Trends on Tuesday - It's in the Grain

Woodgrain has been a long standing trend in papers, stamps, embellishments, embossing folders....I think most scrapbook companies have incorporated some wood into their collections somewhere along the line.  I thought I would try a really woody page to show you some of the lovely woodiness there is around.  The photo is from some gardens we went to visit and they had an amazing wall of logs which my kids quite happily posed in front of (they are used to it now and even offer suggestions of good places to have photos of them :)).  

I used woodgrain for my base which is by Scrapperdashery Under the Board Walk , and then added some gesso, just dry brushed across my background paper so my logs stood out.  My logs are made from Crate Papers Farmhouse Farmers Market with a 1" punch and a white gel pen.  I added an Simple Stories - awesome bingo card and some Crate Paper Farmhouse wooden stickers with some strips of burlap too to add some texture.  

I think woodgrain can be used throughout the year, but especially Autumn as all the leaves change colour on the trees and it is a great neutral as you can put any colours with it...so definitely a staple for your stash.

For a little more inspiration, check out these

October Afternoons Flower Tutorial and a beautiful card with a woodgrain base

Crate Papers - Farmhouse mini book packed with woodgrain

Trends on Tuesday - Chevrons

Chevrons/Zig Zags are still really popular, in papers and on stamps.  I used Crate Papers Farmhouse collection for my page (and used the negatives for my title I looked at a little while back) and created a rainbow pattern with all the different papers.  For my page I used a die cut machine to cut them out, however there are lots of different ways of making them.  You can just measure meticulously and cut your own out, or you can use this super folded chevron tutorial  by Julia Stainton which I love - here is the link.  Chevron papers make a great basic in your stash and lots of different manufacturers have them in their collections like Simple Stories here, so you don't have to make your own.

Here are some other great chevron pages to get your creative juices flowing like

Mandie's chevron packed pages (not sure whether some of them technically class as arrows, but they have a great zig zag feel) where she shows how well they can work on boys pages,  here  is the link

This page by Lynne Stewart on Crate Papers Blog,  here is the link,  not only has she used a chevron style print for the background, but she has created her own chevrons using diamond shaped pieces of paper.

Finally you can also even stitch a chevron as shown by this gorgeous card over on American Crafts site by Cindy Toben, here is the link.


Hopefully that has given you lots of ideas to incorporate some more chevrons into your pages...maybe use them in this weekends Cybercrop too (so excited about it as there are lots of fantastic challenges and classes coming up)


Katherine

Trends on Tuesday - Using the Negatives

Welcome to my next instalment of Trends on Tuesday, I thought I would have a go at something that has been building in popularity across the scrapping world....using up your negatives, all those off cuts from your die cuts or punches and making them a big part of your page.  Here are a few links to get your creative juices flowing from the October Afternoon blog (you have to scroll down to find the pages as there are a few pages in each post,  but I have put the page titles alongside the link to make them easier to find)

using negatives words (forever young)

using negative stars (bandits)

using negative dinosaurs (dino)

Alongside using up the offcuts of punches and die cuts you can also hand cut too.  Here is a page I created where I pencilled outlined the words and then cut it with a craft knife, so there are loads of ways of creating this effect.

Onto the example that I have for you today;  my page uses some of Crate Papers Random and Farmhouse collections.  I love the denim which works well on a boy page.  For the stars I just ran my piece of yellow paper through my die cut machine several times, and I used the positive stars to make a little banner underneath the photo.  I started the page by scrapping gesso across the background and then layered up and stitched my papers.  I stuck the negative stars down using some silicone glue so that it raised the piece off the page a little which gives a nice shadow too.

I hope it inspires you to have a go at using up some of the pieces of paper that you might throw away normally and turn the negatives into positives on your page :)

Katherine

Trends on Tuesday - It's all about tabs

Hello everyone, I'm really excited to start off a series of posts having a look at different scrapbook trends.  They are going to be fortnightly on a Tuesday and look at some of the different trends in scrapbooking - from paints, mists, triangles, chevrons, hexagons.... - if you have any particular favourites you've noticed then leave me a comment, likewise if it inspires you to scrap a page or make a card then leave me a link as I would love to come and see what you have been creating.

I thought I would kick of the series with tabs, the tabs I am referring to are the ones at the top and the bottom of pages like this one which is up in the gallery at the moment (which is filled with other beautiful pages so here is the link).

They work really well when you leave a bit of white space on your page. I like to put them on a diagonal line across my page so that it draws your eye in and across the photo, rather than opposite ends of the paper.  Generally I put the top tab on the top to the left and the bottom one to the right, as this is the way we read in the west and so the way we tend to look at pages, however it can work the other way too.  They are a great piece of extra interest and a super way to use up scraps of papers that you have left over.  Just punch, cut, staple/stick and layer up lots of little pieces of paper/stickers/bling/buttons and you have your own ready made embellishment.

I also had a go at using some tabs on a card to see whether it would work, I used Crates Farmhouse collection for this birthday card.

 I uses the tabs to hide the securing for my garden twine, and used the offcuts from the bottom of the Crate's paper sheets to make the tabs along with a section from a border punch.

I hope that his given you some inspiration.  See you a week on Tuesday.

Katherine