Monday, October 22, 2012

Creating with templates

Hello everyone.

Back again to share what else I have been busy creating thanks to the yummy goodies sent to my by Leanne at Mad about Scrappin.

This month I got a chance to play around with some templates.

Now I was itching to play with these when Leanne mentioned sending them.

Now.. I haven't personally had much of a chance to play around with templates much myself. I have dabbled with them with embossing and with paint and ink a little. So when I received these templates I decided to challenge myself a little and must say I had a blast playing with them.

For my first layout I played around with two inks. I mixed them together and used one of the templates to create my own patterned card stock. By varying the pressure on my blender I was able to make the pattern come out strongly or fade off just slightly. I also used a pearl ink so that the pattern also has a slight sheen to it when it moves.



Now for the next layout I really made a mess. I absolutely LOVE this clock template. It is now my best friend and I hope to be able to use it over and over. I have really created lotsa layers on this base using the template, recycled card as my base and some texture paste. Now it did take a bit to dry using the texture paste but was SO worth all the effort. Then once that was dry I gesso sprayed it all lightly and misted the whole base with several different glimmer mist colours. So much mess made but so much fun. The template really helps the background pop!

 
Just a quick note to remember too... don't be daunted by templates.. you don't have to use the whole template and mix it up and try things out yourself too.
 
Thanks again Leanne for getting me to play with the templates they were so much fun.
 
Don't forget to check out the goodies at Mad About Scrappin yourself.
 
TFL, M x

Friday, October 19, 2012

Two cards sent with much love

Just a quick share of two cards that I have made recently.
 
No particular reason ... just to let someone special know I was thinking about them.


 
TFL, M x

SWV October Sketch Challenge


After circles for last month, I thought we'd go with something a little more linear for this month.
 
I've also included the option for one big photo, or four smaller photos.
 
The choice is totally up to you,

October Sketch Challenge - designed by Julianne McKenna-De Lumen

(otherwise known as Jules The Bling Princess)
 
and here's my example
 
 
I hope you enjoy this sketch! I cannot wait to see all your fabulous creations.

Please send your completed layouts to scrapbookkitswithjules@gmail.com
 
Entries close midnight 31st October 2012, and a winner will be announced a few days afterwards

(and will receive a Scrapbook Kits class kit for their own enjoyment).

Happy scrapping to all!!!

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

A little bit of sparkle

Hello all.

Well this month proves to be a busy month in our household on the birthday front.

Two of my children celebrate their birthdays this month along with 5 other people in our family.

So bearing that in mind I have gotten in super early this year with my card preparations.

However this year has been super easy with all the yummy goodies that came in my Robin's Nest Design Team pack.

This time around I have played around with the following goodies




Viva la France Stickers

So using all these goodies I set to work creating a sparkly girlie card for my nieces birthday at the end of this month.

Certainly didn't take long to create and love the end result with the glittered cardstock.

Why not have a play around with some products from The Robin's Nest today.

TFL, M x

Monday, October 15, 2012

Love Canvas

Hello everyone.

Michelle here from Adelaide, South Australia here to share with you what I have been busy creating.

Just recently I was lucky enough to be able to head up to Townsville in  the northern part of Australia to visit someone who is very special to me.

When I was planning my trip I decided that I wanted to be able to give a little gift as a memento of my visit. So with a little help from some of my favourite Helmar goodies I got creative.

While I was creating I had to bear in mind that I didn't that I didn't want what I was creating to be too girly. I also wanted to play around with many textures and decided to create a canvas.

I created my first dimensional layer on the base of the canvas using my napkin and Helmar Acid Free Glue wash technique (1 part Helmar Acid Free Glue to 3 parts water). Then it was a matter of white washing the napkin base when the napkin layer was adhered and dry.

I then used a plastic laser cut template and some texture paste to create another layer of dimension to the canvas. Once the texture paste was dry I was able to paint the texture paste with some iridescent gold H20 LuminArte. I then added a layer of Helmar Krystal Kote Fixative to seal it all till I put on the next stage.

Then with a little bit of help from some Helmar Krystal Kote Fixative I was able to then add multiple layers of both water based and permanent ink without the worry of them smudging and smearing at any stage.

Once I was happy with all the base layers I had created for my background I then gave the whole base a coat of Helmar Krystal Kote Matte. This helped to seal it all and also too any shine from the Helmar adhesives out to create a complete matte background.

Then the process began of adhering and layering my title and the embellishments.

Now being a canvas, which had multiple layers and mediums on the base, I wanted to make sure that the embellishments stuck hard and fast. So with a bit of help from some Helmar 450 this process was quite easy. I even found that I was able to adhere my metal flowers (mwah to Rae Cooper for these beauties) with ease.

Now to finish off this canvas and give it the final touches I adhered some dew drops to the centre of my metal flowers using some Helmar Gemstone Glue. It dried nice and clear so that the metal of the flowers was able to shine through the clear dew drops.


Now it was a bit of a labour of love waiting for a few layers to dry, but ultimately with a bit of help from my trusted Helmar adhesives I was able to share some loving around.

I know that my gift will stand the test of time without things falling off thanks to some great Helmar adhesives.

Why not have a play around with some Helmar products yourself and see what you can create for someone special in your life like I did.

TFL, M x

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Creating with a masucline theme

Hello all, Michelle here to share what I have been up to lately on behalf of The Robin's Nest.

I was lucky enough to be sent some of the new Flame range to play with.

At first I must admit I wasn't too sure how I was going to play around with it.

Here's the products that I played around with this time around.




I had been creating a lot of very feminine layouts at the time and creating a more masculine layout using this paper range seemed in order.

So with that in mind I got messy again. I played around once again with some recycled card, Helmar Acid Free Glue and some patterned paper napkins to create the base of my layout. I then got a bit crazy with gesso spray and glimmer mists to lightly mist and glimmer up the base.

I then created a decorative stitched border to the layout using invisible thread ad seed beads which i hand stitched.. yes I know a little crazy but I love the end effect so the effort was justified I think.

Then it was just a case of inking and layers The Robin's Nest patterned papers till I was happy with them.
I also hand cut the flame from Flame Border patterned paper and adhered over the photo. I added some dimensional adhesive to the flames to give them just that little extra gloss and dimension.

So here is the layout I created

The photo part of the layout also lifts to allow for journalling underneath.

I must say that I am now loving the Flame paper range since I have started to play with it. I cannot wait to be able to play around with this again.

Dont' forget to head over to The Robin's Nest Blog to see what everyone has been busy creating!

Happy creating, M x