Reveal Day for December kits from 'My Creative Scrapbook'!!

Well, you saw the sneaks and now here are the real things! I'm starting with the Limited Edition kit this time, what a pleasure it was working with the gorgeous papers and embellies in this kit!! It features the beautiful papers from the Webster's Pages 'Winter Wings' collection, and with it Pam has co-ordinated gorgeous blooms, trims, and bling! I'm just crazy about these Prima fabric blooms included in the kit! There is something about adding fabric to a page that always makes me feel like it has a vintage feel to it! I made the above l/o using the LE kit, this is another sweet photo of my nephews little baby daughter. Here are some close-ups of the kit goodies......


TIP: I really liked the soft dotted butterflies I saw on the Webster's pages patterned paper but the image was small for my use so I scanned the butterfly and slightly enlarged it with my photo-editing software. I then printed out the butterflies on glossy white cardstock and cut them out. You can add a little Stickles glitter to them if you want to add extra dimension. Now, here is some really awesome news too! Webster's pages now offers digital images of their papers and embellishments, how cool is that! Here's a link to their new digital motifs Websters Digital images

Here is a second l/o I made using the Limited Edition Kit...


This kit is just FILLED to the brim with gorgeous Prima blooms and bling! The large bloom is another of those soft vintage feeling blooms that I love so much in this kit! But there are so many more blooms to use along with them! So if you are a person who loves to use blooms on their pages, this one is for you! And remember you are not having to purchase any special add-on kits to make up these l/o's ....everything is included in these kits! Here are some close-up pic's of the kit goodies used on this page.....


I just love the Websters Pages letter stickers too!! They allow you to do titles that are a little bit longer than usual. We took this picture a few weeks ago when we went on a late Fall walk. The last time I had a picture taken on this rock with my girls I did a l/o about 'True Beauty' and I shared the words from Audrey Hepburn about 'beauty'. This time I thought I would use humour in sharing advice with the girls. There was a girl at school that was making unkind comments to Chloe and I was thinking on how to deal with it....so I went with this advice.....

"Before you criticize someone
Walk a mile in their shoes,
That way when you do criticize them,
You are a mile away and you have their shoes"

I had to giggle when I read that quote....sometimes it's better to face unkindness with humour right?

Here is a 3rd l/o I made with the Limited Edition kit....

And here are a few close-ups, Pam always seems to find such unique and pretty accents for her kits, check out this cute crystal bloom....



I made up a 4rth l/o for this kit (there are so many papers and goodies in this kit that you'll find you can make many more than that!....there are 2 of each of the 2 sided patterned papers allowing you lots of options for your layouts!).....

I so much loved the Prima fabric blooms in this kit that I had to try out and see if I could make one myself using some cardstock and a length of twill. I thought it came out pretty good! To make the bloom I simply traced the original bloom on a piece of pink cardstock to get the basic design. Then I cut a bunch of 5 inch strips of natural colour twill and wound them into a rope and wound them again into a spiral. I put a dab of glue down on the cardstock cut out and glued down each spiral. I added an adhesive pearl to the center of each spiral and for the center of the bloom I made up a pink carstock bloom using my 'quilled roses' technique. The small pink roses on this page were also made using the quilled roses technique but only using 4 petals. I made the pink pearly flourish using the backing of the Prima pearl flourish I had already used on another page and put dots of pink pearly dimensional paint into the faint outlined dots, then cut out the flourish and adhered it to the page. Here are some close-up pic's......

I also got to work with the Album Kit this month. This one featured beautiful papers from both Websters Pages and Fancy Pants Designs! We went on a little family walk a couple weeks back and on this walk we came upon this rock with a quote from Winnie-the-pooh engraved in it, thus the name of the l/o 'Hidden Treasures'

There is a really cute collection of ornate brads in this kit including these fun pearl brads, so I used a few of these to create a corset design for my l/o. I also played a bit with some stamping and heat embossing on the two panels of the corset design. Here are some close-ups...


A second l/o I made for the Album kit I went in a more masculine direction. I took this photo of my dear husband on our walk with our pup. I used the a piece of the cardboard box my kit came in to make up this page...

I simply peeled off the top layer of paper from the cardboard exposing the corrugation underneath. I sprayed with a little bit of gold and bronze glimmer mists and dry brushes some white paint onto it. To make the Bull-rush embellishment along the right side of the photo I cut out some carstock paper shapes, inked the edges and pasted onto the page. I finished it all off with some of the cute Fancy Pants rub-on's also included in the kit. Here is a close-up shot of the embellishment I made from carstock for this l/o. Just some simple cutting and pasting....

I did a 3rd l/o for the Album kit. Another pic taken on our Autumn walk of my girls and I. I cute the loopy border using a Martha Stewart punch sent to me by my dear friend Liz Qualman. The punch comes with a separate corner punch that allows you to make perfect corners!

TIP: I made the Blooms on this page from a variety of patterned papers in this kit using a technique one of the members, Julia, at MCS shared with us Layered Blooms .....I changed up the technique slightly by cutting a more wavey edge rather than circles on the paper layers. And rather than using the eraser end of a pencil to create the ruffled look, I used the rounded 'ear' of my scissors, cupped the piece of cut paper in my palm and gently pressed the ear of the scissor into my palm and the paper, turning the scissor to create a shallow 'cup' out of the paper pieces. I had meant to use some white 'puffy' paint to create a snowy look to the blooms and then just couldn't find where the girls had put it! So I just used some white pearl paint on the edges of the blooms instead. Here is a close-up picture....

I only worked with 2 of the kits this months but there is so much more! To see what the Design Team did with the December Main kit and Creative Kit checkout this link Design Team Gallery

We also had two new Guest Designers this month. Many of you know the talented scrapbooker Jackie Anderson and Tara Orr! They created some really gorgeous and creative pages along with the design team this month, it was such an honour having them play along with us. Check out our blog site for some information on these talented ladies BLOG

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog and taking the time to read through my crazy LONG posts!

~Gabrielle xxx

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