Aussie Scrap Source

techniques: ribbons and trims

 

 

 

When Louise N got this brief she wasn’t quite sure what she should do; so she did the obligatory googling and Youtube research, trying to find something new and different that she could adapt to her own style. there were lots of fabulous techniques however she didnt think that they lent themselves to her style of scrapping. So it took her awhile before she thought why not 'distressed ribbons'? Lots of scrapbookers distress patterned paper and cardstock to great effect, why not ribbon!

For this particular layout Louise shredded and frayed the ribbon, then tied loose knots in it. Louise has then used this length of distressed ribbon as an embellishment and threaded it through the decorative wire and bead element. Louise has also shredded, frayed and knotted a short piece of ribbon and added it to the wire butterfly embellishment; to add a fabulous textural touch to its wings.

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For this particular layout Louise has taken the fabulous S.E.I. string woven ribbon and shredded it. She has shredded it length ways and opened it up to create a funky grungy like frame for her photo.

 

 

 

Louise W loves to add touches of lace and ribbon to her projects, and uses a number of different techniques to include them subtly.

In this layout she edged a cutout circle with some Prima lace to add a soft and pretty frame. She also created her own rolled lace roses by cutting short pieces of a narrow lace, adding glue along the bottom edge and rolling them up. Once dry she adhered them into place and flattened them out to give the flowers shape.

Also dotted around are some small flowers, these were individually cut from a strip of flower ribbon and painted yellow to match the layout. Finally there's a piece of co-ordinating lace placed beneath the heading to help tie it into the layout and add a soft and pretty edge.

weekend inspiration: anna griffin

 

 

The Anna Griffin Valentina range is designed for layouts about love! Although Sue's layout is about love, it is the love between a mother and daughter. Sue has used the collection to create a layout with a lovely pink, red and cream colour palette. There are beautiful specialty papers in the Anna Griffin ranges and Sue has made use of 4 of them! Sue loved the Pearl Label corrugated cardstock and this was the starting point for her layout.

She then used the Pink Hearts flocked and die-cut cardstock over the top of the corrugated cardstock and trimmed off the excess. Sue felt it needed a little touch of red so she used one of the red patterned papers to create a border around the label shape. Stitching has been used to hold all three layers together. One of the decorative papers in the Valentina collection is called Ivory Lace die-cut cardstock and it has a beautiful scalloped lacy edge.

Instead of using the paper as a whole, Sue cut off the decorative borders, sprayed them with a pink Glimmer Mist and used them on her page as scalloped border pieces, layered one on top of each other. To make them stand out on the layout, Sue first backed them with a red script patterned paper also from the collection. Another of the decorative papers is the Pink Hearts Stitched cardstock. Sue cut three of the hearts out of the paper and used them for embellishments.

Using one of the hearts as a template, Sue also cut two more hearts out of the Pink Damask flocked paper, one of which she has stamped over with Technique Tuesday Ali Edwards stamps. Prima flowers, tulle and Jenni Bowlin buttons have been used to finish off this pretty page.

 

 

In this page Janine used the Fido range from Anna Griffin, but omitted the cute pet images to show that a range can be far more versatile than originally thought. These papers have been designed for pet pages, but the gorgeous spring colours inspired Janine to create a flower filled LO in spring colours. Janine has combined the Anna Griffin dimensional flower stickers with Prima blooms and handcut floral elements for a feast of layered prettiness.

The whole layout is based on layers of hand cut scalloped paper. Janine traced around a decorative edged paper and then hand cut with scissors. Finishing off the whole design is the amazing script chipboard alphabet by Anna Griffin adding a touch of elegance to the Layout.

 

Anna Griffin papers are known for their elegance and this LO by Steph Devlin is all about elegance She has used the Anna Griffin flocked papers to perfection and kept the palette monochromatic which is a divine touch. Steph also coloured the dangling beads on her Prima flower with markers to keep the monochromatic effect of her LO. Thanks for sharing such a stunning layout with us Steph.

 

 

This gorgeous layout was created by the amazing Stephanie Howell. Stephanie has used the Ivory Lace die-cut cardstock from the Anna Griffin range as the backdrop for her stunning page. The elegance of the die-cut sets off the simplicity of Stephanie's design. She has captured her emotion of 'pure bliss' perfectly. Thanks Stephanie for allowing us to share your page.

weekend inspiration: hero arts

 

Iris loved the beautiful patterns of the Hero Arts collage stamps. In this layout, she used the stamps to create her background page... a white misted cardstock with multi-coloured stamped images. To create this soft images with stamps, Iris inked her stamps with different colours of distress inks then lightly misted it with water. She stamped it on to the white cardstock and the misted ink resulted in a watercolour effect.

 

Louise Nelson so loves to get her stamp briefs, she so loves the versatility of stamps; case in point is this seemingly ordinary this grungy block like stamp. At first glance it has nothing going for it but when to use it to matt your photos it really makes your layout and photo [even the small ones that Louise favours], POP!

For this particular layout Louise has used the block stamp with a lovely purple Tim Holtz distress ink; creating an eye catching, colourful and fun layout that immediately draws your eye to the photo.

 

For this layout has used the block stamp to not only matt her photo but also to tie together her black toned elements, as you would using a patterned paper. Despite the stamping, and overlays being in black they avoid over powering the photo by the perfect touches of colour in the flower, bling and teal overlay elements.

 

This beautiful stamping layout was created by Anna Karin. For her son Anton. The background was done on watercolour paper with Hero Arts stamps, Distress Ink, water and Perfect Pearls. First, the grass and text stamps were white embossed. Then, Distress Inks (Bundled Sage, Old Paper and Crushed Olive) was applied to an acrylic block, misted generously with water and with a bit of water mixed with Perfect Pearls. The block was stamped on the layout and then inked and misted again to cover the whole area.

The edges of the layout were masked and the Envelope Pattern stamp was stamped with Bundled Sage ink for texture. The flowers were inked with Rusty Hinge, Wild Honey, Peeled Paint and Shabby Shutters and misted with water before stamping. The butterfly was inked with Crushed Olive and Wild Honey and the Leaf Cluster with Crushed Olive and Shabby Shutters. Journaling was written on a tag placed behind the layout.

 

Anne-Sofie Hansen is a scrapbooker and card maker from Denmark. She says that Hero arts is just great for her kind of style - whimsical, playful, fun. She made this card entitled "I enjoy being with you" for a card making competition which she joined in 2011 and it came in 2nd place.

weekend inspiration: prima

 

 

 

Kathie’s used the new Donna Downey Dress Form stamp to create a pretty wall hanging . She created a background using a dress pattern, as well as patterned paper and journaling notecards from Prima’s Botanical collection. Paints, mists and stamps add layers and interest to the background.

To create the dress form, Kathie stamped the image onto five pieces of pattern paper. She cut out one of the images and left it whole. Then she cut individual sections from the other four dress images and overlayed them on top of each other, adhering them to the first image. A piece of Prima lace peeks out from the hemline.

 

 

Janine loves the gorgeous colours in the Sparkling Spring line by Prima. she loves the fresh green and the delicate hues of the other colours then the splashes of deep reddish pink. In this LO Janine wanted to capture the priceless moment of her daughter reading to her favourite toy "Charlie Bear". She went through each page making up a story as she went and it was just such a special moment.

Janine has layered flowers and cinderella Vines for a gorgeous floral cluster full of interesting textures. She has Key Lime Glimmer Mist to customise her green flowers and Starfish Glimmer Mist on her Prima lace to add accentuate these aspects. Janine also created a custom sub-title for her page by layering a notecard, chipboard and stamped image on either side of the chipboard ensuring this became part of the focus. Finally she created a cute layered banner for her title to sit on.

 

 

 

 

A couple of projects from Nic Howard, who is just masterful with Prima products.  In the top grid-styled layout she has used Madeline patterned papers and managed to bring the whole page together with the title and the stunning bouquet of flowers.  This starts with a base of French Bluebird and Birdsong Vines and she has embellished with co-ordinating flowers and trinkets from there.  Above in Grace Nic has used the autumnal tones of the Reflections patterned papers and embellishments.

 

Thank you so much to the super talented Ingvild Bolme for sharing this stunning page with us. Her use of delicate colours and intricate details is synonymous with her fabulous style. From the use of delicate SIIC & P swirls to the stunning accents of Prima Corinne Flowers ensures this page is drop dead gorgeous. If you look closely you will notice Ingvild has also used the New Prima Metals as well for added texture along with some Tim Holtz gears for a hint of shabby chic grunge.

 

And we just had to share another gorgeous page by Ingvild Bolme, this time featuring the Sparkling Spring collection. Ingvild is a master at the little details. We love the way she’s twisted a Summer Carnation vine to frame her photo, and then added a tulle bow beneath it all. And we were captivated by the hand stitching around the yellow frame, not to mention the fussy cutting of all the little red branches and leaves.

Ingvild tells us that this layout captures a precious memory. Last summer she took her daughter to an old camping spot where she herself spent her childhood summer vacations. She says that, sitting there watching her daughter play on the beach was like looking through a “memory-window” and seeing herself as a child bathing there almost thirty years ago.

 

 

Karen Wilson, Northern Arizona, created the next layout we are sharing with you today. Based on a “Stuck?” sketch, Karen designed her layout using Prima’s Botanical papers. The soft blues are beautiful against Karen’s Olive Vine misted backdrop.

Karen says that she chose the title “Growing Up” because she’s learned that as a mother she has no time to blink, because in one blink of an eye a special moment has past; that's how fast childhood goes. She says that, with this layout, she can reminisce and look back at how darling her kids were at this young age.

 

This page comes from the gorgeous and talented Malin Dahlstrom. Malin is known for her wonderfully feminine pages and her love affair with pink! She has combined a larger Prima bloom with the new Corrine flowers superbly to accent this beautiful photo of her daughter. Thank you for sharing this stunning page with us Malin.

 

 

This fabulous layout is by the talented Jamie Dougherty, who has captured these great shots of her son superbly on this boy themed LO. By using masculine colours, Jamie has created a boyish layout with flowers on it. If you peek at the details you can see she has included the new Prima metals on this page as well. Thanks so much for sharing this wonderful page with us Jamie

style lounge: freestyle whimsy

 

 

Here are our readers’ layouts reflecting Danielle’s wonderful ‘freestyle whimsy’ style.  Thanks to everyone who sent in their layouts – we loved the variety, colour and life in your pages. 

Danielle picked her favourite from them all  - our congratulations this week goes to Sharmaine Kruijver!

Danielle wrote of Sharmaine’s layout  “I have to choose Sharmaine, I just love how I can see the 'freestyle whimsy' inspiration as well as a clear sense of Sharmaine's own style. And the colours and design are just awesome!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

style lounge: clean and simple

 

This week we celebrate the simpler style of Caroline McLachlan.  Though dozens of different styles have come and gone since she started scrapping more than ten years ago, Caz remains steadfast in keeping her pages clean and simple, with the focus unapologetically on the photos, and the story.

Send in your ‘clean and simple’ Caz and Cathy inspired layouts by next Wednesday 1st June to be in the running for a ‘clean and simple’ prize pack!  Please try and use Aussie Scrap Source brands in your pages.

 

When anyone ever asks Caz to describe her scrapping style the best she says she can usually come up with is “boring as bat poo”. A kinder word would be “‘minimalist”’ or to borrow her ‘Idol’ Cathy Zielske’s title  - “Clean & Simple”. Caz can be very much influenced by layouts that she sees in magazines or by a product range but there are some things that are usually consistent in her work.

• Her photos must be straight, very rarely can she put them on a page at an angle and be happy with them. She has no idea why. She just can’t. End of story

 

• Her pages have few embellishments, she can put a pile of photos and embellishments on a page, and guarantee that at least half of them will be removed by the time the layout is complete.

 

• Caz doesn’t like her own handwriting. Most of her journaling is done on the computer. Very few pages have no journaling at all on them, if you can’t see it on the front of the pages more often than not it will be stuck on the back or hidden someway behind a photo for example.

 

 

Caz was lucky enough to meet and take classes with the lovely Cathy Zielske back in 2006. Cathy signed the inside cover of her book, Clean & Simple.  She wrote ‘Caz. Simplify, Cathy Z’.

It was here that Caz realised that she really only wanted to scrap like Cathy does.

To tell the story.

To leave behind memories.

Not only for future generations but also for her current family.

Everyday moments and special occasions

The good and the bad

The laughter and the tears

The beautiful and the not so beautiful.

Thanks Cathy for that one word and all the inspiration that you have provided over the years.

techniques: masks and templates

Each week we’re taking a new look at an old technique or product.  This week we asked our new girl Danielle Quarmby and Kathie Link to come up with some wonderful ways of using masks and templates. 

 

 

For this layout, Danielle began with a set of ‘Winter Trees’ glimmer masks from Tattered Angels and a photograph printed on matte photo paper. Tracing the masks on to the photograph, she carefully cut them out and outlined them in black pen to add contrast. She then set them aside to use later as embellishments on her page.

When creating her layout background, Danielle once again used one of the ‘Winter Trees’ masks to help out. Placing the mask on a sheet of Sassafras patterned paper, she sprayed over the entire page with Tattered Angels Chalkboard mist in ‘Firefly’, a gorgeous bright yellow. Using her fingertips, Danielle added splotches of gesso to the wet chalkboard mist, combining gently to add texture to the page.

Danielle combined a variety of cardstock stickers from Sassafras and Jenni Bowlin with rub-ons from Hambly Screen Prints, Prima alpha stickers, hand-cut photos, her own handwriting and Cosmo Cricket tiny type alphas to create a warm and arty layout centred on the tree images of the Tattered Angels mask designs.

 

 

 

Kathie usually associates masks and templates with making pretty background effects using misting and inking. However, when she saw the new Crafters Workshop Butterfly Meadow template recently, she was inspired to use it in a completely different way and create a piece of fabric wall art.

To begin, Kathie painted a simple background onto a canvas using acrylic paint and added some fun layers by painting through dot templates by Heidi Swapp and Crafters Workshop, and adding some stamped patterns. Using her own hand-drawn cloud masks, she’s added subtle shading to the sky background by sponging around them with white paint.

Kathie’s created grasses and a number of brightly coloured flowers from Michael Miller fabric by tracing the images from the Crafter’s Butterfly Meadow and Botanicals templates onto the fabric and cutting out. The template has been used as a guide for the placement of the grass, stems (string) and flowers on her final scene.

Finally, Kathie cut a butterfly from the fabric, and also used an embossing tool to trace a butterfly onto a sheet of transparency. Misting, painting and stickles added colour and sparkle to the fabric and transparent butterflies, which Kathie’s shaped into three dimensional shapes before adhering to the page.

weekend inspiration: we r memory keepers

 

 

Louise was a little daunted when she received the new Yankee Doodles collection from We R Memory Keepers, but not having anything particularly 'patriotic' to scrap didn't stop her creating this sweet and cute layout of her youngest son.

By creating a large star from the background paper and doing some fussy cutting around the doodles, she utilised what would normally have been thought of strictly as an American 4th of July type of look into something totally usable for so many themes of photo's.

 

Jane used the papers from the WeR-41775 Travel Light 4x6 pad, stamp WeR-41784 images on white card with black ink and cut them out. The plane was coloured with WeR Yanky Doodles doodle pens which added some sparkle and are lovely to use she said! A WeR Yanky Doodles large star brad and string were added to complete the card.

The completed work was layered on ASS-TCS-067 Denim and ASS-TCS-017 Cranberry card.

 

 

Jane stamped WeR-41758 Tres Elegant clear stamps Blossom on ASS-TCS-034 vanilla card using a brown ink and then it was cut out as shown. It was mounted on a sheet from WeR Tres Elegant 4x6 pad.

Two images from WeR Tres Elegant banner images were stamped on vanilla card using a red and brown ink, it was then cut out and attached to the blossom stem using string. A strip of paper from WeR Fiesta 4x6 pad was added to the bottom and a row of WeR-41763 half pearls with string was added on top. Jane then layer the piece on folded ASS-TCS-041 chestnut card.

 

 

This adorable piece was made by Ingeborg Dijkstra, the colours of the Nonsense collection are so bright and cheery, perfect for decorating a jar full of hot chocolate ingredients!!

 

 

And here we leave you with a few pieces of inspiration from the We R Memory Keepers idea gallery.  The two layouts above use the Travel Light range of patterned papers and accessories, obviously perfect for holiday and travel snaps, but many of the patterns are far more versatile than that. 

And this wonderful notebook makes stunning use of the Tres Elegant range, which is pretty much exactly what it’s called.  Elegant and soft and chic, and with colours that could work with both masculine or feminine themes.

weekend inspiration: basicgrey

 

The gorgeous colours in Basic Greys "Hello Luscious" line certainly lives up to it's name. Vibrant and pretty, this double sided paper has one side mainly floral in design and the other the gorgeous shaded plain colours that Basic Grey is famous for, Caz started with the Title Sticker and built the page around it. Cutting out daisy type shapes as embellishments and anchoring them using stems to the title.

Then adding the journaling in brief strips to the top and bottom of the page. The photo is not a great one as it was taken into the setting sun but it's a fun memory of Mothers Day that Caz wants to remember in years to come.

 

 

Jane has used the BasicGrey Life of the Party ice cream headache paper as the card base, then layered getter bigger and block party papers on the front, she then cut out a banner strip from house party paper and placed this at the bottom. BasicGrey Alphabet stickers was used for the sentiment and string was tied that the top. Jane found that the woodgrain design in all these papers made it easy to keep continuity.

 

Jane was inspired by the tape measure design in BasicGrey Life of the Party How you've grown paper and created this card. Hero Arts HAS-CL452 Sew Stylish stamps were used. The other elements that Jane used were an old dressmakers pattern paper for a ruffle down the card and a bow that was placed under a Prima flower.

 

 

We may have said it before, but it wouldn’t be a BasicGrey post without some Nic Howard mastery.  These are some of her CHA layouts from earlier this year.  The above layout makes stunning use of the teals and oranges in the Hopscotch range.  We love how she has made each individual circle stand out by matting them on black, which she carries through with black matting throughout the page.

 

 

If you like the brights, then Lauderdale will be right up your alley!  Wonderful for showcasing those summer photos we might not have got to yet and perfect for teens and preteens.  Clearly Nic found great use for them on her boys above.

 

 

Sweet Threads is as pretty and soft as Lauderdale is bright, but Nic says it has deeper tones in it that you can pull out if you need some contrast in your page.  And see the accordion flowers?  They come pre-made.  They’re called Wheels and you need to see them in real life to see the detail in them!  Clever, BasicGrey, clever!

 

Special thanks to Aussie scrapper Nerida for sharing this gorgeous layout using Basic Grey's "Hello Luscious" line. The photo is such a dreamy one and the handcut flowers and leaf sprays, stitching, misting and distressing frame it beautifully.

 

We would like to say a big thankyou to Jenny from Texas for letting us share this fun Easter layout with our readers. Jenny has used the "Hello Luscious" range from Basic Grey which matches the photos of the bright eggs and the outdoors perfectly. We love the unusual layout design which Jenny has managed to incorporate 6 full sized photos in. Giving a great overview of the Easter Egg hunt.

 

In this sweet nostalgic layout, Jenny from Washington, USA shows us that those same papers that make vibrant Easter layouts also work well with more subtle vintage photos. Gorgeous layout Jenny, thanks for allowing us to share with our blog readers.

 

Helen Jolly does the most wonderful fussy cutting - the patience of this woman amazes us. Helen really gets the most out of her BasicGrey Eva collection sophisticated girl papers by cutting around the images and layering them on her cards.  This technique makes the intricate designs stand out beautifully.

 

Here is another set of delightful cards by Helen, not so much of the fussy cutting but another great way to get the most out of the BasicGrey Cappella collection of papers.

style lounge: arty grunge

We had a wonderful response to Leeann’s arty grunge style!  Thanks to everyone who sent in their cool artsy grunge interpretations.  So many of your entries were amazing we didn’t at all envy Celine’s task at having to choose her favourite.

Of the winner’s layout, Celine writes:  ‘It's beautiful! I love it! So full of details, well balanced, the colors are amazing and so are the photos! LOVE IT!’  

Congratulations Tanya Tahir!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

style lounge: freestyle whimsy

 

 

We have yet another exciting addition to our design team and we’re thrilled to introduce her this week in our style lounge series.  She’s been true to her own whimsical arty style for years now ever since the days when whimsical, arty and scrapbooking didn’t always mix and we’re thrilled to have her join us.   Please welcome…. Danielle Quarmby!

Her style can be described in a variety of ways but for the purposes of the Style Lounge challenge, we're calling it Freestyle Whimsy!  Can you interpret Danielle's style as your own?  Have a look through her layouts below and see if you can take inspiration from them.  Send your layouts to [email protected] by next Wednesday 25 May to be in the running for 'whimsical-freestyle' prize pack!  We’re thrilled to announce that Celine Navarro will be judging her favourite as the winner!  Please try and use predominantly products from Aussie Scrap Source  in your projects.

 

 

Scrapbooking, for Danielle, is about creativity, self-expression and fun, and this is reflected in her scrapping style. Most often quite casual and freestyle, Danielle’s work can be described as arty, whimsical, fun and quirky. Often involving paint, layering, hand-cut vintage book paper and clustered details. Vintage style florals and patterned paper backgrounds are a regular ingredient in Danielle’s projects, and word choices often come from song lyrics or quotes.

Another hallmark of Danielle’s style is the apparent randomness of many elements on her layouts, which creates the freestyle feel. Colour is used to create mood and add emotion or whimsy to a project. Danielle intentionally adds a contrasting tone, quirky detail or unusual feature to each of her layouts to make it feel like ‘her’.

In the page ‘Clap Clap Yay!’ Danielle has used some of her regular techniques, including a Sassafras patterned paper background, hand-cut clouds and raindrops, stapled and scattered embellishments and a handwritten element. With a fairly harmonious colour scheme, a punch of extra warmth is added with the orange and yellow Cabachon Sculptured Flower Centres from Prima.

 

‘These are the magic years’ has a vibrant colour combination typical of Danielle’s style - Danielle often uses paint to add interest to a background, and here she has used a swipe of gesso and torn vintage sheet music to personalise the gorgeous Prima canvas paper. Chipboard elements, cardstock stickers, bloomers and alphabet stickers scatter across the layout in an outpouring of whimsy and lightheartedness. Danielle’s slightly messy, loopy handwriting is another regular feature used effectively here!

 

Celine Navarro is one of Danielle's long-time "style crushes" and has a vibrant, fun style. In her layout 'Lucky girl', you can see a smattering of colourful embellishments dancing across the page, a colourful floral patterned background and a focus on the photo. The layered patterned papers that make up the background are hand-cut, rather than perfectly straight, adding an extra sense of relaxed creativity.

 

 

In 'Just Wanna Bee Me', Celine demonstrates some more inspiring techniques, with paper-folding, notepaper cut edges and hand-cut paper layers. Photos are placed slightly askew over one another, and colours are combined in unconventional ways to great effect. Thank you so much Celine for sharing your work with us and for agreeing to judge the challenge entries!

techniques: stitching

Each week we’re taking a new look at an old technique or product.  This week we asked our Leeann and Lou Nelson to look at stitching techniques on layouts.  You may be forgiven for thinking the brief was stitching on kraft, but that technically wasn’t a requirement!  The different ways of stitching does however, stand out on it beautifully.

 

 

Leeann loves stitching whether it’s done by machine or hand. It’s featured on almost every page that she creates.  She loves that Machine stitching gives you a tone of stitch options and adds texture at the same time.  Leeann likes to always try and fine new ways to use stitching. Lately she has been messy stitching. It’s just basically leaving the thread ends on the page.

Leeann also loves to add pops of hand stitching occasionally to her pages. And using tools like the Sew Easy Stitch Piercer makes this quick and easy.  There are certainly lots of fabulous ways to get creative with stitching!

 

Louise absolutely loves the versatility of stitching in her paper crafting creativity. Both hand stitching and machine stitching adds such a wonderful texture and luscious visual element to any project. With stitching it can be perfect and formal simple and freestyle, oooooh the variety of creative applications is almost endless.

For this particular layout Louise has used her sewing machine to create a simple, free-style, soft flowing flight effect with the Hambly Screen Prints overlay butterflies. Louise then machine stitched frames around her photo and the background. Louise took her machine stitched frames one step further, by removing the thread and just leaving interesting pin-hole like lines.

 

For this particular layout Louise has used the fabulous new WeR Memory Keepers Sew Easy tool with the Cross piercer attachment and some crochet cotton.  She has created subtle cross hatch like frame for her photo, which is simple, quick and effective.

weekend inspiration: martha stewart crafts

 

Martha Stewart produce wonderful edge punches, both in a standard size and also in the deep edge. They provide an easy way to add that extra ‘something’ to embellish a page. You can create a lovely layered look as Sue has done with lots of strips of paper that have been border punched with different patterns or do something a little simpler.

To create her page, Sue used the gorgeous MME Stella & Rose collection and started with one of the plainer backgrounds. Sue then chose co-ordinating papers and cut them into different width strips. She border punched the strips, inked them and layered them, adhering to the bottom section of her base paper.

If you only have boy photos to scrap, don’t be put off by the pretty scallop and doily lace edges. Sue shows that by using the right papers, you can definitely use them. Martha Stewart edge punches are quite easy to use. Start in the middle of your paper and move to each side, using the ‘edge guide’ to align each punch with the last.

A clever feature of many of the edge punches, is that their sides fold up for easy storage. A feature Sue loves as she can afford to add a few more to her drawer!

 

Iris has one big love affair with Martha Stewart Punches. She uses it to dress up her pages and add texture. A few sheets of patterned paper are transformed into beautiful shapes by these dies.

When Iris was asked to design with Martha Stewart products, she thought she was only going to be playing with punchers... to her surprise, Martha Stewart came up with these beautiful delicate gem encrusted vellum butterflies! It was a beauty in its own, but Iris glammed it up further by rubbing different coloured inks on the wings to create these colourful winged beauties adorning her page.

 

The above layout was created by Pearl Lui and we love the way she has created a gorgeous layout with a simple but clever design to showcase a gorgeous bunch of flowers she was given for Valentine’s Day. Pearl wanted to keep the layout relatively light and airy so it wouldn’t overpower her picture. She chose to use the super cute Jillibean Soup Dutch Mustard collection and Martha Stewart punches to create her page.

Pearl loves hearts, pennants and stitching in layouts and she has used the Martha Stewart studded heart all over the page punch to create a window and has slipped a torn book page behind it. Such a cute technique.

Pearl has cleverly pleated some of her paper on the layout below her photo and finished it off using the Martha Stewart lace heart edge punch, which is very effective. Thank you so much Pearl for allowing us to share your lovely page.

 

As a scrapbooker, Mary Ann Jenkins always LOVE to try all the newest supplies the scrapbooking world has to offer, but she also always want to remember why she started this hobby over 20 years ago - to keep a record of her family's life.
This layout, "Why I scrapbook" is a message to her daughter about how important it is to Mary Ann to remember not just the big things, but the just as important little things.

Mary Ann Jenkins has 3 awesome boys, 1 sweet little princess, and a wonderful husband that are the subjects of her many scrapbook layouts.

 

Brianne Nevill created this layout entitled “True Colors” as a tribute to the magazine staff at ScrapStreet.  This page has become one of her favourites not only for the huge variety of colour but also because she absolutely adores these fun photos of her friends.  Brianne is inspired by bright, loud colours (just like her personality). She loves the butterfly punches by Martha Stewart and have used them on several layouts. This is just one of the many pages of Brianne that has been embellished by the use of Martha Stewart Punchers.

weekend inspiration: little yellow bicycle

 

Because the papers of the Elizabeth line had so much to offer, Iris chose to cut-out the patterns and use it to embellish this happy colourful page of her two daughters enjoying a day out in the sun with their pink bike. This collection also has the cutest ready-made embellishments according to Iris, like the colourful bunting and the 3d butterflies.

 

Beautiful patterns, stunning colours, fabulous embellishments ... if that is what you are looking for, Iris suggests you grab some of the new Little Yellow Bicycle "Elizabeth Park" line. Iris has worked with several LYB releases but this so far is her favourite of all the lines released.

 

Carole loves the new collection by Little Yellow Bicycle Babysaurus, just so gorgeous and the colours are so soft and delicate. The stickers, rubons and borders are just perfect, and the added extras such as the Chipboard Slider just make it all the more special for the gorgeous baby photo layouts that you want to create and share.

 

Carole also created a cute baby plaque and card, just because she could not stop using this gorgeous collection.

 

 

When Candace Harrison saw the "10 Things Pocket" and the "Favorites" glittered chipboard piece, she thought they would be perfect to use in capturing her kids thoughts and likes, right now, at ages 7 and 11. She used a quiz from Simple Scrapbooks "Scrapbook Shortcuts with Quizzes and Questions" and recorded each of the answers on the 10 pocket tabs. The LYB Twig line was perfect for this "everyday layout" and she even repurposed some of the paper backing from an embellishment pack for the title backing.

 

Liz Qualman shares with us this layout which features a photo of her daughter playing around at the park. Liz thought that the Elizabeth Park collection with lovely shades of pink and images of fluttering butterflies perfectly captured the whimsical nature of her little girl. She especially loves the canvas sticker borders with the pink polka dots and decorative edge. Attaching them to the top and bottom of her page really creates a fun focus on the photo.

style lounge: playful - readers entries

 

 

We’ve had so many amazing entries for Kathie Link’s ‘Playful’ style challenge it’s taken us a while to get through them – and we  firstly must thank Kaori Watanabe so much for taking the time to judge all the layouts and pick us a winner.

Of the winner, Kaori writes “I love her design! A photograph in the top right corner in particular is very splendid! I like how she uses her colours and materials.”

And we’re thrilled to announce that that winner, with her layout ‘Brum’ is…..  Christine Rumley!

 

And congratulations and thank you to all the other entries who sent in your layouts and showcased so beautifully the playful, paper-piecing style of Kathie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

style lounge: artsy grunge

 

 

We’re a bit excited this week!

We get to announce a new addition to our design team, along with introducing her in a pretty special way, as a new challenge in our Style Lounge series.  We have loved this artists’ energy, enthusiasm and most of all, her talent!  We will be sorry to miss her amazing entries in our challenges, but happy that she has agreed to join the team.  Please join us in welcoming Leeann Pearce, and her artsy-grunge!

You might think that there’s a fine line between artsy-grunge and a hot mess , but you’d have to agree that Leeann walks it with style, and stays just this side of amazing.  It’s kind of the art of throwing both meaningful and random elements on a page and having it turn into a cohesive layout.  The ‘artsy’ comes from the layers of paints or mists that she’ll often start her pages with.

If you think you can replicate Leeann’s arty-grunge style, we’d love to see your projects.  Leeann will be judging the winner, so send them into [email protected] by next Wednesday 18 May to be in the running for an artsy-grunge prize pack.  Please try and use products from Aussie Scrap Source brands in your projects.

We leave you with some inspiration from Leeann and one of her favourite artists, Lucy Edson.

 

Leeann’s style is very artsy/grunge. But at times there certainly are elements of other style types. Textures and layers play a big part in this scrapper’s style. Leeann also loves paint and it’s nearly always a starting point to each of her pages, from there she builds her layers. And you will notice when you look closer that the tiny details are buried amongst those clusters of embellishments.

Complete randomness you might also spy on her pages. Quirky elements that mean nothing – for example the numbers have no real meaning just part of the embellishing.

This page definitely shows her artsy/grunge style – misting, machine stitch strips, paper curling and scrunching, layers of paper flowers and cotton doilies, buttons and Hambly transparency, twine and resin bird and lastly flicks of paint. 

 

 

 

This next page that Leeann created started with creating an artsy/grunge background. Leeann used a couple strips of masking tape; she painted the strips of masking tape with a contrasting colour and randomly placed them on the cardstock. She then covered the entire background with white gesso and used a foam stamp which gave a subtle pattern.

 

Lucy Edson uses lots of mixed media techniques; this is just one element that draws Leeann to her work.

On this first page Lucy actually made these tags from pattern papers and printed her photo on to the pattern paper. But first Lucy used some gesso and soften the pattern on the paper so that the picture of her daughter didn’t have marks all through her face.

She then has used an assortment of different materials and layered then on each of the tags and then finishing this page off by flicking a little bit of paint which gives it that artsy feel.

 

On this second page by Lucy you can see once again that artsy feel. Leeann loves this technique of dry brushing with paint. A little bit of misting, distressed edges and finishing it off with a much softer embellishment cluster.

Thanks so much Lucy for sharing your amazing creations with us. It’s been a real pleasure.

 

We hope these beautiful pages have inspired you to get your grunge on!  We look forward to seeing your entries – [email protected] by next Wednesday 18 May to be in the running.

techniques: chipboard

We asked our design team to look at new ways of using products that we all have in our stash.  This week we look at chipboard – just take a look at the incredible results from Louise and Caz.

 

 

 

Louise adores chipboard and the dimension it brings to projects, and when she saw the new Twiddleybitz fairy designs she knew exactly what she wanted to do with it. Using the chipboard toadstools as a base, she moulded paper clay directly onto the top and stems and allowed it to dry. She then painted with acrylic paint and gave it a light wash with a wood stain to add realism and tone down the white. They were finished with dots of dimensional paint for a fun and whimsical look.

The chipboard fairy was given a similar treatment, using paper clay and acrylic paints to give it personality and dimension. The hair and wings were finished with touches of crystalline stickles for a touch of magic. The title word was painted with a bronze crackle paint and finished with some chunky glitter glass for added detail and sparkle.

Small chipboard butterflies were painted with the same brass crackle paint, and once dry, the wings were bent and moulded into shape before they were attached. All the chipboard elements combine perfectly with clusters of Prima flowers to complete the fairy in the garden theme of the layout.

 

 

Caz thinks chipboard letters would have to be the most versatile items in her scrapbooking stash. She is always on the look out for bargains when shopping. Pick up alphabets in ugly colours that are going cheap because no-one can see beyond the colour. Rip off the top coloured layer and you have a raw set of letters ready to alter to match your layouts.

Caz has shown a few examples of how to alter chipboard letters in this layout that showcases random photos found on her phone and the kids ipods. It's such a fun way to create a snapshot of everyday life at the time.

r - add a tiny piece of ribbon and a decorated pin
a - ink the letter all over using a stamp pad and add an embelishment
n - use leftover bits of rub-ons. You can keep moving the rub-on until you have the coverage you are happy with.
d - a simple spray of pearls (once again an offcut) and a small bling flower.
o - spray liberally with Glimmermist for a beautiful sparkly finish.
m - add off-cuts of felt shapes (always keep any small off-cuts you never know when you can use them)
s - add bling, Caz only had 3 pink jewels left so mixed up the colours till the letter was covered.

websters pages : guest design team competition

A huge thank you to everyone who participated in this months competition for the opportunity to win Webster’s Pages scrapbooking product, and a spot on the Webster’s Design Team as a Guest Artist.  Please take the time to wander through all the entries below – we appreciate how much work and creativity has gone into each and every one.

Without further ado, we’ll announce our well deserved winner!  For her very beautiful layout using the Country Estate line, congratulations to …   Natalie May!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

style lounge: shabby chic

Thanks to everyone who entered our first Style Lounge challenge last week celebrating Janine’s shabby chic style.  We were overwhelmed by the beauty and the details in your pages – and we’re thrilled to share them here today.

Janine reports that she had a hard time judging but in the end couldn’t go past “The Sweetest Thing’.  Janine writes “It is well designed and has attention to small details, like the hand stitching and distressing around the border of the decorative edge frame.  That is definitely something I would do!  The fact that there is yellow, pink and teal all on the one LO is very appealing to me also! LOL!!”

So – congratulations to Anthea Peterson for her beautiful layout.  You can look forward to a bundle of scrappy shabby chic goodness heading your way!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

style lounge: playful

 

This week we take a look at the thoroughly talented Kathie Link.  She is one of those artists whose work is difficult to pigeon-hole into a satisfactory label, in the end we settled on ‘Playful’.  Last week we saw Janine bringing ‘shabby chic’ into a new scrapbooking decade (and we’ll be sharing your entries soon!), so paper-piecing often has a tacky, dated connotation.  The paper piecing creations that Kathie produces however, are fun, imaginative and contemporary.  Her combination of pre-made and hand-cut elements creates a playful style that is truly her own.

We would love you to join in and emulate Kathie’s fabulous style – email your ‘playful’ layouts to [email protected] by next Wednesday 11th May for a chance to win a prize pack full of playful goodies!

Read on for more of an insight into her wonderful style – and take the challenge – see how ‘playful’ you can be!

 

 

Kathie’s style is probably best described as Playful. Her layouts burst with colour and fun. Often they’re whimsical. Sometimes they’re scenic. Quirky elements dance across her pages. Kathie chooses the elements on her page carefully to assist the message she seeks to convey. She frequently employs paper piecing techniques to make unique accents or scenes that relate to the story she’s telling.

In her layout “So Silly”, a rainbow of bright colours from BasicGrey’s Life of the Party range flash across the page to create an instant feeling of playfulness. (Of course, the sense of play is assisted greatly by the fact that her subject is a delightfully mischievous five year old boy wearing a Spiderman top and wearing a play doctor’s kit on his head!)

Playfulness here is achieved by allowing the embellishments to dance across and amongst Kathie’s photos. And Kathie employs a favourite trick to inject even more fun into the page – she throws in the unexpected.... such as the monsters from Sassafras’s Monstrosity line that play hide and seek around the BasicGrey elements.

 

Kathie’s next layout “Trains” is a more subdued example of playfulness. Here, she’s employed whimsical imagery to convey a sense of fun. There are many scrapbooking products these days that incorporate delightful imagery in all manner of themes. In this layout Kathie used Crate Paper’s Neighbourhood collection which contains gorgeous chipboard embellishments.

Floating clouds and pennant banners fluttering in the breeze work beautifully to create a sense of play. So do delightful little gelato coloured townhouses, trees with striped trunks, and cute picket fences. The scene that Kathie pieces together continues the cute country railway image from her focal photo off onto the page.

 

Another scrapper who excels at designing playful pages is Kaori Watanabe, from Hokkaido in Northern Japan. Kaori has a talent for designing layouts that are totally playful whilst being superbly elegant. We are so excited to have Kaori join in with us and share two of her gorgeous layouts this week.

Kaori’s layout “Your Smile” features her signature style of threading her elements across the page in a delightfully carefree manner. They seem almost unconstrained as they dance across the page. The use of a kraft background and the large stencilled numbers allow her play freely with floral elements and butterflies on this boy’s page, without it ever in danger of becoming overly feminine.

 

In her layout “Delight”, Kaori demonstrates her mastery with mists and stencils to create a colourful background for her page. Her playful style shows up in the fun smattering of petals across the page, the sewn butterfly trail, and even the way her title dances off towards the edge of the page.

The Playful scrapbooking style is fun and carefree. It can be whimsical. It can be cute. It can even be elegant, as Kaori demonstrates here. Butterflies, clouds, pennant banners, grasses and trees, houses and fences all work wonderfully on layouts with a playful style. Allow the elements to dance across the page and give a sense of movement. Create little scenes with them. Be mischievous and add a touch of the unexpected.