This set of 8 have found a new home with my mother - some of their friends are having a rough time at the moment with illnesses and losing loved ones so I think they will come in handy.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
I can't resist resist
I was so inspired by Jennifer McGuire's cards using resist techniques - not that it is a new concept, but you know how you see something again and you ask yourself why you haven't done that in a while? This one was a pearlized resist technique - heat embossing with pearl embossing powder then using distress inks to colour the surrounds. I used Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz to give the whole focal panel a pearl shine. Instead of using the dots on the whole background I decided to just add some rows to the bottom using the same colour distress ink as the focal image. The cards are finished with some ribbon and pearls.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Haus Designs is here!
The trials have been sent and some samples/feedback have been returned! I am so excited, I can hardly wait til July 1st - which is when the pins will go on sale.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Journal Jar
This is a project I have seen pop up in a few different spots and it really struck a chord with me - although not at first. The idea behind a Journal Jar is that you list a heap of prompts or questions, print them out and fill a jar with them. Then if you are a regular journal writer (I guess I'd call it diary writing, because I associate journalling more with writing on a scrapbook page) you have something to go-to when you have no inspiration of what to write. This idea didn't really interest me because I do keep a diary - one of my new projects for this year - but it is just a recap of what happened that day or what is happening in our life now - not an abstract journal where I write my fears, achievements, ponderings, etc. What did appeal was a different spin on this from CreativityForLife.com where it has a whole list of questions and prompts designed to record your life. This interested me. I think every scrapbooker is a memory keeper and a historian in that we want to preserve the here and now for later on. But what about the times before we were scrapbookers? What if we don't have photos of certain events? What happens to our memories of our childhood and our family that may no longer be around? Enter the Journal Jar!
I made this Journal Jar for my mother. It is filled with 101 questions and prompts (I used the list on the website and altered it to suit) that will help her record her history. Despite my efforts to encourage her to scrapbook, she just isn't that interested - it's something she doesn't enjoy like I do. She isn't really a writer either, but she did have a mean typing speed on the old typewriter (you know, the ones that had a ribbon of ink!) and worked for a time for the Bureau of Statistics doing clerical work. Her strength was English - spelling, grammar, etc. My hope is that she will use this jar and the accompanying blank book to record her history - what she remembers and how things have changed.
I am currently working on another one for my mother-in-law and then I will also do one for myself. I guess I can call myself the family historian.
I made this Journal Jar for my mother. It is filled with 101 questions and prompts (I used the list on the website and altered it to suit) that will help her record her history. Despite my efforts to encourage her to scrapbook, she just isn't that interested - it's something she doesn't enjoy like I do. She isn't really a writer either, but she did have a mean typing speed on the old typewriter (you know, the ones that had a ribbon of ink!) and worked for a time for the Bureau of Statistics doing clerical work. Her strength was English - spelling, grammar, etc. My hope is that she will use this jar and the accompanying blank book to record her history - what she remembers and how things have changed.
I am currently working on another one for my mother-in-law and then I will also do one for myself. I guess I can call myself the family historian.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Three's a crowd - or so they say
This is the final instalment in my trio of love cards.
As with the others this one uses the same stamps (Kaszazz heart and SU Congrats). This time I used a mixture of Perfect Pearls in water and a couple of drops of Distress Re-inker to mist - or should I say splatter onto the card base. This gives the splatters a lovely shine. The purples inks are Colorbox fluid chalk inks, and the strips were made by swiping the ink over the cardstock, then cutting them out. The right heart is popped up using foam, and it is finished by rounding the corners and with 3 of the new Kasz pearls.
As with the others this one uses the same stamps (Kaszazz heart and SU Congrats). This time I used a mixture of Perfect Pearls in water and a couple of drops of Distress Re-inker to mist - or should I say splatter onto the card base. This gives the splatters a lovely shine. The purples inks are Colorbox fluid chalk inks, and the strips were made by swiping the ink over the cardstock, then cutting them out. The right heart is popped up using foam, and it is finished by rounding the corners and with 3 of the new Kasz pearls.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
More love to share
A saying we use in our house is "sharing the love" - which normally applies when we give each other some illness. In this case I'm sharing the love in the form of another card.
This card was stamped entirely with Perfect Medium, and brushed with Perfect Pearls. The Rollagraph down the side uses the Watermark cartridge and then dusted with Perfect Pearls. The heart on the right is popped up with foam. I rounded 2 corners to add a bit of interest to an otherwise fairly plain card.
This card was stamped entirely with Perfect Medium, and brushed with Perfect Pearls. The Rollagraph down the side uses the Watermark cartridge and then dusted with Perfect Pearls. The heart on the right is popped up with foam. I rounded 2 corners to add a bit of interest to an otherwise fairly plain card.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Say it with love
One of the hardest genres of cards I find myself making is the lovey ones - engagement, wedding, anniversary.
The January release of Kaszazz saw this lovely heart stamp added to the range - which gives a sophisticated feel to the standard love heart.
One of the competitor stamps set that I own and use a lot is the Congrats set from SU. I like the standard type font of the sentiments and the fact that you can then choose to add little mini sentiments to the larger congratulations to suit the occasion, or leave it as just congratulations.
I got out my Vivid ink for this one - I rediscovered my love for this ink - it really is as the title says! You may notice the scallops at the bottom and a strip of the colour above the sentiment - which is actually the top of the scalloped piece in the middle. This was a piece of card that I swiped with the ink pad to colour it the same as the hearts, then punched the border. It's much easier to ink a smooth plain piece of cardstock than one with a cut edge or holes in it. I stamped a matching heart on the envelope too.
The January release of Kaszazz saw this lovely heart stamp added to the range - which gives a sophisticated feel to the standard love heart.
One of the competitor stamps set that I own and use a lot is the Congrats set from SU. I like the standard type font of the sentiments and the fact that you can then choose to add little mini sentiments to the larger congratulations to suit the occasion, or leave it as just congratulations.
I got out my Vivid ink for this one - I rediscovered my love for this ink - it really is as the title says! You may notice the scallops at the bottom and a strip of the colour above the sentiment - which is actually the top of the scalloped piece in the middle. This was a piece of card that I swiped with the ink pad to colour it the same as the hearts, then punched the border. It's much easier to ink a smooth plain piece of cardstock than one with a cut edge or holes in it. I stamped a matching heart on the envelope too.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Gathered ribbon flower
I've looked at so many pictures and tutorials of how to make beautiful flowers from ribbon, fabric, punches, etc. that I thought I'd have a go. This was inspired by some work from the lovely Jessica at Bits and Pieces, and she also designs for Marcia at The Stamp Spot.
The flower is simply made using a length of ribbon (approx 6 inches) and running a stitch down one edge (up, space, down, space). This is then gathered when you pull the start end and the finished end of the stitch thread together. A few stitches to hold the middle together and it's done. You can experiment with different stitch lengths and different ribbon lengths to see how it puckers differently, giving you a more or less ruffled flower. Add any embellishment to the centre to hide the stitching.
I ran a strip of 1inch double sided tape across the card, then used another strip of the same ribbon and as I stuck it down I did some random gathering. I found this was an easy way to tie the flower in better - rather than having it stuck in the middle of nowhere. I did make a little mistake in that I ended up with the wrong side of the ribbon on the flower, so it has a matt finish whereas the strip is shiny - but we won't tell anyone about that ;)
The flower is simply made using a length of ribbon (approx 6 inches) and running a stitch down one edge (up, space, down, space). This is then gathered when you pull the start end and the finished end of the stitch thread together. A few stitches to hold the middle together and it's done. You can experiment with different stitch lengths and different ribbon lengths to see how it puckers differently, giving you a more or less ruffled flower. Add any embellishment to the centre to hide the stitching.
I ran a strip of 1inch double sided tape across the card, then used another strip of the same ribbon and as I stuck it down I did some random gathering. I found this was an easy way to tie the flower in better - rather than having it stuck in the middle of nowhere. I did make a little mistake in that I ended up with the wrong side of the ribbon on the flower, so it has a matt finish whereas the strip is shiny - but we won't tell anyone about that ;)
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Get Well Soon
I could do with one of these right now. I have been struck down with a cold for the second time in just over a month! As you can probably guess, I'm not the nicest person to be around at the minute - but on the up-side it is a great excuse for not doing a whole heap around the house, and it is totally counted as resting when you sit and craft ;)
This little guy is my favourite Kaszazz stamp to watercolour. This time I tried out the technique I wrote about in my last post, using distress inks to paint. I'm not sure that it is such a great technique to use on a large area like this gorgeous bear because it is hard to control the shading when you have to keep refilling the brush with colour (the first brush strokes are dark, which fades as the colour seeps out of the tip), however, I'm sure you could get a great result over a large area if you filled the aquabrush with diluted re-inker and just go over the areas you want darker.
This stamp makes for a simple single layer card, or alternately it looks great as a cut out window surrounded by patterned paper. The petals on the flower are covered with Rock Candy Distress Stickles which gives a shimmery salty/sugary look.
Thanks for checking out my card :)
3 More Volunteers Needed!!!
I still need 3 people to trial my new handmade pins before I start up selling them. I will need feedback as to what you like about it, what you aren't that fond of, and a picture of how you use the pin you are sent, that I can then use on the new blog (page, card or other project). The feedback will need to be emailed to me by the end of the month, which should give you at least 2 weeks to use the pin and take a picture - just bear this in mind if you are applying. If you are interested in getting one free to trial, email me at rachel.witthaus@gmail.com with your name and address so I can send it to you. Feel free to share this with anyone you think may be interested. Thank you to those who have already forwarded me your info :)
This little guy is my favourite Kaszazz stamp to watercolour. This time I tried out the technique I wrote about in my last post, using distress inks to paint. I'm not sure that it is such a great technique to use on a large area like this gorgeous bear because it is hard to control the shading when you have to keep refilling the brush with colour (the first brush strokes are dark, which fades as the colour seeps out of the tip), however, I'm sure you could get a great result over a large area if you filled the aquabrush with diluted re-inker and just go over the areas you want darker.
Thanks for checking out my card :)
3 More Volunteers Needed!!!
I still need 3 people to trial my new handmade pins before I start up selling them. I will need feedback as to what you like about it, what you aren't that fond of, and a picture of how you use the pin you are sent, that I can then use on the new blog (page, card or other project). The feedback will need to be emailed to me by the end of the month, which should give you at least 2 weeks to use the pin and take a picture - just bear this in mind if you are applying. If you are interested in getting one free to trial, email me at rachel.witthaus@gmail.com with your name and address so I can send it to you. Feel free to share this with anyone you think may be interested. Thank you to those who have already forwarded me your info :)
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Cute as a Bug
I really really like the new Doodle Design Bugs set from Kaszazz:
It goes really well with the Spring Time set too which is what I paired it with below:
The grass is from the Spring Time set, the sentiment and bug are from the new Doodle Design Bug set and the clouds were just hand cut from card and used as a mask to ink on some Stormy Sky Distress Ink.
As you can probably tell I'm also into using Oatmeal (Kraft) cardstock at the moment, and this is another make and take card we made a couple of weeks ago - simple!
This one is a gate fold card - which just means that the left and right hand sides open from the centre of the card (and it doesn't stand up if it's not opened a bit). I think both cards would be great for a new baby.
Would you like to know how I coloured the ladybugs on both cards?
I'm sure you would if you have read this far! I used my aquabrush (paintbrush filled with water) and WITHOUT SQUEEZING you run the tip along the side of a Distress Ink pad (Fired Brick in this case) and when the tip has absorbed the colour you can paint. Pretty cool ha? You do need to keep brushing the tip on the pad as you go, because the aquabrush slowly diffuses the water out so all of the colour comes off the tip (unlike a traditional brush that absorbs the colour until it's saturated with colour). If you do squeeze the pen you will be diluting your ink and we wouldn't want that! The benefit is that if you have a re-inker you can use a drop from that instead of the pad, and if you do accidentally dilute your pad you can always fix it with re-inker.
Volunteers Needed!!!
I still need 4 people to trial my new handmade pins before I start up selling them. I will need feedback as to what you like about it, what you aren't that fond of, and a picture of how you use the pin you are sent, that I can then use on the new blog (page, card or other project). The feedback will need to be emailed to me by the end of the month, which should give you at least 2 weeks to use the pin and take a picture - just bear this in mind if you are applying. If you are interested in getting one free to trial, email me at rachel.witthaus@gmail.com with your name and address so I can send it to you. Feel free to share this with anyone you think may be interested.
It goes really well with the Spring Time set too which is what I paired it with below:
The grass is from the Spring Time set, the sentiment and bug are from the new Doodle Design Bug set and the clouds were just hand cut from card and used as a mask to ink on some Stormy Sky Distress Ink.
As you can probably tell I'm also into using Oatmeal (Kraft) cardstock at the moment, and this is another make and take card we made a couple of weeks ago - simple!
This one is a gate fold card - which just means that the left and right hand sides open from the centre of the card (and it doesn't stand up if it's not opened a bit). I think both cards would be great for a new baby.
Would you like to know how I coloured the ladybugs on both cards?
I'm sure you would if you have read this far! I used my aquabrush (paintbrush filled with water) and WITHOUT SQUEEZING you run the tip along the side of a Distress Ink pad (Fired Brick in this case) and when the tip has absorbed the colour you can paint. Pretty cool ha? You do need to keep brushing the tip on the pad as you go, because the aquabrush slowly diffuses the water out so all of the colour comes off the tip (unlike a traditional brush that absorbs the colour until it's saturated with colour). If you do squeeze the pen you will be diluting your ink and we wouldn't want that! The benefit is that if you have a re-inker you can use a drop from that instead of the pad, and if you do accidentally dilute your pad you can always fix it with re-inker.
Volunteers Needed!!!
I still need 4 people to trial my new handmade pins before I start up selling them. I will need feedback as to what you like about it, what you aren't that fond of, and a picture of how you use the pin you are sent, that I can then use on the new blog (page, card or other project). The feedback will need to be emailed to me by the end of the month, which should give you at least 2 weeks to use the pin and take a picture - just bear this in mind if you are applying. If you are interested in getting one free to trial, email me at rachel.witthaus@gmail.com with your name and address so I can send it to you. Feel free to share this with anyone you think may be interested.
Saturday, June 05, 2010
New Funky Blooms Stamps
This is a demo card we made at the new product release I held 2 weeks ago using the new release stamps. The background is done with the new Vine stamp stamped with Perfect Medium and brushed with Perfect Pearls, then the main focal rectangle was blended with distress inks, then embossed with white embossing powder and the new Four Flowers stamp. This was then spritzed with Vanilla Shimmer Smooch and stamped with the sentiment, then the butterflies from the new Doodle Design Bugs set were stamped and punched and sprayed with more shimmer sprays and attached using Magic Mount (3D foam). All products used are available from Kaszazz (via me of course ;) ).
I love the fact that one of the new butterflies (used above) from the set fits the butterfly super punch perfectly! No need to fussy cut my butterflies :)
Volunteers Needed!!!
I still need 5 people to trial my new handmade pins before I start up selling them. I will need feedback as to what you like about it, what you aren't that fond of, and a picture of how you use the pin you are sent, that I can then use on the new blog (page, card or other project). The feedback will need to be emailed to me by the end of the month, which should give you at least 2 weeks to use the pin and take a picture - just bear this in mind if you are applying. If you are interested in getting one free to trial, email me at rachel.witthaus@gmail.com with your name and address so I can send it to you. Feel free to share this with anyone you think may be interested. First 5 to apply only.
Friday, June 04, 2010
A layout to share
The last week has been quite a productive one craft-wise and it was all prompted by the fact that we were switching IPs and we had no Internet! It has proved to me just how much of my spare time is wasted on the Internet. In the last week I have completed 5 layouts (3 if you count that 2 were double pages) and a total of 20 cards (10 were for a challenge and 6 were invites so these were all the same designs respectively).
The first of these I will share is a single layout. I needed something to kick start my creativity so I delved into my boxes of photos looking for some that 'spoke' to me. I came across the photos we took when we visited Sovereign Hill late last year. Back then I had downloaded a trial of Lightroom from Adobe and used it to alter the effects of the photos. I love the rustic look of the photos - which really goes with the theme of Sovereign Hill - being set in the 1850's gold rush era. I wanted my page to also reflect that, so I kept it minimal and used an Oatmeal 12x12 cardstock as the base. I then sewed on some of my bargain buy from last week - 2 oddments bags of lace and edgings for $3 ea at my local Spotlight store - I think I must have gotten over 20 meters of various sized, patterned and coloured laces for a total of $6. Sweet! I then stuck down the photos with strips of DStape along the long sides making a pocket behind each for the map (and tickets) and under the other is some family history about farming. Each of the photos was edged with a distressing tool, then blended with Vintage Photo distress ink - mainly around the edges but some lightly over patches of the photos too. I continued this around the edge of the page too. I like that the ink blending tool gives a nice smooth blend of ink that you can't get straight from the pad. I kept the embellishing simple, with one chipboard shape that I covered in paints and some of the new Kaszazz pearls that I rubbed with some of the Vintage Photo distress ink to take away their whiteness. Lastly I finished the page with one of my handmade pins.
Volunteers Needed!!!
I need 5 more people to trial my new handmade pins before I start up selling them. I will need feedback as to what you like about it, what you aren't that fond of, and a picture of how you use the pin you are sent, that I can then use on the new blog (page, card or other project). The feedback will need to be emailed to me by the end of the month, which should give you at least 2 weeks to use the pin and take a picture - just bear this in mind if you are applying. If you are interested in getting one free to trial, email me at rachel.witthaus@gmail.com with your name and address so I can send it to you. Feel free to share this with anyone you think may be interested. First 5 to apply only.
The first of these I will share is a single layout. I needed something to kick start my creativity so I delved into my boxes of photos looking for some that 'spoke' to me. I came across the photos we took when we visited Sovereign Hill late last year. Back then I had downloaded a trial of Lightroom from Adobe and used it to alter the effects of the photos. I love the rustic look of the photos - which really goes with the theme of Sovereign Hill - being set in the 1850's gold rush era. I wanted my page to also reflect that, so I kept it minimal and used an Oatmeal 12x12 cardstock as the base. I then sewed on some of my bargain buy from last week - 2 oddments bags of lace and edgings for $3 ea at my local Spotlight store - I think I must have gotten over 20 meters of various sized, patterned and coloured laces for a total of $6. Sweet! I then stuck down the photos with strips of DStape along the long sides making a pocket behind each for the map (and tickets) and under the other is some family history about farming. Each of the photos was edged with a distressing tool, then blended with Vintage Photo distress ink - mainly around the edges but some lightly over patches of the photos too. I continued this around the edge of the page too. I like that the ink blending tool gives a nice smooth blend of ink that you can't get straight from the pad. I kept the embellishing simple, with one chipboard shape that I covered in paints and some of the new Kaszazz pearls that I rubbed with some of the Vintage Photo distress ink to take away their whiteness. Lastly I finished the page with one of my handmade pins.
Volunteers Needed!!!
I need 5 more people to trial my new handmade pins before I start up selling them. I will need feedback as to what you like about it, what you aren't that fond of, and a picture of how you use the pin you are sent, that I can then use on the new blog (page, card or other project). The feedback will need to be emailed to me by the end of the month, which should give you at least 2 weeks to use the pin and take a picture - just bear this in mind if you are applying. If you are interested in getting one free to trial, email me at rachel.witthaus@gmail.com with your name and address so I can send it to you. Feel free to share this with anyone you think may be interested. First 5 to apply only.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)