Bowl of Dreams

Hello everybody. It's Donna here today, and I've got a couple of ideas for the papers in the gorgeous August Cropaholic Kit. If you haven't subscribed to this kit before, this is the month to start. So much fabulousness in a box. So, once I could finally bring myself to cut the paper, here's a couple of card projects that use some of the kit. You can expect to see a LOT more of this beautiful kit from me!

First up, I created a cute little shaker card that highlights the wood veneer shapes that come with this month's kit. I also added some sequins to each little pocket. I used the B side of two different papers so that the card wouldn't be too busy, and added a sentiment through the middle. A couple of the cute little puffy stickers from the many in the kit completed the card. 

Here are a couple of closeups of all the sweet little elements. 

Have you had a look at this month's challenge? This month we have a Tic Tac Toe challenge. Have a look at the squares, and choose three in a row to incorporate into your project, horizontal, vertical or diagonal. As an example, I've chosen the middle line horizontally, using Stencil, Cardstock, and Ink.  

I have also used some of the ephemera from the August Cropaholic kit to make this card to play along with the challenge. I have a striped stencil in my stash, and I used this, using ink to colour the embossing paste to match the blue flowers in the basket of the bike. 

A little bit of glossy accents made the bike seat and handlebars stand out, and tied them in with the shine on the puffy stickers.

Have a go, and then upload a picture of your project in the gallery on the Inside Inspiration page to win a gift certificate from the Shop and Crop store. We'd love to see what you create!

If you have enjoyed these cards, and would like to see more of my work, feel free to visit my Instagram page, where you can find lots more cards.

Don't forget, you can save $5 at the Shop and Crop Store using the code DL5. Why not subscribe to the Cropaholic Kit, which will cost less than a cup of coffee a day, and take advantage of the $5 off.
Until next time, happy crafting, and may your days be full of sunshine.

Donna

Best Friends and Darling Girls

Hello, scrappy friends!

By the time this blog post goes live, I will be comfortably ensconced at Scrap Camp with about 60 other scrappy ladies! 4 days of no kids, no cooking and all the scrappy time I desire! Sounds like heaven on earth to me!

But first, I need to share with you a little bit of random fun I've been having lately. Sometimes its just so worth digging back into some of your old collections/kits, just to see what you can create from the leftovers, or with some new random bits mixed in. The 2 layouts I'm sharing today have come from doing just that!

For my first layout I pulled out all of my leftover bits from Crate Paper's Cute Girl collection, and went to town using up all the chipboard and puffy stickers I had left over.

My daughter is obsessed with unicorns all of a sudden, so this giant unicorn embellishment was perfect!

I love the embellishment clusters on this page, and how even though there is a lot going on, it doesn't seem to busy. I'm also super in love with this title, how good is mixing fonts, so fun!

The second layout I have to share with you is using up my stash of Cocoa Vanilla 'Wild at Heart', this range is such a dream to work with! I actually got all adventurous with this layout and machine sewed directly on to my page for the first time ever! Super proud of myself..

 It was so fun and easy to layer up these beautiful papers. I love the chipboard frames that came with this collection, so great to make a focal point of your pics.

I've used quite a lot of the die cut ephemera on this page, but again, I don't think this looks cluttered or too busy at all. I included some random wood veneers around the page to anchor the frame with the rest of the elements on the page. The title again is a mixture of Thickers, some old and some new, and I love the way this ties all the colours and elements of the page in together.

And see, look at that stitching! I think I've reached level #expert! Hehe, I may just have a new addiction.

Thanks for stopping by, and I look forward to sharing with you more of my scrappy fun after camp this weekend!!

Big Loves,
Tam x

Once upon a time...

Good Morning!

Well, I don't know about you, but its been a wet couple of weeks at our house, which has meant lots of scrappy time! Today I'm going to share with you a couple of layouts featuring Echo Park's 'Once Upon a Time - 'Prince' collection.

Now, I'm not sure if you noticed, but we are a little short of Princes in our house, so I borrowed some pics from my neighbours! They are the cutest!

I got a little messy on the background, with some Gesso, and some Colourblast watercolour cube in 'Singin' the blues' (mixed with white paint to make that gorgeous pastel blue), and some navy ink. I added some texure with a Kaisercraft stamp and some Stazon ink.

From the collection, I included the striped paper on the bottom half of the page, the enamel dots, and some die cuts. I then added some thickers, and wood veneers from my stash, as well as some gorgeous flairs from Cocoa Vanilla.

For my next layout, I used the awesome tree paper from the 'Prince' collection. My kids, nieces and nephew, had just gone on an epic 10k bush walk and I thought this paper would work for those pics.

I used some gesso to quieten down a section of the page, and then used the Echo Park Noble Knight stencil with some white texture paste for added dimension. The red strip of paper is from the Echo Park 'Pinstripes' collection.

I added some die cuts from the collection, as well as some Layered Stickers and enamel dots. From my stash I added wood veneers, flairs, thickers, stickers and twine.

I love the way both these layouts turned out! Thanks for stopping by to check them out.

Big Loves,
Tam x

Autumn Babes

Hello Again to all you Shop and Croppers!

I'm back again today for my first May share, and this time I am working with the Photo Play Falling Leaves collection. There are some really strong patterns in this range, and of course it is very themed for Autumn. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot Autumn pics, so my challenge was to make it work for other occasions.

I choose this pic of my eldest daughter, as the green shirt she was wearing worked with the green stripe in one of the patterned papers. I matted the photo on some kraft cardstock, and built up my layers from there, starting with the stripes and moving toward much more neutral papers, with the beige polka dot (from Kaisercraft Take Note) and the brown leaf. I found that by choosing these neutral papers, they didn't overwhelm the page even though they are patterned.

I like to work with this central photo and paper stack design, as it give a lot of balance and symmetry to the page, and allows the embellishment clusters to be the real feature. I used quite a lot of the sticker from the collection in my clusters, as well as some wood veneer and some paper blooms .

I went in the opposite direction with my second layout, working with a white background and minimal patterned paper.

I love that this layout is playful, and fits with this photo that I took of my girls in a newly baled paddock. Again I added in some wood veneer, and relied heavily on the sticker sheet.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my layouts.

Happy Scrapping,

Tam x