More ideas for masks...

When I read that Sarah and Lianne were on their way to CHA in the summer, I hoped (and requested!) that they would order some of the Crafter's Workshop templates for the shop.  My wish came true and as soon as they hit the store, I popped some in my basket for this month's blog work.

I love how you can create your own backgrounds with masks by just using some mist or ink, but I also wanted to explore the effects created by using different media and also going beyond backgrounds and finding other ways to incorporate the patterns into my pages.

The three masks that I worked with were:

Tile Texture

Chickenwire

Chickenwire Reversed

Layout 1: Say Cheese

I firstly took the chickenwire template and very lightly inked, with a black distress ink, through the template onto my background paper.  I did have a bit of a practise first on a scrap though, to work out how much pressure and ink to apply to create such a subtle effect.

Using the same template, I decided to try embossing a die cut shape to make my own embellishment.  So with an asterisk shape which I cut from kraft card, I stamped with a watermark ink and sprinkled with aqua Zing! embossing powder (details of all products can be found at the end of this post). 

This created a pattern on the shape which coordinated perfectly with the Echo Park papers that I had picked out for the layout.

The completed layout which documents how difficult it is to get the 'perfect' photo of my three children as they get older:

Layout 2: Feed the Chickens

The chickenwire templates also inspired me to make an embellishment.  Using the Reversed Chickenwire template, I painted through the template with some brown acrylic paint onto a piece of kraft cardstock.  With the paint, I  could make some areas darker and thicker than others and add some texture/lines with the brush as I applied it.  Using my die cutting machine, I designed a tag shape with a chicken shape placed in the centre of it.  I then laid the tag with the negative chicken-shape over the painted card, moving it around until I was happy with the pattern showing through.  If you look closely you will see that I tried to find a join in the lines to fit where the eye should be.

My children love to feed the chickens at a farm that we often stay at in Wales and this tag made the perfect embellishment for my layout all about how much they began by just feeding the chickens but on our most recent visit, actually went right into their house to find freshly laid eggs for breakfast.

Layout 3: The Big Ones

Whilst making my chicken tag, I also cut out some people tags too.  I experimented with using a watermark ink through the Tile Texture template both on top of the people shapes and also onto some scrap kraft card.

I heat embossed after covering with a layer of pale blue and pale pink embossing powder.

Whilst the embossing powder was still hot and a liquid, I sprinkled some aqua onto the blue and some dark pink on to the pale pink before heating again to set both colours.  This created a mottled effect as shown below.

I've kept the embossed people for another project, but for my last layout, I used the pattern on the kraft card to back the cut out people-banner tag shapes.

Not wanting to waste any of the embossed pattern that I had made, I also used a Martha Stewart pinked circle punch to make some small embellishments to keep for another time too.

 

The blue boy and pink tags feature as embellishments on this final page.  I repeated the banner shapes across the centre of the page with strips of the patterned paper.  I took this photo of Evie and Oliver a few weeks ago on Evie's birthday.  I love how happy they look together and made a page about how close they are and how much Oliver needs his big sister now that he has started 'big school'.  They're now collectively known at home as 'the big ones'.

I hope that I've given you some ideas for using masks/templates in some different ways on your layouts or other projects.  As ever, thank you for reading.

My products:

**Challenge Winner**

Our winner of the September sketch challenge has been chosen......and we are pleased to announce that the winner this month is 

Laura Atkin!

The design team all really loved the fabulous triangle background you created, and thought the bright colours perfectly complemented your photo.

 

Well done Laura! Please email Lianne to claim your £20 e-voucher prize! 

Keep your eyes peeled for the October challenge, which will be revealed here over the next couple of days.

 

Playing with masks!

This month I have been playing with some of the fabulous masks now available in the shop! I have to admit that I can't get enough of masks - they are now a staple part of my scrapbooking regime.

For my first layout I used  inks applied with a sponge through the creative workshop splats mask. I then cut small squares from the gorgeous MME meadow papers and stitched a frame around each of them to offset the photos of my son.

The second of my layouts is one of my granddaughters. This time I used markers with the mask by simply laying the mask down and scribbling over it with the different colours.
On the photo she was leaning against a climbing frame so I continued this to make a frame for the photo

and finally I used yet another mask (told you I was hooked!!) with Mr Hueys colour mists. When this was dry I stitched along the lines to echo the roof in the photo.
 I was hoping that by creating this layout my other half would finally take the hint and buy me this car for Christmas (I'm ever the optimist!)

Why not have a look at the great selection of masks now available and have a play yourself ?- they really are so versatile that you'll find yourself using them again and again - but creating different looks just by using different mediums with them. Be warned though, they should come with a 'highly addictive' sticker!

I used the following products:
Mr Hueys mask
Tile texture template
Splats template
echo park everday eclectic

Four Seasons In One Day!!!

Hello, it's Louise here with four LOs using the My Mind's Eye Indie Chic collection. As soon as I saw this collection I was drawn to the lush blue and brown colours and the mix of geometric and organic patterns. Immediately I knew that I wanted to scrap one of my favourite photos taken of Oliver playing in the autumn leaves a few years ago.

After splattering the kraft card with Mr Huey cream mist, I layered up blocks of paper, using washi tape to add flashes of red here and there. I left the wooden camera embellishment naked, but added a hat and scarf to the little boy shape using scraps of paper.

The 'fun' was a from a My Mind's Eye collection that Sarah stocked a while back, and was stamped with versamark and clear embossed.

 I have so many photos from that autumn day that I could easily have based my blog post around them, but I wanted to show how versatile the papers can be. I decided to produce a LO for each season. And from Autumn we move into winter, and a bunch of photos taken on a fun afternoon playing in the snow with friends.
I created a patchwork edge onto red card using strips of various patterned papers. The kraft was placed over the top and had white acrylic paint stencilled through the Crafter's Workshop tile template. This made a nice random pattern which left spaces to stamp some small snowflakes. I also used the splat template, and embossed with white powder through it. This gave the effect of a snowball having been thrown at the page before melting and dripping down. The photos were printed small, and arranged so they overlapped each other. I created a Polaroid frame out of patterned paper and added a couple of strips of Amy Tangerine washi tape and a Polaroid camera embellishment.

 

I painted the DIY thickers with metallic turquoise mist and stamped white snowflakes onto them. The effect is subtle and ties in perfectly with the photos.

From Winter into Spring, and a photo taken of Harry after an Easter egg hunt. I wanted to keep this LO fresh and clean looking, so used white card as the base. I very light misting of turquoise took the starkness away.
The title was left plain white against the white background.

I used clear embossed the peg stamp and used it to peg the date to the top of the photo.

And finally we arrive at Summer. And nothing could be better to depict summer than photos of donkey rides along the beach.

 After using a mix of stamps to create my background, I used the splat template and painted through it with turquoise mist. I love the 'water mark' stain that was created.

 On this LO I embossed the camera embellishment with red, so that it popped from the page.

And the little wooden people were decorated in colours to match the children's clothes.

 As you can see, each page is in keeping with its season, even though they all use the same papers. I have gone back through my stash with fresh eyes to see how I could use papers I've had for years, and maybe thought were only suitable for certain themes/photos.
Why don't you have a go at scrapping the seasons too. We'd love to see your work, so drop us a link to your blog or gallery in the comments box and we'll come by and have a look.
Remember to come back every few days to see what the rest of the DT have created this month.

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