49 & Market...My sweet kitty and XOXO

Hi Natalia here with two layouts I created with 49 & Market papers.  I was pretty nervous when Joanna sent me these as I'm not very good with shabby chic or mixed media so I wasn't entirely sure how things would turn out.

Here is the first layout I did, with what I would consider to be lots of mixed media hah!  I was inspired by Sharon Newport with this one, from modge podging old book paper to using watercolours on my page.  I did forget one vital thing tho...I didn't clear gesso my base page!

I love how this range has purple in it, as I had purples flowers in my wedding bouquet and my cake flowers.  I enhanced the purple by using purple water colours and purple flowers.  

My second  layout is of my darling cat Charlie who died last July aged 18.  He had been part of my life for such a long time that I have been putting off scrapping any pages because I knew I would find it hard.  Anyone with fur babies will understand!

I decided to make a plainer, less exploratory page for this so the only mixed media is on the chipboard which is a Blue Fern dangle that I cut in half and even then, it is just paint.  

This was another page with undertones of purple but I tried to keep from it being to purple as I wanted the bring out the warm reddish tones as that seemed more cat like!  This page was more about the fussy cutting which I still love to do.  The trouble with fussy cutting can be knowing when to stop, it is so tempting to just keep adding more and more...

I still have some paper left, and I'm trying to decide if I try some more mixed media as the paper is very very sturdy and holds up really well.  

Gelatos and stencils.

Hi everyone,

I promised to show you the five techniques I used on my Art Journal page a while back.

So here they are plus a bonus method I didn't include on my Five page.

Technique 1.  Use the gelato like a crayon.

This is the most basic technique.  Place the stencil over the paper and scribble the gelato over top. 

Then with finger rub the gelato into the stencil; different looks can be attained depending on how thoroughly this is done.  If it is smoothed out evenly this will look different to how I have done it which was to push the gelato to the stencil so that there was a ridge along the stencil edge.

Here is the end result...sorry the photo is not very good.  After finishing all the techniques, I rubbed the excess around on the tag in the general flower shape and it was very effective.  So this is a good way to get a shape on a page that can then be modified.

Technique Two: Use the Stencil as a stamp.

This can be used after rubbing over the stencil using the first technique..there is a lot of leftover gelato on the stencil so it makes the most of the product.  Just spray the stencil with water, I only used a spritz, but the more that is used the watery the image will be and the more the gelato will spread.

Then simply place the stencil onto paper and press on.  This will give a reverse image to the stencil and be quite water coloury in style.  I also pulled my journal out and pressed a few extra images onto there and also rubbed over the stencil with my hand to remove as much gelato as I could.  Use a paper towel to gently absorb the extra water or a heat tool, or it can be air dried.  

Technique Three: Mix with modelling paste.

This is a great way to alter normal white modelling paste to pretty colours and the depth of colour is dependant on how much is added and of course, if more than one gelato is added then there is no end to the modelling paste colours that can be created!  I used an old package to mix my paste on because I like to recycle.  I scraped a bit of gelato onto the package and then squeezed out some paste and mixed the two together.  The better this is mixed, the smoother the colour, but sometimes it can be quite effective to leave streaks of gelato through the paste.

 Next spread the paste over the stencil.  Again, this can be done smoothly and carefully or rough and ready and the results will differ.  I did this sort of carefully but to be honest..I'm more likely to slap the paste on and not worry to much if I miss a spot or if it's not smoothed out.

Leave to dry.  I love how this looks and the dimension the texture paste gives.

Technique three: Using with a sponge.

This is pretty similar in result to the using as a crayon technique but doesn't give such a vivid result because there is an intermediate medium (the sponge) between the gelato and the paper.  I used a Faber Castel sponge that came in a tool set, but any sponge would work.  Dab the sponge onto the gelato and then rub through the stencil.

This is easier to control than using as a crayon because there is not as much excess over the stencil and it is easier to get into the nooks and crannies.  The sponge can be rubbed or dabbed depending on the surface to cover.  

To my eye, this gives a classic stencil look, quite soft and the amount of colour can be controlled.

Technique five: Using as a water colour.

If you love watercolours but aren't confident in creating a shape free hand then this is a great method. Again I used old packaging to make my watercolour mix on but this method could also be done by touching a wet brush to a gelato.  I scraped some gelato onto the plastic and then sprizted some water on and mixed very well.  

To create depths of colour, have some water nearby to dip brush in to get more water and use the original mix for the darker areas, or mix some more gelato in after painting the light areas.

I'm no watercolour expert but I love this technique! I need a bit of practise but it's an awesome way to get the watercolour look when you have no skills!

Technique six: Ghosting with a wet wipe

This is my bonus technique that I didn't have on my five techniques page and is lots of fun.  To start with, the paper has to be coated with gelato.  To do this, I scribbled over the tag and rubbed in with my finger, I had previously gessoed this tag which I didn't bother with any of the others.

Next stick the stencil down with washi tape over the paper and use a wet wipe to remove the gelato inside the stencil.  

The more that it is rubbed, the cleaner the end result will look.

It was a lot of fun to pull out a stencil and gelatos and see what I could create with just those and the different results are all very cool.  There are of course other techniques with a stencil and more with the gelatos so I find these are very versatile products to have in my stash.  If you have some of these but have been too scared to pull them out, then please do and let me know how you went!

Happy Easter

I had an idea for an Easter layout that I wanted to try out.  This is one of the few times in my life I have created a layout without a photo in mind so when it came time to finding a photo, I realised I have few really nice photos of Easter...just lots of ones with small ones running about hunting!  However, I did have this photo of my son aged about 2..I really wanted to do Easter crafts with him but it was after childcare (a full day!) and he was so tired.  Why oh why I thought it was a good idea I cannot say.  I think you can tell from the photo that he just was NOT interested ;-)

For the layout, I wanted to cut some egg shapes and then fill with paper but have a few eggs with fancy things on them.  The eggs were easy.  I found a free shape online and then used the Replicate window to add the rest of them using Row of Four then selecting all the eggs in the row and duplicate below. Done!

 

Now I just had to decorate. I used Bo Bunny Soiree 6x6 paper pad.  One egg, I used a Prima adhesive rub on to add foiling.  The second decorated egg is actually the Bazzil plastic paper embossed with tiny hearts. Another egg, I used my fringe scissors (okay, okay, herb cutting scissors) to make a fringed egg like the hearts that are so trendy at the moment.  The fourth decorated egg has a piece of crepe paper ruffle on it.

I finished off the page with a pretty doily and Soiree papers backing my photo and a cute bunny, possibly Prima and some strip journaling I typed on my typewriter.

Clever Darling

I love Crate Paper though for some reason I hardly ever use the papers and embellishments I have in my stash.  I would really like to get using this beautiful product because what is the point of having it sitting there gathering dust?!?
I recently participated in a iNSD challenge which was a recipe challenge but called a 'grab five' as it includes five things.  The five things were: gold, tiny word stickers, floral paper, wood veneer and hearts.  Here is my layout.

I'm pretty happy with it though it ended up busier than I meant it to...however, that is a good thing as it means I am getting the pretties onto a page!

Birthday Delivery

I just love this Julie Nutting Paper Doll collection from Photo Play. It's girly retro with lovely colours and cute icons including lots of the paper dolls the Julie Nutting is so famous for.  I really wish I had a photo of me as a kid playing with my paper dolls (actually, one was a bear family, the other was Holly Hobbie, I wish I still had these!) as I loved them,  though it seems funny to me now.... dolls that didn't stand up properly and didn't move and the clothes fell off. Strange thing to love!

Anyway, I don't have any photos and I guess I could do a no photo layout and record the memory anyway but in the meantime I couldn't resist using the paper for a pocket page layout of my wee darling opening a present and using GIANT scissors to open the packets.  

This was a fun collection to play with and I love how this page turned out.

The Paper Teapot Fifth Birthday Bunting

I’d like to start my blog today with thanking Joanna for being so awesome and for bringing so many beautiful scrappy supplies into my life – where would I be without The Paper Teapot?  I’m so glad I found this place in 2013!

This project was a last minute decision but a very fun one.  I have never made a bunting before but thought it would be fun and would give me a chance to do a mini tutorial on using the silhouette machine.

The first step is to decide on a shape, which to me was obvious…teapots!  I googled ‘teapot silhouette cut file’ as there are loads of free images out there that can be used as is or modified to suit.  I found this website which had a lovely teapot shape with a teacup.  This cut file was really for an easel card but it is easy enough to change this. http://www.birdscards.com/vintage-tea-easel-card/.   Here is the cut file shown in silhouette.

I wanted to use the Bo Bunny Soiree 6×6 paper pad for this project and I wanted each teapot to be as large as possible.  I copied and pasted the plain teapot to a new drawing and resized to fit nicely in a 6×6 square.  To make this easy, I set the grids up by opening the grid setting window and changing the Spacing to 3 (it won’t allow it to be set to 6) and the divisions to 1.

Now I could put 4 different pieces of paper on the cutting mat and cut 4 teapots in one go. I copied the teapot 3 times and placed inside the 6×6 squares making sure there was enough space around and then sent to the silhouette.  It cut brilliantly on cardstock setting with only one cut.

Obviously I needed a fifth teapot so I set up the cutting mat with two more pieces of paper for the teapots (I changed my mind about the green paper) and two pieces of paper for the teacups.  I placed the teacups all within the same two pieces of paper and to mix things up a little I mirrored two teapots and three teacups so they were flipped over.

Next I used some silhouette chipboard to cut the same shapes out again.  This chipboard is a great weight to add a little bit of sturdiness to off the page projects or for some dimension.  It cuts really well without having to worry about testing before running the real cut; set the material type to chipboard and make sure it is set to double cut and don’t forget to change the actual blade!

 Now I had awesome teapots and cups to stick together and decorate…the fun bit!  I confess that I had a little help, my sister came for coffee with my dear niece and they helped me glue and choose ribbons and flowers.  My niece decorated one of the extra teapots I had cut, didn’t she do well!

Here are the finished teapots. 

And this is the bunting strung up.  And yes my walls really are that colour!

I love love love these little teapots and I hope Joanna thinks they are as cute as I do!  Happy birthday!!

International Scrapbooking Day!

What a great combination...iNSD around the world and Mothers Day here in New Zealand.

What's more, my favourite shop The Paper Teapot is celebrating its birthday - five years! I've been lucky enough to be on the design team for a while now and have a wonderful friend now who is always very encouraging and positive.  Thanks for being so awesome Joanna!!

So to celebrate all these events, I thought I would have a wee challenge with a little prize at the end. If you would like to be in to win, complete either a layout or a card based on the following moodboard.  Leave a comment on my blog to let me know where I can find your layout.

Here is the moodboard...

www.polyvore.com

I will update this blog post with my own take on this moodboard, hopefully tomorrow, but in the meantime have fun with the lovely inspiration!
The prize is a $20 voucher to The Paper Teapot.

Made with love

The April Kaisercraft challenge really appealed to me because I could instantly imagine what I would do for the sketch. Here it is.

My thought was to use True Love  and die cut a bunch of hearts for the centre area. But ideas don't always end up being reality and as I got creating, my design got simpler. Here it is.

So not what I planned but I still love it.  I used the Kaisercraft Love quarters stencil and a gorgeous Scrap Fx chipboard that I attempted to ink in an ombre effect...I love it.  

The photo is one from Penny Black photography, taken at the kids childcare. Little darlings right!

All my supplies were from The Paper Teapot, my favourite scrappy shop.

Crazy and Cute

I'm still working on getting my mojo back so decided to try a sketch to see if that helped.  I wanted to scrap another photo of my wee angel using WRMK wildflower so when I hunted for a sketch I was a little biased and chose one that looked easy and didn't present much of a challenge....oops.  It wasn't really on purpose!  Here is the sketch I chose from Scrapbook and Cards that originally came from Pagemaps.  It's pretty old from 2011.

http://www.scrapbookandcards.com/documents/SCT_Spring_2011_sketch.jpg

Here is my page.  I didn't deviate too much from the sketch, the main difference being that I used only two photos but because they were longer it was still basically the same.  I'm sorry the photo isn't the best, I have to hunt in the craft room for my white board to take photos on and I need to learn to photo straight when I have put a border on my layout!

This isn't my favourite page.  I feel like the photos get lost on it. I thought the colours worked nicely but I wish I had used a white cardstock base so the page was lighter.  Perhaps the busy carpet in the photos also doesn't help ;-)  Anyway, I completed another wee challenge to myself and have two more ideas to try getting my mojo back.  

Adventure is out there

I've been feeling a bit creatively blah lately, and have found it hard be enthusiastic about scrapbooking despite having so many lovely things.  I think it's all the changes we have had lately and finally settling into a new home..I'm exhausted!

But I love to scrapbook and it makes me feel sad when I don't get around to doing anything so I pulled out my WRMK Wildflower collection with the intention to finish a pocket page - I attended Joanna's pocket page class using this paper range and I really wanted to do a matching page but there it has sat since...hmm about September!  Now, I thought this would be an easy undertaking but even after sitting staring at the completed pages, I just couldn't get into action so instead I trawled the WRMK blog for a page I liked using the collection with the intention of creating a blatant scraplift, design, papers, embellishments and all.  Here is the layout I found to scraplift.

I really love the florals in the Wildflower collection which is what drew me to this page.  I also really liked the large doily.  Here is my version of the layout.

I'm pretty happy with the end result.  It has the same base and a doily but otherwise it is quite different which goes to show that sometimes just sorting the foundations out is a great step towards creating something.

I'm not sure if I have found my mojo yet so maybe I will try a couple of sketch challenges to really get me back into the swing of things.

Kaisercraft Storybook

Hi everyone, I have two layouts to share with you on this blog.  I received the Story Book collection at the beginning of March and it has taken me a very long time to complete my pages.  Not through lack of loving the collection because I DO, but I confess that I really struggled with the muted tones and my crazy attempts to add mixed media were no help!  This range is really gorgeous and I wish I could have done it more justice, and I think a super talented person would have a lot of fun creating an off the page project with this!  There are some very inspirational pieces on the Kaisercraft Blog so I recommend checking those out.

Here is my first layout called Just a Glimpse that seriously took about three weeks!

The photo is of my husband and little girl walking across the school field and I loved the way the trees looked so this I wanted to reflect this with stamping and papers choices.

To start with, I used Borrow as my background page, and stamped with various stamps and stencils from my stash using both archival inks and distress inks.  Then I mixed some Finnabair Glass Glitter into some old modelling paste that was going a bit gluggy (not sure this was a good idea!) and used a stencil to spread onto the background.  To be honest, this looked kinda crazy but I decided to battle on in my mixed media attempt.  To make it merge into the background a bit I stamped over top in some areas….not sure if it improved the look tho!

I layered up Library Card, Novel and Books papers to place my photo and embellishments on.   I love how this range is very themed but at the same time can be used for a totally non booked related photo!  After I had layered the paper and photos, I needed to add some bits and bobs and because I was a little horrified at my flower collection I figured I had best use some.  I mixed together some Glass Glitter with Tim Holtz distress glitter to put in the middle of some of the flowers to add a little extra bling.   I also added some distress glitter to the wooden leaves.

My next move was to try heat embossing my chipboard title with the Blue Fern embossing powder.  I made a few mistakes while doing this, remember I am no expert with mixed media products!  To start with, I knocked one piece when it was still hot and whoops, embossing sludge got pushed into a pile on the word.   I also wanted to stamp over top and instead of using archival ink, I used distress ink so the stamped image wasn’t clear and thinking now…I suppose I could have wiped it off and restamped but ahem…didn’t think of that at the time!

So, all in all, not a very successful attempt at mixed media and I think it is time to pull out my so called art journal and do some playing.  I wish I could come along to Joanna’s journal class, I think it would be a lot of fun as her card classes always included a new technique and it was great to learn!

My second layout Every Family has a Story is a lot cleaner and more my style.  It is a photo of my husband and small nephew on my wedding day.  It’s funny how similar my nephew looks to my daughter, they sure have the same fine hair and there is something in face too.  Rose thought it was her when she first saw the layout.

Individual pearls are another item in my stash that I have millions of and never use so I decided to pull these out and place along the strips to fancy them up.  More flowers on this page too, along with some old stickers from my stash and I also inked a Bo Bunny laser cut chipboard heart and nestled this in the flowers.   After I added this heart, I made sure to also add hearts in my other two clusters to balance things out.

I attempted hand lettering a title but what I wanted to use was just too long and it didn’t work so instead went with small letter stickers and large thickers.  The title is taken from one of the collectables and I was planning to use the collectable piece but decided I needed a bold title.

So plain and simple for this page….well sort of! It was fun to play with the mixed media things and the best thing is that mistakes can be covered up mostly and more layered on top, so don’t be scared to try something new even if you think it might go wrong.

True Love Marquee Heart

My little girls name is Rose Manawa (which means Heart in Maori) and when I saw the Heidi Swapp marquee heart light come out before Christmas, I decided I would get one for her new bedroom.  I'm not much of an OTP scrapper, ok, I'm not one at all, but this year I really want to mix things up and do some different projects.  I'm all about the challenge - not always a good thing!

The Paper Teapot has the new Kaisercraft range called True Love which is aimed at Valentines day but has lots of lovely florals so can be used for lots of things, including a marquee heart light for a little girl.  

Three pieces of paper were used for this light: My Baby, My Darling and My Sweetheart. Firstly I used the template to cut out the heart shape using the My Darling floral paper. I wasn't looking forward to cutting out the holes as I don't have a hole punch but I found that my Tim Holtz retractable knife worked really well (and I hate using craft knives). My first thoughts when starting this project, was that I didn't really know how much was going to be too much, so I wasn't entirely sure if I would use the floral paper for the insert but I love it!

Next I cut strips of paper from the other two pieces, one lot was 1 inch wide and the other was 2 inch wide. I wasn't sure how these would work around the edges so used double sided tape rather than glue to prevent wrinkling. Halfway through doing this, I realised there was the inside to do as well, guess I could have left it white but it looks cuter all covered.

When I purchased the heart, I also got the pink globes and I am as yet undecided if they are a bit much, but Rose is only 3 and she is girly so I reckon they are fabulous for now. I wanted to test it on a wall (because it's a heart right...no flat bottom to stand it up on!) but we are camping out at my sisters at the moment and I couldn't find a hook anywhere. So here it is, being held up to the wall for testing purposes...no lights as I need to get batteries.

The verdict: "Is it for me? I wuv it" with a cuddle. Gotta love the littlies.

Little Barista

For mothers day one year, I was the lucky recipient of an espresso maker which is perfect for a coffee addict.  Liam loved to watch me make coffee and wanted to help so over time, he was allowed to help, from grinding the coffee, to tamping it down and even (carefully) turning the water on.  It usually wasn't as strong as normal but I really appreciated him wanting to join in.  One day I am sure he will be as much of a coffee lover as I am haha!  I love coffee, probably a bit much, and I now really prefer to drink one particular blend from a particular brand.  I am not sure when this came about, but over the last year, it has be come more obvious to me that I just do not enjoy any other!  

Kaisercraft's My Year, My Story has cute little die cuts in black and white that are needing to be coloured, and one of them happened to be a tea cup.  Well....I'm not a big tea drinker but I thought if I popped something over the teabag that it would look like a coffee cup! 

I was using the 6x8 paper pad so pulled a sheet of white cardstock from my stash as well as a piece of patterned paper to mat on and decided to create a diagonal layout from top left to bottom right.  I had to cheat and use two sheets of the spotty paper to make a full length strip and then messy matted from some of the other papers.  I seem to be quite drawn to coral and teal as they are also colours I choose for Liams clothes a lot, and recently I brought a bunch of tea towels in these colours.  Gorgeous!

I pulled out collectibles in the colours and some bits from my stash that worked well.  I really liked how I stuck to the two colours plus white and might try this again in the future.  Finally, I used my Yasutomo pearlescent watercolours to colour the little cup in, I think I need some practise!  

 

Products used:  Kaisercraft My Year, My Story 6x8 paper pad, collectables;  Amy Tangerine puffy stickers, Letter stickers; Cocoa Vanilla Life is Beautiful Ephemera pack; Crate Paper Hello Love paper pad; Yasutomo Pearlescent Watercolours; Heat punch, EK Success 2 inch circle punch.

Best Day Ever

In July we took a trip down south to Invercargill and took the scenic route through Wanaka, then back up along the coastal route through Ashburton.  We had seen the cool looking playground at Ashburton a few times and I had even stopped there previously but due to one child sleeping, didn't get out.  As it was a 'scenic drive' home, we figured that we would stop and check it out and let the kids stretch their legs and have something to eat.  The kids LOVED it and Liam declared it was the best day ever - which got me excited as there are so many 'best day ever' elements in scrapping and I always feel it is a hard thing to use...how can there be so many best days ever?  Well, since then, there have been a lot of best days ever, so maybe it is an age thing now I have a school boy! 

I had planned on using some other paper for this photo but the beautiful Cocoa Vanilla Free Spirit was calling to me!  I actually mixed it up with some of the older Hello Lovely collection, I love that they work well together.  I am thinking it is a little dangerous that there are so many delightful embellishments that are coming out with the collections; I used the woodies, puffy stickers, enamel shapes and ephemera pack on this layout.  I am still hankering after the sticker sheet and the cute little buttons but I am telling myself that I cannot have it all.

Products used: Cocoa Vanilla Free Spirit Word Jumble, Wildflowers, My Way, Puffy Stickers, Woodies, Ephemera, Enamel Shapes;  Cocoa Vanilla Hello Lovely Life Story, Lucky Dip, Sticker Sheet; Doily; White Cardstock.