If ever there was a fun, almost delicious, mood board to spark your imagination for Christmas then it would have to be this month's Jot Magazine Mood Board. This is what I made...
And you don't have to look hard to see where I drew my inspiration from. I didn't really get past the first picture!
Thank goodness for cute little Christmas tree dies and a stack of paper scraps - it meant this card came together in no time at all. And as for my touch of gold, well I still had a few chipboard alphas left over from my Studio Calico Lollipop Guild scrapbook kit that were too pretty not to use. Although I was down to an 'A' and a 'U' as far as vowels went so I had to get a little creative for my sentiment!
First up, here's the standard Trophy Husband (and this time he's joined by The Elphie Kids) unveiling video!
Can I be totally honest with you? On first impressions of the main Scrapbook Kit I was like, "oh, that's nice" but I wasn't jumping up and down for joy. I left them to one side for a day or so while I mulled it over and tried to get into the grove. I think part of the problem was that I hadn't made a layout in a few weeks and I just wasn't feeling it. But with the clock ticking I decided to resort to a tried and true method for me which is to print a large b&w photo onto white cardstock and then just throw a cluster of embellishments at it. I even got a bit adventurous and broke out the acrylic paint from the main kit and got a bit techniquey! And do you know what happened? My mojo came flooding in like a tidal wave and then I COULD NOT STOP!!!!
Seriously, as of right now I have created 3 layouts, 5 cards, and a pocket-page spread without having to add anything else in! I've also created 3 tags and another card once I started pulling in other bits of my stash. And I've still got bits left over to give away (which I'm currently doing on my Instagram account) I have never come this close to killing a kit before! So if that doesn't say something about how much I love Lollipop Guild then nothing else will!
Do you know what else is fabulous? The majority of projects I've made are all Main Kit Only (like the first layout above). Or they're Main Kit plus extra stamps and dies like the next layout below. So if you've only got the budget for one of the kits this month can I suggest getting just the main scrapbook kit?
But if you're thinking of something for a little extra fun then what about the cheeky 'That Stinks' stamp set? It instantly made me think of all the horrible and often hilarious nappy-changing stories I've got stored up, but unsure they're suitable for public viewing I settled for this innocent memory instead ;-)
Can you believe it took my two layouts before I broke into those gorgeous gold dipped alphas?! My third layout is another one created just with the Main Kit, plus a printable journaling card (and I made that polar bear with one of the stamp sets but you do actually get a vellum bear in the main kit... but I was saving him!)
I went all old-school on this layout and cut those trees by hand rather than using my Silhouette. Mainly because I'm worried it's on the fritz (see what it did to the 'p' in picture?) and I didn't want to trust it to cut in the right spot, but also because I think it adds a nice touch to be wonky and imperfect like this :-)
I've got so many projects to share that I thought I better break it up into separate posts. You've just seen all my layouts, next up will be the cards!
So after I finished my layouts using the Studio Calico Lollipop Guild Scrapbook Kits I really wanted to turn my attention to making some Christmas cards. I'm going to need a lot of them this season right? So even though there's nothing that's in-your-face Christmassy about any of the kit contents I could still see how easy it was going to be to make it appear that way ;-)
Take the 'Wishing You Peace' die for a start. It's actually labelled as a sympathy sentiment, but it was all about the Christmas theme for me right now. It totally works right? Especially with all those gold foil highlights and pieces from the Main Kit.
I totally had to use it again for another card, this time overlaying a wreath configuration made from die-cut leaves. Again, I think the Leaf Die was supposed to be an autumn leaf.... but you know... all I could see was Christmas!
I'm so proud of myself for not hoarding those rubber stars from the Main Kit too. I'm down to my last one but not regretting all the projects I've used them on.
Aaaahhh the bear card. Not exactly my best efforts I'll admit. But it was a combination of having this idea in my head that I could make a snow-globe effect coupled with the intense desire to use the Polar Bear Stamp everywhere and this was the end result. I've fiddled with the technique some more since then and I've come up with a much better finished product... but that will have to wait for another time ;-)
And lastly I ended up making a birthday card too. I'll always need plenty of those in my stash too, and that Jasmine Jones Happy Birthday script stamp is too pretty to neglect. I took inspiration from the gold dipped chipboard alphas in the main kit to create the same sort of look to the embossing on this stamp. Quite happy with how it turned out really!
And do you see what I did with the Music Notes Die on the vellum there. Fancy hey?! ;-)
If you're keeping a careful count you'll notice that I said I've made 5 cards so far, and I've only shared 4. The last one will be coming up as a tutorial on the SC blog so I'll hold off showing you that one until then. In the next post is my Project Life spread.
We just celebrated Moriah's 6th birthday and since there were a few birthday-themed elements running through the kits as well I knew I had the perfect excuse to get this scrapped already. I chose a pocket-page spread because I wanted to get a few photos in there, and lots of bits of the story documented too.
I loved pulling in the pink paper from the Toto Add On kit - I know there are plenty of pink-haters out there, but I'm not one of them! And breaking all the old rules about pairing it with red and orange I did it anyway! Super bright and colourful... love it!
And just so you couldn't miss it's a birthday spread I stamped the Jasmine Jones Birthday Stamp in the silver ink from the Tin Man Embellishment Kit first and then black ink over the top so it creates a shadow effect.
It's time for another Mood Board challenge at Jot Magazine and this one couldn't be any more perfectly catered for me than if I'd designed it myself! It's all pinks and yellows!! Firstly, let me show you the card I whipped up for it...
See what mean?
Here's what the stunning Mood Board looks like...
With so many products in my stash in these colours the hardest choice I
had to make was deciding what to use. It's possible I may have overdone it slightly ;-)
I whittled down my choices to just two collections - Pink Fresh Studio Happy Things and Elle's Studio Thankful. Both have some really fun embellishments in the right colours, and so I picked some out and simply layered them up!
If you'd like to play along with the challenge this month and be in the running for a great prize from our generous sponsor then you can check out the Mood Board challenge details here.
And whilst you're over at Jot then make sure you also check out the FREE Mini Mag that was just released over the weekend. It's a
special edition magazine featuring lots of different projects made with
Heidi Swapp goodies. Heidi has long been an avid supporter of us at Jot and we felt that with the difficult times her family have been suffering through lately we could show a little bit of love right back at her in the way we know how to best..... by making pretty stuff!!
I'm generally a bit slack about finishing off the birthday spreads, but I'm all over this one considering Bethany's birthday was only a month ago!
Over the weekend I managed to pull this PL spread together really quickly thanks to two things...
1. I was eager to get stuck into the Studio Calico Wink Wink Project Life kit which landed on my doorstep, especially since I've had the coordinating Scrapbook kit in my hands for a while ;-)
and 2. Because I also had the Kellie Stamps GOSH! digital stamp set to play with and the sentiments and drawings were just perfect for this occasion.
So I added some of the sentiments straight onto the photos before I printed them off, and I also made up a simple title/journaling card with them as well. Nothing too fancy, no great digital techniques here from me, but I think that's the point right? You don't have to be a pro at Photoshop to create some quick and easy personalised cards with a digital stamp set.
This PL spread will sit opposite the layout I did earlier in the month as part of my stint as a Studio Calico Contributor for October. Because I've used the same kits and 'accessories' like the super-awesome Jack Number Stamp Set on both pages it works together cohesively to make a double page. Winning!!!
Oh I've been a bad blogger again. Even worse, I've had these pages sitting here in draft format for... I don't know... a couple of months now!
So yes, these are my Easter pages. One page each for the two girls (although Bethany's will go alongside a layout I made on the same topic, which makes hers appear like a double-spread. Especially since it follows the same colour scheme).
I've used my Studio Calico Lisse Street PL kit, alongside some cards from the Becky Higgins High Five edition for the sort of traditional pastel colours of Easter but with a pop of lime green included.
I've used similar cards for Moriah's spread too, and kept my embellishments to a minimum. I didn't need to add very much with all the bright colours here anyway.
Love getting little bits of their artwork into my spreads!
And is it bad that I'm almost glad I had a story to tell to go with that 'meh' card?!! LOL!
Coming up sometime soon on my blog..... my Mother's Day spreads! Maybe don't hold your breath for that one ;-)
