Hi everyone!!!

Its definitely birthday month in our house this month!! Today is my little sisters birthday, and to celebrate, I have scrapped a page of her and I when we we met up in Australia last year!

I have used the most fabulous range of paper by Kaisercraft.....the Kaleidoscope collection.
Simply love the freshness of these papers! Very pretty and feminine.

In this page, I have used gesso which I have stamped into, and allowed to dry. I have then used gelatos to blend and shade, and finally some lovely little background stamps. I adore this stitching stamp here by prima! it is sooooooo much simpler than getting out the machine to add the finer details! I used a square punch to punch out 2inch squares and place them under the photo like building blocks. The use of assorted flowers and laces are then used to create a frame for the photo, and also some shapes from the kaleidoscope collection have been added to the mix.

Another page I created with this collection, is this page

I used some texture paste through a wire netting mask ( any mask will work....but preferably one with a fine design). Check out the ones in the shop here

These papers were so stunning I just wanted to layer them up, pop a photo on top then cluster a selection of flowers and die cuts. Love this layout.....its the first time my family have been together for a long LONG time, and it was lovely that it was a family wedding that brought us all together.

Thanks for looking.....(and have a lovely day Kim!!!) 

Cheers

Sharon

Hi everyone!!!

Its my darling daughters birthday today!!! So I thought I would share with you a layout I have done with the new Blubelle collection from Kaisercraft. You can find it in the shop here

I really like the colours of this collection, its really feminine, with colours that are not too "prissy" really well suited to the women in our lives who are not really into pinks. The collection uses a beautiful apricot along with the blues to create designs that are just stunning.

I chose to cut apart the paper with the circle motif, and leave the flowers off the edge, to then mat this onto a sheet of dark navy cardstock. Pretty simple design with this one, a few papers layered across the circle paper, and some twine and ric rac....then thats it!

The second page I have used with the Blubelle collection, is another simple design, blocks of patterned paper in layers, then a beautiful garland of flowers along the bottom of the photo to act as a "mantlepiece"
( I quite often use this design technique, as I feel it "grounds a photo to the page" .....ever get the feeling your photo seems to be just floating? add a horizontal element, be that a piece of paper, a floral arrangement, a die cut etc, and the photo then has something to sit on)

 Thanks for looking, and of course.....happy birthday Loren!!!

Cheers
Sharon xx

Hi everyone!!! April already! My the year is slipping by fast!!

Special birthday greetings to my eldest daughter Alicia today!!! To celebrate, I am sharing a layout I have made of her and her fiance celebrating their engagement!

These papers are well suited to the autumnal photos we are taking at the moment. Lots of rusts, greens and browns in the mix.  For this page, I used some white gesso with a credit card to smoosh ( yes it is a technique) the paint all over the page, just enough to tone down the pattern, but to not lose it entirely.
I then layered up papers from the collection, a attached a photo underneath one of these darling frames by making memories here. I added some wooden veneer, a little journalling, and that was the page completed.

Thanks for looking, and have a great day!!

Sharon

Hi everyone.....the month is "March-ing" along isnt it? ( sorry lame joke!) Its sort of compulsory to tell a joke on St Patrick's day isnt it? So...... Top of the morning to ya!!! Have a great day, and luck of the Irish to ya!

This month I was lucky enough to receive the Kaiser collection Blubelle to play along with. Love this collection for the pinks, apricots and blues which are warmed up with the tan colours.
I think these papers are perfect for those warm autumn photos we are taking at the moment.

The page I have made here, was taken in autumn a couple of years back when we rode the Otago Rail Trail with a bunch of mates. I used a little texture paste through a stencil in the background, and then just layers of papers under the photo.

As usual, I try to place design elements in a triangle to draw the eye into the photo..... notice the flowers and the doilies I have used to do this?

A relatively simple page, but one I am super happy with.

Thanks for looking, and catch up with you real soon with another Kaiser creation!

Sharon

Hi everyone!

Sharon here with another share of my layouts created with the awesome Telegraph Road collection.

I told you last time about how wonderful this collection is.....I think I could use it for a month and not tire of it. Such pretty colours, and designs. Perfect for feminine pages!

In these pages, I have used a lot of texture ( as usual) with gesso and texture pastes, and color shine mists to create a background, then layered up lots of pieces of papers to showcase the photo.

Just love these two  photos of my daughter who is on her OE with her (now) fiance ! their engagement photo taken in the Sahara Desert is just perfect, and the pink hues of the photo just screamed out for the telegraph road collection. ( Isn't it just the most cute photo ever?)

without further ado........TELEGRAPH ROAD

Thanks for looking, and will catch up soon with some more Kaiser goodies!

Cheers

Sharon

Howdy!

Last weekend I had an awesome weekend away with the girls at scrap retreat. I spent the whole weekend crafting with delicious supplies, and in great company.

Managed to get a few pages done which i was super pleased about. 

These three are some I created with the Heidi Swapp range of papers for "Centre Stage at Artfull Crafts"

For more details, head to the Artfull Crafts blog 

Today is also my boys birthday!!! TWENTY!!!!! Thats scary old! .....or maybe it just makes me scary old! 

Have a wonderful day sweet boy! 

Scrappy goodness!

Would it be scary to tell you that Christmas is only EIGHT WEEKS away????? It sure scared me!!! Time to write the lists and start to shop.
This year we have one of our overseas daughters home for Christmas, and I cant wait!

Last year, the two girls met up in the UK, and had a whirlwind trip around parts of Europe and the UK before Loren had to head back to Australia for work. I enjoyed watching their antics on facebook, and stole a couple of photos they took to complete this weeks layouts which uses Christmas Carol
 from the Kaisercraft range.

In this first page, I created a background using mists and a technique using bubbles.
Simply....add dishwash detergent, and water to a cereal bowl and blow into it using a straw until the bubbles are HIGH up of the dish. Spray your favourite mist onto the bubbles ( lots will pop), then swipe your paper across the surface of the bubbles to pick up the colour. Repeat with a second or even third colour to create a lovely bubbly pattern. ( No need to change the bubble mixture in between colours)
The papers were then just layered and an embellishment cluster added. ( If you have not noticed already....I adore playing with paints and inks and mist!!!)

here is a close up of the page to see the bubbly background a little more in detail

For the second page I am sharing today, I have to confess to an "ooops moment" You know those moments when something goes terribly wrong, and you just have to "go with the flow" and make the best out of a bad moment?
Well, my ooops moment was with my pot of gesso!
My original plan for this page was something quite different, I can tell you!

I used a sponge to add a little gesso to the background of this paper seen in the shop.
Suddenly, the little bit of gesso became A LOT!!!!!
Not be deterred, I just scraped it off and spread it all around, giving the paper a whitewashed effect.( You can still see the pattern peeking through, stronger in some areas than others)
I then layered over a 12 x 12 stencil and sprayed with three or four different colours of mists. I chose two reds and two greens to work in with the theme.
I  created my own star stencil using my silhouette cameo, and using a palette knife scraped a gold paint medium roughly over the template.
I then used a variety of Christmas stamps to stamp haphazardly over the page.
This pretty much made up the foundation of the layout.
To finish, I added a ripped border at the top and bottom of the page, and then arranged my photo, and patterned papers to finish the page. For a page that started out as a complete disaster, I was quite happy with the overall effect.

Hope you all are having a wonderful long weekend, and that you are able to search out a little sun somewhere in the country! If not.....its the perfect time to get into your craft room and create a page or three. Do give an artsy background a try....they are super fun!

Don't forget to enter the monthly competitions ....the end of the month is nearly here, and Christmas will be here before we know it!!! 

Cheers

Sharon