Aussie Scrap Source

weekend inspiration: cosmo cricket

 

A simple yet effective layout from Nic Howard this time. Nic loved the slight grunge look of the Cosmo Cricket Lil' Man collection and knew it'd be perfect for a page to go in her son's album. She loved the timeless patterns and the co-ordinating elements - note Nic's use of ribbon as a border down the middle of the page. With the base of the layout and basic embellishments being Cosmo Cricket, Nic bought in a few items from the Pink Paislee Fascinating range in the way of chipboard and alpha.

Can you see the BasicGrey half pearl opalines? Another addition to the BasicGrey range since CHA winter.

 

The Everafter range by her favourite company Cosmo Cricket has again delighted Nicole to no end. The colour palette is so "her" that she can see herself using it time and time again.

 

Caz created this mini album using the bright summery "Snorkel" range from Cosmo Cricket to showcase some of her families favourite photos from their time in the seaside town of Kiama. She decided on the unusual size of 25cm x 12cm so she could fit in some of the panoramic view shots that are sometimes hard to fit in mini albums. The cover is simply covered cardstock and each page is a 2 sheets of patterned paper stuck together and folded over, bound by the gorgeous Snorkel ribbons.

Caz used some of the chipboard accents as dangles from the ribbon, raised some of the cardsock stickers on foam tape to give them more dimension, and even used the name at the bottom of the papers as fun word tabs on the sides of some of the pages.

 

         

We just love this layout by Rie Tomita from Fukuoka in Japan! We noticed it in a gallery online and just had to show you all. Rie has used the new Cosmo Cricket 'Snorkel' range beautifully. Lots of detail and the title suits it so well! Bright and happy, for sure! Thanks for sharing, Rie!

 

Thanks again to Davinie Fiero from Redmond, Oregon for yet another one of her fabulous Cosmo Cricket creations! This is Girl Friday again, a collection that has it all. Isn't the scalloped ribbon gorgeous! Thanks for sharing your artwork with us, Davinie!

 

Davinie has been a guest on the Aussie Scrap Source blog before, she rocks the Cosmo Cricket! This 'Miss You' card by Davinie features some patterned paper from the new Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday collection. It has been paired with a little Sassafras Lass paper. It coordinates so beautifully. Thanks for letting us feature your card, Davinie!

 

Finally we fell in love with this so pretty layout by Cosmo Cricket design team member Natasja Verbeek.  We love how she seamlessly incorporated the game spinner into her layout.

dt challenge: what’s in a name?

Naming children is a compromise and Suz chose to create her page around what her children might have been called had either herself or their father been left alone to name them – very different options from where they ended up.  Now of course she can’t imagine them being called anything else.

Suz has used an eclectic mix of Sassafras Lass, SEI, Hambly and Pink Paislee in colour-blocked areas for her page and the ever-versatile Been There Done That alpha rubons work in perfect harmony with the brand new Paper Trunk alpha stickers.

Caz has wanted to get the reason why she chose each of her children's names down on a scrapbooking page in a long time and this challenge has given her the ideal opportunity.

Starting with her eldest Darcy, this is what she has written -         

Darcy Rae McLachlan -

Being our first child Daddy and I went through a book on baby names to try and work out what we wanted to call you. Daddy came up with Matthew, Luke and James for a boy, I had to double check that he hadn’t been going through the Bible by mistake. If you were a girl Daddy liked the name Kelly after his favourite character in married with children, I had no idea what I wanted to call you but I knew it was anything but Kelly.       

Someone out our work had a little girl and called her Darcy. At first I just thought it was a weird name but the more I heard it the more it grew on me. A year and a half later when I realised I was pregnant that name was still in the back on my mind. I liked it because it was a unisex name that I liked for either a boy or a girl.

When I was in labour Mum came over to keep me company while I waited it out at home. She told me that she thought I was having a girl as the song Little Ray of Sunshine came on the radio when she was on her way over. And so when you were born, you became Darcy Rae, our little ray of sunshine.

Next it was on to her middle child Jordan.

Jordan Elaine McLachlan -

When I was pregnant with you we decided not to find out if you were a boy or a girl but to have another surprise. This meant the choosing of two names again. I have no idea what names Daddy chose for you. I think he was still hoping to get a girl called Kelly but that was never happening.

At the time my favourite movie was still Cocktail starring Tom Cruise and Bryan Brown. Tom Cruise ends up getting married to a beautiful, rich girl called Jordan. She has it all, money, looks and Tom Cruise (when he was young and cute and wasn’t jumping on couches).

Plus it was another unisex name. I liked it for both a boy and a girl, it was unusual without being too way out and it went well with the name Darcy. Now look at you, stunningly beautiful with the world at your feet. I don’t care if you are never rich, I just want you to be happy, and find your Tom Cruise to sweep you off your feet one day when you are ready.

And finally her youngest child, Jesse.

Jesse Michael John McLachlan -

Our surprise baby. Having two small girls I really wanted to know what you were going to be before you arrived. There was no way I was washing a mountain of tiny pink clothes if you were going to be born a boy. Daddy did not want to know so I had to keep it a secret from him for about 6 months. Talk about hard!

I was overjoyed that you were a boy. Not only because I knew Daddy would be wrapt but because I was all out of girl names that I liked. I did however have a name I liked for a boy. Jesse. I wanted to name you Jesse after Jesse Martin, the young Melbourne boy who became the youngest person to sail non-stop, single handed and unassisted around the world. A boy who knew what he wanted and wasn’t afraid to go after it. Jesse also worked for a boy or a girl with the added bonus that Daddy still wouldn't know what you were.

Daddy still had no idea right up until the minute you were born. I had purchased a tiny West’s Magpies football jersey and a little football and hidden them in my bag to give to him. You are lucky enough to have two middle names, Michael is Daddy and Poppy’s middle name and John is after my Dad who died before you were born.

     

Mel decided to use a photo of her two children for this challenge, journaling who each child was named after around the outer edge of the layout. The layers on the page were created using a combination of patterned paper, Jenni Bowlin crepe ribbon, Heidi Swapp black velvet flowers (and leaves) and Queen & Co felt fusion (jungle). To create the centre of the flower, Mel scrunched up a piece of the crepe ribbon and machine stitched it into position. The title was sprayed with glimmer mist before also being machine stitched into place to complete the layout.

scraplift: loretta grayson

 

loretta’s original:

 

nicole f’s lift:

  

Nicole is unashamedly one of Loretta Grayson's biggest fans and has been for years. Nic can relate to many things that Loretta journals and shares Loretta's love of art, music, lyrics and text.

Here she repeated Loretta's basic design in a mirror-image format to suit her photo and also added some of Loretta's trademark black machine stitching. She found the flowers much trickier than they look! Nicole retained her style by using some of her favourite papers by Cosmo Cricket.

 

 

 

loretta’s original:

 

mel’s lift:

 

Loretta's pages always have such a lovely, warm feel to them and one of the aspects that always attracts Mel to her pages is the machie stitching. Although Loretta often adds black stitching on her pages, for this page Mel used white cotton and also edged the main bracket with a brown Heidi Swapp pencil. The patterned papers are by Crate, from the Orbit range - nice and fun for Christmas photos.

 

 

 

loretta’s original:

 

steph’s lift:

    

Steph loves Rett's use of colour and that is demonstrated here in her layout "Gypsy". The way she has used the Hambly Art Deco Pink Frame to highlight her photo, and the flowers scattered around it, really make the photo "pop" off the page. Steph also adores the way Rett uses tranparancies, and loved the idea of the Hambly Turquoise frame which Rett used, offsetting Steph's black and white background.

weekend inspiration: basicgrey

Carole found Basic Grey Lime Rickey a very colourful and vibrant paper range that can be used for Boys and Girls, very versatile.
Carole cut out the cute little birds and circles, and used these as embellishments on her layout, and combined Basic Grey Offbeat chipboard elements and stickers which coordinated really well.

 

 

Carole also created this layout using Basic Grey Ambrosia pattern papers and element stickers. Carole found this collection one of her favourites, she loved the colours and especially how she could still create a pretty but masculine layout using a photo of her son.

 

    

 

Nic Adores the new Marrakech range by Basic Grey. The rich patterns and colours are gorgeous and embellishments in themselves and could be used for layouts of just about any theme. The colour palette on offer is earthy yet exotic.

Nic used Junkitz fabrics inked with Tim Holtz Distress inks and masks as her photo mat, then used various parts of the Marrakech papers as her accents.

 

 

 

 

 

Porcelain by BasicGrey is the most sublime and ethereal line that has been designed by this cutting edge company. Steph just loved the mix of delicate papers and images and loved mixing them with images downloaded from the internet. The brads and chipboards give the layout that bit of tweaking that 3D embellishments add and the easy to apply Porcelain Die Cut sticker borders are a beautiful way to finish of your page. Steph has demonstrated this by running her die cut sticker down the middle of the page separating the image and the art work. The large die cut bracket was traced around onto the Basic Grey Patterned Paper and then cut out.

 

 

 

I contacted Kelly Goree because I adore her use of colour and simple classic lines. I think Basic Grey and Kelly is a match made in Heaven.

 

 

 

When I received this layout from Kelly, I couldn't take my eyes off of the photo of the two beautiful babies. Basic Grey's porcelain was perfect accompaniment for the soft tones of this photo.

 

 

 

I love the use of Kelly's simple spray of flowers which draws the eye to the title "Fall". The simple tear contrasts the clean and linear design and adds that rouge element which makes a layout unique.

 

 

Once again its Kelly's attention to detail which makes this layout a standout. The little accent of sewing offsetting the circle contrast highlights Basic Grey's Marrakesh Line beautifully.

 

A beautiful layout by the lovely Jane Jones using Basic Grey Bittersweet. Jane used the Bittersweet pattern papers and Chipboard Elements to create this stunning layout.

 

 

We are so inspired by this gorgeous layout by Debbie Kingston using BasicGrey Porcelain collection, I think you will agree with me on how delicate and so very pretty this layout is, thanks so much Debbie for sharing your layout with us.

12345 photos... tribute to a friend

For this challenge Mel used a photograph of one of her good friends, Kama. Wanting to keep the layout bright and bubbly (just like Kama's personality), she opted for a mix of fun Sassafras Lass Happy Place journal tag stickers to use as the background over the Indian Summer (Butternut Souffle) piece of patterned paper. Small strips of Heidi Swapp decorative tape were also positioned on the page and some Heidi Swapp jeweled brads, giving a nice girly touch to the layout.

 

Nic F pays tribute here to one of her oldest friends Bobbie. She felt that the "chick" theme of Basic Grey's Offbeat range lent itself perfectly to the idea of scrapping a female friend! She added a BasicGrey Jumbo bookmark and not that the journalling block is actually the packaging from Jenni Bowlin's buttons.

 

 

 

Chris says: 'I loved having the opportunity to put together a layout about my oldest friend Allie. The journalling explains that we've known each other for 24 years and that we've been through many life experiences together. I used Basic Grey Offbeat to create this 3 photo layout. All the photos were 6x4 inch photos that I trimmed a little to fit the design.'

 

 

In light of the recent bushfires and floods that our country has been going through, Caz decided that she would do a tribute page to the people in the Emergency Services rather than focus on one friend. Members of her family and close friends are in or have been involved in all the different Emergency Service departments. All of them downplay their roles, saying they are just doing their job, but really where would we all be without them?

 

 

  

The challenge to dedicate a page to a friend was perfect timing for Nic Howard, who had just watched her daughter gain, and lose her first best friend. Nic says her daughter became inseperable with a friend at Kindergarten during last year. Neither girl clicked on the last day of kindy that going to different schools meant they wouldn't see each other any more. Abby attended Sophie's birthday party over the holidays and Nic took the chance to click some photos!

This layout has a base created with Collage Press and Crate papers. (Notice how Nic coloured the diecut scalloped border from brown to black?!) . The beautiful soft green and other patterned papers are the new Basicgrey Wisteria, as are the chipboard embellishments. A beautiful tribute to friends!

scraplift: ali edwards

 

 

Suz is a long time fan of Ali's and loves how she incorporates wonderful little arty bits within a tight graphic design.  This is one of Ali Edwards' layouts from CHA earlier this year using one of her new Technique Tuesday stamps. 

Though the colour scheme is different, Suz has fairly closely echoed Ali's design, using a mixture of her favourite Sassafras Lass patterned papers.  She loved how much journalling she was able to fit on the stamp - in this case a direct quote from her son capturing directly his personality in some of his cool imaginings.

 

 

 

Chris says that one of her scrapbooking goals this year is to scrap more multi photo layouts and in particular photos from events. She has long admired Ali's ability to create fabulous multi photo layouts and jumped at the chance to scraplift one of her designs and scrap some photos from their recent holiday.

She also love the way Ali incorporates using scraps into her designs as she has done in this layout.  Chris only needed one full piece of patterned paper for the back ground and the other squares of pattern paper were cut from scraps in my stash. She stuck with Ali's 'squares' - or in her case 'rectangles' design but she did change the overall size of the layout to create a 8.5 x 11 page. Ali is well known for scrapping many different size pages, mini albums etc.

Chris did some inking around the edges of the back ground paper and sanded the edges of her photos. The 'capture the moment' journalling block is a stamp designed by Ali for Technique Tuesday. For the dotted stamped circles she used Heidi Swapp Journalling spots frills stamps.

 

 

 

 

 

Jaimie has always admired the simple yet eclectic style of Ali Edwards and believes she is the queen of scrapping the everyday. Jaimie chose this LO from Ali because the mix of circles and large blocks of paper really appealed to her. Here, Jaimie chose various aspects of the design and used them on her page.   The elongated photo, colour blocked paper  and of course Ali's signature "a" which has been changed to an "e" for Jaimies page.

The circles have been cut from the new BG Porcelain Bellamy paper, the edges distressed, inked, scrunched and then layered on top of each other securing with a brad. Where Ali has journaled on each circle, Jaimie has used stickers to convey her message, these stickers have been placed over a BG Porcelain sticker which Jaimie blinged up using Heidi Swap pink bling. A little bit of machine sewing brings it all together.

 

We thank Ali Edwards for allowing us to share her original layouts here alongside our own - and for being such an inpsiration to the scrapping world!

weekend inspiration: jenni bowlin studios

 

The Jenni Bowlin Victoria range is full of old world charm without all the browns and creams that are synonymous with heritage pages. Jaimie cut out the pattern from the Victoria Sitting Room paper and then adhered it to the Victoria Parlor paper allowing the LO to contain white space without looking too bare.

A cluster of tickets, acetate embellishments and a Jenni Bowlin calendar die-cut are combined with Heidi Swapp Decorative tape and pearl brads along with some cheap paper flowers that Jaimie inked before adding to her page. The result is a simple yet eye catching LO where the embellishments lead your eye through the page so you dont miss a thing.

Carole loved creating this layout using the gorgeous Jenni Bowlin "Extension Collection" - pattern papers and embellishments, diecuts, and calendar cards.
Carole coloured in the birds with pencils and Inque Boutique Blendable pens and then layered the design to make certain areas stand out, this was the special feature to Carole's design, and finished of with her 3 dimensional elements using the Calendar cards and pattern papers.

Nic is a total sucker for die-cut papers and couldn't give up an opportunity to play yet again with the Jenni Bowlin Die Cut papers. Nic used Jenni Bowlin Mini papers to create a base for her embellishments, and a black bingo card as a fancy matt for her photo. She finishhed the layout with Jenni Bowlin Crepe paper ribbon and Heidi Swapp alphas, and off course some embellishments cut from patterned paper in true Nic style!

Aussie Scrap Source shows off another beautiful layout designed by Jane Jones using Jenni Bowlins "Brown Transfer" as you can see Jane has captured the photo perfectly using this gorgeous range of papers, thanks so much Jane.

We are very lucky to have another creation by Rita Weiss, showing off the gorgeous Jenni Bowlin product. Rita has used the number die cut paper as a journaling prompt, very clever, we thought! Finished off with the gorgeous little Die Cut calendar cards, this layout is a stand-out in any gallery!

            

The mix of Jenni Bowlin products and Kraft cardstock in this layout by Rita Weiss makes it a star creation. Rita handcut and inked large stars from the Jenni Bowlin star paper. She used various lettering and small embellishments to finish. Thanks for sharing, Rita!

the very talented and equally nice Jenni Bowlin has loaned us two of her own pages to showcase the heritage theme that runs through her Victoria range of paper and goodies. The simple little embellishments that Jenni has used on this LO are subtle enough to not take away from the focus photo and her hand written journalling is the perfect personal touch to finish off this project.

Initial thoughts on the Victoria range is that it is Heritage all the way, however with this project Jenni has used photos of her family and shows how very versatile this range truly is. We love the scalloped edge from the Crepe Paper Ribbon that runs under her photos, it adds an interesting texture to a beautiful page. thankyou Jenni

Doris Sander has created this lovely page - it is beautiful in its simplicity. The cut out flower pattern and strategic placement of embellishments draws the eye back to the photos everytime. A lovely use of white space. beautiful

Who can take their eyes off the lovely handprints which turn this project from a 'LO' to a very personal keepsake. Doris has created a beautiful page that will stand the test of time. Thank you Doris.

12345 photos... if i could go anywhere...

Steph decided to take a different slant on this blog challenge, and created something very personal but very important to her. Her journalling tells of her trials during post natal depression and what she wants her daughter to know. Steph has used BasicGrey's Porcelain, such a beautiful and delicate mix of apricots and whimsical greens. Teamed with Porcelain Chipboard and Rub Ons the colour scheme works beautifully with the delicate nature of the essence of the layout.

 

 

 

 

If Caz could go anywhere in the world she would love to visit New York City. To walk the streets that the characters of her favourite shows walked, ice-skate in central park, drink Manhattans in a bar and shop in places like Bloomingdales and FAO Shwarz. Thanks to their love of the tv sitcom 'Friends', Caz's daughter's would be only too happy to go with her.

Caz hand cut the New York Skyline silhouette from card and layered the Statue of Liberty over the top with dimensional tape. The hand-cut letter were also attached with dimensional tape giving a 3d street-scape effect.

 

Despite the recent bushfires in Victoria, Nicole still loves the mountains and if she could go anywhere, the mountains it would be. She tied together mis-matched photos by relating them to her journalling - her dream location being the loft house of her dreams, built up on a mountain and filled with art by Charles Blackman. She took the theme further by mentioning that in her dream, she would awake to snow outside through Winter and cool breezes in Summer.

 

Suz's title pretty much sums it up for her!  She's always loved to travel, and not one to do it by halves, in her younger child-free days she spent pretty much a whole decade wandering the world.  Using London as her base she also lived in Ireland, country England, Morocco, the South of France, Italy and more, and believes you can't really get the flavour of a place by just touring through.

Suz has used the new Pink Paislee 'Captivating' line as the base of her layout and layered Heidi Swapp World Map and Circle Mega Masks to form the background for her title.  The Been There Done That Icon Rubons contain perfect quotes that sum up the spirit of travel, and she has transferred them onto Jenni Bowlin tickets to further enforce the theme.  Finally Suz has used a Collage Press Dear Diary Inventory Card as her journalling device.

 

 

 

  

Camping with the family is one of Mel's favourite getaway experiences - toasted marshmallows, warm campfires and surrounding herself with good company. So, this week, if Mel could go anywhere, camping would definitely be on the top of her list!

Beginning with a sheet of patterned paper for the background (Cosmo Cricket, Get Happy: Number 9) a mask was added and sprayed using Glimmer Mist. The five photos were then grouped together in a collage while embellishments, title and journaling were positioned around the outside edge. The title is a mix of rubons (Fontwerks, duality white) and a beautiful, soft velvet, white cursive word (Little Yellow Bicycle, felt stickers, words). Mel also added a touch of Jenni Bowlin crepe ribbon (one of her favourite products and very easy to work with).

 

... where would you go!?

pow! home decor

 

Steph wanted to make a garland for her daughter's room, so when Jenni Bowlin bought out the Chipboard Banners, it was the perfect opportunity for Steph to create. First of all Steph traced around the banners onto the Jenni Bowlin PP and cut the banner shape out. After adhering it to the chipboard she inked out the outline and added the pom pom trim. The centre letters are so easy to make and Steph started by punching a scalloped circle out of card stock.

The next step is to add the flower and then the letter on top. Once the centre embellishment to the banner triangle. These garlands are super easy to make and look so beautiful as a piece of home decor to enhance any children's room.

 

 

 

Caz and her daughter Darcy are slowly repainting and doing up Darcy's room in pinks with brown accents. Darcy wanted a calendar to go on the wall so Caz decided to go one better and make her this clipboard for her school notes with a calendar attached on the bottom.

Caz decorated the Carolee's clipboard with felt to match the pattern on the quilt cover and pillow cases. She printed the calendar pages from the internet and slipped them into 6" x 4" page protectors so that the pages can be pulled out and written on. She attached a pen to the top of the clipboard using various pink and brown fibers that she has had in her stash for ages. When they have finished painting the walls the clipboard will be hung above Darcy's new desk.

 

 

Chris's sister has a birthday coming up and she thought it would be a lovely idea to put together a gallery of all her sisters wonderful travel photos in the form of a calendar so she can display a different photo each month. In steps the Heidi Swapp 9x9 Jet Black calendar which works beautifully with Chris's idea.

Chris has scrapbooked each photo for the 12 months using the Basic Grey Offbeat collection pack and kept the design very simple so the photos can be shown off and she has kept the same design for each page to create a unified look. Chris has also cleverly recycled the Heidi Swapp flower from the calendar packaging and created a fabulous accent for the front cover of the calendar.

 

 

 

 

   

Starting with a base of Cosmo Cricket Lacing cards, Nicole created this wall-hanging for her home featuring some of her favourite family photos. She attached them to a small quilt hanger and laced them together using the pre-punched holes already included on the edges of the lacing cards.
This would make a wonderful gift for anyone in the theme of your choice.

 

 

 

 

There's absolutely no creativity required for this final project, other than choosing your photos!  We R Memory Keepers have brought out a range of photo frames that co-ordinate with some of their most popular paper ranges.  Suz's house is much like her scrapbook papers - lots of white with splashes of colour and these frames couldn't brighten up a little nook above a bookshelf any more perfectly.

These frames are the Urban Window Diner collection.  They do also come in cuter, more subdued colours for those whose houses wouldn't suit a serious splash of colour.  Ask your local scrapbooking shop to order them in for you if you like the look of them here!

 

weekend inspiration: carolee's creations

  

Jaimie wanted to combine both papers on her LO while still making the large star a main feature on her page. To do this Jaimie cut out the star from the Carolee's Original Boy paper and then adhered the All Star paper behind. The red chipboard stars were added to give a bit of lift to the blue and brown of the paper with white rub ons tying in with the white journal spots. Jaimie placed the blue chipboard arrows above the journal spots to lead the eye from the journalling and title to the photos.

All in all this paper works well for those male in between ages (teens and tweens) while remaining fun and light hearted as this page was intended to be.

 

 

Carole created this layout using Carolee Creations pattern papers, using the Bird Branch to created the 3 Dimensional design, and also using the gorgeous range of Carolee Creations Dream Dimensional Foam Stickers.
Carole created a very detailed layout, using gorgeous colour ranges which all blended really well together.

 

Caz created this page using photos from her son's t-ball grand final last year and some of the Carolee's baseball range of papers and stickers. Caz loves the wire fence paper with the little balls stuck in it. It is just so baseball.  The papers and stickers come in such bright primary colours that they are bound to suit most baseball club's team colours. If your team has difficult colours you may want to make some of your photos black and white.

The foam alpha stickers come in 7 different colours and add fabulous dimension without adding too much weight to a page. Being soft they will also not mark photos on the opposite page when your work is stored in an album.

btw, after coming in at 4th on the ladder, the redbellies clawed their way into the grand final. It was a draw at full time. But they ended up losing in extra time by 2 runs. A fabulous end to the season!

 

 

Katie Watson, created this gorgeous, mailbox and tag set with Carolee Creations using Love Defined and Forever Stripes pattern paper, as you can see it is very cute, I just thought it was so adorable, thank you so much Katie for sharing your beautiful creation.

 

Finally, we leave you with a stunning selection of pages from Georgana Hall from Carolee's Creations, and her talented design team.  These layouts show just how versatile Caroleee's Creations patterned papers and products are - and that 'themed' papers don't have to be tacky - these are wonderfully stylish and contain just the right words and designs to suit any age, season or theme.  Thanks ladies for allowing us to share some of the projects from your gallery here.

Georgana Hall

 

Eileen Workman

Jana Eubank

 

Eileen Workman

 

 

Jana Eubank

 

Eileen Workman

12345 photos ... on the weekend

 

Suz had the one photo challenge, and turned it into a bit of fun.  As the journalling says... every now and then her dear partner decides to pull everything out of his garage, rearrange it and then put everything back in again. As you do..  So the risk of weekend shopping is that you may well come back to find your home looking like this ... complete with people in passing cars actually stopping to ask if they can buy stuff!

When photos are as busy as this one, too many embellishments clutter the page, but here Suz has used the rich colours of BasicGrey Marrakesh on this fun layout, combined with Heidi Swapp Chipboard Tags and Journalling spots to create a simple but slightly whimsical layout.  For her title she's used two different colours of the new Paper Trunk alphabet stickers - you'll probably see Suz use these a lot as the size is just perfect for her characteristically longer titles.

 

 

While looking for photos of what might go on in the Howard home on any given weekend, these older photos stood out for Nic. She remembers taking the photos as the boys were listening to a story on the radio... obviously it was a little scary for Braden, but big brother Jacob was there to tell him it was just a story. While these days it is Pokemon, Bakugan or some other imaginary battle, most weekends are filled with some sort of quiet play.

Nic chose a mix of Jenni Bowlin, Pink Paislee and BasicGrey for the base of this layout. The black swirl embellishing is a Hambly overlay, cut to suit requirements. Other transparency elements are Heidi Swapp and the title is nic's current favourite BasicGrey Micro Alphas.

 

Caz's son Jesse decided that he was going to teach himself to ride his bike with no training wheels on the weekend. Thanks to his determination and sheer stubbornness he pushed his bike up the small slope in their backyard and then rode it down again until he could do it without falling off. Then there was no stopping him, it was on to turning corners, riding in circles and setting up a slalom course with the outside chair cushions.

Caz created a simple photo story showing Jesse sorting out his pedals, getting off to a wobbly start and then the determination on his face when he finally gets moving.

 

 

 

Chris had the task of creating a weekend layout using 4 photos. Chris decided to dominate her layout with one major photo and 3 smaller ones to the side. The main photo was the one she thought best depicts her families new favourite weekend activity.

Chris lives just 10 mins from a place called Dohles Rocks on Brisbane's Northside where her and her family can take their dog Skip for a walk at low tide, enjoy a bbq and generally have a wonderful time together. Chris put this layout together using SEI Oasis range with a little SEI Dill Blossom thrown in.

 

 

 

To create the collage of 5 photos, Mel mounted all the pictures of their remote controlled car outing onto a piece of white cardstock before adhering onto the background piece of patterned paper (Rose Moka, Equinoxe, Solstice). The large bracket on the paper made the perfect backdrop to add embellishments and a title. Mel used Basic Grey rubons (Archaic) which worked well with the deep earthy tones of the paper. Some Scenic Route chipboard circles completed the layout (Ready for this?).

pow! buttons

Can't see the buttons? Look again. Nic has taken the cutting out of scallop work with a fancy buttoned scallop border. This layout is created primarily with BasicGrey, the mixture of Sugared and the new Porcelain makes for a layout of gorgeous baby tones.

The buttons are BasicGrey Bittersweet, and are the scalloped edge that runs along bottom of the photo! Nic  lined them up carefully, and then placed a strip of paper over the top edge to create the illusion of a scallop. Cosmo Blackboard, Heidi Swapp transparency and two tiny buttons on the journaling strips finish this off nicely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

We can always rely on Carole to put a completely different slant on a challenge, and here again she doesn't disappoint.  Carole used Junkitz Collectionz Buttons to create the centre of the 3D flowers, and SEI Penelope's Potpourri to create the flowers.  She says that the wonderful array of coloured flowers in the pattern papers worked really well for this project.

Carole also used SEI Penelope's Potpourri Ribbon for leaves and to create the bow around the pretty pot, and wire for the stems to hold the flowers together and she finished the pot off with more flowers in the centre and a couple more Junkitz Collectionz Buttons.

 

 

How adorable are these button flower cards by Chris! Chris grabbed one of her favourite Hero Arts stamps, the Stitched flower stamp and stamped just the stem part of the stamp onto plain white cardstock cards. She then coloured in the stems using Heidi Swapp pencils. Chris cleverly layered some SEI buttons, stitched them together with thread and attached them to the cards as flowers. With a strip of Scenic Route Sonoma paper and a Heidi Swapp mini ghost butterfly and they were finished.

 

 

 

The clever Chris has also come up with a very cool solution for those left over Junkitz alpha buttons in your stash. Create a personalised keyring for your child's Nintendo DS, MP3 player, mobile phone etc!

 

 

 

 

Finally, as serendipity would have it, we found this layout on the enormously talented Christine Middlecamps blog last week.  It's not just a stunning preview of the new Sassafras Lass Vintage Yummy papers and die cut stickers, but it's also a fabulous way to use up some of that button stash.  Christine has layered and layered flowers and circles in this gorgeous embellishment, adorning each layer with buttons, sequins and more buttons.  Thanks Christine for allowing us to show your fabulous layout here - and at such short notice!