LIFE CRAFTED INSPIRATION with Nathalie

 

Hi there! 

Nathalie here to share a bit of  inspiration with you all this Friday.  I am loving working on my December 2021 album - my choice was a Sunshine 6x8 Life Crafted album- with a combination of past and present kits and collections, however today I wanted to focus on some of the exclusive stamps and how they can easily help you document your stories with style.

Well, around here there is  a lot of food shared and consumed during the course of December.  So, I pulled a few photos for this pocket page 6x8 Life Crafted Spread.

For the pocket page, I am using two digital journal cards from the Merry & Bright Digital Journaling Card collection.   There is  a lot of red accents on the photo, so I pulled cards that will balance them.   I am  using embellishments from the Merry Making add-on kit and Jingle All The Way kit to add a small pop to each of the photos.

I used a past 2x3 stamp set to add small sentiments to each of the pictures.  There is so much going on the page, that it was best to just stamp (with archival ink) directly on the pictures.

I had a large photo to complete this spread, however due to all the colors and shapes in the spread, my choice was to conceal it under a layer of vellum.   I simply cut my vellum to the same height as the photo , but 1" wider than the photo.  This extra inch folds behind the photo to create the cover flap.

I am using the Merry & Bright 6x8 Stamp Set, and Food Love 6x8 Stamp Set to create the vellum cover for this spread.  First, I used both stamps repetitively throughout the page.   I used embossing ink and white embossing powder to add the texture and subtle image to the vellum.   To create the title of the page, I used the same stamps just on the center of the page, and added a touch of shine with gold embossing powder.  I used foil transfer gel to color one of the chipboard numbers from the Jingle All The Way kit, then added a bit of gold foil to complete the title page.

 I used the Food Love 6x8 Stamp set and the black puffy alphas from the Jingle All The Way kit to add a subtitle to the bottom of the large photo.  The vellum flap covers the photo, but its translucency makes it possible to still see the photo behind the flap.

Here  is a look at what the complete layout, there is  a lot of color on the page. So, focusing on a color helps to bring it all together, and the vellum helps to give a bit of a rest to the viewer's eye.

I hope this inspires you to pull your CTK stamps to help you document your next story!

XO

LIFE CRAFTED INSPIRATION with NATHALIE

 

Hi there!

Nathalie with you to share some inspiration for your next Life Crafted Layout.   With our busy lives, there is always less and less time to sit down and document all those memories.  Well, here is where  the Life Crafted system is probably one of the best ways to get your stories documented quickly and with style.

For this page, I wanted to focus on a large bold title to tell the story of the photo.  So, I used the Spencer Solid Alpha to stamp the large word in one of the 4x8 manila tags.  

In addition, I am using the This Is Life Legends Stamp set to complete the title work, and also to create embellishments for the spread.  I paired the large title with a few extra embellishments from the Flea Market's Findings Kit.

I love having digital papers to work with, that means I can print them as I need them. This time, I am using a digital paper from the Fresh Starts digital collection, and paired it with one of the 6x8 papers from the Fresh Starts kit.  I pulled ephemera from a few collections to help me frame the photo.

I hope this inspires you to document your next story in your Life Crafted album... Remember to share with us your finished projects

XO

MERRY & BRIGHT with Our Guest Designer LAURA ALBERTS

 

Hey friends, Laura Alberts here with the stunning Merry & Bright Christmas 2021 kit to document this iconic photo of my mother playing an Atari system in the early 1980s. It’s fascinating to see my mom as a young adult just as excited by a new video game system as my brother and I were when we were teens. Love this little peek into her life before we came along! 

 

 

I wanted to create a one-of-a-kind background for this special photo, so I pulled in both the True Life V2 and Merry & Bright stamp sets to puzzle together a backdrop on my white card stock using three colors of ink. I intentionally chose black ink for the larger stamps to make them stand out as a title underneath of my photo. This background was a lot of fun to create! 

 

 

 

I matted my photo with a piece of patterned paper from the Crate Paper Busy Sidewalks paper pad and then with a piece of vellum. This softens the transition from my photo to the busy background. Then, I fussy cut from another Busy Sidewalks paper two large poinsettia flowers to add to the top left and bottom right of my photo, as well as several smaller florals to mix in with the stamping. A few ephemera hearts, puffy gold hearts, and glitter enamel dots sprinkled in open spots finished it off beautifully! 

 

 

Nuvo drops and gold ink spray splashed around the clusters gave the layout a beautifully whimsical feel and filled in white space. However, the journaling may be my favorite part as it really captures my feelings while looking at this photo. Often just a few lines with the person, place, and date is all that’s needed, but sometimes a little comment on how the photo makes you feel really adds valuable insight to the page. 

 

 

 

I can’t wait to see how you use the Merry & Bright Christmas kit in your holiday documenting! I hope you find inspiration for using a variety stamps on your page too.  

 

Always,