October Project Life

Hello everyone!!

Today I'm sharing a start to my October Project Life pages. This month Im playing with the new Hollyhocks Pocket Life kit from Scrappy Canary. Ive also mixed in a few bits and pieces from the matching decorative & chipboard stickers sheets from the Main & Add-On kits

As the month is not quite over, I thought I would share just a snippet of the first few pages. The remainder will be shared with you all soon. I am still finding it tricky to document in a monthly format rather than a weekly one. Without knowing how many photos Im going to have until the end of the month, its hard to plan out the pages. So for this month I took on the go with the flow approach.

 Lots of instagram pics to start the month. I like to print these at 3.7inch or 2.7inch squares depending on the pocket Im using them in. Then I go to town with the 6x6 pad of papers included in the kit. I try to spread the range of colours out within the page so that its not all clustered together. Once Im happy with my mix of photos and papers I add journalling or titles to each pocket, with some added embellishments if needed. I like to keep my pages flat, but I also like to get as much out of these kits as I can. Stickers are perfect for my style! I can layer them up without going over the top.

This close up is of one of my favourite pockets, a Teddy bears picnic for 2.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope I've inspired you in some way to get your photos into albums and off your computers. 

Enjoy your week

Michelle x

Teddy Bears Picnic

Hi Everyone, Today Im sharing a layout I made this past weekend at Scrap Camp.

A wonderful weekend spent with a fantastic group of crafters, including some of my very closest friends. 

To get this layout done, I grabbed the remnants of my Strawberry Fields Pocket Life kit, this months Scrappy Canary sketch and then went a little mixed media crazy. I think Ive well and truly killed this kit now!

A reminder of what the sketch looks like. 

This layout was so much fun to complete. I love getting a little arty with my layouts..

To make the background, I dove into my mixed media supplies.. Whipped spackle, gelatos, gesso, bubble wrap, stencils, distress ink. I just experimented and am really happy with how it turned out.

To add some dimension to the page I dipped into the remnants of my Pocket life kit. I had a few random pieces of pattern paper left over from my pocket life spreads. Some were in strips and some in full sheets. Ive layered them up with some vellum underneath the photo and overlay from the Shimelle overlays pack. Then a couple of glitter banners stickers from my stash. 

I love to add layers like this.  

I had a couple of date tabs left over so I've put one to good use to document the date of the photo. Ive attached this to the page with my tiny attacher along with the butterfly clip from the embellishments kit.

Last but not least, my title made from 2 types of Shimelle alphas and another set form my stash. Finished off with the 3 gorgeous flower blooms that I saved just for this layout. They were a little too heavy to use within my pocket life pages but worked perfect with this layout. 

Don't forget to upload your creations to the sketch challenge post so we can see what you come up with :)

Thanks for stopping by

Happy Crafting xx

Scrappy Canary July Cyber Crop

Good morning fellow scrappers!!

A few months back.. July to be exact The Scrappy Canary had an awesome Cyber crop! 

I thought I should finally share my creations

(yes its been that long since this post has been sitting in draft form so hopefully I can remember what each challenge was lol)

As there are a few I won't go through them all in detail, if you want to clarify anything please do so in the comments :)

Challenge #1 was a sketch, set by Manda

I flipped it to the side and came up with this using some left over embellishments from a previous 'Polly Scrap Kits' Embellishment kit

Challenge #2 - Kate's Colour Challenge

I stuck with mainly blues and yellow, with a pop of green at the bottom of the photo. 

Using a recycled background that I didnt think would work for anything.

Challenge #3 - Step outside your comfort zone - set by Lauren

This was lots of fun! I scrap lifted a layout made by Paige Evans for Studio Calico for this one.
Lots of strips of patterned paper all weaved together then sewed to the page. So much fun!

Challenge #4 - Linda's Tic Tac Toe..

I went a little crazy with this one, ticking off each and every single box!
It did WIN me a prize pack WOO HOO!!

Challenge #5 - Ruth's Mood Board challenge

This one came straight to me the minute I saw those ruffles!
I had a ruffled paper from a previous Dear Lizzy collection that I sprayed with a tie dye spray mist. It went a perfect shade of mint. I wanted to keep it simple with just a couple of extra layers under the photo and a splattering of matching sequins and ombre alpha thickers

Last up is
Challenge #6 - Carol's journalling challenge

This was a tricky layout! The lyrics came easy, You've got the love is one of my most favourite songs. I sketched them onto my page using my silhouette and a silver sketch pen.. The hardest part was finding the right photo to work with the lyrics.. None of my more recent photos seemed to fit 'right' so I went searching back further into photos pre-Leila and I happened to come across just the right one.. Taken by Mum before I was heading out to a work xmas party. Taken at a time when I thought no one was ever going to love me like I had loved them lol If only I knew then what I know now.. That love will find you when the time is right :) sappy sappy sappy

Heres the layout :)

Finished off with some gold glitter heart vellum, part of my favourite doily and minimal embellishing..

Thanks for stopping by xx

Inspired by Paige

Hello crafty friends!

Today Im sharing 2 layouts that have been inspired by the very talented Paige Evans. The Queen of paper piecing! I have been wanting to try this technique out for awhile now, but didnt really want to mess it up too much.

Funnily enough, both layouts document birthdays. One for me and one for Leila..

First up a layout for my 30th birthday. The 3 of us don't have a lot of photos together as 1 of us is usually taking the photo, so I knew this needed to be documented in some way.

I cut up a bunch of papers from a 4x6 paper pad made by Studio Calico, then arranged them onto some white cardstock. Ive sewed through all squares diagonally, then roughed up a few edges. Once I was happy, I layered that on top of some gold spot vellum and more white cardstock. Then worked some magic with doilies and embellishments from D-Lish Scraps, added a few more stitched lines and some October Afternoon Alpha stickers and called it done.

Next up is a page documenting Leila's 3rd Birthday. I quickly grabbed a recent A Piece of Cake Designs cupcake kit for this one as the colours within the papers worked well with the photos.

This time I cut all the papers into strips and layed them down in random places, mixed with a few tags also found in the kit. Once I was happy with how it was layed out, I sewed straight lines along top and bottom of each row. I skipped over the tags for something different. I used a gold glitter patterned vellum to matt the photo and a doily for the other photos. A sprinkling of embellishments, a sparkly thicker title and another memory recorded!

Thanks for reading, more to share in a few days x

More 'Just because' Scapping

Good morning fellow crafters!!

Popping in to share a couple of layouts I made after a little experimenting..

First up is one I made after playing around with a new Prima stencil. I used a couple of Tim Holtz distress inks in random places of the mask until it was full of colour. Once it was dry I debated as to if I would cover the entire page with vellum to dull down the colour, but ended up just using a piece of it layered with pattern papers, a doily and a couple of embellishments.. A splattering of black ink, veneer and enamel dots and the page was complete.

The next layout was made after reading a blog post at Studio Calico.. I liked the watercolour effect Geralyn showed on the city names paper so I thought I would give it a go. I also liked the way she had set the page out, so I lifted that and made it more my style with a few extra layers. Im not 100% happy with the GO.SEE.DO title, but the page is done, another photo is documented!

Thanks again for stopping by, more to share again soon.
Michelle

Nap Time is Bliss with Life Paper Scrapbook

Hello, Hello. Thanks for stopping in today :)
I thought I might share a post that has been in draft form for well over a month!

This is a layout I made for the August Life Paper Scrapbook Mood Board Challenge.
Sadly this was the last challenge for the LPS blog for some time, while creator Manda focuses on her new business Scrappy Canary

This was the mood board for the challenge

I took inspiration from the paint strokes, the blues and gold with a hint of pink

 This, which most of you may have seen on the LPS blog and my instagram account, is what I came up with.  I smeared whipped spackle all over the page, then watered down a few different blue, aqua and teal gelatos plus a smear of gold here and there. While the gold was still wet I sprinkled some gold glitter over the top.

Ive matted the photo onto vellum, a D-Lish Scraps patterned paper bag then onto some POW glitter paper. The shipping tag is tucked into the bag for a journalling spot

 I added another pop of blue with a Heidi Swapp colour magic banner, then slid it under the photo and embellished with a glitter bow from D-Lish Scraps and a couple of enamel dots.

 I found the perfect shade of pink in an old set of Thickers I had stashed away.
The angle of this photo also shows how the whipped spackle sits up off the page rather than flat like gesso does.

Very minimal embellishments added around the page including one of my favourite doilies and an offcut heart from a previous silhouette cut.

Thanks for stopping by today. Hope to share more soon!

August Project Life

Hello Everyone!!
I thought I would drop back in today to share the pages I made for my new role as part of the Scrappy Canary Design Team.

These pages are all documenting our August stories. I've recently changed to the monthly approach of documenting as I just wasn't taking enough photos to warrant using a full page per week. But in the end, boy did I get a few pages cranked out!

This month I had the September Pocket Life kit "Strawberry Fields" to play with, featuring the awesomely cute Shimelle range.  (I will admit that I did have to dip into my Shimelle stash to add extra papers from the 6x6 pad and a few stickers, but I think I used the kit to its full potential! Added extras used within pages can be found on the Scrappy Canary website.)

This is what it looks like all sitting within my album.. A few different sized pocket pages used to create a few layers within the month.

First up is a page more about me, than the rest of my little family. For those of you who aren't too familiar with me... I have an almost 4 year old little girl, a partner Clinton and we all live together with my parents!! Crazy I know, but we are in the process of FINALLY building a house.. Just for us :) Its actually documented within this months pages.. Back to this page..

I absolutely ADORE this range by Shimelle! Its pretty pastels work just right with the colours of my photos for the month. I especially like the cute camera paper! Perfect for a selfie photo I took to send to my hairdresser! And the cork stickers!! Perfect for a finishing touch to the Month card at the top.

You can see here Ive added in 2 of the printables from this months kits. They aren't printed perfect as our printer was running low on ink, but they still work perfect with the colours of the Shimelle range. Ive used pretty much all of the labels within the kit and the printables sheet throughout all my pages. Think I will need to print more out to use with the remaining papers I have here.

One of my inserts was perfect for a few of the instagram photos I had to document, Ive backed them with complimenting papers from the kit, including some of the strips from the tops of the papers.. 

Here you can see how I've used one of the Crate Paper labels, folded over the page protector to create a tab. The little flag was made using a scrap from one of the top strips of the paper pad.

This insert is JAMPACKED!! so many little stories and photos. How cool are the cut apart papers within the kit! Ive used a few of the mini cards above. And those My Mind's Eye alphas.. AWESOME!

My last page is made using one of the new and seriously cool fold out pocket pages from Heidi Swapp

You can see here that this  page folds out to the right, and has space for up to 8 more pockets of photos!

Below is what the page looks like closed, documenting the start of my Paperific weekend!

I've used a second Crate Paper label to make another flag tab. I also used my new In a Wink glitter brushes in Clear to add some sparkle to the Cork stickers

The strips you can see on the 2 photos up top (left & middle) and the bottom right are all made with the strips you rip off the tops of the papers. I simply folded them over to hide the hole in the middle then stapled them onto the photos. Ive added dates to 2 of them and left the other just as it is..

I have loved using the Strawberry Fields pocket life kit for this month

Everything matches in perfect from the papers, the journal cards, the date tabs and alpha stickers..

And how cute are all the pink tiny type word strips from Studio Calico! 

The perfect finishing touch to many of my pockets

Thats all from me today. Thanks for checking out my pages.
I hope they have inspired you all in some way to use up this months kits!!

Cant wait to share what I whip up next with the remnants of this kit :)
Have a great day
Michelle xx

Exciting Scrappy News OCTOBER edition

Hello fellow crafters

Today I can finally share my exciting news

Ive joined the Scrappy Canary Design Team!!!

My first post is up on the Scrappy Canary Blog today showing off my August Project Life pages.
Ive used the September Pocket Life kit - Strawberry fields

You can see more HERE