A Heart Shaped Mini!

Hello again!  Its Melissa and I’m back again, this time with a mini album made with the “Hot Mess” February kit!  I just love making mini albums, they are perfect for when you have extra photos that don’t need a their own scrapbook pages.  I had some extra snow day photos from our 2015 Winter, and as I’d printed them out small they were perfect for this album.

I wanted to put most of my effort into my cover.  I enlarged the exclusive heart cut file (by  Just Nick) until it was the right size for my photos, and I backed it with papers from the Shine 6×6 paper pad and the speciality acetate (in the main kit).  I embellished the cover in a very simple style to allow the papers to show.  I also used some of the winter elements from the “Clique into December” kit.I cut the remainder of my pages solid without the windows, and I used a ring for my binding.  I love how elements can be seen around the edge of the heart.  Here’s a look at the pages open.My second page was the back of the cover page, and I broke up the white cardstock background with the black and white stripe. I kept my journalling very minimal, because the pictures really do tell the story, and I have other 12×12 layouts about the day.I loved including the acetate in the album too!  I love that my photo can be seen underneath.  The “XOXO” is another exclusive cut file.This page makes me laugh!  Its meant to be a selfie of the three of us!  I still included it though because its the only photo of my husband and I.  I included the music note because we both love to sing!  Nothing to do with  the photo but it means something to me!!

My final page was on kraft cardstock that I purchased from the Clique Kits Store here.  Did you know that if you go into the Categories page of the store you can find everything you need.  Make sure you add a note to have your extras shipped with your kit 🙂I haven’t included photos of all of my pages, because I made a process video which includes a walk through of the album at the end.

I hope you enjoyed looking at this album!  I certainly had fun making it, I’m adding it to my stack of minis in my craft space!

Bless you

Playing with Printables

Hi everyone, its Melissa and I’m so happy to be back again with you this month!  I’m super excited about our gorgeous February Kit “Hot Mess”!   I just adore everything Maggie Holmes makes, and I love that we have amazing CK exclusives to play with too!

Speaking of CK exclusives, today I’m sharing a layout that features the stunning printables that you can download free if you’re a subscriber (and purchase in the Digital Store if you’re not).  We get two sheets of printables, and this is the sheet I choose to play with:

Usually I print off the circles, punch them with my circle punch and put a clear epoxy sticker on them.  For this layout I decided to print the following three large.Aren’t they stunning, far to pretty to be kept small!  Here they are printed off a different sizes.  I just copied the individual PNG files over to Word, and resized them to what I needed.  I also cut some of the beautiful  Just Nick cut files from the kit on my Silhouette Cameo too.Then I cut the circles out by hand with my scissors, because I wanted this post to be about printables, not my Cameo 🙂Here they are, all good to go!  Oh so pretty!!!Now the fun bit!  Ever had a layout design that kept you awake at night (not in a bad way, but because you’re designing in your head)?  Well this is one of those layouts.  Not all my layouts come together easily, sometimes I’ll have an initial vision for what I want, and then I have to physically play with the photo, paper and embellishments until it comes together – hence I didn’t video this one, because it took forever – well not really, I’m being dramatic 😉I knew I wanted the title to be “Sparkle + Shine”, so I started with that.  I really needed a complimentary photo that showed sparkle, so this photo of my little one when she was 10 months old was perfect!  I popped the title circle up on foam to make it stand out.  I sprinkled some of the Heidi Swapp Colour Shine that came in the kit (I got Hot Pink).Once I had the main large printable circles in position I cut some smaller circles with my Cuttlebug and a Sizzix die.  It cuts 5 different sizes at once.  I thought the bow and diamond papers from the 6×6 paper pad (kit add on) were perfect for this girly layout!Next was my favourite step of embellishing, using flair, die cuts, stickers and embellishments.  So much fun!  I embellished this printable circle with the banner cut file (I backed it with 6×6 papers), a die cut, and word sticker.The rest of the printable circle from above was used on the bottom of my layout.  I often add liquid adhesive to my chipboard to ensure they don’t move.  If you’re running low on adhesive make sure you check out the CK store here.Thanks so much for looking!  I hope I’ve inspired you to think outside of the box when you use your CK printables.  I made a page with last month’s kit where I enlarged one of the word printables to use it as my title.  You can see it on my blog here – its the second layout.

Bless you 🙂

Art Studio – Cut Files and Water Colour Play

Hello it’s Melissa here and today I have a 12×12 layout to share with you that I made with the gorgeous Tapestry Kit.  I decided to play with my water color paints and some of the exclusive Clique Kits cut files (which, by the way, are seriously amazing!).  Now I am by no means a mixed media expert, but I do love to experiment and play!

I used the background squares cut file and the solid feather cut file, and wanted to feature them in a big way on my layout. I backed the squares cut file with the navy and teal constellation paper, and then machine stitched on the diagonal.  Everything else was built on this cut file.
A little bit about my photo, yes it is a pregnancy photo, but no you can’t see my baby bump!  It’s a quick selfie that I took at our neighbourhood park, and this layout is for my pregnancy album (my baby was born in April 2014, and this photo was taken in March).

I coloured my feathers with pink and red water colours, and I made them darker at the bottom, fading out to the top in a gradient or ombre.  Once they were dry I splattered them with pink and rose Colour Shine.  The edges naturally curled up from being wet, and I left them like this.

The cut apart tag from Wildflowers was perfect for my journalling, and I added the one of the exclusive printables “thankful & grateful” and a Wildflowers pleather bow – which are stunning (and are an add on to the kit).

The Dear Lizzy gold puffy thickers are amazing, and are such a perfect match for this kit!  Here is a close up of the water colours I applied with the packaging technique (you can see this technique in action in my video).

A close up of my layering under my photo.  The flower die cut is from Pink Paislee’s Cedar Lane ephemera pack (you can find it in the shop as an add on).

To see my process in detail, you can watch my video below.

Thanks so much for looking, I’ve loved my first month on the blog!

Love & blessings xxx

Locker Room – A Teeny Tiny Mini!

Hello again!  It’s Melissa and I’m back today to share my second project (and a tutorial) with the gorgeous November Kit “Tapestry”!   A couple of years ago I was at a local church fair, and on the of the stalls was selling second hand goodies.  I couldn’t believe how blessed I was to find a little gold photo album that was only $1!  After two years of waiting for the perfect photos, I decided to use it to document apart of a road trip we took in July (our Winter).  We stopped off at a special place called Moeraki, it’s a beach and it has these amazing naturally formed boulders that are scatted on the beach and into the sea.

Here is my tiny album, and my very simple embellished cover.  I just used a piece of the Cedar Lane 6×6 paper and one of the exclusive printables, which I made into an epoxy flair.

Of course I have to show you how chunky it is!!

Here is a tutorial on how my mini came together with the amazing November Kit and add-ons.

1. Gather your supplies – this is super easy because the kit is fully coordinated, and perfect!
2. Select your photos.  I made a collage on Picmonkey.com so that my photos would be small enough for the album.
3. Make a template with a piece of white cardstock, then hand-cut around the template (because my pages were so small I didn’t want to be measuring and cutting on my trimmer).
4. Select a paper to use for journaling and filler pages.  I used the ledger paper from the main kit.
5. Place all of papers and photos into the album in the order you want them.  This sets you up for quick and easy embellishing and journalling.
6. Embellish and journal and the album is compete!  Below is my inside title page, which I kept very simple.  The doily is from my stash, and the mist is Heidi Swapp Colour Shine (in gold and seafoam).

Here is the same spread from step 5 above, but completed with embellishment and journaling.

I’m so happy to have this day recorded.  My 18 month old keeps wanting to look at the “book”, she seems to think it belongs to her!  To see the entire album you can watch my walkthrough video below.

Thanks so much for looking, I really appreciate it!

Yearbook: Pocketpages for Event Scrapbooking

Hello it’s Melissa here with my first post as a Varsity Team member!  I’m so excited to share some inspiration with you today and I have to admit that I fell in love as soon as I saw the gorgeous November Tapestry kit!

I have a little secret to share with you today!  I’ve tried Project Life twice, done it for 6 months both times, and then stopped!  The first time I did it on a weekly basis, and the second time on a monthly basis.  I still pull out these albums and look at them, and I love the elements of our everyday life that I captured and recorded.  So although Project Life is not be for me right now, I absolutely love creating pocket pages, especially when I have extra photos of a special day, event or holiday (and I don’t want to make a mini album).  I also love the variation that different types of page protectors provide in my albums.

When my kit arrived I immediately pulled out some older 2012 Instagram photos I’d recently printed of our annual Autumn Festival.   Its an even we attend every year, and in 2012 both of my kids were in the festival parade.  The We R Memory Keepers Wildflower collection has the most beautiful rich colours, and the kit was perfect for the photos.  Here is a look at my spread:

Whenever I’m making pocket pages I love to take my favourite techniques from traditional scrabooking and apply them at a smaller scale.  So for this spread I’ve included gold colour shine splatters, layering and machine stitching. And of course I always have to journal!  I made my title card with a fussy cut flower, bow, letter stickers, Dear Lizzy Thickers and some gold splatters.  Machine stitching finished it off.

This card features a photo of my kids dressed for the festival parade (and yes my son is not happy with the “ever-present always taking photos for the scrapbooks” Mum!!).  The tag was perfect for my journalling, and I stapled on a small heart embellishment for some interest.  The twine from the kit and machine stitching were the final touch.

We don’t have foxes in New Zealand, but he was so super cute I had to include him!  I made this journalling card from a piece of the Pink Paislee Cedar Lane 6×6 paper pad (a kit add-on in the store), and the fox and “documented” tag were perfect to tell the story of the festival float parade.

This close up shows how I layered an exclusive printable tag with a sticker and a heart.  And how gorgeous is that red text paper!

My final close up is my favourite card of them all!  I started with the exclusive “I adore you” card and paired it with my favourite photo of my daughter.  I layered my embellishments and added texture with staples and machine stitching.  Running the embellishments off the edge is a technique I love too!  Some gold colour shine finished it off!

Thanks so much for looking!  I hope I’ve inspired you to mix up your traditional scrapbooking with some pocket pages.

See you again later in the month 🙂