A Tutorial For You

Well I've been busy creating lately and thought I would share a tutorial with you. This one shows you how to use newspaper on your layouts in a unique way.

I used a sheet of canvas paper for my background. Just like sketchpads, canvas papers are available in pads at art supply places. I find they buckle less when I apply wet mediums to them, although they still curl just as much as standard cardstock. Feel free to use chipboard, cardstock or anything you like. Just be prepared for it to buckle!

Although it looks like there are quite a few steps here, the process is actually pretty simple. And the best news is that there is no right or wrong. If you like it then it's right!

Ok - enough of the preamble. Let's get started!

Step 1
Give your base a light coat of gesso. Don't make it perfect - just a rough slap over will do.

Step 2

While the gesso is still wet, tear up pieces of newspaper and lay them on the gesso. You can cover the whole base or just put in patches, it's up to you. Dry it completely with a heat gun (or wait for it to dry) then start to pull the newspaper off. When you have only the well-stuck sections left, dampen a cloth or a baby wipe and gently wipe the newspaper. You will see that you can remove as much or as little of the newspaper as you like. If you don't remove much then the side of the newsprint facing you will be seen and the text will read the correct way. If you remove the top layer of newspaper then the opposite side of the newspaper will be seen which will be printed in reverse. This creates a very cool look though!

Step 3

Once you get down to selecting which parts to keep try rubbing the newspaper with your finger. This gives you fine control of what you're removing.

Step 4

Once you have finished your background should look something like this. Remember it's up to you how much newspaper you want. Note how the variety of font sizes adds a bit of interest.

Step 5

You can now create whatever you like with your newsprint background. On my layout, I used Distress Inks through a Crafters Workshop stencil to add a coloured layer.

Here's what my background looked like at this stage.

Step 6

I next added some gorgeous papers from Bo-Bunny's new Mama-Razzi 2 range. You can get the range from ScrapEverything here.

I then finished the layout off with lots of Mama-Razzi 2 rub-ons, some Kaisercraft transparencies and journaling. Here's the finished layout:

And some close-ups:

I hope you found this helpful. If you decide to give this a go please drop me a line and let me know. I'd love to see what you make!

Happy scrappin!

Heather

A Russian Challenge

Hi there.

I hope your week has started well. If it's school holiday time for you then I hope you're getting a few sleep ins!

I was checking out the amazing work of Georgia Heald the other day on her blog and saw she was this month's guest designer for a Russian challenge site called Paperdvizhnik.. Georgia says the site has a lot of arty, mixed media layouts so I thought "this is for me!" This months' challenge is to create a layout using white, grey and two other colours of your choice. Here's what I came up with:

I chose the pink colour to match my daughter's sunglasses and I was inspired by a lovely old K & Company paper to make the second colour that gorgeous yellow-green. The weird thing is that I then hardly used any of the paper!

I had fun creating the background. I used a tried and true Heather technique - if you're not happy with it, gesso over the top and keep going! I first used texture paste through a TCW stencil to create the lines of dots. I then sprayed carefully behind the photo with Dylusions so it would colour some dots pink and not others. I coloured some of the other dots grey with an ink pad and left some white. I then added quite a bit of stamping using grey ink.

I then decided that I wasn't completely happy with the effect so I gessoed over the top of it, leaving some parts partly exposed. I now had a background with depth and texture to work with. The Dylusions softened and blended when it was wet with the gesso and the other colours were toned down. Now, I was happy with it! I then took another TCW stencil (Mayan Calendar - one of my favourites) and used multiple inks to match the colours of the paper. I used mustard seed and crushed olive Distress Inks to make the yellow-green and pink and purple inks to make the pink colour.

You can see the layers here:

I added a chippie, some Manor House Creations flowers and A Lil' Somethin' flair button to finish off the photo:

I made a pair of shades from paper and created the title with some ever-faithful Thickers.

I used another stencil behind the photo - this time a Maya Road one - and added some grey to it.

I finished the page off with some stitching in grey, pink and green and added the leftover threads to the chipboard flourish.

If you're into mixed-media layouts, hop on over to Paperdvizhnik and have a look. I'll keep an eye open to see if you post a layout there!

Cheers,

Heather

Scrap Around The World

Hi again,

I seem to be on an online challenge mission this month. Not sure why! I think it's just that I have the time atm.

I thought I'd have a go at the Scrap Around The World challenge as the mood board is stunning. They've changed the rules and the sketch is now optional. I didn't use it so I haven't included it here. Here's the mood board - the images are so striking!

I was immediately struck by the second image and have definitely taken my inspiration from it. I was attracted to the doodled organic shapes in particular. Here's my layout:

I really wanted to use the strong black and white contrast featured in the mood board but I also wanted to highlight the stunning black and yellow colours of the flowers in my pic. To achieve this I sprayed a background around the pic of bright yellow Dylusions but kept the rest of the layout completely black and white.

I had a bit of fun "pegging" a banner to the photo to create the title. Here's a close up:

I was originally going to doodle the entire leafy background but I then remembered a TCW stencil that I had and I thought that tracing around this with a black pen would look cool so I used a combination of both stenciling and doodling to create my organic shapes. By using the stencil I could achieve an open "white" look then I doodled the black leaves by hand to form a strong contrast both in colour and form.

I used all sorts of bits and bobs to create the border - leftover punched shapes, bits of washi, punched out sections backed with black cardstock and good old ink and pen.

Even though these Kennedias are gorgeous, the sad thing is that they keep taking over everything else in the garden and I'm going to have to pull them out! There might be one I can leave though. I have four plants, all under a year old and all about 5 metres across! They're climbing up other plants, over fences and onto paths. I really needed some ground covers but not such aggressive ones! It's such a shame.

Til next time.

Heather

White With 1

Hi girls!

I thought I'd have a go at the White With 1 challenge this month. The colour this month is pistachio. This is not a colour I've used much but I'll have a go at anything!

I thought I'd do something different and not use a photo of my kids! These are the heifers we currently have on our farm. Sometimes they come right up to our kitchen just to check out what we're doing. Cows are really intelligent creatures and they definitely get curious about what we do.

To make the title, I used some old puffy letter stickers, placed them where I wanted the title to be then sprayed the area with a Dylusions spray. I then removed the letter stickers and when the spray was completely dry, I outlined the stenciled letters in a thick pen. I also did a little stamping with a white ink just to give the sprayed area a bit more interest.

Here's a close-up. Hmm, that spray looks a bit more like it's real life colour here.

I clustered some Manor House Creations flowers under the photo, twisting the stems to give the impression they are spiraling down the page. I also added twists of pistachio ribbon to reinforce this theme. I used an older gingham ribbon as this always seems quite "country" to me.

I stamped some farm animals from Stampin' Up! along the bottom to add to the farm feel. I usually don't go for this more cutesy style but I felt the simple black and white images added to the page. I sprayed a wooden KaiserCraft tree with white Dylusions to add to this rural feel.

I hope you have a great week!

Heather

Announcement from the Victorian Masters

We have had such an amazing time doing our Victorian Scrapbooking Memories Masters Techniques Tour! We had locals, regulars, people from interstate and some that may as well have been from interstate as they came from so far away, all brought together by the desire to learn some of our techniques. We are ever so grateful to you all. The tour would not have been possible without you coming along and supporting us.

Having said that, there are many that would have LOVED to come along, so we thought we would make up some extra kits for those that weren't able to make it. We have limited numbers of these for sale.

Kits are $35 each or $100 for all three + postage (at cost).  If you want to purchase two or three different kits we are getting together at the Manor House Retreat on the 4-6th October and can bring them there to give to you or we will get them together then and post them out to you the next week. This would mean you only pay one lot of postage.

If you don't want to leave a message on this blog you can contact me here.

Here are the layouts. Click on the links above each one to be taken to the individual blogs for more ideas and info.

Beck Beattie

Leonie Neal-Dawson

 Heather McMahon

We thought we would share some of the pics from the tour - we had a blast and hope you all did too!

We want to thank our wonderful sponsors again:

Kaisercraft
Scrappy Chat Designs
Twiddleybitz
2Crafty Chipboard
A Piece of Cake Designs

Our Vic Masters tour blog will remain active. We will use it to keep you updated as to what we are up to with regard to events and teaching.

Thanks again to those of you who came along. We had such amazingly positive responses from you all. I don't know who had more fun - the teachers or the students!

Happy scrapping!

Heather

Australian Cardmaking, Stamping & Papercraft

Hello there.

I hope you had a great weekend. I did! We had the last official day of our Masters Tour at Werribee on Saturday. They were an awesome bunch of ladies and we had a ball. I'll get some pics together soon. On Sunday I accompanied my die-hard Tigers fan hubby to the footy. There were 95,000 people at the MCG. We didn't win but I still had a blast. What an amazing atmosphere!

To top it off, my copy of Australian Cardmaking, Stamping and Papercraft arrived in the mail today and I've got some cards in it! It's the first time I've submitted cards to a mag and I must say that Emily at ACSP was terrific to deal with.

You can find the website here.

Here are a couple of sneak peeks:

For full instructions on how to make the cards, grab a copy of the mag. It has just been released and should be arriving into the stores any day now.

I hope you can fit in some crafting time soon.

Heather

Family Is.....

Hello everyone.

Were you fortunate enough to be able to spend Fathers' Day with a special dad? I got to spend it with both my hubby and my dad, so I'm doubly lucky! I forgot to take my camera when I visited my dad but luckily I had my phone on hand to record the day. We just had a simple lunch with mum and dad but it made my dad's day.

Of course, when it came time to make a layout for Scrap Everything I had to use this photo! By the way, take a look at Scrap Everything's new blog. Not only does the new design look terrific, Scrap Everything is turning 5 so Katherine's offering 30% off almost everything. This lasts until midnight on Sunday so jump in girls!

I'm using the new 'Family Is' scrapping pack. It's available here. At first I had trouble getting the layout to come together. I was trying to use a busy background paper but every time I tried to add things to it it just looked too cluttered. The paper would be perfect if you want to scrap quickly and just put a photo and an embellishment or two on it. As a Design Team member though, it's my job to do more than this! In the end I ditched the background paper and used plain white cardstock. I could then scrap to my heart's content!

Here's the layout:

The blocks of patterned paper are cut from one of the 12 x 12 papers and I fussy-cut the banner from another one. Yes, that took a bit of time but that's ok - it's fun! I added a few of the buttons. These are soooo easy to use! They are self-adhesive and I'd love to know what adhesive they use cos it's super strong! So it's just a matter of peeling them off and sitting them where you want them. Super easy!

For the background, I sprayed some mist then decorated it with tiny hearts using Sassy Pink Smooch, available here.  I love the applicator tips on Smooch products. They're like a cross between a brush and a felt tipped pen which makes it so easy to create tiny detail. It's perfect for colouring in stamped images.

Here's a close up:

Those cute little chippie banners were included in the button pack and I used the letters from the Combo Stickers sheet to make the word 'Fathers'.

Cheers to all the dads!

Heather

PS - sorry about the black text. I worked out what happened but I can only fix it by re-typing it all. Black text will just have to do for this post!

One Of My Faves

I hope everyone's been having a good week so far. We've been getting some gorgeous sunshine here which is wonderful.

I thought I'd share one of my all-time favourite layouts with you. It was published in Scrapbooking Memories Vol 15, No 12. Here it is:

To create the background on the top portion, I swiped Dylusions behind the photo. I then dropped a few splats around the swipes (highly technical terms here, lol!) then blew the splats through a straw. I then topped them with a rhinestone.

The bottom section is made entirely from Manor House Creations flowers plus some punched leaves. A strip from one of my favourite paper ranges - American Crafts Sketchbook - sits between the sections. I ran ric rac around the edges of the layout which I think looks fab on the layout but makes it almost impossible to crop on the computer!

Here's a close up:

This pic is a wonderful reminder of the first day Leonie, Beck and I met.

In the same mag I had another very floral layout published although this one is in a very different style.

It's a bit hard to see here but this layout is all about the rather good action shots my son took of me sliding down a waterfall. 

And lastly, the Masters Challenge for that month was for Darkroom Door. We had to create something with the Darkroom Door film strip photos that we could use for organising our scrap room. This certainly made us think outside the square! I store my 12 x 12 papers in a cardboard file box so I came up with the idea to use tags to show what each section contained.

I punched a different border along the bottom of each tag and coloured each tag differently. I punched a hole in the centre of the flowers and used a curtain hook to hang the tags from the side of my storage box.

My Workshop Secrets article this month had lots of examples of what I was explaining but no full layouts so there's nothing more to add here, except to say that for those lucky people who found out today that they will be the Masters next year - congratulations! We won't know who they are a for a few months yet but there will be 10 lucky ladies doing happy dances somewhere today!

Happy scrapping!

Heather