I spy with My Minds Eye

I spy with My Minds Eye ...a little spray ink, a few ink splatters, an array of different width/coloured papers, some stamping and die cutting not to mention some washi tape and a few pearls!

This is a layout I created for the April gallery and I wasn't sure where I was going with this page when I started out, only knowing that I wanted a predominantly gold & pink feel to the layout. I LOVE the gold papers from MME and the slightly washed out effect my daughter had applied to her selfie photo went perfectly. Add in the mix of dusty pink and I achieved a soft layered look with plenty going on from just a selection of strips of different types of materials. I was good to have a play with inks too which featured on other pages I created for the gallery last month too - think they are my go to toy at the moment! They worked particularly well on this woodgrain white card background which I think is still available in the shop here. The gold hearts and striped paper is from Now & Then Mildred can can be found here in the store.

Giveaway Winner

So sorry this was late. Yesterday we had a visit from my father in law then I made the mistake of agreeing to teach Isabelle adult Monopoly (instead of the dull and not very strategic junior version!) After a FOUR HOUR marathon game which ended at 9:30pm I got her to bed and then completely forgot to make this draw! Sorry :)

Anyway, a day late, I went through and deleted duplicate comments and headed over to good old Random dot org to draw a winner - here is the result...

Comment number 3:

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Anonymous21 May 2014 20:51

What a super prize! I adore Simple Stories, so vibrant and versatile. I love that they have so many themes, something to please everyone. Good Luck everyone. xx
Anita MacDonald

ReplyDelete

 

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Anita please drop me an email and confirm your current address and the Simple Stories goodies will be winging their way to you after the bank holiday!

Thanks to everyone for participating - do come and visit often, we love to see what you have to say about the various posts, I know the designers always appreciate it when people add their comments to their blog posts :)

One piece of paper and an embellishments pack....

I challenged myself to see what I could make with just one sheet of paper - in this case a beautiful paper from MME's Chalk Studio called Happy Day and then a pack of goodies from Echo Park's Charmed Life collection (and possibly a few Echo Park DIY Stories frame may have snook into my page 'cos it was on my desk :D - that be the black and white stripy polaroids).

The paper already has quite a lot of decoration on it, so it was easy to place the photos, and then I just went about layering and tucking the embellishments behind them, some I added on pop dots, and others just stuck flat.  I used the sticker sheet that comes with Charmed Life for the title (I love that they do a mix of alphas that all co-ordinate on one sheet as well as a nice variety of stickers to use).  The Polaroids in the DIY shop range are still a big hit for me, I really like the frames and it gives you space for journalling or adding some relevant stickers underneath the photo.

Designer's Choice Show and Tell Part 2

One of the first new ranges that caught my eye when I got to the retreat was the Kaisercraft Kaleidoscope range.  A range that seemed to have been designed to contain everything I love - bright colours, music paper, and stickers but most importantly Butterfly Stickers - my first purchase at the retreat I might add!

For this layout I cut an inch of the top and side of a piece of Mosiac paper which incidentally I had chosen for the blue and green front side but then fell in love with the black damask pattern.  I used a border punch to make three strips from a piece of Blank Canvas and used the manufacturers strip from one of the papers that had newsprint on it, but unfortunately I cannot remember which one. 

I then layered up a piece of Collage (green side)  the music and rose  journaling card from the Pallete sheet and the card from the Illustrate sheet which said 'These Memories Will Last A Lifetime'.  I punched out two hearts from the red card on the Illustrate sheet, used the Cherished and So Thankful stickers from the Sticker Sheet and added four butterfl. stickers - you could always punch out some butterflies rather than use stickers.  The title was made using a red alpha sticker sheet that I had in my stash.

My final layout for this month has to be my all time most favourite layout ever!

This was a very simple base of black cardstock with an 8 x 8 inch square of Impasto then a wide punched strip and 4 x 6 rectangle of the reverse of the Impasto.  I used a journaling card from the  Illustrate sheet and a line of text from the Sticker Sheet.  Finally I used lots of flowers, gems, pearls and butterfly stickers to finish.  The title was made using some Simple Stories alpha stickers.

So there we have it my designer's choice pieces - I know that the other designers will be along with some more show and tell soon and I am really excited to see what lovlieness they have produced.

Also don't forget to comment on this post to be in with a chance to win some new Simple Stories goodies.

Simple Stories Giveaway

Our new Simple Stories arrived today - we just love their versatile ranges and all the little extra bits and pieces, pockets, journal pages, die cuts, cards, brads and lots more. There are three new full ranges this time, The Story of Us, Hello Baby and Good Day Sunshine and they are all gorgeous!
So to celebrate the lovely new stock, we will be giving away a selection of Simple Stories products - see picture below (including a couple of brand new items which were delivered TODAY!)

Just leave us a comment saying why you like Simple Stories products before 8pm on Sunday 25th May and we will select a winner using random.org. Good Luck!

Some Snowy Kaisercraft

For my chocie this month as i mentioned in my recent post I chose Kaisercraft and Marion Smith

This layout started out as all black and white but I added a touch of red to it and really liked the effect.
The background is Kaisercraft Kaleidoscope Original - I loved the dotty shabby effect. On the page at the website its the one with chevrons on the other side.
I embellished it with some red flowers that I fussy cut from Marion Smith Motley Scarlet
I then inked the edges with Festive Berries - very lightly ! The embellishment was one I had in my stash and the butterflies were punched from paper.
The title was made from leftover letters I had from Karen's Bella Boulevard class at the retreat

Thanks for popping by - look out for more posts from the design team from this month's gallery you can find here 

Designer's Choice -April

We were given free reign for April to choose whatever we liked for our DT kits.
I went straight for Kaisercraft and Marion Smith. This layout I'm sharing today is a photo of myself and Ann from the Design Team being silly and dressing up for her Mad Hatter's Tea Party crop.
I used tiny strips of paper ,some lacy ribbon and some  grunge paste through a stencil on the background.

Then I embellished with some gorgeous new Marion Smith Butterflies which have just come into the shop, some Prima flowers and one of the cute wooden clocks you can find here called Romance Novel.

The lettering was some I had in my stash.

 

 

 

Designer's Choice - Show and Tell Part 1

For our April DT kit we were allowed to choose the ranges we wanted from the supplies at the ATDML retreat.  This is always such a treat and there is such an excited buzz as we all choose and compare the loveliness that will be our kit of choice.

This time I chose from two ranges - Simple Stories DIY and Kaisercraft Kaleidoscope.

First I used the DIY to make a couple of pages I loved the idea of using this range to build up layers (how out of character I hear you say).

 

 For INSTABIRTHDAY  I used 5 of the larger insta frames and printed out 5 photos to fit the apertures. I then used a strip of Looking Good across the centre of my page, can't go wrong with a horizontal strip of paper in my opinion!  On top of this I put a smaller strip of Who's to Say and finally a strip of washi tape with the days of the week on.  The idea of the page was to illustrate that Gracia had a 9 day birthday celebration (this doesn't include going out to dinner with her Newcastle friends last week) all recorded on Instagram!  I stuck the frames onto my page in the order the events occurred and used pennants from the sticker pack, hung from bakers twine,  to fill in the empty spaces.

 Next I wrote my journaling onto some strips cut from No Worries used some Simple Stories letter stickers for the title and finally because I wasn't sure about there being so much white space, I drew a border in black pen.

 This range was absolutely perfect for a fun and quirky page about my dog and her panache for dressing up - ok we dress her up and she tolerates it!

 I printed out 3 photos that were 3 x 4 and cut a 3 x 4 frame from the Freeze Frame paper. Next I cut a piece of  Who's to Say  and a piece of Looking Good 2 3/4 x 3 3/4 inches and mounted them onto pieces of Outside the Box which measured 3  x 4 .

I trimmed an inch from the left edge of the No Worries, as I had already trimmed some from the top to use for journaling on the page above.  I stuck this to a piece of cardstock and covered the edges of the cardstock with washie tape.  I then arranged my photos and blocks of paper and used some of the centres from the pack of Insta Frames along with stickers and squares cut from Outside the Box to decorate the blocks.

Finally I foam padded more stickers to the bottom and right of the page and filled in spaces with some decorative brads.

 

Two bright and funky pages which are in stark contrast to the others made using the Kaisercraft.  I will be back, later in the month, with a little more 'show and tell' featuring those ones. 

New Year New You - April

Helloooo - once again.  Where did April fly by to?

Last month I said I was embarking on another little get fit project.  I wanted to 'up the anti' a little and so decided to embark on a C25K (Couch to 5K)  regime. For those who are unfamiliar with this - it's a nine week program where you exercise 3 times a week and build up from not being able to run to being able to run (in my case jog) 5K or for 30 minutes.

I tried three different apps on my phone - the first was too boring,  although the second had good music my phone didn't like it and it kept restarting half way through or suddenly deciding I was doing so well perhaps I should be on week six or seven!  The third and the one I stuck with is called Run Double - no music but really good stats after every interval of walking/jogging.  I am only on week two as I have had several restarts, a trip to Mum's and the Easter weekend to contend with.

But as my inspirational quote on this month's page says 'Perseverance - Steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success!'