Here's to new adventures!



Hi friends! Today I'm on the Paper Issues blog with this layout I made for the This or That challenge using the Turn the Page collection from Pink Paislee.  I picked a lot of this and a little bit of that! I added my own take to Paige Evans' paper plane page, and created my own giant paper plane for my photo to rest in. I also used loads of the ephemera and stickers from the 6x12 chipboard sticker sheet. So here are my this and that combinations, hand journaling and not typed, thread and not ribbon and then stickers and not washi.

 I also created my own background by applying Gesso to the 12x12 white card stock and after it dried I had some fun with Gelato's! I love me some Gelato's! I used the 'snow cone' and 'metallic mint'. If you look closely you can see that I stitched along the edges of the clouds to give them a slight pop. Hope this layout inspires you to take inspiration from a collection and make it your own!!

Here are some close ups!





See you soon!!!!!

Adore


Hi! I would like to share this layout with all you fab crafty ladies! I took part in another Paper Issues challenge. This time I chose the Take 5 challenge. 

I used the Romance collection from Simple Stories, which so by the way is available in the Paper Issues online shop!

I adore fussy cutting, so I immediately took the scripted word and phrase paper and hacked it! And so I got my title, 'Adore'. The photo is of my eldest child who is 10 years old and my youngest, who was about 10 days old in the photo. 

If you look at the Romance collection you will get a very girly feel, but I managed to get some elements out of it and I created a fairly gender neutral layout. 

Remember, if you add the coupon code 'Leslie' to your check out in the Paper Issues online store you will get 20& off your entire purchase! Amazing!   

Follow your heart



Hello friends! Today I would like to share this layout with you. I used the Reagan Kit from 
Felicity-Jane. I have never used their products before and I thought it high time that I should try them out. And guess what, I loved it! I adore the stamp set! It is full of phrases about new beginnings. 

I have been scrapping my own baby photos lately and I came across this little photo of me, I have no idea how old I am in that photo, I guess I was around a year old. I was on a beach and clearly strutting my stuff. It looks like I'm on a mission. So I took a picture of the small original photo that that had turned a bit yellowish over time and turned it to black and white in PicMonkey. And I like it!

As you all know I love fussy cutting flowers, so I immediately took the floral pattern paper and started fussy cutting the flower without even knowing what I was going to do in the layout. Sometimes jumping right in without really knowing what you are doing is the best way to get started!

I had a good look at the stamps and decided I wanted to create a background with the stamps. Now, let me tel you, I am not a stamper. I have never stamped anything on a layout, I never stamped the cards I made a couple of years ago, I just never took to stamping, and I cannot tell you why. But I tried these stamps, and I absolutely loved it! I was so easy! I have no idea why I was so scared of stamping. As a result of my non-interest in stamping I only have black ink and a dark brown, so I couldn't go wild with colours. But I went wild with the black ink I do have! 

As you can see I clustered the words and phrases behind the photo in the bottom right quadrant of the 12x12 white card stock. I found some lost and lonesome little stamps in my stash and I added them to the mix. Those being the heart stamp, the little envelope and the two words, ' Explore' and 'Dream'. I also layered some of the coloured card stock behind the photo. And finally, as you can see I did end up using some of those fussy cut flowers as layers behind the photo. 

I absolutely love this kit!  
Here are some close-ups!  









Wild & free




Hi friends! Today I would like to share this layout I made for the Swanky Swatches Challenge over on the Paper Issues Facebook Page. I used the beautiful 'Lovely Day' collection from Shimelle.


Here is the Swatch,



Don't you just love the rich warm colours combined with the colder neutral grays? 
I have to admit, this was truly a challenge for me. I usually stick to many different colours, and I haven't really scrapped with so much red before. But here it is. I did it! 

I worked on this for almost a whole day. I first started with a vertical layout, I didn't like it, so I tried a diagonal layout, I didn't like that either. So I walked away and made myself a lovely cup of coffee and took a wee break. When I finally got the courage to try again, I looked at all the papers again to get some inspiration. And I got stuck on the page with all the hot air balloons. 

So I decided that I will paper piece a hot air balloon in the swatch colours. 
And this is the result. I also fussy cut the flowers from one of the other pages in the collection as well as the paper with all the phrases and words. Hope you get some inspiration from this!!

Remember, all the products I used in this layout is available in the Paper Issues online shop, use the coupon code, 'Leslie' for a 20 % discount.
Have a fab weekend!


10 Years of Love

Hello everyone!! Today I would like to share with you my very first layout I made for the Paper Issues Design Team! In this challenge I had to scraplift this amazing layout!



And here is  my take...



I absolutely love fussy cutting flowers and I immediately knew I would probably do something with flowers. As this is my first layout for a Paper Issues challenge on the Design Team, I needed to do something I'm comfortable with, so that I wouldn't get overwhelmed.

 I had purchased the paper from 1 Canoe 2 called Midnight Roses,  from the Paper Issues store a while ago and just loved the boldness of the flowers. It almost has a masculine feel to them. So I pulled out a photo of me and my hubby from our 10th anniversary last year. I wanted to pull some of that rich blue into the layout even though I had cut it all off while fussy cutting the flowers. So I rummaged through my stash and found the perfect dark blue card stock. I didn't have any other paper in that deep blue so I improvised! 

Our wedding song was, Chancing Cars from Snow Patrol. I wrote out some of the lyrics on some cream-ish card stock in a funky font using a Sharpie. From here on the layout came together pretty easily! I layered some more of that deep blue card stock under neath my photo, I also added some gold embossed handmade paper from the paleolithic period ( not really, its just really really old paper, from when handmade dung paper was all the rage!) I then arranged the fussy cut flowers around my photo to where I liked them but I still felt something was missing. So I improvised again. I busted out a gold gel pen and drew ( rather scratched) some sprigs onto some white paper and cut them out. That added just the right amount of gold pop. The big layered piece my photo is on is actually a pocket, you will see a tag poking out. The large tag on the left of the page I had other pans for! I wrote out the full lyrics for the song Chasing Cars and cut it out in thin strips ( yes, I do not have a type writer, woe is me!) So my hand written strips would have to do. I also stitched along the edge of the page with some gold metallic thread. 
And that is it!