Debi Ryan : Pocket Letter Fun

Debi here, I've been missing in action all month, I've had to move my studio space from one place to another; and I had to wait for some work to be done, before I could move, its's been a long month. Still a work in progress, I have a lot of untouched stash goodies- which I forgot I even had, I'm sure you can relate ;)

Today I'm sharing with you a Kaisercraft  Mermaid Tails Pocket Letter, Pocket letters are such fun to create, and are made for sharing. They are currently the latest thing, check it out here: if you want to know all about them.

Basically they are 9 ATC cards, they can match or not, in the back of the pockets goes a letter and crafting goodies for your pen pal.
There are quite a few international and New Zealand groups around- you can find them in blogging land or on Facebook.

I hope you are all getting in some crafty time, have a great weekend everyone, Debi x

Diane - Kaisercraft Boho Dreams

Hi all. Hope the school holidays are treating you well, the kids aren't driving you nuts and the weather isn't too cold for you. When I first saw this paper I fell in love with it as did my soon to be a teen daughter so it seemed only fitting that I do a page for her. The Boho Dreams by Kaisercraft is a wonderful array of colours that just seem to work but I would never of thought to put together.

I cut the centre of the dream catcher out to use as a fame for the photo and added Finnabair Micro Beads 'Splash' along with feathers to help bling it up a bit.

 To give the layout some depth I raised some of the die cuts and not others. I coloured some white string with a paste made from Gelato 'Guava' to try match it to the colour of the paper.

 My next layout is a little different but I am more that pleased with the outcome. I had recently purchased Lindy Stamp Gangs 'Buccaneer Bay Blue' and wanted to try it out. Along with 3 other sprays, 'Clam Bake Beige', 'Whale Watch Blue' and a little 'Delphinium Turquoise' the effect was stunning if I do say so myself.

I have a huge stash of Washi Tape but never know quiet the right place to use them so thought I should give one of them a go with this layout. It seems to work but I will let you decide.

 

My last layout was a little more conservative. I love the mix of apricot with the rich blue. As I said before I would never have mixed these colours but they seem to work.

 

As always I hope you find some inspiration from my layouts. If I have any advice to anyone, don't be afraid to give it a go. If it doesn't work it can almost always be covered up or turned into something spectacular. Keep scrapping. Diane

Lisa - mixed media canvas

Good morning! Today I have a mixed media project to share: a canvas I made recently using some of the fabulous products that are available in the shop. This post is a little text-heavy, because I'll explain what I did, in case anyone else wants to have a try at this fun project. :)

I started off with a simple 6x6 canvas, and I turned it over to the reverse side in order to utilise the little recess at the back.
I covered the edges with strips of wet wipes that had dried after being used in my studio to wipe up spills, blot inks, clean stencils etc. They were stained with various colours, but as they were going to eventually be covered over, it didn't matter. To adhere them to the frame, I used soft gloss gel, which acts as both a glue medium and a sealant. They added a lovely soft texture to the background.

Once the gel was dry, I used 3D gloss gel to stencil the frame surround. The 3D gloss gel is nice and thick and holds the shape of the stencil pattern as it dries.

Once that layer was dry, I painted the entire frame with a layer of black gesso. This has a great chalky texture when it's dry.

Next, I added colour to the frame in the form of metallic acrylic paint (applied with a fingertip), touches of mica spray (I unscrew the bottle and apply using the thin plastic tube inside for more control over where the colour goes), chalks, and a selection of pigment powders, until I was happy with the effect. I had no set plan, but just played and experimented until it looked "right." The base of black gesso works brilliantly to highlight the colours on top, and the texture of the stencil adds some amazing dimension.

I added selection of cogs to the frame, first painting them with the black gesso and then colouring them with metallic acrylic paint, and adding a few touches of black ink (blended with a fingertip) to give them an aged look. I adhered them with Helmar 450 glue, which I find is brilliant for fixing in place embellishments with a bit of heft to them.

In the centre recess, I added a piece of scrunched muslin, carefully attached at the edges to the frame with more of the Helmar glue. The vintage girl figure was found on the internet- originally she was standing by a piano, but I trimmed her out from the rest of the photo and added her wings-- made of chipboard and from an ancient Tim Holtz range of goodies which I have had in my stash forever. I knew they'd come in useful one day! :) The wings were coloured with the same metallic acrylic paint, and aged with black ink once again.

I wrapped thin gold wire (a gift from a lovely florist in town) around the frame on a rough diagonal in two directions, in order to form a delicate base for the winged girl to rest against. This part took a little bit of doing, because there wasn't much of anything for her to be adhered to, but luckily I was able to fix her feet in place, and then gather a little bit of the muslin behind her and glue it in the centre of her back. I love the impression that she's just barely floating there-- exactly what I was hoping to achieve. :)

Lastly, I added some bling gems around the frame, as well as a couple of teeny-tiny vintage numbers on each side. (Tim Holtz again, from an older range. I'm not sure if it's still available.)

And that's it! This was purely an experiment when I started-- I had an idea in my head of what I wanted to make, and to my delight, it turned out pretty much how I'd visualised it. I love it when that happens, don't you? I hope you enjoyed my long, wordy explanation, and that maybe I've inspired you to make a mixed-media piece of your own. There are plenty of great supplies both instore and online here. Have fun!

Cheers,
Lisa :)

Cards with Mademoiselle - Megan

Hello Again :)

Today Ive got three cards to show you using the Mademoiselle Collection - I loved the colours and theme behind this collection, beautiful.
I went with tried and true for these cards, nothing fussy, no mixed media, just let the paper and embellishments speak for themselves :)

First up I took a piece of 12x12 gold embossed paper and cut it to 6x6, distressing and inking along the edges. You can't tell in the photo but Ive curled the top corner over and used that as the basis of my cluster.

The quote is popped on chipboard and then the other embellishments are layered around that - sometimes you might only have one of something but chopping it half and tucking in between layers will stretch supplies further - I did that with my cog and flowers :)

I always decorate the insides of my cards as well, particularly if they're embellishment heavy on the front, the inside then stops it from being top heavy and falling over ;)

This next card I kept pretty simple, mainly because I loved these two pieces of paper :)

The cluster was created with some flat flowers and a couple of pieces from the collections pack.  The chipboard mannequin is from my stash, painted with gesso and then stamped with pinecone ink.  Ive also use pinecone for some subtle stamping in the background of the cluster.  A simple card, but really effective!

The inspiration for my third card came from the Kaisercraft blog challenge for this month, which was a sketch challenge.

Ive pretty much stuck to the sketch and just layered up different pieces from the collections pack and the cut aparts -  the 12x12 sheets with 3x4 cards on them.

Theres a few card ideas for you to end the week :)  Enjoy the weekend of craftiness ahead!
See you next time!

Lisa - Always and Forever

Hi again. :) Today I'm sharing a couple of layouts made using the Always & Forever range by Kaisercraft, which is available instore and online now.

The first layout has a piece of kraft cardstock as a base, upon which I have stencilled a design using a combination of Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays (which I admit I have quite an addiction to!) I fussy-cut around the photo, placing it in the centre, and surrounding it with a selection of Collectables, as well as a few of the gorgeous roses I hand-cut from the Eternal sheet of paper.

A patterned strip cut from the selvedge edge of one of the 12x12 sheets is placed underneath the cluster of embellishments, and I added a strip of copper washi tape along with a metallic doily shape and a veneer word, "family." The word quote Collectable on the right was added last, to finish everything off.

A couple of closer detail shots are below:

My second layout also features stencilling in the background, but this time it's done using 3D gloss gel which was left over on the stencil from another project. Instead of wiping it off and wasting it, I placed the stencil on the paper to transfer the leftover gel, and then once it was dry, sprayed over it with a Lindy's Stamp Gang spray for a subtle resist effect.

I hand-tore a strip from the Commitment paper to use for the border on the left, and then added my photo to the right, layering some more of the Commitment paper underneath, along with a piece of muslin to add a little texture and dimension.

I added some Collectables, and touches of bling here and there, as well as a spatter of white Tim Holtz ink to finish things off. At first glance, Always & Forever looks to be quite a feminine range, so I wanted to challenge myself to make a more masculine-themed layout using it, and I think I was successful. :)

You can find the range online here, as well as instore now.

See you again soon!

Cheers,
 Lisa

Michelle - Always and Forever Mini Album

The description of this Always and Forever Kaisercraft range starts off as the collection for the "True Romantic at Heart" .... so apt! And I loved working with it's rustic colours and warm tones - and here below is a few photos from the mini album I created using this beautiful range:

The album has been started from scratch with chipboard for the cover and is about 6" in length and 4,5" across. Covering the chipboard for the base of the album, is the Commitment paper and the spine is the Promise paper - which has been punched along the edges, finishing off the cover with stickers from the Always and Forever range, and flowers from my own stash.

Inside the mini album are 5 pages and a waterfall on the inside cover (middle picture on the bottom of the collage photo below). I have used a ribbon inserted under the cover pages to tie the album.

Each page has been created as a pocket with a tag inserted into each pocket - which has a circle pull tag to pull these out. Each page has been created to have tabs that either lift or open to reveal extra pieces to adhere photos, and other pages have pull out tags for photos. Papers used for these pages were Endless Love (includes cutting out and using some of the quotes on this paper), Commitment, Romance , Eternal (and such a versatile page to use both sides, including fussy cutting the flowers)  and the For Keeps paper (the doilies on this paper are great to fussy cut).

I also used the Devotion paper to create the little envelope and using both sides of the Eternal paper to cover the flaps. I have also used some of the Collectables from this range for embellishing the album. All the pages and the edges of the papers have been inked in a soft brown ink around the edges. Chipboard embellishments and the wood embellishments have been inked to match the paper colours.

I really loved putting this mini album together - and hope you have enjoyed looking the pages.

--Michelle--

Diane - Kaisercraft Mermaid Tails

Half way through the school holidays now ladies. Hope you are surviving and managing to find some time to scrapbook. I had such fun creating these 3 layouts using Kaisecraft's Mermaid Tails collection. For the first layout I tried to recreate the swirl of the pool in the photo using Gelatos and primer. I also used the Gelatos to create the bubbles.

 I used Micro Beads to highlight some of the coral in the paper and to give it some bling.

My second layout took a bit longer than I planned. My mojo ran out half way through but after trying quiet a few different things, in the end it turned out to be one of my favourite layouts. I used a base of primer which I mixed with plain white cotton. When the layers of sprays from Lindy's Stamp Gang they seem to soak up the spray colour and gave it an amazing effect.   

The page started with half another page glued to the bottom half. You couldn't tell it was different and it left a line in the middle. I used the embellishments to cover up this line. In the photo you can tell the difference in the page.

 My last page I coloured the back of the 6x6 pages of the collection with Magical's and then made windmills. I edged each windmill with black so it would stand out.

Like I said I had so much fun making these layouts. I hope you like them. If you have any questions please ask, I am happy to try answer the if I can. Happy scrapping and hang in there only one more week of school holidays left. Diane

Mixing Bon Appetit and Mademoiselle - Megan

Hi Everyone :)

Bet you're wondering about mixing those two collections together lol ;)  Shouldn't tease but when I received a piece of Bon Appetit in my Mademoiselle kit I was stubborn enough to think Im going to make that work!

The background was creating by adhering BoBunny Soiree Decoupage paper to cardstock.  Theres two sheets in a pack but this one matched where my brain was heading :)  I adhered it straight on using a multi matt medium, with a few wrinkles ;) but you weren't going to see them and they just add texture to the background!
The edges were inked with pinecone ink and bit of random stamping using black archival ink.

Ive cut a doily in half and adhered that to half of my plate piece of paper from Bon Appetit.  I painted both of these with the new Tim Holtz Collage Distress Medium - this stuff is the bomb!!  My plate and doily were both white and too stark so this gave me a much more subtle blended look with the rest of the page.

I used the large floral sticker from the collection down the middle of my layout and popped this up with chipboard underneath.  Before sticking it down, I marked where it would go and randomly stamped with black archival ink again, and then splattered gesso over that.

My photo is tucked into the side of the layout and a cluster attached to the side.  And thats pretty much it :)

Thanks for popping by :)

Lisa - Boho Dreams

Hello! Lisa here, and today I have a couple of creations made using Kaisercraft's Boho Dreams Collection to share with you. This is probably my favourite range from the past few months-- kind of hippy, kind of funky-- I love it. :)

First up is a layout using an older picture of my daughter which I thought fitted perfectly with the feel of the papers: she was dressed in faded blue denim, with a woven 70s-style headband and long, loose hair.

I used a sheet of plain white cardstock as my base, and then added some of the Wild paper. I made use of both sides-- the floral pattern and the polka dots on the reverse as well, adding my photo to the centre to cover up the join. The phrase on the right is from the sticker sheet (I cut it up to fill the space better), and the clusters of feathers are fussy-cut from the Feathers sheet of paper. Some washi tape, a banner tag from the Collectables, and some touches of metal in the form of filagree trinkets from the Artfull Embellies finish the page off.

A closer look is below:

My second project using this range was a canvas. It's a different shape to what I usually work with: long and narrow, and I wanted it to be simple and striking. I started off by using 3D Gloss Gel to stencil a background design (using a Tim Holtz stencil.) The blue colour was a happy mistake-- the stencil had some traces of blue mica spray still on it from a previous use, and it transferred to the clear gloss gel and dried that lovely aquatic shade. I bet I couldn't recreate it again even if I tried!

Once the background had dried, I then added a selection of Collectables, rearranging them until I was happy with the composition before finally gluing them into place.

I added three little wooden beads to the edge of the "shine" collectable, and a variety of sizes of bling gems scattered over the rest of the canvas.

 

And that's it-- done! I really like how it turned out, and the long, narrow shape was fun to work with for a change. 

You can find the Boho Dreams Collection online here, and also instore now. As always, thanks for looking, and I will see you again soon. 

Cheers,

 Lisa :)

Diane - Kaisercraft Always and Forever

Hi everyone. It has been awhile since I blogged. I have been creating lots but have been procrastinating about posting them. No more excuses. I made a page layout and a mini album in the form of a double tri-shutter card using this beautiful collection from Kaisercraft, Always and Forever.

I double backed the card to give it extra strength. I had a lot of small photos of my parents wedding and thought this would be a great way to keep them safer. I should have measured the photos prior to making the card as I found after it was made that it was a little to small for the photos. However I made it work and the paper just made this layout as it suited it so well.

 

 

I would like to make more of these double tri-shutter cards as mini albums and them make a box for them to all sit in. Project for another day I think.

I had some extra paper from this range left over so I decided to do a layout as well. I mixed some Lindy's Stamp Gang Magical 'Orange Creamsicle' with some texture paste to spread diamond shape on the page. Some didn't quiet work so I did a few random marks of the textured paste to cover them up.

 I used the same magical to colour the varnish paper and fussy cut out the doilies.

 

 

My favourite is the flowers in the bottom and top corners. I also like the little diamantes I randomly placed around the flowers. I hope you like these 2 small projects and they give you some inspiration for your own creations. Keep safe and warm, till next time, Diane.