Banana Frog Blog

July Guest Designer - Moon Hulsman!

We had so many wonderful submissions for the 2009 Banana Frog design team that in addition to our amazing design team, each month we will have a guest designer showing you fantastic creations. The guest designer will have two days to show their lovely projects, 1st and 15th of the month.

This month we welcome Moon Hulsman to Banana Frog. Check out Moon's blog and her challenge blog. Over to you Moon...



I've been 40 years old for a while now ;o) and I live in Brabant with my husband and four children. I'm on the editorial board at Cards Only magazine and you could say that scrapping has always been a hobby of mine, because now that the scrapbooks and diaries have been done the mini albums and cards are a favourite of mine! I especially like the smaller projects and love to blog because it's so wonderful to be able to share the scrapvirus with all you lovely bloggers!

Birthday Banner:



To make the Birthday banner, first stamp some large arrows (from It's all about arrows) on patterned paper. Cut them out. Decorate and add letters. Finally,  bind them together with scrappersflos, embroidery thread, ribbon or string.

Arrow Baskets:



To make the arrow basket first start by making the basket shape. The front and back of the basket are 2x2", the sides are 2x1". You could cut these from one piece of card or stick the pieces together.

Stamp the large arrows onto patterned paper and cut out. Stick to the front and back of the basket.



Embellish the basket (I used another arrow from It's all about Arrows and text from Tag It!). Fill with little goodies!

Thank you Moon for two super cute projects. The arrow baskets are a fantastic idea for teachers!
Check back on the 15th for more fantastic projects from Moon.

June Guest Desginer - Michelle Jackson-Mogford - Part 2!

We had so many wonderful submissions for the 2009 Banana Frog design team that in addition to our amazing design team, each month we will have a guest designer showing you fantastic creations. The guest designer will have two days to show their lovely projects, 1st and 15th of the month.

This month we welcome Michelle Jackson-Mogford to Banana Frog. You can see Michelle's first projects with Banana Frog here. Over to Michelle once more:

Hi all, me again! Thanks for all the lovely comments from my first guest spot; I hope you enjoy my offerings as much for this spot! And without further ado let me share them with you!

 

A Passion for Fashion

This is another LO done with a mobile phone picture (what a brilliant invention!) This photo of my niece was sent to me by my sister and is Lilly off to the post office; she is such a fashionista so any excuse to try out a new outfit!! I also decided to challenge myself to stick to Lilly’s colour scheme of red, black and purple for this Layout.

When I first saw the stamps that Bev sent me I knew they would make great backgrounds, especially the shapes in diamonds are forever and decided this was the LO to put my theory to the test.

I tore 3 strips of basic grey paper, 2 different reds and a black and used another 12x12 piece of purple basic grey for the base.

Using the solid diamond from the diamonds are forever set I stamped a repeat pattern on the wider red strip with black ink, then using the dotty outline diamond and clear versa mark I stamped in the spaces, applying blonde moments savoury lilac embossing powder as I went. I then heat embossed the finished pattern, I love the iridescent texture I got from this.

On the thinner red strip I used one of the other diamond patterns and made a repeat pattern down the strip using purple ink.

I inked the ripped edges of the strips and adhered them all to my base, distressing the edges of my 12x12 and inking

I love the cross hatched diamond stamp and it made me think of darning, so I ripped a triangle from the top left of my LO, curling back the edges and inking, then stamped the pattern on some transparency with black stayzon, I ripped the edge of that and stuck it behind the torn V shape. Tearing a rectangle of some of the red basic grey paper I mounted my photo on to it, off centre. I wanted to block out the car and some of the background that’s in the photo so I used black stayzon and the 2 wavey stamps from It's all about circles to stamp around the edges. I stapled some red net along the side, to echo the tutu and stuck the photo in place, finally adding lace and a button.

Using some thin chipboard I made 6 embellishments by stamping the solid diamond on to it with clear versamark and embossing it 3 times with clear thick embossing powder, while the last layer was hot I applied a mix of blonde moments savoury lilac and festive berry embossing powder. At that point I prepared the larger wavey stamp from all about circles with black stayzon and then heated the final colour layer, while the enamel was still hot I stamped into it with the wavey stamp (Tip when doing this stamp straight down on to the enamel and don’t press too hard, it will slide!) I then cut out the diamond shapes with sharp scissors which trimmed up the edges of ‘splatted’ enamel. I love the different looks you get with this and seeing the patterns the enamel makes around the stamp.

I laid ribbon and lace across my page and added black flowers, buttons and a prima black key; I also used one of the embossed diamonds in this arrangement. I stuck the remaining 5 diamonds vertically down the page with silicon glue for extra dimension

I stamped the word fashion with the steelfish alphabet on to some more of the red basic grey and cut the letters out as alpha tiles, inking the edges and overlapping them into place, I then added a prima diamante flourish over the top. 

Finally I stamped with the large dotty circle from round in circles on the bottom left corner with black ink and then put a silver brad through each dot to look like studs tearing a journaling circle from a notebook and inking it. I enjoyed the challenge of staying within the colour scheme for this LOL and also enjoyed using the stamps to make backgrounds as well as embellishments.

Mardi gras masquerade

One of the things that sprang to mind looking at the diamonds are forever stamps was a harlequin pattern. I used to love making masks for theatre and thought a mask would be ideal for the pattern in my mind, however instead of making them I went to the fancy dress shop and bought some plain white ones to alter instead.

Now as the masks are shaped I knew I couldn’t really use the stamps on an acrylic block so I decided to play with an idea I had been toying with and used the stamps with out the block! It worked brilliantly as I was able to mould the stamps into the places I wanted them (you will need to wash the stamps in soapy water afterwards to bring back the sticky on the back from pressing greasy fingers on them!)

Instead of trying to get an exact pattern on the harlequin mask, because it was too difficult LOL, I cheated by suggesting it. I used the solid diamond stamp and stamped with yellow stayzon, spacing the diamonds out roughly, I then did the same with pink stayzon filling in the gaps

Then using the smaller patterned diamond stamp and green ink I filled in some of the white spaces

I used a couple of the dotty stamps from round in circles to stamp semi circles on the bottom right corner and added turquoise sequins to the dots. I then used a smaller dotty stamp and stamped at the left corner of the left eye with turquoise stayzon applying pva to the dots and round the eyes and adding turquoise glitter

I cut a crown from heavy weight silver card and used the 2 wavey stamps from all about circles to decorate it with turquoise stayzon. I curled the points of the crown, added bells to the points and adhesive diamantes for decoration then stuck it to the mask. I tied some coloured ribbons together and stuck them just above the elastic holes

As I’d bought the 2 shaped masks I couldn’t help myself but keep stamping! I used pink stayzon and the 2 sizes of wavey stamps from all about circles for the masquerade mask. Stamping in the same way, moulding the stamps into place with my fingers, making a random pattern

Then in some of the white spaces, but not all I applied pva glue and added pale lilac glitter, I also used pva and purple glitter around the eyes.

I added some pink diamantes and finally the feathers. An effective but simple project as the stamps do all the decorating work!

You could show your masks off at a ball or fancy dress party but I also think they would make a great piece of wall art! And now I’ve discovered the stamping with out the acrylic block, no shape is safe LOL

Diamonds are forever

Well I had to didn’t I? The stamp set of the same name shouted jewellery and diamonds!  And, as I discovered it is so easy but super effective to make the mock diamonds.

All you need is a sheet of clear shrink plastic, the dotty line diamonds stamp, the frame edge stamps from all about circles, silver ink, a metallic pencil and an inexpensive silver bracelet oh and a nail file block with a smoothing side!

Stamp out a sheet of dotty triangles on the shrink plastic (leave gaps for cutting them out)

Turn the plastic over and run the smoothing side of the nail file block over the plastic to scuff it up a bit then apply ‘splodges’ of metallic pencil, it looks pale but intensifies in the shrinking!

Cut the diamonds out with a border to make them slightly larger and punch a hole in the top of each one (I used the larger punch on my crop-a-dile)

Put the two frame edge stamps from all about circles back to back on a block and apply clear versamark to them (this acts as a resist in the hot plastic)

Then the fun bit, shrink a diamond and while it is still hot stamp into it with the circle stamp, by putting these two stamps back to back it gives lots of pattern options, but the detail remains fine enough for such a small stamping space

Admire your heist!

I used an inexpensive silver bracelet and some silver jump rings and attached my diamonds.

Doesn’t it look pretty? People have been fascinated by it; it’s definitely a bespoke conversation piece, next thing matching necklace and earrings!!

I’ve loved my month with Banana Frog and really enjoyed playing along. I hope I’ve inspired you to get stamping! I will continue to play and invent with all the delicious stamps that are on offer, they are just too ‘moreish’ (and indestructible LOL) Thanks for having me over to play Bev, I’ve had a blast!!

 

Well what can I say, Michelle has done an amazing range of projects and we are all totally blown away. Thank you so much Michelle for giving lots of inspiration -and also showing that I am not the only messy stamper :)

We are delighted to say that Michelle will be joining the Banana Frog design team on a permanent basis. So look out for more fantastic projects!

Check back next month to meet another talented guest designer!

June Guest Desginer - Michelle Jackson-Mogford!

We had so many wonderful submissions for the 2009 Banana Frog design team that in addition to our amazing design team, each month we will have a guest designer showing you fantastic creations. The guest designer will have two days to show their lovely projects, 1st and 15th of the month.

Without further ado, let me introduce you to the fantastically talented and lovely Michelle Jackson-Mogford. Over to you Michelle...

Hi I’m Michelle and am thrilled to be invited to play along with Banana Frog this month.

I’m a one time theatre designer come stage manager who has given up the open roads and living out of a suitcase to get back to my arty roots and I am loving the rollercoaster that is my life! I am also the long suffering wife of a comedian but that’s a whole other story LOL

I was thrilled to be announced one of the Best of British Scrapbooking winners 2008 hosted by Scrapbook Inspirations Magazine and am an ongoing contributor for them. I was also recently invited to join the design team for Purple Cows trimmers and tools over in the States and Willow Tree Crafts here at home. I’ve started teaching as well and love sharing my ideas.  I launched my own website at the end of last year www.mjm-thearttart so pop on over and check it out sometime! (my blogs there too!)

And so to the delicious stamps I received! I got It’s all about Circles, Round in Circles, Steelfish outline alphabet and Diamonds are Forever…… go on admit it you’re now singing the song too aren’t you?! That’s where I started for inspiration, singing songs in my head starting with diamonds are forever, followed by diamonds are a girls best friend …… you get the picture!! Well I have to say the collection I got turned me into a stamping fool, the ideas kept coming and the stamps are so well…. stampable! And as I discovered you can do almost anything too them and with a bit of soap and water they are like new again! So here’s my first lot of creations……

 

‘You spin me right round’  (told you singing inspired me LOL Oh and warning you may need sunglasses!!!) 

I went shopping with my 12 year old niece when she stayed with me and I could’ve cried when we went into the clothes shops, my youth was staring back at me! I quickly got the mobile out and started snapping photos, knowing I had to record the moment. Next came the paper, it’s from Sultane Vitamines range and sooo 80’s. Then I saw the Round in Circles stamps and it all fell in to place perfectly!

 I made it a double layout as the small pictures leant themselves to going across the pages to tell the story. I cut the bottom border from one piece of paper, ripped 2 strips from another and laid them all on 2 12x12 pieces of card stock. I also cut the squares from another piece of paper for embellishments. I laid all the photos and paper pieces out as I wanted them (Tip; I always mark the corners of photos and embellies with pencil when I do this so I can stick them back in the right place!) Then the beauty of Banana Frog stamps, because they are unmounted and see through, is I could lay the dotty circles in position on my page and play about with them until I was happy.

I removed the photos etc and stamped the circles using some neon inks that I have been desperate to play with. I then glittered the dots that would be visible with some neon glitter that I now had the excuse of using as well! I stamped more dotty circles in the bottom border and glittered some of them.

 Although the alphabet I had is Steelfish (which I love) I knew that this layout leant itself to another alphabet set of my own from Banana Frog Bensfolk. I ripped a piece of transparency film (I use this as it rips better than acetate) and stamped the title on it using stayz on. I stapled this to the bottom border and stuck the whole thing to my 12x12’s with foam pads.

I reassembled my photos and embellishments in position, raising them on foam pads in places.

To add a real 80’s feel I HAD to use the plain circles to stamp big yellow smiley faces whose eyes I stamped with the little round stamp, Then I covered them in glossy accent (remember to use stayz on if you do this or the ink will run!).

 Finally I stamped several smaller dotty circles in 2 sizes and made these my journaling spots.

   

I really enjoyed my 80’s trip with this layout!

Diamonds and Pearls mirror. (yet again with the song titles!!!)

 

 I wanted to combine the 2 different shapes I had in the stamps and the Prince song popped into my head, at the same time I knew it would be a shabby chic feel, and a bit vintage with the pearls and of course it had to be girly with the diamonds! I then remembered some mirrors I bought in Ikea eons ago with ‘one day’ in mind and knew it was the day to alter one of them.

 

I had so much fun texturing the frame, I used a technique to crackle the paint that I like to call a poor mans crackle, which I adapted from Claudine Hellmuth. I painted the frame with pink acrylic. When it was dry I dribbled a strong all purpose pva glue over it and spread it round the frame with my fingers until it was tacky.  I then mixed a little water into some white acrylic and painted it over the top. You have to be quite light with the brush and mustn’t over work the paint. While it was still wet I stamped into it with one of the diamond stamps down the left side and top corner and with some of the dotty stamps on the right side and bottom corner, this lifted of some of the white paint, so it was like reverse stamping. (wash your stamps now in a little soap and water!)

 

You can then dry the frame with a heat gun and watch the paint crack! (Tip keep the heat gun about 10’’ away from the surface as the acrylic will blister if it gets too hot!) You can also leave it to air dry if your patient! I love the effect it gives around the stamping, really giving it an aged look.

   

I then stamped the lettering out using clear versamark ink on card and embossed it with lilac blonde moments embossing powder. I glittered the word diamonds with a fine white glitter and I painted the word pearl with a white pearl nail varnish …. Well it was the only thing that gave me the effect I wanted LOL! I spritzed a doily with tattered rose glimmer mist and stuck a bit of it to the bottom left corner with pva to seal it and did the same to a piece of music for the top right corner. I added prima diamonds and flowers

 

some lace and charms and some butterflies cut from a Hambly’s overlay.

   

I added the flatback pearls to follow the line of a stamped dotty circle and some diamonds top left of the mirror.

 

Who wouldn’t feel glamorous looking into this mirror!!

My Best Friend reverse canvas   (no song title this time!)

 

As soon as I saw it’s all about circles I thought of the sea, one of my favourite art subjects! I immediately thought about making my own acetate overlay for a layout and then had the idea of using it as a cover on a reverse canvas, I’ve wanted to create some art for my bathroom for a while but couldn’t work out how to protect it, this was the solution! While it isn’t the most flattering of pictures of me it makes me smile as we took it in the sea in Tulum, Mexico, we had such a great time and it holds great memories.

Firstly I scrunched up some tissue paper and stuck it into the canvas with a watered down mix of pva (in effect papier mache-ing it). While that was drying I marked out on a piece of paper the frame and position of the photo and cut a 12x12 acetate to fit. I laid this on my frame outline and stamped a random pattern using the whole stamp set and stamped over the edges of the photo position so the images would be suspended over the photo. I used stayz on to do this in teal and before I stamped went over that lightly in black to create different shades.

 

I then flipped the acetate over and applied alcohol inks to the back around the frame area using a mix of bottle, denim and stream and also some drops of silver mixative. I put this aside to dry and went back to my tissue paper which I lightly applied gesso to round the edges. I then used the dotty circles and stamped onto the tissue using white stayz on for added back ground detail.

 

Once the alcohol ink was dry I picked out some of the empty circles (on the back of the acetate) with a detail pva and glittered them in a light turquoise (I love the effect of the different colours you get on the right side looking at it through the alcohol ink). Leaving that to dry I assembled my layout using some cosmo cricket paper, ripping some corrugated card, stitching some ribbons and sequins to some hessian, tying up some twigs and adding shells.

Once the glitter was dry on the acetate I stuck it to the frame using glossy accents. My frame was slightly longer than 12’’ so I stapled some ribbons along the bottom to cover the gap and mimic the sewn ribbon inside and added the title from a cosmo cricket paper and some more shells.

This really makes me smile and reminds me of swimming in that Caribbean Sea! 

I hope you’ve enjoyed my projects and that they have inspired you to get stamping! I’m cooking up some more goodies now for my next spot and singing all the way LOL. Until next time happy crafting!

Thank you so much Michelle for sharing 3 amazing projects. Talk about inspiration! I'm off to find picture frames and neon inks! Check back on the 15th to see more projects from Michelle.

 

May Guest Designer - Candy Rosenberg Part 2!

We had so many wonderful submissions for the 2009 Banana Frog design team that in addition to our amazing design team, each month we will have a guest designer showing you fantastic creations. The guest designer will have two days to show their lovely projects, 1st and 15th of the month.

This month we welcome Candy Rosenberg to Banana Frog. You can see Candy's first projects with Banana Frog here. Over to Candy once more:

"Note" Pad

I had a pad of paper sitting on my desk that just screamed out to me, once I seen the "notes stamp in the "It's all about...documenting"set.  And because I just adore the little bird and a great swirled line from the "Make a Chain" set and presto, my own customized paper pad.

 

 Thank you again Beverley for your generosity, and I truly enjoyed working with your stamps.  It was such an honor to be a guest for May, it was a great birthday present!!

Thank you Candy, it was great to see how you used Banana Frog stamps and we are glad you had fun -and of course Happy Birthday!

Check back next month to see how the super talented Michelle Jackson-Mogford uses Banana Frog!

May Guest Designer - Candy Rosenberg

We had so many wonderful submissions for the 2009 Banana Frog design team that in addition to our amazing design team, each month we will have a guest designer showing you fantastic creations. The guest designer will have two days to show their lovely projects, 1st and 15th of the month.

This month we welcome Candy Rosenberg to Banana Frog. Over to you Candy!

My name is Candy Rosenberg and I live in Southern Oregon. I have been paper crafting all my life, I believe that I was born with a pair of scissors in my hand. I really enjoy the entire process, from picking out the paper and supplies, using the tools, cutting paper, stamping and especially getting ink everywhere! The best part of all is the wonderful people that I have met through this hobby and I really enjoy teaching others how to preserve their family history while having fun playing with paper. You can keep tabs on me and my schedule at www.CertifiedScrapaholic.com. 

 

I am fortunate enough to work for ScrapNArt.com Online Magazine, Graphic45, Right at Home Scrapbooking and Krop, Paper, Scissors.  I am overjoyed to be a guest here at Banana Frog, these stamps were so wonderful to use and love the storage solution!

"Boots" kitty

 

When I received the "Greenwich Park" stamp set, I knew immediately what to do with it.  I have had a couple pictures our kitty, that I just couldnt figure out how to scrap.  So when I first took a look at this stamp set, they were the pictures that popped in my mind.  Especially since our kitty loves to chase birds!

The tree was stamped with Staz-On and colored with Copic, while I stickled the bird for texture and depth.  I also used a stamp from one of the other great sets I received, "It's all about...documenting" for the journal.  These were a perfect combination, as I LOVE journal stamps.

 

"Circle" Card

This set was a lot of fun to work with, I love to make patterns on cardstock so the "Make A Chain" set had great doo dads and swirls to play with.  I used a butttercream cardstock, used three different stamps from the set and used Staz-on and chalk ink to make al lthe colors.  

Then I snagged another journal spot from the "It's all about....documenting" set, along with some prima flowers and couple of brads.

Check back on the 15th to see more stunning projects from Candy.

In other news, did you realise that Banana Frog is 3 years old today?! How time flies. Look out for a birthday challenge on the 8th!

April Guest Designer - Mahlin Andersson Part 2!

We had so many wonderful submissions for the 2009 Banana Frog design team that in addition to our amazing design team, each month we will have a guest designer showing you fantastic creations. The guest designer will have two days to show their lovely projects, 1st and 15th of the month.

This month we welcome Mahlin who lives in Sweden. You can Mahlin's first projects for Banana Frog here. Today we are bringing you some more lovely projects from Mahlin.

In you eyes (I din blick)

 

I Built my own frame for the photo by stamping the swirl and lines from Circus stories. 

I also stamped the dotted circle onto Patterned paper and cut out to use as embellishment. I wanted to highlight some parts of the patterened paper so I stamped the plain dot (Flowery thoughts) with watermark ink on top of the details I wanted to highlight. I then embossed with clear powder and cut out. I adhered these cute cut out dots with popdots for even more dimensions. 

I wanted to do somethings fun with my letter so I took the biggest paisley stamp from the perfect Paisley set and stamped on top of my chipboardletters. I used som stickles to highlight the pattern. I just love how it came out. What a great way to fix up boring plain letters.

Love:

When I first saw the paisley stamps I got the idea to make flowers out of the patterns. I stamped a paisley pattern on the actual flowers and then I went on to stamp the narrow paisley stamp on green cardstock. Cut them out and curled them up and voila - you got pretty flowers and leaves.

Letters: 
A fun and easy way using Circus Stories and Flowery Thoughts to make pretty postcards/notes/stationary to write sweet words to a loved one on.

Thank you so much Mahlin for showing us your gorgeous projects using Banana Frog. We hope you had fun!

Next month check back to see how Candy Rosenberg uses Banana Frog!

April Guest Designer - Mahlin Andersson

We had so many wonderful submissions for the 2009 Banana Frog design team that in addition to our amazing design team, each month we will have a guest designer showing you fantastic creations. The guest designer will have two days to show their lovely projects, 1st and 15th of the month.

This month we welcome Mahlin who lives in Sweden. You can find out more about Mahlin on her blog, but for now, we will let her show us some of her gorgeous projects using Banana Frog. Over to you Mahlin...

My name is Mahlin and I was so truly honored when I was asked to be the April guest designer. I am a teacher, a mother, a scrapbooker and a soon to be wife from Sweden. I´ve been scrapbooking for about 2 years now and during those years I´ve had the great fortune to be on a couple of DesignTeams both here in Sweden and abroad. I´m also having layouts published in the Swedish scrapbooking magazine.  Bev sent me Circus Stories, Flowery Thoughts and Perfect Paisley. I feel in deep deep love with Circus stories and I had a hard time not using them! These stamps are so versatile and usable, they scrap themselves! I love working with Banana Frog stamps because the actual rubber is of such great quality and the ink works perfect. I also love the great packages Banana frog stamps come in. I just love how easy they are to store.

Our little rascal( söt liten filur)

As said before, I love love love the Circus stories set and here I used the two rectangles and the cute heart. I dove into my drawer of scraps and stamped the rectangles on all my favourite papers in all difffernt colors. I then cut them out and pieced them together to resemble patchwork.

 I also stamped the rectangle on to the actual photos. 

I really like the whimsical look of the heart so I stamped it on patterned paper and cut out and used as fun embellishement on my page. 

I love how the colours pop against the black background and with help from the stamped frames. 

Hello card

I am getting married May 30th and the colour theme for our wedding is lime, tangerine and brown. So, I wanted to use these colors and make an elegant card. Clean and simple but yet colorful.

I used the hello dot and the plain dot from the Flowery Thoughts and embossed them with clear powder. 

Check back on the 15th to see more stunning projects from Mahlin.

March Guest Designer: Ifa Zainon -Part Two!

We had so many wonderful submissions for the 2009 Banana Frog design team that in addition to our amazing design team, each month we will have a guest designer showing you fantastic creations. The guest designer will have two days to show their lovely projects, 1st and 15th of the month.

Our guest designer for March is fantastically talented Ifa Zainon. You can see Ifa's first project here. Today we are bringing you two more gorgeous projects by the very talented Ifa!

Under a tree

The Greenwich Park set is my favourite! The stamps from this set are particularly suited for the 100's of safari photos that I am slowly working through.  I also love that for some of the shapes, there is a corresponding outline stamp such as that cute deer.

 
1) I started by stamping the tree from Greenwich Park twice, once on patterned paper and once on white.  I cut these trees out and removed the trunk of the tree from the patterned paper cut out.  

2) I now have the canopy of the tree cut out in patterned paper.  I added a small flower and some leaves to the canopy.  I also placed a brad in the middle of the little flower.

3) I placed some foam pads on the back of the canopy before sticking it down to the white tree.

I also finished off this layout with some Banana Frog Alphabets, Willing Race and Cumoutype.

Witnessed 

1) For this layout I again used Greenwich Park. I wanted a row of deer, as though they were all watching/witnessing the fight.  I added a strip of patterned paper just under the row of deer so they don't look floating.
2) Stamp the deer using the solid stamp in a lighter colour.  I have used Distress Ink Vintage Photo.
3) Stamp over the deer using the outline deer stamp in a darker colour.  I have used Staz-on in Timber Brown.

Thanks Ifa for sharing your stunning layouts and some techniques with us. 

Next month the guest designer is Mahlin Andersson so make sure you check back on the 1st!

Don't forget there is still time to let us know what your favourite set of Banana Frog stamps is (either that you own or merely lust after!) and you could win one of 10 sets we are giving away. All you need to do is leave a comment on March challenge post. Simple as that!

March Guest Designer: Ifa Zainon!

We had so many wonderful submissions for the 2009 Banana Frog design team that in addition to our amazing design team, each month we will have a guest designer showing you fantastic creations. The guest designer will have two days to show their lovely projects, 1st and 15th of the month.

Our guest designer for March is fantastically talented Ifa Zainon. 

Ifa says, 

"I am Huzaifah a.k.a. Ifa ( pronounced eefa ). I am Malaysian and long term resident in the UK, having met Alistair at university many years ago. We have two boys Jaspar and Hamish and live in a beautiful village near Peterborough.  It is a complete change in scenery for us, after 20 years in London.  I design and write computer program; I know if I tell you designing a computer program is very much like designing a layout, you wouldn't believe me. 

We love travelling and the most exotic location we have visited so far is Angkor in Cambodia. Besides scrapbooking I am also a gardener.  So it is no surprise that you will find my scrapbooks filled with pages about my family, my travels and my cottage garden. 

I have been scrapbooking for 3 years.  I won Scrapbook Magazine Scrapbooker of the Year in 2007 and currently sit on their Design Team. I have also been published in Scrapbook Inspirations. After resisting for so long, I have started a blog."

We sent Ifa Funky Flowers, Build-a-bloom and Greenwich Park (Ifa says, "I already have a few sets of Banana Frog stamps but was delighted not to already have any of these three...I think Bev must be psychic!") to play with, and she created some gorgeous layouts. The first layout you can see today...

A Colourful Life :

1) I stamped some Build-a-Bloom petals on felt using Staz-on.  I am going to use these petals as leaves.

2) Next stamp the outline flower from Funky Flowers on felt using Staz-on.

3) Cut out rectangular shapes around these stamped images.  Try not to cut too close because you need some excess to hold onto the shapes as you are sewing.  It also helps to stabilise the felt as some types of felt is very stretchy.

4) Sew around the stamped images a couple of times.  I prefer the effect when I wasn't too precise at this stage.

5) Cut closely around the stamped images.

6) Assemble into a pleasing bunch and add to your layout.  I think a bunch would also be cute on a card.

Check back on the 15th to see more layouts from Ifa -see how she uses her favourite Greenwich Park set!

Guest Designer: Leanne Inkpen (part two!)

We had so many wonderful submissions for the 2009 Banana Frog design team that in addition to our amazing design team, each month we will have a guest designer showing you fantastic creations. The guest designer will have two days to show their lovely projects, 1st and 15th of the month.

Leanne is our guest designer for February. You can see her first creations here, but now for more from this lovely talented lady. 

I love my hobby

 

I really wanted to create a layout celebrating how much I love scrapbooking. I have made some fantastic friends through it as well as I love being able to get creative and capture my memories for years to come. I wanted to create the background pattern for this layout. The small solid heart in the I Heart You set was the perfect size to create a repeated pattern across the Kraft background. I tried using VersaMark originally but this did not give a dark enough impression, instead I used a tim holtz distress ink pad. To add some colour I painted a border about an inch in from the edge in Pink paint, once dried I added a black line. I printed the photos off small and stuck them across the page. 

To create by title I used the Steelfish alphabet, stamped onto a contrasting paper - which I then cut out and stuck down using foam pads. The second part of the title was stamped onto some paper using the Pharmacy alphabet -which I added a little bit of stickles too. I finished with the heart garland from the Paperchains set in the solid in a light pink and the boarder in a darker pink - again adding a little bit of stickles.

Just Us

 

I used as the backing of this - a 12inch LP. The boarder was cut from Bazzil and embellished with some stickles. I created a layered up background and photo using a mix of paper and cardstock. 

In the I Heart you set there is a set of 3 stamps in a line, I repeated this pattern along the edge of some paper and cut into a strip. The ribbon softened the feel of the layout. I made a handmade embellishment by stamping one of the hearts onto some text paper and then using the Circus Stories set for the blue part. The title I used the Pharmacy alphabet and but each out into a square tile.

 

I really loved using the stamps - they are such useful designs. I love have the alphabet stamps as it means you never have to run out of that important letter!!

Thanks Leanne for some gorgeous projects. Next month our guest designer is Ifa Zainon so make sure you check her fantastic creations!