The Story of Masters

I realise I haven't talked a whole lot about Masters here on my blog. I talked about it a lot as I was applying, I showed you lots of sneaks along the way, and lots of attempts at the criteria that I never ended up submitting. But I haven't discussed much about what it's been like actually being named as a Scrapbooking Memories Master for 2014, nor shown you any of the projects I've created along the way. So let me share a little bit about it now :-)

It is a topical discussion at the moment for a couple of reasons. For all 10 of us current Masters we're mourning the fact that our last assignment has been turned in and despite the fact that last project won't get published until December, it feels like it's essentially over for us already :-( But what that also means is that the new Masters have just been decided on and the phone calls have been made. There's 10 more excited people out there who have to bite their tongue and keep silent until it gets officially announced in another couple of months.

As Masters we are supplied with a package of one of the sponsors products every month. We're given an assignment which ranges from layouts to cards to journals to decorative items and we need to showcase as much of the product as possible. Here on this first layout I'm using a bunch of Flourish With a Bling stickers, and as this is a previous DT of mine I found it a nice and easy assignment ;-)

Sometimes, of course, the assignments don't come that easy. For example, I love October Afternoon as a manufacturer - as a whole I really enjoy using their products, and I was really excited that they were one of the sponsors. The prize we received from them was really generous and I'm so grateful to them.

But for our published project we were supplied with a selection of products from their Travel Girl collection and asked to make a double-page layout. The reason that was difficult for me is that I don't have a whole lot of travel photos. It's not one of the topics I scrap about to be honest, and this particular collection wasn't one I was mad crazy about.

So instead of scrapping some old travel photos from a previous trip that I've already scrapped before I decided to print off some stock photos from Google (copyright free of course!) and used them to tell a story of places I'd like to visit - obviously Japan was the destination I chose for this layout. Not a bad solution if I do say so myself, but I'm not sure that this will ever be an treasured layout to me.

Basic Grey were another sponsor, and they provided the Masters with all sorts of different new collections. Only 2 or 3 of us scrapped with the same collection, which made for a varied and interesting article in the magazine. I received the Kelly Purkey designed collection 'Mon Ami' which again is travel (and food) focused, and I wondered if I would again struggle.

But what I love most about these assignments is the challenge of taking some products that I might not ever choose for myself, or a theme that I've decided isn't 'mine' and then try and make it into something that represents me and stays true to my style as much as possible. I think I accomplished that with this Basic Grey layout, and I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

Part of the trick for me was to stick with some tried and true techniques and layout designs, and adapt them to the products I'm working with. As you might have noticed, this layout follows pretty much the same 'sketch' as the first layout. Photo on the left, matching sized embellishment cluster next to it, other bits and pieces leading out from all four directions. This is a design I've used many times before, but I just find that it works for me.

Lastly for today I'll share a layout I made with Manor House Collections. At the time they had just released their very first paper line, but they are best known for their flowers, and whilst all 10 Masters received the same papers, we each got different coloured combinations of flowers which meant our layouts still all looked quite different.

The papers are quite neutral so I concentrated on adding the colour in two clusters of flowers. I wanted to give the illusion the page was divided into two, so I kept all the pink flowers on top, and the turquoise ones on the bottom. It's an interesting effect I think, and once again the design is something I've used before so I think this page still looks like me, even if flowers aren't something I commonly use.

I did augment them a little bit with the addition of gesso and spray inks. That's another important aspect of the challenges I think, customising the products and making them your own so that it showcases the versatility of each one.

Well I've got lots more Masters projects to share as the time goes on. Part of the deal is we can't publish our projects for a defined amount of time after the project gets released in the magazine, so all of these ones I've shared today were published much earlier in the year. There's lots more exciting projects to come and I'd encourage you to check them out in the latest editions of Scrapbooking Memories which is now also available online if you're that way inclined ;-)

The Story of Scrapmatts and FWAB

Right back in February when I was still designing for my favourite Aussie embellishment manufacturer 'Flourish With a Bling' we teamed up with 'Scrapmatts' who make the most interesting and intricate chipboard. My projects were on both blogs at the time, but never made it here.

Better late than never I say!

At first you might not pick me for a bling and chipboard kind of scrapper. In fact, a lot of the time I would have trouble calling myself that too. But only because it usually conjures up images of the flowery-romantic-shabby-chic-vintage kind of style, and that's really not me. But both of them are actually quite versatile products and can be used in a variety of different ways.

What I prefer to do is a fun and whimsical and colourful style, and both FWAB and Scrapmatts offer that with their products. For this page I combined the FWAB Up in the Sky raindrops with Taylah’s toadstools and Silver Elise flourish (all links are at the end of my post) with Scrapmatts Butterflies, Kite and Birdbath to tell this funny little story.

You see, The Man thought it would be a great idea to buy a push-mower rather than a petrol one as it would be better for the environment and would encourage him to get out and exercise whilst he was doing it. In reality what it means is this... the grass in our backyard is now growing out of control to the point where my youngest even gets tripped up in it!

Each chipboard piece is first covered with gesso as a base, then I coloured with either acrylic paint or ink before finishing them off with Dimensional Magic, Liquid Pearls and glitter for a sparkle and shine!

The next thing I love about chipboard and the range of bling FWAB carry is that you can make them match any colour scheme you can think of. My second layout was slightly more traditional as I captured that magical moment of my girls watching a bride walk down the ‘aisle’ to meet her groom. They were so awe-struck and couldn’t take their eyes off her. I stuck to a fairly simple pastel colour scheme with pink, aqua and cream and chose my embellishments to match.

I kept my Scrapmatts birdcages white but coloured the birds brightly mauve and glittery so they really stood out. Then I let my FWAB add a lovely textural touch with the Grace Pearl flourish behind the cages, and the Wine Rhinestones as a twinkling border.

I was pretty good at incorporating lots of Jenni Bowlin products in this one too, and you can see a few papers from her Black & Red and Magpie collections as well as using Evalicious stamps on both pages as well. This was my DT page trifecta!!

There were a couple of cards I made for the showcase as well, but I'll leave them for another day.
Happy Scrapping :-)



Supplies:

The Story of My Last Hurrah

Sadly my time at Flourish With a Bling came to an end at the beginning of the month. It's been a great year with them and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to work for some of the nicest girls in the industry. As a last hurrah we were asked to make a layout all about ourselves!

To be honest, I don't actually find that sort of thing hard. I know some people struggle with it, but I just use it as an opportunity to make a sort of "dear diary" page. I knew it was going to incorporate a lot of (quite personal) journaling but I guess I don't shy away from that sort of thing either ;-)

As far as the construction of the page is concerned I wanted it to be true to my style with lots of linear layers, and a big emphasis on the FWABulous bling. I've used the latest JBS collection "Modern Mercantile" which in it's entirety has quite a Springy vibe with its greens, yellows and browns. But by choosing out the neutrals and blues I've taken it in quite a different direction. I've thrown on some Evalicious tags for good measure too.

If you're interested in the journaling you can click on the photos for a bigger image if you want to read it. In a nutshell though, it tells the story of the journey I've been on recently as I contemplate whether or not I truly want to be a doctor for the rest of my life. I've never really doubted it before, in fact it's something that I've known God was calling me to do since I was about 16. But I guess the reality of working so many crazy hours, the stress, the ongoing study, the recent exams is enough to just make me take a second look.

I don't know if I know the answer that will apply for the rest of my life. But for right now I know that it's still something I'm destined to do. I get reminded of it every time I have the opportunity to witness a new life being brought into the world. What a privileged position I have to regularly share couples life-changing moments and be the first human hands to touch a newborn. I'm not sure that I will ever tire of that :-)



Supplies:

JBS Modern Mercantile Novelties JBS Modern Mercantile Melange JBS Modern Mercantile Etcetera JBS Modern Mercantile Hodge Podge JBS Rubons: Canning Jar Fun JBS Rubons: Printers Block Alpha FWAB Jasmine Puffy flourish: Teal Evalicious My Week Label Tags Evalicious Escape Miscellany Tags

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