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

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