NEW RELEASES FOR DUSTY ATTIC!!!

It's that time!! Don't you love this time of year? Seeing all the awesome new releases for the Summer CHA? I sure do! And here is a peek at some of the beautiful new things available at Dusty Attic Designs! I've posted some pic's of a few of my favourites .....




And there is soooo much more!! Thread spools (how cute would these be with colorful DMC floss wrapped around them!)....fences galore! love these!.....more dress forms......so come have a peek at some of the newest Dusty Attic Designs here ~~~> DUSTY ATTIC

And remember, the best way to make these products readily available to you is to let your local scrapbook stores know that you'd love to have them order them in!

Thanks for having a peek!

~Gabrielle xxx

Sometimes you feel like things are going to be okay!

So the other night my sister and I and my two girls watched one of my favourite movies "Fried Green Tomato's" and I was thinking to myself about the importance of a great friendship. My sister and I have that, we are best of friends and would do anything for each other. Fortunately our husbands are great friends too so it makes for fun times together. Well, I remember thinking I hope my two girls will grow up to be as close as my sister and I are. Sometimes with the little tiff's here and there you have to wonder. But then a couple of nights ago Chloe came into our room and said she had a bad headache. Well, I see my youngest, Meagan scamper off while I get Chloe some Tylinol. A little while later Chloe came in to show me this sweet card Meagan quickly made up for her. Here is the inside of the card (the thingy on the right side is a thermometer LOL!).....

I was so impressed and touched by Meagan's thoughtfulness, other than the word 'hert' (hurt) she did really well on the spelling too! It was one of those moments as a mother you think that everything is right with the world, your two children love each other and your heart is happy.

I made up the above page as a memory of this moment (I made a little pocket at the back of the l/o to put the card into as a little keepsake)

As for products on the page I used this wonderful Dusty Attic bracket Frame (this comes in a large sheet with various sizes of the same bracket frame, the one I used above is the largest) I tried a crackle paint on this frame that totally did not work out like I expected it to, it did more of a beading on the white paint than a crackle look. I also used a section of one of the Dusty Attic iron fences on this l/o ....for the finish I simply inked it with some brown pigment ink and then dabbed on some Tim Holtz Distress Stickles in 'Antique Bronze' ....I liked the finish it gave, kind of like a rusted look, here is a close-up pic....

And finally I wanted to say I recently picked up this paper pack at Michaels that I've been wanting to get called 'Blossomwood' by K&Company, one of my dear friends Teresa Manchez known at Catz at sb.com told me about these papers when I admired the pussywillow paper I saw on one of her l/o's (thanks Teresa!) I just love all the papers in this paper pad!! so cute, can't wait to do more with them! The little birds are stickers that coordinate with this collection and the letter stickers are more of my favourites from Webster's Pages. Here's a couple of close-up peeks at the rest of the page...


Well, I've pretty much used up most of my Dusty Attic stash but I hear that a wonderful package with all of the new Dusty Attic goodies are on their way to me from Australia!! Can't wait to see what kind of pretties they are coming out with next!

Thanks for having a peek!!

~Gabrielle xxx

July Reveal for the Beautiful My Creative Scrapbook Kits!!

I had a lot of fun with this months Album kit!! I loved the soft grey/blues with the touches of gold....they reminded me of the old BasicGrey Vagabond collection....so this inspired me to go with a very distressed look for this page. To get the extra distressed look to the edges of my papers I used the same technique I shared with you last month when I made the fan design on one of my pages for the main kit. I soaked the edges of my papers with water about 1- 1 1/2 inches into the edges of the paper. (I first inked the edges) Then just draw in and crumple the edges some. I like to blow dry the edges to get them to dry quickly and keep the shape I molded into the paper. Once the paper is dry lightly brush your chalk ink over the wrinkles to make them stand out more.
TIP: I shared this little tip with some of you a while back but thought I'd share it again in case you missed it. Have you ever felt like you needed another 'neutral' design paper for your l/o's but have come up blank? I love to use old books. I went to a thrift shop and picked up an old book with weather pages for .25 cents, this same book has seen me through many many l/o's! Here I tucked bits and pieces behind the patterned papers and also used some for my blooms. Here's a close-up pic....

I also made up a couple of little flower techniques for this page. I shared a heart punch bloom technique with you all last year but this heart punch technique creates a bloom that sits a little flatter. You can find the tutorial HERE. I alsos shared a tutorial to make the ruffled blooms I made from the bookpaper HERE Here's a close up detail picture....

I used the greenish/neutral papers in the Album kit to create this next l/o. I again went with a very distressed look, layering a number of papers. I've been wanting to scrap these pic's of Meagan and my Dad at the cottage doing some fising off the dock.....I think my Dad spent more time putting worms on the hooks and rescuing Meagans hoods and lines than they actually spent catching fish. But I know the both enjoyed every second of it!

There are some really cute embellishments in this kit, some awesome twine trim and very cool epoxy brads. Here is a close-up detail pic of this page (I used the Torn flower technique to make the blooms on this page)....


Another kit that was just packed with beautiful papers and blooms was this months Limited Edition Kit!! Do you love the look of stitched papers but just don't have the patience to do the stitching?? This kit had 3 gorgeous pre-stitched papers in it! I just loved the fun lady-bug motif in this IOD (Iron Orchid Designs) collection! And Pam included the cutest lady-bug embellishments to go with it. I thought this design would nicely compliment this sweet picture I had of my baby niece Kiera (Professional photos taken by Stephanie Robins Designs)......

I kept the white Prima blooms their pristine white for this l/o and simply just added some of the ladybug embellishments to finish of the page design. Here is a close-up pic of one of the embellishments.....

A second l/o I made using this kit, I went with the pinks and black accents. I did a fan pleat in two of the opposite corners and tacked it with a rose. The photo is of the same baby as in the above photo except that she's a few months older now. It was such a pleasure cuddling my baby niece.....gosh, I love babies!

....There were some beautiful sugary pink roses in this kit, I used half the package for this page and half for another. The small pink roses were made from pink cardstock by my daughter Chloe (she's had a little more time on her hands right now while she's off school so she wanted to help me out a bit) She used the 6 Petal punch technique you can find at the right side of my blog. Here are some close up pic's .....


A third l/o I made using this page I went with the pretty pink die-cut paper, the green stitched flourishes are already added to the paper, no need to sew! The photo is of my other sweet little niece Jade, this little one was constantly on the go! I was surprised I actually got her to hold still enough for some pic's!

For this l/o I used some of the matching IOD blooms mixed with some of the Prima blooms included in the kit.....check out the cute little pom-pom catterpillar embellishment (also from the kit) here are a couple of close-up pic's, you can see the detailing in the pre-stitched paper....


For this fourth l/o I made for the LE kit I used another one of the pre-stitched papers. I couldn't believe how my little niece was dressed in just the perfect colors to match the papers in this kit! (not at all planned, just a happy co-incidence)

I really love the music note paper that Pam included in this kit, it makes such a nice accent paper to the other papers in the kit. I cut the butterfly out from the note-paper. Here is a close-up pic.....


I enjoyed working with this kit so much that I even made up a 5th page using this kit! I had to laugh at my little niece Jade, I don't think she was at my sister's house more than 3 minutes before she kicked off her little sandals and was scampering through the grass barefoot!

I shared how I made up the heart and flourish circle design in the monthly DT thread over at MCS called "How did they do that?" (It should be posted in the next day or so) ....Here are a couple of close-up pic's....





And last but not least I got to work with the wondefully summery Main kit this month. Lots of spicy warm colors and fun embellishments especially for those water/beach photo's you've been wanting to scrap! For my first l/o for this kit I went with the soft yellows and ocean blues. The photo is one of my niece (my youngest bro's daughter) on the dock at their cottage catching some rays, I just love the way her cute pup Dahlia has her head resting on Alicia, so cute!....

I thought it might be fun this month to see if I can make up a sketch from one of my pages and see how I do at it. I still have a little to learn about how to get some of the shapes to translate to a sketch but I chose this l/o to make into a sketch. SO if anyone wants to give this sketch a go by all means go ahead and try it! and Please! do leave a comment here with a link to the page you made from the sketch I'd love to see it!....

As a design team we made up a LOT of beach themed pages using this kit but I thought I would do a couple of l/o's showing how the papers are very versatile and could also be used for non-beach l/o's. For this page I used the brown tone papers and added a little pink cardstock to accent it.

I was in stitches watching my little niece just tackling on of my sisters houseplants. She would crumple up the big leaves in her little hands until I thought they would never recover but somehow they always bounced back! LOL!

TIP: I made the white lace edge around the bracket cut paper by using the Martha Stewart lace-edge punch. This is a little trick I learned from my talented friend Pattil Hamil. Punch strips of the lace or decorative edge paper, then cut them into smaller pieces, (one or two scallops) then stick them on piece by piece behind the matting. Here are a couple of close-up pic's....


And finally a 3rd page I made using the Main kit I went with the sunny yellows and cornflower blue's. The photo is of my youngest daughter, definitely a girly girl but still happy to play with frogs, worms, snakes, you name it! Hard to see in this picture but here she's holding a frog she found in the garden....all smiles about it!

I used these pretty glimmery blooms by Petaloo in the kit but I wanted them to be a little larger so I used them as a center for some larger blooms I made using my Torn cardstock Bloom tutorial found to the right of my blog. Here's a close up pic...

Tutorial, Making Ruffled Blooms (Mum Style)

Last year I shared a flower tutorial with you using a spiral cut design ~~> HERE ....this is a kind of twist on this flower design. By using a pair of scallop edge decorative scissors (these can be found inexpensively at your local craft store), you can create a flower that resembles a ruffled Mum bloom.

Step 1
Begin by cutting out a rough circle shape from your cardstock/patterned paper or try what I used here, some paper torn from an old book (I picked up an old book at a thrift shop for .25 cents and it's gone a long way in providing me with weathered newsprint type paper for my projects) As you can tell you don't have to be too fussy in cutting the circle shape, mine clearly isn't a perfect round.


Step 2
Using a pair of scallop edge scissors, cut out a spiral design into the circle. I didn't even bother penciling out a spiral design to cut, I just did it free-hand. Just be sure not to cut the spiral too thin because in step 3 you will be cutting into the strip. You can also ink the ruffled edge at this point if you'd like to add another layer of color and dimension to your bloom.


Step 3
Using a plain pair of scissors snip a little cut into the indent of each of the scallops, being careful not to cut too deep (half or 3/4 of the way down is good).


Step 4
Now you can begin rolling up your strip of scallop paper, starting with the edge shown in the above photo.


Step 5
Some people find it easier to use a tweaser to hold the center of the bloom as they wrap the strip around into a circle as shown in the photo above.


Step 6
The middle of the circle design provides a perfect little platform to glue your rolled up paper to. I used some white glue here but you may find using hot glue a better method here as it's a quicker dry method.


Step 7
Now simply just ruffle back the petals with your thumbs to get a cute little ruffled bloom. You can create larger blooms by cutting a larger circle and having a longer spiral to work with. Below is the finished bloom (which I placed inside another cardstock bloom I made using a heart punch (see tutorial I posted just before this one for the steps to create the blue flower).....


You can see the finished page I made using these blooms soon as I have the July MCS reveal posted....hopefully sometime today! :)

Thanks for having a peek!

~Gabrielle xxx

Tutorial, Creating a larger rose with a heart punch

Have you ever had a bunch of medium/small blooms that nicely match your papers but need a larger 'center-piece' bloom to go with your page? Here's a cool solution. By using a heart punch and a simple circle punch (you could easily hand cut small circle) and choosing cardstock to coordinate with your patterned paper you can make a quick larger bloom for your page.

Step 1

Punch out 9 heart shapes and one circle shape from your cardstock. (I used the Marvy Uchida 1 1/4 inch heart punch and the Marvy Uchida 1" circle punch) Ink all the edges of your edges with a neutral color chalk ink like Colorbox Chestnut chalk ink or a complimentary color to your cardstock.


Step 2
Cut a slit into the middle of each heart shape just a little more than halfway down. and ink the inner cut edges too. slightly bend up the petal from the place you ended the center cut and lightly curl back each petal using a pencil or a wooden skewer.

Step3
Put some glue down on the circl piece and lay 5 of the petals around the edges of the circle adding glue if needed. This can also be done with a glue gun but remember quick drying hot glue does not give you a lot of time to maneuver the petals.


Step 4
Now add another blob of glue to the center of the bloom. Lay down your last 4 heart shapes around inside the first circle of petals. Your larger bloom design is now ready to add the smaller co-ordinating bloom to the center. In the photo below I used a bloom center I made using the Ruffled Flower (Mum Style) technique to create this finished bloom.....

For the tutorial on making the Ruffled Flower (Mum Style) bloom see my next post.

Thanks for having a peek!

~Gabrielle xxx