Good and (and not so good)...

news.

The good news is... I'm on the new 2008-2009 DT at Kaisercrafts! I am so excited to have been chosen to design for a great Aussie company! Kaisercrafts has such great products, with new lines released every month so it's going to be a fun filled year for me! I can't wait to get started.
Congratulations to all the other DT members too!

These are the projects I submitted:

Double LO:

I had fun with the robot paper. I just felt the cogs and robots should move so I adapted some interactive techniques to get one robot to rotate, and one to pop up. It's very cute (well I think so!)

And my mini album, with a little shaker box heart.

And the not so good news? I had root canal treatment at the dentist today-(as a result of my excruciating toothache a couple of weeks ago)-and I'm in pain all over again. Hopefully it will settle down and be gone tomorrow.

But Kaisercrafts lasts all year-yay!!

Napkin Technique

I love to use paper napkins on my scrapbook pages. You can buy so many lovely designs and they are so cheap, and great for swapping with others too!
So I thought I would show you my technique for scrapping with napkins.
I picked up a packet of these napkins in Matalan the other day-lovely subtle colours and very romantic, and I thought they would be perfect for a wedding photo:

There are three layers to a paper napkin, so the first thing you need to do is separate the layers. You only use the top, printed layer, and that way the napkin will be translucent and you will be able to see through it:

Prepare your background. I like to use music paper or book paper for my first layer because it looks so nice under the transluscent napkin. I also like to stamp, but if you do this make sure you use waterproof ink, or else it will run when you apply glue. You can also stamp with acrylic paint:

Next, tear or cut the napkin to the size you require. Lay the napkin piece onto the page, and lightly mark where the napkin will go:

To glue the napkin use a wet glue, which you apply to the receiving surface-not the napkin. You can use Mod Podge or PVA.

You need to quickly brush the glue onto the cardstock, then lay the napkin over the glued surface. Then add more glue to the top of the napkin. Be careful not to tear the delicate napkin. The napkin will look very wet and wrinkled-this is OK!:

I like to use a crackle effect paint around the edge of my page. I have used Tim Holtz crackle paint on this LO. You really need to add this paint VERY thickly for it to crack. To be honest I would prefer to use a 2 step sandwich style crackle effect medium to the Tim Holtz paint, but I have a couple of pots of this paint so I am going to use it! Leave everything to dry!

See how lovely the transluscent effect is when the glue dries:

I also used the same napkins to make flower embellishments. I LOVE these flowers-they look gorgeous in real life! You really need to work on a nonstick silicone sheet for this part! Take the top printed layer of a napkin. Add glue to the back of one side, and fold the other side over to glue the two halves together. Allow to dry:

When dry, roughly cut out circles. I used pinking shears. Paint the circles in Mod Podge, front and back. I used gloss Mod Podge. While still wet pinch the circles into 3D flower shapes. Allow to dry:

Layer up small circles on top of larger ones. Glue together and add buttons or brads for centres. Then start to assemble your layout. Add the photo, then other embellishments-lace, ribbon, flowers:

Finally add your title, and other embellishments. I used butterflies stamped onto acetate with Stazon ink, and a chandelier die cut with a bit of bling added. I also added some stickles to the flowers and the title:

Details:

I hope you will give this technique .a go-I'd love to see what you come up with.

And for more inspiration visit Kate Mason's blog. Kate has some fabulous work using napkins.

And there are some more napkin layouts in my Picasa gallery-the link is on the right.

I have been busy..

.... honestly, but can't show my projects just now. One is a commission for The Scrapbook Magazine-but I can tell you it uses the gorgeous Mumma Bushka papers from Kaisercrafts. The other is an Angel Crafts class for UKS-which also uses Kaiercrafts papers-but you have to wait and see which range! The class be be up in May.

I am not a stamper, but I have joined in a 'Take One Stamp' CJ with the ladies from our local crop. The stamp set that I have this month is beautiful. It's from Inkadinkado. I messed around yesterday, following lots of suggestions from the ladies on Scrapbook Sisters forum-cause I have to confess I placed a plea for help on the forum! Anyway, they came up trumps and I was very pleased with how my stamping turned out. I won't show the main image, but here's a sample using another image from the set. The stamps reminded me of a Klimpt painting so I wanted to make something in that style.

This is not the piece that I will be including in the CJ-but you get the general idea. It's very pretty IRL!

I'm back home from Prague-and what a wonderful 4 days we had too. I will be adding some of the 600 odd photos we took between us to my photography blog over the next few days, so if you are interested head on over for a look. The link is on the right side bar.
I haven't done any scrapping but the new prompt is up at THE CREATIVE TYPE so please pop over and play along.
We now have a variety of ways of following the blog. As well as adding it to your favourites, you can now become a follower by adding yourself to the link on the right hand side bar, and/or you can follow on twitter-there is a link there too!
I love being part of the DT -it challenges me in lots of ways, firstly to think about what I write, and then the best typeface/s to support my journalling. Secondly I take the opportunity to scrap using different mediums and techniques- to be a bit more experimental. This week's LO is like that. I used paints, inks and glimmermists. I painted, stamped, stencilled, printed and masked! Unfortunately on the computer the jounalling looks too small-I should have used a bigger photo, and then i could have used a larger size typeface. However, IRL it is very readable!
The patterned paper is japanese origami paper I bought at a recycling shop.

Italy

Last summer we spend a fantastic week at Lake Maggiore in Northern Italy. I LOVE Italy-the historic sights, the scenery, the climate, the food, the shopping, the people. Everything! In fact Emily and I are going to Rome in October. It is so sad to watch the scenes of devastation from the recent earthquake on the news. Watching the memorial service for the dead was truly heartbreaking. It makes me appreciate even more the fortunate life that I lead.
Here is a double layout that shows some of the beautiful sights around Lake Maggiore.
Click for a close up.


The papers are Kaisercrafts. When I ordered these papers online I had a completely different set of photos in mind, but when they arrived the colour was different from what I thought they would be-one of the shortcomings of not having a LSS. Anyway I thought these colours went well with my photos from Italy-the red suited the colour of the buildings in the photos-and of course red, white and green are the colours on the Italian flag! Perfect!
I am off to Prague tomorrow for a few days-see what I mean about leading a fortunate life?

New layout

Just a quick post today to show a new LO done for Angel Crafts.
The papers are Fancy Pants, and I love the colours. There is a kind of retro feel to the colours, don't you think, and the flourish is such a perfect shape. It did take a bit of colour mixing to get the right colour to paint the flourish though. Angel Crafts has the greatest selection of chipboard/mdf embellishments-from monsters, to flourishes, to cogs and bicycles-you owe it to yourself to take a peek!!



Yesterday I was in Perth and bought some new glimmer mists so I'm hoping to have a play with those today, and to do an art journal page. I also have a commission layout to do for The Scrapbook Magazine, so need to give that some thought too-although I won't be doing that one until I return home from Prague next week.

Do you love Colour?

Do you love vintage? If so you need to head on over to Gauche Alchemy.

They have the yummiest colourful kits full of unusual bits and pieces and vintage findings.

Here is a peek at just one of offerings. There is also pink, purple, red blue and my favourite-the yellow kit!

They also create kits full of quirky bits that will really stretch your creativity.

And if that's not enough, take a look at what the DT have done with some of these quirky kits!

Acrylic Album

I made this little acrylic tag album from a Woodware tag album from Scrapbook Sisters. The papers are Prima.
This album is a mixture of chipboard and acrylic, so I used some of the chipboard for the front and back cover, and the acrylic for the inner pages.
I'm going to try to explain the process of assembling this album for the benefit of my sister Judy. So Judy this is for you.
The beauty of acrylic albums is the transparent pages, so when designing an album you want to try to keep parts of the pages see through, giving little glimpses of what is coming.
You can see on my first page how you can see through and get a hint of what is on the other pages. (You can click on the images for a closer view-and of course this has been photographed on a white background so you won't get the full transparent effect.)

On this album I first inked all the edges with Stazon ink, to provide a bit of definition.

The easiest way to design an album is to start at the back page. Use double sided patterned paper on the front side, and that way you have also got the reverse covered. I use herma adhesive to adhere the paper. Keep the adhesive to the middle of the paper so it will be covered by the photos. On your back page you can cover more of the page with paper and embellishments. Choose embellishments that are symmetrical shapes, like flowers or circles, because whatever you place on one side will need to be covered by an identical shape on the reverse. Or you can use rubons that will show through on both sides (but not alphabet or word rubons, otherwise they will appear back to front on the reverse side of the page!)


When your last page is complete, place your second last page on top, and arrange patterned papers and embellishemts, ensuring they take up slightly less of the page, giving a view of the underneath page.
Continue as above for the remainder of the pages.


At this stage you will have completed only one side of the pages. Now you will need to flip the pages over and work on the reverse side.
What ever you put on the front will need to be covered on the reverse.
The reverse side will be a mirror image of the front side, as you can see in the pictures below.


Well that's my process for an acrylic album. I hope you found it useful.

The CreaTive Type

Aren't these the cutest little journalling spots?



Well they could be all yours!
All you have to do is participate in the latest challenge @ The Creative Type
and you never know you might just win them!!

Here is my LO for the latest prompt: