Time to make a splash…

For the Center Parcs trip portion of my Album I decided to keep all swimming related pictures together, and use Fancy Pants “Making Waves” kit, along with a few additional bits.

 

This is the first layout I produced. I used the 6x6 paper pad, along with pieces from the ephemera pack, coordinating enamel dots and a few wood veneers. I also made a couple of flair badges for this layout.

 

For the title card (top middle card), I used Doodlebug Alpha stickers in Tangerine. I also added a few Tim Holtz tiny word stickers throughout the spread.

 

 

I went back to using the Cedar Lane collection from Pink Paislee, with alphas from WRMK Wild Flower collection. Sadly they don’t show up well in the pictures below.

 

Ephemera and puffy stickers are from Cedar Lane, and I also added a few wood veneer and enamel dots from my stash.I love journaling with my Typewriter, although sadly I do not love the bottom left blue card – it wasn’t want I was aiming for, but sometimes you have to accept the odd not so perfect card. 

 

 

The second layout I created was a mix of pictures from our trip – mainly food!!!

Hoping to crack on with some more layouts this week, that’s if I’m not too hungover from celebrating Chris’s big NOT 40 birthday!!!

 

Much Love,

Chelle Belle x

Our Center Parcs Adventure...

Apologies for not being around much lately, things haven’t been great health wise so Scrapping/Project Life has taken a bit of a back seat in my life. Never fear the mojo always returns…

 

My lovely husband booked us a weekend away for my 30th Birthday (although that was the end of August, and this was scheduled for October – out of holiday season!) to Center Parcs in Elvedon. I have always wanted to go and couldn’t wait for a quiet weekend away just the two of us, and all the photo opportunities I had on offer for my Project Life album. Four lovely days later and I came away with over 200 pictures on my iPhone, 50 plus pictures on our waterproof camera and far too many videos of me screaming down a giant waterslide!

 

I had already had in mind a collection prior to our trip, but whilst we were away I spotted a new collection from Pink Paislee; Cedar Lane and it was perfect. The mix of autumnal colours, acorns and foxes was spot on… although I could have done with a squirrel and deer too! So whilst my husband was taking a nap in front on the fire, I snuck online and made my purchases – naughty!

When scrapping an occasion such a holiday I like to lay out my photos on the page protectors first, so I know which pictures will be for Project Life and which will be used for the traditional layouts. I combine both within the same album. In the finish I have 9 Project Life pages and 5 traditional layouts to complete.

 

I went through my stash and picked out additional Project Life cards that would match the Cedar Lane collection, adding extra light teals and purple. I also chose to use Fancy Pants Making Waves collection for the 2/3 pages from the waterpark, as this seemed more fitting and meant I could stretch the Cedar Lane collection further. I put together a kit of bits including tiny word stickers, various enamel dots, wood veneer’s and sequins, and gold glitter/foil ephemera. I will add a picture later for you to see the kit I have put together.

 

Here are my first two Project Life pages… I love the title card with the blue glitter thickers – gorgeous!

I had to create a traditional layout for this little beauty who came to visit us every day whilst we were there. I fussy cut the flowers from the Town Square pattered paper, and finished with a gold bow from WRMK

Hope you like them too. I hear wet weather is forecast for the weekend, so I’m hoping some much needed scrapping will happen once again!

Much Love,

Chelle Belle x

A Mix of Mixed Media...

So I went a little crazy buying more stuff - Opps!!!

I've now got a great selection of Heidi Swapp Colour Shine mists and stencils, along with a few bits from the We Are Memory Keepers Clearly Posh collection, so decided to do a couple of layouts using my new bits.

My first layout was made using a Crate Paper Wonder paper for the background, a mix of Crate Paper papers from 6x6 paper pad, along with a sheet of black patterned acetate from the WRMK Clearly Posh 6x6 pad. The back ground is made of lightly coloured texture paste spread over a Memory Box stencil; Drip Rings. I added Black colourshine splatters to finish.

I layered the picture using a mix of papers, tags with gold glitter thread, and some gorgeous gold glitter confetti pieces from WRMK - these are great for layering. I made another small cluster of bits in the top left corner and finished with a pretty gold acetate bow x

The second layout is a mix of old stash, papers from Simple Stories and stickers from Echo Park (I'm unsure of collection names)

I used the Memory Box Floral Confetti stencil with light pink coloured texture paste across the background. I layered strips of paper in a "T" shape, and placed the picture at the cross over point. I finished with lots of stickers, sequins and enamel dots.

For the last layout I chose a piece of plain white card stock. I added texture to background using a Heidi Swapp star confetti stencil, and pink colourshine to texture paste. I added pink and green splatters over the top. I layered my picture using Dear Lizzy papers, and finished with Fine & Dandy stickers and die cut pieces. I added lots of sequins and enamel dots to the background to add more texture and sparkle!

I now have a whole week off work for my birthday, and have planned lots of scrapping time. So I'll be back soon with some more layouts and PL pages.

Much Love,

Chelle Belle x

Project Life… time to catch-up!

Lately has seen me dive into the world of mixed media, and find a new found love for Traditional scrapbooking, meaning my poor Project Life album was being neglected.

 I always print off my pictures as I go along, and decide on which cards to use for the page – I usually find sitting in front of TV with a cup of tea is the perfect time to sort out my pictures for the week. When I do find the time, I just go back and pick a page I fancy doing. This weekend I managed to complete two pages, and I love them both.

 For my first Project Life page of the weekend, I decided I wanted to use up some of the Notes & Things cards I had left over. I am sad to see these go as this has to be one of my favourite Project Life kits of all time. It’s a shame it was only a value kit, I would have loved to have a bigger selection of cards, perhaps a mini kit. That said I like the idea of coordinating ephemera pieces.

 I selected my cards along with a few from Dear Lizzy 5th & Frolic core kit, and chose Crate Paper Craft Market Ephemera and Stickers, including the tiny phrase stickers to use on the spread. I finished the page off with enamel dots and sequins from my stash, and Seven Paper Amelia Gold Glitter Chipboard hearts – these are just gorgeous, and I wish I had bought half a dozen packs!!!

 My 2nd layout was Chris and I taking part in the London Free Ride on 1st August. I’ve already made a traditional layout to go alongside this spread using an enlarged picture from the Project Life page. The main page has now been framed and will take center stage on the “Crafty Chelle Belle” art gallery through my hallway at home! – an idea my wonderful husband had, and can’t wait to add more. Pictures to follow.

 For this layout I chose a mix of cards, mainly from the Dear Lizzy 5th & Frolic and Maggie Holmes core kits. For embellishments, I pulled a selection of Ephemera and rub-ons from Maggie Holmes line; along with the sticker and element sheets from Simple Stories Fancy That line… the alphas worked great on this spread.

 Hope you liked the two layouts. Hoping to complete some more over the next week or so, and I believe I have a few small hauls arriving shortly too!

I'll be back soon.

Much Love,

Chelle Belle x

An active week calls for active based Scrapbooking...

Well this past week has been a busy one in terms of activities. Time to sit down with a cuppa and share the memories…

Back in March the company I work for launched its own version of the Couch to 5K program in conjunction with “This Girl Can” campaign. This Girl Can is a national campaign developed by Sport England and a wide range of partnership organisations. It’s a celebration of active women up and done the country. You can find out more about the campaign on the website http://www.thisgirlcan.co.uk/

Now I’ve always had a fascination with running, and love to watch the London Marathon on TV each year, but never imagined I would ever be a runner. Well after the 9 week course I found I could actually run for 30+ minutes without passing out, and even more surprising… I loved it!!! Now I have an addiction with running clothes and trainers, just as much as my Scrapbooking/Project life addiction. This is not good for my bank balance, but at least I can run faster from the Bank Manager :-)

 So this leads to me to my first Layout of the week… Last week myself and my best friend in work Joanna were given fab T-Shirts to say “Congratulations on completing the course!” with company and program logos on them. I love it, and will most certainly wear with pride. Jo and I had already decided we were going for a lunchtime run, so what better way to celebrate than to wear our new T-Shirts out for all of London to see.

 Here is my finished layout of us looking very pleased with our new tops. I used Crate Paper Craft Market papers, coordinating die cut pieces, chipboard stickers and alpha stickers. I finished the layout with Crate Paper gold puffy stickers, a few glittery enamel dots, and some Heidi Swapp Gold Colour shine mist splatters.

So after running 5k every day for 5 days, I finished the week by attending the 3rd annual London Free Ride event on Saturday 1st August. The London Free Ride is an event for all cyclists, beginners to intermediates, couples, friends and family – oh yes, I forgot to add I am now a proud owner of a lovely road bike, which Chris bought me… another husband and wife activity, but something a little less life risking! It was a fab day out, especially with the sun shining brightly over London.

We cycled from our home in Essex to London which was 20 miles, then round the 10 miles of closed off roads passing famous landmarks such as Shard, Gherkin, St Pauls Cathedral and Buckingham Palace, then another 20 miles home again – The last 5 miles were a killer and I was very pleased to be home, but wow 50 miles in one day. I was dead proud of myself… although the sunburn from the day was not a good look! Opps!

Here is a very daring Selfie I took of myself and Chris whilst cycling past Buckingham Palace… so glad I didn’t drop my phone in the process. This is a very mixed layout, using back ground paper from Simple Storys Fancy That collection, and smaller papers from Heidi Swapp September Skies 6x6 paper pad. I covered parts of the background with a lime green coloured texture paste, using a Tim Holtz layering stencil. I also added some Heidi Swapp Gold Colour Shine mist splats. I embellished the layout with die cuts and stickers from Crate Paper Craft Market collection – they had lots of bike related bits! I finished the layout with a few cute wood veneers and enamel dots.

Well time for a rest now. Hope you like my traditional layouts and hearing the stories behind them. I’ll be back soon once I’ve got my head down with a few Project Life pages I’ve been meaning to do.

Much Love,

Chelle x

I'm back... along with my Crafty Mojo!

My apologies to all my readers for being away from the blogging and crafting scene for sometime. Those who know me will know about the illness I was diagnosed with a few years back (I may have also explained a bit about this on a previous post!), and unfortunately the last few months have been a little up and down for me. Crafting had taken a very far back seat in my life... I even stopped shopping!!!

Thankfully after some adjustments in my medication, and some extra help I finally got my mojo back... including my want to shop for more stash!!!

So, what have I been up too? Well here's a few layouts and Project Life pages for you to feast your eyes on. My 2015 album is coming together quite well, with a nice mix of traditional scrapbook layouts and Project Life pages of all those day to day fun and frolics.

The past few months we have seen some great collections being released, some of my personal favourites were My Minds Eye Fancy That & On Trend. Love the pastel colours with the gold foil - actually I'm just loving gold foil on everything. They really need to start using silver foil too!

Simple Stories brought out a collection also called Fancy That, which is one of my favourites!

And of course Summer wouldn't be complete without another Simple Stories collection Summer Vibes... You can see why I found my scrapping mojo again.

I nearly forgot, the new Project Life core kits. Thankfully for my bank balance I didn't fall in love with them all, but opted to purchase both Confetti and High Five core kits. Love the mix of bright colours and fun designs. Both look great together too.


The first layout I have to show you is a Project Life page from March, when I started my Permanent role in the company I have been temping at for past 3 years. I was so over the moon I finally got the job I wanted.
I chose My Minds Eye Fancy That and On Trend papers from 6x6 Paper pad, and used a mix of Amy Tangerine Puffy Stickers and Ephemera, along with my favourite Tim Holtz tiny alpha stickers. I also added a few homemade flairs, and sequins to finish off the page.

Here is the first Project Life layout I created using Confetti core kit. I teamed this up with some MAMBI chipboard stickers and a mix of bright coloured enamel dots. I also opted to use my lovely Typewriter for the journalling. This also happened to be the week I bought the new core kits!

The following spread and layout are two of my favourite pages so far... it was the week I went to see Take That for the 4th time!!! You can even see the picture that was taken from 15 years ago when I was 9 years old, going to my first Take That concert. This time I took my Mum and sister, and we had a fab time at the O2, and managed to get front row on the top tier - Brilliant seats!

I used High Five core kit along with another favourite collection of mine which I forgot to mention earlier (Wow! I've done some serious shopping recently!), Dear Lizzy Fine & Dandy ephemera and chipboard stickers. I also added some Crate Paper gold puffy stickers and a mix of colourful enamel dots to finish it of.

Using the Simple Stories Summer Vibes collection, I created this traditional scrapbook layout of us girls taking a selfie...I'm sure this is my Mums first time!

I bought the whole collection including ephemera, stickers, chipboard pieces and matching enamel dots (who could resist buying it all!)

Lastly in this very long blog post, I have two layouts using the most recent Simple Stories collection, Fancy That. I would love to say this is my favourite, but they bring out so many I love. This collection used some of my favourite mix of colours, purple, pink, teal and gold gold gold!!!

The first layout is of me taking part in my local ParkRun (For those who don't know, ParkRun is an organisation where people attend to run 5km on Saturday morning around a marshaled course that is also time chipped. Its so much fun!).
I've started getting to grips with some mixed media and I love it. I used a couple of Tim Holtz Layering stencils, with Texture paste coloured using my Gelatos. Stickers and ephemera are from the Simple Stories Fancy That collection. I then back onto an Elle's Studio pattern paper (I'm not overly keen on this, so it may get changed at a later date).

The last layout to show you is one of the best selfies I have ever taken, with my fur baby Sadie, and for once she didn't run away from the camera - although she does look like she is about to eat me!

The background patterned paper is one of my favourites in the collection... so I bought two. I used a simple mounting technique with a mix of papers, and finished using stickers and ephemera from the collection. I added a gold glitter thickers title from Crate Paper "Hey Friend" I thought this finished off the page perfectly.

Well I hope you have made it to the end without falling asleep on me, and apologies its been a while. I promise to update my blog more often with a mix of scrapbooking and Project Life layouts

Much Love,
Chelle Belle x

Simple Stories, I Am collection... blitzing a kit!

I fell in love with Simple Stories new line "I Am" and just knew I had to have it. When it finally came in stock with Craftie Charlie I didn't waste time in purchasing all the bits I needed.

I opted for the collection kit which came with a 12x12 Alpha stickers sheet, 12x12 elements sticker sheet, and a mix of both patterned and cut-a-part sheets. I also purchased the 6x6 paper pad, Brads, ephemera pieces and enamel dots. 

I set about cutting all the cut-a-part sheets up, and cracking on with a few layouts. I eventually finished the kit leaving only a few scraps, and odd bits and pieces.

I made 6 12x12 layouts using the patterned papers...

                  

I then made 2 Project Life layouts....

 Hope you like the pages. Please leave any questions or comments below.

Much love,

Chelle Belle x

Spreading My 12x12 Wings...

I’m addicted to YouTube process videos, and looking at other peoples layouts on Instagram or Pinterest. I’ve always admired those who are able to produce such pretty “Traditional” 12x12 layouts using one or two picures, so I decided it was about time I joined the club.

Before I started Project Life I had made a few 12x12 layouts, but I was never happy with the finished look… This was probably down to the lack of stash I had at the time – clearly this is going to be less of a problem now.

More recently I’ve opted for buying a collection/range rather than the odd thing here and there, as I find it easier to produce my Project Life pages (and hopefully my 12x12 layouts too!) when everything coordinated. For example I have just placed my order for the new Simple Stories “I am” range… I have bought the collection kit which contains Alpha and Element Sticker sheets,along with a mix of 12x12 papers including some cut-a-part sheets which I can use in my Project Life pages. I also bought the coordinating Ephemera pack,Chipboard Stickers, Brads, 6x6 Paper Pad and Enamel dots.

I decided to finally tackle a layout, and opted for Dear Lizzy Serendipity range. I firstly chose my background paper;Dear Lizzy Serendipity Little Things Paper. I pulled sheets from the 6x6 PaperPad, and grabbed the coordinating ephemera kit and stickers.

Watching many process videos has been useful, as I had an idea of how I wanted my first page to look and I got lots of hits and tips. All the paper layers were edged using a black ink pad which makes them stand out from each other better, and I also added a few additional splatters using metallic mists.

I finished the layout with a few enamel dotsand sequins.

 

I’m very pleased with my first attempted, and I hope you like it too. I may even attempt to produce a Wedding Album!

Much Love,

Chelle Belle x

My Process to Project Life...

I've been asked on many occasions how I create my layouts, so I thought I would do a little post about my process. 

I do hope the following makes sense!

I have to be honest and say my process/style has developed from my love of watching YouTube Process Videos, and looking at other people’s layouts on Instagram and Pinterest. I love crafting, and my favourite part of my layouts has to be the embellishments. 

I know Becky Higgins produced Project Lifeas a quick and simple way to document daily life, but I love ephemera, stickers and alphas way too much to leave them off my pages. I never took to 12x12 scrapbooking, and I had far too many random life pictures clogging up my iPhone that I wanted to showcase in my album, so I decided to combine the two.

I've found the following process works well for me, and I can complete a layout in around an hour.

I always start with my pictures. My Instagram followers and those who know me through Facebook groups will know I print 90% of my pictures in a 2"x2" format - using the PicFrame App on my iPhone; I join 6 2"x2" pictures together to cover one6"x4" photo. 

I don't stick to any specific Page Protector design, but recently I do have a preference for Design F (one6"x4" and 10 4"x3" slots).

Once I have chosen my Page Protector I layout where I want to place my pictures. I often use the 6"x4" spacefor a Date/Month card - I don't stick to weekly/monthly pages, and just complete them as and when I have enough pictures. I will then decide on my colour scheme for the layout, this is usually based on whether I have a new kit/range that I want to use.

Here I have placed my pictures where I want them, and chosen my cards - including filler cards to balance the page. 

It's then time to raid my stash. I like to keep kits/ranges together, or at least find things that complement each other. For example this particular layout I pulled out my Simple Stories DIY Word and Embellishment Stickers, Simple Stories Homespun 12x12 Sticker Sheet, MAMBI Chipboard Stickers and a few Jillibean Soup ephemera pieces. I also picked out which enamel dots/gems would finish the layout, and keep them to oneside. 

I always use the same system where possible…Sticker sheets, cut-a-part pieces, matching ephemera pack, and coordinating enameldots/gems. I often use wood veneers or washi tape where possible

I go around to each card in turn and decide what I would like to use. I find cutting out pieces from sticker sheets or chipboard sheets, and resting them in the approximate place helps me envisagethe layout as a whole. 

Once I have done this I go back round toeach card and stick everything into place. I like to outline my cards in Black pen (or sometimes another colour depending on the layout), and back all pictures on either Black or White cardstock (again this depends on the layout). I find both of these techniques make the cards/pictures pop that little bit more from the page. 

I love using my typewriter to complete any journaling I may wish to add either directly onto cards or by using journaling tags, and I always finish my layouts using enamel dots, sequins or sparkly gems. 

Here is my finished layout.

Well I hope this helps you with your layouts,and maybe one day soon I’ll put together some process videos of my own!

If you have any questions, please commenton this post.

Much Love,

Chelle Belle x