A Little Romance {With Maja Designs}

It's Gabrielle here with you today!  Spring is in the air so I thought I'd have a little fun doing a romantic layout this time!  It's funny how I sometimes go through stages in my scrapping.  A while back I was all about circles.  There was a time when almost every layout in my gallery had circle designs in them.  In the past few months I've found myself haveing fun with hearts!  And what's more romantic than a heart design right?
I love this beach wedding photo, sometimes just capturing an indirect shot like the feet of a bride and groom can be so much more intriguing than a straight on photo.  I love the soft blues and fawn colors in this photo so I decided to play up these colors in the layout.  I used papers from 3 different collections: Vintage Spring Basics (the blue stripe),  Ska vie ta en Fika? (the Coffee color dot) and Walking In the Forest (the leafy paper). 

I added lots of intricately cut chipboard from Dusty Attic and finished it with some white paint and brown chalk ink and then gave them a coat of crackle medium.  The wrought iron fence I gave a coating of black paint and then dabbed on some Meadow Paint from Dusty Attic and some Scribbles Bronze 3D paint.

I created a little birds nest trinket that I made out of 3 turquoise beads and some 26 gauge wire. 

It's a fun little trinket to make and it's again, something cool I found to make on Pinterest!

Here is a link to my Pinterest Board where I like to pin cool and clever ideas My Pinterest Board.  And this is a link to the video tutorial on how to make this cute lil bird nest trinket above (tutorial by Julie Bean from Beadaholic).  For my purposes I turned back the hanging loop because I used it as a center piece for my bloom (see below). 

Supplies:

Patterned Paper - Vintage Spring Basics (7th of March, 6th of May-butterflies), Ska vie ta en Fika (Sockerkaka), Walking in the Forest (Birdsong-bs). 

Chipboard - Dusty Attic Designs (Sweet Pea Frame Set, Wrought Iron Fence, Small Scroll#2, Grass Clusters #2, Mini Script ABC set).

 Blooms - Recollections, Prima, Dusty Attic (leaves). 

Extras: Paper lace doilee - Bo Bunny.  Trinket - Prima.

 Lace and pearl trim - no name off the roll.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! xo

Layouts in Under an Hour {With Bo Bunny}

This may seem like a layout that took over an hour to create, but it wasn't!  I was asked to make some pages using the newest collections for Bo Bunny's booth at CHA but I was under a tight time crunch....my solution?

~ First I started with a page design that I had created before and just followed the design for this page. For me what takes the longest is all the fussing about, moving pieces, deciding on what to put where....so using the a design that I created before really helps in cutting the time factor down.
~ Bo Bunny makes loads of amazing and beautiful coordinating embellishments that makes dressing up a page fast and easy! Chipboard, blooms, lace...all made to match your layout, just peel and stick!
~ and finally I gather together all the materials I'll need to make up my page, inks, paints, sewing machine, punches....and have them ready to go. So I don't spend a lot of time while I'm making my page look for stuff. Following a preset design helps make it easy to know what things you will need as well.  Here are some close-up pics.....

Extra Tip: Another time saving thing I like to do is when I'm just sitting and watching TV I'll take some Clover Green Double Dot paper and just punch a whole lotta leaf designs from it and keep them in a little baggie ready to go for when I'm making up a bloom cluster for a page)

Supplies:
Patterned Paper: C'est La Vie (Voila, Belle)
Cardstock: Chocolate Dot Clover Dot
12x12 Chipboard: C'est La Vie
Layered Chipboard: C'est La Vie
Brads: C'est La Vie
Trinkets: C'est La Vie
Buttons: C'est La Vie
Noteworthy: C'est La Vie
Blossoms: Blush Zinnia, Blush Daisy
Paper Lace Doilie: Large

 

If you haven't gotten your hands on some of the NEW Bo Bunny C'est La Vie collection, let me just tell you, this collection scraps itself!  It's so beautiful and easy to work with!  And do give my tips a try for speading up your layout making process, whether you re-do a design you've already done or scraplift a design you like! xo 

Some Summer Warmth with Maja Design & Dusty Attic!

First off I wanted to share with you all the New April Mood Board Challenge for April from Maja Design, it's a really beautiful board based on the new Vintage Spring collection.

 

As I've mentioned before, if you'd like to play with this mood board and have a chance at winning a lovely Maja design collection, you can find the information on the challenge HERE.

 

I've been wanting scrap this cute photo of my little Great-niece Kiera for while now....and I just knew I wanted to use that awesome fishnet chippie from Dusty Attic Designs....actually I used a whole lotta the Dusty Attic for this one.  I used the Grass Clusters #1, Grass Clusters #2, Ornate Corner, Shells, Mini Bird Houses, Fishnet Panel, Birds a Field, Corrugated Card, plus a number of the New Dusty In Color Paints (Navajo white, Bisque, Meadow Green, Hot Chocolate and the New Mixed Media Crackle finish....AND some of their new Mini-roses!! 

I painted all the pieces white to start with...then used a variety of inks and paints to lightly color the chippies.  The papers are a mix of the gorgeous Maja Design papers from their Vintage Summer Basics collection and their Vintage Spring Basics collection. 

 

 

The blue and white blooms I used here are from a bargain bin at Michaels, and I just added leaves from Dusty Attic to finish up the bloom clusters.....I love these for the perfect finish for a cluster. 

I painted the little bird house with Navajo White, inked with some brown chalk ink and added a coat of the DA Crackle medium.  For the shell I mixed a little sand into some Gesso to add a little texture to the shell.  I added a little sea glass to finish the beach look. 

For the corner chippie I did a little script stamping and again added the Dusty Attic Crackle medium on top of it.  Here's a full list of the goodies I used to make up this page:

 

Supplies:

Chipboard: Dusty Attic (Grass Clusters #1, Grass Clusters #2, Ornate Corner, Shells, Mini Bird Houses, Fishnet Panel, Birds a Field)

Corrugated Card: Dusty Attic

Paints and Mediums:  Dusty Attic (Navajo White, Hot Chocolate, Meadow, Bisque), Dusty Attic Crackle Medium

Flowers: Dusty Mini-roses (Caramel, Sky Blue), Dusty Leaves, Petaloo (white flower), Michaels Bargain bin blooms.

Patterned Paper: Maja Design ~ Vintage Summer Basics (1905, 1934), Vintage Spring Basics (April 7th)

Stamps: Bo Bunny Script Stamp

Rub-on: Daisy D's

Other: Burlap, Cheese-cloth, loose buttons, Shells, Sea Glass, Bo Bunny Jewels

 

Is everyone else as ready for the beach as I am?  Goodness!  We went to the Maple Syrup Festival here in Ontario and it was soooo cold!  We had a blast and ate some great food but boy, am I ready for summer! 

April ATC Challenge Theme for Dusty Attic - Morrocan!

Hi everyone!  I'm delighted to share with you my take on this months 'Morrocan' theme for the ATC challenge over at Dusty Attic!!  A few months back my dear husband and I and a few of our friends went to a Morrocan restaurant complete with belly dancers!  So much fun!! One of the things that really struck me about the place was the ornate decorating and the use of lots of sheer, shimmery curtains.  So I thought I would incorporate that into my ATC.  Here is a closer close-up of this ATC :).... 

The organza sheer piece of fabric was a little fussy to work with but it helped to use the extra ornate corner florish to sandwich the drapery piece between that and the new ATC frame.  I also used one of the cute lil Morrocan Mini lamps for this one.  Here are the products I used to make this ATC...

Supplies:

~ ATC Frame #4

~ Mini Morrocan Lamps

~ Ornate Corners #8

~ Dusty In Color (Navajo White)

~Background paper: Bo Bunny

 

I hope you have a chance to play along this month in the Morrocan Challenge.  Our amazing design team has lots of inspiring ATC's to share with you, so keep your eye peeled to the Dusty Attic blog for more ideas! xo

 

A Little Romance {Websters Pages ~ Modern Romance}

One of our daughters took this pic of Steve and I last summer (because I'm behind the camera a lot of the time, I don't have a lot of the two of us :)   I thought I'd use some of my Webster's Pages 'Modern Romance' collection to scrap this photo.   I used the wood grain paper from the Composition & Color collection as a backdrop for it all.  

I made the floral design by using the Martha Stewart Hydrangia punch on the pink patterned paper from the Modern Romance collection.  I just gave the centers a little inking (Tim Holtz, Victoria Velvet) and turned up the petals a bit for a slightly more 3D look.

 

 The chipboard branches are from Dusty Attic (Cherry Blossoms), just painted them white and inked with a little pink ink, and painte the branches brown.

 

Thanks so much for stopping by today! xo

Winner!! Of the New Maja Vintage Spring Basics Collection!!

So it's time!  I went to Random.org and picked a winner for the New Maja Vintage Spring Basics collection (pictured above).  I just had to use a random number gererator because all the comments were so sweet and totally worthy of picking, so it's impossible for me to just pick one!  Thank-you for all the lovely comments, they mean a lot to me and I'm sure will also be helpful for Marie the owner/designer of Maja Design for future reference.  So here is a screen save of the number that got picked......

Sooo, the winner is....

 

Katrina said...

I love the old world charm of these papers, but the fact that they have several shades of blue is perfect! My boys won't mind having their faces stuck to these at all! Thanks for the generous give away Gabrielle!

 

Congrats! Katrina!!  Please email me your full name and address and I will forward the information to Maja Design and they will send out your Vintage Spring Basics collection!  Can't wait to see what you'll make with these!

 

Thanks again to everyone for the kind and helpful comments! xo

A Little Spring Whimsy And a Video Tutorial: How To Make Your Own Crinkle Ribbon!!

I have some really fun stuff to share with you all today, including a very quick Video Tutorial on how to make your own inexpensive handmade Vintage Crinkle Ribbon!! (scroll down for tutorial).   I was so thrilled to be working on my first project using the NEW and gorgeous Vintage Spring Basics collection from Maja Design! I'm such a huge fan of butterflies, birdies and florals on my scrapbook papers, and add them to a vintage design and I'm in heaven! I wanted to go with a butterfly theme so I thought I'd create a layered butterfly wing design to accent the page. I thought I would share with you all the steps I took to create the butterfly design... 

 

Before I added the larger wing to my page, I first lightly inked some of the area around where the wing would be placed and did a little stamping with some script stamps. I wanted a 3D layered effect so I glued down the larger wing and did a little doodling around the edges of the wing and then glued down the smaller wing on top, glueing only at the center of the wing so that it can be folded up slightly. Here is a close-up view of the finished design...  

I also wanted to try something fun for this page, and it was to make my own Vintage Crinkle Ribbon! I've seen these cute vintage looking ribbons on many projects in the past and when I went to source them locally I had an impossible time finding them! Then I came across some information on Pinterest on how to make these vintage ribbons from seam binding! I gave it a try and it was easy-peasy to do and so inexpensive! 

 

This is what you will need to make these ribbons:

~ Seam Binding (100% Rayon works best but I could only find Polyester and this worked for me)

~ Tints: Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads (in the color of your choice - I used Victorian Velvet), you can also use the Tim Holtz re-inker bottles for this as well.

~ Water Spritzer

~Elastic Bands

~Waterproof surface (I used the top of one of my Iris Storage boxes)

Click below to watch a less than 3 minute tutorial on making these.

 

Just a note:  This method of tinting the ribbon gives a really nice aged look to the ribbon and some areas will tint slightly darker than others, this is a good thing!  It helps in giving the ribbon that vintage look we're going for! :) 

I also added some Dusty Attic chipboard in the lower right corner to mirror the cherry blossom design in the papers. These I handpainted and I added a little nest to give a nice Spring feel to the page.

And I have one more little extra for you today. I know that not everyone is comfortable with sketching, so if you want to try the butterfly wing design that I created above, you can right click on the template below and 'save picture as' to your computer. I saved the page as a 8.5x11 so when you go to print if you hit 'fit to page' it should give you the wings in the same size as I created for my page.

I hope you enjoyed my first project with the NEW Vintage Spring Basics collection as much as I enjoyed making it! And don't forget, if you want to have a chance at winning this gorgeous new collection, you still have a few days left before the end of the month to enter at my blog! You can find the GIVE-AWAY at this link MAJA VINTAGE SPRING BASICS GIVEAWAY!

 

Supplies:

 Patterned Paper - Vintage Spring Basics (1st of May, 4th of May, 7th of May, 7th of May-bs, 6th of May), Chipboard - Dusty Attic (Cherry Blossoms), Flowers - Dusty Attic Mini Roses, Prima Roses, Prima Pearl Ribbon/trim, Nest - Prima, Green Vine Trim - May Arts,  Paints - Dusty Attic (Navajo White, Bisque), Crinkle Ribbon - handmade (tutorial link above)

Technique Tuesday: Layered Stamping {With Bo Bunny Background Stamps!}

I've been meaning to scrap this photo of Chloe and her friends that I took at Wonderland this past summer.  I wanted to go with a more stylized design so I thought I'd play with the new Background stamps from Bo Bunny.  So I thought I'd share with you a little step by step on how I layer the new background stamps to create a unique and fun page design. I love the new background stamp designs and for the above page I combined a number of my favorite new stamps. In a few easy steps you can create a page that is different from any out there. 

I began with a piece of Bo Bunny Cardstock, here I used the ledger design paper in the Chiffon color. I trimmed off about a quarter inch from the outside edges so that when I later mount the paper on a patterned paper you'll have a nice peek of the paper behind, framing the design. Lightly ink the edges with some chalk ink (I used a brown and a grey chalk ink).

The next step is to begin creating a soft frame around the edges using the chicken wire stamp from the Distressed Textures stamp collection. Try stamping the design a little heavier in the corners, lighter along the edges. I also used one of crest stamps from the Prairie Chic collection in the top left corner. 

Next I marked in pencil the placement of my photo and inked all around the edges of it in a random pattern. I used Versa Magic 'Sea Breeze' and 'Aloe Vera' chalk inks.

Here's the fun part! I started stamping around the edges of the frame of my photo, over-top of the inked area's with a variety of background stamps. I used the Geometric Patterns stamps, On This Day stamp collection and the Stained Textures stamp (I love the water ring stamps!). As you can see I had a little mishap when I stamped the checker design on the right side of my page (I accidently dropped the stamp lol...but no worries, you can always work around it with some strategic placement of your embellishments).

Finish up by adding your photo and embellishing with the beautiful coordinating stickers, blooms, chipboard, buttons and trinkets that go with the Mama-razzi2 collection. Mount your stamp designed paper on a coordinating piece of patterned paper and you have yourself a special page that is your own unique design!

Supplies:
Patterned Paper - Mama-razzi2 (Focus)
Stamps - Background Stamps (Distressed Textures, Geometric Patterns, On This Day, Stained Textures), Prairie Chic Stamp.
Rub-on's - Mama-razzi2
Dimensional Stickers - Mama-razzi2
Combo Stickers - Mama-razzi2
Chipboard - Mama-razzi2
Trinkets - Mama-razzi2
Buttons - Mama-razzi2
Lace - Clover
Flower - Natural Earth Daisy
Other: Burlap, Tim Holtz Washi Tape  

Having Fun with Shaped Cards {The Bo Bunny Way}

Today the Bo Bunny design team girls were challenged to make up some shaped cards!  I'm a person that always like to see unique and unusual designs, so this one was right up my alley.  For this card all I did was use my Crafters Workshop circle template and draw out a half circle on some Bo Bunny patterned paper from the C'est La Vie collection.  I then used half of that for my card cover and then mounted it on some Bo Bunny Cardstock in the Chiffon color, trimming it with a scallop edge scissor.  I then decorated it with Bo Bunny blooms, lace, stickers and chipboard.  Here is a close up pic of the page embellishments... 

Supplies:
Patterned Paper: C'est La Vie Belle
Cardstock: Chiffon Double Dot, Tutu Flourish, Clover Double Dot (leaves)
Stickers: C'est La Vie
Buttons: C'est La Vie
Layered Chipboard: C'est La Vie
Paper Doilie: small
Blossoms: Zinnia (Blush), Bouquet (Blush)
Lace: Blush
Other: Kitchen twine

 

For more gorgeous shaped card ideas, be sure to check out the Bo Bunny blog today!  There are so many cute card designs to see there!  Thanks so much for stopping by today! xo

A Little Spring Card

March break just ended here in Canada so we had a nice week off with the kiddies.  We went up to my brothers lake house and enjoyed some good food, good times with family.  Chloe even got to tick off a couple of things on her bucket list, one of which is going ice fishing...

As much as we had a lot of fun in the snow up at my brother's place I have to admit I am so looking forward to some warmer weather.  So today I made up a fun little spring card using Webster's Pages 'New Beginnings' collection papers and embellishments.  I love all the pretty florals in this collection.  Makes it super easy to make up a quick little card.

 

Hope everyone had a great weekend and had a little scrappy time! xo