Callibee Scraps: March 2015

Monday, 23 March 2015

It's Fine To Be Nine

It's that time of year again of birthday celebrations. The hubby and Miss C have their birthdays on the 10th and 14th respectively. Hubby only managed to get home from a business trip on the night of his birthday, so we held off on celebrating except for a card or two.

For Miss C, we had a little party for her and her friends. She also got the most longed for present of a mermaid tail which she was constantly asking for. It's a full body mermaid tail with a mono fin which you can swim in. It's the most gorgeous tail with beautifully printed scales. We're testing it out next week on our one week holiday in Bali. Can't wait for that.

Fine To Be Nine

A rare double layout, I used two contrasting coloured background paper and linked them with the punched striped paper at the top that looks like awning

I mimicked the name balloon banner in the photos with similar coloured chipboard Alphas

I love the see through birthday stickers which I stuck on some of the photos as well as around the page.

I heat embossed the wooden letters in gold to make them stand out a bit more. For the top and bottom scalloped paper trims, I used a very old paper by Sassafras Lass, who no longer design as a brand. I was hoarding them but I thought they fit well with the other papers I used, so finally decided to part with one. I love how they used to do patterned cut off strips on their papers.

Products Used

Background papers and tickets by Pebbles Birthday Wishes

Paper borders by Sassafras Lass (discontinued)

Clear stickers by MAMBI birthday

Wooden words by Freckled Fawn

Gold embossing powder by Ranger

Orange and blue cardstock by Bazzill Papers

Thanks for dropping by,

Friday, 20 March 2015

Stamp Your Background

Remember the days when most of us used plain cardstock as our background paper? Nowadays, we rely on having patterned paper to take that place, and every paper collection will have a certain number of "B" sides that make amazing background papers.

This time, I chose a rather plain "B" side paper and did some stamping to create my own "patterned paper".

This Is The Greatest Day

This layout is quite simple in style, with just a few strips of paper laid vertically on the page. I like all the pinks and reds that contrast with the yellows.

A splash of yellow against the reds and pinks draw your eyes inwards to the photo.

Instead of stamping over the whole page, I added the stamping to open areas around all the other elements only.

Products Used

Papers, wooden arrow, diecuts and transparencies by Basic Grey Vivienne collection

Flowers by Prima Marketing

Crochet heart by Bella Blvd

Floral Stamp by Mama Elephant Water Blooms

Dictionary print stamp by Kaisercraft

Inks by Avery Elle and Distress Inks by Tim Holtz for Ranger

Yellow cardstock from stash

Thanks for dropping by,

Monday, 9 March 2015

Beautiful, Be Happy Be Yourself

I've been doing a lot of clean and simple layouts lately and it was high time to do a flowery layout again. I do love the flowers but I've found I've done less of them lately. Mainly because they take up so much space in my albums. I usually have to have two albums a year now just because of all the dimension.

Beautiful, Be Happy Be Yourself

I love the romantic papers with vintage roses so I fussy cut a few more from another paper to match. The only gripe I have is the paper is very thin and I had to back it with plain cardstock on the back for stability.

Lots of flowers to build up around the photo. I coloured the wooden leaves and the resin butterfly with some pigment inks before heat setting them.

For the background, I added some pigment powders to molding paste before stenciling in the doilies. I used plain molding paste for the mini dots stencil. I added distress inks to the resin heart (barely seen) and also the the wooden Joy banner.

I splattered mist inks with a fan brush to get bigger splatters and also stamped the dictionary print stamp around the page.

I love the border of lace under the photo and the lovely handwritten "beautiful" on the title. Just loving transparent handwriting embellishments.

Products Used
Papers and stickers from Kaisercraft Storyteller collection
Flowers and stencils from Prima Marketing
Wooden branch/leaves, transparent white doily from Kaisercraft
Wooden buttons and wooden Joy banner from Prima Marketing
Resin butterflies and heart frame from Prima Marketing
Beautiful word sticker from Momenta
Dictionary print stamp from Kaisercraft
Molding paste and gesso from Golden
Mist sprays and Magicals from Lindy's Stamp Gang
Distress Inks from Tim Holtz for Ranger Inks
Pigment Inks from Avery Elle
Dye Inks from Momento

Thanks for looking,

Tuesday, 3 March 2015

Christmas in March...Again

The last couple of days, I've been very conscientiously tidying up the study and my scrap space. Reorganizing and labeling my stamps and dies into Avery Elle pockets, my punches into different brands and photos into folders and even doing a ton of filing and paper sorting.

I was certainly on a roll and decided to get my Christmas layouts done and out the way while I was still in the mood to get things done. By now, you might know of my love for doing Christmas layouts (not!) so it was a great time to plough through them. Looks like I may make it an annual habit of scrapping Christmas in March.

All I Want For Christmas

For the whole year, Miss C has been asking for a Snoopy toy and she was such a patient girl, willing to wait for Santa to send one. I have her actual hand written Santa's wish list hidden behind the false list on the right. The little snow flake acts as a pull tab.

This kit from MCS had so many elements included, I didn't have to do much. I did add silver ink to the wooden snowflakes before embossing with glittery clear powder. I also used Wink of Stella to add some glimmer to some of the sticker accents.

I cut out the string of lights and think they look so cute at the top of the page.

Products Used

Papersm die cuts and stickers from American Crafts Be Merry collection

Wooden snowflakes

Wink of Stella

Silver ink from Avery Elle

Glitter embossing powder from Stampendous

Build A Gingerbread House

As a contrast to the previous green layout, I wanted a bold red one. I love the large chevron background paper. Every year Miss C gets to decorate a gingerbread house. We never eat it though - I don't think they taste that great but she gets to gobble down the sweets that don't get used up.

The die cuts are just too cute and so appropriate.

I love the mini letter stickers that come in the kit and also the glittery foam alphas.

Products Used

Papers, die cuts and mini letters from American Crafts Be Merry collection

Gingerbread stickers from Pebbles Home for Christmas collection

White glitter foam alphas from American Crafts

Christmas Cheer Happy Celebrations

Time for a double layout. I did a patchwork background with several patterned papers. We had a pretty big Christmas day lunch with eighteen around the table. Even Molly fur ball got in on the action.

My sweet Molly was right in the middle of all the present opening and loved all the tinsel and ribbons. I love the glittery red alphas I used for the titles.

Love the chipboard 25 which I back with a green tag.

Cute paper flowers to put together.

Products Used

Papers and chipboard from Carta Bella Christmas Time collection

Brads from Simple Stories Cozy Christmas collection

Flowers from Bo Bunny Christmas Collage collection

Red glitter foam Thickers from American Crafts

Distress inks from Tim Holtz for Ranger Inks

So there you go. Ho ho ho layouts in March. Until next year.

Thanks for dropping by,

Sunday, 1 March 2015

HK Memory Chest Kit Club - March 2015

Happy Chinese New Year - yes it still is. We're on day 11 of 15, which is the length of celebrations for CNY, although most people don't celebrate that long. Most have already gone back to work and school and life is back to normal.

The weather here is already changing for Spring showers and humidity; not that it got very cold here this winter. I think the lowest it went was 13 C. Speaking of Spring, the HKMC March kit is full of Spring and Easter connotations - birds, feathers, pastel colours, eggs... Such a pretty, jam-packed kit to work with and I just love feathers as an embellishment.

March Kit 2015
Webster’s Pages Nest – Catch Your Dreams
Webster’s Pages Nest – Tickled
Webster’s Pages Nest – We Belong Together
Webster’s Pages Nest – My Home
Webster’s Pages Hall Pass Printed Vellum – Journaling Cards
Websters Pages Handcrafted Paper Kit – Toppers/Feathers
Freckled Fawn Enamel Dew Drop Stickers
Maya Road Kraft Die-Cuts – Doilies
Maya Road Bird Resin Embellishments
Prima Marketing Cradle Bird Nest W/Eggs – Robin
Prima Marketing Resin Icon Embellishments – White Feathers
Prima Marketing Junkyard Findings Vintage Trinkets – Small Typo Bulbs
Prima Marketing Flowers
Paper House Snap Shots Stickers – Nature
American Crafts Happy Day Thickers Alpha Stickers – Woodland/Wood Print Chipboard
Viva Decor Paper Pen – Glitter Gold Transparent
Cotton Baker’s Twine – Creamy Pastel
Cotton balls

Optional Add-ons
Dear Lizzy Day Dreamer Dies
Hot Off The Press Acrylic Stamps – Feathers
My Mind’s Eyes Jubilee Sherbet Chipboard Stickers – Peace

Here's my sketch for the month:

Birds Of A Feather

I just love the background paper with all the feathers and so had to title my page accordingly. This page is more messy and grungy - haven't done that in a while.

All the embellishments are just too sweet. I love the little bird's nest and resin feather and that light bulb - too cute. I used distress inks to colour in the die cut hearts.

I die cut the scalloped rectangle and used another one of my dies to cut the inside window to create a frame around my photo. Behind that, I stamped on a solid black feather and added silver perfect pearls for the details. For the background paper, I used a weave stencil with light molding paste and aslo added splatters of spray inks and stamped on matching coloured feathers all around the page. The two birds were a bit fiddly to cut but I love how they sit next to the photo.

I punched out two contrasting borders with my doily die to anchor the photo. I love the wood effect Thickers; they bring a bit of "nature" into the page. A few colourful enamel dots around the page pulls everything together.

Extra Elements: Dylusions black, teal and Colorshine pink spray inks, Prima weave stencil, Golden light molding paste, Martha Stewart doily punch, Tim Holtz distress inks, Hero Arts shadow inks in various colours

Love To Dance

My sweet girl in her ballet performance outfit - she's a fairy - all made up and pretty. I love the colour and dots on the background paper and felt they matched the costume nicely.

I used the same distress ink coloured paper I used to die cut the hearts for the previous layout to die cut the "love" and also in white, offsetting them to create a "shadow".

The gorgeous flowers come in the kit and I cut all the strips into them to give them a feathery look (no pun intended).

For the background paper, I stenciled in some random circles and dabbed on the gold glitter pen. I also stamped and clear embossed some words on the background to give it more interest.

Extra Elements: Golden molding paste, Heidi Swapp stencil, Kaisercraft and Paper Smooches stamps, Versamark ink, Tim Holtz distress inks

Sugar Fluff

I'm not a pocket style (Project Life) scrapbooker, but I did want to try a bit of the look on a layout. The photo was taken a year ago on our New Year cruise. The cotton candy is the funniest - looks like an umbrella or a cloud.

I added some dry embossing on a couple of the panels to give more texture to the layout. I cut out two of the ribbons and layered them together before adding an enamel dot. I kept the title simple to match the clean look of the layout.

The "love this" was cut from a new die I got from HKMC. I kept the resin feather as is, but you could colour them with anything from water colours to spray inks and paints. I thought the mini cloud polaroid matched the layout perfectly.

The kit came with a nice challenge - cotton wool balls. I thought of several ways to use them on a layout, but I think I like this one the best. The idea came from the new We R Memory Keepers Fuse Tool which allows you seal elements into your page protector. I don't have a Fuse (yet), but I do have an encaustic heat tool which is pretty much the same thing but is missing the rolling stitch atip which comes with the Fuse. Using my encaustic tool with a pointed tip, I cut out a cloud pattern in a page protector (this will also seal the edges), leaving the straight edge open to form a pocket. I then filled the pocket with cotton fluff and sealed the bottom with the encaustic tool.

Extra Elements: Sizzix embossing folder, Kaisercraft love this die cut, page protector, Tim Holtz distress inks

Sweet Happy Life

For my last layout, I had one full sheet of paper left and it was also my favourite, featuring a collage world map on one side and city signs on the other and was torn about which side to use - don't you hate that? In the end, I chose the map side, but then promptly gessoed over it to tone it down for my layering. We love our macarons and once in a while, you just have to indulge with the best from Laduree.

After gessoing the page, I added some water colours on top to bring out the pastel tones. I used a lot of add-on chipboard for this layout and love the silver elements in this pack. I added the gold paint pen for the white polaroid frame to give it more pizzazz.