"Four" Layout, using Cheery Lynn Dies

I’ve been itching to play with my newly acquired 'Sunflower' and ‘Fanciful Flourish’ , ‘Exotic Butterflies’ and 'Garden Gate'  dies by Cheery Lynn.

....and even though I delight in using the die cuts as they are, this time I opted to play around and created extended flourishes, adding multi-layered petals to the flowers, curling and inking them.  The smaller buds of varying size, were also created using the same ‘Sunflower’ die, just given a nip, tuck and fold.  To complete the buds the leaves from several ‘Fanciful Flourish’ Pieces were removed, with a little snip at the top/middle of each leaf carefully opened each up to form lovely cradles for the buds.  The ‘Garden Gate’ was cut from chipboard, painted, inked and then all die cuts were washed with a hint of gold ... which sadly does not show too well in the photographs.

I love being ‘creative’ .....

Flower Tutorial

One of the fun parts of being a DT member was coming up with tutorials.  This tutorial I completed in May (2011) and thought I’d also repost here to share....

These flowers are so easy to put together and can be a lovely accent adhered to cards or layouts.

Requirements: Circle punch (or cut out circles by hand), ribbon, and a hot glue gun.

· Firstly, punch out several circles from cardstock. *See photo A. This is your base that holds the ribbons together, so it needs to be out of strong cardboard or cardstock, not just paper.

With your hot-glue gun, place a small amount of glue on cardstock circle and adhere ribbon. *See photo B.

Pleat your ribbon, carefully adding just a touch of glue with each pleat to hold in place, till whole circle is covered. *See Photo C & D.



Create a ribbon rose from the same ribbon. You can find plenty of instructions for these rolled ribbon roses, doing a google search. *See Photo D.

OR - add a button, or flower centre instead. *See Main Photo of Flowers for ideas.

 Adhere your ribbon rose to the newly created ribbon circle. *See Photo E.

Using green remnant of ribbon, approx 4-5cm, fold ribbon to form a leaf. Create two leaves for each flower you make. See Photo F & G.

Attach leaves to bottom of circle with a small amount of glue. *See Photo F (below) for placement idea of leaves and finished flower.

I quiet often use these flowers on cards, as they do sit quite nicely. Also, making your own flowers gives you the scope to match colours perfectly with other accents you use on layouts or cards. The below photographs are several examples of cards I have created, using the tutorial above to create flowers.

At the moment, my favorite ribbon to use on cards, allowing for both the more modern look as well as vintage is the “Mesh Ribbon” – it is so versatile.







"I want you to love me" Layout

I can remember vividly joking with John (my partner) that I wanted a Burmese and it was either a cat or a baby...

Our cat, Malinki, a Burmese came into our lives not long before we discovered we were going to be parents.  

Right throughout my pregnancy she adored my growing belly, would perch upon it and sit there and stare – even more so when bubby would move about.  Malinki grew very attached to the new addition, and upon our son, Jesse’s arrival and coming home – oh my goodness.  It was like a bee to the finest flower ever ........ they were and still are glued together. 

Actually, it is quite uncanny the wonderful closeness they share – unique and an extremely beautiful experience.

Our photos consist of the two together constantly, and this layout, depicts the two in their usual ‘stance’ – curled up together or playing together.

AND, before anyone gets alarmed, Malinki never slept with Jesse and still doesn’t!

The layout includes hidden journaling, and also a range of other photographs that ‘tell the tale’.  It was created with a range of odd papers I had laying about and cardstock to match.  Odds and ends of everything – a bit of lace, ribbon, crochet, Tim Holtz journal pin, Cheery Lynn butterfly & fanciful flourish die, and even stitching (which sadly does not show in the photograph at all).

There are plenty more photographs with Malinki and Jesse together ... precious moments to scrap and treasure!

Colour Challenge Layout

Of late, I have been busy being extremely creative, I have so much I need to place on my blog to catch up!  I keep promising myself that even if people don’t read my blog, its important to still ‘blog’.

Anyhow, thought I would share a layout I created from Mad About Scrappin’s “Colour Challenge” – we had to incorporate baby blue, pink, cream and teal.

For me personally, I love challenges (even with no prize) as it is a way of creating an item, I just normally would not venture into.  I love stepping out of my safety zone and into the unknown, incorporating techniques, colours, embellishments, papers, etc - that I normally would steer clear well and truly away from.  I have discovered this ‘aspect’ of ‘challenges’ is where some of my best work originates from...

Now if only, I could come up with titles as easy!  For some reason I struggle doing my titles – always left till last and often ‘blank’ for days – if I’m honest, even weeks and months!!!  Uhg!  I keep hoping that one of these days, the titles will flow as easily as the rest of my layouts .... *wishful thinking perhaps, but a nice thought*.  AND, I have to add here, I am so envious of the individuals who can produce such soul touching titles ..... I admire you!!!!

I’m not a huge fan of teal as a colour, so hunted through my stash to find anything that resembled closely to ‘teal’. Uh huh, in the ‘said’ stash, I discovered just the perfect paper – “Pink Paislee” – ‘Love Blooms’ – it has the tealish background, as well as the cream and pinks.  The baby blue is found in the wooden flourishes, inked with a baby blue Kaiser in-pad – stands out a lot more in reality than in the actual photograph.

The photo itself is of Mum holding ‘me’ as a baby ... very precious. I would like to re-create this type of photograph, using a mirror with my son.  Hmmm, something I shall have to endeavour to do so soon, as he’s fast growing up!

All that is left to do to complete the layout, is the journalling – A tag, hidden beneath the photograph.  Thankfully, I have been given the gift of the gab (LOL) and can journal with ease....

P.S ... I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the Cheery Lynn butterfly die used on this layout!  Actually, there is not one of their dies I don't LOVE!