It's a Creative World

Be our guest ...... Fiona Beckman

We really are in for a special treat today as the uber talented and oh so nice Fiona Beckman has come to play.

So, over to Fiona ..........

A Customised T-shirt

I love the look of customised-style tshirts, especially for children.  You can buy some fabulous designs in the shops, but it's really easy to make your own, with the added bonus of their being complete originals.  I usually make sparkly glittery ones for my girls to wear, using beads and sequins, but on this occasion I've made a shirt with a baby boy in mind.

To make one of your own, you will need:

Plain t-shirt
Scrap of contrasting fabric
Bondaweb iron-on fabric adhesive
Iron
Damp cloth
Fabric paints (I've used Pebeo Setacolor, because they're fab!)
Large alphabet stamps - chunky is best
Silicone baking paper
Embroidery thread

First, decide on your design.  I had a star template handy, but if you are doing something different, sketch it out on paper first and make a template.  Draw onto the paper side of the Bondaweb, and roughly cut out.  I adore this iron-on adhesive - it stiffens the fabric enough to cut easily (or even to run through an Original Sizzix), and then "irons-on" to your project.  You can buy it in most haberdashery departments.

Heat up the iron - it needs to be hot and dry (ie switch off any steam setting).  I normally do all my craft ironing (honestly - it's the only kind of ironing I do.....) on a heat-proof cloth on the kitchen worktop - it's much more stable than an ironing board for pressing hard.  While it's warming up, lightly iron your T-shirt and the fabric scrap so they are nice and smooth.  Turn the fabric over, and iron the Bondaweb onto it (follow the instructions on the packet).  Now cut out your design.

Remove the backing paper, and place the cutout onto your tshirt.  Cover with a damp cloth, and iron for 15 seconds or so, until the adhesive melts.  As it cools down, the glue will stick.

Now arrange your alphabet stamps where you want them on the design.  Once in position, pick them up with an acrylic block.  Mix up some fabric paint to the colour you want - I've used blue with a shimmering yellow, to make a green with a hint of glimmer.  I absolutely ADORE Pebeo fabric paints, and projects I've made in the past have washed and washed with absolutely no fading - if you are going to play at this game very often, they are well worth the investment.  However, if you already have a good selection of acrylic colours, it may be more economical to try a Fabric Medium.  I can't personally vouch for it, but I've heard this stuff turns any acrylic paint into fabric paint - ta-da!!

Stamp your letters onto the fabric, and allow to dry.  If it looks a bit dull (particularly on deep fabrics like this), you can touch up the design with a paint brush - the second coat will work wonders to bring up the colour.

   

Cover the painted letters with silicone paper and iron for a few minutes - keep the iron moving at all times to avoid burning.  A dark colour like this won't show much singeing, but I've been caught out before with white or cream fabrics - and it's nigh on impossible to get rid of a burn mark.

 

You *could* call the project finished if you want to stop here!  It already looks cool ;)  However, I find that the bondaweb wears better with a bit of stitching, and the painted letters then need a bit of lift to make them match properly.  So, bring out the embroidery floss....

A 6-stranded embroidery floss is best split into 2 lengths of 3-strands each - it makes for much tidier stitching.  A simple running stitch just inside the design border is all you need.  You could do back-stitch, but I usually do running stitch and go round twice to fill in the gaps - this uses less thread and keeps the back nice and flat.  Make sure you tidy up the ends of thread on the inside and make them secure, especially if it's for a baby.  For an older child, feel free to add beads, sequins, hot-fix crystals and what-have-you, but beware of choke/swallowing hazards with the tinies.

Give the shirt a final press to neaten up the stitching - this is best done with the silicone paper again.  If it's a gift, why not make a coordinating tag to let the new owner know that it didn't come from the shop looking this snazzy, and also informing them that it will wash at 40 deg, and should be ironed on reverse.

Thank you so much Fiona.  We can see lots of these being given for pressies in the near future.

If you've been inspired to design your own t shirts we'd love to see what you come up with.  Simply leave us a linkie dink and we'll pop by.



 

Be our guest ...... Jaffne

As you know we love having people over to play at It's a creative world and today we are joined by the lovely and uber-nimble fingered Jaffne.

I am totally in awe of Jaffne and her work so I shall hand you straight over to the lady herself.

My first craft-love (every since picking up a 5,000 strip pack and a Dryad leaflet as a 10 year old) is quilling. And I like to see how I can combine an ancient paper craft with more modern materials, so I’ve dabbled a bit with resin, and hope when you see what you can do that you feel inspired to play too!

 

 

What you’ll need:

Essential

• Shallowcast resin
• Catalyst
• Mixing container, with measurements on side if possible
• Mixing stick
• Heatproof mould (a specific shallowcast resin mould is best for this, but I’ve also experimented with ice cube trays and laboratory ‘dimple’ dishes)

Be aware, the mixing container and stick will get coated in resin and it may be impossible to remove, so don’t use your best equipment!

 

Optional

• Plastic dropper

Preparing

The resin will give out a lot of heat when it’s setting, so be aware that whatever mould or container you use will need to be heatproof. So no thin plastic moulds, unless you want melted mould and resin running all over the place!

 

Before you start, make sure that your work area is well covered, either with paper tissues, or some fabric that you’re happy to have resin embedded in for eternity. You might also want to consider wearing an apron over your clothes for the same reason – at least using it for this justifies my ownership of one!

 

Also, the resin mixing and curing process gives out a lot of fumes, which can be toxic. Only do this in a well ventilated area, which you can keep children and animals well away from!

Prepare the materials you want to embed by checking they’ll fit into the moulds – not only in width, but in depth. Bear in mind that the resin will be put into the moulds in two stages, and you will lose a small amount of the depth of the mould to the first layer. Once you’re sure your items will fit easily, you can start mixing the resin.

 

Resin

Stage One

Following the instructions on the resin, add the catalyst to the appropriate amount of resin, and mix carefully. Try not to introduce too many air bubbles into the resin mix, as they can be difficult to get out. When mixed, pour into the moulds you’ve selected for use. At this stage, you only want a small amount in the mould, to form a thin front on the final item. This thin layer will prevent the embedded bits and bobs from poking through the front surface, or all lying against the front, rather than ‘floating’ in the middle. If you find you have a lot of bubbles, tap the mould gently to encourage them to float to the surface, then using a lighter or match, hold this over the surface until the bubbles pop. The heat from the lighter makes the air inside the bubbles expand and pop!

Cover the moulds to prevent dust getting into the resin and leave to set. My resin instructions say for 15 minutes, but I found it was still tacky after that time, so I left the resin to set for 30 minutes.

 

 

 

Stage Two

Lay the pieces you want to embed on top of the dried resin in the moulds. Remember that you’re viewing the back of the piece, so put the front surface of the pieces face down, so the backs are facing you.

 

Mix another lot of resin, and pour into the moulds. If you find bubbles are a problem, use the lighter or match as detailed above. At this stage you can also put material on the back to provide a background. Tissue and crepe paper are good, but be aware that crepe paper leaks faint streams of colour into the resin. This can be a fun effect all by itself!

 

 

Cover the mould to stop dust getting in and leave overnight (resisting the temptation to touch it to check if it’s set!), and when set, turn mould upside down and tap / knock to make the resin piece drop out. They can be reluctant to leave the mould, so when I say ‘tap’, you might have to interpret that as ‘whack hard’ ;)

 

 

 

Final Pieces

When you have the completed pieces, there’s lots you can do with them. Drill holes for necklaces and earrings, attach to ring mounts to make rings, glue them onto surfaces as they are, lightly sand them for a seawashed, slightly opaque surface…what you do with them is only limited by your imagination - have fun!

 

 

 

And…things DO go wrong with this: my first attempts have quite a lot of bubbles in them. I’m happy enough with this (you’ll almost always end up with some amount of bubbles), but I’d advise practicing this a few times before embedding anything you’d be heartbroken about if it didn’t work out!

 

Wow, these are just fabulous, Jaffne, thank you so much for coming to play.

 

We'd love to see anything our readers come up with so please leave us a linkie dink and we'll pop by.  You know how nosey we are.

Be our guest ...... Scrapdolly

As you know we love having people over to play at It's a creative world and today we are joined by the lovely Scrapdolly.

This is a rather fabulous post so I shall hand you straight over to the lady herself.

I know many scrappers use sizzix dies and it seemed such a shame to throw away the plastic case the larger dies come in – so here is a way of making it a great case for a small accordion fold mini book. You can use any tin or plastic container, but the sizes given are for a large sizzix die case.

 

When making mini books it helps to tie a book together into a unified work, to use co-ordinating papers and embellishments. There are now so many makes on the market that are already co-ordinated that it seemed silly not to use them. I used the Skate Shoppe range by Basic Grey.

Mini books are also a great way of using up scraps and of playing with embellishments. I hope you have fun with this one and feel a sense of satisfaction at making something with a case you may well have thrown away.

 

 

Supplies

• Empty plastic sizzix case
• Alcohol inks in greens and blues
• I sheet of cardstock in olive green
• 4 sheets of Basic Grey Skate Shop papers
• Basic Grey letter stickers
• Basic Grey tag set
• 2 sheets of A4 white card
• I meter of ribbon
• 1 meter of velvet rikrak
• Chipboard letters or similar
• Embossing powders and inks
• Assorted brads and blossoms
• Corner rounder
• Sewing machine
• Heat tool
• Strong double sided tape

Step By Step

The case

• Clean all of the glue remains off the case. (I use Lakeland plastics sticky stuff remover as it is brilliant)
• Use alcohol inks, blended to suit your colour scheme, and colour the entire case, paying particular attention to the sides of both the front and the back pieces. You are going to cover the front and back anyway – so it is technically NOT essential to cover them entirely, but it is such fun to do.

 

  

• Cut two pieces of patterned papers 5 ½ “ x 4 ¾ “ , round the corners slightly and stick them inside the lids of both the front and back piece.

• Cut two sheets of cardstock 5 ½ “ x 4 ¾ “ for the front and back covers.
• Round the corners and ink the edges but don’t stick them on yet. It is much easier to work on them as mini pages and then stick them on to the case at the last stage.
• I cut to rectangles smaller than the cardstock using one of the patterned papers and then sewed them to the cardstock.
• I used Heidi Swapp chipboard letters for the title on the front. I inked them with a matching green ink and then heat embossed them with clear embossing powder to give them a real shine. I mounted two of them for the ‘we’ onto a co-ordinating tag and then fixed the tag to the cover with foam pads and a brad.
• I cut a heart from chipboard – I used old photo mount board. I coloured it with inks and then embossed this with kaleidoscope embossing powder to give a bit of bling. I finished the heart with a smaller green heart and a tiny crystal heart sticker to complete the bling look.
• Once I was happy with the cover I stick it on to the front of the plastic case using strong double sided tape.

• The back cover had the same patterned paper rectangle sewn on and then I used another tag and some of the Basic Grey letter stickers to form an additional title. I like to have the flexibility of displaying the case either way. I added an inked Prima blossom with a brad before sticking it to the back of the case with strong double sided tape.
• Finish the case with ribbons stock all around the edge and sides. Make sure you don’t cover the join – stick one ribbon or rikrak to the front cover side edge and one to the back. It doesn’t matter if some of the plastic case shows through – that is why you inked it so carefully.

 

 The Mini Book

Cut two sheets of A4 card into strips measuring  5 ½ “ x 11 “

Score the card at 4 ½ “ and at 9” as shown in the diagram. Make sure the folds work both ways.

 

When you have the two strips that are identical trim the 2” excess flap from one sheet and use the 2” excess flap from the other sheet to stick the two strips together. It will not matter that there is this overlap as you will be covering it anyway.

Once you have stick them together round the corners and you have your accordion fold book ready to decorate.

 

I find it much easier to work on sheets of paper making them into mini layouts and then sticking them onto the accordion fold book as a final stage. That way, if you want to push brads through, use the sewing machine and so on it doesn’t matter.

I cut eight sheets of papers to the right size (I made them slightly smaller than 5 ½ “ x 4 ½ “ as I wanted the white edge to show) cutting two from each of the four patterns and then worked on them as little mini pages.

 

 

 

As a final stage stick each of your finished pieces onto one piece of the accordion fold booklet.

 Once finished the booklet folds and fits into the case.

So there you have it, a very simple but effective mini book in a case. It would make a wonderful present for all sorts of occasions.

 

 

 

Thank you so much for coming to play Scrapdolly we hope you will come again.

Be our guest ...... Eleanor

We love having people come to play over at It's a creative world and today we have great pleasure in having the lovely Eleanor onboard.

Without further ado I shall hand you over to the lady herself .....

Hello, I'm Eleanor, and I live at the seaside with four cats, three children and an old goat, up in the north west of England.

I can't imagine not having at least ten different creative projects on the go, ranging from papercraft to drawing to knitting to beadwork to gardening to embroidery to writing to dressmaking, and it's sewing that I've been invited here, much to my delight, to show you today.

My youngest son aged 12 wanted bright cheerful tops, but all we could find in his size were the grungy dirt colours popular with his age group. Browsing in Home Bargains one day, he picked up a beautiful, light, soft fleece blanket and said "I wish I had a hoodie like this", and so the idea was born.

I think the slide show shows enough detail of how it's done, but I welcome any questions (I've never done a tutorial before).

Thank you so much for coming to play Eleanor I'm sure that many of us will be on the lookout for fleece blankets now.

If you'd like to find out more about Eleanor and her creative endeavours check out her blog Still cutting off tabs

If you have been inspired by Eleanor's hoodie please let us know and leave us a linkie dink if you make one.

Be our guest....Helen

We are so lucky yet again to be introducing a wonderful guest to our blog today. Helen is a member of UKS who's gallery I visit often! So without anymore waffle I will hand you over...

Thank you for the opportunity to be your Guest Designer: I was thrilled to be asked.  I live in Macclesfield, Cheshire, just south of Manchester but I grew up by the sea in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, moving to the North West when I went to Manchester University back in 1995.  I’m 32 years old, been married to Graeme for 4 ½ years and Mummy to Evie (3) and Oliver (4 months).   I’m on maternity leave at the moment, enjoying being at home with my children but I normally work as a Primary School Teacher, working with Years 5 and 6 (the ‘big ones’).  One of my favourite parts of my job is creating Displays which I see as a huge scrapbook layout!

I was drawn to Scrapbooking after Evie was born, as a way to record her development.    Journaling is very important to me and I try to include as much information about the story as possible on each layout.  I’m passionate about recording the little things that happen which otherwise may be forgotten; funny things that my children say or do, or our routines and things we do as a family.   I also use scrapbooking as my creative outlet and enjoy the whole design process but especially love getting messy!  I originally scrapped in 12x12 but after a few months, tried out A4 scrapping and have never looked back.   I use my blog, http://littlemissscrapper.blogspot.com, as a way of recording bits of my life and also for sharing photographs and my layouts.

______________________________

I always struggle to find time to do all the scrapping that I would like to do.  Often, when I do have time, I just don’t know where to start.  When Oliver was tiny, I had so much that I wanted to record but needed to find a way to do this quickly while he was sleeping.   I remember creating a really simple layout which I instantly loved.  It was based around using horizontal strips of paper and ribbon.  Next time I sat down to do a layout I thought about how I could use this idea again as I had liked the effect so much and knew that it ‘worked’ for me and wouldn’t require much thinking before I could get started. 

When I was asked to create something for ‘It’s a Creative World’, I wondered about how I could adapt and expand this basic idea to create a variety of layouts.  The idea being, that if you have an idea in your head that works, actually creating numerous layouts should be a quicker experience without necessarily taking any creativity away.

Therefore I started each of these pages with a ‘base’ of horizontal strips of patterned paper and/or ribbons.  Each of these layouts also include a few of the other techniques that I love to use and which I know ‘work’ for me. 

Firstly, journaling, and in particular, hand written journaling is very important to me as I want to add that personal touch to my layouts and show future generations what my handwriting looked like.  I also love sewing, both hand embroidery and also machine stitching.  I often use both sewing and journaling to create a frame for my page and have used both of these ideas on each of these pages.  I love the look of staples and often use these to adhere ribbons to my work or just as an embellishment on their own to create a ‘kiss’ (x).  Buttons are another great way to add texture to a page or just as a feature to draw your eye around the layout. 

Having these ideas that I can rely on has meant that I don’t just sit and stare at a piece of blank paper and photographs wondering what on earth I should do with them.  I enjoy seeing how different I can make the layouts look: they can be as basic as you like or much more intricate and embellished.  So whenever that ‘mojo’ disappears, dip back into your albums and find a layout or technique that appeals to you and use it again (and again!) and hopefully you’ll be inspired to get cutting and sticking.

NOTES:

3 becomes 4

A basic version of my ideas: strips of paper are placed behind and under the photo along with a paper frill which runs across the whole page.  On this layout, I have used machine stitching in pink and blue to reflect our ‘girl’ and ‘boy’. 

Blue Eyed Boy

This time, I have used the ideas on a horizontal A4 layout.  I used lots of strips of papers plus ribbon behind the photograph.   There is a handwritten and sewn frame around the picture.  The stitching is a running stitch made by measuring out and pre-piercing holes with a paper piercer. 

Tra La La

This is a much more detailed and embellished layout.  There are strips of different papers, topped with a variety of ribbons/trims both behind and underneath the photograph.  Again, there is a handwritten frame as well as a stitched frame around the main part of the layout.  This time, I used cross stitched in a range of colours to match the papers.  Buttons have been added onto the flowers on the papers in random places around the layout.

Thank you Helen!! Such fab layouts.

If you do any layouts inspired by Helens please do link us to your online gallery so we can see your interpretations. Alternatively you can email us your work to acreativeworld@hotmail.co.uk (resize to a max width of 400 please) and we will upload your layouts to our readers gallery. As always please do credit the designer if uploading to an online gallery.

Thanks for visiting!
Caz
xx

Trick or treat trugs

We are so excited to welcome the fabulously sweet and uber-talented Anita MacDonald to It's a creative world today.  Anita created these fantasticHalloween trugs that any trick or treater would be thrilled to receive.

So, without further ado we shall hand you over to Anita ..............

These little trugs are so easy to make and can easily be adapted for any occasion just by choosing different cardstock, fillings and ribbons.

The main trug is made using just one sheet of 12 x 12 cardstock, this can either be double sided( which saves a lot of work!) or you can use plain( for instance Bazzill) and then cut scraps to decorate it to make it more attractive. I personally prefer to use double sided and then add to it.

 

 

Take the sheet and measure it into 9 equal squares of 4 x 4 inches and sore the fold lines. Then you need to mark a diagonal fold on each of the outer corner squares( see example). Once marked you can fold the diagonals and then punch 2 holes on each of the 4 corners of the cardstock. You may choose to use eyelets to strengthen them. If you want to decorate with any strips, pictures, stickers etc then now is the perfect time. I like to pop scalloped edges around the tops of my trugs and normally I ink them a little too.  Pictures at the bottom of this post.

Then take the four corner points and pull them in towards the middle. Thread through your ribbons and tie into a bow to finish off, then all you need to do is fill with little pressies and treats to suit the occasion. I filled small clear bags with chocolate treats and made a simple header card by wrapping a strip of card-stock round and fixing with an eyelet.  Pictures at the bottom of this post.

 

 

Other ideas that work are

Wedding Table decorations, they look lovely colour co-ordinated to the flowers and dresses and then you can fill with favours and maybe tie balloons to the top and sit in the centre of the tables.

Christening and Baby showers/New Baby Gift. By using pastel papers or baby designs and soft colour ribbons these make lovely and unique gifts that you could fill with tiny socks,bibs and face cloths and maybe even a small teddy.

Birthday Baskets for any age, with such a wide variety of card-stock designs out there its easy to find one to suit everyone, you can then personalise with small gifts or chocolates popped inside.

New Crafters Mini Hamper, what a lovely way to start a friend off with a few essential bits and bobs they will need for scrapping or card-making. You could fill each section with glue sticks,foam pads, ribbons, ink pads, small tools or maybe a voucher for a shop.

Teachers Gift Trug. There are some fabulous school themed papers out there now, these make lovely and unusual gifts for a special teacher and once again the ideas for little gifts to pop inside are endless.

The only thing that limits you with these little trugs is your own imagination, so why not give one a go....after you have made one I bet you will make more!!!

How to in pictures

Step 1

 

Step 2

 

 

Step 3

 

 

 

Thank you so much Anita it's been lovely having you over to play. 

We shall certainly be making some of these trugs and would love to see any that our readers make.   Well, you know what a nosey bunch we are.

Welcome Sherry Steveson - author of 'When Life Gives You Lemons'

Hi  - Jakey here, and I'd like to introduce you to Sherry Steveson, a hugely talented scrapbooker and writer who has recently published an amazing new  book chock full of ideas and tips on how to use those imperfect photos we all get from time to time.      Over to Sherry:

Sherry Steveson has been passionate about scrapbooking for over ten years. Finding a hobby that merged her love for photography with her gift of writing, all wrapped up in a creative outlet was the catalyst for a life long devotion. Her work has been published in many of the major scrapbook magazines and idea books and always brings a thrill to her family when they see their faces on the pages of those publications. She has also found her calling in the world of teaching scrapbooking to others. She is the author of When Life Gives You Lemons; turning sour photos into sweet scrapbooks and currently writing The Scrapbookers Embellishment Handbook. When she isn’t writing, scrapbooking or teaching, she has a very full schedule with her three children and husband’s landscape business.  You can read more about Sherry at her Sassy Schtuff blog: http://sherrysteveson.typepad.com/my_weblog/   and she invites you to join her at her challenge blog Making Lemonade http://makingsweetlemonade.blogspot.com/

Close your eyes for a second and picture this scene. As you stand there with camera in hand ready to capture your precious child’s face on Christmas morning, you picture all the fabulous memories you will capture on that special morning. What you actually find when you get back that photo sleeve from the developer or take a glance at the photos captured on your memory card hardly portray an accurate image of a Norman Rockwell moment. Quite the opposite, in fact. Blurry faces and poorly lit surroundings are all you see. Has this scenario ever happened to you? While this is not what you imagined when you were all set to capture those perfect holiday moments, it’s all you have to remember that moment. That is the way life happens. Imperfect moments happen all around us and so it would seem that our scrapbook pages should reflect life. I have developed a few tricks and techniques for dealing with those imperfect photos of our perfect moments of life.

 

1.       Make the blur work FOR you

 Simply put the blurry photos to work for your page by capturing the feel of activity,         time passing by quickly or an out of focus theme. Another great trick is to reduce the size of blurry photos to minimize the blurry appearance.

2.            Tips for clashing colors or backgrounds

Find a subject to focus on and use their colors as the focus or use a monochromatic color scheme. Camouflage the background with scrapbook embellishments.

3.               Black and white can be our friend

When colors become too difficult to work with a simple solution is to create a neutral palette to work with.

4.               Red Eyes

Red Eye is an image in which a subject’s irises are red instead of black that can be corrected using simple photo editing software commonly available.

5.            Using photo editing programs

Changing the lighting within a photo can give a photo new life with a few simple tricks from many of the photo editing software’s that are available

 

6.            Embrace the age or preserve the photo

An older photo can add a sense of nostalgia to a layout in spite of its imperfections. On the other hand, preserving the photo can breathe new life into memory.

7.            Incorporate the design of your page to flatter the cropped subject

 Quite commonly when a subjects head has been cropped too much or a portion of their body is missing, we can find a way to creatively use these photos as clever designing moments

When I see an imperfect photo, I often times will challenge myself to see the photo as an opportunity to tell a better story within my journaling to engage the reader. Telling a compelling story can often balance the imperfections within the photo and allow the charm of the moment shine through. This is why it is always important to scrapbook even the most flawed of photos because the story that needs to be told can make a great scrapbook page. The imperfect photo will still support the story and provide another insight into the memory.

 

Here are some layout examples to show you how I tackle the challenge of an imperfect photo.

Too Blurry:

 

Change to black and white and add a vibrant color scheme

 

 

Distracting background, can't see the focal person as well

 

 

 

Place a design circle around the focal subject and add pops of color in the design to focus on the energy in the photo

 

 

 

I hope these will give you some ideas on how to work with your imperfect photos. SO. Instead of hitting the delete button on your camera next time a photo doesn't turn out exactly as you would like, please take a moment to think about how you can use improve upon that photo with a little help.

Sherry

 

Many thanks to Sherry for sharing her ideas and work with us today

love from the creative girls xx

A huge welcome to our guest Tracy Gough

Seeing Stars

I’d like to say a massive thank you to the girls for inviting me to do a guest spot on IACW. I am totally honoured to be part of such an amazing and inspirational blog.  This is the first time I’ve been asked to guest on a blog, so I am a bit nervous.

 I am a 40 year old, wife and SAHM to one boy, and just love nothing better than playing with paper.

 I have been making cards on a regular basis for just over a year now, before that I just scrapped and made the occasional card just for fun (but rarely sent them), but now scrapbooking has been put on the back burner and I’ve become totally addicted to making cards. I’ve even sold a few!

 I love using stars on my cards, especially when they are for males, but I thought to myself, how versatile stars could be and used for all styles of cards, and for all occasions.

So here are three examples of using stars to create three totally different looks, from a soft baby card, to a funky teen girl and a bright and bold card.

I hope you like them.

 

  

 

Thanks Tracy for being a fantastic guest.

If you would like to see more of Tracy's work then you can visit her blog.

Welcome to our talented international guest - Tamara Wheeler!

Please welcome Tamara, a talented scrapbooker, cardmaker and sketch artist.

My name is Tamara Wheeler and I live in Germany. I moved here in September 2006 from America. I have 5 kids:  Shantal 10, Spencer 9, Hannah 7, Emma 3 and Ian is 2. I have been married for 14 years to my wonderful and supportive husband, Gardner.

I have been scrapping for 14 years. Some of my favorites are Bazzill, Basic Grey, Scenic Route, Cosmo Cricket, Primas,  and the list just goes on.  I am a flower junkie! You can never have to many.  I love virtual crops as I don’t know any scrappers that live close to me here in Germany to get together often with. I tend to chat more than I scrap, but that is how it is with me.   You can find my work in the gallery at Scrap Freak

I have a Sketch blog called, Sketches! {by tamara},  where I upload a new layout sketch every Monday with an emphasis on multiple photos and a new card sketch every Thursday. We are starting our Recipe Challenges back up each Tuesday starting September 2^nd.   I hope you will stop by and see the fantastic work of the Sketches! Design Team.

I am very excited about sharing this sketch with you.  I can’t wait to see what you do with it!

{tamara}

Tamara has provided us with this exclusive sketch 

and you can see our interpretations below: 

Jakey

 

Caz

I've flipped the sketch and done a 6x12 layout :)

 

Lemon

 

 

Hi from MadDi and i loved the sketch - here is my interpretation:

 

Can't you just tell that I love to pose in my new pink shoes and a new WIG!!!

 

We hope you like the sketch as much as we do.

Please post a link to your layouts, we'd love to see what you come up with for this sketch!

Love from Jakey & the creative team!

A huge welcome back to our guest Annette.

 Annette was our guest a couple of weeks ago and she sent us sooo much that we decided to split it into two posts. Here is Annettes second card.

I’ve made a patchwork card using scraps that I couldn’t bear to throw out. I have bags of these everywhere and really should do this more often than I shop for new paper, but that never really happens.

 

I pretty much ink everything around the edges and usually with chalk ink too. I prefer to use a close-density sponge (like make up sponges) but I also like sponge dabbers too. I also thought I’d add a bit more interest to the plainer Kraft cardstock by perforating a border.

 

My favourite stamps of the moment are any Kim Hughes collection and this baby set are perfect to use with a patchwork card.

All that remains is to embellish and I’ve used a very old Bazzill chip, some ribbon and some buttons and twine.

 

Thanks Annette for another great card, we really appreciate all the hard work that you have done.