Such a Pretty Mess: December 2012

Friday, December 28, 2012

Webster's Pages NEW Modern Romance!!

I'm so excited about this beautiful romantic NEW collection from Webster's Pages called Modern Romance!! I love the abundance of gorgeous floral elements in the papers (so perfect for those of us that love the fussy cutting!). And I LOVE the pretty black & white houndstooth paper in this collection, it makes such a lovely contrast to the fresh pretty pinks and whites! Here is a quick peek at the collection if you haven't already seen it! (It's a new release for the Winter CHA!)

For my first layout using this collection I just had to go with a nice romantic photo just because the collection name is so suited to the photo!! This is another of my nephew's engagement photos. I printed the photo in black and white to go with the pink/black/white color palate I chose for this layout. The houndstooth design with the pink paper made me think of those classic Chanel suits, so I thought I would create a pleat/button design on the page to mimic the look of a Chanel suit.

I made the buttons by simply cutting/or punching out 2 small circles from the houndstooth paper, rubbing a bit of black chalk ink around the edges to give the 'button' a rounded look. Then I pasted the circle to a piece of carstock that I painted with some copper/brass paint and cut a 1/8" edge around the circle to give the look of fabric mounted on brass button. I then attached it to the page with a foam dot to lift it off the page. (check out the cute new trims that go with this collection! I love the little rosettes trim!!)

This collection also come with a bunch of new resin pieces!! Webster's pages is famous for thier gorgeous cameo resin pieces, now they come out with these adorable frames on which you can moun the cameos....or you can frame the cute new bird/nest cameo pieces with them! (above)

For this layout I simply fussy cut some of the blooms in the patterned papers and created a handmade bloom from some crepe paper. I didn't use a whole lotta blooms on the page but it still has a nice full floral look because of the cut paper blooms (a great little money saving trick for those of us that may not have a lot of blooms in our stash). The chipboard window is a new chippie by Dusty Attic called Window with Shutters. I just love this piece! I simply pinted the piece white and rubbed the edges with a bit of brown chalk ink to give an aged look to it.

And finally I have a couple of fun little cards I made up with the scraps I had left over from making the above layout mixed with another one of my favourite papers in this collection (this paper has a bunch of floral card/tag designs that are a perfect base for cardmaking)

You can find the full Modern Romance collection peeks at the Websters Pages Blog (along with a little peek a the other new collections being released at the CHA). There are so many cute new elements and embellishments coming out with this collection, new metal embellishments, darling little paper bags perfect for slipping journaling into and fun washi tapes and twine! (I'll be posting layouts with some of the new collections in the coming month, I think you will love them as much as I do! :)

Friday, December 21, 2012

Exciting News!! I'm on the Maja Designs Design Team!!

So a little while back I was contacted by Jenny Grotherus the design team coordinator for an amazing paper manufacturer in Sweden, Maja Designs, to see if I would join their design team. They have gorgeous paper collections designed by an incredibly talented artist, Marie Janson, the designer and founder of Maja Designs. At the time I had already been telling myself that for 2013 I would not take on as much scrapbooking teams and guest spots as I have in the past years. So my first response was a kind but reluctant pass. But I was curious about their paper collections and Jenny said she would send me out one of their collection packs so that I can see the beauty and quality of their papers. I was delighted when just a few days later I recieved this huge box of their full collections!! And let me say, I was VERY impressed! Their beautiful shabby chic designs are right up my ally for the type of scrap papers I like to use and the heavy weight, 2 sided designs are just perfect for the fussy cutting and paper manipulating I like to do when I scrap. Although my intention was to agree to a guest spot, in the end I couldn't help but give them a big Yes! I would love to be on the 2013 team!

Curious about the look of their papers? Here is a little sampling of some of their collections, I just love the soft distressing and pretty designs, creating with these papers so far has been a delight! If you want to see more of their collections you can find them HERE.

Aren't they beautiful?!! I've already got some projects done with these beautiful collections and am eager to share them with you along with some fun techniques! But you'll just have to wait a few more days until the new year when I can begin sharing them with you! So without further ado, here is the creative team for Maja Designs 2013!

I was so happy to see all the amazingly talented ladies that I will be working alongside on this team. Many of them are old friends that I've worked with on other teams and if you are not familiar with their work, I'm sure you'll be dazzeled over the next year as you see their work each month!

So I'll share some of my work with this companies gorgeous products in the coming weeks, in the mean time you may want to check out and browse their new website Maja Designs and perhaps click to follow their blog, you won't be disappointed! :)

All That Sparkles with Bo Bunny!!

Today's assignment at Bo Bunny was "All that Sparkles"....and rather than doing a layout I thought I would do something different. I've been working on my oldest DD's room make-over. She's doing dove grey on the walls with these cool white dandelion wall decals over the bed with a cute phrase. The accents are in black and hints of soft yellow. But it's really hard to find yellow accents for her room. So I got thinking about how nice the Enchanted collection is when you want to add a touch of elegance with a single hit of color. Plus! It's shimmery and sparkly! She needed a nice box to keep her chatchka's in so I covered an old teddybear box in the Sparkly Enchanted papers and added the yellow color with the BB blooms, lace and Double Dot paper.

I added an extra bit of sparkle by adding strips of BB jewels in a golden yellow color as well.

Supplies:
Patterned Paper: Enchanted (Evening, Romance,)
Cardstock: Double Dot (Buttercup)
6x6 Paperpad: Enchanted
Noteworthy: Enchanted
Layered Chipboard: Enchanted
Combo Stickers: Enchanted
Blossoms: Buttercup Dahlia
Lace: Buttercup
Jewels: Forever Fall
Punch: Martha Stewart Loopy Lace Corner & Border Punch

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Technique Tuesday with Bo Bunny! Felt Bloom Tutorial!!

I recently got this really sweet photo of my 2 great nieces from my nephew and wanted to create a layout that feels as warm and cozy as those cute little knit hats the girls are wearing. So here are my tips/techniques for creating a soft and cozy page.

~ Use soft color palette (here I used a soft pink, grey and tan)
~ Decorating with soft fabric blooms (here I used Bo Bunny's crochetted blooms and made some felt roses ...see a brief tutorial below to make these)
~ Add textural fabric elements (here I used some burlap, and paper lace as well as some crochetted lace) to give the page a homespun feel.
~ Add buttons and machine stitching, it's a quick way to give a page a soft fabric look. And don't forget the little details like tying some kitchen twine through the button holes, it gives a nice finish to the flower centers.

Here are a few close-ups of my page...

The cute chipboard piece above is a new one from Dusty Attic called Wattle Blossom and the chipboard piece across the bottom is from the Wrought Iron Border Set.

Along with the soft and pretty Bo Bunny blossoms I used on my page I also thought I'd play a bit with felt to make blooms. I got my felt pieces very inexpensively at a local fabric store at 3 x 10"square pieces for a dollar! And you can get loads of blooms out of one piece! I used a paper technique with the felt and it worked really well, the felt almost holds itself together without the glue (but do use a little hot glue to secure it! lol) Here are some steps to make them, these are SUPER-FAST!!

Supplies:

Patterned Paper - Powder Mountain Flakes
Cardstock - Tutu Double Dot
Noteworthy - Powder Mountain
Stickers - Powder Mountain
Buttons - Serenity, Welcome Home
Stamps - Midnight Frost
Flowers - Blush Dahlia, Blush Bouquet

I hope you give the blooms a try! They are super easy to do, and really really fast!!

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Welcome to Swirlydoos' December Kit Reveal Blog Hop Block Party!!

If you came here from Iris' blog, then you are on the right track. If not, go back to Swirlydoos' blog and start from there. We have some amazing projects for you to see today !! We have 3 manufacturers hopping and 3 designers from Webster's pages!!! Also, as an extra special twist, 2 Swirlydoos designers are hiding secret prize on their blog!!!!! Make sure to leave a comment on all of the blogs for a chance to win!!!

The Swirlydoo's kit has those pretty and unique Websters Pages Storybook Markers in their kit this month, so I thought I would re-post I layout I had made using the velvet marker as a pull for a waterfall effect on this layout (in case any of the Swirlydoos Kit subscribers missed it and were looking for an idea for the markers). I saw the design on You-tube on a card (You can find the tutorial on how to do the waterfall design HERE) You pull on the cameo and the cards above flip to reveal the names of the girls in the photo (my two daughters and Chloe's best friend....photo's I took of the girls at Wonderland (a Canadian theme park). Here are some close-up pic's of the page...

Here's a side view of page as I pull the marker down, the top-most card flips up to reveal the names.

The blooms are some easy-peasy blooms I shared with you all a couple of years ago, simply made from pink and white cardstock. You can find the tutorial HERE.

Now on with the hop!...

You have until midnight, eastern time, on Friday, 12/14 to complete the hop. Winners will be announced on the Swirlydoos Blog on Saturday 12/15. In order to qualify to win here is what you need to do:
1: Visit all of the blogs and leave a comment on each. This way we know you were there. Become a follower if you're not already. Take your time. There are REALLY beautiful things to see along the way.
2: Before you leave each blog, look for the “special” words and write it down.
Once you have visited all the blogs and collected all the special words, they will create a sentence.
3: Finally, go back to the Swirlydoos blog and leave a comment letting us know how much fun you had, tell us the sentence that was created with all of the special words you collected.