Tuesday 28 February 2017

Best Buds ~ K+ February 2017 Challenge

Hi, hi!! I'm back for the second time today with a quick share this time!

I have been meaning to get to the February Kraft+ challenge all month and the month has just flown by! I struggled with which photos I was going to use and finally decided on these of our cat and our neighbours cat!

If you haven't seen it already here is the K+ challenge for February


I have loosely followed the sketch but I love, love, love the colour combo here so was very inspired by that!

And here is my take


As always, I had fun stepping out of my comfort zone, as much as I love kraft I do struggle to use it so love playing along as often as I can!

Here is a quick close up!


Thanks so much for stopping by and if you have any questions, please dont hesitate to ask!

Happy scrapping!
Mel
xx

{Colour Blast} There May Be Something There ~ Art Journal Page

Hello, hello!! I'm here with you today sharing an art journal page I put together using some of the beautiful Colour Blast products!

Here is my completed page, can you guess which movie I was totally inspired by?! Haha


If you guessed Beauty and The Beast you would be spot on. It is after all my fave all time Disney princess movie and to say I am excited about the new movie coming out would be an understatement!

First up, a quick coat of Black Heavy Gesso - this stuff is gorgeous, easy to apply and when it dries it is beautifully smooth and black.


Next up a quick spray of the oh so pretty Bling Colour Shimmer Spray through a brick stencil. I then stamped off the excess back onto the page in a couple of places. (I totally got caught up in the process of playing and forgot an in progress shot but this is a close up of the stencil work after it had dried).


My whole reason behind creating this page was I had picked up this gorgeous Prima stencil and have recently received my DT order which included the Apple of My Eye Colour Paste and I just knew they were made for each other so I used both the Apple of My Eye and the Fire Engine Colour Paste through the rose part of the stencil and as that was drying I knew this was going to be my ode to Beauty and The Beast ;)


And so as not to waste any precious paste I had another art journal open, awaiting product. I flipped over the rose stencil and applied the excess to another page....


Next up, while all that beautiful texture was drying I worked on my title/quote. I decided to use some thickers but the colour didn't really work (LOVED the font) so I grabbed my Lipstick Colour Embossing Powder, my embossing ink and set to work.


At this point I added in my doodling for the jar with a white acrylic paint pen and also 3 more quotes from the movie with a gold acrylic paint pen.

I decided I wanted a little extra texture in the background so another stencil, this time with Bling Colour Paste, in 3 places. And I spread the excess off onto the other page, again, I can't bring myself to just wash this gorgeous stuff down the sink!! It was late at this stage so I left that to air dry over night.



The next morning it was all dry and I was loving how it looked. Time to finish it off!! I used my wet adhesive to stick down the thicker letters and some little clear alpha stickers for the in between words. 

I really love how this turned out, I do love to just play and see where I end up. Helps to have amazing products to play with!! 

Here are a couple of close ups and a link to my YT process video if you would like to watch my page come together.






Thanks so much for stopping by and have a fabulous day!


Melinda




Wednesday 22 February 2017

{ScrappingClearly} Cards with CVS - Free Spirit

Hi there scrappy friends!! Today I am here with you sharing a few quick cards I have put together using mostly scraps from the last DT kit that Kylie sent me. I had been sent the gorgeous Free Spirit collection by Cocoa Vanilla studio and had used a lot of the bits previously in a PL spread so thought I would challenge myself to use up the off cuts I had left!

Here are the 3 cards I came up with and I think all up it took me less than hour, though I wasn't timing myself!! I have had spent the last few days getting my computer up and running again thanks to a virus so I wanted something to do while I waited for the next screen to click, next, yes, no, blah, blah, blah!! And, as a total side note, PLEASE remember to back up!! I was fortunate enough that though I lost everything almost everything was backed up in my most recent back up!!

Now, onto the fun stuff!

My cards


I really had so much fun playing with all the little bits and pieces. And, aren't those flowers just beautiful!? I am currently trying to decide how (well, actually IF!!) I'm going to use the last 2 from the pack!

And here is a close up shot of each card







As you can see I have used the same floral in the background for all 3 cards. I started with a 6"x12" piece. The 3 bases measure (from top to bottom) 14.8cm x 10.5cm, 14.3cm x 10cm and 13.8cm x 9.5cm. One sentiment is from the sticker sheet while the other 2 were fussy cut from one of the papers and all of the other bits are off cuts or stickers.

I hope this inspires you to look at your scrappy left overs in maybe a little bit of a different light and get those scraps used up! 

Here is a list (including links) of all the products I have used:
CVS - Free Spirit - 12" x 12" Paper - Dreamy
CVS - Free Spirit - 12" x 12" Paper - My Way
CVS - Free Spirit - 12" x 12" Paper - Wildflowers
CVS - Free Spirit - 12" x 12" Paper - Word Jumble
CVS - Free Spirit - Sticker Sheet

Thank you, as always, for stopping by and happy scrapping!!



















Melinda

Wednesday 15 February 2017

Hello scrappy friends!! I'm here with you today using the beautiful February sketch for ScrappingClearly to create another Christmas page using the Pink Fresh Studio Oh Joy Collection.

Here is a refresher of the sketch designed by the very talented Peg, also on the DT



And here is my take on the sketch


This turned out differently to how I had imagined but I am super happy with how it came together and even though I had a couple of challenges, it made me think a little differently and pushed me to try something different ;)

If you would like to see the whole process please click below and you can watch my page come together:


Since I went with a white card stock background I did some packaging technique on the cardstock after applying a quick, light coat of gesso around where I knew the heart was going to be. I have used 3 Colour Blast sprays - Singin' The Blues, Apple of My Eye (both are shimmer sprays) and Love (flat colour spray) and some old plastic packaging.

I decided to pull out my colouring pencils (Prisma colours) and colour some of the shapes in the background in matching colours to the Oh Joy range and I have also hand stitched around the border of the heart in white embroidery floss.


You can see some of the gorgeous watercolour-y effect here behind the heart.


And also here. You see in the above photo that I have take a couple of paper strips and used a border punch and a border die to cut these pieces to layer under the photo's in place of the lace/ribbon that is in the sketch.


That's it for me for today! Thank you so much for stopping by and make sure you get your entries in for the fun February challenges over in the FB group here. Kylie has some awesome prizes up for grabs, as always!!

Melinda

Products used:
Pink Fresh Studios - Oh Joy - 12"x12" Paper - Under The Tree
Pink Fresh Studios - Oh Joy - 12"x12" Paper - Joyful Christmas
Pink Fresh Studios - Oh Joy - 12"x12" Paper - Tis The Season 
Pink Fresh Studios - Oh Joy - Acrylic Mirror Shapes
Pink Fresh Studios - Oh Joy - Acetate Pieces
Colour Blast - Colour Shimmer Spray - Apple of My Eye
Colour Blast - Colour Shimmer Spray - Singin' The Blues
Colour Blast - Colour Spray - Love
Heidi Swapp - Colour Shine - Gold Lame
Crate Paper - Bloom - Gold Glitter Thickers



Tuesday 14 February 2017

{Colour Blast} DIY Cards with the Valentines Pack's

Hello, hello!! I'm here with you today sharing the fun I have been having with my very own Valentine's Pack #2 from Colour Blast!!! 

Oh, the colours and products in this pack are just gorgeous - not to mention AWESOME value for money!!


Being Valentine's Day and having Valentine's pack's I figured I may as well create at least one Love Day card for my significant other! It is after all a special day for us as we had our very 1st date on Love Day in 2006 so I wish you all a very Happy Love Day with whoever you celebrate and however you celebrate!

Now onto the fun stuff!!

Here are the 2 cards I have created and I still have hearts left over so I think you will see them appear on other projects very soon!


There is a process video for you to watch if you wish, just click on the play button below!



And here are my step-by-steps, but most importantly I think if you are going to re-create this or something similar, have FUN and experiment with your products, this was a super fun way for me to play AND be productive ;)

First up I grabbed a scrap of white cardstock and used an embossing ink with the Snow White Colour Embossing Powder to apply some sparkle to the background before adding any colour.


I literally dumped the WHOLE container onto the paper to make sure I had even coverage. Make sure you tip the excess straight back into the container so you can use it later!

Next up, time to add some colour! I used the Candy Colour Shimmer Dust - swoon, I seriously love these Shimmer Dusts!! A tiny paint brush, a little sprinkle and then a wet big water colour type paint brush!


I did a few extra sprinkles of the Colour Dust and added water to get the effect I was after - which was a water colour, not even coverage and I LOVE how it came out!


Look at all that sparkle!! The Shimmer Dust has so much shimmer but on top of that embossing powder it seriously just pops off the paper <3 Oh, you may also notice some faint splatters - I simply dripped a few drips of water using my paint brush onto the already dry Colour Shimmer Dust then soaked the excess water up with a paper towel and voila, extra texture!

I felt like it needed a little extra detail so I grabbed some Staz-On black ink and a couple of stamps - to be specific, some stitched stamps and a text stamp. 


I stamped once after I inked up and then stamped off a few times until there was no ink left on the stamp with each of the stamps. Love the extra details stamping provides!

Onto the beautiful Colour Paste in Fire Engine - swoon - I love this colour so much!


A tiny heart stencil, some colour paste and more texture and a deeper pinky/red colour added. I popped this piece aside and let air dry and got to work on the backing of my card.


First up a piece of textured white cardstock - I am ALWAYS running out of or looking for black cardstock so this is a way to beat that problem and quiet possibly use up any old card scraps you have in colours you don't like ;) I grabbed what has affectionately now been dubbed my "black gesso brush"  and my  Black Heavy Gesso and applied a quick coat over the whole card front. This piece measures 10.5cm x 14.7cm if you are wondering!

This gesso applies beautifully, dries smoothly and dries super quick! Love it, I can see a lot of use in my future! 

I decided to add some shimmer to the black gesso using the oh so beautiful Snow White Colour Shimmer Spray through a stencil. I did "mess" it up a little but I certainly wasn't going for perfection! LOL! Love how this looks on the black gesso!


When my Colour Shimmer Spray was dried I added some more texture, again with the Colour Paste in Fire Engine and through a text stencil.


This got put to the side next so I could make my hearts. These were super simple to create! When the first piece of cardstock was completely dried I took my scissors and hand cut some hearts - I am a bit particular and like my hearts to be even so I trimmed a rough square off the card, folded the square in half and cut a heart shape. And if your not 100% happy with the shape its super easy to re-trim!


And here are all my hearts cut out!


I just love them!

When these were cut I started playing with the hearts and placement and came up with a sentiment. This very simple "love you" text which I decided to stamp in embossing ink and heat emboss with the Bling Colour Embossing Powder. So pretty, swoon!!


Time for assembly! I used a combination of tape adhesive, wet adhesive and hot glue to stick all the bits down. After I finished the first card I turned off my camera and put the 2nd one together. The biggest difference is that I used the Snow White Colour Embossing Powder through a stencil on the black gesso card base. And you can see that detail in the close up below!


And here are the cards, on their own


This is the one I created on video and have provided the step-by-step's for


And the one created off screen.

And here are a few close ups of all the texture and fun of the beautiful Colour Blast products!





As these Valentine's Pack's are only available for a short time make sure you head over here to pick up either or both packs and take advantage of the awesome deal that Tenisha has put together!

Thank you , as always, for stopping by and if you have any questions, please leave them in the comments section below!

Happy Colour Blasting!!


Melinda







Thursday 9 February 2017

{ScrappingClearly} Week One 2017 - February Mood Board Inspiration

Hi there scrappy friends! I'm here with you today sharing my take on the gorgeous ScrappingClearly February 2017 mood board, once again designed my very talented fellow DT member Peg Hewitt!

Here is the board again if you have not seen it!


All about the lovey stuff, awwww! I did avoid the purple - no surprises there but I loved the softness of the pink and the yellow. The picture in the top left reminded me of Summer and I just love that beautiful burst of sunlight in the heart!

I was sent the gorgeous Cocoa Vanilla Studios range called Free Spirit and I immediately thought it was a great match! I got to cutting up the papers and putting our first week of 2017 together for our Project Life album!

Here is the completed double page spread


Sorry about the glare, it is a bit tricky for me to photograph both sides together. But here they are separately

Left side


Right side


And if you wish to see this come together just click on the play button below to watch my YT process video!



I decided to use the WRMK pink embroidery floss also included in my kit to create some extra interest on 3 of the cards

This is our title card for the week


I loved how the word Summer looked in the font I chose to embroider with


And this photo is an absolute fave of mine! Love this memory - seeing the sheer joy and pleasure on my boy's face just made my day! Oh, and in case it needs clarifying, Mia is the horses name ;)


Also, on those 3 cards I brought in a little extra something using some Studio Calico gold sequins and some Ranger Flamingo Liquid Pearls (which I had never used before!) in a little cluster.

I have used my WRMK typewriter for all of the journalling and learnt that when using it, 1 layer of cardstock is just enough. If you put through 2 layers, it's a little trickier ;)

Thanks so much for stopping by today and make sure you get your take in for the gorgeous mood board challenge for this month over here in the FB group!

Happy scrapping!
Melinda

Products used:

Cocoa Vanilla Studios - Free Spirit - 12x12 paper Wallflower
Cocoa Vanilla Studios - Free Spirit - 12x12 paper Word Jumble (both sides)
Cocoa Vanilla Studios - Free Spirit - 12x12 paper Dreamy
Cocoa Vanilla Studios - Free Spirit - 12x12 paper My Way
Cocoa Vanilla Studios - Free Spirit - Sticker Sheet
Heidi Swapp Pink Glitter Alphas
WRMK - Pink Floss
Studio Calico - Gold Sequins