The Paper Girls Challenge #198 Girl Time

Hi Lovelies!

It's challenge time again over at The Paper Girls Challenge Blog and Challenge #198 is all about Girl Time. 

This might mean different things to different people, but whatever you enjoy doing with your besties is something to treasure. 

In the current climate of Covid-19, remembering the days we could get physically together with our friends and go out can be bittersweet, but it wont be too much longer I hope.  As someone whose health depends on everyone doing their part to adhere to lockdown restrictions, I'm very thankful to each of you playing your part.

In the meantime, I treasure the moments of the past by documenting them and staying in touch by virtual means.
 
Pretty much exactly a year ago, my sister and I enjoyed a spa day together, and this is the first of a couple of layouts about this trip to a town famous for its day spas.

If you are taking Shimelle's Start with a Sketch class and think my take on sketch #5.1 looks awfully like Shimelle's example in terms of supplies then you'd be right.



I tried various lines of paper that combined some florals with an autumnal colour palette, but they didn't have the vibrancy and fun I was looking to convey. 






See here's the thing.  Autumn in nature is beautiful, but in craft supplies it often seems to translate to orange and/or brown and of all colours, I rarely use these unless I'm working on a boy page maybe.

I only have the paper pad and some embellies from Paige Evans' Truly Grateful line, so my choices were slightly more limited, but seeing that beautiful bold floral in the background of Shimelle's page meant everything else paled in comparison.  I was also inspired by two of Shimelle's choices for the angled paper strips and while not identical, they are similar.

I was very pleased to use TWO words/phrases from those Thickers sets we all seem to buy byt struggle to use.  These ones were from Shimelle's Head in the Clouds line supported by some small puffy alphas from PinkFresh Studio.

There are several places where things didn't quite go to plan, but overall I'm fairly satisfied with the way it turned out. 

I was in a hurry to get it finished and cranky with the way the first official day of remote learning for TallCraftyDude was unfolding,

I guess I will have to wait and see how sketch 5.2 turns out!


 

Rise + Shine For There Are Adventures to Be Had

Love and scrap all the things!

The Paper Girls Challenge #197 Florals

Hello Lovelies!

It's challenge time over at The Paper Girls and Challenge #197 is Florals.  What a lovely theme, isn't it?  My lovely friend and fellow Newbie to PGCB Lori is hosting it!

I was disappointed that I didn't get to make a project in time for challenge #196 which was Babies, so I combined both for this one!

I love to fussy cut and when I see a paper with large florals, my scissors are just itching to get into my hands.  Maggie Holmes papers are perfect for this and my layout has both fussy cut flowers and flowers from the die cut pack.

I also cut apart the floral chevron called L'il Bit Lovely.  I picked the ones I wanted, inked them and lightly tacked them to the page before stitching them down.

This paper along with the chipboard sheet from Maggie Holmes Shine collection were the driving force behind this layout.  

The photo was matted with my usual messy stack from the scrap box (yay! 🎉🎉🎉)

I used the "Bloom & Grow" along with additional thickets for the titles and also added the deer and some hearts from the sheet which to that point remained untouched.  

I was awfully pleased with the dent I made, but as you know, all chipboard made by American Crafts needs extra adhesive and Glue Dots in various sizes are my jam.  I'm not saying it's a bad thing actually, because I do like to move my embellies around a bit before I commit. 

There were other pieces from various collections (mostly Maggie Holmes). a sweet doily, gold mist and gems and enamel dots.  In hindsight perhaps I went too far with the gems, but more is more, right?

My journaling is below and pretty simple, but I liked how it flows into the title as the last line.

 Bloom & Grow Little One

Before I sign off, I thought I'd leave you with a few photos of the infamous photobombing NewCraftyCat!

I hope you visit the link to The Paper Girls and have a go at the challenge yourself!
 
Love, and fabulous florals

She's a wild one sketch challenge RYS and RK

Hi Lovelies!
 
Today is Challenge 18 at Arty Divas.  This is a FORTNIGHTLY "anything goes" (any type of project and any theme) challenge with a design team who makes projects showcasing the sponsor who often offers PRIZES!

This week there isn't a sponsor, so it's a "just for fun" challenge. 

I'm sharing a scrapbook layout I made about a year ago but hadn't shared before now.  It was based on a sketch challenge (at the time) thrown down by Khristina Sorge of Redefined Kreative and Sara Scraps of Rediscover Your Stash.


The sketch is below and it was a challenge since it used a lot less paper than I normally do!  I did add a bit more paper, but besides that I interpreted many elements quite literally from the bunting banner, button embellies and circular journaling spot.  The occasion is the baby shower for my sister's second baby her love of animal print.  I was rather excited to find a leopard print onesie and it seemed the perfect time to use the animal print patterns which are from an older Heidi Swapp collection.

Here you can see the journaling.  I pulled in the soft mint and pink from the bunting which is also an older prodict (from Dear Lizzy).

I pulled in as many of the elements from the main part of the layout up to the title block so it didn't feel too disconnected.

She's a Wild One Layout

Thanks for stopping by!

Love and sketchy scrapbook pages!

Design Team Post for Embellish With Flair (17 June)

Hello Lovelies!
(giveaway now closed)

I'm here with the next installment of my Lost Mojo (or Finding Inspiration) series that I've been writing for the Embellish With Flair blog!  If you missed the first installments, you can find them here:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Today we continue to look for inspiration in work by others.  The natural progression from scraplifting would probably be a sketch, but there is something a little in between.  I'm talking about CLASSES.  Classes offered by other crafters.  These can be either face-to-face or online.

I love online classes myself as they can be worked through at your own pace and access is usually life long.  I regularly sign up for classes by other crafters.  BUT WHY?? I hear you ask! You TEACH classes, so why TAKE classes?? 🤔

Well everyone's style is different.  I believe that you never stop learning and if you don't try something new, you'll never know whether it's "your thing" or not.  Even the most well known crafters or artists can misplace their mojo for a time, and taking a class can reignite it (not to mention supporting fellow artists).

Today's layout takes inspiration from Lesson One from a class I recently signed up for called "A Touch of Whimsy" by my dear friend Sara.  Before you ask, no I didn't sign up JUST because she's my friend!  Her style is VERY different to mine and I love what she makes, but it's definitely out of my comfort zone!

Like me, Sara is both a cardmaker and scrapbooker and I definitely think you can apply the techniques in the class to cards as well...and...I think I'll do exactly that, so watch this space! 😉😉😉

I HIGHLY recommend you check out the class.  It's excellent value at only $7USD, self paced so there are no deadlines and you also get access to a Facebook group which is really useful for thrashing out ideas and sharing your work.

💡Tip: Getting out of your comfort zone could be just what you need to get that mojo back!

I figured I'd better practice what I preach and since the last layout was a scraplift of Shimelle's (and I've taken MANY of her classes) which is very much within my comfort zone, I should probably show you something different!

One thing Shimelle does say about scraplifting (or trying something quite different) is that you still want to make it look like YOU made it when someone flips through the pages of your album. 

As a general rule.  if you've never taken an online class before, it's totally OK (and usually encouraged!) to share what you make online and across the socials.  What's NOT OK is to share the actual videos, PDFs and images of the artist's layouts.  This is why I can't show you Sara's actual layout.  You may know her as Sara Scraps across the socials, but she put this little SNEAKY PEEK on her Insta so you kinda get an idea what it's about.

❓What do you think of when you hear the word "whimsy"?  Go ahead and tell me your thoughts in the comments.

My thoughts are:
Organic shapes rather than geometric
Curves vs sharp angles
Butterflies
Flowers
Hearts
Clouds and floaty stuff
Unicorns, rainbows, dragons

Sara's first lesson in the class focuses on hand stitching or alternatives if you don't like to stitch.  As soon as I saw this I knew EXACTLY which photos and story I wanted to use.  I had set them aside for a layout I DID plan to hand stitch!!  What I hadn't planned on was having to SKETCH my stitching lines! 😬

Plan A was to ask my SmallCraftyDude to help, but he refused point blank upon learning I required hearts.  🙄

Plan B was to use a cut file.  Paige Evans has many cut files with the holes already there for stitching, or use the pen holder in the Silhouette to get it to sketch the design in pencil and I poke the holes myself,  That's almost like not cheating, right?  😉

Plan Q, R or perhaps S was to put on my Big Girl pants and get on with it.  Sara gave me such encouragement (and I realized I wouldn't be setting the best example by cheating), so a whole white eraser later I decided to start poking holes before I changed my mind. 💪

So, what I had in my head was inspired by this layout by Flora Farkas using one of Paige's cut files.  Except I wanted more whimsy...and I promised I'd draw it myself.  You'll see how I take inspiration from Flora's layout without exactly scraplifting it, but it does incorporate at what we looked at in the previous post about scraplifting with this one.  While I'm not exactly scraplifting the layout Sara made in Lesson 1, it's a sort of mix of hers and Flora's and turning out to be unique in its own right. 

I needed both pink and purple so it would draw attention to the colour of the dresses my nieces are wearing in the photos.  The colour is pretty washed out being taken indoors with less than ideal lighting so I wanted to draw attention to it.  The story behind these photos is about their outfits as we watched the royal wedding last year at a high tea my sister organised.

Naturally there are flairs for every possible occasion in the Embellish With Flair shop and this set called Royal Crowns even had the perfect name! 😍😍😍

The background needed to be subtle.  A white tone-on-tone was definitely on the list, but I've always swooned over this subtle yet gorgeous ombre Paper 8 from Paige Evans' "Take Me Away" collection 😍

It’s at this point where I normally start layering photo mats like crazy.  I wasn’t sure what to do here.  I didn’t want the photo block to look too heavy, but I did need to add my own touches to make it my own.  I don’t usually stack multiple photo mats ups evenly.  It looks really formal and just not “right” for most of my stories.  And another thing - I’m not sure I could stack anything evenly if I tried! 😂🤷

💡Tip: You don't have to copy a sketch, scraplift or class lesson down to the last detail.  You want to find the balance between trying something new and still being true to your style.

Since I was trying to keep the photo block reasonably small (not to cover too much of the painstakingly stitched background raiding my box of scraps (when a certain cat isn’t holding them hostage) is a perfect opportunity to pot a small dent in them!

Then I went through my die cuts and stickers and pulled out what I felt qualified as “whimsical”. I found a couple of frames from Paige Evans’ collections.  I struggle to use frames, but this time I was determined.  I backed them with patterned paper as I would a cutfile and they formed a kind of bridge between the paper and the embellishments.  

I love how most of the embellishments are small and paper based (die cuts or fussy cutting or stickers.  It makes them less heavy and more "whimsical".  I only used a single piece of chipboard and tried to keep the non paper elements delicate.

I was trying to be a little restrained there as well since part of the class lesson was to scatter little floaty bits along the stitched areas. I stitched down two butterflies with a cross stitch and attached the tiny metallic butterflies.

The butterflies help make a connection between the metal flair and the more whimsical floaty elements.  As always, Glue Dots is the only thing I use to adhere flair badges and some of the embellies that didn't want to sit nicely on the raised stitching! 👍

Placement of embellishments was kind of decided for me since there were many areas of the stitched chains of hearts I was unhappy with. 

I put the journal in the space underneath in grey to make it less intrusive.  It’s more legible IRL I promise!  I picked an older set of Thickers by Dear Lizzy (going back to her Polka Dot Party collection) in white (trying to be soft and subtle yet girly at the same time).  Hands up if you have the song from Princess Diaries 2 in your head when you read the title? 🙋😂

Since I was unable to decide between pearls or diamantes,  I used both!  Plenty of royal jewels mix the two so on they went!  I was in two minds as to whether to add any gold mist.  I know I’ve been doing a lot of it lately, but there is a bit of gold in the die cuts and stickers so I went with it.

Here's my final outcome and I'm not entirely displeased with it!  😂👍

It was a labour of love.  I even cut into one of my super special "Love Elsie" papers, and believe me that doesn't happen often!  Besides, it was the only "right" shade of purple among the 37 others I tried 😂🤷!

Most importantly,  I achieved my aim by started off with something which looked very different to what I'd normally make, yet I was able to mould it into something that looked like it was my work and included all the things I loved...and all from taking one class!


I do encourage you to try this approach whether it be Sara's class, a different online class or a face-to-face class if you are fortunate enough to be close enough to someone who offers them!

Crowning Glory

 

 Embellish With Flair products used: Royal Crowns

Giveaway Details - closed!

🎨I'm going to give away a spot in Sara's class!!  😍
(If you're a cardmaker, I'm going to show you how this class can still be adapted to card making and I promise you'll learn some awesome new techniques!)

🎨 The giveaway will remain open until 11:59PM AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time) on Wednesday 31 July (extended)
If you aren't sure what that is in your timezone, here's a TIMEZONE CALCULATOR
🎨 The winner will be drawn on Friday 2 August so PLEASE CHECK BACK HERE!
🎨If the winner and I can't make contact by Friday 16 August, I will have to draw a new winner
🎨Please try to email me at alex@pinkcraftymama.com This really is the easiest way for me to get in touch with you since not all blogger profiles have an email attached and if you JUST leave comments, I have no other place to search for you.

Until the end of July, I'm going to be making stuff (on and off) inspired by this class.  (You'll know the post relates to it because I'll have "GIVEAWAY" in the title and basically shout it from the rooftops!😜)

You will receive ONE entry for each of the following.  You absolutely don't have to do everything - just however many you like, but you need to leave a comment somewhere so we know you want to play along!

So...what do you have to do to get entries?
Follow Alex's blog (in the left sidebar)
Follow Alex on Facebook
Follow Alex on Instagram
Follow Sara on Instagram 
Subscribe to Alex's YouTube
Subscribe to Sara's YouTube 

If you already follow our socials then that bit is done for you!

Comment (once per day per person) on a post related to this giveaway (look out for the pink whimsy graphic) between now and the close of the giveaway :
Alex's Blog post
Alex's Facebook share
Alex's Instagram Post
Alex's YouTube Video

So today...if you want to leave a comment, What do you think of when you hear the word "whimsy"? (or anything else if this doesn't grab you) and please don't hesitate to  email me with any questions at alex@pinkcraftymama.com


Love and Embellish With Flair,

Cards For a New Baby Girl Part I

On Friday, the arrival of our new niece was only 24 hours away so my sister Helz and I had congratulatory cards to make.

Hels picked this baby mobile card on pinterest made by Tilly McLeod.  Please visit her blog and check our her amazing crafts.  Thanks for the inspiration, Tilly!

Helz wanted a colour scheme of mint green, pale purple and light grey.  Mint Macaron, Wisteria Wonder and Smoky Slate were perfect.

"Do Stampin' Up! alliterate EVERYTHING?" asks Helz.  Blushing furiously I had to answer in the affirmative.  It's one thing I'm not hugely fond of I have to admit.

Helz wanted to use Copic markers again and picked the animals from a couple of Mama Elephant stamp sets.  She went with a 5x7 inch card to make sure she had enough room and did a great job.

Meanwhile I made a card for our parents to give.  The weather was miserable and I was lacking inspiration so I turned to Pinterest.  I knew I wanted to do a square card but that's it.  I found this card by Stasia Sloma.  The animal print onesies are so on trend and the new mum loves animal print so it was perfect!  Please visit her blog.  Thank you so much for the inspiration, Stasia!

I used the leopard print since it was a smaller scale for the onesies from the Go Wild DSP pad and a couple of different pinks from a couple of different Dear Lizzy collections and some neutral patterns from My Mind's Eye.  I'm not totally happy with the card to be honest and I think Stasia did a much better job with hers.  I love the pearl detail she used!

I might try the design again some time and see if I'm happier with it.

The photos aren't great, but evening was upon us, light was fading fast and we needed to finish!

Stay tuned for more new baby cards and crafts coming up over the next few days!


Stampin' Up! Products Used: 

Big Shot	Magnetic Platform	Little Letters Thinlits Die	Hello You Thinlits Dies
Baby's First Framelits Dies	Smoky Slate A4 Cardstock	Wisteria Wonder A4 Cardstock	Mint Macaron A4 Cardstock
Whisper White A4 Cardstock	2015-2017 In Color 12" X 12" Cardstock	Go Wild Designer Series Paper Stack	Curvy Corner Trio Punch
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Stampin' Trimmer	Snail Permanent Adhesive	Fine-Tip Glue Pen
Stampin' Dimensionals	Bone Folder

InLinkz.com