40 and Fabulous!

A little card tidbit. I love "stamping bella" stamps. They have some great designs. Great for cards especially. I don't have to do too much because the designs are usually so great they are enough. The sentiment inside is another great stamp company called Unity Stamp Company. A bit of grossgrain ribbon and bling! As we know BLING fixes everything, cards, cuts, scrapes, pimples, broken hearts, bling bling bling. Of course I do lurve to colour in. Always have. As kids my best friend Sandra and I would sit and colour the competitions from the Sunday newspaper all day ( Charlie Chuckles! Remember?) and I won a heap of stuff! Sorry I digress. It's my creative mind, it wanders off in all directions sometimes. Wild thing.

Yes, so I made this one for a 40th birthday, as you can see. I coloured it with H2O's and watercolour pencils with my Aquawash pen. Oh I love to colour....also love that big black Prima flower. Bit of a statement huh? Of course, of course it's 40!!! after all.

Tagged

Well this one is not really I story I guess. More like little "chat" than a story.

I made these tag books from Bella plain tags. Great value. I think you get 12 tags in each pack. I only used 6 for each book. You still get 12 pages though because you can use the front and backs.

I made them up for my girls as little "brag" type books I guess you could say. I also used them in a class (twice!) for kids scrapbooking. I think they had a great time in the class and enjoyed putting their own ideas and creativity into their mini tag albums.

The top one (the pink one) is not quite finished so I had better get to it and finish it. Actually I will do that tonight. I have just written a mental note to do that. I need to tie some ribbons on it to tart it up a bit and it should look special. It doesn't take long to come together and it's a little keepsake that can be dedicated to something (2010, school ,dance, trip etc...) or nothing, just to stick random, (as the kids say, too many times in one sentence for my liking *frown here*) photos in. The hard part is actually getting the time to stick the photos in. Guess that's number 2 on the mental list now...oh how random...*still frowning*

A castle for a Princess

I was really happy the way this turned out. It's just so pretty. It's a Kaisercraft chipboard album. The castle one (well obviously). The papers I chose I cannot remember, so sorry : (, I'll try to find the remnants and post later.

I covered it and used a scalloped paper for the turrets, oh it' s so lovely. Definitely fit for a Princess indeed. I used vellum on one page and cut it to the shape of the chipboard including the windows etc (Well a Princess has to be able to see out the window, just in case the Prince arrives on his horse doesn't she?). I wrote the story about this particular Princess on the vellum, yes she is real, and her story includes her family.

On the front cover you can see that I have stamped a dragonfly and stamped a separate set of wings on vellum using white ink. I attached the wings in the centre onto the dragonfly and all of a sudden *whoosh* he's ready to fly off into the big blue yonder. I used a Making Memories rub on for the 'baby'. Also have a few flowers with a big *bling* (of course *wink wink *) brad. I used my Chatterbox Doodle Genie - Whimsical - to draw some lovely soft swirls and curls in white gel pen as a background on one of the soft pink pages. There are little pockets and a few lovely sayings and plenty of room for photos. Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of ribbons. Little girls and ribbons are just made for each other aren't they? I think it made a lovely Baby Shower gift.

Permission to shine

Here's a very simple scrapbooking layout. This is for my daughter's scrapbook. I wanted it to be really, really simple because I wanted the focus on the photograph of my biglittlebig girl. I love the paper. It's Kaisercraft "Secret". Isn't it just gorgeous (that was a statement not a question!). The pink swirly heart design is foil so it's shiny shiny *yay yay*, against the black it's spectacular. I added two Prima flowers and a few flower stamens with the hot pink grosgrain ribbon. I can't remember where I bought the chipboard letter, but in this case I have used the negative and inked it up then sprayed with my own homemade glimmery type mist. Of course, as always a little bling bling with the diamonte and the word. The tag with the little bit of pink ribbon slides nicely and secretly behind the photo. It keeps the date, time and event at which this photo was taken. The rubon YOU and the R and the BEAUTIFUL, pretty well sums it up as far as I am concerned. *kiss kiss* baby girl.

Flower for a flower.

Well as you can see by the previous stories, I do love OTP (Off The Page). I also love scrapping photos and I am also a "cardy" (Or is that cardie?). No not a cardy as in a jumper with buttons but a "card maker". Actually I really do LOVE making cards.

I made this one for a friend of mine. She is a lovely lady and very generous, thoughtful and so sweet. I made this card with the same Delish "Dulwich Collection" papers and added a Prima flowers, feathers, a button and a gorgeous smooth silky tassel. I like the softness of the tassel and the feathers, so pretty. I love that stoney colour of the background cardstock. I have the same colour on the walls in my house. I have not found a colour that does not go with it. It evokes such a gentle feeling. Silly I know, but it does. Love the light blue with it to, seems to *pop* but balance all at the same time.Mmmm, I think I might just play with these colours a bit more often.

Playing for change

www.playingforchange.com

History preserved

Take a good look at the envelopes above, then think of the Ugly Duckling story and how she transformed into the beautiful swan. Amazing how the eye can see one thing and creativity can completely make it into another.

I used the Dulwich Collection papers by Delish. It's lovely paper isn't it? I have to say that it's not something that would normally catch my eye. Before I go on I have to pay credit to two people. Firstly the idea of the album was from Laura at http://followingthepapertrail.blogspot.com/. I love her tutorials they are always great and so full of fun. If you are after some inspiration pop over to her blog and have a look, she's fabulous.

So thank you Laura for the great idea for making an album from envelopes! Yes can you believe it? I used 6 envelopes and followed Laura's instructions to form them into a blank album. She is so clever.

Secondly I must say Thank you to one of the Ladies at my local scrap store Eunice. She is a very very talented lady and showed me that she was about to make these albums with this range of papers. Now I have not seen how Eunice completed her album, no doubt that it will be outrageously exceptional and different to mine. After all, each one becomes an extension of it's creator doesn't it? I would never have picked up these papers. I did look at them when they first appeared in the store and thought mmmmm not for me, but Eunice planted the seed in my head and they actually are perfect for this album that I made for my mum. *clap clap Eunice*

Anyway so I bought the papers home and over the following weeks I gathered supplies. I liked the steel blue type cardstock, it seemed to lift the greyish muted tones of the paper. The white embellishments also help to brighten it up without detracting from the older style of the paper. I bought lots of trinkets and silver charms and had a great deal creative satisfaction putting it all together. I also used the lovely Dark Room door stamps, lots of rubons, Prima flowers, Kaiser diamontes (just have to have *bling* on everything darlingk!), heaps of ribbons, KindyGlitz and my new Carl paper trimmer (oh how I just love that trimmer!).

It's very much a mini recap of my mum's family. I actually photographed the photos so that she could keep the originals and I think the copies came up pretty good considering the originals were a little faded. It's funny but I sort of think that the photos seemed to take on an energy of their own once they found their rightful place in the album. I did a bit of shuffling and moving, cropping and tagging to get them in. I have also left a few blank spaces for more photos or momentos. There is plenty of journaling space on the tags for mum to write and document the mini story behind each photo, a very important thing. I love the feel of the feathers and the hard clinky charms on the spine. The ribbons almost make a nest for them to sit. Mum was really pleased with the result and I hope that I have done justice to the memory of my relatives, some of which I had never met. This is my gift to them.

Just goes to show, even a kid sitting on a tricycle has no idea that they are making a memory at the time. You just never know when you are making a memory (as they say, well so says Ricki Lee Jones!).

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