Thursday 23 May 2019

Just Peachy Traveler's Notebook Spread | Hip Kit Club

Hi guys!

Sharing my latest DT project for Hip Kit Club today, a traveler's notebook spread with some mixed media fun!

Traveler's notebooks are so popular right now, but not everyone has used mixed media in their TN.  Here's a simple way to try it out!




The April Color Kit has a gorgeous exclusive Hip Kit stencil designed by Paige Taylor Evans, and three pots of  Lindy's Gang Magicals. 

To create an ombre effect on the right page I mixed texture paste with each of the the Fuzzy Navel Peach and Pink Ladies Pink Magicals, and then a third that I added both colours to. 



Then I applied the pink texture paste through the stencil at the top of my page, the mixed colour through the middle portion of the page, and the peach at the bottom of the page. I love the pretty ombre effect that this created!



The super fun exclusive acetate alpha was perfect for my big title on the left page, and I pulled a lot of the Dear Lizzy pieces from the April Embellishment Kit to embellish my spread.
















Thanks for popping in today, and I hope I've given you some inspiration to try mixed media in your traveler's notebook!



Tuesday 21 May 2019

Week 8 Project Life | Hip Kit Club

Hi friends!  This bright and fun project life spread was up on the Hip Kit Club blog over the weekend and I thought I'd pop in and share it here with you as well!

This spread uses the beautiful April Hip Kits, and stays true to my PL style, which is to use a combination of pocket page cards and some elements made with patterned papers and embellishments to really make any spread 'my own' if that makes sense.





 
I love the extra little challenges that we get with each DT project, and for me today that's to use a cut file, and to add some stitching and some sequins.  Can you spot each of those elements in my spread?



Okay, so I might have a slight addiction to shaker pockets.  I made this teeny tiny sequin-filled shaker pocket for one of my 3x4 cards, and added some hand stitching in embroidery thread as well.

I can't even tell you how much I love the Maggie Holmes charms in the April Embellishment Kit, and this one sits just below my shaker pocket, and is tied with some twine from my stash.



This awesome 3x4 journalling card from the Pocket Life Kit has journaling spaces from 1 to 7.  You could totally use that for the days of the week, but instead I used it to document our adventurous morning trying to see the effects of TC (Tropical Cyclone) Oma on our coastline.



My title card came together easily with February spelled out with the exclusive alphas that come with the Pocket Life Kit this month.  I also printed the days of the week out on my printer in an old fashioned typewriter font.



My favourite trick with Snapchat photos in a 3x4 card (since they're totally not 3x4 size) is to print them in their original ratio, which leaves a small strip on the side to add some journalling and/or embellishments.  The 'ta-dah' flag from the embellishment kit was perfect to make my home made pizza look pretty special ha!




If you're counting, the only challenge I haven't covered yet is to use a cut file.  But this rainbow and couple of clouds from the April Rainbow Kites freebie cut file was perfect to fit into a 6x4 custom card.

I cut the rainbow on my Silhouette in three coordinating colours, and then cut the clouds in white cardstock before backstitching just inside the edges with sky blue embroidery thread.

And that's my weekly spread done!  Thanks for stopping by today, and I'd love to hear if you ever incorporate any of these three elements onto your pocket page spreads.













Wednesday 15 May 2019

Paige Evans May 2019 Guest Designer!

Hi friends!  I was so excited and honoured to be asked by the amazing and very lovely Paige Taylor Evans to be her May 2019 guest designer recently.

I'm up on her blog today with three projects created with several of Paige's gorgeous cut files from the Silhouette Store, and of course her latest collection, the super sweet Horizon collection with Pink Paislee.

Here's some sneak peeks at:

My wall art piece that uses an entire packet (!) of floral ephemera.




























A traveler's notebook spread with embroidery, fussy cutting and a large photo.




And a super fun, rainbow and tone on tone mini album documenting our vacation in Hawaii.






























You can see the full projects on Paige's blog and my Instagram and Facebook today, and I also have a walkthrough of the mini album on my Youtube Channel.

 


 PS my husband and puppers even make an audio appearance at one point ;) 

Thanks for stopping by today!












Friday 10 May 2019

Sweet Mother's Day Mini Album | Hip Kit Club

Hi friends, all this week the Hip Kit Club design team are sharing beautiful Mother's Day projects in honour of those that mean so much to us, our Mums!

My kids are in their early 20's and the first few years of their really adult lives have brought me so much joy and admiration for the people they've grown into. So I decided to make a mini album using photos of just them and me (since the theme is Mother's Day), and add some meaningful quotes from Pinterest, and also use some of the Paige Evans 2x2in phrase tags from the April Pocket Life kit throughout.


Just a quick note before we go any further that the ribbons, lace, embroidery thread and sequins in this project are from my own personal stash. Everything else is from the beautiful April 2019 Hip Kits, and yes that does include those exquisite charms from the Maggie Holmes Sunny Days collection!




























Since my photos were all taken at different times and in different situations, to create cohesiveness throughout the album I printed them all in black and white. I also printed them all at 1.5in wide on their shortest side, and layered vellum behind nearly all of them. Because my mini is well, mini, this creates a soft layer without being overbearing on such a small scaled project.

There's a lot of photos from here on in, so I won't talk too much further, but if you have any questions please leave them in the comments and I'll come back to you!










One of my challenges for this project is to use the negatives of cut files. These sweet clouds are part of the April Freebie cut file, and I separated them out from the rest of the cut file and moved them close to each other. So that I could make a shaker pocket out of them I duplicated the clouds then flipped the second set horizontally. Then I spaced them far enough apart so I would have enough room to die cut the heart pages. 

Once the clouds were cut on my Silhouette I placed my two pieces of card together, aligning the clouds (this is the tricky part which is why we flipped one set horizontally!) A little piece of washi helped to hold them in place while I ran them through my Big Shot. Then I pieced them back together in the usual shaker pocket-making method. I think they turned out pretty cute in the pink cardstock!





This is another negative of a cut file and it looks just as pretty as its positive! I trimmed the cardstock I cut it from into a strip and placed the very middle of the letters back inside. It didn't quite fit into the heart but that's okay, I just trimmed a little extra corner piece around the 'H'. That's what's so great about mini albums, the little bits and pieces sticking out from the edges!



To make this interactive element I folded some patterned paper in half horizontally and ran it through my die cut machine so that it didn't quite cut the entire heart out on the left side. This is important to make the flap to hold it together. 

There are some papers from Shimelle's Sparkle City collection in this kit, and Shimelle does the most ahmazing branding strips!! The pink and purple polka dot in the photo above and the tiny bunches of flowers in the photo below are both branding strips from Shimelle's papers.

I tucked in the photo for this page with a few extra pieces and held everything in place with a paperclip.




I created a little pocket for this page to place a few bits and pieces into. I cut strips from one of the 2x2in Paige Evans swatches and folded them in half to make tabs to pull out each of my two photos.

I also trimmed down two cards from the Pocket Life kit as fun elements. I stitched some pretty lace onto the end of one, and will add some journalling onto the 'afternoon' tag (both of these photos were taken in the afternoon of their given day).








I thought this was such a great quote to finish off my album. It's so true that raising children is a busy, crazy, frustrating, rewarding, fun, challenging time. But by the time they get to be adults you'll look back and wonder where the time went.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope if you're a Mum you have a wonderful Mother's Day this Sunday, and I also hope you have someone in your life who is a Mum that you can make feel special too!








Wednesday 8 May 2019

Happy (inter) National Scrapbooking Day!! | Hip Kit Club


Hi guys, and happy (inter) National Scrapbooking Day!  I hope you've had a chance to get your crafty on today, or at least this weekend (because let's face it, scrapbooking deserves a weekend of celebration right!?)

Hip Kit Club are having an amazing weekend of challenges, fun games, a YouTube hop and so.many.prizes. on their Facebook member page!  Here's a link to where you can find out about all the fun, and I promise, there is a Bunch of fun happening over there.  Pst you don't even have to be a subscriber to join in the fun.. everyone's welcome!!

Each of the design team are posting challenges across the weekend that you can join in and contribute an entry to for a chance to win some awesome prizes.  My challenge is to make something that's just for you, something pretty that you can enjoy.  It can be some wall art or something to sit on a shelf, it can be some bunting made from patterned papers, it could also be something like a bookmark! There are so many options here, but the two challenges you have to meet are that:

  • It's for you so that you can enjoy it (not for anyone else); and
  • It can't  be any type of spread (no photos allowed guys!)

And here's my challenge piece, an altered mini clipboard with some pretty 3D flowers and my initial embroidered in one of my very favourite colours.  







































I had some Maggie Holmes Apple Blossom paper left in my March Hip Kits and it was just perfect for my background.  I trimmed it to nearly size and adhered it with some Mod Podge.  When it was dry I used a large foam nail file to basically file off the paper right to the edge of the clipboard.  To do this use the file at a 45 degree angle to the board, and drag from above clipboard to below the clipboard.  




























Then I used some Distress Ink in Antique Linen to distress the edges just a little.  It's been a while since I've used this technique but it works so well with Maggie Holmes collections.

To create that brilliant gold layer I used the gold washi tape from the March Embellishment Kit and adhered it to some white cardstock to give it some body.  Then I measured it to the size I needed and cut a 45 degree angle on each of the corners to make it look like a frame element.




























The blue scalloped layer was made with an edge punch from my stash using the Typhoon cardstock from the Cardstock Kit.  I trimmed a few strips out and adhered them under my main white cardstock layer.

To create the letter I typed out my initial in Silhouette Studio in Times New Roman font at 586 size.  I love the classic look of this font for this type of project!

Now this bit is a bit fiddly, I pierced holes around the edge of the letter and chain stitched with embroidery thread right around it.  You do need a little patience for this haha but it's totally worth it!




























And finally I get to play with the gorgeous 3D flower cut file!  I pulled all my leftover patterned papers and cardstock from the March kits and cut these flowers out on my Silhouette machine, before winding them up and hot glueing them together to make these gorgeous blooms.



























I also added a few leaflets punched from the same blue cardstock with a punch from my stash, and added one of the beautiful Maggie Holmes bows from the embellishment kit and some ribbons from my stash and a couple of charms from the April embellishment kit.

Thanks for stopping by today guys, and I hope you take up the challenge to make something pretty just for you!



Wednesday 1 May 2019

Sunkissed TN Spread | Hip Kit Club

Hi friends!  Today I have a traveller's notebook spread for Hip Kit Club using the March 2019 kits.


One of the many things I love about Hip Kit Club is the constant sources of inspiration and ideas to kickstart your scrapping. Today I'm using just one of those inspiration pieces to base my project on, and that's the April 2019 Moodboard.


This is my spread, and while it has a different colour palette from the mood board (that you can see below), I've pulled a bunch of inspiration from it.  I've used:

  • The circle shapes and green colour from the top left image - in the background
  • The horizontal stripe from the middle left image - in a layer behind my photo
  • The sunshine sentiment from the bottom left image - in the title
  • The butterflies from the bottom right image
  • Black and white highlights from the top right image
In fact the only image I haven't used is the pink background and flowers, and since this is a spread about my hubby... well I can probably get away with that ha!


I trimmed some Heidi Swapp Tickled Pink paper from the Paper Add On Kit as the base of my left page, and white cardstock for my right, but I also fussy cut some extra circles to layer over the Typhoon cardstock on the right side.


I pulled that blue horizontal striped 3x4 card from the Pocket Life kit to layer behind my photo, and added some coordinating stickers, puffy stickers and ephemera pieces around it.  My title was too long to use horizontally on one page, so I adhered it vertically.






The left side of my spread came together so quickly using a journalling card from the Pocket Life kit as my focus and to print journalling on. Then I pulled some coordinating pieces to place around the page.



Since this spread is about our late afternoons on our holiday to Fraser Island I really wanted to use this 'PM' sentiment that was on one of the project life filler cards this month.  I trimmed the card down little, and then used a circle punch to punch it out like a tab.  Love how this turned out!

And that's the finished spread.  What's your favourite type of inspiration that gets you kickstarted on a project?  Is it sketch based, colour palette based or something else?  I'd love to hear!


Thanks for stopping by today xo