Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Mixing it up with Bo Bunny

Hello everyone.

Seems like ages since I have been able to share with you things I have created with goodies from Mad About Scrapping.

I love love love all the products that Leanne has for sale in the store.

Being chosen to play along on the design team has been a blessing too as everyone is so much fun to work with.

Now.. part of my design team fun was to pick some goodies to play with. Now.. I must say.. when I first went and picked the Bo Bunny Serenade paper range to play with I didn't actually have these layouts in mind or even the photos I ended up using. (I was actually going to create some masculine layouts)

However while my goodies arrived I was in love. The paper range is SOOOOOOO much nicer in real life than what I thought. Plus must say that I haven't created three layouts as quickly as I did with this paper range. I just had to play and so wanted to just keep creating with this paper range.

Now for this first layout I did you must be wondering what the multi patterned paper is.. well it isn't one piece of paper that is for sure..lol. As some of you may know I like to think outside the box and challenge myself. So with that in mind I set to work creating the multi patterned paper area on a scrap of card stock. I then cut multiple strips of the mixed patterned papers to 3" x 3/4" in size and adhered them randomly using both sides of the patterned paper in a chevron style pattern. I am most impressed with this idea myself and have repeated this process a few times myself. I have also done it to use up scraps I have had laying around. Quite effective really.
So here's what I have created...
Layout 1

 


Layout 2

Now with this layout I really wanted to break up the bold papers just a little. I didn't want large blocks of paper and I wanted to be use as many of the patterns papers as possible. So with that in mind I was able to do this by using 4 different sized circle punches. Must say how ever that I didn't create this heart shape free hand. I started by cutting a heart out of scrap card stock and tracing it onto the card stock base where I wanted to heart to be. Then I placed the hearts randomly in the heart shape till I was happy with the mix of patterns and shape. THEN I adhered them down. This gave me a cance to mix the patterns up a bit till I was happy with them. Quite a simple background but so easy to do.

Layout 3


So for the last layout I created .. Yes as you may be able to see I am a little crazy. I had this smart idea to hand stitch all the pieces of patterned paper to the card stock base. I adhered the centre of each of the shapes to the base where I wanted them and then stitched using embroidery floss. It was a little time consuming.. 4 hours of just stitching but found it quite fun.. despite the fact I was stitching through 3 layers of paper and card stock. I am grateful that I pierced all the holes first as it made the stitching a lot either.

Lastly...

And just for a little something to use up a few of the scraps I played around and created a quick card.
Super quick and easy but love the boldness of the colours.

Why not head over to the store yourself and check out all the yummy papers yourself.

TFL. Michelle x

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Friday, November 23, 2012

MIX IT UP & BE BOLD!

Hi everyone, Em here. Its been a tad too long between post so thought I'd better stop by and share a recent project I did for Mad, so here goes.... I'm not sure what you do with your cardstock left overs but if your anything like me you have a huge stash of cut offs that are too small to use as a base in 8.5x11 page but are too big to toss away.

In this quick little page share I wanted to show you how those off cuts can be simply stitched or adhered together to form a 12x12 base and by also keeping a simple design principle in mind 'Creating a Focal Point'... you can produce an eyecatching design.
 
So after rummaging through my stash of cardstock off cuts I found 3 colours that I wouldn't normally put together but figured they really would grab everyones attention so decided I was game. But before committing to creating the traditional/hybrid page I did a digital version first to see how it would work. 
In the digital version I'm able to play with the placement and widths of each colour. Depending on your choice you can really change the dynamic of your design by lifting it out of the mundane and into something quite dramatic. 

The key is to select one colour, in this instance the pop of 'Yellow' to shock the senses, however by limiting its quantity to less than the others it becomes dramatic rather than over powering. To tie it in even more I introduced some elements in similar yellow tones which helps carry the eye across the band of wallet sized photo's which of course are our main focal point and help soften the whole look.
'100% Boy' {Digital Version}
Digital Credits:
Fresh Kit by Sahlin Studio & One Little Bird
A Bit More Mess Stitching by Amy Martin
Digital Cardstock by Emma Stafrace
Misted Graph by Emma Stafrace
Now that I have worked out the lay of the land in my digital page I created the hybrid version below using the cardstock from my scrap stash that I had originally selected and am really pleased with how it turned out. 
'100% Boy' {Hybrid Version}
Materials:
Cardstock
Studio Calico Graph Misting screen
Distress Ink
Mister Huey's Opaque White Mist
Machine stitching.
NB: One fun tip if you have access to a photo editing program try altering the colour of your photo's. As you can see above by changing the focal photo to a yellow/sepia tone I am helping to tie the yellows together even more.
Hope you enjoyed this quick design tip share and maybe get you thinking more about using the humble cardstock in more exciting and eye catching ways.
For another quick cardstock fix check out an earlier MAS post here.
xox
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Monday, November 5, 2012

My Minds Eye, Tangorine Collection

Oh My Goodness!!!!! I just love this paper range. It is definitely a must have on your list. My Minds Eye-Tangorine has the most stunning colours, I love the oranges and it was perfect fot the photos I had just taken of me and the boys cutting our very first Pumpkin
 
We had so much fun cutting a Pumpkin, I must be honest I am not a huge fan of Halloween, though my 9 year old son was most determined to get a pumpkin this year. So I decided to try it, it was a lot easier then I had thought, and I just adore these photos of my 2 boys out side with the pumpkin


I just loved using the bling flourishes, I find some bling flourishes to be much to big, so I have formed a bit of a habit of cutting them up to be more of the size that I want. I love this close up and at Mad about scrappin they have an amazing range of flowers. Loved getting different sizes, it makes a cluster look so much prettier when you can have differing sizes and different colours
 Well I hope you enjoyed my layouts, and they have inspired you. I certainly enjoyed creating them (after a few months of no mojo) But I am certainly back into scrapping and can't wait to share some more layouts with you soon.

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