Aussie Scrap Source

product focus: transparent elements

 

Using transparencies is a staple when Steph creates her layouts. Aussie Scrap Source is now wholesaling 7 Gypsies and they have some stunning transparencies available. On this layout, Steph used the ATC transparencies and mixed them with a few Hambly Transparencies. You can see the square angles of the 7G ATC Cards, and the floral motifs and clock have been hand cut from the ATC Cards.

Here Suz has layered transparencies from Little Yellow Bicycle and Pink Paislee.  She has used a large photo transparency to ‘frame’ the image her daughter would have been taking of the ducks on the lake while still keeping her own image including her daughter intact. 

The ‘capture the moment’ strip underneath the photo is one of Pink Paislee’s Borderline Clear Stickers from the 365Degrees line.  The daisies she has scattered over the page are not only translucent, but glittered, and really, no layout of Phoebe would be complete without a smattering of glitter!

product focus: flocking

 

The main thing Nicole loves about adding flocking to her pages is it's instant ability to invite the viewer to touch it! The irresistible urge to do so engages the viewer on an extra level and adds an instant warmth which is something Nic loves.

On this page, Nicole created the corner flower flourish, the dot border and the word "Meow" from flocking produced by We R Memory Keepers. Included in the flocking packs are sticky rub-ons which you apply in place like any other rub-on, then overlay a sheet of flock, foil or glitter. The result is a delicious and clean velvet finish and the beauty of applying it this way means it can be added anywhere to your page plus there is the added benefit of having a choice of colours.

 

 

 

 

Janine fell in love with the Anna Griffin papers especially her flocked papers as they add so much texture to the page. Janine immediately knew she wanted to cut out the flocked butterflies to make a feature on her page featuring her adorable baby boy. You just want to reach out and touch the velvety butterflies on her page.

product focus: canvas tags

 

 

When looking for a canvas tag to showcase for this post Caz fell in love with this tag from the Pink Paislee Cupid range. She then set out to create a holiday wish list layout from what is predominantly a Valentine's Day/Love range.

Strategic placing of some tags over any mention of Feb 14th helped disguise the original theme. She then added a mixed font title using letter stickers and hand cut words and some of the gorgeous designer brads to finish it off.

 

 

Despite the wonderful versatility of canvas tags for embellishing your projects and matting your photos, Louise just couldnt resist using these Pink Paislee Amber Road tags to create gorgeous flowers to embellish her layouts.For this first layout she has made a simple folded flower with leaves, which have then been then coloured with subtle shades of glimmer mist. She has then also cut small circles and a heart (all coloured with glimmer mist), to add further subtle embellishment to the page.

 

For this second layout, Louise has cut small circles from the canvas tags. She has then gently teased the edges to give them a soft frayed look to create the centre of her Glimmer Mist flowers. The added bling to the centres adds a gorgeous touch. Part of the title has also been created by cutting pre printed journaling from the tag.

product focus: metals

 

When thinking of metals, Kathie tends to conjure up images of rich, masculine pages. But they look great with pretty feminine pastels too. This page documents a year’s worth of Facebook status updates. Kathie was amazed at the story they told when she printed them all out. She’s printed out the phrases onto neutral paper and collaged them into the background of the page.

A 7gypsies metal page edge at the base of the layout lends the page a solid base and provides depth of colour. These page edges are extremely easy to use and can be bent with your fingers, and cut with scissors. Kathie has hung a metal key from a pretty piece of sheer ribbon next to her photo. Finally, she’s used metal wire to thread sweet pink and clear beads across the layout at various points.

 

Suz has used an eclectic blend of metals in this layout, full of little details you may not notice at first glance.  She has used the same 7Gypsies scalloped page edge as Kathie, though she has used it to ‘crown’ her photo, and has added further colour and texture to it by punching an eyelet through each ‘scallop’.  A Tim Holtz Philosophy tag ‘Listen’ provides the perfect opening to Suz’s plea to her local ice cream van.  Her journalling, for those who enjoy the stories, is printed simply on co-ordinating BasicGrey Kioshi papers and reads  “Please stop coming around so late on a Thursday night.  Some time Saturday afternoon would be lovely and i’d be nearly happy to pay your $7.00 for two cones.  But all sugared up that late on a school night is just wrong, and i’m tired of being the bad guy who says NO all the time.  Regards, their loving mum. March 2010.’

On the left hand side Suz has made use of TPC Studio’s gorgeous Framed Domed Stickers.  These have metal backs and clear epoxy domes so that you can customise them to work with your layout, adding patterned paper, photos or even whole little vignettes inside one.  Suz has turned one into a stylised clock to reinforce the theme of her layout.

product focus: felt trim

 

No patterned paper was really required here with Suz’s treatment of gorgeous felt fusion.  The lilac is Queen & Co., the black is a beautiful narrow Anna Griffin that’s been cut in half lengthways to give the tops of the photos a flat edge.  A title, a strategically placed We R Memory Keepers flower and a sprinkling of bling was all that was left to finish off this page, detailing how Suz’s daughter wanted her hair done for this year’s Crazy Hair Day at school.

 

 

Carole loves We R Memory Keeper's products, and the Lace trim is no except, just gorgeous and so easy to use. Carole stuck the "Nonsense" Blue Bird Flocked Lace straight onto the bottom of the layout, then she stuck the "Twirl" Lace Grow onto acetate and then layered it above the embellished houses she created from the Twirl Home pattern paper, it was so versatile and it looks wonderful.

Carole also used the "Twirl" Embossed stickers to highlight her journaling and photo, all the products coordinate so well together, which makes it all so easy to use.

product focus: fabric

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       

Nicole created this little book as a tongue-in-cheek look at daily things that she feels guilty about surrounding her mothering. Nic has always felt that the addition of fabric textures to her projects creates warmth and "motherliness".

She created this little album by covering the pages of a BasicGrey keyhole chipboard album with fabrics by Michael Miller and Junkitz and also some velour papers by SEI. She added random journal blocks, pieces of ribbon and lace, embellishments from her stash and then stamped on all of the pages with stamps by Tim Holtz.

She used Distress Ink to create definition and age and then machine stitched each page back-to-back to finish up with a small book containing invaluable information and an irresistible invitation to be touched and handled by all who view it.

 

 

When the fabric challenge was posted Mel originally thought of doing a scrapbook page, but as soon as she saw the generous half yard of fabric in Disco Dot Ink (by Michael Miller) she decided to whip up a new pillow instead! The fabric is lovely and soft and sewed up so nicely. Mel machine stitched a series of red, grey and blue Jenni Bowlin hearts onto the disco dot circles and added some divine Strano ribbon at the back of the pillow to tie it all together.

product focus: flowers

 

When we think of layouts showcasing flowers we might think of an explosion of flowers in gorgeous clusters on the page. Not so with this layout by Nic. Nic chose to take the subtle route, with the floral touches adding to the layout design without being too overpowering. Nic started with a plain BasicGrey cardstock base and built layout layers with Little Yellow Bicycle Love Letters papers. She added a fabulous 8x8 Teresa Collins swirl for the contrast punch.

An intricate BasicGrey Indian Summer paper added the floral base for the photo. Originally a darker colour, Nic flipped it to have the white side showing. This floral paper can be cut apart and used as separate flowers but Nic was quite happy with the subtle background it provided. Next were the floral embellishments in the way of Hero Arts plain white flowers and the final touches were several BasicGrey 'Pop's. Pre-layered floral embellishments, just perfect for the finishing touches here.

 

You just don’t get any more delicious that Sassafras’ Home Made Blossoms – gorgeous little layered die cuts – that Suz has used on this layout.  She’s celebrating her daughters seventh birthday with seven things about her and, of course, seven flowers! It’s a fairly simple layout design-wise, made special by the positioning of the flowers and the juxtaposition of the blue and red corners.

 

 

 

And though we are of course saving most of our new layouts for a separate post, a flower article couldn’t go published without a couple of samples of our very exciting news – that Aussie Scrap Source is now distributing for Prima Marketing.  Janine Koczwara who we’re proud to have on our design team is also on Prima’s – and so we are thrilled to share here just a small taste of what is to come at Aussie in the form of flowers, fabrics, papers and amazing textures from Prima.

product focus: journalling elements

This layout by Mel uses just four products and a little stitching: Sassafras Lass journal tag stickers & numerical chipboard, kraft cardstock and Websters pokee-dots alphas. Mixing up the tag stickers with a variety of small photos and large chipboard numbers is an effective way to create numerical journaling to use up those excess photos you have lying around in your stash.

Caz decided to make a little brag as a little gift this year for a recipient who had just become a Grandmother again. She needed something small to add to each page so that the recipient could journal little things such as the date or occasion without having to feel obliged to write too much. These Jenni Bowlin tickets were the perfect solution. Small enough to not take up to much room on the page but with enough room to write a few lines. They come in many different colours and styles.

product focus: flourishes

Kathie decided to lend flourishes a whimsical touch. The BasicGrey Lemonade line was a perfect match for the photo of this cute little bug in her polka dot outfit.

Kathie's used a number of patterned papers to create flourishes on the background of the layout. She's then used coordinating chipboard flourishes and stamps to embellish. The new BasicGrey Bling It On Designer Rubons come complete with rhinestones and Kathie has used a flourish one to highlight the photograph. They rub on so smoothly, and then you just add the rhinestones over the top as indicated. So simple and so effective. Paper curls add a final touch.

Janine fell in love with the ornate flourished frame of the Heidi Swapp paper but didn’t want to use it as a complete frame, instead she cut into it to highlight the flourish elements of it.

Louise could barley contain her creative excitement with the flourishes brief. She absolutely loves how the Tim Holtz Flourish Mask is 3 fabulous products in one; allowing you to create different flourish effects on your projects.

For the Layout Joy; Louise used the flourish mask in a conventional sense and created a background flourish pattern on the Kraft cardstock with Glimmermist, and then outlined it with a fine black Gel pen

product focus: bling

Bling is the perfect accent, often being used as a final small embellishment, as shown in these tags created by Nic Howard. Nic admits she has been incredibly inspired by Tim Holtz lately, and these tags are testament to that! Nic started with regular office shipping tags and applied a range of Distress Ink colours to create a base of colours. She then used various Tim Holtz Stamper's Anonymous and Pink Paislee Mistletoe & Co stamps to create the artwork on each tag.

The final embellishing on these tags are in the form of Heidi Swapp Chandelier Crystals, as well as bling borders. What perfect tags to add to a variety of gifts or cards!

Basic Grey has such a huge, versatile range of bling in all shapes and colours, and they can be used on any sort of project that you undertake. On this layout, Steph used Orange, Purple and Pink Gemstones to highlight and fun Sassafras Lass Papers she cut into strips. Not only did this give the layout a feeling of depth but added a little zing to what was a fairly flat layout.

In the corner of her photo, she has used one of the designer series of bling from Basic Grey which looks gorgeous as an extra embellishment. Steph also used Heidi Swapp's Clear Bling Lines to run across the border of her Sassafras Monstrosity Paper.

product focus: journalling elements

 

This layout by Mel uses just four products and a little stitching: Sassafras Lass journal tag stickers & numerical chipboard, kraft cardstock and Websters pokee-dots alphas. Mixing up the tag stickers with a variety of small photos and large chipboard numbers is an effective way to create numerical journaling to use up those excess photos you have lying around in your stash.

Caz decided to make a little brag book for a Secret Santa gift last year as the recipient had just become a Grandmother again. She needed something small to add to each page so that the recipient could journal little things such as the date or occasion without having to feel obliged to write too much. These Jenni Bowlin tickets were the perfect solution. Small enough to not take up to much room on the page but with enough room to write a few lines. They come in many different colours and styles.

product focus: stickers

Mel created this funky sticker book for her daughter, who was asking for a book to permanently stick and keep her stickers in. A white blank bare book (plus) was used for the project and the fun and endearing Monstrosities journal tags stickers & sweet treats stickers were used a base throughout the book.

A splattering of forest green glimmer mist was sprayed onto the front cover to add a little bit of interest, rather than just a stark white background.

Throughout the sticker book, Mel has included extra sticker snippets on a few of the pages, these are also from Monstrotities range of products - totally cute!

The altogether-too-clever Carole loves creating things with stickers, and this was an opportunity for her to create something for her son Chaise!  She picked up this little bedroom lamp from a bargain shop then Carole created a cute little scene for the base of the lamp.

She covered an old round place mat and then using the Jacksworld Blackboard Shapes and the Adhesive Die Cut stickers made a cute moveable pieces.

The little car and truck can actually be moved around as they are on small stands, and the train was bent slightly and stuck to the front of the placemat, and the house and the sun was actually stuck to the base of the lamp, and then Carole stuck stickers to the lamp and added buttons for an extra highlight, Jacksworld by Cosmo Cricket was perfect for this project.

product focus: grunge paper

 

Nicole made a few happy discoveries when she was creating this little sketchbook using Grungepaper. The first lovely discovery was the ability to lightly emboss Grungepaper using Glimmer Screens by Tattered Angels. She sandwiched the Grungepaper with a Glimmer Screen then packed it tightly with extra paper before rolling it through her embossing machine using thin die adapter plates. She used the "Crown" Glimmer Screen here on the outside flap of her book.

She also discovered that Grungepaper has a slow absorption rate which means that you can spray heavily with Glimmermist and then lay embossed paper towel gently on top. This absorbs the puddled ink and leaves the pattern of the embossed paper towel on the Grungepaper making a really gorgeous finish.

Grungepaper is also fabulous for tearing, sewing and pleating, yet tough enough to last as a book cover and just as flexible as Grungeboard.

Louise had to confess that she had never used Tim Holtz grunge paper before; grunge board yes! but not grunge paper. Well after this 'creative experience', she has found a new 'to die for' product love!!! She was blown away with its versatility and as a result could not stop at just one layout and created 3 as she tried out a variety of techniques and effects with it.

For the layout 'u Rok' Louise saturated the grunge paper with glimmermist and left it to dry under a fan heater.  What evolved was, as the Grunge Poard and Glimmer Mist dried, it buckled and allowed the Glimmer Mist to pool and dry in just the most fabulous crazed and crackled effect, which Lou then used to fabulous creative effect with her grungey rock like layout.

  

With this layout Louise had a bit of an oopsie that turned out to be a bit of a creative bonus. She often will run her Glimmer Misted backgrounds through a laminator as this helps to flatten out the buckling caused by the Glimmer Mist. However with the Grunge paper it proved to be a little to thick and started to buckle, she then had to take the laminator apart to rescue her grungepaper. She loved the 'folded up' effect of the grunge paper so much she used it as a decorative element of her layout.

The idea for this simple, grunge like, but elegant layout, came together as soon as Louise coupled the photo printed on acetate, onto to the plain background of the grungepaper. It required minimal embellishment as the greyness and the surface texture of the grunge paper with the photo, conveyed the message and intent of the layout perfectly for Louise.

product focus: 12” die cuts

  

Diecut papers are a great way to add interest and mood, as you can see by this layout by Nic Howard. Softer shaped bracket and scalloped papers give a gentle feel, while this obviously zig zag shaped diecut paper by Collage Press gives a feeling of surprise. The diecut paper takes the stage for the majority of this layout, the only other small additions are some Hambly transparencies, Pink Paislee alphas and a few smaller bits and pieces. A great way to set the scene for a story!

 

If you want to spice up the boring square then look no further than die cut patterned paper. Normally overlooked or used cut down on many pages Jaimie has used die cut paper as her base and then cut the floral die cut sheet down to fit onto her background page. Sticking with the die cut style Jaimie has used a journal spot from the Madame Royale range and added layered chipboard tags, fabric flowers and a few brads and buttons for good measure. All perfect for her page.

product focus: acrylic albums

 

Although sometimes tricky to photograph, there's something magical about an acrylic album that makes you want to look and touch it over and over again. For this challenge Mel used a 4" X 6" Scrapping Clearly mini album and various papers and punch outs from the Amber Road range (Pink Paislee). The small size is perfect for scrapbooking all those mini photos and each finished page helps compliment the next one, with little snippets showing through the acrylic album along the way.

On the front cover Mel chose to add some dimension by adhering the Twiddleybitz Love Bird (lightly sponged with ink), which goes beautifully with the autumn theme throughout the album.

product focus: calendar pages

 

 

When we think of calendar products, it's easy to assume that the only thing that could be done with them is to create something to record dates and times. Not so, as you can see with this layout by Nic Howard. We have seen our calendar products used for yearly calendars, layouts recording the events of one month, highlighting one special day, and we think they'd be perfect for an advent calendar but Nic has done something a little different.

When creating this layout, Nic used two different Webster's Pages products. The first was a 12x12 sheet of patterned paper with a gorgeous month's grid on it. Nic had chosen to theme her layout around 'every day' and thought the papers depicting 'time' would be perfect.

The second product is a smaller journaling block, in which Nic has listed days of the week in Paper Trunk alphas. Perfect to finish a layout depicting time, with gorgeous Websters Pages products!

 

Nicole wanted to make a compact summary of some of the events that happened in her family over last year in a quick and easy to look at format. She created this little album from Jenni Bowlin calendar pages, trimming the pictures from the top to only use the calendar section.

On the back of each of these calendar pages she attached patterned papers and different embellishments from her stash and also used the calendar pages as a base for a major event from each month. With chipboard covers, this little album is easy easy to handle and a cute little keepsake that summarises a year.

product focus: 3d quickutz dies

 

The new Quickutz 3d dies are just beautiful, and perfect for adding a little dimension to your projects.  Suz has used the Flower3 and Flourish dies on this quick and simple layout – there’s no doubt that die cuts make short work of adding a beautiful detail when time is limited, without detracting from the subject of the page.  Suz has cut out both SEI Mimosa papers and Hambly transparencies with the dies – the transparency curls fabulously and adds yet another texture.

Caz was lucky enough to get to play with some of the new Quickutz 3d dies. She chose the bird and birdhouse 4x4 die and the flourish 4x4 die.combined with the Quickutz tree border die to create a layout about how her daughter is such a homebody.

Caz created this layout while her daughter was staying in Canberra on a school exchange program. It got to the 3rd and last night and she could tell by her daughters voice how much she longed to be home with her family and her 'stuff' even though she was having such a good time. She has included on the back of the page the self motivational post-its she found on Jordan's mirror when she had left - "Don't be scared" "Text message Mum everyday but don't waste credit" "But most of all, HAVE FUN!!"

Once again Caz has used the bird/house and the flourish dies. To make this sweet card she combined the die-cuts she made with some of the new die-cuts and paper from the Crate Paper Bliss range. A perfect card for someone who is moving to a new home or to welcome someone home.

product focus: trims

 

Steph has always loved the Webster's Pages Trims and she couldn't wait to share this technique with you. Steph got the Webster's Lace and cut the size she wanted for the gathered frill. Then she took a thin piece of organaza and threaded it through the tiny holes in the pattern of the lace. Once she had threaded the organza though to the end of the lace all she had to do was pull and she could adjust the gathers accordingly. She adhered it to the scallop circle with double sided tape.

           

Bobbly trims, with their fluffy texture and comfy colours scream Winter to Nicole, so with that in mind she created this little book showcasing some of her favourite Winter photos.

She started with a delicious Tattered Angels Glimmer Glass album and went from there using papers, die cuts and other embellishments from Webster's Pages, Cosmo Cricket and Grungeboard to name but a few. Transforming the pages in this plain album was easy ands lots of messy fun, using Glimmermist and Glimmer Screens, and every page features Webster's Pages bobbly trims for the ultimate in cosiness!

The various textures in this album invite the viewer to touch it creating yet another interaction between project and viewer and bobbly trim brings that invitation no matter what it is attached to.

product focus: lace cuts

 

There are a fabulous range of beautiful and intricate lace cut papers coming out at the moment – BasicGrey, SEI, Little Yellow Bicycle and Rouge de Garance are all stamping their own individual looks on to them.  They’re easy and beautiful to use, adding an intricacy to pages and projects with very little effort.

 

 

Carole loved creating with the new Lace sheets (intricate Cut paper) by Basic Grey, Carole used the cute June Bug Collection and also the Chip Sticky Shapes. The colours of this range are very vibrant and very colourful. The lace sheets are very versatile you can use them as full sheets or you can cut them into pieces as shown by Carole to make borders etc.,

 

 

 

And here Suz has used stunning Rouge de Garance Fine Designs – these come in a pack with a sheet of lace paper and a co-ordinating double sided cardstock weight patterned paper.  Suz has saved the patterned papers for future projects though, and has used just lace cuts on this gorgeous little 4x6” Scrapworks purse album. 

She found these ‘beauty secrets’, often attributed to Audrey Hepburn  but actually written by Sam Levenson, and decided to use them as a lasting keepsake to remind her make up loving six year old that beauty on the inside is more important.

product of the week: mini albums

every monday from now we will feature a new series called POW, or Product of the Week.  This week we cover mini albums, and have focused on the huge variety of acrylic albums that we stock.  We hope you enjoy seeing what beautiful things our design team have created with them.

Projects like these can be daunting. Donna has long been a loyal layout creator and has been reluctant to attempt mini-books. After completing this project however, she may well be THE mini-book convert of the year! The Tinkering Ink Peek-a-Boo album with it's combination of sturdy cardstock pages and pristine clear acrylic pages presented Donna with a whole new mini-book experience. She admits that this was one of her most enjoyable projects this year - a big call for someone who creates many projects each month.

By first choosing a large selection of entirely well-coordinating products and laying them out in front of her, she was able to quickly piece together this project featuring photos from a favourite photo session of her two gorgeous girls. This whole project was created, start to finish, in under 3 hours. The small-ish size of each page and the see-through nature of many of the pages meant that Donna didn't need to incorporate huge amounts of embellishments, but instead allowed the products from the previous page work together to create a beautiful and treasured 'finished' product.  Have a wander through her beautiful pages...

            

The Tinkering Ink Chipboard and Acrylic Albums really give mini albums a fresh face. Each album includes "windowed" chipboard pages teamed with clear acrylic pages. You can mix and match the pages to suit your album theme and as Jaimie has shown you are not limited to use just the album pages provided - you can mix in extra surprise products such as the Hambly transparency overlays. The creative possibilities are endless.

 

Suz created this magical mini album using the Scrapping Clearly crown shape.  You may have seen it in a recent For Keeps Creative Paper issue, but here's a little journey through more of the pages.  Suz asked her daughter what things she would do if she were queen for a day, and the answers make for a perfect time capsule of Phoebe's priorities right now!

Suz used the beautiful Glimmer Mists on this album, on a variety of media including lots of Tim Holtz Grungeboard, Queen & Co felt and Tattered Angels Glimmer Chips.  She used lots of Heidi Swapp Bling, Jewel Brads and Hambly transparencies for over the top girly-ness.

        

After all that girly-ness, we definitely needed a shot in the arm of BOY, and Carole provided the perfect antidote with Scrapping Clearly's arrow album.

Carole says she loved creating this album, the acrylic is gorgeous to work with, very sturdy and very cute. She embellished with Sassfrass Lass Robotics, one of her favourite lines  In typical Carole style, she  cut out and 3D-ed all the little robots and space ships from the patterned paper, and added plenty of Dimensional Magic.   She also used some Inque Boutique Out of this World Stamps which worked perfectly, stamping onto papers and also straight onto the arylic surface. A very fun project for Carole.

Stand back and admire the amazing amount of detail that went into this gorgeous keepsake.

 

Finally, Nicole created this gorgeous acrylic book from a Scrapping Clearly 8-inch scallop album. The beautiful smooth edges off a soft alternative to the straight edge and the thick pages make applying rub-ons and stamps a breeze.

Using a combination of stamping, rub-ons, lace, flowers coloured with Glimmermist and papers, alphas and embellishments from Little Yellow Bicycle, Nic was able to create this beautiful keepsake with ease.  Notice how she has staggered her photos so that on each page you can anticipate part of what's coming up on the next one.  Sometimes the very point of the acrylic medium can be lost by covering too much of it up, and this is a perfect example of using the transparency of the pages to perfect advantage.