Pirate car wash

Pirate Car Wash!

by Geli

If that title doesn't make you curious, then nothing will!

It's Geli here and this is my crazy pirate hubby. 

For the background, I used the groovy Oil Change paper from the "Garage Days" range. So what if the paper says "Car wash"? I love to embrace randomness! Surely even a pirate has to wash his car sometime? 

I spiced it up with some washi tape, which is a great and cheap way to add some extra patterns! I especially love the black and white ones, because it lets the colours underneath shine through. The chevron stamp also gives it some grunge. That stamp is one of my favourites for adding some shading.

My journalling is tucked under the photos and this is what it looks like pulled out: How cool is this clip-folder? 

I put a little Inka Gold in platinum around the edges. 

 (Pssst: The original comes with a cool piece of stamped paper, but I messed up my writing and had to attach a new piece.)

The cluster features 2 of the tags from the Tyre Shop paper on a ball chain, a LOL charm and an embossed felt star. 

To do the black spots, I dotted on some 3D paint and gave the paper a hard tap from underneath to make it spread out a little. This works with Liquid Pearls too, though they won't spread out as far.

There is a bit of stitching and while I was sewing, I sewed on some arrow charms:

I think it looks great to include charms in a little hand-stitching.

I hope you like my pirate car wash and give it a try sometime!

Arrggh! Geli

Beach snapshot

Ready for some beach scrapping? Actually, it doesn't have to be a beach theme... 

 We are creating this layout from 2 pieces of paper (striped & architectural), adding washi tape, masking, stamping and some textures. 

Some stamped wood veneer, I like it! 

If you like it too, come along to class next week!

"Old Timers" and how the get the most out of your charms

Have you seen the new gadget gear cog charms (see them here)? They are just awesome and the perfect layout embellishment for boys, teens, men and all things needing a bit of an industrial feel.

They go perfectly with the Kaisercraft Garage Days collection. 

I have already shared how to emboss with a charm using a Cuttlebug or Bigshot (click here to see the full post), but you can emboss them without a Cuttlebug too. The best thing about this method is that you get to use them again on a different project! Read on for more details.

♥♥♥

First, let's do some random stamping in the upper half of a Nuts & Bolts paper using any background stamp. You can find lots of great background textures in the stamps section here. 

In my latest clean-up, I came across some old letter die-cuts that went into the "use it or lose it" pile. They matched my project perfectly, but they are sooooo old, please don't ask me where to get them.

You can punch, die-cut, hand-cut or nibble out several 1" circles and rub on or stamp some letters on some of them to make a title. Ink around the plain ones and rub Inka Gold (Champagne) around the letter circles. 

Now arrange them on the top 7" of your background paper. I kept them quite random, but in vertical lines, so I can stitch over them later. 

Tear and layer the front, back and barcode strip of the Tyre Shop paper: 

Sew across the circles (skip the letter circles) and around the edge of the layered bottom papers. You can be really rough and messy. 

Put one of the cog charms under the background paper and rub over it with a stylus or anything fairly blunt (you don't want to tear through the paper). 

The outlines of the cog will be visible, but not very clearly, so we'll highlight them by rubbing some ink over them. Again, embrace the messiness! 

 There you go, lots of little cogs and you still get to use the original one elsewhere! 

 This is now a pretty cool background and only needs a photo and a few more embellies. I cut some tags from the Spare Parts paper and teamed them with a felt star, a cap charm, a LOL charm, some more cogs and a ball & chain. 

 So go and get some of the new cogs and gears and have some messy fun!

Geli

Nan's girl

Next week in class we're taking a layout from blah to wow by making a large eye-catching fabric flower. 

They're not hard to make, all you need is some sheer fabric or ribbon with some texture. 

We'll even add some texture to the background, but will keep it subtle to let the flower shine. 

Would you like to join me? Find all class info in the top right corner.

Love You - Just in time for Valentine's Day

Next week is Valentine's Day and once again we're doing a lovey-dovey page in class in honour of good old Valentine. 

I'm still working on my friends' wedding album. By the way, if you don't want to do a love theme, that's ok. Heritage or baby photos would work well, too. 

 We are creating a background from one very plain piece of paper (like the Kaisercraft woodgrain paper I used). 

And I love this hot air balloon die. 

If you feel like joining in a class, you will be most welcome! You can find all the info in the top right corner of my blog.

Digital mags and my how-to's on your screen

You can now get the digital version of older Scrapbooking Memories with my step-by-step techniques for only $1.95. It can then be downloaded to your computer, tablet or smart phone to be read at your own leisure. 

 A new issue will be released every fortnight.

Find them here or paste this into your thingy on top:

 www.patchworkandcraft.com.au/digital-magazines.html. You can also click through at this address for a free preview of the magazine.

Cousins - making a background with letters

You can make some pretty cool backgrounds with just white cardstock, letters and Distress ink. 

I cut out letters on the Cricut machine, but you could use old stickers and cover them with gesso instead. 

 Would you like to try this technique? We're making that in class next week. We will also make this little cutie:

If you don't like denim, you can use coloured felt instead.

I ♥ you

Looking back to the 70ies, here is a funky colourful layout: 

And here is the inspiration behind it:

 It uses lots of small scraps and buttons...

...and some stitching too. 

♥♥♥

Vice captain

Over the Christmas break I have organised my many scraps. This time I have sorted them into colours, hopefully they'll be more accessible this way. Previously they were organised by brands, but I found my favourite brands' pockets were so full I was afraid to dig through them. So let's see how the colour way works out.

Since I had a nice full pocket of green scraps I decided to use them on a layout. The folding technique was inspired by a layout by Mel Connell that I saw in the latest Scrapbooking Memories mag. 

 Would you like to try something like that? Come and join me in class next week! I've stayed away from flowers, so it'll be suitable for men's photos too.

Hannah worked very hard on going for school council and she got picked for vice captain. We're so proud of her!

Smiles

Are you ready for a new scrapbook class project? We are making this fun page:

 This is my cute little nephew having a wonderful time flying a kite at the beach on Christmas Day. 

 It includes a few fun embellies, which we'll make, naturally: a banner, a heart with embossed words and a little arrow:

And everyone in class will get one of those pretty frames. 

So if you're ready to get your mojo back, join me in class next week!

Oh Christmas Tree

Can you believe it - this is my last class of the year! Next week we're doing a nice and easy project, so we have time for a Christmas party after class! 

 My photos aren't perfect, they were snapped with my i-phone (which I've been told is sooo outdated) and printed on my home printer (never my best choice), but who's got time for perfect photos at Christmas?! This time of the year is for enjoying the magic. 

...And fixing the deck...

 So out come the punches and dies!

  Don't like snowflakes in the Aussie Christmas heat? Too bad, cause here they are. I miss white Christmas. Seriously, you can replace them with stars if you really want. 

And here is my Christmas tree in all its glory:

Christmas chipboard blog hop

This is my project for the Scrapbook Creations blog hop. If you just happened to start here, find the beginning by clicking here.

I had some lovely chipboard from ScrapFX and I used the large swirl and the Christmas stars to make a cute little bird house.

I didn't want the bird house to be strictly Christmas cause my little cupboard that houses my Christmas treasures is full and this little gem might have to be on display all year long.

 The chipboard swirl was embossed with "shabby white embossing enamel" by Stampendous. This stuff is wonderful, it is basically chunky embossing powder with mica flakes and glitter already mixed in. Super easy to use.

 On the bottom of my house I used some of my great-grandmother's 100 year old lace (my Mum is cleaning out the cupboards and I'm getting the ribbons and laces!). The pearl strips finished off the edge. 

You can find the white magnolia here ($1.20 for 3)

These ScrapFX stars have a beautiful design on them already, which I didn't want to cover up, so they simply got a coat of white Distress Paint and some inking around the edges with pinecone ink.

That little bow is another piece of my 100 year old haul from Great-grandma.

I hope you like my little bird house. It went from this:

to this:

The stand is actually a candleholder that was given to us on our wedding, but hasn't been used much. It is quite lovely really, made from stone from the Ural Mountains (where we met), but it needed a new lease on life. I simply took off the round metal plate that holds the candle and glued the house on the spike. 

Now don't forget to leave me a comment and keep blog hopping for your chance to win the awesome prize above!
Your next stop is:
Elisabeth B

♥♥♥

Cheers, Geli