Friday, September 24, 2010

Bo Bunny's Beautiful 'Olivia' collection


I really enjoyed playing with the Bo Bunny Olivia collection recently. The papers and embellishments are so soft and feminine. For the above l/o I dressed up the chipboard dress-form from the chipboard collection with a little bit of gathered ribbon. I love that they also make wonderful dot cardstock that coordinates with each of their collection. I used the Chiffon Dot and the Coral Dot Bo Bunny cardstock to make the blooms on this page. I did a little tutorial for the Bo Bunny Blog on these if you'd like to have a look! ~~> Bo Bunny Blog

Here are a few close-ups of the page elements....



TIP: When using fabric that frays (like organza, silk etc.) you can easily finish the edge and give it a bit of a 'ruffle' by using a little 'flame'. I just light a small tea candle and carefully bring the edge of the fabric towards the flame so that it melts slightly.....

Thanks for stopping by for a peek! .....I've got a sweet butterfly tutorial coming up soon!

~Gabrielle xxx

Monday, September 20, 2010

Winner! of the Whimsical Hairband!



It's the 20th and time for me to announce who will be getting the above floral hairband in the mail!! Thanks so much for all the sweet, kind comments from all my scrappy friends, your words and feedback on my work mean so much to me! So here we go! ......Congrats! to Sandie Sherman! Your comment really touched my heart, I hope and pray that this little trinket will bring some joy to your little 12 year old. This was Sandie's comment.....

"Absolutely Georgeous!!!! I love your creation, you inspire me in such a way! I have a girl 12 years old with brain cancer who I know would LOVE this headband!"


Please send me your address to my email address gpollacco@aol.com and I'll send off your prize asap (When I click on your comment it doesn't seem to link up to your blog, so I'm really hoping you come by and find out you've won!) I wish you and your family good health and happiness! xx



Thanks everyone for stopping by! I've got another fun little tutorial to share with you all very soon!


~Gabrielle xxx

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Bo Bunny Wraps & Trims!!

Pssst!! Have you all seen the gorgeous new Wraps and Trims Bo Bunny came out with at the last CHA?? I love me some beautiful fabric elements on a page and Bo Bunny has come through with flying colours on that wish! Their coordinating trims are so beautiful, from lovely gossamer fringe trims to amazing metal studded trims (for more masculine l/o's), there is shimmer, shine, leather and lace! It was hard to pick which one to play with first! For my l/o here I used the Bo Bunny Winter Joy Collection of papers and trims. LOL! I know the collection is a winter collection but I thought the colours in the papers were a nice compliment to this photo that I took last summer of my youngest daughter. If you are looking for whimsical colors, look no further! I love the girly softness of the apple green ribbon flowers (also Bo Bunny) with the blues and purples! here are a few close-up pic's! .....
......and I did of course add in a few of my favourite Dusty Attic Laser-cut chippies!! I used one of the new dress forms (dressed up with a little of the BB fringe trim) and one of my favourite Dusty Attic vine flourishes......here's a closer look at the finish on these.....

I simply painted each of the DA chipboard pieces with some white acrylic paint, then used some soft chalk inks (chestnut brown, smokey lavender, and moss green) on the edges. For the dress form I used a small Bo Bunny flourish stamp on the body of the dress form, and for the vine I added a little bit of clear frosty glitter glue (Stickles ~ Diamond).
Thanks for stopping by again, hope everyone is having an awesome week! (Please note: I've let the designer at the Bo Bunny Blog know that the pic's for the Hairband tutorial are not showing up.....I'm sure she'll have it fixed in a jiffy)
~Gabrielle xxx

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Beautiful Bo Bunny Petals!!


Among the many beautiful things Bo Bunny brought out at the last CHA, I think the new Petals must be among my favourite!! For the above l/o I used the amazing Charcoal Knit Petals....just the name alone evokes this warm cozy feeling, and they are so soft and pretty. I thought they'd be the perfect accent for this father/daughter page I wanted to make up of Steve & Meagan. Yes, they are flowers on a masculine l/o but I think the style of the blooms can work well with a masculine page lol!! The papers I used are from the Cambridge collection (I'm so crazy for this collection!!)

I also did some layered masking on one of the text papers from Bo Bunny. I shared this Designer's Tip at the Bo Bunny Blog today:

Designers Tip: I just love a nice piece of 'journal or text' paper like the Cambrige 'Post' paper. I like to use it for all sorts of things. On this page I punched blooms from it and tinted them with a little ink (I'll be posting a tutorial on making blooms coming up this month at the BB blog)....and I like to change up a neutral paper like this with a little ink and masking. For my circle design on this page, I cut a circular piece of the 'Post' paper. I then cut out a few floral designs with my die cutter. You can use a flower punch or even hand-cut a simple flower design for this. The grass I just cut from some plain white paper with scissors. I attached it to the paper with some movable sticky tape. Then just dabbed on a variety of chalk inks. Here I used a dark brown & green chalk ink. I then removed the pieces of paper (discarded them)and I'm left with the floral design. To dress it up a little more I lightly brushed the flower design with some Wheat color chalk ink and some Rose color ink....and the leaves with a touch of bright green. Don't worry about being exact, the colours melding into each other gives the piece a nice water-color effect.

Here are a few close-ups of the Charcoal Knit Petals, the handmade blooms and the pretty BB trims (the gold trim is from the Noel collection)....




Shhhh! I have been doing a whole lot more playing with the BoBunny Petals and have some fun projects coming up to share with you all!.....in the meantime checkout the other l/o's & projects the rest of the talented girls on the BB team came up with on todays Bo Bunny blog, you'll come away inspired!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

~Gabrielle xxx

Friday, September 3, 2010

It's Here!!! The September kits from My Creative Scrapbook!!


Can I just say this never get's old for me? Getting these beautiful kits in the mail is like getting a gift every month! My girls & I just start digging into each of the kits....oohhing & ahhhing...the girls making me promise to let them use my 'left-overs' from the kits (heehee, ya if I don't go and use everything up first! LOL!)

This months Limited Edition kit from My Creative Scrapbook is just out of this world gorgeous!! Brand new Prima collections from this past summer CHA!! Two of every paper (love that!!) so you can design with both sides! And the blooms!! LOADS of premium Prima blooms, I was in heaven! My brother's family just got new new sweet little puppy named Zucker (pronounce Tzoo-ka, it's German for Sugar). My girls immediately fell in love with her and although I'm actually a 'big' dog person, she sure did grow on me too! ...I did a little handstitching to make up this l/o and simply added a few of the beautiful Prima blooms (included in the kit to finish the page off). Here are the close-ups....


There's so many pretty colours in this kit, pinks, creams, aqua's/greens....here is a l/o I made with one of the flourishy aqua papers. I scapped a photo I took of Meagan on the smaller dock at the cottage.....

I used some of my handmade blooms that I made from cardstock for this l/o ....you can find the tutorial HERE ...or you can check the right side of my blog for the 'Water Distressed Bloom tutorial' to find out how to make them. I also played a little with the clear crystal flourish by using a little bit of Tim Holtz Alcohol ink dabbed on them with a Q-tip (the color I used for this was called Pool) Here is a close up....

The design of this next page was inspired by the little chipboard journaling pieces that come with this kit! The journaling piece has this funny jaggedy edge and the floral design seems cut out with pink in the middle....so I imitated this look with the papers. The photo is one I took of my youngest Meagan when we were on a little walk up at the cottage. There's these old abandoned rail road cars up there and the girls were hopping all over them (so out came my camera!)....

I handstitched the jaggedy design around the border because I wanted a thicker heavier stitch for this....boy, that took a long time! I have a new respect for all you handstitcher's out there! Here are a few close-ups....


Fore this next l/o I again used some of the aqua/cream paper in this kit...I scrapped a photo that I just love of Meagan baiting her hook while we were at the cottage....love how concentrated she is!....

I mixed the pretty Prima blooms with one large handmade bloom (water-distressed cardstock bloom) to make up this l/o....and also used one of the Dusty Attic Gates (also included in this kit!) to finish it off. Here is a close-up of the gate....

TIP: To get the rusted verdigris look on the gate I simply painted the gate with some turquoise color paint (I used Heidi Swapp 'Sea' color acrylic paint, but any aqua acrylic paint will do) ...I dabbed it on with my finger to get a blotchy imperfect finish. When that dried I used some bronze color 3D paint (Scribbles is the brand I used, you can find it at Michaels in the T-shirt section)....dabbed it on randomly with my finger again so that you get a little texture. And that's it! done! Here are a couple close up shots of this page....


For my 5th l/o with this kit I did a whole lotta hand-stitching again. And again the design was inspired by one of the little chipboard journaling pieces in the kit.....

The frame I made by randomly drawing flourishes around the photo and stitching it with some DMC floss....here are some close-ups...



.....and I still had lot's of goodies to work with! Hmmm, note to self, hide the 'leftovers' from the kiddies! lol!

The Main kit for September was equally beautiful!! So many beautiful papers from Fancy Pants Wishful Thinking collection combined with the glittery goodness of My Minds Eye Lost & Found (New from the summer CHA!) I wish I was good at catching the shimmer of glitter when I take my photo's of my l/o's because this page is so much nicer in real life. This paper is just so darn pretty I almost didn't want to alter it in any way! I scrapped a photo my DH took of Meagan & I at the cottage. I just piled on the beautiful blooms in the kit, added the lovely pearl flourish (also from the kit) and added some of the trim and came up with this l/o....

I took my close-up photo's at an angle so you can get a better idea of the shimmerness of the paper ...love the pretty sheer brown crinkle ribbon in the kit too!...




This next l/o I made with this kit I scrapped a photo my Dad took of me while we were up North. We were out on a walk and he had me pose with the wild flowers. I had to smile when I saw the photo because it reminded me of when I was a little girl. We'd go on family walks down at the creek/forest that was behind our house and my dad would always have his trusty camera with, getting us to pose with the blooms.....

I found one of the old photo's my dad took of me when I was around 8 years old (posing with the flowers lol) and printed it with my journaling on some photopaper and used it as my journaling tag in a pocket behind the photo.....

I created the braided strip by cutting 3 strips of the reddish paper in the kit, lightly misting it and crinkling it into 'strings' then I simply braided it and secured it with wire (the stems I cut from the little pink roses)....

For my next l/o I wanted to go for a very very soft look to go with this photo I took a few years back of Meagan and one of her little friends playing at the beach up north. I added a bit of grey cardstock to give it the smokey softness I was looking for.....

I combined some of the pretty pink Prima Hydrangia blooms with a few of my handmade blooms to embellish the page (again, these bloom's were made using the technique I shared in my Water Distressed bloom tutorial), Here is a close-up pic.....

For my 4rth l/o with this kit I went with the browns/pinks in the kit. I had this cute (but a bit blurry) pic of meagan with a bunch of her friends from school on a field trip.....

I hand cut a few of the blooms from the patterned paper and made a few too for this l/o. I printed the photo in sepia tones so that it would look nice with the pink and brown tones of the papers.....

The last page I made from this kit I made using a sketch by Julie Bonner for an awesome contest that is being launched at MCS in the next few days! (I'll be posting more about this soon!....lot's of awesome prizes to be won!!).....

There is this really cute little bird/birdcage chippie in the kit...I used a little chalk ink and some markers to dress up the little bird chippie and painted the birdcage a simple white with a touch of brown chalk ink. Here's aaclose-up (the photo is another of Meg and her little school friends)....


I know this has been another crazy long-winded post and I thank all of you that have read through right to the end! I tend to run on because I want to remember to share all my tips with you all :) ....I just also want to let you all know that Pam has opened the shopping cart early this month because of the long weekend so if these kits appeal to you....hope on over to MCS and get while the gettin's good! Pam said she ordered extras to make up both the Main & LE kits so no wait list, you can get the September kits right away!! ....well, until the extra's sell out! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

~Gabrielle xxx

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Getting Started with Bo Bunny!!!


So last week I get a notice that I've received a package...I'm thinking, could it be my Bo Bunny DT package? My eye's nearly popped out of my head when I saw this amazing package of goodies they sent me!! I seriously could barely lift the box! All the new collections from the Summer CHA....and man, are they pretty IRL! I think my favourite part is all the new pretty trims and blooms they've put out this time around! Can't wait to try them out!

I did my first assignment for them a couple of days ago. We were given this lovely sketch by Frances A. Sylvia and asked to use the new Learning Curve collection to make a l/o. The above layout is what I came up with. Rather than going with school photo's I thought I'd do a play on 'learning' using photo's I took of my oldest daughter Chloe and her cousin Jenny at the cottage last month, doing a little fishing. The quote says....

Catch a girl a fish,
You feed her for a day,
Teach a girl to fish,
You feed her for a lifetime.

Here is the sketch I used, feel free to use this sketch for one of your own l/o's but if you post please be sure to credit Frances A. Sylvia for the sketch, I think she did an awesome job....



Here are a couple of close-up shots....



You can see what some of the other girls on the Bo Bunny DT did with this sketch here ~~> Bo Bunny Blog

It's a great place to get inspiration on how to use their beautiful collections!

Thanks for having a peek!

~Gabrielle xxx

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails