Creating backgrounds with bottle caps and acrylic paint

I had fun playing with bottle caps and acrylic paint this afternoon.  All I did was just to stamp the reverse side of some bottle caps to a white sheet of bazzill and it looked great.  Hope you try this tip.

Toot for Irene Tan

What is the ULTIMATE scrapbooking dream for you?  Well for Irene Tan - her dream has just been realised.  She has been chosen to design Tim Holtz -,  yes - the man himself!  Irene - I just want to say that you have made all the Malaysian scrappers proud.  Thank you and we look forward to enjoying more beautiful creations from you. 

Malay Dowry Envelope by Hazel

Spotted in Hazel's blog - this beautiful envelope. What is it?  Hazel made it especially for a Malay wedding and it is used to store the dowry money to the bride.  Love how she combined the Chatterbox paper with a beautiful Basic Grey (if I am not mistaken) rubon.  The flowers and the butterflies were a great complement to the envelope.  This is so lovely Hazel.  Thanks for sharing...

Happy Valentine's Day

We would like to wish our readers a very Happy Valentine's Day. May your day be filled with lots of love from your loved ones,  family and friends...

What not to do with Crackle Paint

I learnt it the hard way on my recent attempt with ATCs what NOT to do with crackle paint.  I very stupidly added crackle paint to my latest ATCs on glossy paper. These latest batch of ATCs are done with distress inks on glossy paper and then I added the disastrous crackle paint.  If I had more common sense - how could I expect the crackle paint to stick onto the smooth glossy surface?

As the crackle paint dried,  I was dumb founded when it started peeling off.  Hence - I added some Helmar acid glue on top to bind the crackle paint to the glossy card.  It worked in some ways but some fell down too.  I ended up adding too much glue in various places and I added some more beads to distract the blob of glue. That was my way of embracing my mistakes. Hee hee...

Layout using cardboard

Spotted at Sasha's blog-what a creative lo.  Sasha made this cute layout by using cardboard.  Love how the way she tore the cardboard - makes the layout looks like it has so many textures...  Thanks for sharing Sasha...

 

Altered Biscuit Container

During the Chinese New Year period,  it is customary to serve visitors with food and one popular food to share are biscuits.  I altered this simple biscuit container by simply using my scalloped Nestabilities dies with my Cuttlebug. 

I have also uteed the word "Fook or Fortune" in chinese and made some tassels to finish off the designs.  Aida very graciously shared the tassels making tutorial here with us.  If you like to learn how to make them,  please click here.

RAk from Collection Elements

During my latest trip to Australia,  Julie - who is the owner of Collection Elements gave a RAK of their stuff.  Thanks so much Julie.  I love all their stuff.  Check out the chipboards in all kinds of shapes  - owls, birds even tiny little houses that you can piece together.  In addition - there are alphas tiles, stamps and all kind of vintage stuff!  All suiting to the discerning scrapper.  

Where is Collections available in Malaysia?  At present - you can find them at Scrappingville.  Otherwise you can try to buy from Scraptivate.  

Watch this space for more Atcs etc made from the Collection Elements.

Adding interest to your layout

Its always the little details that add interest to your layout.  One of the easiest ways to do this would be to add stitches or even the Adirondack Dimensional Pearls onto the layout.  Here I have first sewed on some stitches on the corners - not too much but enough to add interest to the layout.  I then added some Adirondack Dimensional Pearls onto the paper to make the layering more interesting.  Please do try it.

Making Gold faces using UTEE and Melting Pot

 have melted some UTEE in my melting pot and made more gold faces for my latest ATC last night.  These are the steps to make them if you like them.

You will need:

1)  A silicone mould of the shapes that you wish to produce.  I have used here some Sculpey moulds of faces.

2)  UTEE (chose the colours that you like)

3)  Melting Pot 

4)  Some Embossing Ink or any other release agent. (This is to prevent the UTEE from sticking to your mould and quick release without damaging the mould.)

5)  UTEE Flex (To prevent your UTEE from breaking)

Step 1 : We first pour the UTEE and UTEE flex in the melting pot. You may choose to melt any left over UTEE which has hardened in there too. Thats the beautiful thing about working with UTEE. You can remelt it at any time.

Step 2:  To facilitate melting - cover the pot.  The cover of the melting pot is very important,  hence - please do not throw it away.

Step 3: Whilst waiting for your UTEE to melt, "grease" your moulds so that when the melted UTEE has hardened in the mould, you will find it easy to remove them.

Step 4: Once the UTEE has melted, you are ready to pour it into the mould. Just pour it in and let it set and remove the faces when UTEE has set. It shouldn't take more than 5 mins. I apologise - I forgot to take pictures at this stage.

Step 5:  I have used the gold face as an embellishment to my latest ATC. 

ATCs with crackle paint, wires and beads

I was recently in Australia and was inspired by the ladies in Australia.  I have to say that the ladies at Scraptivate - their creations and ATCs were most awe-inspiring.  I had the pleasure of attending an ATC class with Kelsey and she was one creative lady.  For more information, please do go here.

For this ATC,  I have used a lot of the Jo Sonja products.  I have first painted on some iridescent paints onto a chipboard.  I then added some crackle paints onto the chipboard as background using some bubble wrap.  There after it was a case of simple wrapping the wires through the ATC card and some beads at the intersections where the wires come together.  I then mounted the chipboard onto some black bazzill.  Added some German Scraps - also available from Scraptivate and a butterfly and some Making Memories alphas on each ATC completed my ATCs.  

Thank you ladies of Scraptivate for the inspirations and I look forward to meeting you all again when I am there next.

Bubble Wrap Printing on Acrylic Sheet

I have seen this done by this amazing talented lady - Birgit Koopsen.  I love her work and the colours that she uses - the whole lo page just pops out!  Amazing lady.  This tip is relatively easy - just cut out a piece of bubble wrap and then stamp out the bubbles by applying acrylic paint. It should be noted that one should use thick acrylic paint so as not to smear the bubbly effects.

For added colour,  I have decided to use some rubons which I have purchased to further enhance the layout.  Hope you like this tip!

Note:  This lo is designed for ScrappinKids.