Custom cards for your pocket pages...

Hi again, Agnus here with another share from my project life album using a beautiful mix of goodies from the Hello Darling Daily Diary kit.

 This week we have all been sharing a few of our favorite techniques and one of my favorite things to do with my daily diary kits is to cut them up!! Yes that's right, I like to cut up my cards and piece them back together into new custom designs. 

The first thing I do is sort through the cards and papers and chose a few base pieces to build upon. Keeping the base card whole makes putting the pieces together much easier, and when working with a themed page -  in this case Easter, I like my cards to have a common element to help them all tie in together. I decided to use the wood grain pattern featured on a few of the cards to achieve this. 

Once I had my base cards selected it was just a matter of finding coordinating cards with patterns or text to suit the type of card I wanted to create. I then began cutting the cards into simple strips and shapes to layer over each base card.

Next, I headed to my selection of smaller cards, tags and stickers and began building up the layers. 

My title card started with a wood grain base, then working from the outside in I added strips of patterned cards and layered a full 3x4'' card to the center. Once my layers were attached I then went ahead and added a few embellishments to create a focal point. 

Hand stitching has always been one of my go to techniques for adding a finishing touch to my projects, and I love the detail that metallic thread adds to my cards. 

By cutting only what I needed for each card, I was left with plenty of scrap pieces such a the triangle below, which made a great accent of coordinating pattern to add to the card as well as a few of my photos. 

Your layers do not need to be complicated to be effective, and I've found that simple geometric shapes seem to work best with my style of scrapping and that adding contrasting shapes is a great way to add more interest to the overall design.  

I hope you found this technique inspiring, and maybe you will be tempted to created some custom pieces for your next project.

Machine Stitching with Hello Darling

Hi guys! This week, the design team is sharing with you their favorite techniques and probably my absolute favorite would be adding stitching using my sewing machine. I like to finish almost every layout and pocket page spread with at least a little bit of stitching. Another favorite technique of mine lately (if you can call it that), is process videos so scroll down all the way to the end to watch my process of making this spread.

I used the Hello Darling Daily Diary kit to make this spread for the beginning of April. All of my cards came from two 12x12 cut-apart sheets, one from Websters Pages and one from Elle's Studio. Even though the cards are from two completely different lines, I'd say they work quite well together.

I wanted to keep this layout simple yet visually engaging. The cards I chose didn't have a lot of natural space for journaling so I simply used some labels from the kit and from my stash to add a few typewritten words (using a typewriter is another favorite technique of mine!).

I usually just use white thread for stitching so it's not completely obvious but gives the pages a little texture. I vary between zigzag and straight stitching.

Often times I sew through flat layers like my labels or just on the card itself. But don't be afraid to try to sew through things like the Thickers from the Hello Darling Classic kit. I use a denim-grade needle so I can sew through chipboard and multiple layers of paper and it's been quite a while since I've had a needle break on me.

It is often the case that I'm not a fan of my project until after I add the stitching. It doesn't seem like much but sometimes it's enough to change my entire mood about my project. To me, stitching just makes it seem a little more finished.

If you'd like to watch a quick process video (10 minutes) on how I went about creating this spread, you can go here or click below.

I Love You

Good afternoon! Sorry for being tardy to the party but my oldest ended up being in the spelling bee this morning so it's been hectic around here! I finally got home and all the littles settled so I could upload my photos and such for this weeks post! I am really enjoying being part of the team this month and I just wanted to say thank you all so much for allowing me into your world for the month!
I have to say, this weeks is my FAVORITE! I love techniques....I love tried and true and I love trying new things! I will say this was a challenge to document each step for me, I do them without thinking almost every single layout!  I actually have 3 "go to's" that I use:

This first one is distressing.  I love to have rough, uneven edges! That pink Heidi Swapp distresser I got from Noel and you can find them here. It's very easy, all you do is take your paper and run your distresser along the edges until you get it the way you want it!

Next up is ink splatters! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE some ink!!!! Don't you? I mean who doesn't love a "splash" of color???? If you can't tell Heidi Swapp is one of my favorite manufacturers!!!! I used these colors except that turquoise I ended up changing out for a mint green.  What I do is just shake it up, unscrew the lid and just tap it with my finger.....

And VIOLA! This is what you get! So you can create your own background paper if you want! I usually don't do it this much but I just kept going with it and loved it! I mean it reminded me of my bedreoom in like 1990 when I "splatter" painted my walls! 

Next thing I do is doodle! I mean, to me my pages are just naked without some doodling. I'm not really sure where I picked it up at or where I saw it. I mainly just draw lines around the edges of my paper and leave this time I added in some "squiggles" not even sure if that's a word! These are my 2 go to pens, the white is a jelly roll pen and the black is one from walmart! Noel has some FABULOUS pens too I just haven't had a chance to use them! I had these in my stash. 

There's the complete layout! I learned something today about my pictures....I really need to start editing them! I mean, I'm usually the only one who sees them so it doesn't matter but right now all of you see them! EEK! I did not put a title because I used a tag from the Love daily diary kit. This is another layout I used bits and pieces from several kits! 

Aaaaaandddd layers....who doesn't love layers? I do! I adore thick, chunky pages with tons of embellishments and such! 

I hope you guys have enjoyed my post this week! So try a technique and join us! Pick out your favorite or try something new!!! 

My Dog Ate My Homework...

I swear!

Well, no. But I DID have a little accident involving my original page I had planned to post today.

SO my bootay was up bright and early to make you this little page to share a couple of my favorite techniques. Because that's what we're doing here this week - TECHNIQUES! Love these posts!

So here's the page I made at the butt crack of dawn - lol! 

I love using up all my scraps - almost nothing as satisfying for me, where scrapping is concerned. So I grabbed a bunch of leftovers from the Hello Darling and Shine Bright kits, and some of the cute stickers and cut-aparts and just went for it.

I started in the bottom corner, and just applied a little glue runner to the center of each piece of paper to stick them down. Be sure not to get too gluey when you do this, because your sewing machine will revolt! Fill the whole page with scraps of paper, stickers that fit just right, and any ol thing you just love. And don't be afraid to leave a blank spot here or there, if you have a plan for something that might go there later.

 I didn't stitch around every edge, but most of them, and made little leaps with my machine so that I had fewer starts and stops to deal with.

Here's a peek of what I did with one of my pieces - put just enough glue to hold it in place, stitched just one side, and lifted it back up to hide some secret journaling, backed with a few stamps of that Wild Honey Distress Ink Noel included in the kit. And you can see how I added a strip of chipboard in my open space, with a line of dots above it, created by the stamp from the kit. Don't be afraid to ink just part of the stamp to make it fit the area you have to work with.

And of course I couldn't help but add some layers to the page. Love those Thickers, and the Craft Market stickers are my new faves!!

Be sure to check in all week for more techniqes from the rest of the team!

Falling Confetti - Hello Darling Kit

Scrapbooking is a trial and error game with me many times... it's a place to try things out, test if they work. A lot of times that means discovering new things that I love! 

Not so with this layout. I loved  this picture of the falling confetti over my daughter, so I thought- "Hey! I'll add falling confetti on my page, too!" 

Y'all. Not so good. It was not cute. So- I pulled it off and just went from there. 

Instead, I added glitter to the insides of the mason jars. Oh my. LOVE it. 

Don't they just make you happy? They do to me! 

Happy Saturday! Have you checked out the latest subscription spots? They are filling up! 

Using sketches

Using sketches is a great way to create great layouts without spending a lot of time on the design aspect of a page. We all have moments of scrapper's block where, despite having the desire to create, we just can't come up with anything. And then other times, we spot a sketch and instantly know what photo(s) would look great with it. 

That's what happened with this sketch. One of our fellow Noel Mignon members shared this sketch on the group page and I thought instantly that would work great with my Easter photos. For holidays I usually like to create one "focal point" type of layout and then I'll create a pocket page style layout to share all of the other photos.  

In the  past I would've created a 2 page traditional spread with a bunch of smaller photos but the whole pocket page style of scrapbooking has totally changed up how I do things...and has made it much easier!

I used the Hello Darling classic kit for this page (and I will most likely use this kit for my pocket pages as well). This kit is packed with so many bits and pieces that it makes it so easy to embellish your pages!

I stuck pretty closely to the sketch. By the way, if you don't have a die cutting machine to make that scalloped edge you can easily create the same effect with a circle punch :)

Hello Darling...

Hi again, I'm back with another project life layout using the gorgeous Hello Darling Daily Diary kit.

You might have noticed that we have all been using an 'April showers bring May flowers' theme for our layouts this week and maybe you have used this theme for your layouts too?

I used drops of gold spray mist for my 'April showers' and love the way it added a subtle sparkle to my cards. I layered several elements from the kit over one of the papers before dipping a paintbrush into the spray mist and lightly flicking it onto my card. I accented a fabric flower with the wood veneer leaves and added a few of the cute nail head flowers for extra texture.

I wanted to achieve a nice clean look with this layout and kept the majority of my photos free of embellishments with just a few sticker strips and hand stitched borders added to the smaller photos to help them to stand out on the page. 

The next side of the layout includes the lead up to Easter and I really like the way the soft colors in the kit worked with these type of photos.

Again keeping things clean and simple with just a little bit of stitching and more drops of color mist to accent the photos. 

Thanks for stopping by xx