D-lish Scraps June moodboard

Hi there and welcome to my blog today!

I just wanted to drop in super quick and share a couple of cards I made using some more (most of the rest!) of the D-lish June Sweet and Sassy Just Add Paper kit for their monthly challenge :)

I did a little mixed media in the background of one using a stencil, some Singin the Blues Colour Paste by Colour Blast and some Glass bead Glitter gel by Faber-Castell. After I had the effect I wanted on that card front I flipped my stencil and used my brayer to give the background of my second card base some texture and colour.

Here are my cards

I added in a doily, some thread, some twine and that very pretty stamped and die cut flower from my stash and came up with this design.  This is the card I used the stencil on first and you can mostly see the detail in the top left and bottom right corners :)

And a close up of the detail.

And here is the second card

And a close up of the detail of this one

Thanks so much for stopping by today, that's it for me!

I'm now off to enjoy a 4 day scrapbooking retreat, so excited!

Happy scrapping!

Mel

xx

Playing with some Hip Kit products

Hi there and welcome to my blog today!!

I was lucky enough to win a give away over on Instagram by @flisw way back in November or December last year. I won (I think!) most of the November kit and oh my, it is beautiful! Full of some of their exclusive papers and also the gorgeous Pink Fresh Studios range . 

I knew I wanted to use this kit for Christmas/December photos from last year and actually printed out some photographs I wanted to use to take on retreat in February but got totally side tracked and didn't get around to them! I did however make sure to take the kit and the photos on my last retreat in early June and though these were not completed at retreat the basis of both of them came together for me at retreat.

Enough jibber jabber though, here are my 2 pages!

This first one is the one I came up with the idea at retreat :) 

I always have my photo taken with Santa (I think I missed a year or possibly 2 between the boys) and last year was no exception! I found Santa with 2 elves wandering around Adventure World when we went there as a family last year for my hubby's work family Christmas party and asked if they minded if I took a selfie ;) 

I have used one of the gorgeous exclusive papers for this page and also those exclusive teal coloured puffy alphas by Pink Fresh. I knew I wanted to hand stitch the rest of the title and came up with this:

I have actually used a Heidi Swapp cut file I had cut with my silhouette months ago as my stencil. I taped it down with washi and then pierced holes all around the edge. Then spent an hour or 2 in front of the TV with a needle and thread! Love how it came out in the end!

The Pink Fresh ephemera pack and puffy stickers are just adorable and all those silver glitter pieces are so, so pretty!

Onto the 2nd page

Another of the HKC exclusive papers (so, so gorgeous!!). I didn't realise until I went to photograph them that I had picked both of the papers with the diagonal stripe but oh, well, these 2 I think were my most fave. I was a little sad to not use the back side of this paper but seriously, how could I resist that star paper? I have also added a little sprinkle of Heidi Swapp gold colour shine :)

A little gold thread for some interest and texture with those adorable die cuts, enamel dots and puffy stickers.
Oh, and that "joy" die cut has been popped up on foam :)

And these thickers, swoon!! Every person that walked past my desk when I had these out stopped and commented. They are so pretty and shiny and the font is just perfect! Oh, and that mouse!! Total cuteness!

A couple of pretty simple layouts but I love how they both turned out and can't wait to get stuck into the rest of this kit! Thank you again Felicity!!

That's it for me for today! I have started working on another process video, I was totally overwhelmed by the positive feedback on my 1st so am pumped to do another!!

Happy scrapping!
Mel
xx

Colour Blast Design Team Entry 2016

Hi hi! As the title may suggest, this is my entry for the Colour Blast DT call for 2016!

I only have myself a couple of the gorgeous Colour Blast products but I love them!! I have 2 of the colour pastes - Bling (such a pretty shiny gold!!) and Singin the Blues (another gorgeous colour!) and they are so awesome to work with! And I was super surprised at how quickly they dried!

Here are my 3 current projects and a few things about each of them.

First up I will share the page that I created specifically for this call and created my 1st process video for (you can find that here) Sweet and Sassy

For this project I used both of my colour pastes along with some Faber-Castell Glass Bead Glitter Gel through a stencil to create my back ground. When that was dry I added in some splashes of hot pink Heidi Swapp colour shine and also some splashes of the singin the blues colour paste mixed with water to create a more liquid product. I also added in some splashes of Heidi Swapp colour shine in Navy at the very end.

All of the embellishments came from the June "Sweet and Sassy" Just Add Paper kit.

Here are some close ups:

I really wanted to try to get an up close and personal shot of the gorgeous texture in the background. This photo shows the fun texture but still doesn't really do the Bling colour paste much justice, it is so, so, so pretty and shiny and gold IRL!

Onto my next layout

This one I very recently shared on my blog and entered the Kraft+ June "It's a puzzle" challenge. All of the details can be found in this blog post here but a light coat of gesso and some mists and plastic packaging to create the background. And I backed that cut file with a 6x6 paperpad as my main focus :)

And for my 3rd project another very recent share! 

This was my last share for Scrappingclearly and something a little different. Clean, straight lines and lots of hand stitching :) You can find all of the close ups and details in this blog post on the Scrappingclearly blog or here on my own blog :)

Thanks for stopping by and wish me luck!!

Happy scrapping!
Melinda
xx

Kraft+ It's A Puzzle Challenge

Hi there and welcome to my blog today!

I am sharing my take on this month's fun challenge over at Kraft+ - "It's a puzzle" - include puzzle pieces on your kraft project!

I umm'ed and ahhh'd for quiet a while over this and then decided to use a cut file paired with the gorgeous Amy Tan "Better Together" 6x6 paper pad and this is what I came up with!

I knew which photo I wanted to use so went with the blues, greens and and a few pops of yellow from the collection knowing that I had that pop of red from the umbrella in our photo :)

A little bit of white gesso in the background so that my mixed media colours were seeable and off I went with the very trusty packaging technique. I used the butter and peacock Heidi Swapp colour shines mixed with some water for all of the colour in the background.

You can also see in the above picture that I sewed all around that heart - even through all the pieces in the middle - that was tricky!! - but I am super happy how it turned out!

After googling "puzzle quotes" I came up with my title "It's always the small pieces that make the big picture" and love how it came out! Even though I did have to cheat a tiny bit to get a 3rd "E" :D I ended up sewing down those little black alphas using yellow thread.

I also pulled in some clear stickers my MAMBI in both black and white - there are the 2 arrows here and that little sentiment on the flowers in the bottom corner in white.

I used some light blue thread in a few places around the layout for some fun added texture. You can see 2 spots above, behind the 2 little flower clusters. Which I fussy cut from the 6x6 paper pad.

And a close up of those little flowers with that thread behind the heart and photo. You can also see here that there is a couple of layers behind the photo - again I used the paper pad and also some vellum.

Another little cluster and for some reason I really, really love how this part of the page came together. Some more blue thread, fussy cut flowers and also a couple of cut aparts from Flutterby Designs that I have had in my stash for way too long. Oh, and another clear white MAMBI sticker.

And last but not least, the little cluster on the left of the heart :) More thread, another clear sticker and also some tiny talk word strips by Tim Holtz. There are also a couple of those tiny talk stickers up on the photo :)

Well, that's it for me, I hope you enjoyed your visit. Thank you for taking the time to stop by and take a peek at my layout!

Happy scrapping, till next time
Mel
xx

Brothers make the best mates

Hi there and welcome to my blog today! 

My very talented father in law took this absolutely gorgeous photograph of my 2 boys at a sleep over a few weeks back and I couldn't wait to scrap it!

I knew straight away I wanted the photograph to do the majority of the "work" on this page so have gone very clean and simple and have used the absolutely stunning Maggie Holmes Bloom collection.

Here is my completed page

As you can see I and I said earlier, I have gone very minimal on this page but I did hand stitch that title. Which took like, forever. BUT I LOVE how it turned out and love this whole layout. 

I have used the gorgeous reverse side of the "Flutter" paper for my background - I had to stock up on this piece - one for the butterflies to be fussy cut, one for this gorgeous side and for, well, it's pretty, so "just in case" ;)

And here is a close up of the title area

I have paired my hand stitching with the gorgeous gold glitter thickers from the collection and also the XOXO from the ephemera pack.

I don't think a more accurate photo of these 2 together and their love and sense of fun and cheekiness has ever been taken!!

I used a piece of that gorgeous gold vellum to back the photo and also a doily from my stash. 

I've pulled out the "so sweet" and "love you" little word strips from the ephemera pack. Also, that gold glitter heart and the yellow heart.

You can't see it at all but I have attached a little envelope behind the photo for me to put in a letter to the pair of these boys to find when they get bigger. I didn't want to add any extra to the page but I wanted them to know what this photo means to me as their Mummy :)

And here is a shot of the envelope hidden behind and between the layers

I think I said it already but I seriously love this photo of them and love this page! My FIL managed to capture so much more than their smiles in it and when I first saw it it brought a tear to my eye :) Yep, I'm a sook, haha!!

Thanks for stopping by and happy scrapping!

Melinda
xx

PL 2016 catch up!

Hello again!

I just thought I would pop in and get a start on sharing our 2016 PL album since we are in week 24 already and I am only up to week 7 so I don't feel like it's too late to catch up sharing here!!

I will go chronologically and link to the weeks that I have already shared/blogged :)

Ok, so first up, our 2016 cover page you can see here.

On the back of that page I have enlarged a photo of the 4 of us to fill 2/3 of the page protector and along the bottom I have made 4 3x4 journal cards for a little journalling for each of us - as some of this is personal I haven't photographed but I love how it turned out!

WEEK ONE

Since week 1 was only a 3 day week (I do like to keep all of the year in the same album/s) I only used 1 page protector in design E. Again I wanted to use up more of the Wild and Free collection by Glitz designs :)

WEEK TWO

I used the Shimelle True Stories collection here - both the 6x6 paper pad and the 12x12 paper pad mixed in with some stickers, some print and cut labels and some Amy Tan vellum alphas. The alphas were mounted on some white paper and fussy cut. I also decided that my pages needed some stitching and added in some using some shiny silver thread in a simple straight stitch :)

 Left hand side

 Right hand side

Title card

Week Three can be found here. I did this week as a DT page for Scrappingclearly using the fun Life In Color range by Simple Stories :)

WEEK 4

I have used here Shimelle Laine's newest collection Starshine. When I started putting this week together I only had the 6x6 paper pad so for the most part I have used only that :) I did add in some pretty glitter foam thickers and some October Afternoon Mini Market alphas.

Left hand side

And some close ups's of the left hand side

 A piece cut from the 6x6 paper pad cut apart sheet

The flower was a gift from a friend at the last retreat I went on and it just went perfectly ;) Thanks Angela :D

Right hand side

A flip pocket on the right hand side. Love these things, perfect for adding in just one more photo or some extra journalling!

Another flip pocket - this is the "title" card I decided to do as there were some more personal words I wanted recorded here. I don't mind if someone flipping through the album takes the time to read them but it's something I feel isn't necessary to share on the world wide web. I decided that my own more personal feelings/thoughts should be recorded somewhere that is not my diary so my boys as they get older can see the Melinda version of Mum :D

Week 4 also has an insert which have used a G design PP for and also the Starshine collection this time paired with not only the cut apart pieces from the 6x6 paper pad but a couple of sticker sheets that were on my desk from a goodie bag recently received at a retreat :)

Week 5 can be found here. I used the gorgeous Cocoa Vanilla Hello Lovely range and put this week together for a fun iNSD challenge over at Scrappingclearly.

WEEK 6

I went pretty simple with this week - I'm not really sure why I did but I'm calling it done :) I have used the Kiwi PL edition and decided to pull on the orange and tealy/aquay/blue colours in the kit.

 Left hand side

 Right hand side

Title card

Filler card - I saw this on my FB feed during the week and it was just too appropriate for me to not use!

So, that is where our album is currently sitting with "completed" weeks. I have an insert to do for week 6 - my big boy started year one and my little boy started Kindy Kids - 3 year old kindy so these things MUST be documented!!

I have photo's in page protectors up until week 14 and photo's and cards in page protectors up until week 11 so hope to get some more time to play with our album! I have discovered the more I create the more I WANT to create so yay!! 

If you would like to see more of my process or have any questions please let me know in the comments or pop over to my FB page here and ask away!!

As always, thank you so much for taking the time to stop by my blog and extra special thanks to those that leave comments, I love getting feedback :)

Happy scrapping!
Melinda 

xx

Party Like a Superhero

Hi, hi and welcome to my blog today!! I am super excited to share this page!!

I was sent the stunning Starshine collection by Shimelle - it has finally landed in Australia but be quick to pick yourself up some of the bits before they are all sold out!! I have been awaiting this collection since it was first released at CHA earlier this year and it was so worth waiting for, Shimelle, you have totally nailed it again!!

Ok, enough with my fan-girl, love the collection talk and onto the page I created!

This page actually started as an experiment! I was on a local scrappy retreat and had taken along some white card stock and my fun new Bling Colour Blast paste. I picked up a 12x12 stencil while at retreat and figured what better time to have a play!!

The Colour Blast paste went on beautifully and dried super quick! As the colour dried it became more beautiful than what you see in the pot and honestly, if you want a gold texture paste, give it a go!! It's really difficult to see in the photo's but I also mixed some of that texture paste with water to make it quiet fluid to add some gold splatters along the diagonal from the top left to the bottom right.

I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with the page while I was still on retreat so I brought it home and went through my stash of photo's keeping in mind that I was desperate to cut into the Starshine collection. I pulled out these photo's of myself and my niece and myself with my bestie (and also my niece's Mum) at their joint birthday party from January - they went perfectly with the collection!

I used some blue acrylic paint mixed with water and some plastic packaging to create that water coloured background and LOVE how it turned out!

Here is a close up of the photo cluster

My page warped HEAPS so I decided to mount it on that red "Juno" paper since I had used the blue paint in the background.

I cut apart some of the boxes from the "Galileo" paper and layered those in a fun, messy way behind my photo's, chopping bits from all of the rectangles so I could use them in multiple places behind the photo's. The camera's are also fussy cut from one of the papers - "Pathfinder" and that little tab is from the "Orion" paper. I also pulled some red thread from my stash to bring a bit more red into the page. 

You can also see here in the top left corner some of the splatters using the bling texture paste mixed with water.

The title is mostly made up of letters from my stash - the classic blue and red (glittery of course!!) superhero colours with a little bit of black. The blue letters are actually these ones by Heidi Swapp :)

A close up of some of the detail of the stencil and blue water colour.

You can also very faintly see the lighter gold flecks from the water/texture paste combination.

And one last photo at a different angle!

I love, love, love how this page turned out. And though it was hard to cut into those much anticipated papers by Shimelle I am so pleased I got to play with this collection and my new gold texture paste! I can't wait to pull it out and play some more!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Melinda