Designer Craft Connection - August Giveaway and Makin's Clay on your Layouts!

The Designer Craft Connection August giveaway is a collection of punches!   Here's the scoop from Julie McGuffee on how you can be eligible to win this prize:

These are great big punches! Two embossed leaf punches and a tag shaped punch from Marvy Uchida, and two McGill button punches.

To enter to win readers have to hop around the webring then comment on my (Julie McGuffee's)  blog about 
which technique they liked the best,
which one they are going to try and 
which one was the most unique.   
The winner will be announced on August 15th.


This month we decided to share some of our favorite "techniques" with our readers.   As a certified "Technique Junkie" (I even subscribed to Pat Huntoon's Technique Junkies Newsletter for ages!) - I have too many favorites to even try to blog in one post.  With that said, in reference to my blog post yesterday, I have resparked my desire to scrapbook recently.  One of my favorite "techniques" to do when scrapbooking is to add dimension and depth to my pages - bringing them up to the lumpy and bumpy category.  While many scrapbookers prefer flat pages so their books don't bulge, dimensional and more bulky pages can still be displayed framed on a wall, or the techniques used can be applied to other home decor or jewelry items.   Don't forget to use the link at the right to click through the other talented designer blogs and see some of their favorite creative techniques!

Makin's Clay is a product I love to use on my layouts.  Clay?  Yes, clay.  Makin's Clay is a lightweight, air dry polymer clay.  It is acid-free and safe for scrapbooking.  It's flexible when dried, and when rolled thin can be craft punched or die cut.  I love to texture it with their texture sheets, stamp it when wet to create unique embellishments, or stamp it when dry too.  Often I create embellishments with their push molds.  Makin's Clay can be colored with a number of different colorants and finishes to create shimmering effects, glossy effects, and more.   While I haven't whipped out my Makin's Clay and used it on a layout in recent months, I have used it a number of times in the past.  Here are a few pages highlighting various ways to add Makin's Clay to your pages:

Die cut clay title letters, seashell accents made with push mold and accented with EarthSafe Finishes for shimmer.

The baseball accent and die cut 2007 were made from clay textured with a real baseball.  Dimensional clay stitches made using the clay extruder.

Pansy and leaf accents made with custom colored clay and push mold.

Hand made clay sunflower accented with acrylic paint to match background paper (back in the "old days" when I had to manually stitch two scans together........ I am so glad I've learned a better way!)