Michele & Ritas Mothers Day Cards!

Here's Michele's Mothers day card - she drew inspiration from the Mason Jars to create this cute card.  Like Jo, Michele used the Dear Lizzy Neapolitan Collection!

My Mothers Day card drew inspiration from the soft nature tones of the photo - I went a little more abstract, but created this layered card using spellbinders dies, and couture creations embossing folders, kaisercraft roses and wood flourishes, all adorned with a generous dash of diamond dust!

Don't forget there's still a few days to join in the challenge - it doesn't have to be a mothers day card at all! :)
Happy Scrappin'
Rita

Mothers Day Card Challenge

Jo has kindly offered to help us out by running a cardmakers challenge for us!

We'd love for you to join in! Please make Jo feel welcome here on our little blog - all comments are enjoyed and appreciated! 

Welcome everyone to the first of many card makers challenges that I'll be running on here.  The idea behind these challenges is to stretch your creative muscles and try something new.  Every few weeks or so I’ll be giving you a challenge and it’s up to you how you interpret the challenge to create a card!

The challenge will vary; it might be an inspiration photo, a colour scheme, a sketch, a technique, supplies, etc.  Feel free to interpret the challenge your own way and substitute where necessary.  The idea is to have fun with it so there are no hard and fast rules.  With each challenge, I’ll show you the card that I came up with using the challenge inspiration as a jumping off point.  Please link your creations here so we can all see.  We can’t wait to see everyone’s creativity and individuality shining through!

To kick off our very first challenge, I thought I’d give you an inspiration photo and ask you to make a Mother’s Day card.  Take a look at the photo and see what inspires you and how that dictates what direction you’ll take.  Maybe it’s the colours, shapes, texture or even the feel of the photo, etc.  There truly is no right or wrong!  If you have your Mother’s Day card already sorted, perhaps make a card for someone who is like a mother to you, or even your best friend!  Who doesn’t like getting some happy mail for no reason?

Back to the photo - I was inspired by the colours and the beautiful mason jars.  Mason jars are a big trend in the scrapbooking/cardmaking world at the moment.  The beautiful patterned papers in the Dear Lizzy Neopolitan range from American Crafts fit the bill perfectly for me.  

Here’s my card for the inspiration challenge!  I hope I’ve given you a nudge to have a go and share your creation with all of us.

The closing date for this challenge will be the  20th of May - that'll give you enough time to make a card for Mum (or Grandma!) snap a photo of it, give the card and then upload it so you don't ruin the surprise!
To "Link" to this blog post, upload a photo to facebook, flickr, photobucket, picasa or any photo sharing website and then copy and paste a link into the comments section.  
I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with! 

A Brand New Challenge!

Hi Everyone! Sorry I'm running a little bit behind tonight! This challenge will be a double pronged one! First of all, you only have about 24 hours to complete the challenge... Secondly, the main part of the challenge is to complete a layout using at least five different techniques! These could be inking, staining, scrunching, tearing, embossing, stamping, bleaching, distressing, painting, die cutting, layering.... The list goes on! Submit your layouts by emailing them to scrapbookshenanigans@gmail.com before bedtime tomorrow! Well... What are you waiting for???

My Very Own Butch

This layout is from our Mt Isa based Design Team Member, Veronica!

Please make her feel welcome on our little blog! 

(click on images for a bigger view!)

I’ve used Bo Bunny papers for this layout – Double Dot - Dark Denim Vintage and Weekend Market- Stripe. I’ve also used Weekend Market Noteworthy die cuts – there’s quite a range of different sizes and shapes in this pack. The Weekend Market range also has a page of cut outs some of which I used on this layout.

I started by fussy cutting the floral composition on the reverse of the Stripe paper. I then trimmed strips of approximately 3 cm to lay right across the two pages. Each of these I edged with a couple of different border punches before layering them on the pages. I placed the first 4 photos and the photo sized die cut on pages before adding the last layer. The fussy cut floral composition was positioned over the top of my photos.

 I used a pack of Dusty Attic mini cogs. These I inked with Distress Stains – a mixture of aged mahogany, spiced marmalade and chipped sapphire. They were scattered in among buttons and flowers from my stash throughout the layout. A paper doily was spritzed with a mixture of blue, rust and golden. I tore it and added it to the layout under the title die cut piece and the flowers.

The title is made from another die cut and Idea-ology alpha cards. I’m so impressed with these little guys! They are just like little playing cards on the back, but domino format on the front with same letter/number on top and bottom of the domino format. I gave them a light sand then added a little ink to soften the whiteness of the card.

The feature photo and title are attached with foam mounting tape to further highlight them from the rest of the page.

The bunting I made using good old multi purpose kitchen twine and Idea-ology tissue tape (Commute). I saw this idea in a scrapbooking magazine. You simply wrap the tape around the twine making sure the edges meet neatly then trim into a triangular shape if you wish. 

 

So quick and easy, although I had to make mine twice – tissue tape bunting on twine makes an enticing cat toy! By the time my cat had finished playing the bunting was beyond distressed! 

Thanks Veronica, and extra special thanks to Sidewinder for the extra input! :)

Travel Layouts

 

Pieta, (our travel bug) did these fantastic simple layouts using Simple Stories - Destinations collections.  Simple, quick layouts are what we all need once in a while - a great photo, great papers, and some meaningful journaling to tell the story.

 

 Double matting photos is a great way to add a little more depth to a layout , and is so simple to do!

P.S.  Nice shoes Pieta :P

Tropical Travelogue Filmstrip Frame

Our very talented Design team member AnnMarie did this fantastic project featuring the Graphic 45 Tropical Travelogue collection. 

Well firstly I have to show the goodies I received in the mail to complete my first design team project.

I had an idea of what I was going to do as soon as I saw it.

I have a fair bit of paper left over so I am going to do a couple of layouts with it.

So the first job was to cover the frame and trim and smooth up the edges and then I painted all the edges black.

Next I embossed the chippie. The one I have used here is from Dusty Attic from out of my stash. I also embossed a Kaisercraft wood flourish vine the same way. The embossing powder I used is called Moon Glow. It’s a 2 toned powder but I used 2 different colours ( Midnight Pewter/Obsidian & Reindeer Moss/Green) to get the effect that I wanted.

This is a close up to show the effect.

The finished project.

 Thanks AnnMarie! And if you'd like to see more of Annmarie's work, pop on over to her blog - http://therustyhorseshoe.blogspot.com.au/

Kaisercraft Spinning Craft Caddy

I was pretty excited when I saw this little beauty pop up on the Kaisercraft website, and couldn't wait to get my hot little hands on it!

See, we have a bit of a "pile" at the end of our desk which gets a little untidy, Michele is ALWAYS nagging me because she can't find her pens (and I always lose my ruler and calculator!)
So this saves all our hassles!
It's big, bold and spins! Woo!
There is two drawers on each side, as well as open pockets at each end, and two handy trays at the top to store your bigger items like glimmermists etc (or stamps and stickytape in our case!)
I used Jillibean soup - Blossom Soup papers, they are so bright and fun and classic! I used a Lettuce paint dabber to paint the base of the unit, and painted the inside of the drawers in a fun pink. I also painted the base of the unit (the lazy susan base) pink as well. I used green rhinestone strips to edge the drawers and add a subtle bit of bling!
On the ends I added a band of The Twinery Twine in Honeydew, just to add a super cute pop of contrast.
I fussy cut loads of butterflies and used some of the diecuts from the diecut sheet, and mounted them around the caddy, using foam tape to pop the wings up a little bit.
I'm in love! It is so bright and fun!
If you're interested in ordering in one of these, we can order them in for you - they will retail for $45, however if you need them posted, as they are a large item, extra postage charges will apply.


(please don't mind the mess in the background! )
Happy Scrapping!
Rita