New (Lets Get Sketchy)

For my Kaisercraft Design Team application please click here.

Hi and welcome to the third reveal for May over at Lets Get Sketchy!  Where is the year going?!

This week we had a lovely sketch from the very talented Bev Code, and what I love about it is that it is simple, and can be played with in any direction.

A couple of weeks ago I got a heap of photos printed from Brielle's birth and first few days after.  I was almost too scared to scrap them because they are so beautiful!  Well I made myself get over it, and this is the first photo I've scrapped, and the second layout I've shared.  This photo is of Shaun and I with our new baby girl, such a precious moment right after she was born.  We love her so much!

I used Maggie Holmes' Flea Market for Crate Paper collection, and i just loved that big floral paper so much that I wanted it to feature.  I balanced it with the smaller light pink paper.  Rather than use two photos I went with one 4 x 6 and a journalling card from Simple Stories Vintage Bliss.  The bits and pieces (tags etc) are from October Afternoon Farmgirl.  The three collections work really well together.

I've been creating some very heavily layered and embellished layouts lately, so for this one I decided to keep it clean and simple, to reflect the emotion in the photo, and to let the beautiful products shine.

I sprayed some Heidi Swapp Gold Colour Shine, which is my latest addiction, and highlighted this with a couple of gold ephemera pieces from Flea Market.  I've been spraying mist rather than just dropping it lately, inspired by fellow DT member and friend Wendi, who always rocks misting!

The little "3" is because Brielle is our third child.

I made my scallop border by punching and layering circles from a piece of Echo Park's Sweet Girl Collection, which also works well with the other selected products.  I used one of the gold resign flowers, they are so beautiful and almost hard to use!

The lovely blue glitter thickets are from Flea Market, and of course hardly any of my layouts are complete lately without some large drops of India ink.

Here is the awesome sketch:

Make sure you play along and link up your layouts.  We love seeing how the sketch inspires you!  And if you are interested in being published, make sure you head over to the blog as we have a current call out for our next edition.

Have a blessed week

Melissa x

Adore (Mei Li Paperie)

For my Kaisercraft Design Team Application please click here.

Hello!  Well its Saturday afternoon and I've just had two of my favourite things - coffee and sushi!  When I was pregnant I missed sushi so much, and I completely lost my taste for coffee.  With feeding Brielle every three hours around the clock, one coffee a day is very helpful, and I could very easily eat sushi everyday! 

This week I decided to play along with the May Colour Challenge over at Mei Li Paperie.  Colour challenges are so much fun as they make you go through your stash, and use up scraps.  My layout is the first layout I've made of all three of my kids, and is a photo I took when Brielle was 5 days old, and the day I got home from hospital.  I love that Sam and Azaria are fascinated by all things baby, including Brielle sleeping in the bassinet.  

I used all sorts of bits and pieces on this one, including some Echo Park Everyday Eclectic, which I admit I love so much I've hoarded it!  Other items include Basic Grey, Pebbles, and Crate Paper.

And here is the awesome colour inspiration palette:

I had a lot of fun playing along with this challenge, and will definitely play again.

And now on family news, can you believe that Brielle is one month already! Here are some photos:

Sam and Azaria love her so much!

Thanks for reading and looking.

Melissa x

My Baby Shower (Color Me Scrappy)

Hello, yes this is my second post for today, although here in New Zealand it is 11.05pm!  My blog has been a bit quiet this week due to the end of our broad band being used up by my son downloading a game, but its actually been a blessing as I've been getting some creative time in around feeding my newborn.

I recently discovered a challenge blog called Color Me Scrappy, which is predominantly colour inspiration challenges with an added fun twist!  I decided to play along with one of their recent challenges as I adored the colour scheme.

Here is my layout, which is about the surprise baby shower that my dear friend Wendy threw for me.  The photo is of me cutting into the beautiful and delicious cake she made, and this was 9 days before Brielle was born.  

The twist with this challenge was that in addition to the colour scheme, we had a word challenge with the word NEW, with an item for each letter.  My items are:

• N - Notebook edge (on the journaling card)
• E - Ephemera
• W - Washi Tape

I mixed a range of older collections and bits and pieces from my stash on this layout. 

Some close ups:

Lots of yummy layers:

And here is the delicious colour scheme:

And for the first time ever I'm linking up with The Memory Nest Crafty Creations No. 17.  Leslie of The Memory Nest is lovely, and I've been meaning to join in on her challenges for some time now!

Thanks for looking, I had a blast creating this layout!

Melissa x

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

Party! (National Scrapbooking Day American Crafts Blog Hop)

Hello, well in the midst of Mum and Dad visiting and sleepless nights I managed to find some time to scrap a layout for [Inter]National Scrapbooking Day, and as promised, I made a page about Sam!  I decided to play along with one of the challenges on the American Crafts Blog Hop, and choose Ashley Horton's challenge to use triangles.

I recently purchased some of Crate Paper's new Boys Rule line, and I love it as it has paper aeroplanes in it, which Sam has been obsessed with creating for the last 4 years.  I made this layout about his recent 7th birthday party.  This page has a pocket page to go alongside it with extra photos (I haven't included it as my photo was too full of glare).

I wanted to showcase some of the awesome patterned papers from the 6 x 6 paper pad, so I cut some large triangles.  It wasn't until I looked at this page today that I realised my triangles look like a fish - not intentional at all!

Sam wanted a Minecraft party.  I made the cake from chocolate brownie iced with green icing with coconut mixed in to look like grass.  The cake toppers were made by my dear friend Wendy, who is amazing with fondant.  I layered up some of the die cut ephemera, Crate make such fantastic embellishments!

I added some extras that aren't from Crate, including the stars from Studio Calico, the Rad and Fun die cuts, the washi tape, and the green sparkly dots.  All stamps are from past Studio Calico kits.

Thanks for looking.  Off to bed now as its 1.22am and I'm so tired.

Melissa x

His Books

While we were in Invercargill waiting to have Brielle we did some shopping at Spotlight.  I was really excited to find some Heidi Swapp Colourshine in gold, so was very keen to try it out.  I'd printed out this large Instagram photo of Sam's school books s while ago and had been putting off scrapping it, I think because I took it at night (after a marathon session of covering his books with Sponge Bob), and it had a lot of green in it.  Well I finally made myself scrap it with a Paper Bakery Kit.

I'd played around with the colourshine on a piece of white card stock, and was keen to use it, rather than waste it. I gutted that gold heart paper from My Minds Eye, and then used it as a background border sheet, and sewed it together.  Next it was just a case of using a Heidi Swapp polka dot stencil to add some more mist, layering some papers, and then adding a title and embellishments.  I even used the piece of washi tape that had been securing a glassine bag of embellishment.  

Some close ups.  I included the clock as this was a last minute exercise on the Sunday night before the first day of school.

I decided to do some doodling on this layout, as its a technique that I love the look of and often forget.  Some journaling and my date stamp, and I was done.

Another layout that is for Sam's album, which I have been neglecting lately as I ran out of photos.  I got some printed last week, so be on the look out for more boy layouts!

Thanks for looking

Melissa x

Insta ~ Love (Lets Get Sketchy)

Hello and welcome to the first reveal for May over at Lets Get Sketchy.  How can it be May already?

This week we had a fun sketch from our awesome leader Brenshevia Baker.  I loved that this one had a photo strip of three photos.  I used three Instagram photos and product from a Paper Bakery kit.  Included in this kit was the famous paper from Studio Calico's Lemon Lush, In A Hurry, which includes the Pantone Colour of the Year, Radiant Orchard.  I'll admit, this colour is intimidating to me as it's very lavender!  I used it in small pieces on this layout, I cut off the side piece with the arrow, and I used a sliver of the days of the week.  They actually work really well with this layout, as its about my love of using Instagram, which I use a lot.  I selected three photos that I'd posted on Instagram during April.

I love the Simple Stories Homespun Chipboard that were included in the kit, and instead of using sequins or ink drops for the small circles on the sketch, I used these gorgeous Chickaniddy Crafts enamel hearts.  Not included in the kit are my favourite washi tape by Smash, and the Studio Calico @ clip.  I used white acrylic paint behind the photos and layers, and finished off my layout with India ink which I applied with an eyedropper.

I adore that chipboard bike, and had to include it!

The chipboard thickers in this kit are by American Crafts, and are really different and cute.

Here is the sketch.

Make sure you link up your layouts and play along.  Thanks for looking!

Be blessed

Melissa 

Paper Dolls & Happy International Scrapbooking Day

Hello again!  Today is 3 May, and it's National Scrapbooking Day.  Here on the other side of the world we call it International Scrapbooking Day!  This year I signed up for National Scrapbooking Day "10k" over at Big Picture Classes.  Its a free class, and we are aiming to flood Instagram with over 10,000 photos of scrapbook layouts!

Well one benefit of having a C Section and not being able to do anything (aside from feeding Brielle every 3-4 hours around the clock, and trying to sleep when she sleeps, and letting go of the state of our house) is sitting down and scrapbooking!  

This layout is for the Stitched Class over at Studio Calico, and this time I used all Studio Calico papers on a Crate Paper Home Spun Background.  The two papers that I created the circles with are from Print Shop, and the star vellum is from Story Time.  As you can probably tell, I'm having a love affair with circles at the moment, and am giving my Cuttlebug a work out!  I stitched some of the scallops on the circles with embroidery thread.  I layered them all up and then embellished with flair badges, and sequins in matching colours.  The final touch was the Bella Blvd feather for a touch of whimsy!

The final touch was the Bella Blvd feather for a touch of whimsy.

Thanks for looking.  Happy scrapping

Melissa x

Lets Get Sketchy "Inspired Magazine" Issue 3 - May 2014

Hello, well I'm so excited to announce that the third Lets Get Sketchy magazine is live here.  Brenshevia and Laura have done an amazing job again!

I have three layouts published this time. The brief for this first layout was to use twine.  I wanted to try something different, and was eager to use Dear Lizzy Polka Dot Party, so I punched circles and butterflies and tied my twine on the butterflies.  This photo was taken during my nesting phase when I washed all the newborn baby clothes in preparation, and I just adore it against the blue sky.  It's hard to believe that Brielle is here now, and she is so little that she swims in that hat and all the newborn clothes!

Some close ups:

The design brief for the second layout was Summer or Spring.  This Instagram photo that I took at the wedding rehearsal for my friend's was perfect.  Shaun and I were singing at their wedding, and the location was so breath taking that of course I had to take some photos.  I used a Paper Bakery Kit for this one, and my journalling is hidden in the pocket.

A close up of the fun elements:

The final design brief that I created a layout for was to use Echo Park Paper products.  I used the Beautiful Life Collection, which is lovely and girly, so of course I had to scrap Azaria.  I started with the 4 x 6 card, and the rest of the layout flowed from there.  I used some modelling paste mixed with white acrylic paint to add some texture to the background, and also added a doily. Very minimal patterned paper on this one, I decided to mainly work with the sticker sheet and cut apart sheet.

A close up of my texture and journalling:

Thanks for looking.  Make sure you check out the magazine, it is so beautiful.

Melissa x