2Crafty Chipboard - January Share

Let me be the first to say 'HAPPY NEW YEAR'!!!! 

I cannot believe how fast last year went. My little man just turned 3 & #.2

is only weeks away from arriving (arrggg scary LOL).

This layout sort of represents last year in a way. I have met soooo

many wonderful people thru this hobby & I'm lucky enough to have made lots

of new friends.

I have SO many selfie shots just like this from retreats, I thought it was time I scrap

some of them. Of course I have used some AWESOME 2Crafty chippy!! :)

 'You & Me'

Here are some close ups...

 The Hessian Patch, I've used a variety of acrylic paints & sprays to colour it.

I've also layered lots of messy black thread under the chipboard & used

a Flutterby Designs flair button & page tab cut-out to embellish it.

The title 'You & Me', I completely covered in a few coats of gesso

& then used a black posca pen to colour in,as well as the the ampersand.

Once that dried, I used a white Uniball pen to add some faux stitching

to add extra detail. I then grabbed some glossy accents & covered the

two words.

The mini camera was done the same way. I have left the 

bits of the circular panel 'raw' & tucked in behind the other layers.

I love how much texture this layout has!! I've used the 'Words of Wisdom'
Stencil from Flutterby Designs.

Here are the chippy pieces I used to create this layout:

Mini Cameras

Title 'You & Me'

Hessian Patches

Circular Panel

 

  I hope I've inspired you to pull out some 2Crafty chippy & get messy!!

How I stay up to date with my monthly Project Life

WARNING: Long Post LOL!!!

 Ok so I've wanted to do this blog post for a while now & thought it best to do

it now, as a lot of us are starting our 2015 Project Life albums.

This is my first year of doing PL. When the PL hype it our shores,

I was completely drawn into the frenzy & brought it all LOL. It then sat on my shelves

for months!! It was really really daunting & I had no idea where to even start!?

 I had made a few mini albums of my son's baby pics, but the bulk of his photos

where just chucked into those boring 6x4 photo albums

(pretty sad effort for a scrapbooker I thought).

So I decided to undertake over-hauling that & rather than re-printing photos,

I chopped & cropped & used as many as I could. Some I did have to reprint, but

I managed to repurpose most of them.

I had brought myself a core kit, big variety box of sleeves & an album (or 3).

I began putting all my photos into the sleeves in order & left gaps for cards.

That was a LONG process, but it meant I got all my photos in the right spots.

Then came the embellishing part - I really struggled with this!!

It took a while to find MY STYLE. We all have our own style & take on craft/art,

it's what's so special & makes us different. Once I found 'my happy place' with embellishing,

it all started to work together & come naturally.

Click here to see Part 1 of Riley's Baby PL Album

Ok so I told you - LONG POST ha ha.

As a busy full-time working mum who also runs her own business from home,

I was always daunted by the task of doing Project Life weekly. There is just NO

physical way I could committ to that sort of undertaking. It wouldn't get done.

So I decided to do to it MONTHLY.

This I could committ to! I'm not a traditional Project Lifer - I like it different, busy & bulky!

I started off by getting a 12 x12 'work in progess' album from the lovely

Peta at Scrapbooking From Scratch

 This made carrying my unfinished projects to crops & such MUCH easier!

(& I didn't damage my proper album, by lugging it around everywhere)

I then chucked in a mixed variety of sleeves:

- Becky Higgins Project Life

- Ones fron Harvey Norman

- WRMK

 - & some 12 x 12 sleeves.

I didn't like the quality of the American Crafts or Kaisercraft sleeves - but that's

just my personal preference.

I then grabbed some note paper & labeled each page with a month

& drew a rough sketch of the page protector (front & back).

This made it really easy to make notes & plan what photos I wanted to put in

there, without printing 100's of photos! I could also jot down on this if I knew

I wasn't going to get a chance to tackle a spread for this month.

Like below:

 Then as I do - I start with the photos in first. I then fill in the blanks with

LOTS of different card designs.

Some of my favourite cards to use are:

- Flutterby Designs 'Everyday Etc' cards (I am a bit bias LOL)

- Sn@p cards

- Project Life cards

- Handmade ones

 Then comes the decorating!!! Sometimes this may not happen

straight away - the spread may just sit with pics/cards & little bits of paper

with notes until I get a chance to get creative.

These are what I generally ALWAYS go for when embellishing my pages:

 WOOD VENEERS

 - Flutterby Designs

- Studio Calico

- or even 2Crafty Chipboard

 FLAIR BUTTONS 

 As the owner/designer of Flutterby Designs - I always have a

gazillion flair buttons on hand to use :)

BLACK COTTON 

I love to put a messy nest of this under my flair buttons for more texture.

 

POSCA PAINT PENS 

These little babies write on just about EVERYTHING!!!

Great for doodling/journalling on photos.

PAGE TABS

 

 These are from Flutterby Designs, & they are an inexpensive embellishment that

adds detail - without the bulk. Fussy cutting relaxes me, so I will often sitting in front of

the TV with a pair of scissors & cut a heap of these out to use down the track.

 LIQUID PAPER TAPE

 

 I 'borrowed' this idea from my good friend Lauren ;)

Just put down a few stips & journal away - easy peasy!!

HOLE REINFORCERS

These little babies are cheap as chips! You can find them in the cheap

shops & they make for super quick detail with a little bit of doodling around them.

As too are shipping tags great for adding layers without the bulk.

SMALL ALPHABET STICKERS

 I definately have a 'thing' for these little babies!!!

I have an abundance of them - in every shape, font & colour LOL

Brands I love to use are:

- Simple Stories 'Sn@p'

- Jellibean Soup

- Kasiercraft

- Tim Holtz

- even ones you find at cheap shops!

THICKERS

 I love thickers just about as much as the small alpha stickers...

Great for titles!

 ENAMEL DOTS

 I LOVE LOVE LOVE these little babies!!!

I put them on EVERYTHING ha ha.

 This is what's on my desk at the moment. Trying to get the last couple of months

finished in this years PL album. I'm on the home stretch WOO HOO!!!

Here are a few completed pages from earlier this year :)

 Yes as a traditional 12 x12 scrapper I put in a few layouts throughout

my album to find my 'happy place' & balance with doing this style of scrapbooking.

I hope I have helped anyone out there struggling with finding their 'mojo'

with Project Life. Thanks for taking the time to read my long-ass post - 

hope you enjoyed some of my tips & tricks.

Hi fellow scrapbookers...

I'm back to share a layout I recently did using some AWESOME

2Crafty chippy!!

This title definately hits home at the moment - 'Happiness Starts With You'...

Here are the chippy pieces I used to create this layout:

Line Words - Happiness

Sqaure Collage Panel

I began with cutting the sqaure collage panel up into a few
different pieces first & then glued them onto my layout.
I then put a messy coat of gesso over the top, before I began colouring
my background with paint splats - so much fun!!!

Once my paint splats had dried, I put torn pieces of washi tape over my chipboard.

I then ran my layout thru my sewing machine - 

YES you can sew over your chipboard!!! P.S. just go slowly though ;)

I kept the 'Happiness' line word raw, as I wanted it to still be different &

stand out from the bright colours of the background.

I hope I've inspired you to pull out some 2Crafty chippy & get messy!!

Scrap The Boys - November Challenge

 Scrap The Boys - Nov Challenge

'SOFTER SIDE'

This month's challenge over at Scrap The Boys,

showing your boys softer side.

This is my little man meeting his little cousin

Charlotte for the first time - awwwww.

I love how this one turned out!!!

I've used Flutterby Designs - Flair button, Page tabs, Photo cut-outs.

2Crafty chipboard letters, AC Thickers, old book pages, Basic Grey paper,

TCW subway stencil, Faber Castell big brush markers, gesso, acrylic paint,

sewing machine, hole reinforcer stickers, enamle dots, thread & Posca paint pen.

Also the banner I designed for Scrap The Boys blog

was revealed also. What do you think??