New Shades - 123 Challenge November

Hi there!

I hope this finds you well :-)

I'm loving that its Friday afternoon - the weekend is here!!

This month I'm joining in with the challenge at 123 Challenge Blog. I've been wanting to play along with them for the past couple of months, and now I've finally been able to! They have such a talented design team over there who provide such gorgeous inspiration!! Here is the challenge for the month of November:

* COLOUR = TEAL

* WORD = COOL

* TECHNIQUE = STAMPING

Isn't it a great challenge!! As soon as I saw it I knew which photos I wanted to scrap and I pretty much had in my head what I wanted to do. However, when I sat down to create, the layout seemed to have a mind of its own and it took a different direction!! I love how different products can inspire us in different ways... It was that way for me with these Amy Tangerine papers. My original plan went out the window because I loved these patterned papers so much that I just wanted them to be the feature. And so this is how my layout turned out...

I am really happy with the end result - I love how the gorgeous bright colours look with a few splashes of black to ground them.

How "cool" does my lovely girl look in her sunnies!!

Here are some close-ups to show you some more detail:

That gorgeous chipboard butterfly is one that I've had for awhile and is from MAMBI. I mounted it with foam tape to give it some more dimension.

For my title I used Bella! chipboard alphas and American Crafts letter stickers. I chose black lettering as I wanted the title to really stand out and not get lost against the patterned paper.

With the pictures of sunglasses on this WRMK sticker, I just had to use it on my layout - it was the perfect addition to a layout dedicated to my daughter's "new shades".

As per the requirements, here is my use of the word 'cool'. I love that both of these stickers are speech bubbles... I put them together to make it look like Abigail was saying "totally cool"... a phrase that she would "totally" use!

I also used the word 'cool' in my journalling.

By the time I got around to doing my stamping I wasn't sure how I was going to incorporate it with so many busy patterned papers. I knew that any stamping on the background would just get lost. So instead I used this "fun" stamp by Hero Arts and BasicGrey to create my own word embellishment. I stamped it onto a scrap of the teal paper that I had used for my background, then cut it out and mounted it with foam tape to create a perfectly co-ordinated embellishment!

I also used some of the Amy Tangerine die-cuts and stickers from the same range as the patterned papers. I totally love that camera die-cut!!

I hope that you enjoyed looking... I appreciate you taking the time to visit and thank you to the lovely people who leave me a comment!!

Happy Scrapping!!

Mandy

My Girl - MME November Gratitude Challenge

Hi again!!

I'm back today to share a layout that I created for the My Minds Eye November Gratitude Challenge. The challenge is to document your gratitude and of course your layout must consist mainly of MME products.

I recently purchased the 'My Girl' collection of papers and stickers from MME, and they were perfect to document the gratitude that I have for my beautiful daughter Abigail. This is the layout that I created:

How gorgeous are the colours in this collection?!? I love the combination of aqua, pink and yellow together :-)

MME products that I have used on this layout include the patterned paper and stickers (all from the My Girl collection), as well as the chipboard sticker and the enamel dots.

Here are some closeups of my layout...

The pink and yellow flowers are both from the My Girl Sticker Sheet. The blue flower I made from felt using the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die and I finished it off with a MME enamel dot in the middle.

'The good life' chipboard banner is from the Collectable range from MME.

The 'my girl' label I fussy-cut from one of the sheets of patterned paper and I have used it as my title.

I made these blue chevrons using my Stampin' Up border punch and I mounted them with foam dots to give them some dimension.

I used my Epiphany Craft tool to make the epoxy circles on my layout. I love that it is so easy to create co-ordinating embellishments with this tool.

Some more stickers from the 'My Girl' collection... I love the hot air balloon!!

And here is a closeup of my title / journalling. This is what I am grateful for... that I get to have this amazing girl as my daughter. I feel so thankful to God every day that He has blessed me with her!!

I really enjoyed making this layout and reflecting on what I am thankful for. Of course I am equally grateful for my awesome husband and son, but this time my layout is focused on my daughter.

Because I was limited to using mostly MME products on this layout, it came together fairly quickly... I just pulled out the MME products that I had on hand to see what would work, and then added just a few other bits and pieces to finish it off.

I hope you have enjoyed looking. Thank you so much for visiting!!

Mandy

Christmas Cards

Hello!!

Well it's been a couple of weeks since my last post, and I have been a busy little scrapper, BUT I can't share my layouts just yet because..... the last two layouts that I completed were both accepted for publication in Scrapbooking Memories magazine!!! Yay... isn't it so exciting to receive an email from a magazine saying that they would like to consider your work for publication?!? So you can imagine my excitement when I received two of these emails in the last two weeks!

Soooo... As I can't yet share my recent layouts that I've been working on, I thought I might share some of my Christmas Cards that I started working on last weekend. I had a card-making day with my Mum & sister on the weekend, and while there was lots of chatting, we did get down to business with our Christmas Cards :-)

Here are the first 5 that I created...

I kept them all fairly simple in design as I was going for quantity :-) Don't you just love the bright reds and greens of Christmas papers? I will let you know that most of the Christmas patterned papers that I used are Kaisercraft, but they aren't current ranges, they were in my stash from past years.

I used different techniques on each of them, so I will show you some closeups:

Not sure if you can see from the picture, but for this one I used a chevron embossing folder on the red cardstock (I'm just loving anything with chevrons at the moment!!). Then I just cut out some Christmas pictures from patterned paper and wrapped some pretty ribbon around and I was done!

Hexagons are another of my faves at the moment. The funny thing is, I've had this Creative Memories hexagon punch for probably about 8 years and I've hardy used it, but lately it's been getting a good work out! It's funny how things like this make a comeback :-) I also used my Die-Namics alphabet die to make the word 'joy'.

More chevrons :-) This one is a newly acquired border punch from Stampin' Up - I love it and I can see myself using it all the time!! I also used a Stampin' Up stamp and framelits die on this one, both of which belong to my Mum - that's the good thing about scrapping/card-making with friends... you can share each others tools!

This one might be my favourite, cos I love the polka dots! I used a mask and Distress Ink to create the polka dots... I was really pleased with how vibrant they look on the white card. I chose this patterned paper, because I think the round Christmas baubles tie in well with the dots. The 'celebrate' stamp is a Little Yellow Bicycle one.

 And last but not least! I used another embossing folder on the red cardstock for this one - I love the texture that dry embossing gives to an ordinary piece of cardstock :-) I fussy-cut the doily/flower from patterned paper, and the sentiment was cut from a Darkroom Door strip.

How are you going with your Christmas cards this year? We got into the Christmas cheer and had carols playing while we made our cards - it was so much fun!

I hope you enjoyed looking! I really appreciate the time that you take to come and visit my blog and especially when you leave comments. So thank you!!

Mandy

A new Bike for Christmas - Stuck?! Sketch

Hi Everyone :-)

This is a record for me - 2 posts in a week!!

I've completed another challenge this month - this time for the October 15th Stuck?! Sketch.

Anyone who has visited my blog a few times will know that I'm a bit of a double layout girl! To be honest, I'm not sure why exactly I prefer this format... I think I just like the fact that there's lots of space... I generally like to include multiple photos to tell the story and with a double layout I can include my photos, journalling and embellishments without feeling restricted for space. So I thought it would be fun to see if I could use a 12x12 sketch and convert it into a double. The sketch over at Stuck?! seemed perfect as it already included 3 photos and I just needed to enlarge most of the elements on the sketch to suit my double layout. Here's what I came up with:

 And this is the sketch that I used:

I pretty much stuck to the sketch except that I moved the title over to the right hand side of the layout as it seemed to work better there for me.

I gave my background a bit of subtle texture and interest using a Prima mask and some Glimmer Mist:

The patterned papers that I used were from the Kaisercraft Sweet Pea range. I also used stickers from this collection including the banners, the scallop border, and the hearts.

I had a lot of fun using this sketch, and I will definitely try using a 12x12 sketch for a double layout again.

Thanks so much for taking a look!!

Mandy

Cardabilities Sketch #85

Hi there!

Just popping in today to share a card that I created using the Cardabilities Sketch #85. I made it for a work colleague who is celebrating her 50th birthday next week. She is sooo lucky to be jet-setting off to Paris to celebrate her birthday!!! So I thought it would be nice to make her a birthday card with a Paris theme:

Here is the sketch that I based my card on:

As you can see, I stuck to the sketch fairly closely, and the card came together really quickly!

I've been using my Cuttlebug quite a bit lately and I used 4 different dies just on this one card - the Spellbinders Picot Edge Circle, the Sizzlits Little Leaves, the QuicKutz Dragonfly Alphabet, and the Sizzix Framelits Bitty Banners.

Here is a closeup:

So wish I was heading off to Paris this week!!!

Thanks for stopping by to have a look :-)

Mandy

Princess - L.P.S October Colour Challenge

Hi there!

I've been enjoying playing along with some online challenges lately, and when I saw the October Colour Challenge that has just been revealed at Life. Paper. Scrapbook I knew that I wanted to join in with this one :-)

I love the muted tones and the vintage feel of the colour palette:

With the blues and browns, I would probably usually associate this colour palette with a 'boy' layout, but I thought I would challenge myself to create a feminine layout using these colours and I'm really happy with the result. It sometimes pays to step out of your usual comfort zone and try something different, even if its just a new colour palette! Here is the layout that I created:

These photos are of my daughter at 2 years of age when she was the flower girl at my brother's wedding. Everyone commented on how gorgeous she looked on the day. My mother-in-law put her hair in rollers in the morning and when we took them out she had these adorable little ringlets. With a little tiara, and a beautiful ivory dress, she looked like a little princess! She enjoyed every minute of it too! Can't believe that now she's 9 years old... Where did those 7 years go?!!

The papers that I used are from the Kaisercraft Sweet Pea collection.

Here are a couple of closeups of the two flower clusters on my layout (they are mostly Prima flowers except for the Kaisercraft ribbon rose):

I used a few of my dies on this layout - the MFT Dienamics flourish, the Sizzix Stampin' Up Little Leaves, and the Tim Holtz Caged Bird.

I also used a Prima mask with distress ink on in the bottom left hand corner to give my background some subtle texture and interest.

I'm loving wood veneers at the moment and I've been using them on nearly all of my layouts. I included a couple of Studio Calico wood veneer butterflies on this layout.I just inked them with some 'brushed corduroy' distress ink, and voila!

And here is a closeup of my journalling:

Thank you so much for visiting my blog, and thank you in advance for any kind words that you leave for me - I love to read them!!

Mandy

Love You to the Moon and Back - SUYS October Challenge

Hello!

I hope that you are having a lovely weekend! The weather is absolutely beautiful here today, and what's even better is that it's a long weekend!! Gotta love that ;-)

Today I would like to share a layout that I created for the Show Us Your Stuff October Challenge. The criteria for this challenge is to use multiple photos and one or more arrows on your layout. As well as this, all entries must include a handmade item.

Here is my layout:

I handmade a fishtail banner from denim fabric: 

 From the parts that I cut out to make the banner, I also made two arrows:

And here is a closeup of my title which I fussy-cut from the papers. My title also doubles as my journalling as I think it says it so well. Kids love to know how much they are loved, and in the eyes of a child there's not much further away than the moon :-)

I included two sets of arrows on my layout for this challenge - the wood veneer arrows which point to my title as well as the denim hand-made ones.

The patterned papers that I used are from the Kaisercraft Blast Off range. I love all of the bright colours in this range!!

Thank you so much for taking a look at my layout, and for any comments that you leave... I really love to hear from you :-)

Mandy