Magenta Giveaway

Magenta is having a followers giveaway to celebrate the new spring collection release.  There is a chances to win one of two pretty sweet prizes.

It is an easy one to enter, just follow the Magenta blog or FaceBook page and then link your name here to enter.

TTFN,

Magenta New Spring 2014 Catalogue

Check out the new release catalogue.  Gorgeous variety of stamps and other products for many different style of crafters can be found within its pages.

TTFN,

Bright Happy Colours with Chic Tags

Happy Ground Hog Day!  Here in Ontario, Canada... Wiarton Willie saw his shadow so ... six more weeks of winter.  Personally, given the 20 more centimetres of snow that we got yesterday, I am ready to say adios to the blustery season and bring on Spring.

With bright happy colours and warmer times in mind, today I am sharing a layout that warms me up and just makes me happy or should I say... takes me to my "Happy Place" (pun intended).

While I did not get to participate in the actual Chic Tags blog sketch challenge, I really liked this sketch and wanted to make the layout that I had in mind for it when I had a chance.  I used papers from their Happy Place collection and a freebie Circles printable from their store site.

For my take, I turned the sketch side ways, used two photos and stitched chevrons connecting many of the circles in the grid pattern.

Here is the sketch:

Supplies: patterned papers and printable pdf (Chic Tags), chipboard letters (Fancy Pants), inks, pen and wood veneers (CTMH), metal bike (Michaels), marker (Sharpie), thread


TTFN,

Magenta Christmas Mini Album

Today, I am sharing my Christmas Mini Album that I made for Magenta in January.

While I used the cute bracket December Daily Album,  my mini however is not a December Daily.  I like to look at them out in the blogosphere and kudos to those that complete the entire month; especially those who do it year after year. For me, I just have a few photos of some of those key events that surround the big day and so a mini album is just the thing. The upside too is that I have enough chipboard pages leftover to make another mini at another time.

 For the cover, I coloured the chipboard title and number that comes with the album using gelatos then added glitter glue and clustered them up with the beautiful wood veneer tree.  I also added some gesso sponging to my base paper.



Pages 1 & 2

 A little stenciling of trees on the left using gelatos, gel, gesso and glitter glue.  On the right side page, I did some ornament stamping, coloured with watercolour pencils, fussy cut them out and finished with some glitter.



Pages 3 & 4

Love this pretty tree patterned paper!  While it is a bit busier, it is subtle enough for my bright photos to pop especially with using black and red. Then I couldn't resist the bright red bling for embellishments.

Page 5 & 6

To change it up a bit, I doodle outlined around the trees in black, added glitter glue to three of them to create a visual triangle and blinged up the tops of all treetops showing with bitty jems.  I paired it with the top half of the North Pole patterned paper that I planned for the subsequent page.  I added some extra sponged-on red ink to match up with that which was already there but only in one section due to where I cut the paper.

Pages 7 & 8

These are my favourite pages for two reasons:

- The photos and the story behind the facial expressions....

and...

- I love the added glitter and sequins to the sweeps and swirls of snow on the patterned North Pole paper .  I added a few fabric snowflakes and the stars are part of the chipboard pieces that came with the bracket album.  I coloured them, added black glitter and topped them with jewels.

Pages 9 & 10

And as you can see on these next pages, she was one happy girl after finding and opening her gift. Though it is hard to see, on the bottom, I masked stamped in white ink with the "Christmas Wishes Seal" stamp and added some trim.  I also used the "Here comes Santa Claus" stamp along with the "I am in love with this day!" stamp.

Pages 11 & 12

Here I got a little more messy.  I gessoed the red mesh paper onto the chipboard before adding the striped patterned paper.

Pages 13 & 14

  

On this last double page, I used all scrap pieces of the patterned papers that I had used on the prior pages.  Cutting them into rectangular pieces, I glued and gessoed them onto the chipboard for my background.  Again, I embellished the pages with some chipboard pieces that come with the album after colouring and glittering them.

You might have noticed that I carry over the patterned paper and/or colour from one double page spread to another. I also handwrote, creating a stylized font, for most of my titles and subtitles on the pages.  This, along with the patterned papers and faux stitching brought a cohesiveness to the entire album.

Lastly is the back cover.

I used a piece of Ingrid patterned paper along with a black piece of cardstock to give it the look of book binding.

Hope you enjoyed this mini.  To learn more about the story behind the coal from Santa, check out the Part 2 on the Magenta blog.

TTFN,

Aarrgh Mateys

Happy New Year to you!  I hope the beginning of 2014 has been kind to you.  Here it is really cold with temperatures reaching a low of -34 degrees Celsius.  With the wind chill, it was -39 first thing Friday morning! That is brrrrr!  Makes you wish for balmier weather.

Today, I am sharing a warmer weather framed layout that I have made as a gift for my MIL.  It captures a fun grandchildren adventure that I know she will be thrilled about.

Supplies: pre printed canvas, canvas letters, jeweled bird and jewels (Prima), gesso (Golden), alpha stamps (CDS), ink (Tsukinenko), embroidery floss (DMC), cardstock and pen (CTMH)

The Prima preprinted canvas base, from my stash, made this simple to put together.  I kept it pretty minimal embellishment wise so that the photo would be the focus.  A little gesso background, embroidery floss, fabric alphas, and some Prima bling and it was done.

TTFN,

Top 10 Layouts of 2013

As another year draws to an end, it has become my blogging tradition (as it is with many other scrappers) to look back over my year's creations.  This year I have ventured into yet another style realm... mixed media.  I really like the learning and the challenge of it.  While I have gotten messy, I still like to keep it Clean & Simple or Layered and Playful at times.  As always, I love the inspiration of a good sketch, colour palette or photo inspiration.  Without a doubt, this is reflected in this year's choices.

In no particular order, here are my ten favourites of 2013:

Thanks for sharing in my creative journey in 2013.  Wishing you much happiness and creativeness in 2014.

Happy New Year!

TTFN,

A few of my favourite things

Well "selfie" made it into the dictionary in 2013 and living in a house with a teenager, I can sure understand the how and the why of it.  My goodness the number of self portraits young people take is astounding! My daughter and I were going through her electronic devices looking at photos when I spied this one and thought that it would be great for a layout using the December inspiration mood board at Scrap Around the World.

Supplies: patterned paper (Simple Stories), glitter letters (American Crafts), molding paste (Golden), stencil (Silhouette cut), watercolour paints (Daler Rowney), jeweled lace (Prima), silver tissue and leaves (Dollarama), ink (Tsukinenko), corner rounder punch (EK Success), pen (CTMH), peacock feather swag (Lucky Brand Clothing)

I used molding paste, on worn old wood with silver and bluish green touches ...

... and some Lucky Brand Clothing packaging "peacock feather swag" (as my daughter refers to it).

What I was attracted to in the board was some fav elements of mine...  old wood and plaster frames (I have a collection of them), the aquamarine silver ring and the large feather in the ladies hand . 

The perfect accompaniment to my daughter's filtered "selfie".


TTFN,

Black and White Beauty

Sometimes I see a sketch and wham... an idea hits... that was the case for the December sketch at ScrapFriends.

Supplies: cardstock (Canadian Scrapbooker Super Stock), paint (DecoArt), Silhoutte cuts - Swan title font (CAC Shoshoni Brush) and sketchy circles (SCT Nicole Nowosad), Metal Letters (MultiCrafts Canada), jeweled brackets (Prima), feathers (Ikea), glitter (Recollections), vellum, lace, sequins, and jewels (Dollarama), pen (Signo)

Black and white with glitter, sparkle and feathers were perfect accompaniment to these Hallowe'en photos of my daughter.  She was the white swan to her friend's black swan. She was so proud of her costume that she put together by herself creating the bustier and head pieces also. Only unplanned part was the cold weather for night time trick or treating. She threw on a black long sleeve under the tank.

Here are some different light and detail photos.

This one has the light at an angle and gives you an idea of the feathery texture and the black on black sequins.

Here is the wonderful sketch inspiration.

TTFN,

T'was the Night Before Christmas...

.... and I am sharing some more cards that I made starting with the post title's name.

Supplies: cardstock (CTMH), patterned paper (K & Company), border punch (Fiskars), chipboard and jewels (Dollarama), and thread (Aurifil Mako'ne)

I started these by using up leftovers of the K & Company papers that I used in creating my Brrr card.

Supplies: cardstock (Bazzill & CTMH), patterned paper (K & Company), die cutter (My Favorite Things), circle punch (Creative Memories), emboss folder (Cuttlebug), baker's twine (Maya Road), VersaMark (Tsukinenko), Heat N STick (Stampin' Up), Glitter Liner (Viva), chipboard, snowflake, vellum, glitter, jewels, foam pop up squares (Dollarama), thread (Aurifil Mako'ne)



For this one, I used the die cut negative as my starting point.  I backed it with a piece of the embossed and glittered cardstock.  Some twine, vellum, and glitter glue and it was done.

Supplies: cardstock, pen and chalk (CTMH), patterned paper (K & Company), chipboard, fabric snowflake, and jewels (Dollarama), baker's twine (Maya Road), glitter liner (Viva), and thread (Aurifil Mako'ne)

This is one of my favs.  Clean and Simple but so pretty.  A little machine stitching and scallop punching with a corner rounder adds interest.  I matched up a circle die cut for the second layer of snowman , coloured and glittered it.

Supplies: cardstock and pen ( CTMH), patterned paper (K & Company), chipboard, vellum and jewels (Dollarama), emboss folder (Cuttlebug), snowflake (Silhouette), scalloped cutting blade (Fiskars), stickles (Ranger), and baker's twine (Maya Road)

This one got a little more complex.  I embossed a white core piece of cardstock and lightly sanded it and I Silhouette cut a large snowflake to back the chipboard sentiment.

Having fun getting my Christmas craft on.  This little elf is off to wrap some gifts and make some tags.

TTFN,

Brrr ~ It's Cold!

Baby it's is cold and icy outside.  We got dumped with freezing rain on top of layers of snow making for some interesting sidewalk and road conditions.

Perfect though for hanging out in a cozy warm house and crafting.  I created this seasonal card from this month's PageMap Blog sketch challenge.

Supplies: cardstock (Bazzill), patterned papers (K & Company), diecut (My Favorite Things), punches and Heat'n Stick(Stampin' Up), Silhouette sketchy circles cut file (SCT Nicole Nowosad), embossing folder (Cuttlebug), VersaMark (Tsukinenko), baker's twine (The Twinery), pen (CTMH), stickles (Ranger), mirror snowflakes, vellum and glitter (Dollarama)

Again, I dug into my stash and used some older Christmas papers and My Favorite Things die cuts.  I created the bottom piece by swiping a VersaMark pad over the flat side of an embossing folder, then sprinkling Heat & Stick to it.  After heating it with a heat gun, I sprinkled white glitter on, thus the recessed snow effect.

For a touch of newness, I used a circles cut file created by Nicole Nowosad that was available for free on the Scrapbook and Cards Today blog.


I stuck pretty much to the sketch and the pattern theme. It just fit my scrappy mood for today.

It is such a pretty sketch with lots of potential other than seasonal snowflakes don't you think?  Check out how others chose to use it here.


TTFN,