Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Tim Holtz re inkers

Reinkers
So apart from reinkers being used to refil your distress ink pads there are a few other uses for them:

You can make your own Glimmer Mist as mentioned last year on our blog (thanks to our Guest DT at the time ... Sandra Wilkinson)


To make your own glimmer Mist you will need

1 mini mister (or small spray bottle)
Water

Drop a WHOLE dropper fill of reinker into your spray bottle
Add small scoop of Perfect Pearls (small amount on the end of a paddle pop stick)
then fill your mister with water BUT not to the top as you need a small gap to be able to shake and mix it.
Easy peasy you now have glimmer Mist (after of course you have shaken it up)


Or make multi coloured stamps

You will need a make up pad or baby wipe, reinkers of your choice and a stamp




















Starting with your DARKEST ink first
(Vintage Photo)

Then filling in the gaps with your lighter ink (Broken China)
Then stamp onto the ink and apply to your layout, tag, card or whatever you are stamping


Or you can try more than 2 colours
Here I used Vintage Photo, Broken China then finishing off with Antique Linen reinkers

(I tried it on a serviette which worked BUT it doesn't stay wet for long so a make up pad or wet ones are the best to use)









And once I started I couldn't stop trying out colour combinations



 Then DD thought it looked like fun so she got in on the act using Spiced Marmalade and Black Soot




Once I had finished with the make up pads 
I put then into a zip lock bag and labelled it with what inks I had used
(1 week later I used them again without having to reink them)


And a couple of layouts I have completed using this technique



Using Bo Bunny et cetera Watermark pattern papers with the new Scrapware gates XL and embellished with our thin green leaves, brown roses, blue canna lillies, brown stemmed flowers and resin flowers.

The gate I covered with Antique Linen Distress Stains as this gives the chipboard a coating, so the next layer of colour won't soaked into the chipboard.

Then gave it a light wipe with Weathered Wood Distress Ink then heat embossed CLEAR Zing over it.  Lastly gave it a light coat of Vintage Photo Distress Ink using my Ink Blending tool







with Vintage Photo Reinkers and Broken China Reinkers (using the technique above), stamping with Prima Background Stamp and finishing off with Rock Candy Crackle Paint





and this one of my baby boy at 2 hours old, using 


 



(which I also stamped on the Scrapware Alphas for the title)







 


The letterbox (part of an upcoming our embellishment kit) crackled with Black Soot Distress Crackle and for the red look, I inked with barn door then painted with Clear Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint

I Love You Postcards charms(which I wiped with Espresso Paint Dabbers for an aged look)





Hope this has given you some ideas of what else to do with your reinkers and if you don't have them why not give them a try ... we don't have lots left in stock, due to quite a customers coming to visit this week and once I showed them this technique IRL, they did a BIT of "shopping" LOL

Thanks for visiting
Hope you have a great week




Monday, September 26, 2011

Echo Park Apothecary for Halloween

Hi everyone,
It's Geli here

I had the perfect Halloween photo from last year to go with the new Echo Park Apothecary range.


The beauty of a grungy page is that you really can't make a mistake; just keep adding layers until you are happy. Let me take you through my process, which admittedly is a little all over the place. What can I say...it's school holidays!

I used the Under Your Spell  paper for the background and there wasn't much to add (except maybe a pinch of Wicket Potions , since it's quite perfect the way it is.


First I tore a hole for the photo. The hole needs to be about 1" smaller all around than what you want in the end, so don't make it too big! Scroll it open to reveal the nice colour on the back of the paper. I then messed around a little with Picket Fence Distress Crackle Paint. I like how it has a paint brush in the lid: minimum clean up!

Once it was dry I rubbed a little orange ink into it highlight the cracks and wiped the excess off with a baby wipe.

Then I stamped all around the hole. Yes, it means I don't see the cracks all that much anymore but that's what I'm talking about: layers!

For the black paint drips on the bottom I made a quick home-made comb from a scrap of cardstock packaging. I used a slot punch but you can use scissors too. It doesn't even have to be even.

I applied a generous amount of black soot Distress Crackle Paint and dragged the comb through the paint downwards. The messier the better. Easy!

While all this was drying I tore some strips from Wicket Potions  and inked around all the edges with a distress stain . A bit of chipboard barbed wire got a coat of glitter embossing and I added the silver pendant . Very gothic! To make it stand out I inked a bit under the pendant and popped on a black skeleton charm .


My journaling says, "Truth be told I'm not a big fan of the ghoulishness, but it is a bit of wild fun." The title chipboard  was embossed and inked. In the end I used a bit of Ranger Stickles here and there and it was done.

Don't I have a gorgeous family! Let's see what costumes they come up with this year...


Geli


Thursday, September 22, 2011

Splatters with Distress Stains

Hi girls
Cathy here,

We're still on masculine LO's this month and I have 2 more for you using the new Bo Bunny Etc. range which I loved working with and I was able to use these pics of DH which I have been wanting to scrap for a while.

A Quiet Moment

This was a quick LO using a piece of Prima Moulin Rouge and Bo Bunny Etc Watermark  for the background, which I distressed.  The Bo Bunny paper has a bit of a blue watermark pattern, so I decided to add to this by using the new Tim Holtz stains.

I used the Broken China stain to create some huge splats by smacking them down on my paper.. don't they look fabulous!! 
I then picked up some of the Vintage Photo and Mustard Seed stains on a paint brush with some water and flicked them over the page. 


I also used the Vintage Photo distress ink on the Scrapware antique alphas, then flicked some water over them for a splotchy distressed look and did the same thing with the Scrapware flourish chipboard piece using some Mustard Seed and Vintage Photo distress inks. The circle design from the  Bo Bunny sheet  was used to create a journaling spot and I added a little cluster of embellies made with one of  Tracy's larger roses..

I pulled out the centre and added a plaid brad which I dabbed with a bit of  Old Paper stain to give it an aged look, a  antique bronze round frame charm with one of the stickers from the Etc sheet as a background and layered a bronze timepiece charm on top, and also another of the stickers which was mounted on foam tape.







Life is Better in the Country




Layered quite a few of the Bo Bunny Etc papers here and also the Diecut for a monochromatic look.  I inked the edges of the diecut with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo and Walnut Distress Inks to make it pop a little, so it didn't just disappear.

I used the Tim Holtz woodgrain embossing folder on one piece for a little texture and inked over with the Vintage photo distress stain and rubbed the stain with my finger while wet to give it a more blended look.

 The cluster was made using some hand cut elements from the Bo Bunny papers, some Scrapware mini clock cogs which I inked with Black Soot distress stain, some skeleton leaves, Tim Holtz rosette die to make the cute flower, the oval antique frame charm with some paper for the background and layered the tree charm on top.
The title was made with the alphas from the Bo Bunny Etc sticker sheet and the Scrapware antique alphas which were stained with Vintage Photo and I used the same water flicking technique.

I still have a Graphic 45 ABC Primer LO and some cards to share this month so keep an eye out.

Cheers
Cathy :))


Hi from Tracy
Did you see those splatters Cathy created using the Distress Stains?  How cool do they look? 

So easy to achieve, as Cathy mentioned just bang them down on your page to create a splatter, the harder you bang it down the bigger the splat

Here are a few examples:




I create this layout a few weeks back and once Cathy told me about the splatters I had to add them


Using the Graphic 45 ABC Primer papers



Using the scrapware cogs as masks first spraying with Mustard Seed Glimmer Mist (the white ric rac ribbon also go a spraying) before adding black soot distress ink, rock candy distress crackle and black soot distress crackle paint to them

I wish you could see the gold glimmer in the Mustard Seed Glimmer Mist  it is awesome!





and lastly,

Check out our up 50% off section ... we have added more products to this section but only for a limited time

 

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Bart Bums and Echo Park


Bart, Bums and Echo Park

Hi Ladies
Ngaire here,

Naughty Tracy showed me the new Echo Park Apothecary Emporium range and although this is not a company I usually scrap with, I have fallen head over heels with its very striking orange/white/black/beige combination. After walking out with half her stock of it I immediately had to play – and I found it perfect for a photo shoot of my youngest son that I have been ‘sitting on’ for the past couple of months (I promise you Tracy – it is not just because it matches his hair!!). J

‘Bart Bum’ is the first of several I am planning on completing during the current school holidays. Although it is the first ‘completed,’ it is actually a leftovers layout – done with the bits and pieces ‘left over’ from other layouts.

One of the things I really like about Apothecary is that there is such a choice in patterns that suit cutting up into blocks or strips of patterned paper: - 3 different stripes, 2 diamond patterns, a grid pattern, several ‘background colour blocks’ – as well as all the other patterned papers. It makes it very easy to create a layered page using left-overs.



I’ve used the grid pattern reverse side of Skull and Bones as the base of the layout. Over this went my leftovers: - a vertical piece of Hypnotic Stripes (diamond pattern reverse side) (link - ); a horizontal strip of Striped Toad (striped side) and then a rectangular block of the Vanished and Liquid Smoke Distress Cardstock (beige side). I’ve then used a piece of black cardstock as an off-set matt for the photo. This gives me the basic structure for my layout – the rest is playing around.

I added another horizontal strip of Striped Toad (striped side)to the space over the beige cardstock to provide some colour and pattern there; and to fill the space above the photo and over the diamond pattern I added a couple of Scrapware Cogs Large and a smaller Scrapware Clock Cogs Mini . These have been inked up with some Spiced Marmalade and Black Soot Distress Ink and given a thick layer of the matching Distress Stickles (my stash).

 

As you can see from the close-up, this gives the cogs the appearance of being coated in ‘cut glass’ and is a really cool effect. It certainly makes them pop. 



I decided to put the journalling onto a hidden tag and this close up shows you the edge of it behind the photo matt. I had a thin strip of the Levitationand Zodiac Distressed Cardstock (orange side) left over and this I edge punched with my all-time favourite ‘boy’ punch pattern – my trusty old Fiskars Bracket Punch - inked with Black Soot and then tucked under the right side of the diamond patterned block.


The cool little ‘Bart’ skull image (to match DS3’s jeans pocket) I downloaded from the internet and printed onto an acetate sheet. It’s actually stuck to one of the tag shapes cut from the Labels patterned paper. Not liking the starkness of the original white, I inked it orange with some Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink.



This is the journalling tag – I’ve used a standard luggage tag which I inked over with some Spiced Marmalade and Black Soot Distress Ink and then lightly brushed over with some Black Soot Distress Stickles to give it that glassy splattered effect. There’s another of the acetate ‘Bart skull’ images and some (very old) rub on letters spell out a classic ‘Bart-ism’ to complete this Simpsons inspired tag. To make it easier to pull the tag out I have popped one of Tracy’s Skull and cross-bones Charms onto a Ball and Chain and threaded this through the tag.


I added a thin strip of the Viper Venomand Squid Ink Distressed Cardstock (black and orange side) across the bottom of the layout. Finding a left-over bit of black cardstock cut out from a shaped layout I did ages ago - I included it down the bottom where it filled in a space there nicely. J

The alphas are a combination of my favourite Scrapware alphas – Antique Lowercase Alphas  and AntiqueLowercase Alphas Mini. I’ve actually left her some in stock this time – so go get in quick. I used Black Soot Ink and Distress Stickles to colour them. The cute teeny-tiny skull and cross-bones chippie is one from my stash – I have NO idea who made it and where I got it from – but they are sooooo cute.

In the offset space on the photo matt cardstock I popped in a strip of Hypnotic Stripes. The tag is another from the Labels patterned paper and again I have altered it with some Black Soot Distress Ink and Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink.




A little while ago I scored this lovely little stamp from Tracy (they were from the August Embellish Me Kit). It was perfect to finish off this ‘corner’ of the layout. I’ve embellished it with a few rhinestones from my stash and another of those cute little skull chippies. The final touch to the layout was to do a little stitching here and there with some black embroidery thread.

I had a ball playing with Apothecary Emporium and am impressed with how easily it all goes together. Looking at it here, you would never guess it is a Halloween themed range. So check it out before Tracy sells out – I notice some of the papers are running low.

I’m back next week with a Teresa Collins Off the Edge layout – but then it’s back to playing with Apothecary Emporium for me.

Ngaire


Sunday, September 18, 2011

Brag Book for Grammy

Hidely Hodely Blogeroonis : )
Jess here

I have a mini album to share with you today!! I've been promising my mum a brag book for agggggges.....and I have FINALLY got around to it. I think I was just waiting for the perfect paper range to come along!

The Echo Park - Happy Days just screamed out "Elijah" to me! It's fun, funky, happy and a little bit quirky....just like him : )

I got a SUPER cheap chippy album from kmart (about 3 bucks I think) and used mod podge to glue the pages onto it.....I then sanded around the edges with a nail file to remove overhanging paper & give it a cool look. I then used my Paint Dabber - Snow Cap White to go around the edges of the book pages and papers....love the affect it has!


To cover up the metal rings I tied  all different coloured ric-racmy2angels design ribbon & some charms on them....pretty funky I think...


All the alphas I've used in this book are from the Echo Park - Happy Days Alpha Cardstock Stickers sheet or Thickers


A bit of ric-rac stitched to the photos adds fab texture but not bulk!


A bit of Hambly - Woodgrain Transparency used as a photo mat. I've doodled heaps to give a funkiness and to also create uniformity throughout the book!


Stitching around all of the photos gives texture!


The Echo Park - Happy Days range has so many awesome bits and bobs to cut out and stick on!


I matted the photo on a Ranger Manilla Tag, cut it to shape, stitched it then punched a hole in it! 


I have coloured all tags in the album with the AWESOME Distress Stains.....can't get enough of these babies...they have a bazillion and one uses!!


Throughout the book I have also put little "notes" about Elijah on Journalling Cards which I mod podged to Echo Park Card Stock 





And there you have it...one brag book for Grammy!!!

Love and Peace xox
JESS