Just a little Adventure - Miss Carrie - Sketch Inspiration

 Greetings, crafting friends! It's Miss Carrie, and I'm excited to share a new scrapbook project with you. Check out this charming outdoor layout that I designed for the May Sketch Challenge hosted in the Dusty Fanattic group.

The layout features my son teaching his younger cousin how to fish and this month's sketch enables me to showcase several photos of this cherished memory.

The May sketch is not only designed with plenty of photo space but is also filled with numerous layers and icons. You can create these layers with pattern paper, stencils, or chipboard, just like I did.

I added some visual interest to my page by using a perforated mesh background in shades of blue and brown. I painted the chipboard with acrylic paint, cut it into pieces, and tucked it behind a larger photo mat.

Perforated Mesh

Dusty Attic offers a fantastic selection of outdoor and fishing-themed decor. In this design, I incorporated the fishing hooks, along with some beautifully layered botanicals.

Fishing Hooks and Lures

To give the fish hooks a shiny appearance, I painted the chipboard with Pops of Color and Nuvo Dots. Prior to applying these embellishing paints, I mixed in an acrylic extender to prevent the paint from drying too quickly.

Once the paint had dried, I used a sanding block to distress the edges and added a touch of white paint at the base of each lure using a dry brush technique. I attached each one to the page with a little loop of hemp twine and a metallic safety pen.

In each of the embellishment clusters, I included additional fishing hooks, themed die cuts, and chipboard botanicals. The various layers on this piece come together to give it a delightful outdoor vibe.

To complete the design, I added a simple chipboard title at the bottom of the page. "Just a Little Adventure" was the perfect way to capture the essence of that day.

Botanic Mix #1

Just a little Adventure

Arrows #1

This was coated in white acrylic and layered with a simple die-cut phrase. For a step-by-step demonstration of how the page was created, feel free to check out the process video on my YouTube channel.

I hope today's project inspired you to try something new!

Altered Notebook - Joanne Simmons - Mood Board Inspiration

Hello!  Wow!  How nice is this months moodboard??

I have created an altered notebook.

To start I used one of my embellishments.  I like to make these up just for fun and then add them to a page or card.  This is what I started with

So I created this embellishment using a chipboard doily as my base and then adding the broken numbers, bits of the heart attack panel then a flourish.  I did change the blossom as you will see in the pic.

Next I covered my notebook.  I painted it first with some extra body acrylic paint.  Added a little extra texture using the gradient texture stencil.  I then added some wax over the top.

Before I added my embellishment I added some perforated mesh.

Finally I added my embellishment and splattered with white paint

Here are some close ups

Dusty Attic Products Used

DA1746 - Gradient Stencil

DA1681 - Perforated Mesh

DA0479 - Doily #1

DA2391 - Broken Bits Numbers

DA0753 - Vine Corner #1

DA1205 - Heart Attack Border #1

Until next time

Happy crafting

Life is Beautiful - Joanne Simons

Hello creative friends and welcome back the blog. 

It's Jo with you today to share a simple yet effective layout.  This layout I have kept rather simple as I found that I was starting to add more and more and I really want my photo to be the star of my page. 

So with some pretty papers and some awesome chipboard designs by Dusty here is my page.

I started with the Barbed Wire Frames and inked them partially in a brown ink.  I then snipped it not quite in half and added the larger piece to the left hand side of my page and the smaller piece to the right hand side.

The frame at the back is mounted on acetate to give a bit of a window look.

I then made a paper cluster for my photo to sit on and included the perforated mesh as well for a bit of a natural feel.

I kept my embellishment simple with this one.  Let the papers do the talking along with that beautiful big barbed wire frame.  I added some of the vintage keys and a title.

Dusty Attic Products Used

DA1151 - Barbed Wire Frames

DA1681 - Perforated Mesh

DA0392 - Vintage Keys

Until next time

Happy crafting

every Photo tells a Story - Kristy Abela - Mood Board Inspiration

 Hi Crafters!

I really enjoyed the Mood Board this month. I found some amazing masculine themed paper in the new releases from 13@rts. There is a more laid back set and this one here is aimed at teenagers. Its not often we get young male inspiration and this new release is page after page of great ideas. I loved the composition on this piece and really let the paper speak for itself. All it needed was some dimensional accents from our favourite Dusty Attic chipboard and some clever composition. Instead of talking about how I decorated the chipboard I thought I would give you some tips and hints on composition. Let me know on our Facebook page if they help!

 I treated myself to something new from the Tim Holtz release and found this tissue paper. Perfect for my puzzle pieces! I used Gel Medium to stick it down and used a light spritz of water to peel off the excess once the underneath layer of Gel medium was dry. Then I added another layer to seal it. Either gloss or matt gel will do the job. If you don't have any Tissue paper you can always paint the chipboard pieces white and use your favourite stamps to get a similar effect!

 

 

I really wanted to highlight the circle in the background and use it as the frame for my composition. You will notice that I haven't added any dimensional accents on the left hand side so the eye is really drawn to the collage within the circle. To enhance it I used some regular old string, brushed some water based black dye, and a few staples... Nothing says teen grunge like dirty water and bits of metal!

I matted the background with black Bazzil to frame the composition and I used my finger to run some black paint around the edge of the photo. This created two black square-ish shapes on the page. Repetition of shapes helps create cohesion and also framed the photo in amongst all the bright colours to draw the eye to what was important.

 

 

To give the chipboard some place to 'sit' I created a neutral texture in the background with my favourite accessory, Plasterers tape!! I love this stuff because you can cut it at different angles to create some amazing shapes. It also helps to give your mediums something to stick to. Can you see the the gold leaf flakes? How cool are these and they give a touch of an electroplated influence to a page. Can you see how the mesh tape in the background gives it a place to rest? I applied the tacky glue with a pallet knife and because of the ridges you can get a really random effect when you brush off the excess.

 

 

 I wanted to colour the chipboard to tie in with the background palette. Because it is so bright, adding more colours would confuse the focal point. In this composition we have used black and white as part of our palette. When creating with bright colours we need to 'calm the page down' at some point otherwise our eyes get overwhelmed. Without black and white to do this, grey becomes a great option as a neutral! To break up the layers of chipboard I added some interest by dabbing texture paste on the Broken Bits - Bricks with a brush. I added some variation of colour with chalk paints. If you don't have texture paste you can add some sand to acrylic paint and get the same effect. 

 

 

 

 A plain white title on top of all the crazy was all I needed to finish it off. See how I used the Grey again to frame what was important on the page? 

I hope that you gained some clever tips to help with your next project.

 

 

Products used

Broken Bits #9

Jigsaw pieces - Medium

Perforated mesh

Title - Every photo tells a story

Triangle Panel - Small

Mini Brackets

21 today - Joanne Simons

Hello and thanks for joining me.

I really am a bit of a lazy scrapper.  I don't scrap in any order.  I don't print photos to scrap I just print and scrap whatever I feel and however I like.  Hence these pics on this layout are from my eldest boys 21st which was 2 and a half years ago!

I enjoy scrapping like that.  It means I get to go back over photos and re-live those memories.

So here is my layout to document that moment in time.

I tried to go with a bit of a mechanical vibe as he is a mechanic.

I made one big long border using the perforated mesh border and I then added some of the broken bits - numbers (these are one of my favourite pieces of Dusty Attic chipboard)  Do you have a favourite? 

I also added in the pipeworks and machine parts too and just made a bit of a cluster of chipboard.

Here are a couple of close ups

I have also added some metal cogs just to mix it up a bit.

Dusty Attic products used.

DA1680 - Perforated Mesh Border

DA1942 - Cog Border #3

DA2391 - Broken Bits Numbers

DA1935 - Machine Parts #2

DA1936 - Industrial Pipes

DA1787 - Wordpl@y #3

DA2389 - Number Jumble

Until next time

Happy crafting