A touch of Spring...

Hi again :) as you know we have been celebrating Spring with our gorgeous Shine Bright kits this week, and even though Spring has not sprung yet here in Australia I was able to go back to my uncompleted 2014 album and find a Spring story to document. 

I have used the Daily Diary kit along with a Becky Higgins G Design page protector and love that I was able to include a mix of photo sizes and different orientations on each page.

My layout documents an afternoon at one of our favorite parks by the river and even though there wasn't a flower in sight, the layout still has a nice Spring feel thanks to all the gorgeous elements from the kit. 

I used the white die-cut frame to break up the row of photos across the top of the page, and left a white margin around all the larger photos to help give the eye a place to rest before moving across the page. 

I often like to create my own custom title cards by piecing together different elements from the kit and deliberately chose cards with a small pattern for the base so they wouldn't be too distracting for the large die cut pieces that I layered over the top. A little bit of hand stitching and a scatter of sequins helped to tie all the colors in together. 

I paired more of the small floral patterned background together with some complimentary patterns from other cards in the kit to create a layered journal card. I cut around the flower portion of the white card so that I could slip the clipboard piece beneath it to help add some extra depth.

 I always try to keep the keep the focus on my photos, and a few simple stickers and embellishments were all that was needed to add a touch of Spring to each photo.

More layers and stitching helped me to dress up one of the 6x4" gold foiled filler cards from the kit. I used the same patterned paper base that I used on my other layered cards to create a nice flow across both pages. 

 Thanks for stopping by xx

Spring is Here and a Process Video

Good afternoon lovelies. Brenda Smith here, happy to be back with you to share another pocket page spread and a process video this time!

I played around with two new (to me) page protectors and came up with a spread that I like very much.

 I wanted to play around with the element of transparency so decided to use this page protector with four 2x2 pockets in the center. I knew I wanted to do confetti pockets and some sort of dimensional embellishments but I love how this turned out.

This week, the design team is being inspired by the idea of Spring and while our spring has been very hot so far (90 degrees!), I'm enjoying the blooming of flowers and the sunlight later at night. 

Spring can also mine more family time together since my husband and I have lightened loads at work so it was fun to hang out together a little more this week. 

I love all the little bits and pieces that came with the Daily Diary kit. It certainly makes layering easy when all the coordinating is done for you. 

I have a process video up for you today of making this layout. I'd love if you'd hop on over and watch and maybe subscribe if you feel so inclined. Thank you so much and be sure to show us what you are creating with your kits. I'd love to see!

Spring has sprung!

We are excited about spring finally being here at our house!

We had an unusually snowy and cold winter for here in our part of Texas and we are thrilled to finally see daffodils and tulips popping up, flowers growing on the trees and the sun shining!

We are spending more time outdoors, which my kids love.

This is just in time for our "Spring" week here at Noel Mignon.

For the layout below I used this month's Shine Bright Classic Kit. You can still find it and the Daily Diary kit in the Noel Mignon Online Store.

When I think of spring I think of the beautiful flowers that come after the drab winter.

I pulled out these older pictures of one of my girls, printed them all on a 4"x6" piece of photo paper and allowed them to be the focal point for my layout.

I like to use ribbon on my projects but often don't because of the bulk it adds to scrapbook pages.

The yellow ribbon in the kit is so pretty and delicate and even after wrapping it around my photo block it didn't add too much bulk to the layout.

I used more of the scalloped blue trim (my favorite embellishment from this kit!) as well as the kraft-colored backing to add a feminine touch to go with the flowers and doilies (white doilies from my stash). I love that the scallop trim is self-adhesive. That makes it so easy to add to any kind of project.

As is often the case with Noel's kits, you get a mix of alphas to use and I used some of each type in my title. I also used some chipboard bits and stickers for accents on the page. The little grey star stickers were a fun touch to go with the flowers. 

I have loved being part of the team here at Noel Mignon and hope that you find some kind of inspiration in my projects. 

Please come hang out with us and share your work with us at the Noel Mignon Facebook group and make sure to join us next week for the crop! 

Have a wonderful day!

Sparkle & Shine

 Good morning y'all! It's a beautiful sunny day here and I'm feeling the sparkle and shine of spring! 

I pulled out these photos from my girls' ballet recital in December, and even though they are not "springy" necessarily, I thought they went so well with the Shine Bright kit, that I combined the two! 

Have you heard?! We're hosting an online crop next week on the NoelMignon facebook group! It's going to be a BLAST! I'd love to see you there! 

Welcome Spring!

Well, we are officially in Spring, y'all! And this week on the blog, we are all going to be celebrating!

I got my new Fuse the very same day I got my Shine Bright kit, and I cannot even tell you how much I have been looking forward to use that little lady in my Daily Diary Album! This month, Michelle and I switched kits, so I got to play with the Classic Kit. And oh em gee is it seriously sweet!

 We R Memory Keeper's new tool, The Fuse, is so awesome. It literally has changed the way I work on my Daily Diary.

The secret is the glass mat. I use one from EK Success, and it really helps to make nice, crisp cuts and joins. And tape. Tape is imperative to keep that slippery little sleeve from sliding around all over the glass.

Here's the layout I made with the Shine Bright Classic kit. And I have to say, I added some of the Simple Stories "I Am" line to the mix - much of which can be found in the Daily Diary kit!

I LOVE the Thickers in the kit - the gold center just makes me giddy! And the 'Snapshot' paper from the Confetti collection is perfect for making pocket card backgrounds!

LOVE LOVE LOVE my typewriter these days! Adding journaling to my pocket cards is so much easier this way, rather than using photoshop and printing onto the card. Plus, it's fun plinking away on that ol machine. Almost as fun as watching my son run around naked with his towel turned turbin, after bathtime.

I grabbed that green "current song on a loop" card from the Love Life Daily Diary kit - I've been saving that one up! But I have to say, the rounded corners threw my whole spread for a loop. Every single other card had square edges, and my OCD brain COULD NOT have just one rounded card. COULD. NOT. I have to round at least two other cards in the spread. Am I the only one who feels that way? PS. I used my Fuse here to create two 3x4 pockets out of the 4x6 pocket. LOVE life so much more now that I have that option! I will never have to buy sleeves again!

 I got some waterfall sleeves in my shipment, so I grabbed a 4x6 sleeve, turned it into two 3x4s, and added my photos and confetti. Once the sleeve was full, I fused it to the top of the 4x6 pocket on the spread.

The Good Morning card is from a past kit, and I just couldn't bring myself to get rid of it. SO glad I had it now! Of course, the downside of using a typewriter is the lack of ctrl+z, so the Simple Stories I Am chipboard sticker came in awfully handy to cover up that little boo boo. Is it wrong how happy that sequins confetti makes me? I also used one of the enamel Bradz, backed with some paper, and a wood veneer in the pocket, too. Love the look of it!

And since I haven't been able to stay out of this kit, I thought I'd also share a layout I made this weekend with the kit.

 I love using these tradionally "non-boy" colors to scrap photos of my Reed. He's so much boy all by himself, though, it doesn't matter how much pink I use!

Gotta love a good cluster of pretties...

Phew! That was a lotta word vomit - thanks for hanging in there with me!

Don't forget, our 'Springtime in Paris' crop is coming up soon! Be sure to join us for lots of great challenges and TONS of inspiration! I think there are even a few kits left, so be sure you have yours ready!

Have a great week!

xoxo

Monthly pages with the Shine Bright Daily Diary Kit

 Hey guys! I'm here to share a couple pocket pages with the Shine Bright Daily Diary kit. I love, love, love the colors in this kit!!! And they go perfectly with the color board inspiration the DT team has been using this week. Hmmm...almost like it was planned that way or something ;)

The colors in this kit are so versatile and I can't wait to make some spring layouts with it! But first, I have a few pages that are for my 3 yr daughter's albums. I like to mix in traditional layouts with these pocket pages that give more of a 'snapshot in time'. 

When I create these pocket pages for my Project Life albums I'll make a left and right side spread. But when they're for a specific even or for my kids' albums I usually do front and back of a pocket page so that I can add traditional layouts in between those in their albums (if that makes sense!)

So for these pages I just stuck to using a few photos for February and March to highlight a few things just about Addie that I wouldn't normally make an entire layout about but are still part of her story. I think that's why I just love the idea of pocket scrapbooking so much...the little stuff doesn't get missed!

If you play with the color board inspiration this month be sure to share your creations on the Noel Mignon facebook group!

Documenting March with this week's colour palette...

Hi, I've got another project life layout to share using the Shine Bright Daily Diary kit.

My layout was inspired by this week's gorgeous color palette, and I used a mix of coral and mint with a hint of sparkly gold to document week ten.

It was a relatively quiet week and I didn't have many photos, so I made use of some of the fun filler cards from the kit to not only help me fill in some of the pockets but also to add color to my page.

I cut apart a 3x4" gold foiled card and joined it to either side of the cute globe card to create a custom title card to mark the beginning of a new month. 

I continued the striped theme with several of the filler cards and used metallic embroidery thread to add hand stitched detail to some of the images.  

Facing the dilemma of not having enough photos for the second part of the week, I decided to enlarge a photo my son took of a sunset at his favorite fishing spot. I achieved this by cropping my photo into four 6x4" sections using photo editing software, then cutting down the two bottom sections to fit inside the smaller pockets.  

I added a journal strip and embellishments directly over the photo to help create a focal point on the large photo and once again added gold stitching to highlight some of the pieces. 

See you next week xx