4 Super Projects - Ruby Rock-It Creative Team

I was so excited about the new Superhero range from Bella, I had so many ideas in my head for projects to do with it, I got to a short list of 4 projects and decided to challenge myself to get all 4 projects out of the 3 sheets I had plus some Francehville Cards from the Primary & Basics packs and a sheet of Red Gallery R1998 Crinkles.

To get as much out of these papers as I could I had to do a fair bit of selective cutting, but it was so worth it.

The first thing I did was cut out this awesome section from THE623 Superhero Collage paper






 

Next I cut out the 3 items I definitely wanted from THE647 Superhero Jigsaw paper.

I then matted my photos with cards from Franceville Cards and Envelopes boxes in Basics and Primar and then cut out some cityscapes and comic splats and title card from these also using my Silhouette Curio to do the die cutting.

I created a starter stack for 4 projects.  I have the start of 2 12x12 projects, a Father's Day card and a 5x8 journal tip in for my A5 journal.

 

I then worked out placement for the 2 12x12 layouts on the papers that would be their background, flipped it back over the the wrong side and recreated the placement so I could trace around it with pencil and cut away inside my pencil line to ensure I got as much of  each paper to cut pieces from as possible.  

I got a nice big piece from the THE630 Superhero Splat paper, so there will be lots of cute heros to decorate with.  :)

Now that I had my lines on THE647 Superhero Jigsaw paper I was able to go through it and get as many bits as I possibly could from it.

Time to use my Pixscan mat with my Silhouette Curio to die cut all those superheros.














I decided to work on my favourite little Bat Girl's layout.
I adhered the big fussy cut piece from THE623 Superhero Collage and her matted photos down, just gluing things where they touched.
Filling in gaps with comic sections cut from THE647 Superhero Jigsaw paper and from splat style words from THE623 Superhero Collage paper.

I loved this Yeah for my Bat Girl layout but it was missing part of it due to how I had to fussy cut it, so I cut another cloud bit from another partial of it and adhered them together to complete it.

I added a little word from THE647 Superhero Jigsaw paper to hide the seam in my Yeah and it is perfect.












I cut my layout down to 11 and 13/16 inches and mounted it on some white cardstock which I had cut away the middle leaving a 1.5 inch frame and called this layout done.

The second project I worked on was my Free Comic Book Day layout, I used the comic strip sections I had cut from THE647 Superhero Jigsaw paper to give it a comic feel.

I used my cityscape to hide the narrow bit I cut away at the bottom earlier to get the tiny words I needed for my other projects.  I love how this little scene sits at the bottom.










I then cut it down 3/16 of a inch and gave it a boarder by mounting it on a 1.5 inch white cardstock frame and running a black marker around my decorative paper.
And finished it off by adding part of one of my heroes flying to the city with a boom to hide that part of his head is missing as he was from the edge of the paper.

Now it was time to do my third project.  I decided my Father's Day card would be next as my journal tip in can just be made with minimal supplies but I wanted to have more items to work with for the card.

I cut a piece from my left over piece of THE623 Superhero Collage paper to fit my card base with a slight edge of the card base showing.

I then used the Super Dad card from THE647 Superhero Jigsaw paper, my left over cityscape die cut, some extra splats I cut from left over bits from the Franceville Cards I had been using and a hero and arrows from THE630 Superhero Splat paper. to cover my missing section and build a card that looks finished.

Now it's time to do my fourth project, a tip in for my journal.  I am using a A5 journal this year so that means I can make a bit bigger tip in this time.  I went with a 5x8 base.
When doing this I realised I had forgotten to use Red Gallery R1998 Crinkles paper which I had included as it reminded me of a superhero cape so I was really glad to have a full sheet to play with as I couldn't get a 5x8 base piece from any of the other papers.

I trimmed a 1 1/4 x 8 inch piece from the last of the THE647 Superhero Jigsaw paper and adhered it down the right side.

I then adhered my photo down and tucked in the partial comic strip card I had remaining above my photo.

Added a zap, the small word that I selected specifically for this photo and then chose 2 heroes that remind me of my sons to create a cluster down the bottom left.

This is now ready to add my journaling to the back of it and tape it into my journal.

And this is all I have left.  I actually think I could squeeze one more card out of this but I will save that for later.
This range really is amazing value given how much you can create with just 3 papers.

Shopping for our Steampunk Costumes.

I hope you have enjoyed my Steampunk posts.  I wanted to share with you the op-shop buys we made for our costumes.

When the boys friend asked them to join him in participating in the first Steamfesta we jumped at the chance as Steampunk is something we have always wanted to give Steampunk a go.

Our 2 families went on a initial op-shop tour together to find items that would suit a Steampunk Costume for each family member wanting to participate.  On that tour we found a couple of items but we still had a lot we needed so I spent my op-shopping over the next few weeks looking for items and over the course of a month I found E a vest, a lovely blue shirt for C and for myself a skirt, blouse, tank top to go under my blouse and a lovely black shawl.

For shoes C was ok as he had a pair that would suit but E and myself needed some suitable shoes so we went to Rivers during a big sale and scored boots that would suit our costumes for $17, that were comfortable and supportive. 
E's serve a double purpose as they are perfect for the Ezra Bridger cosplay he is working on, it is always great when a item can serve multiple costumes as well as every day wear.

Other purchases were supplies to decorate my Hat, safety googles to turn into Steampunk Goggles, cogs and gears on ebay as I didn't have enough, various trims for decorating the various projects we would be creating including my Handbag, supplies to try making Spats and last minute I would buy some Sunglasses to alter.

The boys also altered Nerf guns we had in our Nerf stash to enhance their costumes.

I love this gorgeous photo Paul Aurisch Photography took of the boys and I.
I just wish I wasn't slumping but pain levels were high which makes my propreconception much worse.









Here I am with my friend Ruth (I am the one wearing the shawl), isn't her costume amazing?

I am really happy with how the boys and my costumes turned out and my budget is happy too.
 
If you want to get into costuming but worry about the cost just remember Cosplay and Steampunk don't have to be expensive and depending on the requirements of a particular costume you may even be able to select some pieces that you can wear as everyday clothing.
So go check out those op-shops for items to start a costume with.  It's a lot of fun and is a great family hobby.

Treasured Memories - CraftOnline Creative Team

I have been exploring my family history this year and even though I scrapped treasured photos of my Grandfather years ago that album was a gift for my elderly Uncle so I haven't scrapped them for myself yet.  This year I have been working through getting photos of Grandad scrapped.

Grandad traveled overseas as so man young men of his generation did to serve with the Allied forces in World War 1, he was sent to France.  I won't go into a lot of detail here but he fell in love with a lovely French Lady and they got married, she sadly passed away when their children were young and eventually Grandad and my Grandma fell in love and married.

Today's project I am scrapping one of only 2 photos of Grandad with his first wife Madeleine, I am unsure when it was taken but I put their wedding date on the layout as I thought it was important to record that on there.

So check out my process video to see how this layout came together and why I chose the products I chose for this project.

 

Items used in this project

49 and Market Ehthereal 12x12 Collection
49 and Market Captured Adventure 6x6 Collection
Poppy Crafts 6x6 Textured Paper Pad
Poppy Crafts Lady With Parasol Die
Poppy Crafts Bonjour Paris With Eiffel Tower Die
Poppy Crafts Lace Oval Nested Die
Mini Distress Ink Victorian Velvet
Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots
Helmar Acid Free Glue
Universal Crafts Ultra-Fine Tip Glue Applicator
Universal Crafts Embossing Tool
C-Thru T-Square
Universal Crafts Blending Tool

Have you scrapped those precious family heritage photos yet?  I would love to see your projects so please pop a link to any posts you have done of them in the comments and I will check them out.

Steampunk Spats - Helmar Creative Team

The night before Steamfesta I decided I would try making Steampunk Spats from some brown leather type vinyl fabric I had as my boots were black and my Bag was brown.
If you would like to see the other projects the boys and I made for Steamfesta then check out my Steampunk Googles and Sunglasses post, Steampunk Handbag post and Steampunk Hat post

To create my spats I made a pattern from my shoe following the instructions on Spats pattern making in this tutorial but as my sewing machine was not available I decided to use Helmar Fabric Glue to make my Spats instead of sewing them, except for the under boot strap and button which I hand sewed onto my finished Spats.

I wound up cutting my pattern so the part that had to be joined together was at the front, in future I think I will do the front on the fold so I close it up at the back.
To close the front I glued 1 side down to itself and then glued it on top of the other one using Helmar Fabric Glue and positioning it so it looked like a nice clean seam.








I used Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive to adhere some gorgeous gold trim and some metal cogs and gears to my spats, to give them that Steampunk Feel.

Lessons learned from making my fur boot covers for my Cheshire Cat Cosplay I wanted to make some straps that went under the shoe to hold the spat in place.
I just used some random scraps and glued the edges down with Helmar Fabric Glue to get a nice look to them.

I then hand sewed them on to my spat, cut a slit as a bottom hole and then sewed a cool button to my spat from my op-shop button stash.
How cool do they look?

Grab 6 and Craft with Animals YouTube Hop

We have another YouTube Hop for you, this one is about limiting your supplies and being inspired by animals.  Personally I find a lot of supplies can overwhelm me and impede creativity so sometimes I will pick just a few things that work together and give myself a theme and play until I have something I love so I thought that might be a fun hop theme to hopefully help other crafters create.

I am not participating in this hop as technical issues meant I could not do voice overs for the last week or so, but I do have the hop list for you.

Farrel
Kris
Niamh
Silvia
Wendy 

And to make things even easier for you to find here is the Playlist I created for this hop.













Have you joined out Facebook Group for our Hop Fans yet?  

I hope you enjoy this Hop there are so many wonderful projects from these talented ladies, some lovely crafty inspiration in it.  If you do create a project due to being inspired by something you see in this hop please let us know.  You can either contact the creator via their social media or comment on their project in the album for the hop in the group.  You may even like to share your project in the fan group.

Thank you for supporting our Hops.

Sister Selfie - Ruby Rock-It Creative Team

When I saw the new Bella Mini Theme called Selfie Queen it prompted me to scrap one of the many selfies my girls have taken over the years so sent them a message asking which of their selfies they would be ok with being on a layout on the Ruby Rock-It blog and they sent me the gorgeous selfie I am scrapping today.
As always I started by creating a kit for myself, in my kit I had:-
All 3 Selfie Queen Papers THE531 Segments, THE548 Click and THE555 Titles.  I also added some card bases from the Francheville Cards & Envelopes boxes Primary and Pastel that would either suit this selfie or a alternative (I would later use some different colours from Basics and Pastel), Fundamentals tags, Francheville White Paper Doilies and Bella Chipboard Alpha Pastel.

I started off by matting my photo with some of the Pastel cards.  I chose a Lilac card to draw attention to my daughter via her Lilac hair in the photo and a blue for my other daughter who is in a denim jacket in the photo.
I adhered the photo directly to the uncut card with Helmar Acid Free Glue and then trimmed to side.  I repeated this with the now matted photo to add the second matte.

I held my matted photo over the Segments sheet to work out if the purple selfie 3x4 card from THE531 Segments would suit.
This would give me some more purple on my layout to help pull your attention to my daughter that is in the back of the photo.

Once I had cut the card from the sheet I decided I wanted the word separate from the card and to use the off cuts as another matte, so I carefully fussy cut it from the card to leave good sized and shaped scraps for matting.








I carefully adhered the pieces to my matted photo so it would look like 1 piece down the left side.

While I was cutting the purple selfie card from the THE531 Segments paper I also decided to selectively cut the tiny word section from the paper so I wouldn't accidentally cut through it when looking to use the B side later.

I also cut the 2 girls from the THE531 Segments paper as they reminded me of both my daughters, they just needed their hair colour altered.  S loves beanies and C loves fashion so they really were a perfect embellishment for this layout.
With the beanie girl I didn't cut the entire card out, I cut as close to her as I could so as to leave as much spare B side on the paper as possible.



I then fussy cut them from the cards before colouring them.

To colour their hair I selected Shaded Lilac for my daughter with purple hair and Aged Mahogany for my daughter with red hair and grabbed out my aqua brush to apply the colour to just the parts that needed it.






As I was colouring my purple haired girl I decided the colours weren't quiet right so I grabbed out some Antique Linen to mix with the Aged Mahogany and some Wilted Violet to mix with the Shaded Lilac. 
Basically I dabbed the colour next to the one I was using and then mixed all of the lighter colour for each with a little of the dark colour on my Craft Sheet until I had a colour I was happy with.

I was now happy with how my girls hair looked and just had to wait for them to dry.
The purple is hard to see in the photo but it is a close match to my daughter's hair.

While my girls were drying I worked on more layering for my layout.  I got this idea that a grey card from the Basics box of Francheville Cards & Envelopes box would be a cool way to pull in the street scene in the background of the photo and give me a good contrast that would break up all the colour.
I wasn't worried about the crease showing as it could represent the edge of a wall or something.
I adhered my layers directly down to the full card with Helmar Acid Free Glue and then trimmed about a inch off the right hand side

Next I ahered my purple haired girl to my Selfie word by using some Xpress It double sided tape to hold them together.
I then adhered her down by adding some Helmar Acid Free Glue to where the tape wasn't.



 








I then started adding some more layers using the scraps of pink I had from fussy cutting my girl and some scraps of the THE555 Titles paper I had left over after fussy cutting some of the words out of it.
I just poked things and glue them until I was happy.

I then looked through my Primary and Pastel Francheville Cards & Envelopes boxes for a card that would give a nice layer behind the bright colours and break things up a bit before adhering the entire cluster down to the Click paper.
I decided on the Pink from the Pastel pack but not wanted to waste any of the card I cut away what would be behind my cluster, giving me a cute mini card for a later project.

I cut a section away from the THE548 Click paper that my cluster would cover, I want to use this for a tip in for my 2018 journal to include a selfie I took with a friend when she visited from Lismore and we spent the weekend scrapping together.














Once I had adhered down my layer cluster to my background paper it was time to add my beanie girls and tiny words using Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots so that I could have them pop up off the page but adjust it to a suitable height if needed.

I added the word Sister to the top left with my Bella Chipboard Alpha Pastel can called my layout done.