Featuring...New to You!

This week I wanted to do a little feature showing some of the new lines to hit the store. I completed FOUR layouts with some new products from American Crafts, Jillibean Soup & Tim Holtz.

Just some simple layouts to get you inspired and excited about all the new stuff coming in from CHA...and there's plenty of it to get excited about!

Layout #1: "Cheese"
- Pattern paper from American Crafts & Jillibean Soup.
- Number journaling tags from Jillibean Soup
- Fleece shapes from American Crafts


Layout #2: One Craft at a Time
- Shiny chipboard sticker letters from American Crafts
- Badges from American Crafts (these are the little shiny buttons, and there are some for every new line!)
- Pattern paper & number journaling tags from Jillibean soup
- You can see just a bit of a new chipboard shape from Riff Raff Designs August Release...I used it as a mask for my Glimmer Mist. Can you tell what it is?
- Tiny little alphabet stickers from My Little Shoebox. The dark blue is from an older line, but they came out with a whole whackload of new bright and fun colours to play with.

Layout #3: "Camp Hair"
- Pattern paper from American Crafts (love those little pears!) and Jillibean Soup...I used the green numbers on kraft paper, but this pattern comes in a bunch of great colours and the kraft background makes it match everything!
- Fleece shapes from American Crafts...thicker than felt and with such a great texture...and cute too!
- Coloured Pearl brads from American Crafts. They came out with a whole tonne of different coloured rhinestone and pearl brads, sparkly buttons, multi-packs and more!
- American Crafts Thickers sticker letters. These ones are the sweetest shade of pink, and covered with a canvas-type texture so you could sand the edges of these bad boys to give a more distressed look.
- Newish cardstock stickers from Sassafras Lass. These guys are great for journaling, or just to add a little extra to your layouts.
- Background texture stamps from Tim Holtz and Stampers Anonymous. I applied the polka dot stamp using a Tim Holtz distress ink pad. Then I sprayed Lemon Meringue Glimmer Mist over the entire surface. The white dots you can see up top are thanks to the gesso I used earlier. It provides a resist to the Glimmer Mist.


Layout #4: Sunshine, Lollipops & Rainbows
- Pattern paper from Jillibean Soup. I dressed it up a bit with some Adirondack Colour Wash.
- Fleece shapes, pearl brads and Thickers from American Crafts

And this is really only the tip of the iceberg! American Crafts has FOUR new lines, including a super fabulous boys/sports line with trophies, stars and robots! And their Halloween and Holiday lines are also amazing! Lots of shine and glitter to be found. And our store is swimming in a sea of beautiful, wonderful Thickers...American Crafts answer to sticker letters. Every colour, shape and style you can imagine. They are fully awesome!

Jillibean Soup has released some of their best kraft paper yet...text, swirls, owls and the numbers I used above. All in a bunch of great colours that coordinate with pretty much everything in your stash. And their journaling tags were a best seller last time around. And this time they have release the number tags that I used, as well as all the months of the year! Woot!

Tim Holtz hit it out of the park again with the new release from Stampers Anonymous. Plus we received three boxes worth of new 7Gypsies stuff yesterday that I haven't even peeked at yet!

Get over to TM and check it out...even just for some inspiration. I challenge you to pick a couple of awesome pieces that will complement the stuff you already have at home. A little bit of new fun stuff never hurt anyone!

By the way...I only spent about $30 (I already had the stamps) and I made four pretty sweet layouts using my new product with a little help from my stash at home. Plus I have lots of bits left over to add to future projects. New stuff is so inspiring...it helps me get excited about creating again? What gets you excited about scrapbooking?

until next time,
lisa

P.S. I posted our Fall/Winter class schedule on the TM Classes blog. Check it out!

Oops!

Well...I was going along so well! I was remembering to do posts and take nice pictures and everything! And then last week happened. Maybe I am in shock cause my little baby just turned FOUR! Or maybe I just totally forgot I had to write up a Techneek Post.

Oh my...

I'm so sorry!

I'm thinking something featuring this wall of goodies! The new arrival of American Crafts always makes me so giddy!

later skater alligator...

TOTW - Embossed Etc.

I totally snagged this little gem from another scrapper...and it is quite wonderful!

You will need:
- Embossing ink pad (Versamark, Ranger, etc.)
- Embossing powder (I am using ZIG Blue Glitter)
- Heat gun (to set the powder)
- KI Lace paper (or any other die cut paper like it...the new Basic Grey Doilies would be neat to see used with this technique)

Step One: Lay your lace paper over top of your background paper. I'm only doing a small section at the top and a smaller section at the bottom. I don't recommend you use this technique over the whole background of your layout...just doing the small sections was a lot of work. On the example I saw first, she only did the bottom third of her layout, and adding her embellishments above the embossed section.

Step Two: Take your embossing ink pad turn it upside down and press it onto the surface of your paper over top of the lace paper. Make sure you get some ink in all the nooks and crannies of the lace so you don't have any (extra) bare spots!


Step Three: Sprinkle your embossing powder of choice across the ink. Tap off the excess.

Step Five: Use your heat gun and set the powder.


And the completed effect...

(scroll down to the next post...)

For the original layout that I snagged this idea from...click here! Shabby Chic Crafts has a really cool blog (and shoppe!) and their DT is always coming up with some super cool ideas...check them out when you get a moment!

later skater alligator,

lisa

TOTW - Sweet Background

This week I was inspired by a layout here. I think she used Jenni Bowlin labels, but I had these Melissa Frances ones handy, so I used them. As per usual I always recommend you make use of the stuff you already have on hand for my techniques, instead of always running out to buy something new. I'm so keen to help you make the most of your supplies!


This is a fun way to re-use some of your packaging and make a sweet background while you're at it!


You will need:
- die cut tag sheet (but you don't need the actual tags, just the sheet they come in!)
- spray ink (Glimmer Mist, Colour Wash, Maya Road, etc. etc.)



Step One: Pop all of the tags out of the sheet they came in and put them aside.

Step Three: Lay the tag sheet over top of your background paper.

Step Four: Spray your ink all over the sheet. I used two shades of red (one darker than the other) to add a little depth, but use whatever colours you have at home. I also like to blot off some of the excess ink before it dries. This way it looks a little more even, and the paper takes less time to dry!

This is what it looks like with all the colours on:

Ooh la la! Looks super cool on the Melissa Frances ivory grid paper!


And the finished layout. This is a little piece I'm going to display in my dining room.

Super Fab Note: I took my inspiration for this technique from Amanda Johnson. You can find more of her stuff on her blog: Heres looking at me kid.