Stamped cards with Helen

Welcome back to the Scrap Matrix challenge where this month

we are using Stamps and Stencils from AALL Create.

There is a huge range of products from this company; why not check out what the rest of the team have done with them?

My desk was in chaos after using lots of stamps and stencils, 

so I thought I'd whip up a couple of cards before I cleaned up.

I love this set of stamps; AALL & Create #7; they look kind of cool and funky, just right for a the hipsters in your life!

Using smooth white yardstick, I stamped the images and then smooshed them with Tim Holtz Distress Oxides, using the cling wrap method.

I used to dislike purple, but since using Tim Holtz Distress Oxides, I've come to use it by choice - Yikes!  I think it looks gorgeous with this AALL & Create Stamp #43, designed by Fiona Paltridge.

This stamp is temporarily out of stock at Scrap Matrix, but there are two others by Fiona which are also lovely. 

AALL & Create # 44

AALL & Create # 42

Thanks for calling in today, I hope you find something to inspire your creativity. We'd love to have you play along and perhaps win a prize or a Guest Designer spot, from the uber generous 
Vicki Christensen at Scrap Matrix

'Amazing' by Elisa Ablett

Hi Everyone,

Elisa here from the design team with my latest inspiration for the month of August.

We have a wonderful challenge on this month and there is still time to enter, here is the link to the facebook group - Scrap Matrix Shares where you can enter. This month is all about showcasing the amazing stamps and stencils from Aall and Create that are available from the Scrap Matrix Shop.

My layout features the awesome stamps of a couple of homegrown Aussie designers Fiona Paltridge and Louise Nelson and of course stencils and other stamps as well from Aall and Create.

I have also included a step by step tutorial on how I created this layout .... 

follow on and leave some love!

Products used from Scrap Matrix:

http://scrapmatrix.com/prima-metallic-accents-semi-watercolor-paint-set/

http://scrapmatrix.com/shop-by-category/stamps/aall-create/

http://scrapmatrix.com/brands/13-Arts.html

http://scrapmatrix.com/distress-ink-mini/

TUTORIAL TIME!

Step 1 - draw a faint line with a pencil about 10cm in from the left hand side all the way down, then from the bottom of the page across your page 15cm up, this will give you the intersection point where your photo will sit. Drawing the line makes it easier to concentrate your background work in the area where you want to work whilst keeping the white space 

Step 2 - Using your desired ink, ( I used Sky Blue Ayeeda Water Ink  ) , spritz your page with water first along the lines that you have drawn. Add a large patch at the intersection point by spraying more water and adding large amounts of ink as per below photo.. dry with a heat gun or out in the sun!

Step 3 - Using a Cracked Pistachio distress ink pad and your craft mat, add patches of colour to your page. To achieve this you swipe your inkpad onto your craft mat and then spritz the colour with water. Tip your page upside down and pat the page onto the liquid making sure you keep to the areas along your drawn lines. Dry with a heat gun.

Step 4 - Using one of the Aall and Create stencils and a distress dauber or ink blending pad and applicator, blend the Cracked Pistachio ink through your stencil along the horizontal line 

Step 5 - Using the same technique as in step 4, blend black archival ink through various Aall and Create Stencils onto your page, following the lines you have drawn. 

Step 6 - Add a few spritzes of the Pastel Turquoise Ayeeda Chalk Mist at the intersection point where your photo will sit. 

Step 7 - Stamping time! I used Landscape Lines by Louise Nelson along the drawn lines, vertically and horizontally.

Step 8 - Using Fiona Paltridges gorgeous bloom set #42 Aall and Create  stamp over the lines as shown in the below photo. Add your title by blending ink through Stencil #2 Aall and Create, just over the words, amazing, love etc.

Step 9 - In the above photo, I also added touches of scribbled writing using the black and white Pico Embellishers which are available at Scrap Matrix.

Step 10 - Almost there! this is the fun part.... using a paint brush and Prima Metallic Accent watercolour set. Add metallic shimmery awesome accents to your blooms.

Step 11 - using the water colours and a butterfly stamp from #47 Aall and Create stamp set, stamp and colour your butterflies in, dry and then fussy cut them out and using 3D foam dots add them to your page. I didn't want to add to much more to my page as i wanted the stamp sets to take centre stage along with the cute photo of my great niece. 

Here are some close ups!!

Finished layout !! woohoo! If you try these techniques and/or the layout please post your creations in the Scrap Matrix Shares page.

That's it from me this week, thanks for stopping by the blog.

Hugs 

Elisa xx

PS.. If you want to see more of my work, here are a few links 

http://2crazycrafters.blogspot.com/

https://instagram.com/elisa_ablett/

Inhale Exhale .. with Alz

Morning peeps!

You could be forgiven for thinking I'm about to run a relaxation class from the subject heading of this blog post but, trust me, I'm not. Instead, I plan to put you to sleep with my waffling instead.  ;)

Whilst I had several Aall and Create stamps and stencils laying around on my desk from creating projects for this month's Scrap Matrix Aall and Create challenge I decided to keep playing and came up with this ..

Inhale Exhale

Initially, I struggled with this layout big time. The background was killing me! I started with a sheet of 7 Dots Studio Dreamscapes patterned paper (Sunrise) because on the reverse there was about a three inch section that had the perfect colours for my photo. Thing is, those colours blended into a mostly rose pink-ish colour which, whilst also perfect for my photo, just wasn't doing it for me. I really wanted to bring in more of the yellows and oranges but hard up against the far side of the paper where that rose pink-ish colour was quite dark, it just wasn't working. Aargh!

(I used the reverse and you can see the colours I wanted to use in the top right hand corner)

What to do?? After contemplating my navel (and scrapping supplies) for oh, I'd say an hour, easy, I figured 'what's the worst that could happen?'. Right? So I pulled out my Tim Holtz Distress Oxides which, I'll confess, I haven't played with as much as I should have considering how long they've been gathering dust in my stash. Anyways. I figured Wild Honey, Fossilized Amber and Candied Apple might do the trick. At this point I wasn't sure exactly what that 'trick' would be and I was feeling kinda nervous. So I went back to what I know and smeared on a little white gesso with a brayer and spread about some Finnabair Texture Paste White Sand using Aall and Create Stencils. I used #10 (I think this is my favourite) and #8 which I especially love for travel pages. I went over my page again with a brayer and the white gesso to highlight the White Sand Finnabair Texture Paste as it had faded into the background just a wee bit, although the sandy texture was perfect.

Once all that was dry, I started mucking about with my Tim Holtz Distress Oxides. Other than watching some tutorials quite some time ago on You Tube I really didn't have a clue what I was doing.  I knew that if I heat dried them between each application the layers would sit on top of each other versus blending and potentially making a big muddy mess. I also knew that they would dry with a chalky finish. I knew I had seen a lot of successful finishes achieved on tags and cards, but not on a piece of 12x12 which I thought would be less manageable (I was wrong). Figuring I had nothing to lose I squished my ink pads onto my craft mat, spritzed the ink with water and literally started 'splodging' my page into the ink and drying it with a heat tool. As I continued 'splodging and drying' I could begin to see which sections on my page needed more of one colour than another. In the end, I had pretty successfully (or so I thought lol) blended the colours I was first drawn to in the 7 Dots Studio Dreamscapes Sunrise patterned paper, and I loved, loved, loved the way the inks sat on the White Sand Finnabair Texture Paste ..

I had ink left on my mat so also inked up a couple of paper doilies to use behind my photo and strands of gauze I later used to tuck in here and there. I used a Blue Fern Studio stamp (London Chronicle) and Jet Black Archival Ink to add some stamped detail on my background, one of the tags from 7 Dots Dreamscapes Tags 12x12 which I used to mat my photo, and one of the doilies.

I stamped some feathers from Aall and Create Stamp set #11 onto kraft cardstock, cut them out and stapled them together with a black feather from my stash. These were the foundation for my primary cluster of embellishments which also included some of that inked gauze strands, a Prima Archivist Ledger flower, a stick pin from my stash and a couple of leaves I made from a Large Square Brass flower (#5). These brass flowers are super easy to break up just by bending them back and forth and, in this instance, I painted them with black acrylic paint.

To balance my page I created another, smaller, embellishment cluster to the right of my photo. I cut a heart from one of the 7 Dots Dreamscapes Sunrise Tags 12x12 and inked the edges black. I added another Prima Archivist Ledger flower (it could not have been a more perfect match), another 'leaf' and more strands of gauze. I used Black Fitzgerald Thickers for my title and, because it was done and dusted (or so I thought) generously flicked around some heavy drops of irResistible Pico Embellisher in black. Unfortunately, whilst my page was drying, I accidentally smudged a drop of the irResistible Pico Embellisher and, taking into account Murphy's Law, it had to be the drop that was dead centre, right at the very top of my page. Aargh!!!! Buuuuut as we know, in scrapbooking, a mistake is just an opportunity and whist I could have used a sprinkling of something like black sequins from my stash, that didn't occur to me at the time lol! Instead, I grabbed one of my Tim Holtz pads with sayings printed on black and white strips (very similar to his Small Talk) and added a few. I actually reckon it might have just added the finishing touch I didn't know my page needed, and that was that.

Now, if you're anything like me, when you've finished creating you end up with one giant, big, chaotic mess of products on your table. Included in my messes are invariably bits and pieces I made which didn't make it onto my page. Ordinarily I store those bits and pieces in all sorts of places where they get lost and forgotten about. I'm kinda tired of that happening but find it soooooo hard to throw out these little creative 'gems'. My mess after this layout was finished included tissue paper, bits of doilies, gauze strands and seam binding, all of which I'd inked with the Distress Oxides. Also in my mess were packets of products I'd used and some I didn't (Yellow Crystal Stems and Nottinghill Black Embossed Paper Lace). Whilst wondering what I could do with my 'gems' and other products I remembered something I had seen shared in the Scrap Matrix Shares Facebook page .. Karen Stepney had decided to take her art journaling an extra step and made cards with a spare piece of paper on which she repeated her art journaling. Does that make sense? I figured, why not make a tag? I could always use it on a page down the track or even add it to a card. Who knew? I certainly didn't. But the idea was appealing, and so this was born ..

(thanks for the inspiration Karen!)

After all that it was time to clean up my mess, write a materials list, photograph my layout, write some blog posts, wipe down my table and sweep up the mess I'd made on the floor. What I wouldn't give for a personal assistant lol!

Anyways, you now only have until midnight on the 31st to get your project done and uploaded to the Scrap Matrix Shares Facebook page so you'd best get a wriggle on!! Oh and heh, don't forget to tell us which products you've used from Scrap Matrix .. I need inspiring!!

'Til next time!

Cheers .. Alz   :)

Scrap Matrix products used:

7 Dots Studio Dreamscapes - Sunrise

7 Dots Dreamscapes Sunrise Tags 12x12

Finnabair Texture Paste White Sand

Aall and Create Stencils - #10 and #8

Aall and Create Stamp - #11

Tim Holtz Distress Oxides - Wild Honey, Fossilized Amber, Candied Apple

Blue Fern Studio stamp - London Chronicle

Archival Ink - Jet Black

Prima Archivist Ledger flowers

Large Square Brass flower (#5)

Thicker - Fitzgerald Black

irResistible Pico Embellisher - Black

Crystal Stems - Yellow

Embossed Paper Lace - Nottinghill Black

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AALL & Create August Challenge - 2nd post with Helen

Welcome back to the Scrap Matrix challenge where for the whole of August we are using Stamps and Stencils from AALL & Create.

If you have some AALL & Create products in your stash; or you are in the mood for a splurge on stamps and stencils, come & join us. 

 We're a friendly lot and will make you feel very welcome.  You don't need a blog, just link your work into the album on the 
Scrap Matrix album on Facebook.

These products are super versatile, as they contain lots of images and stencil shapes in each pack,  i.e. lots of bang for your buck! 
I may have one or two of these tucked away for a rainy day.

For the base of my layout, I chose one of the new papers from 7 Dots Studio, Garden Party Collection, "Born".  It was perfect for photos of my little Grand Girl planting up a frame of Cacti. I covered the whole page with clear gesso, as I wanted to add mixed media.

I fussy cut some of the flowers from another sheet of 7 Dots Studio, Garden Party collection, "Dreamy". I added some cacti from my own photo collection of flowers and foliage which I also fussy cut.

Playing around with placement of the fussy cut elements

and allowing room to add some texture paste.

To create a soft frame, I used texture paste through a stencil, 

AALL & Create #9.

Using the same stencil and some Tim Holtz Oxide inks, I added some detail to the bottom right corner and stamped a butterfly from the AALL & Create stamp set #47. I didn't have quite the right shade of Oxides, so I blended a few different colours; Peeled paint, Twisted citron, Iced spruce, Lucky Clover and Frayed Burlap. I think it worked, although I hear there's another 12 colours to be had.  

Not that I'm looking! 

With the AALL & Create stamp set #47, I stamped, fussy cut and coloured a Bee to hover among the foliage.

The circle and dot stamps are from AALL & Create Stamp set #10.

I tried to stamp directly onto the page and managed to stamp one of the quotes upside down!  Arrgh!  Hmmm!  Why do I tell you about all of my bloopers?   Perhaps to explain, that there is often a way to rescue the page rather than toss is in the bin, which I would have done in the earlier days.   So I painted some watered down white gesso over the mess; stamped on tissue paper and added the tissue over the mistakes with Gel medium. 

A bit more stamping from AALL & Create Stamp set #10.

I have tried writing directly onto a gessoed background before and it seems to bleed into the paper, so I typed my journalling into text boxes, printed them onto card stock, cut them out and splashed some ink onto them to help them blend into the background.

Thanks for calling in today, I hope you find something to inspire your creativity. We'd love to have you play along and perhaps win a prize or a Guest Designer spot, from the uber generous 
Vicki Christensen at Scrap Matrix

Products from Scrap Matrix:-

Finnabair clear gesso

Liquitex white gesso

7 Dots Garden Party "Born"

7 Dots Garden Party "Dreamy"

AALL & Create Stamps

AALL & Create Stencils

AALL & Create Stamp #47

Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks

Tim Holtz archival ink

Tim Holtz texture paste

Finnabair soft matte gel

Other products:

AALL & Create stamp # 10 

AALL & Create stamp # 43 

AALL & Create Stencil #9 -

Chipboard title from Scrapmatts

Beautiful Girls

Hello everyone,  Monique here with my second AALL & Create challenge layout.  This time, as well as doing a bit of stencil work, I also used the really cool Stamp Set #35.

I couldn't resist the cute little parrot in a tutu and just had to use it as an embellishment on my layout. With that in mind, I chose to do a bright, fun layout about my two beautiful nieces.

I started by creating my background.  I decided to break out the gorgeous Prima Watercolour Confections set in  Odysee and use the Amsterdam and Tokyo colours.  I started with the Tokyo hot pink, and brushed it on to my cardstock base, spraying it with water to spread it around, then drying it with my heat tool.  I then applied the Amsterdam purple the same way.

Once both layers were dry  I tore some large hearts from the Dina Wakley collage tissue paper and adhered them onto the background with some Liquitex Acrylic Fluid Matte Medium.  I then stamped some of the small hearts from the AALL & Create Stamp Set #35.

Next, I used an AALL & Create Stencil #16 to pop on some white texture paste.

I then made a photo mat with some 7 Dots Paint Chips Razzleberry Paper and Tags.

 I then adhered my photo to the photo mat and popped it on my layout using some thick card to give it some dimension.

I then added all my embellishments.  First of all, I stamped that cute little parrot stamp from the AALL & Create Stamp Set #35 - using archival ink.  I then used the Prima Watercolour Confections Odyssey set to add some colour.  This time I chose to use the Jamaica colour primarily, and accents of Tokyo and Dubai.
Next, I painted the Blue Fern Studio Eclectic Hearts in Dylusions Crushed Grape, and arranged them as accents around the photo with the parrot, some Paint Chips Die Cut Elements, some Dina Wakley Media Tape and some Mambi Chips, the ones I used aren't there, but there are just sooooooo many to choose from!

Whenever I add embellishments to my layout, I always make sure I arrange them so that they drew attention to my photo.  One way to do this is to create an imaginary triangle with the photo placed within it.

Here are some close ups:

Here are the links to the products I've used that can be found in the Scrap Matrix Shop

AALL&Create Stamp Set #35

AALL&Create Stencil #16

7 Dots Studio Paint Chips Paper "Razzleberry"

7 Dots Studio 12x12 Tag Sheet

7 Dots Studio 6x12 Die Cut Elements 

Dina Wakley Media Tape

Prima Watercolour Confections "Odysee"

Dylusions Paint - Crushed Grape

Liquitex Matte Acrylic Fluid Medium

Thank you for popping by the blog today, I hope you have been inspired to break out your AALL&Create Stamps and Stencils today.  It isn't too late to enter our fabulous challenge, all you have to do is create something using AALL and Create products, then upload it into the "AALL&Create" folder on the Scrap Matrix Shares Facebook page.  Don't forget to mention the products from the Scrap Matrix shop you've used, and you will be in the running!!  It's that simple.

Until next time scrappy friends!