The Story of My Happy Place

Time to check out my 'take 2' of trying to create an interesting and unique background.

I really like playing with the messy side of scrapbooking and it was my initial thought to create a mixed-media background. I have quite a large collection of paints and mists and inks and I think it's a little strange if I have a layout that doesn't include some kind of wet medium. But I also think my inner control-freak comes out when it starts to look a little crazy. There's a fine line between 'arty' and 'chaotic' in my opinion ;-)

Ironically, I also have trouble knowing when to stop! When I started this background I added the gesso. Then the watercolours. Then the stamping. Then the stencilling..... hhhmmmmm.... 
Unfortunately when it came time to adding all my linear layers of paper most of it got covered up. Doh! I like that there's now only little hints of it peeking out behind the paper from an aesthetic point of view. But as far as it being a layout to highlight an interesting background I'm not sure it fits the bill.

Lots of Dear Lizzy and Studio Calico goodies, and some fabulous Evalicious badge buttons on this layout featuring another pool-side snap. I think this photo captured that moment when you're on holidays and you ask yourself if it would be possible to stay there forever. I'm sure we all do that don't we?!

There's always many reasons to want to stay put, but I guess after a while we'd miss home too. Although with all the frosty mornings we're having lately it sure makes me long for the sunshine. The grass is always greener hey?

The Story of Mr Handsome

Recently as a JBS Ambassador I was given the opportunity to work with the new Elle's Studio Cameron collection as we partnered with them for a week. Really... it doesn't get much better than this!

The Cameron collection works perfectly well together with the Modern Mercantile collection as a lot of the colours are quite similar.  And being such a good line to scrap about the boys in your life I used a photo of my gorgeous nephew for this layout. Look at that cheeky smile would you? He hasn't lost it either as he's grown up!

I chose even more boy embellishments from JBS to coordinate such as the Silhouette Vintage Mini-Deck card and the Reader Flatback (that cute dog).

Now JBS and Elle's Studio have both been featuring the projects the respective Design Teams have created on their blogs over the last week or so. Yesterday my post went up and it included not only this layout but 2 others.... plus a card! I went on a creative spree when I received my parcel because it was all so delicious ;-) I'd love for you to check it out here.

In the meantime....
Happy Scrapping

 Supplies:

The Story of One Little Word

Better late than never hey?

I didn't initially jump straight on board with One Little Word this year. I guess in the past I've managed to choose a word, and even make a layout about it, but I don't do anything else about it to be honest. I don't think it's a bad idea though to reflect on the year ahead (even if now it's only 6 more months!), make some goals, decide what direction you want to head in and help cement your ideas in writing.

So there's lots and lots of (quite personal) journaling on this colourful layout. I don't mind people reading it, in fact it slightly annoys me off when people blur out parts of their page. If you don't want to share your life then don't create a layout about it and put it on your blog!!! Sorry. Little rant over :-) I think mine might be a little hard to read anyway, although you can click on the photo to make it bigger if you're that interested.

I made the page by layering up some of my favourite most colourful papers and embellishments. Lots of Dear Lizzy on here. And all the finishing touches are Evalicious products of course. I finish up my Design Team position with them at the end of the month (boooo!!!) which makes me sad because I honestly love their products. Luckily for me I've got a stash a mile high so you'll still see plenty of projects featuring Evalicious coming from me!

Has anyone else 'done' One Little Word this year? Link me up, I'd love to see.

Evalicious Supplies: 

The Story of Fun in the Library

Now don't misunderstand me. If you read my last post and started thinking that I don't like scrapbooking then you would be very wrong ;-) I just think it's important that we keep stock of why we do this hobby.

Like a lot of people I got into scrapbooking when I had children so that I could document their important milestones and thousands of photos! One of the advantages is that unless you're a digital scrapbooker we are 'forced' to actually print out our pics. In this digital age most of my friends still take lots of photos but they never do anything with them - they just fill up hard-drives, memory sticks and DVD's. And how often do we ever go back through them? Or know the details about the time they were taken?

So I always take the time to add journaling to my pages. Commonly it's fairy lengthy as I try to get in as much detail as possible. Sometimes it's just a quote or a poem (like on this layout), but most times it's more than just the 'who, what, where'. Once upon a time I used to keep a diary but these days I like to think my layouts serve that purpose instead, so I journal my thoughts, emotions and sentiments... often brutally honestly.

The other great purpose of scrapbooking of course is as my creative outlet. I live out many hours of my life at work where I am bound to follow a very specific set of 'rules'. Everything is very structured and I'm bound to follow protocols and guidelines (with very good reason!!). But scrapbooking allows me to do as I please - throwing caution to the wind as I cut and paste and paint to my heart's content. After all, if it doesn't end up looking good then what have I lost? A couple of pieces of paper! I can live with that ;-)

I made this layout with the second Master's challenge in mind which is to create a layout 'with a unique background'. I stamped, embossed, sprayed and splattered and had a whole lot of fun doing it, (but ultimately decided to go with another attempt instead). Moodles is only 3 and can't actually read, but I love that she plonked herself down with this giant book and let her imagination take her away. Not limited to the idea that you should only borrow a book if you can read, she allowed her curiosity to get the better of her. I think we could all learn something from that!

The Story of Being Awesome

Struggle, struggle, struggle. That's how I've been feeling lately with my scrapping. Probably because I've been trying to make something 'to order' rather than just having fun. And I've been trying too hard to make pages that are 'special' instead of realising that every page is special when it captures a particular moment in time.

I mucked around for hours with this page. It's rather busy isn't it?
I like it in parts. I like the editing on the photo, it's pretty funky. I like the Silhouette cut title - and ended up being happier using the negative part of it rather than the actual words. And I like the modern colour scheme that I probably wouldn't have tried otherwise.

I giggled with glee when I posted this sneak on Instagram (user name: natalieelph) and asked people what they were using to adhere these fabulous Heidi Swapp alphas with and I got a million suggestions including what must be the 'real' answer from Heidi herself!
Why am I struggling to make specific layouts you might ask? Well this was attempt No.2 (out of 3) to use an 'engaging 5x7" photo' in order to apply for the Scrapbooking Memories Masters Competition. Something I've never done before. Over the next couple of weeks I'll share with you all my 'failed' attempts. You know I never hold anything back from complete honesty here on my blog!

I love my crazy youngest daughter. Every so often she decides it's a day to become a super hero and she zooms about here and there shouting "Super-Myah to the rescue" with her fist in the air. We don't have any specific cape or outfit so on this day she donned an Australian flag instead. She's a wacky one with an awesome sense of adventure!


PS. Heidi Swapp uses her Xyron sticker maker and swears you can't see the adhesive ;-)

The Story of the Harvest

Having an orchard back on my parent's farm has many benefits. There's always something to pick and a new crop to harvest. Autumn this year has seen us with an abundance of pistachios and green apples. Apple crumble is a firm favourite - especially with a crunchy roast pistachio crust. Yumm!

I took my inspiration for this layout first from the apples themselves as I punched out rows of circles from green paper. Then in one of those rare strokes of genius I realised I could fill them with bunches of round Evalicious products.

Firstly came the Badge Buttons. That one was kind of obvious.
Then I thought of all the different 1" circle stamps Evalicious has produced. These were just the perfect fit. I stamped them seperately before punching them out and mounting them on foam tape to give some dimension.

 

Happy accident about the design of this page actually ..... I originally planned on filling all those punched-out circles with different embellishments and then leaving it at that. As you've seen from my many videos I usually arrange my page how I like it and then start the tedious process of gluing it all down. That inevitably means lifting everything up again to put the glue underneath. As I moved all the filled circles above and below the punched out sheet I realised it looked much better that way so it stayed!

  

I like the contrast of the circles compared to the negative sheet from which they were punched. And I sure do like happy mistakes which end up as creative serendipity :-)

Evalicious Supplies: