Spring Cleaning!

The Spring Fling Crop on our FB page has been so much fun this week- and full of lots of great inspiration! Make sure to stop by (and you still have the weekend to participate in all the wonderful challenges). 

Friday's Challenge is - Do a little Spring Cleaning! 

I don't know about you, but every month I 

save things from my kits that I want 

"to use later." 

And then I forget about them! 

Today's challenge is about digging up those 

old treasures and putting them to use.

Use 

items from at least THREE old NM kits! 

(If you don't have any old NM kits, then three older 

items). I can't wait to see yours!

This layout uses items from at least 5 different kits, and probably a few more! :) It feels good to use up some of those things in my stash!

Somewhere Over the...

Rainbow!  That's my Spring Crop Challenge for you!  You don't have to follow the exact order of the rainbow.  

I love rainbows!  Last year for our daughter's birthday, she wanted a rainbow theme...so I made lots of rainbow things.  Here's a few:

Party Goody bags

She was afraid of the smoke from blowing out the candles, so I made a fake candle.

And here is what I came up with for the crop.  

I had the idea to use the Studio Calico mask in Daffodil Hill and spray rows of each color for a rainbow.  It takes a little longer, because you want to mask off the "other" rows while spraying one row.  I always use a box and scraps of papers to help with this.

Pick out your favorite mists for the rainbow.  I loved this orange, but it was too dark, so I added a few drops to the little mister along with a few white mist drops and some water to make my own soften the color.

 I didn't want to waste all that wet mist on the mask, so I stamped with it on the cardstock as well.

 The top row is where I misted and masked, and the bottom left is the stamped image.

After this dried, I sent it through the Silhouette and cut out a several different shapes and sizes of arrows.  I wasn't sure how I wanted them to look on the layout, so I went through more of my stencils and used this large sun ray mask by Julie Balzer, then I knew I would have the photo in the center, with the arrows pointing in.

I couldn't help but use this St. Patrick's Day celebration photo of us at the parade since the theme was rainbows.  So I had to add some gold to it as well with the gold polka dot vellum, gold to the number 3 and POW (glittery American Crafts paper) cut with the Silhouette.  Can you see the masked and misted rainbow chevrons under the photo?  I didn't want to waste any of the masked and misted papers, so I used some under the photo.

I was really having fun with this so far and wanted to do something I haven't done in a long time, add a little doodling to each arrow and some of the other masked and inked shapes.  Added some messy stitching

And one more project.  I still had that stamped image from the left over ink.  I couldn't waste it, so I made a card from it.

Both the card and the layout uses bits from the Daffodil kit, but I brought it more "rainbow" elements and colors with my own supplies.

 I love how the stamped image looks, and it made a quick and easy card.

So how will you use rainbows in your project?  I'll have an album set up in our Facebook group named "Somewhere Over the *Rainbow* Challenge" for you to add your challenge projects to it!  Can't wait to see what you make!

We Live Outside the Touch of Time

And we're back, Day 3 of our Spring Fling Crop here at Noel Mignon!!!  One of my favorite things about spring is the beauty of those gorgeous flowers blooming :)  Today's challenge is to create your
own handmade flowers to add to your layout.  Use your punches, die-cutting machines, stamps, and/or scissors to create flowers from paper, fabric, felt, vellum, acrylic, etc.  The sky's the limit with this challenge - feel free to make your flowers as simple or elaborate as you like!!



For my handmade flowers, I chose to punch a mix of patterned paper and vellum.  Here I layered up a vellum scalloped circle, a stitched patterned paper circle, and two mini punched doilies.  In the center I placed a brad.  I really love the softness the vellum added :)



Here are a few more smaller flowers I created that I chose to scatter about the circle frame.  These simple flowers are merely a punched patterned paper and vellum flower overlapped.  I alternated these with some hand-cut feathers from one of the Jenni Bowlin journaling cards in the kit.



I LOVE this quote about siblings & thought it perfect for this pic of my siblings & I.



You may think the design of this layout looked familiar . . . if so, that is because it is based off our sketch challenge for this month!!!



While the sketch challenge is not part of the Spring Fling Crop, you are welcome to use the sketch for my handmade flower challenge and upload it to both challenge albums on Facebook.   Yay!!  If you complete this challenge you have two chances to win!!!  If you need a little "Handmade Flower Inspiration", pop over to the Pinterest Board I created.  I pinned a number of tutorials on the web that might help you get into the flower groove :)  I have created a Handmade Flower Challenge album on Facebook for you to load your handmade flower layouts.  Can't wait to see what you come up with!!!

Morning cup of Joe

Hi everyone, welcome to day two of our Spring Fling crop! I have a two layouts to share today. Both use fun techniques for using up your scraps!

My first layout is my final one using the March kit, Daffodil Hill! When I sat down to make the layout I knew I wanted to use the mask included in the kit and the "Notes from Today" die cut cards.

I used the mask to create a background for my paper and photo and built everything around it. The gray mist included in the kit has become a favorite for me. It is a little warm in tone...the perfect gray!

A fun little tip for using scraps is to cut them into small strips and place them around the outside of the layout to create a border. For additional dimension and interest, I stitched over my scrap border.

I had a coffee stain stamp in my stash that I knew would be perfect for my theme and I stamped that in gray peeking out from behind my focal point.

I used a couple things from my stash for the finishing touches; flair from {a flair for buttons}, wood grain washi tape, and various stamps to coordinate with my theme and for my title.

This next layout I created for my challenge for the Spring Fling crop! Last year when the ombre trend was all the rage I wanted to try the technique on a layout but never did so I thought this was the perfect time!

Ombre is a graduation of the same color from light to dark. Like this...

{Image Source}

My challenge to you is to pick one of the pretty spring pastel colors from this inspiration piece and use it to create an ombre element in your layout.

{Image Source}

Here is my layout.

I used the light pink and graduated the color down to dark pink. When I embellished my layout, I used embellishments in the same shade of the paper where it was being placed. Most of the papers came from Noel Mignon past kits...a great way to use scraps. The xoxo heart was cut using my Cameo and the flair is from {a flair for buttons}.

I've created an Ombre Challenge album on FB for you to load your ombre challenge layouts! I can't wait to see what you create!

What Is Your Perfect Day?

hi everyone! happy Monday!

Welcome to the first day of the Noel Mignon Spring Fling!
ALL this week the DT has big plans to challenge you - to create & have fun!

Every day there will be a specific challenge for you to enter on our brand new
Noel Mignon Facebook Page. There's prizes too! One is a chance to be our
Guest Designer! How fun is THAT!!

I'm starting the week off with my challenge. It's a journal prompt:
"I know it's Spring when....."

Here's my layout:

Journaling is very important to me. I feel like my photo's tell LOTS of stories,
but writing it down on my project - really makes it come to life.
There's so many different ways to journal. You can type it, use letter stickers,
or like me - hand write it. I always hear "I don't journal because I hate my handwriting."
Well...stop that! Even if you do feel that way - it's ok, but you should challenge yourself
to at least pen the date in your writing. If you do it just once, I bet you're hooked!

My journaling reads:
I live for happy moments.
Spring. To me, it's God sharing new life with all of us.
New blooms, new growth, new life.
I love sitting in my backyard enveloping it all. (it should say enveloping myself in it all)

See?
it's just a little journaling - but it gets the point across because to me - the pictures
say "Hello Spring!"

Here's a couple of close up shots:

Now go challenge yourself, use this journling prompt:
"I know it's Spring when..." any way you want
and link your project back up to our Facebook page - in this album: 
Monday's Challenge: Journaling Prompt
(click on the album, submit your photo)

and have fun creating!


-my project was created using the March "Daffodil Hill" kit.
-the "what is your perfect day" is from my stash. I bought a TON of postcards
a few years ago with the BEST sayings on them & have held on to my last few.
This is one. I had to use it for my page. It's also part of my journaling (just an idea
to see how to use journaling in many different ways!)

Happy Spring!
~Leslie

#1

I've been playing a lot with sequins and vellum lately... So I was curious to see if I could make them work on a boy layout. These are my results! I think it works? Obviously there are my own feminine touches but I don't think it's over the top girly.

What's the last scrappy thing you experimented with?

Chevron Fun

Hey, Everyone!  I still love chevrons.  I am not tired of them yet because they come in so many colors and sizes.  I love that chevron mask in the Daffodil kit.  I have had a lot of fun using it with the mist, and just recently tried it with modeling paste.  On this layout, I used Distress Ink and the blending tool.  I sometimes like this look because it gives it a soft, almost airbrushed look.

 I had no idea where the layout was going, but I picked out little bits and pieces that were my favorites.  After doing the masking and inking, I fussy cut the Webster's Pages chevron paper, laid those done, and then the photo.  Everything else started filling in, and coming together.  I used the mist to add some splatters.  

I stitched the wire house and the arrow...lots of texture.  So for some softness, I added the bow, since this was a picture of my sweet girl.

Hope you've had fun with that chevron mask.  I get stuck sometimes using them the same way, so it's nice to try a technique you haven't used in awhile or a new one.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!  Thanks for stopping by.  And don't forget our Spring Fling crop starts next week!

Be You . . .

As you may know, I am a sucker for some good quotes, in fact I have a whole Pinterest board dedicated to them :) I loved this picture of my son, arms stretched out, so full of joy and silliness.  I grabbed my Daffodil Hill kit & my pic and got to work . . .



I thought the building patterned paper was super cute & decided to fussy cut a border strip of it.  Since the quote mentions "the world"  - I thought it would be a bit symbolic :)  I decided to jazz up the border strip a bit by adding some of the grey pearls from the kit in a few of the windows.



There were some great flowers in the patterned papers that were perfect for fussy cutting!!



To create the journaling cards, I simply cut off the bottom of cards found on one of the Jenni Bowlin patterned papers & then rounded the corners.






Thanks so much for letting me share!!  Have a fab Wednesday :)