My DT take on the Scrappingclearly October sketch

Hi again, I can't believe that it's October, just so scary how fast these months are flying by. Oh well, at least there are always lots of scrappy challenges to keep my crafty mojo happy. I love being part of a Design Team, and at Scrappingclearly, we now have a sketch and a moodboard each month, which really does help inspire me for my DT samples.
So here is the sketch this month:




And here is my layout! I was even inspired by the colours in the sketch this month!

The background paper was already awesomly coloured, but to add a little more, I blended some Distress inks, made some Distress Stain spots and did a little stamping with stamps from Kaszazz, Heidi Swapp and Urban Crafter.
I've used papers & ephemera by Pink Paislee, Washi stickers from Heidi Swapp and Maggie Holmes and Crate Paper, & a fabulous chipboard piece from 2 Crafty! (Just love these large acetate numbers from the Pink Paislee, Cest La Vie range!)

My title alphas are from American Crafts and Amy Tangerine, (have been waiting for the right project to use these on!!!) The sparkly pink hashtag is from a pack of Heidi Swapp alphas from Scrappingclearly, and the cute little bow is from Crate Paper and Maggie Holmes.

I'm glad I've got this photo scrapped, another piece of my daughter's life, she loved her dancing when she was little, I so wish she would get back into it now!

Another Tag to satisfy my addiction!!

What better way to satisfy a crafty addiction, than be part of a swap group! This tag swap is through Scrappingclearly! I love having the excuse to make another tag, I just love working on a smaller than normal canvas. It's fun! Each month, our group is given a moodboard to inspire us for our tag. Here is the September one:





Conveniently, I had just purchased some African animal stamps from Kaszazz, and had this gorgeous Zebra stamp, I knew would have to go on my tag somewhere!

I started by adding some acrylic paint to a plain, white tag, by swiping, magenta and white with a sponge!

I then mixed some silver and white paint together to make a grey, and popped that through a Dusty Attic Stencil.

I used a small, leafy tree branch stamp, also from Kaszazz, and some Staz On ink for a little contrast around the edge.

I love using gauze in my projects, particularly tags. I coloured a piece with some Distress ink and water! Just a touch of Glossy Accents or similar glue and some fluffing about to adhere it to the bottom of the tag!

My finishing touches, are a few little RAKS I received from a friend, the lace flowers and gorgeous flower brads. I am a fan of the Tim Holtz word stickers , and they usually always get a look in on my tags!!

Lastly, I coloured the ribbon, with the Kaszazz alcohol ink Art Markers, they work a treat!!! (The stripes on the Zebra are also coloured with the Art Markers!!!

TFL, till next time,

Scrap the girls Design Team layout- CRAZY YOU

It's the 1st of the month, which means a brand new challenge reveal over at Scrap the girls!!!! This month, we have a sketch for you to play along with, which looks like this:

I am really loving all the sketches and moodboards for inspiration, and this one was no exception. I knew I wanted to do a stamped background, so I started off with the Kaszazz, Mandala Stamps in Black and Watering Can Archival Inks. The tiny little bubble stamp has been in my stash for a long time and it got a new lease of life from stamping it in little clusters!

My watercoloured effect comes from using Distress Inks and water, with a watercolour brush. Love all the different colours and versatility with Distress inks! I also dabbed a Distress Paint dabber a few times on there.

My patterned papers used are: 7 Dots, Heidi Swapp, Crate paper and Authentique. My die cuts are: Kaisercraft Collectables, and an old journal spot from D-Lish Scraps, which is hidden behind the photo, with a little Kaszazz twine.
I painted my 2 Crafty, chippy title with Dylusions Paint, love how the colours stand out.

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Scrap the Girls Sketch challenge DT post

Hello again!! I have a Design Team layout here, for Scrap the Girls sketch challenge this month, (you can see the full reveal and other awesome DT member's work over on the blog!!

Here is the sketch!!!!

I started with a TCW stencil and sponged some Distress Inks through it for my background. Love the watercolour effect this produces! I also did some stamping and flicked some Heidi Swapp Colorshine on there.Then I worked in clusters, using Echo Park and the lovely STITCHED range of papers from Amy Tangerine, with matching die cuts.

There's some cute Simple Stories word stickers, Fynmark mini alphas and my chipboard title is from Blue Fern Studios. (Coloured in a few different mediums and coated with some Glossy Accents for dimension!)

I love the little gold glitter dots to finish off near my clusters. (I got these from a $2 shop and there are silver ones in the pack too!)
Thanks for looking and don't forget to visit the Scrap the Girls Blog and play along this month!!! It's a fun sketch to work with!
Tania

Scrappingclearly DT post with a Project Life spread

Hi all, hope you are having a lovely weekend and getting some scrappy fun time in!! Today I am up on the Scrappingclearly Blog with a Project Life spread using the gorgeous Dear Lizzy HAPPY PLACE collection from American Crafts!!!

I don't do alot of PL pages, but these pretty papers with their 6x4" and 3x4" cards really inspired me to do so. Also helps to come across the photos to go with it, and make it all fall into place. There's also some Maggie Holmes Bloom embellishments on there and Heidi Swapp alphas and die cut word for my title! I love the cute little stamp set from the Happy Place range, which is how I made the sunglasses and camera embellies, I just added a touch of Distress Ink with a water brush on them to mimi the hand-cut butterflies from the Maggie Holmes paper.

I made a little transparent pocket with the Dear Lizzy specialty paper and some Studio Calico sequins. I haven't bought myself a fuse tool yet, although I have wanted one for some time, so I closed the pocket together at the top with a little glossy accents which you can't see, that worked a treat.

If you want to find out more of the details, head on over to the Scrappingclearly Blog, where you can also find a link to the shop and links in my post to all the yummy products I have used!
TFL
Tania

I'm an ICADian!!!!

I'm a little excited to be starting a new challenge!! Yes, another one, but this one is really, really cool. The challenge of ICAD, (index-card-a-day), has been running once a year for 61 days for the last 6 years, by the lovely Tammy at DAISY YELLOW ART. The idea is to use a packet of index cards, either 5x3" or 4x6" and make some free art on them, 1 per day! How cool is that for us time poor peeps. A little bit of something just for us every day. Experiment, be inspired by others and have fun...love that idea! It starts on June 1st and I couldn't help myself last night, I had a bit of a warm up and made this, using Blended Distress inks, sprayed with a Perfect Pearl mist, stamped with a Kaisercraft Stamp and Archival Ink. I also used a Kaisercraft stencil and some Archival ink for the pink dots! It made me happy, I went to bed feeling accomplished!

Go and check it out if you're up for the challenge. There is also a FB page where everyone is going to share their creations!!!!
TFL.... Tania

More Than Words mini challenge

So today I am fading very fast with the dreaded flu, which was kindly passed onto me by my dear little 10 yr old boy!!! he's been sick for over a week! I still managed to get a little crafty challenge in at my desk, and that's what I love about the More Than Words Mini Challenges. (Click the link to take you to their Facebook page where the mini challenges are held!) if you would like to take a look at the Monthly Challenge and all the gorgeous inspiration, click here!
So the criteria for the mini challenge was to use the word FLY on a card/tag or ATC. I love tags, so that's what I made:

I've used a Kaisercraft script embossing folder, Distress Inks, Gesso to fade out the middle background, and coloured the Kaszazz bird stamps with Gelatos. The flowers are from Kaisercraft and Glitz Design, the lace is also from Glitz. There's a couple of little die cuts for the branches, (Kaszazz).

How cue are the little eggs!!! Finally I get to use up a few of those random pearls in my stash! The nest was made from some household twine. I separated it all and then bunched it up. My sentiment is a Dylusions stamp and the FLY stickers are from American Crafts. I am quite happy with the end result!!! TFL, Tania

Paper Issues March card sketch challenge!

Thanks Corri Garza, for your card sketch again this month. When I'm feeling a bit slow with the mojo, I love having this little sketch to work with and produce something a tad less involved. I love playing along with Paper Issues, they have loads of challenges to choose from each month!!! You can find the latest one's here:
Here is the sketch, (which you can play along with in their Facebook Friends & fans Community page)


And here's my card, made using up some embossed card I had laying around and some butterflies in my Kikki K sticker book. I made the watercolour background with Distress Inks and water and swished the card through the colour on my craft mat. Finished off with a few glitter dots which I found in the $2 shop, yay!!!

D-Lish Scraps February Moodboard Challenge

I've managed to find a little time for a few extra challenges this month. I'm loving all of the moodboards around the place, but this one from D-Lish Scraps caught my eye. It went perfect with the New Crate Paper HELLO LOVE papers I just purchased! Here is their gorgeous mood board!


And here is my layout!!!

 I love these papers!!! I didn't need alot of other products, as their are tags and cut outs in this collection. I did use some Distress Inks for my water colour background. I got my large circle punch out to punch the corners of the black and white paper, love this look, thanks to the inspiration on the sketch! There's a doily in there, some cute little chippies and Project Life cards from Heidi Swapp & here's a close up showing my text I added to the photo with my Aviary Editor on my phone!

I also added my journaling with a computer font. I tried to mimic the typewriter font on the little 'true love' banner!
This last image is a close up of how cool the Distress Inks look as watercolours on my background. I love how the texture of the cardstock shows up through the inks! TFL

Art Journal page tutorial, by ME!!!

Hello, so as I made a promise to a few people who wanted instructions for this Art Journal page: ALWAYS BELIEVE, here I go with the how to!! I created this page for one of the Art Journal classes I teach, and it was a big hit. The creations made by my students were awesome, and i loved seeing the different takes!!!

So, as with most journal beginnings,
1 .YOU NEED TO GIVE YOUR PAGES A GOOD COAT OR 2 OF GESSO!!!

2. DIG OUT THAT STASH OF LACE YOU HAVE, ANY COLOURS, RANDOM BITS, LONG, SHORT, ANY BITS, AND ADHERE THEM IN STRIPS DOWN THE LEFT OF YOUR PAGE. (I used multi medium for an adhesive, but any collage or fabric glue will work!)( I STARTED LONG, & STAGGERED THEM, GETTING SHORTER AND SHORTER.) I STOPPED ABOUT 3/4 THE WAY BEFORE THE MIDDLE OF THE PAGE.
3. DO THE SAME ON THE OPPOSITE PAGE, STARTING AT THE EDGE WITH LONG BITS AND WORKING YOUR WAY BACK TO THE MIDDLE, TOP OF PAGE, WITH THE SHORTER BITS. ONCE AGAIN, STOP ABOUT 3/4 OF THE WAY ACROSS.
4. NOW YOU NEED TO HUNT THROUGH YOUR STASH OF UFO'S (unidentified objects, we all have them, in a tin, or a jar, and you have probably been collecting them for years!!! Guess what, Art Journaling allows a space for you to use them!!!!)BY UFO'S, I MEAN, METAL TRINKETS, BEADS, BROKEN JEWELLERY, CHARMS, FOUND ITEMS ETC.
5. YOU WILL ALSO NEED OTHER EMBELLISHMENTS, LIKE FLOWERS, CHIPBOARD BITS, OLD KEYS!!!
6.  NOW BECAUSE I DO WANT TO CLOSE THE PAGES OF MY BOOK, I WENT WITH FLOWERS, & A CHIPBOARD KEY, BUT YOU CAN ADD EXTRAS, AS LONG AS THEY ARE NOT TOO BULKY!
7.  FORM A CLUSTER OF FLOWERS, OR EMBELLISHMENTS IN THE BOTTOM LEFT AND TOP RIGHT HAND CORNERS OF THE PAGES, AND WHEN YOU ARE HAPPY, ADHERE THESE THINGS TO THE PAGE. (Please note, I have gemstones on my flowers, but they will be adhered to the page at the very end!)
8.  ONCE YOUR GLUE IS COMPLETELY DRY, MAYBE THE NEXT DAY IF YOU DON'T HAVE A HEAT GUN, PAINT OVER YOUR ENTIRE LACE AND EMBELLISHMENT AREAS WITH MORE, WHITE GESSO. MAKE SURE YOU GET A SMALL BRUSH FOR UNDERNEATH THE FLOWERS AND CHIPBOARD BITS, TO COVER COMPLETELY IN WHITE!)
9.  WHEN COMPLETELY DRY, SPRITZ THE ENTIRE PAGE WITH A LIGHT COLOURED SPRAY INK. PREFERABLY ONE THAT HAS A SLIGHT SHEEN OR SPARKLE TO IT!(I used a perfect pearls spray mist I made up myself.)
10.  ONCE THIS IS DRY, GRAB YOUR STAZ ON OR ARCHIVAL INK AND SOME BORDER STAMPS, OR BACKGROUND STAMPS, AND STAMP RANDOMLY ALONG THE EDGES, OVER THE LACE, IN BETWEEN EMBELLISHMENTS, WHEREVER ELSE YOU FEEL IS GOOD AND DO SO ON BOTH SIDES.
11.  NEXT, PICK A LIGHT C0LOURED DYLUSIONS SPRAY, (or other spray in your stash), I USED FRESH LIME, & STARTING WITH THE BOTTOM LEFT CORNER, (TURN YOUR BOOK UPSIDE DOWN, SO YOU CAN SPRAY FROM THE TOP OF THE PAGE,) SPRAY SMALL BURSTS AND LET IT RUN DOWN THE PAGE. ( JUST DID IT OVER THE LACE AREA TO ONCE AGAIN CREATE A STAGGERED LOOK!) UNSCREW THE LID OF THE INK AND USING THE STEM, FLICK SOME INK DROPS RANDOMLY OVER PAGE.

12.  WHEN THE INK IS DRY, TURN YOUR BOOK UPSIDE DOWN AGAIN AND DO THE OTHER CORNER, REPEATING PROCESS. (IF THE INK DOESN'T RUN, SPRAY SOME WATER OVER THE TOP OF IT TO THIN IT OUT, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A CRAFT SHEET OR NEWSPAPER UNDERNEATH!)
13.  YOU WILL WANT THE DYLUSIONS TO BE COMPLETELY DRY BEFORE YOU SPRAY YOUR NEXT COLOUR, SO A HEAT GUN WILL COME IN HANDY TO SPEED UP THE PROCESS!- CHOOSE A 2ND SPRAY INK COLOUR, MINE WAS BUBBLEGUM PINK, A REPEAT THE PROCESS FOR THE FIRST COLOUR, BUT USE IT SPARINGLY, JUST A FEW BURSTS, REFER TO MY PHOTO! (I have tried to keep the centre area clean with plenty of white space for your quote!)
14.  DRY 2ND COLOUR & ADD A 3RD LIGHT COLOUR, LEMON ZEST WAS MY CHOICE! (This is also a good time to add any small areas of stencilling if you wish, I used my honeycomb stencil as a stamp with Dylusions ink and did a little randomly on the page.)
15.  WHEN THE INKS ARE DRY, YOU CAN DO A BIT MORE STAMPING WITH YOUR CHOSEN BLACK INK, (I did some music notes, and Script& Newsprint stamping!) (See photo!)
16.  NOW, IT GETS EVEN MORE 3 DIMENSIONAL!!! CHOOSE YOURSELF A COUPLE OF STENCILS, SOME TEXTURE PASTE, MATT OR GEL MEDIUM, OR IF YOU HAVE NONE OF THOSE, GESSO WILL WORK. I ONCE AGAIN, FOLLOWED THE PATTERN OF THE LACE AND ADDED TEXTURE PASTE THROUGH ONE MY STENCILS, ALTERNATING DIFFERENT ONES, AND BEING CAREFUL AROUND THE EMBELLISHMENT CLUSTERS. DO THE SAME ON EACH PAGE. *Once this starts to dry, and over a few days, you will notice some magic. The colours of the Dylusions, will be soaked up by the texture paste and you will see the colour in areas of your texture paste.














17.  WHEN THE TEXTURE PASTE IS COMPLETELY DRY, PICK A DARKER SPRAY INK COLOUR, MINE WAS POLISHED JADE, AND GIVE A FEW VERY SMALL SPRAYS IN EACH CORNER, TURNING THE BOOK UPSIDE DOWN FOR THE BOTTOM LEFT, AS BEFORE! *I watered this colour down as it was quite dark! Spray over the top with the water spray.

18.  ADD ANOTHER LAYER OF TEXTURE PASTE, USING A DIFFERENT STENCIL, AND WHEN DRY, ADD A 3RD LAYER OF TEXTURE PASTE IF YOU HAVE ANOTHER DIFFERENT STENCIL.
*While you are waiting for each layer to dry, you can have a look at your stash for your quote. (I used up words from parts of rub on quotes, stamps, stickers, magazine cut outs etc. I backed all of my words onto cardstock.)
18.  CUT EACH WORD OUT LEAVING A SMALL BORDER OF CARDSTOCK AROUND EACH ONE, THEN BLEND AROUND THE EDGES WITH SOME DISTRESS INKS. * I used Shabby Shutters, Milled Lavendar & Peacock Feathers. Set aside till the wet mediums are all dry.
19.  WHEN PAGE IS COMPLETELY DRY, STAMP A DREAM CATCHER STAMP, OR STAMP OF YOUR CHOICE IN BLACK INK AT THE TOP LEFT AS SHOWN, AND AN ARROW STAMP DOWN THE BOTTOM RIGHT. I ALSO STAMPED A SMALL SCRIPT STAMP NEXT TO THE DREAM CATCHER. WHEN INK IS DRY, COLOUR THE STAMPED IMAGES WITH DISTRESS INKS & A WATER BRUSH. *I use my acrylic block to dab some ink on, then spritz with water or use a waterfilled brush.


20.  ADHERE YOUR QUOTE TO THE PAGE AS SHOWN, OR WHERE YOU WOULD LIKE IT TO GO.
21.  I ADDED A FEW MORE FLOWERS, WHICH I COLOURED WITH DISTRESS INKS AND A WATER BRUSH AS ABOVE.
22.  ADD YOUR GEMSTONES TO CENTRE OF LARGER FLOWERS, AND ICE STICKLES OR OTHER GLITTER GLUE TO THE CENTRE OF SMALLER FLOWERS. *The Dylusions magic will happen again with the glitter glue and will soak up the colours of the inks.

So there you have it, quite lengthy, but a really fun process. Can't wait to show you some more projects using these techniques. Make sure you leave me a comment if you are here, especially if you are going to have a go at this page, would love to see the end results!!!

Paper Issues novemer card sketch

And...it may be a back to front post, I'm posting November's Card sketch after December's, but I had fun with this sketch all the same. Here's the Paper Issues' sketch by Corri Garza... 

And here's my take on the sketch. I had some left overs for another challenge I'm working on, using a leaves embossing folder swiped with Distress inks, in different colours before running through my embossing machine. The paper flowers from Kaszazz, are coloured using Distress inks spritzed with water.Love the pineapple washi tape!! (Wish I could remember where I got it from!)

So excited!!!!

I am thrilled to be featured on The Big Picture Classes Blog, as Stacy's Pick this week. I was over the moon when Stacy emailed me to ask if she could feature my card from Carissa Wiley's Inspiration Ignited class. You may have seen the project below on my blog, but if not here it is again!!!!

A couple more projects inspired by Big Picture Classes lessons!!!

I'm really loving my membership over at Big picture Classes. I love that I have all these classes to choose from for such a small payment each month. The inspiration is amazing, so many cool teachers!!! Love all the choices of projects too. I can choose from cards, scrapbooking, art journalling and more, whatever my mood is, there's something to inspire me!!!! So here's a couple more cards I did this week!

The first card was about using build it up stamps, which I don't have an actual set of, so I just found a really large Grant Archival set in my stash and used a few of the cool little flourishy ones! I used Colorbox inks in some Spring colours.

The 2nd one was about finding inspiration in art, stationery or decor, or everyday! I found this cool tissue box while doing the shopping and had a play at circles. I used a cork and some Dylusions and Heidi Swapp Color Shine to stamp the circles and then watercolour paints in the middle. I also layered a die cut sentiment and embossed it with gold 3 times which I'm kind of in love with the results.

A little Inspiration using Paint Chips

Hey there! Today I'm going to share a couple of simple little tips, in how you can use up all of those paint chips you've been collecting from the hardware store! (Come on, I know you have some!!! I have loads, and have been known to head to Bunnings, just in search of more paint chip colours.) At first I was disappointed when I couldn't get any more variegated ones, but have now found a few cool things you can do with the square ones!!!

My first thought was to stack a few together and use them as a reference for all of my Punches. Simply punch out a few designs on each card, and then you can keep them handy for inspiration when using your punches in your projects. they are made from sturdy card, so they should last awhile, and you can hang them near your craft desk!

So then I got to thinking, that these punched shapes looked great and I could actually use them as home made stencils for my inks, spray mists and texture mediums, just like a store bought stencil! (I am still hanging on to some cool, variegated ones!)

Cool Hey?? I've got a few more ideas and there's loads on Pinterest. I even started a Pinterest board dedicated to Paint Chip ideas...
I'll be back another day with a cool idea my Hubby and kids came up with!

A lesson complete at Big Picture Classes

So here's another nifty little card I made inspired by Big Picture Classes and Lea Lawson.

the watercolour background is created using Distress Inks on my craft mat, then spritzed with water. I took my watercolour card and Smooshed, (as per Lea!!!) it around to blend the ink colours. I love this technique and have played with it on layouts and cards previously. I'm now working on a set using this technique and my brand new Kaszazz Dream catcher stamp set...Yummo, watch this space!