Hello Project Life!

It has been a while since my last post. But i have a very good excuse. You see, I have been admiring people's Project Life pages! Yep, that's all i have been doing for weeks! And i have finally completed a few pages of my own which i will share with you soon.  

If you haven't heard of Project Life, please visit the Becky Higgins blog and be inspired!

From a very young age, I loved lettering. My favourite part of doing school projects was bringing out my stash of lettering books and tracing them with my pencil onto tracing paper, scribbling on the back and retracing onto my project. And then colouring it all in - ahh, those were the days.

I spent hours writing, and then rewriting my projects to get my handwriting just right because i couldn't decide which of handwriting styles i wanted use. Straight up and and down, curvy, curly, angled, right leaning, left leaning. I'm sure my gorgeous mum was a little baffled as to how i could possibly have so many types of handwriting.

To this day, I am still fascinated with handwriting and fonts. And I love inspirational quotes and sayings that either make me laugh, smile, trigger a memory or bring me to be in the present moment. What's even more fun is combining the two! 

When putting together my first Project Life pages (randoms dating back to 2000!), I wanted to use quotes or write my own sayings that conveyed the emotion or story of my layouts.

Here's s few of them and they are free to download for your own personal use. Aside from my handwriting, I have used a free font called Typenoksidi from dafont.com.  

If you use the cards in a layout that is shared on your blog, would be lovely if you could link back to this blog. 

Send me a link or photo of the cards in your albums. I would LOVE to see them. 

  

 3x4 "To the Moon" filler cards in pink and aqual. Download here.

3x4 "You are my Sunshine" filler card. Download here.

Set of 6x4s to match the "You are my Sunshine" 3x4 card. Download here.

Set of 2 6x4s and 3 3x4s in The Love Starts Here theme. Download here.

Thanks for visiting. I'll share some more as i create them xx

Home

You may have noticed, I am in catch up mode with my layouts. And I am going back 8 years to when we welcomed home our first baby. I think mentally, I need to scrap some of those very early photos so I can really feel like I have made a good start. So bear with me for the next couple of layouts, it's going to be all about baby!

I had always thought I would use lots of baby blue cardstock when doing these layouts. But what I'm discovering is that I love the aquas, mints and kraft colour combinations. It is so fresh, versatile and well suited to baby layouts.  

This first layout titled HOME is a photo of Isaac when we first brought him home from the hospital. Oh, so tiny! I chose the Aspen Place paper from American Crafts' Dear Lizzy collection because it has these cute pictures of houses and sentiments such as "no place like home" or "home sweet home". To frame the photo is the flip side of the Aspen Place paper. The journalling is a grid paper from the Simple Stories SN@P Life paper pad and held in place by some washi tape.

Supplies: Paper - American Crafts, Cardstock and Vellum - Stampin' Up! Stamps - Amy Tangerine,

Stickers -  Jillibean Soup.

For the title, I glued the patterned paper onto chipboard and die cut the letters with the Simple Letters alphabet dies (retired) from Stampin' Up! Using the same paper in the title gives repetition and visually ties the page together.

Here's a close up of the patterned paper. So pretty! I also used some stamps from Amy Tangerine and VersaFine ink in Onyx Black. 

I used a circle punch to punch out a sentiment from the Aspen Place paper and I also punched another 3 circles from kraft coloured card stock. I glued all the cardstock circles in a stack, and then glued the sentiment on top. This gives the punched sentiment dimension.  I also lightly sponged the edges of my circle stack with Soft Suede ink (Stampin' Up!) to further add the illusion of dimension. I have also used some washi tape and a sticker from Jillibean Soup.

Thanks again for visiting! I have a few more baby layouts of Isaac to share before I start his toddler years. I love this trip down memory lane - very special!

Be inspired to document everyday life!

Today i want to share with you a video I came across about documenting everyday life.

More than ever before, I realise how important documenting life and memory keeping is to me. There's no time like TODAY to begin! 

Documenting and memory keeping doesn't have to be just about scrapbooking. It can be anything you want it to be. Maybe you might like to keep all your keepsakes in a box, or put together a digital photobook, or keep a written journal, or you may choose to put together a paper scrapbook, or even a digital scrapbook. 

It's entirely up to you. As long as it suits you, and fits into your life without it becoming a chore.  

Have a look at this 3 minute video. I hope it inspires you, as it did for me. 

Memory Keeping

The past couple of weeks have proven to be a time of reflection and refocus for me. I began my crafting journey a few years ago with the intention to create scrapbook albums for my two boys. What has ended up happening is I have become somewhat of a cardmaker - which i have discovered i thoroughly enjoy. But I have become side-tracked and lost sight of my original intention - creating memory books for my babies (who really aren't babies anymore). 

I realised what is important to me is being able to put together a collection of photos and journalling for my boys. Something they can look back on when they are grown up and remember those little moments of ordinary life that will one day become the extraordinary. Things like being taught how to swim by their dad, or wrestling with eachother whilst watching cartoons, or riding their bikes up and down our street.

I have big plans. And big plans = big time investments. But that's okay, I have already made a start, and sometimes starting is the biggest hurdle! 

In my pursuit to find the perfect way for memory keeping, I have spent hours (and I mean HOURS!) surfing the net for THE ANSWER. I have found lots of inspiration. But with more information comes more options, which means decisions must be made! Digital, traditional or Project Life style? 

I am still undecided. For now, I am going traditional.  Here's some of my recent layouts. Let me know your thoughts on memory keeping, would love to hear from you! 

Supplies: Cardstock, Paper, Stamps, Ribbon from Stampin' Up.
Thickers (title) and Date stamp from Amy Tangerine.

These two ultrasound layouts are meant to go side by side - I am really glad I had the originals scanned in. I resized them all in photoshop so they could all be printed at the same size.

I used the Amy Tangerine Thickers (Goodness) for the titles - makes it so quick and easy! I just can't seem to get enough of Thickers at the moment - absolutely love them!

In this next layout, I was experimenting with the layering. I'm quite happy with how it turned out. My biggest challenge was trying to fit the ankle bracelet into the layout without it looking out of place. In the end, I made a small envelope out of patterned paper and it worked into the layout well. 

The next layout uses multiple photos from the one "photoshoot". By using a semi-grid format, I was able to display all your my favourite shots on the one layout and highlight one image by enlarging and placing in the centre.

Thanks for visiting! I have more layouts to share in the next couple of days. Be sure to subscribe (via Follow by Email) to receive new posts straight into your inbox to keep updated :-)

Be Mine, Valentine.

February 14th. Valentine's Day. The cynic in me says, "Total waste of time, just another ploy to make us spend more money." But then, the girly romantic in me says, "Oh, I hope i get showered with gorgeous flowers and pretty card where my man tells me I light up his life with my presence everyday". Ha! A girl can dream, eh? 

I have been making some Valentine's Day cards. Lots of fun with lots of red cardstock, red ink and Paris themed red washi tape! (thanks Dee, love love love the washi tape from NYC).

The first card uses the Stampin' Up! Core'dinations card stock in real red, which was embossed with the Lacy Brocade embossing folder. I then sanded the paper to reveal the inside layer of card stock. 

Card Stock: Core-dinations in Real Red, Whisper White, Real Red. Stamp Set: You are Loved.Inks: Real Red.
Accessories: Rhinestones, sponge dauber. 

The next card uses the You are Loved stamp set, where the heart image has been heat embossed using white emboss powder.  I really like how the stamped image turns out crisp and clean!   I used the same heart stamp randomly on the crumb cake card stock with crumb cake ink to create a subtle background. The polka dot paper was created by inking up the emboss folder with real red ink, inserting a piece of whisper white paper inside the folder, and then running the whole thing through the bigshot. Really love using this technique.  And lastly, my new love... I added some washi tape.

Card Stock: Crumb Cake, Real Red, Whisper White. Stamp Set: You are Loved, So Many Sayings (retired).
Inks: Read Red, Crumb Cake, VersaMark. Accessories: White Emboss Powder, Polka Dot emboss folder, Washi Tape. 

This next card was inspired by a little paper envelope I made for one of my scrapbook layouts (will post in next few days!). I cut out the envelope in real red card stock and then stamped only the front panel with the "Valentine's Day" stamp from the You are Loved stamp set. 

The little pink and red hearts were punched out with the Owl Builder Punch, and the larger heart that's tucked partially into the envelope is the from the alphabet dies (retired). I wanted to create something to symbolise being overflowing with love.

Card Stock: Real Red, Pink Pirouette, Very Vanilla.  Stamp Set: You are Loved, So Many Sayings (retired).
Inks: Read Red.  Accessories: Owl Builder punch.

The last card i made also uses the real red card stock which has been stamped with the Very Vintage Jumbo Wheel stamp in real red ink. I like the subtle effect that comes with using the same colour ink as the card stock. The word VALENTINE uses Amy Tangerine's Thickers with a Stampin' Up! pearl to dot the letter "I". 

Card Stock: Real Red, Crumb Cake, Whisper White.  Stamp Set: Very Vintage Wheel stamp,
So Many Sayings (retired).  Inks: Read Red.  Accessories: Amy Tangerine Thickers, Pearl. 

I had a lot of fun making these cards, and I hope they inspire you to make something too.

Who says you need to wait until Valentine's Day to give someone a card, why not make one today and tell someone how special they are to you!?

Birthday Mini Album/CD Case

Fancy that, 2013 already!?! It's funny how a new year has the ability to give us a boost and help us refocus our attention on what we want to achieve professionally, personally, and creatively. Although I'm not one to make new year's resolutions, I do know I want to make time to get stuck into some more layouts for my boys' memory books. 

In December last year, I was crafting my little butt off! One of the big projects I was determined to finish was our wedding album. I am proud to say it was completed before Christmas, just in time for our 10 year wedding anniversary in March this year. I am almost embarrassed to admit it took me this long to get around to doing it!

And then just before Christmas, I went to a super cute Very Hungry Caterpillar 1st birthday party for gorgeous little Isla! 

Here's the card I made for Isla. I am in love with embossing and glitter at the moment. Not to mention Patio Party DSP and the Summer Starfruit stitched satin ribbon! I'm really happy with the colour combination too, it reminds me of all things summery and fun!

All supplies from Stampin' Up!

I took my camera to Isla's party - just incase there was a photo opportunity. As it turned out, I ended up with quite a few photos and decided to have a go at making a photo movie with my favourite images as a gift for Isla's mum and dad. It is amazing how adding music to imagery lifts the photos to another emotional dimension.

Of course, I couldn't just give Janette (Isla's mum) the photo movie CD in just any old cd case, this called for...you guessed it... a CD CASE MINI ALBUM!!

I wanted to make something special for Janette and Daniel (Isla's dad) they could look at in 20 years time and remember Isla's very first birthday.  Something to treasure forever. Look at her, isn't she just beautiful!?!

All supplies from Stampin' Up except date stamp (Amy Tangerine)

The white polka dots on red was created by inking up the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder with Real Red ink, placing a piece of Whisper White card stock inside the embossing folder, and then running it through the Big Shot. A really fun technique to experiment with! Try it with different inks and other embossing folders :-)

I also want to mention Isla's very talented cousins painted the caterpillars onto each of the party bags which were given to each of the kiddies. I cut the image straight from one of the bags we received. 

And lastly, I am still eating grain free. Fresh rocket this time of year is awesome as it is quick and easy, and a good alternative to lettuce! You can change it up by adding either pumpkin, pear, roasted beets. The possibilities are endless. I recently made a "cheese" with macadamia nuts and it is so yum with the rocket salad. To be honest, I put it on everything because it is so delicious. Heaps of macadamia nut cheese recipes on the web, look for one that suits you!

Pan-fried coriander chicken patties, with fresh rocket in a lemon and
olive oil dressing,topped with pan-fried pumpkin
and  roasted macadamia nuts.

That's it from me today! Thanks for stopping by, and I look forward to sharing more of my crafting projects this year!

Christmas Holidays 2012

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your friends and family! For me, the joy of Christmas is in watching the growing excitement of our boys as the big day draws near. And I love how generous they become as they save the last two of their favourite cookies for Santa - I'm hoping Santa likes stale cookies!

Despite all my good intentions to be super organised with buying gifts, present wrapping, Christmas light viewing, food preparation and the like, I always manage to get to bed at some insane hour of the morning. Usually an hour or two before the littlies get up wanting to open their presents! 

This Christmas Eve, I was making chocolate crackles and mango and coconut ice cream for the kids. That was in addition to making a card for each of my two boys and hubby. As they had already seen the card i made for friends and family, Isaac had requested something a little different so he would be a surprised on the day. My creative abilities were under pressure, given it was 3am in the morning! 

Here's the card i made for family and a few close friends.  This is a variation of one of the card designs for the stamp-a-stack I had in November. Instead of using the stitched ribbon for bows on the gift boxes, I used the heart from the Owl Builder punch and added some Dazzling Diamonds glitter for sparkle.  

Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla.  Designer Series Paper: Be of Good Cheer.

Stamp Set: Short and Sweet (retired). Inks: Cherry Cobbler.

Accessories: 1cm Stitched Satin Ribbon in Gumball Green, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter.

After the three card designs for the stamp-a-stack, and the one for family and friends, I wasn't sure how i was going to come up with another design! I really love the tree in the Snow Swirled stamp set and had been thinking of heat embossing with the white embossing powder. This was the perfect time to test it out. Here's the design I came up with for my little munchkins and hubby. The stripes in the background also add a masculine feel to the design.

Cardstock: Old Olive, Real Red, Very Vanilla.  Stamp Set: Short and Sweet (retired), Snow Swirled. 

Inks: Real Red, VersaMark.  Accessories: White Embossing Powder, 

Old Olive Grosgrain Ribbon (retired), Stripes Embossing Folder (retired).

Hope you are all enjoying your holidays! Thanks again for visiting, come back soon as I will be sharing some photos of a mini album I made recently for a friend of mine.

Mailbox vs Inbox.

Do you think sending handwritten cards is fast becoming a thing of the past? Is it becoming virtually extinct like letter writing? I had a pen pal when I was in primary school and i was always excited to receive a letter in our mailbox (vs inbox!).  And my boys still love getting letters and birthday cards in the mail from their Grandparents. Thankfully, the boys are still too young to have an "inbox".

In this e-age of ours, we post messages on our friends' walls to wish them a happy birthday. Or we send text messages to say hello. Don't get me wrong, I do it too! But I love receiving cards from friends who write just to say hello. 

What's even more special is when you receive a handmade card. Call me sentimental, but if someone gives me a handmade card, I find it hard to discard it because I know they have taken the time to make it with their hands and their heart. 

I have been a busy bee doing some cardmaking of my own. Here are some cards that i have made recently.

This Best Wishes card features the Comfort Cafe designer series paper and the 1cm stitched satin ribbon in Summer Starfruit (p172) from Stampin' Up! All of the Designer Series Papers in the Stampin' Up! catalogue is listed with the colours combinations used so you can easily coordinate your card stock when making your cards.  

Cardstock: Midnight Muse, Very Vanilla, Soft Suede.  Designer Series Paper: Comfort Cafe.
Stamp Set: Short and Sweet (retired). Inks: Soft Suede.
Accessories: 1cm Stitched Satin Ribbon in Summer Starfruit, dimensionals.

I made this Wedding Wishes card for my friends Katie and Nick who recently had an absolute dream wedding in Bora Bora. A beautiful location to celebrate the beginning of their marriage. 

For this card, I used the Melon Mambo cardstock which is the same colour as what I used when I made their wedding invitations.  I stamped the image with the Easy Events stamp set (p34) using VersaMark, sprinkled the white embossing powder on top, and then used my heat tool to set it. I punched out the image with the decorative label punch (p182) and added some glitter to the love birds' wings.

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Melon Mambo, Very Vanilla.  Stamp Set: Easy Events, Parlor Prints background stamp.
Inks: VersaMark. Accessories: White Embossing Powder, Pearl Basic Jewels, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter.

In my last post, I used the Patio Party Designer Series Paper to makeover a scrapbook layout.  Here I used it to make birthday cards. 

I really love the new Midnight Muse and Summer Starfruit in-colours, which go well together for those more masculine cards. I think most of the Patio Party prints could be substituted into this card design and still work with the Summer Starfruit stitched satin ribbon. The greeting was stamped with the Sincere Salutations stamp set (retired) with VersaMark and then heat embossed with white embossing powder.

Cardstock: Midnight Muse, Raspberry Ripple, Baja Breeze.  Designer Series Paper: Patio Party.

Stamp Set: Sincere Salutations (retired). Inks: VersaMark.

Accessories: 1cm Stitched Satin Ribbon in Summer Starfruit, White Embossing Powder.

I made this For Baby card (right) earlier this year for beautiful baby Isla. A good friend of mine who I went to uni with had been working in San Francisco and was returning with her hubby and new baby! I had seen photos of Isla and she was one cute baby so I was super excited to meet her (and catch up with my friend too!).

I used the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder (p189) with the Big Shot to create the dots on the top half of the card, and then used the Subtles Collection Designer Series Paper Stack (p162) for the bottom half of the card. You can see how easily you can create a personalised card simply by cutting out the baby's name with alphabet dies through the Big Shot.

Cardstock: Pink Pirouette, Pretty in Pink, Rose Red, Soft Suede.  Designer Series Paper Stack: Subtles Collection.
Stamp Set: Easy Events (p34). Inks: Rose Red.  Accessories: Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder (p189) 

This Thank You card uses the Reason to Smile stamp set which I received as part of an awesome promotion Stampin' Up! was running earlier this year (so lucky!). I love cherry blossoms and they were my inspiration when creating this card.

The stamp set came with the outline of the flowers, and another stamp for shading the inside of the flowers.  I used the Two-Step Stampin' technique to create this card.  I left a few of the flowers with just the outline to allow for some variation. This card is very simple to make and I like the simplicity of it.

Cardstock:Whisper White, Soft Suede.  Stamp Set: Reason to Smile (retired), Short and Sweet (retired).
Inks: Melon Mambo. Accessories: Sponge Daubers.

My youngest is off to school next year, so i have been feeling a little sentimental and clingy on his days off from kindy! We made this card together for one of his kindy friends. 

He chose the stamp from the Easy Events Stamp Set, and even stamped it himself. The card stock he chose was Baja Breeze and as you can see, he drew in the lines on the side to give that "stapled" look. I helped him stick the papers and he finished it off by colouring it in with his felt pens. 

Just goes to show how easy it is to make a cute card with some nice card stock and a few versatile stamps.

Cardstock:Whisper White, Soft Suede, Baja Breeze.  Stamp Set: Easy Events (p34) Inks: Soft Suede 

All materials used for making the cards in this post are from Stampin' Up! so if you would like to recreate any of these cards, you can place an order for the materials with me.  

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you have been inspired to make a card, or send a card to a friend or loved one today. Feel free to leave a message, would love to hear from you.

Layout makeover with Patio Party!

PATIO PARTY! This has to be my favourite designer series paper from the new Stampin' Up! catalogue (p165) so far.  In fact, I love it so much, I am ready to order some more!  Aside from the designs being fun and fresh featuring the new in-colours, the designs are so versatile you can use it for a wide variety of project themes!

Initially I was thinking birthday cards and other celebratory themes.  But then i realised it would have been perfect for my BOAT TRIP layout that i did a few months ago!  I confessed to a good friend of mine that I wanted to redo my layout. I was met with an exasperated text message of "Oh, dear Lord!" Besides making me laugh, i knew deep down she knew why I HAD TO DO THIS!

And here it is!  I didn't need to use much of the Patio Party papers for this layout, so it just goes to show these packs really go a long way. I used the Fun Flowers Bigz L die (p193) to make the flower and popped an Antique Brad in to finish it off. I have not veered away from the original layout. All i have done is use a different colour scheme and introduced Patio Party paper to give the layout a makeover. You can view the original Boat Trip layout here.  

I created my own date tag by cutting a small piece of the Crumb Cake card stock and sponging the edges with Soft Suede ink.  I also added the rounded corners with the 5mm Corner Punch (p183). The stamp set i used is So Many Sayings (retired) and again, i used the Soft Suede ink. It's such a simple little tag and so easy to make.  It's amazing how sponging the edges with a darker ink creates such a lovely effect.

  

I used the same technique for the journalling tag. Again, the stamp set i used is the retired So Many Sayings. 

I was surprised how easily i could create a simple embellishment by putting the Patio Party paper through the Big Shot with the Fun Flowers' Bigz L die and then adding in a brad through the centre.

If you haven't explored the beautiful range of designer series papers, my guess is that once you try them, you will wonder how you ever survived without them.  They give projects an instant injection of colour and design detail.

Stampin' Up!® supplies: Stamp Set: So Many Sayings (retired). Classic Stampin' Pad (Soft Suede). Card Stock (Crumb Cake, Midnight Muse, Summer Starfruit). Papers: (Patio Party Designer Series Paper). Accessories (Antique Brads)