Our First Mini Challenge!

Welcome back! I'm so excited to present our very first Mini Challenge at More Than Words! This challenge is a little different.

First, here's what I made. It's an Artist Trading Card:

This is such a tiny project. An ATC only measures 3.5 x 2.5 inches. I really enjoyed working on this size though. It was such an enjoyable challenge!

I used Silks on the background then layered my favourite Dusty Attic stencil over the top then added Metallic Melts onto a Dusty Attic chipboard butterfly.

The challenge this month is to use the word 'Be' somewhere on a card, tag or ATC. Here's the challenge board:

Before you enter, please check out our reveal post and an explanation of the challenge here. You only have one week to enter and you must load your entry onto the relevant post on our Facebook page. This challenge is designed to be quick and fun!

I sure hope you can join us.

Happy scrappin'!

Heather

Dusty in August

Hello!

It's been so cold and wintery here that I'm more than happy to be scrapping a bright, sunny layout. At least I can look at it and pretend it's warm!

My layout today is for the stunning mood board at The Dusty Attic. The mood boards are always sooo beautiful. Here's the board for August:

See what I mean about them being so beautiful? Here's what I made:

I took my inspiration from the yellow grass in the photo and the rural setting. I remembered this photo I took once of a beautiful paddock of canola in full flower. A decade or so ago you would never see canola around my area, but now it's quite common.

Now although I adore purple Jacaranda trees, I am not a fan of scrapping with purple. I wasn't going to use it all but I did manage to sneak a bit onto the background and, I'm pleased to say, the layout was better for it!

I absolutely love the circular frame chipboard and I use it quite a bit. It's called Decorative Frame #1. I coated it, plus two small Polaroid Frames with gesso then topped them with a coat of Silks to give them a limewashed look. I painted up some Tile Alphas and layered them on top to form part of my title.

Can you see the tiny birds on there? They're some of the mini Birds on a Wire. The rest of the piece is on the other side of the layout. I also painted up some Foliage #4 with Sunshine paint and tucked them under the photo.

Here are the Dusty Attic products I used:

Polaroid frames DA 0932

Decorative Frame #1 DA 0207

Foliage #4 DA 1294

Tile ABC Set DA 1119

Mini Birds on a Wire DA 1173

Dusty in Colour Sunshine DA 0905

Dusty in Colour Clear Gloss Varnish DA 0901

I used the Clear Gloss Varnish as an adhesive. It's the best adhesive ever!

Happy scrappin'!

Heather McMahon

It's Challenge Time!

Hello and welcome back to my blog!

I love entering online challenges but sadly, I find my other scrappy commitments often prevent me from having enough time to just indulge. Recently though, I had a scrappy night to spare so I checked out a few favourite challenge sites. I found three that really inspired me so I thought I'd give them all a go! Here's my layout:

To make the background on this, I first applied Silks to a sponge brush and swirled it down the page. I added some orange to a couple of places on the brush for the swipes below the photo. I've become a bit of a Silks addict and am loving experimenting with this gorgeous product.

I then cut a couple of strips of 7 Dots paper, punched the edge of one, and painted them with the Silks. I drew a light pencil line where I wanted my large flourish to go then I stitched it, adjusting my stitch width as I went. It looks pretty cool I think!

The thing I really liked about these challenges is that they allowed me to create a layout that really means something to me. We recently went on a holiday and met some amazing people and I wanted to write about how meeting great people like these is such an important part of travelling.

I took a Dusty Attic Large Number Panel and trimmed it to fit my photo. I painted it white and used it as a frame. I like the numbers peeking out from behind the pic.

The challenges I'm entering are:

Scrapki-Wyzwaniowo

The challenge this month is Typesetting - incorporate letters or numbers into your project. I used letter stickers and words cut from papers to create my journalling and incorporated numbers as a photo frame.


Mixed Media Place

The challenge is to use a special word. Travel is an important part of my life and I relished the opportunity to explain one of the many reasons why I love it so much.
Products that I used in my layout are:
Silks - Apricot Nectar
Silks - African Jade
7 Dots paper - Destination Unknown
7 Dots paper - Thoughts Keeper


Words & Paintery

I love the colours on this one and my beach photo worked perfectly with the theme. We were just chilling on the beach watching the sunset. Aaaahhhh.....


Happy scrappin'!


Heather

A Seaside Scrap Around The World

Hello and welcome back!

It's August (the last month of winter - yay!) and the new mood board is up at Scrap Around The World. This is a soft, beachy, vintage mood board, perfect for the warm days the northern hemisphere are currently experiencing. Fortunately, it's also a time when we southerners go on holidays to escape the cold so I also have some very recent beach photos!

Firstly, here's the mood board:

And here's what I made:

Obviously, I was very inspired by the top two photos of the mood board. I managed to get a photo of a bike on a beach with footprints and the sea lapping at the sand. I also got the word 'explore' in there as that's exactly what we were doing!

I love accentuating the open space feel of photos like these. I did this by extending the photo across the whole page. I used different mediums to create different effects. The sky is made with watercolours. These are perfect for wispy skies. The sea is made with Silks. These have a little more body than watercolours and add a subtle glimmer. The sand is made with a mix of Dusty Attic paints, Whipped Spackle and a touch of Silks. I stippled the mix on with the end of a brush to give a sandy look. If you look closely you'll see I used paints to extend the footprints and the bike tracks.

The red heart and some of the flowers are from a pack I received ages ago from Two Sisters Scrapbooking. It's a pretty cool pack!

PRIZES

Each month Scrap Around the World offers10 MERIT BASED PRIZES, 1 random prize & 1 follower's prize so 12 PRIZES PER MONTH!

All winners must be official Google Friend Connect Followers of the SATW blog {see the SATW's sidebar - top left - to sign up!}

One random winner is chosen from all the entries, but please remember that to be eligible for this, you MUST upload your entry to the SATW Facebook page HERE! The other random prize is for one lucky COMMENTER so no need to even enter a project for this prize! Just leave some comment encouragement on any of the SATW 7 monthly blog posts right HERE!

ALL PRIZES ALWAYS INCLUDE FREE INTERNATIONAL POSTAGE!!

1st PRIZE
$50 worth of chipboard from 2Crafty Chipboard
{image below is for illustration purposes & may not reflect exactly what you will receive}

2ND PRIZE
$35 value Googie Bag of die-cut chipboard from Scrapiniec




3rd PRIZE
Prize package valued at $30 from 7 Dots Studio {exactly as shown below}




4th PRIZE
$25 worth of products from 13@rts
{image below is for illustration purposes & may not reflect exactly what you will receive}




5th PRIZE
$20 gift certificate from Creative Embellishments




6th PRIZE
$15 gift voucher from Mixed Media Place




7th PRIZE
17.50 Euros worth of products from Danafix, France.

8th PRIZE
$15 gift certificate from Studio75




9th PRIZE
15 Euros worth of products from Scrap-Unlimited
{image below is for illustration purposes & may not reflect exactly what you will receive}




10th PRIZE
Over $15 worth of scrapbooking supplies from Design Team member Karine Gagnon {Canada}
{exactly as shown below}




RANDOM PRIZE
Scrapbook kit from Scraps of Elegance Kit Club
{The random winner will receive the June 2015 kit valued at $36.95}




RANDOM FOLLOWERS PRIZE
$50 gift certificate from The Dusty Attic




The deadline for this challenge is Monday August 31st 2015.
I hope you will join us at Scrap Around The World!!

Happy scrappin'!

Heather

A Scrap Around The World Tutorial

Hello there! I'm very excited to be sharing with you my photo tutorial in our Design Team 'Moment To Shine' series at Scrap Around The World. I used our current challenge here as my inspiration.

Here's the mood board:

I was inspired firstly by those pink steps in the mood board. They immediately reminded me of the gorgeous steps everywhere on the Greek Islands &, as I have a gazillion photos of these places, I thought it was a great opportunity to scrap them. I was also inspired by the amazing blues in the flower pic.

Here's what I made:

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1. Stamp a few background stamps onto a good quality cardstock, using StazOn ink so it won't run when water is applied. Draw a few rough circles with pencil.





2. Paint inside the circles with the Silks. Add a little water to the Silks first for a more transparent look & easier application.





3. Spray a very light spray of water over the area you want to colour. Take pinches of Magicals (use gloves if you don't want to stain your hands) & sprinkle them across the wet parts of the page. Spray another very light spray on top of the Magicals. The areas coloured with Silks will slightly repel the water & Magicals, letting the circles show through.





4. Stamp a small flourish onto a few places on the background with embossing ink & apply silver Metallic Melts. Heat to set.





5.If your background has buckled, place it under a heavy weight to flatten it while you
work on the embellishments. Paint the Dusty Attic chipboard flourish with gesso & let dry.





6. Paint the Dusty Attic chipboard title with gesso then paint or ink the top half with blue. Add blue Metallic Melts to the top half only and heat to set.





7. Drop silver and blue metallic threads across the page and glue down the photo, title and chipboard flourish. These will anchor the thread in place.





8. Add a variety of blue and silver bling, write in your journalling and ink the edges of the page with blue ink. Your layout is done!

The more water you use, the more the Magicals will blend together. Try varying the amount of water you use on different areas for interesting effects.

Small details like bling & Metallic Melts can make such a big impact.




On a busy or eye-catching background, you sometimes don't need too many embellishments. A gorgeous flourish & title are all that's needed on this layout.




The products I used:




Supplies List

Cardstock - Core'dinations Heavyweight
Chipboard - The Dusty Attic - Wrought Iron Design Set & Dusty Curls ABC Set
Embossing Powder - Tinby Designs Metallic Melts - Blue & Silver
Acrylic Glaze - Silks - African Jade
Magicals - Lindy's Stamp Gang - Tibetan Poppy Teal
Gesso - Derivan Matisse
Inks - VersaMark Watermark, ColorBox & StazOn
Stamps - Pink Paislee, Kiasercraft & Bo Bunny
Bling - Bella!, Paper Xtra & Kaisercraft
Thread - Gutterman Metallic
Pen, Pencil

Remember - there are only 7 days left to enter this month's challenge!

To be in with a chance to win 1 of our 11 amazing prizes you'll need to be quick!

You can find the challenge details HERE.

A 7 Dots Challenge

Hello again. I don't know how I've done it but I somehow managed to find time to enter a challenge! I've been busting to give the 7 Dots challenge a go for ages and I've finally done it!

The challenge this month is to use the phrase 'Time Flies" as your inspiration. You can find the challenge here. Here's the Inspirational Circle:

And here's what I created:

I've gone for a funky look on this one using papers from the Destination Unknown and Thoughts Keeper ranges.  The page is about how my daughter keeps changing her hair colour. To me, it shows how fast time is flying when she seems to have a different hair colour every time I see her. The journalling reads, "....Time flies.... So many hair colour options, so little time....Time flies...."

I have been collecting bar code strips from 7 Dots papers for a while and had fun using them on this page. I cut out the colourful dots and formed a row of them which I added under a punched edge to give my page a lift. On the far left, I used a whole strip as part of my design for an interesting feature. I liked the "Destination Unknown" name on it as that describes my daughter perfectly!

The title runs from the top of the photo to the bottom.

The butterfly, the Polaroid frame, the leaves and the alphas are all from The Dusty Attic. I coated the alphas, the leaves and the butterfly in Beck BT's Tinby Designs Metallic Melts. I love that grungy, chunky look it adds to my work. I painted the Polaroid frame black and wound metallic thread around parts.

I added Magicals to the background and stamped hearts which I coloured with Silks. I also used Silks to colour the circles behind the photo and along the journalling line.

Happy scrappin'!

Heather