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

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

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.

Mr. Whippy - Paper Secrets

Back again with another crop day layout to share. It was my quickest page for the day, under an hour!

This one is a newish (actually that reminds me I need to look up the date...) shot of Chloe enjoying her first ever Mr. Whippy ice cream. Needless to say she loved it and very surprisingly didn't spill a drop.

Mr Whippy

This page was based on the current challenge for July at Paper Secrets. The idea is to use the sketch (below)  and a scrappy item beginning with each letter in a chosen word. This months words is SPLASH. I have used S-Stripped paper. P- Polka-dot paper. L-Letters. A-Arrows. S-Sun. H-Hearts.

For this layout I went back to my Simple Stories Good Day Sunshine collection and have used only it. I am getting good use out of this one! So far 3 complete layouts almost entirely made from it and a forth in the making soon...

Check out that ice cream truck chipboard piece, I'm sure it was designed for this page!
I felt a little bit like the edges were too blunt, hence doodled around a few to break them up.

I am also linking this layout up at Paper Issues for their current Issue: Gettin' the Scoop on the Sweet Days of Summer link party. A great spot to get some extra summery inspiration from other scrappers.

Thanks for stopping by. More to share soon, so don't be a stranger, come again!
XoXoX

Water Dragon - Purple Pumpkin

Hello everyone.

How are we today? What is the weather like in your part of the world? Sydney has been windy and horrible for 3 days now making the kids and I stir crazy but scraping some happy summer photos that bit extra pleasing.

I finally have another layout to add to the 'My Mr Man' series about Jayce. Taking the total to only 3 but plenty more in planning. You can view the other two here and here. 

My Mr Water Dragon Man

This kid LOVES the water. Jumps in any chance he gets whether it be shower, bath, pool or puddle. He got this super cute swimming outfit from my mother for Christmas so I HAD to snap a few shots the first time he wore it (and everytime since)

The layout of the page was inspired by the current sketch challenge over at Purple Pumpkin, a super cute embellishment shop. Can you see the resemblance? 

Like my previous page, this one also uses only Simple Stories 'Good Day Sunshine' collection. I was actually working on them both at the same time to ensure I didn't use something on one page I wanted for the other.

I LOVE the colours in this collection. So bright and happy. Plus like any SS collection there are plenty for embellishments to match! I have used a bunch of the brads on this page, two of which hold the twine banner.

There is absolutely no glue involved in this banner. The 'flag' pieces were fussy cut from the blah blah paper then two tiny holes punched and twine threaded. I then wrapped the twine around the brads a few times and tied the ends together, job done. This way it looks naturally placed and a bit different each time.

The photos are much more important then the title here, so I backed them with white and used flat alpha stickers. I tried to blend the My Mr Man part into the background colour to make the main part of the title stand out. The 'g' in dragon was actually blue but I coloured it with a yellow marker to make it match.

XoXoX Nicole

Edit: I am also linking this layout up at Paper Issues for their current Issue: Gettin' the Scoop on the Sweet Days of Summer link party. A great spot to get some extra summery inspiration from other scrappers.

Bloomin' Lovely - SATW

G'Day.

Today I am sharing with you a layout that has been playing on my mind since the start of June and the photos have been hanging around my crafty areas since August 2013. 

Bloomin' Lovely

The photos are of Chloe in my mothers backyard while it was full of bright yellow flowers (it doesn't matter that they are technically weeds, its still pretty) She had HEAPS of fun running like a maniac back and forth. I love how kids find fun and happiness in everything!

The page was inspired by the June Challenge at Scrap Around The World. It's a real good one!

I LOVE this mood board! I was instantly inspired by the flowers, the LOVE and all the yellow. Originally I began creating a grungy/messy/more mixed media page but I just couldn't stop thinking about these photos. I mean seriously, look back at the mood board and tell me you don't think about them!?! ... LIES.

This layout uses only Simple Stories, mostly from the latest 'Good Day Sunshine' collection and also a few stickers from the DIY range. I even managed to feature a bike with a bunch of flowers in the front like the top right picture in the mood board.

I thought having such a large focus photo would make the embellishing easier, boy was I wrong! But after LOTS of struggling the DIY stickers words 4x6 helped save the day.
I also fought with the right title for the page, I had so many ideas but none seemed quite right or wouldn't fit in the space I' left after looking back at the mood board I found my solution.

I am quietly pleased with how this layout finished up, I think there will be more super large photo pages in my future.
What do you guys think? Any big picture tips?
XoXoX Nicole

Daily Drive - Scrap365 & Simple Stories

* Please note I am still battling away posting from my phone while my computer is out of action. Please excuse poor picture and content quality. Thank you. *

Hello. So I broke my word and printed a new photo to scrap but I'm sure when you see the photo you'll forgive me. It was printed direct from my phone so there had been no editing or anything. This is the picture exactly as it was taken and I think it's a good one.

This is a common sight in my review mirror and it makes me super happy! I couldn't help snapping a quick pic of it one day, safely of course.

I based the layout design on the sketch over at Scrap365 ( http://scrap365.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/happy-sketch-day.html )

I loved this sketch instantly and knew exactly what I wanted to create. Simple Stories Daily Grind collection was the perfect match for this page. I have used it exclusively.

In my usual style, I have kept very true to the sketch. I loved the prompts to put lots of little bits around the photo.

You will notice my own way less then perfect hand writing twice on this page. I am trying my best to journal more, especially about the bigger picture rather then the direct photo content.

Another of the littles things about my kiddies preserved on a page to remember for ever (and remind them that they did love one another once upon a time)

XoXoX Nicole

3 Months Old - ACC

Hey hi everyone!
So I have a little bit of good new with quite a lot of bad news but hoping for a good outcome...
So the bad news starts with me almost completely destroying my laptop! It is totally unusable for at least 2 weeks. More bad news, I hadn't backed up my photos for a LONG time! So whether I will have any baby photos of Chloe or Jayce is yet to be seen. Fingers crossed!! And hence in the mean time I can't print off any photos to scrap but hopefully that means I meant get around to scraping photos I've had printed for awhile.
Good news. I had finished a couple of layouts just before my technological meltdown and can share them through my phone. Picture quality and blog content may be a bit diminished but here goes:

3 months old

The subject of the page is pretty straight forward, Jayce is 3 months old on this day.

The layout design came from the Febuary sketch over at Annas Craft Cupboard (ACC).

I kept very close to the sketch, the only change is not immediately noticeable. I couldn't decide which photos I liked the most so turned the photo spots into photo flaps by simply folding over a piece of white cardstock.

The page is almost entirely Simple Stories, mostly Daily Grind. I like all the lil bits and pieces they bring out with their collections.

Along with them I've used a Kaisercraft cogs mask with black dylusions spray in three spots then used it as a stamp in the top right corner.

I have also used the '3' tag from the photos as part of the title, bit of a size comparison. 

Other then those, two WOW Chipboard cogs and a Lil' Something Else flair bagde and page complete.

XoXoX Nicole