Awesome - 123

You might remember back on this post here I mentioned that I attended a scrap day this month. On said day, I completed almost 4 pages, well this page was that was almost completed.

Awesome

I ended up leaving it alone on the day as it just wasn't working for me. Over this month it has sat on my scrap desk starring at me. I'd move/put something on it every day but something was just off. And to be honest, I'm still not 100% happy with it.

I was inspired to scrap this snap shot of my daughter Chloe by the July challenge at 123 challenge blog. To take part there are 3 stipulations, use the specified colour, a certain word and a defined technique. This month bright colours, word awesome and technique arrows.

Now when someone talks about bright colours, my mind tends to go straight toward Rangers Dylusion Mists. The most vibrant intense colours around. So that is where I started this page. First I used the purple, pink and yellow spray in sections over the page, then to bring them together I sprayed white over a heart Heidi Swapp mask.

The word awesome has been used twice, both on a piece of flair in the bottom right and as the title towards the bottom left. The title is a sticker from the Simple Stories DIY Boutique collection, I outlined in black to make it stand out better.

For the arrows I simply rounded up all the arrow stamps I have and used them randomly pointing towards the focus photo. I have also used n Elle's Studio stamp 'summed up in one word' which fits so perfectly.

The patterned paper is from the Glitz design and is a perfect match to the shirt see is wearing.
Another flair button and some more DIY Boutique stickers appear around the photo.

So that's this page for now. Maybe I will come back to it again one day.
XoXoX Nicole

B'Day Bounty - Scrap The Boys

Back again!
And back to creating pages about my usual subjects, my kiddos. This time some pictures of Jayce that may have been slightly staged just so I could make this page...

B'Day Bounty

The page has been using almost only Bella Blvd. Mainly from the recent-ish 'Max' collection but I also drove back into the archives and used some 'Birthday Boy' pieces too.

The inspiration to take and scrap photos of Jayce with some of his first birthday presents came from the July challenge at Scrap The Boys which is 'Big Boy Toys'. This is the third month in a row that STB challenge site has inspired me.

These toys are a little old for him yet but I am sure that they will his favourites in no time. I have used two WOW wood veneers of each of the toys near the photo with who brought it for him.

To journal I have printed the text onto white cardstock then cut into strips and stuck down. I also brought out the sewing machine again and stitched around the two patterned paper edges.

The two presents, fussy cut from Birthday Boy paper, have been put up on foam dots for some pop and the birthday banner piece has only been stitched, no glue added.

Well thanks for checking out my page. Hope you are having a great day!!
XoXoX Nicole

(heart) you - Sassy Scrappers & Flutterby Designs

So I did a very quick inventory of my scrapbooks the other day and was completely blown away to discovered that I have created over 100 pages!!! WOW!
But then a kinda sad thought pop into my head. In ALL of these pages there was not a single layout of just Brenden and I... So I set about fixing that.

{heart} you

This has to be one of my most favourite photos of us, we look just like us, our everyday selves. It was taken October 2009 at Octoberfest in Tempe NSW, an event we promise to attend every year but haven't made it since having the kids.

I turned to some scrappy challenges to get this page done. First up I used the sketch challenge for Flutterby Designs 1st Birthday celebrations. The photo was a bit big to use this sketch to its full potential but unfortunately this is the only quality print I have of it =( My digital version has been lost, so this is actually a photocopy of picture I have had in a frame which has now been damaged.

I also took inspiration from the July Moodboard at Sassy Scrappers. As much as I absolutely love the white black and teal colour combo in the board, it was the black and sparkly gold that stuck with me.

The page uses only two pieces of pattern paper, both from the 'Sprinkled with Love' collection from Websters Pages. The repeated squares are gold foiled vellum which I hand cut super easily on my craft mat by simply following the lines I could see through the vellum.

The background has been given a little spray with both black and white dylusions mist to mix it up a bit with two WOW altaMATZ that I have then outlined in a white pen. I've also used texture paste and put a bunch of hearts all around the two focus areas of the page.

I loved the design of the (heart)you so much I decided to make it my title by hand stitching in the middle of the design with gold and white thread. I even used a matching piece of chipboard that I painted gold too.

Two other WOW chipboard piece make an appearance also painted gold at the top of the photo.

Thanks for dropping by. I'm still not done for the month of July so stop by again soon!
XoXoX Nicole.

Mummys Little Man - Kreative Koncepts

Well hello there. Fancy seeing you here.

Today I have a scrap page to share which features Jayce and myself taking some selfies.

The page uses mostly Elle's Studio Cameron collection. It is perfect for recent photos of Jayce as I feel he is too old for baby collections but still too young for most other boy collections. Plus Elle's Studio have heaps of embellishments, fantastic colours and actually white whites! All my favourites.

The layout is again from a sketch challenge, this time challenge #27 from Kreative Koncepts previously know as Scrap Friends. It has changed management and the new owner decided to change the name to match her brick and mortar store. The sketch instantly inspired me, I love multiple photo sketches and the idea of making one bigger to highlight it is awesome.

I was flicking through my chipboard stash when I stumbled upon this title pieces from WOW, it's great having such an awesome Aussie chipboard company. They spell things the right way =D I choose to paint it colours matching Jayces shirt, which by the way says "Mummys Little Super Hero".

Once everything was stuck down I felt the corners were lacking something. I looked back through the Cameron papers and noticed the back of the cut-off bit had patterns too (love companies that do that!). That's were I found the orange arrow strips and the little coloured stars which I painstakingly fussy cut out.

The other chipboard sticker embellishments are from the Pink Paislee 'Hello Sunshine' stickers pack. Soo much goodness in this, perfect little words for every type of page. The reason I used some was for the 'kiss me' sticker.

Hopefully more to come yet with this collection!
Thank you for dropping in.
XoXoX Nicole.

Note: I am pleased to report that this page was chosen as a top 5 layout at Kreative Koncepts. Thank you.

Crazy Hair Days - Stuck?!

Another layout completed in the month of July. I think I might be verging on a monthly record!
Todays page features my daughter Chloe on an interesting hair day or two. The poor bub. Her Mum got the date wrong and sent her to day care with crazy hair a week early, woops, so she got to celebrate twice.

Crazy Hair Days

The design of the page is courtesy of the current July 1st sketch at Stuck?! This sketch instantly caught my attention. I had to play along and have been planning this layout all month!! I even linked my last page up at Stuck?! by accident, it has been on my mind that much!

I kept very true to the sketch, its perfect as is. Only needing to split the title next to both the photos as it was a bit too long for just the one.

Triangles are a serious trend at the moment so I decided to embrace them in the sketch design adding a few extras which gave more attention to the non-triangle elements such as the photos, flair and the &.

Recently I read a tutorial by the amazing scrapbooker Stephanie Buice on Sewing on your Layouts for My Creative Scrapbook. You can also find it and other awesome pages on her blog My Bits Of Sunshine.
It answered one question I had since my aunty Mandy let me borrow her sewing machine "How do you make the starts/finishing of your sewing look neat?" The answer was so simple poke it back through a hole. Derrrrrr. So I went a little sewing crazy and went all around the edge and around each background triangle. The corner below is the start/stop point, can you tell?
I used the gab created between the sewing and paper edge to do my journalling which fitted perfectly right around.

I have again gone Simple Stories exclusive this time using the DIY Boutique collection. An absolutely amazing collection full of colour, cool black/white patterns and lots of fun stickers! Including some clear stickers of fabulous words just perfect for adding onto the photos themselves.

Part of the reason I chose this collection was for the ampersand paper to help emphasis that it was crazy hair dayS! My bad.
Think I might start using black cardstock more often. Hope you like the page. See you again soon.
XoXoX Nicole

Quick Card - Sketch N Scrap

Back again. This time here to share a card I made for Brendens sister Renee.

You may remember that I made one for her last year here and I think liked it. So I wanted to make her another one this year.

I must apologies for the terrible photo quality. I snapped it super quick before we headed out to dinner to celebrate. The card itself was made just as quickly because I may have slightly run out of time during the day.

The quick create was helped greatly by the Card Sketch #29 over at Sketch N Scrap.

The product used is from October Afternoons Midway collection. The glasses and lips reminded me of Renee then the rest just feel together from there. Don't you just love it when that happens.

Renee, I promise I'll make another one next year and give myself more time!

XoXoX Nicole

Partners In Crime - My Scraps N More

Today I have a post-crop day layout for you. Since then I have had a serious craving to craft more! And after this week I should hopefully have a little more to for it too!

Partners In Crime

Surprise. Surprise. I was inspired by a sketch challenge, this time completely. I found the sketch over at My Scraps & More  number 86 and just loved it soo much plus the prize is fabulous, so I actually went looking for a photo to match. Normally its the other way around or an instantaneous "yep, that photo this sketch".

The square picture spot sent me to my instagram feed to source one. There I found this shot of my children on a particularly destructive day and was shocked that I hadn't scrapped it or at least printed it early! It is a perfect representative of my days.

The Simple Stories "Daily Grind" was a no-brainer for this layout!! The 6x12 page elements sheet was great to help convey the day/story and emphasises just how many times they'd done this that day.
For me this is a lot of journalling. I wrote outside on the exact moment as that was already covered.

I struggled (and still am struggling) with the title. I knew the words but couldn't find the right font/lettering. I wish I had of used smaller thickers for the 'in' and just wish I had enough letters to use the 'partners' stickers for the word crime too!

Unfortunately there is a light sprinkling of white on the photo as I had an oversight while misting a different page, woops. The 'Hey there' was a perfect embellishment as I probably said that once or twice when I caught them emptying again.

A perfect banner match to finish the page! As much as I am super excited part of me dreads these two growing up! Who knows what they will get up! They have already out-smarted me a few times...
XoXoX Nicole

Note: I am pleased to report that this page was chosen as one of the Top 3 at My Scraps N More.

BathTime - WW1

Time for another crop day share. This is the first layout I created on the day and really got me in the groove as it came together so easily and ending looking better then I'd expected.

These photos are clearly from quite away ago now (Chloe is about to celebrate her 3rd birthday). The inspiration to finally put them on a page came from the July challenge over at White With 1. This is a challenge blog that asks you to use only white and one other colour. Monochrome is something WAY out of my comfort zone! So I have been meaning to play along for ages! I love to try new tricks/techniques.

I actually start this page before the crop day by prepping my background white cardstock. First I found some 'duck egg' cardstock and mixed paint to match plus a little water, then I placed some of the Hazel & Ruby Confetti Pattern Stencil Mask randomly around the page. I am seriously in love with these! If any Aussie retailers are reading this please stock these stencil masks!! They are amazing!!!

Then using a sponge I spread my colour mix over the page. I went back over with a little white in places. Finally I used a very small tipped paint brush to add details in each circle to make them look more like bubbles.

For added detail on the background I hand stitched around a few random 'bubbles'. This seems to be a very popular trend lately and I plan to do more too.

I thought creating a monochrome layout would be super hard, trying to embellish and create interest in only one colour?!? But in fact it was liberating! I just gathered all my embellishment that are that colour into a bag and when it can time to put it together pull things only from here.

The only thing that I am not 100% happy with on this layout is the journalling. I could of written something much better/more descriptive. And I have now just released I have not put the date on this page yet. Woops. 

I will be doing another WW1 challenge again for sure!! Esp if I get the chance to go to another crop anytime soon (fingers crossed)
XoXoX Nicole