Scrap Around The World ~ April Moodboard

The Boatshed

Last one for tonight!  It's been a busy day!  I wanted very much to enter into the Scrap Around The World ~April Moodboard Challenge.  I loved the maritime nature of the moodboard and the colours.

I knew the photo I wanted to feature on my page - a picture I had taken of a painting created by my Aunty.  The subject matter of the painting is very sentimental to our family...

I wanted to put more work into the background and reduce the layering a bit to recreate a beachy feel.  I have painted with Making Memories acrylic paints at the top half of the page, and I used the Mini Cell Theory stencil by TCW, and some Whipped Spackle tinted with Butterscotch Gelato on the bottom to create a sand sensation.  I stamped some reeds from the 'Wetlands' stamp set by Stampin' Up! across the bottom, and the birds from the same set on the water's edge.  (If you look closely at the blue sky, you can also see some birds in flight in the distance...)

I then added some pieces of chipboard trellis and wove some hessian fibres through and over the trellis.  I added some more hessian and strands to the page.  I created my own wood-textured cardstock for the layers and the title.  Using the 'Woodgrain' embossing folder by SU!, I created the texture to my piece.  I then ran the Chocolate Gelato over the raised ridges of the embossing.  I spritzed with water and ran my wet brush over the Gelato until I was happy with the blending.

My final piece is a tag upon which I have journalled the story of this painting.  Not many of my layouts have journalling, but this one required ~ almost demanded ~ it!

Cheers!
Deb.xx

White... with 1 ~ April Challenge: Sand

Serenity

Another really late entry from me this month (I think I've been making too many cards!).  I'm glad I got to enter the White... with 1 ~ April Challenge: Sand. 

I knew it would be a bit tricky for me, but again, I'm pretty happy with how it came together.  I think I just needed to find the right photo to start with, because then it all pretty much came together...

Late night photography does make for some interesting shadows, etc ~ so I'll try to take a clearer one in the morning.  I just wanted to get linked up in time!

There is quite a bit of background work in this one, with some Whipped Spackle, then Gelatos (Butterscotch and Gold), followed by some spattering of Honey Amber Twinkling H2O, and some random stamping with StazOn ink.

I'm happy with how the layering came together, and I love the chipboard 'String Circles' from ScrapMatts (designed by the awesome BeckBT).

Cheers!
Deb.xx

Sassy Scrappers ~ April Moodboard Challenge

Best Friends

Now this is cutting it fine!  I always love to join in with the Sassy Scrappers Monthly Moodboards, and I can't believe I nearly missed it!!!  (I was sure I had one more day in April...)  Here is a look at the delicious April Moodboard, put together by the amazing Anita Bownds:

I knew I'd struggle with this one, which is why I (perhaps) blocked it from my mind for most of the month...  Having said that, I'm actually delighted with how this page came together tonight...

Apologies for the poor picture quality - natural light is so much better for photographs, but there isn't much to be found at 10:30 at night, lol!

I had actually forgotten that I had the Pink Gelato set from Kaisercraft (d'oh!).  It is full of such beautiful pastel colours and blooms that would be so perfect for this moodboard, and so once I remembered I had it, and where I had stashed it, the page came together pretty well.  There's a bit of layering and use of die cuts from the 6x6 paper pad that came with the kit.

I've cut out some words to incorporate around the page (the girls were getting ready for their first dance concert back in 2010 - a time of nerves, excitement and giggles!).

Cheers!
Deb.xx

Scrapbook Boutique ~ April Challenge

Phew, I'm cutting this one a bit fine!!  Again, I've gone a bit outside the box for my entry into the Scrapbook Boutique ~ April Challenge.  We start out with this yummy inspiration photo:

I've gone with the purple and the flowers as my inspiration, although it isn't apparent from the beginning...

It also doesn't help that my colour hasn't come out very well in the photos...  Imagine the ribbon, oval frame, butterfly and stamp are all in an eggplant-purple sort of colour... (d'oh!)

But, surely that's not enough purple for this inspiration photo and blog challenge...  There must be something more...  [Pull the ribbon to find out!]

And of course, there is!  Pull the ribbon up a little bit more...

(See, the colour is better ~ but only just!!!) And there it is, some pretty purple flowers that are a bit sneaky...

This card has been made as a special order for one of the marvellous ladies in our school office (to give to her mum).  I hope they both like it!

Deb.xx

Kraft+ April Challenge ~ Retro Recipe

The Ode

Well, this one is emotional...  My entire heart and soul is invested in this piece that I have created for the wonderful Kraft+ April Challenge ~ Retro Recipe.  Here is a look at our inspiration for this month:

There is a wonderful recipe of ingredients and colours, all to be applied to a base of Kraft.  I've gone outside the square with this and created a canvas that, I must confess, has me a bit humbled at how well it turned out and how well it came together once I had the idea...

As there are not many Kraft canvasses around (!), I used an old Kraft shopping bag and tore it to shreds and mod-podged it to the canvas - one Kraft base ~ check!

I printed out the Army shield on normal copy paper, fussy cut around it and mod-podged it to the canvas.  Next, I stamped "Lest We Forget" at the bottom, and six poppies around the top of the shield and coloured them in.  I created my own 'polka dots' using a piercing template and my Copic Multiliner.

I cut 'dogtags' from silver cardstock, twined cotton through them and mod-podged them into place.  I printed, cut out, inked and mod-podged the Ode across the canvas.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.  
Lest we forget.

The last piece was to use some washi tape.  I saw a wonderful tutorial on Gelatos on YouTube that turned the humble masking tape into designer 'washi tape'.  With this in mind, I laid out several strips of masking tape and applied Red Cherry Gelato.  Once it was dry, I mod-podged the masking tape and again allowed it to dry.

I cut it into small strips and folded them in half and rounded the tops to make them like poppy petals.  I pulled the pre-made flowers off some Kaisercraft paper blooms so that I could use the stem to build my poppies on.  Using hot glue, I folded in the ends of the masking washi tape petals in two layers to make them look like poppies.  I added Black Sprinkles to the centres of each poppy with hot glue.  Phew!

A lot of work, for something I am so immensely proud of.  I am grateful to our service men and women every day for the wonderful country we live in.

Have a wonderful ANZAC Day tomorrow.  I am off to the Dawn Service at Simpson Army Barracks, and then to the Watsonia RSL at 10:00am where my son will be reading the Ode in his capacity as School Captain.  A very proud mamma indeed, and one who will be drying tears from my eyes all morning I'm sure.

Deb.xx

Scrapping Outback ~ April White With A Twist

You are the ICING on my CUPCAKE

I love the look of the inspiration photo for the April: White With A Twist challenge at Scrapping Outback:

Doesn't that look positively delicious?!!  I love the magenta colour with the mint-green colour of the ocean behind it and was looking forward to putting this page together.

I remembered to choose my chipboard first for this layout (!), and selected two lovely flourishes.  I painted them with gesso first, and then covered them with 'Wintermint' Twinkling H2O, to give them sparkle.  Chipboard ~ check!

There is a lot of work in the background of this page.  After selecting a piece of Double Thick Bazzill Cardstock, I applied a thin layer of dry-brushed gesso across the middle section, back and forth and up and down, creating a cross-hatch sort of texture.  Once it was dry, I used my 'Wisteria' Twinkling H2O and a finer brush and applied the watercolour paint in the same cross-hatch pattern. [You can't tell from this photo due to the flash point, but the cross-hatching formed a square in the middle of the page.  The detail photo below shows that up better.]

Whilst that was setting, I mixed up some Light Molding Paste with some Lilac Posies' and 'Grape Jelly' Memento ink, and then using the 'Mini Believe Script' by TCW, I stencilled my purple paste in some random sections on the page, making sure some of it went over the purple cross-hatch watercolour paint in the middle.  I left the stencilled molding paste to dry overnight.  

I felt the stencilling that was over the watercolouring needed to be highlighted a bit, so I used a purple Gelato and lightly rubbed it across the top of the stencilling, and then blended it in with my fingers.

I had selected this very cute photo of my daughter eating a cupcake, and so I wanted to put a cupcake on my page somewhere.  Using my Avery Elle 'Cupcakes' stamp set, and my Stampin' Up! pastels markers, I randomly coloured the wrapper stamp with light colours, and stamped it on the bottom right hand corner of the page.  I then coloured the cupcake topper with a brown marker for the "cake" and light pink marker for the "icing" and stamped this down.  Using the adorable little "sprinkle" stamp, I added sprinkles to top of the icing.  I then went over the "icing" and "sprinkles" with a magenta Starburst Gelly Roll pen.  The gorgeous sentiment from that stamp set, reading "You are the ICING on my CUPCAKE" is so cute and it really suited this layout and photo beautifully.  It has been stamped using Versafine 'Onyx Black'.

The photo was matted on some mint green paper that I had distressed around the edges, and then painted with 'Wintermint' Twinkling H2O for some shine.  It was all layered up on some extra patterned paper in mint green, with some text patterned paper to break it up a bit.  One chippie flourish was added directly to the photo and the other was added to the bottom left corner of the page.

To finish the layout, I added 'Mint' and 'Boysenberry' Sprinkles to the top corners to balance out the page.

I loved this challenge from Scrapping Outback!

Cheers!
Deb.xx

Pixels and Paper Challenge Blog - April 2015

SO HIGH UP

Well, it's time to get back into some challenge entries for me, as we're winding down another month!  My entry today is for the Pixels and Paper Challenge Blog - April 2015 Challenge.  The inspiration photo is fabulous!

So many possibilities, with silhouettes, masculine creations, bikes, gears, blues - such an amazingly diverse inspiration photo this month!

I chose the colours, and the wheels of the bike for my inspiration.  I then set about finding the photos I wanted.  Here is the layout I came up with:

These photos were taken a while ago (2007 - the little boy in the cap turns 12 this week, and the little girl with the dummy in her mouth is 10 next month!!).  We went for a family holiday to Queensland and took the kids to Sea World.  I felt these photos of the Eye suited this challenge perfectly, both in colour and concept.

My layout has lots of edge distressing, some paint blotting and splatting, I've used DecoArt One Step Crackle on some of the layering pieces, and stamped into wet Whipped Spackle to create part of my title (then colouring the letters with watered Gelatos).  On reflection, I should have let the Whipped Spackle set a bit before stamping into it.

Thanks again to Pixels and Paper for hosting such a wonderful monthly blog!

Deb.xx

Cute baby cards - Copic Colouring

Here's a quick post today to show off two cute baby cards I've made...

These were stamped with the Peachy Keen Stamps 'Baby Monkey' stamp set and coloured with my Copics.  They're so cute!

Deb.xx

More cards for charities...

Another quick post today, showing off two card designs I've finalised this weekend:

I used the adorable 'Lil Bee's Big Flowers' stamp set by Annabelle Stamps, and my Prismacolour pencils to create this bright, happy card.

This more serene-looking card was created using the 'Wetlands' stamp set by Stampin' Up!.  I also used Soft Sky, Marina Mist, Sahara Sand and So Saffron ink and a water brush to create the background.  This card was snaffled directly from a card on Pinterest: here.  I liked it so much because it was both beautiful and simple to create en-mass.

Two cards of each of these designs will go to Australian Combat Troops Cards, and the other two of each of these designs will go to Dawn Lewis for her to pass on to RMH and Westmead Children's Hospitals.

Thanks for stopping by!
Deb.xx

ARTastic Challenge Blog ~ April Challenge (swirls)

This is all new to me!  My first challenge entry for the ARTastic Challenge Blog, and my first ever attempt at a mixed media canvas.  The inspiration for the April Challenge on the ARTastic Challenge Blog is a piece of work by Roy de Maistre called Frozen Music.

Isn't it glorious?!!  The criteria was to use swirls on my submission.  Other than that, it could be a scrapbooking layout (paper or digi), or mixed media.  The very talented DT at ARTastic provided some positively divine inspiration for this challenge.  I must say, it was Lizzy's work that inspired me the most this time around...  I decided to create something for my daughter's bedroom that she could hang up.  She loves rainbows, and the colour palette in this inspiration picture is perfect for that!

I pencilled in my swirls first, and then inked them in.  Then I put modelling paste in alternate segments of the swirls, plumping it up to give it texture.  Once the modelling paste was dry, I went over it with Silks Acrylic Glaze in 'Solar Gold' to give these raised peaks some shine.  I also stencilled some swirls in Silks at each of the corners.

Then, knowing that the Silks Acrylic Glaze resists Twinkling H2Os, I set about adding a rainbow of colour around the entire canvas with my H2Os.  Again, when it was dry, I mod-podged some tissue paper with butterflies stamped on (stamped with StazOn).  I also stamped directly onto the canvas with StazOn "BE FREE".  Once dry, I put dimensional magic on the butterfly dots and across the "BE FREE".

As a final touch, I stamped out a sentiment from a Kazazz stamp set called 'Happy Butterflies' on white cardstock, trimmed down each stanza of the sentiment and mod-podged it onto the canvas.

It was interesting for me to learn what mixed media goes with which (and what clearly doesn't, lol).  I had much fun preparing this canvas - thanks to the ARTastic Challenge Blog for providing such awesome inspiration!

Deb.xx

Dry Stencilled Father's Day Cards...

Just a quick post to show my next set of Father's Day cards for the Australian Combat Troops, using Beck BT's fantastic technique!

Using Core'dinations carstock, TCW "Mini Bricks" 6x6 stencil and an embossing tool, I traced through the stencil outlines to create the raised embossed effect, then sanded off the top layer to reveal the core ~ easy-peasy and yet so very effective!

The sentiment stamp is from the "Delightful Dozen" stamp set by Stampin' Up! and it is heat embossed with vanilla embossing powder.  My little bows were made using a strand of hessian.

Thanks for visiting!

Deb.xx

Another set of Father's Day cards...

As per my previous post, I made another set of four Father's Day cards today, this time employing the 'mirroring stamp' technique.

Lots of sponging and some colouring, and I'm extremely happy with the result.  My crafting bestie (who is also my SU! Demonstrator) showed me this technique in a Stamp Club session a few months ago - I'm rapt I remembered how to do it!

So here's another four Father's Day cards for the Australian Combat Cards for Troops. :)

Deb.xx

Some Father's Day cards...

I've recently joined a group on Facebook called Australian Combat Cards Inspiration and Ideas.  This group then links to state-specific groups and the purpose behind these groups is to collect handmade cards to send to our Aussie troops deployed overseas, for them to send back to their families.  Wonderful idea, right?  Obviously it takes time to (a) get the donated cards overseas to the deployed troops; and (b) for the troops to be able to get the cards home to their loved ones.  So, with cards for specific occasions, there are deadlines several months in advance.  Hence why I'm making Father's Day cards in April!

I like to make multiples of 4s when making bulk cards for something like this (the idea being that one sheet of A4 cardstock yields 4 cardfronts).  So, I grabbed my new 'Moon Lake' stamp set from Stampin' Up!, my daughter's Derwent Watercolour pencils and here is the finished product... (sorry the photo is a bit skewiff - my camera batteries needed recharging desperately and I had to take the photo I could get, lol!)

However, the story is not yet done!  I put a personalised stamp on the back of all my cards, and I like to use Versafine Onyx Black.  Unfortunately, I had a little "oopsie", and like the proverbial toast with butter, one of my cards landed upside down on the open ink pad - DOH!!!

Of course, all is not lost!  I simply cut off the offending portion and reconfigured the card design a bit, and voila!  A fourth card to join the bunch!

All's well that ends well!

By the way, the design for this cardfront was inspired by a post on Pinterest.

Deb.xx

Back to making cards...

After a flurry of layouts recently, I decided I should get some cardmaking done.  I really wanted to play with my Hero Arts inks and to make a bright, fun birthday card that would suit girls.  I also wanted to make a collection of the same card to send off to Australian Combat Cards ~ a wonderful initiative where handmade cards are donated to be sent to serving troops overseas for them to send back to their families.  Here is the card I came up with:

It is a clean and simple card, using white cardstock (almost exclusively - just a little bit of brown for the cupcake base).  All of the other colours on the card are either sponged or stamped with Hero Arts Inks (or Copics in the case of the tops of each of the cupcakes).  I used the Avery Elle 'Cupcakes' stamp set, as well as the Annabelle Stamps 'Shape it Up' stamp set for the sentiment.

My favourite thing about this card is the patterned paper panel, which is randomly stamped with a sprinkles stamp using the four colours of Hero Arts inks - so cute!  I finished off the card with some Annabelle Stamps sprinkles in assorted colours and sizes.

I have made five of these cards to send off to Australian Combat Cards.  Next I plan to make some Father's Day cards, as they are needed soon to ship out in time.

Thanks for visiting!

Deb.xx