Mintay Paper Blossom Serenity - Spring Tulips

Hi everyone, Karen here. As I write this the UK is enjoying some lovely spring weather and my garden is starting to come alive with tulips just starting to bloom. Today's layout features a photo of some gorgeous tulips, created using the beautiful Blossom Serenity collection from Mintay Papers.

I started my layout by layering a slightly smaller piece of white cardstock onto a 12x12 black cardstock background, which created a nice thin border. 

Then, I grabbed my mini brayer and added some pink acrylic paint to the centre of the white sheet as well as some splatters. It's a shame that most of it gets hidden later, but the little bits that do show really add something to the design. 

Next, I layered pieces of papers #1, #2, #4, and #9 onto the layout. Using my sewing machine and white thread, I added a straight stitched border around all the edges for texture.

My 4x6 photo was matted with black cardstock and placed on top of the patterned papers.

I then got my Silhouette out and die-cut the title from some black cardstock, which I  stuck beneath the photo. I really like how the mix of fonts , and the black title really pops against the lighter colours in the patterned papers.

I also die-cut a couple of tulips and added these to the right of the photo.

On the sheet of paper sticker words I found some appropriate word strips and added these above and below the photo.

Butterflies from the Paper Die Cuts Pack were used to embellish the layout.

Finally I added the date at the bottom of the layout and dotted some black sequins here and there.

I hope you like this layout and that you check of the Blossom Serenity collection in the shop.

Take Care, Karen x x

March Papermaze Kit - Part 2

Lynn back with you today, and the second pair of layouts using the March Papermaze Kit, both the layouts feature my daughter from back in 1995, using the pretty, spring papers and other items in the March kit.

Here is the kit, showing the 6 papers, 2 sheets of cardstock and a selection of matching embellishments to try. Don't forget there is also a pack of 4 sheets of cardstock, selected by Vanessa, to go with the kit as an extra purchase (see all six sheets of cardstock in a photo below).

Patterned papers:
Simple Stories - Tea Garden collection - Lovely Day & Be Happy
Echo Park - Blossoms & Bees collection - 4 x 4 Journalling Cards & Bright Hexagons
Echo Park - Little Things Mean A Lot collection - Free Spirit Fireflies
Mintay Papers - Blossom Serenity collection - #04

The photo below shows both sides of the papers:

Embellishments: 8 Tea Garden Bits & Pieces, Rosie's Studio butterfly, 2 Rosie's Studio Button Embellishments, 3 wooden butterflies, strip of puffy flower stickers, selection of Rosie's Studio puffy sentiments, 3 mini flowers, strip of Doodlebug enamel heart sprinkles.

Bazzill Basics Cardstock:
CS White & Parakeet (included in main kit). Yukon Gold, Twilight, Petalsoft & Lagoon (in extra Bazzill Pack).

Easter Egg Hunt - Emily and the others on an Easter egg hunt I set up in my parent's garden for my children and their cousins.



I started making this layout with the Be Happy paper, I gutted the paper to make a frame of 1" wide. I trimmed the CS White Bazzill to 11" x 11" and with several Distress Oxide Inks, I stencilled bubbles onto the pace, so they will show either side of the diamond panel, using the Tim Holtz - Layering Stencil THS002.

I cut diamonds from the colourful stripes on the gutted paper, using a diamond shape die from my stash. The diamonds were arranged onto the paper, to create a vertical panel, left of the centre. Then I flicked some of the inks used earlier, over the page and papers. The decorated Bazzill, was then applied over the frame cut earlier.

I trimmed my photos into oval shapes and arranged them to the top, right of the panel. The title was made with an 'Easter' acrylic word I found in my stash. I also used some Doodlebug Designs Alphabet Soup puffy letter stickers (Mint and Bumblebee).

I scattered the flower puffy stickers over the page. My title and a little doodling were added with a fine black marker pen.

Spring Cleaning - Here is my daughter Emily again, same year, spring cleaning the Wendy house in our garden.

For this layout I chose the Echo Park Free Spirit Fireflies paper, using the yellow side up.

Over the page I created four areas using two small doilies for each Doodlebug Designs. I used a coloured doily covered by a white doily, before adding my embellishments.

I cut six small tags, using the Sizzix Thinlet set - Tag Collection by Tim Holtz. I cut four tags using the Mintay #04 paper, two with the candy striped side up and the other two showing the white wood panel side. I cut two more tags from the SS Lovely Day paper, arranging one to show the numbers down the length, and the other with the stripes running horizontally, so I could use them to write my journalling.

I used scraps from the first layout, to make the reinforcement circles for the tags. then threaded them all with some crochet cotton, which I tied into bows at the top of each tag.

I arranged three tags onto two of the doily circles, the top right circle was for my title. The bottom left circle was for my journalling (please see photos for positioning of tags).

For the title I used some Dear Lizzy Thickers - Treasure (chipboard and glitter). and some Doodlebug Designs, Alphabet Soup letter stickers in Mint.

I wrote my journalling on the tag cluster, bottom left and added the date with Doodlebug Designs, Alphabet Soup letter stickers in Bubblegum.

I mounted the two small square photos onto scraps of SS Lovely Day paper. then positioned them over the two remaining doily circles.

Finally, I embellished the clusters, using elements from the kit, Tea Garden Bits & Pieces, Rosie's Studio butterfly, wooden butterflies, selection of Rosie's Studio puffy sentiments and mini flowers.

That's all for this month, I'll be back later with the April kit.
Thanks for looking
Lynn x