Thursday, March 4, 2021

Stuck on Summer

By now you should be well and truly sick of all my summer photo posts ... but I'm sorry - I simply can't help myself 😆

We do heaps together over summer as a family and I end up with more photos than I will ever be able to scrap - but I give it a really good try! lol So I'm back again with more ideas of how you can use Scrapmatts stencils and chipboards to make fun, bright layouts and cards...

The paper I used for this first layout was a bit tricky to work with, but thanks to some great stencils it turned out wonderfully.

I often struggle with 'picture pages' - as in pages that are just made up of whole photo images. I'm not sure why I struggle with them - perhaps I'm reluctant to put anything in the way of the beautiful scene? lol ... in any case, I find I can overcome it by creating borders around the outside edges to frame up my photos.

In this case I've done the border using stencils - the circles one on top ( one I always reach for with beach pages as they remind me of the sand balls that crabs make) and shells on the bottom.

ST9007 Circles. ST5072 Stencil Shells

I topped off the stenciled on shells with some chipboard shells that were the perfect colour to being with (White chipboard as opposed to raw) so they didn't need any colouring.

CB6127 Shells 03

- I even cleaned and trimmed up the frame that the chipboard pieces came on so that

half sat next to each side of the photo...

Of course I couldn't resist adding a few extra inspirational words and these

wonderful seagulls that came in the shells chipboard pack.

CB1271 Scrap Words 55

Next up this month I have a bright shiny feminine layout to share -

made using all my favourite techniques!

So to start with I stenciled the border in using a waves template ....

because I believe that running from top to bottom it can also pass as leaves!? lol

ST5071 Stencil Waves

Next I got all my papers in place and hit the background with white gesso and the hearts stencil - a combination I use so often I'm pretty sure I'll be receiving complaints in the mail shortly 😆

Hey - when you are onto a good thing - stick to it right!

ST9050 Hearts

Then I added all my embellishments and extra chipboards, including a title I coloured as bright as I possibly could using markers (complete with shine lines to help it pop).

CB5082 Leaf Spray 02. CT028 Beautiful Girl

And last but not least this month I have a birthday card to share -

inspired this time by the STUNNING new gum leaves stencils that Scrapmatts has just released.

I started with a background I made using Alcohol Inks on Yupo Paper

Then added these bright Inka Gold waxes over the top of the Gum Leaf stencil

First I stenciled on the leaves, let them dry and traced around them with a fine

tip sharpie (it's important that you use a permanent marker for this as normal

markers wont work over wax surfaces).

These stencils (that come in 3 different sizes - A4, A5 & A6) are stunners -

A perfect addition to your Aussie supplies collection 💚

ST9089 Gum Leaves

I used the smaller A6 stencil to create this card.

I actually made a pretty big mess with the Inka Gold waxes 😂 so I went for something a bit simpler with the 'Happy Birthday' title - I simply coloured it with a sharpie pen!

Of course you can buy them ready made in black

- which in hindsight would have been an even better option lol!!

To finish off I added some simple chipboard words and some clusters of Acrylic Craft Gems ( a combination of 4mm and 5mm sizes) that I thought did a great job

of looking a lot like native blossoms.

4,5 & 6mm Champagne Acrylic Craft Gems

(Pssssssssst - at the time of publishing this post - 4, 5 & 6mm Champagne Gem sets

are on special in the Scrapmatts online store for only $6 a set!!

HERE IS THE LINK

CB1236 Scrap Words 22

And that's it for this month folks ... I'm really going to try for something a bit different next month - what's coming up??? Easter .... I'm on it! Chat to you all again in a few weeks xo