Laura Rumble - Crafter

  In today's Scrap Academy lesson I stamp my own ephemera. I'm working with the new succulents range from StickerKitten plus a little extra patterned paper for the plant pots from Cocoa Vanilla Studio. I love the colour palette of this range so much, it's right up my alley.  It matches me well in another sense too... I'm a new plant keeper.  It started with some succulent pups to propogate and somehow I have a further 9 new green friends already! If you're not familiar with the Scrap Academy it is a group on Facebook aimed at beginner scrapbookers whilst also teaching those who've been scrapping for a while some new tricks.  

 I'm quite excited about this layout... I have used StickerKitten's Space stamps and Wow! Embossing powder to create a space scene.  I've then painted over it with bright colours and seriously questioned my sanity.  But this is one of those 'trust the process' techniques.  When the brightly coloured sky is dry you go over with a couple of layers of black watercolour.  When you add splatters on top of that it comes to life as a starry galaxy.   I went a little further and added some glow in the dark star sequins.  It is SO COOL!!  When I turn my light off at night I see the layout glowing.  I will say it wasn't the easiest thing to photograph but I shut myself in the wardrobe to capture this photo... I think this is my favourite layout so far this year. Here's the process video:

I'm teaching in the Scrap Academy again today.  I'm doing a run through of all the different types of watercolour I have culminating in a layout. Lots of watercolour leaves along with some neon watercolour rings/circles in lieu of flowers. A stacked subtitle cut on my cameo - I cut it three times and glued them together.

 I ADORE THIS STAMP!  Sorry for starting off shouting at you, but that needed to be said!  You can find it here . I have stamped and heat embossed it on watercolour paper before having some fun with my watercolour paints.  My palette is made up of Daniel Smith paints.  I used a 'thank you' stamp from another StickerKitten stamp set and heat embossed it in the same silver embossing powder. And I'm back to finishing every project with sequins - but just a few at the bottom for added sparkle and to draw focus to the sentiment. Here's the process video:

Here's my final layout for the CSI design team.  I've interpreted the case file a little differently this time.  I've 'read' the stack of books as layers and turned them in to cut files.  Three cuts on different colour cardstock each with progressively larger cut outs that when stacked in a certain way give this fab effect. I'm calling them stackable cut files - and I say 'them' as there will be more as I adore how they look!  I've stick with the colour palette of Case File 331, teal, a touch of a muted-lime-crossed-with-sage-green and black and white.  (Good to see my colour explaining is improving!!) I had plans to put more on the page but it really didn't need anything further, it already felt complete! Here's the process video:

Hi folks, Laura here with a scrapbook layout to share.   It had been a while since I last scrapped and looking through the entire kit was a bit overwhelming.   I got over this by picking out just a few bits that I loved the most (shh, don’t tell the other bits I said that!)   I grabbed a few of the papers, the Bramble Fox camera and the stickers.   I knew that would give me a good base to build upon.   I chopped up the cut apart card and picked out a couple of die cuts.   This gave me focal words and summery vibes to add to my base.   I picked out a summery photo of my neph wearing sunglasses and started playing. I’m moving towards working on A4 for my main scrapbook layouts or A5 for my scraptherapy style layouts.    I have run out of room for 12x12 albums plus they are so expensive and hard to find in the UK.   A4 albums are much easier to source and a fraction of the price.   All that to say that I started with an A4 sheet of white cardstock.   I had a grid design forming in my min

 Here's my take on this month's Stick It Down sketch... I've used papers from StickerKitten , mists from Shimmerz along with one colour shine and some freebie acrylic stamps. I am really not a fan of acrylic stamps.  Photopolymer or rubber are brilliant - I have never had a decent impression with acrylics.  I persevered with these and got something that was OK for background interest.   As you'll see in the video I cut these banner clusters twice.  The first set were perfectly even fishtails... but too big so I trimmed them down.  My trimming was not as precise so I'll say I was going for the wonky look!  Here's the video: Hope to see you over at Stick It Down

 I was really drawn to the fabric in this month’s box of loveliness.   The pattern and the colours were spot on.   I decided to pull out my Mum’s old cross stitch threads and embroider on top.   Part way through I realised that this wasn’t going to make a very good blog post as I had no idea what I was doing nor any clue as to how to describe it!   I did a combination of stitches... probably some made up, probably not using very good technique and definitely not using great tension! I remember sewing as a child both in primary school and with my Mum and Nan.   My Mum had a big Reader’s Digest book that had little diagrams of different stitches.   I used to pour over the pages.   I’ve asked her to pull the book out again so I can have a refresher...   I wonder if it will be as captivating now as it was then.   I remembered the technique for chain stitch fairly well along with running stitch and back stitch.   I always have to look up how to do french knots.   They aren’t particular

 Sharing a card today... I love this card for a few reasons. Number 1 - I got to use ALL of my green inks!  Green is my favourite colour so I don't need much excuse, but I'm not sure I've used them all on one project before. Number two is a punny sentiment.  I'm a big fan of these too! Then there are the sequins.  I'm coming back to sequins after a little while away.  I seem to be wanting sequins on everything again.  I also used one my thin frame dies.  Somehow defying logic, the frame doesn't fit back in the gap it has created so I had to adapt my plan and pop it on top instead.  I think it's the pressure the gemini puts on the die/paper that is stretching the fibres of the paper... does that sound about right to you? Stamp set can be found here.

Wrapping up the Hochanda blog posts with these... I do love some stencilled wrapping paper and I was delighted to discover I could stencil ribbon too.  I  used an old neon ink from Hero and heat set as I went to stop the ink from spreading. And finally a shaker bauble with bells on! Hands up who wants a christmas tree full of shaker baubles this year?  Meeee!!!

 Here are a few tags I created using Skull and Cross Buns products featured in today's HOCHANDA programme. I also used the baubles stamps set to make a string of bunting and a single hanging ornament.  Just one more post to come later and that'll round off the oversharing!!

Here are the three layouts I created using Skull and Cross Buns products that you can buy from Hochanda today... Big polka dots and the Christmas Sweater stencils are firm favourites with me. "Funny" story about the above layout... M.E. brain fog has been kicking my butt recently.  I decided that I needed to show that the 6x6 stencils can be used repeatedly to fill a 12x12 page.  I decided the best way was clear glitter paste on a white background - yes, my style but... that was never going to show on TV.  So I decided to save it I would mist over the top of it.  The paste would resist the ink.  Well, yes it would resist it but it still needed to be wiped off the paste before it dried - which I failed to do.  I ended up cleaning each section of glitter paste one by one with a wet cotton bud. Sigh! Still to come today are tags and gift wrap ideas...