Have You Got Your Challenges In?

Good Afternoon Arty Peeps!

I hope you are well.

Peg here today to share my sketch challenge page for July. Are you playing along?

Today is the last day to upload, then new challenges for August tomorrow, exciting!

Here's the sketch

I started with kraft cardstock and 3 hues of Colour Blast paste for the background, applying them vertically instead of horizontally. When dry, I rubbed in some Dorland's Wax to stop the paste from being sticky. This is a particularly important step if you are art journalling to stop your Colour Blast pages from sticking together.

As I was scrapping multiple square Instagram pics, I decided a grid layout on black card would work best, keep the page from becoming too busy. To draw the viewer's eye through my photos I used a small piece of patterned paper from a Pink Paislee Memorandum 6 x 6 pad on each side of my grid.

A Kaisercraft sticker, and a chipboard arrow coloured black, created a border between my photos and my journalling, bulleted at each end with a decorative brad. I stamped the date on a label sticker and matted it on another piece of the same patterned paper I had already used. The staples are just for decoration, I coloured them black with an alcohol marker.

My photo mat was not sticking well to the Colour Blast paste using just double-sided tape, so I stapled it on with my Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher. I added a cute paper clip and another Kaiser sticker, then stitched around the page a little closer to the edge than the sketch. Some black acrylic paint around the edges and I was finished.

So make sure your sketch and moodboard challenges are up by midnight for the chance to win. New challenges coming tomorrow.

Til next time,

stay arty

Cards - by Chloe

Hello there scrappers!  If you have some time today, why don't you try our challenges?  They are due tonight at midnight ;)

In the meantime, here's some inspiration using the YOU ROCK range by Cocoa Vanilla Studios - I have enjoyed this range so much these last couple of months!  It's a great range to use for some boy cards:

So many fun patterns!

This one is for a special soon-to-be 8 year old!  I created a shaker with one of the chipboard frames - so quick and easy ... and who doesn't love a shaker card ;)

This next one was based on the YOU ARE MY WORLD die cut ... making cards is easy with die cuts!

Tune in tomorrow for our August challenges!

Products used:
Cocoa Vanilla You Rock – Chipboard Accent Stickers
Cocoa Vanilla You Rock – Die Cut Ephemera
Cocoa Vanilla You Rock – Washi Stickers
Cocoa Vanilla You Rock – Wood Veneers
Heidi Swapp Frames Metallic
American Crafts Gold Arrows – Paper Clips
Gold Metallic Screen Print Ink

Distress Oxides 101...

Distress Oxides 101....

Okay, I'll freely admit that when Ranger released this new line of Inks I rolled my eyes and went 'not another fad product that I'll buy and never use'. I'll also freely admit I was dead wrong and these babies are now a 'must have' in my mixed media must haves!

Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink Pads are water-reactive dye & pigment ink fusion that creates and oxidized effect when sprayed with water. These are a completely different product to the Distress Inks, and being a pigment infusion, the colour sits on top of your paper, creating multiple layers and super rad effects. It was super confusing mumbo-jumbo to me, until I got into my studio and began playing with them. 

Here is a step by step of how I created this background for this layout and the techniques I have used. 

Gather your supplies. You will need a Messy mat, heat gun, acrylic stamp block, Water spray bottle, Fan brush, Marshmallow cardstock, and some Distress Oxides. Ive used Broken China, Iced Spruce and Faded Jeans.

STEP ONE

Grab your messy mat, and directly apply the Faded Jeans to the mat. 

Directly next to it, apply the Broken China.

Using your water sprayer, activate the pigment inks by liberally spraying onto them, They will 'turn' into little bubbles of colour. 

Next, grab your Marshmallow Cardstock and 'smoosh' it onto the 'colour bubbbles'. 

Quickly turn it over and let the colour run all over the cardstock. 

Grab your water sprayer and add some extra water to the page. 

Use your heat tool to thoroughly dry your page. 

DONT sop up any water puddles!

These puddles when dry give it the Oxided effect. 

STEP TWO - SPLATTERS

The next step is to add in some 'spatters'. Apply some more of the Oxides directly to your messy mat and activate again as in step one. Using your Fan Brush, liberally splatter the Ink mixture onto the page. Again, dont sop up any big bits, these will 'burst' as you dry them and give off the Oxied effect. 

STEP THREE- Additonal Layers

Because these Inks are both pigment and dye, each layer that your add will sit on top of the next and give definitive layers. Make sure your layers are dry before adding the next. 

Grab your acrylic stamp block and add your third colour Iced Spruce directly to it. 

Activate it with your water sprayer, creating the colour 'bubbles'

Turn it over, and 'smoosh' it onto the areas your want to apply the colour. If you didn't have a acrylic block, you could use some old plastic packaging from used products. 

Thoroughly dry it again with your heat tool. 

Keep on adding as may layers as your like, drying each layer before adding the next. 

 

One question I was asked was do your need to gesso your page before your apply your Distress Oxides? The answer is Yes and No... I completely depends upon the type of cardstock or paper you are using. 

I only use Marshmallow Cardstock for my Mixed Media layouts, and because it is specifically designed to take a tonne of medium, I don't bother gesso-ing beforehand. 

If I was going to to apply these to a patterned paper, I would definatly add a layer of Clear Gesso to coat it beforehand to protect the paper and hold the Oxides.

Ive done some swatches below on Marshmallow and Black Raven ( the black version of Marshmallow for mixed media). You can see that the colour sits differently on top of the coloured gessos, giving it 'river like' effects. 

My best advice is to grab some of the babies and just play with them, have fun, get to know its properties and how your like to apply them. 

Here are a couple of close ups of the lay out I created. 

Hope you have enjoyed my quick tutorial. Head on over to the store to grad some of these and get messy!

Love and Light 

xoxox

Skai

I am Addicted to Collage Art

Morning Bloggers ,
Lisa here with a Friday mixed media update  ,

At this point in my creative journey , I am currently Addicted to Collage Art

Have you tried it ? If you haven't , definitely give it a whirl.

My journals are filling with fun cut and paste , paint and detail pieces

 And I am loving it.

Simple , Easy , Entertaining and Unique

You have all the tools ,in your stash ,to produce something quirky and interesting, Right Now .

  So basically , If you haven't collaged before , there is no set rules about how to apply your pieces, 

1 . you could start with a background already worked upon , 

2. just stick a focal point down and work around the image,adding and dragging the out laying elements into the focal point . I have used that technique , by adding a little background paint to come across onto the focal point of the page , thus linking the 2 elements .

Small unexpected extras add such fun and quirkiness to the piece. ^^^^^^^^^^^

 My main stash supplies for Collage Art

A fab Art Journal .. in my stash I have a few Dylusions Journals and Dina Journals- I have a few because of my impatient and I don't want to heat tool everything I work on ,

 and sometimes I maybe playing with 2 collages at a time 

Paint - Lots of lovely colourful acrylic paint, In my stash I have  Dina , Dylusions , Cermacoat, Liquitex , Matisse, Pebeo and a few Golden . Atm I am having a little love affair with the new Prima , Art Alchemy Impasto Paints for there lush , rich vibrancy and texture.

Stencils , To add lots of different shapes,marks and details that enhance interest points .

Matt Meduim , I use Liquitex or Golden.. I want a Matt Finish... no Gloss. There are a few on the market that have a glossy finish.. best to avoid them . This is my glueing agent.

A superior journal pen . I use the Fude Ball for journaling , it flows like magic , Then its Posca, and Liquitex paint markers... Kylie stocks all of these rad products .

Stickers , paper , off cuts, tissue paper, serviettes , rub ons ,book pages ,whatever is scrap on your table, or in your supplies .. to add extra interest into your background.

Magazines , Picture Books , to find interesting focal points and titles . I visited my local St Vinnies which had bugger all and was over priced , and then headed to the Salvos , where I found an Atlas , this $2 Murder Chronicle ,that Peg went hard on and raided for quirky stories and titles , A Dame Edna book , a medical biology text book, An Interesting photo book on Cinema Greats etc ..

 Lots of interesting stuff to use in my pages. 

You may not  even need to hit the shops , just raid your own Library. 

I do intend to write a story into the pages below,the reasons why one should avoid the Blue beetle.

Just to fill this one out and add a crazy story to tie the whole page together .

 "Uptown girl takes a walk "

still needs a little detail and journaling , but you get the idea .

  Thanks for dropping by , 

I will be back next week with a SC mixed media update.

Have a super creative weekend..

Lisa 

xx

Hello Olaf with Melinda

Hi there my scrappy friends and fellow ScrappingClearly fans! It's Melinda here with you sharing some inspiration for the fun July sketch challenge! You still have a few days left to get your entries in so make sure you head over to the FB group here to upload your take!

Today I am using the beautiful Pink Paislee C'est La Vie collection to document the day we met and brought home our bunny Olaf!

Here is the sketch in case you have missed it

And here is my take on the sketch!

I really, really loved this months sketch, once again designed by Peg - it was super fun to work with!

I have stayed pretty true to the sketch though I moved what I read as the stitching around the whole page further out and changed up 1 photo for 3. You'll notice too that my title and journalling, though they take up the same space on the page as the sketch, are also changed up a bit!

I started with a quick coat of clear gesso all over the background paper (paper #10) and then grabbed my Metallic Mint gelato and mixed it with some water to make a watercolour paint for the background! I've also added in a couple of swipes of my Lime gelato. Doesn't it look great! It's hard to capture the sparkly finish on camera but, swoon!

I knew I wanted to line my photo's up across the page over the watercolour and had decided to fussy cut some flowers from Paper #8 to layer behind the photo's as well and LOVE how this looks!

I grabbed the ephemera pack for the big "hello" piece which I knew I was going to use for my title and also a gold edged label for the date. The black and white stripped alpha's are from my stash.

I wanted to bring that yellow up the page so grabbed that yellow washi strip from the washi pack and layered that behind my photo at the top. While I had the washi out I tore off a small piece to go under my title.

I have used some of the cork hearts and black tiny vellum word stickers to finish my page off.

Oh, I have also used some scraps from Paper #3 & Paper #2 for layers behind my photo's.

My process video is linked below if you would like to see my page come together

And that is that!! So, thank you for stopping by, I hope I have inspired you to pull out some goodies and play along with the July challenges in the last few days of the month!

Until next time, happy scrapping!!

Melinda

Hello Olaf with Melinda

Hi there my scrappy friends and fellow ScrappingClearly fans! It's Melinda here with you sharing some inspiration for the fun July sketch challenge! You still have a few days left to get your entries in so make sure you head over to the FB group here to upload your take!

Today I am using the beautiful Pink Paislee C'est La Vie collection to document the day we met and brought home our bunny Olaf!

Here is the sketch in case you have missed it

And here is my take on the sketch!

I really, really loved this months sketch, once again designed by Peg - it was super fun to work with!

I have stayed pretty true to the sketch though I moved what I read as the stitching around the whole page further out and changed up 1 photo for 3. You'll notice too that my title and journalling, though they take up the same space on the page as the sketch, are also changed up a bit!

I started with a quick coat of clear gesso all over the background paper (paper #10) and then grabbed my Metallic Mint gelato and mixed it with some water to make a watercolour paint for the background! I've also added in a couple of swipes of my Lime gelato. Doesn't it look great! It's hard to capture the sparkly finish on camera but, swoon!

I knew I wanted to line my photo's up across the page over the watercolour and had decided to fussy cut some flowers from Paper #8 to layer behind the photo's as well and LOVE how this looks!

I grabbed the ephemera pack for the big "hello" piece which I knew I was going to use for my title and also a gold edged label for the date. The black and white stripped alpha's are from my stash.

I wanted to bring that yellow up the page so grabbed that yellow washi strip from the washi pack and layered that behind my photo at the top. While I had the washi out I tore off a small piece to go under my title.

I have used some of the cork hearts and black tiny vellum word stickers to finish my page off.

Oh, I have also used some scraps from Paper #3 & Paper #2 for layers behind my photo's.

My process video is linked below if you would like to see my page come together


And that is that!! So, thank you for stopping by, I hope I have inspired you to pull out some goodies and play along with the July challenges in the last few days of the month!

Until next time, happy scrapping!!

Melinda

Love at Lanach by Lauren Hender

Hi Everyone!

Welcome back to the Scrapping Clearly blog.

I hope your week has been fabulous and are ready to be inspired by some beautiful products.

In this layout I used a photo of myself and my husband on a night away from the kids. We stayed in a beautiful castle called Lanach castle just outside Dunedin, New Zealand. It was so lovely just to have some time together is a beautiful location.

 In this layout I have used the beautiful Pink Paislee Moonstruck Collection

This collection is stunning with deep pinks, navy and gold.

I began this layout by cutting down the pink base sheet and adhering it to the navy moon cardstock. I then bent up the edges of the top pink sheet and adhered some of the reverse side of the left over strips to the sides of the layout. 

I then mounted my photo and built the photo cluster you see above. I also fussy cut a couple of butterflies from the navy butterflies cardstock.

I then added some cute embellishment clusters above and below the photo, and finished this side with some splashes of gold Heidi Swapp color shine.

 I then created a moonstruck cluster on the left hand side of the page. This is kind of my featured title and I think it looks great all clustered tightly together.

Check out the cute Maggie Holmes cute gold puffy alpha stickers.

I hope my layout has inspired you to get creative with the moonstruck collection available in the Scrapping Clearly store.

Lauren xo