Watermelon Joy

Hello everyone.

I'm back with another White With 1 challenge. I just scraped this one in - today's the deadline! The colour this month is watermelon.

I have a collection of pics that sit on my scrapping desk ready to be scrapped. I was looking through this pile with the White With 1 challenge in mind when I found this photo of my daughter eating a watermelon when she was little. How appropriate is that! It's not the world's best photo (it's pre-digital which makes fixing it a bit hard) but I couldn't resist using a real watermelon photo for a watermelon colour theme.

Here's my layout:

Do you like the watermelon pieces? To make them I cut a circle from white cardstock then sprayed it in the middle with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist so the spray lightened towards the edges. I then cut it into segments and drew on the seeds.

I also added some glimmer mist 'watermelon juice dribbles' underneath the title. To make the title I used a red Sharpie pen on white Thickers, fading the pen out towards the bottom so it resembled the colours of a watermelon. When the letters were dry I gave them a coat of Glossy Accents.

I've used three different TCW stencils on this page - one used with glimmer mist on the background, a triangular one (in keeping with the watermelon theme) used with texture paste behind the photo and a camera one used on the paper under the bottom right corner of the pic.

Here are some close ups:

Happy scrappin'!

Heather

All That Glitters

Hello again,

I'm back with a share - this time it's cards! I had these cards published in last months' edition of Australian Cardmaking, Stamping and Papercraft.

I went all out with the glitter on these. Together with the ruby, black and gold colour combo I think it makes a striking statement. The paper is Bo Bunny Serenade collection, the chippy leaves are from Twiddleybitz and Scrapmatts and the flowers are from Manor House Creations. I used two different American Crafts glitters on the leaves.

Here are close ups of the individual cards:

For full instructions on how to make these cards, grab a copy of last month's Australian Cardmaking, Stamping and Papercraft magazine.

While you're there, take a look at the new edition that just came out - I'm in there too! I've made some Christmas cards with a modern edge to them.

Here are some sneak peeks:

If you're making your own Christmas cards this year I hope you're well into it. Have fun!

Heather

Chantal's new store

One of the best scrapping bloggers ever, Chantal Vandenberg, is opening her own online store on the 1st of November. I really wish her all the very best for it. She's such a wonderful blogging friend and her work is so distinctively creative. For more info, take a look at her blog here.

Once Upon A .... Sketch

Hi there,

I've had a bit of time on my hands lately so I've had heaps of fun exploring the online challenge sites. I hadn't participated in Once Upon A ..... Sketch for a couple of months so I thought I'd give their latest challenge a go. I like their sketches as journaling is an essential part of the criteria and I think it's really important to include journaling on our layouts. I'm so glad I did this challenge cos I had sooo much fun creating this layout!

The theme this month is "The Journey..." and here's the sketch.

Apart from using only one photo, I stuck to the sketch reasonable closely. I will often use multiple photos but this photo was such a great shot that I wanted to display it on its own. My daughter is sometimes reluctant to have her photo taken but on this day when I pulled my camera out after she got her licence, she jumped into the back of the ute on her own accord to pose for the pic! She was so excited!

Here's my layout:

I have two red-hot favourite stamps at the moment and this checkered one is one of them. It's from Stamp In Style and I love that I was able to really feature it here. I added texture paste through a TCW stencil over the top of some of the stamping and I love the subtle, transparent effect it created.

Here's a close-up:

I just love those silver balls! They're actually quite old - like 20 or 30 years judging by the packaging. They were in a bag of odds and ends my mum gave to me and they were just sitting around on my desk. I'm on a mission at the moment to actually use all those loose bits and pieces on my desk and I just love how these turned out. I'll be using those again, I'm sure.

I created a bit of a compass effect to the left of the photo using a chippie clock and cardstock strips. Apart from being decorative I was trying to include a bit of symbolism about my daughter's journey. The clock shows passing time and the compass shape indicates the new roads and directions ahead of her - no pun intended!

I enlarged another photo of her P-Plate and incorporated this into my title.

And here's my journaling:

If you like to include journaling on your layouts, hop over to Once Upon A ..... Sketch and give this month's challenge a go. There are some very talented ladies featured and the prizes are awesome!

Happy Scrappin'!

Heather

Retreat Layouts

I'm back again and feeling much better after a few good night's sleep. I find it takes me longer to recover the older I get. Not fair really.

Anyway, I didn't get much chance to scrap at the retreat as I was teaching and helping a lot of the time. The scrapping time I did get was all very late at night after a few drinks and choccies! I don't usually scrap with others as I find it hard to concentrate on what I'm doing with so many other interesting layouts being made around me. I found it ok this time though, largely because I just took my time and chatted away in between creating. I only made three layouts but I thought that wasn't bad really!

Before I went to the retreat, I had found a fantastic layout online that Leonie Neal-Dawson had made. It was on her blog and you can find the post here. Much to my delight, Leonie was making a layout at the retreat using the same watercolour technique so I just had to scraplift it! I don't usually directly copy like this but I adore the effect she created and wanted to try it myself, putting my spin on it.

Beck Beattie had brought along her portable printer - a Selfie - so we took a quick photo of Leonie and I and printed it out on the spot. Love it!

Here's my layout:

Don't you just love those watercolours? I bought the Polaroid frames at the shop at the retreat. I love them! The string I used on the banner and the Dusty Attic butterflies came in the very well stocked goody bag we all received at the retreat.

Here are some closies:

For my next layout I used the sketch that was supplied by Creative Scrappers especially for the retreat.

There's that Polaroid frame again! They're actually called Placemats by Jillibean Soup. They're just die-cut cardstock but I think they're gorgeous!

I only took three sets of papers with me and found it was ample. This one is an October Afternoon paper range called Travel Girl. I've found this to be a really versatile range. I've used it on classic retro layouts as well as this one which isn't really retro at all. That bit of ribbon is a piece I 'borrowed' from Beck Beattie who in turn bought it from someone else at the retreat. It certainly did the rounds!

I'm still thinking about what to do with the third layout. It might make it into a mag so I won't put it up here yet.

I know I didn't get much scrapping done on the weekend but I love the layouts that I did make and I had soooo much fun making them!

Till next time,
Heather

Retreat Roundup

Oh my goodness! I've just had the most amazing weekend at the first ever Manor house Retreat. It was huge!

We had about 70 women all gathered in one place. Two organisers, Karen Shady and Stacey Apps, plus four teachers, Beck Beattie, Trudi Harrison, Karen Shady again and myself, had a blast keeping the action happening. We had layout and canvas classes, make and takes, karaoke, fancy dress, layout and card competitions and quizzes. We seemed to do everything except sleep!

I won't go on too much as I think the photos below speak louder than words!

 

 You'll just have to believe me that we really did scrap! There were some amaaaaazing layouts made! Give me some time and I'll see if I can get some posted.

Hooroo!

Heather

A Tutorial For You

Well I've been busy creating lately and thought I would share a tutorial with you. This one shows you how to use newspaper on your layouts in a unique way.

I used a sheet of canvas paper for my background. Just like sketchpads, canvas papers are available in pads at art supply places. I find they buckle less when I apply wet mediums to them, although they still curl just as much as standard cardstock. Feel free to use chipboard, cardstock or anything you like. Just be prepared for it to buckle!

Although it looks like there are quite a few steps here, the process is actually pretty simple. And the best news is that there is no right or wrong. If you like it then it's right!

Ok - enough of the preamble. Let's get started!

Step 1
Give your base a light coat of gesso. Don't make it perfect - just a rough slap over will do.

Step 2

While the gesso is still wet, tear up pieces of newspaper and lay them on the gesso. You can cover the whole base or just put in patches, it's up to you. Dry it completely with a heat gun (or wait for it to dry) then start to pull the newspaper off. When you have only the well-stuck sections left, dampen a cloth or a baby wipe and gently wipe the newspaper. You will see that you can remove as much or as little of the newspaper as you like. If you don't remove much then the side of the newsprint facing you will be seen and the text will read the correct way. If you remove the top layer of newspaper then the opposite side of the newspaper will be seen which will be printed in reverse. This creates a very cool look though!

Step 3

Once you get down to selecting which parts to keep try rubbing the newspaper with your finger. This gives you fine control of what you're removing.

Step 4

Once you have finished your background should look something like this. Remember it's up to you how much newspaper you want. Note how the variety of font sizes adds a bit of interest.

Step 5

You can now create whatever you like with your newsprint background. On my layout, I used Distress Inks through a Crafters Workshop stencil to add a coloured layer.

Here's what my background looked like at this stage.

Step 6

I next added some gorgeous papers from Bo-Bunny's new Mama-Razzi 2 range. You can get the range from ScrapEverything here.

I then finished the layout off with lots of Mama-Razzi 2 rub-ons, some Kaisercraft transparencies and journaling. Here's the finished layout:

And some close-ups:

I hope you found this helpful. If you decide to give this a go please drop me a line and let me know. I'd love to see what you make!

Happy scrappin!

Heather