Sunday's Class

We had a lovely full workshop and both Michele and Michelle came from Memories Forever to teach us how to use the Spectrum Noir system of pens from Crafter's Companion.  Oh my goodness we had so much fun.  These pens are really fun to play with.  We were shown some dos and don'ts with the pens, the papers to use and the stamping ink to use with these pens.

We were taught how to blend and get lovely skin tones (as for our Free set of pens everyone received the Pale Hues pack, which are great for all the skin tones).  We also coloured three stamped images using our new pens and other colours provided by Michele and Michelle.  Afterwards we were able to turn our images into pretty cards.  I ran out of time, so this is how I finished my yesterday.

I am very excited to let you know that I now have in stock Spectrum Noir friendly paper for stamping and colouring.  I am also very excited to let you know that I will be starting a new monthly kit where you will receive a set of pens each month, a new technique you can use with your pens and a fun project or two that you can make with each set of pens.  This kit will build from each previous month so you will end up with all the essential pens from Spectrum Noir.  More to be announced with this very soon!

Thank you to Michele and Michelle for coming and teaching us about these fun pens, and thank you to Melissa for the lovely afternoon tea.

Never Enough Time

I don't know about you but it seems I never have enough time to do most things.  For things to be done other things need and must fall by the way side.
On the weekend while in a crafting mode I came across one of my stamps that I think is really cool though I have not used it much and decided to make time to play with it.  It was a pocket watch acrylic stamp.

Lately I have also been really into the distress inks as well so grabbed some of those as well as come cardstock and scraps of pattern paper and my 1 1/4" scallop circle punch.  Throwing all those in the mix this is what came out.

I am really pleased with the result.  I simply stamped using black stazon ink and then went over using milled lavender and weathered wood distressed inks.  The flowers were made using my scallop circle punch, a future post will show how to make these.

Feel free to leave a comment below.

Fun Mothers Day gift you can make

This is a lovely cup that you can fill with goodies of your choice for your Mum.  We made this at our last Mother & Daughter afternoon.  This was a very popular project, so I hope you enjoy creating as much as week did.

You will need:

• One 9"x41/2" plain cardstock
• One 4"x4" of the same cardstock
• Eight 2 3/4"x3/4" coordinating pattern paper
• Paper Trimmer with scoring tool
• 2 1/2" circle punch (or template)
• 1 1/4" circle punch (or template)
• scissors
• Adhesive Tape
• Flowers for decorating
• Adhesive Pearls for decorating
• Mini Tag and embroidery thread for decorating
• Mini Alpha stickers for decorating

To create Cup

Place your 9"x41/2" plain cardstock in your trimmer so the long edge is at the top of your trimmer.  Using your scoring tool score at: 1", 2", 3", 4", 5", 6", 7", and 8".

 Turn your cardstock 1/4 turn so the short edge is at the top of your trimmer now.  Score at 1 1/2".

Cut on each 1 inch line to where the score line intersect. Remove small rectangular end piece and create a flap by notching the ends of the remaining tab.  This flap will be used to hold the cup together.
Turn cardstock over and add adhesive tape to the flap.

 Pre-fold all score lines.

 Adhere the flap to then inside of the cup to form a cylinder.

 Add adhesive tape to opposing flaps and adhere together until all the flaps are secured creating the bottom of you cup.

 Create the Handle

Using either a 2 1/2 circle punch or template, trace and cut (or punch) your circle.

 Once you have your circle fold in half.

 Place the fold into the 1 1/4" punch and punch out half a circle.

 Cut your ring in half.

 Score 1/4" flaps on each flat end.  Repeat on the second half of ring.

 Adhere half rings together with flaps open.

 Adhere handle to cup with your adhesive tape (or a liquid white glue if you prefer)

 Apply adhesive tape to the reverse side of all your Eight 2 3/4"x3/4" coordinating pattern paper.

 Adhere each piece of pattern paper to each flat side of your cup.

Decorate your cup however you wish then fill it will lots of goodies your Mum will love.
Lastly add a mini tag with "for Mum" using some embroidery thread to tie it to the cup handle.

I would love to see how yours turned out.  Feel free to upload your cups to my online gallery (click here for gallery - you will need to be a member of the gallery to upload)

Please leave a comment below, I would love to hear what you think of this project!

Gift for Mum

Now is the time to be making gifts for our special Mum's.  My Mum is lucky as she gets two gifts.  I have made her a special extra gift this year as our family celebrates "Family" day each year on the 7th May as that was the day a long time ago that I was officially adopted.

Anyway, I thought you might like to see what I made.  It is a lovely gift box storing some lovely hand made cards.

 For this set I used some pre-made white cards for my base of each card.  I used pattern papers from Basic Grey Plumeria collection and Bazzill Spring Willow Dark as well as some stamps from Imaginsce and other stamps from Sullivans.  I had fun playing with the vintage laces as well.  I also used the Distressed Ink Forest Moss for inking the edges of my cards and pieces on the cards.

Please leave a comment below!

Distress Inks and Heat Embossing

Distress Inks are so much fun.  Because they are a waterbased ink you can get all sorts of looks with them and they are very easy to blend together.  I would like to share with you a fun technique I have been playing with lately.  First of all, if you do not have a crafting teflon mat to ink on, don’t worry.  I use the wax baking paper with the waxy side up.  It works just as well.  Also I am using a blending tool (these are worth their weight) but if you don’t have one you can start off using a cotton ball.

To get started make yourself a plain tag out of a cream cardstock of your choice.  Using a script stamp of our choice stamp it all over yours tag using Stazon ink (this is important so as the ink does not blend and try to blend in with the Distress Inks later)  Already your tag looks great.

Now is where the fun really begins.  Using a flourish stamp of your choice stamp over your tag using a clear embossing ink or a VersaMark ink.










Then very quickly add clear embossing powder over the whole of your tag to stick to the embossing ink.  Shake off excess embossing powder and put back in its container.
Using your heat tool, heat set (melt) your embossing powder.






Using your blending tool or cotton ball use some Distress Ink and using a swirling action cover your tag ink the Distress Ink colour of your choice.  I have used Walnut.  One of the great things with these inks is you can add a light application of ink or increase the intencity by applying more ink.  Your embossing flourishes will now become more pronounced and show the original colour of the tag through the clear embossing powder.








Now you can let your creativity take over.  Decorate your tag however you like.  You may like to start off with adding some vintage looking lace.
You can either create your own flowers or use ready made ones and add a fun label and letter stickers.  These look great as gift tags or on the front of a card or even as a special embellishment on your layouts.



Have fun with this technique.

You will find Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads and tools on our online shop just click here to be taken to the online shop.

Please leave a comment below and let me know how you got on with your tag.  These would also look great on ATC cards or even turned into a beautiful Mothers Day card.

Happy Scrappin' everyone

Spectrum Noir Up an Coming Class

Hi everyone!

I am so excited, I can hardly contain myself.  Have you seen people with their beautiful cards that they have stamped and coloured in and wanted to be able to do that? I certainly have, well now you can learn how using the Spectrum Noir system.

These pens are alcohol pens that are just so cool.  Check our this video!

Aren't they so cool!  Ok here is the exciting part ...

We are having a class on Sunday 27th May from 2:30pm-4:30pm.

We have the wonderful Michele Widdows from Memories Forever coming in to teach us some techniques to get us started with these fabulous pens.

The class is $35 for this you will receive a packet of 6 pens for FREE and learn how to use them.  You will also complete a fun little project.

There will be afternoon tea, a door prize and some fun specials.

You can register for this class either by emailing me at: megan@betterscrapbooking.co.nz
Or from our online shop (click here)

We will also be having a special on these pens over on our online shop.  When you purchase any two sets of 6 Spectrum Noir pens you will also receive a free stamp, when you use the "SPEC05" gift code (be sure to put this is the comments part of your order to receive the FREE stamp)