Melanie's Monday Column 12-7-2009

I can't believe this is the last layout from the Flea Market finds kit! That means next week stay tuned for the beginning of a wonderful Christmas/Holiday kit!

I picked the colors out of my picture and matched them up to my supplies. I took the pink (from the coat), the turquoise (from the sweater), the red (from the bench) and the green (from the background) and made them my foundation pieces for this layout.

Remember last week when I unraveled my large Prima flower. I still had pieces of it left, I really like this look. The ribbon just seems to fall in place on a layout. So with 1 flower-I used pieces of it 3 times-great way to stretch out a supply.

Here's a better close-up to see the texture.

I handmade some quick flowers to match the colors on my page. I used the Prima green packaging and rolled some stems. For the flowers I hand cut the petals, folded them almost in half and stapled them with my favorite tool, the Tim Holtz tiny attacher! (if you don't have this, tell St. Nick to put one in your stocking!) Very simple and easy to do.

Challenge yourself to pick out the colors out of a photo and use just those on a page. You might be surprised the way it turns out, specially if you would never put the color combo green, pink, red and turquoise together normally.

See you next week!

~Melanie

Time to Celebrate!

I recently had the pleasure of hosting a birthday party for a family friend. She had been wanting a lollypop birthday cake, so I went with that, & made a cute little happy birthday bunting to match.
Here's how I did it - [for better viewing - watch in full screen & use the pause & <&> arrows to check any detail]

Materials available @ BlueMoonScrapbooking, perfect for this fun project:

Have a go -it's such a fun project, perfect for any celebration, + perfect for the everyday!

Wendy ;]

Melanie's Monday Column 11-30-2009

Hi all! Today I'm gonna share layout #3 from the Flea Market Finds kit.

Included in the kit are some Maya Road Scrapbooking Scalloped Chip Pieces. I wanted to try something a little different this time and incorporate them into a layout rather than a mini album. I cut one the pieces in half, adhered pattern paper to it, painted the edges with a gold marker and applied the Jenni Bowlin gold butterfly rub-on. By putting 2 pictures between the pieces it now serves as a frame. I did attach some Maya Road ribbon in-between the pictures just to break them up. (the button is from my own supply)

Just to bring in more of the same color from the border around my photos I punched out some butterflies and inked the edges with gold and of course added a touch of bling.

Check out the awesome Prima flower in the kit. I thought the flower was little big for the spot I needed to put it, so I unraveled it and used the middle part leaving a piece to flourish under the main photo. The silver rhinestones in the flower didn't really go with my layout so I touched the gold marker to each one just to change the color.

On the very bottom of the page the paper included a "build-in" scroll so I used it to my advantage and placed the title of the page on it.

Thanks for stopping by! Make sure you check out the large selection of Holiday kits in the store.

~Melanie

Melanie's Monday Column 11-23-2009

Today I'm going to share layout #2 from the Flea Market Finds kit.

I worked on this layout at a local weekend crop and it was chosen the favorite out of all the ones entered. Which was very exciting and I won a little prize too! So many ladies asked how I get the edges to the paper to look like that. Well, it's all about tearing and inking. Tim Holtz Distress inks are my go to when beginning anything.Would anyone be interested in a tutorial technique on it? Let me know and if there's enough interest I would love to share.

I searched high and low for a quote or poem for my page. When I came across this one, I  knew it would be perfect for this layout. Have you ever used a favorite quote or poem as the foundation of a page? If not, I would suggest giving it a try. I do it fairly often, sometimes in place of a title or journaling--it works great.

Here's a close-up of the poem.

This is a close-up of the 7gypsies 97% stickers and the graffer tape included in the kit. I tore my tape into small pieces because it felt so overwelming with the big pieces. When you rip the tape (insteading of cutting it) you get more of a distressed look. I like the little strands of string hanging down-gives the page more texture.

Here I used the flowers and the pearls (which are included on the alphabet sheet) for a nice simple embellishment. Do you see the green sheet next to the picture? That's a little reuse, recycle packaging from Prima.

This is other side of the picture showing a close-up of the layering. Did you notice my picture? I sanded the edges to get a nice worn, distressed feel to the edges of the photos. It makes it blend better with the papers.

a close-up of the graffer tape along the bottom edge of the photo.

Thanks for stopping by today. Have a great week and those celebrating turkey day this week-have a great one!

I hope you are all applying for the design team! Applications are going to be due soon! For more info on this, please visit this link.

~Melanie

a Sewing Machine + Basic Grey goodness = great gift idea!

Looking for a quick, personal, & delightful gift idea? Try one of my easy and versatile stitched notebooks/journals - you'll be making stacks of them once you start!

If you've never stitched paper with your sewing machine before, this is the perfect way to start - no fuss & manageable!



The possibilities are endless, but here are the materials that I used for these 2 little sweeties -


& here are the tools I used, [or wish I had used! LOL!]:


[hint - click on the pictures to be taken right to the store + add them to your cart!]

Hope you enjoyed!

Wendy ;]

Melanie's Monday Column 11-16-2009

Thanks for stopping in on this wonderful Monday!

Today, I'm going to share my layout and a fun and easy technique of layering with transparencies using the new BlueMoon kit called Flea Market Finds.

This is the finished layout!



This technique is all about layers! First I cut a sheet of white sheet cardstock to 8.5 x 8.5 and inked the edges with my distress ink.



Second, I attached it to to the center of my foundation piece of pattern paper. I used the Jillibean Soup paper with the really cool script background. I sewed mine-completely optional, but I love the added texture it gives.



Attach the 12x12 transparency over the top and again I sewed my into place for texture. A little hint here: Behind the picture I cut out a large section of leaves before I sewed it into place. I'll use those a bit later on this layout for extra embellishing.



This is the mat formula I used for my photo frame to make it stand out on the layout. A brown sheet of cardstock and then pattern paper. I distressed the edges before attaching into place.



Here's one of the 7gyspies sticker, mounted on a pattern paper to make it stand out a bit more. Again distressing the edges of both the sticker and the paper for the worn look.



and now embellish with the Prima leaves, which are included in the kit and add some of the leaves hand-cut from the transparency.



To embellish the Prima flower. I removed some of the layers and used the stickles on the edges to to bring some shine and sparkle to my layout. This is a nice way to break up the petals and bring more texture to anything.



A better close-up of ALL the layers.



Thanks for stopping by today!

Just one more...Beware!

I just wanted to share one more layout from my BlueMoon kit, called Crow's Nest

This is a hand-cut bat cut out of the Basic Grey papers and just to detail it a bit, I used some black stickles and wiggly eyes.

I used the frame to frame my journaling.

Love stiching.
To make the letters stick out a bit I just outlined them with a black marker.


Thanks for looking, I hope I didn't scare you!

Come back Monday for my New BlueMoon kit called Flea Market Finds!

~Melanie