the wall.
Suz designed the pears by combining two different images – the pear and the flourish – which is a simple process thanks to the foolproof Silhouette software. She then had the Silhouette cut them out in green textured cardstock and then cut white solid pear shapes to back the cardstock on to, so that once again the whole shape can be applied to her tree panels without any damage. She couldn’t resist adding a touch of glitter inside the holly flourish as a finishing touch.
Watch out for more detailed tutorials from Suz on using the Silhouette and its endless possibilities in the new year. It’s not too late to put one on your Christmas wish list either – just ask your local scrapbooking shop to order one in for you!
Janine updated her Christmas decorations to turquoise and pink last year and wanted to add a couple of hand made baubles to the tree this year. She used lots of Prima flowers coloured with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist (Patina and Pink Taffy) and then hot glued them all over the polystyrene balls. Janine punched a lot of snowflakes out of white cardstock and then used the Tattered Angels Glaze to colour them silver.
The glaze was perfect for this as it comes with it's own little brush which was perfect for the fine detail painting and adds a gorgeous fine glitter appearance to the snowflakes. She then proceeded to adhere rhinestones (the extras you get on the ends of Prima stamps) onto the flowers and also Prima flower Centres (SIIS, Rajas and Sultans) into the snowflakes to glitz it all up more.
Janine also used the glaze to re-colour her white velvet Prima leaves a glittery silver for a gorgeous effect. She used the glam on the accent flowers at the top of the baubles for extra sparkle and shine as you can never have too much sparkle at Christmas time. As a final touch to the Turquoise bauble, Janine dipped some Prima lace in the Tide Pool Glam and used her heat gun to dry it off.
This causes the lace to stiffen and you can then mould it into a shape and ensure it can sit "upright" on your project as well as having a lovely glittery appearance.
Iris used overlays and Hambly frame stickers to frame her photos. A combination of cut-out overlay frames and clear stickers create a tree for the outdoor scene you can see here.
It’s no secret that Hambly has long been one of Suz’s favourite manufacturers. The rubon journalling blocks she has used above are just one of her many go-to products that you will regularly find on her pages. For embellishment Suz has combined the gorgeous colours of the Peacock Feather overlays to create a bouquet effect and accentuated the colour palette with Little Yellow Bicycle flowers from the Clothesline range.
Jules loves doing romantic, beautiful layouts, but she does not do shabby chic layouts.For this page, she wanted something that will give her layout a more modern vibe. That's where Hambly transparencies come into play. With this layout she used Hambly doilies and lace transparencies in hot pink to add a girly, romantic touch. Teamed with Webster's papers, it creates an elegant but modern image. Add a little bling (Zva Creative) and the project is complete.
Keshet Shenkar made this page to remember how happy and beautiful her friend looked on her wedding day. The white patchwork rub-ons added both a "fun" element and an elegant, feminine look, fitting a bridal layout well. Since she loved the rub-ons so much, she let them take center stage on the page and added many elements over them. She also added bits of twine and a mini clothespin after seeing some beautiful inspiration from Debee Campos, a talented scrapper and crafter.
Piradee Talvanna combined Pink Paislee’s 365 Degrees range with Hambly to create this beautifully and brightly romantic wedding day page.
Finally we loved the simplicity and vibrancy of this page by Michelle Sielman. She has used the glorious Hambly tree rubon on kraft, and to give it more contrast she has coloured in the gaps in the wood grain. She’s also used both Hero Arts and Technique Tuesday stamps on this layout – what’s not to love?! Thanks Michelle for allowing us to share it here.
Siiigh!!! That was Louise's response when asked to create with the new range of Hero Arts Stamps. (and it was our response to the above project she created with one of them!) Louise just loves the creative versatility of stamps and cant get enough of them. The new debut range is particularly fabulous with an amazing variety and range of images to work with that will suit all types of papercrafters and scrapbookers.
For this layout, card and gift tag Louise has used the Blooming Butterflies wood mounted stamp. She just loved that the intricate design lent itself to being used to created more images [flowers] other than the initial butterfly.
One of the most versatile stamps you can have in your arsenal has got to be circles. Patterned circles can be used as accents all year round, from scalloped borders to bouncing balls and all kinds of gap fillers. And then Christmas time comes around and your circles can become baubles. Here Suz has used mixed circular designs along with a Hero Arts wood mounted set of Hearts to make a soft and beautiful garland down her page. She has incorporated several different stamping methods as well, from white Stazon onto transparency to web embossing and some directly onto the background cardstock.
A Hero Arts post wouldn’t be a Hero Arts post without some samples of the talent that is Jennifer McGuire. Here she has used two different holly themes to create too different but beautiful looks to inspire your christmas card creating this year!
This absolutely glorious layout was created by Kim Kachmarski, who hales from Northen Alberta Canada. Kim operates a small online store from her home. This allows her to stay home with her 3 year old twin boys. Kim has been scrapbooking for about 10 years and began teaching last year (mostly around inks, stamps and making backgrounds). She tells me that she loves scrapbooking as a way to relieve stress, and having twin boys she get quite a bit of "Art Therapy" in.
Kim tells me that she created this layout using 2 wonderful Hero Arts Stamps and Tim Holtz Distress Inks. Thank you so very much for allowing us to share your creativity Kim.
A big thank you to Trish Rheinberger for allowing us to showcase her creative talents using the Hero Arts Stamps. Trish has created 3 beautiful cards with the same Hero Arts Stamp, [Clings repositional rubber stamp - Poppy Background] and for each has used a different technique to create 3 beautiful individualised cards.
congratulations to our PageMaps 2 Challenge winners!
BELINDA SPENCER for her beautiful card…
TANYA TAHIR for her stunning Christmas single..
and LEEANN PEARCE for her divine double, which we think just screams summertime.
Thanks so much to everyone who participated and shared their fabulous projects.
Carole created these pretty Christmas cards with Cosmo Cricket's "Mitten Weather" Collection. Creating with purple, red and green was a little different for Carole but that is what made this collection so nice because it all worked so well together and all the cute stickers, borders and tags all matched perfectly for all the embellishing.
Iris made a set of Christmas cards that are very easy to re-create - and very economical too. If you take a close look at these four cards, she only used two sheets of patterned paper from Webster's Pages Waiting for Santa (The Delivery and Falalala), plus some dark green cardstock. Add a few stamping using Pink Paislee stamps, ribbon or lace, and some Prima flowers, and you are set to send holiday greetings on the way.
Not normally much of a cardmaker, Louise created these in under an hour and loved them so much, she's mass producing them for Christmas! She started with some white cardstock and cut a 1" strip off before embossing it with a dotted pattern. The strip was then given a decorative edge with a border punch and put aside.
Next she cut 1" strips from the various printed papers and sewed them together with a zig zag stitch. These were then cut down to fit onto each card size front and the corners were rounded. To add interest to a couple she punched a scalloped circle out of the background and then all backgrounds were adhered to the card using foam tape for dimension.
Using the diecut paper, she cut a 1" strip from the edge and positioned it, adhering the punched cardstock strip over the top to hide the edge. Arrange the Poinsettia flowers and vines into place and adhere with a strong glue. Stamp some words onto offcuts of the same cardstock and use a 1" circle punch to cut out your headings. Arrange and adhere with foam tape into place.
These cards are very quick and economical to make, and each can be made slightly differently just by changing your title, punches and the order you sew your papers.
We start with a heap of Prima goodness inside a 7Gypsies Artist Trading Card Tray, just to inspire you with the talent that is Nic Howard, and also to bring you the fabulous news that you too, can create a tray just like this! Nic has created this project for Prima and will be presenting how to put it all together on www.livewithprima.com on Tues 23rd Nov, 4.00pm PST (this is Wed Nov 24th, 1.00pm NZT, or 11.00am Eastern Daylight Savings Time in Australia).
If you are looking gift idea for this christmas season or want to put it up in your own home – or if you just enjoy making a selection of gorgeous little embellished cards, you won’t want to miss this class. See the link above for details and a materials list – we can’t wait to see Nic in action!
Caz decided to have a go at decorating one of the cute Donna Downey camera bags from Prima. She placed a hard object inside the camera bag for stability and then ironed on a Prima flower iron-on and some leaf stems. Once these were set and cool she added the cutest BasicGrey bling owl which surprisingly adhered very firmly to the canvas.
As you can see from the second photo,even though Caz has decorated the small camera bag it still has plenty of room for not only a compact camera but also your mobile phone.
Louise loves all things Prima, and the new carnation vines were the perfect touch to this girly layout. Using strips of Prima paper and a punch, she created a ruffled edge and attached it to a large circle, finishing with some hand sewing for a soft, vintagey feel.
The cutesy style of Prima’s Jack and Jill range of patterned papers might not be Nic Howard’s style at first glance and yet, with consummate skill, she has still managed to create a layout that shows off the gorgeous papers and is still very much a “Nic Howard” original! Nic has kept the gorgeous softness of the papers and still given her layout her trademark contrast with the photo and the deeper colours of the Prima flowers she has chosen.
A lovely way to show off a larger section of journalling is to tear a section from your paper and curl the edges, slip the journaling in behind.
Prima’s Fairy Flora range is just exquisite with watercolour rainbows of colour in different colour palettes saturating each page. Here Nic has combined several shades of them to create this beautiful layout. Small dots of dimensional paint are a subtle addition to any of the Prima pieces.
In this LO, Janine has used the Paisley Road line from Prima. The vibrant colours of this range really jump out at you, so Janine chose to use a neutral kraft background to help “tone it down”. She then used the packaging from her Sweet Taffy flowers to add another layer of interest! By hand cutting the vibrant flowers from the line Janine was able to selectively place them around her photos and add texture by using Prima flowers to set the whole page off. A tip when using the Crochet flowers from the Sweet Taffy range, you can cut the largest one up into 3 flowers and fill the centres with a chipboard piece as Janine has done on this LO, effectively turning one crochet flower into 3.
Prima’s flowers come in the most beautiful and re-usable packaging and Janine has used the packaging on this card and mixed it with beautiful Annalee papers for a soft and romantic feel to it. She has set it off with lace and Prima clementine flowers and ribbon. The clementine flower ribbon can be cut into individual flowers as Janine has used it here.
Janine loves to use turquoise and purple together and she had an offcut of a Donna Downey Canvas page she had used on another LO but didn’t wish to waste any of it so created this card. She then teamed it up with gorgeous purple Prima flowers clustered together and used more of the canvas to create leaves to tone in, then balanced this cluster with a Prima butterfly.
A big thanks to Staci from Michigan for sharing this cute layout with us. Staci has used the Donna Downey stitched fabric words by Prima as her title. The cute polka dot letters add a sense of fun and co-ordinate beautifully with the spotted background paper.
This layout was made by Cari from New York for the Prima booth at CHA. Cari dry brushed gold paint around the edges of the canvas sheet. She then painted the packaging from the Prima's Iron Ons and placed it on the background. Cari added all the Prima goodies and then finished the whole layout with Wheatfields Glimmer Mist. Thanks so much for allowing us to share with our readers Cari.
This fun layout from Prima Flowergirl Alyssa McGrew is the perfect example of how Prima can be used to suit boys pages too. By creating a small scene with some clever cutting and adding a couple of subtle but effect paint splotches, Alyssa has added the boyish details that really lift the page from ordinary to extraordinary.
This second layout, also from Alyssa, highlights the classic Prima look - girly, soft and impossibly pretty.
Stacey Young takes collage layouts to a whole new level, and the end result is both visually appealing and highly detailed. She's used a selection of gorgeous Prima flowers and vines and has mixed it with an eclectic selection of stickers and chipboard to complete her amazing design.
We'd like to say thanks to Jamie from Southern California for allowing us to show you the Prima canvas camera bag that she decorated. Jamie sprayed some accents onto the bag using Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist before adding hand crocheted flowers and some hand stitching to finish it off,
Louise just couldn’t resist using this stunning White Poppy material as a background for a layout on her beautiful young friend Jessica. The material is just so beautiful and detailed that the layout required little further embellishment.
Louise had so many ideas for this particular breif, but had to contain herself and not get too carried away LOL! As you can see from the following images She has created some fun, quick and easy embellishments from the Bandana Patchwork material; buttons and flowers. So keep your eye out you might just see them turn up on a layout of hers real soon!!!
Nic's been a long time fan of Michael Miller fabrics and loves that it comes pre-packaged in half yard pieces. A half-yard is 18 x 44 inches so is the PERFECT size for scrapbooking and sewing into fabulous projects.
Nic created this adorable drawing portfolio entirely from Michael Miller fabrics using both half-yard pieces and some of the fabric paper on the interior. Fabric paper is fabric trimmed to a 12inch square and then stiffened to resemble paper. It can be cut, die-cut and punched like any other paper, yet retains the look and texture of fabric.
Nic created this delightfully sweet bunting for her Maddy's room from one Michael Miller fabric paper assortment pack. The beauty of these packs is that they include 7 sheets of co-ordinating fabric paper PLUS 7 sheets of fabric paper pre-cut to 5x7 inch size. You could create an entire album from one of these packs or a speedy bunting like this one.
Being pre-treated the fabric papers are stiff so all Nic had to do was trim each triangle to size with her paper trimmer and then stitch them to a piece of bias-binding. no need for hemming or pressing as the fabric won't fray.
Another gorgeous use for Michael Miller fabric papers is for off the page projects. It was the ideal option for Nic to transform a cheap black discount store lamp into this cute lamp for Maddy's room. She used two sheets of fabric paper to create the new lampshade and stitched buttons randomly to some of the flower centres. She painted the base then added a line of braid and a chipboard embellishment from Cosmo Cricket and now it's gorgeous and girly and cost next to nothing!
Nic created this gorgeous little bag in less than an afternoon and from only two half-yards of Michael Miller fabric. She added the ruffle and lining from a large scrap in her fabric stash. This bag is a perfect day-to-day handbag or would dress up a weekend outfit nicely!
As you can see from the above four images Michael Miller fabrics lend themselves also to divine everyday items; jewellery, and clutch purses/bags A big thank you to Amie Taylor for sharing her lovely designs in Michael Miller fabrics with us.
This gorgeously co-ordinated wall art and set of bedroom storage has been created by the talented Geraldine Pasinati. Geraldine who also creates the most divine OTP items and scrapbook layouts using almost exclusively materials and fibres. Thank you Geraldine for sharing these lovely creations that you have made for your sons bedroom.
First of all, congratulations to Hetty Hall (card), Tanya Tahir (single), and Hetty Hall (double) for most voted layouts of week 4.
Now we’re down to the final week, and here are the winners from each week. Once again, please vote for your favourites in the side bar. The winner of each category will receive a prize pack of fabulous goodies as well as Becky Fleck’s brand new book – PageMaps2.
Thank you so much to everyone who entered into the spirit of the competition! We’ve been blown away each week by the quality and quality of everyone’s pages.
Double Page Layouts:
Single Page Layouts
Cards
This was Sue's first time scrapping with products by Lily Bee and she was suitably impressed. The Domestic Bliss range consists of really cute vintage designs and Sue found herself wishing she had photos of her Mum cooking when she was younger. But as she didn't have any older photos, Sue decided to scrap photos of her daughter Lily with her best friend Meg. The colours in the collection are really lovely and can be used to scrap lots of different types of photos, not just vintage ones.
The chipboard stickers are in Sue's opinion, the star of the collection. They are great value and provide the perfect embellishment for your layouts.
The Catching Fall collection from Lily Bee is so versatile for scrappers who enjoy working with a neutral palette. The patterns are subtle and understated, and extremely easy to use. Although the line is suited to Thanksgiving and Fall themes, it really is suitable for any number of projects as Kathie demonstrates with her page.
Iris makes beautiful use here of the Domestic Bliss range, pulling out various beautiful colours and elements from the patterned paper and using them on her trademark white glimmer misted background.
We thank Lisa Day for this stunning Catching Fall layout – we loved the elegant pleated flowers topped with buttons.
The beautiful muted tones of the Catching Fall papers are showcased here to perfection by Piradee Talvanna. We loved the simple but stunning colour blocking techniques alongside the quirky details like the bunting and the string.
This cute layout was created by Brenda Hurd, using the Lily Bee Catching Fall Collection. Brenda cleverly created the scalloped border along the top of her page by using the chipboard buttons. She alternated the button sizes and trimmed them to create the scallops. The banner on the page is from the sticker elements sheet and Brenda added rub-on words to each banner. Thanks so much Brenda for allowing us to share your gorgeous work.
Virginia Tillery, Alabama, has used Lily Bee's Catching Fall papers and rubons to decorate an old faux window frame and create a charming home decor piece. The rich vintage feel to the line makes it perfect for home decor projects. Virginia created the cute little bunting by hand sewing mini punched hearts to red and white bakers twine. It’s the perfect touch for the project, don’t you think? Thanks for allowing us to share your project Virginia.
Lori Gentile, from California, is the design team coordinator for Lily Bee. The tonings of the Catching Fall range were perfect for her adorable photo in the layout “Pumpkin Patch”. Lori’s used the text paper from the range as the basis of her page and then dressed it with a few strips of patterned paper, some of the chipboard stickers and some rubons.
Lori says “The colors of the Catching Fall collection are perfect for capturing every Autumn memory, from apple picking to pumpkin patches to Thanksgiving dinners. The patterns are elegant and easy to use." Thanks Lori!
Finally, ChristmasTown is showcased in this simply stunning layout. Though the colours are muted for christmas, it’s all the better to show off brightly coloured photos, or indeed, coffee cups!
There’s no point denying it, we’re definitely on the countdown to Christmas now. So over the course of the next few Mondays, we thought we’d bring you some inspiration in the form of Christmas cards, but not just any Christmas cards – these are useful Christmas cards! They’re the kind that you can make into a practical production line. The kind of versatile design where you can give each one a unique touch, but that still follow a similar layout so that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel for every card you make. Enjoy!
Sue Tonga loves to send Christmas cards to her extended family members that are personal and handmade. Sue's family love to see photos of her kids and so she created this cute pocket card which holds a tag with the kids' photo and room for a handwritten message. Sue chose to use the Crate Paper Snow Day collection which contains a lovely set of whimsical chipboard elements which were perfect for embellishing the cards.
To create the card, Sue first started with a base of Kraft cardstock that measured 3 3/4 inches x 5 3/4 inches. Sue then cut a piece of Hambly gold overlay and a piece of Snow Day paper to create the pocket. Sue adhered the Snow Day paper to the bottom of the overlay with double-sided tape and then sewed the combined piece to the Kraft cardstock, leaving the top open to allow for the tag to slide in an out.
Sue then adhered the Kraft cardstock to a piece of vanilla cardstock measuring 4 x 6 inches. To create the tag, Sue cut another piece of Kraft measuring 3 1/4 inches x 5 inches. Sue cut a different pattern of Snow Day paper, sewed around it in gold thread and added a 3 inch square photo to the centre. Sue then stuck it towards the top of the tag and added some ribbon and a fabric brad to finish it off.
Sue says you can easily make more than 12 cards using the Crate Paper Snow Day chipboard set due to the simple card design. It is fun to be able to create lots of cards that are all similar but are unique too. And don't forget, if you don't have children and would still like to do something like this for your Christmas cards, you can always include photos of your favourite Christmas ornaments instead.
These BasicGrey Jovial cards are super effective and great to make on a production line when you’re creating a large volume of cards in preparation for Christmas. To make them, Kathie’s used the Jovial 6x6 paper pad and a set each of Woolies, Pops and Die Cut Shapes. She estimates that you can make around ten cards with one set of products, with loads of paper left for other projects.
Making the cards is easy. Kathie simply cut her favourite sheets from the paper pad to 6x4inches and adhered them to blank cards cut from Vanilla cardstock. She then trimmed the offcut patterned papers with decorative scissors to create a pile of border strips. She overlayed two or three strips over each background sheet, then adhered one of the DieCut shapes over the strips with 3D tape.
A Wooly or a Pop perches on top of each shape. To finish, Kathie printed up some Christmas sentiments on the leftover cardstock and adhered one to each card.
Caz whipped up these quick and easy Christmas Cards using the new Everybody Loves Christmas rang from Echo Park. Caz cut out the 8 larger journaling blocks from the Journaling Cards sheet of paper. She then chose co-ordinating patterned paper for each one and covered the front of the white cards.
The journaling blocks were mounted on double sided foam tape and attached to the lower half of the card. 2 thin strips of contrast patterned paper were added to the top and bottom of the cards and a sticker where needed.
Caz then used the smaller journaling blocks and some other strips of patterned paper to decorate envelopes to match the cards.
For an eight year old boy, the world is pretty black and white. Things are either ‘awesome’, or ‘they suck’. This layout is just a small reminder of the fashion do’s and don’ts in his world – good to have because even since creating this layout this list will have changed.
Suz has had some fun with the gorgeous Pink Paislee Artisan Elements in this layout – Glimmer Misting the flourish and allowing the ink to settle in the grooves for a great contrast, and inking and heat embossing the alphas for a grungy look.
Kathie loves any type of ledger paper. In her layout “You & Me”, she’s combined the ledger paper from Pink Paislee’s Starlight range with other coordinating papers from the collection. In keeping with the office product theme, she’s backed the entire layout on some blue text paper from October Afternoon. The embellishments are a mix of BasicGrey (Ambrosia and Max & Whiskers) and Jenni Bowlin.
We thank Wendy Smith from Tasmania for the above two layouts. She has used the 365 Degree range for her Day in the Life page. Inking and distressing combined with colourful patterned papers from the range makes this such a great boy’s page. And look at her clever stamping in the background.
The lovely Kim Arnold was invited by Pink Paislee to be a Guest Artist for Pink Paislee, and was sent products from the beatuiful new Sweetness line to play with. The above three amazing layouts are just some of what she produced for them – and we thank her for allowing us to share them here.
Iris layered patterned papers, stamps, and rub-ons from the 7 Gypsies Avignon range to create this beautiful page. The paper swirls were cut-out from an older 7 Gypsies paper and was colored with copic pens. Webster's trims provided the perfect base from the Prima roses.
Suz loves her 7Gypsies product and shows that it doesn’t have be exclusively for vintage or heavier pages. She has used some of the beautiful 7Gypsies Victoria papers on this page of soft pinks and greens along with the co-ordinating chipboard alphas. The darker tones of the transparencies allow contrast without taking anything away from the lightness of the page. She has also worked some of the enduringly useful 97% Complete stickers into the layout as a perfect finishing touch.
This layout by Ronda Palazari was inspired by the amazing 7 gypsies tags. They have such a vintage feel that Ronda immediately thought of all the things she collects around her house, vintage cameras, vintage sewing machines & supplies, etc. She stitched them down and then added the picture of her favourite vintage camera over the top.
We thank Ranjini Malhotra from the 7Gypsies design team for this beautiful layout using the Agignon collection. We loved the row of shipping tags and the whimsical placement of photos and flowers.
Ranjini also allows us to share this 7Gyspies Photo Tray – full of the most gorgeously detailed collection of gyspy treasures and trinkets. It looks as though she has padded the inset areas so that she can use Jenni Bowlin stick pins to keep her treasures in place. Thanks so much for allowing us to share your creations here, Ranjini.
This is a mixed media project by Larissa Albernaz using the Avignon Collection from 7 Gypsies. These papers provide the perfect vintage touch to any project. They´re gorgeous and perfect for collage!
We love what Suzanne Sergei has done with this 7Gypsies printer’s tray. Using The Girl’s Paperie Toil and Trouble papers and 7Gypsies embellishments she has created this stunning Halloween themed collage. There’s so much amazing detail in this you could keep finding bits for hours. Thanks so much Suzanne for allowing us to share it here.
And finally, just a few more wonderful samples from the 7Gypsies Design Team. There are so many different ways of using the printers trays and off the pages projects, these are just some of them.
Congratulations to Belinda Spencer (card), Anthea Peterson (single), Leeann Pearce (double) on their winning projects from Week 3. And thank you so much to everyone who participated – we love having so many different interpretations.
Here are the final week’s entries – once again there’s just a wealth of inspiration and talent.
Good luck to everyone – please take the time to vote for your favourites in the sidebar and we’ll be back next week with our finalists!
Last but by no means least in our trends series is a contribution we’re thrilled to share from the wonderfully talented Audrey Underwood. Though she has a trademark style that is all her own, she does showcase stunningly some of the mixed media trends that are so dominant in the art world at the moment.
Audrey has altered one of the 7Gypsies Photo Display Stands in this amazingly detailed project. All of the inside pages started off as one of the 7 Gypsies Journal Pages – Antiquarian. She trimmed off a tiny strip of each side so it fit into the 7 Gypsies 5”x7” Vertical Refills.
Audrey writes: As you may have noticed so far, my main supply would be a bottle of soft white/cream paint. I use a dry brush technique to apply a dusty coat of paint to whatever I want to give a softer or wash look, or to dull down a pattern paper. I love my sand paper and use an old blunt craft knife to get a lot of the effects.
I first got my inspiration from the founder of the furnishing and decorating style of Rachel Ashton Shabby Chic, with some vintage thrown in.
Audrey also shares with us her dry brush technique that she uses on a lot of her pieces:
Take a dry brush (no water) and dip it lightly into the paint colour desired. Brush excess paint off onto some scrap paper, until there is only a faint amount of colour on the paper. Now lightly brush over the surface of your piece. I always say it is a little like applying some blush to your cheeks with a blush brush, start off lightly and then go heavier as you desire. You don’t want full coverage; you still want to be able to see the base colour also. You can always go back and add more paint later when you are used to the technique. If you are a little nervous try it on the back of your piece or on scraps first.}
To paint the metal pieces I just use normal acrylic paint, I use about 3 to 4 coats and add heat with the heat gun in-between coats to set it. I only recommend this for pieces that are not going to be knocked or touched often.
Thanks so much Audrey for agreeing to create for us.
The swirls. cogs and circles of the Dude range from Paper Loft reminded Caz of the ramps and wheels at her Son's recent birthday party at Monster Skatepark. Caz cut elements from some of the patterned papers and layered them over the plain papers, adding dimension by afixing some of them with foam tape. She's still waiting patiently for Jesse to fill in the 10 favourite things about his birthday.
Although Paper Loft’s Morning Rain paper range includes gorgeous reds and yellows along with the blues, Suz chose to single out the delicate cornflower blue and navy palette and just use those on this layout about her daughter and her gardening interests. She cut out flowers from the printed papers and mingled them with some Prima canvas ones as a simple embellishment on the page.
Chipboard embellishments are perhaps one of Louise’s all-time most favourite scrappy products! Twiddleybitz have a fabulous range of chipboard products that suit all styles and themes! Louise however is particularly partial to those that Twiddleybitz create in black; which is also one of her favourite tones LOL. For this particular layout Louise has featured a photo of herself and Nic.
She wanted to create a page that was carefree, fun and at the same time had a certain wow factor, as it is very much in a minimalist style. Using the colours red, white and black suited this perfectly, the Twiddleybitz flourish was just the perfect elegant touch, to complete it.
After finishing the first layout Louise had some 'left overs'. She had trimmed the original Twiddleybitz flourish, so she just had to create another layout and not let them go to waste. for the background of this layout Louise used a gorgeous vellum by Carolee’s Creations. The photo background and flower patterned papers from SEI and Heidi Swapp coordinated perfectly with Louise's design theme and the black flourish remnants.
Kathie has teamed a Twiddleybitz Totally Tweet Oval Cage and Bird with Sassafras brights in this layout showcasing her son’s mad photography skills. It totally doesn’t matter that the camera’s around the wrong way. What matters is how you hold your mouth. Yeah, we all knew that, right?
Janine loved the beautiful script Twiddleybitz word "discover" and knew immediately that she had these pictures of two of her children climbing a tree that would work so well with it. She also kept the word in it's "raw" form to replicate the bark on the trunk of the tree. To balance the word she used a Twiddleybitz flourish, but chose to add a hint of colour using Luminarte Polished pigments and finished them off with BasicGrey glazed brads, but still maintaining most of the flourish "raw".
Janine just loves the creative opportunities that the Twiddleybitz embellishments offer her pages and finds that she will often gravitate towards them when embellishing a page.
Anne-Marie Cox, Perth, has teamed Whimsy Bird Friends with whimsical clouds and a bright yellow sun to create this delightful layout about her daughter. She’s also slipped a Twiddleybitz Fern Leaf onto the page, along with some real leaves. What a fun page. Thanks Anne-Marie!
Karola Witczak has an amazing way with Twiddleybitz chipboard. On this page she has coated the chipboard with crackle paint for a lovely shabby chic feel. She has also added interest to the stunning dress form by adding buttons to selected spots to draw your eye to those areas. Stunning page Karola and thank you for sharing.
Denise Ferguson, from Perth, created this little stand using a Butterfly Free Standing Book. Denise tells us she has made a stand for each of her daughters, and they have placed them on their desks at work. We’re sure they love them!
Janine loved this Page Maps sketch and followed the basic design quite closely, even cropping her photos to the same dimensions as advised on the sketch. Then she built on it with lots of little details, layers of hand-cut paper, mixed with Prima Felt Devines and flowers in browns, greens and blues to compliment her photos.
Working from a sketch is a great way to create a double page layout. It takes the hard work out of the designing process and gives you a good place to start with positioning your photos, papers and embellishments. Sue decided to use the Crate Paper Restoration range for her double page layout and found it really fun to work with. Sue loved using the die-cut papers as the base for both of the pages.
The chipboard embellishments from the Restoration collection are really quite lovely and although they are vintage themed, Sue shows that you can use them for any type of photo, not just older ones.
Caz has used BasicGrey Max & Whiskers to introduce her darling guide dog trainee pup in a scrapbook page. She has converted the 12x12 beautifully to 8.5x11”.
Kathie wanted to base her family layout here on the happy yellow “Lace” patterned paper from Crate Paper’s Restoration collection. She’s stayed pretty true to the sketch; however rather than adopting the free-form butterfly trace in the sketch, she’s used embroidery floss (and a Crafters Workshop Dots all Around template) to create a circular shape to frame her family snapshots. This was more in keeping with the circular/continuous theme of family love, and family life.
Kathie’s applied distress inks and walnut stain liberally to further enhance the rich warm feel of the collection. She even stained the embroidery thread, then lifted and tore it back in places to reflect the shabby vintage feel of the products.
Jane Clark and Suz Doyle have created a couple of different interpretations on Becky’s sketch card. Jane has used Hambly doilies and Websters pages, wheras Suz has put Hambly and 7 Gypsies transparencies to work alongside Prima and her trusty & Gypsies stickers.
Email us your projects using any (or all!) of the above sketches to aussiedt@iinet.net.au for the fourth week of our Pagemaps Challenges. Deadline is next Tuesday 9th November. We can’t wait to see what you all come up with for our final week of sketches!
