Checking Out The New Tim Holtz Stencils & Rub-Ons!

Hello everyone, Annie here today to share some ideas and inspiration with you.

I was very excited to open my parcel from SJ Crafts this week, because amongst other things it contained some Tim Holtz goodies and I'm a big TH fan!

In my parcel were two of his Layering Stencils - Dot Fade and Splatters and some Remnant Rubs - Botanical and Life Quotes. There are lots of inspiring vids on YouTube showing you how to achieve some really cool effects with these products, so I was very excited to have a go myself!

After some experimenting I ended up with some seriously inky fingers and this colourful collection of 4"x6" cards and embellishments ...

I used several gorgeous colours of Distress Ink and Distress Paint and a water spritzer - I love the way they all work together. Another essential ingredient not shown here is baby wipes!

Tim said during a demo that the Remnant Rubs will stick to all kinds of things as well as paper, such as wood, glass, metal and fabric, so I wanted to try this out - on the left you can see some wood and metal bits from my rummage drawer, a couple of Ranger Fragments and some canvas fabric to experiment on.

Here are a couple of amazing Tim Holtz demos to give you an idea of what can be done - this one using Remnant Rubs - and this one about the Layering Stencils. I love to watch YouTube videos for ideas and will often have them playing on my iPad whilst I'm scrapping.

For this project, I combined several of the ideas from Tim's demo, adapting slightly to fit what I had available. I started with plain white cardstock and applied matching Distress Paint through the Dot Fade stencil to create a resist background pattern for my first layer ...

Then I added another layer of pattern over this, using two more vibrant colours of Distress Paint and the Splatters stencil ...

Next came the Remnant Rubs - these went on SO easily, because they're REALLY STICKY. You could use them in a "tidier" way if you preferred, but I was going for the messy, grungy style as demonstrated by my hero! This is achieved by rubbing randomly here and there and then quickly snatching the sheet off your project to leave "remnants" of the words and images on your design:

The next layer was created with Distress Inks in Picked Raspberry, Peacock Feathers, Squeezed Lemonade and Orange Marmalade - I love the vibrant colours and the evocative names of these inks ...

A baby wipe swiped over the surface removed ink from the stencilled areas and helped to blend the colours. It's great how the stencilled design keeps its true colour because the paint resists the ink. The other thing you notice at this stage is that despite all the layers you've added, the surface is still totally smooth, so it's perfect for stamping on ...

I used archival ink, so that it wouldn't smudge if I wanted to go back in with more Distress Inks later. Unfortunately the butterfly just didn't work on this card - it stamped perfectly well, but it just didn't look right and I threw it away in a fit of pique and started again :o)

Here's another background - I added Remnant Rubs and stamping to this ...

and repeated the process until I had three cards I was happy with ...

Then it was time to turn my attention to some other types of surfaces ...

The flower was cut twice from canvas fabric using the TH Tattered Florals Bigz Die with my Cuttlebug. I applied the Remnant Rubs before colouring with Distress Ink in Picked Raspberry and Scattered Straw - it was quite difficult to make myself add them truly randomly!

Then I tried some wood and metal - a garden label leftover from our wedding tables and an old front door key, which will both find a home in our wedding album!

I applied the Remnant Rubs to the stick first, then coloured with Distress Inks. I love the way the Rubs act as a resist, so that when you go over the surface with a baby wipe, it blends the colours and leaves a white "halo" around the words and images.

The key got a base coat of Distress Paint in Picket Fence, then I added some Rubs and finished with some Distress Ink in Peacock Feathers around the edges.

One of my favourite home-made embellies is a beer bottle top squished in the Cuttlebug, so that's what I tried next, as well as a Ranger Fragment, just to see how well the Rubs would stick to such a smooth surface ...

The bottle top was treated in much the same way as the key, with a base coat of Distress Paint, followed by some random Rubs and finished with Distress Ink in Scattered Straw and Peacock Feathers.

The Fragment was initially coloured with Alcohol Inks on the back, which looked very pretty, but when I added the Rubs to the front I realised that you couldn't see them very well against the alcohol inked background, so I got the Blending Solution out and removed most of it. Interestingly, although I ended up with the Blending Solution (which is a solvent) all over the place, those Remnant Rubs stayed put, which was pretty impressive - having struggled with rub-ons in the past, I was very impressed with how well and easily these stuck to any surface I tried - just bear in mind that they really are super sticky, so you need to be careful (but that's hardly a negative point!)

What a lovely time I had with these - and I'm stull bursting with ideas to try out! Have you tried Remnant Rubs yet? Do you Love to Layer? Are you a Tim Holtz groupie or a YouTube junkie like me?!

Remember to check out all the Ranger / Tim Holts goodies in the SJ Crafts shop HERE!

Remember to share your projects on our FaceBook page - we love to see what you create!

Cheerio for now

Annie :o)xxx

Annie is often experimenting and sharing her fabulous results over at her blog Arty Farty Annie, go pay her a visit!

P.S. Louise will be here with more Tim Holtz inspiration tomorrow!

Undivided Attention Part 3

Hi there, its Lisa-Jane here with the final part of the series where we embrace using pocket based products for non pocket projects.  Now try saying that fast....

If you missed them, you can catchup on part 1 here and part 2 here!

I'm using Simple Stories Homespun collection for today's projects!

First up today, I want to show you a home decor project.  The sentiments on this 6x4 card really struck a chord with me as things I need to remember so I decided to make it into something to go on the wall in our (hopefully) new home.  I simply rounded the corners and mounted it onto some red patterned paper from the collection and then mounted it again onto one of the larger 8x6 cards.  I added a couple of stickers to the corners and then put it inside the frame.

I wanted to add some more detail but I didn't want to cover up any of the wording and I didn't have a frame big enough for a larger insert so to get round this ....

I simply added a pretty sticker to the top corner of the outside of the frame and some chipboard and a piece of banner strip opposite to give a bit more interest.

I'm looking forward to abiding by these rules and seeing it on the wall of our new home.  With that in mind, I came up with this final little project to help contain the stress of the house move.

At a recent retreat I went on, one of the girls gave us all a little Moleskin notebook.  I love anything kraft coloured that I can alter and the bits and pieces I had left in the Homespun kit were very home themed.  I decided to make a little book to served as a reminder of what is actually important about your house and also to help me keep track of information and ideas for our potential new home.

I decorated the front with one of the 6x4 cards and some brads and chipboard from the collection.  I needed to keep the inside decoration quite flat to avoid the pages getting too chunky so inside I stuck to using the 6x4 cards and stickers.  

I created tabs using a die on the 2x12 strips and then decorated both the front and back of each dividing page.  I will write on the tabs in a black journalling pen to make them easy to find too for now I used the alpha stickers to indicate each section.  How perfect is that telephone sticker for the contacts page?!

Sometimes I added a bit of washi tape or a punched border from another 2x12 section and sometimes I just rounded the corners or added a sticker.  As always, I inked the edges using Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  My daughter made Sarah laugh the other day when she demanded to use my blending tool on something she was making because she always inks her edges too!

Some of the images on the collection are ideal for adding a bit of stitching.  This suits the theme really well and adds texture without increasing the dimension too much.

I used up a few more stickers on the back pages too - this was a great use for those pieces that I would find hard to use on scrapbook pages.

 I used a final card and 2 perfect pieces of chipboard on the back cover to complete my little notebook.  I will probably need to add a bit more adhesive to these pieces as the book will be in my handbag but otherwise most of the bits are contained within the book itself so it should be fine.

Hopefully it will help to make things a little bit less stressful but we shall see!  I really enjoyed making it and trying to keep in mind that you make your house your home by what you do inside it and the people you live with and that it will all be worth it in the end.

So, what do you think?  Lots of layouts, a framed piece and an altered notebook and not a pocket page protector in sight.  Do you still think you can only use these types of products if you do pocket scrapping or have these projects made you think outside the pocket a bit?  I hope so because I wouldn't want to miss out on some of the beautiful designs like this and I wouldn't want you to either.  
Happy scrapping!

Bye for now

Lisa-Jane xx

Simple Stories Products (including the Homespun Collection) is available in the S J Crafts Shop here: http://www.sjpapercrafts.co.uk/simple-stories-364-c.asp

Lisa-Jane blogs about her scrapbooking, family and life on her blog : Inside My Head

April Challenge Favourites and A Winner!

Hello everyone! Jennifer here to show you a few of our favourites from the April Mood Board Challenge entries... and to tell you the winner of the prize too of course!

Thank you so much to everyone who entered, there were so many beautiful pages that have been giving us lots of ideas, and showing us how many different ways the mood board could be interpreted! You guys rock!

At the end of the post I'll tell you the randomly picked winner, but now here are our favourites...

Trina:

Trina uploaded her layout to our Facebook Page, it captures the springtime spirit of the moodboard so well with beautiful pinks and greens, flowers and butterflies!

Marie:

Marie put the March Kit to great use on her layout, we love the different textures she's created!

Laura:

Laura incorporated lots of ideas from the moodboard, including the composition and the glitter stripes! 

And the winner of the Spring Themed Prize is...

That's Laura! Congratulations Laura! Please contact us at sarah(at)sjpapercrafts(dot)co(dot)uk so we can get your prize out to you!

Thank you again to everyone who entered. The May Challenge is Bingo! You have until the 31st of May to enter, and there will be another mystery prize to one winner!

Bye for now, Jennifer x

A "Grid" Layout with Hello Sunshine

Recently I ran a workshop at the Wilton Crop. 

We used the lovely Pink Paislee "Hello Sunshine" Papers and a selection of journal cards from Pink Paislee and Simple Stories with a focus on a grid design to create a quick layout for multiple photos.

Here's the layout and instructions should you wish to make a similar page.

Start off by "gutting" the sheet of "Hello Sunshine" paper and saving the middle piece for use on another layout. Of course, you can use a different patterned paper if you wish. Next, trim half an inch off two sides of the white cardstock so that there is a small border of stripes showing when the cardstock is adhered centrally on top of the paper.

Decide which 3" x 4" journal cards to use and crop the photos to size (if you've not already printed them to the size you want) and work out where they will all go in your grid design before starting to stick anything down. 

On my layout I had two rows of 4" high but the top row was only 3" high - this allows for a small border around the layout. You could put a 3" high row in the middle instead but it worked better for my photos and cards to have this arrangement.

You will see from the above photo that I opted to use a 6" x 4" photograph instead of two small photos or you could have 1 small photo and 1 journal card in that space instead. You can choose which ever arrangement suits your photos and the cards you wish to use.

Before sticking everything in place I rounded the corners using a Project Life Corner Rounder and also popped a doilie (cut in half) under the photos/cards each side to add some extra interest.

Add your title - this doesn't have to be in the top centre space - originally I was going to put it in the centre spot but then decided to swap it with the photo.

I chose the title "Whatever the Weather" as my layout is about how my daughter loves to go to the beach no matter what the weather is like .... even on chilly days she will go in the water and happily play on the beach.

I will add some handwritten journalling to that card with the umbrellas and rainbows on over on the right hand side before putting it away in my album.

All that is left to do is add some embellishments. I used some "Hello Sunshine" chipboard, Simple Stories DIY Boutique Brad, Studio Calico Wood heart and arrow and cut the black banner and little black arrow from scraps of paper using the Project Life Nesting die set.

Add embellishments on top of the doilies and overlapping the edge of the photos to help draw the eye towards your main photo(s)

If you do have a go at making a grid layout, please do leave a link in the comments so I can pop over and see or post your "grid" layout to the S J Crafts facebook Page.

Before I go ... don't forget there's FREE Postage and Packing over at the shop all this weekend when you spend £15 or more!! Offer ends 10am Monday 12 May!

Sarah x