"Sweet Girl"

Hi there!!

I am here today sharing with you a traditional 12x12 layout I made during the week of my beautiful niece from her year 11 ball earlier this year.

I recently placed my 1st order with Aussie company Cocoa Vanilla Studios and I was so excited to get playing with their brand new range "Life Is Beautiful", full of pretty floral's, butterflies and some gorgeous blue's mixed in.

Here is my completed layout

That floral in the background was too beautiful to use only as the background and have covered up so I did indeed gut the middle of it and you can see some of it peeking behind the layers behind the photo.

I have used some of the new texture paste and a new feathers & arrows stencil by Dusty Attic as a subtle addition to the white cardstock. I have also used some very light blue gelatos and the plastic packaging technique to bring out the blue of the dress.

You can see the stencil work and the light blue of the gelatos a little better in this pic :)

The florals are from the ephemera pack and so is the word "sweet". I have pulled a couple of the veneer pieces and also some of the enamel dots. I have used "Worn Jeans" fluid chalk ink to do some stamping - stamps from Kellie stamps and also an Ali Edwards Story Stamp set. And, of course, a roller date stamp. And some gold Heidi Swapp colour shine.

A manila tag and some twine from my stash. Butterfly charm from the collection and some scrap paper behind the white cardstock to work as a pocket for my journalling. Which, I promised my niece, she will one day appreciate the words I have written but at 16, well, need I say more?! Haha!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I do have another layout to share with another of the Cocoa Vanilla ranges but the photo's I have to work with are a bit average. The other layout is about my littlest guy and is using the very cool "Made Of Awesome" range so hopefully with the sun shine today I can get some decent photos!!

Happy scrapping!!

Melinda

xx

September (already?!?) with Dusty Attic

Hi hi! I'm here with you today sharing my projects for September for Dusty Attic!! September, really?! How did that happen?

Anyways, I have 2 projects to share this month - a traditional 12x12 LO and a double page spread with a 12x12 and a PL style page for my littlest guys album.

First up my 12x12 LO! I have had this idea in my head for ages now and am so pleased I finally got it done!! I made a collage of some of my favourite photo's from 2014 for the cover of my 2015 diary and also had the same collage printed as a 6x6 photo for this page. 

I have used the Simple Stories Daily Grind range, which I thought was the perfect fit for this type of page!! I got the collection pack so have all the papers and a couple of sticker sheets.

I applied a messy coat of gesso after I stuck some of the papers down and then applied some mist using some plastic packaging and "stamping". Some stamping with black archival ink, some layers behind my photo, a "flip", some magnets and of course those gorgeous Dusty pieces which I have applied some versamark ink and gold embossing powder to.

As I mentioned, a "flip" mechanism (simply a piece of scrap cardstock scored in half, the ends trimmed into a "v" shape and then adhered to the layers where it can't be seen) which holds my journalling and also includes a photograph of my Pop who passed away in December 2014. I have cut a slit in my page protector so that it is easy enough for people to read the journalling when (heck, IF!) they flip through it. I have also hidden some little, very strong magnets in the paper layers so that it all sits nicely when closed.

A close up of the chippy pieces in the top left corner

And the chippy piece that is peeking out from under the photo layers

The chippy pieces I have used are as follows:

2014 Year In Review - DA1092 

Mini View Finders – DA1080

Mini Captions #1 - DA1279

Mini Captions #2 - DA1291H

So, onto my other project for this month!

These are the pages for Hunter's album for March 2015.

As I have mentioned previously I am (slowly!!) working on my boys albums in a month to month format to capture their personalities, quirks and developments. I aim for 1 traditional LO and 1 PL style LO for the month so 2 12x12 pages all up.

Here are both pages together as they sit in the album

I have used the Heidi Swapp September skies PL kit, ephemera and one of the 12x12 sheets of paper.

The left side

I love, love, love how this turned out!! 

Firstly I did some work on the background of that paper. I applied a light, messy coat of gesso with my finger then applied the mists and gelato colours I knew I was going to use on the chippy piece (which are Heidi Swapp navy and peacock colour shine and a green gelato from my stash) again using the plastic packaging/stamping technique. Then I did some splatters all around and finally some stamps using a couple of roller date stamps and black archival ink. 

I have applied the mists and gelato that I have watered down to use as water colours to that background chippy piece after applying a coat of gesso. A couple of coats of white paint to the title pieces, some ephemera pieces, some of the little squares from the cut apart sheet in the 6x6 paper pad and some enamel dots.

A closer look at the centre of the page where most of the design is

And a close up of the background chippy piece

And the title pieces

I realised after I took the photos that there was no journalling so I have tucked a little shipping tag near the top at the back of the LO which also has some twine so people flipping through can see it's there.

And the right hand PL side

I didn't really take any photo's of the individual pockets but I really LOVE how my title card turned out - simple, yet effective so here you go!!

The chippies pieces I have used are as follows:

Triangle Panel Small - all of the mini triangles have come from this

Mini ABC Upper - DA0861N

Mini ABC Lower - DA0862

Love You Arrows - DA1070O

Mini Captions #5 - DA1308I

Word Pack #6 - DA1187

That's it for me for today but make sure you pull out your chippy and play along with the (yet another!!) gorgeous inspiration board for your chance at a $100 Dusty Attic voucher!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by and happy scrapping!!

Melinda
xx