Foxy Guy | My Favourite Things 2015

09 Friday Oct 2015

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mixed Media, My Favourite Things

Tags

Derwent Inktense Pencils, Mixed Media Layout, My Favourite Things

Yeah. So…. I’m waaaaaay behind in posting the Fave Things LO’s. Sorry. 😦 The nice thing for all of you is that there will be a whole bunch in a row which means lots of awesome inspiration – yay!

The class we did in June featured Derwent Inktense pencils. If you haven’t tried these yet, they’re incredible! They’re watercolour pencils but better. The lead is ink based and so the colours are super vibrant and blend really well when wet.

We coloured over some dried texture paste and misted water to blend. We followed that up with layers of paper, drywall tape, and cheesecloth. I love how the title turned out – black marker covered with Sakura Clear Stardust pen for shimmer:

The second LO was very similar, though the placement of the elements was different. The big difference here was the way we used the pencils. Instead of just misting and letting them run, we misted and used our fingers to blend the colours together more smoothly, leaving less pencil marks on the paste.

We had some fabulous chipboard stars from Bella Blvd. as our embellishments this month and I love them!

Adding a bit of white paint pen to each really makes them pop as well! The star sequins were added because, of course, I need a bit of sparkle and shine on my layouts!

See you Monday with the next set – they’re all about Prima Color Bloom Sprays!

Cheers!

Simple Scrapper | October 2015

07 Wednesday Oct 2015

Posted by Sara in Mixed Media, ScrapBook, Simple Scrapper

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Tags

Distress Ink, Mixed Media Layout, Simple Scrapper

Yay, I’m all caught up! Whew! 🙂

I had fun with this month’s LO’s – the templates and Story Starters were, as always (I know I say it every month) fabulous! Jennifer and her Team behind the scenes knock it out if the park each month with the templates. Although I’m not a digital scrapper, I love that they come as a sketch and also as a layered Photoshop template; it means I can use pieces on my traditional layouts too.

For my Story Starter LO this month I used a fun picture of my scrappy friends and I at a Retreat our local scrapbooking store, The Paperie, puts off twice a year. It’s an awesome time – 4 nights and 4 days at a hotel with great people. Sometimes we get lots of stuff done, other times, well, we just have fun and relax! A few retreats ago the store started bringing props for pics and we have taken full advantage!

It may have been fairly late and there *may* have been some wine involved. Just saying….. 🙂

I had fun with Distress Inks and water to make the background panel and then used OCtober Afternoon plus several colours of Kelly Purkey alpha stickers for the title work:

One of my favourite tricks is to outline letters with a black pen to make them pop out against a busy background. It’s amazing the difference it makes!

My template LO has lots of white space but still uses lots of paper – a great way to use up those favourite bits and pieces you might have left over.

Some epoxy Freckled Fawn hearts and Amy Tangerine alphas gave it some shine, and a wash of watery Distress Ink grounded the whole piece. And then I just layered and layered paper scraps that I had distressed:

And there they are! Make sure you take a look at my sidebar for links to the rest of the Team and see what they did this month. You can also check out our Pinterest page for a quick overview!

I’ll be back Friday with some My Favourite Things LO’s – we did some fun techniques over the summer!

Cheers!

The Premium Membership at Simple Scrapper provides skills and shortcuts to help you simplify and find more meaning in your memory keeping.

Simple Scrapper | September 2015

05 Monday Oct 2015

Posted by Sara in Mixed Media, ScrapBook, Simple Scrapper

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Distress Ink, Mixed Media Layout, Perfect Pearls, Ranger, Simple Scrapper

Back, as promised, with more Simple Scrapper LO’s today! These are using the September Premium Membership materials – both templates and Story Starters.

I used a fun Distress Ink and Perfect Pearls technique on both my LO’s this month – they’re super shimmery and colourful in real life!

One of the slight twists I used this month was with the doilies – I layered two and flipped one backwards so it has just a subtle pink tint coming through. The white wasn’t quite right, the red was too deep and the pink I had wasn’t the right shade. Flipping the red doily over worked perfectly!

I used my favourite Amy Tangerine Kraft Thickers for the title and added some detail to those and the cork hearts with my white paint pen:

The Story Starter LO has this year’s annual cabin pic of my kiddos and my best friend’s kiddos – she added an extra one to the mix this summer!

Every summer we spend two weekends at our family cabin with this crazy crowd and have the time or our lives! Unfortunately we missed a weekend this year because I was delayed due to weather on my way home from Mexico. I’m not complaining – we got four more days of sun and got to see some family during our stopover – but I did miss our second weekend together.

I punched circles from a previously made watercolour background paper and added wood veneer chevrons that had been coloured with a Sakura Stardust pen:

I don’t have a decent picture of the border, but I simply drew two lines and scribbly doodled in between to frame out the piece.

And that’s it! Check back Wednesday for the October LO’s using the all new materials from Simple Scrapper. Also, don’t forget to take a look at the 2016 planner Jennifer has designed – it’s really awesome and it comes in five different sizes!

As always, if you have any questions about how I did something, just ask and I’ll try to answer. If you want to know pretty much exactly how I made the shimmery background, check out this video from Jennifer McGuire!

Cheers!

The Premium Membership at Simple Scrapper provides skills and shortcuts to help you simplify and find more meaning in your memory keeping.

Simple Scrapper | August 2015

02 Friday Oct 2015

Posted by Sara in Mixed Media, Simple Scrapper

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Mixed Media Layout, Simple Scrapper

Hello….. hello…. Anyone still out there?

I know, it’s been three months – I’m the worst blogger ever. 😦 It was a busy and fun summer (check out my Instagram* if you want a quick overview!) and September has been all about settling back into school and routines. Plus, we actually had some amazing weather so I’ve been outside as much as possible. But now, now I’m ready to get back at it here!

I’ve still been teaching my monthly class, My Favourite Things, and I’m still designing for Simple Scrapper so I actually have lots to share and catch up on! I’ll be loading you up on Simple Scrapper the next few posts to get you up to date and then I’ll share my Fave Things LO’s. After that, I have a few more bits and pieces you might like!

Ok, August Simple Scrapper LO’s! My Story Starter LO featured a picture of Molly and her good friend who moved away – this was taken the day before they left and is one of my all time favourite pictures. They loved each other so much and we miss them like crazy!

I used two sets of black foam Thickers in order to highlight certain words of the quote and I love how it turned out. I also used my all time favourite stencil – Blazonry by Balzer Designs – and highlighted the texture of the paste with Prima ColorBloom sprays and sprinkles of gold embossing powder.

My template LO used a brand new picture of Darrell and I. We have very, very few pictures but to celebrate our tenth anniversary we finally took a trip together, along with friends who were also celebrating. While we were in Mexico we had a photo session and actually got some pictures of us!

I kept it all pretty simple but added some wood veneer hearts and iridescent sequins to the photo itself:

And then did the same around the rest of the LO:

As always, the Team did a spectacular job – I love how all our styles are so different! – so if you want to check out what they did, take a look at our Pinterest page. Also, Jennifer has a new planner she’s designed up at Simple Scrapper. Trust me, I’m not the planner type and this even looks good to me! And if you’ve tried and been a “planner flunkie” before, she can help!

Stop back Monday for the September LO’s! I’m hoping to get back on track now and have new content here Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Of course, you know me, let’s just see how long that lasts, lol!

Cheers!

The Premium Membership at Simple Scrapper provides skills and shortcuts to help you simplify and find more meaning in your memory keeping.

*My Instagram account is a bit of everything in my daily life – not nearly so crafty as this blog but full of fun little odds and ends!

Da Bomb!

24 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by Sara in Mixed Media, ScrapBook

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

American Crafts, drywall tape, Mixed Media Layout, Studio Calico

Another LO that I did at The Paperie retreat – this one has a fuzzy, but funny, pic from that weekend and a phrase Cathy and I seemed to toss around a lot over those few days:

I used some awesome silver molding paste over a stencil for the background and then layered my photo over silver thread and drywall tape for texture. I love how versatile drywall tape is! I’ve used it for texture on canvases, photo mats, as a stencil, and just as an embellishment:

To finish it off, I heat embossed silver powder over Thickers and added a whole pack of Studio Calico cork stars, as well as a few Freckled Fawn enamel stars – I’m fully embracing the “use it all” mentality!

I’m sure you can probably tell, but it was pretty late at night when we took this picture and there may *cough, cough* have been a little bit of wine involved! what happens at the Wilds….. 🙂

We be Crazy!

09 Tuesday Jun 2015

Posted by Sara in Mixed Media, ScrapBook

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8.5x11 layout, Mixed Media Layout, Prima Color Bloom

Way back in April I went to the Paperie’s 20th retreat. 20th!!!! We had a blast, and did crazy things, and made fun stuff, and learned cool techniques, and bought lots of new product, and drank Bailey’s at 5am (ok, that may or may not have been just me, in my tea). Anyway, it was good.

And here’s something I made! The retreats are really one of the only times in the year that I make LO’s just for me with no Creative Team or class deadlines in view. It’s when I get to play and go nuts. So I did!

I love this insanely bad camera phone pic of Molly, Gabe, and so I turned it B&W to offset the terrible colour and so that I could use any and all colours I wanted. I also took a whole pack of diecuts and layered the heck out of them!

For the background I smeared paste over a stencil and overheated it to make it puffy. I sprayed lots of Prima ColorBloom over and let it drip.

Love the texture and subtle shimmer – so much fun! And those yellow foam alphas? They make me all kinds of happy. 🙂

Cheers!

Snuggle Bunny | My Favourite Things 2015

02 Tuesday Jun 2015

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mixed Media, My Favourite Things, ScrapBook

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Balzer Designs, Color Lab, Marion Smith Designs, Mixed Media Layout, My Favourite Things, The Crafter's Workshop

This month was packed with two Fave Things classes. The second one introduced a fun new product that I’m loving these days – Color Lab by Marion Smith Designs . If you’re new to mixed media, a fan of mists, want something easy and portable for crops or traveling or just want more colour options then this is the product for you! The class peeps loved it and had an awesome time picking out their colour recipes.

First up, we made mist and sprayed the background. Then we made coloured paste and made the layer under the photos. Next we heat embossed gold (or silver on the second LO) over Ranger Texture Paste. Finally, we added some awesome rubons and metallic thread. Layers, layers, layers!!!

Look at that texture and all the fun bits! Love it!

For a bit of a change, I went with green and silver here, with the same base mist colour.

And look at the sparkle on those alphas! I kind of liked them a lot. 🙂

I have some fun ideas for the next class – thinking cheesecloth, drywall tape, and watercolour pencils….. Should be fun!

Cheers!

Beanie Baby | My Favourite Things 2015

14 Thursday May 2015

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mixed Media, My Favourite Things, ScrapBook

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Distress Ink, Mixed Media Layout, My Favourite Things, Ranger

One of my all time favourite products are the Ranger Distress Inks. I use them all. the. time. And one of my favourite ways to use them is as if they were watercolours. And look at how gorgeous that works out::

I added some awesome Amy Tangerine Thickers directly on the photo for the title:

And on both LO’s I added tons of stars, sequins, and gems:

The second LO uses the same technique but the placement was quite different:

I still used the Thickers and coloured them with my Sakura Clear Stardust pen for some shimmer:

And for both LO’s, I added hidden journaling behind the photo:

As always this year, the pictures are black and white for a couple of reasons:

1. I like the look of black and white these days, and

2. I can use whatever colours strike my fancy to make my backgrounds.

We have another class next week and will be using an awesome new product! Make sure you check back for those layouts!

Cheers,

Sara

Simple Scrapper | May 2015

04 Monday May 2015

Posted by Sara in Mixed Media, ScrapBook, Simple Scrapper

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Mixed media, Photo Crush, Simple Scrapper

Yes, I’m the worst blogger in the world lately, I know! But I have eye candy today, plus a new FREE class to tell you about (yup, I said free!), and I promise there’s lots more new stuff to share – I just need to get time to write it all up!

The LO I did from this month’s templates was full of inky, painty fun:

I took the sketch and sized it down, plus rotated it so it’s quite different from the original but still follows the template. I loved the title in the corner on the sketch:

Plus, look at the sparkle the sequins add!

My Story Starter LO uses a picture from a few years ago when Kelly Purkey came to teach a couple of classes here. Although it was freezing outside, we took her to Signal Hill for a jumping picture. This LO uses the template in a very different way – I sized it way down to about 6×6 and then matted it on a 12×12 background. I love how it turned out!

Since there was a story to be told that I want to remember, but I hate adding journaling on LO’s, I added some hidden journaling:

And I used up some flair badges and wood veneer I’ve been hoarding as well:

You should definitely check out the Simple Scrapper team on my sidebar and visit them today to see what the other girls have created – they are such an awesomely talented group!

Now, onto the free class I teased you about!

Jennifer has put together an amazing class called Photo Crush and this is what it’s all about:

7 Days to a Photo Library You Love

Are your photos disorganized? Fall head over heels for your digital photo library when you join simple memory keeping expert Jennifer S. Wilson in Photo Crush, a free week-long photo organization challenge May 11-17, 2015.

The membership at Simple Scrapper offers tools and support to help you enjoy scrapbooking more – to use the supplies you have, tell your stories, and have some fun among like-minded friends.

The best way to experience our community for yourself is at the upcoming Photo Crush event. During this 7-day challenge, Jennifer will help you streamline your photo library so that memory keeping is even easier.

Click here to sign up for FREE.

Seriously friends, this is going to be incredible! You’ll get your pictures organized, be able to find what you want when you want it, scrapbook easier, and it’s free! Go on, sign up now, I’ll wait…..

Ready? Good! I’ll see you there on the 11th!

Cheers!

The Premium Membership at Simple Scrapper provides skills and shortcuts to help you simplify and find more meaning in your memory keeping.

Just Cuz…

03 Friday Apr 2015

Posted by Sara in Guest Post, Mixed Media, Tutorials

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Mixed media, Scrapbook Layout, Tutorial

Edit: The post is up now!

When I first started blogging I used to do a weekly series called Tuesday Techniques. I loved it but it was super time-consuming and I just couldn’t keep up. So they stopped. However, those posts are still my most visited and pinned, by far and that’s why this post should make many of you very happy. 🙂

Sam, Brittany, and Sarah from DIY Just Cuz contacted me a little bit ago to ask if I’d consider doing a guest post for their Scrapbook Series. And then they gave me free rein, as long as I stuck to a current trend, or tip and tricks post. Seriously??? How could I turn that awesomeness down?

So head on over to DIY Just Cuz and check out my step by step tutorial for watercolour backgrounds. Then go take a look at the rest of their blog, it’s a ton of fun!

Cheers!