Aussie Scrap Source

make it yourself! winners and thank-you’s

 

 

We thought perhaps it was about time we announced some winners of our Make It Yourself readers challenge series.  We really appreciate all your comments and emails about this series, and hope that you come back next ‘term’ to play again!

Our thanks and congratulations go to:

Week 2 – Patterned Papers – Leeann Pearce

Week 3 – Rubons/Transfers - Debbie Smith

Week 4 – Embellishments – Anthea Peterson

Week 5 – Stamps – Livia Andrade

Week 6 – Flowers - Chantelle Huizenga

Week 7 – Transparencies – Sharmaine Kruijver

 

We also promised that a gift would be sent to anyone who completed all seven weeks of the challenge, so congratulations to:

Anthea Peterson

Leeann Pearce

Sharmaine Kruijver

Heidi Barclay

You, along with others who have done so many of the challenges, have been the backbone of this series, and we thank you.  Please everyone here email us with your addresses and we’ll get some scrappin’ stash sent your way!

readers challenge: make it yourself! handmade transparencies

 

 

Now here’s an image guaranteed to make you clucky!  Anthea Peterson writes:  I have made a frame around my photos by stamping a Prima Journaling stamp using some black Stazon onto some clear transparency, I then cut my photos out and placed them in the centre of the stamped image to cover up the stamped lines.

I also stamped out a Damask image using some brown Stazon ink onto another piece of clear transparency.

 

 

We love this bright lively layout from Chantelle Huizenga.  She writes: I’ve used rubber alphabet stamps and paint for my transparencies – I’ve assembled various alphabets on an acrylic block, using a paint brush, I’ve applied the paint to the stamp and then pressed down onto the transparency – I repeated this process for the whole strip. Then I’ve added it to my LO, using it as an overlay for part of my photo!

I’ve also made a small tag, using Stazon and White ink, I’ve stamped a leaf image and a word.

 

 

 

 

 

Heidi Barclay created two fab layouts for this week. 

She writes:  On the Waterslide one, I have printed out a Pink image onto the transparency and then also stamped an image using my new Pink Paislee Soiree stamps.

On the Good Friends make you laugh layout, I have stamped directly onto transparency using the Soiree stamps.

 

 

And we loved the creative flow in Sharmaine Kruijver’s layout this week.  She writes:  To make my transparency I used a grid stamp and a clear plastic bag. I simply stamped the grid, several times, onto the plastic bag. I then cut out the image and adhered it to my layout. The bag was the softer plastic so it floats on the page rather than sitting on it. Thank you for all these wonderful challenges. The thing I have loved the most is that I can just use things that are sitting on my scrap table or things that might normally have been thrown out. All this meant that the creative process was more enjoyable.

 

   

So much happening in this wonderful summery layout from Leeann Pearce.  She writes:  The first thing that came to my mind was Hambly – they are the bomb when it comes to transparencies. I totally dig screen printing. So I knew exactly what type of transparency I wanted to create. Decorative frames. Here’s how I went about it. I gather together some journaling spot stamps from hero arts and pink paislee, plus I also used a pudding bowl. I looked thru my stamp stash for some scroll type stamps. I used stazon ink and stamp straight onto the clear transparency film a few times. I then used a scrap piece of paper and placed that inside the circle or stamped square - so that I was just giving the stamp shape a decorative edge. Allow the ink to dry, then cut it out and scrap away. The end result is totally awesome and one I will be doing again and again!!

 

 

 

Thanks to everyone who has participated in this series of Make It Yourself.  We hope that we have encouraged and inspired you to think outside the box a little more with your scrapbooking (and other!) supplies – and we’ve loved receiving so many innovative ideas back.  Without you participating each week a reader’s challenge would be pointless – so thank you.

make it yourself: transparencies

 

 

This is the last in the current series of readers challenges – though we’ll be back after the school holidays with another really cool set of challenges based on different scrapbooking styles – we look forward to introducing that to you.  In the meantime, the design team have been playing with making their own transparencies… this can be done in a whole load of different ways from digital to stamping and painting and more.

We would love to see your interpretations on this theme!   Please send your layouts incorporating transparencies that you’ve created yourself by midday next TUESDAY 5 April though – it’s a day earlier than usual but we’re revving up for the school holidays here!  Please email to [email protected].

 

 

 

Sue doesn't often create hybrid layouts as she says it seems to take her ages to decide what she wants to use and she gets often gets sidetracked! Having said that though, Sue really enjoyed creating this layout and is happy with the result. She used digital brushes by Ali Edwards to create images that could be printed out onto inkjet transparency.

Although Sue could have coloured the images to suit her layout, she liked the contrast the black images gave to the soft colours of the patterned papers. The fantastic thing about transparent elements is that you can position whatever you like underneath them to create more depth to your layout and the transparent elements pull the design together.

The photos Sue scrapped are older ones of her son Bailey watching pelicans at the beach when he was five. Sue recently rediscovered the photos and just had to scrap them. The colours from the mix of papers really complemented the photos well. Sue of course finished the layout with some stitching and also by hand stitching a few blue sequins to the design to continue with her circle feature.

 

The current essence of her 9 year old can probably only be captured in a photograph with his skateboard in tow, Suz acknowledges.   He’s a rag tag boy who’s obsessed with skating and shoe brands and won’t have his hair cut and this photo pretty much sums him up. 

To showcase the photo authentically, Suz created two different types of transparencies with Crafter’s Workshop templates.  On one transparency she blended different shades of Stazon to make the sunburst pattern, and on the second she painted over the template in white gesso, and then sprayed with Glimmer Mist to create different shades.  She then shredded the transparencies into smaller patches and stitched them directly onto the photo.  Finally, Suz added a Heidi Swapp ‘escape’ transparency from the stamp in the top corner.

a readers challenge: make it yourself! flowers

 

 

Anthea Peterson created this gorgeously serene page.  She writes: I have made some Jute Flowers where I did basically the same thing Lou did with her flowers, I attached some Jute to a punched circle using a Pearl Brad then I applied some strong liquid glue and kept twisting and wrapping the Jute around the brad.

I also made some Rosettes. I punched out some flowers using a paper punch and then placed them inside each other until I was happy with the fullness of it. I then rolled out the tips of each petal and put a pearl in the centre.

 

Cara (aka Princess Kessie) has shared these two beautiful projects with us.

 

 

How cute are these twine flowers by Chantelle Huizenga!  She writes :  I’ve made my own flowers using twine.

Using punched shapes – scallops and circles – tie a knot in your twine and adhere to centre of shape, then twist around till you are happy with the result.  I’ve used glue to adhere the twine!!  Then I’ve added a brad to the centre of each flower. 

 

Heidi Barclay created this pretty layered flower.  She writes: I used a strip of fabric which I folded into two and then hand tacked the bottom folded piece and pulled the stitching together to create my flower.  I have also added some mesh fabric underneath and on top, and finished it off with a fabric brad in the middle.  Once I had finished, I added a little bit of white shimmerz on the top to give it some extra shine.

 

Leeann Pearce has yet again wowed us with this bright and beautiful page.  She writes: 

Awesome who doesn’t LOVE flowers – I especially like that they are so easy to make and there’s a massive variety out there for us to create. This week I made some fabric rosettes. I have hand dyed some strips of calico. I then rip 1.5cm strips from each of the colours. Tied a knot at one end and started to wrap and twist all the way around. I used some helmar fabric glue to adhere the tail end. Then I added some pearls to the tops and arranged then on my page in a cluster. I also made a paper rosette using the Tim Holtz rosette die – which is totally awesome I might add.

 

Lisa Gregory stunned us with some wonderful layouts, all of which are full of exquisite flowers that she has made from paper as well as fabric and ribbon.

 

Sharmaine Kruijver came up with this page which smacks of bright summer days.  She writes:  I made my flower out of scrap cardboard, paint and a pompom (cut from some pompom trim). I cut out 2 circles from the cardboard, added some paint around the outside of each circle and then cut slits into the circles. I then gathered the paper together, lifting the sides up and pushing the ‘petals’ out. To finish the flower I added a pompom in the middle.

 

 

 

Finally we loved this softly colourful layout from Nicole Pomeroy also with two different types of flowers.  She writes:

I’ve made two different types of flowers on my layout. One is the spiralled circle, which are very easy to create and the other I’ve created by using my flower punches and using a stylus tool rubbing them from the outside in. This makes them close up, the more pressure and the more you do it the tighter they become. Once finished I glued the layers together to form my flower. They also look great with glittered or inked edges.

make it yourself: flowers

 

This week we’re looking at making your own flowers.  Though we saw quite a few of them already in the embellishments week, it hasn’t stopped our design team from coming up with ever new and astounding techniques. 

We’d love to see your entries!  Email your layouts to [email protected] by next Wednesday 30 April and we’ll include them in our post.  The most innovative layout from each week’s challenge will receive a prize pack of goodies from us.

 

 

 

 

 

Louise really enjoyed creating these flowers; whilst it isn’t a new technique, Louise really wanted to create her flowers with this technique as it allowed her to upcycle and use one of her favourite products, tissue paper. To create these flowers you will only need a few basic materials; scrap cardstock, tissue paper, stapler/staples, and quick drying glue. Louise first cut some small circles from the scrap cardstock; approximately the size of 20 and 50 cent pieces.

To get the tissue paper twist, tear up the tissue paper to an approximate rectangle measuring 30 cm x 20 cm. then twist it into a cord. Staple 1 end to the centre of a cardstock disc. Apply glue to the cardstock disk and then gently and firmly twist the tissue paper cord down and around in a circular motion onto the disc. Firm gentle finger pressure for a minute will ensure that the tissue paper cord stays adhered.

Louise has decorated her flowers by first coating them with gold glimmer mist, and then embossing them with gold embossing powder. To complete the flowers she has used beads to create the flower centres. You will also notice that Louise has deliberately left the ends out on a couple of the flowers, so that she can fashion them into leaf like elements.

 

Janine had been wanting to use her Websters Pages Fabric strips for quite some time and when she saw a tutorial on Lesley Langdons blog, she knew exactly what she was going to do!

Janine cut the largest fabric strip in half, then cut down the scallop edge trim to create 2 pieces from that as well. Using a zig zag stitch on her machine she sewed the scallop edge piece of fabric to the straight piece. Because the fabric is stiffened it is very easy to handle when sewing together. Then she used a long hand stitch to gather the straight long edge to create the ruffled flower. She finished off the flower with layers of punched paper and a fabric covered brad.

 

Carole created some fun and bright Felt Flowers using Prima Paintable Doily Clear Stamp and Dynasty Flower Centres and Crate Paper "Paper Doll" Collection. Firstly Carole stamped the Paintable Doily onto different coloured felt and then she stuck the felt onto some cardstock and cut out, and embroidered onto the stamped design with floss and beads. Using foam tape she layered each piece and then finished the flower off with the Dynasty Centres.

To create the different sizes within the flower Carole cut away some of the stamped image which also became a smaller flower. To stitch onto the felt Carole used a Paper Piecer to push a hole through the felt and the cardboard.  To create the different size within the flower Carole cut away some of the stamped image which also became a smaller flower. To stitch onto the felt Carole used a Paper Piecer to push a hole through the felt and the cardboard to make it easier to embroider.

a readers challenge: make it yourself! stamps

 

Thank you to everyone who participated in this weeks challenge – making your own stamps.  You couldn’t help but be inspired by all these very different and very fabulous ideas.

 

Who says stamps are expensive?  Anthea Peterson created this fabulous layout using an old pizza box!  She writes:  I have used cardboard from a pizza box. I cut a square off the box, ripped away at the sides a little to reveal the corrugated bit in-between and then applied some paint, thicker in some parts more then others, I then got stamping. I have used two different colours in paint to add a little tone. I also mainly stamped around the photos and paper to frame them.

 

We loved how innovative Chantelle Huizenga was, creating colour and texture.  She writes:  I've used some foam flower stickers to create a stamp - with the foam stickers as pictured, I've run them through an embossing die to create some texture.  I've then removed the adhesive back and stuck them onto a stamping block - also as pictured.  Then I've simply used ink and stamped onto my scrapbook LO to create an interesting BG.

 

 

Heidi Barclay delighted us when she turned to the kitchen to create an interesting texture.  She writes I have used a kitchen GOLDIE LOCKS [is that a Kiwi term? Aussies, we think it’s a kitchen scourer!] and added some shocking pink paint onto the Goldie Locks and then stamped all over the patterned paper, I wanted to add some more pink to bring out the pink flowers on the patterned paper.

 

 

Leeann Pearce has come up with a very cool solution for all those odd leftover chipboard letters.  She writes: This week I thought I would use what I had in my scrap room and so I decided to create a large background stamp using leftover chipboard letters. Here’s how I made my background stamp. Grab a heap of odd letters and numbers mix it up so you have lots of different sizes and fonts. I used helmar’s decoupage and painted a semi large piece of chipboard. Then place the letters randomly all over. Allow the decoupage and chipboard pieces to dry. Then simple choose a colour and apply plenty of paint then just turn you piece over and stamp the background of some cardstock. The result is a shabby image - which I likey!

You certainly don’t have to venture far to make your own.

 

 

Livia Andrade made herself an oversized stamp out of corrugated cardboard for this stunning layout.  She writes:for this make it yourself I use a strip of cardboard with ink to stamp the background.

 

Finally, Sharmaine Kruijver has come up with a number of different techniques to wow us – how cool is the doily idea!  She writes: For this challenge I made 3 stamps. The first 2 were made using a cork. The great thing about using corks, to make stamps, is that 1. You can use both ends and 2. If you make a mistake or change your mind you can simply cut it off and start over. I made my circle stamps using both the negative and the positive space. To make the circle(s) I took a pen/texta lid and pushed it into the cork. Then it was a simple case of removing the excess cork from around or inside the circle. What I love about using a cork is that the texture lines from the cork give effect to the stamped image. The third stamp was made by simply placing a doily onto an acrylic block, attaching it with some double sided tape. I then brushed it with some paint and stamped and what is great is that I now have a yellow doily all ready for another layout! I used all my stamps on the background page for my layout about the ‘yellow’ team that our girls are in at school, hence the monochrome page.

Thanks for the inspiration to create

make it yourself: stamps

 

 

This week we challenged our design team to make their own stamps – and as always, they didn’t disappoint.  Check out these innovative techniques.  And then… we challenge you!   Be inspired by some of the ideas from the design team, or share your own different ways of creating stamps to make your projects unique.  Email your projects to [email protected] by next Wednesday 23rd March – we’ll share your ideas and the most innovative one will receive a fabulous prize pack.

 

 

Iris wanted to create a stamp that would both add texture to her page and also serve as a journaling spot. With this is mind, she took some corrugated board scraps, punched out scallop circle shapes and adhered it to her clear block with double adhesive. To use the stamps, Iris simply dabbed teal paint on the corrugated board shapes and stamped on to her layout.

She also stamped on a scrap piece of paper, punched it out with the same puncher she used on the boards, and adhered it to her layout with foam tape. This served as her journaling spot.

 

 

 

Louise was over the moon to get this brief. It has been on her crafty 'to do list' for some time to make herself some stamps of her own designs. Louise usually uses special stamp blocks that are available from artist supply shops, however she has been wanting to explore using less expensive options, as she would like to make some to give as gifts to her crafty friends.

For this particular stamp Louise has used craft foam which is readily available. Louise has used a texta marker and hand drawn her design straight onto the foam, then using a sharp craft knife and small sharp scissors has cut the design out of the foam. Before inking, Lou sealed the surface of the foam stamp with a glue stick to prevent the ink/paint mediums from soaking into the foam.

To ensure the foam stamp stays on the stamp block whilst stamping Louise has used small pieces of double sided tape to hold it in place. 

Craft Foam is such a versatile product to use for stamping. Next time you are looking for a crafty idea for the kids in the holidays, consider getting a bag of craft foam shapes and using them for stamps and let the kids to create their own cards and papers that can be used for gifts/wrap.

 

 

Jane has used the Teresa Collins Stamp Maker kit and the designs included with the machine to make these stamps. Jane found the machine couldn’t be simpler to use and only takes six minutes of 'cooking' time to create these two stamps (frame and clock).

 

 

 

 

And check out this final cool trick from Jane.  She says she no longer uses BlueTac for putting up posters in her sons room, instead she uses it with her beautiful buttons to create designer stamps!   Jane said it's so much fun seeing how the designs on the buttons turned out.

Just press and flatten a small amount of blue tac onto an acrylic blocks to the size of the button, press the button into the blue tac and gentle pull the button away. Tap the BlueTac design gently onto your ink pad then stamp on cream card, punch these out using a circle punch and arrange them on your card front. You can stamp around six to eight times until the BlueTac loses it's impression.  Genius!

a readers challenge: make it yourself! embellishments

 

Another week of surprising and stunning layouts – thanks so much to everyone who has contributed.  There are masses of ideas to inspire here – although perhaps we should have mentioned that a more specific ‘make your own flower challenge is coming soon!

 

Anthea Peterson sent in this stunning page and we thought the colour palette was striking.  She writes:  I love making my own embellishments, especially when it uses up scrap papers LOL

I have made some Rolled Flowers, 'Zig Zag' Flowers (there may be a better name for them LOL) and some Flower Heads from pre-made paper flowers. I have supplied some close up photos too.

To make the rolled paper flowers you need to cut a circle of paper, then cut it into a spiral, start rolling in from the outside to the centre, when you get to the centre adhere the rolled part to the little base that is left.

For the Zig Zag flowers cut a strip of paper, fold it back and forth so it looks like a zig zag, adhere the ends together then flatten it out on a circle of scrap cardstock, use a strong adhesive. Decorate the centre with a sticker, button, brad.....

For the Flower Heads gather 4 pre-made paper flowers, place some string glue in the centre of each. Pinch the first one up, then place it in the centre of a second flower, pinch that up around it, and repeat till you have used up all 4 flowers.

 

 

 

Dale Tiernan sent in this softly feminine page and shares..  I've been teaching myself to make flowers with lace and ribbon. I don't sew very much so it's quite a challenge. I've made quite a lot of the lace flowers. I've made very few of the satin ones. I combined one of each to make the flower featured on this page. Happy with the result in this instance. Will persevere as I think it's worth it (even with the needle pricking that comes along with it).

Perhaps a thimble, Dale?!

 

Heidi Barclay sent in another striking page and writes: I have made a concertina flower, and then cut a circle out of the flip side of the Echo Park PP, the centre is made from some paper twirling.

I have also added a twilled circle but slightly looser, to incorporate the red from the back of the photo.

 

 

 

The inimitable Leeann Pearce has sent in another pearler this week, and shares her technique. I absolutely LOVE to make embellishments… I always have even when I first started scrapping. I would spend fun minutes whipping something up to place on the pages. I started making these crate paper rosettes over a year ago. And I still love them they are just so quick and easy to make and they look fantastic on the page. Grab yourself a pack of crate paper take it out of the wrapper and leave folder. Just cut a 2 inch strip from it. Now unroll it and us the same technique you do to making a fabric one. Twisting and turning and wrapping as you go. At the end just use some glue. Punch a circle from scraps and adhere that to the bottom. For this shabbier feel, simply unravel it and scrunch. Add some pearls and brads and pebbles to pretty them up. I made a button and two heart pins from fimo plus I hand dyed some doilies. I have used a mixture of punches and scraps of pattern paper to make a paper garland and stitched that to the page.

The skies the limit when it comes to embellishments – I love it!

 

 

 

Many thanks to Lady Grace Belarmino for this pretty page.  She writes: I love how my handmade flowers turned out. The first one was made of patterned papers. I simply cut several sizes of petals and glue them together. The second one was made of ribbon adhered over a circle cardstock.

 

 

And how’s this wonderful selection of handmade, and crocheted flowers!  Livia says I made all the flowers and brads!!
I love this "make it yourself". Thanks for all the inspiration!!!

 

 

Marisa Page sent in this innovative layout, writing:  I have soaked chipboard flower shapes in water, pulled the layers apart then glues them back together, twisting each layer slightly. I then added glimmer mist.

I dried them with a heat gun which made the petals curl inwards.

 

Natalie Elphinstone shares this prettiest of pages, with another different flower making technique.  She writes:  Here's a layout I just put together which features all handmade embellishments. Sometimes the easiest way to get the look you're after is simply to make it yourself! I made these flowers by punching circles and folding them up for some dimension before adding a brad to the centre. The stems were fussy-cut from a pattern on the paper (All these patterned papers are from the new Cosmo Cricket Upcycle collection).
But even when the patterned paper doesn't have designs you can fussy-cut, you can always cut your own simple shapes and piece it together like I did with the clouds, banners and grass. It's an easy way to create a 'scene' page.

 

And finally, there’s a pretty simplicity to this layout from Sharmaine Kruijver.  She writes:  For this page I made a layered embellishment using a doily, a punched scalloped circle (using an old atlas page), a punched circle (using a recycled kraft envelope) and topped it with an old covered button that I added stiches to.
I also used some pressed flowers as embellishments. These pressed flowers used to belong to my Grandma-in-law, who loved to make her own cards, so I thought they would be a great sentimental addition to the page.

make it yourself: embellishments

 

 

There’s lots of little embellishments on the market today – chipboard layered on felt, on transparency, with a bit of stitching and a bit of distressing, and they’re gorgeous and perfect for when you want to get pages made and you don’t have all the time in the world to play.  But what if you did have that time?  What sort of little custom-made embellishments could you layer and blend and create for your self? 

This weeks challenge:  make your own embellishments.  Email your layouts to us at [email protected] by next Wednesday 15th March for a chance to win a prize pack full of embellishments!

 

Janine adores the intricate layers of circular elements that Christine Middlecamp creates on her layouts and decided to try her hand at layering stamped images, die cuts and stickers on top of each other to create her own page embellishments. It was so much fun and a great way to use up some of your stash while creating something entirely new for your page.

Another fun product Janine used on her layout was the new tissue paper by 7 Gypsies. It was so easy to create ruffled edges and borders with, allowing so much more dimension.

 

 

Sue enjoyed the brief of making handmade embellishments. She began with a pack of Sassafras In a Stitch Blossoms which are cute little cardstock flowers with stitched buttons on top. They are available in several colours and Sue chose the Vintage Rose set to compliment her page.

The blossoms are fairly small so to make a feature out of them, Sue created larger, layered embellishments by adding punched circles of patterned paper, circle stickers and circles punched from a Hambly overlay. The layers were separated using mounting tape and added lovely dimension to the page.

For another type of flower, Sue punched a large scalloped circle from patterned paper and then added layers of tulle and then finally topped it with a Sassafras blossom. Sue then punched a whole through the bottom of the flower and tied a dangle element from the Pink Paislee Parisian Anthology range.

Sue also had fun creating a flower from tulle twisted into a circle shape. Sue used a glue gun to adhere the tulle to a circle cut from felt. Cosmo Cricket has actually released a product for this purpose so that you won’t need a glue gun. To make the embellishment even prettier, Sue used some of the cute brads from the Crate Paper Emma’s Shoppe range to place in the centre of the tulle.

Another idea for creating a handmade embellishment is to use rub-ons applied to transparency and then cut out. The use of transparency adds more texture to your layout and also makes them more visible. The two little butterflies on this page were actually cut from packaging from a set of Basic Grey Curio embellishments. A lot of companies are now making packaging that is designed to be cut up and used. So next time, check before you throw it out!

 

Carole found making embellishments to be so much fun, she made a page full of them!  Carole used the Prima So Cute Collection to create three-dimensional shapes as a base for her embellishments. She used the chipboard, cutouts and patterned papers from the range along with some felt and dimensional gloss to make these gorgeous and very cute little critters.

Using a chipboard square/circle for the background Carole covered in paper, material etc., and then she cut out fun pieces and layered them on top of the chipboard shape.  Carole adds that you can include felt, paper and flowers in between each layer to create something very special – and it’s a great feeling to know you made them yourself!

 

So, what embellishments can you 'make yourself?’  We hope this inspires and can’t wait to see your projects!

a readers challenge: make it yourself! rub-ons and transfers

There were as many different interpretations of this rub-on challenge as there were entries, and they have been outstanding in their creativity.  Thanks so much to everyone who sent such great pages in for us to share.

 

 

Anthea Petersen – we love your solution to not having transfer paper!  Anthea writes: I wasn't able to get my hands on Transfer paper so I used an old Hambly Screen Print Overlay that had a design printed onto it, I printed onto the design side (rough side) and then quickly rubbed the image onto my project. As my layout is about cooking with my boys I googled images and found one that was a page from an old recipe book, so I flipped the image to print and rubbed it onto the cardstock on my layout. I also googled an image for a splat,  printed that onto the overlay and rubbed it onto my layout so it was beginning to look like a messy cook book. Lastly I printed an image of leaves onto the overlay, rubbed it onto some cardstock and then hand cut them out.

 

 

 

We loved this page from Debbie Smith – it looks like a proper old style ‘scrapbook’ page!  This is also a great solution for using old memorabilia without compromising the originals.  Debbie writes:  I saw Kathie Links' page and I couldn't resist having a go at this exciting technique. I've always wanted to have a go at making my own rub-on and when your challenge came up I saw my chance!

I scanned in a photo and some handwriting from one of my childhood holiday books lovingly made by my Grandma, now passed. I used the handwriting, where she refers to the "four lovely grandchildren" in the photo, plus a sketch of a scooter drawn by my Papa, as she also talks about the scooter I was teaching my little cousin to ride.

As I'm a shabby chic kind of girl I'm very very happy with the result, which is scratchy and faded looking.

 

 

 

Heidi Barclay sent us this fabulous example of what you do when you can’t find your daughter’s favourite print design on a patterned paper!  She writes .. I found a leopard print from the internet, and printed it onto the glossy side of a transperancy, and then flipped the transperancy over onto the white cardstock, and using a rubon tool, rubbed several times over to get the pattern transferred onto the cardstock.... The leopard print is one of my daughter's favourite prints.....

 

Not to be outdone, Leeann Pearce has wow-ed us again by making her entire photo a rubon!  This is what she writes..

I adore this photo of Jorja and this is her everyday smile. It makes me smile everyday! What a bonus I actually had some plain paper copier transparency film. All I did was print a photo on to the transparency film, and then transferred it by rubbing it onto Kraft cardstock. The end result was more of a canvas finish. I like the result and will try this again. You do have to have the right transparency film to get the best result. The possibilities are endless!

 

Livia Andrade writes of this beautiful warm layout:

I love rub-on. It's my favorite scrap material. And I use almost all my layouts.
In this layout to print a picture on paper suitable for transfer on canvas and applied with a hot iron! I really love it.

 

And last but not least, Sharmaine Kruijver created this page, and we love that she has played with using two different types of transfers.  She writes:

For this page I wanted to have a giant size Australian Flag as the background. I searched the internet until I found a flag with a larger file size, making it printable at a larger size, and then printed the file onto the wrong side of a sheet of transparency paper. Sadly my ink beaded but not to be disheartened I thought I would use it anyway. I sprayed the ink with water in a mister and applied it to the cardstock. I love the water colour effect that this caused and was happy with the result, even though it wasn’t what I was trying to achieve. Another thing that I experimented with was body transfers, you know they type you get in packets of chips etc and that the kids LOVE!!. For some time I have been wondering if you could use them on scrapbooking pages. Well, I found you can and wonderfully so!! Just place the transfer, picture down, on the page, spray with a small amount of water, apply some pressure and carefully test to see if the transfer has stuck to the page before removing the backing paper. Will be using this technique again!

make it yourself: rubons and transfers

 

This week we challenge you to make your own rub-ons or transfers.  There’s a variety of different ways of achieving these, and it means you can have the exact image or text you want on your page, in the exact size and colour you need.  Our design team bring you some fabulous ideas to get the creativity flowing – and of course we’d love to see yours!  Please email your projects to [email protected] by next Wednesday 9 March.  One lucky winner will receive a prize pack for the most innovative solution.

For our patterned paper challenge, our biggest congratulations and thanks to Leeann Pearce for her totally joyous and fun hand-drawn, coloured, masked and glimmer misted layout. 

 

Kathie has accumulated a load of speech pathology material since her son started speech sessions two and a half years ago. She marvels at how the specialist makes it such a fun process for kids. In this layout she wanted to incorporate some of the cute little pictures from the speech exercise sheets and games.

Kathie has scanned the images from several of Jamie’s exercise sheets into the computer, then printed them out onto the smooth side of a sheet of inkjet transparency. After letting the ink dry for ten minutes or so, Kathie simply treated the sheet like any regular rub-on and applied the images onto the page. This is a great way of incorporating custom images onto your backgrounds.

 

 

To enhance the theme of her layout, Nic researched online for images created by possibly the world's most famous tattooist Sailor Jerry. Nic felt that his images and his style of font were an excellent example of the feel she wanted for her layout.
Once she found the images, she saved them to her computer then resized them, flipped them horizontally and removed any background that was around them. She printed them onto clear non-printable acetate sheets which caused the inkjet ink to bead.

She then flipped the printed acetate over, print side down to create the images featured on her layout. The best thing about making your own images this way is that you choose how they look and the size. Nic's pretty certain that she wouldn't find rub-on images like these in any store and has never found a font like this anywhere either.

 

Caz loved the look of the white letters on the white background but felt that they disappeared just a little too much. She decided that she would like a smudged oil type look behind them but could not find anything in her stash suitable.

Caz printed a solid block of black ink onto a transparency and then laid it over her white cardstock before drawing over it in random patterns to fix some of the ink onto the layout. She then moved the block of ink up her page doing the same thing until she had created a distressed strip.

 

 

 

Finally, if you have a Silhouette or electronic cutting machine, you can make your own custom transfers with their Heat Transfer Material, which come in both smooth – which Suz has used here in the cream vinyl, or a gorgeous flocked for even more texture.  These couldn’t be easier – find a pattern you like and send it to the Silhouette to cut out.  You then iron the transfer directly onto your fabric, paper, photoraph or wherever you want it.

a reader’s challenge: make it yourself! patterned papers

 

We’re loving seeing all the innovation in these projects.  Thanks to everyone who took up the challenge and made their own patterned papers.

 

Lady Grace Elefano created these great patterns using a variety of textured stamps and different coloured ink pads. 

 

 

Leeann Pearce says that she wanted to do something bright and fun to go with her favourite photo of the girls. It sure is!  She writes:  Here’s how I made mine – I drew a couple of clouds on cardstock and cut them out and used them as a template and trace around them all over the background. I then outlined them all with a black gel pen. Once finish I coloured them in with paint and also a white gel pen. Then I hand cut a banner out of scrappy paper and use it as a mask, using glimmer mist. Once the glimmer mist dried I used machine stitching to outline the banner. Then just grab all you scrappy supplies and have fun finishing your page off!

 

 

Anthea Petersen sent us this – that photo can’t fail to make you clucky!  She writes:

I have put watered down paint on the background cardstock and then stamped with paint over the top using some corrugated cardboard. I then sprinkled on some White Embossing Powder and heat set it.

Under the photo I have used a grid stamp on some cardstock and then used a resist technique where I used a script stamp and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. I then sprayed over the top with a couple of different shades of Glimmer Mist and wiped the excess off the Embossed design. I jazzed it all up with some hand cut designs from Webster’s Pages.

 

Thanks to Heidi Barclay who has played along again this week too – we love the drama of this page.  Heidi writes:

I have used black cardstock, and then using a corrugated cardboard like honeycomb pattern, I have used black paint to stamp this onto the white cardstock, secondly I have used Girls Paperie stamps to create the embellishments for the page. I used the blank pages from Basic Grey to stamp the images onto to using Graphite Black Brilliance Ink.

 

 

Kim Price shares this beautiful layout.  She writes:  I created the blue background using ModPodge and torn up tissue wrapping paper. I then layered this with gesso and loads of paint in shades of blue and green paint. I loved how the tissue paper crinkled to form texture. When dry, I used a brick patterned stamp to create a base for my photo and layered embellishments on top.

 

Livia Andrade created this evocative layout.  She writes: I used an old cardboard, using glimmer mist on a paper with hearts cut out, like a mask. Then I used more of a mask with Tim Holtz distress ink stamp and then applied distress ink vintage at the edges.

 

 

There’s a fabulous textured simplicity to this page from Sharmaine Kruijver.  She writes: I love numbers and really wanted a pattern paper with numbers on it for this page, about our youngest turning 6. So I used white photo copy paper and stamped Numbers stamps with Broken China Tim Holtz distress ink. Perfect! And to make the lettering, I used Jillibean Soup corrugated lettering as a template and cut the letters from a page from an old atlas.

make it yourself: patterned papers

 

 

Last week it was background papers, but this week our challenge to our design team – and to you, our readers! – is making your own patterned papers.  So not just the shy retiring papers that form the backdrop to our photos and patterns, but the patterns themselves.  Stamping, drawing, templates and masks and  more lend themselves to creating custom patterned papers to work with your photos, themes and colour schemes.

We’d love to see what you come up with this week for this patterned paper challenge.  Email your projects to [email protected] by midday next Wednesday and we’ll include them in the blog post for a chance to win a prize pack!

Congratulations to Heidi Barclay for winning last week’s challenge.  We loved the innovative way she brushed ink all around the Crafter’s Workshop template as well as the inking and misting.  Our best wishes go to her and her fellow New Zealanders following the devastating events of this week as well.

 

 

 

It’s been one of Kathie’s goals recently to use more paint and stamping on her layouts. On this gorgeous non-photo page, she’s used text papers, paint, ink, stamps and templates to create a custom background.

To begin, Kathie took a sheet of text paper and washed it with a diluted mix of blue acrylic paint. She then stamped the blue background with a variety of stamps and found objects to create further visual interest. She’s used glasses and laundry rolls to create rings, bubble wrap and a Tim Holtz Dots stamp to create dots, and a Fontwerks Paintlines stamp to create lines.

Swirly vines in dark green paint begin to build up the scene. Kathie created these by sponging dark green paint through a Crafters Workshop template. She also added some fine detail brick pen work, by tracing through another Crafters template with her journaling pen. To finish she added some butterfly and bee rub-ons onto the page.

She now had a perfect garden background to add her floral paper images. Some further fine detail paintwork and pen outlining blend the images into the background.

 

 

Nic wanted to create some perfectly grungy looking paper for this layout of her son Alex. While there are some paper ranges out right now that suit the "tween to teen" boy theme, Nic figured she'd get a better match to her vision by creating her own.
She started with the brick wall template from The Crafter's Workshop, lightly colouring the white base using watercolour paints. They weren't particularly fancy paints, just the type that come in a cake palette.

She then created the wonderful variegated coloured, textured and layered patterns by applying these same paints to Stamper's Anonymous stamps by Tim Holtz and stamping them over the painted base. The trick to achieve this look is to avoid being careful. Apply the paints in varying colours and dilution quickly and then stamp. You will never achieve the exact same effect twice and that is the beauty of scrapping this way.

To create the patterns on the kraft background, Nic used stamps and masks by Prima with more watercolours, this time painting the colour directly onto the masks, then quickly flipping them over and using as a stamp.

 

Jane Clark said that this little BasicGrey 'stamp set was begging to be used for a random patterned background, with the smaller designs fill in the gaps perfectly. Now she has a card suitable for her tea drinking friends!!

Jane picked out co-ordinating inks, in this case she used Tim Holtz Distress Inks. She started with the largest stamp - the teapot, and stamped the cup second. Jane placed the teaspoons in between these images then stamped the small flower and the word 'yum!' where it was needed.  A handy hint is to turn the design of the stamp each time you stamp it and make sure the images go off the edges.

 

 

 

For this final card, Jane needed a paper that was colourful but didn't overwhelm her embellishment tag, so she grabbed a Hero Arts woodgrain design stamp and choose colours that complement the tag.

First Jane stamped the woodgrain image four times using different ink pads. The flower is a We R Memory Keepers 2step Flower Stamp with which she first stamped the outlined image over the background in a random pattern, and then stamped the solid matching image over it using a light coloured ink, so it was visible but not dominating.

a readers challenge: make it yourself! background papers

Wow!  Thanks to everyone who sent in layouts showcasing so many different and inspiring ways of creating background papers.  We’ve loved looking through them and are thrilled to share them here.

 

 

Leeann has shared her technique for producing this gorgeous background.  She writes:

Place a Couple of strips of masking tape on your cardstock. Pick a colour and paint the masking tape. Allow to dry.  Paint the entire background with white gesso. Be generous.  While the gesso is wet use a foam stamp and stamp the entire background.  Spray a coloured mist on the stamp and randomly stamp in places. This adds a subtle hint of another colour.  Let it dry.   Now scrap it!

We love the pattern and texture this gives!  Thanks Leeann.

 

 

This layout is by Anthea Petersen, who also kindly shares her technique.  She writes:  I wet some old music sheet paper and adhered it to my cardstock with some modge podge. I then added another layer and flattened it all out. I applied some white paint and then an ink cube over the top. Quite different for me but totally loving it!

 

 

  

Christiane Mueller has created this vibrant and wonderful background on canvas.  We love the depth of colour she has achieved and all the exquisite details.

 

 

 

Heidi Barclay sent in this fabulous layout.  She writes:  I have used the CRAFTER'S WORKSHOP template together with ink and Glimmer Mist.  I used the Brick template from the Crafter's workshop to create a brick template.  I used a paintbrush and Brilliance Graphite Black Ink to create the brick background.  Once completed I used some Chalkboard Glimmer Mist to add a little colour.  The papers used were from ECHO PARK, together with some of the embellishments.

Thanks Heidi – we love it.

 

We love the fun of this layout from Katie Howard and creating your own masks is a great idea.  Katie writes: My layout has used misting and masking to create a "scene" type background. I used my electronic cutter to cut the clouds and grass that I used as masks and misted over them. I love creating my own "bits and pieces" for my pages so I am looking forward to more of these challenges!!

  

Livia Andrade shares this stunning sunset scene, and explains how she created her background paper… 

I did the background with paint and modeling paste. I stamped the folder modeling when nearly dry, so I could make the title ('ever' and '01.15.2006').  Thanks to ideas!

Thanks Livia!

 

This bright funky layout comes from Sharmaine Kruijver.  I used misting, masking, paint, circle punch and some doily cut offs to alter my cardstock. Thanks for the inspiration to create.

Thanks Sharmaine – we loved the quote too.

 

This wonderful page with its memories from Paris comes from Tanya Tahir.  She has masked and misted her lovely background.

 

Thanks to everyone who participated in our first weeks challenge.  We’ll be back shortly with next weeks challenge!

a reader’s challenge – make it yourself!

 

 

After the success of our reader’s challenges last year, we decided we wanted to create more opportunities to share your layouts on the blog.  So we have!

We’re starting off the new year in the spirit of all things handmade and upcycled – with a ‘make it yourself’ challenge.  Each week we’ll issue a new challenge to create a layout using different handmade items, and this week we introduce the series with the most fundamental of requirements for all our scrapbook pages, whatever our scrapping style – the background cardstock.

The challenge:  to create a layout using coloured, inked, misted, masked, textured or somehow altered background papers.  As always we prefer that you use Aussie products as much as you can – and considering the amazing list of suppliers we have (see here on our sparkling new website for info) that shouldn’t be difficult!

There will be little prizes each week featuring ready-made versions, from some of your favourite brands, of whatever the weeks challenge is (so you don’t have to ‘make it yourself’ all the time!).  These will be awarded for the most innovative solution, and if you manage to send us something every week for the whole eight weeks of the series, we’ll send you a prize pack at the end as well.  Please email your layouts to us at [email protected] by midday, next Wednesday 23rd February.

To get you thinking, we share some inspiration and tips on three very different techniques for creating background papers from three of our talented design team.

 

There is not one single piece of patterned paper in this layout by Iris Uy. Iris loves stamps so much and she puts it to good use by using it to create the background design in the cardstock as well as the artist trading cards which served as the base for her photo.

To create the background paper, she first misted the white cardstock in a shade of yellow and a shade of light brown. Next, she rubbed "Broken China" distress inks on random areas to get light blue greenish tones. She then inked her script stamp with "Frayed Burlap" distress ink and stamped on her still moist paper. This allowed for the image to slightly blur and wick which is exactly what Iris wanted to achieve.

To create the ATC cards, Iris rubbed different colours of distress inks on her craft mat and used her stamps to pick up the ink from the craft mat. This resulted in two to three colours in her stamped images. Once the cards have dried, Iris applied "Pumice Stone" distress ink to deepen the tones and outline the edges of the ATCs.

 

 

 

 

It goes without saying that Louise Nelson really enjoyed this particular brief LOL :). Louise loves to create her own backgrounds and paper/effects. For this particular layout Louise has used a piece of 12x12 chipboard. She has then applied a layer of kraft tissue paper using a glue stick adhesive.

 

Using a numbers stamp, embossing ink and embossing powder Louise has created grungy random pattern. To achieve the embossing on the folds of the tissue paper, Louise has lightly rubbed them with the embossing ink, sprinkled on the embossing powder, and then selectively brushed away some of the powder with a fine soft dry paint brush to create the desired pattern.

 

Louise has then heat set the embossing powder, and whilst it was still hot she has sprayed the whole background liberally with Chalkboard Glimmer Mist and dried the mist with a heat gun.  The final result – an amazingly textured and detailed grungy background with shimmery highlights.

 

 

 

This gorgeous background was created by Louise Williams using a sponge brush to apply a thin layer of gesso to the cardstock. Once dry an old credit card was used to liberally apply the gloss gel medium, making sure to leave texture marks that would become more visible once the Glimmer Mists were applied.  Louise began with the Antique Brass along the top and bottom edges and then added 3 layers of the Caribbean blue along the middle, allowing each layer to dry in between.

The final layer was allowed to run and pool to add extra detail. A large circle was cut from the paper and sewn onto the background with lines of sewing spaced evenly. The paper was then wet in between the stitching so it could be torn and distressed, finishing with an inked edge. Finally all the other elements were added along with the bottle tops, that were filled with beads and covered in a thick layer of dimensional magic.

 

And now – over to you!  Remember to email images of your projects to [email protected] by next Wednesday 23rd February.  We can’t wait to see what you come up with!