Finally, I share my album cover and front page!!

Hi there!!

Today (well tonight, 10pm Perth time actually!!) I am here to share with you my cover and first page of our December Daily 2014 album.

I managed to score myself one of the actual DD albums Studio Calico offered in their kit last year from a local who didn't use hers. And for an absolute bargain! It was perfect for what I wanted as I was after something that was predominately raw chipboard with either red or teal. Red it is ;)

I didn't take a before pic at all but I did take progress pics as I changed it up. It went from a gorgeous embossed chipboard design with a red fabric spine to a stunning GOLD, yes gold!!, album with a red fabric spine and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!

Here are my progress shots of the transformation

This was after the 1st coat on both the outside and inside with the white. All I did was found some scrap paper, pinched some of hubby's masking tape and taped the paper to the red fabric strip. The inside was a little more difficult but I also used an extra bit of board to hold up in front of the rings to avoid painting them.

Onto the GOLD!! 

First coat

And done!!

It was really rather scary removing that tape but as I saw the tape come off and a very definitive line form along the gold as it bumped up to the red my heart soared!!

And one GORGEOUS GOLD (I love it!!) album!!

And I couldn't just stop there though!! I did a little decorating on the front - almost as soon as my kits from The Stamp Spot hit my hot little hands in fact!

I have previously shared this little sneak peek, that charm is super cute!! But here you go with the front cover.

All the bits are from my kits I received from Michelle and WOW! those kits are jam packed full of delicious goodies!!

Next up that I created was over cover page for the album. Again, most of the bits are from Michelle at The Stamp Spot but I have added a couple of things and used my sewing machine to stitch down the 2014 - I love stitching on paper!

Well, that is it for me for tonight!! I hope this super photo heavy post has seen you through to the end. Keep an eye out both here and on Michelle's blog here as you will see intro's and foundation pages going live over the next little while. In fact there are some intro's and foundation pages up from some of the other awesome girls on the team already!! Happy reading and happy scrapping!!

Till next time,

Melinda 

xx

Week 41 using Deer & Fawn products

Hi there! I have had my 1st share over on the Deer & Fawn Design's blog this week!! And it looks a little something like this:

I am yet to receive my parcel from Debbie full of what I'm sure will be some lovely goodies so I have used some of the beautiful supplies I have received in my 2 Deer boxes!

My page came together fairly easily when I decided which supplies to use. 

For the spread I have used the We Are Memory Keepers "Hello Life" Albums Made Easy 3x4 and 6x4 cards and paired those with the gorgeous Heidi Swapp "September Skies" ephemera pack. Which, I must be honest, was not something I would normally purchase, all those flowers scare me, especially with 2 little boys running around!! But I actually had a heap of fun making use of them and am super happy with the way my spread turned out!!

Without further ado here are my 2 pages together

I have paired these 2 products with some thickers from my stash and also my sewing machine. Nothing else added!! So impressed with myself!!

Here is a close up of the left hand side

And the right hand side

And I took a couple of close up's of some of those embellishments clusters starting with our Week 41 card

Love, love, love pairing those acetate pieces with the paper pieces. Oh, I have inked all around the paper embellishments with my antique linen distress ink too. All my acetate pieces have been attached with my tiny attacher, behind other pieces when I want the staple hidden and right on top on other pieces (like the little triangles and the "hello").

And another close up of that 3x4 filler card.

This card started out yellow with the "life is beautiful" printed. I added some flowers, some machine stitching, an arrow some of those cute triangles.

That's it for me today, I am so excited to be working with these gorgeous products and seriously can't wait for either my DT box to arrive or for my next Deer box to arrive.

So, make sure you head on over to the Deer & Fawn blog here and the store here. Their boxes are full of amazing goodies and great value!!

I am off on retreat this weekend so hopefully will be back with lots of completed goodies to share but knowing me, I will probably chat more than anything ;)

Until next time,
Melinda
xx

I take a lot of photos and some news!!

Hi there!

Just wanted to pop in and share something I have just been working on.

I can't actually believe how many photo's I take and am now officially into my 3rd album for our PL for 2014.

I came up with (finally!!) a design for the spines of our albums - they are super simple but I love that!

Here they are:

So, the 4 is the number of people in our family, the year, the beginning date and the end date. Pretty simple. Am going to also do this for all our other albums. Pre-children will be the number 2, pre-Hunter will be the number 3. And the boys albums will be either J or H (no number) and very simple the date from and the date to. Simple. Effective. Done. Well, they will be ;)

And here is my latest digi design, the cover page for our 3rd album. An awesome feet shot from a day trip we recently took. I used PSE10 and created my 12x12 page. Lots of layers! And I have cropped to 6 4x6 for easy (cheaper!) printing and the prints will go into a D design page protector :)

I had a heap of fun playing in PSE, always do!! I did contemplate going digital but decided I really do love the paper and glue way too much so have settled for a happy in between :)

Onto my news!!

I have been invited to join the team over at Deer and Fawn Designs as a designer for November/December!! I am thrilled to be a part of the team and look forward to having a play with some of their products.

I have already received 2 of their Deer kits and they are packed full of goodies!! Head over to the shop here and the blog here. They are also on FB here.

Can't wait to share some new creations with you!

As always, thank you for stopping by and happy scrapping!!

Coral Glitz with D-lish Scraps

Hello there!!

Today I am here to share with you my very last creation for D-lish on their Spring Inspiration Team :)

Absolutely stunning board to work with this month, pink, gold, glimmer, PRETTY!!

Here is the board

How stunning is it?!

This month I decided to do something totally different for me! I created a 6x6 canvas that I will use throughout December as a decorative piece :)

Here is my finished product

Lots of D-lish goodies used here - starting with the doily, all of those beautiful flowers, the jar of gold sequin stars, the enamel dots and that gorgeous gold tape for my Dymo labeller!!

You can't see very well but I have also used a polka dot stencil (one of Heidi Swapp's) on the actual canvas along with Heidi's Gold Colour Shine.

The papers I used are digi papers from here - I purchased both the Christmas Ice and Christmas Delight sets.

The digi is a Saturated Canary image available here as a digi. 

Here is a close up of Nevaeh

The copic colours I used are as follows:

Skin: E000, E00, E21, E11, E04 and R20

Hair/Eyes: E21, E25, E29

Clothes: R81, R83, RV34

Shoes: E40, E41, E43, E47

And a couple of close ups 

I had so much fun with this little project and cannot wait to put it up on display on the 1st December -  only a month to go!!! Yay!

Make sure you head over to the D-lish blog here and join in the fun for this months challenge.

As always, thanks so much for stopping by and happy scrapping!!

Mel

xx

Documenting December 2014

Hi there!!

Yes, you read correctly!! Documenting December 2014!!

An original idea by the name of "December Daily" created by the amazingly talented Ali Edwards. For more info head over to Ali's blog here. This is my 2nd year participating and I have been looking forward it, well, since last December!!

This is a post to outline what I'm using this year because I think that all the goodies I am using deserve their own post!!

I have been asked by the lovely Michelle over at The Stamp Spot to be a part of her Documenting December DT this year and will be predominately using her main kit, her red add on kit and her teal add on kit :) They can all be found here over at Michelle's store. And for a run down of the gorgeousness in the kit head over to this post on her blog.

I had already decided on my colour scheme (if truth be told last year!!) so when she told me she was creating a kit that was kraft, white and gold based my heart leapt with joy!!

I was so excited to receive my goodies that I unpacked them all and have popped them into the cane basket I will be using so the photos I share of the kit/s are the 3 combined.

Please be aware that the tree veneer and the red candy stripe acetate 3x4 you can see in the picture above snuck in to this pic and are not included in the kit from The Stamp Spot - I think either little 2 year old hands or 4 3/4 year old hands had a bit of a play when I wasn't looking and I haven't had the chance to re-photograph!! Again, please head over here to see the full contents of The Stamp Spot's kit :)

Aren't are the bits and pieces just gorgeous!!

I also purchased the Very Merry Freckled Fawn December Embellishment Kit through Michelle too and have picked through it and separated out the pieces I will use. This is available here.

The album I am using is actually one from the Studio Calico DD kit from last year that I purchased locally from someone that didn't use it last year. I have altered it somewhat and LOVE how it came out!!

This album started out as raw chipboard with the stars embossed and the red fabric spine :) Some masking tape, scrap paper, white and also gold spray paint and hey presto, a star embossed, gold December Daily album!!

Prior to being asked to join Michelle's team I had started collecting some supplies, which now I'm not sure I will even use - oops!! But I will pop these into the same basket I have my other kits in. Funnily enough I picked out some of the papers that Michelle had already included in the kit!!

Above are the paper pieces I have collected over the last couple of months and have added to my kit.

And above are all the non-paper bits and pieces including stamps, sequins, enamel dots (both round and star shaped!!), buttons and other self-adhesive rhinestone pieces.

The only other items I will be using are some white and kraft coloured cardstock that I purchased as 12x12 sheets and have cut down to 6x8, 6x4 and 3x4 sizes, some black archival ink and more than likely some gold embossing powder.

And here is all my bits and pieces in my cane basket, including my album!!

I have managed a little start to my album cover and here is a sneaky peek!! I can't wait to share it with you in it's entirety! Until then, if you are after some ideas for organisation of your own supplies for December head over here or here to see some of Michelle's awesome tips and ideas :D

As always, thanks for stopping in and happy scrapping!!

Mel

xx

Thinking of You Kit

Hi there!!

Just thought I would pop in and share a card I made with the gorgeous Kit from Saturated Canary for an application for a Guest DT spot over on Krista's blog. Sadly I didn't make the call (wow, some crazy talented people applied!!) but had a heap of fun and stepped out of my comfort zone completely! Kit is gorgeous but normally an image I would reach for and this was a 1st time effort playing with watercolours for my background.

So, here is my card

My copic colours are as follows:

Skin: E000, E00, E21, E11, E04 and R20

Hair: E51, E53, E55 and E57

Clothes

Blue: B21, B24, B26, B29 and 100

Cream: E40, E41, E43 and E44

Brown: E70, E71, E74 and E77

I have used a kraft coloured base for the card, some Amy Tan woodgrain paper and some watercolour paper that I have actually painted. I am so happy with the way those watercolours turned out!! It took a couple of go's and a few YouTube videos but I got there!! As you can see I have stitched with my machine around the papers. On the right hand side there is a strip of Heidi Swapp paper that I have used a lace doily Martha Stuart punch on and some gorgeous vintage looking lace. All my paper layers were inked with walnut stain distress ink and a blending tool.

Here are a couple of close ups

As always, thanks for stopping in and happy scrapping!

Mel

xx

When I Grow Up I Want To Be...

Hi there lovely followers!!

I am a few days late this month with my share and link up for the gorgeous Inspiration Board Challenge over at D-lish for October as I have been sick but finally feel like I am on the mend!!

So, without further ado here is the STUNNING board that I got to work with for this months challenge as part of the Inspiration Team

It just has to be said this board is "Simply Fabulous"! I totally love it and though it took me a little while to work out exactly what I was going to do for the challenge this month I found myself continually looking at it!! Haha!!

After umming and ahhing for a few days I remembered that I have not yet scrapped any of my photo's from my 30th Birthday back in 2010 and my colour scheme matched almost perfectly to this board! My theme was "When I Grow Up I Want To Be..." and we had guests come dressed up as what they wanted to be when they grew up. And lots of kids party food. And lots of fun!

Here is the layout that I came up with using both the colours and the sketch for inspiration :)

I have used a bunch of D-lish goodies on this page including the pinkfresh studio coloured arrows, D-lish enamel dots, D-lish wood veneer, lime doily, aqua tulle (a bit hard to see on the left of the photo), the black chevron bag - perfect size to mat my 6x4 photo! and the label on the bottom right with the date!

That big pink star is actually one of the many many stars I had painted to decorate our home for the party, so please I held onto them!! I have also popped my invite into the bag :) Oh, and that spotty vellum was left over from the invites too ;)

And a little close up of some of the detail

So, as always, thanks for stopping by!! Remember to head on over to the D-lish blog to join in the fun this month!! 

Melinda
xx