Times

What I have been working on is my one and only subscription kit which I purchase from Uniquely Creative. In my challenge to use things up and cut down on my spending, this is the one thing I couldn’t give up. What I love about this scrapbooking kit is that it often challenges you to try new techniques and products which you may not have used before. It is great value, you get loads of product based around one of Kaisercraft’s new collections. This months kit, from June, featured the Anthology collection. I try and create every layout with the kit which is possible if you add a few more pieces of cardstock and swap a few papers around. They also include card projects within the kit but I am no longer a card maker, so I use the ideas as embellishments on layouts.

Here are a few layouts I have made using June 2018, kit. The first is one of the layouts designed by Tracey Schultz. I swapped the paint colours to suit my photo and used different bird embellishments.

The next kit layout I created was designed by Elisa Ablett, once again I made some changes to work with my photo and layout theme. My photos are of my grandson and husband stalking our chickens, well, there was a little bit of chasing involved. No chickens were hurt in the production of this layout!

I swapped the floral print paper for the Anthology 12×12 Scrapbook Paper – Plumology paper. Then I got to work colouring in the feathers to match with the colours in my photo, my grandson’s t-shirt was the inspiration. I loved how Elisa Ablett had coloured the chipboard title, so I followed her lead and used my Copic markers to do the same. It was an easy process, line up the ruler and run the marker along the edge of the ruler, the result is beautiful pastel lines!

I had several photos to use and decided to make it a double layout. The original design has flower die cuts, so I grabbed my Tim Holtz dies and some matching paper/cardstock scraps to make a bunch of flowers. I also inked up some flower embellishments and doilies to go with the colour theme. I am pretty happy with the finished layouts, they will be back to back in my album and I will add a pocket page layout for the rest of the chook chasing photos.

After making several of the kit layouts I went rogue and created my own layout. I selected papers and embellishments from the kit but added a few extras, using Kaisercraft dies, cardstock scraps and a very old Cosmo Cricket chipboard alpha called ‘Extra Extra’. Hitting the mark with my self-imposed challenge of using up an old product.

Clean & Keen

Today I am on a mission to use up a patterned paper which I don’t like. We all have some paper which we wonder what were we thinking to buy that? Perhaps, it came in a kit or was a bargain that you couldn’t pass up. My piece is from a now defunct company, TLC, and has a very bright red, white and blue geometric circular design. It is definitely a dated design which would look very out of place in most contemporary scrapbook albums.

Having strong primary blue and red, I decided to use it for one of my son’s layouts. I am currently working on finishing off his childhood albums, let me just say that I am way behind. He turns thirty next month!

I started off by altering the paper itself, my photo is of my son and daughter bathed and ready for bed, and I was thinking about what related to clean. Bubbles seemed to pop into my creative brainstorm and would link nicely with the circular design on the paper. I used a Kaisercraft stencil and acrylic paint to sponge bubbles across the page.

After letting it dry, I sponged Ranger ‘Denim’ Adirondack Earthtones ink over the white painted bubbles. The layered stencilling creates an interesting texture. You can see in the photos that I use ordinary car wash sponge to apply my mix media colours. I have been using car wash sponge for years, you can pick one up from any of the cheap, two dollar type shops. Use some large scissors to snip the sponge into 8-10 pieces and you a have a very versatile application tool which has only cost you a couple of dollars for the whole lot. When working with inks you can use each edge of your sponge piece for a different colour! They wash clean very easily with soap and water, some staining will occur but doesn’t transfer when you use them next. When you use them with acrylic paint, wash them as soon as you finish otherwise they will dry with a firm crust. Should this happen, you can simply trim off the stiffened surface and you are good to go again.

Next, I got busy making some embellishments. One of my self-imposed rules is if I purchase anything new I must use it straight away. This week I purchased the WRK Precision Press, it is similar to the Misti and Tim Holtz stamping plates. It helps with aligning your stamps and makes stamping multiple copies of images a lot quicker. I grabbed a nice dotty border stamp and some text stamps and tried it out.

I cut some dies, the Uniquely Creative scribble circle die and layered them with my stamped embellishments. It took me a while to decide on the final placement and I shuffled and reshuffled them until I thought it looked balanced.

Finally, I decided what I liked, glued everything into place and added the title. I used some fairly new Kaisercraft alpha stickers and some very old Me and My Big Ideas alpha stickers for the title. I’m not that happy with the look of the title and may change it later, everything is a learning process. Overall, what went from an outdated and unloved piece of paper turned into something a bit more funky and fresh. It is not an outstanding layout but it is acceptable and is one more photo in the album.

Break Time!

This challenge has been one of my favourite this month. The Show Us Your Stuff, June challenge is very open ended, you can do anything you like. They are encouraging you to hand make elements for your layout. Yay, time to get messy!

For my layout, I decided to not waste time thinking about the layout format but put my time into making cute embellishments. I selected a scrap layout from one of my favourite scrappers to scrap lift. Aliza Deutsch’s layout really drew me in with her great use of white space and interesting embellishments. I liked how clean and modern it looked even though it had several embellishments. I know some believe that you should not use other peoples work and always create your own. But history shows us that every artist learns from another and shares their skills with others, this is especially prevalent in our technological world. I am not saying copy another’s work and claim it as your own, but using someone’s ideas as inspiration or to challenge yourself is a great way to get started and learn new skills. Some days you just want to get started and not agonise over how to get going, with thousands of photos to scrap you need a few shortcuts. Scraplifting is one way of saving some time. If you are publishing your work you must make sure that you do acknowledge the original artist, and if possible, link to the original source. Aliza’s layout can be found here. As you will see below, I did follow Aliza’s layered format but moved it diagonally on the page to fit with my photo/paper size.

Once again I tried to meet my self-imposed goals by using old supplies and incorporating mixed media supplies. After layering my papers and backing my photo, I started creating some tag embellishments. I looked through my scrap pieces for some wood look paper which would tie in with the wooden elements within the photo. This photo was taken 28 years ago! My how things have changed, I nearly didn’t use this photo and almost covered up the cigarette, but then I decided that it shows how things were then. It has a place in history. Yes, those viewing it in the future and now will be shocked but it demonstrates what society thought was ok back then…smoking inside with a child. Twelve years earlier than this, I remember as a child being asked to roll my grandfather’s cigarettes. Coming from a European background this was considered ok. Thank goodness we have all become more educated.

The stamped images are an old 2008 set from Stampin Up! I used Ranger inks to add an aged, heritage look to the tags. No, that is not tobacco stains! I used my favourite colours, the beautiful ‘Butterscotch’ Ranger alcohol ink which I poured straight from the bottle onto the cardstock and let it seep and flow into interesting shapes. I also poured a little onto a sponge and rubbed it over the card surface, you need to work very quickly as it evaporates. I used two Ranger Archival ink pads, Russet and Sepia, which I applied around the edges of the cardstock with a sponge. I topped off the layout with a modern font title using Pink Fresh’s puffy alphas from the A case of the Blahs collection. I really like the end result, a nice meld of old and new.

Mix it up!

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.

Draw! — My entry for the Anna Craft Cupboard, June 2018, sketch 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.

Awesome - One Cool Kid — My entry for the June 2018, Anna’s Craft Cupboard challenge.

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.

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