The Story of Autumn Days

Continuing on with my projects made with the Jenni Bowlin Mercantile October Papercrafting Kit, here's another layout I wanted to share with you here...

The colours in the kit were geared towards Autumn, and even though we're very nearly in Summer here I couldn't help but go along with the theme anyway. I mean, lets be honest, there's a pile of photos on my scrap desk still waiting to be scrapped that span back many years so it was easy enough to find some seasonal photos that would match.

The first thing I did was break open the ol' Cuttlebug and cut some leaves into the bottom portion of my page. Obviously I could have used my Silhouette for this, but the poor Cuttlebug has been quite neglected of late so I thought it only fair to share the love around ;-) A little sprinkling of the sequins in the kit and they found their way into the negative shapes almost by magic.

Autumn memories for us this year included our annual Easter trip up to the farm, hence why Moodles is wearing rabbit ears in the photo (in case you were wondering!!) I included my journaling on a hidden tag tucked behind the photo as I find it more challenging to find space for all my writing when I do these 8.5 x 11" layouts.

And before I go I wanted to share with you a special offer that's almost ready to expire at Jenni Bowlin. For this month only if you sign up for a new subscription you'll receive a past kit or add-on kit for free!

With all the new exclusives included in the kits there is no better time to subscribe, but you better hurry because it runs out at the end of November!!

PS. If you mention you're signing up because I referred you... I'll get a free kit too!! ;-)

The Story of Her Story

Don't forget I've got a giveaway going on here currently!

I was feeling quite sentimental as I went through my large pile of photos to scrap and came across some that I snapped at my friends' wedding. This girl means the world to me, and her happiness means even more. One of my best friends for over 10 years now. We've been through many trials (lots of medical exams for a start) and celebrations (so many celebrations) together. Watching her marry the man of her dreams (and they were no small dreams!) in such glorious fashion was so emotional. I'm pretty sure I cried more than she did :-)

The only problem that left me with was my own high expectations of what a page of this magnitude was going to look like. Complex, elegant, refined, sensible and beautiful, just like my friend herself. Not frilly, frizzy, complicated, messy or grungy.

And one that captured the essence of love of course. Crazy, joyful love.
Inspiration struck when I saw the current mood board challenge at Jot Magazine. The colour scheme is light and happy. I knew I wanted to recreate all those ombre tones of pink and yellow.

Butterflies were my embellishment of choice. They speak volumes about truth, beauty and love. I cut them on my Silhouette, painted them in acrylics and then ran a few through my Cuttlebug for good measure. Just a little touch of bling was what was required as a finishing touch.

Ultimately I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I sure am glad to have put this story down on paper.

Recycled Christmas: Monogram Badges

Well, these aren't recycled at all really. But they're part of our decorations for our Recycled Christmas dinner so I thought I would show you anyway.

Keeping with our colour scheme of cream, kraft and gold, I've also added some traditional red and green highlights to make these monogrammed badges.

Each of these little textural beauties will have a brooch pin stuck on the back of it and will then adorn our Christmas crackers. These will act as our place-names as we sit down for dinner, and then can be removed and worn throughout the evening.

To make these I started off die-cutting some felt flowers or circles (yes, you really can cut felt in your Cuttlebug!), adding a punched scalloped circle from kraft cardstock, and then layering some embellishments on top.

Basically I grabbed a whole bunch of random stuff from my stash that coordinated with the colour scheme. And added some glitter of course!

 

The monograms themselves are also just simply die-cut from red and green cardstock. 

I'll have to show you pictures later of our guests wearing them hey?!

Happy December!!

I love the holiday season. I love the images, the sounds, the smells....everything! And of course, I love Christmas crafting. I'm really looking forward to Ali's December Daily, Tim's 12 Tags, Julie's Holidays Handmade etc etc! and I'm sure they'll be plenty of other exciting scrapbook adventures along the way too.

I got a head-start on some Christmas tags this year with my Basic Grey Jovial supplies that Suzanne sent me.

 

And here they are individually for some close-ups......

I made all the shipping tags myself - just out of old manilla folders. I didn't measure anything so I can't tell you exactly what size they are, but if I would have to guess (and I do have to guess because I don't have them with me at the moment!) I would say they're about 5" x 2"

I'll be doing a Guest blog post in the next week or two where I'll be giving a tutorial on how I created the backgrounds for these. I'll let you know when it's posted and link you up so you don't miss out!

All the embellishments are fussy-cut or folded from various papers from the Jovial collection. I'll show you how to do the a better version of the angel in the tutorial too :-)

The rub-ons are by Kaisercraft.

The various laces are by Green Tara and Prima.

Lots of Martha Stewart glitter everywhere!

How fabulous is this Christmas tree?!! I can say that because I followed a tutorial I learnt from Teacher Jessy's blog - go and check it out!

I'll also be posting a tutorial on how to make those stars in the very near future too :-)
And the pearl bling is exclusive to Handmade by Suzanne. See all the pretty colours here.

I cannot wait to show you all the other goodies that I've got in store for you all over December. Lots of tutorials (as you can see!) a few Guest blogging spots, a giveaway must be included too I'd say ;-)

 

At the moment what can you do?

1. Keep scrolling through some of my recent posts for more Christmas projects, including my advent calendar below.

2. You've only got a few days left to email me if you're interested in taking part in the Secret Santa Stash Swap. All the details are here.

HBS Sale!!

At Handmade By Suzanne commencing this week we are offering customers amazing weekly specials which last for just a short time and until stock runs out.

This week HBS have discounted ALL Cuttlebug products by 30%!  That is better than any Christmas sale!  This includes all the Companion Folder sets and the Cut & Emboss combos!  Special ends midnight Friday 19th November.

Be quick while stocks last and be sure to subscribe to the newsletter to be the first to hear about the next amazing deal.

Remember - HBS offer a flat rate of $5 postage anywhere in Australia. So don't be afraid to stock up on these wonderful specials, not to mention the 100's of other items that are on sale every day. 


PS. Scroll down to older posts to learn how you can take part in my Secret Santa Stash Swap, and there's still plenty of time to enter my giveaway.

I'm just a little behind

in my monthly layouts of the girls for the "Year in the Chair" album. But I just finished my July layouts today and wanted to share them with you.

First up... the one with both of them.

I'm not sure why these photos of this layout look so washed out. I tried everything to fix them up. Sorry about that.

I am trying to make some things consistent throughout my album - such as the Studio Calico months of the year stamp.

Look how gorgeous these sparkly papers are from My Mind's Eye new Lost and Found Market Street collection. I hardly had to do anything else to this page apart from slap on some photos. Which is good since I've still got August and September layouts to do before I'm up to date :-)
However, I did manage to fit in some banner love... who would have guessed?!

I did spend a bit more time on this one - mainly putting my Cuttlebug to good use cutting out all those flowers.

On both of these layouts, the tab with the stamp on it pulls out from behind the photo with some hidden journaling. I keep notes on the milestones and events and cute things they say and do in a diary so that when it comes time to do the journaling I already know what to talk about. 

And I try and keep some consistency in my two layouts every month by using the same paper collection. After all, they will be facing each other in the album so I don't want them to clash. Some people call that sensible. Others call it obsessive :-)

I bought all my supplies for these layouts from Handmade by Suzanne. They offer a flat rate of $5 postage anywhere in Australia, even if you buy a whole bunch of heavy punches (as I have done on more than one occasion!) and free postage if you spend more than $50. Good value hey?!

One for the Road

Just popping in to show you a couple of quick cards I whipped up with the left-overs of my Fancy Pants Roadshow Collection stuff.

All three of these cards have been made exclusively with this beautiful collection (with the exception of the cardstock), and it's currently on sale in the HBS Shop.

I particularly adored the ribbon, and made this card for the sole purpose of showing it off to you!

And this uses one of the new Cuttlebug embossing folders called Kimi Luvs - which is also available (here).

And while you're over checking out all the sales at HBS, don't forget to enter the sketch challenge for your chance to win some shopping money!! Here's a reminder of what the sketch looks like:

There have been some stunning entries put up in the gallery, but it would be AWESOME to see a lot more, and especially great if we could see some new faces over there! The winner is chosen at random so everyone is in with a chance :-) And remember to check out my own personal challenge attached to this, where you could increase your voucher amount just by playing along.

And speaking of cards and challenges, I am the current Guest Designer at Mission to Create and they've recently put up the card version of the challenge. Go over and check it out for a chance to win some myStamp Box goodies.