Dreamy Smiles

How is everyone's week so far? It's been quieter this week, so I've been concentrating on getting the HKMC June layouts done. Those will be coming your way soon.

Thursday is our regular crop day at my place, so I was able to complete another layout. This one using the ultra romantic papers from Webster's Pages. I hadn't worked with their papers for a while, so was very happy to play and be able to do lots of fussy cutting and layering.

 Dreamy Smiles

It's not just her eyes that are dreamy. The whole layout is so surreal, with butterflies, air balloons and a gorgeous peacock.

The peacock is just so beautiful and even if he was in the middle of another piece of paper, I had to cut him out for this layout. After I took these photos, I went back and added some blue stickles to the dots of the peacock feathers to make it pop a bit more.

 I love these French hot air balloons. So romantic. I also love the stencil pattern I used on the background.

Products Used

Patterned papers, sticker title and resins from Webster's Pages Postcards from Paris II

Flowers from Prima Marketing

Metal accents sourced locally

Golden molding paste

Sprays from Lindy's Stamp Gang

Vintage Photo distress ink by Tim Holtz

Stickles by Ranger

Hope you enjoyed looking,

Sweet Girl and Chosen Featured Layout

It's been a bit busy around here so I haven't had a lot of time to scrapbook (or blog) in the last week.

We attended our annual charity ball last Saturday and got to dress up. You'd never think it would be a stressful affair, getting ready for a ball, but you have to pick a dress, hair, make up, nails and being sure that your shoes will be comfortable enough to totter around in all evening. Not things I'm used to - I've never been a girly girl and choosing the right accessories and applying makeup in a straight line is a challenge for me. Regardless, we had a great time and the main thing was, we raised money for several organizations.

Prior to this, I was able to finish a couple of layouts; a single and a double.  Oh, and very excited to share some good news: I got picked as one of the featured layouts for the April My Creative Sketches challenge for this little layout so I get to post this little banner on here.

On to my next layout:

Sweet Girl

My two favourite colour combinations at the moment; teal and pink. They work so well together. I love this photo, with the bright, colourful flowers behind.

This kit had the cutest die cuts and chipboards. I just had to use the little girl chipboard.

Just a little bunch of flowers to balance out the page. I love the cassette tape die cut; something you don't see much of anymore.

Add some detailing by placing some pockets behind your photos to hold tickets and other ephemera.

Products Used

Papers, chipboard, die cuts and other ephemera from Crate Paper Oh Darling! collection

Wooden leaves and butterflies from Studio Calico

Flowers from Prima Marketing

Thanks for dropping by,

Happy Mother's Day

Short post today. Happy Mother's Day to all those who celebrate today. It's a day to show appreciation to Mums everywhere and this is one that I made for mine. She loves looking at my layouts and I realized I haven't really made that many projects for her and I haven't done a mini album in a while. The kit I used had loads of diecuts and embellishments, so it came together very quickly.

Mother's Day Mini Album

Just a few papers and flowers layered together make a pretty cover.

 Sweet tag from Miss C.

I gathered up a bunch of reprints that were used on layouts already and quickly cut them to size. Each page is a 12" x 4" piece, folded in half with a punched edge.

From there, just pour out a pack or two of embellishments and get sticking away. 

Products Used

Papers, die cuts, chipboards, stickers from Crate Paper Oh Darling collection

Flowers from Prima Marketing

Silver Thickers from American Crafts

Cinch binders from We R Memory Keepers

Pumice Stone distress ink from Tim Holtz

Now, go out and spend the day with your Mum or get a little pampering from your littles (or bigs) and enjoy the day. Oh, and just to say that my Mum loved the album.

Thanks for dropping by,

You Are My Happy

I can't believe how fast time is passing. It was only yesterday I remembered I hadn't done the My Creative Sketches April challenge yet and there are only a handful of days left before the deadline. I love seeing all the different layouts everyone comes up with for each challenge.

 You Are My Happy

 Super cute papers and diecuts in pinks and blues.

 Instead of a banner under the photos, I cut and layered two paper fringes.

The sweetest diecuts. These would be great for baby pages too. For the border, I drew the scallops with an embossing pen before heat embossing with white embossing powder.

"You are my happy" -  I love this phrase.

Products Used

Patterned paper from Dear Lizzy Daydreamer and Pebbles Garden Party

Polka dot vellum from Crate Paper Oh Darling

Die cuts from Pebbles Garden Party

Cork butterflies with American Crafts DIY Shop

White embossing powder

Thanks for dropping by,

HK Memory Chest Kit Club - May 2014

I can't believe it, but we're on the second last kit for this kit club year; HKMC does a ten month kit club year from September to June. This kit has a more vintage vibe, with distressed imagery and edges, but still vibrant enough. We combined two different Bazzill Basics collections instead of keeping to just one, as they match quite well.

May 2014 Kit  
Bazzill Basics Paper Vintage Lace Embroidery Hoops/Heart Damask
Bazzill Basics Paper Vintage Lace Blooms/Embroidered Daisy
Bazzill Basics Paper Worldwide Map Block Geometric
Bazzill Basics Paper Worldwide Letterpress/Chevron Stripe 
Bazzill Basics Paper Vintage Lace 3x4 Journaling Cards
American Crafts Thickers Mosaic - Natural Wood
American Crafts DIY Shop Burlap Bows
Studio Calico Wood Veneer Shapes Banners

Add-on Options  
American Crafts Wood Veneer Butterflies
Bazzill Basics Cardstock
Bazzill Basics Cardstock 

May Sizzix Die  
Sizzix Bigz Die - Camelia

Here's the sketch for this month.

A Hiking We Will Go

The papers have a vintage feel, but that doesn't mean they have to be used with old photos. We had a great hike with the kids during the Chinese New Year holidays and ended up on a precarious rock cropping to take some pictures. It was a great day out.

I mixed up my title fonts, using some extra ones that matched the photo theme; with some that had a rocky feel.

Use some stain to add colour to your wood banners before stamping on some words or patterns.

I added a distress stained tag to add more of a grungy feel and a wooden circle border accent which came in a previous kit.

Extra Elements:  Studio Calico Wood Veneer Circle, Maya Road Arrow Trinket, #8 tag, American Crafts Thickers, Distress Stains, Distress Inks

Don't Let The Rain Bring You Down

The papers are great for mixed media layouts as well, able to take lots of mediums and sprays without warping. The photo was taken in Rome last year.

I love the giant canvas flower and used that as my focal point, building around it with other similarly textured flowers and colours.

For the background, I layered two different patterned papers for the top and bottom half, with a chevron strip in the middle. I then added gesso through a stencil in random spots. I also added Ferro special effect paste through a dot stencil, before dry brushing more gesso around the page. I then sprayed it to my heart's content with Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays. I am in love with these sprays; such beautiful tones.

I dripped iridescent gold paint down the page to brighten the colours and to tie in with the title "rain".

Extra Elements: Flowers various, canvas mini alphas, bee flair, metal tag, chalk inks from Prima Marketing, checker plate stencil from Kaisercraft, punchinella stencil, Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays, Ferro special effect paste, fabric doily, gesso, gold iridescent paint, jute string, metal flowers, buttons, stamps, archival inks

Living and Loving Life

I changed it up a bit for this layout, using kraft coloured paper as the background. The inspiration for this page began with the water colour piece in the middle. I also added one of the journaling cards to a mini kraft paper bag.

I started off with the water colour piece; adding colour, stamping, gelatos, modeling paste and gold gilding. After that, it was easy to build my layers around this central piece. I love the cute butterflies.

I dug out these chalkboard flowers, added white chalk marker and white centres to them. I love how they pop off the page with a huge contrast to the rest of the layout.

Layer strips of the kit papers behind the water colour paper and a little tissue paper for texture.

Extra Elements: Chalkboard flowers, white flowers, doily stencil, geometric stamp from Prima Marketing and Petaloo, water colour paper, water colours, harlequin stencil from Crafter's Workshop, butterfly link stamp from Kaisercraft, tissue papers from Hazel and Ruby, border stamps from Hero Arts, mini kraft baggie, gesso, gold gilding paint, chalk marker, sequins, distress inks

Here are some layouts from our DT:

NYC City Girl by Angela Collingwood

Time Will Not Erode My Love For You by Angela McDaniel

Tokyo by Angela McDaniel

Best Wishes Keith by Belly Lau

Still Like A Baby by Belly Lau

 Happy Day by Belly Lau

You Teach Me What Life Is About by Erika Lui

Explore by Erika Lui

Sheung Wan Crop
8th May (Thursday)
7:30pm - 9:30pm
Hosted by Belly Lau

13th May (Tuesday)
10:30am - 12:30pm
Hosted by Grace Wong

Discovery Bay Crop 

8th May (Thursday)
10am - 12pm
Hosted by Angela McDaniel

Hope you enjoyed some of the layouts. Thanks for dropping by,