How to use your postage stamps...the Chantal Vandenberg way! :)

My guest today is the fun and fabulous Chantal Vandenberg from Girls Just Wanna Scrapbook. If you love colours and whimsical elements on your projects, you will love Chantal's awesome style! She has a great eye for detail and her creations are graphic and totally eye-catching! She's hosting an awesome challenge using postage stamps with a prize for one lucky winner! :)

Let's enjoy her wonderful creations! :)

 G'day!  My name is Chantal Vandenberg and I live in Adelaide, South Australia, with my husband Jason and my two gorgeous girls, Lucy (8) and Heidi (3).

I began scrapbooking about three years ago as a way to preserve family memories, but now it's that plus a whole lot more!  I really enjoy the whole creative aspect of it - it's so much fun!  I love trying new techniques all the time - usually I just make them up.

A lot of the techniques I do actually come from necessity!  I like to keep my scrapbooking "stash" to a "dull roar" therefore I use up as much as I can by giving it a makeover to suit my style and/or subject!  For example - "yucky" patterned papers have been given the paint-wash treatment (partially watered down acyrlic paint brushed across the page) so you can still see the pattern underneath, but the colours are no longer visible (it's the colours that usually are the dodgy bit lol).  Another example - cardstock that looks a bit worse for wear or even not a nice colour can be coloured "neutral" by covering with old book paper or music paper!  So then this can also be then be misted or painted whatever colour you like... wherever you like!  (The layout "Hello!" in my gallery uses this technique).  Last example - I use alot of packaging on my layouts - sometimes it's not at all obvious, other times it is!  For one of the layouts in my gallery, "Butter Wouldn't Melt" I have used an old almost used-up Echo Park alpha sheet as my background... it looks funky! :D

I'm very fortunate to be on some wonderful design and creative teams, such as Scrapbookit (a Victorian scrapbook store), Stuff 2 Scrap (an Aussie chipboard manufacturer), Purple Pumpkin (the cutest handmade embellies around) and Get Picky (an online multi-photo challenge blog).

I've also been lucky enough to be published on various scrapbooking magazines - which is a real buzz!  Some of the magazines include - Scrapbooking Memories, Scrapbook Creations, Creating Keepsakes Australia, Creativity! (all Australian publications), Somerset Memories (US), EntreArtistes Magazine (French) and Scrapbook Magazine (UK).  The kids get a real thrill out of seeing their layouts in print too!

I enjoy blogging too and you can check it out here at http://girlsjustwannascrapbook.blogspot.com/ if you like! :) Thanks so much to Yvonne for having me!  It's a real honour and a real thrill to of been asked!
I hope you enjoy my challenge & I look forward to seeing all your cool creations here soon!

So my challenge layout is the one called "Time for School".  I have also used the same technique on my layout "Girl's Best Friend" [see slideshow].

So the challenge is... get out your postage stamps!!!  Time to use them on your scrapbooking!

So basically all you do is:

1. Find some postage stamps!  I used lots, but if you don't have lots, a little will do (where you think they will be visible).  For my "Time for School" layout, I looked for stamps with greenish tones in them - but anything will do!
2. Glue them (I used a glue stick - no lumps or bumps!) onto coloured cardstock (I chose green - that's why I looked for stamps with a greenish colour in them)
3. Spray your page with glimmermist!  I used green - this makes the background "less busy".  I then put my paper under a heavy weight for about an hour... optional! :D
4. Scrap on your new funky background!  Yay!  Fun!  :)

Perfect for school-themed layouts... like mine!
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Don't you just love Chantal's funky style? Ready to play along? Please link your creation via Inklinz (located at the end of the post) by Friday November 18, 11.59pm (GMT +8). [This will be the last guest blogger challenge for the year so I hope you can find time to play along.]


As always, please leave a little love for my guest Chantal.