Today's Narrative

Hello!! Melissa here again to share another project with you all today! 

I'm really loving getting to play with these pretty supplies from the August Kits. Using just a few pieces of ephemera from the August Photobooth PL Kit and stamps from the This is Life Narrative stamp and stamps from the The Good, The Bad, The Ugly I put together this layout in my trusty Travelers Notebook. 

I knew I wanted to use the "this photo says it all" stamp from the The Good, The Bad, The Ugly stamp set, so I went ahead and stamped it up on the top left. The photo is of two of my beach babes playing with one of their friends at the beach in a 'spa' they dug in the sand complete with seats and a tunnel for water to fill their spa. I stapled the 'today' chipboard piece with my tiny attacher to the photo and adhered it to my page. Then I created my own journaling card here using the "today's narrative" and "written by:" stamps from the This is Life Narrative stamp. I created this journaling card by simply stamping the sentiments on a 4"x4" piece of printer paper. I then typed my journaling with my typewriter, and adhered that onto the page. Lastly, I added a bit of washi tape to the top of the journaling card.

For the right side of my layout I used one of my favorite go to methods which is a full size 4"x8" photo. This photo is of my view....my beach babes were digging for sand crabs with the pier in the background. This side came together so quickly. I first stamped the "absolute perfection" stamp from the The Good, The Bad, The Ugly stamp set, to my photo. I attached the "this doesn't happen every day" chipboard piece to my photo with my tiny attacher. Again, I finished off this layout with a slim piece of washi tape (the same print from the left side) under the chipboard set. 

Thank you for following along. Happy Crafting.

Tutorial: Mixed Media Background

Hi everyone, Gina here to share with you a step-by-step for creating a mixed media background. This is a favourite process to use when creating my layouts. You can also use this technique on white card stock or patterned papers but I love the chalky contrast of the white gesso against kraft card stock

To start, I've chosen a small b+w photo and a few possible embellishments and ephemera pieces from the gorgeous Photo Booth main kit

Lightly pencil in the position for your photo and, using a flexible plastic card or palette knife, scrape thin layers of gesso onto the card stock, working in different directions. I prefer do multiple thin layers and add in a few thicker patches, cutting lines into them, with the edge of the card or knife to add lines for texture

Once the gesso is dry (usually only takes about 5 minutes) start adding some colour with distress stains or a similar product. I've used 3 colours here; a gold and two different pinks and I usually blend them around with my fingers a bit

Applying the stain slightly outside the gesso  will result in a more intense colour directly on the card stock. Wipe off excess stain with paper towel, or if you prefer the colour brighter leave as is

I also added some random white splotches with a paint pen

Add a few watercolour splatters in a contrasting colour

Frame the  photo with a piece of patterned paper and tag. A torn edge to the paper is an easy way to add contrast and texture.

Position embellishments, ephemera and title roughly where you want them. I've add some cotton thread under the button and star



Now it's time to stick everything down. I changed the journal tag to a different colour and stamped a phrase onto it

A good quality black felt tip pen is an easy way to add some 'controlled' splatters to your page

Here is the final result (with a couple of graphite scribbles and more stamping under the b+w flowers)

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you're now tempted to have play around with backgrounds sometime using this technique. It's a fun way to customise colours to compliment your papers and embellishments and I can guarantee that every page will be unique! x

Gina

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Traveler's Notebook - Scotie the rescue dog

Hello hello! Zinnia here today back with another traveler's notebook layout to share with you. 

This is the full layout that I have created. 

Isn't this dog lovely, my neighbour rescued him and send us some photos of him. So I've decided to print out his photo and make a spread of him in my daily journal.

Let me show you some close-up shot...

So i uses CTK August pocket life kit to create this. Supplies that I used were the journal cards, chipboard stickers, stamps and a little of journaling. These are all in the CTK August PL Kit.

 I choose the 4 x 6" journaling cards as the base as the word "loyal" matches with Scotie! 

How do you like this layout? Comment below and let me know your thoughts! 

Thanks for dropping by,

xoxo,

Zinnia <3

Sunday Sketch with Andrea

Hello there everyone! It's Andrea here today with you, to share a cool layout using the Sunday Sketch and the August Citrus Twist main kit. I really enjoyed using this sketch! I think it works well with both the story I wanted to tell and also the goodies in the kit. I think the layout turned out really cute!

Here is the Sketch for Today:

And here is my layout:

As you can see, the layout is about me and my husband and the magic of our love and being together. The pic is from a Disney trip we went on a couple months ago (I like to go there as often as I can), and it is definitely a magical place. However, everyday with my husband is magical because of our love. This is what I really wanted the layout to be about. I've been having an extra hard time lately with my health, so I wanted a little reminder of all the magic in my life...and the person that makes life beautiful and bright even when times are hard – my sweet, prince charming of a husband!

I didn't do a lot of journaling on the page...I plan on adding in more writing later (seperately, on another page across from it in my scrap album, so I can do a lot of writing without worrying about how to fit it all in on the page). I did add some words and things that I thought would help get my story across though. I wrote things like “Ryan and Andrea” and “every moment with you is magic” on my layout. I also included stickers from the kit that say things like “you and me” and “always and forever” on it. Those plus the “magical moments” paperclip and the huge “I love you” gold script title, both from the new Maggie Holmes line, really help tell my story.

As you can see, I followed the sketch pretty closely, but not exactly for this layout. I used one photo as opposed to two in my layout, like the sketch prescribes...but I managed to get the same sort of multi-photo look by using a couple of the polaroid pieces from the cut-apart sheet from Crate Paper. These polaroids really add a lot to the look of the page I think. The carousel horse one especially helps with the “magical” feel of the page and goes along with the theme of my story.

I hope you enjoyed today's Sunday Sketch and layout! Have a wonderful rest of your weekend everyone! Hope I have inspired you a little...to create something about the magic in your life!

Xoxoxoxo – Andrea

3 to Inspire with Melissa

Hello everyone! Melissa here with your next 3 to Inspire challenge.

Are you ready?!

 

Here are the three prompts:

1. Use a photo strip or collage.

2. Use a frame to frame at least one of your pictures.

3. Use as many stamps you can. 

Here is my take on the challenge:

This layout in my travelers notebook was created with August's Photobooth PL Kit. After deciding on my pictures, I pull all my supplies (journaling cards, ephemera, stamps, etc.)  I think I may want to use. The ephemera pack had so many pieces that were perfect for my photos. They also allowed me to use a bit of color, which on most of my layouts, color only comes from the photos I use. So that was fun!  

In order to avoid chunky notebooks I don't layer much, especially with paper. In order to "ground" my photo strip on this layout I used a black fine tip pen to draw a border around the entire photo strip. I really like how it turned out. 

Next I picked my ephemera. I really love how the frame I used to frame the picture of my three kiddos has the same colors as the Kodiak Photos tag I used on the left hand side. It pulls the colors to both sides of the layout. I stapled a label tag with my tiny attacher behind that label just to add a tiny bit more color and detail. 

Last I grabbed the awesome Narrative, Entertainment, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly (all some of my new favorite stamp sets) and a few other Citrus Twist stamps, I had in my stash and just grabbed every stamp that I thought went with the theme of my layout and just started stamping away. This tag/label from the Narrative stamp set might be my favorite individual stamp. So good and I know I'll use it often. 

I hope you are inspired by this challenge and I can't see what you all create. 

PL Challenge with Célina

Hello Girls,

I hope you have a great summer and that you cand find time for yourself and enjoy your loved ones.

I have just returned from a week on vacation in my family with lots of photos and scrap inspiration :

perfect for Pocket Life !!!

I propose to you today a new challenge with the amazing August kit PL :

Love these exclusive chipboards !!!

And these die-cuts :) 

... with pieces of cork !

The challenge is :

- to use a PL page with a big card 

- document your daily life with the journaling

For my big card, I used a Citrus PL card for the august kit, and a wood from an old kit.

And to match the colors of cards on the other side of my page I cut a piece of paper the size of the card in the paper pad of the month. And I added the beautiful circle cork.

And another page where I wanted to focus on the journaling, Citrus Cards are perfect to it :

Have a creative August :)

 See you ! 

Célina