Trends on Tuesday - Pocket Pages

I have dabbled with the idea of project life and pocket pages for a little while, but not really having the commitment to log things every day....so at first I thought, well maybe just do monthly pages and have finally landed on a combination that I really enjoy.  Mel touched on this in an earlier post and spurred me on to give this way of scrapping a try.  I love making single pages about particular things, but then I often have lots of photos from an occasion that then don't really see the light of day.  Creating a page with both a single traditional page, teamed up with a pocket page means I get to use both the individual photo I love and then all the other memories from the event.

For my pages I used Graphic 45s French Country collection - having the pocket pages meant I could just use a photo of food for the main page, layering up and fussy cutting the papers.  I then loaded my pockets with most of the other photos from the event - these photos don't have to all be perfect but they capture what was going on and then you have loads of space for all that journalling too.  

Trends on Tuesday - A little Gold

A little bit of gold has been a growing trend with golden alphabets and sequins.  My first page uses Prima's Divine papers and I added a little bit of gold by stamping some golden dots onto vellum, and then using some Golden Fish cosmic shimmer for the dots of ink

My next page uses Crate Papers DIY shop and some of the gorgeous glittery golden ephemera with is the large flower, there are also some beautiful gold striped tags in this collection.

 I made a little vellum pocket of sequins using my sewing machine, and also some more golden drips of Golden Fish cosmic shimmer mist.

Hopefully that has given you some golden ideas 

• stamping with gold ink.
• using some golden mists.
• adding some golden sequins
• using some glittering gold

Trends on Tuesday - 3 ways to include a little stamping on a page

I am guilty of having a lovely selection of stamps at home and not always digging into them when I create a page, so I am challenging myself to get them out and use them!

I used some of the beautiful Et Cetera papers from BoBunny for this page - you can find them here. I chose one of the patterned papers for my background and it already has lots of ink and images that are stamped on, but I still added a few more!

• Using a grid background stamp - I used a clear acrylic stamp, not mounted on a block, and you curve it as you apply the ink to  the page so you don't get sharp edges.  I used some tea dye distress ink so it would look like part of the page as well, but the rolling makes it look like that image was always there.
• To complement the post marks I had a little round postmark stamp that says 'Remember This', so with black archival ink (as I was going to stamp partially on the photo) I stamped in the bottom corner of my photo - partly on the photo and partly on my papers.
• Word stamps - there are so many beautiful word stamps which you can see here but also check out the clear sets too for extra words here, pennants are a really good way to add words onto your own page, I used my words for the bunting on my kite.

You can see some of the grid stamp as well as the word pennants here

Trends on Tuesday - chalk inks and gesso

This months gallery is packed with some gorgeous Fancy Pants papers (this page uses Park Bench which you can find here) and I wanted to talk about a new technique that I discovered with a lovely little tutorial by Miranda Edney here talking about how to use chalk inks in a slightly different way.  

I started with my grey patterned paper and then using a palette knife added a thin layer of white gesso (I had already cut out all the other bits and knew roughly where I wanted them), when the gesso dries using a sponge and chalk inks, or you can use the chalk ink direct to paper, but I found this hard to control start rubbing the ink over the gesso.  It gives a really nice misty coloured effect - I used blue, yellow and grey inks.  Once I had my colours I then lightly stamped over the top using a clear acrylic grid stamp and then layered up all my papers.  It's a really pretty way to add some more colour to your page and less messy than spritzing and a little more controllable as you can build up the colour.  

The oversized chevron

I love Studio Calico's little wood veneer chevrons, but you can also make them on a much larger scale to draw attention to the photo.  I choose some Studio Calico papers which have a lovely ombreish/rainbow pattern to them.  I cut a strip about 4 inches wide, and then on the back I marked the centre, and then marked down 2" on each side, joined the lines together which made the point on my chevron, I then made some 1" deep and some 1/2" deep - inspired by those wood veneers and their different sizes.  I like the way that they draw your eye into the photo...though I think my husband is right - I should have used the colour photo for this one as that would have made it pop from the page  allittle more. 

I also used a pile of embellishments from the Maggie Holmes ephemera pack - there are loads of gorgeous goodies in there including the tickets, tags, bows and several cameras.

Just one colour

I hadn't tried just one colour in lots of shades on a page in ages, but I had noticed that they had a single colour challenge over on the crate paper blog (there is loads of inspiration and lots of different single colour pages scroll down and it is all on this page).  

I went with yellow as this was one of the first sunny (yet cold as you can see from the picture) days this spring.  I started using lots of mists for the background and experimented with crumpling up paper and then adding some stamping too.  The papers are mostly from the new Maggie Holmes range which you can find here, though there is some Farmhouse chipboard and stickers in there too and a DIY shop ruler!  I went from yellow to hints of gold with the sequins and polka dots on the tag which is from the DIY workshop ephemera pack (the ephemera packs are packed full of gorgeous embellishments).

Using a single colour theme works really well with mixing up using different manufacturer papers too - there is sill a rule I learnt from Shimelle that I apply when I do this.  When you look at the base colour to the patterned papers decide whether it is cream or white, so you can use all your cream bases together and all your white bases together.  So in my page I would say the base of the papers I have chosen is more white so I stuck to white cardstock and white based papers.

I hope you are enjoying the sunshine!

Trends on Tuesday - The Polaroid

With the love of all things retro polaroids are a really popular shape (though I don't like to think of them as too retro, 'cos I remember the coolness of the original polaroid camera!!).  They are a really easy shape to cut out and make yourself with a craft knife and guillotine.  Once I had made one of my polaroids I then used it as a template for the other 2 using a pencil to draw through the shape for the central square.

For  this page I hung my polaroids on a washing line, and then added lots of different details around the pictures - if you are wondering about the snowflakes that is the theme for Blizzard Bleach in Florida so you get to climb over icebergs and go down toboggan water runs!  

Alongside making your own polaroid shapes there are some other lovely polaroid shaped goodies in store too

Also Ann taught a lovely polaroid style class on the retreat too - here is my take on her class...

and you can check out her post here

Trends on Tuesday - The Grid

A popular page layout for including lots of photos is the grid which I used for this page.  I had loads of photos from the Para Olympics last year and wanted to mix a whole load on one page rather than just using a few pictures on each page, so the grid works really well for this.

I roughly divided my page in 6, though all my elements are kept fairly central on the page.  I used lots of my offcuts of the Glitz Cashmere Dame papers (which are here).  When I built each square (or rectangle really) I tried to add little details, such as the top right one has a butterfly, some ribbon and a washi covered wood veneer, I did this for each square trying to add elements that would draw your attention and just working on each section one at a time.  I also had a go at an ombre effect on one of the mistable thicker feathers (there are other shapes from this range here) using 2 different shades of mist.

So if you have lots of photos on one topic than see if the grid method works for you too - you could even spread it out over a couple of pages if you have lots of photos.

Trends on Tuesday - Cutting out your photos

Hello everyone, this week I thought I would have a go at something I have never tried before which is to cut out images from photos.  There are a few scrappers out there like Brit Svigum and Gerry Van Gent who have mastered this technique and use it frequently on their pages. 

 I have to confess to being slightly nervous about cutting up my photos, and how well I would cut them (as I used my ordinary pointy scissors and not anything posh like decoupage scissors) but was pleasantly surprised.  I've used some lovely Glitz Yours Truly papers and created a background for my photos that was a mix of vellum, paint, lace and layers of other papers, then added my photo over the top with foam pads so that it sat over the lace. Often cut out photo scrappers create a whole scene with their papers so that their photo is walking out of the scene which works really nicely too.  

These photos also show you how far behind I am with my scrapping...I came across them the other day and was shocked that I hadn't scrapped any of my olympic shots yet....so be prepared for some more!

Trends on Tuesday - Roller Stamps

One of the new products from CHA that caught my eye was Glitz's roller doodle stamps - I know roller stamps have been around for ages, but somehow I missed having a go with them!  The stamps come in 2 sizes a large and tiny, I decided to have a go with the tiny camera roller and the larger chevron roller.  

For my page I tried to use them in a few different ways - a quick roll down the edge of a strip of paper with the camera  one, but I also used it to make my own camera embellishment using it to make a camera backing paper for the wood veneer. 

 I covered my chevron roller with yellow ink to make an arrow feature and then also used it across the top of the page with black ink....which is where I noticed it makes a really nice fade effect, a bit ombreish, so I had a go with this on a card.

I used red, orange and yellow ink to make this faded background for my card.  I inked the roller and then did one stripe which comes out the darkest and just keep rolling without re-inking the stamp, then switch to a lighter colour and do the same so you get a nice fade.

They are really easy to use, I did ink them with both large and small ink pads....but obviously the larger ink pads are a lot easier to ink them with!  Also I love the designs so I can see myself adding more to my collection!

Trends on Tuesday - An inky messy tutorial!

I know not all of you like to get messy....but I thought I would show you how I made my green inky background a couple of weeks ago - so bit more of a technique on Tuesday than a trend!

You need a water spray, some spray inks - I have Cosmic Shimmers Golden Mint, Peacock Green, Aqua Lagoon and a heat gun, though you can let it dry naturally but this will give it a slightly different effect - try it out!  I used an old pizza box to protect my surfaces and try and limit the splatter.

Start with a good spritzing of water across the page - don't completely soak the paper (or it gives you a different more watery effect - I like to have a few dryer areas so the splatter from the spray stays as it would do normally).  I think you can just about see the puddles and drier areas of the cardstock in the photo.

 When you have worked out where you want the inkiness to be (mine is mainly at the top of the page) then give a couple of spritzes of one of the lighter colours this is the mint green the water just helps the colour to run a bit more.

Then add some spritzes of the darker colours  - my paper had dried a little so

Add a few more spritzes of water over the top and you can see the colours starting to run into each other.

With the heat gun start to dry the page - you can push the ink around and make drips and darker areas, also with the cosmic shimmers you get a really nice mica sheen when it is dry.

As you can see my page is fairly warped so it is now under a pile of books, once the page is in your album it will flatten out anyway.  If you want to try it on a smaller scale for cards then watercolour paper would help it not to crinkle so much.

I hope you enjoyed that.

Katherine

It has to be Feathers

I finally found my pack of Studio Calico feathers which I bought at the ATDML retreat to use for one of my posts (yes I think I need to spring clean my space!).  I was inspired to have a go at one of the techniques in this months Scrap365 magazine embossing over a canvas shape in clear powder and then inking over the top.  So I used a grid stamp and clear embossing powder on my fabric feathers and inked over the top in a grey chalk ink, once it was dry I rubbed over the top with a baby wipe very lightly just to show a little more of the pattern.  Continuing on my feather theme I also made my own larger template based on the Studio Calico feather and cut it out of some of the October Afternoon 9-5 paper to tuck behind the photo.  Feathers have been around for quite a while now but they are still appearing on paper, you can add real feathers, chipboard feathers and there are lots of fantastic tutorials out there for making paper feathers too (here is one).

A bit more Scrap365 inspiration was a tutorial on distressing - I normally just distress using scissors or a sanding block and bending paper.  However in the tutorial Rachel Elliot looked at moistening the paper and really crinkling it up....which I have to say I loved doing and really like the effect.  The inky effect for the background is based on a technique my friend Kim Price uses on lots of her pages, but I had a play around with it and didn't use a paintbrush as in her tutorial (which is here)....but I'll have to save that for a step by step (the page is quite crinkled but it is in my album now and will flatten out there!)

The papers are all by October Afternoon from their 9 to 5 collection which you can find here

Papers designed to be cut....

With Mel's new goodies for Christmas....I realised I had some of the lovely Portfolio range too which I then needed to dig out and have a play with.  The colours are fairly neutral, mainly blue yellow and grey and it is one of the increasing range of papers that are made so you can include them in project life style projects where your pages are made of lots of divided pockets (here is the co-ordinating Pink Paislee book designed for this purpose).  Echo Park has some lovely kits where you get the papers and page protectors together in their Photo Freedom range, as well as Simple Stories whose papers are designed with this in mind and you can get their co-ordinating folders too.  I've noticed that lots of the new CHA goodies are also designed this way so it looks like it is going to be a big thing this year!

So I could have used it to make a Project Life style page (but it is too early in the year for me to have my January photos already printed), instead I wanted to have a go at using all the journal spots and cut outs on my page.  I decided to go for a washing line effect and hang them all from some string at the top - I distressed the edges and used bubble wrap to get the background.  I did add a little more washi tape to the journal spots.  Another fantastic thing about all those journal cards is that I am compelled to write more on my page which is a good thing as that is where a lot of the memory is.

Trends on Tuesday - Busy Backgrounds

I thought I would do a Christmas-ish page for this post....and the trend is using busy patterned papers as a background.  I used this paper from the MME All is Bright range, and it is quite a busy pattern with lots of different elements to it (take a look at Mel's class from the retreat (the 3rd page on this post) which uses the patterned paper in a totally different way).

I tend to always mount my photos on white card stock or a plain card to help them stand out against a busier background, but also to tone down the background a little I use some gesso - dry brushing it on the page and then I did a little stencilling too with a knitting needle measurer (yep use a few household objects to see what effects you can get :)).  I added lots of layers too which is another popular trend at the moment.  Another tip is that if you have a busy background paper a layer of vellum  behind the photo matts can just mute it a little and help the photos pop out.  So this week I would like to encourage you all to dig out some of your patterned papers and use them as the base layer for a page and I would love to see anything you create to so post a link on this post if you do.

I also want to wish you all a fantastic Christmas and New Year as this will be my last Tuesday post before the big day.

Trends on Tuesday - Love a little Mist

I cannot contain my love of mists in one trend post, so there will be others! This page is a very misty page, and it all started because I had made a background with distress stains that I didn't like, so I needed to cover it up and so began the playing with mist and paint.  I started by covering an area in a cheap plastic table cloth and put my pizza box on top of that.

When you use the mists you need to mix in all the sparkly mica at the bottom of the bottle.  If you don't want to get bubbles in your mist tube which create drips on pages then you are not meant to shake the bottle up and down, rather spin it around or roll the bottle between your hands (having said that I have never achieved perfect misting with no drips whatever I do, but it doesn't worry me either as I like it). 

I used 3 cosmic shimmer mists to cover up my base sheet of card - Aqua Lagoon, Purple Violet and Peacock Green - this was a cream sheet of card orignally so there is a fair amount of mist on there.  Then I added a white paint strip down the centre.  I also misted and scrunched up some white tissue paper to add some texture to the background and misted some chipboard - if you paint the chipboard then the misting colours don't come out so dark so this is the unpainted side on my page as I preferred the deeper colour.  I also misted some lace and a piece of purple Graphic 45 Nutcracker suite that went really well with the colours, and some fabric buttons.  The final touches were to upcycle some old bits of metal - primarily curtain weights and a buckle.  This page was inspired by Finnabair's (Anna Dabrowska) strong use of mist on her pages with amazing effects so here is a link to her blog for some more inspiration.

Trends on Tuesday - Gesso

I like to use a bit of gesso...and my tub of Claudine Hellmuth Gesso has lasted me nearly a year and I am only just near the bottom - I don't use loads but it is often on my pages.  The difference between Gesso and white acrylic is not huge (unless you are an artist in which case you often use gesso to prime your canvases) - the things that I noticed are that gesso is slightly runnier than acrylic, and slightly more transparent which can be useful with some of the techniques you use it for.

For the page above I did some basic printing with gesso. I stripped down a piece of corrugated card and then painted it with gesso and printed it on my page.  You can also use milk bottle tops like in my Glitz retreat class, and one of my favourite parts from the class - you can also put it on your fingers and then just brush it onto the edge of papers and flowers to add a painty effect - so don't just think brushes and paint :)

As well as that gesso works really well for scrapping across surfaces - you can use an old credit card or stiff cardboard and then add some gesso and scrape it across the page .  This works well on plain card stock or textured cardstock or patterned paper (sometimes I use it just to dull down the pattern a bit around where I want the photo) - each method gives a slightly different look - here are a couple of examples

And as in both the pages above you can just water it down a little to add some paint flicks too.

Trends on Tuesday - The Beauty of Banners

I thought I would have a little look at banners today - which often appear on my pages.  You can buy them ready made on stickers or in embellishment packs or cut them out of your papers, which is what I did for my page.  I made straight banners, just cutting a little triangle out the bottom of the rectangle - you could also use a square punch to make the triangular shape if you are worried about your cutting.  If you want to vary your banner you could try making more of a rhombus shape and then cutting out the triangle (so the two long edges of the rectangle go at an angle inwards).  Don't only use paper for your banners...material and ribbons work too and add a bit more texture to your page.

I have used this style of banner for a page before where you make a nice fringe of different sized banners under the photo, I used the gorgeous Midway Collection that is in from October Afternoon - it is one of my favourite packs of papers at the moment as it is packed with colour and beautiful designs.  I also used some Firefly cosmic shimmer mist and some of the stickers that come in the Midway pack too.  

Some more banner filled pages :)

This is the one that is very similar in style that I made with another fringe of banners

Make your own washing line of banners

Beautiful MME banners

Some christmas banners under the photo but with a different look

and what about this beautiful Snap Mini from Simple Stories

I hope that inspires you to make some.

Trends on Tuesday - It's in the Grain

Woodgrain has been a long standing trend in papers, stamps, embellishments, embossing folders....I think most scrapbook companies have incorporated some wood into their collections somewhere along the line.  I thought I would try a really woody page to show you some of the lovely woodiness there is around.  The photo is from some gardens we went to visit and they had an amazing wall of logs which my kids quite happily posed in front of (they are used to it now and even offer suggestions of good places to have photos of them :)).  

I used woodgrain for my base which is by Scrapperdashery Under the Board Walk , and then added some gesso, just dry brushed across my background paper so my logs stood out.  My logs are made from Crate Papers Farmhouse Farmers Market with a 1" punch and a white gel pen.  I added an Simple Stories - awesome bingo card and some Crate Paper Farmhouse wooden stickers with some strips of burlap too to add some texture.  

I think woodgrain can be used throughout the year, but especially Autumn as all the leaves change colour on the trees and it is a great neutral as you can put any colours with it...so definitely a staple for your stash.

For a little more inspiration, check out these

October Afternoons Flower Tutorial and a beautiful card with a woodgrain base

Crate Papers - Farmhouse mini book packed with woodgrain