New Year and Exciting New Changes at More Than Words!

Happy New Year! I hope this is the beginning of a wonderful, happy and healthy year for you and your families.

The New Year is a very exciting time at More Than Words, as we are undergoing the biggest changes we've seen since our inception four years ago. With a new Admin Team as well as a new Design Team on board, we have heaps of news ways for you to get involved! Head to our blog HERE to find out what we're up to!

The first challenge is up and running and you have to be inspired by the word HIGHLIGHT and use SUNSET COLOURS on your project. I'll let you in a secret - one of the changes is that you can create any kind of project you like, except for cards, tags, ATCs and postcards, as these can be entered in our Mini Challenges. With this in mind I made something completely different - I made a cover for my desk diary.

I know I'm old-fashioned in that I still use a desk diary but I find that it's what works for me. I've been thinking for a couple of years that I'd like to jazz up the boring covers on my diaries, but I wasn't sure how. With this challenge in mind, I thought back on 2019 looking for HIGHLIGHTS. Of course there were a few, but one of my creative highlights was the discovery of gelli printing. I love it! I've been madly printing ever since. It took some nutting out trying to work out how to cover my diary with prints but I got there in the end.

I created the gelli prints with stencilling and stamping then added more stencilling and stamping on top. I love the mixture of textures and colours. I used yellows, oranges and pinks as my SUNSET COLOURS. I even added some gold stencilling that looks like sun rays.

I lined the inside with paper and added a pocket.

So what would you like to create for our challenge? You can find all the details here.

Happy scrappin'!

Heather

Peace on Earth

Hello there!

The Mini Challenge at More Than Words has been released early this month to allow time in your busy schedule to get a mini project made!

The word to use is PEACE.

I don't often use purple but I thought it suited a Christmas tag well.

I hope to see your entry on the More Than Words facebook page soon!

Happy scrappin'!

Heather

Snapchat!

Hello again.

Thanks for dropping by my blog.

This month at Kraft+ the challenge is to use the sketch provided and non-traditional Christmas colours. The colours shown on the challenge board are pink and turquoise. My photos weren't about Chriatmas at all but they were perfect for this challenge - I had three of them (which is what the sketch required) and they were pink. Here's what I made:

Here's the sketch to use:

I have to confess - this sketch scared me! How could I put colourful photos on top of those patterned squares in the background? How could I deal with that gap between the photos?

I dealt with the first problem by not using patterned paper squares. I was at a friend's house for a meeting recently and she had serviettes sitting on the table. They had black and white leaves printed on them. I loved them so, with her permission, I took some home. (I know - I'm an obsessed scrapper!) I glued these to more solid paper then cut them into squares for the background, but this was too busy. I then cut the leaves from the square shapes, then die-cut 9 simple square frames, then added my leaves inside them. I love how they turned out! This is what they looked like on their own.

Because my photos are taller and narrrower than the sketch asked for, I had a bigger problem with that gap between the photos. I solved it by moving my title there. I used tall, skinny letters to fill the space.

Will you join us in the sketch challenge this month? You can find the details here.


Happy scrappin'!


Heather

Rejoice at More Than Words!

Ho, ho, ho it's coming up to that time of year again! With that in mind, we want to see you REJOICE at More Than Words. And, because it's such a busy time of year, ANYTHING GOES as far as the creative challenge is concerned. So, be inspired by the word Rejoice, and create in any style you like!

I thought about what makes me want to rejoice. More Than Words is a big part of my life and I want to celebrate the four wonderful years I've had working with Nicole Doiron. She has been such an incredible person to work with. In four years there has never been a cross word between us. So I wanted to dedicate this layout to our friendship.

Here's my journalling.

Yes, Nicole is leaving MTW. She needs a break to concentrate on other things in her life. Running a challenge blog is a lot of work! I will miss her dreadfully.

The funny thing about this layout is that it started with a scrap piece of paper that I cleaned my gelli plate off with. I just grabbed a sheet of paper that was lying next to me. It had some ink splats, some adding up and some rough stamped images where I was cleaning off my stamps on it. I pulled a print off my gelli plate to clean it then threw the paper in the bin. I then saw what I'd printed and pulled it back out of the bin! I loved it!

Here's what it looked like:

I cut it down to just the green area then added it to a sheet of white cardstock. I used other gelli-print scraps to create the blue and pink areas. I added lots of stamping and messy stitiching.

The chippy is from Dusty Attic. I just painted it white then covered the flowers with gelli-printed paper. The title and the circles are all cut from the same papers.

I added our challenge blog name down the side of the page. It's also a way of subtly saying that Nicole means More Than Words to me!

I hope you can join us and show us what makes you rejoice this month! You can find the details here.

Happy scrappin'!

Heather

A GREAT Mini Challenge!

Hello there! The new Mini Challenge over at More Than Words is to use the word GREAT on your card, tag, ATC or postcard.

I made this tag to attach to my nieces's birthday present.

The background is a piece of gelli-printed paper I had lying around on my desk (I really need to clean up!). I grabbed a few embellishments, painted them white and gold then added the sentiment over the top. The punched shapes are also from the gelli-printed paper.

I hope you can join us this month. The winer receives a US$25 voucher from the Dusty Attic! You can find the details here.

Happy scrappin'!

Heather

Flower Art

Hello and welcome back!

The challenge this month at Kraft+ is to be inspired by flower art. Cool! I was visiting a friend in hospital recently and I saw a great watercolour painting there of three tulips. It wasn't until a few days later that the penny dropped that this was my inpiration for the challenge!

My flower art-inspired layout :)

The tulips are all made from gelli prints that I made recently. I love the effect of colours like this on a kraft background. I found some tulip images online and used them as templates to draw and cut out my tulips.

I chose areas of the gelli-printed paper to cut my tulips from that had lovely ombre effects. Some of the tulips have patterns in them because this paper is left over from another project I made. I think it's such a cool effect!

There is lots of stencilling, stamping and added embellies. The chippie tree is a really old one from Twiddleybitz. Of course, I had to add stitching!

This photo of my daughter was taken on a fantastic day we all had together. She was overseas and we hadn't seen each other for a long time. If I could never take any photos for the rest of my life I think I would happily scrap every one of the photos I took that day. We were all so excited and happy!

I hope you can join us at Kraft+ this month. You can find the challenge here.

Happy scrappin'!

Heather

Go Tiges!

Hi there!

I never used to be a passionate Australian rules football supporter but 35 years of being a partner to a mad Tigers fan has rubbed off on me! I went to my first ever grand final this year and we won! It was an amazing experience.

The challenge at More Than Words this month is to be inspired by the word SUCCESS and to use a KEY on your project. Our team's win was the biggest success I've experienced lately so I just had to scrap about that.

Here's what I made:

I should point out that "Tiges" in an Aussie abbreviation of "Tigers". "Go Tiges" is what we all yell out at the game!

Our team's colours are yellow and black so I used these as my dominant colours, however I added other colours to break up the starkness. I added messy stitching and some punched paper strips left over from punching stars.

I grunged up my background and hung my "keys to the city" from one of the alphas.

I had some gelli prints left over from another project so I used one of these to back the photo. I adore gelli plate prints - the colours are amazing. I love how I could add my journalling to it too!

I printed a Tiger image on transparency.

I hope you can join in our challenge this month! You can find the details here..

Happy scrappin'!

Heather