Mini Album for myself.

Hey there crafters 

I have been asked to make a mini album which I am over the moon about. However, I realised I have not made one of these for myself in about a year and thought it was high time I did so. On that motivational point, I decided to go through my somewhat large stash of 12x12 papers that I have collected over the years and made a point of ensuring that this album was not going to be a "collection/themed" album. The reason for this is, well, I knew straight off I did not have enough of a collection or theme of papers to do the entire album.

I won't be listing the papers and who designed them or what company they come from, mostly because all the bottom strips got thrown away after I made the album. 

I am sure if you asked around some one can help you with the relevant information about a particular paper I have used. 

As usual, there is a flip through youtube video at the end of the blog post. 

So instead of using Kathy Ortas "hidden hinged" spine I decided to go with the stack method. This, I find, gives a better strength and stability to the spine and pages. It also has the advantages, for me anyway, of giving me an extra page to add. 

For now I am not to sure when I will actually use this mini album but I at least have this AWESOME album for future photo journaling. 

The one thing I did want to do with this album for myself was add lots of space in the album, so there are a lot of folds and matts and paper clips to add more things to. 

To see the rest of the album have a watch of this. 

Thanks for watching and I hope you come back and see what new stuff I have been creating.

Cookie Monster

Scrappers!

I found a working Cookie Monster at Savers and op shop recently and was SO excited! 

Naturally I had to do a layout to add to my kids folder. 

Sympathy Cards for Heidi Swapp

Hello crafters 

Many of you would know that Heidi Swapp lost her second eldest to depression a couple months ago. I was devastated to hear the news as I suffer from depression my self. 

I like many all over the world made a couple cards and send this through to Heidi Swapp's family and her eldest son.

I decided to be a little different and rather than doing the standard sympathy card, I chose to make something with an uplifting feel. I went with a steampunk theme with gears, clocks and hot air balloons.

I did get a message from Heidi a few weeks later thanking me for my letter and the cards. 

A Cricket fan at 13.

Hi crafters 

I was asked to make a card for a young man who was turning 13. I was told he was into basket ball and cricket which made my mind spring to creative mode. 

I ended up making an easel card with the theme of cricket. 

Hoping the young man like the card and best of wishes to him.

Something a bit feminine

Continuing with the card creation for my friend. 

I used Marion Smith's Garment District for this one.  

The Birthday card Trifecta!

Hey there scrappers

How is everyone today? 

I got a card to show you.

Each year a friend on Perth asks me to make a few birthday cards for him for August. he has three birthday one after the other over three days with his very own being RIGHT in the the middle of his partners and sisters. CRAZY.

This was I made this year for his partner. 

Love making easel cards still. 

Head back later in the week to see the other cards I made.

My New Blues

Hi there scrappers

Got a personal layout for you this time, I don't usually do layouts of myself. This was something to commemorate though, so I snapped a selfie and did a 12x12 layout.

Few years back I was diagnosed with Meares-Irlen Syndrome and have been wearing coloured glasses ever since. For the first 12 months I was going with the Irlen Spectral filters which while costly were doing the trick of helping me with my dyslexia, visual processing and reading, along with general anxiety due to photosensitivity. After a bit of research I changed to a much more cost effective alternative done through a local optometrist, Cerium Colorimitory. And wow did I get a much better result although a few months back I noticed some old symptoms crop up. I went and had my color retested and collected my new filters a week later. They were awesome!

I did the layout to remind myself how beneficial these filters are.

The background is a basic weave Kaisercraft cardstock that I used a Prima stencil and some "tinsel" Colour Shine from Heidi Swapp. I added a bit of stamping over the top of that in a few places with some kaisercraft texture stamps. 

The papers for the photo stack are some scraps from my Cafe au Lait collection available on my webstore. 

The cogs were cut out with my Silhouette Cameo and then stacked and glued to make them a bit more dimensional. They were then painted and stained and covered in Tim Holtz's rock candy crackle medium, which is so awesome. 

I then added vintage photo stain over the top to give that rusted aged look. 

To title the pages I pulled out some kaisercraft letters and embossing powders. 

I hope you like this layout, and thank you for reading.

Cafe au Lait: Another one for the boys

Hi there crafters, 

So another day, another birthday. Is it just me or is this year flying by really fast. 

I have created a very elegant masculine (yes those two words go together, at least they do in my head).

I have used my Cafe Au Lait collection again for this one but I added a few gears and wood ephemera.  The hot air balloon in from one of the older Kaisercraft collection which I cannot recall right now. So what do you think?

I even gave doing some typography a try, which came out rather well. 

Remember I do make custom made cards. You can email me or head over to my Etsy and "convo" me there.

I hope you like. Leave a comment or question and Happy Crafting!

Cafe au Lait: Vintage Layout "Times Gone By"

Hey Crafters, 

I am really loving working with this new collection Cafe au Lait.

Today I have a lovely vintage layout using some of the 12x12 papers which I had printed at a local print shop on A3 paper. This time I went with simple 80gsm paper, which surprisingly still held up well to what I threw at it.

The photo is of, I think, my maternal grandmother's extended family. I am not too sure as there were no names on the photo that I found in my family pictures. I really just like how the photo looked. 

I have used old music sheets stacked behind the photo with a couple old book pages as well. The Donna Downey Studio Damask Stencil in the background was done using Prima's Finnibair Art Extra Vagance Texture Paste - Copper Crackle with a bit of misting over the top. I had a few scraps of the Cafe au lait cardmakers set on my desk which I turned in to tags and tuck them in behind the photo.

The wood flourishes are Kaisercraft Wood flourish Ornate Corner which were painted with Tim Holtz Distress Paint- Antiqued Bronze which came up really well.

 

Product list.

Kerry-Jean Watson Papers-Cafe au Lait

Kaisercraft Weave cards stock- Coffee Bean

Kaisercraft Weave cards stock- Cream

Kaisercraft Wood flourish Ornate Corner

Prima's Finnibair Art Extra Vagance Texture Paste - Copper Crackle

Heidi Swapp Color Shine - Bronze

Donna Downey Studio Damask Stencil

Old music book pages

Vintage Accents-Vintage brads

Tim Holtz Distress ink- Vintage photo

Tim Holtz Distress Paint- Antiqued Bronze

Remember to leave question or comment and Happy Crafting!

Midori Fauxdori Insert assembly.

Midori Traveler Notebook enthusiasts I thought I would show you all how I go about making inserts/booklets for my Travelers Notebook size Midori.

So these are the 12x12 size digital papers of my collections that have been printed on A4 size paper. The cover was printed on 200gsm paper stock and the rest of the booklet is printed on 80gsm on both sizes.

Here is the Cafe Au Lait collection Booklet/insert

Here it is in the Fauxdori I have available in my webstore.

This is the same format but done using the Forgotten Meadows collection which comes up really pretty.

 

Here it is in the Fauxdori I have available in my webstore.

Both inserts added to the Fauxdori using the expansion band that comes with the single string fauxdori.

Now to see how I put the booklets together. 

GIVEAWAY

Hello eager crafters.

Today I have something special. A GIVEAWAY! Every one loves a give away.

So to enter, head over to my Facebook page and find this image. Like the page, comment on the image it and share it!

Now for what is up for grabs.

The entire Cafe au Lait digital collection. That means the 12x12, cardmakers set, 8.5x11, the book kit and ALL addons/alternate content. How awesome is that?!

The prize winner will be drawn on the 1 August 2015

To see the collection in all its glory here is a flip through to see what it is all about.

Cafe au Lait: Book Kit project

Hello crafters, creative ones and those just stopping for a read. 

I dedicate this blog post and project to the Swapp Family in Utah after their second eldest son took his own life due to depression. 

Remember: depression lies.

Cory is an example for what almost happened to me at the same age.

I have been working on the book kit from the Cafe au Lait collection.

This time I worked on a different style of binding, well not entirely different style. I did long stitch through plaster board mesh. Boy was that fun! Not! I had to redo the binding 4 times because I kept making mistakes. But in the end I was Successful! And it looks pretty awesome to boot. 

I kept the cover simple and plain because I tend to take my books/journals out with me. If they have stuff on the cover after a couple trips all of the prettiest would have been ripped off. So I went with a more practical approach. A Simple book plate from Tim Holtz

I used both the original pages from the book kit as well as the alternate ones that were released last week. Have a watch of the youtube video of the flip through to see how I did the pages. 

Remember to comment or leave a question and as always Happy crafting!

Cafe au Lait: Add-ons and alternated cover

Crafters!

So for anyone who liked the Cafe au Lait Book Kit, I have some add ons!

8 extra pages with lines 

And an alternative cover.

Stay tunes to see video of the alternate pages when I post the book kit project I have been working on.

Buy it! Download it! and print it at home! 

Crafting made convenient.