Creative Inspiration - Christmas Greetings to all

On behalf of Mad About Scrappin I would like to wish everyone a super special Christmas.

I hope that everyone has the opportunity to rest and relax even if it is just for a little while on this mad and crazy day of the year.

I know that I am feeling grateful to be able to share this special day with my children and parents this year. I am looking forward to seeing the smiles on my children's faces and will be soaking up the family time together.

I have a layout to share with you all today using some more of the Summer Vibes paper range by Simple Stories.

Now who says that you have to use Christmas paper to create a Christmas layout.... certainly not me!

Here's the fun layout I have created using a photo from Christmas 2014.

I have used a cream card stock as the base for this layout which I have stamped using a graph stamp randomly to add some detail in the background. I have also used a paper doily from my stash made from kraft paper. I have had it for ages and just haven't had a chance to play with them.

for the larger circles on the page I have adhered the soda pop lid print to some medium sized die cut chipboard circle to add some depth to the layout. I have then stamped a circle journal stamp to create a bit of interest behind the stamp and set the chipboard circle so the some of the stamped journal spot shows. I have then used some of the scraps of the mixed patterns in the range to create some Christmas baubles which I have added bakers twine bows to. It's a little hard to see but there even is a little bit of hand stitching on the layout to add a bit of detail here and there.

Finally I have added a kraft journal spot with the date the photo was taken and a flair to add a bit more dimension to the page. I have also stamped some matching Christmas trees onto the matching paper and hand cut then. These I then mounted using 3D foam dots. 

I quite like the feel of this Christmas themed layout created from paper that IS NOT Christmas themed. Why not think out the box every now and then.

Well hope that everyone enjoys the festivities.

Till next time.

TFL, Michelle x

Creative Inspiration - Layering it up

Yes.... I know... this post WAS supposed to be up last Friday!

I tell you.. things have been crazy around here. I am sure that most of you have had the same issues with running around like crazy people trying to get everything done before Christmas. 

I admit that I had this layout precut and sorted well in advance but I just haven't had a chance to put the layout all together until a few days ago.

Anyways.. as I said I had precut this layout using some more of the Summer Vibes paper range by Simple Stories I was sent to play with on behalf of Mad About Scrappin.

So here is the layout I created to share with you all.

I created this layout on a kraft cardstock base. I quite like the feel that kraft can give to a layout. I have also used a few pops of black and white to give it all a bit of contrast. 

By layering a few different embellishments it creates a fun fee to the layout. I have used a mix of kraft journal spots, shipping tags and some washi tape onto a graph journal card for a bit of fun with this layout.

I have finished the layout off with a cute little matching flair I found in my stash. I love the extra bit of dimension that flairs give to layout.

Quite a quick layout to create but at least I got my scrapping fix this week.

Till next time.

TFL, Michelle x

Creative Inspiration - December Birthdays

Just a quick share today, as I have one unwell little girl at home recovering from surgery on Wednesday.

Still playing with some more of the Summer Vibes paper range by Simple Stories that the lovely Leanne from Mad About Scrappin sent me to use this month. 

This week I have been making sure I have been able to get all the birthday cards I need for this month all sorted nice and early. Luckily enough the birthdays aren't for another week or two so I am well and truly ahead with these. For both of the cards I have used a recycled card base and then gone from there. 

The first is a card with a very feminine feel. 

Now for this card I have even used part of the packaging in the kit... where you ask well the pale pink base that I have matted the aqua floral paper onto is actually what the embellishments in the kit were packed with. I just couldn't throw it away and knew that I had to use it somewhere and this card was the perfect place. 

Once the base of the card was all sorted it was then just a case of decorating which made made super fun with the fabric flower that Leanne sent me to play with. I teamed it up with a match paper flowers and finished it off with a double bow using garden twine. The card was then finished off when I added the greeting using the word flair that was in the kit too. 

The second card I wanted to have a little bit of fun.

This card was super quick to create. I chose to go with the Hello patterned paper as the base and hand stamped randomly to give it a bit of dimension. 

I then played around with another mini paper bag from my stash as the base to lay my embellishments on. I followed  through with the kraft theme by adding in a kraft tag to the paper bag. The card was then finished off with some garden twine, matching journal tag and a cute little word tag I mounted using some 3D foam tape.

Super quick cards that have used up a few more bits and pieces from the Summer Vibes paper range.

Well off the take care of my little Miss.

Till next time.

TFL, Michelle x

Creative Inspiration - Xmas Gift Giving

Good Morning all.

Just wanted to share with you some of the goodies that the kids and I have created for Xmas this year . 

Every year we get together to create something just that little bit different for them to be able to give to their teachers and friends. This year was a little bit of a last minute rush with deciding what to actually get for the gifts and not realising that there was only one week of school left! 

Anyway.. to make the process a little simpler this year as I had to make eight cards I decided to make the card similar in design. I have gone with two designs so make four vertical and four horizontal in design. 

I have used some 200gsm kraft cards as the base and used two different types of paper doilies for the start of the designs. I then used a free 3x4 Project Life Christmas Freebie by Becky Higgins as the starting point. I printed two of each and cut out the centre part of one of the cards to mount on top of the other to add some dimension. then it was simply a case of personalizing each design.

For the first one I added some black and white bakers twine to some garden twine and tied up the card. I then added two super cute die cut wooden stars to finish off the card. Simple but fun.

The second card I added an Ikea 2014 xmas tag I have mounted with 3D foam tied with some red and white bakers twine. I then finished off the card with some red gem stones and another die cut wooden star. Very simple but effective.

Then there was the gifts. I was hoping to be able to make some goodies this year but it just didn't happen for various reasons. Plus I really didn't want to spend our whole weekend madly creating and cooking when it was so hot here in Adelaide. So instead I found these cute lolly jars at Coles Supermarket. So much easier when we had to give out eight lots to teachers at school and Calisthenics. 

Just jazzed them up a little with some homemade tags using the same goodies we created the cards with. We made four of these for school.

And four of these ones for Calisthenics. The kids were so excited to see them all finished and even more excited to be able to hand over these to their teachers.

The kids and I had a great time creating these and an even better time being able to give these as a token of our appreciation to the kids teachers.

Remember some times its the little things that mean the most. 

Enjoy the rest of your week.

TFL, Michelle  x

Creative Inspiration - Pocket letter fun

Well... the weekend just flew by.. this time of the year is absolutely crazy and no matter how much I say that I will stay on top of things things it just doesn't seem to happen. 

Anyways... I have been playing with some more of the Summer Vibes paper range by Simple Stories.

I have had to wait a little bit longer than I had hoped to be able to share as I had created this pocket letter using some of the paper for a swap. The pocket letter has arrived safe and sound at it's destination in New Zealand so I am able to share now.

The pocket letter was for a summer themed swap. I was at a bit of a loss as to how to take this theme at first. Then the kit arrived and I knew that it was perfect for this. I was going to do my usual and decorate each little pocket however I had this idea of creating a picture divided into each of the pockets. I also know that I wanted to create a sun to signify summer. So with that in mind I cut five of one pattern (hello paper) and and four of the matching paper (aqua floral). 

The fun part came when I created the sun rays. To make it easier I used some re positional tape and adhered the pocket page to my mat leaving 2mm spacing to allow for cutting. I then layered the mellow yellow card stock rays and some matching washi till I was happy. I added the centre of the sun last to cover where the sun rays overlapped in the bottom left. To add a bit of sparkle I glitzed it up with some gold sequins from my stash.

To continue with the summer theme I added a title using some medium sized alpha stickers and some old beach themed stickers mounted on 3D foam to add some depth to the pocket letter. Super fun and easy to do too. I added all the goodies to go with the pocket letter into little bags and put them on the back of the pocket letter so that they didn't take away from the sun I had created. 

Lastly I have also managed to create a quick belated birthday card.  

Once again I have had a male birthday card to create. I always seem to put these off as I always seem to struggle pulling it all together to give them a masculine feel. I have used some kraft card stock as the base for the card. I have then matted some of the camera patterned paper from the Summer Vibes paper range onto some black card stock. 

Then it was simply a case of adding some embellishments to finish it all off. I have added a mini silver dot paper bag as the base for embellishments and then layered a mix of washi tape, die cut arrow border and a hash tag die cut which I then finished off with some garden twine. I then added my greeting and the card was all done.

Well... hope that everyone has a super week.

Better get back to sorting out some more goodies to share.

TFL, Michelle x

Creative Inspiration - Summer fun kit

Good afternoon all.

I have been having fun over the past few days working with a new kit that the lovely Leanne has sent me to play with.  It included some of the awesome paper range by Simple Stories - Summer Vibes.

I must say that when I saw this kit I was just a tad excited to be able to play around with it. It is perfect for scrapping this time of the year and I cannot wait to share with you all what I have got planned to use up this kit.

So today I am sharing with you a layout that I have created using one of the 12x12 sheets as the base for the layout... 

I have trimmed the paper just a little to matt it onto some kraft card stock as I felt that I wanted to add some kraft feel to the layout. Plus I quite like adding a little bit of a border to the layout when I am using pattern paper for the base of a layout as I feel it breaks it up a little. 

As you can see to the paper range really does have a real summery vibe to it. I love the mix of the slightly muted bold colours on the wood grain base.

I have also used some wood die cut Polaroid photo frames to showcase the photos on this layout. I printed my photos off as black and white so that they matched well with the papers in the range. 

I added in some journal cards that matched perfectly with their distressed heart pattern colours to the colours in the paper range. The little kraft journal card also helped tie the kraft base to the layout too. I have also hand stitched the layout to add a bit of detail to the layout.

I have  also played around with a mix of washi tapes from my stash which match the paper range to follow the patterned theme on the printed paper base. 

This was such a fun paper range to play with and certainly has a fun summery feel to it. I cannot wait to share with you all the other goodies I have been creating with it.

Till then... I hope that you all get a chance to get creative.

TFL, Michelle x

Creative Inspiration - Cards Galore

Wow.... This month is just speeding by...

I am back to share with you some cards that I made for the mountain of birthdays that I had during October. It was certain the month of birthday craziness. 

My first card was for my daughter boyfriend, Adam.  Now I really am not a huge fan as you know of creating masculine cards. It's fine when it's for younger boys but as they get older I find it harder to give the cards a real masculine feel. However I found it quite easy this time with a bit of help from some garden twine, matching stickers, a wooden domino and a flair. 

Now as I said I find it easier to create for younger boys and this card was made especially for my son. I really wanted to add in the little mummy stamp so just created the card base and then added the mummy in as the embellishment on the front of the card. I love the little chalkboard flags too as they add that little extra with ease.

With my daughter's 18th birthday looming my Mum was going to buy a card when I sang out that I could create something for her to give. It was the perfect opportunity for me to be able to try out a technique I wanted to try. I really wanted to know if  stamping onto kraft card stock and then colouring with mepxy markers could give a good effect. I must say that I LOVE the look and plan of playing with this again.

Now... my younger children wanted to create a card for the big sister too so we all got together to create this card. I have used some of the matching stickers to create the embellishments and teamed it with a large black satin ribbon bow. We then finished the card off with some bling in the form of the glitter numbers.

The card I created especially for my daughters 18th from us I wanted to have a feminine feel without being too girly. By adding it the black and grunging up the card I have been able to achieve the look I was chasing. I have then layered some paper doilies and finished the card off with some garden twin and a wooden die cut dress form.

The last card I created was a super quick one for my niece. I played around with some gelatos on some water colour paper the create the base of this card. I have also double matted it onto some kraft and lightly hand stamped with a graph stamp and black staz on ink. The flowers I have created using layered stamped images and some dew drops. I then mounted the using 3D foam dots to add dimension.

Must say that my busy birthday month is over and I can now get working on Christmas.

Till next week I hope you all get a chance to get creative.

TFL, M x

Creative Inspiration - A Really Summery Feel

Hello all.

Back again this week sharing with you three layouts I created a while back using a summery feeling fun kit sent to me by the lovely Leanne. 

I was lucky to have all these goodies sent to me to play with...

How yummy do these papers look!!! I have to admit to being a little unsure of the wood grain paper though. However once I actually played with it the layout came together really easily. 

The embellishments in this kit really added to the summery feel of this layout. I love the mix of mellow yellow with the aqua and blue

So here's the first layout I created using my goodies.

I have worked with a white card stock base. I found that once I had added the patterned paper strips that There was too much white so used some of the mellow yellow washi tape to "fill in" the white and think the washi has added to the feel of the page.

On my journal card I have played around with a pile of old number stickers from my stash. I have coloured the numbers all black to make them uniform in colour and to tie in to the black accents I have added. How cute too is the little wooden die cut word !! 

I then finished off the layout with some aqua glitter alphas I had in my stash that matched perfectly with this paper range.

Now the next layout was where I really tested myself by using the wood grain patterned paper as the base for this layout. I trimmed it slightly to matt in on some Kraft card stock to give it a plain border.I have then used some of the matching papers to brighten the base up a little. 

I love the sun burnt orange colours in the accents in this kit too. I have added the the journal spot and jazzed it up with the matching flairs and buttons to add some dimension to the layout.

I am still loving the coloured doilies too. I have tucked one in under the matted photo on this layout and then brightened it up with some of the matching washi for this layout.

For the last layout I have stuck with the mellow yellow and aqua on a kraft base. I love this mellow yellow colour as it isn't really too bold a colour. I kept my photo black and white for this layout as I really wanted to colours in the paper to shine.

I played around with some more of my number stickers for a base on some slightly more tan coloured kraft card stock. My title I made with a mix of the aqua glitter alphas and medium alphas stickers. 

To add a bit of depth to the page I played around with a wax paper bag and a kraft coloured tag. I finished the tag off with a matching dark aqua journal spot from the kit.

Super fun summery feel kit to play with. 

Well back to creating some more bits and pieces.

Till next time.

TFL, Michelle x