Heidi Swapp-Wolf Pack, more Layouts!

Good Morning,

Today I am sharing a few more layouts using the Heidi Swapp, Wolf Pack collection. In June, when I first got this paper pad, one of the FB groups put out the challenge to use up a whole paper pad. Now, the idea was to use an old one which you have had sitting around for a few years, untouched! I did not have any untouched paper pads, only brand new ones (birthday/Mother’s Day gifts) which is why I decided to use this paper pad. I am doing well, getting through the pad with 14 papers left out of 36. The ones left are mostly pine trees, wolves and bear papers, given that I live in a country with no wolves and bears it is a challenge.

The first is Layout #3. I used the paper which looks like a starry night, it is the B side of the Tracks paper. On top of this, I stencilled white gesso using a Studio Light Grunge collection stencil. I blended the edges of the gesso to give it a milky way look. I then splattered white watercolour paint over the paper to increase the number of stars on the paper.

Once dry, I added different shades of blue Tim Holtz Oxide Inks which seeped into the gesso crevices (using water/brush) and blended into my starry night (using blending sponge).

Then, I mounted my photo onto scraps of the Wolf Pack collection papers and adhered it to the background.

Next, I used the stencil and oxide ink on white cardstock to create some embellishments. I cut this apart into little triangles and diamonds and layered them onto the page using foam and double-sided tape.

The finished layout came together well with the addition of a title and a few acrylic stars.

Next, Layout #4. This layout was very simple and quick, I used the map paper and added some colour across the page using the plastic bag smooshing technique. The Tim Holtz ‘Tumbled Glass’ oxide ink created a soft blue surface to work on, I then splattered some watercolour paint across the page in browns and blue.

Then, I worked on building layers with patterned paper from the Wolf Pack and assorted embellishments from my stash.

The final touch was adding the title.

Layout #5. is my favourite so far. I wanted to find a way to use the wolf papers in the collection and finally come up with an idea when I came across some photos of my grandson eating some dessert.

I started by creating a framed background using two of the papers. Then I built up papers to mount my photos on and added the title ‘Wolf it Down’. No mixed media was used in this layout.

A subtitle was added using part of the cut apart sheet and then lots of text quote embellishments and some Wolf Pack puffy stickers.

The finished layout ended up just how I wanted it, messy and fun.

June 2019 CKC Layout #2.

Hi all,

Today I am sharing my second layout using my June CKC kit. This time I am using a lovely photo of my eldest son with his dad sharing some vino. My son works at the local winery and part of his job entails sampling different wines in production. He brought a few bottles around to get our opinion, hubby was more than keen to participate…bring it on!

Selecting papers from my kit for this one got a little crazy, I thought I would challenge myself to use the Dear Lizzy unicorn paper in my kit, how, I had no idea. Then, I thought about how easy it is to overdo the drinking when the wine is free, the happiness and joviality that occurs when you share bottles with family and friends, and the possibility of what might happen. So, here we go…my crazy layout! And yes, I may have been sipping a little wine while creating.

First, the background. I had a go doing a little forgery of one of the inspiration papers, a simple technique of highlighting text on the paper with markers. Then I smooshed on some Tim Holtz Mustard Seed Oxide ink using the plastic bag technique and a paint brush.

On top of this, I applied some Lindy’s Moon Shine Mist, this added a little teal/blue colour and some brassy gold shine. Then I painted on my rainbow using watercolour paints, only using three colours to replicate the rainbow on the Dear Lizzy paper.

Then, I selected a scattered star stamp and some oxide ink and stamped stars across the background.

Next, I layered two pieces of my patterned paper in a square format and adhered it to the page. This is to mount my photo on. Then I fussy cut out my embellishments from the American Crafts paper.

After fussy cutting all the embellishments, I added the title which I normally do at the end. I was concerned that it wouldn’t all fit on my rainbow and that I would have to start the whole layout again. Luckily, I managed to fit my very long title on the rainbow.

Then, I started adding embellishments and the photo mounted on some patterned paper and banding strips from my kit, adhering them with foam tape and double-sided tape.

The finished layout turned out quite quirky with lots of colour and a fun, jolly theme.

Share links to your work in the comments section, remember that you need to click on the title of the post to open the page to comment. Already on the posting page, just scroll straight to the bottom and add your comment to the reply envelope. I would love to see what you are working on at the moment. Are you joining in with this month’s Counterfeit Kit Challenge?

Happy CKC scrapping 🙂

Finish or Fix?

Hello,

Well, in my part of the World there has been very inclement weather, the type that makes you want to stay inside in front of the fire, and that is exactly what I have been doing. When I haven’t been working I’ve been snuggled up reading, scrapbooking or sorting. The sun has been beaming sometimes but it has been bitterly cold and so, I am more than happy to sort and clean spaces.

My studio (aka son’s old bedroom) was one of the areas targeted and I spent a lot of time going through some sets of shelves, looking for completed layouts (yes, I have been known to shove them into spaces to file on another day) and working out what exactly was in some of those pizza boxes. Do any of you have a pizza box problem? I have real dilemmas over keeping them or not keeping them. They are fabulous for storage (as long as you label and remember what the label means) and I have at least two dozen empty ones under my desk…someday I might need them. Not one of them has ever had pizza in them!

Anyway, I’m off track. I found a pizza box labelled ‘layouts to finish & file’. Great I thought, more completed layouts to pop into albums, I have been filing layouts this week. Nope, there was three finished layouts and a dozen not finished! And…they were old! Not just a little old, big old, like 12-15 years old! So, I’m sitting on the floor looking at these layouts and I laughed at how terrible some of them were, and I cringed and questioned what was I thinking? They were terrible, there was no design thought, no embellishments on many, no style what so ever and certainly no mixed media. They were seriously old school and I could see why I hadn’t been interested in finishing them. Hmm… what they did have was photos, not all of them great either but still images of family history which needed to be rescued. So, after pondering on how far I had changed in scrapbooking technique and skill, plus attitude (Yep, at one stage in my life I did not like or see any benefit in scrapbooking, I even complained about having to do it (in my workplace), I was a stamper/artist. My husband loves to remind me about this, now that every spare minute is spent on scrapping.), anyhow, I decided to finish or redo the layouts.

Here we go, with much shame, I present layout one out of the pizza box, unfinished and ugly. A creation with a very seventies colour scheme and very busy pictures filled with my family. You can see that it is so uninspiring, I think that olive green and brown was selected based on the seventies furniture and walls in the photos. It does have a nice frame on the main pic.

So, here is what I changed and what I did. Basically, I took it apart, thinking that I would use some of the cardstock in the new format. I did use a little but not much. I must say that the double-sided tape used to adhere the photos were strong, it was hard work getting it apart. I wish I knew what brand tape I had used.

I started with some mixed media, I wanted to get some colour in the layout and used the party balloons pictured as inspiration. I was after a fun, chaotic, party feel. I applied watercolour paint to my white cardstock in a circular pattern, trying to create a border around my photos. Some of the paint was applied with a brush and some was flicked onto the cardstock. I ended up having to extend the colour further around the edges, so it was peeking outside the photo edges.

Then, I worked on each photo, matting them and building up layers of patterned paper (scraps from previous layouts) and adding some embellishments.

I have been binging on YouTube and watching the HipKit Club team whilst I am cleaning and scrapping and decided to add some thread to my page.

The finished layout is messy, fun and bright and over-embellished. Some may think the simple, clean line which was in the original version was better, I like the fun messy look. Most importantly, I had lots of fun creating it and this layout will finally be put in the family album.

One finished and eleven more to go.

Happy scrapping 🙂

April 2019 CKC Layout #5

Good Friday and Easter blessings to everyone.

The rain is pouring down here, there is a chill in the air and my fire had gone out! So, after battling the fire lighting with very little paper and kindling, I am trying to catch up on what’s happening in the scrapbooking community. What did I find? The new CKC challenge has been posted and what a beauty it is for this time of the year. It’s all about hiding things on your layout (or in your photos), perhaps I will manage to snap a few photos to use today in our (early) Easter egg hunt and family gathering. Why are we celebrating Easter today? Well, we, as grandparents, like many families I’m sure, have to divvy up the holiday time spent with our grandson and children. It is tough having to share with the inlaws, once your children are grown and settled with families of their own. We are very lucky that the inlaws are all gorgeous people and at times we blend all our families together to celebrate holidays together, such as Christmas.

Anyway, let’s talk about layout number five. This layout killed two goals in one, I had wanted to use up more of my CKC kit and I wanted to enter this month’s Annas Craft Cupboard inspiration challenge. The challenge features henna mandalas, lace and a positive quote about walking your own path. It also has hints of pink, silver, white and fawn. Luckily for me, I had made up a kit which worked beautifully with this challenge and the photo had the same sort of theme…working towards the goal you set for yourself.

I used the very light pink patterned cardstock as my background and stencilled on some doily and decorative designs in black and light grey. Then splattered and smooshed on some blue watercolour paint.

This layout was pretty quick, a lot of layering of patterned paper and die cut embellishments.

It is my first layout using an Instagram photo. The photo is of my son-in-law, making his dream come true, as gaining an apprenticeship (piercing) in a Tattoo store, one step closer to being a Tattoo apprentice. He has since bought out part of the piercing business, so is now part owner. He also draws/designs tattoos for the biz, he is very artistic. It is a really hard industry to get into, you work for nothing for over a year before they consider offering you an apprenticeship, from what I watched on Youtube this is common practice in the industry around the World. We are all very proud of him for making his dreams come true.

I really love how this layout turned out and feel I met the criteria for the ACC Inspiration Challenge. My daughter, however, wasn’t happy with all the pink on what she considered was a masculine layout/photo. She thought it should have been all black & white, I just pulled on the colours in the photo…pink, blue and black! What do you think, yea or nay?

Uniquely Creative Feb. Challenge

Hello everyone,

I finally found some time to scrap, my new job is taking up more time than I like and there is so much marking when you start off a new school year. I needed a break and decided to crack open the Uniquely Creative February kit which arrived on Wednesday. It is a glorious kit, so much colour and interesting mixed media. A tropical/summer kit based around the Kaiser Craft ‘Paradise Found’ collection. I am loving the papers, all that greenery, yummy teals and beautiful, bright hibiscus flowers. The problem is I don’t have any tropical photos, no tropical island holidays for us yet! Though, it did give me the opportunity to remind hubby about how he mentioned he’d like to go to Fiji, the perfect reason to holiday…to use up scrapbook paper.

Because I was struggling for photos, I decided to work with some summer holiday beach photos. I had just finished using the December Uniquely Creative kit, an ocean-themed kit, which I had managed to make 8 layouts with (adding in extra cardstock) and still have scraps left for another couple of layouts.

I had a gorgeous photo leftover of my daughter sun baking on one of our favourite holiday beaches. We have amazing beaches and coastline in Australia. It is from a holiday we went on about ten years ago, this beach has pure, fine, white sand that squeaks when you walk across it. I thought it would be the perfect photo to use with the Uniquely Creative February kit and Sketch Challenge, as it has hibiscus flowers on the beach towel.

I started off making the background, using the ‘Ocean Air’ paper, I added some blue watercolour paint smooshes and splatters.

Then, I selected the ‘Salt Water’ paper to cut out the large circle in the sketch layout. I didn’t want to lose the shells on the edges of the circle, so I cut around them and kept them attached.

The lovely hibiscus die (add-on to the kit), worked beautifully to create a halo effect around the edge of the circle. I was thinking about the sun and sunbeams, as I glued them into place. I cut them from the white cardstock painted with the yellow and orange watercolour supplied in the kit.

I used some hessian border and patterned paper to make the vertical stripes in the sketch.

Next, I mounted the photo on white cardstock and rough up the edges. Then, I added a layer underneath of the ……. paper. You can easily tear this paper into the shape you need by adding a line of water to soften the fibres of the paper. It creates a lovely torn, tatty edge.

Finally, I added a range of embellishments from the kit around the edges of the circle and photo. I fussy cut a few extra shells from the leftover ‘Salt Water’ paper and attached them with foam tape. I added some of the sisal fibre threads for a little more textural interest. I used white cardstock paint with blue watercolour paint and the supplied ‘paradise’ die to create the title.

Not a bad effort, I think it works well with the photo. Now to use up that tropical foliage and hibiscus papers…keep scrapping!

Jan. 2019 CKC – Forgery #1.

Hello again.

Here is my first layout featuring my forged paper. I had decided that I wanted to scrap a funny photo of my grandson playing with playdough. He had made a playdough man and his mum sent through the photo for us to view. As boys do, he was being silly when posing for the photo, so the quality is not great. It is a little blurry but does capture his cheekiness. Let me just say that the playdough man is magnificent, a work of art! Well, I may be biased, it does have all the important elements of a human which is the goal when you are four. It was the playdough figure which triggered my idea for the forged paper. The playdough feet are rough circles, much like the black and white circle paper featured in the Felicity Jane ‘Hannah’ kit.

I decided to create my own circle paper to use as a background for the layout. It was a simple process of loosely tracing circles onto to the white cardstock using an Artline permanent marker. I used a washi tape container to trace around. Then, I painted some of the circles with Tim Holtz Oxide inks in colours which matched the theme and photo. Unfortunately, the so-called permanent marker did bleed around the edges when it interacted with the watered down ink. After the first bleed, I was a little more careful when applying the ink.

Then, even though I liked the look of the painted circles I thought it needed something else. I pulled out a Fiskars geometric diamond stamp which was similar to one of the papers in the Felicity Jane kit and stamped the image across the page. Still not happy with the result, I decided it needed more colour and wanted to reduce the white space. I used the Tim Holtz micro glaze to protect my inked circles. I love this product, the tiniest amount makes the inked area waterproof, stopping any colour shifting and allowing you to add colour over the top. After rubbing on the micro glaze I applied the blue watercolour paint.

Next, I selected some patterned paper and coloured cardstock to mount the photos. I prefer to use several mounts on each photo, something which has gone out of fashion these days. In one of the photos, you see the wooden floor in their house, this inspired me to mount the photos on a background of woodgrain paper from my kit.

As I had mentioned in an earlier post, I didn’t have a scallop washi tape to include in my kit. I decided to substitute this with a strip of polka dot paper trimmed down to create a scalloped edge. I attached this to the edge of the woodgrain background.

Including embellishments that reflected the Felicity Jane kit had me troubled. Flowers, love hearts and a bike didn’t really go with my photo choices. I hummed and hawed over this, what to add? Then I decided to go with it and added a few flowers, a tag and the die cut word awesome. I’m not super happy with the result and would have liked to reach for some other embellishments but I was trying to only use things from my kit.

Anyway, it is another layout completed and I did meet the goal of forging some elements for the challenge. Happy scrapping everyone.

CKC Jan. Layout #1

Hello again 🙂

Here is my first layout using my January CKC kit. If you haven’t been following you can check out my kit here and get all the details on how to participate at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog.

So, first up, I went with a photo of my daughter and her friends having a night out. The photo has several of the pinks, blues and burgundies found in the Felicity Jane ‘Hannah’ collection.

I decided to have a play with some mixed media, using my watercolour paints and the plastic bag technique I smooshed some paint around my white cardstock. The blue paint I used came out a lot stronger than I expected and I nearly started over but decided to keep going and find some way to tone it down.

I tried stencilling on some ink to create some texture and distract from the intense blue. I used Tim Holtz’s Spun Sugar and Stormy Sky distress inks, both work beautifully with the Felicity Jane colour theme.

Then, I began making some embellishments. I stamped out some flowers using the Uniquely Creative Mini Bloom Advent Stamp and coloured them using Polychromos coloured pencils. Then I die cut them out, love this matching die, it makes it so much quicker than fussy cutting them. I also cut some flowers out of coloured cardstock using the matching die.

Next, I stamped some flowers and foliage onto my background. I decided to fussy cut flowers from some papers I had put aside for making embellishments. The colours coordinated well with my pencils and inks.

I then mounted my photo using some patterned paper and coloured cardstock. I rough up the edges using my fingernail and layered the pieces using foam and double-sided tape.

I spent a lot of time fixing the flowers into place, I keep changing my mind and fiddling with the layers. I added a Thickers alpha title and some die cut tags. Overall, I think it has turned out quite well, but my colours are too strong and perhaps a little overpowering compared with the original kit. Moving on to layout number two, I hope you are enjoying participating in the CKC challenge.

Jan. 2019 Counterfeit Kit Challenge

Good morning.

Well, I am off and racing with the new CKC. I put my kit together yesterday and surprisingly found it a little tricky. The papers in the Felicity Jane ‘Hannah’ kit are fairly simple in pattern and design, but I fell short when rummaging through my supplies. I struggled to find just the right subtle blues, greens and pinks. I didn’t quite make it with the patterns, mine were either too heavy and thick in line or not geometric. Even though I knew I had previously had some fish scale/scallop paper, I could not find a scrap of it. So, here is what I ended up with…

For this month, I decided to keep it small and achievable. Often I go overboard and select an abundance of papers and embellishments which makes a mega kit. I am sticking to my word for the year, “Complete”, having a smaller kit will help me achieve this. To start with I chose papers by colour and/or pattern, a lot of the papers I selected in my initial rummage came from Christmas collections. Weird hey?

I didn’t have a floral paper with the right colours, so decided to go with a black and white floral which I can colour to match the collection. No fish scales/scallops meant that I needed a substitute, I went with a polka dot design in both black and white and blue and white. My check is smaller than the original and as you can see has the Three Wise Men featured. The men will get the chop and will not be featuring in my layouts. My text paper has a lot less white space than the original and reads ‘Hooray’. Overall, I have more colour than the original Felicity Jane kit but I think I can make it work.

I had a pile of papers left over once I sorted through to get to this point and decided to keep them on hand for creating embellishments. In the pile are two florals which I had picked out because of the blue patterned backgrounds, then I realised that the flowers had the same colourways as the Felicity Jane flowers, a strong burgundy and a soft pink. I might fussy cut these for embellishments.

For my embellishments, I didn’t have a lot which matched with the original kit. Being a girl obsessed with colour, I don’t tend to buy scrapbook supplies with such a mild palette. I decided that I could forge many of them and make my own. So, I dug deep into my dies and stamps and found similarly themed ones which I could use with my papers/cardstock to make a range of embellishments.

I found that I owned a bicycle die, yes! I also have quite a few texts dies and tag dies. I do not have any heart stickers, so will use my heart die. As for the floral stamp, I just received a lovely floral stamp in my Uniquely Creative Advent Kit which I am looking forward to trying out. It came with two matching dies which means no fussy cutting, hurrah! My bows will be satin ribbon bows, as I’m not interested in purchasing any tulle, even though the tulle bows look very cute. I have included some inks and not being able to deny myself, may splash around some paints. You can see that I selected some cardstock to use for backgrounds, photo mounts and tags. The colours I selected to match the Felicity Jane colour theme, though they look darker in the photos. Hhmm…maybe they are too dark, I may have to swap some out. That’s what happens when you are selecting cardstock at night in poor lighting.

I still need to choose my alpha stickers, I may go with two different sizes in pink. I also need to sort through my 3×4 quote/journal cards and find ones with a suitable colour range. The kit also included a scallop washi tape, hmm, not sure what I use for this. I may just use strips of paper/cardstock or use a different patterned washi tape in the same colour.

If you would like more details and get a better idea about the Felicity Jane ‘Hannah’ kit there is a great unboxing video worth watching by the LindseyDecor channel.

Make sure that you keep up to date with the challenge by checking in often and following the CKC blog. I can’t wait to see what everyone creates. Here are the great CKC scrappers, design team and Master Forgers for you to enjoy

Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog: http://counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com/
Meagan Johnson: http://www.thepracticalscrapper.com/
Cindy: http://cindyscreations-cinmfoster.blogspot.com/
Julene: http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com/
Leslie: http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com/
Lisa: http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com/
Lori: https://loriannie670.blogspot.com/
Laura: https://www.instagram.com/mrsp_scrapsandtea/

CKC – Sprinkle, Sparkle Layouts!

Morning, here are my two layouts which incorporate some sprinkles and sparkles for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge number one. The first layout features my cheeky grandson at 9 mths, the quality of the photos was not great. They are a little blurry but I used them anyway, as they captured his cheeky personality and a happy moment in time on an adventure. The layout itself was fairly quick, some smooshing of oxide inks for the background on a lovely indigo cardstock and a strip of star paper. Then I sprinkled on some gold watercolour paint and mounted the main photo on layered, distressed edged papers. Some fussy cut stars, Citrus Twist Kit cut apart embellishments, enamel crosses, a wood veneer painted star and it was finished!

The next layout has sprinkles and sparkles, this one also features my grandson. One of our favourite things to do at the local park is play on the wizzy dizzy. We always laugh so much and there have been times when Nanny and Granddad fall off! In these photos, Master Four is trying to do it all himself which is no easy feat. My choice of layout design links to the shape and movement of the featured playground equipment. I liked the idea of building up circular layers and creating that sense of being dizzy by ‘seeing stars’.

The background was created by splashing on oxide distress ink mixed with water and then blotting it off with a tissue. Then I used the inky tissue to apply some soft, swirly, whispers of colour. I wet the inky tissue and rubbed it around the page in a circular motion. Next, I raided the kitchen, to add some wine glass circles of ink, a little forgery inspired by the Vicki Boutin patterned paper in the original Citrus Twist Kit. This was topped off with some splashes and sprinkles of watercolour paint.

Step two, another kitchen raid…use a bowl to guide my stamping. I wanted a circle of stars swirling around my background. I used my new Carabelle Studio art stamp which has a really delicate sprinkling of stars. I didn’t use a block with it, so I could bend and manipulate the stamp to fit the curvature of the bowl.

Third kitchen raid…crockery to cut my paper circles! I also dragged out my old Creative Memories cutting system to cut the smaller circles. Because I was layering the papers, I could use some of the papers which didn’t fit my theme/photos or any layout I was likely to do in the future. For example, the white swan paper, swans where I live are black!

I slotted my 4×4 photos in between the circle layers, intentionally making them topsy-turvy to match the theme. It would have looked better with smaller, 3×4 photos but I was too lazy to print any more photos. I mounted the main photo on another paper which didn’t fit the theme, the rain clouds, but the little pops of raindrop colour did match with the other papers.

Next, I added the title and got busy with my Sizzix cutting out sparkly, gold stars with glitter cardstock. I used my new Tim Holtz thinlit die which has a great range of star sizes. I attached the stars with foam tape and glue. Then, I popped on a few handmade text quotes. Finished!

I am pretty happy with this crazy, dizzy, topsy-turvey layout. It does achieve the feeling that I was going for and was fun to create. Happy scrapping everyone.

CKC November Layouts #2 & #3

More mess with inks and watercolours…

Yes, I keep playing around splashing around the colour to make some gorgeous backgrounds. The funny thing is when we do this we often cover it up with our photos and embellishments. Sometimes, for me, I get a little regretful when I have to cover up all the pretty colours. Yesterday, was one of those days.

I was working on two more layouts using my Counterfeit Kit Challenge collection. The first is a layout of my grandson, I am still trying to complete his baby albums. Because the photo is very soft and pretty, I thought the colours in this kit would work well. I began by creating the background using oxide inks, layering the colours and adding a little stamping. The stamp arrived two days ago and my rule is when you purchase anything you must use it! The little stars helped soften the edges of the paper and fitted with the CKC embellishments.

Then, it was a simple process of mounting my photo with a range of patterned papers, each piece was distressed around the edges with my fingernail. Next, I decided to have a go making some thread bows to embellish the layout. I used the fork technique from here. It worked very well and was quick to do.

Adding the embellishments took very little time, I used some forged flowers, stars (wood and paper) and an old, chipboard heart. I think it pulled together well, the pop of pink softens it and draws in the skin tones in the photo. It is kinda girly for a boy, but you can get away with that with baby photos.

Layout #3 is another grandson page when he is a little older and hanging out with his favourite person…Granddad.

More colour was splashed around, this is the one where I didn’t want to cover it up. I used some old heart stamps in this one. See, the yellowed acrylic block…yep, the stamp is so old, it fused to the block! Note to everyone: do not be slack and leave your cling stamps on any acrylic blocks for long periods of time! Pack away properly and use your stash, its been years since this stamp was used.

I used a whole heap of the FREE Citrus Twist Kit cut apart die cuts on this layout and a few of my forged pandas.

Overall, it came together well. I like the embellishment cluster and was pleased to find some way to incorporate the pandas. Thank goodness for cute kids.

P.S. Sorry that the images look cream, the cardstock is a crisp white. I am struggling to get a decent photo, with white it (iPad) always seems to cast yellow or blue light whether I’m inside or out.

November CKC-Forgery on the Fourth

Here we go, a little early perhaps, but it is already the 4th of November down our neck of the woods. So, what did I forge? I decided to cheat a little and use someone else’s images which they had freely shared, to create some die cuts and puffy stickers.

Luckily for us participants in the November CKC, the inspiration company, Citrus Twist Kits often has FREE cut apart PDFs and cut files available to download. So, I went looking for some cut apart sheets which would match with my kit. There was a lot, including one designed for their October kit. I decided to print out a range of different ones onto white cardstock.

Then, I had a look at the cut files available. These I thought are of no use to me…think again! They had quite a few florals which would work well as die cuts, so I downloaded the files. Now, how to use them? I tried printing out the images, this didn’t work for me because the images are large (I imagine they are 12 inches) and I only have an A4 printer. So, then I took a print screen of the image and pasted it into WORD. This allowed me to crop them and make them any size or colour I liked.

Once printed, I tried a few different ways to colour them. I didn’t like the look of the Copics and decided to try watercolour paints. Duh…the Indigo Hills die cuts are in a watercolour style! This worked well, I tried out both the black printed image and the light grey. What I found with both was that the paint did put an opaque film across the printed image. This was easily fixed by going over the images with a black permanent marker. It even enhanced it, giving them a more handmade look.

Then, I went in search of pandas online. There were quite a few FREE pandas to download, I went with some little panda heads which are similar to the original kit. I coated them with Ranger’s Glossy Accent glue to get that puffy look. The glue dries clear.

Before fussy cutting the printed cut apart sheets, I gave them a clear coating of Clear Gel Medium. You don’t need to do this but it gave them a little sheen (not super glossy), the easier way would be to print them on a better quality cardstock paper which already has a sheen.

I ended up with a huge pile of die cuts to use on layouts. I have a lot more flowers printed which I will colour and cut as needed. My next forgery may be the Vicki Boutin paper, who can resist dipping cups/glasses into the paint and making some mess?

Counterfeit Challenge – #2 & #3

Good day to you all. I am way behind with this month’s Counterfeit Kit Challenge and am trying to catch up. Here are my scrapbook layouts, number two and three, using my counterfeit kit.

Layout #2 is worked from photos of my grandson helping me paint and make Christmas decorations. As you can see he got a little excited and carried away, decorating himself. The funny thing was that once the paint dried he didn’t like the sensation of the paint on his face. Kids, live and learn!

I had fun making some little paintbrush embellishments using my Sizzix Big Shot. A little watercolour paint splatter on the background and some small text quotes added some detail.

The finished layout is bright and colourful.

Layout number two is a double spread. The photos used are not mine but are the work of a local photographer who kindly shared them online with the community. I am trying to find his name and will post it once I find out. The photos are a great record of what our little town looks like now. There is a lot of change and growth happening in our town at the moment with new buildings and shops being built. I suspect that this is only the start of the town ‘progress’ and with several shops/buildings owned by my family I wanted to record this moment in time.

I started out with two identical backgrounds, layered with patterned paper, and then added some paint to the left page. I used black gesso which I scrapped across the page, it gave it an old-fashioned blackboard effect. Then, I started to add the title across both pages. Disaster! I didn’t have enough letters and had to make and cut a few more.

I added some splatter and stamped some texture onto the gesso using some distress oxides. They work well on black backgrounds. Overall, it looks ok and has recorded a time in history. I may add the story by handwriting on the black gesso with a white pen.

Bounce! – Counterfeit Kit

Bounce! A quick layout for #3 using my September Counterfeit Kit. This layout got the lovely smoosh effect using the Tim Holtz Oxide inks. One of the self-imposed challenges that I placed on myself several months ago was that any new art/craft supplies coming into my house must be used. No hiding supplies away and not using them. This has been easy with these inks, I am using them every time I scrap.

One of the reasons I decided to join in with the Counterfeit Kit Challenge was that it hit my other self-imposed rule which is using up old supplies and using old tools/media. The materials and tools I have used for this layout are both old and new. I started off working on my white cardstock background using the crushed olive ink. I love this colour, it glows on a white background and really has the translucent sheen of virgin olive oil. I used the simple and fun plastic bag application technique. Swipe the ink pad a few times onto the bag. Then use a paintbrush and water to activate the ink on the plastic, move the ink around so you lose any indication of the stamp pad ink image. Place the ink side of the bag down onto your cardstock and use your hands to smoosh the ink around. Lift and move the bag to smoosh in other areas, if you can see wet ink on the surface double dip and pick up that ink to use somewhere else on your page.

Because smooshing is so fun and I was trying to create an explosive type of texture which would emphasise the energy of a bouncing ball. I went in again with a second colour. I attached a piece of patterned paper and then applied the mowed lawn ink. You need to be a little bit careful when doing this, as you will get some warping if your paper is too thin or you apply too much ink/water in one area. You can see on the right side, the lower corner has a bit of warping occurring. I knew photos were going over this corner so I was heavy handed but I was careful to not have any warping on the other three corners which I knew would be exposed to the viewer.

Next, I added in my photos, I mounted the first two together on an old, green floral paper. The photo featuring the new ball and my grandson I mounted on white because I wanted it to stand out. This was a little moment in time when I was on Nanny duty looking after my grandson while his mum was at work. We had a great day doing lots of things and stopped along the way to buy a drink. The store had one of those giant gumball type machines filled with coloured bouncy balls. He was very excited to use his $2 coin and get a ball. We went across the road to this little park to try out the new ball and did it bounce….yeah, like crazy! Thirty minutes of fun and laughter.

Time to add the embellishments, I still wanted to emphasise the bounce and craziness of a ball out of control. I didn’t have any embellishments which would do this, so I got out some black acrylic paint and a shot glass and made some circle prints to represent the bouncing ball. I dried it off with a heat gun and attached my other embellishments and text from my kit.

I’m really happy with the finished layout, it didn’t use up much of my kit supplies but I did get in a few of my forged leaves, I used 3 papers and some enamel dots. My journaling will go on a tag in the yellow wood grain pocket. The pocket was made from one of the patterned paper sheets I had in my maybe pile. I have used a part of that paper, the wooden drawer front, on layout #2 as well.

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.