Traveller's Notebook - Here There & Everywhere | Hip Kit Club

Hi guys!

I have a new layout in my traveller's notebook today using the June kits from Hip Kit Club. The kits are so vibrant and full of colour this month, with lots of pretties from Vicki Boutin and Heidi Swapp.

I knew I wanted to use the 3x4 card from the Pocket Life kit that had a spot for journalling as well as that pretty pink tropical flower on it.  Even when I accidentally oversprayed it with a mixed media spray I still stuck with it ha!

I always like to print my journalling out on my printer, and set it out so that the text was justified on the right, which allowed me to make sure I didn't accidentally print over the top of that pretty flower on the top left of the card.

This project was for Mixed Media Monday and my brief was to create a plaid pattern.  I did this on the right page with the Lindy's Magicals from the June 2019 and May 2019 Colour kits.  Since my July kits with the stencil I was going to use hadn't quite arrived yet, I decided to just create my own in Silhouette Studio and cut it out.

I can tell you I had a LOT of fun with that!!

I used the semi-circle 'here, there & everywhere' sticker from the Heidi Swapp sticker book to pop above the journalling card, and backed both the journalling card and the sticker with some white cardstock to matt them.  It really helps to make them pop off the dark pomegranate paper of the background.

I love how this spread turned out, and that I was able to use a pocket page card on it as well.

If you'd like to see the process of how this one came together I have a video up on the Hip Kit Club YouTube channel that you can catch here.

Thanks so much for stopping by today guys, and enjoy the rest of your week!

Mini-Vacay Pocket Page Spread | Hip Kit Club

Hi friends!  After working in a 6x12 album for my project life for the first half of 2019, I've decided to switch back to a 6x8 for the second half.  I really liked trying the different size of the 6x12, but I've realised 6x8 really has my heart.  

A couple of things I love about it are that if there are weeks I have barely any photos it doesn't look out of place (and lets face it, I work full time and have no kids at home, so yes it happens); I love being able to add little 3x8 or 6x4 inserts as I go; and I really love having an album that almost feels like holding a book rather than a photo album.

So here's my second spread back in a 6x8 album (if you missed the first one you can find it on my Instagram account).  

This week we had a super-fun mini vacay day cruising our local waterways for a work party.  We had such a great time on a beautiful sun-filled winter day, so of course I used all the bright and happy colours from the June 2019 Hip Kit Club kits to document the week!

The colours from Heidi Swapp and Vicki Boutin that feature heavily in this month's kits as well as the gorgeous 3x4 and 4x6 cards in the Pocket Life kit work so well together.

I wanted to use this fun 3x4 card to list out 3 different things, and since we have 3 favourite afternoon walks to take with our two Cavalier King Charles pups, I listed all 3 walks on this card, and ticked the option we took on this Saturday afternoon.  I added the rest of my journalling, a sticker from the Heidi Swapp sticker book and a Vicki Boutin chipboard piece to the card and called this one done.

I used the Starburst Squares June 2019 exclusive cutfile, enlarged it to focus on just one of the starbursts, and cut it from white cardstock.  Then I used the offset tool in my Silhouette software and cut that piece in a turquoise patterned paper.  I layered those together over my  base patterned paper and stitched all of the starburst 'arms' with silver metallic thread on my sewing machine.

To finish the title card I adhered a circle label sticker from the Heidi Swapp sticker book over some white cardstock (I seem to be doing that a lot this month ha!), spelled out the month with alphas from the same book, printed the dates out on my printer and then added a couple of layers with stitching, quotation mark stickers, and then I pulled a gold paperclip from my stash, adhered a cute chipboard button and tied some lime green embroidery thread in a bow to make it super-cute.  The uneven backing to the label sticker is actually a Vicki Boutin flower ephemera piece that I turned upside down, and I love how the more freeform look to this shape turned out rather than using a regular circle.

My right page came together really quickly since most of the work was done for me with this gorgeous 'relax' 3x4 card, and a full 3x4 photo beside it.

This group photo wasn't looking awesome in colour after me pulling it from someone else's social media (also after their filters/edits), so I converted it to black and white and I think it worked really well.

Again I've layered the Heidi Swapp stickers on this 6x4 card over white cardstock to give them extra structure, and also to give the colours a little extra depth.

Thanks for stopping by today guys, I hope I've given you some inspiration to use your June Hip Kits in some pocket page spreads, or to use a cut file in a slightly different way than it may have been designed.

Hip Kit Club | Sketch in a Traveller's Notebook

Hi friends!  Today I have a traveller's notebook layout based on this week's fabulous sketch over at Hip Kit Club.

Here's my take, and I love that the photo element is so large, and that title is right over the top of the photo.

This sketch is  designed for a traditional layout, but there's nothing stopping me from using it in a traveller's notebook.  Here's a look at the sketch.

Really there's nothing too tricky about converting a regular sketch to work in a traveller's notebook, all it takes is to split the sketch right down the middle.

I used just a little mixed media on this page and applied some splatters in the Lindy's Starburst mists from the March 2019 colour kit in Tiffany Lou Blue and Mad Hatter Mint.  

Then I printed the photo out on my Epson Picture Mate. I cropped my full sized photo in half in Photoshop so that one half would fit on 6x4 photo paper and printed that out, then clicked undo and reversed the cropping so that I was left with the other half of the photo to print.  That saved me a bunch of time printing at home, since I didn't have to go to the shops to print a larger size photo.

The Vicki Boutin Kaleidoscope chipboard thickers in the June Embellishment kit are such a great thickness, they're not as thick as a lot of other chipboard pieces, and that's awesome when you're using them in a traveller's notebook. 

I've used a mix of them plus the Vicki Boutin ephemera, puffy round stickers and cardstock stickers from the Main kit to embellish this page.  There's so many different elements that work so well together.

To create the title for this spread which is 'This Wonderful Life', I used a combination of a Vicki Boutin semi-circle chipboard piece, a holographic scripty word over the photo, and finished up using the navy thickers from the main kit stitched over a label from the Heidi Swapp sticker book.  To give the label sticker more structure I adhered it to some scrap white cardstock and trimmed it to size.

I always love using the Hip Kits weekly sketches and I definitely recommend this one, it's not your average sketch, and I totally love how this one turned out with a large photo.

Be sure to stop by the Hip Kits Facebook Group to see more sketch inspiration from the design team, and to share your take on it.  I hope you join in for your chance to win the weekly sketch prize!

Thanks for stopping by today guys xo

Celebration Card Set | Hip Kit Club

Hi friends! Today I have a fun celebration card set created for Hip Kit Club, that uses the June 2019 kits.

Whenever I make a set of cards I always try to have a similar theme or use similar products with all of them.  For this set I've used similar products on each one... can you spot them?...

They're the same alphas for the sentiments, the Amy Tan faux suede flowers, a frame, a stitched banner, circles punched from a little mixed media play, a postage stamp element, and a circle sticker turned into a round tag.  Whoa, I've actually surprised myself with everything on that list!

My first card is all about pastel pinks and greys, with pops of pomegranate (is that even a colour!?) I've combined the pretty holographic scripty phrase/word puffy stickers with a candy cane alpha from the Heidi Swapp sticker book to create my sentiment, and I love having a combination of two alphas in the one sentiment.

The grey frame is from Pinkfresh Studio and originally was a layered frame.  Since I didn't need all the extra bits I carefully unpicked the stitching holding the extra layers on, and then used some metallic gold thread to stitch over the holes left by the original stitching.  It doesn't look out of place at all, and  adds a little more sparkle and texture to the card.

My second card uses the same elements in a pastel orange and pink colour palette with pops of yellow.  You guys know I love shaker pockets and I couldn't help creating a shaker element on this one using the sweet green frame.

On my final card I flipped the frame so that it's vertically upside-down on my card.  This draws the eye to the darker colours at the top of the card, following down the cascading ephemera pieces to the sentiment.

I can't wait to give these celebration cards to someone, they're so bright and happy and fun!

There's also a process video for these cards up on the Hip Kit Club YouTube channel that you can find here:

Thanks for stopping by today guys!

Week 13 Project Life | Hip Kit Club

Hi friends, today I'm sharing my last project created with the May kits for Hip Kit Club.

My project life spreads will usually include some patterned papers, but there are so many beautiful PL cards in the May Pocket Life kit that I didn't even need to reach for my patterned papers on this layout.

This week was our son's 22nd birthday and I have lots of photos of that.  He asked if I could make him Bao buns for his birthday dinner and I was so happy with how they turned out for my first time making them that I had to include a photo of one of them too hehe.

I used a beautiful floral 3x4 card as my title card this week.  I printed the 'week' text out on my printer, added a bow sticker from the Simple Stories sticker book and the pretty blue Shimelle Thickers for the week number.  I also picked out a few coordinating sequins to dot around the printed oval and adhered them with embroidered french knots in hot pink embroidery thread.

This 6x4 family photo had a lot of distracting colours going on in the background that didn't really fit with the rest of my spread so I converted it to a black and white image.  This is a really handy tip if you're finding it difficult to make your PL layouts cohesive.

As a happy little birthday themed element I made a flip pocket underneath my family photo.  I've cut the word Happy out on my Silhouette, which is one of the May cut files, added some texture paste through the stencil from the colour kit, and then added a wash of the Alpine Ice Rose Magicals from Lindy's Stamp Gang that was also in the colour kit this month.

Then I've pulled lots of happy, birthday themed stickers from the Simple Stories sticker book to place around the card.  I also stamped it with the date of our son's birthday.

The base of the 3x4 card on the bottom right comes very similarly to this one in the kit.  Truth is, I made a little boo boo on the white section but I still wanted to use it in the same way.  So I just trimmed the white part off the card that I made my mistake on, and backed the bottom left corner with some white cardstock instead.  I also added some hand stitching in a pretty yellow embroidery thread as a border.

I finished off the card with a few layered stickers and added a sequin with another cute french knot for the centre of the flower.

Thanks so much for stopping by today guys!