Denne ukens oppgave i KOM var å lage et lag-på-lag-kort. Definitivt ikke min sterke side, men jeg kom til finalen denne gangen også, men der ble det sisteplass, gitt :-) Som vanlig har jeg brukt Pionpapir, og i tillegg blonde, roser og egenlagete pyntenåler. God fredagskveld, kos dere!

If I had discovered the beauty of sketching out my scrapbook pages before sitting down to actual create them, I wouldn't have wasted two years' worth of paper and material producing, well, crap...

Høstferien har startet, og endelig er det tid til å lage et kort eller to :-) Hadde igjen en rest av disse to mønsterpapirene fra MME, og syntes de passet fint til bildet, som jeg har funnet på nettet. Fargene er en smule mer dempet i virkeligheten, men bildebehandlingsprogrammet ville ikke samarbeide med meg slik at jeg fikk fram riktige nyanser. God helg til dere som titter innom!

If I had discovered the beauty of sketching out my scrapbook pages before sitting down to actual create them, I wouldn't have wasted two years' worth of paper and material producing, well, crap...

I have to admit I am a big fan of whimsical papers that allow for lot's of fussy cutting and the papers in the Limited Edition Kit for February from My Creative Scrapbook totally fit the bill!! I was totally in my element with these Graphic45 papers and the embellishments in this kit are awesome too! Loads of Prima blooms and floral vines, vintage style buttons, lace and yep! my favourite green vine ribbon too! For the above layout of my little great niece Kiera I did a bit of machine stitching and some fussy cutting. TIP: When doing machine stitching, don't feel that you have to attach the paper you are stitching to the one beneath it. For both of the papers I machine stitched above I just sewed on the one piece of paper and then adhered it to the one beneath with some 2-sided sticky tape. This way you don't have to worry about the paper slipping while you are sewing. Here are a couple of close-up pic's of the above page.... For the next l/o I made using this pretty kit I went with the aqua tones/papers. I love the variety of looks you can get with this collection. The photo is of Meagan my youngest daughter, that child is still all about whimsy, love that about her..... There is a wonderful pearl flourish included in the kit, I mixed it up with the variety of blooms also found in the kit and did a little fussy cutting of one of the floral papers to make the floral design. Here are a couple of close-up pic's of the page... TIP: After I cut out the little fairy shapes I like to adhere them with foam pop dots so that they stand off the page a little and then touch it here and there with some Stickles. If you don't want to invest in a bunch of different Stickles colours, just pick up a bottle of the plain glitter type like 'Star Dust' or Diamond. When you used them they take on the colors of the paper beneath them so they always seem like a new color. A Third layout I made with this kit I went with the coral and sage greens in the kit. I love the way Pam pairs a variety of patterned papers to make up her kits. The green Pink Paislee paper was a nice compliment to this collection. Adding lot's of machine stitching and some fabric elements like lace and the pearly buttons (all found in the kit), helps give this page a more vintage appeal. Here is a close-up detail shot of the page.... This kit was so packed I couldn't resist making a 3rd l/o with it. This is a photo I took of Meagan when we were out on one of our 'feed the ducks' outings. TIP: Don't throw away the paper backing to your chipboard adhesives. I did double duty with the vine flourish chipboard in the kit by first using it on the layout called 'Explore' then I used it on the l/o above as a mask....here are some pic's to show how I created the mask effect on the l/o above...all you need is a little chalk ink and a white gel pen (sorry about the yellow glow on the photos, I took the pic's indoors).... And then I still had so many fun paper designs and embellishments left that I went ahead and made 3 cards too! I rarely ever make cards but these were so easy peasy because of the pop-out pieces in the kit..... Another romantic and beautiful kit I got to work with this month was the Main Kit. If you are a fan of pink/blacks/greys you'll love this one! I loved the sweet embellishments that came with this one....the sugared roses...just love them! I recently found some very rare photos of my mom and dads wedding day. They were so very young when they came to Canada from Germany, my mom was only 19 when she got married. The photos are somewhat blurry and poor quality but I still cherish them.... There's loads of bling and blooms in this kit and some fun fabric elements like the black Tulle that I used to frame the blooms in this layout. Here is a close-up detail of the page.... The second l/o I made with this kit was for another wedding picture from my parents. (It's their anniversary this month so I'm so thrilled to put these pages together for them)...... I created the larger bloom in the layout above by rubbon the floral rubon (in the kit) onto a piece of the black Tulle and cut it out. I layered it over some water distressed cardstock petals and more layers of Tulle and then finally added a large gem (also in the kit) to the center. The Gem I tinted with some Tim Holtz Alcohol ink (Pink Sherbert). A third layout I made with the Main kit is of my little niece Kiera (a little older in this photo). There are some really fun lace rub-on accents in this kit that I used on this page. And finally a 3rd kit I got to work with this month (Album Kit) is dear to my heart because it features the Bo Bunny Collection 'Crazy Love'! Here is the first l/o I made with this kit.... I needed a couple of butterflies for this l/o since the picture is one of Meagan with a real live butterfly on her hand when we went to visit a butterfly conservatory. TIP: I made the butterflies by first cutting out a butterfly shape with a pair of scissors and then tinting the center with some yellow chalk ink (Colorbox 'Wheat' color) I added a few details with a fine tip brown pen (Martha Stewart) and finished with some Platinum color Stickles (see above pic's)..... And finally I made one more l/o with the Album kit, I snagged a couple of photos of Pam's (the owner of MCS) sweet little grandbaby Maeve.... The pinkish roses in this l/o were handmade using the 6 Petal Punch Technique (you can find it in the right column of my blog under the Tutorials). I finally found me some Diamond Dust at Michaels and did a little sugaring on the roses (just put a dab of adhesive on the petals and dunk them in the Diamond Dust). Whew!! All done with this post!....and believe me this post took me crazy long to do....I tried the new uploading system from blogger and it gave me all sorts of problems! I think I'll just go back to the old way! I'm having problems alligning all my pic's and text. Thanks to all of you for stopping by and reading through this HUGE post again :) I always appreciate your kind comments and hope to stop by your blogs to catch up too! ~Gabrielle xx

So I've got to tell you about my experience being the Guest Designer over at The Flying Unicorn Kit Club for this month! What a lovely group of ladies!! Sometimes I'm told in advance what to expect in the kit when it arrives, but not this time! Alda (the super sweet ladie that owns the kit club) let me know that she loves to keep the kit ingredients a secret until it arrives in the mail......and now I know why! I have to say my jaw just dropped when I got my Flying Unicorn GDT kit in the mail a few weeks back!! A huge box appeared on my doorstep just PACKED with gorgeous papers and embellishments. Along with package after package of beautiful papers, blooms, flourishes, trims, coordinating cardstock and even art supplies (liquid pearls, Glimmer Sprays and shimmer paints!) there is also a beautiful OTP (off the page) project, in this case a lovely wooden shadow box! The above page is the first page I made up using this lovely kit! Now, I know that this kit club does not have strict rules for their DT and guest designers to use only the kit ingredients on their pages, but the truth is that I really had to use almost nothing from my own stash to make up these pages....there was just so many beautiful things to use! For these pages, I did scan a couple of the butterflies in the patterned papers and printed/cut them out for embellishing my layouts, so other than this and one Dusty Attic hinge that I used on one of the pages, everything on my work is from the goodies sent to me for this months Guest DT work! There is this really cool case of pearl/shimmer paints included in the kit (I can see dipping into this thing over and over in upcoming layouts!) ...I used some of the shimmer paint to tint the layered yellow bloom in the center to draw in some of the pinkish tones on the page. There is a wonderful words/quotes rub-on sheet in the kit as well! I have forgotton how much I really loved to use rub-on's on my work in the past until I got using them with these pages! For this page I combined a variety of the florals and branches in the kit, and liberally used some of the beautiful rub-on quotes. There is also an awesome package of antique crochette lace in the kit that I just loved and used over and over in my pages! Check out the cute sheer ribbon and pearl blooms in the kit! I just thought they made the cutest page accents! I really love butter yellow with soft blue as a color combination, so for this page I chose the elements in the kit that favoured these colors. And finally a 3rd page I made using this kit I went with the fresh and pretty white blooms with the hint of cornflower blue. And how cute are those vines?! Here are some close-up pic's of the page and the goodies from the kit... For the punched circle design, I used the Crafters Workshop Circle template to draw out the circle (I used the 6th ring from the center to make this design. I used the Martha Stewart Swirling Lace corner punch to make the edge design. Just cut out the circle using the 6th ring from the center of the template. Then use the corner punch putting the edge of the punch design along the edge of the paper. Line up the edge of the punch to slightly overlap the outer edge of the punch design. There will be a little gap on the edge (see diagram above) Happily using this size circle and this punch the design lines up perfectly to make this circle. (If the design doesn't line up at the end, you can always cover the small gap with some blooms or embellishments when you place it on the page). All I can say is that I wish I had more days in a month! I still have so many papers and goodies left over from this gorgeous kit (not to mention the shadow box I'm still wanting to play with!). If you haven't checked out this amazing kit club yet, go have yourself a peek (and check out the work of the rest of the super-talented design team when you are there, I'm sure you will be so inspired!!) Flying Unicorn Kit Club. (I've added pic's of the kit and it's add-on's below just so you can have a visual of the yummy goodies!) OCEAN BREEZE & SUMMER SKIES JUNE KIT OF THE MONTH The wait is over, and its time to introduce Ocean Breeze and Summer Skies, our June 2012 Kit of the Month. This month's kit is filled with so many goodies that inspiration and creativity will be falling off your projects! Kits are available now in the store and its first come, first serve. There are no lists or signs ups, We believe that scrapping is a passion and not an obligation . Hurry and get yours today , tomorrow could be too late ! The favorite part of the Kit- the OTP ( Off the Page) and this month we are featuring a shadow box, manufactured by Darice. BUT WAIT THERE IS MORE !!! Do not forget about the add ons FLOWER ADD ON Petaloo Vine, Prima Painted ladies, Prima Fairy Belle, Prestige Mini by Wrights, Petaloo Peony EMBELLISHMENT ADD ON Butterflies by Petaloo, ZVA Creative Crystal, Tattered Angels – Chalkboard Mist, Vine by Petaloo, Rub Ons Kaiser –Rustic Bird House, Hero Art Lace, MM Glitter Brads, Chipboard Alphas Mini Flowers by Wright PAPER ADD ON Kaiser – Secret Bird – Private, Fairy Belle- Marcelle, Bo Bunny – Garden Almanac garden Vines, garden Weathered Kaiser madame Butterfly – Camisole,Bodice, Blouse, petticoat, Kaiser Up Up and Away – Rollercoaster, Moon Ride , Kaiser Blae and Ivy – Field CARDSTOCK ADD ON Ming, Periphery Gold, Reflections, rosemary, latte, Tangerine, Scotch, Sugar and Spice, Whitewash, Palm Grove And here are some examples from the Creative Team Thanks for having a peek! xx

Spring is on it's way (hard to tell here today, the temperatures are still below zero), but I know that lots of people have wedding anniversaries coming up. So I thought it would be nice to scrap a Kit Page for The Scrapbook Diaries that would work nicely as a romantic page or can be adapted to use as a masculine page as well (lots of fun chains, clocks, cogs and gears in this one! I also thought it would be fun to use a very cool mixed media background paper. I've always wanted to try playing with Tim Holtz inks and embossed resist papers. The background design was created using 2 Tim Holtz distress inks (included in the kit) and a KaiserCraft embossed resist paper. There is loads of yummy chipboard in this kit, and in the video tutorial (which you get unlimited access to with the purchase of the kit), I show you how to get this verdigris/rust patina on the chipboard pieces. I chose very rustic looking blooms for this page (burlap and metal) so that they would not look out of place even if you were to use an all masculine pic for this page. There are some really awesome accent embellies in this kit as well, I just love those sugar dots, the splash of color they add to the layout is even more shimmery in real life! As always the kit comes with a full VIDEO TUTORIAL to which you will have unlimited access to (with the purchase of the kit). Just follow along and recreate this page or tweak it to suit your own tastes. You can find this kit today at The Scrapbook Diaries HERE. (It's available as a Basic or Complete kit, depending on whether you need the inks etc....Janene likes to help you save where you can :) Be sure to check out the Scrapbook Diaries Blog as well to see the gorgeous bonus page that Janene Meyerowitz created for the kit as well, this is a Stunner! (love the way she incorporated the butterflies and the way she used the Tim Holtz inks!) Before I close off today I wanted to share another bit of exciting news with you all! I have come out with another stamp set! This is another texture style stamp set! Being a scrapbooker myself I know the type of stamps I would like to play with, so I got to work sketching out some texture designs....I did a peeled paint finish, a crackle design and a chicken wire design, as well as a barb wire strip! Have you ever been in a hurry when making up a project but didn't want to scrimp on design? I thought the crackle and peeled paint designs would work beautifully to add a nice textural element to your chipboard pieces! And chicken wire, who doesn't love a bit of that on their pages, right? And I thought it would be nice to add a barbed wire border design to the stamp set to round it out, so I hand drew out a barbed wire design to be used on masculine style pages (not that you can use it on a feminine page as well, lol). You can find my stamp set at The Scrapbook Diaries HERE! And and update on my first texture stamp set (the water droplet/brick set), Janene completely sold out of this set and ordered a new run of them, so they are now again available in her store as well! NOTE: There has been some confusion in the past as far as shipping rates on my stamp sets. Here is a quote from Janene on how to go about ordering stamps for International customers..... International Customers… Shipping of 1 stamp set is $8.88 (Canada – a bit less for you). Shipping of 2-5 stamp sets is usually $11.48. If interested in the kit and stamp set, shipping will general be about $18.50. You can email us for a price quote (please specify the items you wish to purchase and where you are located) or you can place order and click – “Bill me actual shipping”. Once we have your order filled, we will email you a Money Request form PayPal for the specified shipping (all shipments sent via US Postal Service). We made this a bit easier for you when it comes to finding the various products Gabrielle has created for us: Available Kits (these are full kits still available for purchase) Gabi’s Products (you can find all my stamps here in case you want to take advantage of shipping pkg) Video Tutorials (these are the video tutorials only, for past kits that I've created) Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! I always appreciate and read all the kind feedback and hope to answer any and all questions. xo

I just got my copy of the lastest issue of Australian Scrapbook Ideas Magazine (Holiday Issue) in the Mail today!! I'm excited to s...

Hallo ihr Lieben, diese Woche haben wir bei EAC das Thema: " METAL" für euch . Viel Spaß damit !! Auf dem Live & Love Inspirationsblog wird unser DT euch diese Woche Inspirationen zum Thema "Liebe ist in der Luft" zeigen . Meine Karte habe ich mit den schönen Pion Design Papier aus der Serie " From My Heart 12x12 " gemacht. Folgendes Material habe ich von Live & Love Crafts verwendet: Bottom of My Heart 12x12 - Pion Design Rose Frame 12x12 - Pion Design Pink Dots 12x12 - Pion Design Scalloped Venice Lace "Rose" (41mm) Chrysanthemums - Flowers Pearl String 2mm Pearls - white Bubble Gum -Tull Pleat Trim Organza Roses Trim (15cm) Cluny Lace with Threaded Ribbon (30mm) Love Charm (Big) - Charms Liebe Grüße Tina46

Hallo Allemaal, Op de eerste plaats wil ik 4 nieuwe volgers van harte welkom heten, Aleksandra ( heb jij ook een blog?) Durvina, Veerle en mijn 400 ste volger Corrine, super dat jullie mij gaan volgen..ik heb me ook bij jullie aangemeld zodat ik niks hoef te missen.. Vandaag géén kerstkaart, ik ben nog steeds druk bezig met de verjaardagskaarten en kerstkaarten heb ik wel bijna genoeg, heerlijk dat je dit kunt zeggen.. Het plaatje is van internet, bij mijn vorige kaart kreeg ik een leuke reactie van Ira, dat ik een plaatje had gebruikt van een van haar favoriete dames, Lily Elsie, dus even gegoogled en gevonden, Engelse actrice en overleden in 1960 en toen ontdekte ik ook, dat het plaatje op deze kaart ook van haar is.. Het DP is van Craft&You en SL, heel mooi papier in zachte tinten, de randjes met de hand gestikt. Het plaatje gemat op Kraft en aan de zijkant een flatback parelrandje.. De bloem is een stans van Spellbinders, de randjes -geverfd- met Tipp-ex, een roosje in het hart, stukje hemp cord, label met tekst Sent with Love, met embossingpoeder, de swirl is van Magnolia.. Strikje van organza, met strass brad en een vlinder, die komt dan weer terug in het papier.. Kantje met plakparels.. aan de bovenkant een stukje van een Noor mal. tot slot nog even de foto van Miss Lily Elsie..ik zag later dat ik nog een paar kaarten met een afbeelding van haar heb gemaakt...ze is ook wel een knappe dame.. Volgende week donderdag ben ik er weer met een kerstkaart, dan start ook de laatste challenge op het blog van 52 Weeks of Christmas.. en nu verder aan mijn kaart voor het Kleuren kaart team, de kleuren zijn lime groen en donkergrijs, een echte challenge dus, maar het komt goed.. Graag wil ik iedereen bedanken voor al die leuke,lieve berichtjes die jullie steeds achter laten, dat waardeer ik enorm.. Wens iedereen een hele fijne dag, liefs en groetjes Ans Ik laat mijn kaart meedoen aan de challenge van http://hobbyvisiondt.blogspot.nl/2014/11/hobbyvision-challenge-33-thema-plaatje.html

If I had discovered the beauty of sketching out my scrapbook pages before sitting down to actual create them, I wouldn't have wasted two years' worth of paper and material producing, well, crap...

I have to admit I am a big fan of whimsical papers that allow for lot's of fussy cutting and the papers in the Limited Edition Kit for February from My Creative Scrapbook totally fit the bill!! I was totally in my element with these Graphic45 papers and the embellishments in this kit are awesome too! Loads of Prima blooms and floral vines, vintage style buttons, lace and yep! my favourite green vine ribbon too! For the above layout of my little great niece Kiera I did a bit of machine stitching and some fussy cutting. TIP: When doing machine stitching, don't feel that you have to attach the paper you are stitching to the one beneath it. For both of the papers I machine stitched above I just sewed on the one piece of paper and then adhered it to the one beneath with some 2-sided sticky tape. This way you don't have to worry about the paper slipping while you are sewing. Here are a couple of close-up pic's of the above page.... For the next l/o I made using this pretty kit I went with the aqua tones/papers. I love the variety of looks you can get with this collection. The photo is of Meagan my youngest daughter, that child is still all about whimsy, love that about her..... There is a wonderful pearl flourish included in the kit, I mixed it up with the variety of blooms also found in the kit and did a little fussy cutting of one of the floral papers to make the floral design. Here are a couple of close-up pic's of the page... TIP: After I cut out the little fairy shapes I like to adhere them with foam pop dots so that they stand off the page a little and then touch it here and there with some Stickles. If you don't want to invest in a bunch of different Stickles colours, just pick up a bottle of the plain glitter type like 'Star Dust' or Diamond. When you used them they take on the colors of the paper beneath them so they always seem like a new color. A Third layout I made with this kit I went with the coral and sage greens in the kit. I love the way Pam pairs a variety of patterned papers to make up her kits. The green Pink Paislee paper was a nice compliment to this collection. Adding lot's of machine stitching and some fabric elements like lace and the pearly buttons (all found in the kit), helps give this page a more vintage appeal. Here is a close-up detail shot of the page.... This kit was so packed I couldn't resist making a 3rd l/o with it. This is a photo I took of Meagan when we were out on one of our 'feed the ducks' outings. TIP: Don't throw away the paper backing to your chipboard adhesives. I did double duty with the vine flourish chipboard in the kit by first using it on the layout called 'Explore' then I used it on the l/o above as a mask....here are some pic's to show how I created the mask effect on the l/o above...all you need is a little chalk ink and a white gel pen (sorry about the yellow glow on the photos, I took the pic's indoors).... And then I still had so many fun paper designs and embellishments left that I went ahead and made 3 cards too! I rarely ever make cards but these were so easy peasy because of the pop-out pieces in the kit..... Another romantic and beautiful kit I got to work with this month was the Main Kit. If you are a fan of pink/blacks/greys you'll love this one! I loved the sweet embellishments that came with this one....the sugared roses...just love them! I recently found some very rare photos of my mom and dads wedding day. They were so very young when they came to Canada from Germany, my mom was only 19 when she got married. The photos are somewhat blurry and poor quality but I still cherish them.... There's loads of bling and blooms in this kit and some fun fabric elements like the black Tulle that I used to frame the blooms in this layout. Here is a close-up detail of the page.... The second l/o I made with this kit was for another wedding picture from my parents. (It's their anniversary this month so I'm so thrilled to put these pages together for them)...... I created the larger bloom in the layout above by rubbon the floral rubon (in the kit) onto a piece of the black Tulle and cut it out. I layered it over some water distressed cardstock petals and more layers of Tulle and then finally added a large gem (also in the kit) to the center. The Gem I tinted with some Tim Holtz Alcohol ink (Pink Sherbert). A third layout I made with the Main kit is of my little niece Kiera (a little older in this photo). There are some really fun lace rub-on accents in this kit that I used on this page. And finally a 3rd kit I got to work with this month (Album Kit) is dear to my heart because it features the Bo Bunny Collection 'Crazy Love'! Here is the first l/o I made with this kit.... I needed a couple of butterflies for this l/o since the picture is one of Meagan with a real live butterfly on her hand when we went to visit a butterfly conservatory. TIP: I made the butterflies by first cutting out a butterfly shape with a pair of scissors and then tinting the center with some yellow chalk ink (Colorbox 'Wheat' color) I added a few details with a fine tip brown pen (Martha Stewart) and finished with some Platinum color Stickles (see above pic's)..... And finally I made one more l/o with the Album kit, I snagged a couple of photos of Pam's (the owner of MCS) sweet little grandbaby Maeve.... The pinkish roses in this l/o were handmade using the 6 Petal Punch Technique (you can find it in the right column of my blog under the Tutorials). I finally found me some Diamond Dust at Michaels and did a little sugaring on the roses (just put a dab of adhesive on the petals and dunk them in the Diamond Dust). Whew!! All done with this post!....and believe me this post took me crazy long to do....I tried the new uploading system from blogger and it gave me all sorts of problems! I think I'll just go back to the old way! I'm having problems alligning all my pic's and text. Thanks to all of you for stopping by and reading through this HUGE post again :) I always appreciate your kind comments and hope to stop by your blogs to catch up too! ~Gabrielle xx

Happy Friday everyone!! I just remembered I was supposed to let you all know that the kit at The Scrapbook Diaries for the above layout is now SOLD OUT! But the good news is that you can now get the VIDEO TUTORIAL I made for this one as 'Video Only' at the Scrapbook Diaries Website. For a small fee you can get unlimited access to view this video online, to watch another 'making the page' tutorial, you'll see all the tips and tricks I used to make up this page :) So if you are interested in this tutorial you can find it HERE. And again, if you are interested in any of the other video tutorials I've created for The Scrapbook Diaries, you can find them in the right side column of my blog. Just click on the photo of the page you are interested in and it will take you to the Scrapbook Diaries Website. Hope you all have a fun and scrappy weekend!! xo

Good Thursday morning! I am so looking forward to the weekend. Jon had some time off work so we are headed up to Canada's Wonderland - a huge amusement park - this weekend with the boys. Our boys love rides so its something we do every year! I'm not as adventurous as the boys but I love to watch them have fun and of course take photos! Today I want to share a couple of projects that are so shabby chic! First up is Renea, who has created an elegant and beautiful layout using the July 'Patricia's Memoirs' kit from Scraps Of Elegance. She started with a layer of the Debutante Prima paper from the kit, then punched and sewed the next layer. To get the texture you see in the background, she used the Prima Wildflowers stencil from the kit and painted over it with Prima White Crackle Texture Paste letting it air dry for maximum crackle, then she inked over it softly with some Tim Holtz Distress Ink In Tea Dye. She added a matte behind the photo by distressing and sewing some of the kit paper. She painted around the image with some Tim Holtz Distress Rock Candy Crackle, let it air dry then inked it really heavily with the Tea Dye Ink. She fussy cut a wide pattern from the kit papers, and water distressed it so it looks like material, and layered some pink lace and a rose die cut that was in the kit underneath. She painted the Blue Fern Chipboard Feather from this month's Elements Add On white, then layered on tulle and heated it up so that it melted into the paint and gave some gorgeous texture. Then she layered in the feathers from the kit for softness, adding some stash bling to the large one. And a few more of the gorgeous details..... I did not get to previously feature another gorgeous shabby chic project from Renea using the June Scraps Of Elegance Stéphanie's Treasure kit! She created a pocket folder from the kit papers. Now I want to share a stunning creation from Mallika also using the July Scraps Of Elegance Patricia's Memoirs kit. I love the vintage image she used! here are a few of the beautiful details..... Thanks so much for stopping by! ~Laura

I was asked to be the Guest Designer this month over at Funtoola's Kit Club. I was so thrilled to recieve this beautiful kit to work with! Gorgeous Prima papers, premium blooms and embellishments and even an intricate Prima stamp and Dusty Attic Chipboard products in the kit! You will LOVE this kit! I used this photo I had of Meagan playing in the sand at the beach when she was about 2 years old. It made me think of Winnie the Pooh and his honey pot. I used a quote from from a Winnie the Pooh book that struck me as very sweet ..... "Well, said Pooh, what I like best, and then he had to stop and think. Because although eating honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment before you begin to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called." ~ A.A. Milne I cut the bookpage design from the patterned paper and layered an extra piece of paper and cardstock to create this little 'book' embellishment.... There are so many beautiful blooms in this kit, among them are the hydrangia blooms and some lovely adhesive pearl accents, pretty ribbons and lace too!... I divided up the Dusty Attic Vine and used part on this page and part on another. For this one I painted the vine Ivy green, accented with some brown ink and outlined with some pretty green glitter glue included in the kit.... Another page I made with this kit, I went with the rich burgundy papers and embellishments. I took this picture of Chloe and her best friend Peyton with Zoe when she was just 2 months old. These two girls have been best of friends since they were 3 years old. All the embellishments you see on the page are all from this kit....Prima Crystal flourishes, lace, pearls, Velvety blooms & buttons and of course the lovely Dusty Attic Vine. Here are some close-up pic's of the page.... ....And finally I made one more page from this beautiful kit. I cut one of the papers with a bracket frame template. TIP: I save unusually shaped die cut papers and trace them onto a plain piece of paper (I like to use the plain white 12x12 papers that come in the sleeves of my page protectors in my albums.) All of the embellishments on this page are all from the kit including the pretty key, the ribbons and lace, the diamond and pearl bloom and the Prima Gate stamp. Here are a few close-up photos of the above page... Take it from me, this kit is a beauty and a lot of fun to work with and an incredible deal! Check out Funtoola's website for more information on this kit. Join in the fun, in the galleries and forums. Cindy Johnson, the lovely owner of Funtoola's will make you feel warm and welcome!

I've always loved the combination of grays with plum/purples, and Bo Bunny's Penny Emporium satisfies all my love for this color combo! I started with a polka dot paper as a frame for the grey background paper (BoBunny Double Dot 'Sugar Dot'). I chose the gray side of the 'Alphabet' paper from Penny Emporium as the background. I was going for a nice romantic lacy effect so I used some black cardstock with Bo Bunny's Elegant Die throughout the page design. There are so many wonderful images that can be fussy cut from this collection. I fussy cut the pocket watch design from the 'Captured' paper, adhered with some foam dots and added some glitter paste to give the cutout some dimension. ...In the background area I did a little painting using the heart design from BoBunny's stickable stencils (Cascade Stencil). I embellished the photo area with some flowers from Bo Bunny's Plum Purple Blossoms (Bouquet and Zinnia), I painted up a laser cut butterfly (also new to BoBunny) and added a piece of pearl flourish to the side. The photo is another lovely shot of my nephew and his wife when they got their engagement photos taken. ....I hope you enjoyed today's post as much as I enjoyed making it! Thanks so much for popping in today, your kind comments and feedback always make my day! xo

I was asked a few months ago to create a layout using Maja Design papers for a Norweigan Magazine called "Ett Trykk' (meaning 'One Print' in English). I wanted to showcase a variety of Maja Design papers so I chose paper from their Vintage Spring, Vintage Summer and Vintage Autumn Basics as well as from Ska vi ta en Fika and from Crea Diem. The photo is a picture I just love that I took a few years back of my husband and my youngest daughter Meagan. I just love the way she is looking up at him as he's talking to her. She is so much like my dear husband, she has a funny quirky sense of humour and an outgoing personality, clearly learned at the feet of her father :) One of my favorite color combinations is purple and green, so I used the lush and beautiful Dusty Attic Chipboard piece called Ivy Corners to accent the page. I simply painted the Ivy with gesso and then added some watered down green (DA Forest paint) and brown (DA Hot Chocolate) paint to it. The flowers are Dusty In Bloom 'Evening Blush' blossoms. I did a little inking with some green chalk ink and stamping with my favorite Bo Bunny Stamp (It is Written) and then added a texture design with a Heidi Swapp Stencil and home-made texture paste The quote you see here and the words on and underneath the photo are all old rub-on's I had in my stash from my old days on the Daisy D's design team. I also took this photo on an extreme angle so you can see the clear glass dome accents I added to my fussy cut clocks from the Maja Design papers (Vintage Autumn Basics XVI).....I feel like they give the clock embellishments a really nice authentic finish. The vine design you see in the bottom right corner is another Dusty Attic chipboard piece called Corner Flourish #3, another favourite chippie of mine. I painted it with more of the green and brown paints to give it a nice lush finish. Here is another view of the floral cluster I accented this page with. I interspersed a lot of clock cut-outs on this design because I wanted to reflect the passage of time and the importance spending time together. Supplies list: Patterned Paper: Maja Design: Ska vi ta en Fika (Pratstund, Våffla m björnbärssylt-bs), Crea Diem (Fylld av kärlek), Vintage Spring Basics (4rth of May), Vintage Summer Basics (1923), Vintage Autumn Basics (XVI). Chipboard: Dusty Attic Designs Flowers: Dusty Attic Designs and punched from Maja papers (small) Stencil: Heidi Swapp Texture paste: home-made Stamps: Bo Bunny Rub-on's: Daisy D's Ink and Paint: Dusty Attic Paints (Dusty In Color), Ink: Versa Magic Bubble Caps: Epiphany Crafts EC Shape Studio (glass bubbles over the clock cut-outs) Other: Burlap, Hemp twine PSSSST!!! Have you seen the sneak peek of the next Maja Design collection??!! (above) I'm in love with this gorgeous summery collecton! Love the sweet and beautiful images in these papers. This collection was designed with those who love Ska vi ta en Fika? collection in mind. Except it brings tea time outside into the fresh air. I can't wait to see more and start scrapping with these beauties! Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! If you are looking for Maja Design products in North America you can find them at The Scrapbook Diaries and Moments of Tranquility. xo

I have to admit I am a big fan of whimsical papers that allow for lot's of fussy cutting and the papers in the Limited Edition Kit for February from My Creative Scrapbook totally fit the bill!! I was totally in my element with these Graphic45 papers and the embellishments in this kit are awesome too! Loads of Prima blooms and floral vines, vintage style buttons, lace and yep! my favourite green vine ribbon too! For the above layout of my little great niece Kiera I did a bit of machine stitching and some fussy cutting. TIP: When doing machine stitching, don't feel that you have to attach the paper you are stitching to the one beneath it. For both of the papers I machine stitched above I just sewed on the one piece of paper and then adhered it to the one beneath with some 2-sided sticky tape. This way you don't have to worry about the paper slipping while you are sewing. Here are a couple of close-up pic's of the above page.... For the next l/o I made using this pretty kit I went with the aqua tones/papers. I love the variety of looks you can get with this collection. The photo is of Meagan my youngest daughter, that child is still all about whimsy, love that about her..... There is a wonderful pearl flourish included in the kit, I mixed it up with the variety of blooms also found in the kit and did a little fussy cutting of one of the floral papers to make the floral design. Here are a couple of close-up pic's of the page... TIP: After I cut out the little fairy shapes I like to adhere them with foam pop dots so that they stand off the page a little and then touch it here and there with some Stickles. If you don't want to invest in a bunch of different Stickles colours, just pick up a bottle of the plain glitter type like 'Star Dust' or Diamond. When you used them they take on the colors of the paper beneath them so they always seem like a new color. A Third layout I made with this kit I went with the coral and sage greens in the kit. I love the way Pam pairs a variety of patterned papers to make up her kits. The green Pink Paislee paper was a nice compliment to this collection. Adding lot's of machine stitching and some fabric elements like lace and the pearly buttons (all found in the kit), helps give this page a more vintage appeal. Here is a close-up detail shot of the page.... This kit was so packed I couldn't resist making a 3rd l/o with it. This is a photo I took of Meagan when we were out on one of our 'feed the ducks' outings. TIP: Don't throw away the paper backing to your chipboard adhesives. I did double duty with the vine flourish chipboard in the kit by first using it on the layout called 'Explore' then I used it on the l/o above as a mask....here are some pic's to show how I created the mask effect on the l/o above...all you need is a little chalk ink and a white gel pen (sorry about the yellow glow on the photos, I took the pic's indoors).... And then I still had so many fun paper designs and embellishments left that I went ahead and made 3 cards too! I rarely ever make cards but these were so easy peasy because of the pop-out pieces in the kit..... Another romantic and beautiful kit I got to work with this month was the Main Kit. If you are a fan of pink/blacks/greys you'll love this one! I loved the sweet embellishments that came with this one....the sugared roses...just love them! I recently found some very rare photos of my mom and dads wedding day. They were so very young when they came to Canada from Germany, my mom was only 19 when she got married. The photos are somewhat blurry and poor quality but I still cherish them.... There's loads of bling and blooms in this kit and some fun fabric elements like the black Tulle that I used to frame the blooms in this layout. Here is a close-up detail of the page.... The second l/o I made with this kit was for another wedding picture from my parents. (It's their anniversary this month so I'm so thrilled to put these pages together for them)...... I created the larger bloom in the layout above by rubbon the floral rubon (in the kit) onto a piece of the black Tulle and cut it out. I layered it over some water distressed cardstock petals and more layers of Tulle and then finally added a large gem (also in the kit) to the center. The Gem I tinted with some Tim Holtz Alcohol ink (Pink Sherbert). A third layout I made with the Main kit is of my little niece Kiera (a little older in this photo). There are some really fun lace rub-on accents in this kit that I used on this page. And finally a 3rd kit I got to work with this month (Album Kit) is dear to my heart because it features the Bo Bunny Collection 'Crazy Love'! Here is the first l/o I made with this kit.... I needed a couple of butterflies for this l/o since the picture is one of Meagan with a real live butterfly on her hand when we went to visit a butterfly conservatory. TIP: I made the butterflies by first cutting out a butterfly shape with a pair of scissors and then tinting the center with some yellow chalk ink (Colorbox 'Wheat' color) I added a few details with a fine tip brown pen (Martha Stewart) and finished with some Platinum color Stickles (see above pic's)..... And finally I made one more l/o with the Album kit, I snagged a couple of photos of Pam's (the owner of MCS) sweet little grandbaby Maeve.... The pinkish roses in this l/o were handmade using the 6 Petal Punch Technique (you can find it in the right column of my blog under the Tutorials). I finally found me some Diamond Dust at Michaels and did a little sugaring on the roses (just put a dab of adhesive on the petals and dunk them in the Diamond Dust). Whew!! All done with this post!....and believe me this post took me crazy long to do....I tried the new uploading system from blogger and it gave me all sorts of problems! I think I'll just go back to the old way! I'm having problems alligning all my pic's and text. Thanks to all of you for stopping by and reading through this HUGE post again :) I always appreciate your kind comments and hope to stop by your blogs to catch up too! ~Gabrielle xx

These paper-and-ink drafts offer glimpses into the creative habits of 25 authors who wrote their timeless works the old-fashioned way.

I was asked to be the Guest Designer this month over at Funtoola's Kit Club. I was so thrilled to recieve this beautiful kit to work with! Gorgeous Prima papers, premium blooms and embellishments and even an intricate Prima stamp and Dusty Attic Chipboard products in the kit! You will LOVE this kit! I used this photo I had of Meagan playing in the sand at the beach when she was about 2 years old. It made me think of Winnie the Pooh and his honey pot. I used a quote from from a Winnie the Pooh book that struck me as very sweet ..... "Well, said Pooh, what I like best, and then he had to stop and think. Because although eating honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment before you begin to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called." ~ A.A. Milne I cut the bookpage design from the patterned paper and layered an extra piece of paper and cardstock to create this little 'book' embellishment.... There are so many beautiful blooms in this kit, among them are the hydrangia blooms and some lovely adhesive pearl accents, pretty ribbons and lace too!... I divided up the Dusty Attic Vine and used part on this page and part on another. For this one I painted the vine Ivy green, accented with some brown ink and outlined with some pretty green glitter glue included in the kit.... Another page I made with this kit, I went with the rich burgundy papers and embellishments. I took this picture of Chloe and her best friend Peyton with Zoe when she was just 2 months old. These two girls have been best of friends since they were 3 years old. All the embellishments you see on the page are all from this kit....Prima Crystal flourishes, lace, pearls, Velvety blooms & buttons and of course the lovely Dusty Attic Vine. Here are some close-up pic's of the page.... ....And finally I made one more page from this beautiful kit. I cut one of the papers with a bracket frame template. TIP: I save unusually shaped die cut papers and trace them onto a plain piece of paper (I like to use the plain white 12x12 papers that come in the sleeves of my page protectors in my albums.) All of the embellishments on this page are all from the kit including the pretty key, the ribbons and lace, the diamond and pearl bloom and the Prima Gate stamp. Here are a few close-up photos of the above page... Take it from me, this kit is a beauty and a lot of fun to work with and an incredible deal! Check out Funtoola's website for more information on this kit. Join in the fun, in the galleries and forums. Cindy Johnson, the lovely owner of Funtoola's will make you feel warm and welcome!

Day 2 of Graphic 45's Summer Releases is under way! Today is all about the return of the classic collection called "Le Romanti...

Inspiruje Oksana: romantycznie i wielkanocnie - Inspirations from Oksana: romantic and Easter

I have to admit I am a big fan of whimsical papers that allow for lot's of fussy cutting and the papers in the Limited Edition Kit for February from My Creative Scrapbook totally fit the bill!! I was totally in my element with these Graphic45 papers and the embellishments in this kit are awesome too! Loads of Prima blooms and floral vines, vintage style buttons, lace and yep! my favourite green vine ribbon too! For the above layout of my little great niece Kiera I did a bit of machine stitching and some fussy cutting. TIP: When doing machine stitching, don't feel that you have to attach the paper you are stitching to the one beneath it. For both of the papers I machine stitched above I just sewed on the one piece of paper and then adhered it to the one beneath with some 2-sided sticky tape. This way you don't have to worry about the paper slipping while you are sewing. Here are a couple of close-up pic's of the above page.... For the next l/o I made using this pretty kit I went with the aqua tones/papers. I love the variety of looks you can get with this collection. The photo is of Meagan my youngest daughter, that child is still all about whimsy, love that about her..... There is a wonderful pearl flourish included in the kit, I mixed it up with the variety of blooms also found in the kit and did a little fussy cutting of one of the floral papers to make the floral design. Here are a couple of close-up pic's of the page... TIP: After I cut out the little fairy shapes I like to adhere them with foam pop dots so that they stand off the page a little and then touch it here and there with some Stickles. If you don't want to invest in a bunch of different Stickles colours, just pick up a bottle of the plain glitter type like 'Star Dust' or Diamond. When you used them they take on the colors of the paper beneath them so they always seem like a new color. A Third layout I made with this kit I went with the coral and sage greens in the kit. I love the way Pam pairs a variety of patterned papers to make up her kits. The green Pink Paislee paper was a nice compliment to this collection. Adding lot's of machine stitching and some fabric elements like lace and the pearly buttons (all found in the kit), helps give this page a more vintage appeal. Here is a close-up detail shot of the page.... This kit was so packed I couldn't resist making a 3rd l/o with it. This is a photo I took of Meagan when we were out on one of our 'feed the ducks' outings. TIP: Don't throw away the paper backing to your chipboard adhesives. I did double duty with the vine flourish chipboard in the kit by first using it on the layout called 'Explore' then I used it on the l/o above as a mask....here are some pic's to show how I created the mask effect on the l/o above...all you need is a little chalk ink and a white gel pen (sorry about the yellow glow on the photos, I took the pic's indoors).... And then I still had so many fun paper designs and embellishments left that I went ahead and made 3 cards too! I rarely ever make cards but these were so easy peasy because of the pop-out pieces in the kit..... Another romantic and beautiful kit I got to work with this month was the Main Kit. If you are a fan of pink/blacks/greys you'll love this one! I loved the sweet embellishments that came with this one....the sugared roses...just love them! I recently found some very rare photos of my mom and dads wedding day. They were so very young when they came to Canada from Germany, my mom was only 19 when she got married. The photos are somewhat blurry and poor quality but I still cherish them.... There's loads of bling and blooms in this kit and some fun fabric elements like the black Tulle that I used to frame the blooms in this layout. Here is a close-up detail of the page.... The second l/o I made with this kit was for another wedding picture from my parents. (It's their anniversary this month so I'm so thrilled to put these pages together for them)...... I created the larger bloom in the layout above by rubbon the floral rubon (in the kit) onto a piece of the black Tulle and cut it out. I layered it over some water distressed cardstock petals and more layers of Tulle and then finally added a large gem (also in the kit) to the center. The Gem I tinted with some Tim Holtz Alcohol ink (Pink Sherbert). A third layout I made with the Main kit is of my little niece Kiera (a little older in this photo). There are some really fun lace rub-on accents in this kit that I used on this page. And finally a 3rd kit I got to work with this month (Album Kit) is dear to my heart because it features the Bo Bunny Collection 'Crazy Love'! Here is the first l/o I made with this kit.... I needed a couple of butterflies for this l/o since the picture is one of Meagan with a real live butterfly on her hand when we went to visit a butterfly conservatory. TIP: I made the butterflies by first cutting out a butterfly shape with a pair of scissors and then tinting the center with some yellow chalk ink (Colorbox 'Wheat' color) I added a few details with a fine tip brown pen (Martha Stewart) and finished with some Platinum color Stickles (see above pic's)..... And finally I made one more l/o with the Album kit, I snagged a couple of photos of Pam's (the owner of MCS) sweet little grandbaby Maeve.... The pinkish roses in this l/o were handmade using the 6 Petal Punch Technique (you can find it in the right column of my blog under the Tutorials). I finally found me some Diamond Dust at Michaels and did a little sugaring on the roses (just put a dab of adhesive on the petals and dunk them in the Diamond Dust). Whew!! All done with this post!....and believe me this post took me crazy long to do....I tried the new uploading system from blogger and it gave me all sorts of problems! I think I'll just go back to the old way! I'm having problems alligning all my pic's and text. Thanks to all of you for stopping by and reading through this HUGE post again :) I always appreciate your kind comments and hope to stop by your blogs to catch up too! ~Gabrielle xx

Ik heb een kaartje gemaakt, met de vintage vellen van Studio Light, het achtergrondpapier, plaatje en de tickets en vlinder, alles staat op verschillende knip/stansvellen..leuk om mee te werken.. Ik heb de nieuwe border en hoekje van Noor Design gebruikt, ze zijn weer heel mooi. De basis van de kaart is cardstock in een rose/zalm kleurtje, ook heb ik nog anjerwit gebruikt.. Alle randjes beinkt met Distress Ink Vintage photo, ook de mallen met inkt bewerkt.. Achter het plaatje een stukje verbandgaas, de leuke fotohoekjes van de Hema, de flowerpons van NS gebruikt voor de bloemen..en een paar roosjes, de takjes zijn van Crealies.. Het stempeltje is ook van Studio Light, een vel clearstamps en volgens mij al wat ouder.. de stempels voelden wat plakkerig aan, maar even met een schuurpapiertje er over en ze stempelen nog prima.. Het labeltje is van X-Cut..en vast gezet met een paar brads..klein strikje met een parelhartje.. De letters Sweet en de vlinder staan ook op de knipvellen..daarop nog een vlinder gestanst en bewerkt met embossing enamel..natuurlijk ook weer verschillende kantjes gebruikt..dat hoort wel echt bij Vintage. Alle randjes weer gestikt met de hand, ik geef ook nog even de nrs. van de gebruikte SL vellen: basis SL125 - basis SL128 - StapSL1239 - Easy SL354. Wens iedereen een hele fijne dag, liefs en groetjes Ans

Hello Crafty Friends, Life has been busy...I'm just hopping on to share a Publication Layout in this month's Kaisercraft Magazine. I made this with the Romantique Collection. I found a pink photo to

I'm so excited about this beautiful romantic NEW collection from Webster's Pages called Modern Romance!! I love the abundance of gorgeous floral elements in the papers (so perfect for those of us that love the fussy cutting!). And I LOVE the pretty black & white houndstooth paper in this collection, it makes such a lovely contrast to the fresh pretty pinks and whites! Here is a quick peek at the collection if you haven't already seen it! (It's a new release for the Winter CHA!) For my first layout using this collection I just had to go with a nice romantic photo just because the collection name is so suited to the photo!! This is another of my nephew's engagement photos. I printed the photo in black and white to go with the pink/black/white color palate I chose for this layout. The houndstooth design with the pink paper made me think of those classic Chanel suits, so I thought I would create a pleat/button design on the page to mimic the look of a Chanel suit. I made the buttons by simply cutting/or punching out 2 small circles from the houndstooth paper, rubbing a bit of black chalk ink around the edges to give the 'button' a rounded look. Then I pasted the circle to a piece of carstock that I painted with some copper/brass paint and cut a 1/8" edge around the circle to give the look of fabric mounted on brass button. I then attached it to the page with a foam dot to lift it off the page. (check out the cute new trims that go with this collection! I love the little rosettes trim!!) This collection also come with a bunch of new resin pieces!! Webster's pages is famous for thier gorgeous cameo resin pieces, now they come out with these adorable frames on which you can moun the cameos....or you can frame the cute new bird/nest cameo pieces with them! (above) For this layout I simply fussy cut some of the blooms in the patterned papers and created a handmade bloom from some crepe paper. I didn't use a whole lotta blooms on the page but it still has a nice full floral look because of the cut paper blooms (a great little money saving trick for those of us that may not have a lot of blooms in our stash). The chipboard window is a new chippie by Dusty Attic called Window with Shutters. I just love this piece! I simply pinted the piece white and rubbed the edges with a bit of brown chalk ink to give an aged look to it. And finally I have a couple of fun little cards I made up with the scraps I had left over from making the above layout mixed with another one of my favourite papers in this collection (this paper has a bunch of floral card/tag designs that are a perfect base for cardmaking) . You can find the full Modern Romance collection peeks at the Websters Pages Blog (along with a little peek a the other new collections being released at the CHA). There are so many cute new elements and embellishments coming out with this collection, new metal embellishments, darling little paper bags perfect for slipping journaling into and fun washi tapes and twine! (I'll be posting layouts with some of the new collections in the coming month, I think you will love them as much as I do! :)

The Scrapbook Diaries is a wonderful place to find unique and beautiful Kit Pages. I have been designing kit pages for Janene Meyerowitz (Owner of The Scrapbook Diaries) for about a year now and have enjoyed every minute of it! Along with a number of Kit Pages that I've designed for her, we've also collaborated on some really fun product releases as well. Each month I try to do 1 to 2 kit pages along with a full step by step video tutorial to go with the page kit. As the kits have sold out quickly each month, we've decided to offer the Video tutorials for a small fee, for unlimited online viewing. Janene also has a wonderful online store that offers an amazing variety of scrapbook products and mixed media products. Among the products she has in her store, she has the first line of Stamps I designed. Here are my first two stamp sets (just click on the photo to take you to her shop). The following are Video Tutorials I have created exclusively for The Scrapbook Diaries (Just click on the photos to be linked to the coordinating Video at her website). Gabrielle xo