Scrapbooking - Haunted house

Hi everyone,  just in time for Halloween, this is from our haunted house visit in Australia's gold coast.  I used Graphic 45 papers and Twiddleybitz chipboard.  I painted the Twiddleybitz chipboard with glimmer glam, and then I stamped a grid pattern on it.  I cut up the frames, (it was a 30x30 piece, with six squares for photos, and chicken wire).  I carefully cut around the top of the the photos, so that the monsters in the photo would be coming over the top of the frame, and the chair would be inside it.  

   I used lots and lots of layering to add dimension to the page.

 The good thing with graphic 45 paper, is that there is always lots of elements to play with.  I also used natural handmade paper, which I tore, dried skeleton leaves, flowers, and stripes, dots and spiders. 

So happy haunting if that's what you are into. 

Scrapbooking - School ball No 2.

Hi, this is the second page that I did for my friend, it was a really interesting hard black looking back ground,with a soft flowing dress.  So I decided that Kaisercraft sweet nothings paper would give me a good base to start from.  I actually mounted the photo on Kaiser Christmas paper.  I added a small piece of the other side of the paper off to the right, and then put a printed acetate rectangle over it.  It says Love Life laugh.

I cut a clock for the top right hand corner from Timeless treasures paper (Kaisercraft) and added a butterfly and some flowers.  Some white lace under the right hand side.  I added some flowers to this and another clock.  The text on the right hand side, was from the packaging of a prima flowers packet that I had saved. 
I like using the packaging where I can, especially some of the fantastic pieces that Prima does.  

Then I foam mounted a card flower from Kaisercraft, and then added some paper flowers and leaves.  That is a clock bauble from Prima that is amongst the flowers.  Finally I added a few pearls, and the fantastic chandelier embellishment from Prima. I gave my friend her two layouts yesterday and she loved them.  So that made the pages even better. I hope you are having fun scrapbooking. 

Scrapbooking - Time for the ball

Hi, this is my latest page that I created for a friend.  The clock in the background of the photo, was the starting point for this layout.  I wanted to keep the colours quite simple, and not add flowers or anything to take away from the boys.  I started with this page from Kaisercraft,  and mounted the photo on black cardstock.  I then cut a gate on the cricket using ornamental decor,  then carefully cut it in half.  I used these to edge a corner on each of the two photos.  I added large white brads to hold them in place,  I was going to stamp clocks on them, but decided against that idea, as I felt it was busy enough.  I added a black cutout clock from scrapfx between the two photos.  I then pulled an old clock apart, and used the hands to pull the two photos together.  I used a brad to hold them in place, and a few glue dots, to hold them down. 

I then put a few clock hands on the left hand side of the page, I also added a few resin clear dots over the top of the smaller clocks.

  I hope you enjoy. 

Tag 4, Be happy.

Hi everyone, welcome to tag 4, this is a tag that I created on gloss card.  I cut the tag out using a sizzix die.  Then I used alcohol ink to colour the tag.  I used drops of alcohol ink on a felt square.  By only using drops, and twisting and dabbing, you get a more random pattern.  I used about 5 different colours of inks.   Then I stamped using archival ink, a half compass pattern on to the tag.  Then I added a couple of wooden prima stars, that I tied some string through.  I made this zodiac resin pattern from a metal object a friend found for me at an op-shop.  Then I added a few words.  Live, wish upon a star, hope laugh, dream, be happy.     

Tag 3- Distress Markers and Inks

Went for a little less background on this one and kept it nice and sharp.  This is just distress ink on a manilla tag.  One of the most important things to be said about distress ink, is layer layer layer.  Start with your lightest colour, and add to the tag, I use an ink tool, in a round motion.  Go all over the tag.  Then add colour two, three, and or four.  What ever you like.  I use Archival ink for stamping my image, this will give you a clean image.  Also it does not matter if I decide to add water to the inks because the Archival will not run.

I added the swirl stamp as well, and added some orange flowers to the stamp,and then slipped a leaf under each.  The clock is from Prima marketing it is wooden.  I then restamped the butterflies onto another piece of paper, and carefully coloured them in.  Yes I know markers yuck.  No not these distress markers from ranger.  Lovely to use.  When I coloured in with them, the lines that you usually see with colouring in, are not visable, and because they are water based, you can spritz them with water if you want more of a water colour look. The stamp is from a Tim Holtz collection. 

"Imagination is more important than knowledge, for while knowledge defines all we actually know, imagination leads us to all we might discover and create."  Now go and create.         

Tag 2 - In a world of possibilities

This is tag number 2, similar ideas to the first one, but this time I made the lace a little more important, and also though it is hard to tell, I sprayed a stencil of swirls with glimmermist on it as well. Also I stamped a saying on the torso, and added an extra sticker to enforce the saying. "In a world of possibilities, imagine yourself as one" in case you cannot read it.  I also did the resin additions again, and yes they were painted by me.  I used alcohol inks to paint them.  It is quite interesting because when you put one colour on top of another, they don't really like each other, and so they will pull away, so you can't really put shades in here and there, like you can with paint.  However in saying that I am really happy with how they have come up. Have you had a go yet?

Tags - No 1 My creative spirit

Today I am going to share with you my first tag that I have been working on.  I watched Tim Holtz tag for October demo, and decided to have a go, but I was also playing with resin and making my own resin moulds and pieces, so I decided that they would go on to the tags as well.    (Click on Tim Holtz name above to go and have a look at what he did). 

This piece has torn paper, paints, distress inks, sizzix die dress, a resin flower that I made and painted with alcohol inks, a stamped image, and I used glossy accents on the clock to make it shine.  A few other pieces like flowers, and leaves and a couple of chipboard swirls. 

Now is a great time to be starting to get some tags made for christmas, or it is a chance to try new techniques.  If you write on the back what technique you used and products, you can then store them in a techniques box, and then when you are looking for a reminder you can pull out the box, and go through it and there is all the information you need. 

I hope you enjoyed this.  All the best and thanks for reading by blog.  I appreciate it is hard to get a chance to read everything that is going on in the world and I am grateful that you have chosen to read my blog.

Jo

Kaisercraft Castle Party Favour

Hi everyone, this is my bright and cheerful castle that I made using Kasiercrafts Butterfly kisses range of papers. This was designed for children to be able to create as a party favour, and then it has so many uses for storing hair ties, pens and pencils or little bits of jewellery.  

I began with the Castle, which comes in a few easy to assemble pieces.  I always put the pieces together so that I can see how it all fits, before I start cutting out any papers.

If you are doing this with little children or children who are not good with scissors, I would advise painting all of the castle and not use paper to decorate it at all.  It is also an option if you wish to pre glue the castle pieces together before the party.

I am going to show you the paper option.  

I always trace all the pieces before I start painting and I started with the front of the castle.  I love purple, as it is so bright and happy, so Giggly was the obvious choice for me. Lay the the side that you wish to cover face up, on to the side of the paper that you want to use, and trace it with a pencil. The turrets are a different colour so I didn't have to worry about covering all the wood. I need four of these, because I did the inside as well as the outside of the castle. (It is easier just to paint the inside of the castle though, and I would recommend doing that with children, even this big kid had a few deep breaths as she tried to glue it in the right place, because of the holes for the slots that hold the castle together, you cannot glue the paper in place before hand). Then cut around the castle shape, and use a knife to cut out the windows.  

Trace the turrets in the same way.  You can see I have drawn across in pencil on the left hand photo, where I want the paper gossip to come down to.  You can use decorative scissors to create the squiggle effect on the paper.  You will need 6 out of this paper and 6 out of another paper which I used Playful. I also decorated the sides of the castle using Gossip again, and then Playful on the inside.


Now it is time to paint, I only paint all the edges, and the insides of the windows as well. I have used a Kaisercraft paint.

Use a hair dryer or a heat gun to dry the paint, and then glue the castle all together.  This is where I suddenly realised that it would have been better to paint the inside, instead of gluing paper to it after it was in place!  Even those of us, who make things like all the time, make mistakes and this was mine.  Sand all your edges, then if you want to, ink all the edges with a matching pink ink, to drop the cream colour down a little bit. 

Now it is time to decorate the castle, I used butterfly stickers from the range and flowers. I cut a tree using a sizzix die and embossed it, and cut some grass using the cricket machine, but you can hand cut these.  I made a little door out of paper and glued it on, and added a princess sparklet to be the door handle.

I added a variety of rhinestones along the turrets, inside the flat flowers and along the butterfly body.  I also made some double sided curtains for the windows, using stickers.

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial. If you don't have a child's birthday coming up, this would make a great present for Christmas, collect all the pieces now, put the pieces on layby....pay them off, not only do the kids get a great present, it is a fantastic rainy day project to have on hand.  
 

Scapbooking - butterfly kisses

Hi everyone, I was lucky enough to get a set of the new Kaisercraft range Butterfly Kisses.  This is a very bright and happy range, so I hunted out this photo of my niece, which had some pinks and blues in it and then I went for fun!

I decided that this layout was going to be for Helena to be able to copy the technique (she is now 12).  I used pre made embellishments from the sticker sheet, and some ready made flowers.  I used Websters Tulle ribbon around the striped paper, then used a punch to get the decorative edge. You can use decorative scissors if you do not have a punch, or you can use a a Spellbinders edge die or something similar, or whatever works for you or your child.  Then I added the little bird sticker from the Butterfly kisses range, at the top right and a few flowers, some butterflies, and then in the bottom right, some flowers, some bling and tulle and a tag.

This is the 2nd layout from the same Butterfly kisses collection.  I wanted to use the same idea, but I wanted to make the embellishments, except for the flowers.  I started with some basic purple card stock and then added the purple spotted sheet Giggly, which I distressed and inked the edges with versamagic chalk ink, but you could use a distress ink.  I layered a few bits of paper and then mounted the photo on purple card stock and distressed again.  I then inked a wooden window embellishment from Kaisercraft embellishment range, then adhered it to a small piece of paper, then  I adhered that to the side of paper.

I used some Websters ribbon flowers along the bottom of the photo and then slipped some heart doilies that I picked up at the markets in Melbourne. I was going to spray them but decided on leaving them crisp white.  I cut some leaves from Sizzix tattered leaves (which I creased and inked) and cut the vine with leaves, then layered some purple shades of flowers. (Some were flat flowers that I layered and tucked in to the bunch, and some were dimensional flowers).  I inked the flourishes, and then added some tulle, some stickers from the collection and tucked an acetate clock that I cut from a Kaisercaft acetate sheet to the top right.  I slipped a tag in to the top ( I used a manilla tag but you can cut your own or use this sizzix die) for jounalling.  I added a little flourish wooden bird to the top, which I left plain, a few bits of bling and some sticker butterflies that I pop dotted.

I hope you enjoy the bright colours and don't forget to see the whole COLOURFUL range of Butterfly Kisses in the online Kaisercraft shop at Artfull Crafts.