Buddies

There is a pretty large age-gap between me and my siblings vs our cousins on my dad's side, they're actually closer to my son's age than mine. Each year we go around to my Uncle's house on Boxing Day, which is a tradition we've had since before my Uncle even had kids. It used to be that my cousin Nick would follow my brother around like a shadow with a fair bit of hero-worship. It was so funny to see the situation reversed last year, with my son Harrison following Nick everywhere all day.

I had so much fun creating this layout. The background is Tinby Designs Color Crush powders which I sprinkled in a tree shape and then spritzed with water to activate. There's always an element of mystery as to what the end result will look like when trying this. There are also about four layers of subtle stamping details, washi tape and some paint splatters to finish off the background.

So you know how some people can outline their title and it looks really cool? I'm clearly not one of those people! I'm always too impatient, I don't let the paint dry fully and then I rush the pen work too. Embellishments are a mixture of things: various ribbon off-cuts, glass cabochons, enamel dots and a Charm's Creations star which has silver glitter sparkles.

This layout was inspired by the current challenge at Scrap The Boys. I loved this inspiration image when I saw it at the start of the months and then I saw some amazing layouts created by the DT and other entries. I just had to give it a try myself. 

Crafty Friends

A very Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates it! I wasn't able to travel to be with family this year due to my recent knee surgery, so my little immediate family spent it at home. I used the free time to create this layout. I wanted to create something messy with a lot of texture. I can safely say I achieved that. 

Given how intricate the background was, I didn't want to overload it with too many embellishments or layers on top. These die-cut circles and some resin pieces were all it needed. 

The other embellishment cluster:

I was not happy with my cushion cover at the end of the class. I think I had done it much too loosely, so the knitted part drooped and didn't fit snuggly around the cushion. I tried re-making it again once I got home but wasn't happy with how much of the white cushion showed through inbetween gaps of the knitting. I finally made one final attempt last night and it's good enough that I'm not going to do it again. 

I was inspired by two challenges for this layout. Firstly, I based it on the Stuck?! sketch for December:

The second inspiration was the Kraft Plus challenge. The boho feel of the room in the picture reminded me of the classroom for the cushion class, plus the wonderful assortment of cushions against the back wall. 

Train Photo Display

My dad came to stay with me for three weeks to help out with recovering from knee surgery. Today was his last day and I wanted to give him a little gift to say thanks. I have had this train billboard from Imaginarium Designs since 2015 when I was on the Couture Creations design team and I knew it would come in handy for my train-obsessed son sooner or later. The photos are from when the two of them were watching 'Chuggington' (a train animation) together on Dad's iPad. I figured since Dad also took Harry on his first proper train ride while he was visiting it was the perfect theme for the gift.

Since I couldn't decide which photo I liked more, I just decorated both sides of the billboard in a similar manner and left it unglued, so Dad can remove it and turn it around if he wants to. 

It ended up being a pretty quick and simple present. I think it had taken me so long to use the display because I kept overthinking everything I wanted to do with it. 

Santa Photo - CSI Challenge

Okay, so technically I'm all finished with my Scrapmatts design team reveals but they are also the sponsors for CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration blog and I just could not resist the last challenge board. It was Christmas themed and I love Christmas, plus it has a nice twist on the standard colour scheme. 

These holly bough chipboard pieces were released last year and I loved them, but haven't had a chance to use them until now. I've just inked mine with a light green VersaColor cube, then applied red glitter Glitzin' Glamour in place of the berries. I had meant to use the plain red pearl bottle, but I couldn't find it so went with glitter instead. I like the festive effect it created, plus it suited the glitter alphas for the title perfectly then.

I used up a whole bunch of left over papers to create this layout and really enjoyed mixed and matching from so many different Kaisercraft paper ranges. The Scrap Words made a great finishing accent.

The stencil for the background work is by Scrapmatts too. I've added some loose thread behind two corners of the main embellishment cluster and accentuated everything with two D-lish Scraps flairs. I like all the different layers that have built up to create the photo matt. 

Here is the CSI case file that inspired my layout. I loved the 'split pea' shade of great and the addition of the grey. For my evidence I used Christmas, stencils, (pom pom) ribbon and I'm also going with vintage given how old some of these paper ranges were. My testimony is hidden on a journaling tag and speaks about our excitement of getting the family Santa photo together. 

This layout also fits the criteria for the More Than Words challenge this month. I was inspired by 'family' to use one of our family Santa photos and the 'numbers' part refers to the year in the photo. It's very important to date your Santa photos, so you can show how the family and grown and changed over the years, I think.

Believe - Scrapmatts DT

This is a very sad post for me, as it is my last design team reveal after 5 years with Scrapmatts. I have had such a great time on the team, made fantastic friends and loved every day of working with the amazing designs.

This was created for CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration current December challenge. I've used a 2016 Santa photo and can't believe how much older my boy looks in just one year. 

That wonderful title piece comes from CB6111 Assorted Words 27. I've built up the depth for this using cardboard between each paper layer and distressing the edges. Some lace and fuzzy pompoms add texture.

I love the range of reindeer chipboard designs available and had this lovely guy left over for a while now from CB5050 Reindeer 07. The 'falling snow' in the background uses the ST5003 stencil, first with gesso applied through it and then a bead mixture with matte medium once the gesso was dry. 

I loved the CB1053 Christmas Ornaments 03 and just coated them in some silver embossing powder, then popped a D-lish Scraps glitter enamel dot in the middle. My flourishes are offcuts from CB4069, inked in black for contrast. That wonderful metallic flair is from Accent Scrapbooking. 

If you want to see the CSI reveal, it is based on the below image. I used Christmas/winter elements, silver, circular elements and something fuzzy. I actually forgot all about the journaling component though. :(

Thank you so much for coming and checking out my blog. I hope you'll still pop by even without the Scrapmatts posts. Have a great Christmas and New Year!