Lucky Charm

Hi, Vanessa here with my post for this month.  I've used the Lucky Charm papers from American Crafts to make a few little projects.

Firstly, I've used the 4 x 8 page protectors to start an album for last years holiday.  This is a bit different from me, A4 is my usual scrapping size, but I need a bit of a change without going back to 12 x 12.  I've incorporated a bit of embossing and found a way to use some washi tape (go me!) which I just get a total mind-block with.

My second little project is CD envelopes.  But, with a difference.  I always have receipts lying around everywhere making a mess of the place and I need to keep them until I've done my "housekeeping" budget calculations.  I also put vouchers in different places with the intention of using them when I next go to the supermarket etc.  But, have a terrible habit of forgetting where they are and miss the deadline date.

I now have handy little envelopes that I can keep them in once place, nice and tidy!  Now I just need to train my brain in remembering that I've got them!

Finally, a scrapbook page with some paper rippling (have you still got your rippler from the Sarah's Cards retreat a few years ago?) and a couple of cards.

 

Thanks for looking.

Vanessa xx

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:

More Charming....

It's Natalie again with my second page using the new gorgeous This & that "Charming" line from Echo Park.

I love the versatility of papers made of various patterned strips like the Border Strips sheet in this range - you could easily create a page with one of these and a sheet of cardstock or background paper alone. I used several strips cut from this sheet to add patterns under my photo.

I combined these with the worn-dotted border stamp from the My Minds Eye's Dilly Dally Adventure stamps - using versamark and copper embossing powder to suit my page. Heat embossing directly on my photo did make it crack a little, so I added a strip of the October Afternoon Farmhouse twine across the area to cover most of it up.

Again, the letters on the12x12 alpha sheet were great for my title, which I added straight on to my photo. The "Remember" wooden tab you can see to the left is also from the same sheet.

Hexagons and octagons are everywhere at the moment, so I hand cut a few for my page from scraps of the papers in clusters to my page. I added a stamped banner across one cluster, and heat embossed a heart directly on to the other.

My final embellishment cluster was made simply by popping some MME Miss Caroline "love" buttons and pins together. I love the contrast of the wooden button with the crystal-effect one.

 

The heart pin was actually a bright fuchsia pink, but I easily customised the colour to suit my page in three easy steps:
(please excuse the quality of these mobile phone pictures)
First I pressed the pin into a versamark pad to give it a good coating of adhesive:

 

Then I dipped it into the copper embossing powder:

 And finally after a quick blast with a heat gun, my pink heart had a copper finish:

Thank you as always for popping by the blog. There have been lots of new CHA arrivals in the shop this week, including Jilly Bean, SEI, Lilly Bee Designs and Simple Stories - so why not make that your next destination?!  ;)

My supplies included:

InLinkz.com

Adding some Zing! to Dear Lizzy...

The new 'Neopolitan' Dear Lizzy line by American Crafts is very 'me' and was really pleased to get my hands on some when it arrived in the shop.  I love the summery feel to the papers and the interesting graphics used in their designs: the polaroid pictures and jam jars are particular favourites of mine.

I find that when I really like the products that I'm  using, the layouts come easily.  This happened last year with My Mind's Eye 'Stella and Rose' line: I couldn't stop creating with the papers and am still hoarding tiny scraps of them.

I love paper designs with bits that I can cut out to make my own embellishments and the sheets that I chose from the new Neopolitan line were mainly ones that could be used in this way.

The jar stamp set also caught my imagination and I knew that I wanted to include the images in my layouts somehow.

My pages:
(click on the pictures to view larger versions of the images.  Then right click and select 'view image' which should then allow you to zoom in)

'You'

To create the background here, I made some splatters with a few different coloured mists to match one of the parts of the papers that I had used to mat the photo.  I then stamped the star and heart using versamark and then covering with some co-ordinating embossing powders to add some gloss and texture:

I also machined-stitched some zigzags to match the chevron paper and to draw the eye around the page.

'At the Beach'

The background effect on the cardstock here was created by spraying a mix of mists to create a sand/beach type look.  I stamped the stars and embossed again in matching colours:

I cut out some of the polaroid images from one of the papers, choosing ones with colours and designs to match the beach theme of the page.  One was embellished with a sticker whilst the other two acted as a base for the typed journaling strips:

'I Love You Three...'

I absolutely love the jar stamp and have lots of ideas for how to use it.  For this layout, I stamped and embossed in cream.  I then filled the space in the jar with mod podge before dropping on some punched hearts.  I repeated this to add another layer and some more depth:

 

The sticker sheet has a great selection of word stickers, perfect for adding to titles.  I cut out the word 'three' twice using a couple of the different papers.  I arranged them so to give a shadow effect before painting the top pink word with mod podge and sprinkling with a light layer of pink and white glitter:

So from only four sheets of the Dear Lizzy papers and a couple of sticker sheets, I've created 3 pages and still have plenty left to make lots more.  I also wanted to demonstrate that whilst these papers are particularly girly they can still be used on boy pages too.

We'd love to see what you create with the range, and indeed any of the items that you purchase from the shop.  If you're on Facebook, feel free to share your creations on our page.  They may even be chosen to feature on the blog here too.

Click on the links below to go straight to the products in the shop.  

NB. Restocks of the Dear Lizzy products are due in to the shop very soon.