Thursday 23 April 2015

Family Means No-one Gets Left Behind Layout
7 Dots Studio






Hello all!  Thanks so much for all your kind words of encouragement to me lately.
They have not gone unnoticed!  Right now I am ULTRA BUSY preparing for
the big Epic Event at Scrap Around The World as well as choosing & 
orientating the new design team, preparing the mood boards & finding
new sponsors.  It is ALL GOING ON BEHIND THE SCENES!
I am so tired I am off to bed but quickly popping this one up
& pressing PRESCHEDULE for the morning :)


I decided to use the 7 Dots Destination Unknown Collection in a feminine way
 this month.  You can see the original post up on the 7 Dots Studio blog at the
 moment HERE.  I used the 6 x 12 inch Elements to add interest to my 
clusters & some offcuts of the 'Travel Bag' paper {B side} for my
 journaling, as it is plain black.


Black & white works great with the strong blues in this collection.
I added flowers in blues, yellows & lime greens to tie in with my photo too.


I also used the absolutely AMAZING SOULMATES STENCIL HERE,
together with some Prima Modeling Paste, on my background.
It is so delicate, light & definitely feminine!

Although my son is in the foreground of the photo the focus is
 on my daughter & how she was deserted by her long-term
boyfriend last year 3 weeks before her Honours finals.
My son came to her rescue as they were both 
studying far from home at the same university.  

Thanks for taking a peek & I hope I have inspired you to look 
at collections in a new light.  This is a travel collection but 
can work for a feminine page too as you can see.

See the full range of 7 Dots Studio Collections HERE.




Wednesday 22 April 2015

Crazy Love for Prima Marketing Inc!
Design Team Application!!





Hello everyone!   I am sure it will come as no surprise to any of you 
that I am applying for a position on the Prima Design Team this year
 - I use Prima products on almost everything I make, simply because
 I love them so much, they are such good quality products,
 they go so well with my style & they are timeless.  

I have FIVE CRATES of Prima flowers &embellishments in my 
studio & a good couple of inches of Prima papers still in my 
stash despite playing in the Prima contests almost every month
 {the Prima Product Pick & the Build-a-Page BAP Sketch}.

One of the reasons for my affinity to Prima {as well as because their 
products match my style of creating} is their ''international friendly"
policy.  As an papercrafts designer living at the bottom of Africa
 this means so much to me!   I love feeling like a part of the Prima
 community & following all their moves on Facebook & Instagram
as they travel the world to so many different scrapbooking events!

My love affair with Prima goes back A LONG TIME as I have been
scrapbooking for 11 years - but it turned into an OBSESSION about
4 years ago {this is my 4th application!}.  My way of thinking has always
 been ''you never know unless you try" so I have thrown my hat
 in again this year! Last year I was SO BLESSED to  get a 
GUEST DESIGNER POSITION in November 2014, 
which you can view HERE & HERE.

Since then I have tried to up my game by getting active on Instagram,
 opening a Twitter account, keeping my galleries, page tabs across 
the top of my blog & sidebars up to date as well as creating more 
cards, tags, off-the-page projects, altered items & canvases, 
plus , of course buying plenty of Prima stash & using it 
on almost everything I create, as well as sharing all
my creations & linking them up to Prima & actively
following & commenting on the Prima blog & FB.

I have gone through my blog since the call last year
 & selected some of my favourite Prima based layouts
 to share.  There were dozens to choose from as I use
Prima on practically EVERYTHING these days LOL!

MY 10 FAVOURITE PRIMA LAYOUTS FROM THE PAST YEAR -
INCLUDING MY GUEST DESIGNER LAYOUTS FROM NOV 2014



Prima mediums, color-bloom sprays, micro-beads, flowers, twine





Prima Flowers, Stencil, Medium, Color-Blooms, Metal





Prima Flowers, medium, color-bloom sprays & lace





Prima Stationer's Desk Collection as well as color-bloom sprays & canvas alphas





Prima Seashore Collection, color-bloom sprays, mediums, stencil





Prima flowers, mediums, glitter, stencil, resist canvas & chalk edgers





Prima Tea-Thyme & Forever Green Collections plus medium, 
color-bloom sprays,SIIC bling,resins, alphas, flowers 
& embellishments from Coffee Time Collection





Time Traveler's Memories Collection, stamps, color-bloom spray




Nov 2015 Prima Guest Designer Layout



Coffee Time Papers, Prima wire, lace, flowers, packaging,
 alphas, Finnabair gesso, color-bloom sprays



Nov 2014 Prima Guest Designer Layout



Forever Green Collection plus flowers, metals,
 color-bloom sprays, enamel dots & stamps



--------------------------------------

Now a sample tag, card, album-cover & mini-album!

TAG



Prima mask, Finnabair Gesso & Color-bloom sprays






Prima flowers, twine, art-sugar & color-bloom sprays



Mini Album Cover - Prima Nov 2014 Guest Designer



Everything from the Prima Nov Special Delivery 2014 Kit



Mini Album



Prima wood embellishments, wood tickets, shabby-chic
 treasures {light-bulbs} & metal zipper pulls




Off-the-Page Projects



Prima color-bloom spray & wood embellishments



CANVASES



Prima Free Spirit Papers, glitter, microbeads, flowers, twine & embellishments





Prima art mediums & color-bloom sprays, flowers, lace, glitter & micro-beads






Prima stencil, art mediums, art sugar, color-bloom sprays, chalk edgers & flowers







Prima color-bloom sprays, art sugar, modeling paste, flowers



-----------------------------------

I'm happy to see that I have only missed 5 Prima Contest Entries out of 24 
over the past year!  That means I've played along 90% of the time!!

PRIMA CONTEST ENTRIES PAST YEAR

May 2014 Prima BAP



Prima Stationer's Desk, stencil, black gesso, flowers, paperclips, brads, 
resins, gems, tiles, tassles, metals, pebbles & color-bloom sprays



May 2014 Prima Product Pick



Prima Free Spirit & Something Blue Collection, color-bloom sprays, 
art mediums, masks, gems, flowers, enamel dots, resins, paper clips



June 2014 Prima BAP {altered Ferrero Rocher Acrylic Lid}



Prima Cartographer collection, color-bloom sprays, chalk 
edgers, stamps, wood embellishments, metals, brads.



June 2014 Prima Product Pick



Prima Something Blue Collection, color-bloom sprays, mediums, 
stencil, lace, flowers, gems, brads, SIIC bling, lace, wood 
embellishments, bark embellishments, packaging



July 2014 Prima BAP CARD SET



Prima Free Spirit Collection papers, color-bloom sprays, gesso, brads, bling, 
flowers, lace, light-bulb, crochet embellishment, paper clips & flowers.



July 2014 Prima Product Pick



Prima Delight & Divine Collections, masks, modeling paste, 
color-bloom spray, stamps, flowers, canvas alphas, 
SIIC bling, gems, paper-clips, Madeline stickers



Aug 2014 Prima BAP



Prima Time Traveler's Memories Collection, color-bloom 
sprays, art mediums, die-cut printed chipboard, 



Sept 2014 Prima BAP



Prima lace, resins, flowers, mediums, alphas, die-cut printed 
chipboard, gems, color-bloom sprays, mask & wooden doors. 



Sept 2014 Prima Product Pick



Prima Time Traveler's Memories papers, Color-bloom sprays, 
flowers, leaves, paper-clips, crochet embellishments, mediums,




Oct 2014 Prima BAP



Cartographer Papers, SIIC bling, color-bloom sprays, stamps, die-cut
 printed chipboard, packaging, wood embellishments, stickers, alphas. 



Oct 2014 Prima Product Pick



Prima Seashore Collection, mask, color-bloom sprays, stamps, flowers,
 die-cut printed chipboard, resins, metals, wood feathers, crochet 
embellishment, bark embellishment



Jan 2015 Prima BAP CANVAS



Color-bloom sprays, mediums, mask, wood embellishments,
 crochet embellishments, gems, flowers, packaging



Jan 2015 Prima Product Pick CANVAS



Mask, mediums, mica flakes, microbeads, flowers,
 leaves, color-bloom sprays, gesso



Feb 2015 Prima BAP



Prima paper, mediums, stamps, SIIC swirls, stamps, masks, 
chalk edgers, Coffee Time stickers, gems, packaging, 
paper clips, crochet embellishments, resins.



Feb 2015 Prima Product Pick



Prima paper, stamps, mediums, color-bloom sprays,
 flowers, gems, embellishments, twine, metals & dies



March 2015 Prima BAP



Prima Coffee Time Collection Papers, dies, flowers, 
color-boom sprays, lace, vines, packaging



March 2015 - Prima Product Pick



Prima Free Spirit & Optimist Collections, stamps, color-bloom
 sprays, flowers, leaves, metals, gems, resins, buttons, bark
 embellishments, vines. word stickers




April 2015 Prima BAP blogged very recently HERE



Prima Coffee Break Paper, Seashore Printed Chipboard Die-cuts
 & brads, various blooms & vines, Color Bloom Sprays, plus 
Prima button & craft wire, stencil & modeling paste.




April 2015 Prima Product Pick OTP TRAY


Prima School Memories Collection, Ingvild Bolme resins, various
 blooms,Gesso & Crackle, microbeads, shabby chic treasures
 & metals, Ann Marie Ticket, I Love Paris metal hanging trinket

THANK YOU SO MUCH PRIMA FOR CONSIDERING MY APPLICATION!




Tuesday 21 April 2015

Happily Ever After Off-The-Page Project {Altered Tray}
Prima Product Pick April 2015







Hello friends :)  Today I am here to share with you my take on the 
Prima Product Pick HERE. I shared my take on the BAP yesterday
so if you missed it please go back a post - I only have several hours
between these posts because time is of the essence for me to get
my Prima Design Team application in & this year they are allowing
a dedicated blog post to it - which is coming up next!

Who wouldn't like to be a Prima girl?!?


A quick snap of what I began with!  

A little tray I bought locally a while ago at Mr. Price Home & didn't use.
  The base was too rustic & not entirely flat, which drove me  crazy, but 
it was too pretty to throw out  so I thought it would make a great, 
commemorative wall decor piece for my daughter's recent graduation.


Well as you can see the PPP was pretty WOW this month.
AWESOME colours & how fortuitous for me that my daughter was 
wearing magenta & that her room is turquoise!!  Thank you GOD!!!


I began by collaging the bottom of the tray using various papers from the
Prima School Memories Collection then whitewashing over them with gesso.


Next I painted the rest of the tray with Broken China Ranger paint, 
followed by a layer of crackle glaze, then a layer of white gesso
dry-brushed on top.  Rather a lengthly process but very relaxing.


I printed off my 3 favourite prints of my daughter's graduation day,
using my very handy little Canon Selphy printer.  I just can't recommend
this printer enough.  It is ultra-convenient & the quality of the prints is fantastic!


I raised the photos up slightly using 3D foam tape then framed the centre photo
 with the Ingvild Bolme shutters after first painting them with color bloom sprays.


Next I added the other resin pieces, also water-colour painted using Color Bloom Sprays
in a diluted form.  Next I added micro-beads to the fountains to look like water spilling over.


I printed off the quote, found on Google Images, then cut it into pieces 
& glued them on.  I used my glue gun for the bulk of my sticking here.


My daughter's nickname is Squirrel so I have been squirrelling this resin embellishment
away for the perfect day!  I painted it with color bloom spray again then coloured the 
tail & eye in with a marker.  The Coffee Break books were also perfectly appropriate.


I forgot to mention that before attaching my resins I added a couple of pieces of ribbon
underneath each photo - in yellow & lime - just to make sure that all of the colours of
the PPP got a place on my creation.  Next I adhered my blooms & tucked in some
colourful rafia & added suitable embellishments including a broken binder clip.


I used a Tim Holtz Key as to me a key always indicates a new start {now that she 
is free from her studies} but I the EXPLORE metal is a Prima one, as is the 
Happily Ever Ticket from the Ann Marie Collection & probably intended 
for wedding layouts but I love to use things in different ways to that
for which they were intended - such is Prima's versatility!


Just to show the 3D nature of the tray.


And lots of yummy details that would have made the post far too long 
had I shared them all individually!  Thanks for swinging by today!!