CUT to YOU | Make A Wish | 12 x 12 Scrapbook Layout

Hi everyone and welcome to my blog today! I hope you have all enjoyed the lovely long weekend and celebrating all that we have and all that we are here in Australia!

Today I have my next share for you for Gwen's CUT to YOU store and I am using a "Christmas" cut file for a page for my littlest guy's most recent BIRTHDAY!! Yep, you read that right, a christmas cut for a birthday!! #winning

I have used the Make A Wish cut file in 2 sizes for this page. In actual fact, these were left over cuts from a card class I taught here in December and as I was packing up this idea came to my mind and I had so much fun making it come to life!

Here is the page I created and I really love it!!

I started with my background on my white cardstock - I think I used Bazzill Marshmallow. I applied a coat of clear gesso prior to starting and then pulled out a fun Echo Park bat stencil and got to stencilling some modelling paste onto my white cardstock. 

I have then used my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolours to add colour, well, not colour lol, to m background. I have used lots of water and paint and just added the colour until I was happy with how it looked over the top of the dried modelling paste. You can see in my process video just how I added the black!

When my background was dry I added some splatters in yellow using Heidi Swapp Colour Shine in yellow - I think my all time fave bright, happy, sunshiney yellow! And then in gold - using my watercolours and a paint brush.

While that dried I grabbed my die cut "Wish" words and randomly added in 3 different yellow colours using a combination of spritzing the colour on and painting it on. I have used Heidi Swapp Colour Shine in Butter, Lindy's Magical Shaker in California Poppy Gold and Colour Burst by Ken Oliver in Zest. I love the sparkle and the different shades of yellow on the cut files!

After that was all dry it was time to build up my layers behind my photo. I have once again pulled out my scrap box and looked for yellow, grey, black and white and layered them randomly behind my photo until I was happy with the way they looked.

I stuck the cut files down first as they were part of my background and then my photo cluster. I didn't want to or need to add too much more as embellishment but added in a couple of Batman flair badges and some more splatter in both yellow and white. 

My title was created with white thickers that I coloured with the Heidi Swapp Colour Shine in Butter. And finally, some white, black and grey enamel dots sprinkled all over the page and some yellow prills to 3 areas using matt medium. Oh, and of course a little journalling under my photos!

I really, really love the way this page came out. In fact, I think it's better than I had it planned in my head lol and that is a rare occurrence!

I hope you have enjoyed and that I have inspired you to perhaps look at your "themed" cut files in a bit of a different light!

Until next time, happy scrapping!!

Mel

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CUT to YOU | The Best Is Yet To Come | TN Spread

Hello everyone and happy hump day!

Today's share is for CUT to YOU and this month Gwen has, once again, sponsored the Scrap The Girls challenge. I have drawn inspiration from the Pinterest board that Krisy linked, namely the inspirational quotes about "you got this" and also the aqua dress with the red cherries.

Something a bit different for me but I really enjoyed the more streamlined process. Less space = less stuff, yeah?!? 

I have used the "TN The Best Is Yet To Come" cut file for this page which I have re-sized in my Silhouette software. For the Custom Cut product head over here. I did record my process though I am not sure how it is going to come across on screen so check it out and let me know please! I'm new to this recording my screen thing and this is my first go!

Anyways, I stretched my files so that they would fill the pages. I have done that to both the Title and the 2019 but only ended up using the title so far!

I added some colour to my cuts using a combo of a couple of Shimmerz Paints to match the paper I had used on the other other side. Which has come from the Shimelle, Glitter Girl Project Pad. 

I pulled a bunch of aqua and red embellishments for this spread and just added bits and pieces until I was happy. I did keep in mind that I didn't want to add too much bulk while creating.

Head over here for the STG January challenge. And head over here for the CTY store and to see all of the fun new designs for this month!! I just love that Gwen has added TN designs to the range and it's really inspired me to get playing. Oh, and if you haven't seen them yet, the TN I am using is actually a Pocket Page Notebook designed by Michelle from The Stamp Spot. You can find them over here.

That's it for me for today! I will be back again soon (tomorrow ;) ) with another share so until then, happy scrapping!!

Melinda

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K+ January 2019 | The Greatest Thing | A Scrapbook Layout

Hello my creative friends and welcome back to my blog today!

Today's share is for K+ and though it took a long time for inspiration to hit I really do love my finished page! 

First up the inspiration piece for you - "Be inspired by Indigenous Art"

And my finished page

I have used a rhinestone cut file I have had in my Silhouette library for the longest time as I loved the small circles and knew it would work perfectly for the idea that had hit me! I wanted lots of colour peeking behind all of those little circles and started working on my background page while my file was cutting.

I have used a combination of Lindy's Magical Shakers and also some Brutus Monroe Colour Burst powders. I forgot to write down the colour names but if you'd like to know any or all of them leave me a comment and I can do that for you!

I have used a piece of white AC textured cardstock that I have not prepped in any way and am really impressed with the way it held up as I used a heap of water! 

I did some doodling around the circles before adding in my title - a quote I found when I googled "indigenous quotes" - using a whole heap of different alpha stickers.

I added a couple of layers and a few stickers around my layers, sprinkled some gold mist, added journalling and that was my page done! You can see my whole process in my process video, just hit play below and if you haven't already, please do hit that subscribe button!

I honestly found this challenge quiet tricky but when I found inspiration it came together super easy and I really do love my end page!

Make sure you head over here for the rest of the K+ DT inspiration and to load up your take on this fun challenge!

Until next time, happy scrapping!

Melinda

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STB January 2019 | The Best Summer Fun | A Scrapbook Layout

Hello, hello and welcome to my first blog post for 2019!! I really can't believe that another year has come and gone the way that 2018 did but it has and on life goes!!

Today's share is for the Scrap The Boys Challenge blog and I was really inspired by the colours in the graphic this month and that was my jumping off point.

And here is my finished page.

Would you believe that ALL of the patterned paper I used on this page is actually from a Christmas collection?! Yep! The 3 patterns I have used all came from the Tis The Collection that Cocoa Vanilla Studio released a few years ago and I just love it!

A little mixed media in the background using a combination of Distress Oxide inks with the packaging technique and also some Shimmerz products fairly new to my stash.

I customised a word from a CVS die cut pack to fit my colour a scheme better and then used a combination of that word (summer), some CVS puffy stickers and some other CVS flat alphas and I really love the combination of fonts and textures!

I've added a few stickers from a couple of different CVS collections and also some wood veneer pieces, I loved the inclusion of the wood colour!

I have a process video up if you'd like to see this page come together - there is some amount of shuffling things around the page; my mojo is a little meh at the moment! But I got there in the end lol

I do hope you enjoy and make sure you head over here to the STB blog to check out all of the other amazing DT inspiration, these girls are so very talented!

I hope you are enjoying the beginning of this new year and I am excited to be bringing you some new things very soon!

Until next time, happy scrapping!

Melinda

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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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