My First Project for the Dusty Attic Design Team!

As soon as my nephew showed me these photos of his newborn baby daughter Kiera, I knew which papers I would have to scrap this pic and which embellishments I would wait on. I recently mentioned on one of my posts that I'm now on the design team for Dusty Attic (they make beautiful laser-cut embellishments).....well, yesterday I received my package of goodies from them so I could start creating! It was mind-boggling opening that box and finding all these beautiful intricately cut treasures! I went out and picked up the new paper collection by BasicGrey called Kioshi (soon as I saw these presented for the winter CHA I knew these were going to be the papers I wanted to scrap this photo with)

Isn't she adorable? Those cute little lips! I wanted this page to have a very whimsical fairytail look to it so the laser cut flourish from Dusty Attic was the choice I made for this one (the pretty title cut is also from Dusty Attic) For the chipboard I painted it with white paint, tinted the edges a bit with some green and brown chalk ink and then coated the whole thing with some diamond Stickles. Here are a few close-up pic's...





I can't wait to get scrapping with more of the lovely pieces they sent me! If you are interested in checking out the Dusty Attic products you can find them HERE . The photo is a professional shot taken by Stephanie Robins Photography

Thanks for having a peek!

Gabrielle xxx

Torn Cardstock Flower Tutorial

I used the gorgeous papers from Webster's Pages and I just wanted to give this handmade flower design a go on this page. So here are the steps in making this cute bloom out of cardstock, just in time for Spring!

1. First off you'll want to choose 2 complimentary colours of cardstock. I used a soft yellow and a whisper of green cardstock. (Plus a small scrap of brown and light blue for the flower centers). You'll want to tear a rough circle the size you'd like your flower to be out of one of the colours of cardstock. Then draw 5 lines almost to the center (they do not have to be even, the more uneven the more natural they look) This will define your petals. Tear along your pencil lines.

2. Step 2 is optional. You can ink all your edges with some soft brown chalk ink. I find brown chalk ink works well on pretty much every colour but you can experiment with other chalk ink colours....or use none at all, the effect without it is lovely too!

3. Next you'll want to take a toothpick or wooden skewer (I used an embossing tool I had handy, but a skewer works just as well) and curl up all the edges of the blooms.

4. Next you'll tear a slightly smaller circle from your other color piece of cardstock and repeat the above steps. Then layer the smaller piece inside the larger and glue together.

5. Now here is the part that gives your bloom an cute homespun appeal. Take a length of thin cording preferably in a dark colour and tie a simple knot in one end. Trim off excess. Now tie another knot about an inch and a half in from the last one (slightly wider than your smallest flower). Trim. Make 4 of these. Glue them to the center of your flower with some hot glue. Making an X with the first two and then another X criss-crossing over the first ones....

6. To create a rounded looking center for your bloom, punch our hand-cut out a small circle out of cardstock (I used light blue) and punch or hand-cut a slightly smaller flower shape from a dark colour cardstock. To give them a rounded look, place each piece in the palm of your hand then press the rubber end of a pencil into it (for the smaller flower)....for the slightly larger blue circle I pushed the rounded end of my scissor into my palm and twisted till I get the desired cup shape (see photo's below)

7. Glue the brown flower on top of the blue circle. Final step....place an adhesive foam dot in the center of your bloom and attach the rounded flower center your made.

Viola! you are done.....here is a close-up photo of the blooms on my page (see top photo for the full page design).....

If you like this flower design and create a l/o using them please do take a moment to leave me a comment with a link to your project! I love to see what other's create using the tutorials I post!

The photo is of my newest baby niece Kiera at only 14 days old!! My nephew sent me these wonderful professional photos taken by this amazing local photographer. Here is her link in case you're looking for a great maternity/baby photographer! Stepanie Robin Photography & Design

Thanks!

And the Winner is.......

Thanks everyone for the overwhelming response to my blog give-away!! I'm so glad to get the word out there about the My Creative Scrapbook blog, it's such a fun place and will keep you all up to date on what's happening at MCS! I wish I could've had a prize for every comment left here, but I only had one kit to give-away, so without further ado .....the draw went to.....

Denise Jensen!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!

Denise please take a moment and send me your mailing addie at gpollacco@aol.com and I'll have the prize sent out to you today!

Thanks everyone for playing!!

Dusty Attic Design Team!!!

I finally get to share my exciting news!!!!!

I was recently asked to be on the Dusty Attic Design Team!!

Dusty Attic is a manufacturer of gorgeous vintage style laser cut chipboard designs located in Australia. You've got to check out their beautiful designs, so intricate and detailed!! I can't wait to receive my first package so I can start playing!!

The Design Team consists of some really amazing talent:

Evana Willis, Many Harrell, Trina Mclune, Jen Burns, Michelle Grant
I'm so thrilled to be part of this awesome team!

Here's a link to the Dusty attic websites if you want to have a peek at their beautiful products....

http://dustyattic.ning.com/

and

Dusty Attic

Since I haven't got my goodies in yet to show you, here is a peek of a few of the products done up by some of the other DT members....

I'll be stalking the mailman for my goodies and soon as I get some projects done I'll share them here with you all!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!!.....stay tuned for my post tomorrow for the winner of the draw for the MCS Album Kit giveaway!

~Gabrielle xxx

They're Here!! March kits from My Creative Scrapbook!!!....Plus a GIVE-AWAY!!!

NOTE: Please read to the end of the Blog! I have an awesome giveaway!

This is always such a fun time of year! Pam (the owner of My Creative Scrapbook) just got back from the Winter CHA show and has ordered all of the latest/greatest goodies for the kits!! Can you say Prima??? This month's Limited Edition kit is just packed with amazing new papers from Prima along with blooms, blooms and more blooms!! Pearl flourishes? ~ check! ...lace, ribbon, tulle? ~ check, check, check!!....Specialty items? ~ you bet! This was such a fun kit to work with!....I was inspired by the dressmakers form (included in the kit) when I made up this page. There was this pretty moss green tulle included in the kit, so I made up a little 'outfit' for the dress-form with it. Here are a few close-up pic's.....



TIP: To create the look I got for the photo here I used photo-editing software to create edge fading on the photos, then I printed out the image as a 4x6 and a 5x7 and layered one on top of the other.

This kit allowed for so many different looks from soft and whimsical to dark and rich....here is another l/o I made using this kit....

I did a little hand-cutting of the paper designs as extra embellishments to this layout. Here are some close-ups....


And in a third l/o I used a specialty paper included in the kit. This paper has such a lovely texture and already has some beautiful stitching already added.

The only stitching I added was the stitching on the aqua matting paper behind the photos. I also used a little of the Prima packaging on this page. Here are some more close-ups....




Now for the Main kit! MORE new Prima!!! The design team girls just couldn't get enough of working with this one!! We got such an amazing variety of looks out of this kit! Here is my first l/o done with the Main kit...

I was making up a few pages for a gift album for my parents anniversary. That flower Meagan is holding in this photo is a real Dahlia from her garden. My sister special ordered these from Holland and each Spring my Dad makes sure to plant the bulb in her garden to make sure it comes back! I did a lot of fine-hand-cutting for this one from the patterned paper. Here are some close-ups.....


Another l/o I made with this kit I went with the aqua colours in the kit papers. I used the ruffled edge finish I shared in a small video tutorial HERE ....

TIP: Rather than chopping up a beautiful piece of paper for some butterfly embellies, I like to take a colour photocopy of some of the elements on the patterened paper and print it out on some plain white cardstock, then cut out and use it as above. You can adjust the size they way too! and you'll still have your beautiful paper to work with! Here are a few close-up pictures....


One more layout I made with this kit, I went with the soft pink colours in the kit. This photo makes me laugh, Meagan at the beach in front of the cottage...caught stomping down the sand castles.....

I used an older die-cut paper I had as a template to cut the frame, and did a little masking with the cut butterflies I used on this page (just turned them over and used a little pink watercolour paint (in the right top corner) I tinted the white blooms included in the kit with a bit of pink water colour paint too....here are a few close-ups....




And a third kit I got to play with this month was the Creative Kit. This one was packed with unique and beautiful papers from GCD Studios with some really fun finishes, glitter, velvety flocking and gloss! You have to see these IRL to believe them! Here is the first l/o I made with this one, it was a really tough one for me. I know many of you have seen our beautiful dog in other l/o's, we were so heartbroken to have lost her recently, she'd been very ill the past 1/2 year and we lost her just end of December, this was kind of theraputic for me, I still tear-up with I think of her.....


A second l/o I made using the Creative kit, I went with the pinks and greens in the kit. I've used one of these photo's before on one of my l/o's but I went with it another time for the album I'm making up for my parents......



Okay, so now for the fun part!! Pam sent me all 4 kits this month from My Creative Scrapbook. But I only had enough time to work on 3 of the kits. I still have my album kit untouched and you can have a chance to win it! Here is a picture of the Album kit (to see work done by the design team with this kit be sure to visit the DT Gallery at MCS!).....



Please note, that I usually get the whole album kit but without the chipboard album (to make l/o's) so the bracket frame chipboard album in the top photo will not be in the kit, but I have added a 'purse' chipboard album from my own stash to the kit!


How can you win this kit?? We would like people to get to know the My Creative Scrapbook Blog. Julie Howard one of our multi-talented designers has recently taken up the reigns of getting the blog going and she has so much fun to share with everyone each month. Just go to the MCS Blog HERE ......in the right hand column you will see a link to follow the MCS blog. Become a blog follower and then take a moment to check out Julie's article featuring one of our designers Liz Qualman.....find the answer to this question......Who is Liz's celebrity crush? Come back to my blog and leave me a message with the answer to the question and let me know you've become a blog follower. I will then enter you into a draw that I will do on the 15th of March! I'll announce the winner at my blog and send this kit off to you! Easy-peasy!


Thanks for stopping by!



~Gabrielle xxx