Jade Kit Projects (The Scrappery)

Hi Friends, I know, its been a while again.  I'm not going to lie, life with 4 kids and a business is hard,  and sometimes creating has to take a back seat for a while.  In an attempt to get my blog back to being up to date, I need to post several times with lots of layouts, starting with my projects for The Scrappery Kit Club that I made with the Jade Kit.

The Jade kit was a mix of products from Kaisercraft, Cocoa Vanilla Studio and Simple Stories.  My first project was a layout with a background of acrylic paint by Brielle.  I used a free cut file from Paper Issues.  

A second layout featured a cut file by The Cut Shoppe and a older photo of Shaun and Brielle that I've struggled to scrap for years!

Next up was a mini album of my favourite summer SnapChat photos.  

For this next layout I used the exclusive stencil and used texture paste mixed with the pink acrylic paint from the colour kit.

The kit came with a speciality die cut paper, and I layered it over a Simple Stories colour blocked paper for a quick and easy page.

I even made some cards.

And finally I made my first ever Traveler's Notebook, and I love working in this smaller canvas.  This notebook will document all my photos of Brielle that I take of her sleeping.

If you read this far then I thank you from the bottom of my heart, as this was a large photo heavy post!  You can find process videos for all of these on my YouTube Channel here.

Grateful Card (Sizzix UK)

Hi!  Today I have a card to share with you that I made with the Tim Holtz Bigz Tattered Leaves Die.  I needed a birthday card for a friend, and this die and the Fancy Pants "Millie & June" collection was perfect.  

I have a video below which shows the process of making the card, and also a demonstration of the new Big Shot Express, which is an electronic Big Shot.  I used some We R Memory Keepers Adhesive Cork Paper, and I splattered it with gold Heidi Swapp Colour Shine.  

Here is my video, which you can watch below or on my YouTube Channel here.

This is the Tattered Leaves Die, which you can purchase here.

Thanks for looking!

  

A Card (Sizzix)

Hello again!  Today I have a quick post to share a card that I made with the same die I used for my layout yesterday.  Its the Sizzix Thinlits Bright Bubbles die, which you can find here.  I dug into my stash of 6x6 paper pads for this one and used the Dear Lizzy "Lucky Charm" collection, which is one of my favourites of all time!

Here is a close up of the bubbles.  Its such a lovely versatile die!

Here is the die.

Thanks so much for looking!

Exciting News!!! (Sizzix)

Hello lovely friends!  I'm so excited that I can share some amazing news with you!  As of this week I can reveal that I'm designing for Sizzix as a Creative Blogger.  It's been my dream for the past couple of years to design for a manufacturer, and as a long time fan of manual die cutting, I'm thrilled to be working with Sizzix to promote their stunning products. 

If you follow me on Instagram you'll already know that I received some goodies this week including a Big Shot Plus and some gorgeous dies.  I just can't wait to get creating.  I'll be sharing my creations here on my blog, as well as my Instagram and YouTube channel.  I'll always provide a link to the die that I'm using, so do make sure you head on over to Sizzix and check out their products.  

I've already created my first project, which is a card for a wedding I attended yesterday of some lovely friends from church.  I needed to make a simple and elegant card, and the Thinlits From my Heart die was perfect.  I cut it in white American Crafts cardstock, and popped it up on dimensional adhesive.

I also used this stunning stamp from Honey Bee Stamps for the sentiment on my card.  Machine stitching around the edge of the patterned paper finished off my card, and I gently lifted the edges for dimension.

Here is a photo of my little darling Brielle (22 months) who attended the wedding with me!

Thanks for looking!

Clean & Simple Christmas Cards (Artfull Crafts)

Good morning!  Can you believe we're into Christmas crafts over at Artfull Crafts already!  Today I'm on the blog with three simple cards that I made with some new product that Liz is carrying in the store.  Simple cards are definitely my style, as card making is second to scrapbooking.

The first two cards are made with the Simple Stories DIY Christmas Collection. This collection is perfect for my style of cards, as its all about starting with a foundation and then adding layers embellishments.  You can find the collection in the shop here.

This card was made by layering some patterned paper, a card foundation on pop dots, and then a chipboard tag tied with tinsel.

I made this card in record time.  I love the background paper as it's appropriate for a Summer Christmas.  I added the banner piece, then the chipboard button.

My final card is made with the Teresa Collins Candy Cane collection, which you can find in the shop here.  This collection has a gorgeous piece of paper with cute hand-drawn trees which I had to fussy cut out and use.  I layered them over a piece of paper, and added the glitter ribbon to ground them, and a red star on the middle tree.  This card is definitely my favourite of the three!

Thanks for looking, and make sure you check the Artfull Crafts blog each day for more Christmas crafts and projects.

An Unexpected Love

I joined The Hip Kit Club in April, and started my subscription with the May kit, which I have nearly used up.  Aside from loving their kits, I joined because the kits are packed full of the newest products and contain a heap of embellishments.  This means I get access to the products I love, which I generally can't purchase here in New Zealand.

I made this layout all about Sam and his intense love for his new baby sister.  As the title explains, we really didn't expect him to be taken with Brielle!  We have a 27 month between Sam and Azaria, and when he was three he would say "no more babies, just "Daria" (his cute little name for her)!).  So when we told the kids we were having another baby Sam seemed quite happy.  But when Brielle was born and he met her for the first time he was besotted!  It was the best thing a mother could watch develop!  It started in the hospital when he wanted to hold her all the time, and continued once we got home.  He's awesome, he'll even hold her when she's crying to help me out, and he always wants me to bring her into his room at night to say goodnight.  It makes my heart so full!

May's Hip Kit was full of yummy Basic Grey Highline Collection products, which have the most gorgeous colours, and work really well with Amy Tangerine's Plus One Collection. I especially love the chipboard.  I kept things pretty simple on this layout, I sprayed with the Heidi Swapp Colourshine mist that was included in the Colour Add on, layered up some papers behind the photo, and then added some chipboard and the subtitle.  

Brielle looks orange because she had mild jaundice.

Thanks for looking!

Kaisercraft Design Team 2014 Entry

Hello!  This post is my entry for the 2014 Kaisercraft Design Team call.  

I've been blessed with the opportunity to create with Kaisercraft products for the past nine months during my current Design Team term with Artfull Crafts.  Kaisercraft were the first manufacturer that I fell in love with when I first started scrapbooking five years ago, and I've continued to love the collections that they design and produce.  I also love that they are made nearby in Australia!

The design brief for the call was to create a Layout, a Beyond the Page/Altered Item and a Mixed Media item or card.

The following is my Layout, which I've shared before and made with the Happy Snaps collection.  This collection is one of my favourites ever, and as well as working for layouts, I believe it would also work really well for Project Life pocket scrapbooking.  

I always include journalling on my layouts, and this layout is about my eldest daughter's love for books, and in my letter-style journaling I share about my own love of books.  I used the speciality paper with awesome spiral notebook edge, and had fun layering lots of elements.  Extra embellishments are chipboard stickers by Making Memories.  Of course I had to add some ink splatters!

My second projet is a card, and I made this with the beautiful Telegraph Road Collection.  I adore the patterned paper and die cut collectables in this stunning collection, and it was easy to create this layered card.  I added my signature machine stitching and finished it off with large splatters of Heidi Swapp Colour Shine in gold.

My final project was to alter a glass maple syrup bottle into a vase.  After I removed the labels I painted it with two coats of white acrylic paint and left it with an imperfect finish for added texture.  I used the lovely Spring Bloom collection and made a tag with die cut collectables, stickers and a small piece of patterned paper.  I used dimensional adhesive to pop up some elements, added some enamel dots, and tied it to the neck of the bottle with natural twine.  The pink flowers are from my garden!

A close up shot of the tag:

Thanks for looking, I just love the versatility of Kaisercraft products, and enjoy creating with them to suit my fresh style.  It would be an absolute honour to be selected for the team!

Be blessed
Melissa

Kaisercraft Limelight Cards (Artfull Crafts)

Hello!  I'm up on the Artfull Crafts Blog today with two cards that I made with Kaisercraft's new Limelight collection.  I'm not a big card maker, so I always feel a sense of accomplishment when I make some!

For this first card I stapled ruffles into the ribbon (as my sewing machine was playing up) and then layered up some paper and a die cut tag. The background paper is a sheet of border strips which I left uncut.  Some drops of mist and it was done!

For the second card I kept it really simple, and fussy cut the floral piece out of a larger sticker, and layered a second sticker with the sentiment on the some pop dots for dimension.  The scallop piece is a border sticker.  Once again some drops of mist to finish it off!

Thanks for looking!

Melissa x

Love (A layout & Some Cards)

I made this layout for a design team call, but as I didn't get in I'm keen to share it on here now.  I made the pink ruffle by machine stitching some pink tissue paper that was wrapping on a present at Christmas.  It always feels good to be able to re-purpose materials that would otherwise be thrown into the recycling bin!

The photo is an Instagram of Azaria that I enlarged.  When Mum and Dad were visiting late last year we went shopping and Azaria posed on this chair in Glassons, so of course Mum and I had to take a photo.

I used a mixture of American Crafts and Crate Paper, and kept it simple so the photo and ruffle could shine!

I also made these cards for the same DT call:

By the way, Issue 2 of Lets Get Sketchy's "Get Inspired Magazine is now live", you can check it out here.  Submissions are also being taken for Issue 3, so if you are keen to get published make sure you head over to the blog here.

Thanks for looking, have a great day!

Melissa x

Christmas Cards and Tea Break (Artfull Crafts)

Happy Saturday!  Its starting to feel like Christmas around here, with so much on.  I was up on the Artfull Crafts blog on Monday sharing some Christmas Cards and some layouts.

All Design Team members were sent a package of Christmas product with the challenge set of making cards.  These are my cards:

And I also made this tag:

For November I was given some of the lovely new Kaisercraft Tea Break to play with.  I made the following two layouts at our annual Queenstown Scrap Camp, and was challenged by fellow DT member Sharon to use my gesso.  

For the first layout I layered some gesso behind my photo.  The layout is about my kids and their cousins and the aprons they got for Christmas last year.

For my second layout Sharon encouraged me to stamp onto the wet gesso, and I love how it turned out.  This layout is about me with Sam when he was a baby, and I chose to scrap it because I look tired, which is very realistic memory of having a new baby!

Thanks for looking.

Melissa x