Workshop Secrets

Hi there,

I'm so sorry I've been a but quiet on the blogging front lately. I've just been busy! I've had a busy time with work, kids and scrapping and something else had to give! Anyway, I am here to make amends.

I thought It's high time I gave an update on my Workshop Secrets articles in Scrapbooking Memories magazine.

Vol 15, No 6
This subject was about using old papers as I felt this is an issue we all have to deal with. Since I wrote that article I haven't thrown out any old papers as I keep using them for backgrounds and in the ways I discussed in my article. Here's my favourite layout from that article.

I used mists over chipboard shapes to create the background and layered strips of old paper along with a painted chipboard border to form the vertical piece. The black ribbon is exactly how it was cut off a present a long time ago and I topped it all with that gorgeous Manor House flower.

Vol 15, No 7
This was hopefully the only time I ever have something published that I'm not happy with! When the magazine offered me this regular article there was so little time to get the first couple of articles done. Neither of the layouts in this edition turned out the way I wanted but I had no time to re-do them. This will be a long post if I put all the layouts up so I'll just leave these ones out!

Vol 15 , No 8 and No 9
These were my articles about photographing your work for blogs and submissions and how to get published in magazines. I hope you got a few ideas from them! In a bit of a twist, the magazine chose some of my layouts that they had already accepted as the ones to publish with the second article. Here's one they chose.

I had fun creating this one. I randomly stuck chipboard letters all over the background but deliberately stuck the x and o where I did. I used Dylusions to spray over the centre of the layout and built the page up over that.

Vol 15, No 10
I chose a somewhat different subject for this one - I discovered that it can be pretty cool to create shadowbox layouts by raising the edges and other parts of a page. Adding 3D elements around the edges can really give the page that extra pop.

For this layout I cut the border from the Graphic 45 paper and added this over another piece of the same paper. To help you pick the detail on a flat photo, the border includes (clockwise from centre top) the trapeze girl, the ringmaster, the running clown, the curtain and the title. The pages are quite stunning in real life but don't show the detail on photos.

I hope you're enjoying the articles. If you have any comments or suggestions, by all means let me know!

Heather