Colouring Pearls

So I have to admit I am a Pearl fan, I just love the little effect they add as an embellishment to any layout, so imagine my surprise when I stumbled across a blog and on it they had a little tutorial on changing the colours of your pearls, and it works with rhinestones too!! BONUS!

All you need is some Alcohol inks, Pearls or Rhinestones and some scrap paper ( I used 3 sheets so that the ink didnt bleed through to my desk)Place your pearls and/or rhinestones onto the paper leaving a little room between each one then colour away. I found it was easier to roll the tip of the ink around the top of your pearl or rhinestone for even coverage Colour it with as many different colours as you like, and once they are dry the adhesive still sticks so apply them to your work

Here are a couple of layouts where I have added my coloured pearls

By the way I hope you have all had a fabulous Australia Day and did something Australian, we headed out to a beach for some chips with the Seagulls and I am about to spark up the BBQ for dinner, YUMMO!!

Thanks for popping by, dont forget to say 'Hi'

Anthea

Pregnancy Journal post 1

As you may be aware i have recently found out that i am pregnant, so from here on in i will be completing a pregnancy journal and uploading the many pages to the Scraploot blog and to the gallery... So i guess you have no other choice but to join me as the drama of this wonderful pregnancy unfolds and hopefully i will give you some inspiration and some techniques to use on your scrapbooking projects as well ;o)

Today i am going to share with you the cover and page one

This gorgeous album actually came with the two little windows cut out which i thought was quite cute!!


1. measure and cut the blue sheet of paper to fit the album. Ink and adhere the blue sheet of paper onto the album, making sure to cut the window holes out precisely


2. cut the patterned paper to the same measurements as the blue paper. Trace the window holes but instead of cutting the windows out precisely, measure a few centimeters in at each edge and cut. Then make a diagonal cut from the corners you have just cut to the corners that you drew when tracing the window holes


3. using your fingernails (or a ruler) to score your patterned bending the paper up. Run your fingernail the whole length of the paper gently lifting it as you go. Next roll the paper back and forth with your fingers creating a rolled effect, do not worry about the paper tearing as this just adds to the effect. Complete for each edge, and ink gently over the top to finish. Adhere over the blue piece of paper, taking care to leave the edges free






4. Embellish


As you can see you could use this technique for any album of your choice. You could create a mini album on your goals and update the album as you strive to complete them, a weight loss journal, study journal, your child's first year .... the list is endless and because they are mini albums they take such a small amount of time to do!!!!


ill leave you with page one of my album
Journaling reads: i guess it all started with me feeling tired. I had constant stomach cramps and of course sore breasts. I think if i had the dreaded morning sickness we probably would have figured it out sooner but it wasn't until i described my symptoms out loud that we thought that there could be a possibility... What topped it off was me finishing my sentence with "its almost like there is a ball of something hiding in my stomach" That was realisation time, we looked at each other knowing that the next step would be The Test!

Thanks for reading and i hope you got something out of this post

take care Jode

The year that was 2008

I love to review the year. It is great fun going through the photos taken, reading the calendar and reviewing my blog to put the memories of the year together. Since 2003 I have done this on a layout. I enjoy recording the events in our lives, along with Australian and world news events.

Kaiser have made these great albums that are 6x6 inches and have the year on them, so I had a ball reviewing 2008 and putting it all in this special album.

Materials:
Kaiser album
Kaiser ‘What a HOOT’ papers
Making Memories ‘celery’ paint
Hambly transparency.
Cardstock
Book rings
Ribbon
2 Crafty chipboard tree
7 Gypsies ‘memories’ sticker sheet.

Preparation:
Paint the edges of the album celery green.
Stamp over the numerals using a large background stamp.
Please click on the photos for a larger view.Journaling ideas
In the album I have used 3 types of journaling - Our family overview of the year, personal overview of Max, Darren and I over the year and world and Australian news.Our family overview of the year
The busy year, the year that flew by, I think I blinked and I missed it!
We attended 2 weddings, many children’s birthdays, a 30th, IDOL parties, a demolition party and spent many weekends BBQing and catching up with friends.
Kirsten ended her tour of Sydney and returned to England on the 6th Jan., I really missed our house guest and wished we lived closer to each other. Summer was spent in the pool, when we could as it seemed the drought broke in February as there was a lot of rainfall.
Darren worked his 5th year at MIDAS concord and had to work way too hard. He did lots of gas conversions and baby seats, Dave was sacked and Daz put on an apprentice. I worked 4 days at Bonnyrigg public school. My wonderful 1/2H were beautiful children, it was a great year in the classroom. I cherished Thursdays each week, shopping, taking Max to swimming lessons and ironing/cleaning. Max spent two days a week with my mum and two days with Linda. He had a ball everyday. We also lost our dogs, Pebbles to an eye tumor in August and Bronte in November to a brain tumor. They were both 9 years old. We continued the journey of trying to fall pregnant! Cheers to 2008….the year that was!

Here is my personal overview
Toured Sydney with Kirsten.
Renovated the scrap/computer room.
Taught the wonderful 1/2H.
Went away on 2 scrapbook weekends
Had day surgery.
Attended 2 photography classes.
Had a few girls nights out.
Turned 32.
Still obsessed by scrapbooking.
Got a GHD.
Loved walking with Jelena
Had acupuncture.
Loved watching reality TV.
Saw Mamma Mia in Gold Class.
Got a Pandora bracelet.
Joined “Slice of Life”.
Loved blog surfing and my forum friends.

the world and at home….
Kevin Rudd said SORRY to the Aboriginal people.
Thousands of pilgrims came to Sydney to meet the pope

economic crisis - HIGH interests rates

we lost Heath Ledger, Kerryn McCann and Jane McGrath

the Olympics in China rocked - Aussies won 17 GOLD.
Michael Phelps- 8 Gold Medals at one Olympics.

Obama WINS!!!!!!

Underbelly A hit for channel 9

Pregnant man.

Hollywood writers strikeNicole Kidman and Keith Urban had a baby girl.

Bart Cummings won a 12th Melbourne cup

These albums also come in 2009, so grab one today and start preparing ahead too.

Simply Cardstock

Using just cardstock can be an effective background for your layouts, as it allows you to place emphasis on your photos, you can highlight the subject in your photo by choosing colours similiar to what they are wearing or make the background standout by choosing colours that match the background.

The simplicity of cardstock used as the dominant colour and as the secondary and accent colours can make your layout stylish and fresh looking.

Another reason to just use coloured cardstock for your layouts is that sometimes its just to difficult to find a patterned paper that matches your photos. Scraploot carries a wide variety of bazzil cardstock for you to choose from see here

Finally it allows your to play around with your embellishments and these too can be emphasised.

Boys will be boys
The redish bazzil cardstock places an emphasis on my son, other goodies include 7 gypsies 97% complete stickers and words here

Our connection
Here I have chosen to use white and aqua cardstock and not the purple, as purple is one of my least favourite colours, even though there is only a smidgen of aqua in the photo I thought it worked well and gave the feeling of calmness to the layout. The heading is a combo of American Craft thickers see here and I got to use my favourite ribbon from Carolees creations the turquoise floral flourish here , finally the flowers are from green tara here

1st bath

Here I have used two shades of aqua cardstock as my background and then mounted my photo on the flesh coloured card to emphasis my son, again I have used the floral flourish ribbon from Carolees creations as well as American craft glitter thickers here and 7 gypsies 97% stickers see link above.

Waterfun

Here I have placed equal emphasis on both my son and the wall by using similiar coloured cardstock, as both things are needed to tell the story. Again I have used American craft thickers and 7 Gypsies 97% word stickers, there are so many different themes of these you will be able to find a set that suits you.

Daddy

My final layout Daddy is a very stylish layout. Using dark brown cardstock as your background colour always grounds your layout and allows you to use lighter and brighter colours in the foreground .The variety of colours and styles of American craft thickers also allows you to easily match them to your cardstock.

I hope I have given you a different perspective on choosing cardstock for your layouts, happy creating.

Kim

A very happy new year to you all!!

Wowee can you believe that's another year gone?.....and in true fashion I'm yet to scrap even half of my photo's!!

But I have had the scrapping bug lately which has brought me back to using paint on my layouts & I'd just like to share a few tips & techniques with you all.

A few different ways to use paint on your layouts.........

On this first layout I have used my Making memories foam stamps which have been one of my favourite stamps to use over the years. I like to use a paint brush to apply the paint to my stamps as this gives a nice even coat when stamping. I drew a 3inch circle underneath my photo & worked my way around it using the same stamp & applying paint each time I stamped. I used this pattern as a Matt for my photo. I highlighted some of the stamped images using a white gel marker around the edges.
I also used Making memories paint which Sue & Craig have a wonder range of colours in the shop.

Another way to use paint on your lo is to grab a dry brush & dab it in your paint, now on a spare piece of paper dab it a few times to use any excess up as you just want a light effect, now using long straight swipes work around the edges of your page to create a border. I find using this technique helps to draw your page together & helps highlight your main stamping.

This is another page I have been working on with paint & it was a little hard to photograph but I have cut a triangle shape out of my Sassafras pattern paper & using the dry brush & paint technique I created a frame around the triangle edge before I placed some coordinating paper underneath.I then trimmed the triangle and using GD pop up dots placed the triangle back in creating a border for my journaling.

I've also used paint underneath this stamped image on a transparency to give a clearer view of it on the busy pattern paper.

Well I'm hoping some of you may find these techniques useful & Id love to see what you may come up with if you upload them into our Scraploot gallery .

I'd just like to wish you all a safe & creative New Year & may all your dreams be embellished ones!!

Until next time

Kylie :)

Heidi Swapp has been to Scraploot...

The gorgeous wonderful Heidi Swapp offically opened Scraploot last thursday night... wow she is the most inspirational person i have ever met... she is just gorgeous and speaks so well espcially about things that you can all relate to....

The poor girl had so many photos taken LOL but she didnt mind at all....

Michelle Sultana was the lucky winner to get her photo scrapped of her gorgeous daughter Katelyn... the page turned out beautiful.

Heidi officially opened the shop by signing and placing a large clock in the Heidi Swapp corner (she was even brave enough to climb up the ladder LOL)... thanks to Michelle for organising the clock...
We ate pink lemingtons, pink musk sticks and drank pink champagne...the dress code for the night was to wear pink and Sandra went all out... we all loved her tshirt that she decorated and wore....All of us here at Scraploot would like to say a huge huge thank you to Heidi and Chanel for taking the time to come to sydney and help us celebrate the opening of the shop... we appreciate it so much and will remember this always....

Santa Mini Album...

Firstly congrats to Kim - Larsen is just GORGEOUS...I hope he is being a good boy!

Well here is a quick and fun gift or momento to make using the Kaiser Craft SANTA wooden album. These are so easy to whip up!

1. First, cover the front of each "letter page" using the delish new Kaiser Craft christmas papers. You apply dimensional magic or a similar adhesive and spead it all over - right up to the edges.
2. Next place your paper on the glue and smooth out. Allow to dry thoroughly.

3. Cut away excess paper with a sharp craft knife.

4. Paint the reverse side of each letter page. 6. After the paint dries line up the "pages" to arrange the photo order and play with embellishments.

These albums are a great way to use up paper scraps, flowers, buttons, brads...and don't forget to cut out images from your patterned papers.7. Once all your photos and embellishments have been stuck down you simply assemble the album with rings and add some ribbons and ric- rac to finish off!
It really is personal choice as to which side/s you decide to add photos and of course the types of embellishments to use. The possibilites are endless! Here are some of my "pages".

WISHING YOU ALL A VERY SAFE AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Melis xx

Larsen Allen

Hi all, just thought id post a photo of my new little one Larsen Allen Jeffress.

Born 3rd December, weighing 3.186 kgs. We are both doing well. My first son Addison adores him. Ive got the photos, ive got the papers , now to find the time to scrapbook him , i hope to start asap

kim

Congratulations

Everyone here at Scraploot would like to congratulate our Design Team member Kylie Fraser for getting an Honourable mention in this years Scrapbooking Memories Masters.

Congrats Kylie...

Tree Decoration

So this week I thought I would show you a nice idea for a tree decoration, this one is great for getting the kids to help out with too. I spied something similar in a magazine a couple of years back and had been wanting to give it a go myself. I have only 1 example to show you, but there are many possibilities that you could do too.

So you start out with some of these baubles, I picked these up from Spotlight in a pack of 6. Here is where you can really let the imagination run wild. I have cut up some strips of patterned paper (scraps are PERFECT) and then rolled them up tightly, I made these last year with my middle son, he was sick at the time but happy to help me roll up the strips of paper.
Then put them into the baubles.
Then I put in some small buttons and some beads.
And that's it, simple, and fun and looks great on the tree (excuse the bad photo is is overcast here today)

I have had some other ideas too when it come to filling these little beauties up, Small photos with some buttons and beads would also look amazing, or a diecut Christmas themed shape too, I also have some baubles on my tree that have some tinsel in it. I guess you are limited to sizes, but so long as it can be rolled up it can fit in here.

Oh and a little tip, don't leave these little beauties near the bottom of the tree, cause I learnt the hard way that it isn't fun cleaning up 100's of little beads after a almost 18 month old finds these 'interesting' lol

Well this is the last of my blog updates till next year (I cant believe I am saying that!!) We are off on a little family holiday up north to spend Christmas with my inlaws, (after Heidi Swapp of course!) so Merry Christmas to you all from me, I hope it is a safe and happy time for all of you. Remember if driving, drive safe! and I will 'see' you all in the new year.

Anthea