Me and my shadow

Hello ladies! It's Tracie here with you again.

Have you ever rediscovered a product that you'd forgotten about? That happened to me recently with the wonderful Hero Arts shadow inks.

Many moons ago in my card-making days I used to use them a lot, then they just seemed to disappear from the market, or maybe I wasn't shopping in the right places!!

Well the good news is, the shop now has a fantastic range of colours available and my love of them has been reawakened!

So, what, I hear you ask, is so special about shadow inks?
Well I'm glad you asked!!
I just love the subtlety of them, they are so much softer than normal ink pads and so you can create beautiful backgrounds that don't overpower the rest of your layout and of course, as suggested by their name, they are great for creating shadows and adding depth!

My first layout showcases a couple of photos of me and my other half with the flowers my son and daughter in law bought us as a 'Thank you' for all our help with their wedding last year.

I punched a few circles out of the Amy Tan pal paper from the plus one range and used the negative as a mask to ink through to create a shadow

My second layout is my stepson with my gorgeous grandson.

Again I used the plus one range from American crafts. I used a template and of course my shadow ink to mark out a circle of dots ready to position my gems, to represent the roller coaster in the photo.

and finally a layout about the kittens that I found myself fostering last year!

this time I used the shadow ink to stamp a couple of cameras, although this particular stamp is no longer available in the shop there are a few really good alternatives here!

So, if you haven't tried them already, I hope I have given you some incentive to give shadow inks a go?!
But, if you get as addicted to them as I am, I refuse to take any responsibility!
'See' you soon

Gift Pick - Day Fourteen

Another great gift pick today from Tracie who says: This is a great stocking filler for my granddaughters who love writing and journalling.

American Crafts Amy Tan Yes Please Slick Writer set - £9.99

See you tomorrow for another gift pick!

Gift Pick - Day Ten

Ifa has chosen today's gift pick, about which she says:

"I know a young girl who would love to fill this mini book with her adventures and thoughts"

Amy Tan Day Book £9.99

Getting festive!

Hello ladies, Tracie here!

With Christmas getting closer by the day I've come over all festive!
These lovely wood veneer journal cards from studio calico really caught my eye, although I had something other than journalling in mind for them!

I started off by painting them white with acrylic paint

I then glued them together along the edges, and added a bit more glue and lots of lovely microbeads -

by popping it over a candle (to be on the safe side I used one of the battery operated ones that are widely available now)  I had myself a cheap and easy Christmas decoration.

As is usually the case, when my daughter saw it she wanted one too, so I set about making a gift box to put it in!
This is where the pizza boxes that my yummy stash arrives in comes in handy!!

This was a very basic box, as I was going to be covering it with paper anyway I didn't worry too much about the sides being perfect and literally just stuck it together with some tape

the photo isn't brilliant but this was my basic shape

the lid was made in the same way
 *note, I made the lid larger than it needed to be because I wanted to add some lace under it, if you aren't using lace trim you'd need to adjust the size accordingly*

I chose the lovely Amy Tan papers to cover the box, along with some trim, MME enamel dots and decorative buttons

 and topped it off with one of these adorable cotton reels from Maya road threaded onto some wire.


and of course every gift box needs a tag!

So that's all from me for now, but I would love to see all your Crafty Christmas makes, so please feel free to leave a link to your work in the comments box so we can all have a look!

Getting messy!

Hi, Tracie here,
I have recently been trying my hand at Art Journalling and I suppose it was only natural that some of the techniques I have been playing with have found their way onto my scrapbook pages.

The shop has an amazing range of masks and templates and they are so versatlie, they can be used on so many projects and in so many different ways!

I love the way you 'build' a background for Art Journalling, and using the same principle but with the addition of some scrumptious papers, can give your layout a really unique look.

For my first page I used the hexagon mask with Tim Holtz tattered rose ink and using the same ink I stamped randomly with a script stamp.

The paper I used were the absolutely gorgeous Pink Paislee Cottage Farm and Basic grey Serenade
 mixed with some Websters pages Modern romance embellishments (those ribbons are LUSH!!) and rub-ons.

I loved the little heart from the simple accents but the colour was a tad too peachy for me so I just dry- brushed some white acryllic paint over the top to give it a much softer look.

For my second layout I used Simple Stories Vintage Bliss! 'Bliss' is the word for this range! I just loved working with these.

Out came my trusty Gesso and this time I used the Crafter's workshop life shapes template, once the paint was dry I stamped all over with the American Crafts Amy Tan yes please stamps

I couldn't resist cutting out all the little butterflies to create a frame for the photo of some of the lovely ladies at my local crop on our 2nd anniversary. I handstitched these in place because I wasn't sure I'd end up with a circle and not a squiggly mess if I used the machine! I'm not altogether sure it's a circle as it is but I'm claiming artistic licence here!

So that's it from me for now, hope you all have a good Bank Holiday weekend and that the sun keeps shining for you!

Buttons

At the last retreat, I assisted Ifa with her lovely class which incorporated clear buttons. Some were idly sat on my desk space, when a bit of paper shuffling resulted in one becoming stuck on a torn scrap of washi tape, which inspired me to use it to deliberately create custom patterened buttons for my pages this month.

I'll make no apologies for bringing you pages made with snowy photos that I took back in January, in April - as I'm sat here with the rain lashing at the window and the wind howling around the walls, I could easily be forgiven for thinking we were in the deep depths of Winter anyway!

My papers this month are from the Amy Tan "Yes, Please" range.

Here's my first page:

You can just see a couple of my washi-covered buttons in the bottom right hand corner.  Here's how I easily created them in moments:

1. Pop a strip of washi tape, sticky side up, on to your work area, and pop a button on top. Easy! As you can see on the right, you don't have to stick to just one design of tape on your button. Mix it up! Go wild! Dig in to that washi!

For larger buttons where your chosen tape isn't wide enough to cover it in one go, pop one small piece of tape over half of the button, then simply tear another small strip and marry up the pattern on the other half, as below (you can just see the button in the picture underneath the tape; I joined the tapes along the button holes):

2. Burnish the tape on to the button firmly with your thumb and finger, and then trim away the excess tape from around the edge. Using a pokey tool or a pin, push through the button holes and remove the tiny scraps of washi tape from inside. I preferred to push through from the back as it ensured that the rest of the tape wasn't accidentally lifted from the button in the process.

3. And ta'daaaa! You have your own custom buttons using the pretty washi tape that we all love and hoard!!

The semi-transparent nature of washi lends itself very well to the buttons and create a lovely effect when popped over layers of paper or photos as you can see a portion through the design; I popped some onto a photo here to illustrate this:

The particular tapes I have used here are the gorgeous ones from MME's My Girl, Notable and Unforgettable triple packs.

Here's a close up of them on my page:

For their mat I used a slice from the chevron arrow sheet in the Dear Lizzy die cut sheet pack, and utilised the bits I popped out else where on my page - you can see some below the title (above) and some at the top of the page:

The "Phrases" veneer from Studio Calico's Sundrifter range are lovely for adding that extra bit of detail to your pages - I love the wood-burnished look of the fonts on them and the pack contains a huge array of phrases and symbols.

Here's the second frosty page that I used my washi buttons on:

This time I used some of the Phrases veneer to make a little weather-forcast style snow symbol:

 I used some of the gorgeous little Amy Tan puffy stickers as sub-headings for my journalling and others such as the hearts, flowers and arrows to add interest around both of my pages:

I didn't opt for a title per se on this layout, but instead grouped a strip of one of the Amy Tan papers that had a definition printed across it along with some pretty die cuts from the Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm die cut pack to convey the message:

So that's me for April - I am sat with my fingers crossed that we will have defrosted and I will be able bring you some warm, sun-shine filled pages for May! .......Well, a girl can dream ;)

Frame it!

I love frames! There are times when I am struggling to complete a layout and a frame can be all it needs to balance it properly.
When I saw the Amy Tangerine papers from American Crafts that were awash with frames I knew I had to have them, all of them!! The colours and patterns were just so lush I couldn't wait to play!
For the first layout I cut out all the little frames and layered them on my page raising the photo with 3d foam pads to give it a focal point.
This photo of my granddaughter bending into the wind is so cute and the colours worked perfectly with these papers

For the second layout I cut out the large frame and then gutted the centre, trimming it to give a border so that when it was mounted onto black cardstock it gave it more definition. The adorable little clouds here were perfect for the theme, and the cute little doodled borders, when cut out, were ideal to use as strips for the journalling.
The title seems to be rather appropriate at the moment with the poor weather we've had this weekend.

The photo had quite a bit going on in the background, so rather than edit it in photoshop I decided to doodle around it instead, creating yet another frame.

and finally, for the third layout I cut out one of the larger frames and cut it in half, positioning it to make a
more abstract frame,

                                    
the funky flowers worked well for boys or girls layouts because they're not too girly.

I hope you are all enjoying your bank holiday/ Jubilee weekend and that the weather hasn't put too much of a dampener (if you'll excuse the pun!) on your celebrations!

I used the following products:
American crafts Amy Tangerine sketchbook papers
Doodle dimensional stickers
Jenni Bowlin torn border stamp
Amy Tangerine alphas

Post-Christmas Scrapping

I love reading all the "Christmas Scrapping" inspiration in the run up to the big event in December, but if you're anything like me, it is only now that you have the stash, edited pictures and most importantly time to actually document any of the festive season! So I hope you are not all fed up of seasonal pictures and posts, as here I am with my take on recording Christmas! Grab the left over chocolates and sit back and relax.....

Another thing which sometimes makes me hesitant to scrap my Christmas pictures is that I feel that I *should* use festive, themed papers......it's not that I dislike them in anyway, but they somehow serve to get me incredibly stressed about getting my annual Christmas pages *just right*.......totally ridiculous but very true. Thankfully, as many of the design team showcased last month, that really needn't be the case, and like many of them I enjoy the challenge of using "ordinary" stash to create my own, individual seasonal theme, without my self-induced "must get this right first time" pressure that for some bizarre reason themed paper brings out in me!

I chose to use the absolutely gorgeous My Minds Eye Kraft Funday ranges - these were hugely popular at the November retreat, but if you have yet to check them out, have a look at them here, or follow the links at the end of my post.  The gorgeous colour-printed kraft designs reminded me of my favourite type of wrapping paper, so felt like a natural choice for my Christmas photos.

My First page is Wonderful Day:

please click on any photo 

to see a larger version

We had a fantastic day back in November when my niece was chosen to be Santa's helper for the day and, following a special breakfast and lots of treats, open his grotto - complete with the local paparazzi there to record the moment!

I used the star-spangled reverse of the Lollipop Dots paper as the base for my page, with a spritz of white mist for a frosty feel. I matted my photos on several different layers of paper, and wanted to create the effect of it all being bundled up together like a parcel. So using bakers twine, I attached long lengths behind the paper and brought them to the front, passing them through a single point with a needle so that they would give a "tied together" look when I had finished:

To make the bow on top, I punched several bows shapes from different patterned paper, folded them to give them dimension and stacked them on top of each other using a good dollop of ultra tacky glue.....

and added a sparkly rhinestone to the centre.....I LOVE the iridescent sparkle of the aurora borealis rhinestones - it doesn't photograph well but they give so much more colour and sparkle than plain clear ones!

I used a pre-made, printed chipboard embellishment for my title; you don't have to create your own with alphas every time - printed journalling cards and stickers can some times do the hard work for you. To customise the chipboard I gave it a blast of pink mist,

before matting it on some paper, and a strip of mix tape that I stamped some bunting on top of:

And of course, a bit of added bling to bring the sparkle and magic of the day to life!

A little cluster of stamped images and sentiments and embellishments finished my page:

I adore the little Amy Tangerine camera stamp, and sincerely believe everyone should own it!!

The second page I'd like to share with you was based on my favourite snap of myself and my other half on Christmas Day morning before the chaos and madness descended.....

As the page was based on our "Christmas Portrait", I wanted to use lots of frames to emphasise this idea. Using the frame in the Amy Tangerine stamps, I stamped it onto kraft cardstock in three colours, before cutting them out and sticking them under my photo. I removed the centres from two of them using a craft knife and decorated the resulting "holes" with heart rhinestones, stamped stars and buttons. I left the centre stamped image in tact, but stamped the word "favourite" using a versamark stamp to give a subtle impression. It gives a lovely, tone-on-tone watermark effect.

I created the swags by trapping bakers twine underneath punched bows with some 3d foam pads. To make sure the twiddly twine then stayed flat in the billowing swag shapes rather than twisting up, I put a generous amount of ultra tacky glue on to a clean finger and rubbed it over the twine. It dried quickly and ensured my twine has stayed in shape where I wanted it:

As well as the frames, my photos were matted with patterned papers, mix tape and journalling stickers.

At the bottom of my page, I swiped a stripe of acrylic dabber paint thickly across the page, and whilst still wet dropped lots of ultra fine glitter into it, to create a thick sparkly strip - reminiscent of fresh snow or icing on top of a gingerbread house :)

Using an Ek Success border punch, I added a chain of hearts across this once it was dry, punched from the candy-cane striped rear of the pinwheel paper. This served as the base for my title/journalling chipboard shape, which I decorated with a chipboard button and some decorative pins.

So there's my 2011 Christmas Scrapping achieved without a themed piece of paper of embellishment in sight! We would really love to see your Christmas creations so please feel free to share your links in the comments section :)

Here's to 2012 - I wonder what it has in store for us all!
Thanks, as always, for stopping by :)

My Supplies included:

InLinkz.com