Tamborine Mountain 2017

At each retreat, Queensland Scrapbooking Retreats takes a group photo and sets a challenge to scrap it. We were given the photo, a sheet of cardstock, a sheet of patterned paper and a custom made chipboard piece to use on the layout, with a requirement to use at least 70% of the material supplied. Normally the group photo is taken first thing on Saturday so we have lots of time to work, but this retreat it rained all Saturday so we didn't get to take the photo until 9am on Sunday, which made for a bit of a rush to make the 11am judging cut-off but I got there in the nick of time. 

The chipboard piece came as one large design but that didn't work for my layout so I cut it up into smaller elements. I hadn't brought my acrylic paints to the retreat, but I had brought my Color Crush powders. I coated the chipboard with gesso then mixed up the powders with some water to create a watercolour paint/wash, which I built up over a couple of layers. 

After doing so many relatively clean layouts, it was nice to finish up with more of a messy/mixed media piece. My background is a mix of gesso wash to tone down the bright cardstock, builders tape for texture, stitched circle stamp from Craft Queen and texture paste through a Scrapmatts stencil. 

I was very pleased to be voted second in this competition against a number of great entries. It's so interesting to see the different ways everyone used the same materials to create very different layouts. 

Leave Ordinary Behind

The Saturday afternoon class is an optional extra at Queensland Scrapbook Retreats, but I didn't want to miss the opportunity to trying something in a bit of a different style so I gave it a go. This is a very masculine layout, so a big contrast to the morning class! Initially I was stuck for what pictures I was going to use, until I remembered I had a whole disc of photos of my brother-in-law's rally driving cars. This one is known as the Phoenix and is painted bright Bansagi orange.

While the two pages were created from the same range, Kaisercraft's Factory 42, I didn't feel like they actually worked as a double layout so went a bit rogue and deviated from the instructions provided in the class. It's not like we all want to share the same layout in our albums anyway, right?

There is quite a bit of stencil work in the background with the pipes and cross-hatched bricks. There was yet more fussy cutting on this layout too, which slowed the process down a bit. The pipes are actually cut from the speciality foiled sheet and I've coloured them brown using distress ink applied via a sponge. The foiling works as a resist and the sponging leads to the beautiful variations in colour through the pipes.

I liked the idea of ripping holes into the papers and backing them with some die-cut grid pieces and scrap papers. We were also given a pack of Collectables (die-cuts) and a sticker sheet to use as embellishments, which I've scattered across the layout.

Again, so many techniques on the one layout but that's what you want from class I think. It wouldn't be anywhere near as fun if I ended up with a layout just like what I'd do by myself at home. 

Just Us

There is always a class on Saturday morning at the Queensland Scrapbooking Retreats getaways, hosted by a guest teacher and included in the cost of the retreat. This year we had the lovely Alicia McNamara come and teach this beautiful girly double layout featuring new release Kaisercraft papers from the Rose Avenue collection.

The class went for three hours, with a short break for morning tea. There were quite a lot of different techniques used on this layout: texture paste to create the photo mat paper, die-cutting the flourishes and SO MUCH fussy cutting! I ended up spending some more time finishing it off in the evening because I didn't want to end up with yet another unfinished project.

I thought it was a beautiful layout when I saw the sneaks before the retreat but I must admit I struggled to find four photos that would suit such a pink and feminine layout. I ended up going with some different photos of my sister and I. I love the versatility of using black and white photos.

Just a close up of one of the clusters: paper flowers, sticker, die-cut flourish, sequins, pearls, fussy cut flowers and muslin.

A couple of the Little Birdie flowers from D-lish Scraps managed to find there way onto my layout, along with all the Kaisercraft blooms.

And here I am (in the black jumper) hard at work trying to get the layout finished. :) I love that you get a whole table to yourself at QSR retreats, since I like to spread my stuff out.

The Story

My second unfinished project that finally got completed at the Queensland Scrapbooking Retreats getaway at Tamborine Mountain was this one. Perhaps this time from a 2014 craft expo, this one was designed by Kerri Gurney for Couture Creations. How great does that background look with the embossed surface which has then been sanded for effect?

I didn't still have the instructions for this project, so I had to just make it up as I went. I think there were meant to be a lot more pockets and lift ups, and I know I have two clear arrows left over that were meant to go on there somewhere. Still, you can see how the main photo lifts up and there is some hidden journaling hidden behind that. 

I was really impressed to find that the rub-ons still worked perfectly, even a number of years later!

Below is how far I had managed to get in the class before packing it away for a number of years. You can clearly see that I haven't stuck the main photo mat on straight, but it was adhered so well I couldn't pull it off to fix it. It's less noticeable with the photo stuck on top on an angle though. 

Relationship Goals

I'm back from a lovely weekend retreat at Tamborine Mountain run by Queensland Scrapbooking Retreats. I didn't get anywhere near as many layouts done as I thought I would, but I still had a great time. I took a couple of unfinished projects along in the hopes of finally getting them completed. 

This one was a class taught by Kim Ewins for Craft Queen at a craft expo way back in 2013, I think. Now you see why I needed to finally get it finished! I actually had to re-stick down all the background layers because the glue had deteriorated so much in the intervening time.

Kim's pages always have a beautiful amount of layering and stitching on them. Lovely Scrapmatts chipboard flourish under the photo there too. 

You can see the stencil work in this close up. I also really liked the idea of using distressed fabric circles as part of the background.

Now here is the ridiculous part: The image below is where I left the layout at the end of the class in 2013. Literally, all I needed to do was add a title and it was done! I couldn't resist adding a scattering of sequins to the layout as well, since I was touching it up anyway.

Happiness - Scrapmatts DT

This is my October Scrapmatts DT reveal.  I've gone back to basics with a lot of classic pieces, along with some new leaf pieces. I have had a 12x12 sheet of CB8001 Circles 01 for so many years now, and I've used almost all of the 29 pieces up but just had two large circles left. I couldn't resist paring it with this oversized photo I had ordered in the wrong size. 

My title comes from CB6112 Scrap Words 31. The leaf pieces come from CB1246 Leaves 06. They come in a variety of sizes so are perfect to scatter around as accents.

My top cluster uses CB1209 Scrap Words 12, CB1189 Scrap Words 01 and CB4008 Butterflies 01. You can see little bits of Stencil 9017 net poking out of the edges from both clusters. 

I'm also going to enter this into the Show Us Your Stuff October challenge. The criteria for this is to use 3 items beginning with F. I have used flowers, a flair and a frame. My handmade items are the painted chipboard.