This is the final layout I made for the Melissa Frances trade show booth. The photo is one of my favorites taken of Rick and I from our holiday in Tuscany last May. And the patterned papers are all from the new "Classic Elegance" collection.
Here is the paper collection again. Do you have a favorite design?
Today I have another layout to show you that I made with the "Classic Elegance" Collection from Melissa Frances. One of the things I really love about these papers are how adaptable they are to scrapbooking for men. As someone who only has little boys in her extended family and no little girls, I appreciate being able to work with papers that are still 'me' (ie, shabby and vintage), but don't look too girly. Don't get me wrong, I still love working with florals and pastels, but there is a place for good masculine designs as well.
The little guy in this photo is my Grandpa from back in the day...
(Did you happen to catch the wee bits of patterned paper from the Attic Treasures Collection and the C'est la Vie Collection as well? I love how some of the papers cross over between lines.)
In addition to the new papers, this layout also features Die Cuts from these two sheets:
(GN608 - Journalling Die Cuts)
(GN609 - Die Cut Accents)
Yesterday I flew to Anaheim, California and today the Melissa Frances team will start setting up our booth for the Craft & Hobby Association trade show. I can hardly wait until Saturday when the show begins and we present our newest designs to our customers and friends.
At this show we will be debuting one new paper collection called
"Classic Elegance". It combines beautiful pastel papers with crisp,
masculine black and white papers. For the first time in our company's
history the papers will be double sided with a colored design on one
side, and a black and white design on the other. They are beautiful!
I am so proud and excited to show them to you, here they are:
(To see a larger version for detail, please click on the image and a larger version will open up on your browser.)
I received my box with the new papers late last week and worked my tail off over the weekend to make some samples for the show. This layout features a photo of my friend (and Melissa Frances design team member), Rachel McAffee's daughter. I was beyond happy that she let me use it as it works so well with the new papers.
If you're coming to the show, please be sure to come by the Melissa Frances booth to say 'hi'.
I am pleased to share that I have a layout published in the Fall issue of Scrapbook & Cards today, which is being released today.
There are some great artists and genuinely good people involved in this magazine. So, check it out at your local scrapbook store, OR download the fall issue for FREE here.
Hi everyone! I've been running around trying to tie up loose ends before leaving for the Craft & Hobby Association trade show. I think that I've got everything ready-to-go, and this afternoon I'll be heading for the airport to fly to the show in Anaheim, CA.
I am so excited about the new products that we at Melissa Frances are releasing. We will have two new Collections:
You can see peeks of C'est la Vie here. Be sure to leave a comment on the linked post as one random winner will receive the Collection. Our Attic Treasures Vol. 3 Collection will also be featured on the Melissa Frances blog on Thursday, Jan 26th. I'll put up the link when possible.
Here's a layout sample I made for the C'est la Vie Collection:
If you are attending the CHA show, please stop by booth #1991 to see these releases in person and have a little visit ☺
Happy December! I arrived home last night after a weekend trip to Miami. After having an unusually cold weather here, the weather there was a nice break.
(SUPPLY LIST: Patterned Paper: Anastasia (PA328) and Alma (PA197) by Melissa Frances • Jewelled button: Black Ice Brooch (BR008) by Melissa Frances • White resin flower accent: Architectural Molding Applique (CX822) by Melissa Frances • Chipboard: 5th Avenue chipboard (GN445) by Melissa Frances • Inks: Jet Black Archival, Clear Emboss it!, Tea Dye, Brushed Corduroy, Wild Honey Distress Ink. All by Ranger • Embossing Powder: Clear by Ranger • Cardstock: White, Kraft and Brown by Bazzill • Stamp: Memories are Forever by Collections by Julie van Oosten , Stitched floral by Stampin' Up! (Discontinued), Cursive Stamp by Hero Arts (discontinued), Border Stamp also by Hero Arts (discontinued) - For the discontinued stamps, there are other stamps which are currently available which have the same look • Tag - Large tag by Avery •Other - Heat Gun, vintage book pages, Twill ribbon, a few pearls and thread.)
I was asked to be a special guest on the Scrapbook Brasil website last week, and now that the week is over, I can finally show you the tutorial I made for them. I used the beautifully vintage Attic Treasures collection from Melissa Frances for this modern-vintage collage styled layout.
Here's a walk through the steps:
1) First, gather supplies to stamp image on fabric. You'll want to use an ink that will work on fabric. I used Ranger Jet Black Archival Ink on Osnaburg fabric.
2) Stamp the image onto the fabric and trim to size.
3) We will be doing some heat embossing for a resist ink technique. First, gather your large tag, stamp, clear embossing ink and powder. Stamp the embossing ink onto the tag, then sprinkle on the embossing powder. Shake off the excess and then use your heat gun to melt the powder.
4) After heat embossing, use the Tea Dye and Brushed Corduroy ink and a blender tool to apply the ink to your tags. The great thing is that the embossed areas will resist the ink leaving the manila tag color showing through. When I applied the ink, I followed no set pattern so that the tag is randomly colored. Glue a little strip of vintage book paper to the bottom of the tag.
5) Cut a piece of Alma paper 9x9 inches. Using a border stamp and cursive stamp, along with 3 inks, randomly apply the ink to the back of the stamps. Before stamping onto the paper, first, stamp each image onto some scrap paper lightly so that a little of the ink comes off. This way, when you stamp onto your paper the color will be a little bit less colorful. I stamped the border design onto the upper right side of the page, and the cursive writing onto the bottom left of the page.
6) Cut a piece of Kraft Cardstock 10x10 inches and a piece of dark brown cardstock 10.5 x 10.5 inches. Glue the kraft paper onto the dark brown cardstock and the Alma paper onto the kraft cardstock. Glue a large old dictionary page to the upper left side of the page, and the fabric swatch that you stamped onto, to its right. Finally, print your title/journaling piece and glue it across the bottom of the page.
7) Now, take the papers from step #6 and sew around the edge of the fabric swatch as well as the kraft cardstock border as seen in the sample. Finally, using a brown zig zag stitch, sew onto the lower portion of the Alma paper.
8) Glue the rest of the page elements onto the layout
I found this layout, which I made years ago for a Melissa Frances newsletter, on one of my memory sticks and don't think I ever shared it here on the blog. It features one of my all time favorite patterned paper collections "Vintage Shabby" which is, sadly, no longer in production. And, yep, that's me on my momma's lap as a wee babe :)
Life has been busy here at our house these past few weeks. With the wind down from summer into fall, I've been busy with work and family commitments. I feel like I haven't had enough time to be creative lately. Most of my time has been spent being creative digitally, and I miss cutting up and "playing" with paper. So I am hoping in the next few weeks to get a chance to sit at my desk and just create.
What things are you looking forward to doing this fall?
This layout features a little bit from 3 of our Collections: Kitschy Kitchen, Attic Treasures, and 5th Avenue. I wanted to show how our Collections really do mix and match together so well. I will be the first to admit that it's not always the easiest thing to make our overtly feminine lines work for masculine layouts, so the purpose of this layout was to show that it can be done!
This layout it not completely finished yet, I will be adding one of our new broaches to the center of the clock face, but I don't have the broach here - I'll glue it on once I get it at the show. So this is how the layout looks for now. This adorable baby belongs to my friend Vanessa and is one of the photos I took for her last fall.
I also love how the resin flower bouquetlooks on this layout. If you've never seen this product before, it comes with a shabby white finish, but for this project, I colored it using the lightest pastel Copic markers, then sprayed with spray adhesive and sprinkled with iridescent glitter. Be still my heart, it looks divine!!
This afternoon I'll be flying out to LA to set up our booth with Melissa & Brian. We're looking forward to a great show. If you're planning on attending, please pop by to say 'hi'. We'll be in booth #1256.
(Supply Lis: Patterned papers - Melissa Frances, Bo Bunny, Upsy Daisy • Tree sticker - Anna Griffin • cardstock Label - SEI • Rub-on- Pink Paislee • Digital Brush (October) - Ali Edwards for Designer Digitals • "Halloween Memories" title - cut with my Silhouette machine • Wood photo corners - Harmonie • Other - String, sewing machine and thread, Fiskars border punch)
I can hardly believe that it is already October. It seems to me like this year has flown by. As a child I remember my parents saying that time flies the older you get, and how true that is!!
So, what kind of fall activities are you and your family looking forward to? I am not really sure what we will be up to this month...but I am hoping to spend some time outside enjoying the changing of the seasons.
