Unwrapping Presents - Travelers Notebook Tip In - Helmar Creative Team

Due to the way life is working out this year I won't get to see my eldest and granddaughter for Christmas so they visited for a little bit last Monday and I gave my Granddaughter some of her presents, we saved one for her to open with Papa Bear on her sleep over Thursday.  I really wanted to get this into my December Daily but with the chaos of packing and purging to move I haven't done a single day in it, not even typed up my journaling since we got word about the move.  I decided to make a 4 x 8 1/4 inch tip in page for my DD, that way it can go anywhere in the TN insert when I get it done

I started by cutting down some white cardstock to size and inking the edge with Squeezed Lemonade Distress Ink, then to ensure the Distress Ink wouldn't blend with my next stage I took it outside and gave it a coat of Crystal Kote Fixative.

I wanted to add some blue and pink to the background and decided using my very old sprays would be a great idea.  So I just sprayed a assortment of blue, pink, yellow and silver sprays onto the cardstock, dabbing it with a cloth if it was too much. 

Since Miss E's presents from us were Frozen based fine motor skill and sensory play I wanted it to feel like colourful snow.

I then took it outside and gave it a coat of Chrystal Kote Gloss Varnish to add to the shine of the shimmer some of the sprays had.  Since Miss E's presents from us were Frozen based fine motor skill and sensory play I wanted it to feel like colourful snow.
















I adhered my photos to some white cardstock with Helmar Acid Free Glue.

I then adhered my matted photos to my background along with some lemon tissue paper (Miss E was wearing lemon) and some die cuts, including a Labrador as our Lab cross rescue came in during the unwrapping and was all over my daughter with lots of loving doggy behaviour while she was watching Miss E unwrap, so this die cut was a great prompt to help me remember when I type up the journaling.



 

I am really happy with how this tip in has turned out and can't wait to get it into my December Daily happening after the move.



Are you doing a December Daily type project this year?  I would love to check it out so please let me know in the comments.

Santa Photo 2006 - Ruby Rock-It Creative Team

When organising my photos to send them to my daughter's house I found the very first Santa photo with my youngest, he is so tiny in this photo; I just had to keep it out and scrap it and Crafters Choice Festive Pop by Ruby Rock-It was the perfect range for scrapping this photo as it has those gorgeous summer colours and I can see by how sweaty the kids are it was a hot day.

Unfortunately I had kept the photo in the little cardboard folder the photographer put it in and it had damaged the corners.

If you have any photos stored in those folders I recommend getting them out asap.

I started by selecting some papers from the Crafters Choice Festive Pop 6x6 Paper Pad to go with my photo, I based my choices on the colours of my kids clothes as I wanted to draw attention to them.

I also pulled out some cardstock from my stash in colours similar to their clothes, starting with the pale blue of my baby boy's summer onesey.  Then pulling in a pink and a green.

The cardstock I chose works so well with the papers and between them it really helps show the layout is about the kids.












Next I started playing with the way my layers would sit on my page.

Once my layering decisions were made I selectively cut my papers so save some for later as I love these ones.  Adhering down with Helmar Acid Free Glue as I cut each layer.

Then I adhered my layers down without gluing all the way to the edge in case I wanted to tuck anything in.

One of the Santa die cuts from the Crafters Choice Festive Pop Die Cuts pack inspired me to build a scene as my embellishment cluster, the present paper in the 6x6 paper pad had appropriately sized presents for this so I fussy cut a few from it.

For the Tree I pulled out a Christmas Tree Charms Creations embellishment I got last year to help build the scene.

And when I saw this dog die cut I just add to add it as it looks just like the dog we had back then.  So it feels like Miffy is part of the story even though she couldn't be in the photo.

Given how hot and sweaty the kids look I thought this chipboard piece I had in my stash was perfect for this layout. 
I base coated it in White Gesso and then coloured it with Distress Inks in Spun Sugar on the heart, Brushed Cordoroy for the Kangaroo and a mix of Weathered Wood and Salty Ocean on the words.
I used a watercolour brush and applied multiple layers of the blue and pink, drying with my heat gun between coats so as to get a more effective look.

I adhered the chipboard down with Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots to give it the lift it needed. 










I added a small piece of Santa Surfing ribbon under the chipboard. 
Later I added 2 heart stickers from my stash to this cluster.

I added some paper strips to the top left and bottom right corners and added a doodley border.

I loved my page and should have stopped here but I just had to add some journaling.

Unfortunately my journaling just didn't sit right so I had to add more papers to cover it and I just couldn't get them to look right, so I added more and then added a bigger title with some old pink alphas I had.
I didn't notice things were crooked until everything was fully dried but I am embracing the wonkyness, it can represent how we were melting in the heat.  ;)

Christmas Gift Boxes - CraftOnline Creative Team

As we are moving and all our decorations are packed and headed to the city that we are moving to in the first load down, it is going to be a pretty bland Christmas here so I decided to decorate some boxes to put small items in for my boys, they can sit on their empty bookshelf looking cute and bringing a little touch of Christmas to their room.

Items used in this project:
Poppy Crafts A4 Carstock Pack Forever Green
Poppy Crafts 9 Christmas dies (no longer available)
Pink Paislee Together For Christmas Ephemera
Helmar Acid Free Glue
Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots 
Papermania Bare Basics Boxes Large
Here is a alternative pen to the one I used.  https://www.craftonline.com.au/products/gelly-roll-classic-fine-point-pen-3-pack-white?_pos=28&_sid=4ec1d0e26&_ss=r

You can view my Process Video by clicking on the pic or video below.

Adding a photo to a finished layout in my Childhood Christmas Memories Album - Ruby RockIt Creative Team

In addition to finding the Santa photo in my previous Ruby Rock-It Project I found this treasure that I didn't know existed.  I remember posing for it but I thought it had been among photos lost during our first house flood.  I can't tell you how happy I am to have found this.  I just had to get it into my Childhood Christmas Memories Album but slight hiccup, the perfect spot for it is finish so what to do? I decided I would create a 6x6 layout with the Crafters Choice Nostalgic Treasures range that I can stick to the back of my tip in that is for something that occurred this Christmas.
I am sure this photo is from the year that St Nick came to me for the first time, and that is a important memory as it highlights just how close my family and my childhood best friend's family had become, we had started to adopt some of their Christmas traditions and it was wonderful.

I selected a paper from the 6x6 paper pad as my background paper and a matte for my photo and paper for my journalling tag. 

I matted my photo onto white cardstock and that red Christmas sparkles paper (as I like to call it) and added my Advent Candle die cut (I do love a embellishment that helps tell the story of my photo and this one did just that as part of the Schumm's Christmas was a Advent Candle Wreath).
I didn't adhere any of this down to my 6x6 background page yet.  I adhered them to each other but not the page as I needed to make a pocket for my journalling tag.

I created my journalling tag and then set about creating my pocket for my journalling.
Note to self:  Don't Journal Tired, you make too many mistakes you have to fix later.  ;)

To create my pocket I used Stickmaster Heat Resistant Tape as in my climate all other tapes used on pockets and minis have given way.
I worked out how I wanted my tag to poke out as it would form part of my layers and embellishments and I added my tape to accommodate this.

I adhered my cluster down to my page.
When I created my tag I added this poinsettia as a pull for the tag and positioned it to act as a additional embellishment to the layout.

When I went to add the layout into my album I realised it was going to have overhang so I added a 2 inch piece of the poinsettia paper to the back ensuring it went past the die cut and then I trimmed it off, so when it is stuck down you won't see white from the top page.














The front page has holly on it so adding a Holly die cut from the Nostalgic Treasures die cut over where the Poinsettia die cut back is was a perfect was to blend the 2 page edges together to make it feel finished.















You can find a flip through of my completed album here.

Christmas Traditions - Santa Photo - Helmar Creative Team

My boys still get a Santa photo each year, which I think is absolutely awesome.  I think it is because their sisters were teens when they were little and it was just normal for teens to be in Santa photos in our family, my girls participated in this Christmas Tradition until they moved away for Uni at age 18 and 19.  Or it is because they know I love having these photos to scrap.  Either way I think it is awesome.  And it is likely to continue as we are moving to Brisbane and will be near my granddaughter so they will have the chance to have Santa photos with her.
So today I am sharing a layout with you of last year's Santa photo.
I wanted to have red and black in my layout due to the colours my boys were wearing so I mounted my photo on black cardstock with Helmar Acid Free Glue
Then I selected some left over papers from Simple Stories Simple Vintage Christmas 6x8 paper pad (I love that this paper pad included a black plaid as my son was wearing a black shirt) and then pulling in embellishments from Kaisercraft Letters to Santa Collectables, Crafters Choice Nostalgic Treasures and from a old Scrapping Fun Kits DD Kit. 
I was torn on position of one piece of paper and the lace so I bounced ideas off my feel Helmar Team Members.  I love that I have this group of amazing crafters that when I am feeling a bit stuck I can bounce ideas off of.

Now that I had decided on where things would go it was time to adhere things down, starting with the little Santa Hat.
I used Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive to adhere this to my photo.  I put a blob on the back of the corner then slid the hat over and pressed down.

Then working with one layer of papers at a time I cut away paper that would be hidden behind things, added a line of Helmar Acid Free Glue and adhered the top layer down.
I found myself wanting a simple background of cardstock but a layered cardstock with black, red and white.  I did the same thing with layering these.  I cut a one inch window inside my black and red layer, the red layer was cut down to 11 3/4 x 11 3/4 inchs and my white layer to 11 1/2 x 11 12 inches.

To adhere the lace down I ran a bead of Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive down where I wanted my lace to go and then put the lace down and tucked it around the paper layer it was ending at.

I adhered some Prima Marketing leaves to one of the Kaisercraft die cuts and then to the page with Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive.

I needed to make a pocket for my tag I was going do my journaling on. 
I decided to build 4 layers of thin strips of scrap cardstock to give me a higher pocket.  
I then adhered them to the back of the tree die cut I had chosen from Crafters Choice Nostalgic Treasures die cuts pack with Helmar Acid Free Glue.

Once I had my lace, tree and Prima Leave flower down I added the rest of my flowers and a tag that says Christmas Traditions down with a mix of Helmar Acid Free Glue and Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots so I could adjust the height of things as needed.

I then adhered my whole cluster down to my cardstock and realised my green paper was slightly crooked so I added some scraps to detract the eye from this with Helmar Acid Free Glue.
I love how this layout turned out, the hints of black is just what it needed.

Santa - Childhood Christmas Memories Album - Ruby RockIt Creative Team

 

Those of you who were following me in 2017 may remember my Childhood Christmas Memories Altered Album and that I couldn't find the only photo of me taken with Santa so I had saved the front page for when I did find it.  I found it.  I am so excited.  Plus I found another Christmas photo of me that I thought had been lost/destroyed years ago, but that photo is for another post.
Those of you who weren't here for this project you can find out all about it by checking out my YouTube Playlist for it and/or my blog posts for the pages I created in 2017. 
Basically as I had no photos of Christmas as a child I Google Image searched the tree we had, decorations we had, places we visited and I obtained a Little Golden Book that I think I had as a kid and altered it into a mini album about my Childhood Christmas Memories.  It is one of my absolute all time favourite and most treasured projects.
When I found my Santa photo I felt Crafter's Choice Nostalgic Treasures was the perfect choice for scrapping it into my altered book.

As the photo is red and white I wanted to use a red paper as my background page, I loved the opulent cushion feel of this paper.
As the pages of my Little Golden Book are 6x8 I needed to use a paper from the 12x12 paper pad to ensure I could get a piece big enough.  I simply cut the 12x12 down to 6x8 and glued it in with Helmar Acid Free Glue.

After matting my photo on white cardstock and gluing it down to my page I decided it needed another layer so I cut a 1/2 strip of this paper that reminds me of a sparkly Christmas night from the 6x6 paper pad and trimmed the top and bottom off to get a shorter piece from the middle.  I glued it down so it look like it was under my photo matte.

When going through the die cuts pack this sleigh with white horses stood out as I had given Santa a white horse like this on this day.
I absolutely love it when a embellishment helps me tell the story of a photo so I knew this was the perfect die cut for my layout and I felt it was all I needed.
The story is the year before some of my teenage cousins wanted to take me to Santa for the first time and 2.5 year old me did not cope and I screamed and kicked the poor Santa.  So I really wanted to give him a gift to say sorry.  The Santa didn't want to take it so Mum had to explain out of earshot of me why it was important he take it.

I added some journalling in my usual black pen and then after adding my title, date and some snowflakes in white I decided to make it white.

I decided my page needed some snow so using one of the gorgeous snowflake stamps from the Crafters Choice Nostalgic Treasures Icons stamp set.
As I didn't have a white ink pad I just coloured the stamp with my white gel pen and hoped for the best, I actually really like how it turned out, it feels more snow like to me.
I then added my title with some ancient alphas from my stash and the year the photo was taken in the top corner.  I may be off by a year but I think I am correct.

I will do a new flip through video of my completed project at the end of December so you can see how it has all come together to be a gorgeous memento of my childhood Christmas.