"Changing Frames" bonus project

In the Changing Frames class, I used 4 of the 5 in the kit. Using the remaining frame, some leftovers, and frames white ribbon, I made an unusual card for my sister-in-law & fiancee who are getting married tomorrow. Which will be today by the time I finish uploading the photos!

I still have to fix the opening, and forgive the quality of the photos, but I had to do it tonight, as I won't have time tomorrow.

I threaded white ribbon through on of the little holes and tied a bow, so that, like a card it had one opening. On the oposite side, I threaded two pieces of ribbon, one in each side of the frame, and secured with a brad. I'll fix it later so that it will have a magnet on the inside, to keep the card closed.

The front has a 4"x4" white cardstock topped with a 3"x3" mocha paper, which I decorated with the leftover flowers and buttons from the kit.



The insides have photos of the happy couple, here's the right hand side. Central heart added in PSE.



The back has only their names and the date.

Last weekend...

... was very productive. I took two classes = 2 layouts and also managed to make some of my own. Some still need finishing touches but here's two that are completed.

Annamarie's class was fabulous, I really enjoyed it, even if I managed to prick my fingers while stitching :-) You can see the original here.



(I blurred some bits & pieces).

I've been meaning to do a layout of my daughter and her fashion style for a while.I was really pleased with the photo & I challenged myself to use some of clothes tags I keep on saving, plus some I got in kits. This is because I never use tags in layouts, not my kinda thing. While I like the bright colours of this layout,something is wanting, don't know what's wrong.



The flip flop thingie is something that I picked up in a shop in Brazil, the quote says "I see colours in you" which is perfect for my daughter as she is loves to combine colours in her clothing, which should clash but works beautifully with her colouring. Well, at least the biased mother thinks so.

Back from Crafteire

I had an absolutely brilliant time in Crafteire. The event started Friday evening and went until Sunday. I missed the traditional dinner in the Friday evening, as it was my daughter's birthday, but managed to arrive at 9am on Monday.

I attended classes by Annamarie and Eva (fab classes!), made one "make&take", and also managed to work on some of my own projects. I also taught two classes and enjoyed them enormously. Everybody was very nice and pacient with the unexperienced teacher. Thank you Kate and Mireille for the pacience and support.

This was the "About you class":



It is a double page, when you open it you get:



The frame open again to reveal hidden journaling.

This is the "Changing Frames" class, apologies for the bad photos.

These are acrylic frames (clear in the front and back), which hung one under the other connected by wire cables. For practicality I took a photo of them before connecting them together.

One side has photos of my family. It was meant to be titled "We look out for each other", hence everybody looking up or down.



This is the reverse side, with photos taken in Dollymount beach.



There is still one acrylic frame left, so watch this space, I might have a bonus project :-)

I'll post photos from the classes asap. One is finished but I have to print photos for the other one.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope you had a great Valentine's Day!

I know it is a no-no for most scrappers and cardmakers I know, but I buy my cards, even the birthday ones for my family. So yesterday I was entering the cardshop with the intent to buy one for my husband, each of my two children when I remembered that:

I had card blanks.
I had a big pile of patterned paper.
I had a big pile of left over patterned paper.
I had just received a Studio Calico kit containing 164 Valentine inspired stickers.

So I turned back with the full intention of making the cards myself as soon as I got home. I only made them this morning, and they won't win any prizes, but I managed to used some of my left overs plus 21 stickers of the 164! (I used some in the inside of the card, plus the alpha ones to spell their names in the envelopes).

Latest PaperPlay

I have the confess I am loving the PaperPlay Challenges. I didn't think I was a challenge kind of girl, but turns up I am really enjoying it.

Last week's one was set by me (pink and/or red plus a monogram). Sometime ago I read a book called No Time For Goodbye by Linwood Barclay, and there was something in the book that I would want to say to my daughter after we had a fight. Or it would be if she was a little bit older. So I copied it in this layout called "A {borrowed} letter to my daughter". I printed my letter behind the book.



This week's was set by Jackie (B&W, optionally little bits of another colour).

My entry was inspired by Ann, who was making some flowers in Lainey's crop. She had a printed copy of a tutorial (don't remember where she got it from). I decided to copy her flowers and make some other ones and put in a jar like the ones Prima flowers used to come. I used a small orange juice bottle, made my own labels,calling them "Elima" (Elisa+Prima). Fun project, I'll use the flowers in a LO sometime.

Scraplifting a little snow

Every day I open a scrapooking magazine, or go to my favourite scrapbooking galleries, or log into google reader, I see absolutely fabulous layouts and often I am inspired to copy a colour combination, or the way the someone used ribbons, or the funk way someone else wrote the title.

But I had never scralifted a layout. Don't know exactly why. Sometimes I felt like it, but the layout didn't suit my photos, or else I completely forgout about it.

But there is also a first time. Then I saw a gorgeous layout in the Studio Calico gallery, and I knew I wanted it. Since I couldn't go and steal it (joking), I had to copy it. One of the things I like about scrapbooking is that when I get it right, I get a high & I felt I wouldn't feel the same if I scraplifted. But this one makes me happy, I love it, even if the creativity is not mine.

Actually, I better stop looking at Séverine's blog, because I would be tempted to scraplift all her layouts. And do nothing else.

This is Séverine's original LO, and below my scraplift.



This is my son's first experience with snow (well, he saw snow before, but he was only a baby then). There was only a little bit of snow, it didn't settle, but nothing beats the joy of the "first time". We had much more some days after, and I brought him to play in a park and he had a ball. But it wasn't the first time anymore - I am glad I caught this special moment. I have similar photos of my daughter's first time from some years go, in the same driveway, must scrap it too.

PaperPlay and Photoshop Elements

After all these years of playing with PSE and PSP, I am still a beginner regarding fixing photographs. Things like resizing, brightening up a photo or removing a small intrusive object are easy, but more sophisticated tricks, like burning and dodging or getting rid of the background are very hard to do without leaving tell tale marks.

But what is much easier is to play with a photo, like adding "wallpaper" and wings, and suddenly a ready-for-the-bin photo got a little magic and I was happy enough to frame and display it at home. Done for PaperPlay Challenge 09 week 3.

The before photo:



The after photo:



The framed photo:

Crafteire sneaks: Frames

Here's some sneaks for the Crafteire "Frames" class. When I got the parcel full of the Making Memories rouge/mocha & greenhouse/poolside kit, I went Oh ah wow, everything in it was so gorgeous.

I made two projects with the kit, the first one uses the rouge/mocha elements, it is a rich, floral frame set, which I called "Family" as I used photos of my family, but it would be suitable for many other purposes.




The second one used the greenhouse/poolside elements. The colours of some of the buttons reminded me of seashells and beachcombing so I called this set "Seaside". It would be great also for any outdoor activity, nature walking, playing in the pool, and maybe even a trip to the playground.

I couldn't resist using some flowers, but you don't have to use them if you want a more masculine look.






This is going to be a busy class as we will be making eight 6"x6" layouts!