Oh Yeah Cake!

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!!!

Moriah's July page

I also managed to finish Moriah's July page in a timely manner. Only a month behind feels like it's timely to me ;-) And I even remembered to include some kid-art in this one too!

Plus I managed to use a mix of ready made cards and embellishments from the Studio Calico Fairground PL Kit as well as a couple of handmade cards I put together during my 100 Day challenge. I've really only got a few left from that adventure. It was definitely worth it, and I'm thinking it's about time I started building up my stash again.

Those fun stamps though are a set from Kellie Stamps called "What?" The phrases "stay weird" and "the struggle is real yo!" both ended up being perfect for the photos I had of Moriah during July. In fact, they captured the mood of the photos so well that I barely needed to add any journaling! Here's what the whole set looks like. PS. It's currently up for preorder with shipping expected to start on Monday.

Gee, if I can get my August pages done soon then I really will be on top of the game! Feeling good!

Happy scrapping,
xx

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

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!

Coffee coffee coffee

coffee coffee....
etc!

Is it wrong that I wanted a coffee after school pick up one day so I took all of them to our local cafe, ordered a cappuccino (and cake), chilled out and then thought "why not make this a family tradition" so we can do this all the time?

To be fair, the cafe provides card games, drawing materials and other fun stuff for the kids to do so we spend some quality time together. That's got to count for something right?
Plus.... they serve really good coffee.

Now we have a regular Monday afternoon coffee date that we all look forward to. And that deserves a Project Life layout all to itself don't you think?

PS. Every single one of those awesome coffee-orientated stamps comes from the latest Kellie Stamps set called (wait for it) 'Coffee'. You can order your set here. And the white alpha stamps? They're coming soon ;-)

Bethany's Jan and Feb pages

Despite bloggy silence I've actually been crafting up quite a storm lately. I've got so much to share so it's really time I got on with it. Over the next couple of weeks I'll try and get caught up. I know I'll find that easier to do if I tell myself I don't have to write an essay every time. And lets be honest, it's sometimes hard to read everything on someone else's blog post. Sometimes pictures are enough. So I'll write stuff about products and stories when I feel like it, and leave it off when I don't. Deal?

I've been quite focused on Project Life recently and have spent my time doing this rather than a lot of layouts. A change can be quite refreshing for the creative soul. I've done lots and lots of pages in Judah's baby album (I'll tell you more about that another day) so at the beginning of June I decided to go back and start doing pages for each of the girls. They have separate albums and I'm doing a single page for each month.



I'm aiming for each page to have a mixture of photos, kid art, PL cards and of course plenty of stories. I know that often makes my pages look very 'eclectic' and not so cohesive, and they're always very very colourful, but that's just how I roll.

I'm also realising more and more that I have a real problem with white space. Like... if I see a blank area I just want to fill it with stuff! For example, that grey card above was lovely and simple with just the typed white words. Then I wrote the story underneath and decided it was unbalanced and needed something at the top. My newest Kellie Stamps brunch set (available for preorder on the 1st) was perfect. Is it now too much? Maybe. Probably! But that's ok.

A chunk of January was taken up with me and the girls putting together our Big Picture Classes Creating with Kids class (available here if you're interested) so this needed a few pockets dedicated to it. The photo of course, and the artwork on either side of it was made by Bethany at the time.

One of the best parts about creating these pages 6 months behind is that I actually get to use the most recent seasonal cards coming in my Studio Calico PL kits as soon as I get them. That's usually impossible for me here in Australia! And I'm so glad because I am in love with the latest Galileo kit and it's summery cards!

Apart from using pretty filler cards I'm also making an effort to put some of my homemade cards that I've been making as part of my 100 Day Project into the albums as well. The Origami Map stamp from Neat and Tangled made an awesome card that quickly became one of my favourites. I originally thought it would be great for a travel page, but I think it works just as well here next to the photo representing Bethany beginning music lessons in February. Go and do amazing things indeed!

I'll make the titles of these posts real obvious so that both you and I can keep track of what I've shared! Sound ok?

My Happy Place

Despite my lack of projects around here recently I've actually got soooo much going on behind the scenes it's ridiculous. It's also ridiculously awesome to be able to spend so much of my time crafting these days! To get a much better representation of what I've been up to I encourage you to check out my Instagram account (username: natalieelph). It's much more up to date with what I'm doing ;-)

Meanwhile, one of the tasks on my never-ending to-do list is to fill in some of the million gaps in my Project Life Handbook from last year. Not that I'm doing it traditionally, but more that I've got lots of photos and lots of memories that I really want to get documented in it.

An obvious place to start was with our beach holiday back in September. I've done a couple of layouts about it, but I think some Handbook spreads are better equipped to getting the stories down properly because you can add more photos, and probably more journaling too (although I didn't write much down on this spread ironically!)

This spread came together quite easily with the combination of my Studio Calico The Underground Project Life Kit and the addition of lots of stamps from the Summer Set by Kellie Stamps. I love how many different options of text and sentiments you get in her sets, which make it really good for Project Lifing.

More spreads have been completed, and I'm hoping to get back here really quite regularly over the next week to share them. I'm also planning on having something quite exciting for you to download by the end of the weekend as well .... but maybe don't hold me to that!