After the success of our reader’s challenges last year, we decided we wanted to create more opportunities to share your layouts on the blog. So we have!
We’re starting off the new year in the spirit of all things handmade and upcycled – with a ‘make it yourself’ challenge. Each week we’ll issue a new challenge to create a layout using different handmade items, and this week we introduce the series with the most fundamental of requirements for all our scrapbook pages, whatever our scrapping style – the background cardstock.
The challenge: to create a layout using coloured, inked, misted, masked, textured or somehow altered background papers. As always we prefer that you use Aussie products as much as you can – and considering the amazing list of suppliers we have (see here on our sparkling new website for info) that shouldn’t be difficult!
There will be little prizes each week featuring ready-made versions, from some of your favourite brands, of whatever the weeks challenge is (so you don’t have to ‘make it yourself’ all the time!). These will be awarded for the most innovative solution, and if you manage to send us something every week for the whole eight weeks of the series, we’ll send you a prize pack at the end as well. Please email your layouts to us at [email protected] by midday, next Wednesday 23rd February.
To get you thinking, we share some inspiration and tips on three very different techniques for creating background papers from three of our talented design team.
There is not one single piece of patterned paper in this layout by Iris Uy. Iris loves stamps so much and she puts it to good use by using it to create the background design in the cardstock as well as the artist trading cards which served as the base for her photo.
To create the background paper, she first misted the white cardstock in a shade of yellow and a shade of light brown. Next, she rubbed "Broken China" distress inks on random areas to get light blue greenish tones. She then inked her script stamp with "Frayed Burlap" distress ink and stamped on her still moist paper. This allowed for the image to slightly blur and wick which is exactly what Iris wanted to achieve.
To create the ATC cards, Iris rubbed different colours of distress inks on her craft mat and used her stamps to pick up the ink from the craft mat. This resulted in two to three colours in her stamped images. Once the cards have dried, Iris applied "Pumice Stone" distress ink to deepen the tones and outline the edges of the ATCs.
It goes without saying that Louise Nelson really enjoyed this particular brief LOL :). Louise loves to create her own backgrounds and paper/effects. For this particular layout Louise has used a piece of 12x12 chipboard. She has then applied a layer of kraft tissue paper using a glue stick adhesive.
Using a numbers stamp, embossing ink and embossing powder Louise has created grungy random pattern. To achieve the embossing on the folds of the tissue paper, Louise has lightly rubbed them with the embossing ink, sprinkled on the embossing powder, and then selectively brushed away some of the powder with a fine soft dry paint brush to create the desired pattern.
Louise has then heat set the embossing powder, and whilst it was still hot she has sprayed the whole background liberally with Chalkboard Glimmer Mist and dried the mist with a heat gun. The final result – an amazingly textured and detailed grungy background with shimmery highlights.
This gorgeous background was created by Louise Williams using a sponge brush to apply a thin layer of gesso to the cardstock. Once dry an old credit card was used to liberally apply the gloss gel medium, making sure to leave texture marks that would become more visible once the Glimmer Mists were applied. Louise began with the Antique Brass along the top and bottom edges and then added 3 layers of the Caribbean blue along the middle, allowing each layer to dry in between.
The final layer was allowed to run and pool to add extra detail. A large circle was cut from the paper and sewn onto the background with lines of sewing spaced evenly. The paper was then wet in between the stitching so it could be torn and distressed, finishing with an inked edge. Finally all the other elements were added along with the bottle tops, that were filled with beads and covered in a thick layer of dimensional magic.
And now – over to you! Remember to email images of your projects to [email protected] by next Wednesday 23rd February. We can’t wait to see what you come up with!
