March @ Kraft Plus...

Hi again :) It's the start of a new month and I'm sharing my layout for the March Kraft+ Challenge. 

This month's challenge is a sketch... with a twist!

You must include a touch of houndstooth pattern somewhere on your creation.

Oh and don't forget about the Kraft base.

I knew I had a sheet of houndstooth paper somewhere in my stash (turns out it was half a sheet) but  once I laid everything out according to the sketch I didn't feel like the black and white houndstooth was enough so I printed more of the pattern onto kraft cardstock. 

I used a sheet of Studio Calico Transparency for the text part of the sketch and substituted the flower accents for a mix of frames and a gorgeous fringed heart from Crate Paper.

 Check out the fantastic projects the rest of the team has created over on the Kraft+ blog, and be sure to upload your creations by the end of the month for your chance to win this month's prizes!! 

Thanks for stopping by xx

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project life week 3...

Hi again :) I'm back to share another week in my 2016 album. As I mentioned in my last post, I am excited to have a plan in place for helping me stay on track with Project Life this year and once again I am using a fabulous mix of goodies from the Stampin' Up! Memories in the Making Project Life collection. 

Continuing from the previous week, I am once again using the 'Design 03' page protector from the variety pack - I'll add links to all the products I have used at the end of my post. 

I really like the format of the square pockets and have used them to add a few of my Instagram images into my album, as well as the middle pocket to document the dates for these pages - which I created with just a few stickers, a stamped banner and one of the fun wood veneer accents. 

As always I have used my computer/printer to journal directly onto the cards from the kit, adding a few pops of colour with a mix of stickers and stamps.  

For the second part of the week I was bit low on photos so I printed out a Tafe logo where my son is studying, took a weather screen shot to record some high temps, and also took a few 'filler' photos of everyday things like the price of petrol and the music my boys are currently listening to that might have otherwise gone undocumented. 

 

I didn't feel the need to add embellishments to all the photos for these pages, but just a few well placed stickers were a good way to enhance a few of the pics. 

I used the black and white alpha stickers to create a series of hashtag phrases over a few of my photos, adding a bit of extra stamping to a couple of the pics to help tell my stories.  

I once again used the tiny number stamps in a variety of ink colours to break up the printed journaling, and also used the cute washi tape from the kit to secure a die-cut journal tab to the photo.  

 In addition to the card and accessory kits, I also used the following polymer stamp sets -

  'Memories in the Making', 'Moments Like These' and 'This is the Life'. 

'Cards and Labels' and 'Paper Clips' dies, 

'Tempting Turquoise'  and 'Watermelon Wonder' ink pads, 1" circle punch.

'Variety Pack' Project Life Page Protectors.

 Thanks for stopping by and thank you for the lovely feedback for my last post.

Unfortunately my blog template prevents me from replying directly to your comments but I do appreciate every one of them xx

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project life week 2...

I had a bit of a light bulb moment a couple of weeks ago! As much as I love recording the details in my Project Life album, I noticed that this year every time I sat down to work on a new week I quickly became overwhelmed and couldn't get my pages to work. I had the photos printed and the stories ready to be told, but I just wasn't able to make it all come together. This was quite a big difference from last year where I had every week for the first 7 months of the year up to date and realised that the reason I was able to keep up to date because I was using kits!  

When I say kits, they don't necessarily have to be bought from a kit club or a particular company (although this will make it easier) - they can also be one that you put together from your own supplies (I'm sure you have enough of them!) but having a kit to work with eliminates the need to spend hours searching through your stash to find the right cards, then spending more time trying to find embellies to match. When you have a specific set of products in front of you, putting your pages together is so much easier. 

So now that I had figured out what was keeping me from staying up to date, naturally I jumped at the opportunity to play with a fabulous range of goodies from the Stampin' Up! Memories in the Making Project Life collection. 

The colours and designs in this range are simply gorgeous and I loved that not only do they include an awesome range of multi sized cards and cute accent pieces, but there is also a great range of coordinating stamps an dies too. 

Here's a look at how I used these products to document week two of my 2016 album. I'll add links to all the products I have used at the end of my post. 

For the top card, I used the alpha stickers directly over my photo, and added typed journaling with the help of one of the label dies. I used a mix of different stamps to add some extra detail to a few of the cards and photos and particularity liked the days of the week stamps from the 'Moments like These' stamp set, which I have used across both pages. 

I once again used the label die to create a place for my journaling over this photo, finished off with some hand stitching and cute enamel shapes from the accessory kit. 

The tiny number stamps were great for breaking up some of the journaling, and used one of the 'Paper Clip' dies and a variety of stickers to add some fun detail to the rain pic. 

Moving onto the second part of the week, this time using a 'Design 03' page protector from the variety pack. 

I added more stamped detail onto the journal cards, along with some wood veneer accents and gold foil stickers over a few of the photos.

The dye based ink pads were great for adding a hint of colour to the watercolour die-cuts from the accessory pack. I used a wet water brush to pick up some colour directly from the Tempting Turquiose ink pad and lightly coloured over the die cut for a soft water colour look.  

 In addition to the card and accessory kits, I also used the following polymer stamp sets -

  'Memories in the Making', 'Moments Like These' and 'This is the Life'. 

'Cards and Labels' and 'Paper Clips' dies, 

'Tempting Turquoise'  and 'Watermelon Wonder' ink pads, 1" circle punch.

'Variety Pack' Project Life Page Protectors.

 Thanks for stopping by xx  

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february @ kraft+...

A new month means a brand new challenge and this month the team at Kraft Plus are 'going postal'.

The challenge is to use postage stamps on a kraft base. 

I took the theme quite literally and decided to document the exchange of mail between me and my dad who lives in Poland. I used a few postage stamps from both Poland and Australia, and loved the way the postage mark patterned paper Kaisercraft tied everything in together. 

The title translates to 'Greetings from Poland' but I decided to write it in Polish to help document the story of having to relearn how to read and write the language so that I could exchange mail with my Dad who I haven't seen in over 30 years. Thankfully I can speak Polish fluently so telephone conversations are much easier ;)

As always there are great prizes up fro grabs for playing along, and be sure to check out all the fabulous inspiration from the rest of the team over on the Kraft Plus blog. 

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project life week 1...

 Hello again :) I am trying to stay on track with my 2016 album and am happy to have completed the first week of January. I wanted these pages to flow from the cover page I shared in my last post, and have kept the colours and products similar to what I used in the start of my album. 

I am keeping the format very similar to previous years, and although I am still using lots of embellies I don't want them to overwhelm the photos so am trying to be a bit more selective of what I add.

 As I have done in previous years, I am once again creating a title card to mark the beginning of each month, however I don't think I will be using these for each new week but will see how it goes. 

 I am once again using my favourite 'Bohemian Typewriter' font, but also trying to add a few more digital elements to my photos and cards, and was inspired by a card from Kaisercraft's 'My Year My Story' collection to create a vellum overlay for a cute Dear Lizzy filler card using ''Lillybelle" font I found on Pinterest. 

I used gold foiled accents throughout both pages, adding a few pops of peach to tie in with my cover page. 

Even though this was a short week, I had plenty of pics from our fishing trip and added a CTMH flip pocket to the page to hold a few extra photos. 

I have already started week 2 and hope to see you back again soon.

 Until then, thanks for stopping by xx

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project life 2016...

In an attempt to be more organised with Project Life this year, I decided to make a start on my 2016 cover page. I would normally have done this mid month so I would have time to gather up some January photos but decided to try something a bit different this year and left the photos out all together. I also decided to focus on the page as a whole instead of concentrating on each individual pocket and really like the results. 

The gold foiled vellum from the Dear Lizzy 'Documentary' collection was the perfect base for my page, although I did add some extra water colour wash to some of the white cardstock beneath the vellum to get a more even coverage of the beautiful teal colour. 

My favourite piece is the cute little chipboard house from the Crate Paper 'Wonder' collection that just happens to be the same number as our place :) and I thought that the glittered 'Our Story' chipboard from Mambi would be a perfect title for our album. 

I am using a 'Life is Beautiful' album from the Sunshine collection of Project Life and have decided to continue documenting on a weekly basis as I think it will be easier for me to work through each week individually rather than trying to take on a month's worth of photos. Wish me luck!!

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january @ kraft+...

I've got more scrapping inspiration for you for the start of the month, this time sharing my very first layout as member of the  Kraft+ challenges design team :) 

Here's the challenge... 

"Not many of us like our own handwriting, 
but this month at  K+ we  want you all to embrace it! 
Putting pen to paper and writing on your work puts a bit of YOU on your creations, something that future generations will cherish (no matter how messy you think it is)"

 I have never been fond of my own hand writing and mainly use typed journaling on all of my work so this was definitely not what I would call an easy challenge for me. I knew that for it work, I wanted the page to focus less on my actual style of handwriting and more about what had been written and was happy with my decision to break up the journaling into black and white blocks and alternate between block and script lettering to go with my 'more & less' theme for the page. 

Be sure to stop by the Kraft+ blog to check out all the fantastic ways the rest of the team have used handwriting on their pages, and don't forget to get your layouts linked by the end of the month for a chance to win some awesome prizes! Thanks for stopping by xx

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january @ scrap the boys...

Happy New Year!! I am starting the year with my final post as part of the Scrap The Boys design team. It's been a great year filled with lots of awesome challenges and I am finishing off my term with my take on our January mood board.

The mood board wasn't an easy one for me as I discovered that I didn't really own many purple products despite really liking the colour. I did have a perfect photo though and used this as my starting point for the page, combining bits and pieces from my stash with all the colours from the board. 

I recoloured a pinkish tag with a lilac pencil to match the photo and because my supplies were limited, I decided to use layered strips of various patterned papers from my scrap drawer. I added a few small tags to the layers and even created my own paper for the star pattern using a stencil and purple ink.  

 I used a large Crate Paper polaroid frame to bring more attention to the photo and added a few pops of gold to give the page some shine. 

If you'd like to play along, then be sure to link your layouts onto the blog by the end of the month to go in the running to win this month's prizes.

Thanks for stopping by xx

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