Couture Creations - extra page

Whilst making pages for my Guest Designer spot for Couture Creations, I couldn't simply stop at the two projects that were requested.... so here is another one. For this one I wanted to use the Sea Breeze collection but on a non-beach page all together.

I started with two beige cardstocks for my background and then added three strips of blues and greens damask papers across the middle. All my photos are matted with brown cardstock.

The fun embellishement on this page are the "flowers". These I made using the chipboard flags that are in the embellishement pack. As I was three short I simply cut these out of some paper that matched. I arranged the flags in groups of five and then punched a circle out of the collection pack's cover sheet. I inked up the Quilted embossing folder and embossed each circle for some texture. The circles were then glued over the middle of each flower with a few foam dots.

I also added some buttons, bling,stitching and splatters for added effect, as well as a sticker off the sticker sheet for my title.

Couture Creations - Guest designing again

I am again guest designing for Couture Creations with another fun layout using their great Sea Breeze collection.

This layout is again from our holiday last year on the Natal South Coast. I really wanted to include the memories of the view and also use the beautiful paper to it's fullest.

My starting point for this whole page was the pretty picture on the "A Day Fishing" paper. As there are two of these in the collection pack I didn't feel too bad using the back side of one of them as my background for the page. From the second sheet I cut out the picture to use as an element on my page.and also the words for my title. The rest of the page I used as the foundation for my left side page.  (Here you can see what the back of my page looks like to give you a clue!)

So after cutting out the picture I then made the strips for the left page. Working from the centre out, I cut a strip slightly wider than my jumbo photos (11.5cm wide) from "Navigating at Sea" and stuck this down. I added a two bar code strips next to this, first the strip from "A Day Fishing", then the green compass strip of "Navigating at Sea", which I scalloped the one edge of. Next to this I used a +/- 15cm piece of the striped paper (Pinstrip Mariner). And lastly the cutoff piece of "A Day Fishing" to make up a 12x12 page.

On the right hand side page I have my three 10cm square photos mounted on a strip of brown cardstock and the fussy-cut piece just slightly tucked under the photos so that the sailboat is sticking out.

All the shells are from the chipboard embellishment page and also cut out of two sheets of "Navigating at Sea"paper. I cut them with a slight white border to match the chipboard ones. Then I just laid them across the page till I was happy with the arrangement and glued them down. I also added two clustered near the photos.

The last fun element on the page is the title. For this I fussy-cut the words "sea breeze" from the "A day fishing" page. After I stuck it to my page, I applied some dimensional glaze to it and then sprinkled real beach sand all over. I left it to dry for a bit before shaking the excess sand off. I then added in the extra small stickers for the rest of my title and hand wrote my journalling on the right hand page.

Finally, I finished off my page with some stitching and a few ink splatters.

Couture Creations - Guest Designing

It's such a privilege to be asked to be a guest designer for Couture Creations this month.

I had fun creating layouts with the new Sea Breeze collection, especially stretching myself to see the collection as more than just pretty paper, but as a means to embellish a page and add to the memory.

For my first layout I didn't want to go too traditional on the beach theme, yet I still wanted to create the rustic feel, so chose to use the green knots paper with a subtle strip of the blue check for the foundation of my page. Once the photos were decided on and printed, they were all mounted on the blue paper.

I then decided that the page needed just a little something extra.... and so began a two day experiment (and drama) of how to cut a stamp with my Curio machine... well in the end I designed a simple compass and cut it out of craft foam. Once cut, I ran it through my StickerMaker and then attached it to an acrylic block.... unbeknownst to me.. I put it upside down.Thankfully I had test stamped it first on a scrap piece and discovered this. So peeled off the letters, found some foam ones in my stash and adapted my stamp.... happy days. I stamped the compass at an angle and half off the page just for a bit of extra effect and rustic feel.

The next corner of my page to get a treatment, was the bottom right. For this I used the Netting and the card that it is packaged on. I cut the card to be the same size as my photos on the right... a 3x4" rectangle. I then pulled off the front of the board to distress it and ran my inkpad all over it too.... made it all inky and brown.

This card as well as two of the cards off the embellishment sheet, finished off the block of photos on the right page.

To create the netted corner, I simply took the whole bundle of net and snip snip here and there near the knots till I had a strip of about 10cm off the top. I then lay this over the page and snipped and gathered till it looked right. I tucked some shelled behind the net and then applied glue to each knot to attached the net to the page.

For the anchor, I fussy cut around the anchor on the .... page and then simple tucked it into the netting. Here is a closeup for a bit more detail.

The last embellishment I added to the page was the bunting across the top. These are already pre-cut in the embellishment page. There were enough of each one to go across the whole page. I again just snipped a few strands of the netting to make a long single knotted strand which I glued across the top of the flags.

For my journalling strip, I typed this out on the pc and printed it on plain white card which I then inked in a few different shades of green, blue and brown before attaching to my page.

I finished off the layout with a few ink splats scatted around.

Wildflowers

We received quite a stash of papers at the Secret Event... so I got scrapping and created another page using the Magnolia range from Couture Creations.

I tried my hand at embossing and inking the strip near the top of the page and also die cut my title on my Curio machine. I then also stenciled in gold a few flowers scattered around the page.

I also added a few stitches here and there for effect.

Scrapbook Challenges - Sketch 489 + Title Challenge

My layout for this week's sketch is all about a trip my Mom and I took last year... a week away from family and work... literally and escape. 

I used a sheet of the new Sea Breeze collection from Couture Creations for my background... added a stamped compass in the top right corner (more on how I created my stamp coming up in August!) I also cut afew tags to tuck under my photo. Here is a closer peak at the stamping on my layout

This is the fabulous sketch we worked with this week...

As well as an added bonus of a Title Challenge... using a #hashtag which is all the rage at the moment.

So you can do one or two layouts or even combine them,like I've done... but take up the challenge and have fun. More inspiration can be found on the blog.

Secret Scrapbook Event - in photos

We weren't allowed to share anything about the event as it was all a BIG SECRET until Sunday the 19th of June... and then I just got a little busy... anyways, here are just a few photos of my weekend away last month... lovely scrapping with some fun friends:

Getting my hands on my own Go Cut & Emboss machine from Couture Creations... thanks so much for my new toy.

The crazy girls at Table 5.... without you I wouldn't have lasted the full two days. 

From top left.... Vanessa, Lindsey (aka Gillian), Kim, Shirley, Tanja and me.

Us crazy girls with Jow and Nabila

and last but definitely not least.... the Couture Creation Girls... Kerrie Gurney who is the Design Team Coordinator and Jowilna and myself who will be guest designers over the next few months.

A big thank you to Cariena Basson and her whole team from Scrapbook Studio in Jeffery's Bay, as well as to TheWholesaler. An even bigger thank you to Couture Creations and Ultimate Crafts in Australia for their sponsorship of this event and all our lovely spoils.

Scrapbook Studio Secret Scrapbook Event - layouts

The last few weeks has been all about the Secret Scrapbook Event hosted by Scrapbook Studio in Jeffery's Bay... it was a 5 venue around the country event with LOADS of secrets beforehand as well as LOADS revealed on the day. It's amazing that 300+ ladies can actually keep secrets for more than a month.... well worth the suspense I guess.

We all got the new "Go Cut and Emboss" machine from Couture Creations (the main sponsor).... this is really a fun machine to play with.... cuts like a dream! We received some dies and embossing folders to keep as well.... so nice to get new tool stash as well as the awesome product.

Over the weekend I barely managed to finish anything, but during last week I finished 5 of the 6 layouts... still need to decide if I will do the last one.

These first two were designed by Kerrie Gurney who represented Couture Creations, all the way from Australia... I of course put my own little spin on both layouts.

Next up are the two pages by Jowilna:

I simply love these two pages... didn't change up too much... just titles and added a few photos to the first one.

Lastly was the kits by Cariena...now I have only done one, and totally changed the layout to suit my style and the photos... but I did use some of the design elements from Cariena's original page.

It was an enjoyable (but exhausting) weekend.... thanks go to Couture Creations, The Wholesaler and Scrapbook Studio for a wonderful experience and all the lovely secret spoils.

It's official - Couture Creations

I am soooooooooo excited to tell my loyal blog followers and friends that the Design Team for Couture Creations has been announced.... you can read all about it on their blog.

As much as that is exciting... nope I didn't make the team (sad face!) ..... BUT.... I have been chosen to be a guest designer and for me that is just as exciting.

I will get to meet Kerrie Gurney next week at the Secret Scrapbook Studio Event.

Well done to all the ladies who were selected.Look I also get to serve with my best buddy Jowilna

There are definitely squeals and giggles of delight are happening here.

Couture Creations 2016/17 Design Team Audition

I have decided to take the plunge and try out for the Couture Creations Design Team... I love using dies and embossing folders in various ways on my layouts... not always as they were intended. So this would be a perfect way to showcase some of my scrapping.

As per the requirements of the application, here are some pics of my work (most of them seen before) that showcase my style and use of products.

Up first is a layout that I created using Couture Creations paper that I received as a prize last year for correctly guessing that they are the sponsor of the upcoming Secret Scrapbooking Event (can't wait... less than a month to go!)

On this layout I used lots of little quilled flowers that I cut from a die that I have. As the paper I used is double sided, the flowers look different depending which colour is rolled on the inside. The layout was finished with border punches, bling and ribbons. The title was cut on the Silhouette machine and then covered with diamond glaze.

For my next layout, I used a border die which I cut four times, to create two strips above and below the row of photos on the bottom on the page. The top strip just has the scollops hidden under the photos whereas the bottom ones overlap the pics.

This layout was finished off with a self-designed title cut on my silhouette (I think this was the first time I had used my machine!), and some ink splats. Simple embellishments that lend to the theme of the photos.

My third page that I am showing is fairly simple, yet effective in it's design... just a few hexagons cut with my nesting dies in various papers to lend pattern and movement to a page.

Now on to some fun, for this page I created a tag with my embossing folder, which I had inked with red and green before running through my cuttlebug. I also coloured the ribbon and then added some glittered texture paste through a stensil and a few coffee stain stamps.

Here is an upclose shot of the tag and stencilling:

My final layout is a new one I made specially for this application. I found in my ever-growing stash of free cutfiles, a few Christmas ornaments. After finding the perfect sketch and printing my photo I dug out my Christmas range from Couture Creations to find the perfect matching paper.

I cut the ornaments on my new Curio machine (yes I blush in saying it's been sitting in it's box since BEFORE Christmas - was a learning curve in setting it up!). Once the paper was cut, I chose three different embossing folders and three different inks to use. I rubbed the ink on the folder and then added an ornament before running through the cuttlebug. Some I did on the positive side, and some on the negative... the blue and small green one I embossed first and then ran the ink over the raised bits.

The title strips are from another embossing folder (all these Christmas ones were part of that same prize pack mentioned earlier). I dithered a bit on what to do with the whole block of words, but then inspiration hit... I cut it up and applied different colours to each piece to tie in with the ornaments.

To finish off I used a date stamp and then added in a few coloured blings scattered around.

So there are my layouts... but that's not all. While thinking about this application I also did a few other "off the page" items which I have blogged about earlier this week in step-by-step tutorials.

My CREATE wall art... you can read about it here

and a card I made for The Wholesaler's 10th birthday... again you can read about how I made it here.

So now I am off to send in my application email and hold thumbs I hear back in a positive manner. Till then I shall continue to scrap up a storm.

Happy birthday card: step-by-step

When The Wholesaler turned 10 last month, they had a competition on Facebook for everyone to wish them a Happy Golden Birthday in whatever manner they wanted... well I was sort of inspired but didn't really get butt into gear until the very last minute almost (competition closed on Monday!). I spent part of Sunday creating this golden card:

Here's more on how I made this:

1. Stick 9 buttons and string onto the background white card using gel medium. Make sure it is very dry before trying the next step. (yip I learnt the hard way by not using the right glue and it all came undone when I tried to dry it with my heat gun... hehehe!)

2. Apply gesso over everything to give a solid base to work on.

3. Using Tea Stain mist and Perfect Pearls in Gold I sprayed the whole card... I of course was in a bit of a hurry and hadn't let the tea stain dry too much before applying the perfect pearls spray, so a lot of it ran and mixed.... but in the end I actually like the mottled effect. As they say there are no mistakes in scrapping, only new techniques.

4. As the buttons didn't take the spraying too well, I then applied the gold paint dauber to them as well... worked like a charm.

5. Next up I applied that same gold paint to some white cardstock and used it to cut out the girl and boy from my Couture Creations die set. I also embossed the Happy Birthday greeting before punching it out with a circle punch.

6. Once everything was nicely dry I stuck the happy birthday circle on as the final balloon and then stuck the whole piece onto a folded card.

Thanks for looking... hope you get inspired to make a card too.

Create Wall Art - step-by-step

I have been doing a sort of scraproom makeover (or reshuffle) over the past few months... I push stuff this and that way till it works. I have also added in a few extra drawers... reorganised some stash and made space so that I can have my cutting machines available all the time (maybe then I will use them more!).

As part of my planning, I was pinning loads of ideas on pinterest and not really doing much with them. Well I did collect the toilet rolls and tuna tins for two projects, but haven't made them yet. Another project I pinned, was to make a new word for my wall... I really like this one and used it for my starting point.

As I really wanted to make it my own and didn't have the letters as above, I knew I would have to make another plan. That's just what I did last week while on my long weekend break and now this is what my scraproom looks like with my new word up on the wall.

In more detail, here is how I went about creating my new word art:

1. Firstly I kept some old milk box cartons till I had enough for all the letters.
2. Using Coreldraw I typed out my word, chose the fonts I wanted and resized them. Once I was happy,I reveresed some of the letters and then printed a letter per A4 page.
3. I then stuck the letters to the back of the cardboard and cut them out.

When it came to decorating them, I treated each letter differently... as follows

I covered all the letters,except the A, in gesso first to give me a good starting point.

I started with the C and the last E... I applied some embossing paste which I tinted teal, through a stencil to part of each letter. For the C I added strips of some Couture Creations Vintage Christmas paper and then a few ribbons. I finished both letters off with some coffee stain stamps, plus a layered flower on the E.

Next up was the T... this letter I left fairly plain... covered it in full with a sheet of dotty paper, added a strip of stripes and then some buttons. Once I started the coffee stain stamp on the other letters I decided to add some here too... just subtly finished it off.

Next up was the R... this letter I wanted to pick up the reddish colour of the dots and strips, so started with a base of red stain then used orange distress ink to apply a chevron pattern over the while letter. I added in some white word stickers and then using some dimensional glaze stuck on a few blue beads to add interest.

The next fun letter was the second E... this one I turned blue with a demin stain and then while still slightly wet went over it with a pale blue distress paint... it ended up with a funky pattern. Well I didn't stop playing there... I then applied walnut ink to a Couture Creations pinstripe embossing folder and used it to stamp a plaid pattern all over the letter... first stamped the one way and then turned the folder and stamped the other direction... pretty funky. Once it was all dry, I stuck on a layered flower.

The last letter that I did was the A... this one I applied a mixed media/art journalling technique that I learnt a few weeks back from Jowilna... such fun to be able to apply techniques to different mediums. To begin I stuck various bits of ribbon to my plain letter with gel medium. Once that was dry, I gesso-ed over it all and allowed to dry. Next up, I applied paint and distress stain in three colours in various parts of the letter. Once it was all dry I stamped a bit on the edges with an alphabet stamp.

I then put all my letters together and took a pic while it was drying... and again after it was up on the wall... pretty chuffed how it all turned out.

So there you have it... making art from an idea off the internet.... why not give it a go too?