DCWV + Spotlight | Christmas Village & Gingerbread House...

Hey Everyone!! Check out this amazingly, cute paper village! 

How cool is it! It's a new Paper Project Kit from DCWV who've teamed up with Spotlight Australia.  It comes with six building, one being a pretty awesome looking church, plenty of mini trees and... a family of reindeer!! I'm so excited! LOL! 

They are actually so cute! All glittery with gold highlights. The buildings themselves have a frosted white glitter, which is unfortunately hard to see in these photos. The kit also provides a copper wire, battery operated lighting system.  This really sets your display apart from the norm, especially at night.

But I wanted to take this project one step further. Let's transform this house...

to this..

Each Christmastime, it's a family tradition to bake Gingerbread Houses... from scratch! Not an easy task. But this! So much easier and a lot less gooey! LOL

To start, create the chosen house as per the instructions in the kit. I would recommend painting the house a toasty gingerbread brown colour before assembling. This way you wont get paint on the gold trimmings!

I've also started to gather my supplies, such as white cardstock borders from simple scallop punches and Christmas Patterned Papers from DCWV.

If you haven't already painted your house, now is the time to do it, allowing it to dry. Add paint to the underside of the eaves as well.

Trim some candy canes from the DCWV Holiday Paper Lace Mat Stack. Mount it onto some white cardstock and carefully trim around the outside.

Add some candy canes to the front entrance of the gingerbread house with foam dots. Glue a scallop border to the front and back eaves of the roofline as well.

The rest of the gingerbread house has been decorated using the DCWV Holiday Jewel and Very Merry Mat Stacks.

Simple shapes have been used to create the snowman and trees on the side of the house and more scallop border punches have been added above the door. These borders have wrapped around the outside of the house to recreate the look of iced decorations.

Using a white gel Pen or paint, decorate the windows with lines and dots. Frame the window s with fussy cut branches - images found in the DCWV Very Merry Mat Stack.

Complete the look with gumdrops - flower punched shapes overlapped with each other. The DCWV Holiday Jewel Patterns Mat Stack provides plenty of beautiful colours to choose from.

Finally, light up you house using the supplied copper light system. This gingerbread house can be used as a stand alone feature or add it to your scene to create some fun and interest!

Thanks for visiting and please don't forget to check out the DCWV blog for more fun ideas..x

Jot Magazine | April Mood Board...

Hello Friends!  Have you seen the latest Moodboard over at Jot? This month's challenge is just delightful! Created by the lovely Meghann Andrew, this Moodboard had me eager to create...

 

 

This is what I came up with..

 

"Best Ever"

 

products used: cs - Kaisercraft; pp - Elle's Studio, Crate Paper, Scraptastic Club; alpha - Dear Lizzy water colour die cut words; other - Heidi Swapp: ephemera, butterfly paperclip, colorshine; gold enamel dots; rub ons; sequins, gold paint; Maggie Holmes hair clip; tools - sewing machine.

 

I loved the idea of having a dark navy background. From there I easily built up the layered details with gold items and paper ephemera.

 

 

Between the layers I added pop dots or foam tape.

 

 

And the title work was created by using colorshine on a watercolour word, a technique I shared here.

 

 

Be sure to enter your project this month, using the April Moodboard over at the Jot blog.  There are always cool prizes up for grabs.  Good luck.  I can't wait to see what you share...x

 

 

 

 



Sassy Scrapper | Project Life Week Five...

Hello Friends! Up on the Sassy Scrapper blog this Monday, I am sharing my PL2015 Week Five spread.

 

"Week Five"

 

I hope you will head on over to Sassy for a closer look.  Thanks for visiting me today...x

 

 



Scraptastic Club | Shake It Off

 Hello Friends!  Up on the Scraptastic Club blog today I am sharing two quick and easy ways to enhance or create your own embellishments.

I absolutely adore the November Shake It Off kit and it already comes with gorgeous products to embellish your pages.  But sometimes I want to add a little extra something, just to make my layout feel complete.  Especially if it helps to relay the story I am documenting.

"You Had Me At Hello"

 

products used: Scraptastic Club Kit - Shake It Off; Add On - Shake It Off; Stamp Set - Shake It Off; Cut Aparts - Shake It Off; other - mist (Heidi Swapp); tools - typewriter, gold pen.

 



On this first layout, I enhanced the Jillibean Soup mini placemat by misting it and adding gold highlights...

 

 

The mist provided the colour I wanted but after placing the mini placemat onto the patterned paper of my layout, it tended to become lost.  Thank goodness for gold pens and a reasonably steady hand!!  I placed the dried placemat onto a foam mat to help keep the penmanship neat.

 



 

The mini placemat/title card was then added to the cluster near my photos to help highlight the premade embellishment of the typewriter.

 



 

And I love that the Shake It Off Stamp Set provided extra hints to support the typewriter story with both the font and bold "+'s".

 



 

With my second layout, I have created a very simple embellishment using cardstock, patterned paper and the Shake It Off Stamp Set.

"Here's The Story"



products used: Scraptastic Club Kit - Shake It Off; Add On - Shake It Off; Stamp Set - Shake It Off; Flair - Shake It Off; other - twine; tools - typewriter, machine stitching, hole punch.
 

I needed a place to add journaling to my layout "Here's the Story".  My patterned paper choices were already quite busy but the clear stamp brushstroke image sparked an idea and allowed me to add an area of white space without adding more clutter.

 



 

Head on over to the blog for more details.

 

To finish my layout I added the rest of the embellishments on a diagonal line to help lead the eye back to the journaling.

 



 

 Thanks for visiting..x

 



Bella Blvd | Pinterest Inspiration...

Hi Everyone!  I have a layout up on the Bella Blvd blog today sharing the monthly Pinterest Inspiration challenge.  Here is the photo the design team was provided with...

I fell for the gold.  And the glitter.  Well... It was the gold glitter full stop! *grin*  I loved the shimmery vibe and even though we are experiencing Spring in the Southern Hemisphere, I loved the lightness and magical feel this Autumnal photo portrayed! This is where that inspiration led to.

"Hello Peter Pan"

products used: cs - American Crafts; pp - Bella Blvd (Hello Autumn); Alpha - Bella Blvd; other - Bella Blvd: stickers; gold embossing powder, gold thread, gold colorshine; tools - typewriter.

The leaves and larger alphas were given a gold dipped effect.  And a part from some fussy cutting, I have left a lot of white space.



 For a simple how-to, head on over to the Bella Blvd blog.

Thanks for visiting...x



17 Turtles Guest Designer | Cut Files...

Hi Everyone!  I just wanted to share with you today that I am guest designing for Juliana Michaels: 17 Turtles and her etsy store - 17 Turtles Digital Cut Files.  She has a lovely collection of digital cut files to create with and I am very excited to help her spread the word of her new venture.

 

I have been playing with two of these cut files and created a layout for each file individually.  The first layout features the "Roses" digital cut file.

 

 "Mulan"

  

products used: cs - gold glitter, American Crafts; pp - Scraptastic Club Kit (Worth Wondering); alpha - Jillibean Soup (beanboards) ; other - embroidery thread; tools - silhouette  portrait, typewriter.

Right from the start these blooms reminded me of my daughter's dance solo where she was Mulan.  Isn't it funny how certain images can trigger memories!  *grin*  I cut the "roses" from gold glitter cardstock and instead of using a traditional green leaf to go with them, opted for brown instead.  These colours not only support my photo but lean heavily towards an Asian influence.

You can find this cut file and many more over in Juliana's etsy shop.
 

 

My second layout is up, over at Juliana's blog today as well.  I think I drooled a little bit when I saw the "Pie Chart Love" cut file!!! Here's a sneak peek..  ps - I've used the Scraptastic Club Kit "The Girl" to create this layout.

 

 

If you get the chance, head on over to 17 Turtles and discover what I've created with this awesome background cut file!  Thanks for visiting...x

 

 



Sassy Scrapper | Project Life...

Hello Friends! Up on the Sassy Scrapper blog today I am sharing my Project Life spread | Week 31.  I hope you get a chance to pop on over to Sassy for a visit and check out the details.

 

 

Thanks for visiting.

Scraptastic Club | Pinterest Monday...

Hi Friends!  Today I wanted to share with you a layout I created for Scraptastic Club recently.  It was for a Pinterest challenge/Moodboard that Kim Jeffress and I put together.

 

 

 

Plenty of fun & funky stripes!!

 

This is the layout I was inspired to created...

 

"Loving This"

 

products used: cs - white Kaisercraft; Scraptastic club - Either Way kit, Either Way add-on, Either Way Cut aparts, Either Way Flair Badges; other - watercolour paint, typewriter, Heidi Swapp colorshine (gold).

 

 

I wanted the stripes to go in different directions  to create a little bit of interest on my page.

 

 

I fussy cut some of the larger blooms from one of the patterned papers and threw in some spots for good measure! *grin*

 

 

But before I added all my layers to my white cardstock, I decided that I wanted a subtle hint of colour wash using my water colour paints.  For.the.first.time.ever! LOL!  I wasn't very bold with it.  In fact I was quite timid! LOL!  Maybe next time.  And I will be a little more patient with the drying time too!

 

 

I hope you get a chance to visit the wonderful team over at Scraptastic (ps - There's a DT call going out over there).  There is always plenty of inspiration from the team.  Thanks for visiting me today..x