The Story of One

Following on from my post about the extremely yellow page I did the other day, I must have subconsciously continued on with the monochrome idea when I whipped up this layout on a whim soon after. It's not truly monochrome though, there are lots of other colours in here, but certainly pink is the dominant colour.

I tried to balance it out a little with some cream colours, and I ended up using the pop-out letters from the Fancy Pants stencil that was in my original yellow page. I didn't consciously plan that similarity either!

What I did have in mind when I thought about the design of this page was the idea that I should cluster cluster cluster everything in the bottom half, and then leave the top fairly plain. After I had layered up my papers (Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm collection) I started hunting through my embellishment box for anything and everything I thought would work. So there's quite a mish-mash of older product here which I just love because it means it's finally getting used!

Another fun moment came when I stood back at the end and looked at my finished page and decided the original white stickers that spelled "one" weren't as prominent as I needed them to be considering it was the key word for my layout. The little photo collage here on this page is from my niece's first birthday party last year, so I wanted the "one" to be rather obvious. After thinking red might be a better choice I wanted to try it out first before I committed so I lightly stuck them over the top so I could see how it looked. Happy with the result I then figured why bother with the fiddly task of trying to remove the original stickers and I just mooshed the red ones down over the top! 

I was also still feeling very glittery following my glitter binge as the American Crafts Guest Designer and the letters got a bit of a sprinkling to finish off! Speaking of which, I really must be back here soon to share all those projects I made. Can't wait to show you.. and there's also the countdown for the next Studio Calico reveal so that'll be coming real soon too :-)

The Story of Color Theory

You might have seen recently that Studio Calico have released a new line called "Color Theory" which I think is an extraordinarily good idea. It expands on the Essentials line that was just released at CHA. What they've done is choose 12 core colours and then created a range of embellishments, paper and ink in each of them. Let me show you some examples...

These are the new release ink pads - one for each of the 12 core colours. They've got such cute names too, like Yes Peas, Well Red, Mint Hint and Deja Blue! I can't wait for these to land on my doorstep. I was lucky enough to order them when they were available as a set, now you have to buy them individually.... but it's not difficult to put all 12 of them in your cart ;-)

And here's the paper pack. It's designed by Tim & Beck (the creative genius' behind Sassafras, and now a brand in their own name) and it's got a subtle polka-dot pattern through it, so it's not completely plain. 

I'm lucky enough to already have a selection of the Essentials collection though... a whole great big jumble of delightfully bright and colourful embellishments. Yep there's sequins, alphabets, buttons and enamel dots amongst others. The idea is that you can then mix and match, or choose a colour to suit the project that you're working on at the time.

One of my weaknesses in scrapbooking (which I've openly admitted here before) is that I'm just not very good at coming up with my own colour combinations. You heard me talking just the other day about how scared I am of monochrome layouts right? With no graphics or art degree behind me I never learned proper colour theory, or what the 'rules' are. I just go with what I think looks good. Unfortunately that doesn't always work out for the best!! That's why I love scrapping with kits so much... because then someone who knows what they're doing has already decided for me what colours will look good together. Not even joking!

When Studio Calico announced that the March class was going to be "Color Studio" I signed up straight away. I'm pretty sure it's going to be one of the most useful classes I'll ever take! Lisa Truesdell is a genius when it comes to colour combinations and I can't wait to gain a tiny slice of her knowledge. What I'm also looking forward to is the way she's going to apply this to approaching kit work too. I watched this video here and it got me very excited! Oh the possibilities!

If you want to join me in the classroom then you'll need to sign up real soon as the enrollment closes on Feb 28th so we can start on March 4th. Apart from all the lessons, PDF's and videos there's also bonus digital cutting files, stamps, planner pages and printables. Some of which I might have already pre-emptively cut and printed ;-) Find out all the info here.

The Story of Guesting for American Crafts!

Ok, so this is where my scrapping journey reaches an even higher pinnacle. Being a Guest Designer for American Crafts?! A great big YES and a whoooo hooo! And where it gets even better is that American Crafts is celebrating glitter week.. and you all know how much I love glitter!! It's like they knew I was coming and planned accordingly ;-)

Here's a sneak of each of the projects you're going to see over on my guest post. I ended up with 2 layouts, a card, a mini-album and a home-decor item. That's what happens when inspiration hits... a great big whirlwind of creativity hit my scraproom and I didn't stop until I was done!

I absolutely loved creating with the Dear Lizzy Polka Dot Party, and Amy Tangerine Cut & Paste that I received. It's much easier to work glitter into your projects than you imagine. And it doesn't have to be as 'messy' as the layout above. Here I let the wet glue run down the page and then sprinkled loose glitter all over it (and myself, and everything else in sight). It was so worth it though, that sunflower yellow is the best!



The first sneak, the scripted 'she' uses a similar technique of painting on glue and then sprinkling glitter. I love it because of it's vibrancy. But if you're not into mess, then consider trying Zazz glitter glue instead, like I've used on the cutlery set above.
 

A little messy just because it's wet, but if you're careful about not smearing it you won't need to worry about having to clean up at the end. My card (above) is a little hard to see from this angle, but I've used Pow Glitter paper, while the mini-album below uses the Glitter Tape.

So if you're interested in seeing all my complete projects, pop on over to the American Crafts blog and say hello. There's a chance to win your own truck-load of glittery products on this post too. And stay tuned for more glittery inspiration from the team over the coming week, they're sure not to disappoint ;-)

Happy Scrapping,
xx

The Story of My Monochrome Fear

I'm sharing this layout today over on the Jenni Bowlin Studio blog. You can see it here! But meanwhile I thought I would share some different thoughts about it here on my blog too.

Do you think this counts as a monochrome layout? Ignoring the pops of red of course. But the rest is pretty much all white, cream and yellow. I'm pretty sure most monochrome 'rules' allow you to include neutrals like the black and white too right? I only ask because the idea of creating a monochrome layout scares me, and if I had sat down to scrap with the intention of monochrome then this layout never would have been born. The panic would have set in and this would probably end up a jumbled mess that wouldn't make it to my blog (let alone the JBS blog!)

I think the fear originates from my early scrapping days where I attempted monochrome before I was ready. I didn't understand the 'rules'! Dull and boring layouts were the result! I still don't think I know good principles for their design (something about small, medium and large patterns perhaps?) although I do know that you need to include a lot of texture, and that's something I like to do anyway.

So what I did sit down and have in mind when I created this layout was the brief for the JBS blog this month which is to create something about your Love Lists (reasonably obvious for February right?!) Share something about the people you love, the things you love, the activities you love etc etc. Now that's a brief that I can get on board with! And it's only because the August Papercrafting Kit and August Artisan Kit (these are on massive sale at the moment by the way!) that I decided to use were absolutely packed full of fabulous yellow and white heart motifs that this layout almost assembled itself ;-)

I particularly fell in love with the Fancy Pants Stencils from the Artisan Kit and decided it would make a great title just as it was. I popped out the letters though and you're going to see them on an upcoming layout too! No way they were going to waste, so stay tuned for that. And guess what? That layout is almost monochrome too when I come to think of it. Pink though, not yellow. Oh my... I guess I've just conquered my fear! 

The Story of my "Failures"

I've been having quite a lot of scrappy success lately. If you're a reader here you'll know that I've been blessed to have been offered some amazing opportunities this year. If someone had told me a few months ago that I would be a Scrapbooking Memories Master, be on the Studio Calico Creative Team, as well as continuing as a Jenni Bowlin Ambassador I wouldn't have believed them. I'm also lucky to be a Guest Designer for Kellie Stamps, and I've got more amazing Guest Designer news to reveal later this month too!! This is not supposed to be taken as me gloating, but rather so you can appreciate the contrast I'm about to share.

You see, I realised that even though I've openly shared all the good news here, I haven't been as up front with everything else. I guess what doesn't always reach blogging status is the 'failures'. Failures is actually most definitely the wrong word. I do NOT believe that if you apply for a Design Team and you're not offered the position that you're a failure. There's plenty of reasons why you might not have been chosen (this time around) and none of them have anything to do with the value of your work. So let's be more honest about these things... don't you agree?

Let me start the ball rolling.
Late last year I applied for the Elle's Studio Design Team, and I didn't get it. I also applied for the Glitz Design Team, and I didn't get it. I submitted layouts for publication and they weren't picked up.
There. That wasn't so bad ;-)
I don't apply for everything going around. I only apply for positions where I believe the product is something I would otherwise pay for, product that I use already, product that fits my style. I think that's only fair. And not being accepted isn't something I take personally. I don't feel offended or rejected. And you better believe I'm going to try again when the call comes around again!

So here I am sharing one of the pages I made for my Elle's Studio submission. It came together easily because all of these supplies I already had in my stash. It's mainly from the Cameron line. Stamps and tags... my favourite! The page features a photo of my sister and her family celebrating their new baby. Love their creative photoshoot hey?

Well what do you say? Anyone else got anything they'd like to get out into the open? It's very therapeutic!!

The Story of February 14th

Hurray for love! We've got some friends who've decided to get married on Valentine's Day this year which is super-exciting. Seems like a good day to get married right?

The February Studio Calico Sugar Rush kits are filled with perfect supplies for me to throw together a card for the occasion. Hearts of course was where I started. I love the plastic wonky hearts that came in the Main Kit. They're soft and flexible and have just the right amount of opaque-ness (surely that's a word?!) in my opinion.

Then there was the white-on-kraft die cuts that come in the Main Kit too. Because there was actually the word 'February' I decided that I could incorporate the description of the wedding date right into the card. Maybe it'll help serve as a reminder of their anniversary in years to come ;-) Yep, 11 years on in my own marriage and my husband still sometimes gets confused about our anniversary.

The other papers I used for the card actually come from the Rock Candy Add On Kit. This kit is unfortunately already sold out. The Add On Kits all went in record time this month - they were soooo popular! The Main Kit is still available though. But just a reminder, if you're a subscriber you actually get first dibs on the Add Ons as you get exclusive access 12 hours earlier than non-subscribers. That's a great way of helping you secure what you want at reveal. 

There's some great offers on at the moment if you want to sign up for a subscription....

Use the codes: HFSTAMPSB if you sign up to the Scrapbook Kit, HFSTAMPCARD if you want to sign up for a Card Kit subscription, and HFSTMPPL if you're Project Life Kit inclined! The offer is valid until the 26th. Click right here to sign up!

But wait! There's actually an even better offer if you're already a subscriber! I'm fairly confident I'm going to take advantage of this one myself ;-) I really want to start getting the Card Kits as well!

Use the codes: SB4TEN to add a Scrapbook Kit subscription, CARD4TEN to add a Card Kit subscription, and PL4TEN if you're thinking of doing Project Life this year. Again, the offer is valid until the 26th. Click right here to sign up!

The Story of 5 Minutes More

I made this layout nearly a year ago now, but in one of those awesome moments of scrapbooking it got picked up for publishing before it even made it here onto my blog. It went live in the January edition of Scrapbook Trends (which I still unfortunately haven't been able to access to be able to see it for myself) but it means I can now share it here finally!

A great mix of products here, in a range of lovely soft colours. Can I say that? I think if you asked me if I like scrapbooking pastels, or if I did it a lot I would automatically say no. Probably because I tend to assume pastels equal baby layouts, Easter themes, or those lovely shabby-chic romantic pages. None of which I'm particularly prone to doing.

But on this layout I wanted to make the stamped triangle pattern the focal embellishment of the page and at the time I was super-keen to use my new stash of Prima Chalk Inks. They blend so nicely together and stamp so nicely. I used the 'Favourite Stamp Set' by Kellie Stamps (still available... and on sale now!!) and repeatedly stamped the triangle 'my life' stamp over my page.

I actually took that stamp and mounted it on my acrylic block backwards so that I was able to just stamp a plain triangle in order to create my pattern. Only on a few select areas did I turn the stamp around and use it properly. A great little technique that could be used with plenty of other shapes too.

Oh and in case you're wondering.. yes I chose that lined paper deliberately so I could consciously use it to help line up my images and keep my pattern from wandering all over the place ;-) It's one of the reasons why I add the Studio Calico Grid Paper to my order every month - I need the straight lines!

The story behind the layout is a little bit less romantic and clever. But it is Real Life, and I'm sure most parents can relate. It's about how my kids love to have some 'screen time'. TV, DVD's, the iPhone, iPad.. whatever. If it's got moving pictures on it then it's entertainment right? Games or shows, it doesn't really matter. And whilst we realise the importance of limiting the amount of screen time they're exposed to sometimes it's rather tempting to allow them just 5 minutes more... 'cos it also means peace and quiet for Mummy and Daddy ;-)

Sugar Rush Reveal Part 2

It's HERE, it's here! The Studio Calico Sugar Rush Kits are now ON SALE to everyone. You really should rush because these are bound to sell out quick :-)

I blogged my first 3 layouts here, and now it's time to show you the rest. I just could not stop creating this month! Part of it was because I had more time to play around this time, but mostly it was because these kits really spoke to me. They're just my style and colours! And even though there's a bit of a romantic Valentine's Day theme to them you'll notice that none of the following 3 layouts have anything to do with love!! Well... not in an obvious way!

4. "Things to Remember on a Bad Day"

I used mainly the Gum Drop Add On for this layout, with a bit of the Main Kit thrown in too (the pink alphas, cloud, deer, and plastic hearts). It started with a story I wanted to tell. Well, not a story as such. If I wrote in a diary then this would be a diary entry, but I guess that's why I scrapbook instead. It serves the same purpose for emotional therapy by journaling it all out.

I don't think scrapbook layouts have to always be sunshine and lollipops. I think they should be real life. And real life throws you some bad days occasionally. That's why I thought the stamp in this Add On was perfect for my page, and why I turned the Gold Dipped Leaves into raindrops by trimming off one end to suit the theme better too.

Earlier this year I had a really difficult week at work. It's easy to forget that the field of Obstetrics has difficult situations and bad outcomes too. And usually when it's bad in Obstetrics... it's real bad. I won't go into the details but it really rocked me emotionally. The type of rocking that made me think thoughts like 'is this what I really want to do for the rest of my life?'

And then came a moment that reminds me why I love this job and why I get so much satisfaction from it. Ironically it started off difficult too... a baby's life hanging in the balance. It was stuck in the birth canal, giving us only minutes to try and deliver it. After some nail-biting moments of watching others attempt some manoeuvres I was able to rush in and try a different technique to deliver this baby safely to it's anxious parents. The impressed and grateful Dad asked what my name was (yes in the emergency of the situation I had failed to introduce myself properly!) and immediately named his new daughter 'Natalie'. What an honour! What a life-changing moment! Yes I love my job!!

So the pages of journaling are hidden behind my photo in this type of book which is attached to my page. It allowed me all the space I needed to write it all out, whilst keeping the details obscured from view.

5. "Countdown"
On a much lighter note my next layout is about scrapping my New Years Eve photos!

I've used the whole mix of kits on this one. The papers, Amy Tangerine stamps, Silver Triangles and Chipboard Cameras are from the Jelly Beans Add On. The kraft die-cuts are from the Sugar Rush Main Kit, whilst the Gold Alpha Stickers and Clips are from the Gum Drop Add On. The Chipboard Stars are from Rock Candy Add On, and did I mention there's a digital stamp on my photo from the Card Kit Digital package?!!

It was all those gold and silver bits that made me think of celebrations, and New Years Eve was a recent one obviously! It was one of the first opportunities I had to test out my new dSLR camera and I was really happy with how these photos came out. I'm no expert, but it sure makes a difference from my iPhone pics ;-)

6. "Mr Whippy Came By"
My last layout took me right back to the beginning again as the only thing on here that's not from the Sugar Rush Main Kit is the Silver Triangles from the Jelly Beans Add On.

Inspired by the Ice-Cream Die Cuts from Life Love Paper, I used those Silver Triangles to represent the cones, and Enamel Dots for sprinkles. That was a little genius moment if I do say so myself ;-) I literally did a little fist-pump when I thought of it!
But if you follow me on Instagram then you're probably asking yourself how did a layout about ice-cream make me teary?

The story goes like this: it was my niece's 1st birthday and we were having a party in the sunshine. There were lots of kids around and plenty of family too of course. Suddenly we heard the chimes of a Mr Whippy coming around the corner. I bet he wasn't anticipating having 25 customers at one stop, but it was the perfect moment for us! As we go rushing out the front to buy ice-cream my Grandmother states "can I have one too? I've never had Mr Whippy before and I'd like to try it". 80-something years my Grandmother is, with all that life-experience behind her and I still get the privilege of sharing this 'first' (and possibly only) moment with her.

So there you go! Have I convinced you to fall in love with Sugar Rush as much as I have?! LOL!
Check out the whole release here, and perhaps sign up for a subscription so you don't miss out on a thing (think: shopping 12 hours earlier, exclusive deals, freebies, and more!)

Happy Scrapping,
xx


Sugar Rush Kits and Coordinating Supplies I Used:

Sugar Rush Scrapbook Kit Rock Candy Add On Gum Drop Add On Jelly Beans Add On Sugar Rush More Colour Sugar Rush Printables by In a Creative Bubble Sugar Rush Printables by Hello Forever Love You Cut Files by Hello Forever Sugar Rush Cut Files by Life Love Paper Sugar Rush Lili Niclass Digital Stamps Sugar Rush Card Kit Digital Stamps Sugar Rush Project Life Digital Stamps More White More Vellum Mister Huey's Inky Black Mister Huey's Garden Mister Huey's Ocean Mister Huey's Double Yellow StazOn Black Hero Arts Shadow Ink: Pool Hero Arts Dye Ink: Blue Dew Drop Ink: Platinum Planet Prima Chalk Ink: Old Rose Versamark Watermark Ink Zing Embossing Powder: White Tiny Attacher Martha Stewart Glue Pen Precision Pen Glossy Accents This to That: Foam Circles

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