Crazy For You

Hi everyone,

I hope your Christmas was wonderful and that you're all relaxed and just enjoying it all now.

In between shopping and wrapping I've been scrapping with the new kit from Scrappy Chat Designs. This kit is a beauty! I love the colours in the papers and I've had heaps of fun with the paperclay.

First up, I have a very clean layout (well, it is for me anyway!) This is a photo of my gorgeous nephew, Archie.

Aww, just look at that face! I can't remember why he looked like that but it was just something minor. And yes, the pic is slightly out of focus. But it clearly showed his expression so I decided to use it anyway.

I had a lot of fun layering those pieces from the kit around the photo. The two 'frames' are actually just the paper from around the 'Rough and Tumble' ticket and the journalling block. I used a punch to punch out some star shapes that were on the papers and I cut out tickets and zigzags to create that clean, crisp look. There are lots of words on the tickets and papers and many of them were so appropriate to Archie's rough and tumble personality.

Those of you who have the kit might be wondering why I've got four of that particular Dusty Attic arrow chippy on there when you didn't get four. Well I didn't get four of that particular arrow either! What I did get though was the negative shape the chippes were in so I took out my paperclay that came with the kit and pressed it into the negative shapes. When they were dry I removed them and painted them. This is a great way to make your own shapes.  You can use anything that gives you a shape but it needs to be around the thickness of chippy to work well. Have a look through your stash and see what you can find.

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all a healthy, happy and scrappy 2014. Thank you all so much for your support and wonderful comments throughout the year. Blogging forges a special connection between us crazy scrappers which I very much appreciate.

Ho ho ho!
Heather

A Year in Review

Well, it's the end of another year - and what a year it's been for me! I've had an amazing scrappy journey this year! I've had so much fun being a Master, writing my article for Scrapbooking Memories magazine, working on design teams, teaching and touring. I hope your scrapping has continued to bring you enjoyment.

I thought I'd celebrate the end of the year with a post of my favourite layouts. I like seeing these posts on other people's blogs so I hope you enjoy this one. These layouts were all made and/or published in 2013. I tried to limit myself to ten layouts but I ended up going for an even dozen!

Without further ado, here they are.

In twelfth place:

I made this for my DT work with Scrap Everything. It's a simple page but I really love it. Maybe that's because it's a really nice photo of dad and I. I kept the page reasonably simple to keep the focus on that photo.

In eleventh place:

'Christmas Star' is in the current edition of Scrapbooking Memories magazine in my Workshop Secrets article. I know I'm a little early posting this one but the next mag is almost due.... I love the exuberant photos of my beautiful niece and the recycled Christmas decorations came together so well on this page.

And in tenth position:

This is also a very current layout. It's my entry for the December White With 1 challenge. The story behind it is quite funny - you can read it here. I love these gorgeous pics of my son when he was only two years old.

In ninth place:

This was my first Masters Challenge for the year and I loved how this turned out.

In eighth place:

I made this for my DT work for Manor House Creations.. I love the white on white and the clean look it creates. Pity I photographed it against a not-so-white background!

In seventh place:

I certainly like a mix of styles - this is sooo different from the layout before it! This was made for my Guest DT spot at The Scrapbook Store. I really enjoyed my month of designing for them. This layout was for the sketch challenge.

In sixth position:

This is also in the current edition of Scrapbooking Memories. Sometimes, it's not hip to be square (with regards to layout shapes that is!)

In fifth place:

This is a layout from earlier in the year but I still love it. It was one of my earlier experiments with Dylusions sprays and I'm still addicted to them!

In fourth place:

I made this for Once Upon A ..... Sketch, an online challenge site. I love the way that they put the accent on journalling on this site and the sketches are wonderful to work with.

In third place:

Ok, it's an awful photo of me but I love the layout! This was another play with Dylsuions as well as Manor House Creations flowers. I like the fact that it's a bit different.

And in second spot:

I think I've only ever made two layouts with Leonie in them and they're both in my top 3! I had to use Leonie's pic in this one cos I scraplifted her watercolour technique to make this page. I took the photo at the Manor House retreat a couple of months ago and made the page there as well so this one will always remind me of the fantastic weekend we had!

And, my very favourite, in the number one position:

This is one of my favourite pics of my daughter and I was so glad to use it on a layout I was so happy with. The layout was published recently in Scrapbooking Memories magazine.

So there are my faves for the year! Why not take a look at what you've created and share it on your blog? It's interesting to go back and pore over older layouts and see how much your style has or hasn't changed.

Cheers.

Heather

White with Bananas!

I have a funny story to tell. I've been participating in the White With 1 challenges over the last few months and it has become a bit of a standing joke that I use the colour somehow in the layout, not just as a colour but as something else. For example, when the colour was watermelon, I used a photo of my daughter eating a watermelon and made watermelon 'slices' as a background. The next month was blueberry, so I made a layout titled 'Under Blueberry Skies'.

I couldn't believe it when this month's colour came up - it's banana. You see I have this collection of photos that sits on my desk, ready to be scrapped. Some are favourite older pics that I haven't scrapped yet, some are new ones that I've printed off as options for other projects then not used them. Among those photos are some gorgeous ones of my son when he was 2 years old. He was talking on a banana phone! Yep - I had to do it!

Here's my layout:

I used some of my new Heidi Swapp purchases for the first time. I haven't even unpacked from doing Heidi's class last month yet! I used her stencil and some Colorshine to create the sunburst pattern. I then layered up the background with stamps, rub ons and cotton thread. I painted the chipboard sun and cloud, the first letters of the title and the little squares in the stamped pattern with acrylic paint. I like this effect of random yellow squares in the grid pattern.

Here are some close ups:

My journaling:

And another closie:

I hope you can have a go at the White With 1 challenge this month. I love the effects I can achieve using these limited, but very interesting, colour palettes.

Happy scrappin'

Heather

A Claytons Christmas Layout

Hi there!

I confess, you probably have to be over 40 and Australian to understand the title of this blog post. To those who aren't both of those, Claytons was (and is it still?) a non- alcoholic drink that advertised itself as being 'the drink you have when you're not having a drink'. Well this is the layout you make with Christmas papers when you're not making a Christmas layout!

This is my third layout for this month's kit for Scrappy Chat Designs. The kit is a Christmas themed one, but my challenge was to make a non-Christmas layout with it. After all, don't we all end up with all those Christmas papers that we don't know what to do with for the rest of the year?

So here's my non-Christmas layout using the Christmas range of Simple Stories papers:

For those of you who are regular followers of my blog, yes that is my daughter on the left. She has dyed her hair black!

When you're using a themed paper range for a different purpose, look for the more general papers or even sections of papers that you can utilise. I cut out sections of papers about 3 x 4 inches that didn't include specific Christmas items. I then decorated each piece, rounded the corners and inked and stitched the edges. Here's a closie of one piece:

I used scraps to make the banner and to decorate the individual sections. On some I added punched borders or flowers and cut shapes such as hearts and arrows. The Liquid Pearls from the kit made great flower centres and added a bright touch as well.

The chipboard flourish was lots of fun to play with. I first applied VersaMark ink to the flourish part only then covered this lightly with Metallic Melts. I heated this to create that gorgeous beaten copper effect. Metallic Melts aren't quite available commercially yet but you can inquire here in the meantime. I then painted the title section and, when it was dry, added a light layer of VersaMark again and sprinkled a very light layer of Metallic Melts on this section. I heated this so I just got that sprinkled effect. I then stuck my title on top.

My letter stickers really didn't like sticking to the uneven surface that I created so I had to glue them down with Helmar 450 glue. They took a bit of convincing but they stuck in the end!

Here's a closie of the effect the Metallic Melts created when I used them in the method described above.

That's all from me today. See you soon.

Heather

Let it Snow

Hi there,

I hope your week has been a good one and you're on top of the demands of the crazy season.

I've had fun scrapping with the November kit from Scrappy Chat Designs. I had these great photos of my family discovering the snow machine last Christmas Eve when we were out looking at the Christmas lights. My son and I knew the machine was there so we planted my unsuspecting parents underneath it. The machine started up and covered mum, dad and Connor in 'snow'. It was really funny. I had so many photos that I decided to go for a double page layout. I added two sheets of white cardstock for the double page background but, apart from that, everything is from the kit.

And here are the two pages individually cos it's a bit hard to see details on a double page:

OK - so here's how I made the "Let it snow" background.

Firstly, I cut the words 'Let it snow' from an old piece of thick paper using my Cricut machine. It doesn't matter what you use to cut the letters - all you need is the negative shape of your chosen letters. These can even be the shapes left over from letter stickers (just add some talcum powder to the back to stop the letters sticking). I then used clear VersaMark ink through the stencil before I applied the grey Pan Pastel from the kit on top of that using a make-up sponge. The VersaMark helps anchor the Pan Pastel to the page.

I applied the Pan Pastel unevenly to create a bit of depth and interest to my words.  I placed the words where I wanted them, keeping in mind that a lot of the background would be covered with photos and embellies. The words can be placed as randomly or as evenly as you like. On a double page, ensure at least one word crosses the two pages to help link them together. When I had finished, I sprayed the background lightly with hair spray to seal the Pan Pastels. It also made my page smell lovely!

I then built my layout on top of the background, letting enough words peek out so the saying was instantly recognisable. I also added the same words using the letters stickers for the title. The saying/song title is so appropriate to this page that I really wanted to accentuate it.

I fussy-cut quite a few items from the papers to create my embellies and stapled the string across the two pages. I glued the string in place where I had to cut it at the join. One of the postcards made a perfect journaling block. My mum's name is Joy so I couldn't resist adding the 'Peace, Love, Joy' words under my pics. I punched some snowflakes from the paper as well.

If you're one of the lucky people with this kit I really hope you have lots of fun with it.

Cheers for now,

Heather