Simple Scrapper | August 2015

02 Friday Oct 2015

Posted by Sara in Mixed Media, Simple Scrapper

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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

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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

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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

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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

Always Remember | My Favourite Things 2015

11 Wednesday Mar 2015

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

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Classes, Mixed Media Layout, My Favourite Things

In 2009 (I believe) I went to the owners of The Paperie and asked to teach a yearlong class – one that people would sign up and commit to for an entire year, once a month. Although I’m sure they were more than a little hesitant, they went for it. I’ve been teaching the Yearlong Album class ever since.

If you ask anyone from the original class most will probably say it was their favourite one. I was into some basic mixed media back then, when it wasn’t the popular thing to do and it was much harder to get product, and boy, did we have fun playing! That first year it was a small 8×8 album, if I remember correctly, and we used every single little bit in our kits. Right down to the paper pad cover and sticker sheet leftovers. We literally had nothing left. It was actually kind of stressful for me, lol!

We moved onto a 12×12 LO plus pocket page system the next year. Then an 8.5×11 album. 2013 was all mixed media and last year it was sketch based. 5 years of albums and photos. And I loved every minute of it!

But it was time for a change so this year the class has been overhauled. It’s now called My Favourite Things and that’s exactly what it is – all my favourite items, techniques, and stuff! Plus, you no longer have to commit for a full year; it’s month to month so it works better for those people who travel or know they’re going to miss a bunch of classes. We’re also focusing on journaling and how I add it in, since I hate doing it! What hasn’t changed are the awesome people (thank you to all of you who have stuck with me from the beginning, or who have come back after taking a break, or who are brand new this year) and the fun times we have in class. Plus, there’s new product, and what’s more fun than tearing into a brand new package of stuff? Nothing!

The first 2015 class was last month and we played with one of my top 3 faves – Distress Inks!

Our cover page used one of my favourite colours in the Distress line, Evergreen Bough, and a wet on wet watercolour technique.

We added lots of layers with some October Afternoon speech balloon and label diecuts:

Some shine with Studio Calico silver star rub-ons:

And a bit of bling with embossing powders on the Thickers:

The layouts were made with the use of Distress Ink though a stencil and then more ink through another stencil layered over the first:

My journaling trick here was to use a quote – I do that all the time! Google is my friend!

We also used hidden journaling here, written on one of the speech balloons and tucked in the top corner:

The second layout used the same techniques but we added in some drips too – I love drips!

The water and stencil layering, plus a glitter pen and some enamel elements added lots of texture:

So we’re off to a good start! If you want to join us anytime, just give The Paperie a call and they’ll sign you up. If you want sneaks of what’s coming up in class, I try to post them to Instagram with #FaveThings2015. I’m still debating exactly what we’re doing this month but I’m leaning heavily towards alcohol inks!

Cheers!

Simple Scrapper | March 2015

04 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by Sara in Mixed Media, Simple Scrapper

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Mixed Media Layout, Simple Scrapper

Back again with more for Simple Scrapper! I say it every month but really, they team outdid themselves and I love this company more and more all the time. Amazing people, super talented Creative Team, and fabulous product. Case in point, I did an entire LO in twenty minutes this month – trust me, that’s a bonafide miracle!

My Story Starter this month – the theme is You’ve Got Mail (social media/technology) – uses an old film pic from waaaaay back. It’s my friend Karen and I doing the “laundry room dance” on some street in Winnipeg. Those were fun times!

I made this one on a sheet that I had used for cleaning off my stencils after using them on another project. Between that and the kraft doily, there’s some awesome texture going on!

My template LO from this month is one of my favourites in a long time – and it’s the one that only took 20 minutes!

Of course, using my all time favourite Balzer Designs stencil and one of my fave colours for the background helps, but really, this one is all about that picture. Gabe draws one of him and I every time the windows fog up and I love them!

I pretty much emptied a whole pack of puffy stickers from Freckled Fawn for the embellishments and added their enamel hearts and a few cork hearts as well:

To see what the rest of the Creative Team has designed, check out the Gallery and the Pinterest page – lots of eye candy! And to see what’s going on at Simple Scrapper this month, check out our page for March (the gallery is here too!). Want more inspiration? Here’s the Gallery Archives!

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 | February 2015

03 Tuesday Mar 2015

Posted by Sara in Mixed Media, Simple Scrapper

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Mixed Media Layout, Simple Scrapper

I’ve been missing in action. It’s that time of year when I’m cold and completely, utterly, totally sick of winter and I just want to hibernate until spring. You know, blah time. Ick.

But this past weekend was my birthday and we celebrated in grand style which kind of pulled me out of the winter doldrums. And I’m back, very late, but back with February’s Simple Scrapper Creative Team work. Check back tomorrow for the March layouts!

The first is inspired by February’s Story Starters – the theme was What Kind of Day Has it Been.

The fun part of this one is where the journaling is. I’m sure most of you know by now that I”m not a journaler and when I am, I usually hate having it actually on my layouts. So for this one I used the perforating blade on my Cutterpede:

And wrote the journaling on the back of the photo mat!

Come on now! How much fun is that! It’s especially awesome if you have a lot to say, or something personal to say, and nowhere to put it on the main layout.

I finished it off with some doodling and embellishments at the top. I covered the heart stickers in Rock Candy Distress Stickles for a little shine:

My second layout used one of February’s new Premium Membership templates and a background I made while prepping for a class I taught a while ago. I keep all those backgrounds and either cut them up for embellishments or use them on later projects, like this one:

I typed up my journaling (yes, it’s on the front for once!) which is actually a couple of quotes I combined, and then used silver Thickers for a couple of the words to make my title. My favourite part is the silver snowflake:

I had some silver doilies on hand and used my scissors and a decorative corner punch to turn it into a snowflake embellishment! Simple, but I love how it turned out!

If you want access to your own inspiration, including five new templates, 12 new Story Starters, and a full length e-magazine every month, plus all the previous templates, Story Starters, and magazines, go sign up for a membership. Trust me, totally worth every penny!

Cheers,

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

December and Final Page | YLA2014

13 Friday Feb 2015

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mixed Media, ScrapBook, Yearlong Album

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Mixed Media Layout, Prima Color Bloom, Yearlong Album, YLA2014

This is it! The last Yearlong album class ever and the last LO’s for 2014.

This one used loads of Simple Stories stickers for the banners along the top:

And the words along the bottom:

And the circles around the photos:

Then we finished everything off with October Afternoon chipboard stars and gold mist spatter:

The last page of the album mimicked the first with the paper choices and colours:

But we added in a subtle crayon resist with Prima Color Bloom spray:

And we used the spray for regular misting plus a spatter effect:

And that’s it! I filled two complete albums, which means I need to do another cover page and final page, but there is another year in the books.

I’m super excited and stoked for the new class this year, My Favourite Things. I’ll be posting sneaks on Instagram and Twitter with #FaveThings2015 and there’s already a couple there, like this one:

Hope to see some of you there, it’s going to be awesome!

Cheers!

November | YLA2014

11 Wednesday Feb 2015

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mixed Media, ScrapBook, Yearlong Album

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Mixed Media Layout, Yearlong Album, YLA2014

We’re almost at the end of this album and for once I thought I’d do a fairly monochromatic layout. There is a bit of colour but it’s all fairly light and tone on tone.

There is a super fun, and messy, technique on this one using stickles. If you look closely you can see glitter all around the small squares I punched out – Stickles!

I love the sparkle it brings, highlighting just those pieces. Of course, I did go in with my favourite Sakura Stardust pen to outline the title and chipboard hearts, plus add some shimmer to the wood veneer stars – you can’t have too much sparkle after all!

Cheers!