Colourblast!: September 2012

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Stop and smell the roses

Do you have a spring in your step at springtime? I love spring and we're making this page in class next week.

It has feathers on it! And some other finds from the kitchen, just for the fun of it.

I remember nibbling on a rose-scented bar of soap as a kid, because I wanted to see if it tastes like roses. When my dad saw the teeth mark I thought I'd be in trouble, but he laughed and admitted that he had done the same as a boy!

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Christmas, all cheery and bright - and quick too

First of all, I can't believe that I am doing a Christmas post in September! But some of you like to get started early on cards and there are new Christmas papers at my2angels I want to show you. It is the new Mint Twist range from Kaisercraft, perfect for those of us who prefer a bit of bright and cheery to muted and old fashioned.

All I had was 1/2 sheet of this Mint Twist Jingle paper and I managed to get 3 cards out of that plus a few embellies.

If you are in a hurry, you can cut out the tags from the paper and use them as they are, but I like to always add a bit to it.

For the first card I stamped leaves into the tag to fill it out a little more and did some hand stitching with the Sew Easy tool and the Flourish head, plus 3 washi tape flags.

The Christmas bauble got a glass cabochon to make it 3D (use Dimensional Magic to glue it on) and 2 white bows.

The next card has a giant mulberry flower for a bit of background texture. I could have sprayed it with glimmer mist, but decided to leave it all white so the cute tag will stand out.

I made 3 different frames: 2 rows of sewing, a rhinestone chain and spots using Liquid Pearls.

The sweet little pink present charming chain adds just enough wow factor. They come in different colours, too. I popped a little pink bow on top.

These bow packs are great for having a bunch of mini bows on hand whenever I need one.

The last card has 3 layered tags from the same Jingle paper

and I finished it with some cotton lace, red velvet ric rac, baker's twine and a present charm with 2 small leaves. This card was really quick to make cause I was running out of time before school pick up. I reckon you could make 10 of those in an hour.

I hope you got some Christmas inspiration. It's always a good idea to start cards early so you don't run out of time.

Geli

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Our street

Remember the days when kids played on the street? When I was little, we lived on a very quiet street and played there all the time. My kids aren't as lucky as we live on a busy road, on the other side of the world.

We're doing this page in class next week, so I won't be giving away all my tricks, but have some sneaks anyway.

Most of the flowers I used are available at my2angels:

a giant white flower, which I embossed:

rose buds and cherry blossoms (both available in several colours), mini mulberry leaves (available in white) and the dots are made with Liquid Pearls:

(Yes, it's mini me again.)

A bit of scrunched up muslin and some dry embossing:

The journalling says, "Yes, we had potholes and crummy Trabbi cars in our street, but this will always be home to me. Here we played ball games, elastics, hopscotch, stilts and roller skates."

Cheers, Geli

Create an album with me - part 10

This is my last page for my Russian album and it's ready to be mailed off. There are lots of photos left, but they will go on a CD in a pocket at the end.

This last page has a hidden photo, which is a great technique for private photos, or like in my case, really goofy ones. Simply pull on the tag...

...and another photo swings out:

This sort of photo happens when you wait around at a tiny deserted train station in the Urals....

First, you will need 2 photos in the same size and direction. Create a mat under the main photo to give your secret photo a place to hide. Mine is 3 1/2 x 9" and the flower strip is 1 1/4 x 12". I just used some of the leftover papers.

The 2 photos are attached at the top right corner (main photo) and the bottom right corner (hidden photo). Here is how it will look from the back.

Put a strip of sticky tape along one side of the main photo, close to the edge and line up the hidden photo so it butts up against it. This will stop it from swinging out too far.

Punch a hole through both photos for a brad. The brad needs to be fairly loose for maximum swinging action, so put 2 layers of scrap cardstock under the legs when you open them up and then remove the cardstock:

Add a tag and you're ready to swing!

(I later sprayed the patterned paper with some white mist to tone down the colours a little)

Now on to the background. This masking technique will work with any stamps you want to layer in different colours. First stamp a few random tags. Stamp 2 more on a post it note and cut them out carefully, just outside the edge. They will be your masks.

Stick them over 2 of the tags on the background...

... and stamp over it with a background stamp in a contrasting colour. There are many wonderful background stamps to be found in the stamps section at my2angels and these distress inks work great for nice crisp images.

Peel the masks off and repeat all around the edge of the cardstock.

Now you can add your photo mat, but be careful not to glue down the main photo on any part where the hidden photo needs to swing out from. In my case it meant leaving most of the left half of the photo and the mat glue-less.