Sandcastle Wars

This is our class project next week: 

I totally love this mask at the moment, we're using it with texture paste and ink sprays. A little messy, but so effective, it's worth it.

Sandcastle Wars 

Episode II 

Attack of the whales

 I'm rather proud of the title...

There really was an army of sand whales.

Loved this day - using masks

Are you ready for some stencil inspiration? We're using lots of them in class next week! 

I have scrapped these photos before, for the Scrapbooking Memories blog hop, but I gave that frame to one of the boys for Christmas, so here's one for my album.

The tags were inspired by Natalie Kalbach's Creative Jumpstart. Thanks, Natalie. They're made with texture paste, glimmer mist and stamping. 

 And the photo mat is actually a big pocket (inspired by Gilly's Christmas card. It holds 2 tags or more photos, whatever you'd like. 

The paper is a Kaisercraft preview of an upcoming collection, "75cents". I love it.

Explore

I finally got my boy layout done for my2angel's boy month:

 I had another play with Crafter's Workshop templates. They look really cool when you go over it with Rangers Distress inks and a blending tool. 

 Even the negative of a chipboard was converted into a mask. I used texture paste and because I was at a crop at Anne's house, it was a different brand of texture paste that turned see-through by the next day. I am intrigued... Will have to find out the brand.

I did the sewing with washi tape, cause I had forgotten to bring some ribbon. It's pretty cool, I think.

 This rosette die has got to be one of the most versatile tools in my stash. It's great for boys and girls and by trimming the cut-out strip skinnier you can make smaller rosettes. This one has a coin charm in the middle with a bit of Glossy Accents.

 Dangle a cowboy hat and a hammer with the help of a mobile phone cord and the explorer has everything he needs!

 Well, maybe throw in a balloon and a film strip, for good measure. These rhinestones are so much cheaper than the sticky ones and they stick a treat with Glossy Accents.

Cheers!

Create an album with me - pt 5 Clowns

Welcome to page 5 of my album for Heidi, still using the This & That collection. The links to the other 4 pages are on the bottom of this post.

There was  a time when I wasn't afraid to walk down the street looking like a clown. Yup, that's me in the middle and we were getting ready for a kindy puppet show.

You can find nearly all materials I used at my2angels, just follow the links. 

Pssst: I scraplifted my long walk layout for this page, with a few changes (why re-invent the wheel?)

First, I cut a black cardstock down to 11x11".

I love the Crafter's Workshop templates, they look awesome with glimmer mist, but this time I used it as a stencil with texture paste. Texture paste looks like cake icing (a bit stinky though) and you can colour it with acrylic paint. Whatever texture you give it, this is how it dries. 

I spread it over the cherry blossom template with a butter knife, like this:

 I did this in 3 areas, but each area will need to dry before you go on, so it doesn't smudge. There were a couple of smudges on mine, but you can carefully scrape them off before it dries. Put it in the sunshine or wave a heat gun over it to speed up the drying time. Be careful, too much heat-gunning will make it bubble.

Then I stamped and embossed a few journalling tags to pull the branches together. If you use a lighter background you could skip the embossing.

 One of the papers has a row of circles on it and because I am lazy, I cut them out with the trusty ol' Cuttlebug.

 Then I matted the black cardstock on a red one to get a nice frame and glued the circles over the bottom seam. I also added a title and sewed all around it.

  

 If you use foam Thickers, you can sew right through them:

 The collection comes with a cover page, which isn't really scrap paper quality, but has some fun stripes on it. Waste not, want not - I cut 2 strips (2" and 2 1/2" wide) off and cut the strips into 2" bits.

 I rolled them over a bamboo scewer with a bit of double sided tape (but leave the start of the paper unsticky, so it doesn't stick to the bamboo). 

That will give you 10-12 rolls. If you use thicker paper, the rolls will be wider and you won't need as many. 

 I glued them under the photo and added another cut-out photo to the top:

Then I took a 12" piece of velvet ribbon and sewed a running stitch in a zig-zag line along the whole length (skip a little at the beginning and end). 

 Once the thread tight is pulled tight it makes some pretty ruffles and that gets glued on top of the rolls:

 I coloured 2 white star flowers with glimmer mist and glued a cabochon on top (there are different styles available)

 I like these movie-inspired ones.

 All the little flowers got a rhinestone centre (the easiest way to glue them on is with a dot of Glossy Accents).

 Then I added 2 friends charms. One got a twine bow...

 ...and the other one became part of the journalling:

And that's the whole page! I hope you find some inspiration here.

I'll be back next week with the next page. If you have missed the other pages, here are the links: 

part 1

part 2

part 3

part 4

Cheers, bloggerinos!

A long walk

Wineglass Bay in Tasmania is one of the most beautiful spots on Earth, BUT it's hard to get to. Basically, it's a 2 hour trek up the mountain and down again, only to be repeated on the way back. Still, it was totally worth it. Here is a page of Greg and the kids at the halfway mark.

Next week's class is sweet and simple, but there are still several nice techniques.

We'll do some texture pasting:

Make some rolled thingies:

and a tulle flower:

Sounds good? Why not come along. You can find all the class info in the top right corner on this page.

Cheerio!

Smile for the camera

Here is a version of the Bicheno layout that I did during class. As you can see, it's quite easy to flip on its head, make it girly, boyish, whatever you want. Thought I'd share.

I used the last scraps of Authentique paper (the rest is on Hugs and Kisses) and some pretty my2angels embellies on it. 

The sweet little camera charm is one of my favourites. It goes with so many looks. I put a little bit of Liquid Pearls in the middle to give it some contrast. 

The red felt heart  (comes in several colours) with a charming pin, an old cotton doily and a die cut doily:

I love it when the girls put on impromptu fashion shows. All their idea, I swear!

Bicheno

Of all the wonderful places we saw in Tasmania, this one was our favourite: the sleepy little town of Bicheno on the East Coast. The LO sketch was scraplifted from Wendy Smith, she's a very talented scrapper. We're doing this project in class this week...

...and you'll get to play with my new little bike. It's a stamp set with matching dies. Totally easy and they look great on acetate.

As a bonus, we get messy with texture paste. 

Cheers!

It's a boy!

No, it's not what you think! This is a photo of Joel when he was brand-new.

I did my first challenge for show us your stuff. The challenge was to include the following:

*Stitching (hand, machine or faux): I added a few gold cross stitches here and there
*Misting: those blue blobs on the cardstock (my all-time favourite glimmer mist colour is running out, but even though I can no longer mist with it I will blob till the bitter end!)
*buttons: those cuuuuute Lil Red Rocket buttons

*4 or more patterned paper: I used Crate paper, love the quirkiness of it

*Something handmade: I made a funky heart with texture paste

Simply put some in a zip-lock bag, snip of a tiny corner and squeeze unto some baking paper. It curls by itself. How cool is that! It does take a few hours to dry properly though. 

I also made a buckle, it's got Joel's full name in stickers with Dimensional Magic on top:

Check out this pin from my2angels. I totally love it.

I've never really journalled about the birth as it was quite traumatic for mum and bub but after 11 years I finally wrote it down.

Took me long enough! LOL

What I've been up to over Christmas

I totally love Christmas and I had an old photo from Leah's kindy party 2 years ago. I used the same basic layout as on the "owner of a blog" page, with a few small changes.

The tree is a mask using texture paste and some kindy glitz: 

an ancient rub-on from the bottom of my Christmas stash and that gorgeous blue butterfly I've been hoarding for weeks: 

The little chipboard bird is embossed and (while it's still hot) covered with some glitter. Thanks, Janet, for the buckle!

I made this page for my DH Greg. The challenge from the Boxx was to create a  mood board. Somehow it turned out more "layouty" than "mood boardy" but he doesn't know that and he liked it anyway.

The hearts sit on some messy misting: 

and I used lots of embellies from previous Boxx swaps: 

And while we're talking of favourite people here is my page about some of my favourite scrapbooking friends:

Using a lot of bits and pieces: 

One of Lil Red Rocket's buttons: 

The journalling says, "These girls heap inspiration on me every time we meet. They understand my need to own a huge stash of pretty papers and things. They are great friends and that's why...I love you."

Maybe you find yourself here!