embossing

The First Mummy Month – Week 4

by Lesley Oman on 23 August, 2011

Hi everyone,
This is the last of my layouts about my first month as a mumsy, in case you missed them, you can check out week 1, week 2 and week 3 here.

Its so weird looking back at these layouts, and its crazy how much I have already forgotten, i am just so glad that i have these little snippets immortalised in these pages.

This is the first page I made, and it’s Craig’s favourite. Once again I took inspiration from the wonderfully talented Nichol Magouirk. Love her style!

I used a technique tuesday stamp to emboss on vellum. I am LOVING this look by the way. It gives such a tactic feel to the page. I used my Stampa-ma-jig to make sure the words were (roughly) lined up. Oh, and i purposely started with Wednesday because my chicken was born on a Wednesday, so the start of this fourth week as a mom began on that day.

See those little tags peeking out? They were little titchy pieces of pattern paper hiding in my scraps box. Now they have a new life on this page. Sometimes with pretty papers i just cant throw them away no matter how small they are…especially that yellow paper which i loved – it is so bright and cheery, and sometimes its just kinda hard to find a nice yellow paper.

Hand written journaling for this one. Well, at least for the journaling which refers to Piper which i have cut intot journaling strips. For the bits of info about me for this week I typed up on the computer – can you see the wee box. I just made the pink border myself in photoshop.

Thanks for joining me as i scrapbooked this memorable journey of my new life as a mother. Its been five months now, and it really is amazing how much you pick up really quickly….

..and how much you just make up as you go along! heehee

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Home decor – Papercraft Canvas

by Lesley Oman on 9 June, 2011

Another project that will likely end up in Piper’s room! Soon there won’t be an inch of free wall space!

When I started this project I thought I was making a kinda scrapbook layout… but then it sort of evolved! Does that ever happen to you?

This is a clean and simple project that makes good use of your punches. I took a piece of card and started sticking down punched squares of pattern paper. I’ve used the Quite Contrary paper from My Minds Eye – i love their bright, colourful style – I think it creates a happy mood! I decided to add some variety by dry embossing one square and heat embossing on another, and then I also swapped out some squares for buttons and punched flowers. But the show stopper must be the little cupcake charm!

After I had put everything together on the pink cardstock background, I came across this blank canvas. So i simply attached the card to the canvas using the two brads. Best thing is – If i want to reuse the canvas all i need to do is take out the brads and the front will just pop right off!

Products Used

Quite contrary papers MME
square punch
Flower punches
Circle punch
Buttons
Gluedots
Gems & pearls (meiflower)
Charm from Meiflower
swiss dots embossing folder
cuttlebug
heroarts houndstooth stamp
distress ink embossing ink pad
white embossing powder
glossy accents
Ribbon from meiflower
brads – trimcraft
Stamps – Unity Stamps
Broken china distress ink

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Using Flower Sequins to accent a design

by Lesley Oman on 17 May, 2011

Some times the best things come in small packages, and the same is sure true about these flower sequins from Meiflower. One of the items in the goodie bag that you can win in our current competition is these flower sequins. They are tiny and sweet and already my head is packed full of different ways to use them.

Today I want to share how i have used them to accent a design. As they are little flowers, i thought that they would look lovely with a flourish stamp, to create the impression of flowers on a vine. I started to look through my stamp collection but then this cuttlebug embossing folder came to mind -perfect!

First I made my own background paper using distress inks in broken china, faded jeans and chipped sapphire. I love using distress inks to cover a piece of white card as this gives a great multi-tonal effect, rather than using a plain monocolour piece of cardstock.

Instead of using the folder to emboss the card, I used the folder the other way around to deboss the image. OKAY, so the next bit was time consuming…but SO worth it! To create a faux letterpress look, I took a white gel pen and drew along all the debossed image. All that remained was to add a few finishing touches – first I stamped a greeting and mounted onto die cut card and mounted onto the card along with some of this adorable scalloped edge ribbon from Meiflower. All that remained was to add some flower sequins and seed beads to the design, and what a difference that made!

Tiny little embellishments that give a big WOW effect, don’t ya think?

Don’t forget to enter the Meiflower giveaway competition, before you head off!

Products Used

distress ink
kraft cardstock
white cardstock
blending tool
cuttlebug
cuttlebug embossing folder
white gel pen
flower sequins
seed beads
personal impressions clear stamp
Archival ink
Scallop edge ribbon
tacky glue
gluedots continous strip

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Baby Shower Gift Bags

by Lesley Oman on 1 February, 2011

So a month or two ago, my friend Sarah called me. She had to confess. She had been in secret cahoots with Craig, planning, conspiring, organising…a baby shower! I was THRILLED, and definitely bemused by her waning ability to keep it a secret from me. BUT, after about a minute, she knew it was the right thing to do, because I was SOOO excited.

Knowing about the baby shower meant that I could help with planning and preparations, it meant that we could arrange ‘baby shower committee meetings’ {aka, an excuse to meet up and chat}, and of course it meant that I had the opportunity to craft a little!

Sarah had already organised games to play, and being a dear friend, she knew that I would want to decorate the prize bags rather than buy pre-made ones! PAH! oh, no, no, no! pre-made wouldnt be acceptable at all!

When this months Scrapbook magazine popped through the door with a selection of freebie papers, my eyes nearly popped out of my head, as the colours looked fresh, yet subtle – perfect for this little project! I’ve used most of them for this project, and I’m really happy with how the bags turned out.

The Process
I wanted a simple but pretty design, so i made a quick sketch in my notebook, and decided to add a few digital elements to give it a professional, elegant edge. I quickly threw these digital elements together on my wacom and printed them out on white and green cardstock.

During my packing and unpacking, I rediscovered some foam stamps in my stash and felt inspired to use these onto this project. The line of kisses on the green cardstock is a foam stamp image, stamped with embossing ink and heat embossed with white embossing powder.

Once I adhered the paper, I added a flourish to the top edge, once again using a foam stamp and some embossing powder – this time in a blue glossy powder.

The main focal element was a circular, digital element that I made myself, so I cut these out using my nesties and my cuttlebug. I love the embossed edge, which I accented with a little green distress ink. Next I pulled out my pink cosmic shimmer embossing powder and a cute heart foam stamp. The photos do not do this justice as in real life it looks really shiny and pearlescent – ooohhhhh!

The finishing touches – a flower, a brad and of course….RIBBON!!

Thanks for popping by and checking out these prize gift bags that i’ve made…and as for the prize, well, i just can’t reveal that secret now can i?