Moments

There are those special moments in life that need to be celebrated. This one is a romantic moment from my dear friend's wedding.

 Come along to class next week and create a beautiful layout, complete with a "Moments" seal, made from scrap. 

 We will also make the background from a simple patterned piece of paper (click here to see the original paper) and use Twinkling H2Os in a new way to create these flowers. They are pretty and shiny.

Happy boys

I just love the new grungy embellishments at my2angels. 

Let me show you how easy it is to make a simple boy's layout look great.

Use a 5x7" photo and cut a 5x12" mat from patterned paper. Add some punched strips and both sides and adhere to the background.on the mat. Glue the photo on. Tuck some printed acetate under (or stamp some grungy designs) in the top left and near the bottom right corner.

Choose one of the Grunge Charming Dates (there are 5 to choose from and they all look awesome) and glue it in the top left corner. Add the date. 

Cut and fold a star shaped rosette (I used a die for that) and glue a Grunge Love You to Infinity Key in the middle. The hard work is all done for you - there are little cogs, hearts and a key and other small bits and pieces!

Glue the chain with the "Love you to infinity" in place. 

Now, all you have left to do is a title (I used ready-made chipboard flags strung on some baker's twine) and you are already done!

Super quick scrapping at it's best.

Cheer

Hi everyone, it's Geli. I'm back! 

My Hannah is passionate about cheerleading and her team won the latest competition. I'm so proud of her! Here is a layout to celebrate her latest victory:

Do you hoard pretty paper? I do. This one (by Heidi Swapp) has been in my stash way too long. There were a few pink bits, which I painted white with gesso, cause they wouldn't match the black and yellow colour scheme. The shield shape was outlined with a black rhinestone chain. That was easy, I just glued it down 10cm at the time. Still, the paper looked a bit bland, so the middle got a bit of a black wash. (simply outline the position of the photo and go crazy with paint and water):

It didn't look that great at this point, but once the photo went on top and one side of a black felt frame was attached, things were starting to look pretty cool. 

Have you seen the new framed sentiments? I wanted to write on the banner and while digging through my letter stickers I discovered some old rub-ons from prehistory. I managed to almost find enough letters for "cheer", but had to fake the "h" with a "q". 

At this point I realised that I could either give the archeologist of 3013 something to dig up or use those letters up! (I have other cool ideas for grave goods to puzzle future generations) In other words, using them to frame the photo seemed like a good way to put them to use.

This pretty yellow frame comes with a pin too and there are lots of colours! Find them all here.

Have you taken adventage of the 5c sale at my2angels yet? Spend $5 and get something like this black felt ribbon for 5c! 

I cut some stars off and painted the inside with Ferro metal effect textured paint. This stuff is really cool, it has a gritty texture but keeps its metallic shine.

Then I added a crown charm (after all, they won!)...

...a cheerleader charm...

...and a yellow star flower 

The cheerleader's pom poms and the star flower are also painted with the same metal effect paint. Pretty cool that it sticks to metal!

Hannah loves her page and I hope I have given you some inspiration!

3 sisters and how to match colours

My sisters and I had some professional photos taken. We had none of the three of us since.... hm, forever.

Matching coloured papers to this one was amazingly difficult. If I picked the blues and purple tones from the photo, we looked like Smurfs and if I went with the brown and olive tones of the meadow we looked washed out. So instead I took a contrasting background colour (choc brown) and picked papers with a similar hue and saturation. Like the colours in the photo, these are bright colors, but not primaries. Then I offset it with skyblue to brighten it all up. Note that none of the papers match an exact colour in the photo, but rather compliment them and bring them out. 

Don't be afraid to pick colours to suit the "mood" in your photo, rather than the colours!

Add a bunch of butterflies and a few small scatterings of embellies and you're done!

♥♥♥

Cheers, Geli

Flower Vintage

In next week's class we'll dig out the good ol' embossing folder and create this middle panel using a fun new technique we haven't done before. You choose your own colour combo, of course.

We're painting with Twinkling H2Os and if you haven't used them before, you'll see how easy it is. You might have seen me demonstrate them at the expo. 

They have a real shine and lustre to them that can't be captured in a photo. This one is my best attempt: 

 There is a lovely rosette as well and no, you don't have to hand cut it! I'll throw one in for free. Yeah. If you're not at class you'll have to get your own, they are available from the lovely Art Stamps Australia.

I won the title of Design Diva! It's the design team of the Australian magazine Scrapbook Creations. I'm absolutely thrilled about that!

Here are the other super-talented ladies who are on the Design Diva team with me:

Michelle Logan at ML Design

Jasmine Shea at Jasmine's Scrapvine

Amanda Reddicliffe at The Embellished Blog

Kayla MacAulay  at Kayla Renee

and Angella Peardon at 4ft9inch creator

Hooray - a birthday layout

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!

Everyone has birthday photos and next week will be your chance to scrap them in class! We are making the big rosette from scraps and create a shiny dragon fly. It's really pretty, all rainbow colours.

Here it is a bit bigger:

Poppy field

I can't think of anything more beautiful than a sunny wheat field with poppies and a medieval castle in the background. I just had to scrap that for class next week. 

 I hoard too many paper flowers, here's a good excuse to use a whole heap of them! 

And we'll use these sweet dies I bought at the Papercraft Hub:

Castle Eltz - scrap many photos on one double layout!

Hi everone, 

I am back from my trip to Germany and I'll be scrapping lots of travel photos in the weeks to come. 

Surely we all have been guilty of pressing that shutter button a few too many times and ending up with oodles of photos from just one occasion. So, what do you do with so many photos? Scrap them as minis of course. In next week's class we'll do just that. Include as many or as few minis as you want and create a double layout that will capture all your memories without filling an entire album. 

♥♥♥

I have a few new dies that help us create some different rosettes:

And if you didn't visit a medieval castle? Guess what- this will suit any occasion. 

  

             Cheers, Geli

             ♣♣♣

Hi there - it's a mystery technique!

I'll be away for a few weeks and when I come back, we're doing this layout in class:

I'm not going to tell you how we make the rose (brownie points if you figure it out in the meantime!). After all, I need you all to come back to class.

Don't worry, it's easy and you won't believe what we'll use. It's not something that's usually found in your papercraft stash.

 Stamping on a background with clear embossing powder gives a very classy, subtle look. You can use a different colour too, but everyone's rose will have to be pink or red. You'll find out why.

If you would like to come along to my class, we start again on July 16. You can find all the info and timetables in the right column under "Scrapbooking classes".

Blast Off - What every boy needs

Every boy needs a monster / alien or two! And the new Kaisercraft "Blast Off" collection is absolutely perfect for the big or little boy in your life. The colours are funky and bright, in orange, green and blues and the little aliens are adorable. 

I had a bit of a play with the papers and collectables. With bright colours like these and chunky designs it's best to keep it simple and let the little monsters shine.

(No, it's not a spelling mistake, it's German and it means - tada- knee monster. Sounds just like the English version, except you hear the k.)

 "You have saved our lives, we are eternally grateful..." 

Find the blue velvet ribbon here. 

If you want to make a knee monster too, here is a link to a how-to blog post. 

You will find it impossible to resist making cards with these cute collectables. I whipped up 3 in no time:

This one is a get-well card with a twirling "germ": 

Here is goes, round and round...

 You can find step-by-step instructions on how to make a twirling card in this post here. It's super easy. Add some "nose drips" with Liquid Pearls. Yuck. Perfect for flu season.

The next card has a rocket blasting off! 

Simply curl some craft wire around a pen and attach one end under the rocket, the other under the round tag. So simple and it looks great! 

The puffy metallic stars (I just love them!) are available here and the star charm here. Baker's twine is here, the most versatile product in the world! If you haven't got any, get back to Earth and grab some.

This little critter is just too cute. I added a googly eye and some feathers, just to make him even more awesome. If you don't know any little boys, give the card to a friend who's been a stranger lately.

To make a card like this, cut a piece of blue cardstock to 12x5" and score at 4", 8" and 10". Fold like a flight of stairs and decorate with more stuff from the full-to-the-brim collectables pack, some ribbon and some more puffy stars, this time in blue. They're only $1.00 for 10, you'll want them in black and pink too.

Now if the boys in your life are all grown up and hubby doesn't appreciate rockets flying through space, don't despair, this collection is awesome on the flipside too. 

 I created this layout with a kraft cardstock and the backs of a couple of papers. 

(This is a shameless copy of my own sandcastle wars layout) 

 A starfish charm is all it takes to make it beachy. The crackled letters are simply craft cardstock with Crackle Accents.

 

To achieve this look, spread some texture past over any of the wonderful masks with a credit card (an old one, I would hope), let it dry, then place the mask over it again and spray with the glimmer mist of your choice.

 Find lots of yummy colours here!

I hope you enjoyed my bit of crazy fun with Kaisercraft and my2angels.

♥♥♥Geli♥♥♥

My girl

Just a quick and easy page using some Kaisercraft papers and a pretty Crafter's Workshop template (find it here). 

And while I was organising my drawers (this happens sometimes) I came across this cheerleading charm, perfect for my Hannah.