Well, here I go, my first scrap blog. I’m not sure why I have never done this, the blogging thing for my papercraft. I have been paper crafting for many years and sharing, learning and teaching various art disciplines for at least two decades. Because of this, I have some very old supplies and I am on a mission to use them up. I have set myself a few rules this month: using what you have; anything new must be used straight away and not stashed away; join in more challenges; make time for what I love and share what I create, and use my mixed media supplies to create embellishments.
Ok, so, in the last few weeks of June I have been working on making this happen. First up I have been researching the work of other wonderful artists and companies who have monthly challenges for us creative scrappers…woah, there is so many! For my first post, I am starting off with my favourite, who I have been involved in for a few years which is Anna’s Craft Cupboard Community, owned by Bri Richard Bartlett. The store provides a wonderful service but the scrapping community is what I treasure, everyone is passionate about what they do, supportive and fun. Bri and the design team put together two monthly challenges and also offer online crops throughout the year with loads of challenges. Their June challenges included a sketch challenge and a ‘share your favourite technique’ challenge. 
My entry for the sketch challenge hit most of my self-imposed rules. I dragged out some old purple rubber text stamps and created some text embellishments using scraps of old papers. I had fun smooshing watercolour paint to create the rainbow background, then I scribbled over the paint with a Zig writer pen trying to recreate my grandsons drawing. I used some older KaiserCraft border dies and newer Uniquely Creative scribbly circle dies. Then I topped it off with some text quotes from my recent purchase, the Cocoa Vanilla ‘Boys Rule’collection.
My favourite, go to technique is stencilling. It is such a quick and easy way to create interesting backgrounds. This layout is also made from the Cocoa Vanilla ‘Boys Rule’ collection, I love the embellishment collections with this range and bought every one. They are super versatile and I have been using them for a whole range of layouts. The stencilled background was created from one of my favourite KaiserCraft stencils, the diamond pattern layers really well and creates great texture when you overlap it. I used my very old Ranger ‘Pool’ Adirondack Brights ink and the Stazon Jet black ink. The Stazon black looks very light as I intentionally sponged it very lightly, after sponging off the excess dark, full strength ink on a scrap of paper. I also bumped up the grunge of the paper by flicking on some black, brown and blue watercolour paint.
Inkedinkscrap 