Kraft+ February Challenge ~ Mango Breeze #3

I couldn't resist having another crack at the wonderful Kraft+ February Challenge ~ Mango Breeze!  I love the colours so very much, and this brand new little blog that could is going great guns with their first challenge!

I took delivery of my most recent Stampin' Up! order today, and armed with a new batch of goodies, I set about creating one final entry for this marvellous challenge.

I inked up a piece of white cardstock with Butter Bar, Bubble Gum, Neon Red, Orange Soda and Tide Pool Hero Arts Shadow Inks and sponges.  Using the largest butterfly from the Butterflies Thinlits Dies from Stampin' Up!, I cut out the butterfly first in black cardstock, and then, whilst leaving the outline inside the die (with some Tombow Mono Glue around the edges), I then cut out the butterfly from the inked up cardstock.

Most of the butterfly came out of the die together, with only a few of the coloured pieces needing to be glued back in.  Once I had assembled the butterfly on my Kraft background, I then coloured the black outline with my clear Wink of Stella pen to give it some shimmer.

I stamped the word "BIRTHDAY" from the 'Crazy About You' Stampin' Up! stamp set in the bottom right.  Using the 'Hello You' word thinlits dies from Stampin' Up!, I cut out the word "happy' from white cardstock and stuck it across the butterfly.

I have double-matted on white cardstock with chipboard underneath to add dimension, and then put it on a Kraft landscape-fold card base.

A very clean and simple card that I hope shows off the beauty of this colour combination.

Deb.xx

Penny Black: Simplicity at its Best ~ Simplicity Challenge

I'm back with my entry into the Penny Black Simplicity at its Best ~ SIMPLICITY Challenge.  I love to create clean and simple cards, and the SIMPLICITY Challenge was perfect for me.

Brief:  to create any type of project inspired by the clean and simple designs or techniques displayed on the SIMPLICITY site, using primarily Penny Black products.  Awesome!

Firstly I stamped out the cute painter cat from the 'Good Day' stamp set using Memento Ink on a piece of X-press It Blending Card.  I then stamped out the same image using StazOn ink onto my masking film, and fussy cut it out.

After masking off my image, I used the brush stroke image from Stampin' Up!'s 'Work of Art' stamp set and each of Neon Red, Orange Soda, Butter Bar, Field Greens and Cornflower Hero Arts Shadow Inks to create the background.

Once I removed the mask, I set about colouring my image with my Copics, leaving the tip of the paint brush and the paint spots on the palette blank.  Then using just the corner of each of the Hero Arts ink pads, I dabbed the ink straight on to the empty paint spots and paint brush tip to match the colours perfectly to my rainbow background.

I stamped the sentiment 'THANK YOU" from the 'Good Day' stamp set using Versafine Onyx Black ink, and as a finishing touch, I added some Crystal Effects to the paint spots and brush tip to make them look wet.

I had heaps of fun with this technique and stamp set.  Thanks for stopping by, and thanks to the Penny Black SIMPLICITY site for the chance to win!

Deb.xx

Sassy Scrapper ~ February 2015 Moodboard Challenge

WOW, two layouts in two days!!  I'm on a roll again, LOL!  I needed a bit of time to think about how to interpret the Sassy Scrapper February 2015 Moodboard.  It's got pinky-romantic sorts of colours to it, but with lashings of gold and black, flowers, fringes, cake, shoes, straws - it had it all!

Initially I was going to focus on the 'XO' component, then I was going to work on the gold shoes, but none of it felt right.  Against my better judgement, I went with pink, with flowers, although there is also quite a bit of gold involved as well.

Starting with a piece of pink '{note}worthy Addie Brocade Dot' patterned paper from Making Memories, I stamped the flourish from the 'Everything Eleanor' Stampin' Up! stamp set, using 'Blushing Bride' ink also from Stampin' Up!.  This was stamped randomly over my patterned paper.

Using my tombow glue, I highlighted certain parts of each flourish, and then left the glue to 'go off'.  Once the glue was virtually set (although still tacky), I used some Birch Craft 'Magic Foil for Hot Stamping Pen' in gold (I've had this for positively eons and have never known how to use it without a hot stamping pen) and rubbed it over each of the glue sections.  This had the effect of transferring the gold film to the glue, giving the flourishes a lovely look.

There was then some basic layering of some elements, including gold tags that had cardboard stickers on them, inked up doilies and half doilies with (pre-made) paper flowers stuck to the middle.

Then my final feature was the title "love".  I had stamped a full pad-worth of Versamark Ink onto some white tissue paper.  I covered it with Tinby Designs 'Metallic Melts' in Copper and heat-set it with my heat gun, just like you would with embossing powder.  Once I had the coverage I wanted, I let it cool and then pressed it flat (under my craft mat) until I was ready to use it.

I cut out a stencil of the word 'love' using my Cricut (and SCAL), traced it out onto the piece of tissue paper with Metallic Melts using a Copic Multiliner, and then fussy-cut out the word.  I ran it through a Xyron sticker maker to give it even adhesive coverage and stuck it to my page.  I'm not entirely happy with my placement of this element, but it's stuck down there now, and isn't about to budge any time soon!!

This was a real challenge for me to use pink, but overall I'm really happy with the result.

Deb.xx

Scrap Around The World ~ February Challenge

My goodness, what a stunning moodboard for the Scrap Around The World February Challenge (created by Tatiana Sidorenko)!

Gorgeous, isn't it?  I was immediately drawn to the colours, as green is my all time favourite.  I wanted to try a bit more 'mixed media' in my page for this one, and I'm pretty happy with the results:

I had initially machine-stitched my background paper onto a bit of dark olive cardstock to give it some strength (first time machine-stitching on any scrapbook page!).  I then spritzed some Glimmer Mist and allowed it to dry.  I then tinted up some texture paste and, using a Kaisercraft butterfly stencil, I applied my paste.  All of this was done within the first week or so of this month, and then I stopped...

I knew I wanted to do some layering work on this page, but I wasn't experienced in it AT ALL!  I needed some expert tutelage, and I got it when I went to my very first scrap retreat, hosted by the marvellous Bella Carta family.  They had arranged for the super-talented Beck BT (aka Beck Beattie) to host a mixed media class on the Saturday, and she has opened my eyes completely to a whole new way of preparing my scrapbook pages.  She has also brought to my attention the awesomeness that is Tinby Designs Metallic Melts!  Although my photo doesn't do it justice, I have used 'Glistening Snow' and 'First Light' Metallic Melts on my chipboard word "Lucky".  It looks awesome!!

The layering and background work in my layout is directly inspired by the page we created in that class, and I'm even using some of the 'negative space' chipboard pieces left over as well!  Whilst there is a lot more 'work' in this page, I feel that the photo is still the star, and that makes me happy!

Thanks for an awesome moodboard Scrap Around The World - it is truly stunning and inspirational!

Deb.xx

Scrapbook Boutique ~ February 2015 Challenge

I'm back with another scrapbook layout today, this time to enter into the Scrapbook Boutique ~ February 2015 Challenge.  I was rapt to discover this February challenge had a 'back to school' theme!  Here is the inspiration photo:

Looks yummy, right?  I knew the photo I wanted to use, and so I just had to set about planning out the page.  After a couple of 'wrong turns' that have gone back into the stash to fight another day, I came up with this layout:

My son John is in Grade 6 this year, and my daughter Kaitlyn is in Grade 4.  I made them pose together in front of the school sign on the first day of the 2015 year (as I have done each year - although they seem more and more reluctant to be seen doing it, LOL!).  This year, however, is a bit more special as it is not only John's last year of primary school, but he is also one of the School Captains this year as well (see his badge in the photo??).  It is an amazing honour, and we are so very proud of him!

Anyway, back to the layout - I made a wooden-effect frame by cutting out four strips of brown cardstock and inking them with Kaisercraft's 'Wood Grain' stamp in a darker brown ink. I then laid these around a piece of black cardstock (I didn't have a big enough piece to use proper 'blackboard' cardstock, but it doesn't matter) to create the wooden frame around the chalkboard.

I double-matted the photo, first on white, then on red.  There is some random doodling around the red mat.

The funky '2015' banner comes from Stampin' Up!'s 'Class of 2015' stamp in the current Occasions Catalogue (with my son in such a senior leadership position for this year, how could I resist buying that stamp?!!)  I masked off the "Class of", inked up the "2015" with white pigment ink and stamped it on the only piece of chalkboard cardstock I had - the piece was just big enough!  Once it was dry, I then matted this on white cardstock.

Using Stampin' Up!'s 'Tape It' stamp set, I stamped the chevron tape stamp in blue on blue cardstock, and the alphabet soup tape stamp in red on red cardstock.  These have then been fussy-cut out.  I have created little features on the right hand side of the page with groups of these stuck together.

I stamped out "A, B, C" and "1, 2, 3" from Stampin' Up!'s 'Morning Post Alphabet' and 'Morning Post Numbers' stamps sets, respectively.  I stamped them onto white cardstock using Versafine Ink in 'Majestic Blue'.  I then fussy-cut out each one, leaving a small white border around them.  I punched six circles from my red cardstock using the Creative Memories '1-1/2" circle' punch and popped my letters and numbers up on the circles.  These circles were adhered down the left hand side of the page.

I created a thin green border strip to go around my yellow cardstock (these being our school colours).

The writing on the 'blackboard' has been done using a Stampin' Up! 'Stampin' Chalk Marker'.  I added a few little tiles I've had for positively eons, with some black hemp tied to the ends.

I've had a great time making this layout today - once I got on a roll and got through my 'false starts', the whole thing came together really well.

Cheers!

Deb.xx

Pixels & Paper Challenge Blog ~ February

I'm absolutely stoked to enter this layout into the Pixels & Paper Challenge Blog for February!  The inspiration photo had me stumped at first - I knew I would have to go way outside of my comfort zone in order to create something worthy of submitting.  Here is the inspiration photo:

Hmmm, potentially something French, or with letters, or the beautiful blue-green hue with the pinks and the gold of the Eiffel Tower...   SNAP!

I have created a double layout (yes, a double!) that incorporates some gold, pink, blue-green and a French Theme - photos from my time in the French Quarter (or Vieux Carre) in New Orleans!

 With my Gypsy, I created two separate 12x12 layouts, and using the Gypsy Font, I wrote "Vieux Carre" on one page and "French Quarter" on the other.  With my Cricut, I cut these both out of Kraft cardstock, using that as my base for the layout.  I then cut the words out again in Stampin' Up! Gold Foil Cardstock.  I have then inlaid the gold words into the Kraft background using the inlaid diecut technique I learned from Therese at lostinpaper - very effective!

Since my Cricut was out and warming up for me, I decided to make an interesting feature on my background.  I'm loving texture paste at the moment, and this was going to work beautifully!  I used one of my (many) photos of the amazing iron work to be found in the French Quarter, and from that photo I was able to trace an image using my SCAL program, and then cut it out with the Cricut.  After much weeding, I had a lovely, intricate and authentic piece of the French Quarter to use on my layout.

Using this as a stencil on one of my background pages, I covered it with texture paste (tinted with Memento 'Tuxedo Black' to make it dark grey, and then with AC ZING! Embossing Powder in 'Pewter' added for additional oomph!).  I then carefully removed the stencil and allowed it to dry.  Therefore, I had a negative space and a positive space to use on each page of my double layout.  Here is the cropped version of the photo and a quick in-progress shot of my layout as the texture paste was drying:

Using a brayer, I coloured a piece of white cardstock with Stampin' Up! 'Blushing Bride' and 'Soft Sky' inks - these two colours represented the two different colours from the inspiration photo.  From this piece of cardstock, I was able to then cut different pieces in different shapes to use for matting of my photos.  I have also used some similarly-coloured Core'dinations cardstock and embossing folders(sanding off the top layer to reveal the core) to create different effects for my photo mats

I've then made some small ribbon roses and placed them in clusters, as well as some small bows from the same ribbons.  I've then added some Kaisercraft brads.

The top left and bottom right across the pages (above and below the inlaid gold text) seemed a bit blank to me, so I splotched in some white texture paste, and when it was dry, I've run my sponges over each, adding Stampin' Up!'s 'Soft Sky' to the top left and 'Blushing Bride' to the bottom right.

My final piece was to create a tag with "NO, LA" [New Orleans, Louisiana], and then make a small Fleur-de-Lis, which is the logo for the city and the New Orleans Saints NFL team.

This layout has definitely taken up way more time than I would usually spend (texture paste drying time, notwithstanding, LOL!).  There were so many different things that I wanted to make sure were representing my memories of that wonderful place.

Thanks for stopping by!
Cheers!
Deb.xx

Scrapping Outback ~ February "White with a Twist" Challenge

Back again to join in with Scrapping Outback for their next challenge:  February "White with a Twist".  Here is their inspiration photo:

That cocktail sure would be nice today - it's been 37degC here in Melbourne - phew!!

Knowing I had to incorporate a piece of chipboard into my layout, I decided to plan my entire layout on whatever piece I could find in my stash...  I came across a ScrapFX Wordlet ~ "Siblings" ~ and here is my layout based on that piece of chipboard:

I decided to print my gorgeous photo in black and white, and so I needed to make the background much more colourful to give the page interest.  I gave my yellow cardstock a quick spritz with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in 'Cinnamon' and left it overnight to dry.

The next morning, I used texture paste tinted a nice brown colour, and used a circles mask to create that feature on the background.  I went 'outside the lines' with the mask and the texture paste, but I figured that added dimension...  Again, I needed to wait a while for it to dry.

I used a piece of gold sequin mesh and a brown ink pad ('Chocolate Chip' Stampin' Up!) to create the border at the bottom by coating one side of the mesh with the ink and stamping it onto the page.  I also stamped the mesh in a couple of random places on the cardstock.  I also added a piece of the gold sequin mesh to the cardstock to add texture.

I matted the photo on a simple piece of brown cardstock.  Down the right hand side of the page I heat embossed a heart image with white embossing powder.  I also heat embossed the chipboard piece with white embossing powder (several times to make it thick and chunky).

Using my Avery Elle 'Needle Little Heart' die, I cut out the heart and, using brown DMC thread, I cross-stitched the heart.  To finish off the heart, I edged it with 'Tea Dye' Distress Ink.

I needed something to balance the other side of the photo, and so I quickly punched out some paper flowers using the 'Mixed Bunch' punch from Stampin' Up!, curled, inked and finished them off with buttons.

I added a piece of roughly-torn brown patterned paper, some strips of yellow and white striped washi tape and some white and brown gel pen doodling to the upper right had side, and here is my page.

Phew!  Much more work and a much 'busier' layout than I normally create - but it is great to push oneself outside of a comfort zone!  Thanks to great blogs like Scrapping Outback, I am firstly starting to scrapbook again; and secondly, creating much more diverse types of pages.

Deb.
xx

Birthday cards for twins

Just a quick post to show two birthday cards I made for a brother-sister set of twins.  They have been with my son since Kinder and they are all in Grade 6 this year.  It's amazing - you truly wonder where the time has gone!  The twins' mum always comes to me to buy cards for any occasion she needs - she is a great support to my crafty endeavours!!  So I wanted to make some special cards for the twins with some Copic colouring.

 

I stamped the 'Merci Bouquet' image from Penny Black with Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and coloured with my Copics.  In the middle of the purple pansies, I have used a Sakura Gelly Roll Glaze pen in black to add some fine detail.  I used 'Dusty Concord' Distress Ink to give the edges some interest.  I stamped the "Happy Birthday" sentiment from the 'Itty Bitty Banners' stamp set by Stampin' Up! with 'Imperial Purple' Versafine ink, and then cut it out using the 'Bitty Banners' dies by Stampin' Up!.

 For this card, I stamped an image from the Penny Black 'Good Day' stamp set using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink, and coloured the image with my Copics.  I used a Sakura Gelly Roll Glaze pen in White to colour the dots on the present to make it look like embossing.  I stamped the "happy birthday" sentiment(s) from the 'Good Day' stamp set using Versafine 'Onyx Black' ink.  I edged the top piece with 'Black Soot' Distress Ink

Happy Birthday for Friday CASMIT!

Deb. xx

Kraft+ February Challenge ~ Mango Breeze #2

I'm back with another entry into the Kraft+ February Challenge: Mango Breeze.  K+ is a new blog on the block where everything is about the Kraft!  Mango Breeze is their inaugural blog challenge, and I think they've hit it out of the park right off the bat.  Here is a reminder of this totally yummy colour combination:

My inspiration came from a set of cards by @purrfectionistcrafter that was shared by the Mama Elephant facebook page.  I changed it up to match K+ Mango Breeze, and here is what I came up with:

I have stamped the word "HAPPY" using Mama Elephant 'Balloon Letters' on my coloured cardstock and fussy cut out each letter.  I then strung them individually with Stampin' Up! Linen Thread. 

I stamped out the gorgeous little elephant from the Sweet Stamp Shop 'Elephant Hearts' stamp set and coloured him in with my Prismacolour pencils using Zest-It and a blending stump to blend.  I then fussy cut him out. 

I stamped the word "birthday" from the Penny Black 'Good Day' stamp set using Versafine Onyx Black ink and doodled in the edge of the card with my Copic Multiliner 0.3 pen.  I love how this card came together!

Now, here's the kicker!  I loved this idea for this card so much that I thought I'd enter it in a swap - Dawn Lewis's February Swap - Cards: Open Theme.  So I made six of them!  They are gorgeous, simple CAS cards, although I must say I have had enough fussy cutting for a little while!!

I'm off to pack up my swap and post it off!

Cheers!
Deb.xx

CASE-ing a technique ~ Masked Striped Background

My first post today is about CASE-ing a gorgeous technique called "Masked Striped Background".  I saw it over on wonderful Miss Emma's My Creative Time blog yesterday.  Here is a snippet of her creation:

Gorgeous, isn't it?

So, I thought I'd like to give it a shot myself, and I knew just the card I wanted to make.  My bestie Sandra is having a birthday this week, and her favourite colour is purple.  I think it turned out pretty well...

I created a heart mask using my Avery Elle 'Needle Little Heart' die.  I then used some washi tape and 'Dusty Concord' Distress Ink with ink blending tool to create the striped background (check out Emma's post for instructions - mine is not as neat as hers!).

I then stamped the flourish from the 'Everything Eleanor' stamp set (Stampin' Up!) with Imperial Purple Versafine ink  The sentiment is from the 'Bring on the Cake' stamp set (Stampin' Up! - retired), also stamped with Imperial Purple Versafine ink.

For my final touch, I added some Lilac Sprinkles to the end points of the flourish to add a little bling.

Have a great day!
Deb. xx

Kraft+ February Challenge ~ Mango Breeze

Welcome to the New Kid on the Block, Kraft+ (also known as K+).  K+ is a new challenge blog devoted to all things Kraft!  They have launched their first challenge today, the February Challenge: Mango Breeze, and it is spectacular!

K+ has an awesome lineup of talented ladies in their DT, and I was pleased (and a little bit relieved) to see all different styles of inspiration for this first challenge.  There are beautiful layouts full of embellishment, lots of inks and paints and assorted ephemera; but then there were equally beautiful, clean and simple designs.  I perused the whole lineup of DT inspiration, but I kept coming back to the first one, by Linda Eggleton, and in a snap I knew the layout I wanted to make.

I travelled to the USA in June of 2014 with my bestie, and we spent three glorious days in New Orleans.  The Mango Breeze colours screamed "Bourbon Street" to me.

I started with flicking drops of ink on my Kraft base and smearing them in streaks with the nozzle of the bottle to spread them out.  This indicates to me the excitement and diversity that is Bourbon Street, New Orleans.  I also coloured some texture paste into an orange/pink hue (the photo does not do it justice, unfortunately) and slapped that on the bottom left corner.  Whilst the paste was still wet, I used the Kaisercraft 'Rocks' stamp to give the paste some texture to look like cobblestones.  Once the paste was almost dry, I used Distress Ink in Pumice Stone and my ink blending tool to go over the stamped area to add depth and detail to the texture of the cobblestones.

There is a streak of white heat embossing across the top that I wanted to use to balance out the page and to provide a lighter backdrop for the letters in the word "COLOURS".  I have cut out the word "COLOURS" using Stampin' Up!'s "Little Letters Thinlits Dies".  I used the Mango Breeze inspiration palette in reverse order for the letters in the word.

The letters for NO, LA (which stands for New Orleans, LA [Louisiana]) are from an old Heidi Swapp plastic alphabet set I've had for positively eons.  The colour wasn't right, so I ran an emery board over the tops of the letters to roughen them up and added ink to the top.  I then used a Sakura Gelly Roll Moonlight pen to add some additional detail.

I have used the negative space created by cutting out the words "BOURBON ST" from black craft foam to add a bit of extra interest to the page.

I'm thrilled with how this page came together, and I think that this Kraft+ challenge site has inspired me to perhaps create all of my New Orleans pages on Kraft (and maybe even my entire trip, but I'm not too sure about that yet...)

I can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with!

Deb.
xx