Love Always VIDEO TUTORIAL! {TCW Stencils}

Hi All! So I'm back with another video tutorial....and I went wayyy out of my comfort zone with this one.  I always try to get in and read all the feedback on my tutorials and one of the things I've been asked a few times is if I'd consider narrating on my tutorials.  Well, I'm one of those people who can't stand the sound of their own voice.  When I get nervous my voice is low, my throat gets dry...well, you get the idea.  But never-the-less I went and tried it out anyways.  So this is a layout I gave you all a peek at a little while back on which I used a NEW stencil I designed for TCW (The Crafter's Workshop), it's called 'Tile Mania'.  For this one I used the 12" x 12" stencil (but it also comes in the 6"x6" size. TCW662.  So without any further ado, hear is my tutorial!....

The photo is of my oldest daughter and her fiancee, they are getting married in May and this photo was one of my many favorites from their engagement photo shoot.

Most of the products I used on this page can be found in one place....The Scrapbook Diaries!  I didn't do this one as a kit as this was a sample page I made for the TCW trade show booth.  But the most of the products I used were from The Scrapbook Diaries.  You can find the papers, the stamps (Gabi's Patterned Textures and Gabi's Postcards From Paris), the stencil, the flowers, burlap, twine, texture paste, Gesso and even some of the chipboard and embellishments at The Scrapbook Diaries, I believe she even has Perfect Pearls there too? (at least I got them from her in the first place, LOL)

The gems where from my local dollar store. In Canada we have Dollarama, I often find odds and ends there that I can add to my pages..  Here you can see how I added the gems to the cross sections of my stencil design. You can also see some of the script stamping I did with my Postcards from Paris stamp set (also at The Scrapbook Diaries)

Another little closeup of the accent area on my layout....I like to throw a little accent area in to balance the page design.  The little blue buds were part of a kit I made up for The Scrapbook Diaries a little while back.  If Janene doesn't have these in her store, I know that many craft stores carry these or something similar in a variety of colors.

I hope you guys enjoyed watching this video tutorial and weren't too put off by my voice! lol......now I've got to get back to wedding plans, like a true mom I've decided to take on a lot of the work myself....wedding cake, flower arranging, decorating....yipes!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today and thanks for the kind comments you all are always leaving me, I really appreciate it!

NEW Masculine Style Scrapbook Diaries Kit! (and Additional Dusty Attic Page...Kit Available As Well!!)

Hi All!  It's been a crazy busy summer here for me and my family but I did manage to get some good scrapping time in!  I was in the mood to do some masculine style scrapping and the good news is that this is a page kit that you can get at The Scrapbook Diaries!  All materials I used to make this kit including the chipboard, metal accents, stencil and mixed media materials is in this kit along with unlimited access to a private online video tutorial that I created for this kit.

The photo on this page is actually of pic of my son-in-law to be! (above is a pic of the two them)  Last week my oldest daughter got engaged!  Where has time gone??!  The pic is one from a tough mudder he did (obstacle course through mud and all sorts of grueling obstacles...my daughter did one with him a few weeks back)....he was wearing a Bane mask from the Bat Man movie, I thought it would be fun to make a nice grungy looking page to frame this pic!.  I made this page for his mom who took this pic of him, I'm going to frame it and give it as a gift to her.

Back to the kit....as you can see here there are a lot of really fun accents and techniques in this kit page, this is a sneak peek photo I shared on my Instagram account a little while back (my instagram name is Gabrielleshutterbug for those that follow Instagram)

There are some really interesting and unique chipboard pieces in this kit (all included of course) and you'll be able to watch how I create the fun grungy texture I added to the chipboard pieces in the video tutorial that goes with the kit.

As always I love to add fabric and textural elements to a masculine page, here I used some burlap in the torn paper areas, giving a nice grungy look to the page design.

I used a fun new Dusty Attic stencil called Bubbles to create a unique background design using a negative resist technique with a couple of great Faber Castell Gelato colors in Pistachio and Chocolate.  I think you guys are going to love this product....IT DOES NOT WARP YOUR PAPER! This product can be used fairly dryly so you don't end up warping your paper from too much moisture. 

I used the Gelato's as well to color some of my chiipboard...this product is cool in the many ways it can be used!

I also added some rolled paper embellishing for an added textural element.  Here is another closeup of the background design and of some of the fun chipboard I used in this kit.....and of course, I had to add some of my lastest obsession....'Prills' (those little metalic copper gravelly bits)...I just love them, they add so much to a page!  These are also included in the kit! As always, Janine breaks up your options for a Basic Kit or a Complete Kit (if you already have certain items you can choose basic kit to save money)  So, ready to pick up your Picture Perfect Kit at the Scrapbook Diaries?  You can find it HERE.  

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today!  I always appreciate all the kind words and lovely feedback I get from all of you! Hope you are all enjoying a wonderful summer (and awesome winter for those of you down under!)

NEW!! Stamps Designed by Me! {The Scrapbook Diaries}

Hi All!  I've got lots of fun news to share with you all today!  I've gotten many emails and messages from you all asking when I will have some new stamps out....well, wait no more! Here are 4 NEW stamp sets available at The Scrapbook Diaries!  (I've got further NEWS for retailers that follow my blog that are looking to carry my stamps in their stores!  See below)

As many of you know, I love to machine stitch on my projects.....but sometimes I'm in a rush or just being plain lazy so a stitch stamp can some in really handy!  These are stamps of actual stitches I've made with my sewing machine (favorites that I like to use on my pages).   Now I can just pull out my stamps and quickly and easily add some stitch designs to my page....and so can you! :)

They also come in various sized circles and squares for framing your photos and card projects....as well as added little stitch designs for embellishing and adding cute titles to your projects.  They can even be used as outlines for your own hand stitching on a project!

Many of you also know about my obsession with butterflies....I just can't get enough! I've recreated a favorite design I've done on a couple of my scrapbook pages with the butterfly and chicken wire design....I've also added additional hand drawn butterflies in various sizes that can be stamped, painted/tinted and cut out as embellishments.  I will be sharing projects using these stamps in the future.

I've also got some great news to share for those of you in other countries that find it hard to get your hands on my stamps!  Janene Meyerowitz  has now opened a wholesale site for retailers to order these products!  The site is called '49 And Market' ....retailers can register there and order my stamps wholesale to sell in their shops!  You can register and find the online wholesale site HERE.

.....And here is a little more NEWS about this new website!  Janene Meyerowitz has designed the MOST GORGEOUS new collection of papers using the trademarked Flower Fairies by Cecily Mary Barker!  Thick, high quality papers with the most lovely whimsical designs!  And she is doing a GIVEAWAY on her FaceBook page for 49 And Market!  If you would like a chance to win this lovely collection along with some beautiful matching embellishments, be sure to stop by her Facebook page, share and tag a friend to be entered into the draw! You can find the Giveaway HERE.

Here is a tiny sneak peek at a page I've been working on using this whimsical and beautiful collection!  I will be revealing this page and a video tutorial to go with it on May 26th! Stay tuned!

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today, your kind feedback always makes my day! xo

VIDEO TUTORIAL: Creating Drama (the good kind) with Shimmerz Paints and Dusty Attic Chipboard

So I printed off this dramatic gorgeous gown photo over a year ago (an image I got off of Pinterest) and had meant to do a page with rich colors and textures for quite some time now.  Finally got around to doing it (as I still had so much family pics to scrap!).  Sometimes it's fun to do a page 'just because', know what I mean?

These are the Shimmerz Paints products I used for this project....as you will see in the video tutorial, each of these products has it's own unique quality whether it be the smooth thick texture of the Dazzlerz, the deep rich tones in the Coloringz and Vibez or the incredible shimmer of the Inklingz.

NOTE:  You can purchase your Shimmerz Paints HERE.  Be sure to mention my name "Gabrielle" in the Instructions to Merchant part of your order to get your FREE/Bonus Shimmerz paint product in the color of your choice with your next Shimmerz Paints order!

As always, a project is not complete for me unless I have a nice selection of Dusty Attic Chipboard in them.  Above are the Dusty Attic Chipboard pieces I used for my project:  Ornamental Trim Set (brand new product), Word Pack #14, Lacey Heart Frame Set.....and I used a NEW Dusty Attic Stencil design called Fans....if you haven't seen all the gorgeous new stencils from Dusty Attic, be sure to check them out, they are amazing, you can view them HERE!! You can find Dusty Attic Chipboard at The Scrapbook Diaries.

I also used 3 stamp sets I designed for The Scrapbook Diaries, the two stamp sets on the left and right (above) are a couple of the newest stamps I've designed for them.  You can purchase my stamps at this link at The Scrapbook Diaries.  And good news for those 'down under'....Joanne Flannery at Embellish It! in New Zealand is now carrying my stamps (and stencils!) you can find her store HERE.

So it's time to give yourself a little break, grab your favourite beverage and hope you enjoy watching my little video tutorial on how to make this page....Enjoy!

Hope you had fun watching my tutorial. Here are a few close-ups you can view at your leisure....

I should note that after I filmed my tutorial, I felt my design needed a little more color in the bottom right section so I added a couple more spritzes of paint and some swirls of fibre threads (from a package I got from my local dollar store).

I've had these Prima jewelled leaves sitting in my stash forever! When I was choosing my embellishing products I totally had to use these as I thought they were a good match for the colors I was using in the layout!

I'm just loving those new Ornamental trims from Dusty Attic, ....kinda sad I've used the whole pack up....thinking I need to get me some more :)  ....Really loving the new stencil designs as well, in the top right corner you can see some of the texture and design I got onto the page using the Fan stencil from Dusty Attic with my Homemade Texture Paste and some Shimmerz Paints.

The pink and black butterflies were cut from one of my favorite Bo Bunny collections called Primrose (I used the paper called Bliss).  I also used a fun BoBunny Stamp on this page called 'Butterflies'.   TIP:  Many of you ask what to do when your paper buckles from wetting or spritzing your paper with paints and water.  One of my favorite things to do is use my hair flattening iron on the paper, its a quick and easy fix!

So I hope you enjoyed todays post and hope I've given you some inspiration to get out your scrapping/mixed media products and play!  Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today and leaving such sweet comments and feedback, they really make my day! xo xo

Video Tutorial: Winged Exploration Tag {The Crafter's Workshop}

Hello friends!  I have a fun little video tutorial to share with you all today!  I made this little tag using one of the 6" x 6" tags I designed for The Crafter's Workshop called 'Winged Explorations' (TCW566), some Tim Holtz Distress inks and my water droplet stamp (found at The Scrapbook Diaries).

My Winged Exploration stencil designed for The Crafter's Workshop.....you can find this stencil at The Scrapbook Diaries or at a TCW dealer near you (TCW Store Finder).

I also used a stamp I designed for The Scrapbook Diaries, my water droplet/brick wall stamp.  Janene recently got more of my sold out stamps back into the store along with a few new designs as well. You can find the stamps HERE.

As always, I like to show you step by step how this tag was made in this brief little video tutorial....so grab a cuppa and give yourself a little break ....enjoy! ....

I hope you enjoyed watching my little video tutorial! I used Tim Holtz Distress inks for my background coloring (Scattered Straw, Broken China, Stormy Sky, Dusty Concord, Black Soot).

I had a little fun mixing Golden's Matte Gel paste with some Pearlex mica powders for the texture paste I used with the 'Winged Exploration' stencil.

I hope you all have a fun crafty week, thanks so much for stopping by my blog today, your kind comments and feedback are always so appreciated! xo xo

NEW Scrapbook Diaries Autumn Page Kit & NEW Stamps Designed by Me!

You know how you come across a design element that you really love and want to use it over and over again?  Lately for me it's been mushrooms!  I love the earthy, whimsical effect they give a page design! That's why as soon as I saw this paper collection by Blue Fern Studio's, I sent Janene from The Scrapbook Diaries a note saying we had to use this collection in a kit! 

There is a little fussy cutting in this page design, but nothing tricky and it's done quickly without a lot of fuss, but I think the effect is the difference between and nice page and a page that packs a punch!

As always there are lovely floral accents as well as mixed media products (an awesome new Shimmerz Paints product called Black Cherry Soda Creameez) that are incorporated into the kit products.  And with the purchase of the kit you also get unlimited access to a private VIDEO TUTORIAL that I created on how to use the kit ingredients to make up this page design for yourself!

I should mention I used a mixture of a molding paste and some gesso to for the texture element on this page but I really feel that I would have been better off using my home-made texture paste recipe for this, I found that the mixture of Gesso and molding paste was too thin, and ran under the stencil. You can find the texture paste recipe HERE.

Also included in this kit are these lovely intricate European wood embellishments, I just love the fine detailing in them.....they can be a little delicate but once attached to the page (I use Tombow Liquid Adhesive) they are good and solid.

If you would like to give this kit a try, be sure to grab yours today, the kits go pretty quick! I should also mention that these kits always come with a free/bonus kit page designed by Janene Meyerowitz (the talented owner of The Scrapbook Diaries), and let me say, her bonus page is spectacular! You can find the details for this kit HERE. Note: This kit is offered in a Basic Kit, Complete Kit or 'Plus' Kit....I used the awesome 'North Star' stencil in a kit a while back so some of the regular kit purchasers may already have this stencil, so Janene offers a kit minus the stencil to save money for those buyers. xo

 

Before I close my post for today I thought I'd share some exciting news!  I have 3 NEW Stamp collections available at The Scrapbook Diaries.....and Janene has restocked some of my Sold Out

stamp collections as well!

I don't know if any of you remember a project I did a little while back, a kind of Shabby chic wall art design.  I hand sketched this couture figure for it.  Many of you wrote to me saying you do not find it easy to sketch out this sort of figure design, so I was asked if I would create a stamp design like it. You asked for it, so I made it!  I also included the quote I used as part of the stamp design....with a few little extra's added in.  I will be doing some sample card designs up using this Haute Couture stamp soon!

Another new stamp design I came out with was this Borders & Textures Stamp set.  I do this hand-doodled border design on some of my scrapbook pages. Takes a few minutes to do, but thought, a quicker way to get this design onto a page is turning it into a stamp! I also added some fun elements that I love using for background stamping on my pages, dots, wood grain and burlap!  Again I will be showing how I'd use these stamps in some future projects.

And continuing my fascination for textural elements, I made up this Loose Threads stamp set which has cheesecloth snippets, a loose-weave burlap and circle-thread designs.....all fun for creating unique background designs for your cards and scrapbook projects.

All these stamps and some of my sold out previous stamp collections are now available at The Scrapbook Diaries!  You can pick up your sets HERE.

I always love to see the work that you all create using some of the stamps and stencils I've designed so please be sure to tag me in on Facebook and Instagram (my instagram name is Gabrielleshutterbug) when you post your work! xo

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! I always appreciate all the kind comments and feedback, your words make my day! xo

Scrapping Greens & Neutrals {Maja Design & Dusty Attic}

Hi all!  I recently got a whole bunch of photos of my adorable little great-nieces from their sweet mom Danielle.  Lots of pretty autumn photos, so I decided to scrap them using a variety of Maja design collection papers and some NEW Dusty Attic chipboard designs.  Green has always been one of my favorite colors to scrap, but lately I've been scrapping a lot of pinks and purples.  I thought it was high time to play with some of my old favorite green toned papers mixed with some soothing neutrals.

 

I love the warm green in the Ska vi ta en Fika collection, so I used one as my backdrop for my layout design.  I then chose one of the neutral papers from the same collection for my next layer.  I wanted to play a bit with the side edges so I chose to use a chipboard Zipper design From Dusty Attic, moistened the sides of the papers and pulled back the paper in the center, creating small pleats.  I then attached the zipper chipboard pieces (painted with some Bronze 3D paint (Scribbles) and glued it behind the edges of the paper.  The title and the number chippies are from Dusty Attic as well.



There are some tag images in the Walking in the forest collection, so I cut these out to used along the top of the photo as a page accent and a place to put a little journaling.  I also cut another tag out of a Coffee In the Arbour paper and stamped one of my Signature Word stamps 'fabulous' that I recently released. These are all words I like to use on my scrapbook pages, done in my own handwriting.  (My word stamps can be found at The Scrapbook Diaries, along with all my other stamp designs).  The title is from a new collection of hash tag words from Dusty Attic :)

   
I wanted to keep the page accents naturalistic so I chose a new Dusty Attic chipboard piece called Wildflowers #3 to add alongside my photo of my two little great nieces.



And finally in the corner of the photo I accented with a few blooms from a tin of flowers from Recollections.  I did a bit of background stamping as well with some green Moss Lawn color from Ingvild Bolme.

Maja Design Products used in this project:
Ska vi ta en Fika? (Smulpaj m Applen, Havrerujor, Pratstund), Walking in the Forest (Klippark, Flannel Shirt), Vintage Autumn Basics (XVI), Vintage Frost Basics (Days of December), Coffee in the Arbour (Feel the Grass Between Your Toes). Thanks so much for stopping by the Maja blog today!  Hope you get a chance to play today! xo 

You can find Maja Design papers at The Scrapbook Diaries, Janene has a large selection of Maja Design papers in a variety of collections, including the newest Maja paper line called "A Gift for You'.  She also has a nice variety of Dusty Attic Chipboard....you can find Dusty Attic Chipboard in Canada at The Scrapping Bug as well.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today, I can't thank you all enough for the kind feedback I've been receiving, you all make my day! xo xo