Mastering the Art .. Part 2

Morning peeps!

I'm back with the second layout from my "Mastering the art" feature for Scrapbooking Memories.

Falls Creek

published in Scrapbooking Memories Vol 17 No 8

As mentioned in my previous post Mastering the Art .. Part 1 this is just a quick share. Mercilessly quick for both you and me LOL! Mercilessly quick for me because I think I can feel a bit of mojo creeping back which means I'd rather be scrapping than chatting LOL!!! Mercilessly quick for you because I know that sometimes (??) I can go on and on. But that's me. Simples!

Anyways its Monday, the start of the working week. I hope that you have a fabulous week. You can rest assured that whilst you're toiling away at your desk I'll be hanging out at the dog beach with Bear (weather permitting), scrapping, indulging in beauty spa treatments, catching up with girlfriends for coffee, you know, the usual. Oh and thinking of you!

Mastering the Art .. Part 1

Help! I got lost in my 'draft posts vault'. Thanks to my friends for coming to the rescue. Not. I mean seriously! Nice one guys!!!   ;)

So, we know I used my own home made pigments as the unconventional item for my Scrapbooking Memories Masters entry yeah? Well, when it came time to do my "Mastering the art" feature, it made sense to focus on making home made pigments.

Fronosco Cove

published in Scrapbooking Memories Vol 17 No 8

In a nutshell, all you need to do is dehydrate fruit and/or vegetables, grind them into a fine powder and then use them with water or other mixed media. Simples. I used my powders both with water and a glossy gel medium to create my background, and with water to dye the paper doilies, on my layout, Fronosco Cove.

Unfortunately my layout didn't print particularly well in the magazine. To me it looks quite brown and drab. Which is not to say I don't like brown LOL or think its drab! In real life though, the colours are really quite warm and inviting. The other layout for my article printed true to colour. Go figure! I'll be back with that layout for a quick share soon.

Meanwhile I've scrapped a page! I know right?! LOL! I'm not entirely sure I like it, but its been on my desk for over a week, I've pulled stuff off backgrounds and started again with at least two hybrid backgrounds binned, and I just wanted it done. I used a fabulous challenge from a challenge blog to get me started but I'm still not convinced. I think perhaps I'll share it in a few days, tomorrow even, maybe. I just don't know.

Have I lost my mojo??

SBM Masters .. challenge no. 2

Have you ever had one of those days when everything you do turns out 'blah' and you just feel 'blah'? I'm having one of those today and I'd like to say 'LOL' but I can't because I just feel blah (LOL).

I figured I could do the least harm with my 'blah-ness' at my Mac so here I am sifting through my 27 draft posts and I found this.

Happiness found

published in Scrapbooking Memories Vol 17 No 7

The criteria for the second Masters challenge was to use something you wouldn't ordinarily use in your scrapping. Umm. I've been doing that for years so what was I going to do? LOL five years ago when our new home was being built even GB would scour the build site for bits and pieces left over by the tradies. Yep 2011 saw some pretty weird stuff appearing on my layouts.

So anyways I've always wondered if I could make my own pigments. You know the 'threes' game .. where you can only take three items to a desert island? When It comes to scrapping I've always figured I could make my own paper, pigments, brushes .. you get it yeah? So I decided to make my own pigments.

Above are the photos of the finished layout but here is a close up photo of my layout shortly after my handmade inks were first painted onto my background ..

Although these colours lost some of their vibrancy as they dried, the resulting colours suited the earthy tones of my photo perfectly. If I were to mix the powders with a glossy gel medium, they'd maintain their vivid tones but I wanted to use them as a very wet medium, like watercolours.

The colours you can see above are English Spinach (green), Beetroot (red), Tomato (orange .. I know right?!), and Turmeric (yellow). I also used Coffee (brown) but all you can see of that in this photo are little droplets here and there.

I'll see if I can find the other layouts I've created with my handmade pigment powders to share tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after that LOL!!!