Bethany's July page

July - smack bang in the middle of winter. Winter is definitely not my favourite time of year, and I guess that's why I subconsciously steered in the exact opposite direction when it came to putting together Bethany's page for July.

It helps that it doesn't snow, we do indoor swimming lessons and go outside when it's sunny so my photos tend to look more summery anyway.

My title card is made with a bunch of Heidi Swapp products (except for the thickers) that I was lucky enough to receive in a box of goodies sent to us Jot Girls for some articles being featured in the next issue of Jot Magazine. I'm loving the 'document' die and the envelope that I'll be able to tuck some memorabilia in too.

Most of my other ready-made cards and embellishments come from the Studio Calico Fairground PL Kit. It's full of my favourite colours and I guess it probably contributes to the bright cheeriness of this page because it's a summer kit for all those lucky Northern Hemispherians ;-)

The sun card though is one I made myself. Well, maybe that's a bit of a stretch to claim that. Digging out some old baby books for Judah from their storage box I came across one which had lost half it's pages. Not much good I thought, so I went to put it in the recycling. Then it occured to me that the remaining pages might make cute PL cards so I chopped them up instead! I recently invested in the 2x3" and 4x6" Becky Higgins journal card dies, and they've already come in handy multiple times. It allows me to position the picture exactly where I want it on the card whilst ensuring the right size card with the same rounded corners as the others.

Strangely for me I haven't managed to include any original kid-art on this spread. Perhaps it's because Bethany's creativity tends to be more directed towards writing these days rather than drawing, and that's a little less visually appealing. No less important though, so perhaps that's what I pop in the Heidi Swapp envelope.

Great. Now that's decided I better go do it before I forget ;-)
Enjoy your weekend.

Bethany's June page

I admit it, this page is a bit of a favourite of mine from recent times. And here's some reasons why...

1. Despite me covering up most of the graphics on "The End" card with the photo I still really love the design of it (and it's corresponding "The Beginning" card from the Studio Calico Galileo kit) and was happy to use one of them. Although granted the reason for using it isn't that flash.... Bethany's best friend is moving schools :-(

2. I got to use a truckload of new Kellie Stamps throughout the spread, and customise them where necessary. For example, one stamp originally said "you guys make me laugh" but by covering the 'guys' with washi tape whilst I applied the ink, and then peeling it off before I stamped it I was left with a more appropriate sentiment for this photo! But every other stamp you see here is from the recent Kellie Stamps release. Except the chickens, they're from here.

3. And lastly I love this page because I got a decent amount of memorabilia stuck into it too. A photograph of a school assignment ("How to blow a bubble"), a letter to her Nanny, and a felt bow that I quickly whipped up on the spot when she insisted on adding it into the mix on Crazy Hair Day at school. The bow is now stapled to the front of the plastic pocket rather than tucked into it, we all know that would never work, but hopefully the staple should stop it from budging.

Happy Scrapping,
xx

GDT for Pink Fresh Studio part 3

Oh yes, I think I saved the best for last!
Ironically this was actually the first project I created when the Happy Things collection from Pink Fresh Studio landed on my doorstep when I guest designed for them earlier this month.

The combination of the Dream Big paper and those gold-tipped vellum feathers instantly inspired this idea in my head that I should make a dream catcher.
It's not a totally outrages idea. My sister Emily from Jasper Lane Designs is the Queen of Dream Catchers, but hers are the proper fabric and ribbon kind of deal. She comes up with the best designs, different each time, and can whip up a custom order in no time (yep, totally spruking her Facebook shop!)
And I also had the embroidery hoop, thread and white feathers hanging around from a Makers Box project that I hadn't quite got around to starting yet. So it provided the base for my version of a dream catcher instead.

So I made it all up with the vellum feathers, the transparent triangles and blinged it up with the addition of some pearls too. I was pretty happy with how it turned out so I hung it up and took my photos for the Pink Fresh Studio blog.

But then I started to play some more. I couldn't help myself, and then went to town adding in a bunch of ribbons and fibres to it as well!

I love all the rainbow of bright colours this created, although I'm still looking back at the original design and wondering if I took it too far now? Doesn't matter though really because one look at it and Moriah gasped in delight and instantly claimed it as her own. Which is only fair because Bethany has her own original Jasper Lane version ;-)

Thanks Pinkfresh Studio for having me Guest Design. I loved every minute of it! And since I have enough Happy Things scraps to keep me going for a few more projects you'll no doubt see more of it around here!

xx

GDT for Pink Fresh Studio part 2

I have to admit that after my card making binge earlier in the year I've had a little break from them lately whilst concentrating on my project life. But there was no way I could resist whipping up a couple with the gorgeous Happy Things collection when Guest Designing for Pink Fresh Studio this month. 

First up I created this one purely to be able to use and show off another one of those cute ombre tags. I thought it might make a good focal point to put my sentiment on, and I went with a calming grey, yellow and teal colour combination.

The wood veneer shapes are pretty fun and handily adhesive and I love the extra texture they give this card. I admit though that the heart wasn't part of the original plan but became necessary to hide some rogue ink splatters ;-)

As for my second card, well, it doesn't get much easier than this! It looks good simply because the ombre mosaic paper is just darn awesome and really doesn't need anything else. Seriously, all I did was just pop on a couple of little embellishments and called it done!

I've got one more special project to share with you from Happy Things, but that will just have to wait for another day I'm afraid :-)

Guest Designing for Pink Fresh Studio part 1

I was sooooo excited to be asked to Guest Design for Pink Fresh Studio recently. I've long thought that they make just the cutest embellishments, and then when they started making paper collections as well I was wrapped! So I jumped at the opportunity and they sent me the Happy Things collection which suited me perfectly - it's so my style! Check out the little sneak I posted on Instagram when I first got it. Happy things indeed ;-)

I went straight in for a layout to begin with.
A reasonably simple one I admit, at least in terms of putting it together, but I find that's my general direction of layouts these days. Plus, I do love a big photo.

To make it a bit more interesting I decided to print my photo directly onto one of the more neutral patterned papers. I wasn't quite sure if the leaf pattern might leave crazy spots on our faces and obscure the clarity, but I think it worked out reasonably ok.

I then added little clusters of colour to jazz it up. And when I got adventurous I decided to try out the bow die on one of the acetate cards and made myself a little tab to go at the top.

Occasionally, just occasionally I get these ideas where even I have to admit 'that's pretty cool' and that's what happened when the idea for turning one of the ombre tags into a kite struck me. And then the bows from the sticker sheet as ribbons? Yep, I was on fire for a brief moment! ;-)

Now the kite flying layout was designed to sit opposite this Project Life page which I then made next.

It was quite an adventurous day and I had plenty of photos from the event that needed to get scrapped. I always find the pocket pages much better suited for that purpose.

The whole family got involved in the kite flying excitement and The Trophy Husband summed it up nicely when he exclaimed "this is stupidly simple fun"!! I knew in that very instant that I had the title for the page I was going to create. Sometimes you just can't knock the scrapper out of a person, even in the heat of the moment!

I ended up making a few more projects with all my Happy Things. But I'll save them for another night.

Or go here. And see them all now :-)

Jot Mood Board challenge for August

I did something a little out of character for me.
I made my version of a layered flower-filled rhinestone-dripping shabby chic style card.

The reason why is this gorgeous Mood Board at Jot Magazine for this month. It simply pulled me in this direction.

Not even intentionally.
My inspiration to start with is those leaves in the top right. I wanted to do something similar as a focal point in my project. So I cut a bunch out with my Silhouette and then threw them onto my white woodgrain background paper whilst I figured out what's next.

Mixing in those royal blues was my next logical thought, and well... I guess a flower became an obvious answer. Although I didn't have the right shade of blue so I painted what I did have with a little spray ink. More blue flowers followed, and then at that point I figured I was committed to this direction so the rhinestone swirls were pulled out too.

I guess what does take it back to my usual style is the sentiment. It's a little more fun and funky than the card would lead you to believe on first impressions. It's from Kellie Stamps' newest set called 'Seriously?!' and is currently up for preorder. I couldn't figure out where it would fit on the front so I added half of it to the front like an invitation tempting you to look inside. And that's where I stamped the rest of it.

Will you join in with us at Jot Magazine and make something with this inspiring Mood Board? You can find all the details here.

Moriah's May and June pages

I'm slowly but surely catching up!

When I sat down to do Moriah's May page it began with the large chipboard title from Studio Calico. It came plain so I started thinking up ideas as to what I was going to do with it. But actually I realised it needed to be done last after I had worked out how the rest of the page was going to look first.

With the spread quickly heading in a pink/purple direction I painted my chipboard in corresponding acrylic paint colours. Then I glittered. Oh yes I glittered!

I managed to include some kid-art like usual, and a small piece of memorabilia. The 'free swimming lesson' token wasn't going to be used for it's intended purpose so into the album it went instead! The kids were getting swimming lessons at school that week, so it's not entirely random ;-)

And did you notice all the stamping throughout this spread? They pretty much all come from the one set - called "Seriously" by Kellie Stamps. As luck would have it they just went on preorder on her site over the weekend too! Here's what the set looks like:

And since the page came together fairly quickly (or rather, whilst I waited for paint to dry!) I started work on her June page too. Told you I was getting caught up!

I keep a pile of 'stuff' I want to include in their albums as I go along such as the things they make and little momentos of what has happened. They don't always make it in because I often run out of space, but for June I started with these postcards from Paris (from grandparents on holidays) which lead to the Bon Jour card which then lead to this painting Moriah created because it had similar colours in it! Yay! Love it when it all works out like that.

I wanted to document this funny story that went along with the postcard and which explains why the pocket actually contains two postcards from Paris addressed to Moriah. I created the title for the journaling card with the perfectly sized alphabet stamp called "Alpha Nut" from Kellie Stamps. (Yep, you guessed it, it's on pre-order now too!)

Lots of school based photos for this month it seems. I chose to let the bright orange uniforms just be another bright colour in my bright page rather than add lots more orange around it. I'm ok with bright.
Obviously ;-)

 

Happy Monday!