More Perfect Collection Page Starters...

Remember last year I posted about the Shimelle Perfect Collection class I took? I have been working on making another batch of page starters using her method.

Those of you who have been to the retreats might remember that we had some lovely MME Lost & Found 12x12 pads which included three each of 18 different papers from the individual collections within the Lost and Found range. I have always loved Lost & Found Union Square and so I removed one of each paper from the Union Square pad and worked with that at a collection pack. So far I have made 6 or 7 page starters and I still have lots of paper left!

I like having a stack of these as a go to when I know I have only a short amount of time to spare as it is a case of adding the photo (I have already selected a few possibles which will work with this collection) adding embellishments, journaling and a title.

Watch out for the completed layouts coming soon!

Tomorrow we are off to Stitches (Craft Hobby & Stitch International trade show) the UKs trade show for crafts. We placed the vast majority of our orders direct for CHA product and some of it is already coming through but it is nice to go and see what else is on offer and to see product in real life - there are sometimes surprises when things which were just "meh!" on the previews turn out to be much nicer than you thought!

MY version of Debbies LO from last weeks Eclectic Keepsakes is coming soon!

Karen's Story of Us

Here is my version of the class  taught by the uber talented Debbie Jewell at the February EK crop. 

 

I stayed fairly true to Debbie's beautiful page but slightly altered the arrangement and content of the clusters.

What a wonderful class she taught us.

Always my Valentine

Rather than the usual  Be my Valentine which whilst it's nice to receive does feel a little daft given I've been married ten years I decided to make my husband an "Always" card this year.

Using left overs after creating a couple of layouts from My Minds Eye papers received in my February DT kit I made a quick and simple card with a matching gift card holder. Both will go in the same envelope and the gift card for Cineworld (future date nights, he can supply the popcorn!!) will tuck in the red envelope of the card holder.  Quick, simple and so much nicer than a "be mine" when he already is!!

See these  projects and more in the forthcoming MME February DT Gallery.
Have a lovely day whatever you do x

THE STORY OF US

As promised a few days ago, and having dug out my camera to photograph, I am sharing my version of Debbie MME layout taught at Eclectic Keepsakes crop earlier this month. I opted for a less patterned paper on my background, just the one photo rather than  two and think I was a circle short in the layering too but here is my page.

I loved all the hand cutting of the floral paper which looks so effective layered up on the page.  Look out for more of the team sharing their versions soon.

Trends on Tuesday - An inky messy tutorial!

I know not all of you like to get messy....but I thought I would show you how I made my green inky background a couple of weeks ago - so bit more of a technique on Tuesday than a trend!

You need a water spray, some spray inks - I have Cosmic Shimmers Golden Mint, Peacock Green, Aqua Lagoon and a heat gun, though you can let it dry naturally but this will give it a slightly different effect - try it out!  I used an old pizza box to protect my surfaces and try and limit the splatter.

Start with a good spritzing of water across the page - don't completely soak the paper (or it gives you a different more watery effect - I like to have a few dryer areas so the splatter from the spray stays as it would do normally).  I think you can just about see the puddles and drier areas of the cardstock in the photo.

 When you have worked out where you want the inkiness to be (mine is mainly at the top of the page) then give a couple of spritzes of one of the lighter colours this is the mint green the water just helps the colour to run a bit more.

Then add some spritzes of the darker colours  - my paper had dried a little so

Add a few more spritzes of water over the top and you can see the colours starting to run into each other.

With the heat gun start to dry the page - you can push the ink around and make drips and darker areas, also with the cosmic shimmers you get a really nice mica sheen when it is dry.

As you can see my page is fairly warped so it is now under a pile of books, once the page is in your album it will flatten out anyway.  If you want to try it on a smaller scale for cards then watercolour paper would help it not to crinkle so much.

I hope you enjoyed that.

Katherine

My Minds Eye

This month the design team gallery will feature a host of goodness using My Minds Eye projects including this rather lovely layout taught by our Debbie at the Eclectic Keepsakes crop early this month.

Plenty of circles to cut out along with details from the papers which are rather more lovely in real life than any image can show.

There were a few of the design team in attendance including Karen (who runs the crop in Colchester), newest member Denise, not to mention Mel and myself too. As such there are plenty of slight variations on Debbies class to share... now I just need to photograph mine and I can do just that! Hopefully the others will pop on and share theirs too. Don't forget to pop back later in the month to see the DT gallery full of MME goodness.

Mels Challenge: Scrapping Our Favourite People - LO of Izzy & Nana

So following on from this post I am pleased to report I scrapped that photo of Izzy and her Nana.

I am really going to make this the year that I rectify some of the glaring omissions in my albums.

I am also going to ensure that there are photos available for me to do this. I have got much better at being photographed with the children myself - I still don't enjoy it but I DO want my kids to see that I was actually there on those family outings, at Christmas, on holiday or in their day to day lives! On this subject a friend on facebook shared this article about being photographed which really hit home and applies to lots of us.

Here is my LO ready to go in Izzys 2006 album.