STB October 2019 | Super Awesome

Hey my scrappy friends and welcome to my blog today!! My share today is for the Scrap The Boys October challenge.

I just love sketches so was excited when I saw that this was the challenge for this month! Here is my take

You can see I have stuck very closely to the sketch but yet still made it a definite "Melinda page"

I jumped into my Cocoa Vanilla Studio "boy" stash, specifically to start with my "Boys Rule" collection which I just LOVE!!

I've used papers Happy Go Lucky, Good Times and Straight & Narrow for my 3 biggest background pieces and just love that pop of lime green in the middle!

This was all looking way too clean for me so I grabbed a couple of stamps and some black Versafine ink and stamped in a couple of pieces on my background layers. I've also added some splatters using green, blue and a grey.

I've used a couple more paper layers, one scrap from a 12x12 and some from the 6x8 paper pad. I added in a few ephemera pieces for layers as well.

My title pieces came from the CVS You Rock collection and so too did the film strip tucked into my layers.

I added in my journalling to one of the cut aparts from the 6x8 paper pad, right where the middle photo is on the sketch. And finally, some enamel shapes sprinkled around. So excited, I FINISHED a package of something lol

Unfortunately, due to some stupid tech issues I have no video for this page but I still hope you enjoyed!! Touch wood, all my tech issues seem to be sorted now so more videos coming soon!!

Make sure you head over here for the other girls' takes on this fun sketch and to enter your own page for this months challenge. Remember, I may have followed the sketch very closely but if it inspires you in another way just go for it and enjoy the process!!!

Until the next time, happy scrapping!
Mel

xx

Anna's Craft Cupboard | Bella Blvd - Squeeze The Day | September 2019

Hello my scrappy friends and welcome to my blog today!

I know it's been a little while and my sharing has not been particularly consistent but we have had a lot happening around here and I am doing what I can when I can and enjoying the process.

You may have noticed that my blog in general has just gotten less use, especially if you have been around a little while. There are reasons for that and one of those is simply that sharing on my blog is not my favourite platform to share on as I don't get much feedback and it doesn't really start any conversations with other creatives!

If, however you follow me on any of my other social media platforms you will have seen that this month I am up on the Anna's Craft Cupboard blog again. I got to play with the fun Bella Blvd Squeeze The Day collection and have created the following layouts

First up was this fun pun page created of my youngest "Orange You The Sweetest"

You can find the full blog post on the Anna's blog here

And the process video is below

Next up was another very bright and messy page "Fruit & Vegemite Lunches"

You can find the full blog post on the Anna's blog here

And, of course, the process video below

Third was another dark background! I just love the way the bright colours pop off the dark background pattern paper. And a title from the Annabelle acrylic collection "Full of Sass"

Blog post on the Anna's blog is here

And YT process video is below

And finally this bright and happy page "Love You" using another Annabelle acrylic title

You can see the complete blog post on the Anna's blog here

And YT process video is below

I think in every video I mention that I didn't choose this collection, Bri did but I love it! The bright bold colours and themed icons really had me scratching my head for a little bit until I decided to just run with it! Hence, my first page "Orange You The Sweetest" lol

You can find the Bella Blvd collection over here in the Anna's store.

And all of the Annabelle acrylics live here in the store.

If you'd like to follow Anna's on their social media profiles here is a list for you with all clickable links!

Store: www.annascraftcupboard.com.au

Blog: www.annascraft.com.au

Anna’s Craft Cupboard Community FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/annascraftcupboardcommunity/

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/annascraftcupboard/

And if you don't yet follow me on all of my socials I'd love for you to join me! Again, links to follow!

Blog: www.melindasweetman.blogspot.com

FB page – To The Stars and Back: https://www.facebook.com/tothestarsandbackms/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/m_sweetman/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsr3iyOFoYPK46t1imtGX7w

As always, thank you ever so much for stopping by! I hope you have enjoyed my shares for this month for Anna's and I look forward to sharing more creations as I make them!

Have a fantastic scrappy day/weekend/night!

Melinda

xx

STB September 2019 | You Make My {Heart} Smile

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

My first share for September is for Scrap The Boys and this months challenge is all about the flowers! 

Now, if you had told me only about 2 years ago I would be using lots of flowers on my boy pages I would have laughed at you but, oh boy, I just LOVE this page and love, love, love all those florals!

I have used another cut file from CUT to YOU paired with the gorgeous Paige Evans Whimsical collection. I chose this collection because I didn't get much of it but I did make sure I grabbed the gorgeous floral ephemera pack which I have both been busting to use and hoarding lol

I had this sweet photo of my oldest boy with his new cousin and thought this was a perfect match for this challenge and this collection so printed the photo the right size to back the heart in this cut file.

I used a little bit of mixed media in the background using the packaging technique after using a little bit of white gesso. I've used 2 Shimmerz paints in a yellow and an orange-yellow. 

And then I layered up those gorgeous florals. There wasn't much rhyme or reason to which florals I chose though I did try to make sure that I didn't put the same colour on top of the same colour and I did intentionally only choose the florals without the white border.

You can see my process video either on my YT channel or simply hit play below

Make sure you pop over to the STB blog for ALL of the gorgeous inspiration provided for you by the amazing DT and that is also where you can link up your take on this month's challenge!

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

Melinda

x

STB August 2019 | Superheroes In Disguise

Hello my scrappy friends and welcome back to my blog again today!

Today's share is for the August 2019 Scrap The Boys challenge. 

This month we have this striking mood board to play along with. What does it say to you? What will you create?

I immediately fell in love with the colour palette, the stripes and for some reason the skyline made me think of superheroes so I pulled out a photo of my oldest wearing a bubble wrap cape!

I picked up the gorgeous Heidi Swapp Wolf Pack collection a little while ago so I had been busting to crack into that and this mood board just worked perfectly!

I've used 2 of the pattern papers as my main back ground. 

I created the word "Superheroes" in Silhouette Studio and backed that with papers from the 6x6 paper pad to form part of my title. Finishing my title off with some Doodlebug flat alphas and some AC "Happy Life" mini thickers.

With the big title I didn't feel like I needed to add too much more so a few stickers, some tangled silver thread, my journalling and some stitching around the edge and my page is done.

Oh, I forgot the silver and white ink splatters!

You can see my process below or head over to my YT channel if you'd like to watch over there!

Anyways, it's now almost the end of the month - oops, I forgot to push "publish" so I do hope you've had time to play along!!

Until next time, happy scrapping!
Melinda
x

K+ August Challenge | Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

Hey, hey my scrappy friends and welcome back to my blog today where I am sharing my first make for August which is for K+ Challenges!

The challenge for August is Rock a bye and be inspired by Nursery Rhymes!

For some reason it took me ages to settle on the rhyme I wanted to use when really it should have simple! This quote is up on my youngest child's bedroom wall lol

When the Nursery Rhyme came to me this page come together super quickly as I knew I wanted to scrap this photo of me with my newest nephew, Hugo. I chose soft, baby blues and stars (of course!) and got to work.

I love all of the tone on tone blues (mostly the same product too!) on that Kraft cardstock!! Here are a few close ups of my page!

And you can see my process over on my YT channel here or you can simply click play below and enjoy!

I can't wait to see your take on this fun challenge this month so make sure to head over to both the K+ blog and FB Community to share!

I hope you have enjoyed and I'll be back again soon with another share! 

Until then, happy scrapping!!

Mel

xx

STB July 2019 | Travel Fun

Hello my scrappy friends! Another day and another post, yay!

This is for the adventure/travel STB prompt for July and I have actually scrapped someone other than  my children lol

Here is my page and I really love the end result! And yep, that's hubby in the photo. Without a child lol

Again, Gwen from CUT to YOU has sponsored us with some cut files and here are the 2 I've used.

As you can see I have welded the word Travel from the Adventure Awaits file to the Fun from the Summer Page Builder file and also cut the word adventure from the Adventure Awaits file. All of these were cut in smooth white card stock.

I decided to keep my background fairly monochromatic using blacks and greys with stencils and the packaging technique. I've also used stamping on my title/word pieces for a little extra interest.

I've pulled the colours from the photo (red and blue) and used those as embellishments and layers around my photo.

You can see this page is awaiting journalling on the right hand side and that is hubby's "job" as it was his trip and his experience. I really don't often get the chance to include any of the other people's voices in my layouts as I have a story I want to tell to "go with" the photos I'm using!

So, make sure you head over here for my process video

And over here for the STB blog and all of the other DT girls awesome inspiration pieces! I can't wait to see what you create this month!

Until next time, happy scrapping!
Melinda

xx

K+ July Challenge | Create Art

Hey, hey my scrappy friends and welcome back! It admittedly has been a little while since I blogged anything but here I am for a new month of challenges.

I'm kicking off July with my take on the fun K+ challenge for July and I oh so love this mood board and my finished page!

TBH to start with I was stumped - I have never been to India, I have never done a Bollywood thing in my life and I got all caught up in the actual "Bollywood" theme. And then I looked at the moodboard differently. I simply approached it as a mood board, what inspires me? What jumps out at me? What do I love about it? And then it was easy! Bright, bold colours and (of course!) GOLD!

It's tricky to see it in the above photo but I have a big gold mandala design in my background that I have used the Foil Quill in my Cameo to create. It is not super obvious in the photo's but looks great IRL!

So, I have my gold element, time for bold, bright colour! I had a request recently on YT for some Minc action so I pulled out my foil colours and chose blue, pink and orange and then picked paints to match.

Nothing fancy on my back ground, just lots of bright splatters with the 3 colours I chose. And, of course, gold ;) 

While that dried I Minc'd my title alphas, going with gold (create) and one of each of the colours (art). I just LOVE how this turned out! Oh, FYI, when I put stickers through the Minc I just stuck those to some baking paper, popped that into the carrier folder with the foil on top and voila!

Getting into the groove of Minc'ing I decided to add more shiny gold! I pulled out some Minc stickers and foiled those in gold too. They had too much white border so I ended up sticking those to white cardstock and trimming after they had been Minc'd.

If you'd like to see my process (and how I went from one design idea to my finished design) please either pop over to my YT channel or simply click play below! I hope you enjoy!

Thanks so much for stopping by but make sure you head over to the K+ blog too for ALL of the incredible DT inspo over there. The girls on this team are oh so creative!!

Until next time, happy scrapping!

Mel

xx