Aussie Scrap Source

style lounge: modern vintage

 

 

This is the final challenge in our Style Lounge series (and we apologise for any impression that we may have shared that last week was the last week!) because our last but certainly not least style is that of Louise Williams.  We’re calling it modern vintage, because it’s a little shabby, a little vintage, often a heritage colour palette but with a definite modern, arty twist.

We would love it if you would join us in our last challenge, and emulate Louise’s stunning modern vintage style.  Please send your layouts to [email protected] by next Wednesday 6th July for a chance to win our final prize pack!

 

Louise Williams best describes her style as "modern vintage" - lots of new goodies but with a softer, more aged finish and toned down colours. She loves to mix lots of different elements, textures and often adds some mixed media techniques for extra details.

As she's defined her scrapbooking style over the years, one of her biggest influences and favourite scrappers has been the uber-talented Ingvild Bolme. Well known internationally for her innovative techniques and unique style, Ingvild's work with Prima has always been a standout for her attention to detail and subtle mix of products.

Louise's first layout is full of the details she also loves to add to her projects - clusters of flowers, inking, distressing and a hint of mixed media for texture.

 

This second layout by Louise is very much her usual style - lots of layers, details and inking with clusters of Prima and a little bling.

 

This older layout of Ingvild's has always been a favourite of Louise's. The way the photos have been overlaid to make it look like they're walking up the road, along with the clever use of the streetlight stamps and flowers to seamlessly blend the digital with the physical adds a fairytale feel to a simply beautiful layout.

 

Another signature style of Ingvild's is the use of black and white, slightly over exposed photos with clusters of colour. The lack of colour in the photo draws your eye away from the surrounding colour to make the photo the focus. By repeating this lack of colour in the clusters of flowers, the whole page is tied together with subtle touches that are just perfect.

 

This stunning layout caught Louise's eye with the novel use of a diecut paper and the lacing - Ingvild started a trend that saw other artists lifting the idea and adapting it for their own work. The subtle use of lace, the black patterned paper and the stunning scroll overlays balance the page, added a masculine touch to what could have been an otherwise overwhelmingly pink page - just perfect for a picture of her gorgeous daughter and husband.

 

Finally from Ingvild is this vibrant, yet still slightly vintage layout. The black scrolls again balance the black and white photos but the touches of colour and small details lift the page and add interest and charm. Wings are a recurring theme in her work along with the fabulous Prima flowers. Thank you Ingvild for all your inspiration and for allowing me to share just some of your incredible work.

techniques: paper accents

 

 

Sue loves using patterned papers. They are the first item she looks for to compliment her photos. Sue has recently discovered the gorgeous printed tissue paper, produced by 7 gypsies. The tissue paper is available in several designs but Sue chose the lovely Birdsong Collage, to use. Sue decided that the tissue paper really needed to be layered to show off it's beautiful texture.

She used a both a quickutz die and a Martha Stewart Punch All Over the Page, Classic Butterfly punch to cut multiple layers of butterflies. Sue stitched the layers together with her sewing machine and then hand-stitched sequins and beads to the centre of each of the butterflies. Sue teamed the luscious brown tissue butterflies with the soft pinks papers from Crate Paper designs and gorgeous pink Prima flowers. She also added in a layer of Hambly transparency to add another dimension to the layout.

The result is a pretty floral layout which compliments the photo of Sue's daughter Lily, out walking with a parasol.

 

 

 

 

Leeann thinks we are definitely spoilt for choice when it comes to paper accents. So when Leeann saw these already made paper accents by Crate Paper/Emma's shoppe she knew exactly what she want to create with them,(pocket wallet). All they needed now was Leeann’s arty touch.

Trim the paper accents and lay them out. Start by randomly stamping with ink and paint using bubble wrap and an assortment of rubber stamps. Then give all the paper accents a white wash all over. Finish off with some doodling using gel pens.

Cut a strip a little wider than the paper accents from Donna Downey 12 x 12 canvas sheet/heart and used this as a cover. Line everything up and machine stitch through the centre.

style lounge: arty simple

 

 

We so loved all of the entries in the Simple Arty Style Lounge challenge! Our task in choosing just one, was a tuff one! Congratulations Lauren Bell, your fabulous layout, whilst very much in the simple arty Style of Louise, was still wonderfully unique to you! We loved your composition and use of 'white space', choice of elements/embellishments, colour scheme and quirky photo! WTG and Congratulations!

 

Oh and PS: Louise said she thinks she needs to lift her creative game, as all of the entries rocked so much that she wouldn’t want to have been in the competition with you all LOL :).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

weekend inspiration: october afternoon

 

Suz had some fun with the October Afternoon’s wonderful 5&Dime range of patterned papers and embellishments in this layout.  Her daughter often drags her and her camera off for ‘fashion’ photo shoots, and this 50’s inspired theme worked perfectly with the patterned papers.  The golden tones of the late afternoon sun and the air of nostalgia in the photos is reflected perfectly in the designs of the papers, and Suz especially loved the rubber embellishments that gave the layout a bit of texture and dimension with minimum effort!

 

 

Kathie’s son, Jamie, started school at the beginning of this year. In this, her first “school page”, she has beautifully captured his excited, yet apprehensive expression as he looks to his father for reassurance on his first school day. Her departing vision of him settled with his class at the feet of his teacher is captured in the smaller photo and will be forever imprinted in her memory.

Kathie’s used the Shape Stickers from October Afternoon’s Report Card collection as the focal product on her page. She loves the old style imagery of these stickers; perhaps because they are reminiscent of the illustrations in the school books she was reading when she first started school all those years ago. Kathie’s mixed in some of the Schoolhouse collection too, with a snippet of the Flashcards paper at the bottom of the page.

 

 

 

We thank Georgia Keays for the above two layouts – as you can see she rocks the October Afternoon papers with style!  We love the balance of patterned papers and embellishments being the perfect backdrop for her photos and the little details like the negative of the  cloud diecut above the title in No Fanks.  Thanks Georgia – your style is superb.

 

 

We also spotted this gorgeous page by Treesa Young, Perth. Treesa wanted to create a summery layout to feature some photos of her son on his new slip n slide. October Afternoon's Seaside papers were a perfect backdrop for the vivid colours in the photographs. This is such a happy, colourful page! Thanks for sharing it with us Treesa!

 

Finally, we saw this amazing layout while browsing the galleries and just had to share it with you. Belinda Venables, Perth, has used the Campfire line to make this incredible house. From the fine penwork detail, to the opening and closing front door and the little critters Belinda has cut from the patterned paper, the entire project is simply irresistible.

weekend inspiration: tim holtz

 

Louise W adores everything Tim Holtz creates so when given the challenge to make something using his products it didn't prove difficult! His metal designs are an absolute favourite and their detailing adds the finishing touch to any layout or off the page project.

She started with a configurations box, which she covered with Tim Holtz printed masking tape and hot glued the boxes into position, pulling some of them out slightly for interest. She then added ornate feet, keyhole charms, door knobs, wings, a crystal and some film strip as ribbon. She tied the look together with some Twiddleybitz chipboard and Prima flowers and now has a lovely family keepsake with a slight steampunk edge.

 

 

 

 

 

Jane used the Tim Holtz idea-ology Paper Stash crowed attic paper with the lady designer pattern on it and salvage stickers. She then created a flower using Tim Holtz Kraft Glassine by die-cutting flower petals, scrunched them up and applied Tim Holtz distress stains on top for colour.

Jane also coloured Tim Holtz white trimming with the vintage linen distress stain to age it, then added a trimmed Adage ticket 'Adore' to finish it off.

 

 

 

 

 

Jane created a jewellery set for a very special friend using Tim Holtz mini bead chain, facets, Paper Stash crowded attic butterfly paper in small squares and the Epiphany Crafts shaped studio tool round 14mm, settings and a collection of butterfly and keyring charms.  The package has enough ball chain to create the necklace and the bracelet.

 

Louise spotted this tag by Anna-Karin Evaldsson and with all the lovely stamping, cogs and inking it was obvious that Anna-Karin is also a big fan of Tim Holtz. Louise particularly liked the use of the new Tim Holtz Kraft Glassine paper for the cogs. Thanks for letting us share Anna-Karin!

 

Another tag that Louise spotted in the galleries was this amazing mixed media creation from Roberta Cardoni. Roberta's used a selection of Tim's inks as well as a mask and the new corked vials to create a stunning piece of art with a definite nautical feel. Thanks Roberta!

 

 

 

 

Finally, we thank Sarah Schwerin for allowing us to share these beautiful bookmarks.  We loved the background stamping details.  These would be a beautiful addition to any book.  Thanks Sarah.

jenni bowlin – guest designer challenge

 

style lounge: detailed layers

 

 

This is the second last week of our Style Lounge challenge and this week we’re looking at the beautifully layered, detailed style of Suzanne Tonga.   Her work is elegant, classic, timeless.    We would love to see your interpretations of Sue’s exquisite style.  Please send in your layouts to [email protected] by next Wednesday 22nd June for a chance to win a prize pack of scrappy goodies!  We’re thrilled to announce that the very lovely Christine Middlecamp will be choosing her favourite to win the prize pack!

 

Sue’s style can probably be identified as layered and detailed. She loves patterned papers and will easily use five or six different designs on her pages. Sue creates pages that when you first look at them, they can appear deceptively simple.

 

It is the delightful little details like stitching, sequins and beads, which you discover upon a closer look, that finish off her designs. Smaller, multiple photos are often featured and some pages are journaled and some aren’t. Sue enjoys the creative process of scrapbooking and is at peace with the fact that not all pages tell a story. However some pages feature hidden journaling that she is teaching her children to look for!

Sue often uses stamps and quotes to convey the feelings that her photos evoke.

 

 

There are many artists whose work Sue admires, but she has always been attracted to the beautiful, layered and detailed style of Christine Middlecamp. Christine’s work is easily identified by the clever arrangement of patterns and embellishments used to create unique pages full of eye-catching detail. Sue is often in awe of the many, many layers of prettiness that Christine achieves.  You can see just a few of her stunning pages below.

 

 

 

 

Can you give this amazing, layered look a try?  Send an image of your layout to [email protected] by next Wednesday 29th June.

techniques: stickers

An old favourite – is there anything new left to do with them?  We asked Suzanne Tonga and Kathie Link and you might just be delighted with the results!

 

 

 

Stickers had a bad name in scrapbooking for a while there but Sue believes they have come back into fashion! Companies have reinvented stickers and they are no longer a little boring like they once were. Basic Grey always include an elements sheet and frame stickers in each of their collections and they are designed as an affordable embellishment to compliment their papers.

Sue loved the stickers from the Hello Luscious range but wanted to give them a little dimension on her layout so instead of adhering them flat to her page, she firstly stuck them onto a piece of acetate. Sue then cut around the images, leaving a small clear border around each. Sue could have cut them flush to the edges of the stickers but she liked the look that the acetate edge gave.

The acetate adds a strength to the stickers thereby allowing them to be layered with mounting tape on the page, which adds a lovely depth. Sue created her embellishment cluster with the stickers and a few prima flowers and candy gems.

 

Kathie’s son loves any type of crafty creating at the moment. Recently he created a series of cardstock “motorways” for his collection of tiny cars to drive along. This gave Kathie an idea for using scrapbooking stickers in a novel way. She’s used them to form three dimensional elements in a little cardboard village

To create the village, she cut roads from black cardstock. She used paint and patterned paper to turn cardboard boxes into colourful buildings. To create the dimensional cut-outs, Kathie’s used cardstock and chipboard stickers, which she’s adhered onto cardstock and then propped up with a thin strip of cardstock folded into a triangle and adhered behind the sticker.

Kathie also used images cut from a sheet of October Afternoon’s Bubble Gum paper to decorate her village. And Jamie is delighted with the new components of his motorway. He has been happily playing with it ever since, and has requested more buildings (with doors that open!) and pets.

style lounge: graphic colour blocked

 

 

Thanks once again to everyone who contributed to this weeks challenge.  It was no easy feat choosing a winner but we’re thrilled to send our congratulations this week to Emilia Stammler for her beautiful layout below.  Suz is a sucker for that perfect combination of olivey greens and pinks and loved the square within a square design.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

weekend inspiration: 7 gypsies

 

7 gypsies never fail to design timeless and classic paper ranges that lend themselves to showcasing both vintage and modern photos. Louise has created 2 layouts one using an older photo of her grandfather and a 2nd featuring a photo of her young friend Jessica. The Lille range of papers has so much wonderful ephemera incorporated into the background patterns that it is just perfect for creating coordinating embellishments to decorate your layout.

 

A you can see from this layout these wonderful papers also feature wonderful kitsch hand doodled elements. On this particular layout Louise has incorporated such an element into her title.

 

The second thing Caz thought of when she saw the gorgeous Mykonos range from 7gypsies was Summer (the first thing she though of was little white houses on a hill in Greece but alas she hasn't managed to get there yet). The Delos paper has brightly coloured tiles printed all over it and Caz designed her page around these. She mounted some of the tiles and her photos on chipboard for added texture.

The journaling written on the back of the page details the day her kids decided Chase needed a swim. Apparently doggy paddling does not come as second nature to dogs. The first time they tried he sank like a stone much to their horror. After being shown what to do he was much better at it, but not very keen on the whole swimming thing.

 

A big thank you to the wonderful talent Natalie May who has created a wonderful canvas featuring also the 7 gypsies Lillie range of papers. Natalie has used and coordinated embossing and inking techniques to amazing effect on the patterned paper squares. Just wonderful Natalie, thank you very much for sharing your canvas.

 

 

 

 

We thank the amazing talent of Anna Dabrowska for allowing us to showcase her wonderful layouts featuring the 7 Gypsies Lillie range of papers. With all of her layouts Anna has utilised the pattern of the papers to full advantage; in both her design and embellishing. Thank you so very much Anna.

weekend inspiration: technique tuesday

 

Carole created this layout using Technique Tuesday Borderline Stamps "When in Rome" and We R Memory Keepers " Travel Light" Collection. The border where ideal for this layout with the photographic borders and lots more which Carole layered with foam tape over her photo etc.

Carole had been waiting to create this layout, and the "When in Rome" Borders and "Travel Light" pattern papers where perfect.

 

 

 

Sue adores the stamps designed by Ali Edwards and produced by Technique Tuesday. There are quite a few different sets available and they have sentiments perfect for almost every occasion. Ali has used her distinctive handwriting along mixed with vintage typewriter fonts to create very useable journaling focused graphics. Sue often uses the stamps on her layouts as both a design feature and also as a way of portraying the feelings evoked by the photos.

If you haven’t tried Technique Tuesday stamps before, they stamp beautifully with a lovely crisp image. One of the things Sue loves about the Ali Edwards stamps, is that they can be mixed and matched to create the wording that you want to use. And don’t be put off by the themed sets, for example stamps from the baby set are often suitable for other themes as well.  ‘The quiet moments make my heart overflow’ and ‘You bring absolute joy to my life. I love you.’ are both stamps from the Sweet Baby set.

 

 

 

 

Suz Doyle chose to use Technique Tuesday’s super cute set called Buggin’ Out.  She created na inspirational-themed card set using quotes she had found that related to the insects she used.  The singular beauty of stamps is that you can use them over and over again, and for this look Suz stamped them several times and cut out and layered bits to give her bugs dimension. coloured them in using a mixture of LuminArte’s Twinkling H2O’s and Glimmer Mist. She created the multicoloured backgrounds by combining Glimmer Mist and Gesso for a more textured look. 

Though these bugs look fabulous on cards, there are a myriad of other ways you could use them as well, from camping and outdoor themes to little boy layouts and cards and Suz’s daughter even has her eyes on them for a school project!

style lounge: arty simple

 

 

This week we look at the simple, arty style of Louise Nelson.  Her work is characterised by white space, small (often black and white) photos, and a unique dash of mixed media eclecticism!  We would love to see your interpretations of Lou’s fabulous arty style.  Please send in your layouts to [email protected] by next Wednesday 22nd June for a chance to win a prize pack of arty goodies!

 

 

 

Louise finds it hard to describe her style, but when she asked her creative friends they helped her out by saying that they thought it was Simple and Arty, sometimes with a touch of whimsy, and just a little bit unique with her use of eclectic elements, oh and a definite preference for using small single photos, and the 'use of white space'.

For this particular layout Louise has most definitely showcased her love of white space. She has also incorporated the use of string to create simple but effective embellishments. They add a wonderful touch of texture to what might otherwise be a simple and bland layout to look at.

 

 

For this particular layout Louise has incorporated her love arty mediums and a touch of whimsy.  The background to the photo [which was taken by talented fellow team member Danielle Quarmby, as was the photo used on the first layout] was created with the use of gesso and Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist.

Louise has added long free flowing strands of machine stitched threads to the stamped butterflies which creates wonderful visual impact [and if you are wondering, Louise painstakingly glues down these threads by using a tooth pick with tiny dobs of fast clear drying glue].  Louise tells us she is a little obsessive about some things in her scrapbooking and this is one of them!

 

 

 

 

It isn’t often that Louise will create an OTP project however she was inspired to do so for this brief. Louise is continuously inspired by her Scrapbooking/creative idol Caroline Rondel, who creates the most glorious mini albums! And it was from these that Louise took inspiration. Louise wanted to create something special for her scrappy bestie's birthday so she thought she would use this brief as a means to create a special gift for her.

Originally Louise was going to create and decorate a gift box, however she took this idea one step further and has created what she calls a 'Gift Sandwich'.  Louise has wrapped up the soft elements of her gift in decorated tissue paper and sandwiched it between 2 decorated pieces of chipboard.The idea being that her scrappy friend can then create a mini album from these 2 decorated boards.

Louise included extra elements; [vintage doilies, colour coordinated cottons, Prima butterflies and birds etc.] so that her friend could decorate the mini book pages with coordinated embellishments.

 

 

We’re thrilled to also share some of Caroline Rondel’s work here.  As you can see like Lou’s her influence is also minimal but beautifully arty. Thanks Caroline for allowing us to show your projects.

style lounge: detailed whimsy

 

 

 

Congratulations to the winner of the Detailed Whimsy challenge.  Iris loved all the entries shown below and chose this beautiful layout by Wendy Smith as the winning entry.  Thank you to all the creative ideas sent in from everyone for this challenge – and congratulations Wendy!

 

 

 

 

 

techniques: flowers

 

Each week we’re taking a new look at an old staple technique or product.  This week we asked Janine and Louise to come up with some wonderful ways of using that stash of flowers we all have.

 

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Janine loves using flowers, they seem to find their way onto all her layouts, so to use them in a different way was the real challenge!!  She decided to create her own decorative paper accents using flowers rather than paper for this bright, fun filled layout.

Firstly, Janine coated cardstock with gel medium and then randomly stuck down her Prima Essentials flowers in colour groups. While this was still slightly damp she then run it through her die cutting machine, using a circle die that would fit inside the decorative edged circles cut from patterned paper.

In the process of the flower paper rolling through the die cutting machine it pressed the flowers into the gel medium to ensure they are firmly stuck on the cardstock.

 

 

It's no secret that Louise W adores all things Prima and loves to cluster her flowers in groups to add a focal point to her layouts. For this layout she's used some of the white Prima Craftable flowers and painted them Glimmer Mist before adding a Prima Reflections flocked rubon as a flower centre. The flowers were spritzed with water first so that they had soft edges and a watercolour effect when painted.

weekend inspiration: tattered angels

 

This layout was inspired by Suz’s son, who woke her up one morning with a totally unsolicited and rather eccentric list of favourite things. She didn’t really pay attention to the first few, but once she was focused she knew it was a list of gold.  Unfortunately, though she intended to, she didn’t write them down straight away, and many are lost in the mists of bad memory.

There's a lot of gorgeous Tattered Angels product in this deceptively simple layout by Suz. Firstly the Postage Stamp Framed Fonts that she has covered in a mix of Glimmer Mists, and then there's the more up to date Crepe Ribbons and Heidi Swapp Flocked Mistable Simple Sayings. There's a rainbow of muted Glimmer Mists and Suz has also used some of Pink Paislee's Parisian Anthology resist papers within the frames.

 

 

 

 

Louise always loves to get a Tattered Angels brief, as it allows her to explore even more creative ways of creating interesting and textural backgrounds for her layouts. Today Louise has created two layouts with a technique she uses of creating a white base first with gesso, and then spritzing Glimmer Mist into shimmering pools of colour over the top.  In the second layout she painted directly over Butterfly Framed Font shapes.  She has finished her pages off with hand doodling and Prima and Zva bling.

 

 

 

We were in awe of this stunning technique shared with us by Nicole Pomeroy, who was lovely enough to explain how she created these beautiful flowers.  ‘To create my transparency (or should I say transparent flower) I first sprayed it with three different colours of Glimmer Mist, and once dry, I used my a die to cut some flowers. With a heat gun, I heated each flower to make them curl, the longer I kept the heat on them the more curl I achieved, which is what you want when you are working from the base petals to the smaller ones in the centre. Once these cooled I glued them together and there you have it, custom transparency and custom embellishment.’

Thanks so much Nicole – it’s a beautiful technique and a stunning layout.

 

This amazing canvas was created by Peg Hewitt using a variety of amazing Tattered Angels products. Peg has also used a gesso like medium to create amazing textures on her canvas background. Thank you so much Peg for sharing your wonderful canvas.

 

The above scarf and the felt flower arrangement was created by the amazing talent of Martha Richardson. Isn't it just a fabulous idea - using the Glimmer Glams / Glazes to create and decorate a pattern on material/clothing! This idea is so cool and fabulous.

weekend inspiration: carolee’s creations

 

 

Caz couldn't resist these sweet little birds and 'smile' title from Carolee’s Adorn-it range when she wanted to scrap this photo from her daughter's recent photo shoot. She teamed them up with some of the pretty papers from the Misty and Vintage ranges, some felt and some tiny pieces of bling.

 

Carole just loved the new Carolee Creations "What a Hoot" Collection, such funky patterns and colours and totally cute owls, you can create any fun layout you like with this collection. Carole used the gorgeous pattern papers and Stickers and then teamed it with some Twiddlybitz chipboard Fencing, Prima flowers and some bright buttons.

 

 

Carole also created this gorgeous card which would brighten anyone’s day with the leftovers.

 

 

 

This absolutely gorgeous layout was created by Robbie from Texas using the Carolee’s Misty range of papers and embellishments. To quote Robbie from her blog, "I always love working with a collection that is so versatile and yet perfectly suits my own style. The colours in this collection are really rich and beautiful". They sure are, thanks so much for allowing us to share Robbie.

 

 

A big thanks to Liz from Colorado for allowing us to share with our readers these pages of her gorgeous children using two of the Carolee’s Adorn-it ranges. The first layout features one of the newest ranges from Carolee’s called Life's a Hoot. There are pink and blue versions of the papers and embellishments. The layout uses the bright fun loving Misty range.

introducing: epiphany crafts

 

 

We’re thrilled to announce a new supplier – Epiphany Crafts.  They’ve devised a very cool new range of tools and accessories that allow you to create custom-made buttons and epoxy shapes for your craft projects.  The punches come in a range of shapes and sizes from circles ovals and squares to flowers and hearts, and can give your projects that professional looking finishing touch it needs in minutes.

We sent some samples out to our design team and they loved them!  They went to town creating inspiring pieces to showcase this versatile little tool.  Enjoy.

 

Iris used the gorgeous little heart button maker punch and accessories to create this sweet page.  The beauty of the Epiphany tools is that you can customise your embellishments to match your page perfectly and the punch quickly and easily creates the perfect shape to back the transparent button with – it even punches out the button holes!

 

When Kathie saw the Epiphany heart shape tool, she was inspired to create a wall canvas featuring a heart motif. After painting, misting and inking a canvas background, she cut a series of hearts from coordinating Prima Botanical papers and adhered these onto the backdrop. She applied a soft acrylic wash to these then outlined them with charcoal and black pen.

Each heart has been decorated with clusters comprising fancy metal book plates, calico strips, flowers, dimensional butterflies, brads and manufactured circle pebbles. Using old text and music papers Kathie created sweet heart pebbles with the Epiphany tool and scattered them onto the canvas. The small shiny little pebbles give the canvas a beautiful finishing touch.  A hand drawn and painted title finishes the project.

 

 

Louise thought she would test the capabilities of the small punch on some Hambly overlays, and she was very impressed, as in her experience a lot of smaller punches struggle with the thickness of the overlays. Too coordinate with the epoxy cover of these embellishments and buttons, Louise choose to coordinate it with the Hambly overlays to create this and the next layout, as they compliment each other perfectly. 

For this particular layout Louise thought she would do something a little different and actually used the epoxy hearts as part of her sub title; love love love'Able.

 

 

Once again Louise has used the Hambly overlay with the button shape maker and it was perfect, even cutting the inner holes without a hitch. To create a dramatic and interesting contrast to highlight both the Epiphany epoxy embellishments and the Hambly overlay, Louise has used black cardstock backgrounds, for both the layouts.

 

 

Suz loves to keep some (not all – there are a lot of them!) of the sweet notes her daughter writes for her.  She created this page to showcase one of them – shocking spelling and all! – using the beautiufl Pink Paislee Sweetness patterned papers.

Suz loved the idea of the little punch and pebble maker, and wanted to see if it went through textures other than paper and cardstock.  She tried it out on the Websters Fabric Ribbon and it worked a treat.  So with her pebbles she not only has the finished look of the page pebble, but she also has the slightly magnified texture of the fabric coming through it.

style lounge: graphic colour blocked

 

This week we look at the clean lines and colour blocked style of Suz Doyle.  She is attracted to grids and framed styles where everything has a place and will often divide her layouts into sections mentally, even when there aren’t actual lines on the page. 

This week, we would love to see your interpretations of Suz’s graphic, colour blocked style.  Please send in your layouts to [email protected] by next Wednesday 15th June for a chance to win a prize pack of goodies!

 

 

Greens and neutrals are often her go-to colours for her bases, and from there her colour palette is generally soft, gelato tones – a little stronger than pastels but still light and airy.  She will almost always try to include more than one photo on a page and regularly produces double pages for her albums.

She will often combine slightly odd elements – Prima’s Fairy Flora range mightn’t be the first one you’d think of to partner up with Crate Paper Neighbourhood embellishments, but here she shows it can work.  She loves including bling and has only recently discovered the fabulousness of the Martha Stewart edge punches, so I suspect you’ll be seeing more of them on her future pages.

 

 

 

Though this is a slightly more random page in terms of design, there are still areas both of blocking and a strong sense of everything being in its place.  The photo and recipe blocks are matted as is the cardstock, and the whole thing is linked by a BasicGrey transparency.  Another of her big scrappy loves are transparencies, something you will find on many of her pages.  And it’s a rare page where you won’t find a story, either printed or handwritten, as recording the memory is what is at the very core of her scrapbooking passion.

 

Stephanie Dagan from France, who was a Garden Girl at TwoPeas for sometime, was a revelation to Suz a few years back.  Every one of Stephanie’s scrapbook pages to Suz seems perfection.  They both embrace many of the same principles in their pages – multiple photos, soft colours, colour blocking – and Suz loves that Stephanie also always includes the story (even though it’s in French and she can’t read it!).

 

 

Stephanie’s sense of design is impeccable – her pages are beautifully balanced and though they often include multiple patterns and colours, they all seem to serve the simple purpose of framing and enhancing her wonderful photographs.

Thanks so much Stephanie for allowing us to share your layouts and your talent in this post.

techniques: buttons and brads

 

Buttons have long been a staple in Janines embellishment "go to products", especially for her boy pages, but mostly she uses them for bright spots of decoration on her page. Janine decided to try something different this time and use buttons as part of her grungy, steampunk background in this LO, inspired by the steampunk style of Finnabair. She loves the grungy effect of this page which is perfect for the picture of her son.

To create this custom background, Janine starts with a bit of white gesso, texture paste and gel medium. She used the texture paste to act as part of the "fixative for the bulky items like the cogs and buttons, and by washing over the elements with gesso, it gives a blank canvas for using Glimmer Mist to customise the colours of the elements, including the buttons. It really is a fun technique that Janine thoroughly recommends giving a try.

 

Suz decided to take a simple shape, like a chipboard starfish, and cover it with as many buttons and brads as it could take.  The combination of colours and textures make a glittery, eyecatching embellishment.  She balanced the opposite page with a simple button cluster.

jenni bowlin studios: a guest design team competition!

We were wondering… would you like the chance to be on the Jenni Bowlin Guest Design Team?

If so, read on!

This week we bring you a very special, bumper edition of our weekend inspiration – and it comes with a really exciting invitation.  Jenni Bowlin would love to have you on her blog as a Guest Design Team member!

What does this mean?

This means, that over the next few weeks, if you send us your most amazing, most fabulous creations using your favourite Jenni Bowlin papers and embellishments, we will feature them all in a post on our blog, and Jenni Bowlin will choose a winning artist.  The winner will receive a prize pack from of a whole range of their newest products, which you will then use in projects to feature on the Jenni Bowlin blog as a Guest Design Team Member!

Check out the fine print for details below and, if you need Jenni Bowlin product for this challenge, check out your local scrapbooking store.  New CHA lines have just arrived in the warehouse and will be appearing in stores soon.

The fine print:

1. You will need to include 90% Jenni Bowlin product in your layout
2. 100% of products in your project must be brands that Aussie Scrap Source represent.  See here for a list of all of our suppliers.
3. Projects must be emailed to [email protected] by midnight, Sunday 3rd July (we have extended the deadline!)   Images need to be clear, bright and resized for the web (around 600-800 pix at 72 dpi).  Feel free to include close ups of any details you wish to highlight.
4. You are welcome to submit more than one project if you wish.
5. Projects can be layouts, cards or altered items.
6. The winner will be judged by Jenni Bowlin,  the prize pack and appearance date on the Jenni Bowlin Studios blog will be at their discretion.

 

Good luck!

 

Iris loved the texture and the elements found in the Hodge Podge Book set. However, she did not fancy making a book with it, instead she took the book apart, cut, die-cut, painted etc. the pages and turned it into this vintage layout about her and her husband reaching for their dreams.

 

 

The bright and happy pattern to this collection by Jenni Bowlin "Be Our Guest" is just gorgeous, and perfect for any event. There are some pretty embellishments such as the Rhinestone Bows in cream and the Chipboard Banner Pieces with some added Prima flowers.

 

Suz loves the versatility and ‘neutrality’ of many of the Jenni Bowlin ranges, and how they can be interchangeable and used together.  In the spirit of this she created a ‘patchwork’ background of lots of different designs, cutting them into 3” squares and distressing the edges before adhering them all to cardstock.  The addition of a cluster of Jenni Bowlin embellishments from calendar cards to buttons (and a smidge of glitter) create a pretty foundation for her photos.

We leave you with some more wonderful Jenni Bowlin inspiration from her talented design team.