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

Long time friends

When I can't think of any ideas, I like to find a sketch is a perfect springboard. This time I was inspired by this sketch on Let's capture our memories:

This is how mine turned out:

I always start out following the sketch quite closely, but when it comes to the embellishments, they end up wherever I feel like it. 

 I added some folded flowers and a pocket watch. 

These 2 lovely ladies, Anna and Ann-Maree, have been my friends for 10 years and we have shared many good times togther. Time to celebrate our friendship with a layout!

Geli

Laugh

Did you know that striped paper can be made into a great looking star? This is also a great way to use up those cute barcode strips you've been keeping (don't pretend you're not!) I will post some steps soon.

Bloom where you are planted - chalkboard style kit class

 I instantly loved this chalkboard-inspired paper by Prima (see the Optimist collection here). 

If you love it too, come along to my class and do it as a kit! We are adding some masking and make lots of flowers*)... 

...and a shimmery humming bird:

This suits 2 mini portrait photos (3x4") or 1 landscape 4x6". Choose a photo that has light/fuschia pink, turquoise or mustard seed yellow in it or convert it to black and white!

*) The red fabric flower will be part of your kit, but if red doesn't suit, you can choose a different one)

Good night, sleep tight

It's been awhile since my kids were that little, but isn't it sweet to look back and remember?

 Do you have a photo of your sleepy faced child, or maybe one from a night out or camping under the stars? This doesn't have to be a baby's page.

We will do this in class next week, complete with a vellum moon and lots of subtle sparkle and shine. We will also make the sweet rolled satin flower.

Full of colour

Australian spring is here and it's time to celebrate with some glorious colour!

 In class next week we are making this happy layout, starting with punching this background, layered against some gold paper:

 And we will decorate with some pretty resin shapes and lots and lots of rosettes. 

Hope you can join me! Class times are:

Tuesdays 10am

Thursdays 6pm

Fridays 9:30am

Fun in the sun

If you know a little boy, a teen getting their P plates or a racecar mad man, then you want this cool traffic light embellishment! 

And even better, it's already cut out and ready to assemble in one beautiful mini kit for only $2.00. Find it here at my2angels. It was really easy and the instructions include photos, so you don't even have to think hard. 

I teamed it up with a basic brights charming dates embellishment (comes in a set of 5 bright colours with different words), a truck charm, some boy ribbon and my favourite puffy stars, plus a few sequins.

The photo was outlined with some rhinestone chain (the black goes well with the traffic light) and I did some simple stitching with the Sew Easy tool using the Smocking head (no, I did not say smoking head). 6 different colours... what can I say, sometimes I get carried away.

I will be teaching this layout in my home classes next week (Monday and Friday morning, Thursday night), which will include the embellishments and you bring your own papers.

♥♥♥ 

Geli

The three of us

Ok, so this is a pretty unusual colour combo for me. I don't normally reach for purple in the first place, but to combine it with grey, navy and red is not what I had originally planned. I didn't even end up using the photo I had originally picked this paper for. There you go, nothing went as planned. But I kind of like it. Do you?

I have made it a rule that if I buy a piece of paper, I have to buy one or two more from the same range so I have something to match. That's how the weird colour combo happened. 

It's nice to do something totally different once in a while. So why not take the plunge and do that one thing / use that one colour / try that technique you're always avoiding?

  The hearts are inspired by Cindy Porter's technique I saw on her blog (see it here), though I used inks instead of mists. 

Awesome - mixed media background

Last week I said mixed media wasn't my thing and here I am, mixing and media-ing. Would you like to give it a go? Join me in class next week! Here is what we'll do:

Using a very plain paper, we will put on a pattern, then add some texture with texture paste and a mask, then mist, stamp and ink to our heart's delight. And before you know it, this...

...becomes this! 

We will make 2 beautiful flowers from scratch, a fence and all the swirls. 

Sorry the photos aren't great, I missed the daylight time to take photos.

He ♥ turtles

In my last blog post I showed you what I was up to. That's how far I had got:

 The photos and the papers and a couple of embellies. 

This is what they turned into:

 I was inspired by a layout I saw on Pinterest (see it here) and wanted to make something more teenage-boyish. Not a flower in sight. I liked the diamonds and made some with strips of washi tape.

 I changed the colour of the little Bingo button and it turned out a bit grungy. Cool.

And the little turtle made it on to the layout too. 

If you like what you see, you can make your own version of this in class next week. Do you have a cool little embellishment in your stash? Use it where my turtle is!

Blog hop with a difference

The one and only Renee Iveson has invited me to a blog hop (find her wonderful blog here)! So come on right in and have a sticky beak at my place.

1. What am I working on right now:

Next week's class. The hardest bit is done and that's picking the papers. Not sure what I'm doing yet. I try and plan my home classes so that it can be done with any paper, because everyone brings their own. Do you remember saying "I won't buy anymore papers till I use what I have"? Here you can use what you have. You will have to wait till the next blog post to see what I came up with.

2. How long does it take to create a project:

I actually do better with a little time pressure. Usually I put a layout together in one day, a bit here and a bit there. Monday is my planning day, so I can show next week's project to my Tuesday ladies.

3. What are my fave things I love to create with at the moment:

Right now I love wood grain paper,circles and feathers in any way, shape or form. At least I keep coming back to those.

4. How does my writing/creating process work:

It doesn't! I write when I have something to say. If not, then there is no journalling. I am not the type who gushes over her children and "share if you love your kids with all your heart" type of Facebook posts make me think "they're still alive, that's proof enough". I do like to write a little about travel photos, so we remember what we did. All very last minute-style.

5. How do I become inspired and stay inspired:

I check out what others do and try out what they've done. Magazines, Pinterest, blogs are all great ways to find inspiration. And a glass of wine doesn't hurt.

6. What is my signature style:

I think it's not too messy, but a bit structured. Comes from having to measure all the time and tell the ladies in class what to cut. I like to try out all sorts of styles, but mixed media is not my thing (I'm too impatient), but I still like to dabble sometimes, just to keep it mixed up. 

I like to make my own embellishments, because it's better for the budget and we can then replicate it in class. So you will end up learning lots of techniques in my class, too.

Talking of class and just to prove that I can do messy, this class project has been pretty popular and I want to show you how to do some chunky embossing:

Take a stencil and some embossing powders, texture paste, micro beads and a dark cardstock:

 Spread the texture paste over the stencil (I used sticky tape to mask off the feathers I didn't want)

 While the texture paste is still wet, add some embossing powder, straight on the top.

 To get the gradual look, hold you paper up at a slight angle and pour a little of the purple powder over the bottom of the feathers. Gently tap off the powder so it falls down the bottom of the page. Now add a little pink powder and let the rest fall off the bottom of the page (clean your tray first of course) It won't stick to the purple. Repeat with as many colours as you want until all the feathers are covered in embossing powder.

 Now let it all dry. If you heat the texture paste while it is still wet, it will bubble a lot. Don't worry bubble-fans, it will still bubble a little when it's dry!

Does it look dry? Don't touch it! Now you can heat set it with a heat gun.

 Depending on your embossing powder, they can look smooth or chunky, it's all good! I ended up with a bit of both. 

Now heat the bottom of the feathers once more and when the powder is melted once more, sprinkle a few micro beads on top (careful! they love to jump!). Give it another blast with the heat gun to settle them down.

 Stamp with a background stamp around the area where you photo will sit:

 To add a few splashes, take the top off your spray bottle and dip in a brush.

 Tap the brush over the cardstock to get some random splatters. By tapping the brush with your scissors, you get fine spots, by shaking it, you get big blobs. It's all very random. Embrace random!

 Now you're ready to add your photo and embellish away. Have fun!

The next stops on our blog hop will be:

1.) Tracy Kielty

I first got to know her when she picked me for her DT and we later discovered that we were twins! Born a couple of years apart, but that doesn't matter. It's funny how we were born just about as far apart as possible on Earth (Germany-New Zealand), but we are so alike.
Tracy is the owner of the my2angels online shop and the queen of embellishments. She makes all sorts of cool things and is always so generous with sharing how-to's and ideas. 

Check out her blog here.

2.) Marilyn Rivera

I love admiring Marilyn's work because it is so very different from my style and is always fabulous. She loves folding paper and there are many little treasures hidden on each of her projects. A real feast for the eyes.

Find her blog here