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We have you to thank for this weekend inspiration, and what an amazing array of entries there was competing for the Sassafras guest design team spot. We share them all here (in simple alphabetical order) – have a browse through and pick out your own favourites – we’ll be back to announce the winner tomorrow!
Thanks so much and good luck to everyone who entered – we’re proud of our Aussie (and beyond) talent!
This is the last in the current series of readers challenges – though we’ll be back after the school holidays with another really cool set of challenges based on different scrapbooking styles – we look forward to introducing that to you. In the meantime, the design team have been playing with making their own transparencies… this can be done in a whole load of different ways from digital to stamping and painting and more.
We would love to see your interpretations on this theme! Please send your layouts incorporating transparencies that you’ve created yourself by midday next TUESDAY 5 April though – it’s a day earlier than usual but we’re revving up for the school holidays here! Please email to aussiedt@iinet.net.au.
Sue doesn't often create hybrid layouts as she says it seems to take her ages to decide what she wants to use and she gets often gets sidetracked! Having said that though, Sue really enjoyed creating this layout and is happy with the result. She used digital brushes by Ali Edwards to create images that could be printed out onto inkjet transparency.
Although Sue could have coloured the images to suit her layout, she liked the contrast the black images gave to the soft colours of the patterned papers. The fantastic thing about transparent elements is that you can position whatever you like underneath them to create more depth to your layout and the transparent elements pull the design together.
The photos Sue scrapped are older ones of her son Bailey watching pelicans at the beach when he was five. Sue recently rediscovered the photos and just had to scrap them. The colours from the mix of papers really complemented the photos well. Sue of course finished the layout with some stitching and also by hand stitching a few blue sequins to the design to continue with her circle feature.
The current essence of her 9 year old can probably only be captured in a photograph with his skateboard in tow, Suz acknowledges. He’s a rag tag boy who’s obsessed with skating and shoe brands and won’t have his hair cut and this photo pretty much sums him up.
To showcase the photo authentically, Suz created two different types of transparencies with Crafter’s Workshop templates. On one transparency she blended different shades of Stazon to make the sunburst pattern, and on the second she painted over the template in white gesso, and then sprayed with Glimmer Mist to create different shades. She then shredded the transparencies into smaller patches and stitched them directly onto the photo. Finally, Suz added a Heidi Swapp ‘escape’ transparency from the stamp in the top corner.
Anthea Peterson created this gorgeously serene page. She writes: I have made some Jute Flowers where I did basically the same thing Lou did with her flowers, I attached some Jute to a punched circle using a Pearl Brad then I applied some strong liquid glue and kept twisting and wrapping the Jute around the brad.
I also made some Rosettes. I punched out some flowers using a paper punch and then placed them inside each other until I was happy with the fullness of it. I then rolled out the tips of each petal and put a pearl in the centre.
Cara (aka Princess Kessie) has shared these two beautiful projects with us.
How cute are these twine flowers by Chantelle Huizenga! She writes : I’ve made my own flowers using twine.
Using punched shapes – scallops and circles – tie a knot in your twine and adhere to centre of shape, then twist around till you are happy with the result. I’ve used glue to adhere the twine!! Then I’ve added a brad to the centre of each flower.
Heidi Barclay created this pretty layered flower. She writes: I used a strip of fabric which I folded into two and then hand tacked the bottom folded piece and pulled the stitching together to create my flower. I have also added some mesh fabric underneath and on top, and finished it off with a fabric brad in the middle. Once I had finished, I added a little bit of white shimmerz on the top to give it some extra shine.
Leeann Pearce has yet again wowed us with this bright and beautiful page. She writes:
Awesome who doesn’t LOVE flowers – I especially like that they are so easy to make and there’s a massive variety out there for us to create. This week I made some fabric rosettes. I have hand dyed some strips of calico. I then rip 1.5cm strips from each of the colours. Tied a knot at one end and started to wrap and twist all the way around. I used some helmar fabric glue to adhere the tail end. Then I added some pearls to the tops and arranged then on my page in a cluster. I also made a paper rosette using the Tim Holtz rosette die – which is totally awesome I might add.
Lisa Gregory stunned us with some wonderful layouts, all of which are full of exquisite flowers that she has made from paper as well as fabric and ribbon.
Sharmaine Kruijver came up with this page which smacks of bright summer days. She writes: I made my flower out of scrap cardboard, paint and a pompom (cut from some pompom trim). I cut out 2 circles from the cardboard, added some paint around the outside of each circle and then cut slits into the circles. I then gathered the paper together, lifting the sides up and pushing the ‘petals’ out. To finish the flower I added a pompom in the middle.
Finally we loved this softly colourful layout from Nicole Pomeroy also with two different types of flowers. She writes:
I’ve made two different types of flowers on my layout. One is the spiralled circle, which are very easy to create and the other I’ve created by using my flower punches and using a stylus tool rubbing them from the outside in. This makes them close up, the more pressure and the more you do it the tighter they become. Once finished I glued the layers together to form my flower. They also look great with glittered or inked edges.
ris chose to use the new BasicGrey "Sweet Threads" line for this layout about motherhood. She says that the paper has the look of soft beautiful fabrics that reminds her of the linens that her mother used to cherish so much during her childhood.
Iris reflects in her journaling her surprise at how she has turned out to me so much like her mother when it comes to disciplining her children... something that she swore before she would not do. But more than saying the same things as her mother, she hopes to be so much more like her mom in more important aspects like for example how her mother placed her children above all else, and how her mom created a life that is enriching both for herself and her children.
Janine is always amazed at how similar her Grandmother and her lives have been. She wanted to jot a few things down, to remind herself of the similarities for years to come. She shares such a close bond with her Grandmother and what better way to pay tribute to this, in the form of a layout! Janine finds the new Madeline Collection by Prima so appealing with it's wonderful palette of colours for a modern vintage feel for her layout. Helping the juxtaposition between old and new.
Caz has been minding a friends kombi for a few months and finally got up the courage to drive it last week. She drove a friend and their 6 kids (3 each) to the ice skating rink. The kids bounced up and down on the very well sprung seats and sang all the way there (very loudly and out of tune). As they had nicknamed the Kombi "Little Miss Sunshine", any song with the word "Sunshine" in it was fair game. Caz chose the cute summery Hometown Summer range from Pink Paislee to scrap the event.
If there is a colour that always grabs Janine's attention, it is yellow!! It screams happiness to her, so she immediately fell in love with the oh so cheerful Soiree Collection by Pink Paislee and knew that yellow had to feature predominantly in her page. What Janine loved was the inclusion of the grey in the palette of brights, as it offsets all the brights beautifully, supplying the perfect contrast to the page.
Janine had lots of fun using Martha Stewart punches to add interest to the borders of her papers before layering them and clustering her embellies. The dimensional stickers were a fabulous touch to the page and the new tissue paper is wonderful for gathering for a little skirt under her photos. This collection is a "Sheer Joy" to work with
Seems Like the lovely Anna from Poland has a new collection to adore :))) It's SWEETNESS by Pink Paislee - and how SWEET is this layout. Anna also used Hambly overlays and some Glimmer Mists to make this gorgeous layout of her son Jeremy.
Pernilla created this amazing 3D star from Pink Paislee Parisian Anthology papers and decorated it beautifully with Prima flowers. This is just such an elegant project and we thank you for sharing it with us.
Wendy from Ontario, Canada has used the Pink Paislee Old School Collection to create this eye-catching sports themed layout. Thanks for letting us share your lovely work with our readers, Wendy.
This stunning layout was created by Tara Orr, using the Pink Paislee Parisian Anthology line. It is so sublime and beautiful and her choice of colours to customise her paper is stunning. Thanks so much Tara for sharing this page with us.
A big thankyou to Danielle Flanders from New York who is one of Caz's favourite scrappers for allowing us to showcase her gorgeous cards using the new Soiree range from Pink Paislee. We love all the tiny details that Danielle adds into her cards. scrunched tissue paper, jewelled pins, twine bows. Each card is a little piece of art.
When Sue first saw the Emma’s Shoppe range, she couldn’t believe how lucky she was to be able to design with it. Sue says it is even more gorgeous in real life. The colours in the range are quite varied which means that you can easily design several layouts from the range and end up with quite different looks. Sue decided to team the range with gorgeous photos of her daughter Lily when she was only 9 months old, playing with a hose in her Nana’s garden.
Sue loved the frilly ribbons in the collection and they worked perfectly with Lily’s frilly hat in the photos. Although the colour scheme in the layout consists mainly of pinks, Sue used some of the aqua chipboard and the aqua lettering stickers to create a contrast. If you have never used Crate Paper products before, you must check out the chipboard sets in the collections.
They are unbelievably great value as they are a 12x12 inch set and contain many pieces. You can definitely design quite a few layouts using the chipboard as embellishments. By layering the pieces of chipboard together, you can achieve lovely dimension on your page. Sue finished off her layout by sewing on a few pretty sequins and beads to add a handmade touch.
Kathie’s used the Toy Box line to create this page about a recent visit of the fire brigade to Jamie’s playgroup. The die-cut chipboard includes a little fire-engine and a spotted dog, which lend themselves beautifully for this theme. Kathie scattered blocks from the Accent Cuts paper across the neutral background to give spots of colour on which to place her photos.
Christine Middlecamp, in Minnesota, designed this layout which also features the Toy Box collection. Christine told us that her Crate Paper layout exemplifies one of her son’s grand adventures outside after a routine trip to the park. She says “In using Toy Box, I developed a playful, lively set-up of patterned paper squares and action ridden planes. Both appeal to the excitement of the moment attributed to my son's backyard adventure!”
Kaori Watanabe, Japan, is a member of the Crate Paper design team and we love what she does with Crate Paper product. In the layout we are sharing here today, she has used the Toy Box collection to create a fun, colourful boy page. Look how she appears to have strung the chipboard frames along the entwined ribbons. And the helicopter hovering overhead is such a great boy touch.
These stunning cards were created by the very talented Sarah Parker. This first card has been made using the Emma's Shoppe collection. Sarah designed the card to showcase the versatile colour palette of the collection. We love all of the delicious layers Sarah as added to the card.
This beautiful card was designed by Sarah for her daughter Sydney. Sydney loves all thing girly, but can sometimes be tough and a bit rough around the edges... So with that in mind, Sarah loved being able to add some rustic elements to the card, like the beautiful wood grain paper from Emma's Shoppe, and some jute twine.
This card features one of the most beautiful collections of paper and embellishments that Sarah has seen in a very long time...The Portrait collection. Sarah loves the soft elegance of the papers, mixed with tasteful, trendy flares of teals, yellows and reds.
Sarah added some lace from the collection just to take the elegance up a notch, and the rest just came together so easily. The Crate Paper embellishments are really lovely and make the card making process very enjoyable.
Sarah loved the fun chipboard elements in the Toy Box set, the number references popped out at her as the most fun. So with that Sarah created this fun little boy's birthday card also showcasing the delicious buttons that Crate Paper has introduced with this Winter release. Again Sarah has created a stunning card with lots of gorgeous layers.
Sarah fell in love with all of the texture and boyish elements in the Toy Box collection the moment she laid eyes on it. Crate Paper has managed to incorporate everything any little boy could hope for in this collection, and Sarah wanted to represent as much of it as she could on her card. Sarah had so much fun making his card as she just adored all of the little elements of the collection. Thank you Sarah for sharing your gorgeous cards. Each one is a work of art and we are sure they would be loved by any recipient.
This week we’re looking at making your own flowers. Though we saw quite a few of them already in the embellishments week, it hasn’t stopped our design team from coming up with ever new and astounding techniques.
We’d love to see your entries! Email your layouts to aussiedt@iinet.net.au by next Wednesday 30 April and we’ll include them in our post. The most innovative layout from each week’s challenge will receive a prize pack of goodies from us.
Louise really enjoyed creating these flowers; whilst it isn’t a new technique, Louise really wanted to create her flowers with this technique as it allowed her to upcycle and use one of her favourite products, tissue paper. To create these flowers you will only need a few basic materials; scrap cardstock, tissue paper, stapler/staples, and quick drying glue. Louise first cut some small circles from the scrap cardstock; approximately the size of 20 and 50 cent pieces.
To get the tissue paper twist, tear up the tissue paper to an approximate rectangle measuring 30 cm x 20 cm. then twist it into a cord. Staple 1 end to the centre of a cardstock disc. Apply glue to the cardstock disk and then gently and firmly twist the tissue paper cord down and around in a circular motion onto the disc. Firm gentle finger pressure for a minute will ensure that the tissue paper cord stays adhered.
Louise has decorated her flowers by first coating them with gold glimmer mist, and then embossing them with gold embossing powder. To complete the flowers she has used beads to create the flower centres. You will also notice that Louise has deliberately left the ends out on a couple of the flowers, so that she can fashion them into leaf like elements.
Janine had been wanting to use her Websters Pages Fabric strips for quite some time and when she saw a tutorial on Lesley Langdons blog, she knew exactly what she was going to do!
Janine cut the largest fabric strip in half, then cut down the scallop edge trim to create 2 pieces from that as well. Using a zig zag stitch on her machine she sewed the scallop edge piece of fabric to the straight piece. Because the fabric is stiffened it is very easy to handle when sewing together. Then she used a long hand stitch to gather the straight long edge to create the ruffled flower. She finished off the flower with layers of punched paper and a fabric covered brad.
Carole created some fun and bright Felt Flowers using Prima Paintable Doily Clear Stamp and Dynasty Flower Centres and Crate Paper "Paper Doll" Collection. Firstly Carole stamped the Paintable Doily onto different coloured felt and then she stuck the felt onto some cardstock and cut out, and embroidered onto the stamped design with floss and beads. Using foam tape she layered each piece and then finished the flower off with the Dynasty Centres.
To create the different sizes within the flower Carole cut away some of the stamped image which also became a smaller flower. To stitch onto the felt Carole used a Paper Piecer to push a hole through the felt and the cardboard. To create the different size within the flower Carole cut away some of the stamped image which also became a smaller flower. To stitch onto the felt Carole used a Paper Piecer to push a hole through the felt and the cardboard to make it easier to embroider.
Thank you to everyone who participated in this weeks challenge – making your own stamps. You couldn’t help but be inspired by all these very different and very fabulous ideas.
Who says stamps are expensive? Anthea Peterson created this fabulous layout using an old pizza box! She writes: I have used cardboard from a pizza box. I cut a square off the box, ripped away at the sides a little to reveal the corrugated bit in-between and then applied some paint, thicker in some parts more then others, I then got stamping. I have used two different colours in paint to add a little tone. I also mainly stamped around the photos and paper to frame them.
We loved how innovative Chantelle Huizenga was, creating colour and texture. She writes: I've used some foam flower stickers to create a stamp - with the foam stickers as pictured, I've run them through an embossing die to create some texture. I've then removed the adhesive back and stuck them onto a stamping block - also as pictured. Then I've simply used ink and stamped onto my scrapbook LO to create an interesting BG.
Heidi Barclay delighted us when she turned to the kitchen to create an interesting texture. She writes I have used a kitchen GOLDIE LOCKS [is that a Kiwi term? Aussies, we think it’s a kitchen scourer!] and added some shocking pink paint onto the Goldie Locks and then stamped all over the patterned paper, I wanted to add some more pink to bring out the pink flowers on the patterned paper.
Leeann Pearce has come up with a very cool solution for all those odd leftover chipboard letters. She writes: This week I thought I would use what I had in my scrap room and so I decided to create a large background stamp using leftover chipboard letters. Here’s how I made my background stamp. Grab a heap of odd letters and numbers mix it up so you have lots of different sizes and fonts. I used helmar’s decoupage and painted a semi large piece of chipboard. Then place the letters randomly all over. Allow the decoupage and chipboard pieces to dry. Then simple choose a colour and apply plenty of paint then just turn you piece over and stamp the background of some cardstock. The result is a shabby image - which I likey!
You certainly don’t have to venture far to make your own.
Livia Andrade made herself an oversized stamp out of corrugated cardboard for this stunning layout. She writes:for this make it yourself I use a strip of cardboard with ink to stamp the background.
Finally, Sharmaine Kruijver has come up with a number of different techniques to wow us – how cool is the doily idea! She writes: For this challenge I made 3 stamps. The first 2 were made using a cork. The great thing about using corks, to make stamps, is that 1. You can use both ends and 2. If you make a mistake or change your mind you can simply cut it off and start over. I made my circle stamps using both the negative and the positive space. To make the circle(s) I took a pen/texta lid and pushed it into the cork. Then it was a simple case of removing the excess cork from around or inside the circle. What I love about using a cork is that the texture lines from the cork give effect to the stamped image. The third stamp was made by simply placing a doily onto an acrylic block, attaching it with some double sided tape. I then brushed it with some paint and stamped and what is great is that I now have a yellow doily all ready for another layout! I used all my stamps on the background page for my layout about the ‘yellow’ team that our girls are in at school, hence the monochrome page.
Thanks for the inspiration to create
This week the design team are looking at motherhood, and some of the differences between their own experiences and that of generations past.
Sue scanned an old photo of herself as a baby with her parents at the beach. The quality of the photo wasn't great so she converted it to black and white and teamed it with a current photo of herself and her children Bailey and Lily. As the photos were black and white they could really be scrapped with any colour scheme or paper collection. Sue chose to use papers from the Pink Paislee Parisian Anthology collection and coloured them with Cornflower Glimmer Mist Chalkboard.
The resist papers make it so easy to achieve stunning looks with Glimmer Mist. You simply spray it on and then wipe off the excess with tissues or paper-towel to reveal the gorgeous resist pattern such as the doilies in this layout. Sue layered ribbons and paper strips that have been glimmer misted and punched with Martha Stewart border punches, underneath her main photo to add detail to the layout. A mixture of Prima flowers and corrugated embellishments were also added.
As Sue was designing the layout, she realised that she was running out of room for the amount of journaling she wanted to include. Instead of printing it in a block on the layout as she first intended, Sue printed it onto cream cardstock and rounded the top two corners to form a tag. She then stamped a title using stamps from the Ali Edwards Technique Tuesday range. Sue decided to not stick down the tag to her layout and instead she made a little pocket for it to sit in behind the smaller photo.
The smaller photo has been stitched in place down the left side to secure it but this also leaves the area underneath free of adhesive so that the tag can be positioned there. Sue was also careful when she adhered her embellishments that no adhesive was placed where the tag needed to go. This way the tag can easily be removed to read.
Louise wanted to show how similar her family is to the family she grew up in, and that despite the changes that each new generation faces, things really don't change that much. The journalling reads "Another generation. Another family sitting for a photograph and loving each other.”
She chose to use the Basic Grey Curio range with a touch of Prima for this layout, and chose very similar photos from her as a child, to her with her partner and son to accentuate the similarities. The papers have a modern twist on a vintage style to suit any aged photograph, and the Prima flowers are a timeless touch.
Nic has been thinking about the difference between her experience of motherhood compared to that of her own mother quite a bit lately. This is mostly due to the fact that Nic has reached the age that her mother was when she left the family nest to start her adult life. Given that Nic still has primary-school aged children, it shows just how different her motherhood experience is compared to the generation before her.
Here she used a combination of the lush "Restoration" range by Crate Paper, paper doilies by Martha Stewart and a combination of letters by Basic Grey and Studio Calico.
How could you resist this adorable range of Papers from Trimcraft called Pepper and Friends!!! Janine fell in love with the cute little characters the moment she saw them and knew she wanted to use this line. Janine created this album using the finer prints from the paper line along with Prima Mask and Tattered Angels Glimmermists. She wanted her backgrounds to be subtle so that the adorable chipboard Pepper and Friends embellishments remained a strong focus to the pages.
Caz has used the funky For Him and For Her Glitter Decoupage pads from Trimcraft to make these cool 3D cards.With their bright colours and cute designs you are sure to find the perfect embellishments for your project and the fabulous Soup staples on white from Jillibean Soup make great backgounds for cards and scrapbooking pages.
Thankyou to Martina Kaartjes for sharing this adorable card with us. Martina has a passion for hand colouring her stamped cards and these Pepper and Friends stamps were perfect for this and the results are adorable.
Iris had a blast playing with this 6x6 template from The Crafter's Workshop. All she needed was some white cardstock and her favourite Glimmer Mists to create this brick background. She ended up doing four cards in one sitting with this fabulous template which is perfect for creating backgrounds for cards and scrapbook pages.
Jane positioned the largest heart shape on the 6x6in heart template on cream card and sponge a sand coloured ink over it to fill in the area, concentrate the ink around the outer edge and leave the centre lighter to give depth. She then placed the smallest heart on template over the inked heart, then filled this area in with mahogany ink. Papers and stickers used are Webster's Pages.
On these two cards, Jane created custom backgrounds for her cards with BasicGrey Curio papers and two different techniques using Crafters Workshop Templates. On the first one, she used the 6x6 vine template on reversed BasicGrey Curio upholstery paper using Glimmer Mist Tattered Leather. With the second card she placed the Crafter's Template 6x6in template on reversed BasicGrey Curio, and outlined the template using a white gel pen. Jane notes that you need to ensure you let the gel dry before removing the template as it may smudge!
We would like to thank Irma Peredne for this beautiful layout. This is what she has to say about this layout:
"Raising two very wild and crazy boys, I seldom get to scrap romantic, pretty pages. My eldest son featured in this page, is always a willing model to my impromptu photo shoots. For this page I've used The Crafter's Workshop template Cherry Blossoms TCW177. I coloured in the template with colour pencils." Thank you Irma for this wonderful source of inspiration.
Here is another stunning page by Irma where she used the 6" x 6" The Crafter's Workshop template (Sunburst TCW166). This page is about an emotion - the moment when your child is born and you hear his voice for the first time. Irma tried to capture the glorious nature of that experience in sunny, bright colours, and a big dose of optimism.
Last year was the first time that Kathie’s family celebrated Halloween. They were invited to a Halloween party and all the kids dressed up. So, she jumped at the chance to create her very first Halloween layout, using The Girls Paperie Toil & Trouble collection.
The collection has a beautiful vintage base, with bright greens and oranges, in keeping with Halloween colour schemes. The Epoxy Charms are simply delightful – Kathie used a skull and crossbones on this page and has kept the others for future pages as they are so pretty and suitable for a multitude of other pages, not just for a Halloween theme.
Here Suz Doyle shows that The Girl’s Paperie travel themed line ‘On Holiday’ is really versatile enough to be used in conjunction with lots of themes. This is a busy double page, containing photographs from two separate years of Anzac Days and a print of a local newspaper that her daughter Phoebe was lucky enough to be featured on as ‘an unknown little girl’. The layout tells the real story of why she was there with a flower and also some detail about her great-grandfather, who was an Anzac soldier in WW1. (Suz hopes to add to the page with 2010 photos later this year as well.)
The Girls Paperie papers are beautiful and softly nostalgic papers that are happy to take a back seat in a busy page and allow the focus to be on the photos. Suz loved The Girl’s Paperie Alphas as well – big chipboard die cut ones she had fun Glimmer Misting with a mixture of three different shades to get them just right. The little accents – die cut cameras, compasses and old fashioned buttons created simple but lovely clusters of decoration, along with the single stunning Prima flower.
We love this funky wall hanging that Virginia Tillery created for her son’s bedroom. She uses the On Holiday line and shows that its bright masculine colours are perfect for boy projects. Thanks Virginia!
Leslie Ashe, Texas, shows that the Toil and Trouble range doesn’t have to be confined to Halloween layouts. She says that when she saw the clock images on the patterned paper, it occurred to her to use them for a layout about how time flies and that, in the blink of an eye, her youngest child has graduated high school.
We love the design of her page, with the clocks and other elements lined up vertically down the page. And do you see her journaling? Yep, there it is, posing as one of the vertical pattern strips on the LHS of the page! Thanks for sharing, Leslie.
Robin Shakoor, Virginia, created this delightful mini album using the Girl's Paperie Toil and Trouble line, for her work with the Scrapbooks Plus DT. She's used an envelope album as the basis of the mini, and decorated each pocket with the fabulous papers from the collection. Robin says that she will be adding halloween photos from the past to make this a keepsake to last for years to come.
And finally a card from the beautiful line that started it all – Paper Girl. This card was crafted beautifully by Shanna Vineyard – using Girls Paperie papers and Hero Arts stamps – how cute is that house stamp?! There’s so much detail and love in this card and really shows. Thanks so much Shanna for allowing us to share it here.
This week we challenged our design team to make their own stamps – and as always, they didn’t disappoint. Check out these innovative techniques. And then… we challenge you! Be inspired by some of the ideas from the design team, or share your own different ways of creating stamps to make your projects unique. Email your projects to aussiedt@iinet.net.au by next Wednesday 23rd March – we’ll share your ideas and the most innovative one will receive a fabulous prize pack.
Iris wanted to create a stamp that would both add texture to her page and also serve as a journaling spot. With this is mind, she took some corrugated board scraps, punched out scallop circle shapes and adhered it to her clear block with double adhesive. To use the stamps, Iris simply dabbed teal paint on the corrugated board shapes and stamped on to her layout.
She also stamped on a scrap piece of paper, punched it out with the same puncher she used on the boards, and adhered it to her layout with foam tape. This served as her journaling spot.
Louise was over the moon to get this brief. It has been on her crafty 'to do list' for some time to make herself some stamps of her own designs. Louise usually uses special stamp blocks that are available from artist supply shops, however she has been wanting to explore using less expensive options, as she would like to make some to give as gifts to her crafty friends.
For this particular stamp Louise has used craft foam which is readily available. Louise has used a texta marker and hand drawn her design straight onto the foam, then using a sharp craft knife and small sharp scissors has cut the design out of the foam. Before inking, Lou sealed the surface of the foam stamp with a glue stick to prevent the ink/paint mediums from soaking into the foam.
To ensure the foam stamp stays on the stamp block whilst stamping Louise has used small pieces of double sided tape to hold it in place.
Craft Foam is such a versatile product to use for stamping. Next time you are looking for a crafty idea for the kids in the holidays, consider getting a bag of craft foam shapes and using them for stamps and let the kids to create their own cards and papers that can be used for gifts/wrap.
Jane has used the Teresa Collins Stamp Maker kit and the designs included with the machine to make these stamps. Jane found the machine couldn’t be simpler to use and only takes six minutes of 'cooking' time to create these two stamps (frame and clock).
And check out this final cool trick from Jane. She says she no longer uses BlueTac for putting up posters in her sons room, instead she uses it with her beautiful buttons to create designer stamps! Jane said it's so much fun seeing how the designs on the buttons turned out.
Just press and flatten a small amount of blue tac onto an acrylic blocks to the size of the button, press the button into the blue tac and gentle pull the button away. Tap the BlueTac design gently onto your ink pad then stamp on cream card, punch these out using a circle punch and arrange them on your card front. You can stamp around six to eight times until the BlueTac loses it's impression. Genius!
Another week of surprising and stunning layouts – thanks so much to everyone who has contributed. There are masses of ideas to inspire here – although perhaps we should have mentioned that a more specific ‘make your own flower challenge is coming soon!
Anthea Peterson sent in this stunning page and we thought the colour palette was striking. She writes: I love making my own embellishments, especially when it uses up scrap papers LOL
I have made some Rolled Flowers, 'Zig Zag' Flowers (there may be a better name for them LOL) and some Flower Heads from pre-made paper flowers. I have supplied some close up photos too.
To make the rolled paper flowers you need to cut a circle of paper, then cut it into a spiral, start rolling in from the outside to the centre, when you get to the centre adhere the rolled part to the little base that is left.
For the Zig Zag flowers cut a strip of paper, fold it back and forth so it looks like a zig zag, adhere the ends together then flatten it out on a circle of scrap cardstock, use a strong adhesive. Decorate the centre with a sticker, button, brad.....
For the Flower Heads gather 4 pre-made paper flowers, place some string glue in the centre of each. Pinch the first one up, then place it in the centre of a second flower, pinch that up around it, and repeat till you have used up all 4 flowers.
Dale Tiernan sent in this softly feminine page and shares.. I've been teaching myself to make flowers with lace and ribbon. I don't sew very much so it's quite a challenge. I've made quite a lot of the lace flowers. I've made very few of the satin ones. I combined one of each to make the flower featured on this page. Happy with the result in this instance. Will persevere as I think it's worth it (even with the needle pricking that comes along with it).
Perhaps a thimble, Dale?!
Heidi Barclay sent in another striking page and writes: I have made a concertina flower, and then cut a circle out of the flip side of the Echo Park PP, the centre is made from some paper twirling.
I have also added a twilled circle but slightly looser, to incorporate the red from the back of the photo.
The inimitable Leeann Pearce has sent in another pearler this week, and shares her technique. I absolutely LOVE to make embellishments… I always have even when I first started scrapping. I would spend fun minutes whipping something up to place on the pages. I started making these crate paper rosettes over a year ago. And I still love them they are just so quick and easy to make and they look fantastic on the page. Grab yourself a pack of crate paper take it out of the wrapper and leave folder. Just cut a 2 inch strip from it. Now unroll it and us the same technique you do to making a fabric one. Twisting and turning and wrapping as you go. At the end just use some glue. Punch a circle from scraps and adhere that to the bottom. For this shabbier feel, simply unravel it and scrunch. Add some pearls and brads and pebbles to pretty them up. I made a button and two heart pins from fimo plus I hand dyed some doilies. I have used a mixture of punches and scraps of pattern paper to make a paper garland and stitched that to the page.
The skies the limit when it comes to embellishments – I love it!
Many thanks to Lady Grace Belarmino for this pretty page. She writes: I love how my handmade flowers turned out. The first one was made of patterned papers. I simply cut several sizes of petals and glue them together. The second one was made of ribbon adhered over a circle cardstock.
And how’s this wonderful selection of handmade, and crocheted flowers! Livia says I made all the flowers and brads!!
I love this "make it yourself". Thanks for all the inspiration!!!
Marisa Page sent in this innovative layout, writing: I have soaked chipboard flower shapes in water, pulled the layers apart then glues them back together, twisting each layer slightly. I then added glimmer mist.
I dried them with a heat gun which made the petals curl inwards.
Natalie Elphinstone shares this prettiest of pages, with another different flower making technique. She writes: Here's a layout I just put together which features all handmade embellishments. Sometimes the easiest way to get the look you're after is simply to make it yourself! I made these flowers by punching circles and folding them up for some dimension before adding a brad to the centre. The stems were fussy-cut from a pattern on the paper (All these patterned papers are from the new Cosmo Cricket Upcycle collection).
But even when the patterned paper doesn't have designs you can fussy-cut, you can always cut your own simple shapes and piece it together like I did with the clouds, banners and grass. It's an easy way to create a 'scene' page.
And finally, there’s a pretty simplicity to this layout from Sharmaine Kruijver. She writes: For this page I made a layered embellishment using a doily, a punched scalloped circle (using an old atlas page), a punched circle (using a recycled kraft envelope) and topped it with an old covered button that I added stiches to.
I also used some pressed flowers as embellishments. These pressed flowers used to belong to my Grandma-in-law, who loved to make her own cards, so I thought they would be a great sentimental addition to the page.
Kathie often reflects how different her childhood home was to the house in which she is raising her five year old son, Jamie. Kathie is one of two girls and their childhood home was predominantly a girl zone: Barbie dolls, princesses and fairies, toy ovens, ballet slippers and tulle. These days Kathie lives within a house full of colour, well every colour except pink it would seem.
She muses how she has become so accustomed to being the mum of a boy that she found it a challenge recently to navigate the pink aisle at Target. She was in search of a birthday present for a three year old girl and realised she was completely clueless as she scanned rows of pink Barbies, Dora the Explorers and Pretty Ponies. Who would have thought she’d now be more at home in the boy aisle with its superheroes, Bob the Builder and Thomas the Tank Engine?!
Kathie’s created a colourful vintage page incorporating imagery of the style found in the books she grew up with. She’s paired Crate Paper’s new Toy Box line (delightfully vintage and boyish) with bits and bobs from Cosmo Cricket’s Material Girl collection (sweetly girly). A bright red background and ledger paper to write on kept the whole vintage vibe while injecting happy colour into the project.
Louise wanted a retro feel to this 70's themed layout, and the Basic Grey Marjolaine range was just perfect. In the journalling she wanted to reflect with fond memories that while the world has changed, the things that keep childhood innocent didn't have to. Louise created floral clusters by hand and combined them with the Marjolaine stickers that were adhered to black cardstock and then trimmed leaving a border to make them pop off the page.
Louise loves to create her own backgrounds, so these textured Tim Holtz stamps are just up her creative alley - so to speak!! With both this layout and the card she was able to compliment the pattern of the 'pattern paper' to suit her design ideas. With the layout Louise has also used the stamped image as a background to highlight her photo. And with the Card she has used the stamped image as a background to highlight her heart embellishment.
One of Suz’s favourite ways of capturing the essence of her son and where he is at now is to record his conversations, either with her or with his friends. She sits working in the living room when he chats and sometimes just types as fast as she can to get snippets of stuff that she thinks is made of pure gold –the stuff that takes up space in the minds of nine year old boys.
And because he’s nine, she can’t get away with cutesy layouts any more. But the Tim Holtz ‘Number’ Cling Mounted stamp was actually deemed ‘sick’ enough to be used on a page that represents him. Suz has created a background with different coloured Distress inks and adhered her journalling strips over the top. And though a My Minds Eye ‘Best Buddies” title block was rejected as not cool, she got away with the ‘You Are Here’ and the Tim Holtz star metal adornment.
Finally fresh from Tim Holtz blog there are some of his newly released stamps from CHA. There’s some fabulously themed cling mounted sets which can lend themselves to some wonderful creative uses. We love how Tim has incorporated his metal game spinners, philosophy tags and film strips into the tags along with the stunning blending and stamping methods he’s such a genius at.
Kathie finds naked chipboard so versatile, and there are so many die-cut shapes available these days that you’re bound to be able to find one to suit any theme scrapbook page.
The new Twiddleybitz pirate die-cuts inspired her to create a page using a photo she took some years ago, when she and her son first began borrowing from their toy library. The little wooden pirate ship was so sweet, and is still a firm favourite. Kathie has painted the chipboard with acrylic paints and added it to her page to give her pirate ship somewhere to “sail to”.
When it comes to using Twiddleybitz chipboard, Louise Williams is the queen! What a beautiful layout this is and the relatively simple design along with the fantastic chipboard really sets off those adorable photos
Twiddleybitz designs beautiful ornate chipboard pieces and Sue found them lovely to work with. There are many ways that you can alter the chipboard including paint, ink, glossy accents, glitter, Glimmer Mist and the list goes on. The chipboard clock on Sue’s page was altered using a soft aqua chalk ink on the clock image and Frayed Burlap distress ink applied with a sponge, to the filigree details.
The method was a simple but effective one and it worked well for the look Sue wanted to achieve for her school page. The Steam Punk Gears Corner piece was firstly inked with the same aqua coloured ink and then distressed somewhat with a Antique Linen distress ink applied with a sponge. Sue then stamped over the entire chipboard piece with embossing ink and applied a clear embossing powder. The chipboard was then heated with a heat gun to melt the powder.
Sue loved the look this gave it and will definitely use this technique again. Sue used the chipboard piece to embellish a page created for her son Bailey’s school year. She has included journaling about how it was a somewhat difficult year for Bailey but there were definitely highlights. Included in the little envelope on the page is a copy of the poem Bailey wrote, for which he was awarded a Highly Commended by the poet, Rupert McCall.
We have Melanie Forbes to thank for this “Lost and Found” shop. Mel has used Tattered Angels Glitter Glam to paint Twiddleybitz chandeliers, chairs and a mannequin and used them to decorate her shop. She’s used rusting paint on the Twiddleybitz fence, as well as on the side walls and roof of her shop. Finally, she’s added a whole load of bits and bobs from her stash, including old buttons and bottles. Amazing!
Mel Connell from Perth has used pieces from Twiddleybitz’ new steampunk collection to create a stunning beyond the page project. Mel used steampunk cogs and a few other bits and pieces like wings and a celtic cross. After spraying them with colour, she’s attached them to embellish her steampunk girl. The combination of blue with the aubergine and rich copper is stunning!
We asked Jane Clarke to have a play with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist on cards, and were stunned at the results. She has has cleared embossed Hero Arts stamp (K5353 In the Garden image) onto vellum and sprayed new vibrant Glimmer Mist - Trunk Bay, Marmalade and Rum Punch over the top. The Glimmer Mist pools in shimmery puddles on the vellum. She reports it makes the vellum curl when dried but its ok - make it a feature!!
Jane has once again cleared embossed an image on vellum then spray the New Glimmer Mist summer colours - Sun Sisters, Rum Punch, Marmalade and Bahama Blue over the top. This time she wiped the excess off with a tissue to create a subtle effect. The vellum will ripple but this adds a great effect, and Jane adhered the piece to her card with double-sided tape.
Make sure you back the vellum on white or light coloured cardstock to see the beautiful Glimmer Mist colours!
Though Suz is more committed to event scrapping and telling the story than ever, every now and then a photo comes along that’s just worthy of being showcased in beauty. This is how she felt about this photo of her daughter who decided to dress herself up as ‘the nature fairy’ one day during the school holidays - in fact, her daughter so often presents herself in beautiful and surprising dress ups that Suz is considering an 8.5x11" album to devote just to them.
Suz covered white cardstock in texture paste to start with and once dry, sprayed with beautiful Gold Glimmer Mist. She wanted to try to recreate the colours in Phoebe’s eye on plain cardstock, and so sprayed with a mixture of Riptide, Sunshine and Kiwi – with a heap more Gold and Irridescent Gold thrown in. To get the inked effect on the edge of the page, Suz sprayed Olive Vine directly onto her craft mat and then dipped the edges of the cardstock in the puddles. And finally – Suz got to have a play with the Glimmer Glaze – the beautiful new medium from Tattered Angels and painted Pink Lady directly onto the Webster’s metal trim to change to the silver colour to a a co-ordinating pink.
For this final Layout and card combination Louise has taken a softer arty approach. For the layout Louise has utilised the subtleness of the Glimmer glaze to decorate the Regal Alpha Frame to coordinate with and balance perfectly with the use of the soft and beautiful Chalkboard misted background pattern.
For the card Louise has used the brilliance of the Glimmer Glam on the Regal Alpha frame, to add a touch of festive bling, and give it a visual lift, in contrast to the subtle glimmer chalkboard misted background.
A Big thank you to Nathalie Kalbach for allowing us to share her fabulous Tattered Angels creativity! For this particular layout Nathalie used a Glimmer Screen on the background and sprayed with Glimmer Mist and Glimmer Chalkboard over it. She then brushed it with the Chandelier Glam here and there and sprayed again. The little textured and stamped areas are created with Heidi Swap Texture Stamps.
She has stamped tissue paper and glued it down with the Glam. For the tree Nathalie has used three of the beautiful new Fall colors - sprayed directly onto the Screen, then lifted and flipped it, to do a negative stamp on top of some paper. She has then stamped it with the haunted tree from the beautiful Halloween Stamp set and cut the tree out.
Nathalie has also shared with us some fabulous mini canvases that showcase a wonderful range of applications of the Glimmer Glam, Glaze and mists. Aren’t they just fabulous. Once again, thank you Nathalie.
There’s lots of little embellishments on the market today – chipboard layered on felt, on transparency, with a bit of stitching and a bit of distressing, and they’re gorgeous and perfect for when you want to get pages made and you don’t have all the time in the world to play. But what if you did have that time? What sort of little custom-made embellishments could you layer and blend and create for your self?
This weeks challenge: make your own embellishments. Email your layouts to us at aussiedt@iinet.net.au by next Wednesday 15th March for a chance to win a prize pack full of embellishments!
Janine adores the intricate layers of circular elements that Christine Middlecamp creates on her layouts and decided to try her hand at layering stamped images, die cuts and stickers on top of each other to create her own page embellishments. It was so much fun and a great way to use up some of your stash while creating something entirely new for your page.
Another fun product Janine used on her layout was the new tissue paper by 7 Gypsies. It was so easy to create ruffled edges and borders with, allowing so much more dimension.
Sue enjoyed the brief of making handmade embellishments. She began with a pack of Sassafras In a Stitch Blossoms which are cute little cardstock flowers with stitched buttons on top. They are available in several colours and Sue chose the Vintage Rose set to compliment her page.
The blossoms are fairly small so to make a feature out of them, Sue created larger, layered embellishments by adding punched circles of patterned paper, circle stickers and circles punched from a Hambly overlay. The layers were separated using mounting tape and added lovely dimension to the page.
For another type of flower, Sue punched a large scalloped circle from patterned paper and then added layers of tulle and then finally topped it with a Sassafras blossom. Sue then punched a whole through the bottom of the flower and tied a dangle element from the Pink Paislee Parisian Anthology range.
Sue also had fun creating a flower from tulle twisted into a circle shape. Sue used a glue gun to adhere the tulle to a circle cut from felt. Cosmo Cricket has actually released a product for this purpose so that you won’t need a glue gun. To make the embellishment even prettier, Sue used some of the cute brads from the Crate Paper Emma’s Shoppe range to place in the centre of the tulle.
Another idea for creating a handmade embellishment is to use rub-ons applied to transparency and then cut out. The use of transparency adds more texture to your layout and also makes them more visible. The two little butterflies on this page were actually cut from packaging from a set of Basic Grey Curio embellishments. A lot of companies are now making packaging that is designed to be cut up and used. So next time, check before you throw it out!
Carole found making embellishments to be so much fun, she made a page full of them! Carole used the Prima So Cute Collection to create three-dimensional shapes as a base for her embellishments. She used the chipboard, cutouts and patterned papers from the range along with some felt and dimensional gloss to make these gorgeous and very cute little critters.
Using a chipboard square/circle for the background Carole covered in paper, material etc., and then she cut out fun pieces and layered them on top of the chipboard shape. Carole adds that you can include felt, paper and flowers in between each layer to create something very special – and it’s a great feeling to know you made them yourself!
So, what embellishments can you 'make yourself?’ We hope this inspires and can’t wait to see your projects!
There were as many different interpretations of this rub-on challenge as there were entries, and they have been outstanding in their creativity. Thanks so much to everyone who sent such great pages in for us to share.
Anthea Petersen – we love your solution to not having transfer paper! Anthea writes: I wasn't able to get my hands on Transfer paper so I used an old Hambly Screen Print Overlay that had a design printed onto it, I printed onto the design side (rough side) and then quickly rubbed the image onto my project. As my layout is about cooking with my boys I googled images and found one that was a page from an old recipe book, so I flipped the image to print and rubbed it onto the cardstock on my layout. I also googled an image for a splat, printed that onto the overlay and rubbed it onto my layout so it was beginning to look like a messy cook book. Lastly I printed an image of leaves onto the overlay, rubbed it onto some cardstock and then hand cut them out.
We loved this page from Debbie Smith – it looks like a proper old style ‘scrapbook’ page! This is also a great solution for using old memorabilia without compromising the originals. Debbie writes: I saw Kathie Links' page and I couldn't resist having a go at this exciting technique. I've always wanted to have a go at making my own rub-on and when your challenge came up I saw my chance!
I scanned in a photo and some handwriting from one of my childhood holiday books lovingly made by my Grandma, now passed. I used the handwriting, where she refers to the "four lovely grandchildren" in the photo, plus a sketch of a scooter drawn by my Papa, as she also talks about the scooter I was teaching my little cousin to ride.
As I'm a shabby chic kind of girl I'm very very happy with the result, which is scratchy and faded looking.
Heidi Barclay sent us this fabulous example of what you do when you can’t find your daughter’s favourite print design on a patterned paper! She writes .. I found a leopard print from the internet, and printed it onto the glossy side of a transperancy, and then flipped the transperancy over onto the white cardstock, and using a rubon tool, rubbed several times over to get the pattern transferred onto the cardstock.... The leopard print is one of my daughter's favourite prints.....
Not to be outdone, Leeann Pearce has wow-ed us again by making her entire photo a rubon! This is what she writes..
I adore this photo of Jorja and this is her everyday smile. It makes me smile everyday! What a bonus I actually had some plain paper copier transparency film. All I did was print a photo on to the transparency film, and then transferred it by rubbing it onto Kraft cardstock. The end result was more of a canvas finish. I like the result and will try this again. You do have to have the right transparency film to get the best result. The possibilities are endless!
Livia Andrade writes of this beautiful warm layout:
I love rub-on. It's my favorite scrap material. And I use almost all my layouts.
In this layout to print a picture on paper suitable for transfer on canvas and applied with a hot iron! I really love it.
And last but not least, Sharmaine Kruijver created this page, and we love that she has played with using two different types of transfers. She writes:
For this page I wanted to have a giant size Australian Flag as the background. I searched the internet until I found a flag with a larger file size, making it printable at a larger size, and then printed the file onto the wrong side of a sheet of transparency paper. Sadly my ink beaded but not to be disheartened I thought I would use it anyway. I sprayed the ink with water in a mister and applied it to the cardstock. I love the water colour effect that this caused and was happy with the result, even though it wasn’t what I was trying to achieve. Another thing that I experimented with was body transfers, you know they type you get in packets of chips etc and that the kids LOVE!!. For some time I have been wondering if you could use them on scrapbooking pages. Well, I found you can and wonderfully so!! Just place the transfer, picture down, on the page, spray with a small amount of water, apply some pressure and carefully test to see if the transfer has stuck to the page before removing the backing paper. Will be using this technique again!
