Simple Stories - I Am ...

Hello, Karen here today with my very first project created for the Papermaze DT. I was thrilled to be able to work with the new Simple Stories I Am... collection. This is a is a soft feminine collection full of florals and butterflies as well as graphic designs and is a follow on collection to the original 'I Am' collection which was released three years ago.

I decided to create a 12x12  layout using a photo of my daughter and I taken on my birthday several years ago whilst on holiday.

For the base I trimmed roughly 5mm off of the edges of a sheet of white bazzil cardstock and matted this onto a black sheet. I then layered pieces of Living Vibrantly (pink ledger), Simply Me (script) and Choosing Happiness (foiled butterflies), which were all matted on more black cardstock and outlined in black pen. My 5x7 photo was double matted on white and black cardstock.

I used one of the cards from the sheet of 3x4 elements  and a bingo card (from my stash) to create my title. Co-ordinating yellow bazzil cardstock was used to create a couple of rosette flowers with enamel dots used as centres. I fussy cut butterflies from the sheet of Choosing Happiness paper which were added to the layout as well as some lace and paper blossoms to  soften the look. A tiny camera sticker from one of the 4x6 sticker sheets was added.

Some of the papers in this collection have beautiful copper coloured foiling so I added some copper coloured stickles to some of the butterflies and some copper coloured sequins were scattered around the edges of my layout.

Finally I printed my jounalling strips on the computer using a typewriter font and added the date and place with stickers.

I hope you feel inspired to use the I Am... collection. Thanks for looking. Have a super weekend.

Karen x x

Prima Zella Teal......pt 2...Enjoy Every Moment.

Hi There

It's Anita today and I have my last post for the month. I have been using up the rest of my Zella Teal papers and stickers from my Design Team Kit for this month. Such yummy papers with lovely colours and the addition of holographic elements that really capture the light and shimmer and change colour beautifully.

I decided to use another photo from our Silver Wedding Anniversary Road trip from last year, this time from our visit to Aysgarth Falls, happy memories of a wonderful day.

The page is based on a sheet of 'Offset Dot' and then a slightly cut down sheet of 'Floral Stories' which I flipped over and used the spotty reverse side. I dribbled some blobs of Cosmic Shimmer Mists in 2 colours and then blew them randomly across the page in different directions.

I popped a length of white cotton lace across the page and made a couple of loopy embellishments out of aqua coloured twine.
Next came a sheet of 'Live Loudly' which has lots of different little elements and sayings on in various shapes and sizes. I cut out a variety of them and created a border up the right hand side of the page popping some of them up on foam pads and leaving some flat to the page.

 

I also had a small sheet of 'Word Stickers' in my kit, so used a few of them in various places and also added a scattering of pearls and gems ( I LOVE a bit of bling on my pages!)

I think this has to be my new favourite collection from Prima....... such a pretty colourway and lovely designs.

Thanks for looking today and don't forget to pop along to the shop for all your stash requirements, lots of new goodies coming in all the time.....and of course, lots of favourites and best sellers always available in the shop too.

Warmest wishes
Anita xx

Time to Hang ..... and Let's Go Ape Together!

Hi There, it's Anita here again and my post today is using up my last bits of Kaisercraft Provincial and also the other embellishments I had for April.

I had a lovely chipboard clock sent in my kit and I want to do something with it rather than just stick it onto one of the layouts.

 So, I used some Metallic Gilding Wax in gold, and rubbed it in patches around the front of the clock face. I then chose a photo of my 2 girls that fitted nicely in the centre aperture of the clock and glued them in.
The flowers were originally a pale cream and so I used a shimmer mist spray to  make them the colour I really wanted for this project. I also had a mix of cream lace pieces, so I popped a couple of lengths into a little bowl of water and squeezed some Distress Stain into it, stirred and let them soak for about half an hour. I only wanted a pale colour, but if you want a deeper colour you can add more ink or even dab directly onto the lace for more intensity.

I finished up by adding buttons, flat backed pearls, punched out leaves and a metal word plaque.
I am hanging this little project on the wall, but you could still easily add it to a layout if you wanted to.

I have also created another layout, Go Ape Together! I thought this was going to be a difficult paper to use due to the heavy hedge type background, however I found these photos from a family trip to Bedgebury Forest a couple of summers ago and thought they worked well.

I used an edge punch on the top and bottom of the layout and then backed it onto a sheet of green cardstock. I took some Platinum Acrylic paint and splattered some huge blobs across the page and also painted some chipboard letters in the same colour for the title.

I matted the photographs on hessian, which I frayed the edges on. I used the strips I pulled off to place under the word APE for a little more texture.

I then finished the layout off with a couple of tags, some sequins and some Foam Thickers for the title.
Thanks for looking  xxx

Got Nuts? - with KI Memories

Good morning and welcome to another post, featuring the wonderful papers from the Love, Elsie product line - which came out at the beginning of 2007.

Today's layout features a combination of old and new, showing that it can be so much fun to breathe some new life into some older papers.

Let's start with the new, as I sprayed a generous helping of various Cosmic Shimmer mists onto a piece of white cardstock, and also onto the flip side of the Forrest Ranger paper. On the screen it looks kind of cream but in reality it is BRIGHT yellow and would have taken the focus away from the photographs.

After the mists dried, I started layering my papers, added the pictures and highlighted one of them with a metal tag frame.

A few fussy cuts from the paper and a random arrangements of pearls, bling, brads and buttons and the layout was finished.

** click on image to enlarge **

So, what do you think? Do these papers really look THAT old? I think they are still as awesome and fun to work with as they were in 2007.

If you have some papers left in you stash from that year, show us what you do with them - we'd love to see!

Products used:

Bazzill Cardstock in white

Love, Elsie - Forrest Ranger

Love Elsie - Claire Gossip

Love, Elsie - Claire Diary

Chipboard buttons - Roxxie

Alphabet Stickers - Claire

Ticket - Jenni Bowlin

Cosmic Shimmer 

Golden Oldies with KI Memories

Today I would like to take you back a few years in time - four, to be exact.

What do you remember of the year 2007?

In sports: Lewis Hamilton made his Formula 1 debut

In music: Rhianna took the Number 1 spot in the UK charts for a total of 10 weeks with her hit Umbrella

In foods: a pint of milk was available for 42p, a loaf of fresh bread for £1.04, a pint of beer for £2.25

And in the crafting world the fun and funky paper collection from KI Memories -  Love, Elsie - had everyone squealing with delight. In 2011 we all get excited about Echo Park and Bella Blvd but it really was Designer Elsie Larson (formerly Elsie Flannigan) who got us all hooked on cute and whimsy.

This month I want all of you to go a rummage through your old stash - dust off those papers from years gone by and see for yourself that they are not really that outdated. The Love, Elsie collection is as fresh looking as it was four years back.

For my layout I mixed and matched papers from the Claire, and Jack & Abby collection and added quite a few of Elsie's adorable chipboard buttons and stickers.

** click on image to enlarge **

What I really loved about the packaging for the chipboard buttons, is the fact that you get a 3.5" x 4.5" piece of cardstock with a lovely grid pattern, which you can re-use - as I did here:

So, are you gonna join me this month in using up your old supplies?

I always find it a good enough reason to go shopping for some new stuff afterwards :)

Products used:

Jack & Abby - Words

Claire - Diary

Claire - Gossip

Chipboard Buttons - Roxxie

Alphabet Stickers - Claire

Mini Alphabet Stickers - Making Memories Tina Alpha

Ticket - Jenni Bowlin