Designing for All About Scrapbooks - Like a Girl

Hi everyone!

 

Today I am sharing a layout I created for All About Scrapbooks using a company called Photo Play. 

The range is called 'Like a Girl'. 

I just love the name.....and it's full of inspirational quotes. 

Right up my alley. 

The colours are gorgeous too.  Lots of coral and aqua teamed with black and white!

Perfect!

 

This layout was inspired by some of the awesome quotes within the stickers and the papers.  When reading them they immediately reminded me of someone special in my family who is going through some health issues at the moment.  She is such an inspiration, as she is facing this difficult journey with bravery and such a positive attitude.

 

 

I began by swiping some gesso over the area of my page that I wanted to place my photo.  I then added some spritz.  This created my background.

I then simply layered up my paper, photos and stickers. 

This page came together really quickly - I think the awesome range and the way it has been designed really sparked the story.

This range would suit so many situations.  The quotes are so usable and diverse.

 

 

I finished off the layout by adding some 2 Crafty Chipboard Hearts that I painted in co-ordinating colours, and some 2Crafty Arrows

 

That's it from me today.....I'll be back next week!

Kit the Habit......another play with Kit & Kaboodle!

Good morning everyone!

Well I'm thrilled to share my second layout for Kit the Habit.
I've really enjoyed playing around with our first Kit and Kaboodle.
Here it is:

 

 

The first layout I created was fresh and pretty, on a white background, so I thought I'd mix this one up a bit by scrapping onto a Kraft background.  I love the yellow, mint and peach against the kraft.  This layout is very 'my style'.  For those that know my work you will recognise this.

 

So I started by swiping white gesso along the edges of the kraft paper, and randomly on my page. I knew I wanted my photo to be on the left hand side of my page, so I concentrated the gesso on that section. I spritzed using a teal colour, and then cut and tore various strips from some of the Project Life cards and trimmed them to a variety of lengths. 

I added some torn pieces of washi and then stamped using both a word stamp and an edge stamp.  This created my background. 

 

 

I then layered a couple of Project Life cards and my photo. 

To finish off I added some of the quotes from 'Little Bit of Randoms', a cluster containing feathers, thread, flair, button and metal.  I coloured my white paper die cut feather with some spritz, and love how that looks on the layout.

 

(Out for Publication)

 

I hope for those of you who have purchased our kit.....I hope this inspires you to get creating!

 

For anyone keen to have a go, we can make up a kit for you.......

Here's the details:

 

 

You can contact us by popping over to our Facebook Page and typing SOLD under any of the kits you see there!

 

Happy Scrapping - hope you get your kit on!

 

xxx

 

 



All About Scrapbooks Design Team Share - Basic Grey - Barista range

Today I'm sharing another layout I created using the Basic Grey Barista Range from my favourite on-line scrappy store All About Scrapbooks.
This range is all about creams and greys with hints of black and yellow and brown.  You see it is a coffee inspired range, and I adore all the gorgeous earthy warm tones. 
This time I teamed it with black cardstock, adding gesso, stamping and layers using the sticker sheets and paper.  I love my morning coffee (or 2!) and find the simple pleasure of that first morning cuppa one of the highlights of my day. 

Here's a few close-ups:

(Out for Publication) 

 

I added a few pops of  gold to highlight the rich earthy tones. The colour pallete is so beautiful and lends itself to all sorts of layouts.
Thanks for taking a look.
See you next time

Playing with Kit the Habit's Kit and Kaboodle

 

Hi everyone!

Well as many of you know the fabulous Emma Zappone and myself have joined forces!
We are Kit the Habit.
We are going to bring you some fabulous little kits - made by us.  Unique, different and perfect for scrapbooking layouts, Project Life spreads or cards.  One of the key items in each kit will be our 'Little bit of Randoms' - a sheet of quotes/sayings.  You see this is what started the whole adventure.  Emma and I both scrap a lot and find it frustrating that so many of the sayings are about perfect moments, and wonderful life, and well lets face it - life isn't perfect.  It's made up of some pretty wonderful moments but also some pretty average ones too.  So we decided to make our own!  The 'Little bit of Randoms' will contain everyday sayings, movie quotes, song titles etc.  We can't way to share them with you!

So recently we released our first kit.  We are so happy with it, and the response has been overwhelming! Thankyou to all of you who have purchased a kit.  I love our little scrappy community.  I love how we are all supportive of one another, and how we encourage each other.

Here's the full Kit and Kaboodle, available for $32 plus $4 postage (within Australia):

Isn't it gorgeous? 

It contains 6 6x4" Project Life Cards, 6 3x2" Project Life Cards, a 5x4 Project Life Card, 2 3x4" Foil Project Life Cards (all made by us), 4 x Flairs (made by us), 3 lots of Washi Tape, 3 2Crafty Chipboard Feathers, a Sheet of 'Little Bit of Randoms' (made by us), 6 cut pieces (made by us), a stack of unique feathers, metal arrow and metal arrowhead.
The Kits are available here. (Just pop sold in the comment underneath the photo) :-)

I couldn't wait to play with it. 

Here's the page I've created:

 

I just love the colours, and those feathers are divine!

 

You will notice that some of the Project Life cards have quotes along one of the edges.  Emma and I decided to do this, rather than having the quote over the entire area. This means it can be used in Project life or as I've used above, in a layout layered with other cards, with the quote sticking out along the edge.

 

I started by adding some watercolour to the background, and then added some stamping.  I tore off a few bits of Washi tape and randomly added them to the background too.

I grabbed the 2Crafty chipboard Feathers and some 2Crafty chipboard frames, and sprayed them with gesso, and then added some stamped words to them with black ink.  I love the effect.

I then just layered up the Project Life cards, cutting and tearing as I went. 

The feathers are so stunning I decided to just totally leave them.

I made my own feather out of washi tape.  I just folded a strip onto itself and then snipped diagonally along each side to the centre.  I then shaped it into a feather shape! Easy!

I then added flairs, metal arrow, some of the 'Little Bit of Randoms' and even the string that we packaged the kits in!  The final touch was to add a few sequins.

 

 

(Out for Publication)

 

Well I hope this inspires you to play along with your kit. 

I'm already working on the next layout, so I'll be back soon to share that.

 

Hope you can get your kit on!

xx

 



True Friendship Designing for All About Scrapbooks

Hi everyone

Hope you have had a great start to 2016!

 

Today I'm sharing my latest design for All About Scrapbooks -

a layout about one of our other fur-babies.

Last week I shared an emotional layout about saying goodbye to one of our pets. 

It reminded me that I needed to scrap one of our other cats, and the special relationship she has with my son.

 

So this is about Mia.

Mia came to be in our lives about 4 years ago.

The home where she was living, could no longer give her the care she needed. So as I'm a bit of a sucker, I took her in.

She is now over 16 years old.  When we took her in, she was quite feisty (as many cats are) and not a real cuddly girl.  Well very quickly she bonded with my son.  She sleeps on his bed, and although she gives us all a nip every so often, she has only love for my son.

She has become a real loved and special part of our family.

 

   

I had a lot of fun with this layout, and took inspiration from the colours in the photo - the blue of my son's shirt, and the black of Mia!

 

I scraped some paint directly onto the page, as well as spritzing some ink spray, and flicking lots of black paint. 

It got pretty messy!

   

 

I then added a few strips of paper, some paper frames, and some 2 Crafty Chipboard - I really love those circle clumps - aka Dotty Bits.

Overall it's a bright, happy and messy page. 

   

Saying Goodbye Designing for All About Scrapbooks

Good morning everyone!

 

Today I'm sharing my latest for All About Scrapbooks - a layout I recently created in honour of the beautiful relationship between my daughter and one of our precious fur-babies. 

 

Sadly, just before Christmas we had to say goodbye to our beautiful Slinko.

 

He was an amazing cat (secretly I've always thought of him as human).

He'd been through so much with us. We rescued him as a kitten over 11 years ago. 

My daughter received him for her third birthday and they had been pretty much inseperable since.

They had a bond like no other. 

He truly loved us all so completely, but he had just a teeny bit more love for his

special human. 

And she, well she adored him.

He was her best friend in the whole world.

 

This page is about the struggle to say goodbye.

About their love.

 

 

To create the background for this layout, I tried a new technique.

I absolutely loved it and am really happy with the results.

 

I took some old packaging - just the regular packaging that is around all our yummy goodies from All About Scrapbooks.  I spritzed a little Dylusions spritz straight onto the packaging.  Then spritzed this with some water to help it spread.  I then splodged this onto the background paper.

I love that I had more control over where the spritz was ending up (sometimes I get it totally where I don't want it!)  I also felt like the depth of the colour was better, perhaps stronger.  Plus it has a more 'natural watercolour' look.

Win, win all round.  I"ll definitely be using it again.

 

Just a reminder that I applied clear gesso to my page first - this gives the spritzes a barrier to sit upon.  I do this to most of my pages as paper is so absorbent.  Applying the gesso creates resist.

 

 

I added in some die cuts from Basic Grey B Side (love these) and some 2 Crafty Chipboard.  I wanted them all to touch each other and look 'connected', rather than floating about on their own.

 

This page was an emotional one to create - but I really love how scrapping gives us that down-time to process our emotions, and reflect upon and re-enforce our memories.

Such wonderful therapy.

 

I really love what I do.

 

 

 

Scrap The Girls - first challenge for 2016!!

Hi Everyone!

Happy New Year!!
I truly hope this year brings you so many of the good things you want.  I'm looking forward to a busy year, hopefully filled with a few new adventures and a lot of magic! (I'll explain later)

As it's the first of January, that means a new challenge over on Scrap the Girls!!! Yay!!

This month all the designers were sent a little package of goodies from Darkroom Door! How cool is that??  Free goodies to play with! And the only other instruction?  Free for all! Go for it! Wow.....well that is right up my alley!

When I saw the goodies....the first thing that grabbed me were the film strips and black and white photos - especially the dandelion pic.  The next thing to pop into my head was 'making a wish', and with that I was off!

I created a layout of my 40th birthday wish......a bit of a personal page for me.  You see my mum was in palliative care and she ended up passing away a week after my 40th birthday.  I know she hung in there for me, because every time she opened her eyes, she would ask a nurse if it was Thursday yet?  So I spent my 40th birthday and most of the days around this, with her in hospital - it was a difficult yet special time, and I really wanted to document this. 

I remember wishing so often that she could find peace.

 

 

And guess what?! Darkroom Door are giving away a prize pack this month at Scrap the Girls. The challenge this month  is a free for all!  So go for it!  If you get stuck and need a little help there is a sketch on the blog. I've popped the link just above so you can check it out. I hope you can play along this month.....what a great way to start the year!

Will you create something therapeutic and emotional like I did or will you go fun and crazy??

I can't wait to see what you all do.  Don't forget to pop on over to Scrap the Girls to see all the other designers amazing layouts.

Scrap you later
xx

Graduation Book!

Good morning everyone!

Happy New Year to you all! 

Hope you were able to ring in the New Year with some of the people you love.

 

Well I thought I'd kick off my first share for the year by sharing a book I created for my son's graduation from Primary School.  Yep he's off to High School (middle school) this year! Eeek!  This was part of my Design Team Work for All About Scrapbooks

 

My son graduated from his Primary School last year, and to commemorate the occasion I created this book.  The school does a wonderful job of hosting a graduation ceremony. 

As part of this they ask the parents to write a card/letter which they secretly slip into their graduation pack.

Of course, I couldn't just do a card now could I?? Nope I just HAD to create a book. Something for him to look back on and reflect on those years/friendships created whilst at Primary School.

 

(I'm warning you....this blog post has lotsa  photos).

 

 

For this book I used Cocoa Vanilla's Made of Awesome range. 

I love the mix of colours and also the 'star' theme.

Plus it has a real 'tween' feel about it.  Perfect!

I love that I have papers, stickers, die-cuts, flairs and alphas that all co-ordinate!

 

 

I created this book by cutting a 12x12 chipboard/cardboard sheet in half, and then trimming these two pieces to measure 6x8". This formed the covers.

I then covered the front and back of these with co-ordinating papers.

I added embellishments, popping quite a few of them 'up' by using foam tape.

 

 

For the inner pages, I cut various sheets of 12x12 paper from the Made of Awesome range into the same size as the covers (6x8").  I like working with this size as it simply means trimming your sheet in half, then turning it and cutting again at 8".  I love that I have little bits of co-ordinating off cuts, which are perfect for embellishing, matting photos etc.

 

When creating a book, I like to add in patterned transparency sheets.  I like the different texture it creates and also that you can 'peek' through to the next page.  For this project, I just used a couple from my stash.  I don't measure when I add them - I just trim it to where I think it looks good.

 

 

Look at my son's cute little hands, turning the page!

 

 

This next page has a photo of myself and my son, and I created a pocket which holds a letter that I wrote for  him.

I like to wrap twine around the pockets before I stick them in so I can add a little tag to the front.  So cute and so very simple.

 

 

This next page houses a bunch of little notes in another pocket. 

These notes were written by some of his classmates, and they are just beautiful.  I had organised it all in secret (along with the help of one of my son's teachers), and I was so touched by what I received back. 

 

Being boys, I wasn't expecting too much - maybe some pictures or a joke or something, but when the teacher tucked them in my handbag, and I sat and read them, I wept with pure joy. 

Such beautiful words right from the heart.  Words to treasure forever.

 

 

On the right hand side, I created a flap using a Project Life Card from my stash, and included  photos of his classmates and friends. 

 

 

I love creating little flaps by just adding photos together with just a bit of washi tape. 

 

 

I do this technique often in my Project Life album, when I have multiple photos I want to include.

 

The following page features a mini book that I created with all of the 'mini's' from his school photos.  I simply used Raven Bazzill, and sewed down the centre with my sewing machine before adhering to  the page of the book.  By using the sewing machine, it is super strong, and won't fall apart after a couple of years.

 

Also, before I adhered it to the book, I added some twine underneath the mini book, and a brad to the front cover.  Then I simply wind the twine around the brad as a way of keeping it closed.  Again, so simple, yet so effective.

 

  

 

 

On the right hand side of this page, I added another transparency sheet.  I popped a photo of my son and my daughter together, and when you turn the page, I have created a pocket with a precious letter from my daughter to her little bother......whoops brother!

 

 

The final page in the book, contains another Project Life Card, which I have turned into a flap with a bit of Washi tape.

 

 

Underneath this one there is a pocket containing little notes from a few of his teachers. 

Again these little notes touched my heart.

 

 

To finish off this book, I used my Zutter to create the binding, and then just added some co-ordinating ribbons to this.

 

I really loved working with this range. 

The Die Cuts and the stickers made it super easy to add clusters of embellishments.  

 

I hope you've enjoyed looking at this book.  I really loved making it, and my son absolutely loves it!  I also know that it will become something even more important to him as he grows older.