Sunday 31 July 2016

R - FELICITY JANE - HAPPY DAY - 12X12 LAYOUT

Hey girlies, so my net is really not wanting to play the last couple of days and it seems we are yet again waiting for a video to upload... It is really starting to bug me when I cant even upload a 10 minute video over night.. 

Anyways, onto the prettiness!! Looking at this layout right now, in the photos, this would have to be one of my most favourite layouts! I love the colours, the style, the direction, and more importantly the message. Today more than any day I am needing this message but I will talk more about that in the video and later in this post. 


For this layout, I decided to work with mainly the Felicity Jane Happy Day kit but Suse Fish, which is still available in store! I also mixed in a few papers from last months Next Stop kit to give my pinks and whites some more tones. I also decided to scrap lift the beautiful Suse Fish. She has made some stunning butterfly layouts and I just knew when these papers came out I had to do something similar. I also adapted her packaging technique and included some beautiful Felicity Jane packaging into my layers behind my photo. 


I just love all the light layers and fluttering butterflies in this layout. In contrast I wanted to build my layers around my photo in only black and white to let the butterflies take center stage. I actually really loved layering with the Felicity Jane black and white papers. I usually struggle doing anything monochromatic simply because it is just that, monochromatic, black and white, and usually for me, that is boring, not any more!!!


The butterflies are all cute from my Silhouette and you can find the cut file for these beautiful geometric butterflies on the Scrapbooks & Cards Today website. This magazine has a heap of free digital downloads every month and they are just awesome!! I have downloaded quite a few cut files from this site and I am just loving them and the best thing of all is THEY ARE FREE!!


So now we get onto the not so happy part. I told you I would get to explaining the layout further in the post and now is the time for that. As most of you know I am struggling with fertility and trying to conceive a child. It is a struggle I have had to deal with for about 14 months now. Every month I am disappointed with negative tests and lately, since tracking my ovulation, I am upset twice a month when I realise we don't sync with my ovulation time very well, or we miss a day, or anything. It is getting to the point now where any small change, any small thing I miss or forget sets me off. You could say I am on the edge of emotions. 

With all tests coming back positive and normal, I have started to wonder "what else can I do to prove I am enough? that I am worthy?" I know it is not the best thing to think about, but its a thought I have almost daily and I am all about capturing life, moods, thoughts and feelings. If I didn't record these moments I would be lying to my own life. I want to capture not only the good days, but the bad days as well. Whoever looks at my albums, I want them to know that no ones life is perfect, filled with polished professional, happy smiling photos. Life is about more than what we allow other people to see. If we only recorded that, you would never know who we really are, what makes us tick, what drives us from day to day and what challenges us!

There is so much more to this story, but I am not going to go further into it. This blog post is already long enough. I just wanted to write in here however, that for the longest of times, sharing your feelings, your personal thoughts, has seemed to be "unprofessional". My whole life I have been told to be professional, don't colour your hair, don't let people know how you really feel. Put on this fake persona to let everyone know that you are ok, willing and able for any job. Now in my 30's I feel I can be professional and a real person. I can be whoever I want to be and society norms are not going to crush that. 



Back to the layout. I added in a heap of sequins, bling and of course gold to my layout and to my Felicity Jane kits. I love that these kits are so versatile and yet you can completely make them your own. Just by adding in some bling and a touch of gold, these kits scream Nae!! After I had stopped the camera, I grabbed out my sewing machine and added stitching to the center of the butterflies and to both the left and right side of the layout, leaving the top and bottom edges open so that the butterflies could fly through. It gave an openness and a direction to the layout that I wasn't even conscious of.


So that is the layout girlies, I hope you didn't get too put off by the mass amount of text in this blog post but sometimes you just have to put your heart on the line and let the world know exactly what is going on in life. It is therapeutic for me, I have always said social media and youtube are my therapists. Thank you so much for following along lovelies and I will be back on Tuesday with another awesome video and a DIY Embellishment post. 

Love you all, 

Saturday 30 July 2016

BEHIND THE SCENES - DIY EMAMEL DOT STORAGE

Hey girls, so today is not much of a blog post, more of a video post. I was asked on one of my recent videos to film a little about my enamel dot storage and well, you ask, I deliver!! 

So here is it, the video about my enamel dot storage. I am a huge bling, pearl and enamel dot fan and use them on absolutely every layout. A layout is not finished unless is has one of the above mentioned somewhere on the page. You always see my little pink box of enamel dots in videos, but I thought it about time to show you up close how I store my enamel dots. 


So if you would like to see other storage solutions for my stash then please leave comments here on the blog or on the video and I will happily film a special video for you. I will be doing a scrap room tour later in the year, I am just waiting on two more desks and then I will be happy with the room and be able to share it with you all. 

Enjoy girls, 
Have a lovely weekend, 

Thursday 28 July 2016

HND HAPPY MAIL - SHARE - JULY

Ok, so I don't know what it is with Thursdays, but my computer just doesnt seem to like the internet of Wednesday nights, or Thursdays. The last two weeks I have struggled to get a video uploaded by the 9am deadline I set for myself every posting day (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday) and I am 100% sorry my beautiful readers and subscribers. 

Its the end of the month and you know what that means...... 


HND HAPPY MAIL OPENING DAY!!!

I love getting all of your letters, reading your stories and oogling over all the pretties that you took so much time creating just for me... It means the world to me and really does brighten my week when I get to open all these lovelies!!



I feel horrible because I have not return sent any letters from last months HND Happy Mail opening, but I promise I will definitely get there!! Its just going to take some time and with health/fertility issues, unfortunately that is taking the priority at the moment.. 

Hopefully we will get that all sorted though and by the end of the year I will be able to let you all know some good news.. (fingers crossed).


Just look at all the beautiful pretties these girls have sent me this month!! This bundle of pretty ribbons, sequin trim and resin flowers came from the beautiful Miriam, who I sent a pocket letter to a month or so ago. She is just darling and as a Stampin' Up demonstrator, sent me some beautiful pretties I had never seen before. I love them so much and I think she may have me hooked on their embellishments!


These stunning cards and tags were from the love Chrissi and Lydia!! I just love seeing my name in Thickers, its just not something you do yourself and is so warming when you see beautiful little gifts and tags like this!! I have them all hanging on a little cork board in my scrap space, I will have to share them with you sometime. 


I absolutely love this gold bike from Miriam's pocket letter. Matched with the adorable mint strip card, it is just so pretty and fresh and has me all excited for spring in September. We really didn't have much of a winter here on the Gold Coast this year, but I am always looking forward to spring!! Its my favourite time of the year! The wood veneer were so adorable and from Stampin' Up too!! I definitely need more of those babies!!


I am a complete sucker for pretty little envelopes but GOLD envelopes I just fall head over heels for. This stunning little letter envelope I found in Lydia's pocket letter she sent me. Look at those adorable XOXO and embellishment cluster. It is just so pretty and I love it so so much. I really do appreciate all the beautiful, strong, empowering and supporting letters you all send me. They mean so much to me and I treasure them all with my heart. 


The last little photo I have for you is actually the back of the little flip book card that Chrissi sent me. I really do love the saying on the back and really does emphasise what our HND Happy Mail group is all about. "Make a difference and throw kindness around like confetti". It is all about sharing the love and kindness, there isn't enough of it in the world, even within our industry of beautiful empowering women, I feel there is a huge egocentric behaviour that we all get dragged into. I love that with happy mail you can send the love, share it, meet new people and for a split second in your creative week focus on someone else other than yourself. 


If you would love to throw kindness around like confetti, we would love you to join our ever growing group of creatives over in the HND Happy Mail group!! I would love to see you over there!!

Love you guys, 


Tuesday 26 July 2016

SCRAPBOOK HAUL - GUESS WHAT I BOUGHT!!


Hey guys, I have been shopping again.. Uh Oh!

LOL today I wanted to share a pretty little video of some pretties that I purchased a few weeks ago and finally arrived on my doorstep.


I finally did it!! I went out and got myself one of the beautiful Blush and Gold Dot, Ashley G Color Crush Travellers Notebooks from Websters Pages. I was so over the moon excited when I found a really good priced one with all the accessories over at Scrap Boutique here in Australia. They have a great special over in their store now where you can save 30% on the price that I even paid and that is an amazing price already!! Totally jump over and see all the amazing stock of Websters Color Crush over at the Boutique. 




So of course there are not many photos to leave you with for this haul, but I wanted to just share with you a few photos that did not make it into the actual haul video. I ended up decking out my travellers notebooks with a heap of Felicity Jane goodies, Prima Flowers and some stickers and tags!! I love the finished result and just had to share with you all. 



This adorable little kitty is from the Studio Calico, Amelia collection. I love it so much and I love how it captures the crazy cat lady in my in my little journal!! Layered on top of some adorable polka cup cake paper by the amazing Suse Fish and a Heidi Swap frame, it is just beautiful!!!


Lastly, I just wanted to share how beautiful these travellers notebooks are that I have put into the cover. The white floral, black stripe and pink gingham are all from the amazing Felicity Jane and you can still purchase them over at the store. The green floral and black polka dot are the beautiful Websters Pages books and they are so soft to touch!! Like velvet. You can grab those ones still over at the Scrap Boutique!!


Enjoy the video lovelies, I will be back on Thursday with a cute look at some HND HAPPYMAIL I received this month!!

Love you guys, 

Sunday 24 July 2016

ROAD TRIP - FELICITY JANE - NEXT STOP - PROJECT LIFE LAYOUT

Hey girlies, I am back with a super quick, super easy Project Life process video today using the stunning Felicity Jane - Next Stop Kit for June. 

How much did you LOVE! the Happy Day Kit yesterday? Did I have you running to the store to purchase it? I would love to see what you create with it if you do!


I love how the entire layout worked out. The photos are quite heavy and dark but with the help of a few beautiful white and bright cards from the kit, I was able to really brighten and lighten the entire feel of the layout. I also minimised the amount of embellishments I added to cards as there was already so much going on in the photos. There were so many textures and patterns, it would have been too overwhelming for your eyes if I embellished how I normally would. 


I love that I have been using different types of embellishments more. Flair badges, banners, word stickers... Usually somethings I hardly ever use but they are just so delectable in these kits, they trick me into using them lol. Felicity Jane even has me using BLUE!! I am not a blue person but this shade of blue is just perfect!! It is not quite mint, but it is just the most beautiful sea blue ever!!


I absolutely can NOT get enough of this darling floral paper. I use it on absolutely everything. I think that is what made the red and green colour scheme really work for me. I can do anything with a pretty floral. This time I used the 4x6 piece I originally cut for the opposite side spread from Thursday's post and never actually used. I also used another little fussy cut floral to follow through the design across the page. 



I wanted to record our road trips, 3 hours south down to our hometown, Grafton NSW, to visit Josh's family. My family visits us every second week so it is really Josh's family we go down to visit. We have so much fun on our little road trips but it is almost impossible to get selfies or photos of Josh unless I pay for a professional photographer and he just "deals" with it. 


Hope you enjoy that project life layout girls.. very simple, very clean and I am just loving the new style and approach I am taking with these kits.. 

What do you think?
Let me know in the comments below. 
Love you guys, 


Saturday 23 July 2016

FELICITY JANE - HAPPY DAY - KIT SHARE + EXTRA GOODIES!!!

Morning girlies!!! Happy Saturday!! I am off to work in half an hour but I wanted to jump in and post the close up photos of the most beautiful kit in the world. Editing the video last night, reliving all the beautifulness in the kit, it just made me so happy!! It really was a happy day!

Today's kit is the beautiful Happy Day kit from Felicity Jane and designed by Suse Fish. Suse is a darling lady all the way over in the UK and I have always admired her white on white layers and very clean, clear, but definitely scrapped style!! She loves using everyday packaging in her layouts and creating a sense of space and air in her designs. I was so super excited when it was announced she was creating a Felicity Jane Kit. It was obviously meant to be that I subscribed the month before.


This is the beautiful kit image from the Felicity Jane website. The kit is still available and if you can, you should TOTALLY get this kit and subscribe!! These kits are beyond inspiring and take me out of the regular everyday scrapbook collections I usually obsess over. It frees my mind, my creative soul and just opens up so many possibilities in my scrapping style and process. 


I just absolutely love this photo. The colours are so dreamy and light. Don't you just love that cornflower blue floral that Suse designed? It is not a large floral, I love a big oversized floral, but this one is just so cute and in a colour that we haven't really seen utilised in a scrapbook range, at least in a feminine way. 


Of course, in every Felicity Jane kit you get the amazing stamp set in the awesome Avery Elle stamping pockets. I just cant get over how awesome these stamp sets are and just make the kit so full.

Cupcakes played a huge role in the kit this month and I am TOTALLY ok with that!! I love all things cute tea party like and really cant wait to get into this kit and scrap some cute tea party photos!! Maybe we need to have a scrappy high tea some time? 


Added extras in this months kit were the puffy alphas and sticker embellishments all hand drawn and designed by Suse!! They are just so beautiful... I can't stop saying it. I just love how all the puffiness, the pastels and the stunning black and whites all work together so beautifully, definitely a Suse Fish signature right there. 



Throw in an amazing stack of tags, custom flair and wood veneer, a cute jar of sequins and this kit just became divine! Take a closer look at the kit in my haul share and kit unboxing video below! I absolutely love this kit and cant wait to start designing with it and showing you all the pretties I make. 


Hands up if you love this kit? Hands up if you are going to go grab this kit NOW!!! You totally wont be disappointed!! Jump on over to Felicity Jane now to claim your cute Happy Day!

Love you guys, 



Friday 22 July 2016

1405 - FELICITY JANE - NEXT STOP - PROJECT LIFE LAYOUT

Omg, what a horrific last couple of days I have had. Firstly, I want to apologise for my lateness in this blog post, the Facebook posts and of course the process video. I usually post every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday but yesterday just got away from me with a heap more (paid) work and unexpected late nights waiting for customers to finish shopping (thirty minutes after close) as well as horrible internet speeds on Wednesday night!! It was just one excuse after the other and I was getting so frustrated with the entire thing. 


Thursday's layout, I decided to use the Felicity Jane, Next Stop Kit to create a beautiful 12x12 PL spread documenting our family photoshoot for my husbands side of the family. It was a beautiful day walking through green fields, old dirt roads and railway tracks. The photos are just beautiful and too many to just do one photo per layout. Project Life style spreads are perfect for these occasions. 


The title of the layout is 1405 and that was the date of the photoshoot. It was actually my brothers birthday and I felt horrible that we were three hours away taking photos but he is one of those guys that doesn't really mind and wasn't celebrating his birthday. Still I felt bad. Anyways, wipe away the tears, the day was so much fun and made even better with the fact that I got to spend the afternoon with my favourite photographer Sarah from Bye Bye Blackbird Photography!

Sarah and I became friends when I first found her for my engagement and wedding photos!! From there, the more time we spent together, our friendship grew with our common ground love for beautiful photos!! She has inspired me to push forward with my photography and actually focus on studying to become a photographer myself. I am super excited about this future goal and cant wait to share more with you. 



Our colour combination for clothing for the photoshoot was vintage, rustic, reds and blacks, denims and real autumnal tones. The papers and colours from the Felicity Jane, Next Stop Kit was just the perfect match for our photos. Nice bright reds to make the photos really pop as well as those beautiful clean whites to even out all the photos going on in the spread. 


I loved using the florals and fussy cutting the floral pieces from the main floral paper in the kit to use as embellishments on layouts and of course this spread. The spray of flowers just makes what was quite a wintery day in Australia, bright and sunny and summery spring like!! I am a huge believer in not scrapping to a particular theme or time despite when the photos were taken. Use what you love to embellish your layouts and you will enjoy them all the more when you look back on them. 


 I just love the patchwork look this layout ended up having. The photos, although only a few of the photos from the shoot, do show a nice variety of the different family groupings in my husbands side of the family. I absolutely love the photo of Josh and his brothers... It just makes me smile every time I look at it. I also love the photo of Josh and I with out nephew and niece... A piece of my heart breaks when I see just how perfect our life could be with a little one or two. One day, I hope, they will be our kids in the photos with us.

Gosh this blog post has been depressing, hasn't it?


Oh well, how about a process video to brighten your Friday night, TGIF,

Love you all,


Tuesday 19 July 2016

1ST STEPS - FELICITY JANE - NEXT STOP KIT

Hey sweeties,

I am back again today with another process video and I thought I would share with you all the prettiness with a few up close photos and a little explanation of the layout. I am really enjoying blogging and vlogging my layouts and just feel the two really do go together. I hope you are enjoying the blog as a little extra look into my layouts. 


This isn't the best quality photo but I haven't been able to take a better one with the amount of cold rainy days we have had here on the Gold Coast lately. Before I knew it, it was time to post this layout on the blog and I had to work with what I had. Regardless of the bad lighting, I just love the lightness and whiteness of this layout. I decided to focus on the blue colours in the kit this time around. Working with the light blues, teals and the black and white papers. 


If you haven't seen this cutie in my layouts before, where have you been? This little cutie is my adorable nephew Vinnie James and he is literally the light in my life. I am like his second mum and have looked after him on and off for the past six months when his Mumma needs a break. Raising a now 1 year old by yourself is incredibly hard and sometimes she just needs a break. 

This layout (if you hadn't guessed from the title) is about Vinnie's first (real) steps. Believe it or not, it happened while we were having a professional family photoshoot on the family farm. We wanted some single shots of Vinnie and left him resting against a two rail fence. As soon as the camera came out Vinnie took a step, and another, and another. 12 complete steps. He was walking directly towards the camera and the joy in his cheeky cheeks says it all. He was so happy and pleased with himself. 

Vinnie still really loves cameras (especially our digital SLRs) and loves posing for photos and then seeing the display for his face. He definitely got that from his Aunty Nae. 


Ok back to the layout, I kept this layout very white and clean. I layered white die cut leaves from Cocoa Vanilla Studios digital downloads. I just love these basic leaves and ferns. They compliment every layout and just add that little extra dimension and interest. I also grabbed the sewing machine again and did a little messy zig zag stitching over them to just give a more playful, boy on the farm look, if that is even a style lol.


I love this little corner so much... I have really enjoyed playing with paper strips and corners. I love the nice bold alpha stickers from the Felicity Jane Next Stop kit!! They are simply divine and now only available if you purchase the kit. The bow I have been in love with forever. I think it is from an old Dear Lizzy collection but I really cant remember. The style and colour was perfect for this layout and the fact that it was a boy layout was not going to stop me from using this bow. In the process video you see me moving it around so much, I was determined, nothing was going to stop me from using this bow.


Hope you enjoyed todays layout lovelies, 
Ill be back on Thursday with another process video and layout,
Love you all, 


Sunday 17 July 2016

MINI MESSES - FELICITY JANE - NEXT STOP KIT

Hey lovelies,
Im back again today with ANOTHER 12x12 layout!! I am just loving the 12x12 size at the moment and really having the room to move and create!! Today I am playing with my Felicity Jane Next Stop Kit (still available) for June. I need to get through this kit and create with it before I am stunned and carried away with all the gorgeousness of the Happy Days Kit that is on a plane coming straight for me and hopefully in my hands next week.


I had so much fun playing with the tones of pink, black and white with the beautiful florals that always feature so beautifully in the Felicity Jane kits. I just love how all the layers came together for this one. I didn't know I could layer like this, until Felicity Jane.  


This little terror is my first baby Mini (Miniature). She is a darling little cat (she is like kitten size at an adult age) and she is just so dainty and quiet (sometimes) and just such a little lady. She eats with her hands, pulling food out of her bowl and bringing it to her mouth. She is happy to sleep alone on a warm blanket even if Pipa (Pipsqueak), our other fur baby is nestled in on my lap soaking up all the attention. She is just the perfect little lady, until this one morning.... 

I woke up to find my light pink crepe paper roll untangled and scattered in an unravelled mess upon the entryway tiles. In the mess and the disbelief that the girls had had a party while we were asleep that night, I had to take a photo. It was beautiful, a beautiful mess. Mother scrappers take photos of their children in messes and scrap them, I don't have that, I have my kitties. 


This is probably my favourite part of the entire layout. I am really enjoying not having BIG titles on my layouts, more of an accent or not even a title at all. Its hard for me. I am a lover of the shiny Thickers and love using them in my project life, but for some reason on layouts I prefer to keep it simple. I layered a heap of different pieces for this cluster, paper, die cuts, wood veneer, labels, it just all layers so nicely and I just love it so much. 


I am not a fussy cutter. I actually despise fussy cutting. I always look on at others who cut out for their layouts and making it look all pretty. Every time I cut something out it always leaves a horrible raised, rough cut edge. I hated it and just never really gave it a chance. FINALLY I have figured it all out. Being left handed, using right handed scissors, theres the problem. You have to cut anti clock wise on your cut outs to get that nice clean and smooth edge. 


Finally, I just love the little accent strip at the top of the page, it just grounds everything and keeps the large cluster of layers and photos contained to the page. I love the little floral and how the black word sticker really highlights everything. Black as a highlighter, who would have thought? 

"That was awesome" also makes me laugh. I am a very sarcastic being but it doesn't usually translate to my layouts all too often. This layout is screaming sarcasm and humour with its cute little tags and phrases. I love how its playful and fun without being themey and clashing in colours.



Saturday 16 July 2016

FLIP FOLDER - FAN MAIL GIFT

Hey girlies,

So today I am showing off a little Happy Mail, but it is not my usual HND HAPPY MAIL for a special someone in my group. It is actually fan mail for my one and only, the most amazing, most genuine, talented and super lovely girl, Delta Goodrem. She is an amazing singer and has been a source of strength and empowerment for me since I was in my late teens.

For half of my life I have been dying to meet her and the other week, was finally my time!! I thought to myself, I have been waiting this long, I am not just going to go in and say "Hi", I wanted to write a letter letting her know just how much she has meant to me and of course, I couldn't just write a letter, I had to "make" a letter!!


I wanted to keep the letter dark, black and whites and very moody. Her new album cover is a black and white photo and very animalistic. I absolutely love it and this woman just gets more stunning every time I see a photo of her (#ladycrush). The album name is Wings of the Wild and I decided to make that the them for this fan mail. 

If you haven't heard of Delta, or ever given her music a listen, I strongly suggest you do. She is a fabulous pianist, singer, songwriter, guitar player and this album she also includes an American Rapper and a choir!! Really pretty and like I said before, empowering stuff!


So as you will see in the process video, for this pocket letter I decided to take inspiration from Sabrina Ann on Youtube and her File Flip Folder. She has amazing happy mail tutorials, process videos, shares and more so it is definitely worth the look see and don't forget to tell her I sent you there!! Essentially a file flip folder  is an old school accordion file folder that you can store photos, letters, goodies and more! 


For my first main card I wanted to do an introduction, a hello card to show her who I was, where I lived, who was special in my life. It is one thing to gush all the love in the world to your idol but it is also important to remember they want to know just as much about you as they do about how awesome their music is (did that come out right?). I used my forever favourite Instagram, Youtube profile pic and embellished with a few cute leaf die cuts and a doily of course!


I wanted to include a few little extra bits and pieces in this letter, not just letters and I am pretty positive Delta wouldn't really appreciate a folder full of ephemera and washi tape (there are people out there like that, shocking I know), So I wanted to include some cute Jamberry wraps. These two sets are in a leopard print and a butterfly wing, together they are wings of the wild and I just love that combination. I think I will be getting those when I go to her concert in November!!


I have so much of this gold foil tiny stripe paper I just had to use it as a focal point of this happy mail. I actually forgot I had so much of it (left over from my wedding). For this one, I just made a simple little card with a doily flipped over the top and a few little embellishments including the stunning gold mirror ampersand from the Pink Paislee Ces't La Vie collection.


What is happy mail without some cute envelopes right? I made this little cutie out of some tiny polka dot paper and a little gold die cut bow I made. I also made a matching 6x4 PL card for another little letter or love. I really wanted to mix up the sizes and the textures peeking out of the pockets. I like making my happy mail and letters interactive and a little journey to go on so I will always change things up and not make them so uniform in appearance. 


Finally, here is another pretty envelope I made and a pretty picture of my nails!! I loved this Butterfly Kisses manicure with my Jamberry wraps. If you would like to check out more awesome Jamberry goodness click the link above and go over and check out my store!! Beware, you will see some nail appreciation posts over here on the blog from time to time.. So get ready for them!

PROCESS VIDEO HERE.

Finally, I just wanted to add in a little photo from the day I met the amazing Delta Goodrem. I was beside myself and cried like a silly old lady but I didn't care. I had waited so long to meet her and I couldn't believe the day had finally come!!

PHOTOS HERE

Thanks so much guys, 
I hope you enjoyed that little blog post. 
Love you all,