Tuesday, November 3, 2009

NEW KREATIVE TEAM MEMBER


Please join me in welcoming our newest Kreative Team Member, Mel O'Neill (aka Aussiescrapper). Mel's style covers so many spectrums and I know that she will provide us all with endless inspiration each month.


WELCOME MEL!!!!!!


TRACY IS TAKING A BREAK


Also, our beloved Tracy is taking a break for the next 2 or 3 months whilst she makes the move from Queensland to Melbourne and settles in. We are going to miss Tracy's gorgeous work but never fear, she will be back and I am sure we will see more layouts featuring that gorgeous new home of hers!!! Congratulations Tracy on the new home!


GOODBYE & GOOD LUCK KELLIE


I am a little belated with this announcement - sorry Kellie.


The beautiful Kellie has stepped back from her Kreative Team position to embark on a new venture - her very own Magnolia Only On-line Store. I wish Kellie all the best and I know she will do very well as she is such a brilliant stamper - her creations are gorgeous and they will be missed in the gallery every month.


NEW PRODUCT


I have had lots of new stock arrive lately, with more on the way - the gorgeous new Bo Bunny!!!


So pop on over to the store to check it all out.


Plus I will be adding lots of stock to the Specials Section over the next week so be sure to grab yourselves a bargain.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Hoop OTP Layout Tute




Ok... this is what I've found during my first attempt at the Hoop OTP layout idea.

Firstly, to answer a few questions:

1) Where I got the hoop from

My mum had a few spares stashed away from her embroidery days, which she kindly donate to the cause. I have also bought a couple different sizes from Spotlight and Lincraft, however neither of these places had much choice. I plan on going to a more specialized local embroidery place and seeing if they have any. Mum also had one of the plastic ones that don't have the outer screw ring, but rather a plastic ring that you roll off. This one will not work (in my experiments at least)

2) The size of the hoop

I used a 6" hoop for my “The Two of Us Together”, and cut my backing paper to 9" square. For “Happy Anniversary”, I used a 5” hoop and cut my backing paper to 8” square.


You will need:

An embroidery hoop – make sure it's one that the outer hoop screws loose on. There are some plastic ones that the outer hoop rolls off and on – this won't work.

Backing paper of your choice – consider the weight of the paper. Thinner paper will tear too easily, thicker paper will be harder to shape and get the outer hoop on. For "The Two of Us Together", I used a thicker MME paper and found it quite tricky. For "Happy Anniversary" I chose a thinner BG paper and found it much easier to work with. Consider having a practice run with a piece of scrap paper (I used some printer paper).


Step 1: Cut your paper about 0.5” to 1" more than what you actually want it appearing - depending on the thickness of the hoop, you will loose some of the size.

Step 2: On the back of your paper, place your inner hoop where you want it and score around the hoop - this will help your folding.

To place the hoop in the centre, I draw a centre horizontal and vertical line and two diagonal lines to help eyeball if it is in the centre (as shown in photo).

Step 3: Place some doublesided tape around the inner edge of the scored circle – this helps to keep the paper in place as you fold it down.

Step 4&5: Position and stick down the inner hoop on the paper and turn to the right side. Begin to carefully shape your paper around the hoop, folding it down to fit the outer hoop on.

Step 6: Unscrew the outer hoop as much as possible and begin to place it around the inner hoop, again being careful not to tear the paper. Depending on the thickness of the paper, this may be quite tricky, and a second pair of hands will help.

Remember as you position your outer hoop to consider where you want the screw to be (as this is where you thread ribbon through to hang your finished piece) – i.e. if you want it centered on one side, in a corner, offset etc.

Step 7: I find once I've got the outer hoop on almost all the way, flip it over and push down gently on the back of the inner hoop to finish it off.

Step 8: Tighten the screw and thread ribbon through the loop created by the screw

Step 9: Embellish as desired. When adhering your pieces, that the outer hoop and paper inside won't be perfectly flush, so consider using foam tape inside to make it flush. Also remember, if you are writing anything, to consider writing on the element before you stick it down... writing once it's on the hoop can be quite tricky... same goes with rubons, or anything that involves applying pressure.

(Click image to enlarge)

Got any questions? Post them here in comments, or join us in the forum.

Can't wait to see your creations using this technique. I've got to say... I'm a little addicted!

Friday, July 31, 2009

A BIG WELCOME TO OUR NEWEST KREATIVE TEAM MEMBER


Natalie Hearn has accepted a position with our talented Kreative Team and I would like you all to join me in welcoming her. Natalie has a beautiful, clean-lined scrapping style and I know she will provide endless inspiration to us all.

WELCOME!!!

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

August Sneak Peeks


I'm actually organised enough this month to have some sneak peeks prepared... yaay!

It seems like every month I say this but... there is one August kit in particular that is my favourite kit of all time - Kat just keeps out doing herself. Love love love working with some of the very latest paper from the States, and I know you will to.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

The Tenth Tute... on the Twelth: Colour Proportions

This month, let's look at colour proportions used in layouts. You may have heard of the idea of proportioning the colours of your layout so you have a predominant colour (usually, but not always the background), a moderate amount of another colour (such as for matting etc), and a highlighting colour (such as title and/or embellishments etc). I have heard this idea as “Gallon/Quart/Pint” but because this means nothing to me (give me litres!), I prefer to think of it in terms of “60/30/10”, that is 60% of a predominant colour, 30% of a moderate colour and 10% of a highlighting colour.

Let's look at some examples from some of our regulars...

In Lynette's “So Beautiful”

60% = White

30% = Red

10% = Black


In Maryanne's “1915”

60% = Pink

30% = Cream

10% = Brown


In Jodie's “Fun in the Sun”

60% = Green

30% = White

10% = Yellow


In Belinda's “Rory John”

60% = White

30% = Blue

10% = Red


This is not to say that you are restricted to only 3 colours. More colours may be used, just keep the proportions adding to roughly 60/30/10. Here are some examples:

In Mel's “Cleaning Nate Style”

60% = White

30% = Brown

10% = Green and Blue


In Dawn's “Our Doll”

60% = Pink

30% = Tan

10% = Blue and White


In Pamela's “All About Me”

60% = Cream

30% = Greens

10% = Red and Black


Hope this helps illustrate making the most of colour proportions! Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Welcome to June

This last month has been so hectic - I have not had any time for anything much other than work and listing product in the store and spending time with the family - the kids have had so many activities that I had to prepare for - it has been fun but tiring, plus we have all had the dreaded flu - hopefully we have hit it on the head now.

The beginning of June sees the release of our latest Kreative Kits.


From this month, rather than the $20.00 Kreative Team Kits, we will be having an $8.00 Layout kit which is still packed full of value but will hopefully better suit your budgets in these tight times.

Kris has come up with a gorgeous kit full of colour and her example will be in the gallery tomorrow night (she has been waiting for me to cut out her title and of course I could not find my Cricut power cord - now located.....phewww!).

The new sketches have also been loaded to the gallery - this month's sketches were chosen by the fabulous Amy - so why not give them a go and upload your creations for your chance to win a store voucher.


I expect to receive my order of the new Bo Bunny ranges tomorrow and so will get them up on site tomorrow night - they are super gorgeous including fantastic Stickers - I am not a sticker person, but I cannot wait to get my hands on them.

Wishing you all a fantastic June and I would love to see more of your creations in the gallery.

Kat

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Kellie's 10th Tutorial..

Hi everyone,

OK so I am very new to all this so you will have to bear with me. I also tend to waffle, if you read my blog you will be used to that and if you don't well you will be by the end of this blog post, haha.

OK so as some of you may know I am the cards sides of the fabulous Design Team for The Scrappin' Kats and I am also a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and a crazy obsessed fan of Magnolia... Ok maybe not that bad, but lets just say they are VERY addictive, lucky they are so darn cute. So my tutorial is how I personally colour them and what I use. I have tried my hardest to do a step by step with photos and I hope you enjoy and it helps you all in some way.

Before I start I would like to add that my colouring style has changed 3 times since I started and that everyone does things differently and that I am also not claiming to be in the know how.

Here are the supplies I would need to colour a Magnolia...

This is my Stazon ink pad, with my SU watercolour paper and my Magnolia stamp on an acrylic block with the second one used for my aqua painter...

Here in this photo is all my SU inks and Markers that I plan on having close by while I decide on colours....

This is my trusty Aqua Painter than I would be lost without..

This is the stamped up Magnolia I am going to use for this tutorial...

To get the skin colour I use my SU marker called Blush Blossom, I colour this straight to the image and colour the whole skin areas in. I then get my aqua painter and go over all the areas. Doing this makes an even skin tone that I like the effect of and also I think makes the shade a tad lighter. Here side by side I'm not sure if you can get the effect that I can in real life, the one on the left is coloured and the one on the right has been coloured and then I have gone over it with my aqua painter? Another thing to not worry about is going out of the lines when using water colour paper, you can push the colour back in with your aqua painter...



















After colouring the skin I will then start on the hair. For this Magnolia I am just going to do a simple brown. I am going to us my SU marker Creamy Caramel. I have three pictures to show the process in which I colour the hair.


Then I decide on the colours I will do the clothing and for this little girl I am going to try something different and I have papers in mind for it to. That is another way you can pick colour is to pick your papers before hand. I then have photos of colouring the boots. First I started with a different blue to get some depth, SU marker Boarding Blue after doing that I take my aqua painter and go over this and blend it in as the picture next to it shows and then to fill the boots I coloured with a colour I only have as an ink pad but that's ok you squeeze and then use the lid as the photo below will show. And then the result of the boots...

I just wanted to quickly show that to sometimes get more depth I use the journalling side of a SU marker in the same colour it's coloured, or for an even deeper depth I will do it in a darker SU marker shade. Also pictured below is the colours I plan on using for the jacket, my Chocolate Chip and Close 2 Cocoa markers, but I don't want them to be to dark so I scribble them onto an acrylic block and then use my aqua painter to get the shade I require. This can be done for all colouring.


After most of the colouring has been done I will go over bits I want more depth to. And then in this case I wanted this Tilda to have shiny gumboots and umbrella so I used my SU Crystal Effects to get the effect. You will also notice that it makes the colour change slightly. Not sure why it does but I always love the effect.


And then here is the final result and on a card....



I hope that helps for people that are just begining and that it wasn't to much waffle on. I am happy to answer any questions anyone has. Just post them in The Scrappin' Kats forum and I'll help any way I can.

Kellie Winnellx