Some Wintery Bo Bunny & a little Dusty Attic!

I just wanted to share this l/o I made recently with the new Bo Bunny collection called Midnight Frost. I also used some of my favourite laser cuts chippies from Dusty Attic on this l/o. I thought I'd scrap about my newest winter pick-me-up ....the Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate from Starbucks! Yum!! This salty sweet treat is just so yummy.....I know the salted part sounds wierd but believe me it is good!! Here are a few close up shots of the l/o embellishments....

I just wanted to make a quick comment on the products I use on my l/o's. I get some questions as to the details on what products I used on my pages......I don't usually list the products for my layouts that I do for the kit club layouts I make up because they are listed in full each month at the MCS (My Creative Scrapbook) site. If you click on the photo of the kit each month at the MCS site, you will find a full listing of the products in the kit....hope this answers some of your questions with regard to product :) But for the manufacturing design teams that I'm on I'm happy to list the products for you. For the above l/o I used Patterned Paper: ~Midnight Frost Crystals~Midnight Frost Snowball~Midnight Frost Moonlight (butterflies and matting)~Noteworthy Journaling Cards~Midnight Frost Chipboard (flourishes & large frame)~Frost Wraps (lace)~Midnight Frost Stamp (flourish) .....and I also used some Prima blooms.....and some Dusty Attic Laser chips (the tree and the title).

Thanks so much for stopping by!

~Gabrielle xxx

New December Kits from My Creative Scrapbook!

So I get to post a couple days earlier this month, with December being a busy month for everyone, Pam got the reveal date moved up for us. Hang on to your hats this is going to be a long one.....but I really filled this post with LOADS of tips & techniques. The above layout was made with the beautiful goodies in this months Limited Edition kit. This kit was just packed with beautiful blooms, trims, floral sprays....and my favourite winter collection Night Devine by IOD! I just fell for those papers when I saw them at the summer CHA release....those deep rich rose patterns, burgundy flourish papers....such an awesome collection! I made the rose in the bottom left corner of this l/o by cutting out petal shapes from the organza ribbon in the kit and then melting the edges in a candle flame ....I shared this technique quite a long time ago at MCS at this link Sheer Blooms Done 2 Ways ....the center of the flower is just made from red cardstock. The ruffled red roses are another variation on the Water Distress blooms ~ the tutorial for this can be found in the right colum of my blogsite here. Here are a few close-up pic's...


TIP: I'm a sucker for butterflies, and while Pam puts a ton of embellishments in the kits, for me there are never enough butterflies! lol!....so I scanned the blue butterflies on the patterned paper and printed off a whole bunch of little butterflies on some heavy white cardstock....cut them out and added touches of ink and glitter to make the little embellishments.

This second l/o I made with this kit I used a photo I took of Meagan....I know it's a summer photo but the colours she had on went well with the paper colours so I finally had a chance to scrap this photo....

I also took a lot of liberties with the goodies in the kit and changed them up a bit. See the butterfly in the top right corner? I made that with some velvety poinsetta leaves that were in the kit! LOL!... You see, Pam insists that we stick only to using kit products (nothing from our stash or from other kits....other than some cardstock, ink and glitter glue)....this way when people receive their kits they don't feel as though they can't create what they've seen on the DT pages with what they have at hand. Well....you know me and butterflies!.....I just trimmed the poinsetta leaves with a scissor and banded 4 of them together with their wire stems. I also removed the berries from the poinsetta's and used some for the branch/spray that you see in the first layout (top of this blog piece) and one of the beads/berries for the butterflies head. I took the leftover stem bits and cut them into 4 pieces and made 4 curly wires and attached them to the back of the butterfly with some glue (love the Tombo glue for this!).....it looked like this from the back......

Then I simply flipped the butterly over and added metalic squeeze paint and glitterglue for detailing on the wings and on the body of the butterfly (this also covers the coiled up wire on the body)....

The finished butterfly ended up looking like the photo below (I got the idea from a Prima butterfly that was included in the December Main kit :) ...

Here are a few more closeup detail shots of the above layout....



A third l/o I made with the LE kit I used mainly the green/cream patterned papers in this kit. Most of you are all familiar with Wet Distressing method I used here, it's very simply put just inking the edges of your paper, then wetting them with water and then creating the wrinkles in the paper....let dry (I put a fairly heavy box over mine while it dries so it doesn't warp too much). I called this l/o 'So Easy' because that is how I think of my relationship with my dear husband Steve. I used these words from the Taylor Swift song 'You belong with Me' and put them on a tag behind the photo:
"Walking the streets with you
and your worn out jeans,
I can't help thinking this is how it aught to be.
Laughing on a park bench,
thinking to myself,
Hey, isn't this easy..."

TIP: I've shared this tip before but it was a long time ago so I thought I'd share it again. Get double use out of your Prima flourishes by using the plastic backing that they are attached to as a template. I lay the piece of plastic over the are I want to have the design and then take a pin and poke a little hole into the middle of each bead spot that you can see in the plastic. This will leave a pattern on your page. Just cover each tiny pin hole with some Pearl or metalic 3D squeeze paint (I often use the Scribbles brand that you can find in the T-shirt area at Michaels) To see a more detailed tutorial see my old tutorial at MCS at this link ~~> Faux flourishes Please note that this link will take you to a challenge I hosted way back in 2008 when I first shared this technique.....I just don't want you all thinking I have another challenge running lol!

And finally a 4rth layout I got done with this kit I used the pretty polka dote paper and the red flourishy paper along with one of my favourite blooms to come out of the summer CHA....the Prima Rosetti blooms....


The green leaves around the bloom are just trimmed poinsetta leaves from the kit. The red bloom/branch is another pretty goodie from the kit and the red bloom at the bottom I again made from some trimmed poinsetta leaves in the kit and some of the red organza ribbon done with the same method as described above.



The Main kit this month from MCS has such rich beautiful colours in it too, filled with Bo Bunny and Prima goodness!! I'm holding my sweet new baby (great) niece Kiera in this photo...**sigh** I love babies!!

There is a gorgeous Bo Bunny trim card included in this kit!...I just love the crinkle burgundy ribbon....I used it and the gold lace trim to create the 2 blooms on this page and I also cut the heart design out of a piece of the ribbon, attached it to a card and then handstitched a heart design on the ribbon. The butterfly is again one I made from the poinsetta's in the kit.....(Remember to check out the 'How did the do that' thread for December to see all the tips and tricks our designers used on their pages this month....it's usually posted around the 10th of the month).....Here are some close-ups....



For my 2nd l/o for the Main Kit I used the greenish papers and added some pink & white cardstock for a softer lighter look. The photo is one I took of Meagan when she was about 4 years old and was in a ballet performance.....her hair was so cute that I took a shot of it....but I only now had a chance to scrap it....

The pink/white flowers were made from cardstock using the Water Distress Blooms tutorial I shared at the right side of my blog. Here are a few close-up pic's....


And finally a 3rd l/o I made with the Main kit I used a photo my oldest daughter took of her best friend Peyton and her mom's horse. Her friend is such a cutie and just adores animals....I thought this photo says it all....

I again used the pin method I described above to make the copper/pearl flourish on this page. ....and the butterfly this time actually is the reall Prima butterfly that inspired my handmade ones! Here are some close-up shots (the white weed/blooms I hand sketched onto the page using a white Souffle pen)....



A third kit I got to design with this month is the Album Kit.....this one had a lot of sweet homespun elements to it. I used some pink cardstock on this page to change up the red/cream/green look of the kit to something that would work with my photo...

I made the little flowr pots from some yellow cardstock and ink....the blooms I made by using a tiny punch on a few shades of pink cardstock....the other blooms are again the Water distressed cardstock. Here are a few close-up shots....



And finally a 2nd l/o I made with the Album kit is this one of Meagan....she always seems to have a little dance to her step....



Whew!! So you all made it to the end of my Long LONG post and I thank you all for the time you take to come check it all out! I love hearing from you all so let me thank you in advance for your sweet comments!

~Gabrielle xxx