Orient Express ..........

Well here I am for my last post as Guest Designer for this month.  I have really enjoyed my time here and being part of such an inspiring team.  Thank you for making me so welcome and thanks again to Vicki for inviting me.

So here is my last project – a bit of a challenge as  I wondered whether I could do a scrapbook layout with oriental papers but without an oriental style photograph!  These Graphic45 Bird Song Papers are really lovely and full of lots of tags, stamps and strips which makes for some great layering. 

Sometimes I find it refreshing to do a clean and simple scrapbook page – no inks or messy fingers to mess up the photograph! The further challenge was I only had one and a bit sheets of the Bird Song papers, so I cut a border from the reverse of the Shanghai Girls sheet which left me with some pieces for the corners and the flowers.  I then cut as many strips and labels as I had left from the Tranquility sheet.  A Graphic45 butterfly also managed to sneak in there too!

I needed a background and this Teresa Collins  Now and Then Woodgrain  sheet was just perfect, although I darkened it down a bit with some Antique Linen Distress Ink.  The flower was made from the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Die with a rolled circle in the centre. 

So a simple and quick layout of two of my old school friends, taken at the beginning of the month when five of us met for our annual get together – hopefully people might think we were in the Orient rather than at Centre Parcs in Thetford!!

Thanks again for a lovely month x

Feeling Blue?

Hi Everyone and  thank you for the lovely comments on my last project.  

What fun I had with this one.  This is more a signature piece for me, but the background was a whole new adventure!  I have not used one of the Ranger Giant Tags before and boy are they big!  I thought about making a small book, but decided to use the tag to make a hanging.   I took 6.5 cms off the bottom to break it up a bit. 

So the background:

I used Claudine Hellmuth Gesso and a Crafters Workshop Diamond template to create some texture on the tag and also glued some pieces of an old doily here and there.  I added some text with Midnight Blue StazOn Ink  and then painted a watery dilution of Claudine Hellmuth Studio Semi Gloss Acrylic Paint : Sky Blue all over the tag and spritzed it here and there with water to get a more mottled effect.  However, I did work in stages as the tag is so big and the paint actually dries quite quickly.   Once I was happy with the effect I put some darker paint in various places around the gesso. 

I blended some Vintage Photo Distress Ink in the lighter areas and then it was the turn of the Tim Holtz Tissue Paper  (again something I’ve not used before).  I just tore off strips and glued them with Claudine Hellmuth Multi Medium.  I love the way the tissue paper clings around the gesso and just disappears into the background.  Finally I dotted splatters all over the tag from watery Vintage Photo Distress Ink. 

So here is the finished tag – lots of new techniques and products for me, but I shall certainly be doing more!

Then it was down to decorating.  I used the Tim Holtz Dress Form Die and some lovely Teresa Collin’s Now & Then cardstock.  The flowers are all handmade by myself – these are the well known grungepaper type roses but I use cream card, water and scrunch them up before making the rose itself.  (I am a bit obsessed with making flowers, and if you want to see more there are some tutorials on my blog.)

Although I’ve used lace, twine and ribbon from my own stash, Vicki has a wonderful array HERE which are definitely on my wish list!  

Thanks again for looking and I look forward to coming back at the end of the month with my final project x

Bird Song

Well hello from the wild and windy North!   My name is Jennie and I am absolutely thrilled to be here this month as Guest Designer alongside such an amazing Design Team.  Thank you so much Vicki for inviting me.

Today I am sharing an oriental tag showcasing these two wonderful birds from the graphic45 Bird Song Collection.

I inked up a Size 10 tag with  Ranger Distress Inks in Spiced Marmalade,  Rusty Hinge and Fired Brick.  I made a mask from Post It Notes for the sun  and used a Crafters Workshop Leaf Mask in the lower part of the tag.  I then stamped some Chinese Text (a Craft Stamper Freebie many moons ago!) in Fired Brick.

I fussy cut the birds from one of the labels on the sheet and used foam pads to give a little definition.  Then it was all about decorating around the birds.  All these pieces came from the graphic45 Tranquility sheet which is full of labels, stamps and borders.  It really is a quite beautiful sheet to use.

I made a little fan from some Chinese paper in my stash  and added the srim and blossoms.  Again just some old tiny white flowers I found in my stash which benefited from the addition of some stamens. 

I had a lot of fun making the tag as “oriental” is not something I normally do, but graphic45 papers are always wonderful to work with.

Thanks for looking and I look forward to seeing you later in the month with another project.

Jennie x

guest designer - Jennie Atkinson

This month we have a guest member of the design team joining us. 

I'm delighted that she's been able to join us or May and look forward to her projects. 

My name is Jennie Atkinson and I live on the UK's most northerly island, Shetland.  As you can imagine it is very beautiful and peaceful and I feel extremely lucky to have lived here for the last 33 years.

I love creating 12 x 12 scrapbook layouts and I would say that my current style is collage, however, as you know styles change over time, so I am not sure where it will go next.   I love scrapping anything, from vintage photos to colourful layouts of my little grandson.  I couldn't imagine doing a layout without using some inking and I love making my own background paper with masks, inks and sprays.  I also make alot (and I mean alot!!) of mini books and am well known for these locally.  I run four weekend workshops a year making scrapbook mini books and the places are booked within days of being advertised.  I also sell decorated mini books at our local craft fairs and these are very popular too. 

I make quite a wide range of cards, mainly using stamps, inks and embossing.  I have just finished participating in an online course in interactive cardmaking and I have really enjoyed the paper mechanics.  I am really looking forward to incorporating these ideas into my cardmaking.  I also enjoy doing mixed media work - mainly in art journals, but some on canvas.  I am really enjoying these more artistic techniques and wish to develop them further.

  I am finding that many mixed media techniques sit well with scrapbooking and my layouts seem to feature more and more of these techniques.  My sewing machine is also much in evidence these days on layouts and cards.   During the summer I worked on a few 3d projects  which I also found very enjoyable and again hope to find time to develop these ideas further.

You will see that in all my projects I use my own handmade flowers - I like to think that these make my work truly unique.  I make a number of different types of flowers and am always developing new ones.  I have a number of tutorials on my blog with clear step by step descriptions and photographs and find that these are very popular blog posts.  I also run regular flower workshops locally and again these are very popular.

You can see some more or Jennie's work on her blog: 

http://jennie-livethedream.blogspot.co.uk/