Sweetness

Mother Nature has been teasing us lately! Last week temperatures reached almost 70 degrees but yesterday we woke up to 7 more inches of snow! Either way, I can't wait to see the grass again! As I think of the sweet spring season that takes its time to arrive, I pulled the beautiful Sweetness collection by Pink Paislee and created a layout for my daughter.

I liked theses papers so much I pre-ordered them when they were first released about 3 months ago, I can't believe it took me so long to actually use them! Love this photo of Emily and thought the lush foliage on the paper complemented her smile just right.

I did do a lot of fussy cutting and hand stitching. When my husband saw me come over to watch a movie with him with paper and needle in hand, he just laughed! It took me more than an hour to stitch around the base page and the die cut paper! It was worth it though, I'm very pleased with the end result!

 

Don't thow away your packaging! I used the back of the rub-ons packaging to cut out the name of the paper collection and used it as my title. The beautiful green lace is by Cheep Trims available at Flamingo Scraps.

I also used some pink acrylic paint and Distress Ink to add color to my Artisan Element. To see the tutorial I shared earlier, click here.

To hightlight the beautiful flowers, I cut them out, inked the edges and adhered them using pop dots.  I also scattered a few rose leaves by Prima in between the flowers.

Hope you liked my layout! Thanks so much for stopping by, have a very creative week!

Baby Cheeks

It's hard to believe my sweet little baby boy will soon be two years old. Lately, I find myself looking at his baby pictures and it feels like forever ago that I was able to squeeze him for as long as I pleased. Now, he won't stay still for more than 2 minutes, and if I want to hug him, I have to chase him all over the house!

As soon as I saw My Mind's Eye sketch challenge for this month, I knew I wanted to scrap this picture. The quality of the photo is not particularly good, but I just love it. I used some Portobello Road and Buddies papers from the Lost And Found Collection. I don't think I'll ever tire of working with these beautiful papers!

As you can see, I did a lot of distressing and embossing while trying to keep the look shabby and soft. Finally broke into my new Big Shot machine and had lots of fun using my new embossing folders. I also used a crochet doily I got from Michael's dollar bin (gotta love those fab finds!). Since the papers have a lot of glitter on them, I sprayed them with Preserve It to keep the glitter from flaking off; it worked beautifully!hat

Here's the LO that inspired my design:

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Have a blessed and creative week!

Hugs,

Jolaine

First Publication!

I'm so excited to share with you my first published layout! Scrapbooking.com Magazine's February issue includes a Heritage and Culture article in which one of my layouts is featured.

I really enjoyed creating this page last year and I'm so happy it's part of this beautiful publication. Click here to check out the entire online issue.

As always, thanks for taking the time to visit my blog. I'm really glad you stopped by!

Coordinates Collections Song Birds Kit

Hello scrappy friends! I'm excited to share with you my projects for the Song Birds kit over at Coordinates Collections. It features ultra cute papers and embellishments by Fancy Pants and We R Memory keepers.

For my first layout, I cut one of the pattern papers into a 9 inch circle using my Cricut machine. I then used my Martha Stewart doily lace border punch to cut strips of paper and make a double border. I really like how this turned out!

I did a lot of fussy cutting in order to use these vines as embellishments here. The little birds were adhered with pop dots and covered in Rock Candy Stickles. I also played a little with paint. To get this effect, simply dilute a small amount of paint and flick your paint brush over the surface you're working on. 

The sentiment came from a border strip I cut into pieces and inked. The stitches are made by poking holes with a paper piercer and connecting the dots with a brown marker. I don't know how to sew but I'm determined to learn!

For my second layout, I decided to use two photos, haven't done that in a while! Don't you just love that white and blue ledger paper?! So cute! I combined it with the red patter paper to coordinate with my daughter's dress. As a design accent, I used a doily as a stencil. I cut the small yellow hearts out of one of the borders and used my Cricut to cut the red ones, then I covered everything with Glossy Accents and adhered them with pop dots as well.

 Here are a couple of close ups:

For my last project, I altered one of those dollar mailboxes from Target. Using Modge Podge, I adhered a strip of paper around and cut around the hearts to make a border for the sides. The plastic charms included in the cute were darling so I had to use them in this project! I hooked it onto a jump ring and dangled it from the knot under the tulle bow.

Inside the mailbox, I put Valentine's Day socks and treats for my daughter. That's going to be her present on Vday!

I also made a video about this project, check it out by clicking here. And if you want to see what the other DT gals created for this month's kit, check out the Coordinates Collections website.

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

We all stayed home today due to an ice storm. This winter has been pretty harsh but the good news is that I had a little extra time to do some scrapping. Inspired by our icy surroundings, I played with Bo Bunny's layout challenge. The challenge was to create a layout with the theme Before/After in mind.

I created a layout of my daughter when she was just one. She looks so tiny in this photo, can't believe she'll be six in April! Here she is wearing  one of my favorite outfits of hers. It was a present from her auntie Jordania, so cute!

I used the beautiful Midnight Frost collection along with some Prima flowers and Little Yellow Bicycle chipboard pieces. I had so much fun piling up the layers of paper and painting everything white! This was a fun challenge!

You still have time to play along, the challenge is open until Feb 10th, just click here for more info. Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Hugs

Artisan Elements Tutorial

If you have Pink Paislee's Artisan Elements, then you know how gummy and fun they are. The problem is that inking them and misting them only gives you a little bit of color, which is fine, but may not always be the result you're looking for.

Here's a quick tutorial on adding color and distressing the Artisan Elements to suit your projects:

What you'll need:

• Artisan Element of choice
• craft sheet
• paint and small brush
• Distress Ink and applicator
• baby wipe

1. Use a small paint brush to color your element making sure to cover all the grooves.

2. While the paint is still wet, use a baby wipe to remove paint from the raised areas.

3. Let the paint dry (or use a heat tool to speed up the process)

4. This step is totally optional, but to achieve a more tattered effect, ink your element with a coordinating shade of Distress Ink

5. Your Artisan Element is ready to embellish your page!

Here's an example of how I incorporated it into my layout:

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and give it a try! These elements are fun and beautiful!