Llama buddies and a silk painting effect on cardstock

Every scrapper should have white cardstock in their stash, because that is the most versatile paper you can own.  Next week in class we're making this very soft and pretty silk painting effect with white cardstock, a mask and Twinkling H2Os. 

Lately I've really enjoyed the Twinkling H2Os. They look soft and shiny and there are many colour combinations to try. It's hard to mess up this technique and every time it looks different.

The rest of the page is pretty simple, a bit of stamping and embossing and 2 swirls. I hope you like it!

How to make a rosette from small ribbon pieces

I groan if I see Christmas products at the shops before November and here I am in sunny September making Christmas cards! But I have to be one skip and a jump ahead of you all. Apparently now is a good time to start planning! So without further ado, here are 3 cards I made from one technique and that is rosette making! 

By the way, you can adapt this to suit a non-Christmas theme. No doubt you guessed that already. Maybe I'll even make a dent in my ribbon stash!!!

Rosettes are pretty easy to make! You need a cardboard circle from a cereal box (about 3.5cm diameter and it can be wonky) and mark out the quarters and eighths.

 Fold 1m of ribbon in half, then in half again, then again and again (4 times) so you have 16 pieces, all the same length. Cut them. They should be around 6.5cm long.

Fold each one in half and glue the ends together. I used Helmar 450 glue, you can do it with a heat gun, if you prefer.

Start at the top mark of your circle and glue on one ribbon loop at the time. The loops point outward and the glued-together ends sit on the centre spot. 4 ribbon loops in each quarter. 

Continue all the way around and tuck the last one under the first one.

Now it's time to embellish! Gather your bits and pieces and get creative. I have added a list with links to the things I used.

 As you can see, there are many ways to decorate the centres of your rosettes. I really like the filigrees to decorate as they look very vintage.  

  

This border filigree is especially nice tugged under. I have cut mine in half (a big pair of scissors work just fine).

  

And here is the finished card:

What I used for this card:

- square card in white

- December Documented paper in black by Simple Stories

- Bingo card by Simple Stories

- metal filigree border

- 1m satin ribbon with gold presents

- round filigree

- white paper flower

- microbeads (find lots of colours here)

- golden flower from a flower chain

- 2 silver stars

If the antique golden colour of the filigrees doesn't suit your project, you can rub Inka Gold over them. Inka Gold is available in many colours here, under mediums (pg 4-6). No, it's not always golden! It not only changes the filigree's colour, but keeps the classy shine and even adds some depth to the design. 

Here is what it looks like with Platinum Inka Gold:

 What I used for this card:

- square card in white

- December documented paper in blue by Simple Stories (with some light stamping around the edges)

- Bingo card by Simple Stories

- metal filigree border coloured silver with Inka Gold in Platinum

- 1m satin ribbon with silver stars

- round filigree

- blue bow

- blue aluminium flower

- holly charm

And if you're feeling lazy and just want to put something ready-made into the middle, use the I ♥ family embellishments (available in lots of colours and themes in the Charming Words section here)

 What I used for this card:

- square card in white (stamped lightly around the edges)

- 2 Bingo cards by Simple Stories

- metal filigree border coloured silver with Inka Gold in Platinum

- 1m satin ribbon with red presents

- I ♥ family embellishment

- letter stickers

So, even though it's a bit early, maybe I have given you some inspiration for your Christmas cards this year!

14- something for the boys

My Joel is 14 and here is a layout to celebrate. 

Because it's school holidays next week we're doing a nice and quick page in class. 

(The heart & circles border was inspired by a layout by Jess Mutty I saw on Pinterest)

You can adapt it to any theme, just pick the right papers. I used "Take Note" papers by Kaisercraft:

Noteworthy

Memo and 

Memento

Frills for a boy's page?! I say why not!

So I've decided to scrap dangerously. See if there's an outcry from my teenage son when he spies the frills on a layout with his photo on it. 

 It all depends on the kind of frills, I guess. They are made out of cupcake cups (inspired by this post, but they used coffee filters instead). I painted mine quite muted and didn't ruffle them too much and so far I've gotten no complaints from Joel. Maybe putting frills on a boy's layout is not as revolutionary as I'd thought. 

 We'll make this page in class next week. If then men in your life hate frills more than my son does, just use a girl's photo. Needless to say, you choose your colours. Apart from the frills there are a few other fun details:

1. Of course, the cool type writer stamp. There are quite a few different sayings you can stamp on the paper.

 2. We'll make the background from a plain piece of cardstock. There's inking, stamping, masking, you name it!

3. I'll show you how you can die cut and emboss a circle in one go! This is super handy to know for creating tags and cards.

4. Some ribbon threading using the Sew Ribbon tool.

As you can see, there are lots of mini techniques on this page, which should keep us busy and out of trouble for a while. I really hope you can come along and have a go at them!

If you have never been to one of my classes, here are a few points:

♥ Beginners are always welcome. Nothing I teach is beyond you.

♥ You bring your own papers and control your material cost. In general you'll only need basic materials for a class. Papers, ribbon, brads...that sort of thing. I don't sell anything apart from cardstock, but I'm happy to give advise where to buy cheapest or do a combined order when I see a great deal.

♥ Feel free to change things or skip steps. It's your layout and I want you to like it.

♥ Almost any project can be made to suit boys too.

♥ Class projects are normally not very busy or full of embellishments. That is because we create most of them from scratch or do a certain technique. If you like to add more embellishments, feel free to bring them along.

♥ Older children are welcome with a parent.

♥ Classes are fun and there is lots of chatting, a cuppa and laughs. Come along if you're tired of scrapping alone!

♥ Find more class info in the top right corner of this blog and leave a comment if you'd like to come!

A perfectly imperfect photo

Who says you can only scrap perfect photos? I love this photo, even though most of the people are cut off! 

 This layout is inspired by a technique project in Scrapbooking Memories by Janice Nicholls (volume 15 No 11, pg 65). Her layout is simply divine and she agreed to let me base my class on it. 

 As it happens, in the end mine looked quite different from hers, apart from the crackled hearts: