Saturday, July 9, 2011

Mini Album with Bo Bunny

Hi Ladies, Ngaire here – just popping in with a quick share 
(insert note from Tracy ... QUICK you say ??? PML)


I did this mini as a dual challenge. 

Partly for a competition I was doing, but also as part of something I promised Tracy. 

I ordered some Bo Bunny Ad Lib from her a couple of months ago and she emailed me to check that it was the right order. "So not you" she said. 

After I finished laughing at her I promised her I would do something for her with it just to show her I was really getting it for me AND that I COULD work with such a range.


I'm not sure why I got this paper range. I think it was because I saw a couple of layouts done using it and was blown away by the funky look of them. 
So not my style and yet so wanting to do one just like theirs. 
So just in case I ever did, I bought some from Tracy when she had a paper sale. 
Thankfully - I hadn't done anything with them when week 4 of the comp came around. 
We needed to make a mini album and I sooooo suck at doing OTP.


For the competition we needed 10 pages (cover front and back and 4 two-sided pages inside) as a minimum. As luck would have it I had just taken some photos of DS1 to play with in Photoshop and had used a new free action I found to create some very funky, grungy teen photos - and they were just perfect to use with the Ad Lib range.


So for the comp - and for Tracy - and for DS1 - here is my mini.




The challenge requirements specified that the mini had to be made from scratch - no pre-mades at all. Mine has a thin cardboard as a base and over that I put the patterned papers.  
The red base of the covers comes from the reverse side of Improv (oos) and the grid pattern you see there is actually the Die Cut - trimmed down, cut in half and popped up on pot dots.  
The cute little punched border at the bottom is from a piece of Vertigo.


The chipboard frame I used under the title is the Retro Circle and this was a pain in the butt to do. It has been painted (a challenge requirement) with 5 different colours - a painstaking and loooooong process. It looks way cool when finished though and I am very pleased I did it that way now. 
Under the chipboard frame is a circular section from the Cut Outs (oos) paper. It was an awesome match for the circle frame. The chipboard Journal title is also from my stash, but the 'L I F E' letters are from my2angels and are Prima Linen Textured White alphas (oos) that I coloured with the paints used on the frame.

I made a little tag to go on the rings holding the album together. One side has a rubon 'This is ME' and a punched out flower from one of the Ad Lib papers and the side you see has the word 'life' cut out from the Verbiage paper over one of the small blocks from the This N That paper. It's held to the jump ring with a Ball and Chain . 




The inside front cover has the face side of the Improv paper and I think I cleaned poor Tracy out of them - I needed 4 of them to do the covers. I've used one of the word stickers from the 12 x 12 Combo Stickers sheet (oos) and also punched out a few flowers using my Retro Flower Punch. Although it is fine how it is I think - the plan is for DS1 to write something to be put here later.




The smaller pages have been included to separate out the pages with photos and to add additional space for journalling or other thought-provoking, subtle parental advice/comments for teens. This one uses the blue reverse side of Wild Thing with a section from the Cut Outs paper (oos). Using some Orange and White Baker's Twine wrapped around the page, I attached a Silver Guitar charm to the tag. 




Here is a close up of the smaller page.




The reverse side of the tag has more stickers and punched flowers over the Improv paper - I tried to make each side of the smaller pages match in with the larger pages they were next to - so the embellishments on this one match the inside Cover.


.


This page uses the pale blue reverse side of the Stripe paper (oos). The pattern on many of the reverse sides is a coloured ledger paper - very handy to use. Embellishing the page is a combination of stickers from the 12 x 12 Combo Stickers sheet (oos); strips from the Cut Outs paper (oos) and a bit of the This N That paper. Some are flat on the page and others are up on pop dots for dimension.

I've matted all the photos on black cardstock for uniformity. In mini albums I like to keep some things constant and presentation of the photos is one of them. They've all been done with the same Photoshop actions to keep the 'style' of the photos constant too.

The Imagine chipboard word is also from my stash. It has just been inked with Versamagic Jumbo Java ink - as has the banner chippy, the pennants of which are scraps of the reverse side of Improv (oos) with a white Gel Pen border and a coat of Dimensional Magic.




I actually bought this chippy word for Madame and a layout I want to do for her and her love of the Katy Perry song of the same title.  Still - it fitted here - so I used it. The embellishments for this page came from tracing the starburst pattern from various Ad Lib papers and then stitching the design onto the orange reverse of the This N That paper used as a base for this page. At the ends of the starbursts (which look just like fireworks) I popped some Kaiser Rhinestones in appropriate colours.

The chippy was inked (can't remember the colour but I suspect Jumbo Java) and then given a heavy coat of Kindyglitz and heat gunned within an inch of its life.  This turns the Kindyglitz into a frosty rainbow of sparkles - which sadly, is hard to pick up in the photos. I added some additional Kindyglitz to the stars afterwards to keep them super sparkly.




On this little mini page I put some of the words from the song - printed out onto a transparency sheet - and then glued to another spare bit of the gorgeous Improv paper.




This side is the red reverse side of the Improv paper (oos) with one of the word bubbles from the Ad Lib paper. There is a huge variety of useful word bubbles and they make great little tags like this one. I've just popped it up onto a pop dot over a bit of reverse side of the Stripe paper.


I've embellished it with another Retro punch flower and a spare button from my stash. Tied to the button with more Baker's Twine (yellow and white this time) is a silver Camera Charm.



Opposite this page, you can see a mini page I made out of one of the Cut Outs (oos) panels. It was perfect as it was - nothing needed to be added.




This is the other side of the mini page with another Cut Outs (oos) panel with space for more journalling.




This page has the Stripe paper for a base and again has an assortment of stickers (12 x 12 Combo Stickers (oos) and Life's Good Stickers) and bits and pieces cut out from the Cut Outs paper; Improv paper (oos); Pebbles paper and This N That paper. The only additional embellishments are a Black Resin Flower and a small Retro punch flower.




The base for this page is the Vertigo paper (oos), with yet again a random selection of  - mostly - stickers (12 x 12 Combo Stickers (oos) and Life's Good Stickers) and a bit cut from the This N That paper. Tied through one of the stickers with more Baker's Twine (blue and white this time) is a silver LOVE Charm and there are a couple more Retro punched flowers I had a lot of fun with my Retro Flower punch - I remember it on odd occasions and use it. When I started scrapping, many years ago now, it was very much the 'hot' embellishment.




This mini page uses a sticker from the Life's Good Stickers as the main feature, over more of the Improv paper. The small phrase sticker above it is from the 12 x 12 Combo Stickers sheet (oos). I used my Fiskars Threading Water Punch just the once for an interesting look and wove some Orange and White Baker's Twine through the holes. The stitched ric rac at the bottom will bring back memories for Tracy - who used to attend classes with me at the scrapping store we both used to buy it from. The round embellishment over the ric rac is punched out from the This N That paper.




This is intended as another journalling page. I've used a bit of the Improv paper as the journalling space. It's over a bit of the green reverse side of the Hoopla paper. The two phrase stickers are again from the 12 x 12 Combo Stickers sheet (oos).  
The twine holds one of the silver Made with Love Heart charms on.




I love the bright yellow of this paper - it's the reverse of Pebbles - so bright and cheerful. I desperately wanted to use the wording on the Cut Outs panel (oos) - but the only way to do this was to make the photo smaller than all the others. So this is the only photo in the album that is not the same size as the others - it bugs me - but not enough to make me change the page design.

The two phrase stickers are again from the 12 x 12 Combo Stickers sheet (oos) but the square panel is from the Life's Good Stickers sheet. The rubon is a Kaiser one - one of the black theme sets. Off the top of my head I can't remember which one - but I love them.

A few more punched out flowers, twine and a Silver Bee charm  completes the page.




This page uses the the green reverse side of the Hoopla paper again as the base paper. There is also another Kaiser rubon quote.  For embellishment I punched a section of the Vertigo (oos) paper using my Fiskars Bracket Punch. 
It looks funky because I mis-aligned the punch pattern between the top and bottom edges. 
It takes a bit of looking to work out what is different - and I really like the funky effect it gives. 
A sticker strip from the 12 x 12 Combo Stickers sheet (oos) provides some interest in the middle of the punched strip - with some circle blocks from the Cut Outs paper (oos) and a flower from the  This N That paper ending off the embellishment cluster.




With 4 sheets of the Improv paper (oos), I had a lot of  'leftover bits' to use. This is another 
journalling mini page. Using a combination of stickers from the 12 x 12 Combo Stickers sheet (oos) and the Life's Good Stickers sheet, I am asking DS1 to journal "happiness is when" for one instance in his life this year. 
The flowers have been cut out of the Wild Thing paper and put up on pop dots.




On the other side, the green base paper comes from the reverse side of the Verbiage paper. The main statement is yet another sticker from the 12 x 12 Combo Stickers sheet (oos) finished off with a bit of punched out Vertigo Paper (oos). 
As you can see, I have again tried to make the embellishments on this page match the larger photo page it sits over. More stickers from the 12 x 12 Combo Stickers sheet (oos) are mixed with circle bits from the Cut Outs sheet (oos) and flowers from the  This N That paper . 
I've wound another bit of twine in and around the embellishments just for something different and added in one final Kaiser rubon quote.




The inside back cover is another piece of the face side of the Improv paper (oos) with space for journalling.




The back cover of the album is a mirror of the front cover. Rather than anything fancy on it - I like to keep my back covers flat  - I've just popped on a couple more stickers from the the 12 x 12 Combo Stickers sheet (oos) and the Life's Good Stickers sheet. 
The monthly date strips are part of the Cut Outs sheet (oos).


So finally - other than journalling from said son - the album is finished.  A labour of love - but I am sooo happy with the end product - as is DS1 (other than having to produce journalling for it lol). 
Tracy still has some of this range left in the store



Ngaire :)

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Layering with Scrapware ATC Frames



I don't do ATCs but that hasn't stopped me from using them as frames for my layouts
You get 6 ATCs in a packet which is 6 frames and 6 inner pieces




Using the pretty Pink Paislee Butterfly Garden Natures Sanctuary Patter Paper for my background, I created layers with 4 large scraps of chipboard 
then mounted my photos on the ATC inner pieces and using the outer pieces to create frames



See all the dark green highlighted parts on the pattern paper? 
That is created by using Ranger Clear Perfect Pen 
but damm it, typical, we sold the last one today, however we will have more in by the end of the month



 I just draw with the pen on areas I wanted to highlight then sprinkled Peeled Paint Embossing Powder over them and zapped them with my heat gun :)  Easy peasy ... great way to add a little bit of something to your background paper






    
I have used the sheet of Scrapware Butterflies (so LOVE these as you 4 variety of sizes in the sheet)


There were all soaked in Key Lime Pie Glimmer Mist and layers separated (as previous blog post) 

 


This butterfly has been centred with

 

Butterfly centred with Cream Pearl
This butterfly has been covered with crackle accent then centred with our little antique bronze love charm


 

Butterfly has been centred with our gold rhinestone cup chain
On scrapware letters used for my title, I sprayed with Key Lime Pie Glimmer Mist then embossed with clear embossing powder to act as a resist then inked with Peeled Paint Distress Ink




so there you go ... thinking outside the ATC frame!!!



and lastly, before we finish with chipboard and move on k

Scrapware Flourish Love Heart
which comes in two pieces (and two different sized hearts per packet)


Cover your back piece with pattern paper, music paper or as I have done an old book (glue stick works best for this, in my opinion)
and scrunch up the paper for some texture (the glue allows you to move and scrunch it as opposed to using tape!)


This photo shows the two different size hearts in the packet


With your ink blending tool, blend Vintage Photo Distress Ink over your covered back piece
and also over your top flourish heart piece


because you have creased the back paper, the ink on the raised pieces (creases) will be darker


then glue top and bottom pieces
and wipe with your finger some gold stickles over the top cover



Its all very nice on it's own BUT 
add some of our gold rhinestone cup chain
follow your heart charm
and some roses 
to dress it up






so again, whilst I could keep going on and on with chipboard we have to move on

next week is

FELT



Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Chipboard Marbling Technique

Hi guys...

Keonie here with you today to show you a cool, fun and relatively quick technique to create a funky marble-type look on chipboard.    


Obviously there is drying time involved but the actual process of making the marbling is fun and effective.   
 
I have used raw chipboard letters here which you can choose to leave raw, paint, or as I have done, ink slightly around the edges using the ink blending tool.  Ok, if you are painting the chipboard before creating the marble effect, allow time for your paint/ink to dry. 

 

Then...load your letter or chip shape with oodles of dimensional magic.
Grab a pin, or you can use a bobby pin to if you want more dramatic marbling, and dab the tip into a blob of white paint.  



 Very carefully then, swirl the paint-laden pin through your dimensional magic.  This is where the fun is, you can swish, delicately swirl, poke, or blob...basically whatever suits your fancy to create the look you want.  


A tip I can give you is to hold your pin slightly on an angle as this helps to unload more of the paint from the tip and as your swirl slightly roll the pin head in your fingers which again just assists the paint to dissolve into the dimensional magic.   

Obviously you can reload your pin when you need more paint and also experiment with adding more than one paint colour.  

 You can also further embellish by dropping a rhinestone into the wet dimensional magic as this will set with the dimensional magic as it dries.   

You can also lightly sprinkle with glitter or diamond dust ...just let the creativity ooze.   


Don’t forget this technique will require some drying time and best part is if you make a mistake or marble too much paint in, have a cotton bud handy and you can simply remove the part you don’t like and reapply.

Have fun
Keonie



And from me Tracy,
 grunging up chipboard with a variety of mediums


After painting the edges of a pizza box with pitch black dabbers and rusty hinge distress ink, I distress the edges of Echo Park Litte Boy Distress Cardstock Chocolate / Lava (these papers BTW are a great background with a slight wash over them giving a different option to stark cardstock) then added some black soot ink
Using Tim Holtz Timeworks Masks and my ink blending tool with some black soot ink gave it some more pattern



So for the mediums:
some of the Scrapware Clock Cogs were inked with rusty hinge distress ink then painted with clear rock candy distress crackle paint
the others were left bare and again painted with clear rock candy distress crackle paint
and others were inked with rusty hinge distress ink and then heat embossed with walnut stain embossing powder

the scrapware large impact alphas were painted with Brushed Pewter Distress Crackle Paint




Added a Tim Holtz Game Spinner
and one of black and white time pieces (covered with clear rock candy distress crackle paint)
and one of our ball and chains added to the top for a "boy" feel


I am so happy with this layout (plus it has been given the DS approval) and I now have ANOTHER a new love ... rusty hinge distress ink



Sunday, July 3, 2011

Chipboard Letters Techniques

Chipboard Letter Techniques
by Tracy

Here are just a few (out of many) techniques for altering your chipboard letters ...

These green letters were "too green" for my layout so I sandpaper some of the colour off, put them through my Tim Holtz Wood Grain Embossing Folder then covered with Clear Rock Candy Crackle Paint ... now they match my layout (which I started about a month ago and still sitting on my table to be finished ... story of my life these days!)



 Another example for your page titles is ...

  ink them in gold,
then covered with Inkssentials Crackle Accent 
(this title was for my sign at the expo see a few blog posts back)



and now for a bit of sparkle on your chipboard letters using Diamond Dust



and one day I might even get around to put these on the notebooks waiting to be finished!




and now from Jess



Hey there FABULOUS Ladies : )

I thought I would share this lo today with you ....


Want to make a fab chippie title??


Wait till the paint has dried...lightly sand around the edges.....then doodle on them with an Inkssentials White Opaque Pen


Place on your page......then stitch on with a funky coloured thread....and VOILA!! A fun title....


Love & Peace xox
JESS

Friday, July 1, 2011

Free Gift ... 15% off ... chipboard RESIST techniques

Remember a few months back I mentioned that I received the wrong colour cameos (suppose to be light blue but instead a smokey blue/grey)

Well the supplier has given me a credit but I still have them
 
So I will pop one in your parcel with your first paid order during July
and until 15th July

15% off all GLIMMER MIST

and

15% off all EMBOSSING POWDERS (including Tim Holtz)




and continuing on with our Chipboard techniques

create a "resist" Title for a layout

inked with Jumbo Java and 
stamped a flourish image onto them.
Then sprinkled with clear Zing embossing powder over the letters

(the clear embossing powder heats clear thus being  the perfect product to create resisting with) ...


zapped them with my heat gun


then I sprayed them with Key Lime Pie glimmer mist and then again inked 
with Jumbo Java but only randomly!

Now they match my layout (which is a show and tell layout for another day of chipboard techniques)



Here is more chipboard I created the resist with .... 
(this technique certainly isn't limited to chipboard  ... try it on your cardstock to create an interesting and unique background for your layouts)



AND


AND ONE MORE 
because I discovered Glimmer Glaze acts as a resist to glimmer mist ... 




Hope this has given you a few new ideas to play with glimmer mist and embossing powders

and good timing as they are on special UNTIL 15th July