Beautiful You

Good afternoon!  Well I've spent the last three days (intermittently) on a page for the latest challenge at Sketchabilities, which I've never played along at before.  I just went to check their blog and I've missed out on entering my take by probably a couple of hours.  Never mind, I loved the sketch and am happy to have used it!

I used my May Hip Kit, and scrapped a photo of Brielle from January (aged 9 months).  She was standing up at her little table and was so happy to smile for her photo!  I'm loving mixing gold and black ink splatters at the moment!

I die cut a label and leaves with my cuttlebug, and I love the Pink Paislee Citrus Twist chipboard!

I loved that this sketch called for lots of layering, which is still my favourite technique for sure!

And here is the amazing sketch:

I'm planning on playing along for sure real soon!

By the way, Azaria turned 6 today!  We celebrated with presents, cupcakes for school (which I forgot to photograph) and a little star cake at home for desert.

Snuggles with Brielle while Sam is up to who knows what on the floor behind!

Blowing out her candles.

Thanks for looking!

Using Up Scraps (April Hip Kit)

Hello again.  Today I'm sharing the last three layouts that I made with my April Hip Kit when I was down to scraps.  Often the layouts I create with scraps are my favourites, I think because I'm so limited in what I have left.  I also love the challenge of creating with scraps to push myself to make as many layouts as I can.

The first two layouts are the final layouts for Brielle's 1st birthday.  For this one I cut my cardstock to A4, and then die cut some of the paper scraps with my triangle die.  I added a doily from my stash and then it was just a matter of placing the triangles and embellishments.  I was happy to use up that cut apart card too!

For my second layout I wanted to make sure I used some of the gorgeous Websters Pages square cut parts.  I choose the ones that best fit the theme of Brielle's birthday, and also had colours that complimented the other papers.  I really got into outlining on this one too!

My final layout is one of my favourites that I created with the kit.  We went to Wanaka (next lake over) during Summer and when we got to the top of the Crown Range we stopped for some photos.  Sam took this photo of Azaria and I and I took the photo of the view.  These landscape photos worked perfectly with the kraft elements in the kit.

You can see all of my April kit layouts in this video:

Thanks for looking!

Melissa

In This Moment (Child Free Friday)

Happy Friday!  Hope you are ready for the weekend!  Its been a crazy day here in Queenstown.  We've had mega frosts, and then in the early hours of the morning we had heavy rain resulting in extreme black ice.  The police shut the road into town so our kids didn't get to school until 11am!

I have my second Child Free Friday layout to share with you today, and its the first layout I've made with my May Hip Kit.  Its another page for my informal wedding album, featuring photos that the guests took at our reception with disposable cameras.  This is a photo of my flatmates prior to getting married, and I love that this photo captures us having a laugh!

I used some thickers from last months kit.

Gold Colourshine was the perfect finishing touch.

My top right cluster, and why not add another pineapple embellishment!

Here is my process video:

Thanks for looking and have an amazing weekend!

< 38 > (Artfull Crafts)

Good morning!  Can you believe that we had a frost that was so cold this morning that our bathroom window was frozen shut, and my glue dots were frozen and not sticking!  #firstworldscrapbookingproblems HAHA!

Today I have the third layout I made with the Kaisercraft Fiesta collection to share with you.  My birthday was in April, and this collection was perfect to scrapbook photos that Sam took with my DSLR.  I love these photos so much, and it was awesome to get them all onto one layout.

I still had half of this paper left, so I decided to use it on this layout, but in a different way.  I  started with the gorgeous floral paper which I placed across the layout.  Then I randomly cut up the left over die cut paper with my trimmer and tucked it under the floral paper.  Once I machine stitched the floral I then had to make a decision on how to place my photos, and decided to go with a cross.

I love the chevron stickers that came on the sticker sheet.

I made the bow with my Couture Creations die and Cuttlebug.  The title Thickers are from Amy Tangerine.  I love how they pop against the gorgeous bright colours of this collection.

You can purchase the collection in the shop here.  

Thanks for looking!

Friends (Child Free Friday)

Good evening!  I was looking through a big stack of photos trying to decide what to scrap next when I suddenly came to the realisation that 99.9% of my photos are of the kids!  So I decided to remedy the situation by starting my first ever series on my YouTube Channel called "Child Free Fridays.  The purpose of this series is to challenge myself to create more layouts for my scrapbooks, which will also achieve my goal of finishing some albums.

My first layout is for my informal wedding album. We got married nearly 12 years ago, and back in the day we had disposable cameras on the tables at our reception for the guests to use.  The deal was that they had to leave the cameras for us to develop.  We got a really good stack of photos, and I've been slowly (over about three years) working my way through scrapping them.  

This layout is of Shaun and his best man and groomsman.  I'm down to the last scraps of paper and bits and pieces of my April Hip Kit, so it was a good challenge to try and use some of them up.

I used a metalic mint gelato in the background, and I was so determined to use up two of the Amy Tangerine frames.

I'm loving those Amy Tangerine gold thicker words, and it was good to pull out my India ink for this one.  The "Together Fun!" was cut out of one of the papers.

I created a small cluster at the top left, and doodled a border around the edge, again!

Heres my video, I also include a quick flip through of my wedding album so far.

Thanks for looking, and have a blessed weekend!

Sam @ 8 (April Hip Kit)

Hello!  I've been documenting birthdays lately because three of us have our birthdays from 29 March to 15 April.  Our oldest Sam turned 8 at the end of March, and being the family memory keeper I took lots of photos to capture the moment.  

For the first page I documented Sam at age 8 in my words.  I used my April Hip Kit, which was a predominantly girly kit, but I made sure I got these layouts done by pulling the more boyish papers and embellishments.

I used my April Hip Kit, which was a predominantly girly kit, but I made sure I got these layouts done by pulling the more boyish papers and embellishments.  I'm loving the look of multiple ink splatters right now!

I kept my embellishment a lot less than my usual style, as I really wanted to feature the arrow paper and frame.  I cut apart some of the small Websters Pages squares and layered them under my paper.

Of course I had to include the paper plane die cut, in fact when I first opened up the pack of die cuts I had to show Sam.  Sam has been making paper planes for the past 4 years - he started when he was 4 and used to bring home bags of them from childcare.

I also love to document my children's favourites around their birthday, and I think it'll be so interesting to look back on when they are older.  My second layout has been designed like a second page, and I've included lots of similar elements.  I interviewed Sam to make sure I got his voice in the journalling.  Because this layout is smaller at A4 (similar to 8.5x11) I typed Sam's answers on my computer and printed them out.  I generally prefer handwritten journalling, but for a layout such as this I think it works well.

I love the skinny black Thickers in the kit, and I added enamel dots from my stash.  And yes, I have used the green paper that I said I was struggling with in my previous process video!

Tucking more Websters Pages squares under the paper helped with the continuity between the two pages.   And this photo really sums up his playful personality!

I still have lots of birthday photos and will likely make some pocket pages.

Thanks for looking! 

Celebrate (Stuck?! Sketches)

Hello!  It's been ages since I've played along at Stuck?! Sketches, but I've been scrapping heaps lately and always love using Laura's sketches.  I made this page for the first sketch for June, and I loved it as it enabled me to use bits and pieces of my April Hip Kit.

I rotated the sketch to make it work for my 4x6 photo of Brielle opening a present on her 1st birthday - concentrating very hard! I've been scrapping all her birthday photos, and this will be the third page. The Amy Tangerine and Websters Pages papers and goodies in this kit are amazing.

I added the epoxy sticker onto the camera.  Adore those stickers!

Of course I had to add stitching, and it also helped to secure my layers.  I smudged my ink drops by mistake, so to remedy it I smudged all of them!

I used a large glassine bag behind my paper layers for extra interest, and I added the circles by doodling with a pencil.

And here is the amazing sketch:

I made a process video too.

Thanks for looking!

Happy Birthday (Lets Get Sketchy)

Hi there!  Well if its half way through June it must be half way through the year!  How can that be!?

Its time for the third reveal of the month over at Lets Get Sketchy with a fabulous sketch by Jenessa Franco.  I used my April Hip Kit, which was perfect for this 1st birthday photo of Brielle (I love her sweet little face in this photo!), as it had the Maggie Holmes Confetti Chipboard.  I was even super brave and for the first time ever machine stitched through the chipboard letters. I put my foot down and went for gold!

I added the epoxy "1" sticker onto the Amy Tangerine camera.

My title was made with the chipboard words, and also below is a close up of the layered Maggie Homes sequins which I stapled first then adhered with a glue dot.

Love that layered fabric "LOVE" tag from the Heidi Swapp!

I also made a 6x12 pocket page with some of the remaining photos.  Here is a shot of the two pages side by side, as they'll appear in the album.  I have two other 12x12 pages that I've made for her birthday, and I'll be sharing them this week.

And here are the two pages side by side.  I used lots of the same papers, but kept the embellishments very simple.

And here is the awesome sketch:

I made a process video:

Thanks for looking, and make sure you play along with us at Lets Get Sketchy!

Kaisercraft Fiesta Layouts (Artfull Crafts)

Hello hello I'm up on the Artfull Crafts blog today!  I've been going through an ebb in my creative flow lately, so I remedied it by printing off a heap of recent (meaning 2015) photos, and playing with some new Kaisercraft goodies!

Now there is nothing like scrapping new photos with a gorgeous collection like Kaisercraft's new Fiesta.  Fiesta definitely got me scrapping again, and is everything that I love - bright, fun, girly and summery!  Once I got going I made three layouts in two days, which is a lot for me!  I'm sharing two layouts today, and the third one later in the month.

My first layout features my favourite paper, a beautiful big floral, and my darling girls.  I really wanted to feature the papers on this one, so went for a strip across the middle.  I cut the hexagon shaped title out of this cut apart sheet.  

I'm loving bows at the moment, and made this one with a Couture Creations die set and my Cuttlebug.  

A close up of my girls and a large floral diecut from the collection.

My second layout is about celebrating Brielle eating sugar for the first time (a healthy homemade muffin).  I've made all three of my babies wait until age 1 until being given sugar.  I wanted to use this speciality die cut paper, and cut it in half to get more milage out of it.  Once I'd adhered it, I built the rest of my layout to the left of it.  

I did a small amount of mixed media with the packaging technique and some Heidi Swapp Colourshine in Seagrass, and some Ranger Dylusions dropped on in bubblegum pink.

My frame is from this cut apart sheet, I just trimmed out the middle and rounded the inside corners by carefully using the largest hole punch on my crop-a-dile.  I layered vellum under the frame to separate all the busyness, then I popped it all up on leftover chipboard (the offcuts from a 12x12 sheet that would normally be thrown out).

You can purchase the collection in the online shop here.

Thanks for looking!

Killing My March Hip Kit

Good evening!   The following are the  unshared layouts I created with my March Hip Kit.

This first layout is the cover layout for some pocket pages that I made about a trip we took to Dunedin.  The gold rub ons were from the previous month's kit, and I kept them especially for this page.  The photo was taken at the Chinese Gardens and the kids had to have a photo with the Panda who welcomed us in.

The next three layouts are made with scraps.  I wanted to do a patchwork-style layout for this one, and I was really down to the last pieces of paper.  I machine stitched around each of the squares.  The photo was Brielle's first official meal of solids.  She had grabbed Sam's crusts and shoved them in her mouth when we were in a cafe in Dunedin.  I'd been trying to hold her off eating until after our holiday, but she had other plans!

This layout is one of my favourites, and its an A4 size.  I loved using up some of the Craft Market chipboard, and did some mixed media in the background with a paint dabber, the packaging technique and some Colourshine.

My final layout is another A4 layout, and my main aim was to use up the layered Craft Market Chipboard frames.  The photo is of Azaria singing her favourite song in the school prize giving last December.

Thanks for looking!

Liquid Gold (Lets Get Sketchy)

Good evening, it's Friday at 5.30pm and things have been so full on this week that I forgot to post this layout for Lets Get Sketchy.  This week we had a fantastic sketch with loads of possibility for creativity from the lovely Bev Code.  

I used my April Hip Kit (this is my first layout with the kit) and the Amy Tangerine Elephant diecut (which most people have said is hard to use) was perfect for this baby layout!  My layout is all about Brielle getting weighed by my midwife and then the Plunket nurse.  There is only 2 months difference which is amazing because she is so chubby in the second photo!  I titled my layout "Liquid Gold" because she is an exclusively breastfed baby.

Here is the awesome sketch:

Thanks for looking and play along for a chance to win!

Have a fantastic weekend!