Colours of the Rainbow 2

Hi there.

Gosh, so sorry I've been MIA lately. I'm frantically trying to get ready for the Brisbane Scrapbooking Expo. I have the kits ready to go but am still working out what to do for my display. Am working on something now - just hope it turns out as I envisage it!

Meanwhile, I thought I'd share the other two layouts that I made for my article in the current edition of Australian Scrapbook Ideas magazine. I wrote about how to incorporate rainbows into your layouts. I showed you the first layout here. Here are the other two:

Full instructions on how to make these are in the magazine.

If you're going to the expo, drop in and say hi. I'll be teaching in Classroom 7 and demonstrating at the Studio M Designs stand.


Happy scrappin'!

Heather

All the Colours of the Rainbow

Hello again!

In the latest copy of Australian Scrapbook Ideas magazine I have written an article on how to use rainbows as inspiration for your layouts. I really had fun with this one.

Here's one of my layouts:

I love the bright, bold colours on this. All the details on how I made this page are in the magazine. I hope you can read the article!

If you're going to the Brisbane Scrapbooking Expo you'll be able to see this layout in real life as the tutors each have a display there.


Happy scrappin'!

Heather

My 2014 Faves

Hi there!

I enjoy looking through people's favourite works for the year so I try to do this too. It's a great opportunity to reflect on what we do or don't like about our work and I see it as a chance to work out what's good and explore those themes. Things got a bit crazy at the end of last year so I'm doing it at a much more leisurely pace now!

Without further ado, here are my top dozen or so layouts for the year. I try to do 10 but there are always just those few more that I can't do without!

In twelfth place:

"I'm Creative" - a layout I made for Scrappy Chat Designs. I love the words on this - they're so true!

In eleventh place:

I made this for a commission for Australian Scrapbook Ideas. I love the softness of the watercolours and the photo. I didn't take this dreamy pic unfortunately - it was taken by the very talented Shannaya Photo and Video who kindly allowed me to use it.

Tenth:

This one was made for The Dusty Attic. Again a soft, dreamy page. I used heaps of Dusty Attic flowers and paints on this one.

Ninth:

Moving back to the stronger colours is this one using products from Scrap Everything. I made the layout for one of my Workshop Secrets articles I wrote for Scrapbooking Memories magazine. Gotta love brights sprays!

Eighth:

I entered this layout in a 7 Dots challenge. It's loaded with Dusty Attic chipboard and Beck BT's Tinby Designs Metallic Melts. The nuetral colours are unusual for me but I love how this came together.

In equal seventh place:

I have to put these two layouts as an equal placing cos they're the same layout! These are the options I gave people who took my class at the Brisbane Expo. I saw some of the layouts finished by others and they looked fabulous!

Sixth:

This layout was made for an Australian Scrapbook Ideas article on using Beck BT's Tinby Designs Metallic Melts. I love the combination of the ombre Metallic Melts effect with the spray and the edgy photo.

Fifth:

I entered this layout in the Once Upon A Sketch and Scrap Around The World challenges.  Lots of Dusty Attic chippies here!

Fourth:

Another layout from my Metallic Melts article in Australian Scrapbook Ideas magazine. I used the Metallic Melts on wire this time as well as on buttons, cardstock, stamped images and flowers.

Third:

This layout was published in Scrapbooking Memories magazine. The feathers were made using Gelatos through a Crafter's Workshop stencil.

A late addition to this list!

I snuck this extra one in here as it was only made in the last week of the year. I made it for the amazingly talented Jelissa Mei and the very last ever Once Upon A Sketch challenge.

Second:

I made this layout for my first ever DT work for Scrap Around The World. There was a tutorial for this one too. I love those butterflies!

And in first place:

This is one of those layouts that looks better in real life. I love the colours in the background and the depth and textures in the flowers. And the little Balinese girl is gorgeous too! I made this for Once Upon A Sketch. 

It's only now that I've put this list together that I really realise what a loss to our community the closure of Once Upon A Sketch is. These big challenge sites are LOTS of work. Fortunately, there are other good challenge blogs around but we will sorely miss OUAS.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this and that you all have a truly wonderful 2015. May it be a happy, scrappy year to you all!

Heather

It's All About The Metallics

Well hello there! I hope you've been having a good week.

I thought I'd share some layouts that I made for Australian Scrapbook Ideas magazine. My commission was to showcase Beck BT's Tinby Designs Metallic Melts. If you know my work you'll know that I jumped at this one! How perfect was it for me?

Here are two of the layouts I made:

Love This
On this page I used the Metallic Melts on the wire, the buttons, the cardstock heart and the ink splats. To make the large heart at the bottom I just drew it with Glossy Accents then used the Metallic Melts straight on top.

Mr Fix-it

I grunged up all the chipboard pieces on this one using a combination of Metallic Melts colours. It really created a great rusty, antique look.

I hope you caught the magazine - full instructions on how to make these layouts were included.

Happy scrappin'!

Heather

Arty Backgrounds #2

Hi there,

Well the Melbourne Paperific Expo has come and gone and what a fabulous time we had. It was great to see so many familiar faces there and meet many new ones. It was the busiest I've seen for a number of years.

A few weeks ago I showed you some layouts I had published in Australian Scrapbook Ideas magazine. I showed you two layouts that were in my article about Arty Backgrounds and, finally, here are the other two:

This stunning photo was taken by Shanaya Photo and Video. It's way too good to be taken by me! This lady's photography is amazing! This layout was created using watercolour and stamping techniques.

This layout concentrated on reverse stencilling as my arty background technique.

I hope you were able to get the mag as full instructions on how to make these layouts were in there.

Happy Scrappin'!

Heather

On my Soapbox

Well I have something different to talk about today scrappy friends! I often find myself in discussions with people about our wonderful Aussie scrapping magazines. I've been amazed at the number of times lately that people have made comments like, "Oh is that edition out already?" (it came out three weeks ago) or "my local newsagent didn't have any copies left" or "I keep forgetting to buy it".

I'd just like to say one word to all those people - subscriptions!

Subscribing to our mags has soooo many advantages:

• It is usually significantly cheaper - prices can be 30 or 40% of the retail price. Postage is free.
• You can choose to pay more (but still less than you would pay in a shop) and receive amazing freebies. Just keep your eyes open for deals.
• The mag arrives in your letterbox as soon as it's released. Sometimes this is even before the newsagents have it on sale.
• You don't have to remember to drop into the shop for it.
• You will never miss out again!

We are so fortunate in this country to have three wonderful magazines dedicated to our craft. The three are all different to each other but all provide inspiration, info on new products, news in the industry and are full of fabulous ideas.

Here are the links:

Scrapbooking Memories

Click here for online subscriptions or phone 1800-801 647 or email subs@magstore.com.au

Australian Scrapbook Ideas

Click here for online subscriptions or phone 07-3160 9940 

Scrapbook Creations

Click here for online subscriptions or phone 1300-303 414 or email mailorder@universalmagazines.com.au

And to those scrappers in other countries, all of our wonderful mags post overseas. Just contact them to find out if yours is one of the countries they post to.

OK - I'll get off my soapbox now!

Hapy Scrappin'!

Heather

Arty Backgrounds

Hi,

Today I'd like to share some layouts that I had published in Issue 27 of Australian Scrapbook Ideas magazine.

I wrote an article about creating arty backgrounds and this layout is full of backgrounds techniques! I have a step by step guide on how I made it in the magazine.

Here are some close ups:

The second layout in the article made the front page of the magazine! Woot!

I used some interesting layering techniques on this background. Again, full instructions are in the magazine. I hope you got to have a look!

I also have an article in the current edition of the magazine using the amazing Tinby Designs Metallic Melts. There are heaps of other interesting articles in there too. All projects have full instructions. You can't ask for more than that!

Happy Scrappin'!

Heather

I'm a Cover Girl!

I have some exciting news - I made the cover of Australian Scrapbook Ideas magazine! Woohoo! The layout on the cover is taken from my Masterclass article on creating arty backgrounds.

I hope you get to read the magazine. There are so many great projects in there with full instructions, tips and ideas. Issue 27 has just been released now.

If you would like to learn how I create layouts and you're heading to the Brisbane Scrapbooking Expo, you could join in one of my classes.

Class info is available here.

Here's a sneak:

Happy Scrappin'!

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

ASI A4 Feature

Hi everyone,

As promised on my last blog, I have tried not to leave it so long between posts this time!

I recently had my first feature in Australian Scrapbook Ideas magazine. The brief was to use A4 papers on 12 x 12 layouts. I was also supposed to keep the A4 papers intact on as many layouts as possible which I found surprisingly hard!

By far my favourite layout of them all was the one where I cut the A4 papers up completely and made stitched circular embellishments with them. Here it is.

This is my bestie. We've been besties for so many years now I don't remember how many! We love going out together and have such a great time. This event was a 60s night and the colours of the costumes were brilliant. I wanted to capture all the psychedelic groovin' that was happening that evening!

I also made another layout of the same evening, this time of the four of us who went together. We were originally supposed to go with our hubbies but a couple of them couldn't make it so the others pulled out. More fool them  as it was such a great night! This group of girls are a blast!

Again, I tried to capture all that groovy 60s knock-your-socks off colour. It was just coincidence that we all had hired long white boots so I had to make a feature of this. The fact that I could use the words to "These boots were made for walkin'" was the icing on the cake.

For a complete change of subject I then chose to scrap about a funny thing my son said. Here's the layout:

My son has a great sense of humour. I was actually looking for a formal photo to go with this A4 paper but I found this photo when I was looking. I thought it suited perfectly! I had fun making the formal shirt on the left of the layout. I wrote my journalling on the handkerchief then tucked it in the pocket. Here's a close up:

 And last but not least is a layout of my mum and her sisters. I fussy cut the flowers in the A4 paper so they formed a floral frame around the ladies. Can anyone work out which is the famous Aunty Shirley from my last blog?

Thanks so much for looking. I hope you all have a great week.

Heather

PS - Shirley's second from the left.

A Day in Paris

It's a cold and miserable day in our part of the world. It's good scrapping weather though!

Here's a mini album I made for my parents after their first trip to Europe. They loved Paris so much that I wanted to make a special keepsake for them. This album has just been published in the most recent edition of Australian Scrapbook Ideas ( Issue 15).

I used Prima's "Agenda" paper from the Almanac collection as the base for the book. This paper is a series of journaling blocks which were the perfect size for this album. Here's the front cover:

Each page is a bit less than 4 x 3 inches so there's not a lot of room for details. I used stamping to add interest and depth without bulk and kept embellies flat.

As a cute extra twist, I converted the photos to sepia then used a violet filter over them. This gave them just a tinge of pink which suited both the photos and the theme beautifully. Here are some pages:

I enjoy these tiny projects. They're so much fun!

Heather