Love Life

Hello and welcome back to my blog!

I have a quick and easy layout for you today. This can be made with just a few products.

There is only one piece of patterned paper used on this. I simply tore some off and placed it in the corner, adding a smaller piece in the bottom corner. I drew a few circles by hand then applied texture paste through a stencil and added a few sprays on top. I then added some chippies, most of which I left bare, my photo and journalling. Easy!

Happy scrappin'!


Heather

A Winter Escape

Hi there,

I've just returned from a wonderful holiday in Bali. I'd really like to thank all my followers who kept on commenting on my blog posts even though I often didn't have internet access and couldn't return the favour. I'm honoured you kept the one-way communications alive!

Anyway, I'm back in the connected world now and thought I'd create a front page for my album about our trip. Yes, I went away for 10 days and took over 800 photos! I'm going to need a whole album!

My layout is based on the July sketch at Dusty Attic. Here's the sketch:

And here's my layout:

I've used lots of new Dusty Attic Goodies and plenty of stamping on this. For the title, I cut the 2014 from another title and coated it in Dusty in Colour Jungle Green paint. I coated the Bookman letters in Cranberry paint and the topped them both with a haphazard coat of Gold Nugget Tinby Metallic Melts. The effect this creates reminds me of the old rustic Balinese furniture that you sometimes see.

Here's a close up:

I made the flowers from Dusty Attic's Flower Layers #6. To get that motley effect I first spray painted them with white paint then stamped them Stampin' Up! water-based inks. These inks don't soak into the paint and they show all the texture. The downside is that they re-activate whenever a wet medium touches them so they can be messy to use. I took advantage of this by applying white paint in the centre of the flowers to create that streaky look. I rummaged around the bottom of my flower drawers and found a few flower centres to add to the chippie flowers.
For the smaller flowers, I simply painted them with Alabaster paint then added a light coat of Jungle Green to the centres.

Just as I was making this layout, some brand spanking new chippies arrived and I immediately added them to the page. For both the Page Pebble and the letters I simply stamped them with white ink. This left the recessed pattern as raw chipboard. I love this effect!

All the stamps are from Kaisercraft with the exception of the two smaller butterflies which are Tim Holtz stamps.

Here are the Dusty Attic products I used:

Flower Layers # 6 DA1078

Bookman ABC Set DA0666

2014 Year In Review DA1092

mini Blossoms DA 1090

Page Pebbles #8 DA 1113

mini ABC Tile Set DA1109

Thanks for looking. I can't wait to get stuck into the rest of my holiday pics now!

Happy scrappin'!

Heather

One for my Hubby

Hi there,

To all you people enjoying warm weather at the moment, lap it up while you can. It's soooo cold here now!

Anyway, cold weather is perfect for scrapping so I've been hibernating in the scrap room. I had a wonderfully interesting mix of products to use from Scrap Everything and I've had a lot of fun experimenting with them.

Here's what I came up with:

I received a pack of the Manor House Wood Elements - 'Going Places' which is available here. These are very cute wooden words in circles, kind of like flairs. One of them said 'Epic' so I grabbed a photo that I took last week of my husband when he collected a huge mushroom from our paddock. This was the most epic thing we had seen for a while! Last week, I left the wood elements raw on my layout so this week I decided to paint this one. I also outlined the word in black pen then highlighted it in a Zig Wink of Stella clear pen. It's available here.

What's a Wink of Stella pen I hear you ask. That's what I wondered too. It turns out to be a pen that adds a gorgeous shimmer to whatever it writes on. It comes in colours but this one is clear which means I can add a shimmer to anything without changing the colour of the element. I used the pen on the word 'Epic', my arrows, my chevrons and I added a few simple stars around the page.

Do you like the cool arrow? I made that using a Sizzix Tim Holtz chevron die! It's available here. You can do amazing things with this die! In it's most basic form it cuts out negative and positive chevrons. I chose to cut up the negative shape and made the arrow with it. I then cut a yellow paper with the die and filled in the arrow head with a yellow chevron. The black chevrons were also made with the die.

I outlined the black chevrons with the Wink of Stella pen and coloured the orange/yellow arrow with it.

I hope you get to do a bit of hibernating and scrapping this week.

Happy scrappin'!

Heather

Feeling Nostalgic

Hi there,

I'm back with a new layout for Scrap Everything. I used a gorgeous pic I took while holidaying with my family in Mykonos a few years ago and am feeling very nostalgic. What a fabulous place!

Here's my layout:

Aren't those Manor House Creations Wood Elements stunning? The Memories frame is available here and the stamps are available here. I simply left them raw. I love the natural, rustic look this gives the page.

 

I just cut scraps of paper - nearly all the paper on this layout is Maja paper - to fit the stamps. This is so easy yet very effective.

Scrap Everything are also selling these amazing Tim Holtz framework dies. The one I used here is a chevron but there are other styles available. Framework dies can be used in several ways. They cut both positive and negative shapes and can be linked together to form continuous shapes. In this layout I have used the inside shapes which are standard chevrons. Framework dies are handmade and can cut through paper, material and plastic. The die is available here.

To make the word "Mykonos" I used a stencil to paint it then outlined it in a new Zig Artist Sketching Pen. I love the tip on this - it's perfect for journalling and is available here.

Thanks for dropping in for a look. 

Happy Scrappin'!

Heather

June sketch at Dusty Attic

Hi there,

Whew! It's been a busy week catching up after the expo at Brisbane!

One of my purchases at Brisbane was some Maja papers. I just had to give these a go because some of the girls on the Dusty Attic team are also on the Maja team and I have been admiring these papers for a while so was thrilled when I found them at the expo. Of course, I had to play with them straight away so I used them with my June Dusty Attic sketch.

Here's the sketch:

And here's my layout:

I've used a mix of new release and older chippies on this. The word and Pointer Tags are brand new and the others are all good old faithfuls that I use again and again.

The banner on the balloon is one of the mini Banners and I've painted it in Alabaster and Faded Denim paints. I've used Hot Chocolate paint on the balloon basket.

Aren't the Pointer Tags cool? I love them!

I've used Tinby Metallic Melts on the title and the remaining mini Banners. I used a combination of techniques to get the different effects on the banners. I used two colours - Glistening Snow and First Light - on the title and added Bronze on the banners. First Light has an amazing purple/blue sheen to it when it catches the light. I have coated all the coloured chipboard in Alabaster paint first which gives a great undercoat to work with. And, as always, I used Clear Gloss Varnish to attach the chipboard. It's perfect for the job!

To create the background I used two stencils - A Heidi Swapp and a Crafters Worshop - and sprayed through them with Dusty in Colour paints mixed with water. This is such a great way to get extra use from your paints. It's economical too! I was a bit heavy handed with the Hot Chocolate paint though so I just went over it with some Alabaster and it toned it down beautifully. I then applied ink through a Tim Holtz stencil behind the pics.

Dusty Attic products used:

Word Pack #4 DA1077

Pointer Tags DA1079

Hot Air Balloons DA1055

mini Banners DA 1021

Dusty in Colour Alabaster DA0902

Dusty in Colour Faded Denim DA0913

Dusty in Colour Hot Chocolate DA0923

Dusty in Colour Clear Gloss Varnish DA0901

Happy Scrappin'!

Heather

Big Boys Toys

Hi everyone.

I just have to tell you a bit more about this layout. The semi-circle behind the photo is a flap. It lifts back and reveals more info about the photo.

Here's a peek...

Although it may not seem obvious at first, the background paper is made entirely from stamps. I first stamped the info stamp. I stamped the word "Memory" in orange then the rest in black, locating it in the centre under the flap. I then filled the rest of the background paper using two different script stamps plus a grid stamp. I like the random effect it makes. I also used white ink to stamp the border around the page and used a part of the Tim Holts stamp to add the numbers along the right hand side of the layout.

For something different, I tied knots in string through random holes in the scalloped edge around the semi-circular flap.

I love the juxtoposition of the "rusty" hinges next to the lace. I think the reason it works is that my son is only two years old in the photo. I would have replaced the lace with something else if he had been a lot older.

I hope that answers a few questions!

Heather