Snap! 4 ways to use your ink pads

Are your ink pads gathering dust? 

Did you know you can use them for more than stamping? 

In next week's class we're using inks in 4 different ways: 

- misting them with water to create a water colour background

- colouring in with a water brush

- distressing the paper edges

- and of course good old stamping 

 Then there are also some funky chevrons and hearts in fake metal look. 

If you feel like learning a few tricks and tips on what to do with your ink pads, join me in class next week! 

Layout with flip-out photo booklet

Hands up if you're the owner of a 6x6" paper pad or two! Personally, I own enough to keep up scrapping through the zombie apocalypse and beyond! We buy these little pads thinking what a great deal, we get all these patterns and they're all matchy-matchy and then they're forgotten in some corner, never to be used. Not anymore! 

 In next week's class we're doing a fantastic layout that features a flip-out photo booklet and best of all, the patterned papers are all from a 6x6" pad! Dig them out, girls, or help me use up mine! Here is what it looks like when it's open:

 It's always a challenge to use more than 1 photo on a layout without it being cluttered. Here you'll have space for 4 photos.

♥

The rest of the background is kept subtle, with just a bit of stencilling, embossing and paint spots. 

The background design was inspired by a layout by Beck Beattie, as seen in the latest Scrapbook Ideas mag (ASI#29).

You can join me in class on:

Tuesdays 10am

Thursdays 6pm

Fridays 9:30am

Fun- Back to the basics with a twist

Remember a time when scrapbooking was all about cutting photos and papers into geometric shapes and pasting them on a piece of cardstock? Why not update the good old formula a little? 

  For next week's class I picked 3 round photos, which sit pretty on 3 strips, which also include the title (you can use any 3 letter word)...

...and it's finished off with some splats, sequins and a flower cluster:

If you want, you can make this boyish too. Replace the flower with a boy embellishent, use black instead of sparkly white paper and paint dots instead of sequins. I'll give it a go! (come back later and see)

Oh snap!

Ok, how about we do something for the boys for a change? Not a flower or swirl in sight! Instead we will do some scrunching, inking, splattering, stencilling and heat embossing to turn a plain old cardstock into a grungy background. 

 And for a bit of journalling, we'll add a pocket! Hearts for boys? Why not! This one is a bit on the grungy side, so we should get away with it.

Cards with Charmed Life pocket tags

Do you like pocket pages? I do and my2angels sells some beautiful handmade sets (find the whole range here). All you really need to do is add some photos and journalling. Too easy. You can see some Charmed Life sets in action here.

 But sometimes you end up with one or two tags from the set left over and what do you do with them? Make them into cards of course! I started out with this set:

...and ended up with 5 beautiful cards:

All I did was some stamping, a patterned paper mat from my stash and a plain white card. A bit of colouring in and you are DONE! Because the tags are already beautifully decorated, there isn't much else to do. 

Use whatever colouring in technique floats your boat. I used Twinkling H2Os and water markers.

 

 Not into colouring in? Leave it black and white!

 And if you mess up the stamping? Stamp it on another piece of white paper and glue that on top. Not that I would have done that...caugh caugh.

Outlining the white cardstock with a black pen makes it pop off the background. Broken lines are great if you don't rock at free-hand drawing straight lines (and who does?!)

So dig out some of your stamps that are collecting dust and make something beautiful with these Charmed Life pocket tags.

Pop over to my2angels now and check out the Charmed Life Collections now (and at half price they are a steal, not too mention time saving!)

A few of my favourite things of 2014

I was looking through some of the layouts and projects I made this year and here are some of my favourites!

1.) "Evie" 

and how to do chunky embossing. 

See the step by step instructions here

2.) My little bird house:
I made this for the Scrapbook Creations blog hop using chipboard, some 100 year old lace and a candle stick. 

See the details here

 3.) Secret journalling using a measuring tape. 

I taught this one at Alison Bevis' Workshop Wonders

4.) "Dream"

as seen recently in Scapbooking Memories. 

It features some highlights in foil. See them a bit better here

5.) "Think Big": 

Teenage boys aren't really all that hard to scrap, at least not as hard as it is to get a photo of them!

6.) "Madison" 

I made this pretty background with a stencil and chalks. See it here. This was recently featured as "technique of the month" in Scrapbooking Memories

7.) "You fill my heart with love":

It was a commission for a sequin feature for Scrapbook Creations. I went from hating my messy jar of sequins to loving them (after I spent a few painful hours sorting them into colours)

8.) Wedding card: 

Made with an embossing folder and coloured in with Twinkling H2Os. You can achieve the prettiest looks with those! Here is a sample of how it looks when Twinkling H2os are used with lots of water and allowed to run...

... and here with very little water to colour in details:

Dream