project life week 6...

I am still quite a bit behind with my album, but happy to have finally started February and am sharing week 6 along with some tips for creating custom journal and filler cards over on the Sassy Scrapper's blog today. 

My pages are based around the Simple Stories 'Heart' Collection, which includes cut apart cards, patterned papers and stickers all in one 'Simple Set'. 

Head over to the Sassy blog for all the details of the products I have used as well as the tips to help you create your own custom cards. 

Thanks for stopping by xx

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April @ Kraft Plus...

I can't believe how fast April has come around, but I love the start of a new month because it means a brand new challenge is reveled on the Kraft+ blog! 

The challenge this month is to use a mix of black and white along with inspiration from the mood board to create a project on a Kraft base. 

I have always loved the look of black & white and was inspired by the gorgeous work of @wildhumm on Instagram to create some geometric pen detail over a painted background. 

I was also inspired by the frames from the challenge pic and hand cut a few from patterned paper from Maggie Holmes 'Shine' collection, which I dressed up with some stamping and watercolour detail.  

Check out all the fabulous samples from the team over on the Kraft+ blog, and don't forget to upload your layouts by the end of the month to go into the draw for this month's prizes. 

Thanks for stopping by xx

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life in color...

I am still playing with the fabulous Simple Stories 'Life in Color' collection from the Sassy Scrappers store and because I loved the way this range worked in my project life album, I decided to also use it to create a 12x12 layout. 

The colours from this collection were perfect for this pic of my little guy who recently turned six, and I loved that there were so many great pieces to create some layered embellishment clusters. 

Check out the Sassy Scrapper's blog for a link to all the products I used as well as a few extra close ups of the details. 

Thanks for stopping by xx

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color, stories, inspiration...

Sassy Scrappers are one of the sponsors for this month's CSI Challenges, and I was very happy to have the opportunity to contribute a page for their latest case file. 

The colour scheme is not one I would normally choose for myself but it was fun to try something new, and I was surprised that I actually had so many of the colours in my stash. 

I used quite a lot of the evidence pieces on my layout including, stripes, speech bubbles, Polaroid frames, hearts, clouds, vellum, animals and ink splatters

I focused on journaling on a speech bubble from the testimony of this case file.

Upload you entries for this case file by the 8th April to go in the running to win some awesome prizes!

Thanks for stopping by xx

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project life week 5...

I am happy to have completed the final week of January and have shared a bit of an insight into the process I use for making various products work with my photos (even when the colours don't necessarily match) over on the Sassy Scrappers blog today. 

Once again, I have used a fabulous mix of products from Simple Stories 'Life in Color' collection

Check out my original post for more details.

Thanks for stopping by xx

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project life week 4...

I am super excited to announce that I have joined the Sassy Scrappers design team!!

 I will be creating various Project Life pages throughout the year and have shared my first post over on the Sassy blog using the awesome new 'Life in Color' collection from Simple Stories to document week 4. 

  Head over to the Sassy blog for close up pics and all the detail of the products I have used from this gorgeous collection.

Thanks for stopping by xx

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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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