Sneaky-peeks!!! For December's My Creative Scrapbook kits!

I don't usually do this but there is so much to see for Decembers kits over at My Creative Scrapbook I thought I'd share a few little peeks to get the excitement going! Here are a couple of little peeks from some of the pages I made up with the December Limited Edition kit (Reveal day is December 5th....kits will go up for viewing then)....




I also worked with the Album kit this time around and there were so many lovely papers and goodies in this one too....here are a couple of sneak-peeks....

To see some sneak-peeks for the Main kit check out the sneaks Robbie put up of all the design teams work with this kit HERE

To see all the sneaks for the Creative Kit click HERE

To see all the sneaks for the Limited Edtion kit click HERE

To see all the sneaks for the Album Kit click HERE

I'll be back to post the full pages and lots of tips and more close-ups on the 5th of December, reveal day!

Thanks for taking a peek!

~Gabrielle xxx

Meagan's Special Week

Once or sometimes twice a year each of the children in Meagan's class are chosen to be 'Super Eleve' .....that's French for Super Student. Meagan and Chloe are both in French Immersion School. So I thought I'd do up a special page just for Meagan in honour of her special week. Behind the photo I put a tag with things about Meagan (favourites.....foods, movies etc. and about her family) all written in French.

I used some gorgeous papers by Bo Bunny for this l/o called Snowy Serenade! You have to see these in real life, so glittery and pretty! I also added lots of bling from Zva Creative. The flourishes coming from the butterfly and flowers are some of their newest collections.....as are the little pearl daisies in the bloom cluster. Here are some close-ups of the l/o.....

Thanks for taking a peek!

~Gabrielle xxx

Got my l/o Pubbed in Scrapbooking & Beyond Magazine!!

I was so happy to get my Winter 2009 issue of Scrapbooking & Beyond Magazine yesterday! This is the l/o I got pubbed as a fourth installment to a series of articles on flourishes called 'A Flourish for all Seasons' I along with my friends Liz Qualman, Robbie Herring and Debbie Danielson completed this series with layouts done with paper flourishes. I decided to go with jewel tones for this winter l/o and used some fun paper flourishes I bought at an etsy site Niklindesigns1225.etsy.com. I used one of my favourite paper lines from Cosmo Cricket and some pearl adhesives and rhineston title letters from Zva Creative. Here are some close-up pic's.....

And another happy surprise was that when I opened my box from Scrapbooking & Beyond I saw the cute smiling face of my dear friend Liz's daughter smiling up at me! Liz Qualman got the cover of the magazine! Congrats Liz!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Gabrielle xxx

Kanzashi Bloom Tutorial!! Fun handmade Fabric Blooms!!

I've been loving some of the fabric blooms I've seen coming out by my favourite manufacturers and thought I would show everyone how to make some wonderful blooms made from fabric scraps or ribbon pieces.

Kanzashi blooms are an ancient technique used by the Geisha girls in Japan. They would use left over scraps from their beautiful outfits to make these pretty fabric flowers for their hair and clothing. Above are some samples of blooms I made up using scraps of fabric and some cut ribbon pieces.

ROUND PETAL TECHNIQUE (See White bloom above)

Step 1 ~ Cut a square of fabric in the size you need for your project. I like to use pieces in sizes of 1" square up to 3" square for scrapbook pages.


Step 2 ~ Fold your square in half diagonally leaving the 'good' side of the fabric on the outside (bad side inside the fold)


Step 3 ~ With fold at the top of the triangle bring down point 'A' to point 'B'


Step 4 ~ Now do the same for the right side, bring down right side to meet in the middle, then flip the project over, you will have the folded edge at the top of the project


Step 5 ~ Keeping the folded edges at the top and raw edges at the bottom, fold in the right and left points to meet in the middle


Step 6 ~ Now bring both edges together again, essentially folding your project in half. Your finished petal will be the back edge of this fold (you will see 3 folded edge, this is the front of the petal)


Step 7 ~ As mentioned above the front of the petal is the edge with the 3 folds, you will round out the top of the petal to give it it's shape. Secure each petal with a pin or with a couple of small stitches (I prefer to use a couple of small stitches as it's easier to put the bloom together later if you're not fiddling with the extra pins)


Step 8 ~ Trim away extra fabric (below your stitch or pin)


Finishing your Bloom (Step 9)

With a need and thread string together all of the petals and tie off creating a ring (the less petals you use for your blooms the more fiddling it may take to create your circle of petals) I used 7 petals to make up the white bloom with the pearl centers. Add pearl or crystal beeds, metal pieces, crystal stickers, flower stamens, buttons.....whatever you like for centers to your blooms.


Here is a finished picture of a rounded petal bloom



Basic Pointed tip Kanzashi bloom Tutorial



Step 1 ~ Cut out several square pieces of fabric or ribbon (I used 6 pieces of 2" fabric for the above bloom.


Step 2 ~ Fold fabric in half diagonally ...good side of fabric on the outside....


Step 3 ~ With fold at the top of the triangle, fold in half again, bringing left side point to right side point.


Step 4 ~ You will now have 2 folds at the top. Bring down the right point to the bottom. Do the same with the other point except in the opposite direction.


Step 5 ~ You will now have 2 folded edges on the right side again. Bring this edge to the main middle fold (basically folding the flap in half)....do the same for the opposite side.


Step 6 ~ This is your completed pointed petal. It will look like the photo below on one side. It can be used like this for pointed petals (this also works very well for leaves). Finish off by securing with a couple stitched or a pin. Trim as shown in the diagrams for the rounded petal technique)


Step 7 ~ If you flip this petal over you will get a ruffled looking petal as show in the photo below......


Step 8 ~ Put petals together using the instructions above in the rounded petals technique. The example you see at the top of this tutorial shows a flower made using the backside of the pointed leaf. Below is a sample of a flower I made using the front side of the pointed petal technique (the orange petals)......I layered a smaller bloom made with the rounded petal design on top of it.


So if you have some pretty fabric scraps you've been saving or some wonderful ribbon, give this technique a go! The above bloom was made using sheer organza ribbons.

It's really quite easy to do once you've given the technique a try, my 11 year old daughter made this wine colour bloom using some sheer ribbon.


Experiment with different types of fabric.....I've seen this done with cotton, organza, silk, satin, linen and even with felted wool.....each giving a different effect.

During the holiday season there are so many shimmery, velvety pretty ribbons out there to experiment with!

Use on your scrapbook pages or even attach to hair combs or clips. Above all have fun with it!

~Gabrielle xxx

It's that time again!! Here are the November Kits from MY CREATIVE SCRAPBOOK!!

I'll admit it.....getting the beautiful kits from My Creative Scrapbook in the mail each month never gets old for me!! I've been doing design team work for MCS for about a year and a half now and each month as I'm anticipating the kits coming, the stalking of the mailman starts! LOL!! And when they get here, the girls and I spend a wonderful half hour just ooohhhing and awwwing over all the pretties in the kits!

This months Main kit features so many beautiful papers by Teresa Collins and is packed with gorgeous blooms and embellishments! Above is one of the layouts I made with the main kit. I used a quote that a friend (and member at MCS) shared with us in the galleries (thanks Pearl!! aka 'paperfections') As I'm now in my 40's, I sometimes hear that women should wear their hair shorter at this age.....I just loved this quote and had to use it since I like having my hair long and want to keep it this way for a while yet......

"They say......

A woman of my age should not let her hair

Fall below the marks of her shoulder,

It will bring her face down and make her look older.

But I say.....

A woman of my age should let her hair grow,

When it gets too long I think she will know.

A woman of my age is secure and finally sure of herself,

She does not long to be nineteen, but neither is she ready for the shelf."

This kit also had wonderful blooms, loads of bling and gorgeous trims in it!

TIP: If the colour of the rhinstones are not the exact colour you need for the page you are working on, they can be easily tinted with alcohol inks or copic markers. For this page I tinted my rhinestones a turquois colour.

Here are some close-up pic's......

Here is another layout I made using Main kit from My Creative Scrapbook. For this l/o I used the black/cream/pink colours in the kit. Pam had put out a challenge at MCS to do layouts with more that one photo. This is a big challenge for me, as I tend to use only one or two pic's on my l/o's. I found this series of fun pic's of the girls playing in their Opa's backyard a few years ago and gave the multiple photo challenge a try......

Everything I used to make this page is included in the kit, no need for extra 'add-on' kits all embellies are included. The pink rose blossom in the midde of the larger pink bloom is a bloom I made myself out of cardstock, you can see the tutorial for this at the tips & techniques section at My Creative Scrapbook or click on this link Quilled Rose Tutorial

TIP: This kit has these wonderful glittery black border strips in it, I used one of them to create the partial circle design in the above l/o. Lightly draw out the circle with a pencil and then follow the outline with the shimmery strip, they will bend slightly to accommodate the circle design. I used the pink rhinestones included in the kit to make the diamond pattern within the circle. Here are some close-up pictures.......

And here is a 3rd layout I made this month with the November Main kit, the photo is of my youngest daughter (I've always admired her beautiful thick lashes).....

Pam did such a wonderful job matching up beautiful embellishments to these papers....the Prima bling, the gorgeous Petalloo sheer blooms where so much fun to use.
TIP: I added some pink glitter dots to the sheer blooms (Stickles) to add some extra punch to the blooms. The turquoise blooms I punched from cardstock using the EK Success Retro Daisy punches. I just added some black ink to the edges and some turquois glitter dots to finish them off. Here are some close-up photo's.....

Another QUICK TIP: ......I used some gold dimensional paint to make the 'Gem Border' on the circle lace paper and filled them in with some turquoise glitter glue and pearlized 3D paint. Also I made the faux 'buttons' on the left edge of the photo by punching out 3 circles from the patterned paper and then lightly inking the edges to get a rounded look to them, I then cut 3 slightly larger circles out and used the metalic copper paint on these to get the metal edge button look. I didn't have a circle punch that is slightly larger than the smaller circle so I used a light tack tape on the back of the circles, laid them on the cardstock and cut a thin edge around the circle, then removed the larger circle, painted with metalic paint and then re-attached the smaller circles with stronger adhesive.

Another wonderful kit I had the privilege of working with this month is the November LIMITED EDITION Kit (LE kit).....this one was just packed with gorgeous Prima Papers, blooms by the tons! and wonderful rub-ons, trims and chipboard alpha's! Here is the first page I made with this kit....

I just LOVED the big batch of pretty Hydrangia blossoms that came with this kit. I used the light and dark pink ones to make this page. There is also an intricate chipboard frame included in the kit, I painted mine white and added a light pink pearl finish to it.
TIP: Let the patterned paper you are working with inspire the design elements on your pages. For this layout I noticed that one of the patterned papers had this 'drip' design on it, so I used the same design on my page, I drew out these long drops from the tiny pink blooms and again used this design for my hand-dran flourishes around the bloom clusters. I then finished it all off with a tiny drop of pearl pink 3D paint. Here are some close-up pics.....


A second l/o I made for the LE kit is this one called Breathe (I know it says 'Breath' but silly me didn't realize I had to add an 'e' at the end to get the word Breathe until after I finished the l/o, lol!)......

I just loved the newsprint alpha's included in this kit! I also used the kaki colour hydrangia blooms mixed with the Prima Camelot roses (also from the kit) to make up the bloom clusters. The tiny pink roses on the edges of my page were again made from carstock using the quilling technique (see above link).....Here are some close-up pic's .....


The butterflies were made from the cute sheer blue butterfly/ribbon trim included in the kit, I simply added a variety of glitter glue colours to them to dress them up.

And finally here is the 3rd l/o I made using the November LE kit. This is a photo I took of Meagan's first day of school this year....

One of the specialty papers in this kit is a Prima Stitched paper! I just love the feel of these papers, they almost feel like fabric and they have beautiful stitches already sewn onto them.

Also included in this kit is a fun beaded ribbon/trim. I used some of the beads from this trim to make up my beaded 'spray' that I added to my flower clusters. I simply wound some fine copper wire through the beads twisting the wire as I go to make this page element. To see tips on great ways to attache these to a page at the Tips & Techniques thread at MCS or click this link Attaching Vines

There are also two other wonderful kits available for November at My Creative Scrapbook, there is the Creative Kit and the Album kit. I didn't take on the design team work this month for those kits as I'm still dealing with the pinched nerve issue effecting my shoulder/left arm and I needed to keep my work down to a minimum. But please do take a moment to check out the beautiful work done by the rest of the design team girls and the Guest Designers this month at the MCS Design Team Gallery! We had the wonderfully talented Lynn Biermann as one of our guest designers this month as well as the equally talented Delaina Burns working alongside with us.....it was a delight working with these ladies!!

Thanks for having a peek!!

~Gabrielle xxx

Hold on to your hats!!! The kits for My Creative Scrapbook are revealed today!.....

....And they are out of this world!!! I know I'm often saying this but I think this may be my all time favourite Main Kit from MY CREATIVE SCRAPBOOK ever!! This kit featured the gorgeous papers from the new Webster's Pages 'Natures Storybook' collection, and my goodness, wait till you see these in person, just breathtaking!! And the beautiful embellishments that Pam married up with these papers just get your creativity going!! Prima blooms and crystals....a variety of lovely trims and ribbons and can you say CAMEO's??! Yep, a collection of 5 gorgeous cameo pieces to co-ordinate with the lovely Websters papers!! and LOVE the alphabet stickers that Websters Pages makes!! so versatile and just the right sizes! The above page is one of 4 layouts I made for this kit. One thing I really love about these papers is the wonderful handcutting they allow you to do. I cut out the lily of the valley blooms and the butterflies and layered them onto the page with foam pop dots to add more dimension to the l/o.....here are some close ups....

Check out the beautiful bronze/gold crystal and pearl flourish in this kit....love the richness it adds to a page. Below are some close-ups of the hand-cut paper (I added a little bit of stickles green glitter to the edges of the cut paper for more shimmer) and check out the cute cameo piece, I gave it a bit of a frame by adhering it to some dark cardstock and using a scallop edge scissor to cut around it, then I used some gold/bronze 3 dimensional metalic paint drops to give the piece more of a 'jewelled' look......



With this next layout, I tried out an old technique called 'Quilling'. I had seen this technique many years ago when I first started scrapping. But recently I was taking some books out of the library and some fresh designs sparked a renewed interest in this craft for me. In this page I quilled some green strips of paper to create the leaf/vine design and then combined a quilling and paper curling technique to make the little pink rosettes....For a tutorial on how to make these cute little quilled pink roses see my tutorial at My Creative Scrapbook or click this link Quilled Roses

Here are some close-ups of the paper quilling and some of the beautiful trims and embellishments included in this kit.....


This kit allows for so many different looks, the 3rd l/o I made with the main kit I used the lavender colour papers and again incorporated more quilling designs. (For Quilling basics come see my tutorial at MCS just click this link Quilling Basics) I was inspired by the exotic bloom in the top left corner of the patterned paper to make the Fuscia blooms out of a variety of burgundy/purple strips of cardstock paper......

The photo is of the beautiful Lupin that bloom in my garden every spring, it started out as a little plant I put in, and now this perennial plant has spread into this wonderful cluster of blooms that just pop up for me every year! Chloe took this photo and I'd been wanting to scrap it for a while now....Here are some close-ups of the quillwork I did to make up this page....



And for a 4th page I made up for this kit I utilized the blue tone papers in this collection....there is some lovely tulle and light as air silk ribbon in this kit that was a lot of fun to play with! I used the silk ribbon and stitched a floral design with it and then used some DMC floss to make the stems.....

Here are some close-up detail photo's of the trims and embellishments in the kit....



I still have so many wonderful extra papers left over from this kit and will for sure be revisiting this kit (when my pinched nerve lets up a bit!!)

Another wonderful kit this month is the Limited Edition kit! Gorgeous papers and packed with really amazing blooms and trims!! Here are a few pages I made up using this kit.....

I think Pam felt that the LE kit girls deserved a pretty cameo piece in their kit too so, voila! the lovely cameo you see here is included in this kit! Along with more lovely blooms, lace and pearl trims and I just love the intricately cut chipboard flourish in this one too. Here are some close-ups....



I had been looking for just the right paper to use for this photo of my girls and their cousins playing at their grandparents house....I just giggle everytime I see the funny look on Meagan's face, I wonder what was going on in her head at the time LOL! I found just the right colours in this kit....




And a third l/o I made with the LE kit, check out the wonderful floral/fibre in this kit, no need to arrange flowers and trims, this all one piece! Lot's of extra Prima blooms and branches in this one too for all you Prima lovers....



For those of you who are really looking forward to doing some Autumn scrapping, you'll really enjoy the October Creative kit! Here is one l/o I made using some of the spicey autumn colours in this kit! The photo is of my sweet niece and her puppy taken up at my brother's cottage....

There are so many fun embellishing elements to this kit, along with a variety of pretty blooms, there are wonderful chipboard elements and Pink Paislee glitter sticks. I 'sugared' the chipboard pieces with the glittery goodness included in this kit. Here are some close-up details....



A second layout I made using this kit was of a photo I took of my parents when we were on a walk about a month ago. They recently celebrated their 50th anniversary and I feel blessed that I still have them in my life.....

For this page I cut a few dried grasses from my backyard and tied them up with some of the ribbon in the kit. I drew out the Dandelion flowers with a brown pen and then added a little glitter to the tips of the blooms/weeds to add some shimmer to the page. There is a lattice piece of chipboard in the kit that I cut down, then cut little points at the top to create the small picket fence embellishment. Here are some close-ups...









Looking for more inspiration?....Don't forget to have a look at what the rest of the designteam has been up to this month, there's loads of beautiful pages and projects at the Design Team Gallery to get scrapping! And take a second to check out my Quilling tips at My Creative Scrapbooks Tips & Techniques thread or click the links below, it's fun and a great way to add a little pizzaz to your pages!

Quilling Basics

Quilled Roses

Quilled Butterflies

Thanks!!

~Gabrielle xxx

Here they are!! Septembers Kit Line-ups from My Creative Scrapbook!!!

This months line-up of kits at My Creative Scrapbook has a little something for everyone!! Pam worked hard to get together loads of the new releases from last months CHA show and I have to say the Limited Edition kit just blew my mind when I got it!! These papers are among my most favourite of the new releases from CHA. And wait till you get a peek at the embellishments in this kit! Can you say Prima?! Included in the kit are the beautiful velvety Baroque blooms, the Prima branches with the cute butterflies attached, a package of the Parlour Petals, a full tube of co-ordinating paper blooms to go with the 'Indeed' Paper collection, Prima alpha's and crystal flourishes. Included also in this kit are these really cute chandelier crystals. These crystals were so much fun to work with. Those of you who are familiar with my etsy site have probably seen the Page Jewellery I've been making over the past couple months. When I saw these crystals I thought why not use them the same way. So I tinted the chandelier crystals with a bit of alcohol ink (the crystals come clear, I used 'wild plum' and 'meddow' on my crystals) and wrapped them with some copper wire (you can find the wire at Michaels or any hardware store). Here are some close-ups of the above page.....

TIP: To attach the Page Jewellery I make to a layout I use a pin to poke a tiny hole on each side of the copper vine. Then I take a one inch piece of copper wire, bend it in a 'U' shape and bring each end over the vine and through the paper and then do it up like a twist-tie at the back of the paper. I do this in 2 or three key places and it holds the vine to the page nice and securely and you don't really see the copper wire attachment, it kinda gets lost in among the twisted wire of the vine.

Here is another layout I made using this kit. I love this picture of Meagan on a railroad track that I took at the cottage a couple of weeks ago. I thought it would be fun to use the chandelier crystals like little 'raindrops'. So I drew lines coming from the top of the page and stopping at random spots, then I attached a crystal at the ends with a needle and thread.

Here are some detail pictures of this page.....


There are so many beautiful papers in this kit and there are two of each style, which I just love because they are 2-sided papers (I always have a tough time choosing which side to use when there is only one of each paper). Here is the 3rd page I made using this kit.....

I had to laugh when I was taking these pictures of Meagan at the cottage. Here I am snapping these photos and I say to her, just relax and act normal, I don't want these photo's to look too 'posey' ....Meagan looks at me with this funny little grin and says, "Mom, how could this page not look posed, it's not like I walk around with a crown of roses on my head all the time!" .....for an eight year old she makes a lot of sense, LOL! Here are some close-ups of the page details (there are some really pretty Prima rub-ons in this kit too!).....


I couldn't resist, I did up a 4th layout for the LE kit this month (and still have lots of papers and goodies left over to make more!!).....

For this page I used layers of the Prima paper blooms (included in the kit) and added some flower stamens in the centers of the blooms.
TIP: You can make your own flower stamens by cutting 1-2 inch pieces of string (hemp style string works best for this) and dipping the ends of the string in some pearly dimensional paints. Let them dry. Then fold them in half and poke the folded end through the center of the blooms. I then cut the folded end of the strings and glue them flat to the backside of the bottom flower.
Here are some close-ups of the details of this page....

The Main kit this month features the newest collection from Pink Paislee! There are so many fun embellishments in this kit too! My husband snapped this photo of me when we went on a little hike a couple of weeks ago. I used the floral patterned paper and hand-cut the tree/blooms to wrap around the side of my photo.....

I added some dots of pink pearly dimensional paint to the centers of all the blooms to add an extra element of texture to the page, and applied the cut design with foam pop dots ....

Another page I made up using this kit is one I made about my nephew Michael. I love it when he pulls out his guitar and just starts singing for us, he had us laughing by making up a song about us at the cottage.....

My friend and fellow design team member Mireille did a tutorial at My Creative Scrapbook showing how to do this really cool 'faux stitching' technique. I tried it out on the red matting around the photo of my nephew. I really love the effect, it looks like that heavy bookbinding stitching.... (check out the cute newsprint blooms in this kit too, I like that they are not too feminine looking so I think they can still work nicely on a more masculine style page).....

And finally I really had some fun getting creative with this last l/o I made for the main kit this month. I came up with the idea for this page when I saw the College Press paper collection (some of which are included in this kit)....I saw one that had a sky design so I thought wouldn't it be fun to create my own 'painting' using a photo, some patterned paper and some water colour paint. I used a piece of vanilla colour cardstock as the base of my page, then layered on some of the Pink Paislee patterned papers to look like a cliff side and a small mound of rock. (the green paper reminded me of limestone cliffs). I painted the top of the page with some watercolours to make a sky and attached my photo to the bottom of the cliff walls. I created a sparkling waterfall by drybrushing some white paint down the patterned paper right onto my photo. I added some glittery Stickles to give the falls some shimmer and painted the sides with a little water colour paints to give the photo some continuity. Here's the results.....

I was on a tight time frame this month so I didn't get a chance to work with the beautiful Creative Kit and Album kit, but you've got to check out what some of the other design team members did with these awesome kits! The Creative kit this month features the beautiful new summery papers by My Minds Eye and the album kit features the new Jillibean Soup collection.....here's a link to the design team gallery for a bunch more inspiration! Design Team Gallery

Thanks again to everyone who reads all the way to the bottom of my long long posts!! LOL! (I really felt it this time, I've got a pinched nerve in my neck/shoulder so it was slow going getting this post ready.....now I need to load up on some Tylinol 3's.....hope this pain will let up before my next months kits show up)

~Gabrielle xxx

HUGE Anniversary Contest at My Creative Scrapbook!!!

It's the 7th anniversary for MY CREATIVE SCRAPBOOK and they are holding a contest with mind-blowing prizes!!! Check out the above pictured prize!....this is the prize for the layout catagory.....but keep looking, here are the prizes for some of the other catagories in this contest!.....

Prize for mini-album catagory....

Prize for Altered Item Catagory.....

Prize for Card catagory....

What do you need to do to win these prizes you ask? Simple!! The contest is all about PAPER (7th anniversary is the paper anniversary, how fitting huh?).....create a new layout, altered item, mini-album or card and enter it into the contest between August 15, 2009 - September 20, 2009. More contest details found HERE

But the fun doesn't stop there!! At the end of the contest there will be a final draw for the Grand Prize inwhich all the entries will be gathered into a draw (even the winners of each of the catagories will be added to this draw).....and here is picture of the Grand Prize.....

And to add just a little more fun to this party.....Pam has added a weekly prize drawing as an extra bonus, all you need to do is join in the contest fun and post comments on the entries in the contest.....Pam will be watching and adding the names of the participants to a draw each week.

So pull out all those beautiful papers and get scrapping!!! The odds of winning are great and the prizes amazing!....Can't wait to see all the entries!

~Gabrielle xxx

My new Page Jewellery at my Etsy Shop!

Scrapbookers have come a long way when it comes to our pages and the things we choose to embellish them with. Flower vines, 3D butterflies, hinges, gems, you name it we use it on our pages to make them more special. So I thought, hey, why not page jewellery! I created these pretty vines to add that 'something special' to a page that demands something unique and pretty. (my first batch sold out very quickly, but I should have a whole lot more posted soon) They measure approximately 4-5 inches. (the ones on the black background are a combination of three of them layed out in different configurations, just to show different ways they can be used.....you can create a larger very intricate branch or you can lay them out like an 'L' to frame the corner of a photo etc.) Shown below are more varieties I've made (sold out, but I'll have more up soon





So come browse my Etsy Shop - Gabrielle's Tiny Treasures to add a little fun, flair and uniqueness to your pages.

Thanks!

~Gabrielle xxx

August Kits for My Creative Scrapbook!!

I was just crazy about the Limited Addition Kit for August from My Creative Scrapbook, full of summery goodness with a vintage flair!! Not only is this kit filled with beautiful papers, there are loads of lacey die-cut papers, velvety soft Prima blooms, New Prima branches and crystals and over the top GORGEOUS trims from Websters Pages (crochetted lace, pom-pom trim, velvety soft trims, eyelet lace). They were just perfect for the photo's I had taken of my girls recently. Above is a picture of Chloe, I tucked her top 10 Favourites at age 11 in a tag behind the photo, here are some close-ups of the kit goodies!.....


There's so much variety in the colours in this kit too, so I was able to make it work with photo's that had strong colours. This is one I made with the LE kit of my youngest daughter Meagan.....If you like the felted sweater bloom headbands the girls are wearing, I have more like them that I made and are for sale in my ETSY shop!

I called this one Wonderful Freckles, but in truth I'm feeling so guilty for not watching carefully while we were in Florida that she had on proper sunscreen.....she got quite the sunburn that thereafter turned into freckles....all mommy's fault. Note to self: keep sunscreen handy this summer! Here are some close-up pic's of more of the kit goodies (love the pom-pom trim and Prima branches!)....

And here is one more page I made up with the LE kit, with loads of leftover goodies to make more!! This one is of Meagan in front of a Magnolia tree....one of her favourite flowers.....and no, I didn't mis-spell the title, it's sort of a tongue-in-cheek play on words.

TIP: I used a little die-cutter by Boss-kuts to make the butterflies from the patterned paper in the kit. I never knew this before, but these die-cutters are as thin as the Quickutz so they can be used with your Revolution cutting Machine.....so if you ever see these on sale, you can safely purchase them to use with your Revolution.



If you'd like even more summery options for kits this month, check out the Main kit from MCS this month, I fell in love with this pretty white petal branch in the kit, and talk about bloom overload, this kit is filled with wonderful Prima blooms, along with the new Prima branch, theres also the Calipso roses, and a full pack of Prima Sprites! I have this photo I took of Meagan when she was a baby and I thought it worked nicely with it.....

Really a fairly simple layout, a little paper tearing, a little handstitching and I sketched out a brick pattern and used some water colour pencils to colour it in a bit.

TIP: When preparing to tear your patterned paper, lightly outline the area you want exposed with a pencil. This will help you to avoid tearing too far in or out. Also securing the vines can sometimes be a challenge, one way to make them really secure is using a couple of small stitches through your paper and over the stem of the vine. In this case I used a thick thread because I wanted it to show, to mirror the stitching at the top of the page, but if you use a fine thread and tuck the holes close to the stem it is not very discernable. Here are some close-ups......

Another page I made using the August Main kit is this one of Meagan by a pool with the sun shining down on her. I took one of the pretty Prima blooms in the kit and took off the back layer of the rose, still leaving a nice substantial flower. I ended up with a single 5 petal layer. I cut this up into 5 separate petals. I then curled each one and wrapped some sticky floral tape on it, then attached it to some floral wire, did the same for the leaves (simply some green cardstock cut in to leaf shapes) and this way I created little bud vines to go with the big bloom included in the kit. Here is the l/o and some close-ups....



The August Creative Kit this month has wonderful colours for both 'boy' and 'girl' pages. I made this page of my nephew holding his new baby niece.....

I cut some branches from brown cardstock and used a little flower punch to make some tiny white blooms to create a fresh summery embellishment for this page. Not comfortable cutting branches free-hand? I've got some lovely pre-cut branches at my etsy shop just like the ones I used here, you can mix and match the designs to create a branch or tree that suits your page. Here are some close-ups....

Included in the August creative kit are some fun clear heavy plastic embellishments. So I thought I would try my and at some embossing and using alcohol inks. I've seen my friend Irene Tan playing with these inks for quite some time now and have always meant to give it a go. So when I got these clear embellishments in the kit I thought I'd give it a try. I stamped the top of the arrow, buttons and picture corners with embossing ink and a flourish stamp. I dusted it with gold embossing powder and then applied a heat gun to it. You have to be VERY careful with this part because if you bring the heat gun too close to the plastic piece it can scorch it (it also may cause the piece to curl a little but you can flatten it as it cools).........the next step is to turn it over and apply a few different drops of alcohol ink. Once it's dry you can flip it over and you'll have a very unique embellishment for your page.....

I also created my own 'patterned' paper using a piece of cream colour cardstock cutting it in a bracket shape and randomly stamped the edges with some floral and script stamps. Then just chalk around the edges with black or brown chalk ink to finish it off. Here are some close-ups....



Want more inspiration? the rest of the design team girls have done a beautiful job with this months kits (there's also a wonderful Album kit too!) Come browse the Design Team Gallery for August and get your creative juices flowing!

LOL! I thanks for bearing with me through another of my LOOOONG posts!

~Gabrielle xxx

Guest Designer at Little Shop of Sketches

I was asked by my friend Mieke to be a Guest Designer this month at Little Shop of Sketches. I was given a wonderful sketch to work with and above is the resulting page I made according to the sketch provided.


I've had this idea to use adhesive pearls in a scattered design for a circle border so I was thrilled that the sketch design had circle elements in it. I was inspired by a little cluster of pearls I had seen in the gallery of a friend of mine, Teresa that goes by the name Catz at sb.com (a page called 'Me'). You can find these adhesive pearls, along with the pearl flourish, the bling/pearl flourish and the butterflies at my Etsy Site! Actually you can even find the felted pin (clipped to her hairband) Chloe is wearing in her hair at my etsy site! Here are some close-up pics......



Be sure to check out the what the rest of the design team at Little Shop of Sketches has done with the sketch this month....their work is beautiful!!

~Gabrielle xxx

**ZVA Creative Sneak Peeks!!**

Zva Creative has come out with more of their beautiful single packets of flourishes, this time in new colours and finishes. Lot's of pearl flourishes in lovely shades, soft pink, steel-blue, summery-green, elegant taupe and much more! Here is a page I made using the steel-blue colour extra long flourish, I think they work equally well on masculine and feminine pages. I felt the pearly design in the dark blue reminded me of those ball key chains, so I added some grungeboard keys to the bottom instead of the usual blooms I like to put with my flourishes.

I got the finish on the keys and hinge accents by painting them black, then with some gold metalic paint and slightly rubbing off the gold before it dries. I also added some staples in a zig-zag design to give more of a masculine appeal to the page (this is a design element I first saw on one of Paulien Van der Bosh's pages....thanks Paulien!)........Here are some close-ups!.....




I'm also loving the new pearly pink flourishes! Theres a very pretty medium size flourish and again a lovely longer length pearl flourish, I used both on this page. Also new, are the pretty medium size roses, I like them layered with their sik flowers. Here is a l/o I made using these new products (it's another pic from a calendar I made of my girls when they were babies, this one is Chloe as a Rose-baby .....

I like to use foam pop-dots when I cut out bits of patterned paper like the rose design her (Zva also makes the pop-dots!)....here are some close-up pics....

And finally here is a page I made up with a photo I took at the cottage last year. Canada is so beautiful in the Summer and Winter. I chose these blue/green watery colors for my blooms to go with the river in the photo. All flowers, large pearl brads and flourishes in this page are by Zva Creative.

The CHA is only a couple weeks away! If you are fortunate enough to be able to attend the show make sure you check out the Zva Creative booth and check out the rest of the DT's work! If you want to see these products in stores near you, don't forget to ask your local store owners to check out the ZVA booth!

~Gabrielle xx

Here they are!! July kits for My Creative Scrapbook!!

Well I have to admit when I heard that we were going to have Graphic 45 Papers for our Limited Edition kit for the month of July, I felt a little intimidated! I know they've been around for a while and I've always admired the work I've seen done with them, but never had an opportunity to get my hands on some of this paper line. But I had some heritage photos from my DH's family that I've been wanting to scrap for a while now and so I just plunged in! And Oh WOW! they were fun to use! Along with all the lovely Fashionista papers, there were loads of gorgeous blooms, crystals, flourishes and vintage ribbons in this kit! Here are some pages I made up using this beautiful kit!....

I cut out one of the 'fashion' images from the pretty Graphic 45 papers and used a water colour pencil to add a little shading on the dress....then I added bling with some deep burgundy stickles to make this unique embellishment for this page (I thought the fashion motif went well with this cute pic of my DH's parents)....check out the beautiful ribbon that comes with this kit!....



Here is a second page I made using this lovely kit....it's a wedding photo of Steve's mom and dad....

I'm fascinated with sheer blooms lately and wanted to make up some smaller blooms to go with the large pretty blooms included in the kit. But I didn't have any scrap organza in the house so my DD Chloe suggested I try using the black window screen I used a while back on a l/o. I used my retro flower punch (medium size) on the screen and it did a pretty good job punching out the flower design! I then used the smaller flower punch on some deep red cardstock and a black brad in the middle to get my extra blooms on this page!.......BTW, all the pretty lace, crystals and the metal accents are all included in this Limited Edition kit....here are some close-ups.....

Included in this kit is a Prima Paintables page....so I came up with something a little different with the Paintable page and Graphic 45 papers. This is a photo I took of the girls when they were little.....

I used water colour pencils to colour in the paper and then wet it with a damp Q-tip to get a more 'watered' look. I also added some pink water colour to the white rose to give the flower a little variation in colour. I also made the pearl pink flourish by using the clear backing that was left over from the Prima flourish (there is an imprint left in the backing when you pull off the crystals for your other projects)....just dab on the pink pearl 3D paint (I used Scribbles, from Michaels)....let it dry, then just cut around the outside part of the flourish and stick it to the page (I don't bother getting too detailed cutting out the image, just mainly around the outside of the flourish). Here are some close-ups.....



The Main Kit for July was a real favourite of the Design Team....although we are really only required to make 2-3 layouts, it seems everyone made ton's of fun Summery l/o's with this kit! Here are some of the pages I made up with this one. 'Kites' was a very different style for me to do, a lot of measuring (I usually tend to 'eyeball' everything!)...also did some machine stitching for this one....



A second page I made with this kit is 'Road Trip' .....I think what really appealed about this kit is that it was excellent for both feminine and masculine pages. My DH is always up for 'road trips' so all the stuff in this kit was perfect for these pic's I took of him.....




Just a note: I got the kind of 'opposite masking' look above by inking the embossed design on the patterned paper, then rubbing it with a kleenex. The embossed part doesn't hold the ink, it rubs off so you get the floral design showing stronger.


Here is a 3rd page I made up with the Main kit along with a close-up (lots of beautifully co-ordinated embossed blooms in this kit!)....

And I also made a 4th l/o for this kit (with plenty leftover goodies to make more! There's loads of cute chipboard pieces, stickers and rub-ons plus an awesome full page transparency)......

Another beautiful kit available for July is the Creative Kit!....LOVE the polka dots and pretty patterned papers in this one! I decided to use some of my favourite photos I took of the girls when they were babies for this kit! This first one is a pic I took of Meagan with a bunch of apples!.....

A second l/o I made with the Creative kit is this page of my oldest DD Chloe, wearing a little strawberry outfit I made her specially for a page for a calendar I made. This kit has so many cute 'fruity' papers and embellies! and loads of pretty embossed blooms too!.....

And there's also a wonderful album kit for July too! You have to check out what the design team girlies did with this one!!! Come see the Design team gallery for this month to see all the beautiful work of all the other design team members to get loads of inspiration!

Hoping everyone's summer is off to a great start!!

~Gabrielle xx

Tear Bears and new layouts at my etsy shop!

Years before I started scrapbooking I did this cute little craft with Chloe for her Junior Kindergarten class. We made tear bears out of paper brown paper bags. Now I thought I'd try using these cute little creatures on my layout's....except this time I used mulberry paper to get more of a soft fluffy effect. Actually this paper is called 'pineapple' paper made with the husks of pineapple plants, it works equally as well as mulberry paper.

Above is a page I made using this embellishment......and guess what? If you like it.....I have this very l/o for sale at my etsy shop! Here is a pic of the premade l/o 'Beary Sweet' and some close-ups.....

I've also added a couple more premade layouts for sale at my etsy shop. Last time the pages went so quick not too many people had a chance at them. I've had a number of inquiries on this one particular page so I made a similar one up again and also made it in a pink colour scheme. Here are some pic's and close-ups.....

And of course you can get many of the embellishments I've used on my pages at my etsy shop as seperate items. The green sheer butterfly above is listed as 'Iron Maiden....Fairy Wings' and the pink butterfly in the pink l/o is listed as 'Translucent Butterfly.....Fantasia' ......I also have those cute little embossed sunflowers the little bear is holding in the top l/o up in my etsy shop too!

Please note if you missed out on any of the layouts I've posted at my shop please send me a note and I'll see if I can make the same or a similar custom order up for you.

Thanks!

~Gabrielle xxx

Check out my new Premade Scrapbook Pages at my Etsy site!

Over the years I've had many people ask me if I'd consider doing pre-made layouts of my scrapbook pages .....so I've decided to finally do some and add them to my etsy shop. Here are a few of my designs with close-up details.....





Another pre-made layout......

Another premade layout....






If you like what you see or would like more information please come check out my etsy shop at this link Gabrielle's Tiny Treasures ....my pages take quite a bit of time to create but I will endeavour to have more up soon so that you all can take advantage of combined shipping on these.

Thanks for having a peek!

~Gabrielle xxx