September Off The Page Challenge

Hi everyone - it's time to introduce the OTP challenge for September. This month I would like you to make an Artist Trading Card that stands alone as a piece of art, then use your card on a larger item. You can use your ATC on a greeting card, decor item, giftbox or scrapbook page.

If you haven't made an ATC before it is SO easy! Cut your base card at 3.5 inches x 2.5 inches then decorate as desired. Traditionally, Artist Trading Cards are made flat and stored in sleeves designed for baseball cards, but I say break all the rules! Decorate your ATC however you like - you're the artist!

Here's my ATC. I cut apart the petals of my prima flowers so I could adhere them to the back of the sentiment layer exactly how I wanted them.

And here's the card I created using my ATC as the focus....

You can make the ATC removable if you like, I do this sometimes and put a strip of magnetic tape on the back so the inspiring card can be kept on the fridge.

Here's a little peek inside the card....

I hope you'll join in this month and make your very own ATC and use it on a larger item. I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Supplies:
Emma's Shoppe Paper - Crate Paper
Out of Print Paper - Basic Grey
Liquid Pearls in Baby Blue
Barn Door Distress Ink
Crochet Trim
Prima Flowers
Leaf Trim
Button
Twine
Verve Visual Stamps
Verve Curvy Bookplate Die

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September Sketch Challenge

Hi Ladies and welcome to the sketch challenge for September.I have an amazing sketch for you this month from the awesome sketch site Sketchabilities. They have kindly given permission for us to use this sketch- a great multi photo layout with lots of room for layering and interpretation.I can't wait to see what you all create with this one! Please check out sketchabilities website at

 http://sketchabilities.blogspot.com/

This is my interpretation of the sketch using some Creative Imaginations papers and lots of Prima bling and flowers! Adrienne has all the new ranges of Prima and Kaisercraft and Websters and BoBunny in store or soon arriving. The shop is chock full of lines from the CHA show in the States so check out the online shop!

Happy Scrapping!

Francine

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This month's Spotlight is on ...

... Vicky Mullen aka gypsykate!

I would like to share Vicky's fabulous winning layouts. Here's her layout for August's sketch challenge:

And here are her layouts for August's fortnightly challenges:

And so you can all get to know Vicky a little better, I conducted a little interview.

1. Tell us a little about yourself - your family, where you live, etc.

I live in a little town 30 minutes outside of sunny Nelson with my 5 year old daughter and my parents. My 2 grown sons have left home, the eldest is a baker in Stratford and has a beautiful baby daughter. My middle son lives with my brother in Australia, at 19 he hasn't decided what he wants to do yet so he works at McDonalds while he makes up his mind. My kids are my pride and joy. I suffer from RA (an auto-immune disease) which stops me from working but I keep myself busy scrapbooking, mixed media art, reading, playing games on Facebook and of course spending time with Katie and my huge extended family.

2. How long have you been scrapbooking?

7 years.

3. What got you into scrapbooking?

Losing my partner in an accident, I needed something to record all the memories I held of him, and had helped my Mum make a scrapbook for my nephew's 21st earlier in the year. I managed to get not only myself hooked but a few of my friends.

4. Where do you get most of your inspiration from?

The photo I am using, or sometimes the patterned paper, sometimes from an image or something I see on TV or the net.

5. If you had to choose just THREE scrapbooking products, what would they be and why?

Patterned paper, I am a junkie for pretty paper.

My Silhouette, I cant live without it and use it just about every time I scrapbook.

Stamps, this is a rapidly growing addiction and I love to use them on layouts.

6. Who are your favourite celebrity scrapbookers?

That's such a hard one, there are so many fantastic scrapbook artists that I admire. I suppose if I was to pick one it would be Nichol Magouirk.

7. Your favourite quote is ...

"Stay calm and just breathe."

I hope you have all enjoyed seeing Vicky's work and getting to know her better. Stay tuned, because in a couple of weeks we will be posting a special "just for fun" weekend sketch challenge based on a sketch chosen by Vicky (as well as her interpretation of it).

Congratulations Vicky, on being this month's winner. I hope you've enjoyed being "In the Spotlight" (and it's not over yet)!

Hannah

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Fortnightly challenge ends 14th September

Hi,

Welcome to the first fortnightly challenge for September and the first time we are posting challenges directly to the blog and onto Facebook!! I know it feels a bit weird for me to be posting it here rather than on the forum but I hope you all enjoy playing along with the challenges this month.

The theme for September is 'Mighty Masculine' so this month it is all about the boys!

My challenge for you is a 'journalling and doodling challenge' -- so I would love to see the telling of a story as the main focus of your page and of course get that black (or another colour) pen out and doodle as well. My example layout is about my husband and my dad running their second marathon together down in Rotorua. I have taken advantage of the lines on my patterned paper to tell the story as well as extra journalling around the edge of the circle. I have also added doodling to my banner and my sticker embellishments as well as adding some ruled lines around the edges of my page.

Remember - to be eligible to win 'In the Spotlight' you need to enter all 4 challenges for the month (the sketch challenge, the two fortnightly challenges, and the OTP challenge. To win the monthly RAK you need to enter 3 out of the 4 challenges.

I hope you enjoy playing along with this challenge and I am looking forward to seeing all the layouts in the gallery!!

//Michelle

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OTP Inspiration with Teresa Collin Noteworthy

I sooooo love this range of papers, well to be honest I just love Teresa Collins products :)  so I was absolutely stoked to see this range in my DT kit this month.

The aim was to try and give you some inspiration to use it for wedding/anniversary/engagements celebrations.  With that in mind I remembered a friends wedding that was themed around black and white so this range seemed perfect.

So, I have made a card that I have layered with black cardstock and used Spellbinders Lacey Ovals and Labels Four.  The 'greeting' is from a Basic Grey rubon from my stash.

Next are the party favour boxes.  Adrienne has an accucut machine that can diecut these for you, in a couple of different shapes.  Here Ive used the rectangle one.  The one on the right I have embossed with a Tim Holtz embossing folder and then punched out some flowers, curled the edges and stuck them together.  Ive also used a Cherry Lyn design - fanciful flourish - and some gorgeous Melissa Frances flowers.

Lastly are some wooden letters with the couples initials.  On the 'P' I have used a Kaiser wooden flourish, and on the 'R' I have used two Dusty Attic damask.  Ive also used some very cool ribbon thats available in the shop, black glittered with sequins, quite dimensional as opposed to flat, and some more MF flowers.

Hopefully this has given you some inspiration to try something a bit different for gifts.  Adrienne can order wooden letters for you easily in a variety of fonts and sizes!

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Step by Step

Hi Gals, today is my official post as a Design Team member .... so I am going to show you how I created this layout



Products used:-
White Bazzill Cardstock
Glimmermist - Mustard Seed & Pumkin
Prima Mask
Echo Park Victoria Gardens Range ,Cheerful words & Botanical Ballad
Echo Park Victoria Gardens Range - Sticker Sheet
Hambly Studio - Transparency
Glitz Hoopla sticker
Cosmo Cricket Doillies 7 Butterflies

Place the Prima Mask down on the left hand side of the paper, and the using some spare cardstock or sheets, cover around the mask, so you only have the mask area exposed, spray some Pumpkin Glimmermist over the mask, and then remove the mask. Secondly, using the Mustard Seed Yellow Glimmermist spray a couple of squirts on the top right hand side of the page.



Next cut the Echo Park Victoria Gardens Range ,Cheerful words (7inc x 5.5inc) and Botanical Ballad (6inc x 10.5inc). Place the Botanical Ballad piece down first, and then your Fancy Hambly Flourish as shown in the photo below

.

Place your Cheerful Words piece down over the flourish and approximately 1 inch from the bottom of the Botanical Ballad piece, and then place your photo on top of the Cheerful Word PP.



Lastly I have used some the stickers from the Sticker Sheet, and a Tim Holtz Filmstrip diecut, to accent the page as well as the Cosmo Cricket Doillies 7 Butterflies to embellish the page.



Tip : To give the layout a little dimension I used some Double Sided Foam tape under the Cosmo Cricket Doillies 7 Butterflies and added some Kaisercraft Bling to the centres.

There you go girls, a nice easy page to create.

HAPPY SCRAPPING

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Fancy Pants OTP with Sarah

Parties should be fun to put together - especially if you're short on time! The It's Your Day range by Fancy Pants is perfect - I whipped up a banner, gift box, place cards, treat bags and a few cards in no time at all.



I created the banner using this paper - as well as a large sticker and piece cut from this sheet. The scallops were created by layering 1" punched circles behind the banner.



This paper is also fantastic for making quick and easy place cards and cards - just cut a rectangle or two, fold and embellish - so simple!



I used the sticker sheet and a few different papers for some super quick cards - you could easily use the same supplies to make individual invites for each guest.



The cake time paper was so cute - I used the cakes to embellish all my party pieces - simply cut around them and pop up on foam tape. I've embellished all the flames quickly with some Paprika Stickles - I love this stuff, it's the fastest way to add a little sparkle.



I've used the cakes from the paper on the little treat bags, and also on the die-cut box. Just be sure to adhere them to only one side of the box closure so it doesn't have to be destroyed to get at the goodies inside!

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Summer Layouts by Hannah!!!

Hi girls,

I was sent a bunch of papers and embellishments from the new Fancy Pants "Beach Bum" range, and I had a lot of fun with them! Here are 2 layouts I created using these bright and colourful summery papers ...

OUR HAPPY PLACE



Products used:
Fancy Pants Beach Bum Flip Flips
Fancy Pants Beach Bum Hang Ten
Fancy Pants Beach Bum Boogy Board
Fancy Pants Beach Bum Design Embellishments
Fancy Pants Beach Bum Chipboard
Fancy Pants Beach Bum Trim
Bazzill
clear stamps
Stazon
Basic Grey Alphabet stickers
Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type Alphas

MY LITTLE FISH



Products used:
Fancy Pants Beach Bum Flip Flips
Fancy Pants Beach Bum Hang Ten
Fancy Pants Beach Bum Design Embellishments
Fancy Pants Beach Bum Chipboard
Bazzill
Basic Grey Micro Mono Stickers
Provo Craft Alphabitties

I hope this inspires you to grab some of this awesome new range and scrap those summer holiday/beach pics. If anything, it might remind you of that thing called WARMTH which we are all missing right now!

Happy Scrapping!

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Baby Album by Tanya Watson

well not really many instructions with this
Adrienne cut the covers for me using Album Dies in her shop and from there I just cut the Fancy Pants Designs Baby Mine papers down for the main pages and then used emblishemnts to add to them, I have used the cinch white spin and was used in my zutter perfect colour for this album the white....I also Mod Podge the cover and some of the emblisments that I had written on to make sure the writing didnt rub off...lots of photos to follow

the front page is a paper bag and folded in half to make a pocket which I put his CD from his scan that I had at 35 weeks to make sure he was growing okay (Jacqueline stopped growing at this time, he was about 6lbs lol), I covered with two bits of paper cut down and then folded it and just bound it with the rest of the album

I cut the tape measure down from the packet of chipboard pieces, and the hand Adrienne sent me with my stuff soo cute, I just inked it, the finally here page is the start of the cut down paper for the album

I cut around the elephant so that I could slip the photo in behind it

the stamp in the corner of the first cuddles page is Prima clear stamp/Melody lovely stamp





and a card I made with the left over bits of paper and some emblishments for a friend whos due start of next month

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Inspiration Wednesday with Robbi

Today I have for you a combination using some Dusty Attic and some Simple Stories papers
and of course using this months theme of "World Cup Wannabe: and a little help from Master Kaleb
I came up with this



and here is a close up of the writings at the bottom....



and the goodies used in this layouts were:-

Simple Stories - Destinations - Borders
Dusty Attic - Baroque - Frame Set Circle
Tim Holtz - Die -Ticket Strip
Carolees Creations - Outdoor Green Alphas
Tim Holtz - Distress Stain - Vintage Photo


Also Used but not in stock:-
Glimmermist- Iridescent Gold
Very old Basic Grey Paper, Prima Alphas, flowers from Thailand

I hope you enjoy checking out this inspiration and have a go yourself at trying these wonderful frames from Dusty Attic, I have used a lot of different colours on mine from the glimmermist to the distress stain and then another layer of glimmermist, the letters down the side I covered in Glossy Accents to make them pop a little.

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AUGUST OTP CHALLENGE

Hi everyone!
Our world cup theme had me a bit stumped for a while thinking of an OTP creation but inspiration finally came!
When I was little my sisters and I were all marching girls. I still do it now but not for competition, just for fun and exercise and its called Leisure Marching, but there is still competition marching out there. Along the way we won some medals and had a lot of fun travelling round the South Island. My medals have always lived in a cardboard box in the bottom of a drawer, so I decided to create something to put them.
So that is my challenge to you. I want you to create something to put all your or your childrens sporting achievements in, like medals, badges, mini albums of tournaments or certificates. It can be anything - I found my box in a fabulous junk shop in Rangiora, cheap as chips!

Heres mine:









There you have it, thats the outside. I have painted the whole box and then covered it in Jo Sonyas crackle medium and then used soft grey ink to rub into the cracks. the metal is just painted and whilst still wet rub off the excess so the paint is left in the grooves - one o Tim Holtz's tricks! You can see in the bottom left corner I used a Marching badge and done the same thing to that as well. Inside I have x3 jewellery boxes with the inners taken out, one for gold, silver and bronze. I have still to decorate the outside of those - I'll post that later. Have fun and I can't wait to see what you come up with!

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Tech Tuesday - Fast, fab and (almost) FREE

Some of my favourite go-to techniques for cardmaking, scrapping or any OTP work are the ones that don't cost a fortune. Sure, you can add $10 worth of product to create visual interest (and I can and will do this!) but sometimes, all you need are a few simply tools and 30 seconds to just add a bit of "zing" to your project.



Here's a simple card I made - simple layers, a bit of a bow, not too much going on.



Here's the same card with a few added embellishments, that cost me nothing (because I had the tools already). I love the clean look sometimes, and adding all the techniques to one card might be a bit much....but don't forget these fast and mostly free techniques when you need to add a little something to your creation:

Faux Stitching. All you need is a white gel pen. Draw your "stitches" or try dots for a different look. Use a black pen on lighter colours for a dramatic look.

Sponging. My most used technique! Sponging is simple, draws all the elements of your project together, can tone down bright colours and add a vintage look - try it on modern work too, you'll love the result. I highly recommend Distress Ink and a sponge dauber for this. Distress ink stays wet a little longer than most dye inks and gives a great result. Once you have the ink and dauber, sponging is a fantastic way to add interest to your project at no extra cost.

Piercing. Try piercing a circle within a square for a different look. Pierce holes before dashing with a white gel pen for an even more authentic looking faux stitch. Try piercing the patterns on any glimmer mist masks you might have, this can be really effective. Don't have a piercing tool? Use a push pin!

Distressing. The ultimate in free techniques! Rough up the edges of your cardstock with a distressing tool or the back of your scissors (carefully! - I do recommend a purpose built tool for safety!) I especially love distressing die-cut or punched flowers before layering them together for lots of impact.



We all love expensive embellishments and fun toys - but don't forget the basics, a distressing tool, sponge and ink and a gel pen can work wonders, and won't take up too much room in your bag at crops!

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August Sketch Challenge

Hi everyone,

It is time for the next sketch challenge.

As this month's theme is World Cup Wannabe I thought we would combine the SKETCH with a COLOUR challenge.

What you need to do... is choose one of the teams entered into the Rugby World Cup and scrap in those colours! You can also choose one other NEUTRAL colour. So either Black, White or Kraft. If you have white in your chosen RWC Team colour then you can still add a neutral.

I have chosen this month's sketch from PageMaps:



Here are the RWC Team Shirt Colours
Argentina ... Pale blue and white
Australia ... Gold and green
Canada ... Red, white, and black
England ... White and red
Fiji ... White and black
France ... Rich dark blue and black
Ireland ... Green and white
Italy ... Baby blue
Georgia ... Red and white
Japan ... Red and white
Namibia ... Baby blue and green
New Zealand ... Black and white
Romania ... Yellow, red, and blue
Russia ... Red and white
Samoa ... Dark blue and white
Scotland ... Dark blue and gold
South Africa ... Dark green and yellow
Tonga ... Baby blue
USA ... White, red, and blue
Wales ... Red and white

Please feel free to ask any questions or post if you require any clarification regarding the challenge!!


The fine print...

Remember, if you enter all of the 4 challenges this month (the sketch challenge, which will be posted on Saturday, and the 2 fortnightly challenges posted today and August 15th, and the OTP challenge), you could be chosen to be "In The Spotlight"

Also you have to enter 3 of the 4 challenges to be eligible to win a RAK

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