Helen's First Monochromatic Tic Tac Toe project.

Welcome back to my blog, where today I'm sharing a project for 
SCRAP MATRIX

The challenge is to create a project using a tic tac toe monochromatic theme.

For those of you who have not come across this before, the idea is to use any three objects from the grid, but they must be in a straight line horizontally, vertically or even diagonally. You may use any monochromatic colours you like.

Here is the chart

I've elected to use red as my colour and my three items are

Paint, Chipboard and buttons, flairs or brads.

I've watched a few mixed media you tube videos recently and came across a site recommended by my friend Margaret Mifsud, when she made some ATC's.  I was inspired to create a background with book pages, texture paste, embossing, stamping and inks.

I wanted to feature this Blue Fern chipboard, which

 comes in a square. I decided to feature the numbers

so I popped some of the squares out of the chipboard.

Then I cut the chipboard into sections and painted it with Dylusions Black paint.

Next, I heat embossed random patches of the chipboard with

Stampendous ultra think embossing powder.

To create the background of the page, I tore up some old book pages into random strips and adhered them onto a white background with Art Basic Gel

I added some plasterers tape, some Washi tape and some 

Red polka dot patterned paper.

Another layer was added with  Tim Holtz texture paste, through various stencils and

then heat embossed with Stampendous white embossing powder.

 The next layers were made with various stamps, Distress Oxides and Red Gelatos.

I added some stars and brads.

A closer look.

Some of the texture details.

Thanks for your visit today. 

I hope you've found something to inspire you and will be tempted 

to play along at the Scrap Matrix Tic Tac Toe challenge.

Scrap the Boys DT April 2018 - Happy

Hello Scrappy Friends, welcome back to my blog today where I'm sharing a DT layout for

Scrap the Boys.  Sorry to be late to the party, but I've been unwell and just starting to get back into scrapping (a little bit).

 The challenge this month is to scrap about the boy/s (of any age) in your life, 
using geometric shapes.  I chose to use triangles. 

The papers are by one of our Sponsors Cocoa Vanilla, the "You Rock" collection.

The alphabets are from Lilybee Designs - "Sweet Shop."

The cut file is a free one from Paper Issues, "Rad Triangles"

The journalling is on the back of the page and it reads:-
These photos were taken before you started school when you used to come with your twin Brother to spend the day with us.  What happy times we had, baking, crafting, playing in the mud, walking to the park, reading books and enjoying one another's company.   I treasure those days, when you were eager to come and were full of mischief.  One of your favourite things to do was to ring the door bell, (something you didn't have at home) and we pretended that you were Father Christmas or the Easter Bunny arriving with presents or chocolate treats.  Pst!   You still like to ring the door bells a hundred times when you come to visit!   Photos taken 8th April 2014.  Love Granny March 2018

I hope you will feel inspired to play along and be eligible for a prize.

I appreciate your kind comments and so enjoy reading them.  Thank you.

Kraft+ DT - April - Remember your roots.

Hello again Scrappy Friends, welcome; today I'm sharing a DT post for 

Kraft+

It's a recipe challenge but not one I wanted to follow in the traditional way with a wedding theme.   When I came across this old photo of my Father building a round haystack more than 50 years ago, I knew it was time to record this lost art.   So the photo and the haystack building is the something old, something new is me trying to paint with my newish Distress Oxides paints, Something borrowed, is the sketch from the super talented Laura Whitaker from Stuck?! Sketches! and something blue, 
the blue paper and the blue clouds in our Aussie sky.

First I prepped the page with clear Gesso. 

Next I stamped the trees with a
 Darkroom Door "Gum Trees" stamp.

The painting was a matter of trial and error; 
with lots of practice on scraps of paper to achieve  the effect I was hoping for.
I kept the embellishments simple with a metal camera and some string 
and a few cogs which I rusted with Prima rust effect pastes. The pastes are available from one of our generous sponsors, Scrap Matrix.


The journalling is on the back of the page and it reads:-
This photo was taken over 50 years ago.  My Dad is on the top of the haystack and he was helping my cousin to build a round haystack. My cousin, an only child, was only 19 when his Father died; he was left to run the family farm with his Mother and Aunt.  When his Father was dying, he asked my Father to mentor the young man and help out during harvest, when my cousin was often incapacitated with severe hay fever. 

Despite having a farm of his own and no Sons to help him, my Father honoured the request, and for the next 30 odds years, he worked with my cousin, especially during Harvest time. I remember my Dad building one of these circular haystacks, now a lost art, as so many farming chores are done mechanically.  

I recall Dad driving a post into the ground, attaching a long piece of binder twine to the post with a stick tied to the other end, and walking around in a circle dragging the stick in the dirt, like an enormous compass. This created as a guide to the the perimeter.  Then a layer of hardwood logs went down to form the base and gradually the sheaves where built up, layer by layer.  I can remember being fascinated with the long handled pitch forks tossing the hay high in the air to land on the top of the stack.
I loved being outside watching the changing seasons and getting involved in the chores of the day. One of my jobs was to help turn the handle of the separator, to separate to cream from the milk and then churn the milk into butter.  Societal norms dictated that women could not be farmers in that era, but I sometimes wonder what my life would have been like if those restrictions didn't exist.
Journalling March 2018

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