Garden Junk Journal - Helmar Creative Team

Since starting my potted veggie garden I have found myself frequently looking up the same information for my plants and I felt I needed a notebook with quick references to this information.  I downloaded various printable Garden Planners but couldn't find one that was just right.  After Jeanette's Easy DIY Two Hour Planting Journal post I found myself really inspired to create a Junk Journal style notebook/garden planner for myself.  So I started collecting various free printables, sorting through my stash to create a Garden kit to play with.

I printed out the printables I liked, some I printed on nice thick paper and other's I printed on standard 80gsm copy paper.  The tags and library cards that I printed on 80gsm paper I decided to back onto a manilla file folder.  I simply ran some Helmar Acid Free Glue onto the back of each tag and Library card, adhered them to the file folder, cut them out once dry and then touched up any gaps in corners or edges with a drop of Helmar Acid Free Glue.

Once they were dry I distress the edges of the printables and the back with a variety of Distress Inks.  While I had the inks out I distress the edges of all the printable pages and the papers I had cut and distressed the backs to if they were blank.

Some printables I didn't want as pages but rather I wanted to glue them onto pages that I had given a Tea Dye look using Distress Inks.  I simply glued them where I needed them with Helmar Acid Free Glue.













I have been really concerned in the Junk Journal groups about the safety of the methods some are using to adhere napkins to paper so I wanted to share how safe and easy it is to use Helmar Acid Free Glue to do this.  Great minds think alike and Jeanne recently did a post Decoupaging Napkins with Helmar Acid Free Glue, our method was very similar but I will share mine too.
I simply squirted some Helmar Acid Free Glue onto my work surface, spritzed some water onto the glue and mixed it with a old brush.  I then brush it on evenly to where I was decoupaging my napkin, placed the napkin down and then gave it a coat over the top with my watered down Helmar Acid Free Glue, set it aside to dry while I worked on something else.  It was very quick and easy to do and much safer than melting cling wrap or ironing plastic backed paper.  Please, please don't melt plastic in your craft room, Helmar Glues are much safer.

When cutting my cover I cut it a fraction too short, so I cut a strip from the left overs and ran some Helmar Acid Free Glue along the strip and used the strip to hold 2 pieces together.  Bonus it gave me a little bit of contrast on the busy paper I had chosen for my cover.   Sorry I didn't get a pic of the process but here is the finished repair.

I decided to use the left over paper from my cover to make a pocket inside the cover.  I ran a bead of Helmar Acid Free Glue around the bottom and 2 sides and adhered it inside the cover, once dry I had a great pocket for my tags, library cards and embellishments I want to have on hand to use when needed.

As I add information into my Garden Junk Journal I will give finished pages a coat of Helmar Crystal Kote Matt to ensure if it gets wet no ink will run.

I want to try protecting my cover using Jeanette's method of upcycling cereal packaging and using Helmar Silicone Sealant to seal it, it is a brilliant idea, check it out.

I am really happy with how my Garden Junk Journal has turned out and I have been using the information I have added regularly to remind myself of when to water which plant, what plants I want to use in companion planting and what fertiliser needs each plant has.  It has been so handy. 
I am looking forward to printing out some photos of my garden and adding them in as a way to document how the garden is progressing and the things I am learning.

Happy Day - Fortnite Party Layout - CraftOnline Creative Team

I really wanted to scrap E's Fortnite themed Birthday but as there is no Fortnite themed supplies I decided to pull a few things together from CraftOnline and created a Fortnite kit for myself. 
If you have a Fortniter in the family then this bundle of goodies will suit your needs to scrap those Fortnite photos.

Items used

Poppy Crafts 3 Pine Trees Die
Poppy Crafts Paper Pad Textured Cardstock 6x6
American Crafts Pebbles Happy Hooray Beary Sweet paper
PhotoPlay Jurassic Park Collection
Eco Park Easter Wishes Collection
The Stickmaster double sided heat resistant tape 12mm 
The Stickmaster double sided heat resistant tape 6mm
Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots
Helmar Acid Free Glue
Poppy Crafts Happy Birthday Balloon Die (no longer available), alternatives include Cheery Lyn Hot Air Balloons set of 2 or Poppystamps Hot Air Balloons
American Crafts Pebbles Happy Hooray Ephemera Die Cuts
Doodlebug Designs Petite Prints Dot/Grid Daisy/Stripe

Other items bought but not used for this layout
(I will use these items on another Fortnite layout that I will share on the blog later.)

Doodle Pops Fry Day
Doodle Pops Pizza Love
Doodle Pops Well Done 
Poppy Crafts Ribbons Greens
Poppy Crafts Ribbons Violets

For the Supply Drop I cut my pieces from from the Doodlbebug Designs Petite Prints papers using a nice blue for the box/basket I ensured my paper just on the box and a little over the bow to give me a surface to glue.  For the yellow I cut it so that the entire bow and balloon was cover.  I cut 2 different yellows and 2 of the same blue.
Then I die cut some trees with the Poppy Crafts 3 Pine Trees Die from the dark green in the Poppy Crafts Textured Cardstock paper pad ready for my layouts. 



Next I sorted the die cuts from the American Crafts Pebbles Happy Hooray Ephemera Die Cuts to find the ones that might suit my layout.  Then I precut the papers I wanted to use on my layout into random sizes so they were ready to got and I mounted my photos with the dark blue paper in the Poppy Crafts Textured Cardstock paper pad.

Having everything ready to go meant I could work quickly and just focus on playing with my supplies to help tell the story of the photos I was using. 
Watch the video to see how I played with my papers and supplies until happy with what I had.

 

I pieced my Fortnite Supply Drop by gluing the main balloon piece to the box where the bow is.
Next I pieced the Balloon pieces together using the different yellow pieces to give shading.  I stuck them together with The Stickmaster heat resistant tape.

I adhered my balloons directly to my page with Helmar Acid Free Glue  and with my trees I adhered some with Helmar Acid Free Glue but then popped some up with Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots to give my forest dimension.
I adhered the die cut banner Happy Day on top of my trees with Helmar Acid Free Glue  and adhere the stars from the pack randomly to the right, placing one on the supply drop box to hide a mistake.

I finished my layout off with a doodly border and called it done.

E love seeing the first layout about his Fortnite Party done and is looking forward to my getting some more scrapped with my little kit I have pulled together.

#100outof100 Together Always - Journal tip in

On March 20th I started seeing posts about horrendous, ignorant and ablest advice Dr Phil gave a couple on his show and like every disabled person in my feed that was sharing their outrage and hurt I too was feeling deeply hurt.   
The hashtag #100outof100 started that day with so many lovely interabled couples sharing their successful relationships and I really wanted to share mine but as I was not feeling up to posting a photo of myself that day I took a photo of us holding hands and me wearing my oval8 finger splint. 
I typed up my post that spoke so much of our journey and I wasn't feeling up to sharing all that with the world so I hit delete.  I tried again a few hours later and once it was all typed and I found I wasn't up to hitting publish.  The act of typing up the post was so mentally draining that I couldn't hit publish.  I had this beautiful photo though so I kept it in my phone thinking when I am feeling up to it or can find better words I will hit publish.
When printing my photos on Thursday I included this beautiful photo as a 3x4 thinking I would just add it into my journal and journal about how wonderful it is to see so many people educate Dr Phil on how epically wrong he was, I didn't think I would scrap it though.

On Saturday when I was setting up to make decorations for my Endo High Tea next weekend I had to move the printed photos off my desk and I was drawn to this photo and I just had to scrap it.  I stopped doing everything I was meant to and just zoned out creating something that I feel is beautiful from the harm Dr Phil's words have caused.

I grabbed out my half used sticker sheet from the Simple Stories Kissing Booth range, Doodlebug Designs Petite Prints 6x6 paper pad, a half a red doily from Scrapping Fun Kits Gaming kit, some baby girl thickers, Maggie Holmes Willow Lane alphas, Fundamentals tag, pink twine.

I just played with my supplies but one thing I did know I wanted to do was create a pocket from my photo mat so I could use tags for hidden journalling with what I wanted to say but couldn't publish.
When creating the pocket I used The Stickmaster Heat Resistant tape to ensure it would stand up to the climate here.

I loved all the tiny words on my sticker sheet so used a bunch that seemed appropriate down the left of my layout and cut 2 of them to add to the end of my title so my title read #100outof100 together always.

I finished things off my inking the outer edge and tag edges with a mini Distress Ink in Spun Sugar.

So while I am not up to sharing what I wrote I thought I would share my layout to show that this horrible ableism inspired me to created something out of my and my husband's love.

Galentine's Day Card

The year has just gone so fast, I really wanted to organise something for Galentine's Day this year but before I knew it it was a couple of days away and I hadn't planned anything, so I made a quick Galentine's card with my left overs from the Valentine's card I made for hubby and a few other bits from my stash and I wanted to share it with you but first I think I should give a brief explanation of Galentine's Day for those who are unaware of this fun excuse to eat waffles and hang out with friends.

Galentine's Day is something that the character Leslie Nope created in the TV show Parks and Recreation, if you haven't watched that show yet go check it out, it is a fun show to watch. 
Anyway Galentine's Day is about spending time with your Gal Pals and celebrating each other.  It occurs on February 13th.  Waffles are the must food for the event, cute gifts, cheezy quotes and just celebrating the women in your life.  And a lot of women started having Galentine's Day celebrations after seeing the episode as well why not and every year since I saw the episode I think to myself I should organise something and then every year just runs away from me with recovery from Christmas, the chaos of the start of the school year, 2 Birthdays in the first 2 weeks of the school year, etc.  So I am promising myself next year I will invite my local Gal Pals to have some waffles and celebrate our friendship, fingers crossed I remember early in the year.

To make my card I used
Simple Stories Kissing Booth 12x12 sticker sheet
Poppy Crafts A2 cards
Doodlebug Petite Prints 6x6 paper pad
Lillybee Designs alphas
Scrap from Willow Lane 6x8 paper pad that I used for my Happy Days Diner layouts
Red doily from my Scrapping Fun Kits January Gaming themed kit
Pink spot paper from Dear Lizzy Happy Place 6x6 paper pad
Helmar Acid Free Glue

I cut a piece of bright pink paper from the Doodlebug paper pad to fit my card front.
Then because my scrap from Willow Lane was torn I tore a piece of pink spot paper from Dear Lizzy Happy Place to form a layer between the 2 papers.
I cut my paper doily in half and layered it between the Willow Lane paper and pink spot paper. 
I glued all my papers and paper doily down with Helmar Acid Free Glue.
Next I added the garland sticker from the Simple Stories Kissing Booth sticker sheet and 2 of the envelope stickers.

To create my sentiment I cut the Val from the Valentine's Day word sticker from the Kissing Booth sticker sheet and stuck the remaining word sticker down, then I added Gal where Val was with my Lillybee Designs alpha stickers.  And once this was down I cut the word happy from the happy together word sticker on the Kissing Booth sticker sheet to create Happy Galentine's Day.






And my card is done, I love how it turned out.

After making my card I decided to Google free printables for Galentine's Day and found so many great printables out there but here are a few I found.
Over on Amy Poehler's Smart Girls website you will find this article with links to various artists Galentine's Day works, not all are free but they are soooo cute.
If you don't want to make a card Bravelets has a printable with 4 cute cards to print fold and write a message in and the blog has a great explanation of Galentine's Day.
Flourish and Hope have some cute printable cards and invitations.
Live Laugh Rowe has some cute tags.
And there is so much more out there.

Are you doing anything with your Gal Pals for Galentine's Day this year?

Bellingham Maze layout - Scrapping Fun Kits Design Team

Today I have a Design Team layout for you for Scrapping Fun Kits.
I love the colour combination in the September/Spring Kit.  Even though this trip was not in Spring the supplies helped add to the fun of the layout which was a great way to enhance the photo from this fun day at Bellingham Maze on the Sunshine Coast several years ago.  I will add a second layout for the journaling as there is a fair bit to tell about this day.

In addition to my September kit I used papers from my stash that have been pulled from their collections/pads so I am not sure what a couple of them are but I think I used a combination of Kaisercraft, Shimmelle or Maggie Holmes papers.  I also pulled out left over bits from a embellishment kit from My Scrapbook Room





I did have a creative block while working on this layout so I reminded myself of what I said in a post on Mercy Tiara's group Saturday and just stuck things down, I committed and hoped it would work.
I started by sticking down the bird and butterfly washi in the top corner but I needed to stick more down.  I needed to stop thinking about how it would all come together, I needed to just get the paper layers down and then play with embellishments and let the supplies work for me.
I finished off with a wobbly pen border.

I am quiet happy with the results and please with what I created when having a creative block.

Due to technical difficulties my Process Video has not been able to be uploaded.  Hopefully tech support aka hubby can fix the issues later today so I can share it with you.

Counterfiet Kit Challenge Guest Designer - Challenge 1 Old and New

The first Challenge from Counterfiet Kit Challenge this month is Old and New, I used this prompt not only with selecting supplies but also my photos.

It was suggested when I posted this photo of a 7yr me to find out where it was that I should include a current photo of London Bridge at the 12 Apostles on the Great Ocean Road since where I am standing with my Mum and Uncle Des collapsed into the ocean in 1990 so this prompt had me really wanting to scrap these photos.

These gorgeous little wood veneer hearts are new to my stash, I recieved them in a RAK I recieved in February.
I love them.

The flower sticker, white rose and Good Times sticker are some older items in my stash, not my oldest but they have been in  it for over a year.  It was great using up some of my older supplies.











The background paper and Thickers are from my Kitaholic Kits January Main Kit, I also used some other papers that are new to my stash from a couple of 6x6 paper pads I recently bought and a gorgeous floral from a My Mind's Eye 6x6 paper pad Heike gave me for my 40th.
The older papers I used are a blue wave paper that is hard to see in the photo from a American Crafts Atlantic paper pad and this fun pink paper that is at the back of my layers that has words on it in a darker pink which is from a old cheap pad from Lincraft.

I have left lots of room for journaling as I don't have any clear memories from this trip so my Mum's best friend is writing up her memories for me and sending them to me from Germany.

Counterfeit Kit Challenge - My Kit

Sorry I am late with sharing my Counterfeit Kit Challenge Kit this month, I was having camera issues and could not take good quality photos for some time, I am loving having my camera back and I am excited to share with you what I have pulled from my stash.

Due to the time difference the post on the First of the month for this wonderful challenge goes live on the 2nd my time so I loved seeing this month's inspiration for Counterfeit Kit Challenge was Ubud Dreams from Kaisercraft as it is the range that is the base of Kitaholic Kits this month.  I am excited as I am getting the Main Kit this month from Kitaholic Kits as it features a the perfect blue for doing my children's school photos and as you can see by my counterfeit kit I am running very low on Navy patterned papers.  I got a embellishment kit from Steph in November and loved it, she does a wonderful job coordinating supplies and my experience with her customer service was exemplary.

I love the papers from my old Shimelle paper pad.
This strip is all I have left of this lovely navy polka dot paper.
The green and navy dot paper and the spaceship paper had the perfect colours for this challenge.

 Lovely papers and scraps from my Atlantic Paper Pad

This paper and alphas are a very old My Mind's Eye range called Front Porch Picket Fennce and are perfect for this kit.
This floral sheet is from a Aldi paper pad also works well for this challenge.  

The last of this gorgeous paper from douceur de vivre.
A sheet from Kaisercraft Paradiso.
A sheet of ledger style paper and a scrap of pretty paper from K&Company.
Some Navy cardstock I put through a CTMH embossing folder a couple of years ago to show how you can do a full 12 inch stripe was perfect to add to this kit.

I pulled out the washi that I Forged for the October Counterfeit Kit Challenge as the blue are perfect for this kit.
I added some tags from My Mind's Eye Front Porch Picket Fence and vintage lace from my Mum's sewing stash and a lovely piece my friend Seryn gave me.
I love these Mistable Thickers as I can colour them to suit my needs.

So many lovely pages in the Mandala Colouring Book that would suit using in this month's challenge.






















As I waited until I cold take decent photos of my kit Forgeries on the  Fourth and the First Challenge are up already but I look forward to playing along as much as I can.
Are you playing along with this month's Counterfeit Kit challenge?  I would love to see your kit.

Title Within A Title

For Task 1 from Scrapbooking Memories Masters Challenge 2016 I loved this photo of Mr C being a clown at the Doctor's while the nurse was really worried about him.  So I typed up the story with the Title of Clowning Around and then when creating the layout I made a second title which could also incorporate the Clowning Around title.   This idea wound up being used as a challenge in a group I help admin for October.
Unfortunately I didn't film this one but it was a lot of fun to create.

I used  jewellery pieces, alphas from Kaszazz, black thread, black felt bow, watch pieces, circle chipboard Gesso, white cardstock, black cardstock, Rough and Tough by lili paper from fancypantsdesigns, Ready Set Go paper from American Crafts.

























I swiped Gesso over the middle of my green paper.
Then I trimmed the green paper down a little and distressed the edges.

This paper really added a fun feel to the page and was perfect for scrapping my fun loving son.

Scrapbooking Top 50 Australian Super Challenge Week 4

I did a quick simple layout for Scrapbooking Top 50 Australia Super Challenge Week 4.
This fantastic challenge is running over 6 weeks and is inspired by the TV show The Block, each week we renovate a new room and we get a choice I 2 room styles, I chose room 2 this week and this was the perfect challenge for this cute photo of our dog Lily decided the toddler couch is her new bed.

As you can see in my quick process video I had not real plan I just grab out stuff and played until I had something I was happy with.

I chose to use papers from Studio Calico Atlantic paper pad, blue chipboard shapes from Bo Bunny, a variety of letters from Creative Memories, Kaszazz and Kmart.

I had so much fun doing this quick layout.

Kraft+ September Moodboard Layout

Sorry there has been a gap in content, I have been working on a few special projects that can't be shared for some time and they needed to be created before working on this months Challenges and other layouts.  I have also been reorganising my craft space so that I could set up a camera to film process videos and tutorials, this impacted my craft time but now that I am all set up I am looking forward to more crafting time.
Now that my camera is set up this was going to be my first process video but unfortunately at the end I discovered I hadn't hit record like I thought I had, so sorry my next layout will have to be my first process video.  I have done a walk through video instead.

I love that Kraft+ Challenge is encouraging double layouts this month so I created a double 8x8 layout for the album I am doing for my daughter and her pregnancy journey.

As usual I started by going through my embellishments for items in the colours of the moodboard.
I selected die cuts from Kaisercraft Charlotte's Dream Collectables that the colours reminded me of watermelons and honeydew melons, white die cut butterflies I recieved in a die cut swap which I then coloured with CTMH blue and pink mini pigment inks, gorgeous apricot flowers from D-lish Scraps, honeyew melon shade of green mini paper roses from Kaisercraft.

I selected a few papers from this paper pad from Studio Calico that had melon colours in.
I chose this goreous paper as it had lovely watermelon pinks, a lovely honeydew hint of green, a small amount of rockmelon orange and I loved those yellow dots.


I selectively cut the paper so that I could have the most of the different melon colours showing without losing too much behind photos or losing too much of the Kraft paper as that is the hero of this challenge.
I also used the top strip from 2 sheets in the pad that are pink and blue and cut flags from them to use on the pages.

I love the softness of the ink on the white die cut butterflies.
Butterflies are a feature througout her album as a butterfly is in the logo for HG Awareness.  I thought the ribbon was purple and blue but I wish to correct myself the Awareness logo is pink and blue.

This is a difficult layout to photograph as the photos are not great quality due to it being in a A&E with dimmed lights and a very stressful situation but I felt as Hyperemisis Gravidarum is such a significant part of her pregnancy journey documenting her A&E trips, Hospital admissions, etc was very important.

I loved the photo series in the right hand side as it is her youngest brother who is a real hugger sneaking to give her one of his big hugs and our second youngest being very gentle and just leaning near her as he was so worried about her.

Are you participating in the Kraft+ Challenge this month?  If so are you going to do a double page layout?

Scrap the Boys July Challenge

Scrap the Boys July Challenge is Ocean themed.  I discovered I am rather lacking on Beach, Nautical or Ocean themed supplies.

Appologies for the different set out today but for some reason Blogger isn't letting me edit my post so that text is beside photos or to have photo clusters as I would prefer.

After I selected some papers from these paper pads I grabbed out some beads from a broken necklace, hessian ribbon and a cloud, sun and grass chipboard.

I started playing around with my papers, chipboard and hessian ribbon to work out how I wanted to lay things out before adding colour or other embellishments.

Then it was time for Distress Stains, I decided to go with more basic techniques this time, just swiping and then doing some splats with Tumbled Glass on my light grey cardstock.

I used Pealed Paint to colour the grass chipboard by putting some on my craft sheet and rubbing the chipboard in it and just dabbing on any spots that didn't take colour, I then inked the edges with New England Ivy CTMH ink and a ink dabber.

For the Sun I mixed some yellow, white and light brown Acrylic paints on my craft sheet and painted it on, once dry I dabbed some Mustard Seed Distress Stain on it.  I was trying to get a shade close to the shade in the striped paper I was using on my layout.

For the cloud I just dabbed white paint with a sponge on it to get a textured effect that felt like a cloud.

I chose not to base coat any of my chipboard as I wanted the different effect that the raw chipboard directly under the cover gives.

I had everything ready to adhere down when the oppurtunity to go to Spotlight and spend my voucher occured, so I grabbed a pack of charms that included fish and turtles and then I spoted a beautiful Mermaid Bookmark.  I had already decided to go with a overall ocean theme and use a photo of my son having Icecream at the beach on a day out with Dad.

In addition to my already selected embellishments I added some embroidery floss to represent seaweed.

I inked the edges of the papers with Pacifica ink from CTMH.

The die cut title is from that pack of Dear Lizzy die cuts I scored at the destash market, that pack is so useful.

I love the subtle colour from the Distress stain swipes and splats.

I also selectively cut some wording from one of the papers in one of the paper pads.