December Mood Board at Jot Magazine

There's nothing better than Christmas crafting right? And the idea of a December journal of some kind (call it what you like!) is really appealing. When I saw the new Mood Board Challenge at Jot Magazine it became just the push I needed to decorate the front cover of my December not-quite-a-Daily notebook. Here's how it turned out....

As you can see, I took my inspiration mainly from the image in the top left. In fact, the notebook itself actually started off white, but I covered it in brown paper (just like those packages) and made sure I included a bit of string for good measure.

I mixed and matched some of my holiday-themed Sizzix dies to create the iconic car carrying a Christmas tree. I added a bit of an Aussie spin on things by using the Coastal Off Road die for my car. This is from one of the sets that Sizzix Lifestyle have released exclusively to the Australian and New Zealand market through Spotlight and they all feature summery and beachy themed shapes which of course is just perfectly timed! (Also... Spotlight happen to have them all on SALE at the moment too. Check them out here!!)

The Christmas tree is from an older Sizzix set which is sadly no longer available, but I'm fairly confident that anyone who has been papercrafting for any amount of time has some kind of Christmas tree stamp or die or paper they could cut out! Right?!

Anyway, that's what I created using the Mood Board as inspiration. Where does it lead you?

You can find all the details for the Jot Magazine December Mood Board challenge HERE.

Jot Magazine October Mood Board

I'm in love with the images Mardi curated for the October Mood Board at Jot Magazine. It totally makes me think of Spring, and creating this card had me feeling very happy!

Here's a look at the Mood Board. It's so soft and bright and airy isn't it? 

I was immediately drawn to the illustration of the little bird amongst the giant flowers and thought that recreating something similar on a card could be quite fun. 

But instead of just keeping the flowers flat, and having painted colours behind them, I took my inspiration from all the natural textures represented in the mood board and used wool felt instead. It was easy to cut the felt into these tiny little shapes with the help of my hole punch and some metal dies!

Which image inspires you the most? Come and join us for the October challenge at Jot Magazine and have a chance to win a voucher to the Jot shop! You can find all the details HERE.

Jot Magazine September Mood Board

It's time for another Mood Board challenge at Jot Magazine, and this is what I've made!

This is a bit of a variation on my normal go-to colour scheme of pink and aqua. This time it's mixed with navy and peach as well. I love how these challenges push me to places I wouldn't think of myself!

Here's what the Mood Board looks like:

I started my card first by pulling out some scraps of paper and a few embellishments that match the colour scheme. That's usually how I roll for these types of challenges! I then use them to dictate how the design of my card is going to go as far as focal point and sentiment are concerned.

But of course, I can't forget the mood board itself and on this occasion I draw inspiration from the vertical lines in the bottom two pictures. I line up squares of my patterned paper and then sew it all down with my sewing machine. I let the lines of thread mimic the vertical lines from the mood board.

I hope you'll join in with us for this September version of our challenge! You can find all the details for it HERE on the Jot blog!

What's an eMook?! The Story of Jot Pockets 1

Popping in real quick to share something exciting!

Have you heard of an eMook before? I have to admit that before this week I hadn't either! But my friend Kim Archer (the genius behind the hugely popular Jot Magazine) has just released one, and it's spectacular! It's called Jot Pockets and it's filled with inspiring ideas to help you create DO-ABLE pocket pages.

I downloaded my copy yesterday and I'm purposely taking it slow because every page has got me running to my scrap room to try out something new I've seen in it!

So if you're into memory keeping through pocket pages, or you want to learn how, then grab your copy for the special early bird price HERE.

xx

PS. An eMook is a cross between an eBook and an a digital magazine ;-)

Escape the Cold Winter with the Jot Magazine July Mood Board Challenge

I'd say "winter is coming" but I think it's well and truly already here! I'm literally sitting here wearing four layers of clothing and fuzzy slippers.
I much prefer the warmer weather. Give me sunshine, a sea breeze and a umbrella drink any day :-)

That's why I was inspired to pull together the July/August mood board for Jot Magazine with this tropical theme in mind. And the brightly saturated colours in nearly the whole rainbow spectrum are definitely me. Check it out....

Does it make you forget the cold... even for just a second?! LOL!
I started creating my card by piecing together this toucan which would become the focal point. We recently visiting the paint section of the hardware store and I just happened to pick up all the samples that coordinated with this mood board ;-)

I stamped the toucan from the Krumspring "Tou-Can Do It" set onto the various paint chips and then cut out different bits from each colour to put this together. I used my Sizzix Garden Greens Die Set (#661206) to cut out the leaves from all the green paint chips. I just love the unique texture these give to the card.

As for the punny sentiment... well I borrowed that idea off something I saw on Pinterest whilst I was putting together the mood board!

Care to join in with the challenge? Its running for the rest of July and August as well which will give you plenty of time to create something marvellously tropical ;-)
Evie from Funky Flair Studio is our sponsor - she offers "the best possible flair designs at the best possible price"!

Check out all the challenge details on the Jot blog HERE!

Jot Magazine Issue 18

I'm well behind in sharing and blogging, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to promote the latest issue of Jot Magazine. You know... just in case you've been living under a rock and haven't seen it yet! 

I had a few projects featured in the free digital magazine. My favourite was this layout I created about Judah's language development. The theme was actually about journaling, and since I had a lot to say on this subject I needed to make a crazy amount of space on my page to fit it all in!

But I didn't want the layout to be boring so I made the journaling into one of the feature points of the whole page. To create this effect I first traced around some giant chipboard letters, and then handwrote all my journaling around the outlines - stopping words half way through if necessary to make them fit nicely. I erased the outlines at the end so all I was left with was the impression of the word 'word' ;-)

The other things that made me happy about this layout is that I used up a really old Jenni Bowlin Studio kit to make it - and I still believe it looks as fresh and fun as if I'd used new product! And see the trees? They were leftover Sizzix "Woodland" diecuts from a failed first attempt at this card I made for a Mood Board challenge a couple of months ago.

The second project I made for the Issue was for the Pocket Pages gallery. I've never made a pocket page before, but you know me... always up for a challenge! And it was super fun!

The way I figured it was that I would at some point give this away, and I wanted the recipient to be able to pluck out any of the 3x3" cards and use them as embellishments in their own album. But at the same time I wanted the whole page to have a cohesive colour scheme, so I stuck with these green, red, yellow and woodgrain tones.

I took the opportunity to also have a play with some new supplies, and I especially love that little card with the moustache and tie. It's created with a new Sizzix die called "Looking Dapper".

And lastly I made a double-page spread for the Project Life gallery. I always use a new Issue to prompt me to hurry up and make another page for my album! This is the January spread for my 2017 album, so clearly I was really behind at the time.

The good news is, currently I'm up to Easter... so I'm slowly catching up to real time!

I used a combination of Studio Calico's January Documenter Kit "Roman Holiday", and the Bella Blvd Illustrated Faith collection "You Are Loved" to make the spread and I'm really enjoying the green, pink and black&white combo here.

Meanwhile, the whole issue is a whopping 188 pages in total so there's clearly a truckload of other inspiration to check out. Did I mention it's FREE?!! LOL!

You can download your copy HERE.

June mood board at Jot Magazine

June already! And winter is upon us!
I guess winter does make me think of crisp white frosty bejewelled colour schemes (a bit like snow!) and so this current Mood Board at Jot Magazine really does fit the bill.

Here's the card I made up as an example:

The two images in the mood board that inspired me the most were those gold rosette pinwheels in the bottom right corner, and the pearl jewellery the girl is wearing.

I had need of a winter wedding card so this was perfect timing for me, and so I wanted to keep my card very regal and elegant. I started with the background of white on grey - using my Neat and Tangled Scalloped Cover Plate Die to cut out a white 'lace' to overlap the pale grey background.  Actually, I attempted to make my own grey marbled paper... but as you can see it didn't quite work out!!

And then I wanted these really thick chunky textural gold flowers all overlapping one another, so I did a bit of a handmade job on those as well. I took some of that cardboard/chipboard you sometimes get in your scrapbooking order to prevent the papers from getting bent... and painted it with gold acrylic paint. Then I used my Sizzix Bigz Tattered Florals Die to perfectly chomp out all those little flowers.

Are you feeling inspired to play along? Anita from Flutterby Designs is our generous sponsor once again, so you know there's going to be an awesome prize on offer!
Check out all the details on the Jot Magazine blog right HERE.

Jot Issue 17

I am sooooo behind the times! I can't believe I forgot to share these here!
The last issue of Jot Magazine (Issue 17) came out at the start of March and it was the best one yet. Yes, I think I say that every time!

Here's some of the projects I had featured in the magazine....

The layout I made was for the No Adhesive gallery. I love the idea behind this which was to create a page using no sticky adhesive whatsoever. No glues or tapes, but instead you had to think a bit more creatively.

I thought this might have been quite difficult to achieve, especially for someone like me who likes to know everything is securely stuck down! I ended up using a lot of my sewing machine, but also brads and paper clips, and I was pleasantly surprised how fun and easy this turned out to be.

Next up was a card for the Hearts gallery. I started with this intricate die from Sizzix called 'Natural Love' and made it the focus of my romantic-themed card. I cut it with watercolour paper which meant I could slap some paint on all those detailed leaves.

The word 'love' is part of the die too, but I cut it separately from pink foam so it would add some dimension and form part of the sentiment. And from there the card pretty much made itself!

Last, but not least came this double-page Project Life spread. These can be on any theme and I chose to document the night our family went to our local Lights Festival. The colours of the photos were all a mixture of the black night sky along with bright saturated colours of the sculptures so I had to try and balance that out with my card and embellishment choices.

I also left plenty of space to document the story of the night, and instead of writing a series of snippets on each card that could be read separately I decided to do something a little different. I ended up writing a long 'essay' that just carried on from card to card when I ran out of space.

Jot Magazine is a FREE online digital magazine that celebrates memory keeping. You can download Issue 17 right here.

And watch out for Issue 18, because that's right around the corner! Here's a little sneak peek into what I've got featured in the next issue....

Jot Magazine May Mood Board

I continue to love working with the Mood Board challenges at Jot Magazine because it pushes me to try different colour combinations and new designs that I might never have come up with by myself. Here's the latest card I've created in response to the May Mood Board which has recently gone live.

It's a quite literal interpretation of the image of the hot air balloon sailing over the top of the snowy forest below. I was really drawn to the idea of the pop of vibrant warm colours of the balloon in the midst of the cold glittery icy scene around it.

What I also love about working with these Mood Boards is that I can mix and match products in my stash without needing to stick to the one designer (which of course I need to do for much of my Creative Team work) and it allows for so many possibilities.

For this card I clearly needed a hot air balloon and so I used a stamp from the Krumspring 'Adventures Ahead' set. I embossed it with copper embossing powder and coloured it with watercolours - adding lots of layers to get the really saturated look I was after.

And the trees were cut in grey cardstock with a Sizzix die designed by Tim Holtz called 'Woodlands'. I sprayed the tops with white ink and then added lots and lots of glitter.

Last but not least I found the perfect sentiment stamp in my Neat and Tangled collection. It's part of the very popular Origami Map set.

If you're feeling as inspired as I was by the Jot Magazine May Mood Board then you can find all the details on their blog over HERE!