50 Posts and 5,000 Page Views!

I hope you've had a good week everyone.

I was putting up my last post and realised I have put 50 posts on my blog. I can't believe it! Coincidentally  I also just had my 5,000th view so that's got to be some sort of milestone.

I thought I should do something to celebrate. I remembered how I really enjoyed looking through other blogs at the end of last year where people listed their top 10 favourite layouts for the year so I thought I'd do this. I've gone through all my posts and picked out my 10 favourites pages. I can't believe how hard this was! There are layouts that I love because I think they look great but there are others that I love because they record a special memory or have some other significance.

So, without further ado, here they are.

In tenth position:

This was a page that was quick and simple to make and I really love the result. I made it for my Design Team work at Scrap Everything! using the KaiserCraft Secret Admirer Collection. This layout also brings back fantastic memories of Mykonos!

In ninth place:

I love the retro feel of this one and the funny story behind it - when my son was 2 he couldn't blow his candles out because he couldn't blow properly! This layout was published in Scrapbooking Memories Vol 14, No 12.

In eighth spot:

I made this one for my DT application for Manor House Creations. The photo is of my mum when she was a young teen. It's such a stunning photo. I went with the colour purple as it's mum's favourite colour. I really like the unique frame I created with covered wire adorned with flowers.

In seventh place:

I really love this as not only does it look great but it holds all the secrets to my very versatile casserole recipe. I made this for my sister-in-law when she had just had her third child. I figured she needed all the short cuts in the kitchen she could get! For more pics (and the recipe) go to here. It was published in Scrapbook Creations.

In sixth place:

I struggled with which of my Masters' layouts to put up here. I couldn't make 4 out of my 10 favourites layouts from my Masters application! In the end I went with two of them.
I love this one for the stunning photo of my daughter and the acrylic flower frame. My daughter doesn't often let me take 'nice' photos of her but on this occasion she just had her lovely long hair cut short and she loved it so was happy for me to take a pic.

In fifth place is another Masters layout:

The pastel colours really didn't show up well in the mag on this one. I loved the old pics of me and I was really pleased with the multi-layered tags I placed behind each photo. There's a lot on this page so for more info see here

In fourth position:

This gorgeous pic is of my nephew Archie, who has featured in a few of my layouts. I loved experimenting with sprays and stencils on this one. It was published in Scrapbook Creations Issue No 95.

In third place:

Again, I love it when I can get good pics of my daughter! I love the rich colours in this one. Those Bo Bunny papers are just awesome! The black Manor House flowers finished off the page nicely. And just to show how fickle it can be trying to get layouts published, this one wasn't accepted by the mags and it's my third favourite!

In second place:

This is another one I did for Scrap Everything! Although this is a simple page, it really speaks to me. I'm not sure why. I don't even remember where these pics were taken. Somehow it just seems to work.

And finally, here's my number one pick from my first 50 blog posts:

I made this layout a while ago and the products were older ones even then. I still love it though! It was published in Scrapbooking Memories Vol 14, No 10.

Hope you've enjoyed this. I had fun putting it together!

Heather     

Scrap Everything Sale!

Hi all,

Just a quickie to let you know that Scrap Everything! is having a huge sale. There are some awesome savings here!

Katheine has been a busy Vegemite and there are also about 45 new items in stock.

The sale will last until all items are sold. Have fun!

Heather

A bit of Dylusions love

I have a confession to make - I'm a Dylusions addict! I keep finding more and more uses for those little bottles of colour explosions!

Here's a more subdued page that I made recently:

I went for more earthy tones to suit the pic and sprayed two of the Manor House Creations flowers with Dylusions to match. I inked the large Twiddleybitz flourish, painted the tips gold and laid it over the sprays.

Here are some close ups:

The lizard inspired me to think about Australian outback themes so I decided to create a dot painting frame around the page to give it an aboriginal feel. To do this I used various sizes of dots from foam lettering, mounted them on the end of a pen then dipped them on a stamp pad. I then used a smaller foam dot dipped in gold paint to accent the larger dots. I used the edge of a chevron stamp to create zigzags to help add to that aboriginal feel.

Til next time!

Heather

The Leibster Awards

Last week, I was thrilled to be awarded a Leibster Award from the amazing Lizzy Hill.

The Leibster Award was designed to be a blog award in the pay it forward fashion. It is awarded to blogs that have fewer than 200 followers to encourage new visitors to them. Once you have been nominated you award it to five other blogs.

The rules are: post the award on your blog, give the award to 5 bloggers who you appreciate that have fewer than 200 followers then leave a comment on their blogs to let them know you have given them this award.

So a very big thank-you to Lizzy. She's one of the most amazing bloggers out there. She seems to get as much enjoyment out of my work as I do and is always so supportive.

I've had to think long and hard about who to award my Leibsters to. I decided to not give it those who already have one as I'm thinking that the idea is to share this love around! That ruled out Lizzy, Sandra and Fi, all of whom would have been on my list. (Just got a plug in for them though didn't I?)

In no particular order I would like to award my Leibsters to...(drum roll please)....

Kim Price I think Kim's work is amazing. I'm continually astounded at the sheer beauty of her pages. She has a distinctive style and her photography is superb.

Beck Beattie Beck's work is so professional. I've seen it in real life and the detail and dimension are spot on. Her boy layouts are so inspiring.

Sarah Groen I hope we're allowed to nominate outside our own country! I love Sarah's work, perhaps cos it's often a lot like mine! She's great at documenting life's moments and uses her own handwriting - aren't these what scrapping is all about?

Leonie Neal-Dawson Leonie is the background queen. I adore her layered background techniques and her fabulous use of colour. Her work is amazing.

Lizzy Crust Lizzy only just qualifies as she has almost 200 followers! She's an amazing blogger and is always there with words of encouragement and support. Her work is constantly  growing and developing which is very exciting to watch.

Two other fabulous bloggers that I love to check out their work are Dani Cristina and Lizzy Wurmann, both South American artists with gorgeously unique talents. Just thought I'd sneak that one in there.

Hope you have fun checking out these blogs - I do!

Heather

My First Masters Challenge

Hi there,

Hope you all had a great weekend. I went to the Scrap Expo in Melbourne on Friday. I caught up with the ever lovely Leonie Neal-Dawson there. She and her friends were heading off for a scrapping retreat weekend. I'm so jealous! Met Jasmine Shea who I follow online but had never met. People are so much nicer in real life - just like layouts!!!

For the first time, I'm finally able to post a Master's Challenge layout on my blog. I'm enjoying these challenges so much! Basically, each sponsor gives us a supply of goodies and a description of what we have to create - in this case, a single layout. The sponsor for the first challenge was Stampin' Up! The papers we received were gorgeously retro and one of the stamps depicted a girl and a boy in an old fashioned wagon. This stamp triggered off a vague recollection that I might have a photo of something like that. After a bit of a search I was thrilled when I found it.

Here's the layout:

I was really pleased with how this layout turned out. The colours in the photo matched the papers beautifully and, although I'd like to say the style of the papers is older than me, it's probably not that much older! I drew on the flags and banners theme in the papers to create my own. The flagpole is made from a skewer and I put a small kink in the flags on it to give the appearance of movement. I had fun making a double layer of banners, raising one lot above the other with foam tape.

Here are some close ups:

To colour the stamped image, I used a wet brush and just used the Stampin' Up! ink pads like paint. It was so easy and worked really well. The inks are colour coordinated with the papers so it's hard to go wrong!

I hope you're enjoying checking out the Masters Challenges each month in Scrapbooking Memories mag. I think we all have a ball making them!

Hooroo!

Heather

Scrapbook & Papercraft Expo

Just a quickie - I'm off to the Scrapbook & Papercraft Expo in Melbourne on Friday. If any of you are going to be there please come and say hi. I would love to meet you in real life!

I've had a great week of scrapping. I've done a few layouts that I'm pretty stoked with. I'm just sorry I can't show them to you - you'll have to keep your eyes open in Scrapbooking Memories Magazine!

Happy scrappin'!

Heather

Tria Markers for Beginners

Hi there!

I hope you've all had a great week. I've been busy with the new Tria Markers I received from Katherine at Scrap Everything! They're very much like Copic Markers, but have some distinct differences.

Tria markers are alcohol ink based markers, perfect for colouring stamped images. A feature that separates them from the crowd is that you can produce darker and lighter hues of one colour all with the same pen. The more times you go over a coloured area, the darker it becomes. The advantage to this is that you only have to buy one pen to get all the shades of that colour you will need.

Here's what they look like - sorry about the low quality pic!

Another special feature is that they have 3 tips. One of the tips cleverly screws onto another. I'm not quite sure how the flow of ink works but work it does! There is a chisel tip, a medium tip and a very fine one for getting into those tricky places.

For those of you who have never tried them, here's Heather's Tria Markers for Beginners Tutorial:

1. Stamp your image with Memento ink. Any other ink will cause the image to bleed. You must stamp onto blending paper such as X Pressit brand for the alcohol inks to work properly - that is, blend and layer without bleeding.

2. Think about what direction you want the light in your image to appear to come from. You can use the marker to create shadows to give a more life-like look to your image.

3. Start with the lightest colours first. That way if you make a mistake you can hide it with the darker colour. Leave a faint line of white on the side the "light" is coming from to accentuate this. Colour in the remainder of that section with smooth strokes. It's best to use long, even strokes that cover the length of the section you are working on than shorter ones that overlap and leave marks. Here's my first layer on the face of a stamped image:

Note that you can see the stroke marks on this. These will fade as the image dries. See the white line I left on the right side? The"light" is coming from that direction.

4. Continue to colour your first layer across your whole image.

Notice how the stroke lines are fading on the boy's face.

5. Now add a second layer, keeping in mind that you are starting to create "shadows". I coloured about 3/4 of the boy's face and hair again. You can also darken areas to add contrast, for example to add more detail to clothing. Here's mine:

6. Now add a darker line down the side opposite the light source and add more shadows where required. Here's my final image:

I took this pic as soon as I finished the picture which is why you can still see stroke marks. They have definitely gone now!

These images are great for cardmaking but I wondered how I could incorporate them into my scrapping. I coloured another image, cut it out and used it as a scrapping embellishment. I think it worked really well!

Here's my layout:

That little fairy girl is gorgeous. Here's a close up of her:

You can see the contrasting colour around the hem of her dress. All the pink is just from the one pen. I adhered her to the journalling block then left her wings unattached. This made them stand up on the paper.

Off the subjects of the Tria Markers for a moment, I loooovvee the combination of that pink, peach and white laces. I'll be using that again.

I continued with the haberdashery theme by adding some embroidered flowers and leaves. My mum picks this sort of thing up at garage sales and they're always fantastic finds. I go rummaging through a bag of stuff she brings me and I never know what I'll find!

So if you're interested in giving the Tria Markers a go, you can find them here. If you would like more info, check out www.letraset.com where you can find some tutorials. Of course, good old you tube has tutorials too.

Hope you have fun playing!

Heather