Sunday, May 22, 2011

Enjoy every moment!

Happy Sunday all:-) Finally a card, been making so many layouts lately and I feel like I have been neglecting those of you who actually follow my blog for cards!

The thing was, I don't like to make a card unless I do have a good idea worth sharing, and inspiration was running low... I decided to make a card with this cute butterfly, and I wanted to incorporate a frame. So this was what I came up with.

I used the rain dots background, one of my favourites. I love how cute and tiny they are, perfect for adding that something extra to plain card stock.




I first stamped the butterfly and then marked out the frame, so that the butterfly could be part of the frame (a single layer) . I cut the frame out making sure I didn't snip off bits of my butterfly! Coloured with Copics and sponged in a pink ink onto my frame for a little bit of colour, and I mounted it on this tiny green dot background I stamped:-)




And there is the close up:-)

All Stamps are by Hero Arts ( Traditional butterfly, Rain dots background, Thoughtful messages)
Spun Sugar distress ink
Tuxedo black Memento ink
Green ink is VersaMagic



Wednesday, May 18, 2011

My first attempt at doodling!

Hi there:-) I am still enjoying my long weekend, another long holiday over here in our little country;-)

While I was trying my best to fit three photographs onto a single layout I thought I'd try my hand at art journalling/ for now doodling that is:-) I was desperate to use my new Faber-Castell India ink brush markers. What I soon realised was, that they were not meant to be used for images which required heavy shading. As I learnt after I coloured in my butterfly! Sigh.

Immediately switched to my Copics and finished off the colouring:-) What do you think?

I will be saving my Faber-Castell lovelies for actual Art journalling.. I might show you what I get up to soon!

Here is a little peek from my layout..
( P.S: sorry about the poor quality photograph, the butterfly is far more vivid in real life)


Supplies:

Copics
Hero Arts Butterfly
Faber-Castell Black marker assortment


Thank you for dropping by:-)
Hugs!

Monday, May 16, 2011

Christmas traditions and 'Bestie'

Hi there:-)

Been dealing with a few computer problems as of late and finally was able to download a new photo editing software.. The transition to Mac from my HP has been a bit of a pain really. The minute I inserted my camera memory card, this little Mac has been fussy and switching off and not coming on.. So I had to get someone to reinstall everything, but still my computer starts racing from time to time:-(

Here are the first few photographs that I cropped and managed to prep for my blog using my new software :-)

Both layouts were done about a week back when I got back from vacation...



I love this photograph, the best buds sitting on the balcony:-) called for a lovely sunny and happy layout... and that's what I did literally. I let the chipboard alpha take center stage and kept everything else simple. I used some vellum as the base of my stamped journalling.



I also used some Maya Road chipboard houses and stamped it with the Friendship background cling stamp by Hero arts to re enforce the 'Friendship' theme here, and added a tiny punched heart.

The next layout is a documentation of Christmas 2010. Finally, (I know you were thinking it:-)) Yes, it does take me that long! The main idea was to showcase as many photographs as possible on a single layout. So I went for a very few embellishments and a smaller photo size.



Not all the photographs were perfect, some were out of focus, but when you make layouts like this with multiple photographs it really doesn't matter. It's all about telling a story, so hang on to your not so perfect photographs.. you never know when you might want to use them!

I used a glittery chipboard letter that was by Making Memories, and I hate it when the glitter starts 'shedding'. So my trick is to use glossy accents and 'seal' the glitter in. So if you have the same problem, give it a go:-) You still get to enjoy the glitter without the mess.



I used some punched borders and added some light embellishing with little strips of paper.



Here I layered a Prima flower with a die cut snowflake and a little Websters pages button to create this embellishment. I also added a Maya road pin too, just because!



A closer look at my border strips, held together with a Tim Holtz tiny attacher staple pin. Perfect for thick layering. No chance of that border budging!

In the last photograph you might see that I used the negative of a punched scallop border to add some interest to the left had side of my layout.. The graphic black and white strip is the perfect accent to balance out the colours of the page! And my layouts complete:-)



List of supplies:

Card stock - Bazzil
Stamps- Hero arts
Patterned paper - Teresa Collins, Sassafras and Basic grey
Punches- Scallop and postage stamp punch by Fiskars and EK success
Chipboard alpha- Basic Grey June Bug collection and Making memories
Chipboard embellishments- Maya Road ( House and Sun)
Snowflake and cloud dies- Die Namics

Thank you for dropping by, have a great day!!!

Sunday, May 8, 2011

A winner!!!

I finally rolled up all the names and got my assistant Diana to pick a winner from a little bag:-)

And the lucky winner is- Yvette!!!

Yvette- "Hi Michelle, glad to hear you had a wonderful time. That photo is so cute! Congratulations on your win! And thank you for sharing it with us by this giveaway!
There're many stamps on my list :), but one I realy would love is : CG288 Leaf Clusters."

Yvette, please get in touch with me so that I can get your details.. I will send you your stamp as soon as my goodie bag arrives:-)

Have a great day!