Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Last of the boys layouts ....

Here is the last of the boys inspiration from us for September ....

First from Wendy with ....

Using the gorgeous Fancy Pants Like Father Like Son papers I made this card for my neighbour who was turning 60!! Just love these papers, the blues are gorgeous and are perfect for male/boy cards, even having 2 boys I still struggle sometimes making masculine cards!

Again I have used Fancy Pants Like Father Like Son, Be Strong and Little Tike.

I have layered these onto a navy cardstock card and a white cardstock mat.


I then took a Tim Holtz Hanging Sign cut out of chipboard and inked it with blue and brown inks until I was happy with the effect and then covered it with a coat of Rock Candy.

When that was dry I added some metallic die cut numbers and 2 altered brads (I used inks and Rock Candy on them too!) and stuck it on the card on top of a piece of frayed muslin.



Finished it off with a die cut ‘Congrats’ which I went around my a White Gel Pen



OTHER

Number and Phrase Dies, White Gel Pen, Muslin, Adhesive Backed Metal, Sanding Block, Double Sided Tape and Foam Mounting Tape



From Corrina ...

He loves making a splash!!

I found this photo in my ever growing mountain of 'to scrap' pics...it was one that Wendy had taken when the kids were mucking around in our pool in Jan 2008, and when my little son was 4 and still swam with floaties on. He looked so cute and so happy being able to float around the pool under his own steam.


For this layout I used mainly coredinations cardstock, with a hint of the orange side of a piece of Adorn It Carolees Creations Rev Em Up Fast Ride A.

I ran a piece of the blue coredinations cardstock thru my sizzix machine and embossed it with a Tim Holtz embossing folder, then sanded it lightly to make the pattern stand out.


I painted some cute little scrapware sail boats with acrylic paints, and gave them a little spray with the clear glacier mist from the Glimmermist Winter Wishes Kit.

While they were drying, I used the leftover board from the sail boat set as a stencil and misted two boats onto the white cardstock using Moonlight glimmermist.

I placed the painted boat shapes just off to the side of the stencilled ones to give a glimmermist shadow effect.
I added a cute little flying bird charm as it reminded me of a seagull.

The ruffled ribbon is a navy blue organza ribbon that I gathered using a machine stitch and zigzag stitched in place to look like water.



Materials used:

Cardstock - coredinations cardstock

Pattern Papers - Adorn It Carolees Creations Rev Em Up Fast Ride A

Embellishments and Ribbons - Scrapware Sail Boats, my2angels Flying Bird Charm, white cotton ric rac, navy blue organza, blue cotton ric rac

Titles - Sassafras Lass Nerdy Glitter Alpha and Pink Paislee Holly Doodle Cubicle

Product - Glimmermist Winter Wishes Kit - glacier and moonlight


and still with Corrina

Adore My Little Cougar...



This photo was taken of my son at Auskick...he looked so serious and tough and BIG in his little footy guernsey. Ahhh they grow soooo quickly.

For this page I have used a mix of different brand papers... the backing paper is a piece of Bo Bunny Mama-razzi Aperature.

I mounted the photo and a Jenni Bowlin Adore Bingo Card onto thick chipboard, sanded the edges and inked the edges.

I then mounted a piece of Sassafras Lass Apple Jack Translate onto thinner chipboard, and layered these over some pieces of Jenni Bowlin Extension Black Micro Dot and Like Father Like Son Big Guy (both sides).

I stamped an Imaginisce To Love & Cherish Snag'em journalling box stamp onto some Tim Holtz Grungeboard and used some of the cute little Jenni Bowlin Tiny Circle Alphas to journal with.

The title is Holly Doodle Alphabet stickers - cubicle that I rubbed with black ink, stuck down then coated with dimensional magic.


I finished off with a large pearl head pin with some ribbon snippets & black lace tied around it and a pair of footy boot charms on a silver jump ring.


and lastly from Me, Tracy

Sorry about the quality of the photography - weather wasn't so great yesterday to take photos - well actually it was great we got RAIN YAH

Using Websters Pages Hello Beautiful - Blooming Beauty and coredinations cardstock as the base


My favourite piece of the layout - actually I did this ages ago just had to find a layout for it to match.

It is the Scrapware Brickwall (you get TWO walls in a pack) which I inked with Tim Holtz Fired Brick and drawing in the cracks of the bricks using my Ranger Clear Perfect Pen then embossing with Ranger White Puff

The scrapware vines were inked with Jumbo Java and again using my Ranger Clear Perfect Pen I applied Perfect Pearls

Also used are our Burgundy gardenias, 23mm brown flowers centered with light brown pearls and some brown cotton ric rac





Used our new shipping tags for my journaling and our bronze heart locket


and one more from me, of my son who was so proud of his sister getting into Districts last year. once she had finished competing he rushed over to her to give her an ice block - it was a "moment" for me LOL one that I will treasure but still in shock over LOL




My base was painted corrugated pizza box and Fancy Pants Like Father Like Son Stud Muffin
Banner was made with blue cotton ric rac, SEI buttons and Thickers Emerald Flocked alphas on the reverse side of Fancy Pants Like Father Like Son Stud Muffin
Flying bird charm
Scrapware Picket Fence

Scrapware Clouds were embossed with Brown Puffs




Scrapware Circle Tree inked with Peeled Paint and in some circles I used the reverse side of Fancy Pants Like Father Like Son Stud Muffin and others I filled with Inkssentials Crackle Accent
Gotta have a bird on the tree so I added our parrot on flower swing charm




I hope you have enjoyed our month for the boys at my2angels
TFL
See ya next month

Monday, September 27, 2010

Step by Step Layout with Guest DT Ngaire

Okay – we’re a little late for Week 3 with Ngaire ...

Apologies – Hubby added on an extra night to our stay at Hotham the night before we were due to leave. Gotta love the man!!

This week we are doing a step-by-step with the gorgeous boy range Zach’s Life from Little Yellow Bicycle.

I love the diversity of colours in this range – and the fact they include both bright/funky papers as well as dark/grungy ones.

Today we are working with a bit of each – the bright blue and orange, matched with some grungy browns.

Again – the papers are busy – so to tone them down a little we are going to make strips of them and mix them in with less obviously patterned cardstock and patterned paper.

To make things a little more interesting, we are going to make it a multi-photo layout (use a 5x7 portrait photo for the main photo with 2 smaller ones to suit). Those of you who know me well will know I do these as often as there is a full moon – so this must be my multi-photo layout for September. Lol

Materials needed: (available from my2angels store)

LYB - Zach’s Life

- Arrows & Light Blue Solid

- Blue Camo

- Wipe Out Blue

- Grunge Brown Dot & Groovy Brown

Scrapware Chipboard Antique Lowercase Alphas

Versa Color

- Versa Color Pine Cone

- White Chalk Ink

ExpressIt

- 6mm Double Sided Tape
- Foam Mounting Tape

Derivan

- Crystalina Kindyglitz

Buzz and Bloom

- Spiders

- Worms

Tim Holtz Trinket Pins

my2angels White Scroll Felt Stars

my2angels Red Copper Skeleton Charm

Dimensional Magic (back in store early October)

(stash)

Any 12 x 12 cardstock (you use this as a base and won’t see it)

Length of thin twine

Sandpaper or Basic Grey file

Heat Gun

Blue Cotton Thread

Tim Holtz Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink (in stock first week of October)

Step by Step

Step 1

Trim 30.5 x 1.5cm strips of the following: (in both cases you want the reverse solid colour side)

Arrows & Light Blue Solid

Blue Camo

Ink along the edges with a matching ink (I’ve used Versa Color Pine Cone) and then adhere them as shown below – the inside edge of the blue strip is 6.5cm in from the cardstock edge for both strips. The brown strip simply butts up alongside the blue strip and you are left with a 3.5cm strip of cardstock on either end.

Just so you know – because I was using lots of small strips – it was better to use a junk cardstock to stick them to. This gives a firm background for the layout. As you can see I have used a white cardstock that had some ink marks on it that made it useless for other layouts.

Step 2

From a sheet of Wipe Out Blue – cut 2 strips of 30.5 x 2.5cm from across the bottom of the sheet. Again ink the edges with a matching ink.

Adhere these to the top and bottom of the page as shown. You want a gap of 1cm of cardstock left between these strips and ones already on the layout page.

Step 3

Use your (Threading Water) border punch to create a 30.5 wide punched strip across the bottom of your Core dinations Orange cardstock. Trim this so the widest part is about 2cm wide. Then repeat to get a second strip.

This orange is a little bright for the other colours in the layout (the original oranges in this range were not quite the same as this cardstock) so we need to grunge them up a little first. Using either some sandpaper or a Basic Grey file – take off most of the bright orange layer to show the lighter orange that is underneath. The image below shows the difference between the original and sandpapered versions.


Step 4

Before adhering your orange strips to the layout you need to run some twine through the holes. Simply thread the twine in and out of the holes and then tie off at the end with a knot as shown. You can either knot the beginning of it as well or tape that to the back side of the strip with some double-sided tape.

I’ve put them onto the layout with some foam mounting tape – simply to give some dimension to the layout – which otherwise is very flat at this point, it also helps to avoid an up/down effect from the twine running behind the cardstock. You don’t have to do this though if you don’t want to.

Adhere it to the layout over the space left between the strips of patterned paper as shown. It will slightly overlap the strips on either side of it, but that is fine.

Step 5

Next we need to trim two very thin strips from the orange cardstock. Since we also want to sandpaper them, it is best to do this before we cut them – as they are too thin to withstand the rough treatment once they are cut. So sandpaper back a section of your orange cardstock that is about 1.5cm wide along one complete 30.5cm edge of it.

Once you have sandpapered to your satisfaction – trim 2 strips that are 0.5cm in width. Adhere one strip so that it is slightly over the join of the blue/brown strips, but mostly over the blue strip – as shown below.

Step 6

From the sheet of Wipe Out Blue – cut a full-width section that is 17cm deep – and make sure that you measure the 17cm from the top. You want that neat little dot-grid pattern at the top left of the paper. Ink the edges of the paper with a matching ink and then adhere so that it is in the only remaining empty section of the layout (the bit in the middle)

It might just be slightly too big – depending on how accurate your earlier placements were – so you can either trim it a little to fit exactly or just overlay it slightly.

Now the base of the layout is done – it is time for the photos and embellishments.

Step 7

Place your 5x7 portrait photo so that it is slightly to the right of the white dot/grid pattern and so that it slightly overlaps the top and bottom edges of the middle patterned paper segment.

I’ve given the photo a distressed edge by going around the edge with my file. It helps to define the photo a little more clearly.

You can adhere this to the layout now and put it to one side for a moment. It’s time to make the title.

Step 8

I’ve done my title using the Scrapware Chipboard Antique Lowercase Alphas – but for something different this time, I have covered them with one of the patterned papers from the Zach’s Life range.

To make your title the same as mine you need to do the following:-

Trace the shape of your letters onto the front side of the Grunge Brown & Groovy Brown paper. Then cut them out with a craft knife. They actually look pretty cool just as the cut outs – so you can use them like that if you want to.

Cover the chipboard letter with quick drying glue and then place the cut-out paper letter onto it and put to one side to dry.

Once the glue has dried – trim the paper to match the letter edges. Any excess can be filed off with some sandpaper or your file. Then ink around the letter edges with your brown ink in order to make them stand out.

Now you can leave it here – or do what I did. I don’t mind a little glitter here and there on a boy layout – and I chose to lightly smear some Kindyglitz (Crystalina) with my finger over the alphas. Again, you need some time for this to dry.

This next step might seem a little redundant – since I added Kindyglitz in the last step – but a coat of Dimensional Magic helps to protect your letters and ‘brightens’ up the colours a little more. You can see the sparkle from the Kindyglitz still – though the image below shows glare more from the reflection from the camera flash on the Dimensional Magic than it does from the K’glitz.

Step 9

Once your letters are dry you can add them to your layout. A split title works best with these size letters – so adhere (using foam tape) the letters of the first word (or part of your title) to the layout so they are above and to the left of the photo.

Step 10

You need to add your smaller photos now so that you can get the placement of your remaining title letters right. Depending on whether they are portrait or landscape and their actual size – the placement will vary. I’ve distressed the edges of these photos as well.

I’ve placed mine so that although they are different photos they are overlapping so that they appear to flow on from one another. If it suits your photo – you can overlap them over the main photo too – and cover up any ‘useless’ space on the main photo.

Try to have one of the smaller photos up on foam mounting tape. Again, this is to help give the layout some dimension and not have it all flat.

Step 11

Now you can place the rest of the title. You can overlap the bottom edge of your small photos (as I have done) if it suits your photos. Try to have your title finish at the right edge of the layout (or however far from the left edge your top title began) so that it is balanced left to right.

All that remains is the embellishing and journaling.

Step 12

I embellished some Buzz and Bloom Chipboard Spiders and Worms and used them to fill in some empty space on the layout and to highlight some features on the small photos that I wanted to draw attention to.

They have been given a coat of Versacolor white chalk ink and then a little Crystalina Kindyglitz was wiped over. This was then ‘set’ using a heat gun (though you don’t have to do this step). The heat gun reduces the glitter from the Kindyglitz – it makes it all bubble up and changes its appearance completely.

To the Spider I attached a skeleton charm with some blue thread.

Now obviously these arrows might not suit the photos you have – but the Spiders and Worms come in a sheet of different shapes and one of the others might suit better.

Once I had the layout finished I realised I really didn’t like the look of the stark white of the chippy and so I brushed over them with some of the brown ink to smudge them up a bit. This made them look much more like the dirty white of the patterned paper – check out the main layout photo to see what I mean.

Step 13

I altered some of the White Scroll Felt Stars with some Tim Holtz Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink. You need a long time for them to dry – for some reason the felt absorbs the ink without it drying much at all.

Then I scattered the stars about the layout – putting them where I thought a touch of orange was needed.

There is one change to the final layout that needs to be done in this step. The orange star by itself over the white dot grid wasn’t making me happy – so I added to it with the following.

Taking the Wipe Out Blue – edge punch a 5cm long x 2cm wide strip. Through the holes thread some of the twine and tie off in a knot. Pin one of the Tim Holtz Copper Trinket Pins though the twine and attach to the trinket pin another of the copper skeleton charms. Over the top of this attach the felt star as shown.

Step 14

For the journaling – sand some more of the orange cardstock and then run it through your printer. Cut the journaling into strips and ink the edges with brown ink. Adhere to the left side of your layout as takes your fancy.

Here’s the final layout again – with the couple of added bits.

I hope you found something here to inspire you and I’ll catch you next week for my final boy layout.

Ngaire

Saturday, September 25, 2010

More Boys creations to share ...



Wonderful boys inspiration from the DT to share with you this weekend

First up

From Taryn with ....

Just Chillin



Do you like my mini banner??
I just hand cut the little pieces of paper, and then curled them up and inked the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. The heat set studs set it off beautifully, and how cute is the little boy cap charm at the end?



From Corrina with ...

My Guys ...

I love this photo of my husband and son together. I took this photo on Mothers Day 2007 with my new camera and it is still one of my faves.



For this layout I used the fantastic new Fancy Pants paper range Fancy Pants Like Father Like Son, and the co-ordinating element stickers.

The background is the Be Strong paper, and I have layered this with a piece of the reverse side of this paper as well, and a piece of the reverse side of Little Tike.

I machine stitched around all the pieces of pattern paper, as well as the background paper to enhance to printed stitch pattern in the papers.

I added layers of stickers from the element stickers, which I mounted onto cardstock, cut around and layered with foam tape.


Materials Used:
Pattern Papers: Fancy Pants Like Father Like Son - Be Strong paper (I used 2 pieces), Little Tike

Embellishments - Fancy Pants Like Father Like Son element stickers



From Wendy ...

Carnival ...

Carrying on with the boys at play theme this month, I captured my little one at the school carnival last week! I love this school event and of course LOVE taking multiple photos!!!

This was the team leader ball event, note the red hair especially for the day!! It was a beautiful day, windy, but sunny and warm with blue skies! So seeing as I have a huge love of clouds, I took a picture of them and added it to my layout.

Using more of the Fancy Pants Like Father Like Son papers mixed with a leftover piece of October Afternoon Fly a Kite Fireflies and some cardinal core dinations and olive core dinations I came up with this.


After cutting out the photos I wanted to use I set about making a ‘jigsaw’ with my papers and laid them on the FP Stud Muffin paper.

When I was happy with the layout I paper pierced some holes and used some rub on stitching, but this could have been done using a gel pen or real stitching.

The title is Thickers Daiquiri and Jenni Bowlin Tiny Circle Alphas in Black & Red.




I’ve then embellished with a my2angels House Charm, a Red Mulberry Flower and Plaid Brad. The bee and heart are handmade embellies from my stash, but any button shape would work here and so would a my2angels bee charm


Have a fantastic weekend everyone
I am off to get my DS from Camp - yah - its been a long week but oh so quiet with less fights to referee LOL!

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Happy Birthday to my gorgeous son ...



Happy Birthday to my gorgeous son who is 14 today
and .... is not here at home,
His first birthday not spent with me (:

He is at army cadet camp for the WHOLLLLLLEEEEEEE week

and since he has been gone I have managed to get 3 layouts done (and 2 more that I can't share just yet!)
WOOOO HOOOOO its a record!

This is him 6 months ago ...



and here are the new layouts of him in the early years ....

(talk about going the opposite way! look at the bobs on the first photo PML)

My Fat Little Budda Boy ...

Using the Teresa Collins Travel Ledger Travel File Folder as the base with the Teresa Collins Travel Ledger Travel Tags - not just travel projects


New Scrapware Chipboard Letters - not yet in store



Making a single flower this time
Silver Heart Locket
Red Organza Ribbon




First Steps ... finally ....

Prima Jack and Jill Collection Pattern Paper as the base


Puppy dog charm, SEI park buddies buttons and a handmade clay button



Kindy Days ...



Scrapware Clipboard - clip is embossed with AC Silver Metallic Embossing Powder and the rest is inked
Ruler Charm






Just going back to the rhinestone squares I find the easiest way to use these is to cut them up individually and place on layout to position before sticking down





and if going underneath something, like in this case, it is easier to cut them to the edge so it isn't "bumpy" underneath your pp or embellishment - does that make sense? I know what I am saying but trying to explain it well that's another story LOL




Hope you all have a wonderful day and surviving the school holidays
TFL