Ready or not....

Hi all, it's been ages I know, but there are some serious changes happening at home.. Good changes:-) So crafting time has been rather low. I did make a few layouts here and there but they have not been photographed yet, so till then, no sharing:-(

However, here are some very new creations of mine, the layout that I just completed and a card I made a few days ago.

I have been waiting for the perfect card to use this sentiment. Love this set by Hero arts...

A couple of scraps of patterned paper and some pretty butterflies later.... my card was done!

The polka dots and the teal stripe paper is from my current favourite paper pad by Echo Park. The Dots and Stripes 6x6 pad. There are some great Polka dot and stripe patterns in there. I see myself making some Christmas cards with it too!

Next up, my puppy layout!

As usual, I was going to make full use of my scraps. everything on here are scraps leftover from other projects. The grey paper was a leftover bit from the card you just saw. And the little scrap of yellow flowers paper I tucked behind the photograph (by October Afternoon) was also a scrap! yes, I even save those tiny bits!

This blue butterfly is a leftover from an older project, and notice the pink little frame of a butterfly I layered it on? That's me trimming around the negative of a punched butterfly I used for my card:-) Cute huh? I love how it adds a bit of punch to the photograph.

I also used some vellum to layer under the photograph before I added the pink matting.

The main focus of the layout was going to be my punched pink matting. It was a piece that I tested out my new Martha Stewart punch on. I picked it up in Singapore last week. I also added a bit of paint splattering, this is by October Afternoon. I absolutely love Grey. So this was definitely a great addition to my collection of spray inks. And it will take the heat off my White Mr Huey ink for a while! he he

Hope you enjoyed this post!

Hugs!

Supplies:

Echo Park - Dots and Stripes Metropolitan paper pad.

Hero Arts - Thoughtful Messages clear stamps.

Martha Stewart - Butterfly punch and Border punch.

October Afternoon - Paper, Spray paint, Kraft letter stickers.

We are Memory Keepers - Typewriter stamps set

American Craft - Thickers ( light blue and the 'or')

Basic Grey - White chip board letters

Remember...

Hello hello and a happy Sunday to you! Hope you are ready for another post:-)
I know I have been posting many layouts lately but I just seem to really enjoy creating these little pages of everything that matters to me in my life. So here is another.

Again I used the gorgeous Pink Paislee paper I received from Two Peas for taking part in one of their CHA challenges. I have used this paper on layouts more than any other that I have purchased myself! Two Peas, I just love them!



The photographs are some we took in Oia-Santorini. Gorgeous place to visit. I think the vivid blues of the photographs are highlighted with the little bits of oranges and green paper I used here.
The title 'Remember' is a felt word I picked up when I was in Singapore last year. I have several of these and never managed to use them so far, so here it is finally on a page:-)

I used a little row of punched hearts as an accent. And the very cute rubons are by Lily Bee.

I also used some Girls Paperie die cuts and some punched butterflies. And the journal spot is made using my Hero arts ledger background stamp. I distressed it a bit:-)

Here's more close-ups:-) The cork accent is home made with a punch and some stamping...
Isn't it fun making your own embellishments? I love having something unique on my page...

Thank you so much for dropping by today!

Have a wonderful weekend:-)

Love,

Michelle.

Captured

Hi again, todays project features an eclectic mix of embellishing techniques. I used rubons, stamping, metal detailing and flowers.
And I finally got a chance to use my Basic Grey Capella paper, yay! And I was starting to worry that I would never use it. It mimics the grey blue of the sea during sunset.



I chose a horizontal paper strip so that it depicts the horizon. I also love the soft text and distressing.. adds so much to this page!

I love this gold rubon by Hambly, it was the perfect frame for this gorgeous butterfly stamp by Hero Arts. The coffee coloured tab was stamped with the Hero arts Graph background. Love how stamps can add so much to some plain paper!

The lovely brown floral border is by Bo Bunny. I have used most of this rubon sheet already. And I love the rich brown in it.

The strip of houndstooth is a leftover scrap from a Pink Paislee sheet. And yes,I did save this tiny bit from a previous project. he he

I added this 'Photographer' button by Jenni Bowlin. I just love her Chipboard Buttons. They are so perfect to add a vintage touch to almost any project. I combined it with a Tim Holtz pin for some extra detailing. And finished off with a bunch of Prima flowers and some American Crafts brads.

Thank you for dropping by,

Have a great weekend!

Rome Sweet Rome...

Hi There! Today I am here to share a layout I created using some of my photographs taken in Rome. I have been putting off scraping these because I have been waiting to get the perfect pattern paper for the job.

And here it is:-)....




I picked the photographs and a ticket that I had saved from this particular trip, and chose the paper to match the tones of the photograph and certain elements in it. (Note the cream colour used here is matched with my cream colour hat; I chose a tag and the alpha stickers in the same colour)

The tag was a regular manila tag that was stamped with a 7gypsies travel stamp set and then stamped with my bicycle stamp and some Ali Edwards sentiments. I stamped the sentiment in multiples in light red ink. Love how it adds a little something without crowding my tag:-)

The gorgeous patterned paper is from Studio Calico (as well as that cute little bicycle stamp:-) Too cute!!!).

I love collecting Basic Grey Tiny Type alpha stickers, they always come handy when adding little bits of journaling or titles for layouts.. Here I used a mix of capitals and simples for some added interest to my otherwise not so original title;-)

I also used some elements off an October Afternoon paper, I cut them out in circles and adhered them with Pop Dots:-) I love how they add some dimension to this layout as well as tie in the travel theme together..

Hope you enjoyed my layout for today, there is another one coming up soon..

So till then, Happy Stamping!

Doggies day out

Finally a sunny morning, hope the trend continues though out the weekend:-) These are the final shots I got of my layout on the doggies day out layout..

I used my trusty Hero arts stamp set, Circular designs as a jumping off point and stamped all over the right bottom corner with white chalk ink.

I them stamped with some bubble wrap on the top and bottom corners with some white Ranger acrylic ink.. (I used their paint dabblers) I also added some paint splatters too, This is the first time I tried that technique and I must say it's so much fun!!!



I punched out a bunch of butterflies with my Pink Paislee 365 degrees paper and added them all over for a fun element.

Everything was handstitched, I added some pretty pearls on the paint splatters.

Here's a close up of the butterflies I used to embellish my journalling, I stitched them with red crochet thread by Anchor. ( don't you love the distressing on the paper? it came that way..)

Here's a view of a punch out I added for embellishment. it was stamped with a Studio Calico butterfly stamp in London Fog Memento ink.

You can also see the stamping on the layout very clearly in this pic, I love that this stamp set is great for adding a background in a jiffy!

So that's the layout for today! Thanks for dropping by:-) and have a great Friday night!

Sketchy Project!!

Hello Hello, gosh it's been ages!!! Sorry for the random posts.. just cant find time these days :-(
Lets start this month with some happy news, I just came to know I got into the fab 5 at Hero Arts in last months challenge:-) it was for the red balloon card, I am doing one crazy happy dance right now.. ha ha
Love Hero arts stamps, they truely are the best out there...

On to some more exciting stuff..., I have something really special to share with you today!! Been so excited to get this layout photographed and ready to go.

Below is the sketch that got it started, it was a sketch for my dear friend Nancy (another great friend from the Hero Arts group). She wanted to do a layout featuring her cute little angel Bruno (bless his soul) who in Nancy's words "crossed over the rainbow bridge".

You can drop in here to see what Nancy did with this sketch, too cute!!! :

http://happyheart-nancyljk.blogspot.com

I have used only the first page of the sketch:-) ( just realised I cropped the page too close since its a white layout!! Sigh.. )

This is a page about our trip to Santorini in 2009, we did a road trip by quad bike on the last day, visited a couple of beaches and a light house... We also stopped by this very colourful little roadside store where they sell home made preserves and wine! yum!!



Close up of a few embellishments:-)

Here I used one of my favourite stamps by Hero Arts.. Love this one, I wanted to depict the 'journey' and thought this bicycle (with the happy little flower basket) would be perfect for that! I love to stamp on my pages to add interest:-)

Hope you liked today's layout, this is the first time I am using so many pics on one page.. and I liked how it turned out:-)

Thank you Nancy for making this such a fun project!! Hugs:-)

Supplies List:

Patterned paper : Basic Grey June bug collection

Chip board: Bella Blvd and Basic grey June bug( from the alphabet chip sticker set), American Crafts Thickers ( which were coloured using chalk ink)

Stamp: Hero arts, Technique Tuesday stamps for the journalling, and also a 7 gypsies stamp for the journalling in the center)

Copics for colouring the stamped image.

Brads: Basic Grey Eerie collection

Navy blue twine: May arts

Velavaru

I am on a Scrap booking roll these days, frantically trying to use up my old pattern paper:-) Here is a layout I did yesterday on a MME die cut sheet.. this sheet is so adorable! I love the dotty background and the colours go so perfectly with these pictures..



This page is all about our trip to the Angsana Resort Velavaru in Maldives. I love love love the Maldives, and this place is actually built on stilts offshore.. Basically its on the middle of the ocean.. So beautiful! , you can climb right down to the sea from your deck!! That's a pic of my DH just about to go snorkelling:-)

* in case you are wondering why one pic is covered up, its because I didn't want to put a pic of me in my bikini on the net 'cos I am paranoid some wierdo would copy it:-) I know I know what you are thinking, but you can never be too careful about these things..

If you look closely you could see the strings of the bikini around my neck:-)

Back to the details...


I used tonnes of my Pink Paislee Artisan tape to make the embellishments for this page,the orange part was folded concertina, you probably know how to make these flowers, but I have to mention that the stickiness of the tape has to be removed first, I did this by taking some corn flour and dusting it all over the back.

The little purple buttons were made by punching out circles, piercing two holes and passing some string:-)

The blue arrows were cut out of an Art warehouse travel paper sheet, which I arranged around the photographs to create an interesting background..



The title was stamped with a Heidi Swapp Alpha stamp set. I love this font for this page.
One last note:
I added the journalling to sound like an advert for Velawaru. Click on the picture to see the journalling clearly:-)

Hope you have a great day!
Hugs!

Not your average girl

Hi there,

Back again to share the second layout I made over the weekend:-) This one is all about Cookie my little golden retriever.. She is the most athletic dog I have ever seen.. These are some of the pics my husband took of her about six months ago:-)

The paper for this layout was Bo Bunny dots paper (grey and brown) and some Earth love paper by Cosmo Cricket.
I know it looks rather simple compared to all my usual layered and heavily detailed layouts, but I wanted this to be clean, so that the pictures show well..

Used some orange card stock and punched out a row of butterflies and set it over my other papers so that the different patterns would show through:-)

I have tied the string using a technique that I saw used on Kims blog, she is so talented.. Love her layouts :-) This is the link you can find her at...
http://www.kimarnold.typepad.com/

The title was first written by pencil and then traced over with a black pen.. I love the grungy outcome! I used a Basic grey rub on as well (No.1), this is from their Basics line.

Just below my journalling strips I added an American Crafts Flair Badge to match the yellow-grey colour scheme. (The orange paper and brown dot paper was added so that the photograph tones were matched..)

To balance the page I added a punched scallop strip from some more Earth love paper and added some layered punched circles as well..

P.S: To view all photographs full size, just click on them:-) you can catch all the details ( and mistakes!!) he he

Have a great day everyone!!

Happy Monday everyone!! Hope you had a fantastic weekend:-)
This weekend I finally managed to do a lot of scrap booking, here is the first layout I did on Saturday night:-) just finished it before midnight..

The starting point for this layout was a gorgeous page done by the super talented Elizabeth Karchner.. She had done a great layout with a stitched title 'love'.. I was dying to do a stitched title so I scrapped these two photographs I had of me and my husband before we were married..
It was taken when we were on a trip to the beach down south where we spent all weekend lounging in bed:-)

So I wanted to capture this with a title that said 'Love hanging out and just chilling together'.


The main design element was the rose frame that I cut out.. It's actually a larger scaled version of a Hero arts stamp set I have of various frames, I drew it on a scratch piece of paper and used it as a stencil and then went over it with a black fine tip pen. I love the fact that it looked doodled!
So to match that, I created some doodled leaves for the flower embellishment( which is a paper from the Dear Lizzy Line) from some blue dotty paper..

(The flowers were cut out and layered to add dimension, and I also added a bit of glossy accents on their spotty centers)

The blue strip with the brown flowers is a paper strip I cut out from an American Crafts Letterbox collection paper. I used it to tuck my angled frame in so that the cut edge doesn't show and to divide the page so that I can add the rest of the title in white paper strips..

I hand stitched the word love in red thread. I also used a fabric Thicker bracket to finish off the title..

I added a clip from the Olivia collection by Basic grey and added a Heidi grace epoxy sticker that says big smiles.

I completed the layout with some punched butterflies and some Hero arts jewels as well as a couple of buttons:-)

Thanks for dropping by, and hope you have a fab week..

P.S: will share the other layout as soon as I get some time to photograph it :-)

Water Baby :-)

I did yet another dogie layout!! he he, well i thought since i am all geared up doing layouts, might as well scrap most of these old dog pics:-) I promise the next time i do a layout it will have nothing to do with my dogs!

I spotted a new challenge when i was doing my morning round of checking blogs, this one is for 'poshscrapbookstore.blogspot.com'. This is what i did all morning after doing my laundry :-) After all i wont be anywhere near my craft desk for a whole week since i will be out holidaying !!! whoo hoo

Let me give you the story behind the pictures,

So this is 'little sprout' all grown up:-) He likes to play with the garden hose each morning when our driver washes the car. He has so much fun! running everywhere getting all wet and muddy..

I thought i would give you a close up of the journalling spots.. (Jillibean Soup, Kraft/ orange circles)





Hope you enjoyed!!

Supplies list:
Paper is by Pink Paislee (free products I got with my last Two Peas order)
Rub ons are by Bo Bunny
Journalling sprouts by Jillibean Soup

Our little sprout!!

OK, first of all let me tell you I don't do scrapbook layouts, the last one i did was four months ago:-) But i have been having these very cute pictures of my oldest retriever Martini on my desk for soooo long, that when i saw the challenge at 'Sketchy Thursdays' I just had to do one!

The winner gets a super cute Lawn Fawn stamp set, I have been eyeing this for a couple of weeks now, so i am going to try my luck at winning it:-)

Challenges make scrap booking fun 'cos you need to think about what you plan to do and design around the sketch that's presented.

As you can see, i prefer a very clean layout where the pictures speak more than the embellishments itself :-) The blue patterned paper is Amy Butler, and i also used a Fiscars border punch to make it interesting, I love the brackets!! I got a super deal for it at Etsy, if anyone wants details of the shop drop me a mail and i would gladly share.

Happy stamping till next time!