Scrapbooking - believe

I love purple and decided I just had to use this fantastic paper.  Creative imaginations paper is just fantastic.  I firstly painted the little chipboard fairy with lumiere paint, then silver embossed her wings and dress. I also painted the word believe.   I placed a piece of bazill purple cardstock across the middle of both pages.  I then added some purple and silver organza type material over the top.  I mounted the photos on the left over bazill, so just a small frame was showing.  I added lilac brads to the corners of each of the photos and mounted them.  I painted some black cardstock silver, then i put it through the cuttle bug using the fluer di lis spellbinders cutter.  I then sanded them so i got a really metallic like piece. I added to the top of one photo and the bottom of the other on each page,  I then cut up a kaiser wooden flourish and painted the pieces silver.  I made some flowers out of cardstock and some left over purple paper.  I made five different sized circles and set them off centre, I layered them together with a brad holding them in place.  I scrunched the flowers pieces up, and then inked the edge with chalk ink.  I made some leaves again from left overs and agin I inked them, and then mounted the flowers, flourish pieces, made leaves and some real dried purple leaves on the page.   I used kaiser purple bling to add a sparkle on the page pattern.    

Scrapbooking - I'm a little teacup

 Aly, Sidney and Alexandra at Dreamworld in Australia on the teacup ride.  
I knew the moment i saw the Kaiser teacup embelishments that they would go with these photo's perfectly.
Also the Craftco paper that i have used with the pink vertical stripes matched the verticle stripes on the photo
So using two if each of two different craftco papers I cut them in half horizontally.  Then I joined two of the opposite papers together, to make a 30x30 page again.  I used the stripes on the top of the page because i knew that I would soften it laters with words and embellishments.  This gave me a base for a double page layout.  I matt the photos on pink bazill cardstock, and then used a strip of the same colour across the join of the two pages.  Next I added some ribbon that has pearls on it over the top of the bazill across the middle of the two pages.  I used Kaiser wooden teapot and teacup embellishments painted pink and edged with pink chalk, and layed them matching on each page, I used kaiser pink bling to make it look as though I was pouring tea into the teacup.  I aso used bling on both teapots. 
Then I used flowers to soften the page, which I also rubbed with the matching chalk from the teapots and cups.  I added spellbinders flourishes in pink to the flowers and then a large bling int he centre of the flowers.  I cut out a heart from white cardstock, and used a cuttlebug script embossing folder to add dimension, which I edged witht he chalk again, and rubbed ever so gently over the top of the script writing. I also did a plainer heart with out the emblossing, and added a peelcraft butterfly which I mounted on pink leftover cardstock and attached to the heart, pulling the wings up, to look as though she is flying.  Then I cut out Im  a little teapot, yes the photo I forgot the ' part. And layed this across both pages.         
 

Off the oage - Mini canvas art

Mini Canvas Art
Here is a piece of art I completed a while ago.  I took a basic noughts and crosses board, painted it black, and covered with black and white paper.  I actually recycled this from a project I did years ago.  I added white rubons to the black board.
I painted 9 canvases (4x4) in lime green, hmmm why not purple I asked myself, but it screamed at me lime green, so lime green it is.  I have been collecting odd bits and pieces that I thought represented me and everything I like.  This took a while to do, I also tried to find things that were just a bit random. 
I started canvas 1 with a Kiwi theme, a chipboard kiwi, and NZ letters, and a small chipboard NZ, and a clock.
2nd felt flowers, and a key and the word dream. 
3rd Imagine, well the name of the shop and a compass, always changing direction.
4th a chipboard camera, acetate travel,  and a few rubons
5th Family, always the centre of everything for me, and a camera, bug and butterfly brads.
6th  angels, torso and bling.
7th, chipboard tree, added kindy glitz, a piece of jewellery i found, a cooking rubon.
8th a flourish, button, rubons and a boach piece. 
9th key made from embossing powder melted, a bag, rubons and bling of course.
the trick with this is to ensure that you only use minimal colour for the embellishments, here i pretty much only used black, and then added a small bit of silver where needed.     

off the page project - christmas advent calendar

Christmas Advent calendar
Yes it is that time of the year, so i htought we should have a christmas blog today.
Using a kaiser advent calender kit, I put it all together, before I painted it all. I papered the boxes in different christmas papers. In the centre of the box I put the wonderful house paper, which i added a ...few touches of kindy glitz to add a sparkle. The numbers were painted green and red, and then kindy glitz added to make it very glitterey. I used darkroom door words to add interest to the drawers, and added lots of little embellishments like christmas trees and rubons. The top piece of the calendar, dusty attic chipboard santas sleigh and reindeer are all painted and bling added to make it shine. I used kaiser black pearls to add reins to the reindeer. The little houses have rubons, as well ask kindy glitz snow. I added little a little fake christmas tree, and its. done. Merry christmas.

Off the page proejct - kaiser star wreath

Star Wreath
Using a Kaiser star wreath base I painted it blue.  Paint all the sides and the back if you are going to hang it somewhere that you will see the back.  I covered the front of the stars with Bobunny paper, I enjoyed using the blue as apposed to traditional christmas colours.  I wanted it to be used all year round. 
i then glued all the stars on to the ring (supplied).  I used a mixture of staple gun and hot glue gun depending if the star was being seen.  I also used a good wood glue to hold if the glue from the glue gun didn't (which happens quite a bit.  But i wanted to carry on decorating so it is easier to use the glue gun for that purpose. 
I added shaped bling swirls to add a purple touch (if you don't know that i like purple you do now.) I added purple kaiser bling dots as well. 
I added scrap fx words believe, dream and inspire painted purple to stand out.
Then I added ribbon to hang it, and then some strands down the bottom as well.   A couple of flowers for extra depth and its done.

off the page project - extraordinary

Fairy frame
Using the twiddleybitz frame I have put it together as per instructions.
I then sprayed it with Crafty Notions colour spray (similar to Glimmer mist).
I used a paper tole fairy for the inside of the aperture, which i covered with acetate. 

My friend Aandrea game me the metal angel wings, they were earrings but she knew that I would use them in a craft project somewhere.  I added a delish metal adhesive to the middle of the wings, and added a sticker with the word extraordinary.  I added a pearl square beaded ribbon as a border of the frame.  I added two flowers with metal brads from delish, I used leftover flowers from the paper tole fairy to add colour at the bottom of the frame, and a sticker.  Purple kaiser bling around the edge of the whole frame to add a bit more colour.  Chanderlair beads that I had from an old broken light were added to the bottom, and a feather to adda touch of fun. 

Off th page proejct - Door of change

Hmmm don't ask why, I just felt like making a door, i had expected to be making a christmas project, but for some reason went this way instead.
I started with a collections door frame, added keys (saw this in a magazine), added some ranger distress and crackle paint.  I inked the edges with distress paint and added a door lock.
Loved this collections paper so i used it behind the window of the door, and then used websters paper to cut out white roses for the bottom of the door.
Black rub ons up the side, and along the top of the door frame. I also rubbed on the word change.  Some pearls on the lock and at the top of the door, a button shaped heart with the shank cut off for the top, and then a huge crystal type knob for the door. I guess sometimes you need to make something just for the fun of it.

Scrapbooking - Brrrr page

When you are deciding on a page remember the weather.  This was a really cold day in Paris, and we were all dressed up nice and warm.  I wanted to make sure that I showed how cold it was as I decorated the page.  Firstly I used a chatterbox page in pale colours, with dark blue bazill cardstock to make it feel cold.  I used a chipboard letter and covered in versmark ink, then added foil and flocking powder and melted it.  This makes a glue type product, i then rubbed silver leaf all over the letter b.  You rub until all the flakes stop coming off.  Then i added metal brads down the page and around the photo.  Then i made a Kirigami folded snowflake (actually i think it is a lotus, but it looked like a snowflake) then some more blue snowflakes and we have a cold page.  Add extra RRRRRRRR and Enjoy.

off the page proejct - live honestly and grow creatively

Grow - Live honestly and grow creatively.
I guess with this idea I wanted to make a cute little house for a little animal lovers room.  The little house was papered and painted, but instead of leaving it on its own I decided to add it to the back of a canvas.  This way you can use the depth of the canvas to hold a decorative background rather than stand the little house on her own.   I used websters pages as I feel they had the delicate feel for this little piece

off the page project - storage drawers

Kaiser Storage drawers.
These drawers are a lot of fun for a young girl, but they can be made to suit everyone. 
1st put the wooden part of the drawers together then paint the frames.  It is best to put together, because the product can swell depending on your paint, and then it is nearly impoissible to put together without a whole lot of sanding. 
2nd glue the boxes together (helmar craft glue is great, or tiger grip.
3rdly paint the boxes inside if you wish
4th cover the boxes with paper or paint. Only the front is totally necessary.  I added paper to the top and sides of mine as well.
5th add embellishments to decorate the front of the boxes (not the sides)
6th add labels if required. 
All done, how easy was that.  If you want everything to stay in good condition, a layer of mod podge is a great way to make the surfaces washable.

card - shaker box

This is a shaker box card, great for christmas or you can use any theme.
1stly stamp an image twice, it needs to be a image that you can cut a window out of.
Cut around the edge of the stamped image on both images.  
Then cut a square or rectangle window out of one of the images.  Cover the hole on the back of the image with acetate.  Double side tape it in place. 
Then around the edge of the now covered window on the back put foam tape to make a thick raised edge.  Make sure you do not leave any gaps when you are doing this as we fill the window with beads or glitter or sand if you were doing a beach scene, and you do not want any of the filling falling out.  Fill with 1/2 a tsp of beads or glitter, or a mixture of both.  Pull off the cover of the foam tape so it is sticky becareful when you are doing this.  Now you will put the 2nd image on top, the stamped image will be face down.  Push the 2nd image around the sides to make sure it is well adhered.  Turn your shaker box over and you have a great little embellishment for any card, or scrapbook page.

Off the page project - For those who believe in fairies

So this is for all those who still believe in fairies.  I loved this little lady the moment i set eyes on her.  So first of all the background is a mixture of paint, crackle paint and glimmermist.  I just kept playing until i got the look i wanted. The chipboard  fairy is painted in luminere paint.  This is a really good paint as the colours are so shiny and such good quality.  I used purple and blue mixed in patches.  Ironed angelina fibres for the back of the wings, and added Kaiser bling.  Her skirt is fabric flowers, and then there is her back tatoo.  The feathers just added some extra mistique to her, as well a fabric bow motif.  Satin ribbon ballet shoes, just finish her off nicely.  Lastly I added words down the side, these are rubons, and i really just wanted simple words, but i did them in different places, and sideways, mostly because i hate measuring, and I would have had to measure these to get them right, so just do them random and they look fantastic

Book project - my life in recipies

This is a little book I made from scratch. It is really easy to make your own little albums, and is a great way to give a really personal gift. sam loves to cook, as do I and my grandmother. So I took some family photos, and added recipiesand stories that went along with the recipies, for example my Dad and Husband both love my Christmas cake for dessert, although they do snack on it during the day as well of course. Using two strong bits of card I covered them with recipie paper (creative imaginations I think)... then mod podged them over the top, to ensure that they can be handled quite a bit. Then I got all my inner pages together and put them through the Zutter machine. Bound the book with metal rings, and then you have a book. You can add as many pages as you like, and then decorate at will. I have photos, stories, rubons, and if you look closely you can probably see the very cool little knife and fork brad on the front cover.  Definately the finishing touch all good books need. Hope you like.

Off the page project - bird house

Sometimes you just got to play.  This is a birdhouse from the twiddleybitz collection of amazing bits and pieces.  After putting it together and painting it, I imagined what would happen if a fairy had a bird cage at her place, what would it be like.  Using flowers, and moss, lace, sticks and paper I imagined this.  I left the cage door open, as I really do not think that any living creature deserves to be in a cage.  This proejct is only a few inches high. 

Make your own embellishments - embossing powder

Tag & Key.  This is another example of the use of melted embossing powder..
Using a hot electric frying pan, or crepe maker or something similar that has a stable temperature.  Use a small silicone bowl, and pour in the embossing powder, put it on top of the hot plate.  As it starts to melt you need tostir, I use a wooden skewer that i can throw away.  When it is molten(melted) pick up the bowl and pour into a silicon mould (not plastic). I used a key for this example.   It will dry in about 1 minute.  Then take outof the mould and you have an embellishment.  Usually i pick away alll the little bits off the side of the mould, but this one i wanted a little rough, soi left the pieces on.  The frog below I made sure it was all tidy

Scrapbooking - Kayak skiing

My brother and my husband decided to go skiing on a kayak, starting from the shore they ran and jumped onto the kayak, and well this was definately the last second before you guessed it....into the lake. 
So for this photo I started with chatterbox paper, and a collections frame.  I had been going to frame the picture, but since he was obviouslyoff balance, I decided that the frame should be as well.  I covered the frame with paper, and cut out the inside piece of the frame.  If you are careful when you cut out the paper you can use the second side of the paper to make a mat for your photo.  I sanded the edge of the frame with sandpaper to make the edges nice and tidy.  I acutally did two layouts of my brother this day, and I had torn out the centre of a page on the second layout, and so i used that as a mat for my photo.  I cut out the leaves from the back of one of the pages and added them to the page.  The frogs, I melted embossing powder into a silicon bowl, on a crepe maker (my new favouite crafttool)  and then tipped the melted powder into a frog mould, and then once it was set... I had a frog.  I added sprayed chipboard leaves, and then finally collections tags, added some ribbon, some text and my page is done

Scrapbooking - Beautiful

This week I used only two colours, white and blue.
By using only two colours we have kept the page very simple. I loved this picture of my beautiful girl, she took her own photo, thats why it is cropped so close. I only used ribbon, paper doily's and whitecardstock for most of this page. I matted the photo on white cardstock, and then stuck ruffled ribbon around the edge, which worked as a border. I used the ribbon to make a border at the top and bottom of the page,using double side tape to stick it down. Then i made a flower out of white ribbon, and finally I used thin blue ribbon for bows. I used white paper doilys to add a lacy feel, and finally I cut out the B, from blue cardstock, and added stickers to spell out beautiful. I also painted a flourish white, to add dimesion.  Very simple but i love the page.

Scrapbooking - Sam and Rick

This is a rare moment that just had to be scrapbooked.  Dad and his little girl, had a very quick cuddle.  I got Rick to write down the top ten reasons why he loved his daughter sam, and then I began.
The first thing was mounting the photo, i went quite large with the border, this just made sure that the photo didn't get swamped as all the papers around it, and all the writing would take up quite a bit of room.  I started with black bazil, and then a large circle (cut around a dinner plate) was placed down first, then the picture, and then the kaiser saying, and then the top reasons.  I used a brown rubon to join the papers together, by going over the top of both of them.  The words at the top and bottom were from Kaiser and were made from felt.   I used them both top and sides which kept them very clear and simple looking. Who says simple is not best. 

Scrapbooking - School ball

This is a page i did a while ago.  Firstly I started with a piece of scrapbooking paper that had lots of the same design in different sizes, I chose this Kaiser paper as it had enough colours in it to pick up the many colours in the photo. I have cut out the designs over and over, and actually layered them up on top of each other using foam dots. You cannot see very clearly but there is at least three of these designs on top of each other. I kept the back page really simple, as thedesigns were so busy. I mounted the photo on pink paper, just to make sure the photo stood out on the plain background. I decided on an triangle shape across the bottom right, to make sure the page was well weighted. The rub on across the bottom, has a saying that i thought was in keeping.

Off the page project wooden letters - Love Life

This is part of the Love Life that i have in the shop. These are MDF wooden leters, and can be painted, papered and embellished or just left plain. This one is firstly painted silver around the edges, and then using paper I have decorated it. I like to use several different sheets, here i have used creative imaginations music sheet, and a variety of others. When doing this make sure that you design your whole project before starting to cut out and glue down. You need to be careful when selecting papers that you do not go to heavy down one end of the word, or when you hang it on the wall you will see that you word looks lopsided.
Again I use modpodge to glue the paper down, and i went over the top of the paper to seal it as well, again for flying insect marks. Then start to decorate each letter, try to do some repitition on your letters, this ensures that the word looks like it all goes together.
On this word I have used a chipboard dragonfly, paper flowers (yes do modge these if you want) bling, every girl needs some, ribbon, butterflies, and painted chipboard music notes.
We sell the letters in different sizes, from the great big letters about30cm high, to the little tiny ones, though i really wouldn't recommend decorating these, a little fiddly I think, maybe just emboss them or paint them.
Hope you like. To hang on the wall add picture hooks or in my case i have used velcro.

Decoupage or stick everything you want on - music

Decoupage is so much fun.  There are no rules.  All I did here was pick a theme and then added everything i could find about music in this case.  I painted the canvas first using a vanilla colour, then i started adding bits of paper in strips, chunks and other random pieces. I used scrapbooking papers (creative imaginations paper for the piano at the bottom, old music sheets, serviettes and a poem I found, )  I use modpodge to glue down, and to go over the top of the paper as well. if you put the same amount of modge under the paper and over the top, most of the time it will not bubble.  By using a sealer over your project it ensures that any fly marks can be cleaned off if necessary, but you could use a varnish as well.  I prefer mod podge as it does both jobs.  I kept the colours all around about the same shades,  except for the bright blue piece that I just had to add to the work.  I coloured two CD's using alcohol inks, and if you haven't used these then you really need to have a play.  My second favourite colourant, I am in a glimmer mist phase at the moment.  I added stamped music images using stazon ink,to the CD's this is the best ink as it will not smudge and it is dry in seconds which is always a good idea when i am working, as i am very impatient waiting for things to dry. Then i painted some chipboard music shapes  and added them to the CD, and to the top of the canvas.  I then used rubons over the work, on angles tojoin two bits of paper together for the more merged look.  Lastly because i just love glimmer mist, i sprayed it over the top of the finished work, then held the painting upright so it dribbled down the front of the project, why... just because i felt like thats what it needed.  So grab a canvas, get some mod podge, pick a theme, and make your own art work.  Its so simple my kids class made all their own pictures for their rooms, and they looked great.   

Scrapbooking - Aly in Paris

I have used a Creative Imaginations paper as the backing for this page.  It is very detailed and quite soft looking, I had to be careful not to add to much to  the page, or you would loose that look.  I wanted to put a trim on the page to replicate the trim on Aly's jacket, however I struggled to find anything flat enough to put on the page.  I decided to use lace, we passed a lot of lace shops in Paris anyway, so it was in keeping.  I used double sided tape to adhere it, as it had quite a wide pattern, you can use dimensional magic or ribbon glue to adhere, if your lace is to thin or has lots of holes in the pattern. 
I mounted the photo on cardstock to make the picture stand out more.  Just a small border to keep it light looking.  Then I added paper flowers to the picture, layering two large, and one small flower and then a button to add a finished look to the flower. 
I  then used Kaisercrafts tickets, from the pack your bags collection, to add my text, though I hate writing on pages, i know it is an important thing to try and do now and again.  Your handwriting is an important part of you to record as well. 
I lay them in the same direction as the petals on the flower, I also added some finishing touch bling swirls, just to add a touch of sparkle to the page, but i could have used dimensional magic or kindy glitz. 

I then added some tickets at the top of the page, one of them was a acetate tag, if you need to stick these down use dimensional magic, as it dries clear and can't be seen.

Scrapbook page - Arc de Triumph

I decided for my first blog to keep it simple.  So here we go. 

Arc de Triumph (Arch of Triumph, Paris, France)
After making a range of darkroom door designed cards, I used the same technique to make a scrapbooking page.  Here I have cut the photo into three parts (triptych), and mounted the three on to one piece of card, with a small gap between the three pictures.  Then I mounted that onto a piece of textured card.  I then mounted Dark room door word strips onto a piece of double mates card, and added them above and below the photo.  I then added two strips of darkroom door paper down the side, and then because it was winter and their were no leaves on the trees, i decided to add them here, via a piece of ribbon.  I tied it in the middle in a knot.  I added four brads down the side, just to lift the page a little. So nice and simple.  But it looks good, and most importantly the photolooks great.  
Hope you enjoyed.    Jo

Imagine If... Morrinsville, New Zealand

Imagine If... is based in Morrinsville, New Zealand. We are an arts and crafts store.  At Imagine if... we love anything art or craft based, and when the two can be joined together, it's even better.  Check out the website http://www.imagineif.co.nz if you want to know more about us.  This is a showcase of some of the products we have created, where possible I will name the products used, however sometimes it can just be left over pieces of paper.  So here we go, Imagine If.. we ......