The Story of my Wild Child

Sorry for the short bloggy break. Too many hours at work makes one less creative and just more tired I'm afraid ;-)

But oh my was I thoroughly excited to be invited back to my old stomping ground Scrap Friends to be one of their Guest Designers for the latest Colour Challenge!! And even more excited when I saw this Yummy colour palette.

I decided to concentrate on the pink/peach colour along with the grass-green and use the black and red as my highlight colours. It helped that I've still got quite the stash of products in these colours from my days designing full-time for Scrap Friends so I literally just threw all of it on my page in one giant explosion of linear layers!

It started with this fabulous Glitz Designs piece that reads "Live What You Love" which I've been meaning to use for the longest time. I must have pulled it out to include on a page on at least 3 different occasions and it never made the cut.... until now! I glammed it up a little more with some Glossy Accents on the heart, and the addition of the FWAB Pearl Chloe Flourish.

I don't necessarily think that Moodles is truly a Wild Child, she's much too well-trained to go really crazy! She knows the rules and likes to stick to her given boundaries. Thank goodness! But she is a kid of course, which means that she will still run amock and generally have a good time. I snapped this cheeky photo of her one day when the fire alarms went off at church as we were all evacuated. She was ignorant to the edgy atmosphere and was running up and down the grassy slopes having the time of her life. It's one of the true privleges of childhood isn't it? To be blissfully unaware of the stress levels of the adults around you, and just go on having a ball!

The colour challenge runs for a full month, so you've got until 14th June to play along too. The winner will receive a $25 voucher to the Scrap Friends store so you'll want to be in for this one! Check out the rules and all the designers inspiration on this blog post here.



Supplies:

ICC Poetic Chemistry Crate Paper Pretty Party Stitch Colour Conspiracy Spring-a-Licious Crate Paper Pretty Party Party Dress Amy Tangerine Sketchbook Garmine Collage Glitz Designs Paper Layers Beautiful Dreamer Crate Paper Paper Heart Border Stickers Heidi Swapp Vintage Chic Buzz Words Pink Paislee Portfolio Photograms Pink Paislee Portfolio Photo Tabs Pink Paislee Portfolio Tiny Tabs Teresa Collins Fabrications Brads Little Yellow Bicycle Clear Cuts Prima Rondelle Plume Leaves Washi Tape: Black Chevron FWAB Chloe Pearl Flourish: Pearl

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The Story of Finding Balance

This layout and tutorial was first posted on the Evalicious blog here..

In the video you'll see my process of how I tackled this layout. It's the complete deal, from start to finish (well.. actually... minus the end part where the batteries ran out on my camera and so you don't get the final embellishments and journaling. Sorry!) But all the important parts are there. What you'll also notice is what an indecisive scrapper I am. I didn't really plan this layout before I turned on the camera so you see the real deal. You see me try out different embellishments in different places, then think they're not working and move them... only to move them back again!


Feel free to just sit back and watch the video and see for yourself what I've done. But I'm also going to explain some of the techniques in more detail here too.

The main technique focus on this layout is the background colouring. Here's how I did it.....
First I swiped some gesso onto my background paper with an old credit card. The credit card trick means it goes on quite thin which will allow it to dry almost instantly and creates a waterproof layer for the next step. Then I spray some water lightly over the gesso, flick on some mist, then spray more water onto it to move the colour around. It will pool in certain areas and create a lovely water-colour effect that's so popular currently.

To create more depth in my background I used Distress Ink that's a slightly darker colour than my water-colour and sponged it on through a stencil in random areas. It just gives it slightly more interest I think. But the real star of the show is of course the fabulous Evalicious Real Life Page Tabs that are scattered across the page. I tried to challenge myself to use a whole packet on one layout and I didn't even come close! There's just too many in a packet if you cut them all up like I did. Plus I was only really choosing the ones that matched the colours on my page ;-)

Because this page is quite flat I felt I needed to add some extra texture to it (that's how my brain works anyway!) So I included some twine stapled to the background layers and finished it off with messy stitching on my machine. My journaling came last and I added it to the top and the bottom for balance. Sorry.... pun intended!


Supplies:
 

Evalicious Real Life Page Tabs Evalicious Love You Lots Tags Evalicious Badge Buttons: So Daily V1 Gesso Colour Shine Spritz Mint Green

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The Story of the Sparkly Horses

Munchy is quite a generous little character. She wants to give handmade cards out to just about everyone.
All the time.
For pretty much any occasion you can think of. I need to have a perpetual supply of these things.

Now I certainly can't begrudge her cards for birthdays though can I? So with 2 celebrations coming up this week she wanted to make some special requests. They simply just HAD to have horses Mum!

There's not a great deal of horse embellishments in my stash, but ta da... the Silhouette to the rescue once again and I cut out these cute Dear Lizzy designed equines.

Being short on time (as per usual) I turned to my Pinterest boards for inspiration for quick card designs. I loved this one by KellyRas from the Two Peas gallery, and used it to guide my paper placement. I kinda used it like a sketch really.

But in a joint effort, it was Munchy whom I allowed to suggest paper choices at me. Obviously with a 6-year-old though it helps if I limit her. "Do you want this red paper or this blue one?" And then she told me she wanted glitter and bling.......

well who can blame her for taking after her Mumma like that?!

Speaking of which.
If you're also a bit of a Glitter Girl then you'll want to check this out.

Flourish With a Bling are a great company to work for. The girls are very friendly and approachable, the team is fabulous and the products are second-to-none (and in very generous supply!). Find out all the details on the blog here.

The Story of my Scrapping Process

When I sit down to scrap I usually start off with the story I want to tell. Next I pick some photos that will work to help tell that story. Having the photos decided helps me with the next stage which is all about choosing a colour scheme. Only then comes the fun part about picking papers, alphas, journal cards and embellishments.

So when I sat down (or rather stood) at my scrap desk on this occasion I had in mind that I wanted to share the story of my Moodle's ideas on getting big. (Yes, I stand up to scrap... what do you do?) You see, she has it in her mind that she's not a 'big girl' until she's tall enough to touch the roof. It's a simple thing, but that's how she views the world right now. And that makes it significant enough for me to want to scrap it!

Once I chose some photos I drew my colour scheme straight from the shirt she's wearing - grey, pink and black. I added some red highlights and turned some of that grey into silver sparkles as well.

Turning to my Evalicious stash I was able to pick out some products that would work with the colour scheme. Like usual (for me) I knew I would need one of the journal cards to type all my journalling on and it would become quite a prominent feature on my layout, so I had to choose carefully. One of the cards from the Love You Lots 3x4 Tags was perfect.

Sticking with the Love You Lots collection I also chose some Snipsnip Page Tabs and Miscellany Tags to use as embellishments. The last thing I always add to my layouts is some stamped details. I think they give the page the right finishing touch. Here I used the Daily Note, Arrows and Words, and This is So You stamp with black ink to coordinate.

I would love to hear back from some of my followers though.... what's your process when you scrap? Do you start with a story like I do, or do you choose photos first? Or something else entirely?



Supplies:

Evalicious Love You Lots Tags Evalicious Love You Lots Snipsnip Page Tabs Evalicious Love You Lots Miscellany Tags Evalicious Stamps: Journal Prompts Set Evalicious Stamps: Arrows & Words Evalicious Stamps: This is So You

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