Hambly Overlay Mini Album

Ohhh, I've been struck down with the dreaded lurgy this week. Never mind - I'm not so sick that I can't scrap!

I received a lovely bundle of goodies from Katherine at Scrap Everything! and among them were these Hambly Overlays. I loved the thought of making a mini album with them but knew their transparency would be a challenge. I thought about different ways to approach it but decided in the end that the KISS approach was the best. I simply backed each photo with exactly the same sized paper so that each page wasn't affected by the pages before or after it. I like the way the overlays still allowed a glimpse of the upcoming pages though. I thought the tree trunk pattern on them worked really well with the Picnic in the Park theme.

Here's the cover:

I just love that red rose ribbon!

My family visited my brother's family in Perth recently and I had lots of lovely photos of us all together so a mini album was perfect for these. I journalled the story inside the front cover.

I alternated pages between the brown trunk pattern overlay and the cream one for a more interesting effect. A really cool idea would be to make every page from a different overlay.

There's that gorgous rose ribbon again!

The wooden KaiserCraft balloon is from my tutorial. I decided to put it to good use!

The back page still had to be covered with the same size piece of paper to hide the work behind it, but I didn't want a photo on the outside where it would get damaged, so I chose a colourful piece of paper and used it to place "Handmade by Heather with Love". I could also have put dates here or other relevant details.

For extra impact, I chose bright, coordinating ribbons to hold the pages together. Far more interesting than plain rings!

Hope you have a great weekend.

Stamp and Distress Stain Tutorial

Hi all,

Here's my first tutorial for Scrap Everything. I was actually inspired by Katherine's tutorial on Scrap Everthing's blog where she discusses using Ranger Distress Stain to stain wooden Off The Page projects. I'd like to take this one step further and show you how to decorate and enhance wooden and chipboard pieces using stamps, ink and Distress Stain.

Take any wooden or chipboard item. I'm using a chipboard frame here.

Using a strong coloured ink, stamp any image you like randomly over the item. I find black StazOn ink gives a good, clear image but most inks will be fine.

Make sure the ink is dry then apply a light coat of Ranger Distress Stain. For best effect, make sure there is a strong contrast between the stamping ink colour and the Distress Stain colour.

It depends on what you're creating, but I often then like to apply a good coat of Glossy Accents to finish it off. Leave this to dry for at least a couple of hours and preferably overnight. And there you have it - your own unique embellishment!

Here's a variation on the same theme:

I've taken a wooden Kaisercraft balloon here. I was looking at my stamps and realised one of the Kaisercraft stamps had a circle pattern on it about the same size as my balloon. I inked up the stamp and just stamped the circle part of the image onto my balloon.

I then applied Distress Stain to the balloon part of the piece. I then took a second Distress Stain and applied that to the basket. I didn't want a glossy finish to this piece so I left it at that.

How good does that look? This took me a total of about one minute to create!

And you can even take this a step further by embossing your stamped pattern if you prefer.

Next time you want to use wooden or chipboard embellishments, have a think about how you could apply this method to them. It's such a fast and effective way to transform them to suit your page perfectly.

Enjoy!

Purple Pumpkin Challenge

HI there.

I thought I'd have my first attempt at a Purple Pumpkin challenge. I kept seeing those gorgeous buttons on other blogs and decided that I really needed to get some for myself!

Here's this month's sketch:

And here's my take on it:

I love this photo. Indi is such a character - and a beautiful one at that!

I just adore the colours in these papers from The Scrapcake. They're so rich and vibrant. The die-cuts and journaling block are all from the same set. I love the sun rays effect on the background paper - it's so appropriate for this layout. The Manor House Creations flowers match the layout perfectly. Both the flowers and the papers are available at Manor House Creations. I don't have to point out where the Purple Pumpkin buttons are - they're certainly not hidden!

Here are some close ups:

I made that folded section by first punching the border along the piece of paper then folding it into shape. I had had this idea for a while but was waiting for the right paper to come along. See how the paper changes from pink to yellow to blue? The folding accentuates that I really like the result.

I tried to imitate the look of the zinc on Indi's face in the title. I did this by applying paint with my finger, just as you would apply zinc to your face. It's not perfect but is zinc application supposed to be perfect?! I also cut out some chevron shapes from The Scrapcake paper to draw the eye to the photo.

I added dots of three colours of Liquid Pearls around the outside of the circle to highlight it. I'm a bit of a Liquid Pearls tragic really!

I like to add journaling to my layouts whenever I can. Again, I edged the journaling block with Liquid Pearls and framed it with those gorgeous Manor House Creations flowers. These ones are called Taneisha.

Thanks so much for looking!

Heather

Scrap Friends Challenge

Hi there.

It's been a little while since my last post. I'm not making any apologies - I had a huge birthday bash on the weekend which took a lot of organising and a lot of recovering from!!!

This is the first layout I've ever submitted to Scrap Friends. You can find their website here. Here is the sketch:

And here's my take on it:

I decided to flip the layout vertically so my nephew's eyes are looking towards the centre of the page. As much as I love the film strips in the original sketch, I don't have any so I just went with what seemed to work.

I adore this photo of my nephew. He looks like a cute little ET wrapped up in his beach hoodie!

I challenged myself to use flowers on a masculine layout. All these Manor House Creations flowers were originally white. You can find their blog here. I sprayed the flowers with Dylusions Ink Spray then gave the background plus the flowers a light spray with Perfect Pearls Mist to give a more grainy, sandy effect. I added the bare chipboard and raw edged hessian to make the layout more boyish.

Hope you like it!

Heather

One of my favourites

Hi everyone,

I know we all love making our layouts and hopefully we really love what we create. Every now and then though, we make a layout that we are particularly pleased with .This is one such layout for me. It was published in Scrapbooking Memories, Vol 14, No 10.

This is a real favourite of mine. The photo is of my daughter who is into gothic lolita clothing, amongst other things. The makeup she wears with this clothing is amazing and I wanted to create a layout with as much impact as the eye makeup and accessories had.

My daughter's coloured contact lenses are purple so I knew I wanted a black, white and purple theme. I had grabbed the purple ribbon from my stash and I accidentally dropped it onto the page. It fell in something like the folded pattern above and the rest, as they say, is history.

Looking at the other products on the page, I don't think any of them were particularly new. The letters are quite old - I don't exactly have a large stash of purple letters! It just goes to show you don't always need the latest and greatest products to create a page you love.

Anyway, I'm pretty stoked with this layout! I hope you like it too.

Heather

My Scrap Everything! Layout

Hi everyone,

Well the warmer weather has arrived in the southern part of the country along with the change of the season. It's so nice to see the sunshine again. And to coincide with the beginning of spring, here is my first layout for Scrap Everything!

A while ago I rediscovered a few years worth of photos that I hadn't scrapped. We sometimes forget how adorable our kids were when they were little and I've had such fun scrapping those busy but wonderful years. I still have a long way to go!

I chose to go with the Jenni Bowlin papers for this one. They suited the photo perfectly. I was keen to show a few techniques and ideas on this layout so I didn't go overboard with heavy embellishments.

Here's the layout:

I tend not to use titles like "Explore" or "Discover" as they've been used so many times. Sometimes though, it really is the right title for the page!

Here are a couple of close ups of the patchwork behind the photo:

One of the Jenni Bowlin papers had 4 x 4 inch squares of different patterned papers. I cut four of these into 1 x 1 inch squares and adhered them around the outside of a 5 x 7 inch piece of paper. I then positioned it on my layout and used a zigzag stitch along every join to give it a patchwork effect. The Jenni Bowlin paper is available here and the background paper, which has the journaling blocks on the back, is available here.

I had fun with the honeycomb effect around the photo. It's actually the leftover pieces from the Jenni Bowlin Quilted Stickers.The stickers themselves are hexagonal but I've used the packaging that surrounds them. To see what the original packet looks like click here. I carefully peeled off the background sticker sheet then trimmed off any excess edging. I then cut it into pieces so that it would frame my photo nicely. I love the effect. Here's a close up:

Another idea for using this honeycomb packaging is to use it as a template. It would be perfect! The adhesive is quite strong so, to avoid tearing your layout when you peel it off, use a bit of talcum powder on the back. This will make it less sticky and easier to remove.

And finally, another couple of close ups:

I hope you have fun with the honeycomb effect. There are 4 different types of the Quilted Stickers so these should keep you crafting for hours! I'd love to see something you make using any of the above techniques. Please let me know via a message on this blog.

Enjoy!
Heather

My Manor House Creations Intro

Manor House Creations have started to introduce the new design team on their blog: manorhousecreationsblog.com Gwen Wruck and I are the lucky first ones to be introduced.

One of the items I did for my application was an OTP project. I made this as a housewarming present for my sister- and brother-in-law who coincidentally moved into their new home yesterday!

The Twiddleybitz Fantasy Shadow Frame was perfect for housing the cute little house and sentiment. I then framed it all with my favourite Manor House Creations flowers. The brown flowers and leaves were white and I sprayed them with Dylusions ink spray. The smaller coffee-coloured flower in the top right corner is actually the centre of the same type of flower that's in the bottom left corner. I so love the lacy petals on these!

Here are some close ups:

We're off to the in-laws' new home for dinner tonight so I hope they like their housewarming present!

I went to Paperific yesterday, the largest scrapping expo in Melbourne. Manor House Creations had a stand there and it looked amazing. It was lovely to hear all the excited comments as ladies discovered the beautiful flowers. Letting a large number of scrappy women near a display of Manor House flowers was like releasing a box of moths near a light. It's a good thing we're a civil lot or there could have been injuries! Lol!

Heather
xx