I've Gone "Off The Rails"!

Hi there. I have some exciting news - I've joined the Off The Rails Scrapbooking design team!

Off The Rails is a fabulous site. Several times a week, design team members post tutorials on all sorts of things. The hints, tips and information on this site are amazing!

It's also a challenge site with some gorgeous mood boards to work with and fabulous prizes to be won. I hope you can pop over for a look on the blog here. Their Facebook page is here.

There is a brand new mood board for February, put together by the amazingly talented Fiona Paltridge. Isn't it luscious?

I couldn't resist the photo of the Eiffel Tower. I found a photo of my family taken from a similar position and put a filter over it to turn it a bit pink. I couldn't make it as pink as the photo in the mood board or we would have all started looking like strawberries! I also used that gorgeous turquoise colour and picked up the word 'Awesome' for my title.

Here's what I made:

I'll be back another day to show you a complete step by step on how I made this layout. I hope you can pop by!

Happy scrappin'!

Heather

I'm on the Cover!

Hello all,

Firstly I'd like to thank everyone who kept in touch while I was both on holidays and without a computer. My computer sadly decided it didn't want to go on holidays with me and had a little hissy fit. It's now all fixed though and I'm back online!

After our holidays I had to stock up at my local Coles supermarket and was thrilled to find my layout on the cover of Scrapbooking Memories magazine there! I had already bought the magazine while on holidays but it's another thing to see it in your own local store.

And yes - I made my son take a photo of me is the supermarket aisle!

Happy scrappin'!

Heather

Sit Back, Relax and Breathe....

Well the school holidays are winding up here in Australia and I've had a very relaxing time. I hope you got a break too!

I'm in that relaxed, holiday mode so I thought I'd share a holiday pic. This one was taken on a previous holiday but there's still that same relaxed feeling about it. Because it's holiday time here, the team at Scrappy Chat Designs thought it would be a good time to show you how you can use up the leftovers from your various kits.

I went back to the Sea Breeze kit but also added some items from a number of other kits. Here's a sneak of what I came up with:

For all the details, head over to the Scrappy Chat Designs blog here.

Happy scrappin'!

Heather

A Tranquil Time

Hello there! I'm back with you today with my layout which was inspired by the brand new and very fabulous inspiration board at The Dusty Attic. You can find the challenge on the blog here and products available on the website here.

Here's the inspiration board. Isn't it gorgeous? Don't forget that you can win a $100 prize from Dusty Attic just by making a project using Dusty Attic chipboard and using any of these pictures, colours or words as your inspiration! I hope you can enter!

And here's what I made:

I was inspired by the beautiful water photo and the word 'tranquility'. I wasn't intentionally using the colour scheme but I ended up with many of the colours anyway!

This is a photo that I took on one of my walks around a nearby lake one day. I don't know what happened but my phone somehow converted this photo into that vintage look all by itself! I loved it and always had it in mind to scrap when the right inspiration struck. When I saw this mood board I knew it was time to get this pic out!

I used distressed cardboard and strips of paper that I had previously worked on as my background then added all my chippie on that. I spray painted my title with gold Heidi Swapp Color Shine then used Denim Dusty In Colour paint just on the lower section for a more eye-catching title.

I sprayed the chippie branch with the gold paint first then painted over it with various Dusty In Colour paints. I love that Dusty paints go over just about anything!

Don't you just adore that chippie house on the left of the photo? This comes in a pack of different shaped houses and I love them! Of course, the stunning flowers are Dusty's too!

Here are the Dusty Attic products I used:

Vine Frames #1 DA 1191

Word Pack #5 DA1046

Main Street DA0408

Branch #4 DA1182

Dusty in Bloom Smokey Blue DA0802

Dusty in Bloom Bridal Veil DA0805

Dusty in Colour paints - Denim, Gingernut, Oceania, Jungle Green and Forrest.

Thanks for dropping in for a look!

Happy scrappin'!

Heather 

The Art of Gift-Giving

Hello. I thought I'd share with you some ideas that might help you through those times of year when all the birthdays seem to happen at once.

I bought some gift cards to give to some family members recently and was wondering how I could present them nicely to their recipients. Then I though of my gorgeous Dusty Attic products and my problem was solved!

Here's what I made:

Can you see the gift cards? They're tucked into pockets on the front of the cards.

The darker card was made with a young male in mind, hence the grunginess. I started with a clothing tag as my base for the pocket and stitched a diagonally cut piece of paper onto it to slide the gift card into. The chippie word 'Dude', the barbed wire and the spark plug were all treated with Gelatos and Beck BT's Tinby Designs Metallic Melts in a similar way to that which I described in a previous post here.  Isn't that chippie font so cool?

The background was made using texture paste through a stencil then adding some sprays.

The female card was much harder to make because I already had the gift card and it was hot pink. Eeek! I teamed it up with some stunning Websters Pages paper and kept the embellishments pretty rather than grungy. I love these new Dusty Attic titles.

Here are the products I used:

Word Pack #6

Barb Wire #2

Spark Plugs

Stars #3

mini Stars

Word Pack #7

Branch #4 small

Flutterbies #3

mini Hearts #2

I hope this has inspired you to add a personal touch to your gift-voucher giving this year! Don't forget you can buy Dusty Attic products online now here.

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

Playing with the Fun & Free Kit!

Hello there!

I hope you're getting a bit of a break at this time of year. I've had some time off and have had heaps of fun scrapping in that time!

I've been playing with the new 'Fun & Free' kit from Scrappy Chat Designs. Oh I love the papers in this kit! There are also alcohol inks in it and I've been like a child with a new toy!

Here's a sneak of what I made.

For all the details head over to the Scrappy Chat Designs blog here.


Happy scrappin'!

Heather