The Dusty Attic Blog

February Guest Designer - Jennifer Snyder

2012-02-01T20:00:00.000+08:00

Please welcome Jennifer as our Guest Designer for February!!

We asked Jennifer a few little get to know you questions and here's what she said:

Share with us a little about you, how long have you been scrapping, do you have your own dedicated workspace, where are you from?:

I am from Rochester, NY - located about 7 hours from New York City. Rochester is close to Toronto, Canada than NYC. I have a supportive husband and four children - two mine and two his. I also have two cats with interesting names, Escape Kitty and StayBehindCat.
My passions are scrapping, photography and photoshop, all working in harmony most times to help me create.

I have been scrapping for about ten years but only paying attention to detail and technique with the last two years. Started on my dining room table, eventually taking over the whole dining room and forcing meals to be eaten standing up.
Then I met my husband and he decided that after we got married, he would need to reclaim the dining room.
That kind man built me a dedicated scrappy space where I can leave my unfinished work out to simmer and stew until it is complete. Sometimes (often) a layout just needs to sit and think about behaving and cooperating until it's ready to play nice.

What are your favourite Dusty Attic pieces?:

My favorite Dusty Attic - difficult question to nail down. I favor the Chicken Wire Panel, the Bird Of Paradise 2 pack, and the Vine Border - but I adore oh so many more.

What is your favourite technique to use on Dusty Attic Chipboard?:

I love to apply molding paste to my Dusty Attic adding texture to my project. I a

lso love pairing the Dusty Attic with lace and trims since I adore my abundant lace and trim collection. The number one reason I love Dusty Attic is the ease at which it can be cut up and bent to accommodate my needs- makes for a super versatile product.

And finally, something close to most of the Dusty Team's heart - What's your favourite kind of Chocolate?:

Favorite kind of chocolate? What? Don't make me laugh....all chocolate needs to be loved and so all shall have my equal attention and love. Let no chocolate go neglected: dark, milk, white, hot, orange and mint (even the beloved chocolate martini)- come to momma.

Thank you Jennifer for joining us this month! Jennifer is an entertaining presence in the Dusty Attic Ning Gallery, with her wonderfully told stories accompanying her beautiful work! Visit her Blog and pop into her Ning Gallery to see all her beautiful Dusty Creations.

CSI - Colour, Stories, Inspiration #4

2012-01-31T12:48:00.000+08:00

CSI's Case File No.4 was released on the weekend... such wonderful, versatile colours!

Colours this week are: Teal, Gilded Frame, Leather, Beige and Teal/Green

As Sponsors our team were also Guest Designers, here are what Mistra and Michelle created:

And Maiko has also submitted this layout for us to drool over!

Pop on over to see the rest of the wonderful layouts created by the CSI Team, where there is fabulous inspiration to be found!!

This is our last week of Sponsorship... we hope you have enjoyed what our team have created and we are sure you will have been wonderfully inspired by Debbi's fabulous Case Studies!

CSI - Colour, Stories, Inspiration #3

2012-01-25T16:15:00.000+08:00

Case File No.3 was released on the weekend for CSI, these colours are so soft and dreamy.

Colours this week are: Lilac, Cream, Dusky Pink, Tea Leaves Brown, Gray

As Sponsors for the month, our girls get to be Guest Designers, here is what Nancy, Natasha and Michelle have done with this weeks Palette!

Jenny B, has also created this gorgeous sample for this colour palette!!

Mistra also was inspired by the dreamy palette and created this submission.

Pop on over to see the rest of the wonderful layouts created by the CSI Team, there is fabulous inspiration to be found!!

CSI - Colour, Stories, Inspiration #2

2012-01-16T07:32:00.000+08:00

The Case File No.2 was released on the weekend for CSI, these colours are Lovely, bright and positively dreamy!

Blue, Raspberry, Lavender, Yellow and Teal

As Sponsors for the month, our girls get to be Guest Designers, here is what Mistra and Michelle have done with this weeks Palette!

Pop on over to see the rest of the wonderful layouts created by the CSI Team, there is fabulous inspiration to be found!!

January Guest Designer - Shona Keehn

2012-01-07T11:30:00.000+08:00

This year we welcome Guest Designers to join the team for a month!

Our January Dusty Attic Guest Designer is Shona Keehn.

We asked Shona some get to know you questions.

Share with us a little about you, how long have you been scrapping, do you have your own dedicated workspace, where are you from?:

Hi everyone...I am so excited to be here!!! I am from beautiful British Columbia, Canada and I have been scrapping for a few years now, but really just got back into it in the past couple of years. I have a wonderful supportive hubby( he has no idea how much I spend on this hobby, hehe ) , 3 children and 4 grandchildren with another one on the way very very soon. I love to take photos of all of them and they love it too because they get most of the albums, in fact I wrapped up 5 albums as gifts just yesterday! I have a room, my scrap room, but it is in definate need of an overhaul in there. I am lucky to squeeze in a 12x12 workspace to create on in there LOL! My new years resolution....is to organise my scrappy space so that I have at least a table space to work on :) I should write Ellen to see if she will send someone to do a room makeover for me hehe :)

What are your favourite Dusty Attic pieces?:

I can not wait to get my hands on some of the new Dusty Attic pieces, they all look so yummy! Right now I have so many go to pieces that are my favs, depending on what type of layout I am doing. LOVE all the botanicals to add to flower clusters, and of course I am addicted to the Chicken Wire :) Corner pieces to add to corners, cogs, the frames, ooo lala the frames, oh yes and all the title pieces.....hehe lets put it this way...I love them all!!!!!!! Dont you all just hate it when you run out of your fav pieces of DA...eeeeeek!

What is your favourite technique to use on Dusty Attic Chipboard?:

I do like to experiment and try the various tutorials here, to alter the pieces. My most fav quick technique is to paint the piece white, add some glimmer mists, glaze or glam, and then finish it off with Rock Candy crackle paint.

And finally, something close to most of the Dusty Team's heart - What's your favourite kind of Chocolate?:

Yummy to me is a mid day Oh Henry Chocolate bar and a delicious cup of Starbucks coffee to go with it :)

We are so happy to have Shona play with us for a month. Shona is a very famiiar face over at Dusty Attic Ning, always sharing her beautiful work as well as taking time to comment on the work of others... be sure to check out her Blog, and also pop into her Dusty Attic Gallery.

CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration

2012-01-07T09:00:00.000+08:00

There's a new colour challenge site in town and it's pretty cool! It's CSI - Colour, Stories, Inspiration - and the whole idea is fabulous! There is the "Scene" which is the colour palette... with 5 colours! Then there is "Evidence" which are a list of items to include on your layout and finally the "Testimony" which is the journaling base/ideas to go with it all!!

This is the Scene for Case Study #1

Now what's better than a new Colour Challenge site... the fact that Dusty Attic is sponsoring them for their first month and there will be a yummy Dusty Prize Pack up for grabs, so go check them out, have a play and join in and you could get Dusty with us!!

JennyB, Michelle and Mistra were this weeks guest designers as well, these are their creations:

Pop on over to see the rest of the wonderful layouts created by the CSI Team, there is fabulous inspiration to be found!!

Introducing Karola Witczak

2012-01-06T08:00:00.000+08:00

Hi everyone, My name is Karola Witczak (in pronunciation: Vit - chuck). I am an absolutely addicted scrapbooking Mommy to Rose, wife to Martin, friend of our furry friends - Miki and Chili.

I'm a little crazy woman, who is dedicated to my scrapbooking passion almost every day, for a few years now. I am constantly trying to develop my passion - in different ways and stepping on different paths - from digital scrapbooking 6 years ago, to an intensive exploration of the intricacies of traditional scrapbooking, constant learning and teaching others as a scrapbooking instructor.

Currently I am working as a freelance designer for a large group of scrapbooking companies, shops, projects, challenge blogs and I'm proud ambassador of many top brands and initiatives in my country of Poland and abroad like Prima, Pink Paislee, Melissa Frances, Glitz Design and others... sometimes I design products for scrapbooking - it gives me lots of joy and satisfaction. I am proud and honored to being Creative Director and Product Designer in The ScrapCake company, so it's my full time job which I make at home. In everyday life I create a LO's, cards, albums, and other things not directly related to scrapbooking - such as notebooks, home decors.

It is hard to define my style, mostly my friends call it "Karola's style," and often hear that this is a soft, romantic, feminine, eclectic. I love shabby chic but with something modern. In most of my work you can usually see portraits of my daughter - I am absolutely in love with her face, and such pictures usually go to my Lo's and albums. Definitely I like all feminine, romantic themes, delicate, soft colors, I'm also dependent on the sewing machine, especially when I make cards.

I love to add new things to my projects, but usually I have big inspiration from patterned papers, flowers and interesting color palettes - I believe when I have a piece of paper I can create anything!

Besides scrapbooking I love to cook, read (for the books I definitely spent much more money than for scrapbooking!), I'm a geek about thrillers and horrors in books and films. I'm also a rock girl, but I love jazz and bossanova too, I love live music, coffee, and I am dependent on buying jeans and sneakers.

Sneeky Peek...

2012-01-05T10:00:00.001+08:00

Oooh we have some lovely little snippets to share of our new release, which will be up for pre-order in the store very soon!

This cute as card from Bev uses some gorgeous new mini locket and keys!

And another adorable card from Karola uses one of the new little birdcages...

Thanks Bev and Karola for sharing these gorgeous cards! You can see more snippets in their Design Team Galleries here - Bev / Karola

Introducing Julie Winks

2012-01-05T09:00:00.000+08:00

My name is Julie Winks and my husband Troy and I live in Central Queensland with our four incredibly active kids, Maddison 15, Claire 12, Cooper 8 and my little man at home, Lachlan 3. Between running around after my crazy busy family, catering to our love of camping, sports and the outdoors and indulging in my favourite creative obsession, there isn’t a lot of spare time in my days ... and that’s just how I like it!

I have been scrapbooking specifically for about 7 years now, but have always been obsessed with craft and creating from a very early age with things such as sewing, knitting, decorating and journaling. I’ve always got some sort of project on the go!

Whilst whatever style I have is constantly evolving, some aspects remain constant. I love to layer with plenty of detail, I adore white space and I am really colour driven. Colour combinations in design are always the things that catch my eye and are inevitably what inspires me when I create a layout... no doubt a hangover from my interior design days at uni, which is now far too long ago to admit to!!

I am on the Design Teams for both The Scrapboxx and The Colour Room and have also been on the Creative Teams for challenge sites Kraft It Up and Stuck! Sketches.

In the last 12 months I have started to dip my toes into the wonderful experience of teaching this amazing craft of ours and I think I am just as hooked on sharing the passion as I am with the creative process. Most recently I have been teaching via video tutorials for Miss Art’s Papercrafting School, a fabulous crafty education centre, which is rapidly growing in popularity.

I am thrilled to be on the DA Design team and can’t wait to play some more with my favourite chipboard!

Introducing Ingrid Gooyer

2012-01-04T08:00:00.000+08:00

Hi all! My name is Ingrid Gooyer and I live in Zaandam, a place near Amsterdam in the Netherlands. I'm married to the greatest husband and together we have two beautiful daughters, Tessa and Yiscka.

Working part time as an analyst in a lab and after a busy work day, filled with analyses and numbers, I find it very relaxing to scrap to clear my head!

I started scrapping since 2006 and now I just can't imagine my life without it! Most of my pages are on a white background. When I first started to scrap, I made very clean pages but now with all the wonderful products on the market, I find myself adding more and more to a page! I love to work with paints, gesso, flowers, lace and pearls.

I'm so thrilled to be designing for Dusty Attic with all those talented ladies and all the gorgeous products!

xxx

Introducing Bev Rochester

2012-01-03T10:00:00.000+08:00

I have always done "crafty things" starting off with the usual knitting, crochet, cross stitch, tapestry then later on to decorating faberge style eggs. It was the class teacher that introduced me to papercrafts about 4 years ago. When I discovered rubber stamping about a year after that I was a confirmed total and utter addict!

I would say my style is anything BUT clean and simple, I am definitely a more is more kinda girl. I absolutely love fiddling lol so can spend hours going through my embellishments to find the perfect "thing" to finish off my project. If my project is not embellished to within an inch of it's life it ain't finished! Saying that I do admire CAS, but it's not something I have been able to master (it's that fiddling again!!)

I am married to my best friend, have two children and two grandchilren as well as 6 Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. I have a stressful job (work full time to pay for my craft supplies!) so my craft time is my de-stressing "me" time.

Introducing Belinda Spencer

2012-01-02T10:00:00.001+08:00

My name is Belinda Spencer and I have been scrapping since 2003. I live on a farm in the Adelaide Hills with my husband Brenton, my two children; Hayley, 6 and William 5, our dog Merlin and cat Noodle as well as lots of cows, deer and chooks (not to mention the native fauna).

My main focus for scrapbooking has always been 12” x 12” layouts but more recently I have become addicted to cardmaking and artist trading cards.

My style tends to include elements of shabby chic, vintage, fussy cutting and a touch of grunge. I love to include texture, dimension and different techniques, Dusty Attic chipboard, flowers, Distress Inks and Glimmermist. My inspiration comes from my children, blog surfing, magazines, product and other scrappers that I admire.

I have been published in Scrapbook Creations and Scrapbooking Memories magazines and have been lucky enough to be chosen as Guest Designer at Darkroom Door, The Color Room, Handmade By Suzanne and Stuck Sketches.

I currently teach at Charlotte’s Web in Adelaide, am a Design Team member at The Color Room, Handmade By Suzanne and White With 1 and participate in as many blog challenges as I can fit in each month.

I am so thrilled to be joining the fabulous Dusty Attic team. I absolutely adore Dusty Attic chippie. Thankyou so much for having me on the team, Dusty Attic. I look forward to getting to know everyone and playing with lots of gorgeous chippie!!

You can see more of my work on my blog http://happyscrapspace.blogspot.com/

January 2012 Sketch Challenge

2012-01-02T09:51:00.000+08:00

Thank you to everyone who entered our sketch challenges in 2011!
We enjoyed seeing each and every one of your inspiring creations.

2012 Sketch challenges will be run a little differently this year,
instead of voting for the winners, they will be drawn out randomly,
it will be the luck of the draw, so remember you have to be in it to win it!

Keep on inspiring us with your amazing Sketch Layouts!!!
Remember to have fun and don't stress,
do it first and foremost for yourself and your enjoyment!!!

January 2012 Sketch

Tips for Using Sketches

You can turn a sketch around and use it sideways, upside down or even flip it back to front!
A line on a sketch can be a Piece of Paper or a row of Brads or Stitching etc etc
Flowers on a sketch can be a changed to Star's for a boy’s page etc and vice versa.
A photo square etc. is basically for your photo space, for e.g.: 4 small photo squares can be swapped for one large photo and vice versa, or you can use twice as many smaller photos.
Or you can even replace a photo square for a piece of paper or journaling etc!
Remember you can also enlarge or shrink the sketch design on your page to get a different look
The design of the sketch is a starting point to inspire you! Go for it! Remember the sketches are not set in stone, it just your interpretation of them.

To enter the Monthly Sketch Challenge, all you need to do is include some Dusty Attic on your layout and upload it to the Gallery before Midnight the 31^st of January (Australian Time).

Make sure you include January_2012_Sketch, written like this, in the Tags with the underscore between each word or “January 2012 Sketch” in inverted comma’s when you upload to the gallery to be in the running for a Dusty Attic prize pack.

For more information on uploading to the gallery see in the Forum - Site Navigation & How To for tutorials on uploading etc.

You can see all the entries in the gallery HERE

We look forward to seeing more incredible entries again this month!
Good Luck & Have Fun!

Cheers the DA Team

2012 Design Team Announced!!

2012-01-01T08:00:00.000+08:00

Hi and welcome to The Dusty Attic Blog!

We have created this blog to share with you regular Dusty Attic news, release sneak peeks and wonderful inspiration from our Design Team. We will also share with you tutorials, tips and hints, freebies and competitions, so be sure to follow us to receive update notifications.

Now for the news everyone is waiting for...

We are thrilled to announce the Dusty Attic Design Team and Sponsored Designers for 2012!

Not only has the whole team from 2011 have remained with us, but we have grown to include some amazing fresh new talent to inspire you.

2012 Design Team:

Belinda Spencer - SA, Australia
Emeline Seet - Singapore
Evana Willis - WA, Australia
Gabrielle Pollacco - Canada
Helena Johansson - Sweden
Ingrid Gooyer - Netherlands
Irene Tan – Malaysia
Iris Babao Uy – Philippines
Jen Burns WA, Australia
Julie Winks - QLD, Australia
Maiko Kosugi - Tokyo, Japan
Mandy Harrell - USA
Michelle Grant - QLD, Australia
Mistra Hoolahan - WA, Australia
Nancy Winter - WA, Australia
Natasha Naranjo Aguirre - USA
Tina Rutledge - Florida, USA

2012 Sponsored Designers:
Anna Dabrowska-Pekocka (Finnabair) - Poland
Bev Rochester - England
Ingvild Bolme – Norway
Karola Witzak - Poland

2011 was a huge year for The Dusty Attic, and there are more amazing things just on the horizon. Be sure to follow our blog for regular updates, sign up at our Ning site to interact with the team and meet other Dusty Addicts or "Like" us on our Facebook Fan Page.

Thank you all for your support through 2011! We'll be introducing our new team over the next few days, so you can get to know them before they share their first 'official' Dusty Attic creations.