AT MY BEST...: Wood Veneer

9x9

A Gift from the Heart - 9x9 Shadow Frames

10:00 AM

12x12

'Everyday Happiness' - Kraft + September 2016

1:58 PM

12x12

'Sashimi'

6:30 AM

12x12

'Life is Amazing' - Words or Whatever January Challenge

1:57 PM

I sat down on the weekend and wanted to scrap. I just needed to do something creative.

It has been sometime since I participated in any challenges, and there was one that happened to pop up in my facebook feed at the time that I found appealing. Words or Whatever does it again, and it helps that I have a good amount of product left over from my DT days that was perfect for this criteria (although a couple of the pieces were set aside for another project but anyway!).

It was a last minute effort to get it on for the closing time, but it worked in terms of inspiration. I got the layout completed in no time, photographed and entered. And it felt good.

The layout is less of my usual style, yet I can still see me in it.... And I love it!

It also kicks off the start of the New Zealand holiday scrapping.

The criteria was circles, arrows, the colours and the quote, which I have used for my title.

The background was fun to make, and super easy. I sprayed a few quirts of dylusions mist onto a plastic lid and used a scrunched up plastic shopping bag to dab it onto the cardstock, using both a yellow and a pink. After this I have used a circle mask, which was layered over the top and misted over to get the additional element of the circles.

I have used paint on the chipboard circles to draw through the yellow component of the background (and the challenge criteria). I love the light wood veneer piece from Words or Whatever which just gives an extra grounding colour, but is still reflective of the warm yellows.

There is minimal paper used in this layout. I admire how other scrappers can mix a background like this and still incorporate layers of pretty papers into it as well.... This is something I just can't manage.

I have also used both painted chipboard and a flair button to cover out the arrows component of the criteria.

It has been a long time since I last used masks and quotes for titles. It felt normal for me to be this messy (until my patience gave out and I just started sticking things down rather than using the heat gun to get things to dry)!

This was a lot of fun and it has renewed my love of a little bit messy and taking part in challenges for fun.

12x12

'Wish'

11:30 AM

9x9

'Family' - 9x9 Shadow Frame

6:30 AM

Chipboard

'Paradise' Desk Frame - Hawaii Theme

7:00 AM

I bought this little frame a while ago now, with the idea that I could put a quick photo in it then put it either on my scrap desk or my work desk. The frame wasn't too expensive and was purchased from Harvey Norman. The frame comes with the photo mat in it and the insert space is 4x4 inches. Just perfect for an Instagram photo.

This little project took no time at all to piece together, and would make a great little gift idea. Especially with Christmas just around the corner.

The photo that is in the frame was taken on our last trip to Hawaii in 2014 so I have gone with a tropical 'Hawaiian' theme for this project and it gave me the change to use some of my absolute all time favourite chipboard pieces.

All of the pieces that I have stuck down are Words or Whatever products. The pineapple, which is one of my absolute favourite pieces, has been coloured with sharpie makers, a gel pen and Tim Holtz distress ink. It has been stuck directly to the outside of the glass.

Another of my favourite pieces of chipboard that Words or Whatever have released are these mini palm trees. They look great coloured in black as a silhouette or in colour. This occasion I went with colour. These have been coloured in with sharpie markers and Tim Holtz distress ink. My next step was to make sure that there was a layered effect - One stuck on the outside of the glass and the other directly to the frame.

The paradise title is a Words or Whatever light wood veneer. It was actually the last piece that I pulled out of my stash for this project and I really wasn't sure where I was going to stick it, but I'm really happy that I worked with it to make it fit my idea.

For now this frame will be staying in my scraproom. It is proudly on display on top of my bookcase. It will end up on my scrap desk once my scraproom makeover is finished.

This project took all of half an hour to pull together. So simple yet so effective for personalising items either for yourself or as gifts.

featured

'A Day at Bondi' - Project Life Mini Album

7:30 AM

Have you ever had one of those days out where there are just too many photos for a scrapbook layout, but really not enough to build a full mini album from? This day trip was exactly one of those.

When my cousin and her partner were down from Queensland, we had a girls day out day trip to Bondi. Living in New South Wales all my life and I had never been there, so it didn't take much to count me in.

Bek and I are very similar in the fact that the phone is never far away to document anything through photos. And this day was no different. Between both lots of photos, I had more than enough to document the day out, but finding a solution that wasn't under or over done was a bit of a task.

When you have as many Project Life cards laying around as I do (I really think they are breeding) then you will find any way to use them (just to give me the excuse to buy more). I am loving the mini album ideas at the moment and I thought that making my own mini from the PL cards would be a good idea. So I set about looking for the stash and pulling out ones that I thought would work.

To be fair, I have also used a few patterned papers from a 6x6 pad to give the photos that are already 4x4 a little bit of a boarder but you will see that through the album photos below.

There is a clear transparency cover on this album. I wanted to do this to protect the cover, but also to add that extra layer of dimension. I have added the 'Bondi' part of the title to the front in a timber look thicker and stitched through the middle with the sewing machine.

I started by just sticking the photos in then I went back later to journal and embellish.

There are a combination of 4x6 and 3x2 project life cards in this project and they have been scattered throughout the album.

I found a few Words or Whatever wood veneer pieces in my stash and thought they were appropriate to use on this OTP.

I have used paper cuts from a 6x6 paper pad to enable me to stick the smaller square photos on. I print these photos at home so they are no definite size. I think they came out about 3.5x3.5 inches.

I wanted to have a fairly bit journal space in this album, bit I didn't want a whole page of text. So I found a way around it. In the project life kits there are a few cards just a bit smaller than 4x6 that already have a score down the centre. I knew that by folding one of these in half I would be able to hide my journaling, but still have plenty of room to tell the story.

To be able to open and close this card I have punched a hole through the top corner of both layers and simply snipped one side of the hole to be able to clip the card around the album ring to close it up.

This gave the ability to use the back side of the card for either more photos, or in this case another bit of journaling.

I thought this 'Love' card just fitted perfectly with all of the boardwalk art. I didn't want to do too much with it, but I think the arrow paperclip does enough.

I wasn't sold on the 3x2 card turned landscape in this album, but I really wanted to use the 'today' card. It turned out that it was perfect for the photo that I put on the back.

I hoped to break up so many photos in the album by using some of the PL cards and leaving them fairly plain.

While we found a place to stop and have a quiet drink, I kept the little tag off the beer bottle, specifically to put in this album. Always the crafter, thinking ahead!

While up in Bondi, we got the chance to visit the Aquabumps gallery, so again I grabbed promotional postcard to stick in the album too.

To finish off the album, I have used another transparency, from one of the PL Heidi Swapp kits. I thought it looked perfect over the top of the heart card.