On Fussy Cutting Heaven

Hi ladies! Just stopping by to share my latest layout using Graphic 45. I have to admit that I haven't had this much fun creating a LO in a long time. I might have gone a bit overboard but with so many beautiful and fun designs, it was hard to stop myself from cutting and embellishing. I used G45's Le Cirque collection and this is what I came up with...

Though the papers have a circus theme, I thought the fun designs would perfectly complement this photo of my little ones goofing around. To keep my photo from getting 'lost' among all the graphics, I matted it using a Martha Stewart Punch Around the page punch and paper in a bright color.

One of the things I love most about Graphic 45 is that you can easily come up with a beautiful page without the need to apply time-consuming techniques. This particular page came together very quickly though if you like fussy cutting as much as I do, you will need the right tools. I highly recommend getting a glass mat ( I love my EK Sucess one) and the Fiskars Fingertip knife.

All of the cut out elements were adhered to the page with Pop Dots to add dimension.

Thanks so much for your visit today! Have a happy scrappy time!

A Spring Wish

Hello friends! I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day today and a great iScrapbooking Day yesterday; it sure was a nice weekend to be a crafty mama!!! My husband and kids were way out of their way to make today absolutely perfect so this post is a bit delayed.

I'm very excited to share with you that this week I'm a guest designer over at Creative Scrappers, a weekly sketch challenge blog. I was fortunate enough to work with a fabulous sketch designed by Amarilis Doria and created this layout:

This photo of Emily was taken last year on Easter. I titled the layout Wish because every year she has the same wish, to be able to peek at the spring fairies. I wish I could bottle her innocence! I used Pink Paislee's new Butterfly Garden collection along with lots of Dusty Attic goodies, which I distressed just enough to maintain the shabby-chic look found in the design of the paper as well as lots of hand stitching. I'm really loving my Sew Easy tool by We R Memory Keepers and I use it any chance I get!

The sketch we're using this week is #155, check it out,

I hope you find the time to swing by Creative Scrappers and play along with this fun sketch. There is a prize package sponsored by Scrapbooking Sussies up for grabs!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Have a great scrappy time!!!

Prima BAP for April

Good morning dear readers! Today I'd like to share with you a layout I created for this month's Prima BAP using the luscious Reflections collection. I loved the earthy and rich colors and designs in these papers and thought this photo of Emily and Dylan went perfectly well with it. Since the background was a little distracting, I printed the photo in 5x7, cut it out and adhered it using pop dots. I also did some stamping in the background.

To highlight the beautiful flowers in the design and add texture, I applied some Distress Stickles to the centers.

I also outlined the butterflies in the design paper with Stickles in the cinnamon color. This paper collection also lended itself to some fussy cutting so I cut out some images and used them as embellishments.

For my title, I printed the words 'Strong Bond' onto cardstock and cut it out in the shape of a strip. The banner look was achieved by punching the corners at an angle using my square punch. I also distressed the edges with my Tim Holtz Distress tool and inked it with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

If you want to play along, get your Prima stash out and head over to the Prima blog, the challenge ends at the end of the month.

Thanks for visiting me today! Have a happy, scrappy time!

MME Monthly Challenge

Good morning ladies! Just a quick post today as the whole family is getting ready to go spend the rest of the week in beautiful Lake George for the spring break. The kids are very excited to go to an indoor water park and do some horseback riding. I'll definitely share some photos when we return.

In the mean time, I didn't want to leave before sharing my entry for this month's My Mind's Eye sketch challenge. I titled it Love This Happy Boy. Aren't these photos of Dylan just adorable? (if I may say so myself) I really like the Stella and Rose collection, it's just perfect for those not-too-fussy boy layouts...

And here's the fabulous sketch I used to guide my design. As you might be able to tell, I always tweak the sketches to fit my personal scrapbooking style and photos. In this particular challenge, we were to use the 'April Showers' theme and I channeled Kim Watson's (one of MME DT members) idea of incorporating showers by splatting paint over my page, one of my favorite things to do!

Here are a couple of close-ups, enjoy...

Thanks for stopping by, have a fantastic Spring Break!

Hugs,
Jolaine

Precious Time Together

Happy Sunday friends! It feels like forever ago since I last blogged but I have a good excuse, pneumonia! Ugh! It was so bad I couldn't even hold my head up! Not good at all but I'm feeling better now. I just couldn't wait to go back to scrapping and use some of my new scrappy supplies.

Here's a layout I created using the new Bo Bunny collection, Timepiece.

The photo was taken a couple of weeks ago when Emily's Girl Scouts troop held their annual Father-Daughter Spring Dance. They were so cute walking hand in hand and wearing their formal outfits. And did you notice Emily's toothless smile? I can't believe she lost two teeth already! For my design, I used Bo Bunny's layout challenge sketch by Juliana Michaels.

I had lots of fun designing with this collection, the theme make it perfect for heritage and family photos. I used a black and white photo and a color print of the same shot to highlight a timeless memory. Here are a couple of close-ups.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I hope you enjoy the rest of this beautiful day!

Little but Tough

As you may know I absolutely love Prima. I love their papers, their flowers, their pearls, rhinestones and metal embellishments...All so very beautiful! I normally use photos of my daughter when creating with Prima products but this time around, I wanted to make the Botanical collection work for photos of my son. For this y' 'bolayout, I used Prima's March BAP sketch.

I almost didn't and any flowers, but I couldn't help myself! Ha Ha Ha! I thought I could get away with it though as the blooms here are tiny and tattered. I added open stitched burlap for a more rustic feel. I also did a little bit of masking/misting with a Prima screen and Glimmer Mist.

Thanks so much for your visit today! Have a wonderful, scrappy weekend!

Hugs,

Jolaine

Just Another Beautiful Day

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Today I'm sharing a layout I created for Gerry's shaped layout challenge at the Webster's Pages ning site. I had a ball fussy cutting and designing with the Spring Market collection. The colors and patterns are fresh and bright so I went with a yellow, green and red color palette, no grunge here!

This picture of Emily is a couple of years old but I thought the colors and the expression in her face went perfectly with this collection. It took me forever to fussy cut the bird and hanging sign image but thought it was worth it. It almost looks like Emily is gazing at it! Here are a few close-ups:

I cut a lot of the images in the design paper out and highlighted the cutouts by adding Rock Candy Stickles, layering them and adhering some with Pop Dots.

I remembered to take pictures as I created that paper border so I should have a tutorial for you soon. Thanks for joining me today, I hope you have a beautiful day!!!

Hugs,

Jolaine

Mother and Daughter

Hello there wonderful blog readers! I just have a quick post today to share a layout I created using the beautiful Gabrielle collection by Bo Bunnny. I could hardly wait to work with these papers, the colors and beautiful designs attracted me instantly, not to mention the butterflies!

I used the sketch Bo Bunny posted in a recent challenge.

The picture of Emily and I was taken last summer at Disney (now you know why I look so tired and without make up! LOL!). Everyone says we look identical here so I thought I would dedicate the page to her. I cut out the damask design out of the design paper and used the framed area to include some journaling. The title is a chipboard piece from Dusty Attic to which I applied acrylic paint and glimmer mist to create this metallic effect.

Thanks so much for joining me today! Enjoy the rest of the week!

Hugs,
Jolaine

Prima Green

Every month, Prima presents us with an array of product picks and gives us a beautiful color palette to inspire our creativity. As you can see, these products are scrumptious but I didn't have too many of them on hand, so I decided to play along using the color palette. The colors were different shades of green with a little bit of white, craft and brown thrown in the mix for balance.

The earthy colors screamed nature to me so I decided to create a layout about the natural beauty I see in my sweet daughter. She's at that age when looks really start to matter and sometimes can seem less than thrilled about her curly hair. During the winter months, I blow dry her hair to keep away any possible colds but as soon as the weather gets milder, I let it air dry. Here she is, looking adorable with her natural curls.

Prima's new Botanical line was perfect this project. I loaded the page with texture by adding lace, felt, corrugated cardboard and some ancient wildwood Prima flowers I've had forever.

Love the effect I got after painting the corrugated cardboard with white acrylic paint. I did leave just a touch of the top layer for a more organic feel. The textured alphabet stickers were white so I inked them with Old Paper Distress Ink and added a bit of Suede Glimmer Mist randomly around the edges using a small paint brush.

I cut a postcard image out of the design paper, rolled it and tied it with floss. Here's another close-up...

For more inspiration, check out Prima's DT creations with this month's product picks and color palette, it's pure eye candy! Thanks so much for your visit!

Hugs,

Jolaine

I'm Cool Like That!

Once again My Mind's Eye is hosting a layout challenge on their blog. I knew I had to play along and try the wonderful Stella & Rose collection. Love the masculine colors and patterns in these papers!

I love these photos of Dylan and his tough guy glasses and pose (at 5 months old no less!) reminded me of LL Cool J's old song "I'm Cool Like That!" so I used it for my title and decided to grungy up these papers.

Lately, I have been playing with actions in Photoshop Elements. I used a combination faded and vintage actions to give these photos just the right amount of antiquity. If you want to give actions a try, download a free set available on the Pionner Woman blog.

The papers were distressed, inked, embossed and even stitched. Since this is a baby layout after all, I didn't want it to look too dark so I framed the photo and background paper with cream cardstock. The cream crochet lace also added a soft touch.

I love this twine rope, it's almost like pearl swirl for boys! LOL! I just tied a knot and burned  the ends to keep from fraying. After that, I laid it on the paper and let it follow it natural form adhering in a few spots with hot glue.

Thanks so much for your visit today! Happy scrapping!

Hugs,

Jolaine

Once Upon a Springtime

The last couple of weeks have been very difficult with both of my children getting sick and my son ending up admitted to the hospital. Everyone is doing well now but I was completely fried. I really needed some 'me' time so my hubby took the kids out and I got to scrappin!

I had so much fun creating this layout! I actually created it with two challenges in mind. The first one, Dusty Attic Sketch Challenge. I was very pleased to find out that my LSS started carrying DA products. I used their monthly sketch on my layout to play along but positioned my embellishment 'wreath' from corner to corner instead of top to bottom.

When it came time to choose the papers, I drew inspiration in the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger:

Love these beautiful colors and they happened to be the same ones in the gorgeous Once Upon A Springtime collection by Graphic 45. These papers are lots of fun to work with and just perfect for fussy cutting, so fussy cutting I did!

I added texture and dimenson with pop dots, crochet lace and stickles. My daughter loved the outcome almost as much as she loves fairies so we decided to place in in a shadow box and hang it in her room.

To create a more realistic effect on my DA chipboard pieces, I embossed them and then painted the raised surfaces with black acrylic paint. Once dry, I inked the entire piece with Timber Brown Staz-On ink. The Recollections flowers were misted with Rose Tea and Wheatfields Glimmer Mist. I also inked all of the papers with Tea Dye Distress Ink.

Thanks so much for visiting! I really enjoy having you and reading your sweet comments!

Hugs,

Jolaine

Coordinates Collections Party Time Reveal and Farewell

At Coordinates Collections, each new month brings a new kit and a new reveal. This reveal will be my last. After much thought and consideration, I decided to step down from my DT position at CC. Changes can be scary but can also be the right thing too. This was a really difficult decision.  I have truly loved being a part of the team at Coordinates Collections.

With that said, I was lucky to have the Party Time kit be my last. This kit includes fun Fancy Pants and Jillibean Soup products and were just what I needed to scrap some birthday photos of my little guy's first birthday.

My first layout features a photo we took during Dylan's birthday party last year. That was a pretty hectic day and we weren't able to get great photos but I really liked this particular shot. Because it was such a special ocassion, I made sure to include handwritten journaling, which I rarely do!

To keep things simple, for my second layout, I used the same border punches and supplies. This made my pages come toghether incredibly fast. Here he is on the actual day of his first birthday enjoying a cake and lots of love.

And lastly, I have a card made with some scraps. As you can see I only used the Fancy Pants papers, my favorites. I still have all of the Jillibean Soup papers left to make another layout! The flower you see here was made with the Maya Road pleaded ribbon included in the kit. That ribbon is so fabulous and versatile, I want it in every color now!

To see what the other Design Team members created with this and the other kit of the month, visit the Kit Ideas page at CC. Thanks so much for coming to visit today.  I do hope you enjoy what's left of the weekend and get some time to get crafty!

Hugs,

Jolaine