Welcome 2017 – You Are Loved!
Welcome to 2017 Magpies! I think most people will be glad to see the back of 2016 and lets hope 2017 is a fabulous one for everyone! Rachel here for the 1st and I’ve chosen another Illustrated Faith line to work with this month, the fantastic You Are Loved collection. Illustrated Faith has definitely been my favourite manufacturer to work with in 2016, I just love the bright colours of all their lines and even though I’m not religious at all it has not stopped me loving everything they have produced. Please don’t be put off Illustrated Faith just because you’re not doing bible journalling or faith scrapping.
Last year I got a bit bored with my own style. All my LO’s look the same to me, very grid like and simple. I tried to break out of my mould a bit this month and I managed it for 2 LO’s and then slipped straight back to my old clean & simple ways lol! I guess I can’t help myself. Maybe next month I’ll try and work with circles or scraplift messy LO’s for something different!
So I started this month with a painted background that I’d already created for a challenge LO on our Facebook Challenge & Inspiration Group. I used a different background for that LO so this background was leftover. I created it using the IF Basics Series – Shanna’s Favourites Paint Set and I do love those paints a lot. They’re such lush colours and really good quality paints. I made this background by splodging paint on with an old credit card. Then I layered over one of the sheets from the You Are Loved 6×8″ Clear Cuts Pad. This is currently out of stock but definitely sign up for an email alert if you want one and you’ll get an email when restocks come in. I used the black splodges sheet. I layered my photo on some of the papers from the 6×8″ Paper Pad and used a doily underneath. My title is from the You Are Loved Die Cuts Pack and I’ve used a HLM Flair Badge – Camera and dotted around some of the Freckled Fawn Puffy Stars and chucked some ric-rac on.
I basically did the same thing with my next LO. I created a background with some orange mist (mists in the shop here) and then splattered some black on top. It didn’t work as well in real life as well as it did in my head but I carried on with it. This LO isn’t my favourite, it’s a bit messy for me but I thought I’d include it anyway and say that not everything works every time! I layered up my photo on papers from the 6×8″ Paper Pad, I do love the 6×8″ pads, I find the size easier to use than 6×6 so I’m really glad that Bella Blvd and Illustrated Faith changed the size up a bit. I’ve used some of the tags from the Gift Tags pack, there’s one on the top right and I cut the bottom of the tag off where it says ‘I love you’ so I can use that somewhere else. I’ve also used one of the Designer Clips on the top left and the clips are a very heavy plastic so they’re probably more substantial than you imagine them to be by looking at the pic on the website. They are fab. I’ve also used some stickers from the 12×12 Fundamentals Sticker sheet and some of the Die Cuts and I dotted around some Nuvo Crystal Drops, I used Ripened Pumpkin and Ebony Black.
I moved on to this LO next and started slipping back to my old clean & simple ways! I wanted to use the brush strokes acetate sheet in the Clear Cuts Pad so I laid it on my background. I tried it on black but it definitely worked better on white so I settled on that. I paired it with the Happy Heart Paper and I think they worked really well together. My title is from the Die Cuts pack and the ‘love’ is from the Cute Girl, Puffy Accent Stickers which has some super cute stickers in the pack. I’ve used some MAMBI Instalove chipboard stickers as well. I was testing out a die in my Big Shot and decided to chuck that on as well, then some wooden circles which I made black with a Sharpie and then used the Morning Dew Nuvo Crystal Drops on top of, that one dries clear and it’s really easy to use. I was always a fan of putting Glossy Accents on top of things to give them a glossy cover but the Nuvo Crystal Drops goes on easier and it dries much faster as well. I used it a couple of times this month and must remember to buy a new bottle soon! Then I added a line of Caribbean Ocean along the top as well because the colour matched the colour on the acetate sheet so well, I just had to!
Definitely back in my comfort zone with this one. Super simple, lots of white space lol! All this LO is made from is a photo and 3 of the 4×3″ cards from the reverse side of the Borders Paper. I bought 2 sheets of that paper, one so I could use the border strips and the other to use the 4×3″ cards which I cut apart immediately. So I laid my cards across the page and was happy with that – couldn’t be easier! Underneath I’ve used a strip of the Happy Heart paper, dotted a line of Apple Green Nuvo Crystal Drops and put a strip of ric-rac on from my stash. I was always telling people in my classes to chuck some ric-rac on it if they thought something was missing back in the day! I sort of fell out of love with the ric-rac and started adding hand-drawn stitching or dots on instead but recently on FB, an 8 year old LO of mine popped up in one of those memory posts and the style was very similar to what I do now and it reignited my love of ric-rac!
I’ve used some of the Rubber Shapes from the Dear Lizzy, Saturday Collection, some Puffy Arrows from MAMBI and also some of the Cardstock Stickers from the You Are Loved collection. I also used some of the Morning Dew, clear Nuvo Crystal Drops on top of the writing on some of the cards to highlight that a bit too. This is a super simple LO, very easy to scraplift.
And then to round out my LO’s this new year, I got even more simple! I really wanted to use the rose, acetate sheet from the Clear Cuts Pad and it looked so amazing, I didn’t need to add anything else! I made a layered tag using one of the Gift Tags for the top left, popped one of the Die Cuts on foam pads and used one of the Heidi Swapp Wood Words for my title. I painted the today, wood veneer word with the pink paint from the IF Basics Series – Shanna’s Favourites Paint Set and then went over the top with Morning Dew, Nuvo Crystal Drops to give it gloss and shine. Then I added a couple of word phrase stickers I had on my desk. LO done and dusted. I wanted to add some more to it, in the interest of showing you guys products but I really didn’t think it needed anything else. So I stopped and walked away from the LO!
Oh, and that’s a glare shine on my chin in the photo sorry!
So there we have it Magpies a big Welcome to 2017 and some eye candy from Illustrated Faith! Check out the You Are Loved Collection, it’s not just for faith scrapping or bible journalling and it’s not just for Valentines either! I wish you all a wonderful and happy new year and I’ll see you again on February 1st! Take care everyone xXx
