The Story of the Winter Ball

This post first appeared on the Polly! blog earlier in the month. I was so honoured to be a Guest Designer there for the April/May kit. Here's what the kit looked like....

And here's what I created.....

I just adore the products in this month's kit. For a start, any kit that's called Candy Dreams just has to be filled with yumminess doesn't it?! And it didn't disappoint. I started my first layout with a teal, sky blue, hot pink and black colour scheme in mind because I knew it would match perfectly with this photo of me and my girls at last years Winter Ball.

When I crack open a kit I usually look for which patterned papers are subtle enough to be used as a background and I automatically fell upon the b-side of the Dear Lizzy red polka dot paper which has a light blue notepaper design. But I certainly couldn't deny the Fancy Pants star paper a feature too so I worked with both of them as the basis for this page. The only thing I've added to my background that's not from the kit is the pink cardstock edging.

I've found that working with a colour scheme helps me decide which products to focus on from the kit, and also prompts me to get a little creative. For example, once I decided on this colour scheme I knew the Woodgrain Thickers just wouldn't have the impact I was after for my title. So instead I handcut the letters out of the thick Glitter Ribbon from American Crafts. I quite like the 'imperfect' look of them.

Moving onto my embellishments now. I really wanted to make the most out of the amazing teal Corrugated Card by Amy Tangerine and had to spread it out amongst my 3 layouts. Here I've cut it into banners for a fun textural embellishment, and for continuity I also used it as my photo mat.

I always like to add journaling to my layouts and for this page I typed it out onto the Fancy Pants chevron paper and cut it into strips before sewing it down. I finished off my layout with a little bit of stamping, scattered some handcut stars and popped on one of the Basic Grey flags with foam tape.

So that's my first layout. Can't wait to share what else I've done with this kit with you too.
You can see my sneaks on Instagram if you follow me there (user name: natalieelph) ;-)

PS. This fabulously candid photo was taken by my friend and fellow creative Lisa from Loysh Photography. If you're in the Melbourne area and need some family, celebration or portrait shots taken then I highly recommend her. 

The Story of the Missing Starfish

Two exciting things happened this month (or late last month) and I couldn't wait any longer to share my version of events with you. These things aren't secrets, and they're not really things that happened to me... well... maybe they are kind of.

Firstly, Evalicious released a brand new collection! It's called Escape and it was designed as a travel line, but is just as versatile to be used for everyday events too. But given I just got back from a tropical holiday and I have 1000 beach photos to scrap I'm choosing to use them for their original purpose.

The second thing that happened is a new challenge blog has hit the streets. Yep! You know I'm always up for a good challenge. Scrap Around the World has got me suckered in already people!! Especially as their sketch called for 3 photos and as I just mentioned.... I've got a lot of them to get onto layouts.

The colour scheme got me too. It's not a colour challenge as such, but I have to admit that the thought of teal, brown and white with a splash of pink really appealed to me. Not the first thing I think of for beach photos but ultimately I think it really worked.

The story of the page is this: 2 years ago we went on holiday to the exact same beach destination. One of Munchy's fondest memories from that trip was the discovery of a multitude of starfish washed up on the beach. They were in the rock-pools and the little puddles in the sand. Our return visit last month wasn't planned for more than 4 days beforehand. We were blessed with a gift of accomodation that was too good to refuse (that's a whole different story!) She's got a memory like an elephant my little girl, and the thing she wanted to do most of all was go hunting for starfish. Unfortunately there were none to be found on this occasion. Which is probably for the best if you're a starfish.

So I had a tonne of fun playing with my new Evalicious stash on such a fun challenge. I can't wait to see what's coming up next month :-)



Supplies:
 

Evalicious Escape Large Tags Evalicious Badge Buttons: Escape V1 Evalicious Escape Miscellany Tags Evalicious Escape Snipsnip Labels Evalicious Stamps: Hello Photo Set Evalicious Stamps: Cloud Outline

InLinkz.com

The Story of my Wild Child

Sorry for the short bloggy break. Too many hours at work makes one less creative and just more tired I'm afraid ;-)

But oh my was I thoroughly excited to be invited back to my old stomping ground Scrap Friends to be one of their Guest Designers for the latest Colour Challenge!! And even more excited when I saw this Yummy colour palette.

I decided to concentrate on the pink/peach colour along with the grass-green and use the black and red as my highlight colours. It helped that I've still got quite the stash of products in these colours from my days designing full-time for Scrap Friends so I literally just threw all of it on my page in one giant explosion of linear layers!

It started with this fabulous Glitz Designs piece that reads "Live What You Love" which I've been meaning to use for the longest time. I must have pulled it out to include on a page on at least 3 different occasions and it never made the cut.... until now! I glammed it up a little more with some Glossy Accents on the heart, and the addition of the FWAB Pearl Chloe Flourish.

I don't necessarily think that Moodles is truly a Wild Child, she's much too well-trained to go really crazy! She knows the rules and likes to stick to her given boundaries. Thank goodness! But she is a kid of course, which means that she will still run amock and generally have a good time. I snapped this cheeky photo of her one day when the fire alarms went off at church as we were all evacuated. She was ignorant to the edgy atmosphere and was running up and down the grassy slopes having the time of her life. It's one of the true privleges of childhood isn't it? To be blissfully unaware of the stress levels of the adults around you, and just go on having a ball!

The colour challenge runs for a full month, so you've got until 14th June to play along too. The winner will receive a $25 voucher to the Scrap Friends store so you'll want to be in for this one! Check out the rules and all the designers inspiration on this blog post here.



Supplies:

ICC Poetic Chemistry Crate Paper Pretty Party Stitch Colour Conspiracy Spring-a-Licious Crate Paper Pretty Party Party Dress Amy Tangerine Sketchbook Garmine Collage Glitz Designs Paper Layers Beautiful Dreamer Crate Paper Paper Heart Border Stickers Heidi Swapp Vintage Chic Buzz Words Pink Paislee Portfolio Photograms Pink Paislee Portfolio Photo Tabs Pink Paislee Portfolio Tiny Tabs Teresa Collins Fabrications Brads Little Yellow Bicycle Clear Cuts Prima Rondelle Plume Leaves Washi Tape: Black Chevron FWAB Chloe Pearl Flourish: Pearl

InLinkz.com

The Story of Finding Balance

This layout and tutorial was first posted on the Evalicious blog here..

In the video you'll see my process of how I tackled this layout. It's the complete deal, from start to finish (well.. actually... minus the end part where the batteries ran out on my camera and so you don't get the final embellishments and journaling. Sorry!) But all the important parts are there. What you'll also notice is what an indecisive scrapper I am. I didn't really plan this layout before I turned on the camera so you see the real deal. You see me try out different embellishments in different places, then think they're not working and move them... only to move them back again!


Feel free to just sit back and watch the video and see for yourself what I've done. But I'm also going to explain some of the techniques in more detail here too.

The main technique focus on this layout is the background colouring. Here's how I did it.....
First I swiped some gesso onto my background paper with an old credit card. The credit card trick means it goes on quite thin which will allow it to dry almost instantly and creates a waterproof layer for the next step. Then I spray some water lightly over the gesso, flick on some mist, then spray more water onto it to move the colour around. It will pool in certain areas and create a lovely water-colour effect that's so popular currently.

To create more depth in my background I used Distress Ink that's a slightly darker colour than my water-colour and sponged it on through a stencil in random areas. It just gives it slightly more interest I think. But the real star of the show is of course the fabulous Evalicious Real Life Page Tabs that are scattered across the page. I tried to challenge myself to use a whole packet on one layout and I didn't even come close! There's just too many in a packet if you cut them all up like I did. Plus I was only really choosing the ones that matched the colours on my page ;-)

Because this page is quite flat I felt I needed to add some extra texture to it (that's how my brain works anyway!) So I included some twine stapled to the background layers and finished it off with messy stitching on my machine. My journaling came last and I added it to the top and the bottom for balance. Sorry.... pun intended!


Supplies:
 

Evalicious Real Life Page Tabs Evalicious Love You Lots Tags Evalicious Badge Buttons: So Daily V1 Gesso Colour Shine Spritz Mint Green

InLinkz.com