Aussie Scrap Source

‘hand-made’ christmas

 

readers challenge: jillibean soup

This month, in partnership with the fabulous Jillibean Soup brand, we are offering our readers a chance to win a prize pack of papers and products from Jillibean Soup, and an opportunity to showcase your talent on as a Guest Design Team Member on their brilliant blog.  Interested?  Read on!

All you need to do is create a layout using lots of Jillibean Soup patterned papers, alphabeans, bean stalks, bean blossoms, journalling sprouts and/or sugar picks and email it to us by Thursday 3rd November.  We’ll send all your entries over to Jillibean Soup who will choose their favourite to win the prize pack and appear on their blog.  This challenge is open to Australian/NZ residents only.  If you need help finding a local scrapbook store who stocks Jillibean Soup, leave us a comment and we’ll lend a hand finding one near you.

To get you started, here’s some inspiration from our own design team and online.

 

How cool and how fun is this line from Jillibean Soup?!   Leeann just had a blast creating this two-pager using the Sweet and Sour line.

Leeann turned the Bit Size Uncut Cards into totally fun banners which also acted as a photo matt for the silly fun photos of her daughter Holly.   She finished this two-pager off by using the die cut shapes for her embellishments and simply highlighting them with a button to make them pop.

 

Louise created this deceptively simple layout with the Dutch Mustard Soup collection. The co-ordinated cardstock stickers and diecut shapes made it a quick and easy layout to put together, and the Coredinations cardstock base was sanded lightly to enhance the inner core colour and draw the eye slightly towards the centre of the layout.

 

 

Sue has used the Apple Cheddar Soup range from JilliBean Soup to create a layout featuring beautiful autumn tones. Sue really enjoyed using the range, she says, the colours and adorable small prints are fresh and easy to work with. Jillibean produce a die-cut sheet to co-ordinate with their ranges and they are fantastic value, allowing you to add quick and easy embellishments to your page. Sue also added in a little chipboard from MME and a few cute buttons from Crate Paper to completer her page.

 

We just adore this page by Ashley Harris. She has kept the focus on those gorgeous baby feet and scrapped this page perfectly; Ashley has used a mixture from Jillibean’s Homemade line.  Thank you so much for letting us share your adorable page.

 

 

It’s an explosion of colour and such a cool page created by Kim Watson.  We loved the strong vertical lines and whimsical placement of buttons. Kim has used Sweet and Sour by Jillibean. Thank you Kim for letting us share your colourful masterpiece.

 

 

Wendy McKee's 'Love' card using the new Hearty Barley Soup range immediately caught Louise's eye in a gallery. The warm colours and clever use of patterns along with the diecut edges and punches of white, made this a standout.

 

Louise loved Mel Blackburn's gorgeous layout using a Jillibean Soup corrugated background. By cutting circles and rotating the grain, she's added a subtle but interesting details to a very pretty page.

 

This vibrant layout from Becky Williams also uses the lovely Jillibean Soup products to their best. Louise loved the detail of the stripes and photos on the kraft tags and the little cluster with the bakers twine to highlight the journalling. The large corrugated lettering completes the girlie layout with a kid-like twist.

generation gap celebrations: readers challenge

 

We wrap up our Generation Gap series this week with our readers’ celebration pages – birthdays and christmas.  We love that everyone who participated has appreciated that these pages are special beyond the products and papers used on them – the memories that each challenge has evoked are recorded now for their children and beyond.  Thank you so much ladies – we’ll get some special goodies out to you very soon!

 

 

Christine Rumley starts us off with birthday traditions.  She writes: I've included lots of journalling about the way we celebrate birthdays in my family. It's very small type, but it reads "I firmly believe that a child's birthday is a special occasion and that the birthday child should feel like they are the most important person in the world on their special day. My parents made me feel that way and I do the best to make my children feel like that too. As a kid, my birthday parties were relatively simple. We didn’t have a big party every year, and when we did they were always held at home, mostly with family and sometimes with neighbourhood kids too. I remember how special I felt on my birthday when I saw that cake made especially for me. You kids have quite big parties and you share your special day with your cousins and school friends. They are usually held at specific venues rather than home. Bec, this year you went Zumba dancing, and Will, yours was at CSIRO Discovery Centre. I always make you a special cake in a design of your choice. I love doing that and seeing the joy it brings to your faces".

 

 

 

Heidi Barclay also chose birthdays with this gorgeous layout.  How precious is that photo!  The two journalling cards are hidden behind the photo and reads:-

This was one of my parties, I remember my dad always used to get me an ice-cream cake for my birthday's - that was also one of my favourite dresses which I was wearing.

We used to have clowns made from ice-cream cones and marie biscuits and filled with lollies inside, another favourite was red and green fizz pops (lolly pops) which looked like a flower arrangement.

 

 

 

Thanks to Agnus Kasprzak for sharing a different perspective on her family Christmas. She writes: I have always loved Christmas and although it might seem a bit strange to celebrate a traditional Polish Christmas on the other side of the world in the middle of summer, that's how Christmas at Baba's (Nan's) house has been for over 30 years since we moved to Australia.

Wigilia which means 'vigil' is traditionally celebrated with a Christmas Eve supper after the first star appears in the evening sky. It always begins with the sharing of Oplatek (a blessed Communion like wafer) by everyone at the table to wish good health and prosperity and is followed by a meal of beetroot soup (borscht) with mushroom dumplings, sweet & savory pierogi and various fish dishes. We always have Polish cheesecake and a rolled poopyseed cake for dessert before moving onto the fun part of opening all the presents that everyone has put under the beautifully decorated tree.

 

 

Finally, Rebecca Young dug out photos of both herself and her daughter with Santa.  She writes: My journaling reads:  The man in the red suit who only visits once a year. Growing up I used to be so excited knowing he was coming to visit me. Somehow, he always knew exactly what I wanted and always delivered so much more!  You like Santa too and have been lucky to meet him a few times at the shops and at kindy. He is a very clever man, enjoy him as much as you can. "

This week I've used papers and embellishments by MME - Lost & found 2 collection.

colour theory: the rainbow!

We celebrate the last post in our colour series with nature’s ultimate and arguably most beautiful explosion of colour – the rainbow. 

 

weekend inspiration: tattered angels

 

 

To create her layout, Kathie started with a sheet of kraft cardstock and some plain mistable scalloped ribbons, crepe ribbons, flowers and stickers. Then she went to work with some acrylic paints, walnut stain, and the Tattered Angels’ Walnut Hollow Spring/Summer paint system.

The scalloped and crepe ribbons were sprayed with Inchwork Chalkboard mist, then inked with Shabby Shutters distress ink to give depth of colour. The flower stickers have been spritzed with Orange Crush Glimmer Glaze and Rum Punch Glimmer Mist. The large mistable flower was first spritzed with Rum Punch Glimmer Mist and then the ends of the petals were painted with Orange Crush to give graduated colour.

Finally, Kathie painted Mermaid Glimmer Glam onto the backdrop in places to add some colour to her neutral painted background. With her painting and colouring all done, she assembled her pieces with other bits and pieces for a fun springtime layout.

 

 

 

 

 

Iris found an old wooden bird house in a street market and decided to alter it for her scrap area. She first coated the wooden piece with white gesso. After it has dried she painted the roof and the base with a deep shade of red. After the paint has dried, Iris misted it with "Mel's Diner" which is a glimmer mist in a rich shade of red.

For the body, she painted a thin coat of white paint over the gesso just to make sure that the entire surface is painted in white. After it dried, she added strips of Tim Holtz Tissue Tape in random areas. On the left and right sides of the bird house, Iris applied a glimmer screen before misting it again with “Mel’s Diner”.

To finish the entire piece, Iris added a Prima Vine to the roof and applied some “Twinkle Toes” glimmer glam over pearl mica flakes which resulted in the silver glittery chunks you see in the roof.

 

In this second project, Iris put three mini canvas frames together and smeared the top with modeling paste. White the paste was still wet, she pressed on to the paste pieces of lace. She then sprayed the surface with yellow glimmer mist. After it has dried, she added flowers and crystal swirls. A generous coat of glimmer glam adds more sparkle and shine to the project.

 

Birgit Koopsen, Netherlands, created this stunning wall board using her favourite Tattered Angels colours: Key Lime Pie, Trunk Bay, Patina and Mel’s Diner. Birgit has spritzed the Tattered Angels mists onto papers from Prima’s Printery Line as the base for her tiles. To complete the tiles, she added stamping around the edges, 3D resin images and flowers. The four tiles were then adhered to a wooden board that had also been spritzed with Glimmer Mist. This project has wow factor, and is so easy to create!

 

Zoe Nemburt is a designer for Tattered Angels and she uses their products beautifully! Her inspiration for this page came from seeing all the wonderful frames with pegs on them right now! They look stunning to Zoe so she wanted to incorporate this into a layout. The mists Zoe used here are Marigold, Cadillac Pink & Rum Punch Glimmer Mist & Wicked Glimmer Glaze.

 

Tattered Angels have released a number of “paint systems” designed to coordinate perfectly with other scrapbooking products on the market. Mandy Collins used the House of 3 Daily Junque Paint System along with Pink Paislee Daily Junque products to decorate the cover of this gorgeous mini album.

To achieve the textured look that Mandy has created here, she advises to apply layers of colour and blending tones. The cover here is created using two base colours with splashes of a third. You can find out more about Mandy’s approach to creating texture in a tutorial here on her blog.

 

Nicole Martel created this gorgeous piece of art which one can wear with a few texturing mediums and lots of Tattered Angels treasures. A beautiful piece which one can create and be proud to display.

weekend inspiration: technique tuesday

 

Janine had so much fun with this stamp set as it comes as a kit, with a few other elements, such as the cardstock, twill and journal card. Janine decided to use these elements in her design as well as the stamps and added in some of the Echo Park Victoria Garden range to add her own feminine touches to the LO. 

When stamping on the twill she used a fabric ink and heat set it with her iron to ensure it did not bleed further into the twill. She also stamped and embossed a couple of her elements on the page as well for a more textured look on the LO.

 

Jane Clark created this card from My Mind’s Eye papers and Technique Tuesday’s Aviary stamp set.  She loved the ornate design, it creates an elegant and stylish look that can be used in all sorts of different ways.

 

 

The Aviary stamp set has a range of different stylised bird designs along with several different quotes – Jane loved that they could be useful for cards and layouts of many different themes and styles.  It helps that s loves images of birds -  especially these cute characters!

 

Thank you to Daniela Dobson for sharing this stunning LO's with us. I love the way she has used the stamps to tell part of the story of the photographs, while at the same time using them as an integral part of the design of the layout

weekend inspiration: martha stewart

 

Martha Stewart Crafts’ Punch All Over the Page Starry Sky punch was the starting point and inspiration for this page by Danielle Quarmby. Just the name of the punch brought to Danielle’s mind the Van Gogh painting ‘Starry Night’ and she used that masterpiece as her layout’s inspiration. Just as the name indicates, these punches can be used anywhere on the page by means of a nifty magnet system, and Danielle has used the punch repeatedly in a cascade of stars across the page.

The Blueberry flocking powder from Martha Stewart Crafts is used to create the swirls all over the background paper, along with water-soluble crayons. Layered doily and gemstone stickers, also from Martha Stewart Crafts, have been sprayed with chalkboard mist and add to the star-filled night sky of the layout background.

 

 

 

 

 

Suz used Martha Stewart’s pretty ‘Flower Box’ Punch Around the Page set on BasicGrey’s gorgeous Indie Blooms papers and embellishments in the above cards.  These punch sets are so easy even she can use them (as she admits she’s often a little ‘punch’ challenged)!  They create an intricate floral border that can be layered over each other and the tiny punched shapes can be kept and used on other projects. 

Suz also went to town with her favourite Martha product – the glitters.  These are fabulously fine and come in every shade of the rainbow – and a few more besides.  Glitter imbues everything it touches with a slightly festive spirit (even when it’s not christmas) and makes these designs even cheerier.

 

 

 

Pearl Lui created this funky layout with the sweet heart feature at the top right, using the heart version of Martha Stewart Crafts' Punch All Over the Page. You can find Pearl's inspiring work here.  

generation gap: christmas, birthdays and special occasions

 

 

It’s our tenth and final week of our generation gap series.  We hope that you’ve enjoyed taking a wander down memory lane with our design team members and readers, and that we may have inspired you to think about approaching some of your own layouts in this way.  A big thank you to those who have contributed, commented and enjoyed the series along with us.

In our tenth week we look at celebrations – birthdays, christmas and any other special occasions – what they were like ‘back then’ and what they’re like now.

 

 

 

Suz remembers her favourite childhood Christmas, the year Santa brought her a ‘wendy walker’ doll, and how she didn't’ know for sure when she first saw her that it was indeed a Christmas present.  The Christmases of her childhood were more modest, less extravagant affairs than perhaps today, but no less magical!  Suz has combined the beautiful Authentique ‘Wonder’ papers with Webster's ‘Home for the Holidays’ to create this pretty and nostalgic page.  She has clustered embellishments either side of her journaling and photo for a streamlined embellished look.

 

Sue has used the All About Me range from Webster's Pages to create this page remembering how she celebrated birthday's as a child. Sue doesn't have lots of photos of herself as a child so she cherishes the few that she has. It's amazing though how much of a story one photo can tell. Sue vividly remembers the 'dolly ice-cream' cakes that she and her sister used to have to celebrate their birthdays.

This photo includes Sue's sister, two of her cousins that she grew up with and friends from school, most of which, continued onto year 12 with her. Looking at the photo, Sue can recall that she was wearing one of her favourite dresses! How funny! Sue's husband laughed at her fringe (and most of the other girls too) in the photo although he did tell her that the style is back in fashion now! Photos certainly do capture moments in time to be remembered forever.

generation gap readers: home & lifestyle

 

 

This week our readers look at homes and lifestyles and how they may have changed over the years. 

 

 

Heidi Barclay created this stunning layout above.  Her journalling reads:  This is where we settled when we first arrived in NZ, Feb 2000.  We stayed at 3/10 Ridge Road Howick Auckland.

 

 

Christine Rumley has included lots of journalling detail in her layout.  She writes: This week I used the Jenni Bowlin "Haven" paper collection to record some of my memories from my childhood home and the home we live in now. The photo on the left is my mum and 3 older sisters holding a baby me on the front lawn of my parents house, and the photo on the right is of my husband and kids on the driveway of our current home. I recorded some of the little quirks I remember from each of these homes in point form and put them onto the tags in the pockets. Some were happy memories like watching my kids playing in the sprinklers, and some were memories of weird decor choices, like the pink bath tub that my sisters chose when mum and dad built their house before I was born (thankfully they have replaced it now!)  or the fact that my parents didn't have an oven in their kitchen until they renovated in 2004!

 

 

Agnus Kasprzak shares:  I was recently looking through some of my mum's old photo albums and loved seeing how much things had changed inside our family home since we were growing up there. My mums house has really made a transformation and it's funny to look at all the daggy furniture and decor that use to fill it and I wanted to be able to share a lot of these old photos on one page so I created a pocket to hold them.

colour theory: tetradic

The tetradic colour scheme makes use of a combination of four colours, which sit opposite each other on the colour wheel in two complementary pairs.

This is a rich color scheme which offers plenty of possibilities for variation, but it can be hard to balance. You need to be aware of the warm/cool balance as well as avoiding the pure chroma and work with a similar tint or shade of all four colours instead.

 

echo park guest designer challenge: readers entries

We had the most enormous response to this call for a Guest Designer for Echo Park Papers, and thank everyone who contributed by sending in their pages. 

We’re thrilled to announce that Echo Park chose the winning entry of Fiona Lally!

Echo Park told us:  There were so many amazing entries. After looking through the projects, we fell in love with Fiona Lally's beautiful style and would love to work with her as a Guest Designer.

 

We didn’t envy them having to make this decision though, as you will see below there were many and varied unique entries, all using Echo Park fabulous papers.  Thank you to everyone who participated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

generation gap: home and lifestyle

 

This week we look at how families have changed in terms of their homes, decor and just general lifestyle.  We’d love to hear your experiences.  Send us your pages by next Wednesday 13th October to [email protected].

 

 

When it comes to the travel lifestyle, Danielle noticed a big difference between the travel her parents did to come to Australia as children and modern travel. In the sixties, it was still mainly by ship and the journey from England took about six weeks. Her mum remembers attending school on board the ship, as she made the trip three times in the mid to late sixties (at the ages of 5 and 8 years old).

When Danielle visited the English hometowns of her parents in 2005, travel was of course by long-haul flight and air travel is a regular occurence in her life. Danielle herself was 16 when she went on her first flight, whereas each of her children has flown within their first year of life. So the contrast between the sixties, the nineties and recent years is really quite noticeable!

While the page focuses on her parents’ journeys to Australia, simply dwelling on the topic of travel over time recalls all these other stories to mind. Within the travel theme, Danielle has made thorough use of October Afternoon’s Boarding Pass range on this layout, focussing in particular on the chipboard ship embellishment and world map background paper.

 

 

Iris still sees much of her Filipino Heritage present today even in the interiors of her home, the local hotels, and the favorite holiday destinations. The facade may be modern with clean lines but there will always be one or two classic pieces like a capiz or shell frame maybe, or bricks lining the walls.
For this layout, Iris chose to use the Sunshine Broadcast line of Sassafras Lass because like most Filipino homes and decor, it is classic, subtle, and warm.

generation gap readers: holidays and outings

 

 

This week our readers looked at the differences in things like holidays and family outings.

 

Christine Rumley writes: Living in Canberra where the coast is a good 2 hour drive away means that trips to the beach are pretty special. As a kid, my family would make the long drive up to the Sunshine Coast every September school holidays to visit my godparents. Our annual visits to the beach are amongst my fondest childhood memories. My kids also get a huge thrill from trips to the beach and we visit the coast a couple of times a year. In Summer  it's just a day trip but in Winter when accommodation is a bit cheaper and more readily available we stay for a few nights.

 

Agnus Kasprzak has beautiful memory recall of childhood holidays – we hope she has recorded them in hidden journalling somewhere in the layout!  She writes: One of the things I looked forward to most as a child was our annual trip to the NSW Central Tablelands in search of forest mushrooms and wild blackberries at the beautiful Oberon pine forests during the Easter break. You had to time your trip just right, making sure there had been a good amount of rainfall followed by a couple of sunny days before taking the 2.5 hour journey to the forests.

It was so much fun to spend the day collecting bucket loads of the Saffron Milk Cap mushrooms that were often hidden under pine needles on the forest floor, making sure you didn't pick up the wrong sort which can be poisonous.

Another favourite were the wild blackberry brambles filled with deliciously juicy fruit that wouldn't even make it into a bucket because everyone just ate them straight from the bush! Several years ago we started making taking the trip with our children and they absolutely love it and also look forward to it every year.

 

 

Heidi Barclay has found this adorable photo of her on the beach as a child, and writes:  As a child we would always go to the beach for our holidays, so when I think of a holiday, it always reminds me of going to the beach.

 

 

Finally, we love this photo of Rebecca Youngs daughter enjoying her first ‘bush bath’.    Her journaling reads:  "One thing that is common to both our generations, is that we've always lived in the bush, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. When I was growing up we would often travel to a local creek to camp overnight or have a BBQ lunch. Today, while we live in the Pilbara, we want to take you to experience the local waterholes and camping spots. It's fun to get out there and get dirty, have bush baths, sleep in a swag in a tent and eat every meal off the BBQ."

Rebecca has used MME doily stamps on the background and items from October Afternoon's Boarding Pass collection.

Thanks to everyone for contributing such great memories this week.

colour theory: split complementary

The split complementary scheme is similar to the complementary scheme, but instead of using the colour directly opposite, it uses the two colours on either side.  This creates a softer, more harmonious colour scheme than the straight complementary, with less tension as it is not as extreme.