Getting My Mojo Back With Art Playground

Hello!

Since I've come back from holidays I've had trouble getting my mojo back. It's the first time this has happened to me and it wasn't fun! Today however, I got very inspired by the challenge over at Art Playground. I'd like to thank them for helping me find my mojo! It's a cold, wet day here, with hail and even a bit of snow, so it was the perfect day to stay inside and scrap about a summer holiday. Here's what I created.

I almost never use purple so this pushed me well outside my comfort zone. I'm thrilled with the results though. The challenge is to use the colours from the board.

The theme to go with the colours is "Oh Blessed Mistakes", the idea being to embrace your mistakes. I was scrapping a few days ago and I started a background for another page. I worked on it before the paint was dry though and I smudged it. I couldn't rescue it, and I couldn't use the back because it had a faded secion on it, so I put it aside. When I saw the Art Playground challenge, I had an idea. I could use my mistake page to start another project.

Here's my 'mistake' page, complete with smudges and a few marks from a stencil.

For this project, I swiped gesso over most of the dodgy circles, leaving just a bit of them showing. The paint I had used for the circles was a textural one so the shape can still be seen under the gesso.

I then went crazy with purples, some pinks and a splash of orange. The hot pink and orange paper behind the photo is a gelli plate print from Fiona Paltridge that she gave me one day. I adore that colour combo! I stamped the roses, then painted them with Pebeo two-toned iridescent paint, which gave an amazing pink and purple metallic look.

In a nod to the circles underneath the gesso, I added some wire circles under my photo.

I ha so much fun making this!

I hope you can play along at Art Playground this month. You can find the challenge here.


Happy scrappin'!

Heather

I'm Back!

Hello there! Welcome back to my blog.

For those of you that might have noticed I was missing for a while, I've been travelling so I haven't been scrapping. I was very privileged to see some amazing sights on this trip.

One of the highlights was the incredible cultural shows in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. I was blown away by how colourful and spectacular the costumes and makeup were. To top it off, the people were so friendly and welcoming, yet so proud.

I wanted to capture all of this on paper so I used part of a photo plus a variety of mediums to try to capture the colour and impact. I hope I succeeded.

I started by cutting out part of a photo that included the face of a spectacularly painted performer.

I used a mix of Tinby Designs Colour Crush, watercolours and acrylic paints to make the head-dress and used watercolours for the shoulders.

Although first impressions when looking at these head-dresses is that they are made of feathers, there are actually many other objects in there. I saw sticks, wool, plastic, sparkly objects and, commonly, long blue strands of plastic that look a bit like the much-desired Bird of Paradise feathers. I have no idea what they are but I tried to incorporate them into this head-dress.

I had some ideas in my head of what I wanted to create and when I found the challenge over at Mixed Media and Art I knew I'd found the right challenge for me. Here's the mood board.

The theme is "Colours of Life", such a perfect description for my proud Highlander in his traditional costume. I was inpired by the blues and yellows of the moodboard but also by the swirls, swipes and splats of paint.

Happy scrappin'!

Heather

Scrapping Dr Seuss!

Hello and welcome back!

Who would ever have thought of using Dr Seuss as a scrapping challenge? Well Sandra Wallace over at Kraft Plus did! I did some online research and found some quotes that were perfect for my travel photos.

I love this quote - it's taken from "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" I inserted photos into the text that matched the text, for example, I inserted photos of 'Feet' and 'Shoes' after those words in the quote. For the second part of the quote I inserted photos that were relevant to me 'steering mysef in any direction I choose'. All these photos were taken on a walk we did along the Lycian Way in Turkey. It was such an incredible walk. It was so hard to select just a few photos for this page!

I highlighted key words by using brightly coloured alphas. This is a great stash-buster!

I added in a few clouds and balloons as these feature in the book. My balloons certainly don't look like Dr Seuss' unique ones but I think it helps give the general feel of a Dr Seuss book.

Before I started this layout, I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to do. I thought it would come together quite quickly, however it took ages to get all the spacings right while still keeping the design balanced. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be!

Here's the challenge board. Isn't it fabulous? You can find the challenge details here.

Happy scrappin'!

Heather

My Journey

Hello there! Today I have a page to share that is quite unusual for me - it is completely free of mixed media! It's a very traditional paper layout. I didn't set out to do this - it just happened!

The layout is for the new challenge at More Than Words. The challenge is to be inspired by the word 'Journey' and to use something from a map on your project.

I love the woodgrain background paper - it's on older Webster's Pages one. I thought it was perfect for the photo and the theme and I didn't want to cover it with other media. This paper range is one of my faves so I used a few different papers from it. The page is between and A4 and a 12 x 12 size. It's simply the size of the piece of woodgrain paper I had!

My map paper frames part of my photo.

I also added a world globe behind my title. The chipboard words are from The Dusty Attic. I left them bare to match the outdoor theme. The little chippie hearts are from Heidi Swapp. They're gorgeous!

Has this got you thinking about what you could create for the challenge? You can find the details here.

Happy scrappin'!

Heather

Keep Growing at More Than Words

It's Mini Challenge time over at More Than Words! The challenge this month is to use the word 'Keep' on a card, tag or ATC.

Here's my little creation:

I was determined to use whatever scraps were on my desk for this one and I succeeded. I had a number of Webster's Pages papers on my desk from a previous project and there was heaps in there to chose from.

You only have until the end of the month to join in the challenge so be quick! You can find the details here.

Happy scrappin'!

Heather

Travel albums - what's the best way?

Hello there! Thanks for dropping in.

I've been working hard at getting travel photos into albums lately and I've come across a few problems that I'm hoping you might be able to help me solve.

My hubby and I travel quite a bit and I keep a travel blog to update friends and family. I find this to be a great tool - it saves me having to tell everyone the same story over and over and it serves as a diary of the trip. I write up what we did, add in the best photos and post these updates regularly.

I have thought long and hard about how best to document a long trip. I take a LOT of photos when we travel. In the end, I decided that the albums would contain three different typres of pages:
        1. I print off my blog posts for an instant record of where we went and what we saw.
        2. I pick extra photos that I want a memory of and add them in using Project Life pages.
        3. I scrap my favourite photos and add those in as well.

So my albums contain a mix of A4 and 12 x 12 pages like the following.

I make a title page like this:

My Project Life pages are very basic. I have too many photos to spend a lot of time on these. I just add the basic details and don't add embellishments. I add memorabilia into the pockets where I can.

I print my blog posts onto A4 paper and add them to the album in standard plastic sleeves.

I add scrapbook pages in where appropriate.

I hope you're with me so far!

My problems are:

1. The blog posts: I print these on thick copy paper so the heavy inking on the photos doesn't show through the page, however the photos don't look good printed on copy paper. I tried using A4 photo paper and this looks a lot better, however it's much thicker which makes the album bulkier, something I'm trying to avoid. It's also a lot more expensive.

2. The Project Life pages: All those pockets and heavy-duty plastic pages add to the bulk.

3. Printing:  I print the photos at home which is very expensive when I'm printing off hundreds of them. I tried my local photo shop but got so frustrated with how slow the process was to print 3 x 4" photos that I gave up. It's much quicker on my own computer!

4. The A4 plastic sleeves - I haven't found any that fit my 3-ringed albums so I have to cut slots to fit. This is time consuming and the slots catch on the album rings.

Does anyone have any suggestions for any of my problems above, or have any other ideas on how to efficiently create albums with lots of stories and photos? Do you do things differently to me? I'd love to hear your thoughts and tips.

Thank you so much :)


Happy scrappin'!

Heather

Good Times at More Than Words

Hello hello!

I seem to have a thing lately about scrapping all those really fun moments in life. And why not? I always have great memories when I scrap these photos.

The challenge this month at More Than Words is to be inspired by the word 'Memories' and to use a frame on your project. I wanted to scrap about a special memory so I scrapped about a really fun night I had with great friends.

I'm not sure who had the camera but they caught a friend of mine having a ball! It's a poor photo - it's out of focus, but who cares? The memory is what's important.

My title says it all. I opted for some serious bling on this to add extra pizazz.

My frame is from The Dusty Attic. I painted it black then smeared a bit of gesso around for a modern distressed look. The background is gesso and stamped stars and words.

I layered up my papers behind the photo and added extra paper frames. I also snuck some pieces in there from my scraps drawer. I'll get through that scraps drawer one day!

I hope you can join in the fun this month. You can find the challenge here.

Happy scrappin'!


Heather