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