It's all about the layers...

Hi everyone!

I've just got back from holidays and I've had serious scrapping withdrawals! I haven't scrapped for three weeks and I'm itching to get back into it!

I hope everyone with school -aged kids or grandkids got to do something fun over the school hols with their young ones.

Here's a layout that was published a while ago in Scrapbook Creations magazine. I really love this one. The photo is a rare one of my gorgeous nephew actually pausing for a moment. His mum took the pic and I think it's a stunner.

I went to town with layering mists and masks on this one. Working out which layer to put where so each would be seen in the right way was a real brain strain! You have to think about every detail before you spray as it's so easy to get it wrong and spray over a bit you wanted kept clear.

Here's the layout:

I had fun "extending" the rail he is leaning on. I cut a strip of cardstock to size and used it as a mask. I used lots of things I had lying around as masks - paper circles, cogs, die-cut shapes - anything was fair game. The swirl shape under the photo is actually made using the plastic backing of a self-adhesive felt shape. I then added heaps of stamps.

Here are some close-ups:

The placement of many of my elements was decided upon by my unique high-tech method - I simply placed them wherever I mucked up the stamping! I had a few issues with one of the stamps in particular so there were a few places that needed fixing. I placed embellishments over them and I really liked the end result! From memory, I think the "snapshots" sticker, the green star and the green arrow all hid mistakes. As Katherine, the owner of Scrapeverything! says, "there are no mistakes in scrapping, only opportunities".

Better go now - the scrap room calls!

Heather

Manor House Designer Spotlight

Hi everyone,

Well I'm on holidays at the moment on a sunny New South Wales beach. We've been having a blast boogie boarding, walking, reading and generally doing all the summer holiday type of stuff. Loving it!

Just before we left, it was my turn to be the featured designer over at the Manor House Creations blog. The following is what was shown. You might have seen one of the layouts before on Purple Pumpkin blog but the rest should all be new. There is quite a variety of styles in this little collection. I'm sorry about the weird white backgrounds - life would be easier if I created a white background for my blog!

I don’t think I have a particular style as I am constantly trying out different techniques and products. If anything, my layouts tend to be textural and often arty. I use a lot of mists, chipboard, haberdashery items and, of course, flowers. I tend to make several layouts in one style as I experiment with it, then discover something else and head down a different path. I love variety and am very focussed on colour.

* * *

I used two full sheets of 12 x 12 paper to make the fan background. I have attached a sheet of chipboard to the back for strength. I incorporated a wire crane from a card I bought In Japan and added trails and “leaves” using a Japanese-style ribbon. I even added small chopsticks.

Above all though, I think the gorgeous Manor House flowers make the page. They’re so elegant and the colours work beautifully.

‘So Jananese’

MHC Products used: Romance – sweetheart champagne, Sublime – aqua & cream, Country lane – green, Blossoms – airlee, leaves.

* * *

I was inspired by the gorgeous colours in the ScrapCake papers for this layout. They created such a wonderful summery feeling and matched Indi’s zinc perfectly!

‘Think zinc’

MHC Products used: Taniesha.

* * *

I love this photo of my mum when she was a girl. She lived on a farm and loved it. Mum’s favourite colour is purple so, even though it’s a colour I don’t use a lot, I decided to make it in purple for her. I’m glad I did as I love the result! I covered wire in florists’ tape then hot glued the Manor House Creations flowers to it. The birds are cut from the Manor House packaging.

Layout ’1951′

MHC Products used: Country lane – purple, Sprinkles – mauve, Blossoms – byron, Cutie pies – mauve, Shimmers – snow, MHC packaging.

* * *

I love these pics of my daughter. She doesn’t like posing for photos but this day she was more than willing as she was showing off her new clothes. It was a bit scary how well she could pose when she wanted to!

Layout ‘Pose’

My Big News!

One thing that I think is difficult in the blogging world is treading the fine line between boasting and informing. I sometimes find it hard to tell people when great scrappy things happen to me as I don't want my blogging friends to think I'm just a pain in the neck! To decide if I will tell people about something I ask myself if I would like to know this information if I was a follower of someone else's blog. In this case the answer is yes, so here goes...

I have my own regular feature in Scrapbooking Memories magazine! It's called Workshop Secrets and the first one is in the latest copy of the mag which has just been published. Those who subscribe to the mag should have it very soon. For others it should be in the stores in the next few days.

The articles will vary a bit in their style and content but will always be a bit like attending a workshop. Hopefully I'll be able to bring different techniques and inspirational ideas to readers of all levels. Actually, I find that working to the abilities of the readers is the hardest part of the whole process. Some readers are complete beginners and others have been scrapping for years. Its very hard to find a middle ground but I guess that's something all teachers have to deal with.

In the coming months I talk about quite a variety of subjects which I hope will be of interest to many scrappers. Most of my topics are based on what I've learnt when I've had to deal with a particular problem. By that I mean things like "how do I create this type of effect with that product?" Not all my topics are like this though and my first one came about in a completely different way. I was struck down with a lurgy for about 10 days. I was too sick to work and even too sick to seriously scrap - gasp! So I just sat in my scrap room and faffed around. I hauled out that pack of chippy shapes and just played with them, just seeing what I could create. As I wasn't pushed for time (an uncommon thing for me) I was able to just experiment and I had a blast. The layout is only printed small in the mag so it's hard to see the detail but I hope you get the general idea. I'll put close ups on my blog later.

I do hope you get to read my articles and enjoy them. If there's something you don't like about them, please let me know. If you do like them, again let me know but it would be great if you could tell the editors as well! I'm not sure that putting Cassie's email address here is a very professional thing to do but most of the email addresses in the mag would reach either Cassie or Vanessa.

2013 looks like being an amazing year for me. Even though this blog reaches out into cyberspace it really is just you, my loyal blogger friends, who are following this journey with me. Thank you all so much for your support and encouragement.

Woohoo!

Heather

THIS.... IS..... SPARTA!!

Sorry about the caps on the title but I had to do that! If you've ever seen the movie "300" you'll know what I mean. Our kids and I have never seen it (it's very violent) but we all know that line from the movie.

When we went to Greece the year before last, the kids saw Sparta on the map. Even though we weren't really going near it, they were adamant we had to go there. We encourage them to make  decisions when we travel so off we went. We ended up standing beneath a statue of a Spartan warrior in the main street with the kids putting on their fiercest faces and yelling "THIS.... IS.... SPARTA!" It was very funny.

The reason I'm telling you this is because my layout about this just got published in Australian Scrapbook Ideas. Here it is:

I had fun making the Spartan helmet, swords and shield. I cut the shapes out of cardstock then embossed them with gold and green embossing powders. I deliberately overcooked some areas to make it look old and coppery. I used some fluffy wool to top the helmet with. It was a pretty simple process that I think served the purpose well.

I hope everyone's been keeping cool lately and avoiding the bushfires that seem to be everywhere at the moment.

Happy scrappin'.

Heather

Happy New Year!

A big Happy New Year to you all! I hope you all had a fun New Year's Eve and have a wonderful 2013.

My brother and his family are visiting us for a week so I thought I'd quickly get a few layouts up on this blog while they're out. These have been published in Scrapbooking Memories. Please forgive me if I don't visit your blog this week as I'll be fairly busy here!

Here's a lovely one of my gorgeous nephew Archie. He so adores his dad.

The background is the packaging from a pack of Prima letters. There's a lot of Prima product on this layout. I had to keep these pics small as they were slightly out of focus. I fixed them a bit in photoshop but not enough to enable me to enlarge the photos any more than this.

Here's another favourite of mine. I love getting messy with paints and my daughter's clothes allow me to do this on pages about her!

I think the cut-out picture works really well here. I was actually forced into this by the fact that the mess in her bedroom was visible in the photo! I also enjoyed showing the details of what she was wearing, from the fake ear stretcher to the ripped stockings. I can certainly say that my daughter has very distinctive tastes in clothes!

These two layouts were both published in Scrapbooking Memories Vol 14, no 12.

This layout was published in Volume 15, No 1. This is one of the few layouts I've done about my husband. I'm not sure why I scrap many more layouts about the kids than my hubby. I know this is something we're all guilty of. I guess I'll only have the kids around for a few more years and perhaps I'm trying to make the most of them!

Here's the layout:

This layout is created entirely from office supplies. I had a bit of fun raiding Officeworks and my desk drawers for supplies! The background behind the photo is coloured sticky tape. Unfortunately, the colour's not very strong and I had to use many layers to make it show.

I hope you're all enjoying the school hols. It's about 42 degrees here today so we're not going anywhere....

Hooroo!
Heather