Happy New Year welcome to Januaray's New Challenge

Welcome to a new challenge Off the Rails creators and a Happy New Year!!

Where did 2015 go ??

This months moodboard is made up of a gorgeous vintage theme, please have fun with it  

Joan

Deena

Tania

Louise

Adapting a Sketch For a Card

Hello Off The Rails scrappy friends,

It's Wendy here today to show you how I adapted Fiona's fabulous sketch and mood board to a card. I love the sketch, the vintage feel and the colour palette of this month's challenge.


At the beginning of the month I showed you my vintage layout based on this sketch and the mood board. But you don't need to restrict yourself to a large layout, such as a 12x12 page or canvas, in order to interpret a sketch. This is a card I made using the sketch and the mood board.



As you can see, I stuck with the vintage theme and, although I didn't use the exact colours, I did stay within the palette.

The base of the card is half a piece of Kraft card stock (15cmx30cm) so that when it's folded in half the card measures 15cmx15cm. There are four things I did to make sure I could adapt the sketch to a small area:

1. Simplification. I didn't use all the elements of the sketch. I omitted  much of the background stencilling for a small amount of light stencilling and a couple of pieces of strategically placed altered chipboard. I also omitted to use any threads or twine. I did this so the card wouldn't be overwhelmed with too many elements.

2. Scaling back. The ephemera paper behind the picture is quite small in order to keep the scale. To make sure it didn't get lost though I inked the edges with dark ink (Tim Holtz Walnut Stain). The picture is a Cardmaker's Delights vintage tag that I cut in half. The die cuts used for the title are small and so are the perfect size for this project. I received these die cuts from my swap partner in the Die Cuts Swap over at Scrap It With Attitude.

3. Overlapping. To make up for omitting some elements but still keep it interesting,  to keep the small scale, and to still have white space, I overlapped a lot. The main area this can be seen is where I have overlapped the rub-ons. This way I could provide a big impact in a small space.

4. Use the right tools. Normally I would do my background with lots of Gesso, Gelatos, water colours, etc, but with this project I wanted to keep more control. As I said before, I wanted white space and I didn't want the card to be overwhelmed. For this reason, I used my Whispers Strokes brush pens to do the background stencilling. This gave me good control.

Here are some close-ups of some of the techniques.

An added bonus of doing this project was that I got to use some of my scraps from my stash - always a good thing.

I hope I've encouraged you to think outside of the box a little when adapting sketches.

Thank you for stopping by.

Cheers.

Vintage-y Shadow Box With Bits and Bobs

We have Catie on the blog today, please keep reading to find out what gorgeousness she has created

I've created a shadow box with some vintage-y bits and bobs.  I used black gesso to prime the box, then decorated with various trinkets, pendants, punchinella, twine (for one of the nests), wire, chipboard and more.

I didn't really have anything particular in mind whilst creating this... just enjoyed the process of making something pretty.

Hope you enjoy checking it out :)

 I just love this rusted up old key!

I had a hard time getting the twine nest to do what I wanted, but got there in the end!

I used gold embossing powder on an image I stamped on the chippie balloon...

These metallic roses are so super cute!

So there you have it... I kind of enjoyed not really having anything particular in mind as I created this, and it's a cute talking piece to have on display in my home now.  I'd love to see if any of you have created something similar!

Thanks for looking.  Catie xo

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you will find there all past tutorials

Getting Creative with Erin

Today on the blog we have a a gorgeous project from 

Erin. 

I love how she has used the colours of the current challenge. 

All that different texture creates a feast for the eye.

Don't forget to follow us on facebook to keep up to date.

Happy creating

A peek in Lizzy's craft space

Yup! I know I LOVE taking a peek at other peep's craft areas...& there are ALWAYS ideas that we can pick up from each other, right? So here's a bit of both of these for you today:)

 I keep my 6x6 pads in a little box...inside a cut down plastic sleeve. Then even the 1/2 pages can be stored neatly without them falling out when I pull up a pad to use!

 I have a wee table near the door to 'show off' some of my work - or to place stuff I like to look at. No point in doing it if you can't enjoy it, right? It's also a storage spot for stuff that needs to be taken with me when I leave the room...just finished that page for a challenge & it needed to be loaded onto my computer! Ooops! That candle needs putting away...never said I was TIDY!!!

 Yeah, I know, I know---such a BASIC thing to do - a colour chart for your inks....& I kept 'meaning to do it'...finally did....pegged above my work space, so I USE it!!!

 To me, scrapping is about COMMUNITY, so when I get given scrummy stuff, I like to make sure I know where it comes from...also if I buy it...flair is hard to write on, but an ink marker works & I know where ALL my flair originates this way!!!!

 As for Flair storage....a couple of ways...above - magnetic strips from those dollar stores...I WILL make this 'pretty' at some stage, but I was testing if  it 'worked' for me...& it does - also hanging close by where I scrap..

 ...but I have too much flair, so the rest is stored in these babies....great for brads, buttons, resin, dots...

  I have a whole post on what I call my 'photo holder' over at LESSology HERE....suffice to say, I LOOOVE it....no more gluey, sticky, lost photos. They sit here SAFELY......

 My 'scraps' are colour co-ordinated & slip inside these files....easy. I now throw the really small bits out - unless I totally LOOOVE them!!

 Another 'nice' way of storing those smaller scrapping items - spice racks ROCK, as do these cute vintage glasses - all from the Op shop!! So is the little shelf they're sitting on. I'm going to do that up too, 'one day'....!!!

 Most of my stamps are clear, & most stored in baskets: Christmas/Birthday...vintage.....flowers......words.....Most Used...I'm sure you'll work out your own categories!!!!

 I pull out the centre from DOUBLE CD cases from the Dollar store - they MUST be double, & do this:

 Then I know exactly where they are from & when & what they look like at an easy glance!!!

And lastly, my Washi Tree - one of those old kitchen mug hanging trees...op shop again...I WILL do it up [cough] sometime......works for me!

Heavy on pics....hope this either helps, or is at least plain FUN to look at ......leave any ideas, hints, stuff you'd like to share as a comment...would love to read your ideas:):)

Happy Scrapping ~ Lizzy ♥♥♥