December Daily Days 22-24. Nearly there!

Hi there!!

So, I think I shared here a couple of weeks ago that I have finally finished my December Daily for 2014. We have had a pretty crazy couple of weeks since then, last week of school holidays (thank goodness they ended!!) and, obviously, 1st week of school for 2015. A big one for us as my big guy has started full time school, yup, 5 days a week school. I can't believe my child is big enough to be at school full-time already but THAT is a whole nother story all together!!

I am here sharing days 22-24 of our DD. I haven't taken close up shots of anything but I have taken shots of each page and each spread sitting in our album. Also, finally got around to taking photo's of our Pixie inserts!!

So, photo heavy post but I hope you like it!!

Day 22 was a very hard day for me to document. It was Pop's funeral and, well, it was the funeral of a loved one, what more needs to be said?

I found a story un-related that I wanted to share but also in my journalling mentioned that it was the day we laid Pop to rest.

Days 21 and 22 as they sit in the album

Pretty simple page again but I just copied the embellishment cluster from the front of the 3x4 printed acetate sheet so it couldn't be "seen" from the front.

I have shared both of those pieces of art work on another blog post and if you would like a closer look/more info pop over here and have a squiz :)

Day 24 was spent at my in-laws as our "Christmas" with that side of the family. I totally forgot to take any photo's there so have worked with the few that I took before and after and one that was taken by my sister-in-law.

Day 23 and page 1 of day 24 as they sit in the album.

I adore this photo of me and my family that was taken on Christmas Eve. I added a few bits and pieces but wanted to keep the focus on the photo so again, nothing OTT.

Page 3 of our day 24. I adhered a little vellum envelope from TSS kit and popped in a couple of things Pixie brought along with her in the morning as it was her last day with us. I also used a shipping tag, added some of that gorgeous tinsel ribbon from the kit and popped my journalling on there.

Pages 2 and 3 of day 24 as they sit in our album.

The very last spread for day 24!! New PJ's and of course, milk, cookies and carrots!!

Page 4 of 24 as it sits in the album.

There is the last insert with Pixie's photo's sitting directly next to this page and I will share individual front and back photo's of the 3 of those at the end of this post.

My original idea for this post was to share all of the rest of our album but honestly, I don't know when I thought I would get the time to pull it ALL together at once so hopefully, this is the 2nd last post of our DD with the last post to come hopefully in the next week!!

I hope you have enjoyed seeing our album so far and honestly, though I love it, I cannot wait to move on completely from it!!

Thanks, as always, for stopping by!

Melinda
xx

I graduated!!

Hi there!!

Just wanted to pop in and share some very exciting news with you!

I have been joining in the fun over on the Kit and Clowder website and am currently enrolled in the Skin & Hair, the Clothing and the All About Animals Technique Classes as well as the brand new Perfecting Pencils class. I finally managed to make the time to complete the Skin & Hair class and have officially graduated!! 

Here is my graduation certificate, which I am totally stoked with!!

My final class images, which I am so proud of!

And my "before" and "after" class images. 

I can't believe the amount of depth I am now able to achieve when I colour and I  couldn't have come this far without the amazing class's and the very talented and supportive Alyce. So, again, thank you so much. I am slowly working through the Clothing Class next and have a bit of a peek in both the Perfecting Pencils and the All About Animals classes. Here are my before images for those classes. 

I can't wait to get the chance to have a "proper" play soon and see the results!!

As always, thank you very much for stopping by and if you are looking for colouring classes, I seriously cannot recommend Alyce and her classes highly enough!!

Happy scrapping!

Mel

Xx

Project Life with Dusty Attic and a Sweet 16th

Hi there!!

I am very excited to share with you some of our Project Life from 2014 that I have slowly been catching up on!! It has been a very long journey getting this far with 2014. Long story short, my Pop passed away on 16th December and my love for/desire to do PL disappeared around the same time. But, it is slowly returning and with it some fun with some Dusty pieces and also paint!

I shall start with our week 49

Being the 1st week of December and me being a Christmas lover lots of red and Christmas themed bits and pieces over the double page.

The left side. All about 1st December - a few highlights!

I have used 2 of the chipboard alphas on this page - the "Mini ABC Set Upper Case" and the "Teeny Tiny ABC Set".

This title had a couple of different layers on it when I decided I need to change it up to work in better with the 2nd page. As the card was already all put together I simply pulled out my versa mark re-inker and a paintbrush, painted the alphas and sprinkled on some gold embossing powder, heat set and voila.

These alphas I applied a coat of gesso then used my gold wink of stellar brush to add some gold and some sparkle. Not that it is that obvious in the photo....

The right side. I was able to squish most of the rest of the week onto this page!!

Here I have used the "love this love that arrows" and "word pack 6" - absolutely perfect for my 2 little ratbags!!

I have actually separated the 3 layers of this piece, easily, by soaking the piece in water (ta-da, one piece is now 3!!), waiting for that to dry - I do have to confess to using my heat tool ;), then applying the piece to my versamark pad and sprinkling on gold embossing powder and heat setting.

Also, just to share, that is my awesome goodies from Jen to play with over the next little while which I had received that week in the post - squeal!!!

Again with the gold embossing powder but this time I did not separate the word.

Moving right along.

Next I am sharing with you the front side of insert I included for week 49.

Not a great deal of embellishing but there are some more of that awesome "teeny tiny ABC alpha" and also a mini banner from the "mini banners" set.

This time I simply used a sponge dauber and the gorgeous "vintage gold dusty in colour" paint. I couldn't get it to photograph so that you can get a really awesome idea of the shimmer in this paint by wow!! I totally love it!!

This banner was treated the exact same way! So pretty and shimmery IRL!

And our last page that I have completed for 2014 to date is our week 50.

You would be correct in assuming there is no chipboard on this page but I went to town with that gorgeous gold paint on most of the cards on this page!!

So, this is the left hand page. 

For most of the paint on this page I have used dollops of the paint straight onto my craft mat mixed with a little bit of water to make it a teensy bit runnier and easier to spread/paint around the edges of the cards. I have applied that technique around the "wishlist" card top right, painted a layer over the "Santa selfie" card before I stuck anything down, around the edges of the of the next 2 cards and then around the edges of the striped card 4th along. Again, around the edges of the bottom left hand card.

You can also see a few gold splatters on both of these cards. Again I have used the gold paint but this time added more water - about 50/50 paint water, mixed it up with my paint brush and splattered it along the card.

Our right hand page.

Again, more paint around the edge of the top right card, the 2 black cards along the middle and the white layer on the middle card in the middle row.

Such an easy and fun way to add sparkle and shine and pull the whole layout together!!

And just a bit of a close up of the detail along the middle row!!

That is all of our PL I have to share with you so far this month but I do also have a card to share!!

My gorgeous niece turned Sweet 16 on 28th of last month!! 16, holy smokes batman, where on earth has that time gone?! But I found this gorgeous digi stamp called Kira by Saturated Canary and it reminded me of my beautiful girl so I HAD to use her on a card!!

I had so much fun putting this together with her in mind! I did txt her to check her fave colours and purple and green it was!! I have used some 6x6 papers by Pink Paislee from the Colour Wash line along with some gold glittered enamel dots, purple flowers, a few pieces from my stash and that gorgeous "mini view finder" along with the "mini feathers" from Dusty.

The mini view finder was very simply versamarked and heat embossed with gold embossing powder. The feathers, I decided to separate the layers as I didn't want the card to be too top heavy. After that I applied a quick coat of gesso - like I said, I learnt something at my latest class - then went to work with some purple water colour paint. Though I am not a purple fan I am so happy with how these turned out!! Those purple flowers pulled it all together for a card that I loved making and my niece loved!! Yay for giving cards that are loved!!

That's it for me for today!!

Make sure you play along with our February mood board challenge for your chance at a $100 voucher to the Dusty Attic store.

Happy Crafting!!

Mel

xx

Life Zesters February Challenge

Hi there!! Today I am sharing with you my take on our challenge for February!

Totally LOVE this challenge!! I had intended on cracking out my Simple Stories "Good Day Sunshine" range for summer and this worked PERFECTLY with the challenge for this month!

Before I share my work with you here are our sponsors for February

We have 3 awesome prizes up for grabs this month!!

Firstly there is a Charms Creations Project Life Kit - I LOVE Charm's handmade embellies!!

A Funky Flair voucher to the value of $10.00

And The Scrappery are donating one of their February Pretty Little Kit's - value of $30.00 including postage

So make sure you play along and link up your Wood inspired PL pages to our blog for your chance to win one of these awesome prizes!!

And onto my layout!

I worked on our Week 1 for 2015 which was only a 4 day week - 2 of those days were "holiday" days - 1st New Years Day and the other the 2nd was us travelling home after our mini holiday.

Here are my 2 pages together

My left hand page

I have totally loved including BIG photo's in my spreads of late and this sunset (the 1st of 2015) was BEAUTIFUL - the photo's don't do it justice really!!

I found this tutorial months ago and I use it ALL the time!!

I am not on a Mac and use PSE10 so I go to Image > Resize > Canvas Size and change my sizes there. Seriously, the easiest way to have enlarged photos in your PL album without the big price tag of printing enlargements!!

The bottom left pocket also has a flip flip attached with journalling and another photo included.

And onto the right page

I love, love, love the fun, bright colours of this range mixed in with that woodgrain!!

And some close ups

More stickers from the range (I got the collection pack which includes the papers, some overlays and 2 sticker sheets) and also a cork piece from the Elle's Studio Hello 2015 range.

Love this fun little camera logo!! I have popped a red heart from the sticker sheet onto a pop dot and stuck that in the middle of the shutter :)

It's not very clear in the photo but I have added a layer of glossy accents to the ampersand for a bit of a texture change from paper. Again, I love the bright colours right up next to the gorgeous wood grain!

And another sticker I have popped up with some pop dots and I also ran some yellow washi behind :)

Make sure you stop on by the Life Zesters Blog to see all the fun inspiration that the other girls have come up with and also make sure you stop in and like the FB page here! And get your entries in for a chance at the fun prizes!!

Thanks for stopping by and happy scrapping!!

Mel

xx