December Dailies 2009 - The Album

I am excited to get started with this year's December Dailies. I attempted to make one last year and failed miserably. In fact, I wasn't even able to do a Christmas Album last year. This year, however, I am very much inspired by what I have accomplished so far and I thought I'll end the year with December Dailies. So here's the album I made that will be home to my December Dailies project.

The album is an American Crafts Modern 8 x 8 D-Ring Album. I bought it a couple of months ago and it's red! I didn't intend it to be a Christmas album but I'm glad I decided to go for red.

I covered the chipboard portion with Scenic Route patterned paper. First, I distressed the edges with dye ink using an Ink Blending Tool. Then I inked the edges with gold using a Gold Leafing Pen.

Then I got a small scrap of rectangular patterned paper and distressed the edges with dye ink.

I have a lot of Heidi Swapp chipboard alphas in my stash so I thought it would be a good opportunity to use up some of them. I picked some raw chipboard alphas and painted them with gold acrylic (Kaiser Kraft). When dry, I adhered them on the rectangular patterned paper. I added a little cardstock sticker and used buttons as dots on the "i"s.

Then, I got an old Kaisercarft Wooden embellishment (Christmas) and embossed it with gold embossing powder. I then outlined the wavy pattern with Liquid Pearls. I tied a ribbon around the seam where the red fabric and Scenic Route paper meet and attached the Christmas ornament and 3 bells in silver, red and green.

I was already able to finish up to page 5 of the inner foundation pages (as Ali Edwards would call them) and will share them soon.

Thanks for looking!

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Baguio 2006: A Mini Album

I recently discovered our photos from our Baguio trip in 2006. I just have to scrap them - I was 20lbs lighter then! Anyway, I thought it would be the album to use the Wisteria papers in. So here it is.

Cover: Album - Basic Grey Tabbed Chocolate Chip Album, Wisteria Papers (Cornflower, Jardin, French Topiary), Chipboard – Bazzil Chips, Paint – Making Memories, Alpha Stickers – Making Memories, Bling – BG Bling it on and Prima

Here I painted the cover with green acrylic paint. I punched lots of butterflies and you'll see more inside the album. The title was cut using the Slice.

A close up on the beaded embellishment. I actually made this butterfly during that Baguio Trip so I thought it would be good to use it in the album.


Page 1: Wisteria Paper (Cornflower), Chipboard – Wisteria Chip Sticker Shapes, Cardstock – Bazzil

I typed the journaling on cardstock and highlighted some words by using a different font from the rest of the text and making them bigger.

Page 2: Wisterial Papers (Jardin, Cornflower), Bling – BG Bling it On, Cardstock – Bazzil

I typed the journaling again and highlighted some words. This is one of my favorite photos in the set. Ariel took a photo of me while I was beading - the butterfly on the cover was one of the embellishments I made that time.

I cut the flower from some of the scraps, colored a portion of it and added bling on the center.

Page 3: Wisteria Paper (Cornflower), Chipboard – Bazzil Chips, Cardstock – Bazzil, Others – Paint, Shimmer Mist, Liquid Pearls

The journaling on the right side was printed just like in the previous pages. The strips of words on the left were stamped on cardstock. The crown and flourish were done by using a rub-on adhesive and rubbing gold foil on the pattern. I painted the base green just like the cover of the album.

Page 4: Wisteria Paper (French Topiary), Chipboard – Bazzil Chips, Cardstock – Bazzil, Others – Paint, Ink, Perfect Pearls

This is definitely my favorite photo in the set. Journaling was handwritten on this page. The flower and flourish chipboards were painted using paint dabbers. Then I stamped on the flower using a glue pad after which I dusted perfect pearls to bring out the stamped image.

Page 5: Wisteria Paper (White Dynasty), Chipboard – Bazzil Chips, Cardstock – Bazzil, Others – Paint, Stickles, Alpha Stickers

This is a very simple page. I simply used stickers for the journaling. I just did a bit of cutting - the flowers were cut from scraps of the same paper and then I layered them on top of the flower patterns.

Page 6: Wisteria Paper (Garden Patio), Chipboard – Wisteria Chip Sticker Shapes, Others – Vellum

I printed the journaling again but this time on vellum so that the pattern behind still shows through. Then I just embellished with chipboards. It's not obvious in the photo but the flower center was dotted with Stickles.

Page 7: Wisteria Papers (Stone Wall, Garden Patio), Chipboard – Wisteria Chip Sticker Shapes, Bling – BG Bling It On

More butterflies and bling on this page. No special techniques here.

This is actually the "negative" from a butterfly chipboard (you'll see it on the last page) which I adhered on a piece of patterned paper.

Page 8: Wisteria Paper (White Dynasty), Bling – BG Bling It On

The lovely rub-on on the right side of the page is actually BG Bling It On which I absolutely fell in love with. I thought the rub-on and bling combo adds a nice touch to the page.

It adds a bit of sparkle, texture and dimension on the page. It's also very easy to use.

Page 9: Wisteria Paper (Stone Wall), Chipboard – Wisteria Chip Sticker Shapes, Bling – BG Bling It On

There's the butterfly chipboard! Can you see another Bling It On on the page? I scattered the rub-ons and bling across the page.

Here's the full album again.

All the Basic Grey products featured here are available at My Little Attic.

Thanks for looking!

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I heart BG's Wisteria line

I mentioned in my previous post that Lily Kate was among my favorite BG papers. That's because I love purple and similar colors. Lilac and yellow were our wedding colors. In fact, purple is one of the hot colors in fashion this year. I probably have more tops in various shades of purple than any other color besides black and white. Needless to say, when I saw the Wisteria line of Basic Grey, I was smitten.

Here's a layout I made using some Wisteria papers. It's called "Blooms" and features photos of flowers. The layout is about my love for flowers. Fortunately for me, Ariel loves to surprise me with bouquets of flowers every now and then. By the way, did you know that Wisteria is actually a vine with flowers in shades of purple, pink or white? Beautiful! I could use one of those in our yard. :D


I think I am currently in the Stickles phase. I use Stickles in practically every project I can manage to squeeze into my busy quarter 4 schedule. Notice the stamping? Another layout staple these days. Just trying to get the ROI on my stamp purchases. LOL!

The color of the acrylic paint I used on the chipboards is Wisteria. How cool is that? The shimmery splotches on the painted chipboard is yellow shimmer mist.

Materials used:

• Patterned Papers – Basic Grey Wisteria (Willow, Pond, Jardin)
• Cardstock – Bazzil (Light Green)
• Chipboard Shapes and Alphas – Bazzil Chips and Basic Grey
• Stickles
• Acrylic Paint
• Shimmer mist
  

Here's how I made the page:

• Distress edges of cardstock with dye ink.
• Trim the Willow paper to 11.5 x 11. Trim the Pond paper to 11 x 10. Distress the edges with dye ink and when dry, distress the edge with an edge distresser. You can also use the edge of your scissors to do this.
• Assemble the two patterned papers on top of the cardstock, the smallest paper on top.
• Adhere the photos on the page.
• Cut a rectangular piece of light green cardstock. Distress with ink and stamp with journaling lines using dye ink.
• Paint the alpha chipboards with yellow and the shapes with wisteria acrylic paint. When dry, spray with yellow shimmer mist to add shine.
• Assemble the journaling card, title and chipboards on the layout. Add stems using a green cord.
• Punch the edge of Jardin paper with a scallop punch. Cut ¾ inch strip of the punched paper. Distress the edges with ink. Adhere to the page just above the photo using foam adhesive.
• Cut a ¼ inch strip of Willow paper. Distress with dye ink and adhere on top of the scallop strip.
• Write the journaling and add stickles for some sparkle.

Thanks for looking! Watch out for my next post for more projects using the Wisteria line.

Basic Grey Wisteria is available at My Little Attic.

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More Basic Grey Marrakech Projects

Did you know that My Little Attic is one of the first, if not THE first, local store to bring Basic Grey to the Philippine shores? I fell in love with BG when I first started scrapping and soon I began hoarding the papers. Lily Kate was among my all time favorite lines. I still have a few papers left from my hoard (I used to buy 2 of each sheet!). I also still have Motifica and Skate Shop papers from my first few purchases. Now, I'm happy to be using some of Basic Grey's newer lines. One of these is the Marrakech line. I've already shared some projects at the MLA blog and also a few posts back in this blog (see it here and here). Here are a few more projects I created using the papers and chipboards of Marrakech.

First off is a 12 x 12 layout called East Mebon. I used a photo taken during our trip to Cambodia. When I saw the Darjeelings paper, I knew right away which photo I would use.


I stamped the journaling block and added hand-written journaling.

That photo corner is actually a chipboard covered with cardstock and stamped on.

Here are the materials used for this layout:
Patterned Papers – Basic Grey Marakech (Darjeelings, Honeybush, Elderflower), Cardstock – Bazzil, Chipboards – Basic Grey Marakech and Bazzil Chips

And here's how I made it:

• Ink edges of cardstock using chalk ink.
• Cut an 11” strip from Honeybush paper. Ink edges.
• Cut an 11 ¾” strip from Elderflower paper. Ink edges.
• Cut pattern from Darjeelings paper. Ink edges.
• Assemble and adhere the strips of paper on the cardstock.
• Stamp journaling block on green cardstock.
• Cover corner chipboard with green cardstock. Cut to shape. Stamp flourish on the covered chipboard.
• Adhere journaling block, photo and chipboards.
• Adhere title.
• Write journaling.

The next layout is called Ocean Adventure. The photo was taken while dolphin watching in Dumaguete. While the papers are not those typically used for summer or beach layouts, I decided to give it a try since the colors match my and Ariel's shirts.


I added sparkle, dimension and texture using Stickles.

I also used stickles on the flower centers. And as always, I did a bot of stamping on my page.

Here are the materials I used for this layout:
Patterned Papers – Basic Grey Marakech (Elderflower, Masala Bella, Honeybush), Cardstock – Bazzil (red), Chipboards – Basic Grey Marakech, Stickles

And here's how I made it:

• Distress edges of red cardstock with dye ink.
• Cut Honeybush paper into 7.5 x 12 and distress with dye ink.
• Cut flower patterns from Masala Bella paper. Distress edges with dye ink.
• Adhere photo at an angle on the top portion of the red cardstock.
• Adhere patterns cut from the Masala Bella paper as well as chipboards on both sides of the photo.
• Adhere the Honeybush paper on the bottom portion of the layout, overlapping on a portion of the photo.
• Cut a strip of Elderflower cardstock and distress edges with ink. Adhere on top of the Honeybush paper leaving a small margin above.
• Cut the title from the Masala Bella paper using Slice. Distress with ink to darken and increase contrast. Adhere on the layout.
• Stamp a journaling block on the patterned paper using dye ink. Write the journaling.
• Apply dots using Stickles on flower centers and across the Elderflower strip.

Finally, I made a card using scraps of paper leftover from the layouts.


My favorite element in the card is the butterfly that was stamped and embossed on vellum.

Here are the materials used for this card:
Materials: Card, Patterned Papers – Basic Grey Marakech (Vanilla Chai, Calming Moon), Ribbon – Basic Grey, RubOns – Autumn Leaves

And here's how I made the card:

• Cut a 2 x 7 strip from Vanilla Chai paper. Distress with dye ink and adhere to bottom of card.
• Punch a design along the border of the Calming Moon paper. Cut into 2 strips of 1 x 7 and .5 x 7. Distress the strips with dye ink. Adhere the wider strip on top of the Vanilla Chai paper and the narrower strip on the topmost portion of the card.
• Stamp a butterfly image using pigment ink on the card.
• Stamp flourish patterns on the card using Glue Pad and dust with Perfect Pearls.
• Stamp another butterfly using embossing ink on a piece of vellum. Pour copper embossing powder on the stamped image and heat until the powder has been embossed. Cut along the pattern and fold wings. Adhere the body using dimensional adhesive directly on top of the other butterfly image.
• Apply greeting RubOns on the card.
• Adhere ribbon on the card.

There you have it. Basic Grey products are available at My Little Attic.

Thanks for looking!

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Relax

I made this layout over a week ago - after hybernating for about a month. To make it easier for me, I used the Documentary Kit of Studio Calico. The photo is of Ariel, chilling in Dumguete. Because there is a big white space on the photo itself, I decided to put the title on the photo, using Jessica Spragues digital stamp. Got this from her online class.

Despite the fact that this is a guy layout, I used butterflies, lots of them...

...and bling! I used black pearls to make it a bit masculine.

Actually, the earth tones on this layout helped make the "feminine" embellishments work for a masculine layout. At least that's what I think.

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