CUT to YOU | Merry Christmas | A Scrapbook Layout

Hey everyone and happy 4 days before Christmas!! The big question, are YOU ready?! For a change, I think I am!! I can't wait for Christmas morning with my boys, the joy and wonder on their faces is priceless!!

This is my last post pre-Christmas (I think lol) so I'd like to quickly take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas!! I hope that wherever you find yourself and however you celebrate you have a "good enough" day filled with more happiness and love than you wish for!

Now, onto my share for today, which is another Christmas 2017 page and I've used the beautiful Merry Christmas Script cut file from the CUT to YOU store.

I have, of course, used the digital cut file which meant I could make the cut whatever size I wanted and I, in fact, part designed my layout in the Silhouette software so I could get my cut file just the right size! You can pick up the Custom Cut file here.

Isn't that photo of my boys just so cute?! This was taken last Christmas Eve, just before bed, after they said goodbye to Pixie (our Elf on a Shelf) and left milk and cookies for Santa. And carrots for the reindeer of course ;)

I have kept this page pretty simple. That big title, painted with black gesso and backed the stars with some gold glitter paper, paired with that gorgeous gold foiled paper for my background I thought looked so pretty together, I didn't want to cover up too much!

I've pulled a bunch of stuff from my Christmas box mainly focusing on colour. I have some Teresa Collins tags and word phrase stickers, some flair from Cocoa Vanilla Studio and some stickers from Heidi Swapp. You can see how I store my Christmas supplies in my process video as I pulled it out to hunt through for pieces for this page.

The only mixed media I added was tiny black splatters with some ink and a little paint brush.

I added a couple of lines of journalling and my page is done!

Looking at these photos of my boys and seeing their faces on Christmas morning takes me back to my own childhood. The wonder, excitement and pure joy in the magic of believing and I just hope that they believe as long as I did. Or still do, but, shhhh, don't tell anyone lol

I hope you have enjoyed this page and I will be back again very soon with another share, perhaps even before 2019 comes along. Which, just quietly, I have some sneaky, fun things planned coming in January, stay tuned!

Until next time, happy scrapping and have a safe, love filled Christmas!

Melinda

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CUT to YOU | Merry & Bright | A Scrapbook Layout

Wow!! It is practically the middle of December already and I cannot believe how quickly this month is flying by. Heck, 2018 has just disappeared! I hope you are managing to stay on top of the crazy this time of year, so far so good here, however school finishes tomorrow so my tune may change lol

Anyways, I am here today to share my latest creation for CUT to YOU and yep, it's a Christmas page! This month CTY is again sponsoring the Scrap The Girls challenge blog with this inspiration board and I was inspired by the black dresses with the pops of those fun Christmas colours.

Here is my page

I have used the super fun Merry & Bright digital cut file for this page and built my whole design around it and am really happy with the way it pops off the black! I did try it on a couple of patterned papers and also on white but I really do love it on the black!

I knew I wanted to use the cut file right in the centre of the page so working on that idea I pulled out my white gesso, watered that down and added splatters all over my background. I then pulled out my gold mist and did the same. I left that to air dry and continued working on the rest of my page.

I really struggled at this point to find photo's to scrap!! This was, after all, for Scrap The Girls, and the majority of my Christmas photos have at least one boy in them but after a bit of searching I found these silly Christmas Day (evening) Snapchat Elf photos of myself!

I backed the word and and also the star with some gold printed acetate (I may have stocked up on this, shhhh!!) and then left the cut file alone.

A few messy, textured layers behind my photo including some gold washi strips, some gold machine stitching all the way around the frame of the cut file and voila, my page was done!

I have a process video available for this page which you can watch below.

I did add a few extra bits and pieces after I turned off the camera including some gold holographic star stickers, a red chippy arrow and a little circle chipboard piece in black that says "hi" and then I was done!!

I hope you have enjoyed seeing this page come together and make sure you head over to the CUT to YOU store to get your hands on this awesome cutfile. Remember, you can buy it as a custom cut or as a digital cut file!

See you all very soon! Until then, happy scrapping!!

Mel

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K+ December | Stitched Christmas Cards

Hello, hello and welcome once again to my blog!

Today I have my next December share and this one is for the very awesome K+ Needles and Pins challenge for the month!

It took me a little while to work out what I was going to do for this because I do love to stitch on my pages; both hand stitching and machine stitch. But this month I thought I would give my sewing machine a bit of a work out and make some cards!

What do you think?!? I just LOVE how these guys came out in the end! And they were fairly simple to create too, BONUS!

You can see my process (sorry, not my machine stitching, my machine is on the other side of my craft room) below if you'd like to see them come to life!

Here are some photos of each of my cards

And head over here for both the rest of the DT inspiration (oh my, total gorgeousness!!) and to load up your take on this month's fun challenge. I can't wait to see where this challenge takes you!

I hope you have enjoyed my share today and until next time, happy scrapping!!

Mel

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STB December 2018 | Naughty or Nice | A Scrapbook Layout

Hey everyone and happy December!! Yikes, December already!!!

My first share for the month is my take on the Scrap The Boys December challenge and though this page is different for me I really love it!

I was inspired by the title on the graphic for this month so ran with that!! What better thing to scrap than a photo of a child with Santa?! So I pulled out one of my page kits and got to work and here is my finished page.

It's a very clean page for me but with a few layers. I especially love the colour scheme which I may not have come up with had I not gone through my scrap box to make up my kits! And I love the different alphas I got on the page with my title!

Here are a few close ups of my page

And my process video link

Please, if you have not yet hit that subscribe to my YT channel button, do so! I am only 10 subbies away from that elusive 1000!!

You can find all of the rest of the rather amazing DT pages over here on the STB blog and make sure you head back there to load up your take on this months fun challenge.

I have another share coming up very soon so make sure you pop back for that one! Until then, happy scrapping!

Mel
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CUT to YOU | Life Is Better With Coffee | A Scrapbook Layout

Hello everyone and happy hump day!!

Today's share is for CUT to YOU and brought to you by the "Coffee Love" cut file available in the store!! As usual, the cut file is available as a Custom Cut or a digital cut file!

I have to admit, I do love getting the digital cut because I can cut my designs however big or small I choose and I decided with this page to go GIANT!!

I knew immediately when I cut this design that I had this coffee kit from Funky Flairs Studio in my stash so went ahead and pulled colours that worked with the kit! I haven't really done anything fancy with the cut file, just picked some pretty paper to back it. 

My background was just a few splatters in matching colours to the top left of where the cut file would live on my background and the bottom right.

I added in a few layers behind my photo and also remembered that I had cut the lovely Open Leaf cut file a bunch of times in a bunch of sizes and thought why not?! Haha! Leaves and coffee work, right?! The custom cut can be found here in store!

They don't really have anything to do with anything but if you really wanted to make a connection the photo was taken on a lovely warm spring day....

I decided to colour 3 of the leaves and I again used the same colours and technique on the leaves as I did the background though I added more water to leaves to get the colours to move and mix a bit. I have used brown and gold only on the leaves.

I have made a process video for this page and you can view that quiet easily in the browser simply by pressing the play button!

I do want to put it out there, however, that I am chasing 1000 subbies over on my YT channel (by the of the year hopefully!) so if you haven't yet subscribed, please do so!!

I hope you have enjoyed my process and I will be back again soon with some more shares! In the mean time why don't you head over to the CUT to YOU store and make sure you enter your email address to keep up date with the new releases, trust me, you wanna see December's ;)

Until next time, happy scrapping!
Melinda

xx

Anna's Craft Cupboard | Beautiful Moments | A Scrapbook Layout

Hello my lovely scrappy friends! As promised I am back with yet another share and yep, again, for Anna's using the Midnight collection by Cocoa Vanilla Studios.

Are you sick of seeing it already? I'm not and I just wish I had a never ending supply of all the things, it is even more gorgeous in real life!

Anyways, enough gushing over the gorgeous products, here is my page for today

An older photo of my biggest little guy. We were at a photo shoot and he had enough half way through so he grabbed his bear and came and snuggled with his Mumma, awwww....

Haha! I'm a bit of soft touch, especially when it comes to my boys, if you hadn't worked that out yet!

As usual, there is more close ups and links direct to product over on the Anna's blog so if you'd like to see more follow the link!

I still have MORE to come so stay tuned and until next time

happy scrapping!!

Mel

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Anna's Craft Cupboard | Moments | A Scrapbook Layout

Hello my scrappy friends and welcome back to my blog for the fourth day in a row! Another share today for Anna's Craft Cupboard with the stunning Midnight Collection by Cocoa Vanilla Studios!

This one came together very easily due to the awesome Die Cut Backing Kit that is available in the collection. I did "make it my own" and spent a number of hours hand stitching that circle in the background but it was totally worth it, I just LOVE the end result.

This one has a process video available as well, so hit play below and enjoy!

For more information as well as links to all the products used and more close up shots head over to the Anna's Craft Cupboard blog!

I do hope you enjoy and I will be back again very soon with another share!!

Until next time, happy scrapping!
Mel

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Anna's Craft Cupboard | The Sweet Days | A Scrapbook Layout

Hey, hey and as promised I have another share for you today for Anna's Craft Cupboard with the stunning Midnight collection by Cocoa Vanilla Studios.

Funnily enough, some more snapchat photos but the story I am documenting is totally different than the one from Tuesday!

I have gone with a white card stock background and lots of fun and messy mixed media for this page and really love how it came out!

Head over here to the Anna's blog for all the product links and lots of close ups!

And hit play on the box below for my process video!

I hope you are enjoying my shares for the week so far and make sure you subscribe to my YT channel and turn notifications on so you will be notified when my next page is live!

Oh, if you are local, are you attending the Anna's Craft Day next weekend? I will be there and would love to meet some of you!!

Until next time, happy scrapping!!

Melinda

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CUT to YOU | Love You | A Scrapbook Layout

Hey everyone and happy hump day!

Another day and another share :D Today I am waving the CUT to YOU flag with this very soft and pretty page I created with one of Gwen's new files.

This beauty can be found in digital format in the store and also as a limited number of custom cuts in the store so head over and check it out - it is truly stunning!

Here is the page I created using the Wedding Bouquet as my main feature on the page.

I have used a bunch of different Cocoa Vanilla Studios papers to back the file and made sure to pick all the very pretty and soft patterns and colours for the look I was going for on this page. Oh, it is so, so pretty, even if I do say so myself!!

I have gone a little mixed media mad on the background and I have used a couple of Shimmers watercolour paints to create my background after I applied 2 quick coats of white gesso using a dry paint brush. 

The pink is Creameez in Piggy Pink and the gold is a Shimmerz in Candlelight. 

I started with the packaging technique with the pink and then quickly swapped to just painting the colour on with my brush.

You can see my whole process (minus the backing of the cut file) in the process video below, just click on that play button!

I kept the embellishing very simple, a small doily, a tag, a glassine bag and a few small punched gold glitter hearts as I really wanted that cut file to sing!

I added some alpha stickers to my photo for my title, hand wrote my journalling on the tag and slipped that into the glassine bag to finish off my page. 

I really love how that cut file pops off the page with all of those very pretty, soft colours.

I hope you have enjoyed and until next time, happy scrapping!!

Melinda

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Anna's Craft Cupboard | Snapchat Magic | A Scrapbook Layout

Hey everyone and welcome to my blog today!

It is my turn up on the Anna's Craft Cupboard blog this week and I am lucky enough to have been sent the gorgeous Cocoa Vanilla Studio range Midnight. This collection is absolutely stunning, all those soft pinks with that gorgeous navy blue.... swoon....

Ok, so I have 6 layouts I have created so make sure you check back here and the Anna's blog AND my YT channel for all the latest updates!

Here is my first page for the week and I am documenting some silly snapchat photo's of me and my little guys.

For more info on the page you can head over to the Anna's blog for all product links and a bunch of close up photos!

If you'd like to see my process video just hit the play button below and enjoy!

Until tomorrow ;) happy scrapping!

Melinda

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Kraft Plus Challenges | November 2018 | Potato Head | A Scrapbook Layout

Hey everyone and thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Ok, so today's share is for the fun K+ Challenge for November and if you have not seen it yet, here it is!

I was stumped to start with and then I found this cut file in my CUT to YOU files and boom, IDEA!!

I chose to scrap an older photo of my big boy and keep it fun and bright so pulled out some of my Vicki Boutin All The Good Things collection and my Distress Oxide inks and got to work!

Today's post is short and sweet so here are a few close ups

You can see my process video for this page below

And if you have any questions, please drop them below or head over to my FB page To The Stars and Back.

And make sure you head over the K+ blog for all of the amazing DT inspo and to load up your challenge for this month too!

I hope you have enjoyed and until next time, happy scrapping!

Mel

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