Although I usually tend to do 12x12 layouts, I've been in a bit of an altering mood lately. I found these cute tissue box covers at my local dolar store and thought it would be fun to make some box covers for my girls rooms. Meagan is going with a beach theme in her room so I used the Websters Pages Yacht Club collection papers and embellishments (Sparklers) and some Dusty Attic chippies (Sea Shells and Baroque Corner flourishes and Anchor) Here is a before shot of the tissue box.... The 12x12 patterned paper is almost a perfect fit for the 3 long sides of the box, you just need to trim one side edge, and cut out 2 smaller rectangles of paper for the two sides. I added machine stitching to all the sides before attaching in the paper. I attached the paper by slightly watering down some white wood glue and pasting on the sides. I then simply decorated with the Dusty Attic Chipboard and a variety of gems and pearls and a bit of fish netting from my local Michaels store. Here is the reverse side and a few more close-ups... While I had out the Yacht club papers I thought I'd do a Thank-you card combining this collection with the Western Romance collection. The frame is an ornate frame from Dusty Attic.... I've got a really fun project to share in a few days using a bunch of the newest Dusty Attic pieces along with Websters Pages goodies....so excited to share this one with you! Thanks for stopping by!

We had so much fun designing with the Main kit for April at My Creative Scapbook, the feature papers are the Bo Bunny Gabrielle collection with a little Prima thrown in....and loads of awesome blooms and embellishments too! If you are looking for the Gabrielle trinkets, they are in this kit and so cute!! I made the above l/o of my oldest daughter using the papers and the lace paper doily (I trimed down the outer edge of the doily to make it a little smaller (and idea that orginated with my friend & team mate Gerry V. Gent, thanks Gerry!) ...and then tinted it with some brown chalk ink. There are loads of wonderful Prima blooms in the kit but for the above layout I wanted to try out another design using some Recycled Dryer Sheets. BLOOM TECHNIQUE: I added a few drops of Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink (Pink Sherbert) to some water in a cup. I dunked the dryer sheets in the liquid and blotted dry on some paper towels. Cut your dryer sheets into strips (you will need about two 1.5 inch strips to make the larger flower. Using a slip stitch just gather both long edges of the strips, bringing the edges togther. Tighten the center, then adjust the outside gather so that the bloom sits flat before you tie-off that edge. Add some beads or adhesive pearls to the center...Done! The effect is sheer and soft....give it a try! I've been asked about the yellow diamond pattern paper inside the circle design This is actually a scrap of one of the Bo Bunny papers. I cut it in a circle design and then with a pencil and ruler drew a diamond pattern. I didn't measure, just basically 'eye-balled' the design. Then I took a brown pen (I used a Martha Stewart Brown fine tip pen) and drew a squiggly line over my pencil lines, then went over the line again with another squiggly line, this ends up give the design a sort of 'stitched' look. It's a very simply way to add an extra pattern to your layout :)Another page I made using this beautiful kit was using the Bo Bunny die-cut paper called 'Mocha'.....I just had to do a layout about my dear pup Mocha who this paper was named after. I was so touched that Bo Bunny named this paper after dear Mocha, I miss her so much..... Here's a few close-ups of the kit embellishments, love those diamond dusted roses, the pearls and the trinkets! A third layout I made with the Main kit, I used the gorgeous new Parfait blooms from Prima (also included in the kit)....the bloom my youngest daughter is holding in the photo is a giant DinnerPlate Dahlia that she and her Grandfather grew in her little garden..... TIP: I made the pink butterfly embellishments by scanning the pink chipboard butterfly into my computer and then printing a whole bunch of them out in different sizes on some white glossy cardstock. I then cut them out and bent up the wings and attached to the page to create a 3D embellishment. Another wonderful kit I got to work with this month was the Limited Edition kit....this kit was packed and I mean REALLY PACKED with beautiful Prima blooms, papers and embellishements! And such unique pieces too, in the layout below I combined cut paper blooms with the fabric roses in the kit and added some of the unique and pretty metal blooms also found in the kit. TIP: I used a pink Sharpee market to tint the clear crystal flourish (also in the kit) to coordinate with the colors on my page. (Copic markers can also be used to get the same effect) A second layout I made using the LE kit I went with the blues and browns in the kit and accented with yellow. The other set of blooms in this kit have such a sweet homespun look to them, the yellow bloom gave me the idea to add a little yellow cardstock to the page (the photo is of Chloe and her best friends horse Darla).... And finally a 3rd layout I made with this pretty kit I used more of the pinks in the kit. The photos are from a few years ago when Meagan was in a little ballet/dance class. I thought the soft pretty blooms would work well with the ballet theme.... I loved the pretty combination of the soft celery green with the pale pink and deep rose blooms. The little vine I created using the small bulk roses (also in the kit). I used a little floral tape to create the vine. You can see a video tutorial I made up on how to make the vines HERE. I'm looking forward to seeing what you all create using these beautiful kits, so don't forget to post your work in our gallery over at MCS! Thanks so much for stopping by my blog and for your kind and thoughtful comments, I read them all! ~Gabrielle xx

Bo Bunny's new 'Pincushion' collection is now out in the stores and ready to play with! I love the cute sewing and stitchery designs in this collection. So I thought it would be fun to do a gathered paper technique that is reminiscent of gathered fabric. The last few times when I've done a gathered paper technique, I got a whole bunch of messages asking if I would show some of these techniques in a video. So I thought I would do a Video Tutorial showing all the steps in creating this card from start to finish. I will list all products used in creating the card directly below the video tutorial. (Note: I used 2 die cuts to make this card: Spellbinders Spiral Blossom #1 and Cheery Lynn Designs 'Fanciful Flourish', which I premade/cut before filming the video). Hope you enjoy! Supplies: Patterned Paper: Polka Dot Pattern, Tailored/Pincushion Cardstock: Tutu, Clover/Double Dot 6x6 Paper Pad: Pincushion (green plaid) Buttons: Pincushion Noteworthy: Pincushion Stamps: You're Invited, Distress Textures, Powder Mountain (script) Dies: Cheery Lynn Designs "Fanciful Flourish", Spellbinders Spiral Blossom #1 Other: Hemp twine, Stamping Ink, Tim Holtz Edge Distress Tool, Fiskars Shell Punch For my second card I thought I would play up the pretty black & whites in this collection (Pincushion) and mix it with one focus color, in this case I used an aqua. Supplies: Patterned Paper: Pincushion, Sew Fun/Pincusion Cardstock: Ocean Double Dot Stickers: Pincusion Combo Stickers Flowers: Bouquet/Denim Blue, Zinnia/Denim Blue I hope you enjoyed my 2 projects and that my video tutorial has been helpful! Thanks so much for sweet comments and kind feedback I've been getting, I appreciate and read them all! xo

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Today at Bo Bunny, some of the designers were challenged to use 2 or more of the same photos in creating a layout. I chose to go with 3 photos and repeated this photo of my oldest daugher Chloe, printing them off in color, black & white and sepia. I mixed up a few collections to get the soft romantic look I was going for here...I used paper from the new Anthem collection combined with some paper from Prairie Chic. I used chipboard, rub-ons and brads from C'est La Vie (I just LOVE the layered chipboard from this collection!). I also played with some mixed media stuff for this one...paints from Dusty Attic, some texture paste (home-made, recipe is in the right column of my blog) and lots of Bo Bunny Stamps. I love the effect painting stamping and layering on texture paste gives to a page! The blooms are of course Bo Bunny's beautiful Daisies from the 'Blush' collection. I added a lasercut chipboard accent from Dusty Attic (the Window with Shutters...minus the shutters :) Supplies: Patterned Paper: Anthem (Celebration), Prairie Chic (Wanderlust, Rambling Rose) Blooms: Blush Daisy, Blush Bouquet Chipboard: Layered Chipboard (C'est La Vie), 12x12 Chipboard (C'est La Vie) Brads: C'est La Vie Stamps: Prairie Chic, "It Is Written" Background Stamps Rub-ons: C'est La Vie Paper Doily: 4 Inch (Small) Other: Lace (off the roll), Heidi Swapp Title Sticker For more ideas on how to use the same photo more than once on a page, you can check out the Bo Bunny Blog today! Thanks so much for stopping by! xo

Hi all, today I have another page to share with you using Maja Design papers and Dusty Attic Chipboard (as well as a few lovely page accents sent to me from Lucy at Tresors de Luxe). As I was scrapping this recent photo of my youngest daughter, I was struck by how much she's grown up. I can't believe she is a teenager now (turned 13 over the summer). I miss her being my baby girl, but I also have enjoyed every stage of her life, this girl cracks me up with her funny sense of humour and quirky style. For this page I used a modge podge of Maja Design papers. I more often than not combine a variety of Maja papers, coordinating them by color rather than collection name. I used a variety of scraps in neutral tones and greens to make my rolled paper accents. I rolled up the scraps and then bound them with some twine. I added a fun l'il door hook on the side of my paper from Ingvild Bolme's Junkyard Findings. I used a variety of Dusty Attic chipboard as part of my page design, including a Skeleton Clock Frame, Foliage, and the 'So Sweet' title. For the frame I first painted the pieces with some white Gesso. Then I randomly dabbed on some 'Broken China' and 'Peeled Paint' Tim Holtz Distress Ink. I did a little edging with Ingvild Bolme's 'Branch Bark' Chalk Ink. Then I added a coat of Inksenttials Crackle Medium. When it was dry and crackled I dabbed on some 'Walnut Stain' Distress ink so that it got in the little cracks and whipped off the excess ink. I used the 11th of March-bs paper as the green background frame for my page and as the main background paper I used the backside of 'Flannel Shirt' paper from 'Walking in the Forest Collection'....this is one of my favorite papers to use as a nice neutral background, especially when I do some mixed media on the page as I did here. I used a bit of Broken China and Peeled Paint Distress ink pads on the page and added some texture with home-made texture paste and a Crafter's Workshop Stencil called 'Mini Damask'. The butterfly is an image that I printed on a piece of transparency and cut out. I wanted to keep my blossoms soft and clean, so I went with a burlap bloom from Petaloo and two white blossoms from Dusty Attic Designs. The small sugared dots are from Prima. The strip of lace I used on the bottom of the page and the natural floral cluster (just above the title) are both from Tresors de Luxe. I had a little fun with the title. First I gave it a coat of brown chalk ink 'Knotted Wood' by Ingvild Bolme, then I used some 'Waterfall' Stickles in the center of my alpha's. After it all dried I gave the whole thing a coat of gloss medium with some Glossy Accents. Maja Design Products used in this project: Vintage Spring Basics (11th of March-bs, 7th of April, 7th of April-bs), Antiglen (Kaffe på trappan), Walking in the Forest (Flannel Shirt-bs), Sofiero (brown dot). I hope you enjoyed today's project and hope you find yourself some time this week to get your Maja on. Dusty Attic Products used in this project: ~ Skeleton Clock Frames ~ Foliage ~ 'So Sweet' title chippie Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today, you ladies are all awesome, the comments you leave here really touch my heart, thanks for that! xo xo

You know how some months if you get a few/couple of different kits you kind of pick a favourite from among them? This month I just couldn't pick one over the other I just LOVED each of them!! But I guess if you held a gun to my head I'd have to pick the Album kit this month! I just loved the papers and even more so, the embellishments Pam put together with this kit! There were 3 packages of Prima goodies (rose blooms, fabric blooms & a beautiful crystal flourish) and the trims!!...oh! so beautiful!! I loved the green leaf vine trim and the pink rossette trim, and always a favourite the creamy lace trim! I made the above l/o using a bunch of these goodies. Did a little machine stitching with a touch of masking with some black chalk ink. Did I mention the beautiful rub-ons too? (also in the kit......just as a point of note, ALL the things you see on on the layouts of the MCS design team, other than some cardstock, can be found in the kit, we don't suppliment things on the pages from our own stash or from 'add-on' kits! So when you order the MCS kits you know you can re-create the work you're seeing done by the design team without any big extra expenses) The rose in the top right corner was made from cardstock using the water distress method you can find to the right of my blogsite. Here are a few close-ups of the above l/o....the photo is one I took of my youngest daughter walking along a path in Autumn of last year.... This kit allowed for many color combinations, for the next l/o I went with some of the lavender colours. The photo is one I took of my youngest up at the cottage, we always do a little crafting there and we had made up the little butterfly headband she's wearing in the photo.... The butterflies were made from the Prima packaging, I just cut out a butterfly shape with a pair of scissors (I know! it's time to get a butterfly punch....if anyone know of a good one please let me know!) ....again the small white lavender blooms I made with a little cardstock using the Water Distessed Flowers method.... In this 3rd layout I scrapped a picture of my newest baby niece Jade (a professional shot taken by Stephanie Robins Designs). I've been saving this photo for the right papers and I think I found them in this kit..... I cut a few of the little ribbon rosettes from the trim to embellish my green vine trim and I extended the size of one of the roses in the kit with a little bin of white cardstock and pink chalk ink (again using the water distess method). Here are a few close-ups.... Another beautiful kit I got to design with this month was the Main Kit. I just love that each and every month Pam puts something fun in the kit that allows us to get a little creative. This time around there was some resist paper by Pink Paislee. The paper doesn't look like much when you first take it out but then when you start applying inks and glimmer mists, these wonderful patterns appear. For the l/o below I used a couple of chalk inks on the resist paper (Denim Blue and Chestnut Brown, on the paper behind the photo).... The leave's were cut from one of the muted patterned papers in the kit (I made extras by tracing one of the designs over and over and handcutting them)....There's also a nice swatch of brown tulle in the kit, I used part of it to create the backing for the diamond shaped pattern to the right of the photo. I machine stitched the diamond pattern and added the blue gems from the kit to the cross sections....here are a few close-ups I really loved the muted pretty shades in this kit. So for my next l/o I went with the soft greens, and to add to the softness I added a hint of smokey grey carstock. The branch and leaves were designs I cut from one of the patterned papers, I added a little green & brown chalk inks to make them stand out more. I've been running a challenge for last month and this month called 'Scrap the Scrapper' with a really amazing prize. So I thought I would do another page this month as a sample for the challenge ....here I listed 3 favourites of mine for 2010 ....Music: Marianas Trench ....TV: Anything on the Food Network ....Movie: The Perfect Getaway (love movies that leave you guessing all the way to the end!)..... NOTE: If you would like to play along in my challenge and have a chance to win a really awesome prize, see the link for a photo of the prize! (and at the same time get scrapping about yourself!) You can find my challenger here ~~> Scrap the Scrapper Challenge ....I also give a bunch of helpful tips on how to get a really good photo of yourself in the challenge thread, so come join us! The large blooms in the above layout are the soft & pretty blooms by BoBunny called Cream Gardenia Petals. I altered them a tiny bit by watering down some Tim Holtz alcohol ink (colour: Meadow) and applying it to the inner center of the bloom with a Q-tip. Just apply to the lower part of the petal, you only need to do a few layers of the center petals, no need to do all of them. Here are some close-ups.... A third l/o I made with this kit, I went with a more nostalgic look. I love the combination of aqua with deep brown/bronze colours. This past summer when we were on a hike up at the cottage we came across an abandoned railway car. The kids immediately started climbing, so out came my camera. I got this photo of my girls and their Opa (my Dad) in one of the cars. I printed the photo in sepia to get more of a vintage look to it.... The blooms on this page were made by using the Paper Shapers Retro Flower punch on some of the patterned papers in the kit and then giving them the 'water distress' treatment. I used a bit of the brown Tulle in the kit on the bloom to the far left. The butterflies were again made from the Prima packaging from the blooms in the kit. Here are a few close-ups... And last but not least there was the gorgeous Limited Edition kit that I got to work with this month. If you enjoy doing the 'fussy cutting' on your l/o's, this is the kit for you! This kit is just PACKED with gorgeous papers and the embellishments are wonderful too! Pam worked hard to get this amazing collection into this kit in time for the November release, the collection is BasicGrey Curio and boy are this papers beautiful IRL! ....And the extra's in the kit....you're gonna love these, loads of Prima blooms/& floral vines, cameos, sequin trims, pearl strands, layered stickers, rub-ons and so much more! Here is the first l/o I made with this kit... Again I made the butterflies for this page using the Prima packaging and the 'Embossed Butterfly' Tutorial I posted at the right side of my blog. Here are a few close-up pic's... This 2nd l/o I made with the LE kit I used a kind of a 'joke' photo my husband took of me when I needed a photo for the 20 questions blog feature at the MCS blog. My friend Julie Howard said I had to give her a humorous photo, so he took a bunch of pic's of me 'rolling in my scrapbooking blooms'....I ended up going with a different photo, but thought I would scrap this one for fun :) I did a little fussy cutting and machine stitching for this one. The bird cage is a rub-on from the kit. Here are a few close-up detail shots.... A 3rd layout I made with this kit I went with the romantic lacy looking papers, I did a little bit of corset stitching with it....The photo is one my husband took of my youngest daughter and I when we were on summer vacation a couple years back.... The butterflies were cut from one of the patterned papers in the kit (there are also some beautiful rub-on butterflies too)... And a 4th l/o I made with this kit I went with the warm yellows/appricot colors mixed with soft aqua. I was amazed at how many different looks you could get with this kit! Again, everything you see on these pages are from the kits, no need for any add on's or taking from your stash to make up these pages....take my word for it, the value of this kit is worth every penny! I did some more fussy cutting for this l/o along with a little bit of stitching. Here are a few close-up details shots of this page... Because I had 3 kits to work with this month I only had time to make 4 l/o's with the LE kit but I can tell you I've got loads more goodies in this kit and could easily make more pages with the papers & embellies I have left. I think you girls are going to love this one! Thanks so much for stopping by.....and just a reminder.....My Creative Scrapbook is still in the midst of their HUGE Sketch contest ....ton's of amazing Prizes to be won, you can find the link to this contest here ~~~> MCS Sketch Contest ~Gabrielle xxx

The NEW Webster's Pages collection called 'Sweet Routine' is on the shelves now (or will be soon in your locals scrapbook stores!). I got this sweet li'l photo of my two great-nieces in their stripey pink outfits and immediately thought of lovely rose-bud paper and rich deep pinks in the Sweet Routine collection as a good compliment to the photo. As always, Websters offers the cutest charms and cameo accents to go with each of their collections. For this page I used the floral pink/white cameo (Perfect Accents) and the pink butterfly metal charm and white alarm clock charm (shown below) to add a little charm to my page. I made the flowers from some of the pink patterned papers in the collection using the Spellbinders 'Rose Creations' die and the Shasta Daisy dies from Cheery Lynn Designs. The heart charm you see peeking out beside the daisy is another cameo piece from the Sweet Routine 'Perfect Accents' collection. There are so many pretty images in the patterned paper, for the circle design I cut out the pink/white butterfly image and then anchored it in the middle of a circle cut of paper (using a cup to cut out the shape). I used the circle as a place to do my journaling. Hear is another close-up view of the page accents. The chipboard fence design is a favorite piece of chipboard I like to use from Dusty Attic designs (Wrought Iron Fence). I just gave it a quick coat of bronze paint and some Distress Stickles to give it a slightly rusty look. Websters Pages Supplies: ~Patterned Paper: Sweet Routine (Peace & Friendship, Morning, Fun with Cameras, Pieces of Today, Laundry Day) ~Charms: Sweet Routine (Pink Butterfly, White Alarm Clock) ~Perfect Accents: Sweet Routine (Dark Pink/white Cameo, Aqua Heart) ~Phrase Stickers: Sweet Routine ~Blooms were made from SR papers. Thanks for stopping by today, I've got another fun page to share with you all tomorrow! xo xo

You know how some months if you get a few/couple of different kits you kind of pick a favourite from among them? This month I just couldn't pick one over the other I just LOVED each of them!! But I guess if you held a gun to my head I'd have to pick the Album kit this month! I just loved the papers and even more so, the embellishments Pam put together with this kit! There were 3 packages of Prima goodies (rose blooms, fabric blooms & a beautiful crystal flourish) and the trims!!...oh! so beautiful!! I loved the green leaf vine trim and the pink rossette trim, and always a favourite the creamy lace trim! I made the above l/o using a bunch of these goodies. Did a little machine stitching with a touch of masking with some black chalk ink. Did I mention the beautiful rub-ons too? (also in the kit......just as a point of note, ALL the things you see on on the layouts of the MCS design team, other than some cardstock, can be found in the kit, we don't suppliment things on the pages from our own stash or from 'add-on' kits! So when you order the MCS kits you know you can re-create the work you're seeing done by the design team without any big extra expenses) The rose in the top right corner was made from cardstock using the water distress method you can find to the right of my blogsite. Here are a few close-ups of the above l/o....the photo is one I took of my youngest daughter walking along a path in Autumn of last year.... This kit allowed for many color combinations, for the next l/o I went with some of the lavender colours. The photo is one I took of my youngest up at the cottage, we always do a little crafting there and we had made up the little butterfly headband she's wearing in the photo.... The butterflies were made from the Prima packaging, I just cut out a butterfly shape with a pair of scissors (I know! it's time to get a butterfly punch....if anyone know of a good one please let me know!) ....again the small white lavender blooms I made with a little cardstock using the Water Distessed Flowers method.... In this 3rd layout I scrapped a picture of my newest baby niece Jade (a professional shot taken by Stephanie Robins Designs). I've been saving this photo for the right papers and I think I found them in this kit..... I cut a few of the little ribbon rosettes from the trim to embellish my green vine trim and I extended the size of one of the roses in the kit with a little bin of white cardstock and pink chalk ink (again using the water distess method). Here are a few close-ups.... Another beautiful kit I got to design with this month was the Main Kit. I just love that each and every month Pam puts something fun in the kit that allows us to get a little creative. This time around there was some resist paper by Pink Paislee. The paper doesn't look like much when you first take it out but then when you start applying inks and glimmer mists, these wonderful patterns appear. For the l/o below I used a couple of chalk inks on the resist paper (Denim Blue and Chestnut Brown, on the paper behind the photo).... The leave's were cut from one of the muted patterned papers in the kit (I made extras by tracing one of the designs over and over and handcutting them)....There's also a nice swatch of brown tulle in the kit, I used part of it to create the backing for the diamond shaped pattern to the right of the photo. I machine stitched the diamond pattern and added the blue gems from the kit to the cross sections....here are a few close-ups I really loved the muted pretty shades in this kit. So for my next l/o I went with the soft greens, and to add to the softness I added a hint of smokey grey carstock. The branch and leaves were designs I cut from one of the patterned papers, I added a little green & brown chalk inks to make them stand out more. I've been running a challenge for last month and this month called 'Scrap the Scrapper' with a really amazing prize. So I thought I would do another page this month as a sample for the challenge ....here I listed 3 favourites of mine for 2010 ....Music: Marianas Trench ....TV: Anything on the Food Network ....Movie: The Perfect Getaway (love movies that leave you guessing all the way to the end!)..... NOTE: If you would like to play along in my challenge and have a chance to win a really awesome prize, see the link for a photo of the prize! (and at the same time get scrapping about yourself!) You can find my challenger here ~~> Scrap the Scrapper Challenge ....I also give a bunch of helpful tips on how to get a really good photo of yourself in the challenge thread, so come join us! The large blooms in the above layout are the soft & pretty blooms by BoBunny called Cream Gardenia Petals. I altered them a tiny bit by watering down some Tim Holtz alcohol ink (colour: Meadow) and applying it to the inner center of the bloom with a Q-tip. Just apply to the lower part of the petal, you only need to do a few layers of the center petals, no need to do all of them. Here are some close-ups.... A third l/o I made with this kit, I went with a more nostalgic look. I love the combination of aqua with deep brown/bronze colours. This past summer when we were on a hike up at the cottage we came across an abandoned railway car. The kids immediately started climbing, so out came my camera. I got this photo of my girls and their Opa (my Dad) in one of the cars. I printed the photo in sepia to get more of a vintage look to it.... The blooms on this page were made by using the Paper Shapers Retro Flower punch on some of the patterned papers in the kit and then giving them the 'water distress' treatment. I used a bit of the brown Tulle in the kit on the bloom to the far left. The butterflies were again made from the Prima packaging from the blooms in the kit. Here are a few close-ups... And last but not least there was the gorgeous Limited Edition kit that I got to work with this month. If you enjoy doing the 'fussy cutting' on your l/o's, this is the kit for you! This kit is just PACKED with gorgeous papers and the embellishments are wonderful too! Pam worked hard to get this amazing collection into this kit in time for the November release, the collection is BasicGrey Curio and boy are this papers beautiful IRL! ....And the extra's in the kit....you're gonna love these, loads of Prima blooms/& floral vines, cameos, sequin trims, pearl strands, layered stickers, rub-ons and so much more! Here is the first l/o I made with this kit... Again I made the butterflies for this page using the Prima packaging and the 'Embossed Butterfly' Tutorial I posted at the right side of my blog. Here are a few close-up pic's... This 2nd l/o I made with the LE kit I used a kind of a 'joke' photo my husband took of me when I needed a photo for the 20 questions blog feature at the MCS blog. My friend Julie Howard said I had to give her a humorous photo, so he took a bunch of pic's of me 'rolling in my scrapbooking blooms'....I ended up going with a different photo, but thought I would scrap this one for fun :) I did a little fussy cutting and machine stitching for this one. The bird cage is a rub-on from the kit. Here are a few close-up detail shots.... A 3rd layout I made with this kit I went with the romantic lacy looking papers, I did a little bit of corset stitching with it....The photo is one my husband took of my youngest daughter and I when we were on summer vacation a couple years back.... The butterflies were cut from one of the patterned papers in the kit (there are also some beautiful rub-on butterflies too)... And a 4th l/o I made with this kit I went with the warm yellows/appricot colors mixed with soft aqua. I was amazed at how many different looks you could get with this kit! Again, everything you see on these pages are from the kits, no need for any add on's or taking from your stash to make up these pages....take my word for it, the value of this kit is worth every penny! I did some more fussy cutting for this l/o along with a little bit of stitching. Here are a few close-up details shots of this page... Because I had 3 kits to work with this month I only had time to make 4 l/o's with the LE kit but I can tell you I've got loads more goodies in this kit and could easily make more pages with the papers & embellies I have left. I think you girls are going to love this one! Thanks so much for stopping by.....and just a reminder.....My Creative Scrapbook is still in the midst of their HUGE Sketch contest ....ton's of amazing Prizes to be won, you can find the link to this contest here ~~~> MCS Sketch Contest ~Gabrielle xxx

I'm just crazy in love with this beautiful new collection by Bo Bunny called Garden Journal! It's so easy to create pretty cards using the patterned papers like 'Notebook', "Journal' and 'Postcard' to create whimsical cards. I purposely left the type of card as blank so that I can use them for whatever purpose arises. For this card I used some leftover 'Wonder' paper as my card background, then I layered a couple of the postcard designs from the 'Journal' paper. I then added a bloom cluster from Tresors de Luxe, really sweet handmade blooms from my friend Lucy's etsy shop! (thanks Lucy!!). And I finished with some natural hemp twine and some coordinating buttons from the Garden Journal collection. For my second card I used some paper from the Garden Journal 6x6 paper pad (green) as my background. I had some leftover paper from a project I recently did using the weathered wood design from Bo Bunny's Heritage Collection called 'Register', I cut out a few of the wood planks and put them on the card with foam adhesive dots, laying them on in an uneven pattern. I then layered on some images from the 'Notebook' paper from Garden Journal. Again I used a little natural floral cluster from Tresors de Luxe, some natural twine and another coordinating button from the Garden Journal collection. Products used in these 2 Cards: Patterned Paper: Garden Journal/Wonder, Notebook, Journal, Pastel, Heritage/Register (Bo Bunny) 6x6 Paper Pad: Garden Journal (Bo Bunny) Garden Journal Buttons (Bo Bunny) Blooms: Tresors de Luxe Other: cheesecloth, hemp twine Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! These gorgeous Bo Bunny collections are in stores now! And if you are looking for beautiful lace, trims and blooms, have a peek at the lovely offerings at the Tresors de Luxe Etsy Shop HERE. We have the Maple Syrup Festival this weekend, hope the weather won't be too cold to have some fun! Have a great weekend everyone!

Have you seen the new release at this past CHA for Websters Pages called "New Beginnings"? It's such a beautiful fresh looking collection! I love the mini-print bloom papers and all the fresh Spring colors! The photo I scrapped is an older one of my youngest daughter dancing around the backyard (in her nightie no less) with a home-made ribbon on a pencil! She was so free spirited, no care for who's watching....oh to be 7 again! lol! I was going to share how I made the twine circle frame with some photos but I accidently erased the pic's from my camera before I had a chance to move them over to my computer! (Along with loads of recent pic's of the kids and their friends that I'd meant to move to the computer!...so frustrating!) But I can give a brief explanation. I layed out my circle cut photo under a piece of plastic wrap (this helps in gaging how big to make the twine circle). I then took some kitchen twine and wrapped it a few times in a circle framing my photo and leaving enough twine to tie a bow. I then took a small paper cup and poured a little bit of Gesso into it. I took the cut piece of twine and dunked it in the Gesso and then layed it on the plastic wrap over the photo so that it nicely framed the pic, tying a bow in the two ends. Leave to dry. When it's dry it will become rigid and easy to glue to your layout!  I used a few Dusty Attic Chipboard pieces as well to accent this page (Sweetpea Border, Mini Scrolls #2)...I decided to keep the Sweetpea border natural because I liked the soft brown with the pinks....I also used some of their new paint collections as well! Thanks so much for stopping by again, I so appreciate your visiting with me! xo

If you've been following my blog this month, you are probably aware that I am the guest designer over at Cheery Lynn Designs (die cuts) this month and am on my 3rd week to share projects made with their gorgeous dies. I don't know about you but I find I am always in need of thank-you cards, I like to take the time to send a card to show my appreciation to someone. I was in a whimsical mood this week and wanted to get some extra use out of that cute lattice piece I got in my last CL order so I thought I'd use it like a window design on a fantasy style card featuring fairies and flowers. For my flowers I just layered a couple of the Sweet Williams floral dies, inked the edges with a little chalk ink and glued some flower stamens to the centers. I wanted to continue the light filligree look so I used the leaves from the Flourish Leaf strip in white and the Lace Corner Deco in white. I used papers from Graphic 45 (The papers are some left-overs that I still had in my stash from one of my favorite local scrapstores 'Forever Scrapbooking' in Burlington Ontario....the store is no longer there but the beautiful and sweet ladies that ran the store have a new venture called 'A Scrapbook Story', where they share their ideas through themed kits, you can find them HERE), Prima and Bo Bunny. I gave the whole thing a more tattered look by tucking in bits of muslin (cheese-cloth) here and there. Cheery Lynn Products used for this project: ~ Lattice 2 FRM115 ~ Lace Corner Deco B - B162 ~ Flourish Leaf Strip B178 ~ Sweet Williams Strip B307 The funny thing is, once I get started playing with my pretty Cheery Lynn dies, I more often than not find that I can't just stop at one card! I get a few ideas going at once and therefore ended up with an extra card this week! :) For this card I wanted to play up the delicate gate die! I just love the super fine design on the Ornamental gate and I thought it again played well with the Graphic 45 window design in their patterned paper. I used adhesive foam dots to create pocket design behing the gate, I find the shadow this creates gives a nice 3D look to the card. I also used another one of the Lace Corner designs I used in the top card for this one. I used one of my all time favorite CL dies, the Fanciful Flourish as a 'stem' for my floral arrangement and again used the Sweet Williams Strip for my handmade flowers but in this case I curled the petals to create more of a rose look tothe blooms. Cheery Lynn products used for this project: ~ Ornamental Gate - B196 ~ Fanciful Flourish - B117 ~ Sweet Williams Strip -B307 ~ Lace Corner Deco - B162 I hope you enjoyed my projects today and hope that I've inspired you to get out your Cheery Lynn dies to play today! I look forward to sharing another project with you all next week! P.S.....I was asked by a number of you where to find Cheery Lynn dies in my last couple of posts....You can order them directly from Cheery Lynn Designs, I've linked the dies I used to their shop (above) for your convenience. xo

Today, we have have an AWESOME technique to share! In fact, just calling it a technique doesn't do it justice! Designer Gabrielle Pollacco is sharing her very own homemade texture past recipe!! Here's her special recipe! Use an old credit...

That's right! The new Webster's Pages collections from the Summer CHA start shipping today!! And to celebrate, Websters Pages and the design team are having a fun little blog hop to share projects made with the gorgeous new collections and to share some amazing give-aways as well!! The hop begins at the Websters Pages Blog, where you will find a beautiful, heartwarming story and the list for the hop. You should have come to me from Kay Roger's beautiful blog, if not then hop over to the Websters Pages blog and begin from there. I'll begin by sharing 2 projects I made with two of the newest collections. I made cards up as my projects for the hop because I wanted to step out of my everyday element (I LOVE doing 12x12 layouts). I find myself always in need of cards and what nicer way to show people you care than to give a handmade card? For me scrapping is not just a hobby that allows me to play with pretty papers. It's about sharing my stories and photos and showing those around you that you love them. What nicer way to do this than to send a hand crafted card right? This first card is one I made with the gorgeous New Parkdrive Collection..... I wanted to make an interactive card with a unique design for a party invitation. So I used a scallop edge die cut paper from Websters Pages (the Sunday Picnic Die Cut, the Game On die cut has the same shape as well) as a template, cut it in half, traced it onto some Parkdrive paper and folded in at the two sides to create the pocket/corset design... I then made a little insert card for the information for the invite, (who, when, where) that can be pulled out and slipped back in. I just LOVE the new Designer Trim cards that coordinate with this collection as well as the stunning NEW CHARMS that also coordinate with this collection. There is an extra waide lace trim in this collection of trims that worked perfectly for the fabric overlay look I wanted to give my corset design, and the sweet Cream Floral Charm with the soft purple/pink tear drop gem added just the finishing touch I was looking for. Here are some close-up pic's... The floral design is from the Websters Pages Park Drive Digital Motifs. I printed off the floral element and cut it out as an accent for the insert card (so I guess you can call this a hybrid card). For my second card I used the Once Upon a Halloween Collection. I just love the scripted paper on one of the patterned papers....and again, I LOVE the Designer Trims that go with this collection....the large lace/circle design trim is one of my favourites on the trim card! For my card title I stamped on one of the patterened papers and finished the edges with a little machine stitching. The flower was made from another one of the fringe trims (Tutu Blue Trim) from the Mesh Trim Card. I made it by simply running a bead of glue around the edges of a small punched circle from patterned paper...I ran the trim around twice for a full effect. Here are some of the New products I used to create my two projects....you can find them all at the Webters Pages Website and Yep! you can go ahead and start ordering today!! So.....how do you play along in the blog hop? Just follow one blog to the next, enjoy the projects shown and be sure to leave a comment! There will be 7 fabulous prizes up for grabs! You won't know which of the blogs the prizes will be chosen from (even us DT gals don't know!) ...so be sure to comment on each of them to ensure a chance at one of the prizes! The Winners will be announced at the Websters Pages Blog on Friday August 17th! Hope you like what you saw here and that you've found some inspiration! Ready for some more?? Well hop on over to the amazingly talented Jamie Harder's Blog, she is sure to WOW you with her project! Happy Hopping!! xo

I'm not new to using paints, sprays and other mediums on my scrapbook pages but I haven't used them a lot. Ever since I started working with the Dusty Attic laser cut designs I'm finding myself playing with paints, gloss, glitter glues and all sorts of mixed mediums a whole lot more. For the above l/o I worked with 2 wonderful laser-cuts, the first being the fairy design (in the top left corner). For this one I simply painted the whole thing white. Once it was dry I used a pencil and lightly sketched in the design I wanted (hair, fairy costume etc) Then I used my set of water color pencils and did a bit of coloring. After that I added a bit of brown chalk on the edges to get more definition (easy does it with this)....and finally I finished it with a variety of Stickles glitter glues (Platinum, WaterFall, Lavender, Pink, Diamond are a few of the Stickles colours I used). Here is a close up pic of the fairy...... The other piece I used was one of the flourish designs (right side of the photo). I went for a metalic look again on this one. I painted the whole thing first with some soft green paint and mixed in a little turquoise too. Now, here is the important part....Don't be afraid to get dirty!....I didn't use a paint brush. I simply dabbed my finger in the paint and splotched it on! Let the paint get a little lumpy and uneven in spots, it'll give a more natural look and a great texture, especially when you add the next step. Once the paint is dry take some bronze 3D metalic paint...again just using your finger splotch it on here and there, rubbing it in on some places and leaving it lumpy in others. Here is a close-up pic of the finished piece on my l/o.... Here is an extreme close-up of the flourish design so you can see what I mean about getting the paint on in a blotchy way and the effect it gives.... And finally, although I had a wonderful batch of Prima blooms to use on this l/o (thank-you Pam!) I thought it would be fun to try and make my own fabric center piece bloom for this l/o. I took a 12" strip of a shimmery burgundy silk fabric and gathered one of the long edges, then brought the 2 ends together. I did the same for the sheer grey/glitter fabric layer on top. In the middle I added on of those cute Prima 'centers' and viola! your own homemade fabric bloom. Here is a close-up picture..... Okay, gotta run!....I just got my May MCS design team kits in the mail and OHMYGOSH! they are gorgeous!! I can wait to crack them open and play! Don't miss reveal day (May 5th) to see the beautiful goodies in next months kits! The LE kit might be my all time fav! ...shhhh! ~Gabrielle xxx

Yep, it's that time again....we are celebrating our 31st wedding anniversary in a few weeks, and every year I like to do a little l/o just for us. So how perfect that I got all my Webster's Pages 'In Love' design team goodies a couple of days ago!! I LOVE this collection, such pretty papers and the embellishments (sigh, oh those cameos!) I came up with the page design after playing with the Websters Pages digi stuff. I was making little 'signature' designs (see the bottom of my post)...and I was kinda fond of the design I came up with for my signature line and used the design for this page!..... I was also so happy to have a chance to use one of the newest Dusty Attic chippies on this page. Isn't that Heart Flourish chipboard lovely? The finish I gave it was pretty simple. Just a coating of white Gesso, a touch of pink chalk ink and a coating of Glossy Accents. (close-up above) TIP: I've mentioned this one before, but in case anyone missed it. I always love to save the baking from my ornate style stickers. This is a piece from a Prima felt strip. I just lay the piece on my page and then use a make-up sponge to dabb over it with some pink chalk ink. When you lift off the piece of paper, this is the left behind result. (below) The backing piece has a waxy/shiney finish on one side that wipes off the ink nicely, so you can use the piece over and over. While I had out my bits and pieces of the 'In Love' collection, I decided to make up a couple of cards too! I have some Weddings and Wedding Showers coming up so I thought these would be perfect for some cardmaking! The chipboard fram here is another yummy new piece by Dusty Attic (these are a really nice size for cardmaking!) ATC Frame Set #1 Websters Pages has something new out that they call 'Perfect Motifs" ....you know all those beautiful images we like to cut out from the Websters Papers? Butterflies, dressforms, hearts & blooms? Yep! they now make this wonderful paper pad just filled with these images, just made for cutting out! I did this with the little dressform I added to the card, as well as the butterflies. And here is one more card I made, again using the In Love collection papers, mini pade papers and the Journaling cards! Well, I'm off to bake for my nephew (and his fiance's) bridal shower (Jack & Jill) this weekend. Hmmm, now which card shall I use this weekend? :)

So I've got to tell you about my experience being the Guest Designer over at The Flying Unicorn Kit Club for this month! What a lovely group of ladies!! Sometimes I'm told in advance what to expect in the kit when it arrives, but not this time! Alda (the super sweet ladie that owns the kit club) let me know that she loves to keep the kit ingredients a secret until it arrives in the mail......and now I know why! I have to say my jaw just dropped when I got my Flying Unicorn GDT kit in the mail a few weeks back!! A huge box appeared on my doorstep just PACKED with gorgeous papers and embellishments. Along with package after package of beautiful papers, blooms, flourishes, trims, coordinating cardstock and even art supplies (liquid pearls, Glimmer Sprays and shimmer paints!) there is also a beautiful OTP (off the page) project, in this case a lovely wooden shadow box! The above page is the first page I made up using this lovely kit! Now, I know that this kit club does not have strict rules for their DT and guest designers to use only the kit ingredients on their pages, but the truth is that I really had to use almost nothing from my own stash to make up these pages....there was just so many beautiful things to use! For these pages, I did scan a couple of the butterflies in the patterned papers and printed/cut them out for embellishing my layouts, so other than this and one Dusty Attic hinge that I used on one of the pages, everything on my work is from the goodies sent to me for this months Guest DT work! There is this really cool case of pearl/shimmer paints included in the kit (I can see dipping into this thing over and over in upcoming layouts!) ...I used some of the shimmer paint to tint the layered yellow bloom in the center to draw in some of the pinkish tones on the page. There is a wonderful words/quotes rub-on sheet in the kit as well! I have forgotton how much I really loved to use rub-on's on my work in the past until I got using them with these pages! For this page I combined a variety of the florals and branches in the kit, and liberally used some of the beautiful rub-on quotes. There is also an awesome package of antique crochette lace in the kit that I just loved and used over and over in my pages! Check out the cute sheer ribbon and pearl blooms in the kit! I just thought they made the cutest page accents! I really love butter yellow with soft blue as a color combination, so for this page I chose the elements in the kit that favoured these colors. And finally a 3rd page I made using this kit I went with the fresh and pretty white blooms with the hint of cornflower blue. And how cute are those vines?! Here are some close-up pic's of the page and the goodies from the kit... For the punched circle design, I used the Crafters Workshop Circle template to draw out the circle (I used the 6th ring from the center to make this design. I used the Martha Stewart Swirling Lace corner punch to make the edge design. Just cut out the circle using the 6th ring from the center of the template. Then use the corner punch putting the edge of the punch design along the edge of the paper. Line up the edge of the punch to slightly overlap the outer edge of the punch design. There will be a little gap on the edge (see diagram above) Happily using this size circle and this punch the design lines up perfectly to make this circle. (If the design doesn't line up at the end, you can always cover the small gap with some blooms or embellishments when you place it on the page). All I can say is that I wish I had more days in a month! I still have so many papers and goodies left over from this gorgeous kit (not to mention the shadow box I'm still wanting to play with!). If you haven't checked out this amazing kit club yet, go have yourself a peek (and check out the work of the rest of the super-talented design team when you are there, I'm sure you will be so inspired!!) Flying Unicorn Kit Club. (I've added pic's of the kit and it's add-on's below just so you can have a visual of the yummy goodies!) OCEAN BREEZE & SUMMER SKIES JUNE KIT OF THE MONTH The wait is over, and its time to introduce Ocean Breeze and Summer Skies, our June 2012 Kit of the Month. This month's kit is filled with so many goodies that inspiration and creativity will be falling off your projects! Kits are available now in the store and its first come, first serve. There are no lists or signs ups, We believe that scrapping is a passion and not an obligation . Hurry and get yours today , tomorrow could be too late ! The favorite part of the Kit- the OTP ( Off the Page) and this month we are featuring a shadow box, manufactured by Darice. BUT WAIT THERE IS MORE !!! Do not forget about the add ons FLOWER ADD ON Petaloo Vine, Prima Painted ladies, Prima Fairy Belle, Prestige Mini by Wrights, Petaloo Peony EMBELLISHMENT ADD ON Butterflies by Petaloo, ZVA Creative Crystal, Tattered Angels – Chalkboard Mist, Vine by Petaloo, Rub Ons Kaiser –Rustic Bird House, Hero Art Lace, MM Glitter Brads, Chipboard Alphas Mini Flowers by Wright PAPER ADD ON Kaiser – Secret Bird – Private, Fairy Belle- Marcelle, Bo Bunny – Garden Almanac garden Vines, garden Weathered Kaiser madame Butterfly – Camisole,Bodice, Blouse, petticoat, Kaiser Up Up and Away – Rollercoaster, Moon Ride , Kaiser Blae and Ivy – Field CARDSTOCK ADD ON Ming, Periphery Gold, Reflections, rosemary, latte, Tangerine, Scotch, Sugar and Spice, Whitewash, Palm Grove And here are some examples from the Creative Team Thanks for having a peek! xx

I had so much fun making these cards! Again, I was trolling Pinterest for fun card ideas. I don't know who did it first, there were a few people that had posted a version of this braided edge card, but the one I got my info from was a girl named Brandy Cox from Stampin' Up. I know it looks complicated but it's really easy-peasy to do (I can see making a lot more of these in the future!). It's basically just cutting a bunch of diagonal slits in the fold of your card, opening it up, and then folding down every second section. She has a little video clip on how she does this, and also provides a printable template to use on a folded 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 piece of cardstock. You can find her tutorial and template HERE. Bo Bunny's Double Dot Cardstock is just perfect for the base of these cards. I particularly like the Vintage Double Dot, the distressing and deep rich colors really appeal to me. For this card I used the Vintage Decaf Double Dot for my base. I then fussy cut some designs from Bo Bunny's 'Somewhere In Time' collection, using small pieces of patterned paper from their 6x6 paper pad to create layers. Bo Bunny Products used to make this card: Patterned Paper: Somewhere In Time/Elegance 6x6 Paper Pad: Somewhere In Time Cardstock: Vintage Decaf Double Dot Noteworthy: Somewhere In Time Copper Glitter Paste (NEW Bo Bunny Mixed Media Product) Stickable Stencil: Brocade (NEW) Lace: Clover Jewels: Double Dot Jewels/Emerald, Citrus Okay, so ya, I couldn't resist making another card after I made the first! This time I used Enchanted Garden collection. I started with Violet Dot paper for the base. Again I fussy cut some of the whimsical images from the Enchanted Garden papers, added a bit of texture with Bo Bunny's NEW Silver Glitter paste and one of their Stickable Stencils (Brocade). Here is a picture of the card opened out, so you can see the braided edge design. Here are the products I used to make this card: Patterned Paper: Enchanted Garden/ Fairies, Enchanted Garden Cardstock: Violet Double Dot Glimmer Paste: Silver Stickable Stencil: Brocade I hope you enjoyed checking out my cards today! I encourage you to give these a try, they are really a lot of fun to make! Thanks for stopping by today, and for the lovely comments, your kind feedback makes my day! xo xo

So excited to share with you my latest kit page I designed for The Scrapbook Diaries!! Lately I find myself intrigued by watercolor designs. When I saw these beautiful Prima flowers that seem to have

So my assignment with Bo Bunny this week was to create the layout sketch and create a layout to go with it as well. Well, I was a little ne...

So I had a little fun working with the newest Palm Beach collection from Websters Pages this past weekend! I wanted to do a more 'mixed media' style page and try out some fun ideas! For my page above, I used WP Palm Beach Patterned papers. I used a simple background paper from the collection and did a little watered down painting with some green and pink acrylic paint as a base. I then cut out some petal designs from another of the Palm beach patterned papers and glued them to the page using this cool adhesive sheet I got from Scrapbook Adhesives. I needed my petals to stick down right to the edges because I was planning on painting over the edges with some Gesso. Here is a quick little step by step on how to use this adhesive.... You just peel back one side of the adhesive sheet and stick it to the back of the patterned paper you are using. I drew out the design I needed for my page (petal), and then cut it out. Then I just peeled back the other protective sheet to reveal the adhesive underneath. I stuck it to my project and continued with the painting, doodling and stitching. (see close-up of finished design in the photo below... Okay, I'm going to share with you a fun little thing I've recently found to play with on my scrap pages! A white out pen!! It works great as something to doodle with on a mixed media style page! For my flower pattern I glued down the petals, used my finger to add some swipes of Gesso on the edges of the petals, added a couple of quick strokes of green paint for stems and then just used a black gel pen to add doodles to define the design more (just basically do a little scribbling! No need to be an artist, the messier the better, I even doodled little words in my scribbles!) I then used the white-out pen (this is literally a correction fluid meant for office use, made by Bic) to add extra doodles and to add my little quote/phrase (I found this quote on Pinterest....love that site!). Here is a pic of the white out Pen I used... I also used the newest cameo's from the Palm Beach collection called Perfect Accents on this page....aren't they cute?? I love this one! I mounted it on one of Dusty Attic's Cameo Sliders laser cut chipboard pieces....they are the perfect size for WP's cameo's! I just added a little gold 3D paint to the cameo slider to give it some shimmer. Websters Pages is doing a swap with Scrapbook Adhesives this week so be sure to check out all the fun project the girls from the Websters Pages DT and the Scrapbook Adhesives DT have been making! Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Hi everyone! It's me Gabrielle here with you today to share my latest project using some fun new chippies from Dusty Attic and some Vintage Spring Basics collection mixed in with a little bit of Vintage Summer and Autumn Basics from Maja Design. I began by first using a Martha Stewart edge/corner punch on the edges of a neutral paper from the Vintage Summer Basics collection (1899). I then did a little inking with some Donna Salazar Distress Ink (Denim) and used a Heidi Swapp stencil and homemade texture paste over the inked areas. The photo is one of my great nieces that my nephew's wife Danielle was kind enough to share with me. I wanted to keep the design light and airy and playful like the photo of Jade and at the same time play up the blues in the photo. To make the floral design I used some super cute Dusty Attic chipboard (Spider Crysanthemum and Flower Buds), painted white and tinted with some blue and green chalk inks (Versa Magic Inks). I punched tiny blooms using a floral punch (Martha Stewart Hydrangea punch) on some cardstock and the left over strips of paper from the background (tinted blue at the edges, ). The butterfly is from Tattered Angels, Nature Glimmer Glass (I'm trying to use up bits of old stash with each layout I create). I just love the little strips at the bottoms of the paper collections (not even sure what it says, LOL) but I love the pretty design element they add to a page! I just adore the new cute l'il heart arrows, they make fun accents for a page. For the one I used above, I simply painted it with white gesso, inked it with some blue Distress ink (Denim) and brown chalk ink. I finished the design by adding some Dusty Attic Gloss Medium to the heart to give it a glassy look. For some reason I really love the way burlap looks with the blues in this collection. In keeping with the neutral accents, I chose a Prima flower in a natural fabric and added some smaller blooms in blue from Petaloo (Darjeeling collection...Love these blooms, I think they are a perfect match for the blues in the Maja collections). And I also used some more clock cut-outs from the Vintage Autumn Basics (I just love this paper for embellishing my layouts, the clocks seem to add a nice touch to any layout whether masculine or feminine). Dusty Attic Products used for this project: ~ Spider Crysanthemum ~ Flower Buds ~ Heart Arrows #2 ~ Hinges ~ Dusty In Color Gloss Varnish ~ Dusty In Bloom (Latte) Maja Design products used for this project: Patterned Paper: Vintage Spring Basics (4th of April, 4rth of April-bs, 5th of April), Vintage Summer Basics (1899), Vintage Autumn Basics (XVI) Again, if you are looking for Dusty Attic or Maja Design Products, I have a listing in my side panel of my blog with links to online stores. I can tell you that some great sources for these products are The Scrapbook Diaries (USA), Moments of Tranquility (USA), Vicky Alberto's Etsy Shop (Canada). Thanks so much for stopping by today and checkin' out my blog, your kind comments and feedback just make my day! xo

This will be my first month hosting a challenge over at the Webster's Pages Inspire Me site! I'd love to have you all come join me in the fun! I just love using fabric elements on my pages lately, whether it be trims, lace, netting, blooms made from various fabrics! And Webster's Pages has so many wonderful fabric options for your projects. My challenge this month is to use some of the GORGEOUS Webster's trims on your projects. For the above layout I used two types of Websters trims and layered them (the two trims I used are from the Holiday collection). I also used the Webster's Threads/Doilys and Shapes (white heart and blue circle shapes) as well as the new Websters Netting (fabric swatches....the white butterfly fabric on the blue circle cut paper). So my challenge for you is to use gorgeous Websters trims on your layouts or projects, the more creative the better! .....and the best part? The prize of course! The winner will receive any Webster's Pages collection of their choice! I have one added TWIST! Websters Pages papers allow for some fun fussy cutting, so you have to include a little bit of cut paper embellishing on your page along with some trim to enter your page/card in the challenge. To find the challenge thread and the complete details to play along just click this link Webster's Pages Trim Challenge. In the layout above I used the lovely new WP paper collection called Country Estate. I just love the 'shabby-chic' styling this collection inspires. The hinge and large chipboard butterfly are from Dusty Attic....I just gave each of them a coat of white paint, added a little ink and glitter. The photo is one of my oldest daughter Chloe who recently became a teenager **sigh** where does the time go! Here are are a few close-up shots of the layout.... I have one more layout to share with you that I made up with the Country Estate Collection (with a bit of the Ladies & Gents collection thrown in). Each month Websters Pages has a Guest Designer and this months Guest Designer is the Fabulous Tara Orr. The Websters Pages design team girls are asked to take one of the guest designers layouts and use it as inspiration for a layout. I chose Tara's l/o 'Watching you Grow' as inspiration for the layout below. I noticed that she often uses an off center vertical design on her layouts so I imitated this look on my page below..... The photo is one I took last summer up at the cottage of my girls on a walk with their Grandfather (Opa in German). I like the outdoorsy feel that the botanical papers from the Country Estate collection gave to this page. The butterflies I got from the Webster's pages Digital Elements...I printed out a bunch of them on some glossy white cardstock and printed them out, cut them out and attached them to the page. The large skelleton clock frame is ...you guessed it...from Dusty Attic, as is the key on the left side of the page. Here are a few close-up shots of the page elements.... ....and the blooms? Okay don't laugh but....well, the brown bloom is of course Princess Petals from Websters Pages....but the pink blooms are actually blooms I found at a local accesories store called Ardiens. They have the cutest blooms attached to hairbands, bobby pins, clips etc. and they sell them 5 for $10.00 (each package/hairband has a number of blooms attached) so I picked some up to use on my pages! :) To see more of the Websters Pages Guest Designer lifts along with layouts done for WP by Tara be sure to check out the featured Guest thread at the Inspire Me site! ....and then put on your thinking caps and come join me in this months Trims challenge! NOTE!: If you'd like another chance to win some awesome Dusty Attic chippies go check out Michelle's blog here ~~> DA Giveaway! and Natasha's blog HERE Thanks so much for stopping by and for all the sweet comments you all are kind enough to leave for me! I really love to hear from you! ~Gabrielle xx

I was so delighted when I received my guest design team package from Scraps of Elegance Kit Club for the month of June! This kit was packed with gorgeous papers (2 of each! love that!) and so many beautiful and fun embellishments and mixed media elements as well! For my first project with this kit I made this layout of one of my daughters (Chloe) and her BFF Peyton. I made it according to the sketch design for June. The sketch is made by their talented sketch designer Suepup! Here is a copy of her lovely sketch (below) I love the way SOE combines many different paper collections (there are 3 in this kit) and has them all matching perfectly! Sometimes it's not easy to match pink tones, but each paper is a perfect compliment to the other in this kit! I love the Prima blooms in this kit, so I combined these with some fussy cut flowers in the Websters Pages papers. I added a couple of Dusty Attic chipboard pieces to finish off the page (an ornate frame and a corner vine). For the frame, I painted the whole thing white, then gave the edges some soft distressing with some brown chalk ink and then used a pearly white 3D paint (Scribbles, found in the Tshirt section at Michaels) to give the frame a resin look. Don't you just love these shabby-chic little tags in this kit? They come blank so that you can add any design that you like to them. For this page I just cut out a small rose design from one of the patterned papers and glued it to the tag. You can use stamps and rub-on's as well to decorate these tags! Here's a close-up of the Dusty Attic vine corner I added tot he page. For this I kept it really simple and just used a green ink pad to tint the piece, a super easy way to color an very intricate chipboard design. There is also a package of these cute cute music note paper clips from Prima's Lyric collection in the kit. I dressed up mine with a couple of adhesive gems. For my second project I used this really cool Crafter's Workshop mask that was in the kit. It has a fan shape with a vine/flourish design. This combined with the awesome Lindy's Stamp Gang Starburst spray (also in the kit) inspired me to create a mixed media style page! I began my design by first doing some random stamping on the page with some script/text stamps from my stash (Bo Bunny background stamps, 7Gypsies Distress Stamps). I then did some random spritzing with the Lindy's spray (around the area of my photo placement) and added a little bit of Donna Salazar Mixed Media Distress Ink (Honey). I then took the Crafters Workshop mask and using the home-made texture paste recipe (you can find the recipe in the side column of my blog under tutorials), I applied the paste to the mask, allowing bits of my stampwork to show through underneath. I added a bit more spray and ink with the paste dried. In the photo above you can see how I used a rub-on to add a coordinating design to the Tim Holtz tag from the hit. There is also some really fun color chipboard in the kit, I love the polka dot arrow design in the chipboard collection included in the kit! (the title is a sticker from my stash - Heidi Swapp). I added a couple of chipboard pieces from my own stash as well. The circle frame is Dusty Attic as is the vine/flourish....the flourish is acutally a corner flourish that I cut to suit my page design. I again ust inked the piece with green ink and edged with a chocolate brown. I then used Dusty Attic Gloss Medium to add a glossy texture...I applied it randomly rather than in one smooth finish. And finally I made this page using one of the pretty patterned papers in the kit from Prima. My husband and I celebrated our 33 wedding anniversary last week and I wanted to save the beautiful cards I got from my girls and my dear husband, so I made up this page, with a pocket on the back inwhich I could keep the cards. There are some cute butterflies in this kit from the awesome and talented Renea Bouquet (Renea Harrison) in this kit! I used one of her butterflies and the actual packaging (the black flourish design above the photo) to decorate the page. I used a used a small chipboard accent from Dusty attic to underscore the photo (again, just painted white, edged with brown chalk ink and finished with Dusty Attic Crackle Medium) If you would like to get your hands on this gorgeous June Kit, you can find more information on the kit HERE. I know you'll enjoy it as much as I have!

So I recently got my design team package from Dusty Attic and was so thrilled to see these gorgeous pearl strand chippies (Elegant Pearls)....and started dreaming up fun ways to use them! At the same time a dear friend sent me some really pretty Prima blossoms and shabby chic resins (Thanks so much Kimberly Lau, you are such a sweet heart!), a cluster of which were a pretty pinkish poppy design to them (From Fairy Belle collection).....so I thought I would also incorporate the New Poppies chippies from Dusty Attic as well into the page design to mimic their soft colors. Dusty Attic Products: ~ Elegant Pearls ~ Poppies ~ Vine Frame #1 ~ Word Pack #14 Once I decided on the chipboard pieces I would use, I thought about what color combination I would like to put together for my page. I decided I wanted some soft pinks with peaches and a hint of soft green. So I chose the following Shimmerz Paints products for my page design..... As I often like to do when making up a mixed media page, I thought I'd do a video tutorial so show step by step how this page was made. Time to grab yourself a cup of coffee, relax and enjoy! I hope you enjoyed my video tutorial today. Here are a few close-ups of the page design that you can view at your leisure.... I used a piece of corrugated cardboard between my paper layers to leave a little room to tuck my embellishments. I used a Faber Castell black Pitt pen to draw out the Poppy petal designs on all my chipboard pieces before I began to add my color wash using a paint brush and Shimmerz paints. You can also see some of the stamp work I used to create my background design...one of which is my new Crackle/Peeled Paint texture Stamps (you can find my stamps at The Scrapbook Diaries HERE. I just love these cute blooms from Prima's Fairy Belle collection, I thought they added just the nice feminine touch combined with the Dusty Attic Elegant Pearls. Here's a close-up of the other cluster of poppies....and you can see close-up some of the paint wash and stamping I did to create my background design. I just love all the NEW Word Packs Dusty Attic has come out with! They are just the perfect size and have such a pretty delicacy. For me, size is key, because I tend to have a habit of making up my whole page design and then later trying to figure out how I'm going to add in my title! :) You can order Dusty Attic Chipboard online at the following places: The Scrapbook Diaries (USA...ships Internationally) Moments of Tranquility (USA) Dusty Attic Website (Australia....ships Internationally) NOTE: You can purchase Shimmerz Paint Products directly from their website HERE. Be sure to mention my name 'Gabrielle' in the 'Instructions to Merchant/Seller' part of your order to get a FREE/Bonus Shimmerz paint product in the color of your choice! Also before I finish here today, I wanted to remind everyone about the awesome monthly challenge we run at Dusty Attic! Use Dusty Attic chipboard and the inspiration board for the month (see below) on your next project....be sure to link you project at the Dusty Attic blog (see right side column) and you will have a chance at winning the SUPER generous prize of a $100.00 gift certificate to purchase your favorite Dusty Attic chipboard at the DA website! I hope you enjoyed todays project and hope that my video tutorial will provide you with some inspiration in creating your own mixed media scrapbook page! Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today, your kind comments and feedback always make my day! xo

Hello friends! Gabrielle here with you today! As I've mentioned before, lately I've become totally obsessed with watercolor painting. So today I thought I would create my own watercolor background design using Shimmerz Paints and some NEW and exciting Dusty Attic Chipboard! I drew inspiration for my page from this months Dusty Attic Inspiration Board. Have you had a chance to enter in this monthly challenge? It's so much fun to use the beautiful colors, images and inspiring words offered in each months challenges.....and the best part? You can win an AWESOME Dusty Attic prize each month (a $100.00 Gift Certificate to use in the Dusty Attic online store!!). Here are the Dusty Attic products I used on this project....Foliage #5, Spring Blooms #2, Word Pac #18. I also used the following Shimmerz Paints colors in my project: ~ Don't Citron Me Coloringz ~ Glorious Day Vibez ~ Heidi Ho Blue Coloringz ~ Chocolate Brown Coloringz ~ Power to the Purple Creameez ~ I Lilac You Dazzlerz ~ Teal Me No Lies Texturez NOTE: If you are ordering Shimmerz Paints products be sure to mention my name 'Gabrielle' in the INTSTRUCTIONS TO MERCHANT/SELLER part of your order to recieve a FREE/Bonus Shimmerz Paints product in the color of your choice! :) You can order Shimmerz Paints HERE. I thought it would be fun to share a video tutorial I created showing step by step how I created this page.....Enjoy! I hope you enjoyed watching my video tutorial and hope you will give some of the techniques I employed a try! Here are a few of the close-ups of the page for you to checkout at your leisure.... I so much love all the new Blossom chippies from Dusty Attic, today I used Spring Blossoms #2. I just gave it a good coat of white Gesso for my base and then added some translucent paint colors (Shimmerz Heidi Ho Blue, Power to The Purple and Don't Citron Me). I applied them randomly so that they just ran into each other as waterpaints are prone to do. For the butterflies I used a fun little technique that Dawn from Wplus9 Design shared on youtube. It's such a helpful little trick. I used a very pale color ink to stamp my butterfly (Tim Holtz 'Scattered Straw' and Bo Bunny Butterflies stamp)....then applied clear water to the wings, then just lightly dabbed on some color to bleed into the wings. For my title I used one of the new DA titles.....just loving all the new title options! Here I used a piece from the Word Pack #18. I gave it a coat of metalic and textured Shimmerz Texturez 'Teal Me No Lies'. I also created a background color block behind my photo area using Shimmerz 'Glorious Day' and 'Chocolate Brownie' paints....and added a little Heidi Ho Blue into the design so that it looks like some ofthe color bled off the chipboard blooms onto the background design. I used a bit of the DA foliage with some of the scatter blossoms from the Spring Blossoms #2 pack to create my own little 3rd floral cluster. I love that these floral chippies come with the extra tiny blooms, allowing you to get creative with your design! I also did a little bit of stamping on my background design using a few of my own stamp designs (script stamp and chicken wire stamp....available at The Scrapbook Diaries). I hope you enjoyed my project and video and hope you will get a little scrap time in this week....we all need a little creative therapy sometimes don't we! Don't forget to play in this months Inspiration Board Challenge....be sure to use Dusty Attic chipboard in your design and to post a link to your project in the right side column of this blog! For those of you looking for Dusty Attic Chipboard online in USA (also ship Internationally), you can find loads of Dusty Attic Chipboard at The Scrapbook Diaries and Moments of Tranquility. Happy Scrapping! xo

Hi everyone! For today's project I thought I would have some fun mixing collections. I just love pouring through my Maja Design papers and picking and choosing which designs I want to put together to make up a project! For this page I think I dipped into quite a few collections! For the base of the layout I used papers from the Sofiero collection, then for the fussy cut blooms and clocks I used paper from Vintage Autumn Basics. I even used a little strip of scrap paper I had left from Vintage Summer Basics (1922-bs) the small scallop strip with white dots, and some butterflies from Vintage Spring Basics.The photo I scrapped was one taken of my oldest daughter Chloe when we were out on a walk :) Here is a close-up of the center piece of my layout, so you can see the fussy cut blooms and clocks that I adhered with foam pop dots so that they would stand up from the page. The chipboard frame is from Dusty Attic (Decorative Scroll #1) that I coated with Gesso, stamped and finished with a crackle varnish. I did a lot of inking and spritzing for this page as well as a little bit of masking with stencils and texture paste. I used a little bit of Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Victorian Velvet along the bottom edge of the diagonal strip before I used a Crafters Workshop (Damask 6x6) stencil along the edge. For Spraying I used Lindy's 'Clam bake Biege' and Perfect Pearls 'Intereference Red' (it's more of a pink color with lots of shimmer). (most of these goodies are stuff that I have left from kits from The Scrapbook Diaries a great source in the USA/Canada for Maja Design products!) I used another stencil in the top right corner (Prima Flourish 12x12) as well as lots of fun stamps, Prima Stitches Stamps, Bo Bunny Distressed stamps. Added a little washi tape (Freckled Fawn) and added more fussy cut images from the Vintage Autumn Basics collection. (I used the rose blooms from the Vintage Autumn Basics collection rather than the roses from the Sofiero collection, which I used for the background, because the images were a little deeper in color and I thought would work better for a fussy cut bloom. Maja Design Supplies: Sofiero Collection (Enjoying the Fragrance-bs, Strolling Down the Rose Path-bs), Vintage Autumn Basics (No. II, No. XVI, VI-bs), Vintage Spring Basics (6th of May - fussy cut butterflies), Vintage Summer Basics (1922-bs) Thanks for stopping by today and for the kind comments! xo xo

I was so happy to be asked to be a guest of Cheery Lynn's Designs for the month of September, I've been admiring their beautiful die cut designs for some time now so I was thrilled to find out I could use them with my Revolution die cutting machine! For my first project this month I thought I would do a layout using a variety of the dies. They have such amazing 'build your own' flower dies which allow you to make one large, full, frilly bloom or if you break them up like I did, you can make a few blooms in different sizes. I basically went with a large, medium and small floral design using the Shasta Daisy B-310 die cut. I used 1 large + 2 medium to make a large bloom, 2 medium + 1 Small to make the medium bloom and 3 small cuts to make the small bloom. I used some green chalk ink to tint the centers of the blooms to give them a slight color depth and finished it by adding a soft yellow gem to the center. I also used one of the Lace Corner Deco B - B162 pieces to give a lacey accent around my flower cluster. and a piece of the gorgeous Fanciful Flourish B-117 to finish the cluster. For my other floral cluster I used a design technique that is a favourite of mine to use and that is to softly ink the area around the cluster and add a mask with some texture paste. Here I used a script mask. This helps draw focus into the main embellishments on the page and draw the eye into the photo. Another die that I'm crazy about is the Ivy Corner Flourish B315. This die cut is awesome for frame and underscoring. Here I used it to frame the floral patterned paper that I layered onto the page and also used it to underscore the title. Another beautiful die that I just knew I had to have was the Window A FRM-141, it just adds such a light, airy, summery design to a page! I added a lace 'curtain' to the design by adding the Anastasia Border B-136 along the top edge of the window panes. I also used the lace edge along the bottom of the photo and peeking out from the pulled back paper edge at the top of the page. I also used another one of the Lace Corner Deco B-162 die cuts to create a corner/border design to go all around the edges of the layout. I simply adhered the corners onto the background paper and then used a white Signo Unibal gel pen to draw a doodled line to link them up. Cheery Lynn Dies Used: Shasta Daisy B-310 Lace Corner Deco B-162 Anastasia Border B-136 Window A FRM-141 Ivy Corner Flourish B-315 Fanciful Flourish B-117 The patterned papers I used were from K& Company. I hope you all enjoyed my project for today! And I look forward to sharing more fun projects with you in the upcoming weeks!

Hi everyone! I thought today I would share a couple of cards I recently made with the beautiful Primrose collection and Bo Bunny's fabulous Kraft Wood Shapes. I love how the neutral color of the Kraft Wood works so well with whatever colors you chose to design with. For this 'blank' card (I sometimes like to leave some cards I create without a sentiment so that I can just add it as I need it), I used a couple of pieces from the New 'Elegant' kraft wood collection. Instead of using the frame design as something to mount my title on, I used it as a base design for my handmade rose bloom (made with Primrose 'Breathtaking' paper and Spellbinder's Rose Creation dies). I used one of the wood flourish pieces as a design element tucked under the lip of the patterned paper. I did a little bit of inking behind the piece to make the design pop a little more. The pretty circle doilie design was made with plain glossy white cardstock and a Memory Box die 'Quinn Flourish' (thanks Janene!! Mwah!). Supplies: Patterned Paper: Cottage, Breathtaking (both sides), Bliss (both sides), Dot, Memories / Primrose Kraft Wood: Elegant Shapes Dies: Spellbinders (Rose Creations), Memory Box (Quinn Flourish) Hemp Twine For my second card I used the same paper collection and Kraft Wood Elegant Shapes pack. For this one I wanted to go a little more 'artsy' so I did some inking and misting and a whole bunch of stamping. I even added few strips of washi tape. I used one of the elegant frames to frame the greeting card title and used one of the flourish designs to add a little 'flow' to my fussy cut butterfly. When I use natural elements like wood in my projects, I love to team them up with other natural elements like hemp twine and burlap. Supplies: Patterned Paper: Bliss, Dot, Joy, Memories / Primrose Kraft Wood: Elegant Shapes Washi Tape: Primrose, Black & White Patterned Stamps: Enchanted, It is Written, Ambrosia, Weekend Market Other: Burlap, Hemp twine, Gesso, Lace, Martha Stewart edge punch (Swirling Lace) Ink/Mists: Lindy's Stamp Gang (Tainted Love Teal), Ingvild Bolme Chalk Ink (Sweet Pea) I hope you enjoyed my little card projects! They are a great way to get your creativity on and at the same time use up some of those scrap bits you have leftover from other projects! Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today and for the really sweet comments you all are lovely enough to leave me! xo

Hope everyone is enjoying a wonderful start to their summer. The weather has been beautiful here,...I find myself outside doing a fair bit of gardening, my backyard is in need of some TLC! But I did find a little time to play with my new Bo Bunny products! For this page I used the Juliet collection from Bo Bunny, so many lovely floral images to fussy cut....and to accent I used some of the Laser Cut chippies (Butterflies & Tags). Also had some fun with the new Bo Bunny Foil rub-on's...I used the scripted quote, some cross stitching and vine images from the rub-ons. I just love them, they are so easy to apply! For my centerpiece flower I used one of my favorite fabric blooms from my friend Lucy's etsy shop Tresors de Luxe, I thought the fluffy pink bloom would go nicely with the lovely rose images found in the BB Juliet papers. If you haven't seen all the lovelies in her etsy shop you are in for a treat! You can find her shop by clicking the link (shop name) above. For my laser-cut butterflies, I opted to paint them white with a little Gesso (using a sponge dauber)....I liked the contrast against the darker background, it helps to see the intricate detailing on these lil embellishments. Finally I also added some gold glitter to the edges of the butterflies. I hope you enjoyed todays project, and hope you all find time this summer for a little crafting! My oldest daughter is finishing exams this week and my youngest will be finishing next week....I'm looking forward to a little creative time with my girls....how about you? What do you have planned for the Summer?

So my assignment with Bo Bunny this week was to create the layout sketch and create a layout to go with it as well. Well, I was a little nervous about it, I'm new to making sketches, but with a little trial an error I managed to put a sketch together. Usually I would make my page first and create a sketch from the page I made but I didn't want the other girls that were doing the assignment to have to wait on my sketch, so the sketch came first. The above l/o is the page I came up with using my sketch.. I wanted to go a little more monochromatic with this page so I went with some papers from the Bo Bunny Et Cetera collection and tried to stick to neutrals with just a hint of blush pink. I added just a little bit of Bo Bunny's Timepiece into it too (I love the 6x6 paper pads, I used the clock paper and cut out the clocks to use as embellishments....just added a little Stickles in Platinum color to dress them up a bit) I also added in a few pieces of my favourite chippies from Dusty Attic too! The Vintage Keys, the Chicken Wire (that's the last of my chicken wire in my stash! now I'm waiting on my next DT package...can't wait!) the corner flourish and title chippies are all from Dusty Attic. The larger blooms are handmade by simply gathering some pieces of lace. Here are a few close-ups of the page details.... NOTE: I used Tombow liquid adhesive (green & white bottle) to attach my pearl strand. I find this works beautifully for adding fussy strands to a page. All you do is use the fine tip end and draw out the design you would like your pearl strand to go in. Let the adhesive dry slightly, it becomes gummy/tacky. You can then lay your pearl strand onto the page over the line and it will stick without slipping! For the circle design I used the Crafters Workshop circle template and cut the circle design from one of the Bo Bunny patterned papers. I made marks for my brads and then added some kitchen twine twisted around the brades to create the above design. I used a corner stamp and key-hole rub-on from the Bo Bunny Timepiece colletion to dress up the corner of my layout. Supplies for this page: Patterned Paper: Et Cetera - Mail Room, Et Cetera, Symphony, Gabrielle - Cut Outs Cardstock: Tutu Dot 6x6 Paper Pads: Timepiece (clock face embellishments) Noteworthy: Et Cetera Stickers: Et Cetera Combo Stickers Rub-on's: Timepiece Trinkets: Gabrielle Stamps: Timepiece Buttons: Bo Bunny Buttons & Bling Blooms were handmade by gathering strips of lace. Chipboard pieces: Dusty Attic Designs Lace & Pearl trims are off the roll from local fabric store. Cheesecloth, twine, ink & Stickles. If you like the page design please feel free to use my sketch and give it a go! Here is the sketch for this page... If you use the sketch design, I'd love it if you drop me a link here in a comment so I can come have a peek! I'd love to see what you all do with it! And be sure to drop off a link to your page at the Bo Bunny Blog (by November 3rd) for a chance to win some yummy Bo Bunny goodies!! xx

Hi Everyone, I have a fun little card to share with you today using the beautiful new Maja Design collection called Enjoying the Outdoors! I don't know about you, but I have so much to be thankful for, so for me it's important to always have lots of pretty 'Thank-you' cards on hand. I made this card for a dear friend who has been so generous with me, I wanted to say thanks to her in a way that shows my deep appreciation for her friendship. For this card I mainly used papers from the Maja Design 'Enjoying the Outdoors' collection. I used 'Late Summer Flowers-bs' for the background of my card. Then I opened my pack of Enjoying the Outdoors 6x6 paper pack and layered a variety of the patterned papers onto my card, using one of the mini-print floral papers as the inside of my heart design. Another Maja Design paper that I find indispensable is the clock paper 'XVI' from the Vintage Autumn Basics collection. I usually take a moment to cut out all the clocks and keep them in a little plastic baggie so I have them handy for embellishing my projects. Another little tip: I never throw out the paper strips from the bottom of my 12x12 paper pads, they come in so handy for decorating my projects as you can see here. A sweet friend of my sent me a bunch of chipboard frame designs, among them was this heart design. I painted the heart with Shimmerz Paints 'Grape-tastic' Dazzlerz, this is a thick pearlescent paint that goes on beautifully in one coat. While the paint was still wet I sprinkled on some bronze and purple micro beads (no name dollar store brand). I then finished the card design by adding a few Prima Hydrangea's in a purple color and used a leaf stamp from one of my stamp sets that I designed for The Scrapbook Diaries....these I stamped onto the 'Woodlands' paper, cut out and slightly crinkled them, then just tucked them into the floral cluster. I hope you enjoyed my project today and hopefully inspired you to use this gorgeous paper collection for your next cardmaking adventure! You can find this lovely paper collection at The Scrapbook Diaries (I know so many of you are looking to find this beautiful collection in North America :) Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today, I always enjoy your kind comments and feedback! xo

I'm so excited about this beautiful romantic NEW collection from Webster's Pages called Modern Romance!! I love the abundance of gorgeous floral elements in the papers (so perfect for those of us that love the fussy cutting!). And I LOVE the pretty black & white houndstooth paper in this collection, it makes such a lovely contrast to the fresh pretty pinks and whites! Here is a quick peek at the collection if you haven't already seen it! (It's a new release for the Winter CHA!) For my first layout using this collection I just had to go with a nice romantic photo just because the collection name is so suited to the photo!! This is another of my nephew's engagement photos. I printed the photo in black and white to go with the pink/black/white color palate I chose for this layout. The houndstooth design with the pink paper made me think of those classic Chanel suits, so I thought I would create a pleat/button design on the page to mimic the look of a Chanel suit. I made the buttons by simply cutting/or punching out 2 small circles from the houndstooth paper, rubbing a bit of black chalk ink around the edges to give the 'button' a rounded look. Then I pasted the circle to a piece of carstock that I painted with some copper/brass paint and cut a 1/8" edge around the circle to give the look of fabric mounted on brass button. I then attached it to the page with a foam dot to lift it off the page. (check out the cute new trims that go with this collection! I love the little rosettes trim!!) This collection also come with a bunch of new resin pieces!! Webster's pages is famous for thier gorgeous cameo resin pieces, now they come out with these adorable frames on which you can moun the cameos....or you can frame the cute new bird/nest cameo pieces with them! (above) For this layout I simply fussy cut some of the blooms in the patterned papers and created a handmade bloom from some crepe paper. I didn't use a whole lotta blooms on the page but it still has a nice full floral look because of the cut paper blooms (a great little money saving trick for those of us that may not have a lot of blooms in our stash). The chipboard window is a new chippie by Dusty Attic called Window with Shutters. I just love this piece! I simply pinted the piece white and rubbed the edges with a bit of brown chalk ink to give an aged look to it. And finally I have a couple of fun little cards I made up with the scraps I had left over from making the above layout mixed with another one of my favourite papers in this collection (this paper has a bunch of floral card/tag designs that are a perfect base for cardmaking) . You can find the full Modern Romance collection peeks at the Websters Pages Blog (along with a little peek a the other new collections being released at the CHA). There are so many cute new elements and embellishments coming out with this collection, new metal embellishments, darling little paper bags perfect for slipping journaling into and fun washi tapes and twine! (I'll be posting layouts with some of the new collections in the coming month, I think you will love them as much as I do! :)

So I printed off this dramatic gorgeous gown photo over a year ago (an image I got off of Pinterest) and had meant to do a page with rich colors and textures for quite some time now. Finally got around to doing it (as I still had so much family pics to scrap!). Sometimes it's fun to do a page 'just because', know what I mean? These are the Shimmerz Paints products I used for this project....as you will see in the video tutorial, each of these products has it's own unique quality whether it be the smooth thick texture of the Dazzlerz, the deep rich tones in the Coloringz and Vibez or the incredible shimmer of the Inklingz. NOTE: You can purchase your Shimmerz Paints HERE. Be sure to mention my name "Gabrielle" in the Instructions to Merchant part of your order to get your FREE/Bonus Shimmerz paint product in the color of your choice with your next Shimmerz Paints order! As always, a project is not complete for me unless I have a nice selection of Dusty Attic Chipboard in them. Above are the Dusty Attic Chipboard pieces I used for my project: Ornamental Trim Set (brand new product), Word Pack #14, Lacey Heart Frame Set.....and I used a NEW Dusty Attic Stencil design called Fans....if you haven't seen all the gorgeous new stencils from Dusty Attic, be sure to check them out, they are amazing, you can view them HERE!! You can find Dusty Attic Chipboard at The Scrapbook Diaries. I also used 3 stamp sets I designed for The Scrapbook Diaries, the two stamp sets on the left and right (above) are a couple of the newest stamps I've designed for them. You can purchase my stamps at this link at The Scrapbook Diaries. And good news for those 'down under'....Joanne Flannery at Embellish It! in New Zealand is now carrying my stamps (and stencils!) you can find her store HERE. So it's time to give yourself a little break, grab your favourite beverage and hope you enjoy watching my little video tutorial on how to make this page....Enjoy! Hope you had fun watching my tutorial. Here are a few close-ups you can view at your leisure.... I should note that after I filmed my tutorial, I felt my design needed a little more color in the bottom right section so I added a couple more spritzes of paint and some swirls of fibre threads (from a package I got from my local dollar store). I've had these Prima jewelled leaves sitting in my stash forever! When I was choosing my embellishing products I totally had to use these as I thought they were a good match for the colors I was using in the layout! I'm just loving those new Ornamental trims from Dusty Attic, ....kinda sad I've used the whole pack up....thinking I need to get me some more :) ....Really loving the new stencil designs as well, in the top right corner you can see some of the texture and design I got onto the page using the Fan stencil from Dusty Attic with my Homemade Texture Paste and some Shimmerz Paints. The pink and black butterflies were cut from one of my favorite Bo Bunny collections called Primrose (I used the paper called Bliss). I also used a fun BoBunny Stamp on this page called 'Butterflies'. TIP: Many of you ask what to do when your paper buckles from wetting or spritzing your paper with paints and water. One of my favorite things to do is use my hair flattening iron on the paper, its a quick and easy fix! So I hope you enjoyed todays post and hope I've given you some inspiration to get out your scrapping/mixed media products and play! Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today and leaving such sweet comments and feedback, they really make my day! xo xo

Hello friends, I know it's been a while since I last posted! It's been a busy summer, we just finished putting in new floors in our kitchen, bathroom and mud-room....now we are doing a little painting. But with the kids back to school, I will have time to get more projects going! Today I have a mixed media page and Video Tutorial to share with you using some lovely Dusty Attic chipboard, some Shimmerz Paints and Maja Design Papers from the Nyhavn collection. I used the Dusty Attic September 2015 Inspiration board to choose my colors for the page. NOTE: there is still plenty of time to play along in this months Inspiration board challenge, just be sure to post your project in the right side column of the Dusty Attic blog....there is a $100.00 Gift Certificate to the DA online store up for grabs! These are the Shimmerz Paints products I used on the background of my page as well as on the Dusty Attic chipboard pieces. NOTE: Remember to mention my name 'Gabrielle' in your 'Instructions to Merchant/seller' part of your order to get your FREE/Bonus Shimmerz Paints product in the color of your choice! These are the Dusty Attic products I used to create this page design. I created a short(ish) video tutorial to show how this page was made. So, grab a beverage, take a little break and enjoy!.... Hope you enjoyed my little tutorial! Mixed media pages are a lot of fun to make and (other than drying time) go fairly quickly. Here are a few close-ups you can view at your leisure. I love all the new wonderful title chippies available from Dusty Attic. For this one I simply stamped it with some black ink and applied it to the page. The blooms I used here were a very inexpensive layered sticker set I bought at my local dollar store (I thought the colors were a good match to the inspiration board :) Here you can see the lovely texture I got on the Elegant Swirls #3 chippie by using some Shimmerz Gritty Graphite Textures on it....I feel like it gives it a kind of cool iron look. The cute lil bridge was part a super generous gift pack sent to me by a dear friend in Hawaii....thanks so much Kimberly! Underneath the photo and in the corner of my page design I used one of the stencils I designed for The Crafter's Workshop called 'Moving Vines'. For this project I used the 6x6 size. I also added a bit of stamping using a text stamp from Bo Bunny (It is Written Stamp) and a brick textures stamp I designed for The Scrapbook Diaries. You can find both my stamp and my stencil at The Scrapbook Diaries (USA) HERE. ...and some great news for Canadians! I just heard from Karen Ellis at The Art House Studio in Cambridge, Ontario (Canada), she has all my stencils in her online shop, so hopefully this makes ordering easier for Canadians, you can find her shop HERE. Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today, as always I so appreciate all the kind and lovely comments and feedback, you ladies truly make my day! xo

I've been wanting to play with texture pastes for a while now but the penny-pincher in me was holding me back a bit! I was all set to bite the bullet and go out and pay the $25.00-$35.00 it was going to cost me to pick it up from Michaels but then I thought I'll do a little research and see if there are any recipies out there for making home-made texture paste! I found one that looked pretty easy so I thought I would give it a go, and guess what? It worked perfectly! (I'll share the recipe and some pic's of me using it on this page lower down but first I thought I'd share some close-ups of the page I made).... For this page I used a combination of Webster's Pages Park Drive and Once Upon a Halloween collections (using the non theme sides of this paper collection). I also used some of their beautiful embellishments as well (Cameo) and the focus of the page is the title design! I am a HUGE fan of the Webster's Pages Alphabet Sticker sheets (they are called Storytellers). I'm particularly fond of the scripted design. In fact many of you send me emails asking what die cutting font I use for my title work and the answer is so easy! I don't! I use the Storytellers! Here is what they look like when you buy a Websters Pages Collection kit (they can also be purchased seperately) I love the large amount of vowels you get, my sticker sheets go a LONG way... For the above layout I used the scripted and the regular printing paper font for my title work. I thought it would be fun to use the larger letter stickers as a mask. I placed my alpa's where I wanted them but didn't press down to adhere them to the page. First I flipped them downward and spritzed with a little glimmer mist to create a 'mirror reflection', then I flipped them back up and adhered them to the page. I thought it was kinda cool because the title was 'You Shine' and the reflection design kind of reinforced the idea :) Okay, now for the HOME MADE TEXTURE PASTE/MEDIUM!! It's a really easy recipe, quick to make and super inexpensive! (Now I have to admit I have no experience with storebrand texture mediums so I can't say how they compare but I thought this stuff worked nicely!) TEXTURE PASTE/MEDIUM RECIPE 1/2 cup Baking Soda 2 Tablespoons white school glue 1-2 Tablespoons White Acrylic Paint (some water may be necessary) Instructions: I took an air tight container and put in my baking soda. I then added the glue, acrylic paint and started mixing. I used a couple of disposable chopsticks to mix it up (we like take out sushi heehee) ....I just mixed to get a smooth consistency, I added a few drops of water to get it to the consistency I wanted. There are many types of texture mediums in the store, from light to heavy, so the amount of water you add will depend on the heaviness of the texture you are looking for. Done! (The mixture keeps well in the air tight container....I made this layout a few weeks ago and kept it on my craft shelf, I just checked it and it's still perfectly usable....some of the moisture was floating on top, I just gave it a stir and it was good to go!) In my research I also saw some recipes that used talcum powder instead of the baking soda, I haven't tried it with talcum powder but I bet it would give a slightly smoother texture. For my design below, the slightly rougher texture was perfect for my brick design. So here again, me and my thrifty ways! LOL! I find where I live, I find it hard to find masks, but I did have the Dusty Attic Brick Wall chippies in my stash. I throw next to nothing out. I used the negative space left from my brick chippies that I've used in past projects and used it as a mask. Just filled in with the paste. Below you can see the result when I lifted the 'mask' I found that the medium chipped off a little here and there so what I did was brushed a little Gesso over the design to bind it better. (I think next time I make it I'll add a touch more glue). I then rubbed a few different chalk inks on the design (after it dried) to pick up the texture more. Supplies: Patterned Paper: Parkdrive (Through the Lens, Blanket, Trails, Margaret), Once Upon a Halloween (Haunted House, Whooo's There) Perfect Accents: In Love WP Bloomers: Pink Dazzle-Me-Gems: Everyday Poetry Digital Motifs: Parkdrive Storyteller Alphabet Stickers: Western Romance, Sweet Holiday Dusty Attic Chipboard: Brick Wall Panel, Swirl Vine #2, Mini Scrolls, Cameo Sliders And before I close I wanted share a super CUTE little freebie from Websters Pages Digi!! Aren't these just the cutest little cards? I used to put little notes in my girls lunches when they were littler ...wish I had these back then!.....here's a little peek!... You can pick up your free Lunchbox notes to download and print off HERE! But that's not all!! Websters Pages has brought out a NEW super-cute (and inexpensive) monthly treat, just for you! The SPRINKLES CRAFTBOX!! Check this out! Do you want a little peek to see what is in the September Sprinkles Craftbox? Check it out! (You will be seeing some cute sample projects done with the Sprinkles Craftbox Starting on Monday at the Websters Pages blogsite).... You can find out about this wonderful little monthly treat, that will be available in limited quantity on the first Monday of every month HERE! And guess what? Yep! you get the cookie too! :) :) Thanks for stopping in, hope everyone has an awesome weekend! We're going to have one more nice family weekend before the kids are back to school! :)

First off I'm so excited to share with you all my latest layout and video tutorial created for The Scrapbook Diaries (BUT I ALSO HAV...

Hi Everyone! I'm so excited to share some news with you all today! There is an amazing NEW magazine starting up in the UK called Scrap365 and I was asked to be on their design team! To celebrate, Scrap365 is holding a bloghop so you can all get to know the magazine and the design team! For those of you who don't know me yet, I would say my style of scrapping is Shabby-chic & vintage style but I do think it's every changing too! I'm presently on the Websters Pages, Bo Bunny, Dusty Attic and The Color Room Design Teams and have been on the Daisy D's, Zva Creative and My Creative Scrapbook DT's, and now I can add Scrap365 Magazine to another wonderful design team I get to be on! Here are just a few of my most recent pages so you can get an idea of my style and what you can look forward to seeing in my articles in Scrap365.... Leave a comment on each of our DTs blog and here and you could win a years subscription to Craft Stamper magazine plus stamps worth over £20! So without further ado here's the hop list. Have fun! Scrap365 - you are here! Amanda Jones - http://amandajonesblog.blogspot.com/ Kim Woods - http://kim-becrafty.blogspot.com Lisa Saunders - http://scrappyfairies.blogspot.com Tomoko Takahashi - http://crop-addict.blogspot.com Laura McCollough - http://akissonthechic.typepad.com Mahlin Wiggur - http://mahlin.blogg.se Michelle Jackson-Mogford - www.mjm-thearttart.blogspot.com Wendy McKee - http://www.wendymckee.co.uk Natalie McDonald - http://njmacs.blogspot.com/ Christiane Muller - http://schulu.blogspot.com Brit Sviggum - http://britshverdag.blogspot.com Marsha Valk - http://marshavalk.wordpress.com Sian Fair - http://fromhighinthesky.blogspot.com Lousette Ashton - http://andthenicraft.blogspot.com Emy Buxton - http://www.emyscraftyblog.blogspot.com Anna Bjorklund - http://mymessyspot.blogspot.com Lynn Grieveson - http://www.lynngrieveson.typepad.com Morag Cutts - http://scrapbook-junkie.blogspot.com Suzy Beecher - http://mind-spillage.blogspot.com Jean Franks Beck - http://bluebirdpaperie.blogspot.com Louise Nelson - http://louise-justloolabelle.blogspot.com Audrey Tan - http://organisedmess.blogspot.com Gabrielle Pollocco - http://gabriellepollacco.blogspot.com (me) The first issue of Scrap365 will be on the newstands November 18th so mark your calendars for that! I'm sure this will be and exciting and beautiful new magazine!! ~Gabrielle xx

I'm having one of those weeks. Lot's of projects to get done for my design teams, and totally short on time. Luckily I got this card done for Maja Design yesterday, before all the craziness started today! My husband and I are looking to get our roof re-shingled, so we've been trying to get some quotes. This morning while I was getting my pic's done for this post, our plumbing pipes burst, the ones leading from the street to the house!.....Major water pouring in and no way to stop it! So the basement got flooded, and now we have to do major plumbing repairs.....fixing the plumbing from the street will require, tearing up our concrete driveway and putting in all new pipes....sigh, so much for putting in a new roof before the winter. ...Well, at least I have a happy card to share, the bloom was fun to create using little scraps of Maja Design papers, from the Coffee in the Arbour Collection. One of my favourite sheets of paper from this collection is the 'Delicious Moments' paper with it's sweet little 'coffee' time or snack time vignettes. I really like this paper because it offers great little pic's to use as center pieces to a cheerful card design. I used the coffee/roses and chocolate cake design for my card. I simply cut out the coffee cup design, used an edge destressor on the edges and did a little machine stitiching around the edges of my cut papers. I wanted to give my card a bit of a home-spun look so I created a flower design that I hope resembles a patterned quilt look. I cut out a flower petal pattern from a bunch of the scrap papers I had from this paper collection, then moistened with water and gathered the bottom edge. It's been a crazy week, and a busy one (two blog posts in one day!) and I have lot's more projects to share. I hope next week will prove to be a better week (not holding my breath, I have a feeling this plumbing problem is going to drag out over a week). Maybe I should send this card to myself huh? :)

Hi everyone! I thought today I would share a step by step on how I made the above layout, start to finish. Here are the Shimmerz products I used to create this page.... Shimmerz Products used: ~ Hot Fudge Spritz ~ My Bleeding Heart Coloringz ~ Ruby Spritz ~ Caribbean Sunset Sprtiz ~ Tuscan Sun Spritz ~Rolling In the Hay Vibez ~ Copperhead Dimensionz ~ I'm not Limon Inklingz ~ Gosh Garnet Inklingz Dusty Attic Products used: ~ Wildflower #2 ~ Vine Border Rather than try and explain the steps, I've made up a video tutorial to show you how I did it. So grab a cuppa coffee/or tea sit back and enjoy! I hope you enjoy watching my video and will want to give your own page a try! Here are a few closeups of the page that you can view at your leisure.... I used some gorgeous blooms from Tresors de luxe to decorate the corner cluster by the photo. I added a little texture with somehome made texture paste with a stencil and I added a shabby brick look by lightly brushing on some Copperhead Dimensionz with the tip of my finger. The Dusty Attic vine I painted with some 'I'm Not Limon' Inklingz. After spritzing my background with a variety of Shimmerz Spritz's, I added some stamping and rub-on's. I also fussy cut some elements from Prima Almanac papers to embellish. I painted the new Dusty Attic Wildflower #2 chipboard with yet more of the Inklingz, I'm Not Limon and Gosh Garnet. NOTE: The color you see when you open a tub of Inklingz is not necessarily the color that it becomes when activated with water....for the true color, see the samples at the Shimmerz Website/Shop. I hope you enjoyed my project today and will give these gorgeous Shimmerz products a try. You can shop for your own Shimmerz products HERE. And remember, to receive your own FREE/Bonus Shimmerz product be sure to mention my name in the INTRUCTIONS TO MERCHANT area of your order. Happy Scrappin'

Hi all, Gabrielle here with you today to share my latest layout I made of one of my adorable little great-nieces. I felt like doing a ...

I found this photo (above left) of my youngest daughter Meagan when she was a baby,....her smile just melts my heart....goodness do I ever miss those gummy baby smiles. But then I look at recent photos I took of her and I realize that I just love every stage of her growing up. And that smile.....still makes me melt :) I used the beautiful new collection by Websters Pages called Western Romance to make up this page. I combined a few of the patterned papers (Date Night, Country Fresh, Sweet Romance) along with their beautiful coordinating embellishments: Pink Bloomers, Western Romance Fabric Tickets, Fabric Ribbon, Heart shape Whimsies, Silhouettes (cameo), Cameo Push Pins, Threads Shapes (heart doily under the Cameo), Glitter Sparklers, and of course those lovely alpha stickers from the Western Romance collection. The dome shaped design over the photo is from the newest releases from Dusty Attic Arched Window #1 code #DA0569. This laser cut comes with a Window frame and 3 toppers so it goes a long way! Here are some closeup picks of this layout.... If you like what you see and your local scrapstore doesn't carry this gorgeous product, you can always order directly from the Websters Pages Website! Don't forget to become a follower of the Websters Pages Facebook page to get all the updates on sales and specials....there have been some AMAZING sales of late, so don't miss out! Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting....I'm happy to answer any questions you may have :)

First off I'm so excited to share with you all my latest layout and video tutorial created for The Scrapbook Diaries (BUT I ALSO HAVE SOME HAPPY NEWS TO SHARE WITH YOU ALL REGARDING MY PAST VIDEO TUTORIALS FOR THE SCRAPBOOK DIARIES)! This layout was fun to make and full of really fun items to use on a page!....pretty resins, mists, my favorite brick stamp, loads of Prima blooms and more! I also LOVE the Lindy's Mists in this one! If you are a little timid in trying out mists on your pages, you will totally love these mists, the are soft and subtle, easy colors to work with! And while I will admit my last video was a little more challenging, this one is a layout that I believe can be recreated by crafters of all skill levels. As always, The Scrapbook Diaries has created a kit that is packed with all the items you will need to create this page plus a bonus page, as well as giving you full, unlimited access to the video tutorial showing how to create this page (with purchase of the kit). Here is a close-up of some of the gorgeous Prima blooms included in this lovely kit, as well as the unique and beautiful chipboard, resin frame, lace, stamps etc. included in the kit. As always the kit also includes the amazing mixed media products (mists/sprays) I used for this page as well! (Here are a few more close-ups)... Janene, the owner of The Scrapbook Diaries tells me that my kits have been selling out fast, so if you missed out on the last few kits, you might want to hop onto this one quickly! You can find the kit and video information HERE. The kit is offered as a Basic Kit or as a Complete kit (this allows you to have some flexibility in your purchase price.....sometimes you may have the extra mixed media items in your stash and just want the basic kit to complete the page design). I've also got some other exciting news for you all! The 4 other kits (shown below) that I created for The Scrapbook Diaries have completely sold out, but after talking to Janene, we felt that it's a shame to leave the videos created for the kits to sit idle as they have a lot of technique in them that we feel can be enjoyed by more of an audience. So Janene has set it up that the video tutorials are now available for a small fee for unlimited viewing to anyone that purchases them for online viewing. (We decided to put them up for a small fee to be fair to the customers that paid for the full kit and video). Here are the VIDEO TUTORIALS that are now available..... Video Tutorial Link for 'Love' can be found~~~~ HERE Video Tutorial Link for 'Happiness' can be found ~~~~ HERE Video Tutorial for 'Love Beyond Measure' can be found ~~~~ HERE Video Tutorial for 'Memories' can be found ~~~~ HERE As you can imagine I put a lot of work into these layouts and video tutorials, so I am so pleased that more of you will now be able to access these videos. The one time small fee will give you unlimited access to the the videos, once your purchase has gone through, you will recieve a code that will give you access to the video. Thanks so much for stopping in today, and to all those lovely ladies who are so sweet to frequent my blog and leave all the lovely comments and feedback, I just want to say a big thank-you, your kindness is so appreciated!

Here's a layout I recently made using a photo I took of my two girls at an apple festival we went to. Although my girls are 3 years apart, I love that the two of them get along (most of the time :) and have fun together. I used another pretty Dusty Attic Chippie in the corner (Scroll #7) Hope everyone has an awesome weekend! xx

I have been wanting to try making an art journal for a long time now and I finally gave it a go! For me, Websters Pages and Dusty Attic are two companies that just go so well together! So I used the Dusty Attic Arched Window Set DA#0569 and one of their title chippies (Art) DA0386 along with Websters Pages Western Romance Papers, WP Ribbon, WP Stamps (Beauty stamped on frame) and WP Postcards (birds). I got my journal book at a local dollar store and other than the above items I added a bit of simple kitchen cheesecloth and some pearl strands. I treated the DA frame with some cream color paint, brown chalk ink, some script/flourish stamping and finally coated it all with some Tim Holtz Rock Candy (crackle finish). Here are a few close-up pic's of the book.... Now I have somewhere to keep page ideas I come up with, little hand drawn sketches or even notes for my design team work. My daughter saw this one and now wants me to make her one too....so you may see some more of these books pop up on my blog :) ....Keep an eye out, hint hint, Dusty Attic and Websters Pages will be teaming up and sharing projects from their DT's in a few weeks time!

Every month Maja Design has this really cool Mood Board Challenge going....it's a really fun and inspirational board that suggests colors, text, embellishments and moods. This months mood board was made to work with the Vintage Summer Basics collection but there are many other Maja Design papers that work really well with the mood board as well. I just love using the mood board to inspire a page. I loved the feminine pretty photos in the mood board and I chose a number of the words to use on my page like 'lace', 'pearls', 'shades of misty rose', 'pale peach', 'beauty', 'flowers' and 'shimmer'. And what a beautiful poem, just the thing to put you in the mood for scrapping! Here is the mood board for February if you want to play along (there is a beautiful Maja collection up for grabs for the winner!! See challenge rules at this link Maja February Mood Board Challenge) I wanted to get a nice soft feminine effect on the page so I started out with 2 layers of patterned papers from the Maja Design collection called 'Vintage Summer Basics' (1908-bs, 1921, 1925) and some torn strips from the 6x6 paper pad from the same collection. Although I had these pretty new papers to work with I wanted to be practical and use some of my older stash as well. I have all these lovely rub-on's that I've been hoarding from my days on the Daisy D's design team and I figured I will eventually have to stop hoarding and use them right? lol. The 'Life is Good' title is from one of the Daisy D's rub-on sheets and the white lace design is a rub-on from another Daisy D's rub-on sheet I had. I first did a little bit of inking with a make-up sponge and some Tim Holtz Victorian Velvet Distress Ink, I think it's the perfect color to match the pinks in the Maja collection. This also allowed the white lace rub-on to show up better on the patterned paper. Here are more close-ups of the page.... Now I have to let you know that I've had a number of people ask how I get the paper to pull down when I do those little peek-a-boo edges. Sometimes it's just easier to do a little video tutorial than to explain it. So I got my oldest daughter to hold the camera while I recorded a little piece for you to see how I do it. I have to appologize in advance about the sound quality on this video piece, my daughter taped it with my phone camera and I'm thinking she may have had her hand over the speaker while taping some parts. But I think you'll still see how easy it is to do when you watch the clip.... Here is another close-up of one of the pulled back paper edges. The key for sure is that you want to use a nice heavy weight paper that can take the paper manipulation...and you can find that in the Maja Design papers, they are a great quality paper! And finally I wanted to mention the lovely chipboard pieces I used on the this page. The loopy sweet vine you see on my page edges is a new one from Dusty Attic called 'Swirly Vines #3' and the floral chippie that I used to frame my photo is one called 'Floral Corners' that I cut up so that it would wrap around the photo. Below are a couple of steps is did in making up the frame design. The actual first step is to paint your chipboard white and then tint the leafy areas with some green chalk ink. Then you want to glue your chipboard pieces to your layout. Continue with the steps below... I like to fill in the petal areas with a bit of Glossy Accents after the Stickles dry just because I find the Stickles dry fairly flat and I love the thick glossy look they have when they are wet. Adding the Glossy accents keeps that glossy thick look to the petals. I hope these tips and tutorials have helped! If you every have any questions and would like to see a demonstration of techniques I use on my pages just leave a comment and ask....I'll see what I can do about getting tutorials posted. And if you would like to play along this month in the Maja February Mood Board Challenge you can find the rules for the challenge there as well (the main rules being that you please resize your photos to 600x600 pi and that you not put on any watermarks for the challenge page entry....also that you must use some Maja Design papers to enter the challenge). We had loads of entries last month and look forward to seeing your creations this month as well! 

Here is another page I made with the gorgeous NEW Webster's Pages 'Postcards From Paris II' collection! I went with the soft aqua colors in the collection this time. Again I did a little masking work with a stencil I found by Heidi Swapp and some home made texture paste (recipe is in the rigt side column of my blog). I didn't have my coordinating emellishments for this collection yet so I went with some embellishments from some of the past collections (I find they all inter-mingle so well). I used the fabric trims from Everyday Poetry and Royal Christmas and the Princess Petals bloom. I also used a few of the beautiful cameo's Websters Pages is famous for! The swirly chiboard piece is from Dusty Attic and I liberally embellished the page with those cute yelow/white butterflies that to me just scream Websters Pages! (you can find a contact sheet printout that I made up for these butterflies in my right side column under tutorials) This beautiful collection should be coming to stores near you soon! If you missed out on the first time the Postcards from Paris collection came out, you won't want to miss out on it this time! Looking forward to seeing what you all create with this one! xo

You know how some months if you get a few/couple of different kits you kind of pick a favourite from among them? This month I just couldn't pick one over the other I just LOVED each of them!! But I guess if you held a gun to my head I'd have to pick the Album kit this month! I just loved the papers and even more so, the embellishments Pam put together with this kit! There were 3 packages of Prima goodies (rose blooms, fabric blooms & a beautiful crystal flourish) and the trims!!...oh! so beautiful!! I loved the green leaf vine trim and the pink rossette trim, and always a favourite the creamy lace trim! I made the above l/o using a bunch of these goodies. Did a little machine stitching with a touch of masking with some black chalk ink. Did I mention the beautiful rub-ons too? (also in the kit......just as a point of note, ALL the things you see on on the layouts of the MCS design team, other than some cardstock, can be found in the kit, we don't suppliment things on the pages from our own stash or from 'add-on' kits! So when you order the MCS kits you know you can re-create the work you're seeing done by the design team without any big extra expenses) The rose in the top right corner was made from cardstock using the water distress method you can find to the right of my blogsite. Here are a few close-ups of the above l/o....the photo is one I took of my youngest daughter walking along a path in Autumn of last year.... This kit allowed for many color combinations, for the next l/o I went with some of the lavender colours. The photo is one I took of my youngest up at the cottage, we always do a little crafting there and we had made up the little butterfly headband she's wearing in the photo.... The butterflies were made from the Prima packaging, I just cut out a butterfly shape with a pair of scissors (I know! it's time to get a butterfly punch....if anyone know of a good one please let me know!) ....again the small white lavender blooms I made with a little cardstock using the Water Distessed Flowers method.... In this 3rd layout I scrapped a picture of my newest baby niece Jade (a professional shot taken by Stephanie Robins Designs). I've been saving this photo for the right papers and I think I found them in this kit..... I cut a few of the little ribbon rosettes from the trim to embellish my green vine trim and I extended the size of one of the roses in the kit with a little bin of white cardstock and pink chalk ink (again using the water distess method). Here are a few close-ups.... Another beautiful kit I got to design with this month was the Main Kit. I just love that each and every month Pam puts something fun in the kit that allows us to get a little creative. This time around there was some resist paper by Pink Paislee. The paper doesn't look like much when you first take it out but then when you start applying inks and glimmer mists, these wonderful patterns appear. For the l/o below I used a couple of chalk inks on the resist paper (Denim Blue and Chestnut Brown, on the paper behind the photo).... The leave's were cut from one of the muted patterned papers in the kit (I made extras by tracing one of the designs over and over and handcutting them)....There's also a nice swatch of brown tulle in the kit, I used part of it to create the backing for the diamond shaped pattern to the right of the photo. I machine stitched the diamond pattern and added the blue gems from the kit to the cross sections....here are a few close-ups I really loved the muted pretty shades in this kit. So for my next l/o I went with the soft greens, and to add to the softness I added a hint of smokey grey carstock. The branch and leaves were designs I cut from one of the patterned papers, I added a little green & brown chalk inks to make them stand out more. I've been running a challenge for last month and this month called 'Scrap the Scrapper' with a really amazing prize. So I thought I would do another page this month as a sample for the challenge ....here I listed 3 favourites of mine for 2010 ....Music: Marianas Trench ....TV: Anything on the Food Network ....Movie: The Perfect Getaway (love movies that leave you guessing all the way to the end!)..... NOTE: If you would like to play along in my challenge and have a chance to win a really awesome prize, see the link for a photo of the prize! (and at the same time get scrapping about yourself!) You can find my challenger here ~~> Scrap the Scrapper Challenge ....I also give a bunch of helpful tips on how to get a really good photo of yourself in the challenge thread, so come join us! The large blooms in the above layout are the soft & pretty blooms by BoBunny called Cream Gardenia Petals. I altered them a tiny bit by watering down some Tim Holtz alcohol ink (colour: Meadow) and applying it to the inner center of the bloom with a Q-tip. Just apply to the lower part of the petal, you only need to do a few layers of the center petals, no need to do all of them. Here are some close-ups.... A third l/o I made with this kit, I went with a more nostalgic look. I love the combination of aqua with deep brown/bronze colours. This past summer when we were on a hike up at the cottage we came across an abandoned railway car. The kids immediately started climbing, so out came my camera. I got this photo of my girls and their Opa (my Dad) in one of the cars. I printed the photo in sepia to get more of a vintage look to it.... The blooms on this page were made by using the Paper Shapers Retro Flower punch on some of the patterned papers in the kit and then giving them the 'water distress' treatment. I used a bit of the brown Tulle in the kit on the bloom to the far left. The butterflies were again made from the Prima packaging from the blooms in the kit. Here are a few close-ups... And last but not least there was the gorgeous Limited Edition kit that I got to work with this month. If you enjoy doing the 'fussy cutting' on your l/o's, this is the kit for you! This kit is just PACKED with gorgeous papers and the embellishments are wonderful too! Pam worked hard to get this amazing collection into this kit in time for the November release, the collection is BasicGrey Curio and boy are this papers beautiful IRL! ....And the extra's in the kit....you're gonna love these, loads of Prima blooms/& floral vines, cameos, sequin trims, pearl strands, layered stickers, rub-ons and so much more! Here is the first l/o I made with this kit... Again I made the butterflies for this page using the Prima packaging and the 'Embossed Butterfly' Tutorial I posted at the right side of my blog. Here are a few close-up pic's... This 2nd l/o I made with the LE kit I used a kind of a 'joke' photo my husband took of me when I needed a photo for the 20 questions blog feature at the MCS blog. My friend Julie Howard said I had to give her a humorous photo, so he took a bunch of pic's of me 'rolling in my scrapbooking blooms'....I ended up going with a different photo, but thought I would scrap this one for fun :) I did a little fussy cutting and machine stitching for this one. The bird cage is a rub-on from the kit. Here are a few close-up detail shots.... A 3rd layout I made with this kit I went with the romantic lacy looking papers, I did a little bit of corset stitching with it....The photo is one my husband took of my youngest daughter and I when we were on summer vacation a couple years back.... The butterflies were cut from one of the patterned papers in the kit (there are also some beautiful rub-on butterflies too)... And a 4th l/o I made with this kit I went with the warm yellows/appricot colors mixed with soft aqua. I was amazed at how many different looks you could get with this kit! Again, everything you see on these pages are from the kits, no need for any add on's or taking from your stash to make up these pages....take my word for it, the value of this kit is worth every penny! I did some more fussy cutting for this l/o along with a little bit of stitching. Here are a few close-up details shots of this page... Because I had 3 kits to work with this month I only had time to make 4 l/o's with the LE kit but I can tell you I've got loads more goodies in this kit and could easily make more pages with the papers & embellies I have left. I think you girls are going to love this one! Thanks so much for stopping by.....and just a reminder.....My Creative Scrapbook is still in the midst of their HUGE Sketch contest ....ton's of amazing Prizes to be won, you can find the link to this contest here ~~~> MCS Sketch Contest ~Gabrielle xxx