SATW April Moodboard

Doggy Friends

As I mentioned in my previous post, I've been camping over the Easter break. I had an awesome time resting and relaxing but mostly I enjoyed the opportunity to scrapbook. I never go camping without taking at least something to do that is scrap orientated. This time around I had only planned to do this layout for Scrap Around The World but I ended up doing my WW1 challenge as well. So all in all it was a very successful camping trip this time.

The mood board at SATW this month caught my eye immediately. Not that they always don't, but this one in particular jumped out at me. I love blues and aqua's. They always end up being some of my favourite layouts.

I took my inspiration from the butterfly's mostly. I just love butterfly's. In fact, lately, I haven't done a layout with out at least one on it. So I was extra pleased when I saw them here. I also loved the crackle affect. One of my favourite mediums, that I really don't incorporate into my projects often enough, is crackle. I also loved the circle swirls. I'm starting to get into Art journalling and the swirls look like something I could add onto a journal page next time I give it a go.

Isn't this the most ideal scrapbook studio? That's my mum's camper van in the background. She's so inspirational, she travels all over Australia in that, on her own. She's also my biggest fan when it comes to scrapbooking. The phoot is of my beautiful doggies. Xander is the Jack Russell sitting casually on top of Harry part Shepard part Malamute. Unfortunately Harry is no longer with us but he is always remembered.

I started this page with some stamping. As per usual, you can barely see it now but I used the Kaszazz background stamp "Subway Word Art". I love it because the wording is huge. Then I added the stencil. It's near impossible to see in the photo but it's important to mention because I tried something different with it.

You can just see it, in the photo below. I put Tim Holtz Rock Candy Crackle Paint over the top of the still slightly wet modelling paste that I'd used for the stencil. It worked a treat. The modelling paste absorbed the crackle paint and began to crack as it dried. I later emphasized the cracks by adding some water colour.

I also used some of Tim Holtz's coloured crackle paint "Pine Needles". I also used a trick I learnt accidentally last week on one of my creations. Except this time it wasn't an accident, it was deliberate. Don't you love it when a miss fortune in scrapbooking actually creates a whole new technique. Well this one is gold!

 I cover some chipboard or wooden embellishment (anything actually) with modelling paste and then, when it's not quite dry, stamp on it. It makes the best embellishment. I did it on this layout with the little wooden hexagons. One says Dream and the other, Wish. I also altered the other hexagons with Ink spray, crackle paint and black gesso.

I created the swirls by simply doodling on an old book page and then cutting it out. I love these so much, I think I'll use them again soon.

Next weekend I go camping again (all these Public Holidays are fantastic). I'm hoping to do a couple more layouts or maybe I'll do some journalling this time. I'll see where the mood takes me.

Thank you so much for popping by and checking out my entry. I can not encourage you enough to attempt the challenges that are on offer. They stretch your creative rubber band like you could never imagine. Don't be afraid. Have a go. Like the mood board says "Don't Over Think, Just Let It Go". I am definitely much better at letting go when it comes to my creative side now days. I'm loving it!!

Cheers

Fiona XX

WW1 April Challenge

Mint

Over at White With One this month they have "mint" as their challenge colour. I can't say I've ever used mint in a project, so again this was a daunting challenge, but a challenge is a challenge none the less. I hunted high and low in my scrap room to find all the mint I could.

I found a mint flower. This was my starting point. I had some white ones as well that I coloured with mint Reeves acrylic paint. I noticed the packaging that the white flowers came on was a beautiful Mint colour so I decided to use this too. I cut banner strips out of it and edged them in white Gesso. I also added some chipboard pieces that I coloured with white Gesso and a canvas tag I coloured using the reeves acrylic paint watered down. 

 I also added some book pages tags that I tore from the book. Destructive I know, but worth it. I am constantly searching thrift shops for old books and bits to use in my scrapbooking.

The back ground is watered down acrylic Reeves paint over a stencil background. This time I used one of Tim Holtz's stencils "Bubble". I also speckled some watered down Black Gesso.

I love the soft colour of mint especially married with white. Good call WW1.

Another awesome challenge from WW1. They truly stretch my ability to create. Every time I think it's going to be a disaster of a colour for me ....... it turns out better than ever.

Oh and this was another "Scramping" piece. We have been spending the last couple of days camping at Black Cockatoo Bush Camp for Easter. A beautiful setting to inspire creativity.

Thank you for popping by and checking out my blog.

Cheers

Fiona XX

OUAS April sketch challenge

OUAS

I've been so busy with other DT bits and pieces that I haven't had a chance to enter the Once Upon a Sketch challenge for a couple of months but when I saw the sketch and journalling theme, I made sure I found the time to enter. This is my take.

Here is the sketch and journalling theme.

"An event that changed my life"

Love! Falling in love is what changed my life. It was a long time ago now but never a day goes by when I don't give a thought of how much I love my man. We will celebrate our 20th Wedding Anniversary this year in October. But our journey together started when we were just teens. In fact, I've now got to the point where I've spent more of my life with him than without him and now, I can't image what life was like before we got together.

I've been a bit addicted to the "Kaleidoscope" range by Kaiser Craft lately. I've used this to create this layout. The background paper however is from the "Take Note" range but also Kaiser Craft. The sayings on it are perfect!

I also used a Studio Calico mask blended with "Spun Sugar" Distress Stain to create a fan shape over the water colour background.

Even though I've used the journalling strip from the Kaiser stickers, I've also added my own journalling on the back.

I've decided I don't scrap "us" enough. I'm always busy looking for pictures of the kids or places we go. From now on I'm going to try and take some more selfies or maybe I should call them us-ies lol.

I hope you've enjoyed my take on the challenge over at Once Upon a Sketch.

For updates on my blog posts, you can follow me on FaceBook HERE.

Cheers

Fiona xx

Decorative Easter Eggs Video Tutorial for Off the Rails

Easter Time

I can't believe it's only around the corner. I love that's it's crept up on me. It's like a little pleasant holiday surprise. I've put together a tutorial of some egg decorating for you all. Just a bit of Easter crafting fun. 

To check out the full run down of the eggs, what you need to create them and how I put them together, you can follow the link HERE to "Off the Rails Scrapbooking".

Such a great little project to do for Easter.

Cheers

Fiona xx

Stencils and Masks for Off the Rails DT

Stencils & Masks

The reason I love being on a Design Team? 

 It makes me scrapbook! 

I work full time, more often than not, fuller full time than the usual (that's crazy talk for more than 40 hours a week!). I also work in a very busy industry managing 30 people and some days I get home and just want to stare at the TV and zone out ......... but I have a DT piece due and the team is relying on me.

So I drag my butt into my studio and before I know it the nights gone. Time flies when you are having fun!! and then I'm all relaxed and refreshed and ready to do it all again.

So here's my contribution to this fortnights challenge. The theme is "Stencils and Masks". Stencils I use ALL the time. Love them in fact. At last count I own 24 of them but masks, not so much. 

I struggle with using negative images. I don't know why it's just a thing I can't seem to manage. So what I often find my self doing, is removing the mask from the template and using the template as the mask. Which I suppose technically turns it into a stencil. Hhhhmmmm. Any ways this is what I did. 

The colours are "Evergreen Bough" and "Gathered Twigs" Distress Inks, "Turquoise" Perfect Pearls Mists and "Vibrant Teal" and "White Linen" Dylusions Inks along with black and white gesso.

I also got to use my new Glitz Roller stamp. SO AMAZING!!!

I'm really into butterfly's at the moment. I used the technique of stamping the butterfly on the opposite side of the paper to what you want to use and then free cutting it out. You don't show the detail of the stamp, instead it's about showing off the pattern on the paper. Everyone still gets that it's a butterfly from it's shape.

I've also just recently and very fortunately received a MASSIVE prize from Kaszazz for winning a Face Book challenge they put out in February. So with some of the vouchers I received ($1000 worth!!!!!!! I know right? AMAZING), I stocked up on stamps.

I love Kaszazz's stamp range. Good selection, reasonably priced and most of all excellent quality. So I focussed on background stamps in particular. The one I've used on this layout is simply called "Inspirational Background" and I can see it quickly becoming one of my favourites.

I hope my work has inspired you to pop on over to the Off the Rails Scrapbooking Challenge Blog and have a go at the "Stencils and Masks" challenge for this fortnight.

The sponsor for this challenge is Darkroom Door.

Darkroom Door is owned by photographer Rachel Greig and graphic designer Stewart Yule who combine their talents to design a unique range of rubber stamps and papercraft products suitable for card making, scrapbooking, invitations, collage, mixed media and altered art. As the name suggests, Darkroom Door products have a strong photographic element in their design.

Products include: Rubber Stamps, Photo Stamps, Background Stamps, Frame Stamps, Collage Stamps, Word Block Stamps, Montage sheets, Photochips, and Filmstrips along with a wide range of accessories for all type of paper crafts.

Darkroom Door also has a fabulous blog that is updated regularly with projects created by many talented artists: darkroomdoor.com/blog

Check out the Darkroom Door website to see their full product range along with a gallery full of projects and ideas
Cheers
Fiona
xx

Scrap it with Attitude April challenge

Reuse/Recycle your scraps

This month over at Scrap it With Attitude we're asking our members to use their scraps to create a project and enter our April challenge.

This is my DT inspiration.

I decided to have a go at some Art journalling. I've been checking out some techniques and testing them on my layout's but I hadn't actually attempted a journal page. Until now. I decided to title it "Take Risks" because that's exactly what this was. A risk. My journalling says "If you win, you'll be Happy. If you loose, You will be wise". I love this quote. I reckon it's right on the money and I've always been a bit of a risk taker!

Here's how I put it all together.

I gathered some of my scraps together and shredded them into strips.

 I used Distress Ink and rubbed several bright colours over my circle stencil then applied modelling paste with my dots stencil over the top.

 Then I gave it a couple of sprays of Dylusions Ink for good measure and to get some drips!

 Then I began gluing down the strips. It was at this point that I decided that the strips looked like hair and remembered I'd purchased some face stencils a while back but hadn't used them yet.

 So I got one out (of the packet. Hadn't even opened them!) and positioned it next to my strips. I used black Gesso to paint the face in.

 When I pulled the stencil away, I was gob smacked. It looked so much better than what I could have ever imagined.

I added some more colour, some stamping, stencilling and a few embellishments and then I had to sit on my hands!!!

I think I'm going to really get into this. I've always struggled at being a minimalist scrapper. Always putting heaps on a page. Art journalling will cure that disease! I'll be able to vent my over doingness into my Art Journalling.

YAY!

Thanks for popping by and checking out my risk taking LOL I hope you enjoyed it.

Cheers

Fiona xx

Two Challenges in One

Subtle Changes Over Time

I decided to combine two of my favourite scrapbook challenge sites. Firstly;

Alexandra Polyzou Γειά σας a DT member over at Scrap Around The World from Greece, has created the softest, pinkest and prettiest mood board I've ever seen!

I always think of my baby photos when I see this pale pink used and I felt a black and white photo would suit this colouring beautifully. Then I realised the layout suggested to use three photos. 

Conundrum! Do I use three baby photos? My baby photos are not the best quality, only the studio ones and I don't have much to choose from. Then I had a brain wave.

 I remembered I had an old high school photo I'd found while cleaning up some stuff the other day. It was B&W and would match the baby photo well. So all I needed was a NOW photo. 

My DT photo for Off the Rails Scrapbook Challenge Blog is also B&W. There you go, the perfect trio!

Looking closely at them, I noticed I haven't really changed much over the years. Just got bigger really. So there was my theme "Subtle changes over time". which also fits perfectly with the Japanese Cherry Blossom and it's subtle changes over the season. 

And secondly I was inspired by;

The very talented Zeneva Kovic, Sketch Artist, Team Co-ordinator and blog host over at Kreative Koncepts (formally known as ScrapFriends) once again produced an amazing and challenging sketch.

I flipped it. As I usually do and yes Lizzy, I know. I must start challenging myself to scrap from right to left and not just left to right. lol. Maybe next one hey?

So much background work in this piece. I started with a layer of white gesso then added water colour and allowed it to dry overnight. The next day I wiped off the dry gesso from the centre of the page leaving a distinct "L" shape and a splash of colour in the top right hand corner. I wish I'd taken photos now, it left a really cool effect.

 Then I layered strips of torn book pages along the "L" shape and up in the feature corner, then covered them in white gesso, then stamped and rolled and added some more water colour on top, then stamped some more until I was finally happy with it. And then after coming back to it from allowing it to dry ....... I added some stencilling with modelling paste. But that's all. Honest. LOL

I finished it off by adding some bling, washi, buttons, twine, chippies, doilies, cheese cloth and a few paper flowers. then of course the title. This page took me ages! and I loved every minute of it (well mostly). Can't wait to see what's put up for the new challenges over at Kreative Koncepts and Scrap Around the World in April.

Cheers

Fiona

xx

ScrapFriends Guest Designer March Colour Challenge

Colour Challenge

I just love ScrapFriends (Kreative Koncepts) challenges. I try to enter them each month. I've been lucky enough to be picked to create a guest designer piece a couple of times now and this time it's for their March colour challenge. This is my piece.

The colours are so beautiful and the gold just finishes it all off.

I used water colour techniques to create the background along with some texture stenciling, Dylusions Sprays and stamping.

I was unsure about adding the gold elements. It's not something I've done much of. Firstly I made some gold circles with jewelry wire but I felt that wasn't enough so I added more with gold sequins, gold edged ribbon and some gold glitter I added to the feather stamp. I also have a gold Gelato Pen which looks beautiful when water is added to it.

This is currently my Facebook ID photo. I took it one evening while settling my daughter into Uni in Melbourne. I got bored and so I went hunting on Playstore for a new photo editing app. I've been experimenting with altering my photos to match my layouts. I love that my hair is pink in this photo. It's not really that colour. Although it's tempting! LOL

I don't do very many "pretty" pages. Especially not of myself, so it was nice to create one for a change. I'm also really enjoying using feathers on my layouts. Whether they be stamped like these ones, chipboard, resin or real, it doesn't really matter. As long as they are feathers. I would never have imagined 12 months ago that I would be using feathers on my pages let alone being asked to join in as a guest designer on a challenge blog! I suppose you just never know what life has to bring when you take on a challenge.

Pop on over to ScrapFriends (Kreative Koncepts) and checkout the challenge. It may lead you anywhere xx

Cheers

Fiona