Inspiration with Kaisercraft's Bonjour, Christmas Challange and More

Welcome to another exciting issue of Inspiration. First up this week is the announcement of our Christmas Challenge which will begin on Thursday 13th October in the Chat Room. This challenge will run for 6 weeks, and with two exciting new challenges each week, you will end up with 12 fantastic projects. See the Forum for further details, including information on prizes, etc. We look forward to you joining us for this festive event.

October's Sketch challenge has been brought to us by Ngaire. Check the forum for Ngaire's sketch and her example layout (also featured in this newsletter). We look forward to seeing your layouts (or cards) based on Ngaire's sketch, in the Gallery.

New Products in Store: Enjoy the latest additions and re-stocks to the store:

My Mind's Eye; Lost & Found 6x6" Paper Pads - Maddison Ave, Market Street, Portobello Rd and Union Square
Prima Printery 8x8" Paper Pad and Coventry Roses
Prima Vintage Trinkets
Tim Holtz Sanding Grip and re-fills, along with re-stocks of Grunge Board
Kaisercraft "Bonjour" collection
A2Z Scraplets


Design Team Inspiration with Ngaire: This week's Inspiration is brought to us by Ngaire and Kaisercraft's Bonjour collection.

I was lucky enough to spot Kaiser’s Bonjour range early enough for a concerted begging campaign to Mary to get it in for us all. Well ok – for me – but I am willing to share it with you. This is one of those soft, pretty ranges that are sooo much better in real life than what you see on a computer screen. It’s an interesting mix of colours too: black (more charcoal than true though), dark brown, several shades of pastel greens and blues and a soft fuzzy pink. All soft, pretty, girly colours – which is an unusual match to the sophisticated French theme the range is based on. Popular images include butterflies, the Eiffel Tower, postal marks, French words, hydrangeas and birds.

To start off the new month, the Sketch for October was my first play with Bonjour. It’s funny, when I first saw the papers I thought ‘shabby chic’, but the majority of layouts I have done with it are not in that style at all. I think it has something to do with the darker colours – the black and browns – they tend to lend themselves to more linear, straight-edge style layouts. Free Spirit is very much a linear layout. I used the reverse side of Paris (a gorgeous dark brown with a subtle pattern of black butterflies) as my base, contrasting this with a block of the pale green, patterned section of Mairie (I cut out the clock/flowers bit to use elsewhere). The gorgeous pattern on the 12 x 12 version of Paris (face side) is too big to show well in smaller pieces, so I used the Paper Pad version, off-setting this behind the photo. Although the crown pattern in the paper was nice, I wanted something a little more dramatic – so I popped one of the sticker butterflies from the 12 x 12 Icon Sticker sheet onto a sticker tag from the same sheet. This is all up on pop dots to give it some dimension and placed so that it hides the crown, but leaves the writing clear below it.

The main embellishment for the layout is this chippy Eiffel Tower by Dusty Attic. It has been inked silver and then given a thick coat of Crystalina Kindyglitz. To vary the ‘look’ a little, I dried it with my heat gun – so there is not a uniform glitter to it - giving it a slightly shabby chic look. To finish off the embellishment I added some rhinestones – these are actually some left-over from a partially used Kaiser flourish (Antique Rose) – but they are the same colour as those in the Jewels pack. The roses are Kaiser Blooms from my stash – I used some from the Fairy Floss, Olive and Sage packs. The butterfly is from the 12 x 12 Icon Sticker sheet and the small tag is from the Paper Pad.

The title is a stunning chippy title from my stash that I thought really suited the photo (and the paper range) and it has been given the same treatment as the Eiffel Tower. A little bling to the wings with some rhinestones and one of the new mini blooms from Kaiser and you have a gorgeous title in minutes. Too easy!!
The punched-strip design you see down either side of the layout is another of my ‘playing around’ sessions. After punching out a strip from the Moriesse paper, I trimmed through the pattern to leave me with the outside edge of the punch design. A light coat of Crystalina Kindyglitz and some rhinestones and you have a very pretty edge treatment. The darker strip you see there is one of the 12 x 12 paper edge trims – Provence. It’s very handy having these on the papers – great for when you need a thin strip here and there.

In my last techniques page in the forum I showed a double-edge punched strip as one of my examples. I’ve used it here (with a ribbon threaded through it) across the bottom of the layout. To finish it off I tied a bow in the ribbon and stuck a pearl pin (from my stash) through a Kaiser mini bloom and popped that on top of the bow. The delicate ribbon and bow helps to soften the dark base paper I used for the layout. It gives a girly touch to the straight formal design of the page. The stitching also helps with this, as well as guiding your eye along the layout to each of the embellishment foci.

This close-up gives you a better look at the double-edge punched strip and ribbon. The possibilities with this technique are endless – limited only by the punch designs you own and your imagination (and of course your patience).

Belle Petite Un (beautiful little one) is my replacement for a layout that turned into a double I was unable to finish in time for the newsletter (lol – I ran out of the paper I needed). Having done 3 very dark and contrasting layouts, I wanted something pretty, girly and light. For that reason I focused on the pink, blue and greens in the range and matched them with white cardstock (Bazzill White). Doing this also allowed me to include more distressing – with the edges of the base paper (Moriesse) both distressed and stitched onto the cardstock. To help make the (mostly pink) paper layers distinct from one another, I used some more (white) cardstock as a matt behind a piece of Provence. The cardstock was edge punched with a lacy-hole pattern to complement the dot pattern on the base paper. The photo was cut into and tucked under the flower pattern on the Provence sheet – with a couple of the flowers Kindyglitzed for added sparkle.

At the bottom of the layout I made a floral posy tied up with a ribbon bow and pearl strand. It’s overlaid on the clock/flower design I cut out for the previous layout. The roses are a mix of Fairy Floss and Sage Kaiser Blooms with some white and pink Posies from the old Chanteuse collection thrown in for good measure. I must confess to not having been that impressed with them at the time, but they have really come into their own with this collection and I am very happy with the way they match in with the blooms. The little bird on a twig is a sticker from the 12 x 12 Alpha Sticker sheet (now only available in the Collection Pack) – as are the additional hydrangea blooms behind the clock.

Across the top of the clock (actually I have no idea what this thing it – it looks like it might be a grandfather clock pattern with the cameo where the clock face should be – so for lack of a better term, clock it is) I added in one small segment of a flourish pattern from the 12 x 12 Alpha Sticker sheet and a few rhinestones from the Jewels pack.

The alphas are some old Basic Grey ones that are white – but have a plastic coating on them that make them VERY difficult to alter. White was a little boring, so I had a bit of a play and came up with this. My technique this week in the forum is on altering chipboard – each of the various finishes I’ve done in this newsletter will be explained there and the products I have used listed. I love playing with different mediums to get unique finishes to my chippy and I have to confess there are an amazing number of different products out there you can use – probably in ways their makers never intended them to be.

Along the right-hand side of the photo I added in some more hydrangea flower stickers (the large one is from the 12 x 12 Icon Sticker sheet and the smaller ones from the 12 x 12 Alpha Sticker sheet). I also tucked in the Eiffel tower I had trimmed off the clock/flower pattern on the other side of the layout. I had needed to remove it to show more of the photo –but there was a nice empty spot on this side that it slotted into very neatly.

Across the bottom of the layout went the last part of the title and some pretty butterflies that came from the 12 x 12 Alpha Sticker sheet. This sticker sheet has some gorgeous borders on it – and I have used bits of all of them (birds, hydrangeas, butterflies and flourishes) on this layout.

Sadly – Ooh la la – uses a patterned paper that we were not able to get into stock (as of yet). The Die Cut paper Nancy is gorgeous – the feature paper of the range. I’ve trimmed the middle out of it and then mounted the frame onto pop-dots over a piece of the reverse side of Paris. The matt for the photo is a patterned paper from the Paper Pad and it matches the colours of the other two papers very nicely. Once that was done there was very little left to do to finish off the layout. The Eiffel Tower pattern on the right-hand side needs nothing to enhance it. I added a token pink rose to the bottom and a few small roses cut from the patterned paper that were leftovers from other layouts – but other than that I have left it alone to speak for itself.

In two of the corners of the frame I have added some chipboard chicken-wire by Twiddleybitz. No logic to it – it just felt right with the photo and the frame. I’ve not even altered it – just left it as bare chipboard (a rarity for me). I love the rustic, vintage look it gives the layout – perfectly in keeping with the photo and the frame. I have ‘girly-fied’ it (if there is such a word) with a butterfly sticker (12 x 12 Alpha Sticker sheet) and rose (Kaiser Mini Bloom – Fairy Floss) – but left it at that.
The alphas are my favs (Scrapware Lowercase Antique) (oos) and they have been girly-fied to the nth degree – just as a contrast to the rest of the rustic look. Well actually – the original pink paint/black ink looked yucky and Kindyglitz hides a multitude of sins (believe me).

Down in the bottom right corner I added another flower cluster and my journalling tag. I found this one in the Paper Pad and it was just the perfect match. More of the Kaiser Fairy Floss Blooms and pink Posy flowers – and I managed to squeeze in some chippy leaves, which I inked black to offset the roses.
Many thanks to the lovely Miss Maggie – whose gorgeous lace parasol we had the loan of for our little photo-shoot in the backyard. Madame is very covetous – and can’t wait until she is a ‘grown-up lady’ and can have such pretty things. Mwah Miss Maggie – we had a wonderful time with it.

The final layout – Joie de Vivre (Joy of Life) is my favourite and another of those straight-edge designs that I find so easy to do with this paper range, despite the femininity of the patterns. The base for the layout is the green, reverse side of Notre-Dame. I’ve matched it with a block of Madeleine – which has this cute little pattern of crowns on a charcoal black background. To keep the papers to just the green and black colour scheme I had to raid the Paper Pad – both the stripe paper (which is just stunning – I wish they had done this in a 12 x 12 version) and the large flourish paper are from there.

In the bottom left corner of the layout I clustered some Kaiser Olive Blooms over a flourish piece by Dusty Attic. The tag is from the Paper Pad and the small butterfly is a sticker from the 12 x 12 Icon Sticker sheet. Both the butterfly on the tag and the phrase under the flowers are part of the Brown Rubon Collection (now only in the Collection Pack) – as are the two large flourishes you see on either side of the layout. The Paris word is plastic and is from my own stash.

The alphas (Scrapware Lowercase Antique) (oos) have a new finish for me – I finally got to play with some of my Glimmer Glaze and I am very happy with the results. Again – the method for achieving this finish will be up in the forum later this week.

The top right-hand corner gets another embellishment cluster using the same chippy flourish and olive blooms as before, with the addition of a silver Fleur de Lys charm and an Eiffel Tower cabochon (both from my stash). The cluster is centred over a tag from the Paper Pad. Mary has in some lovely silver Eiffel Tower charms – which I have used on the unfinished double layout – so check them out in the store.

The journalling for this layout is on a hidden tag, which comes from the Journal Tags booklet. I’ve popped a Kaiser Mini Bloom (Olive) and another silver Fleur de Lys charm on it to make pulling it out from under the photo easier. If I am going to put the journalling tag under the photo like this I will tend to pop one edge of the photo up onto a pop dot – just to make sliding it under easier.

The final corner of the layout is a mix of stickers, together with a rubon and a Black Kaiser Pearl Flourish (oos). The Eiffel Tower and word tag are from the 12 x 12 Icon Sticker sheet, but the flourish (and also the one at the top) are part of the flourish border from the 12 x 12 Alpha Sticker sheet (only in the Collection Pack). Although the rubon comes from the Brown Pack, there is a similar one in the Coloured Rubons Pack.

To finish off I have also included one of two birthday cards I made for friends with this collection. I had this gorgeous little piece of Provence (reverse side) left over from making one of the layouts and it was too lovely to waste. Teaming it up with some of the striped paper from the Paper Pad, I matted them both onto some black cardstock. A flourish and butterfly sticker (12 x 12 Icon Sticker sheet) some Kaiser Sage Blooms and a Kaiser Black Pearl Flourish (oos) were the perfect accompaniments. The postal marks are actually cut out from the pattern on one of the papers in the Paper Pad. They look great here don’t they? The alphas are from my stash.
All things French are trendy at the moment and Kaiser is not afraid to jump on that band-wagon. They have done a wonderful job with Bonjour though and it has been a pleasure to work with it. I think you will find it suitable for a much wider range of styles and layout themes than it might initially appear suited to – after all – what layout couldn’t do with a little joie de vivre?? Don’t forget to check out the new Collection Packs for Kaiser – generally they contain one of each of the products in that range, all for less than you could purchase them individually.

Thank you Ngaire for sharing these beautiful projects with us and for your inspiration.

I wish you all a wonderful week and look forward to chatting with you on Thursday evening at the launch of our Christmas Challenge.

Happy Scrapping
Mary

Ideal Papercraft Believe in the Beauty of Your Dreams
www.idealpapercraft.com.au