Birthday Banner Tutorial

It was my turn to post at The Art Studio @ Scrapbook News and Review's blog today, and I created another tutorial. Since my first class, Fabulous Handmade Embellies, is a class abut creating birthday embellies, for this tutorial I created a birthday banner. Now, we've seen so many banners in the past two years, but still, I have never seen one with beads.... oh, yes, I can't stop playing with beads at the moment! Here is my banner:

And this is the layout I created with it:

It is one of the few pictures I have of DD's first birthday, so it deserved avery special page. If you would like step-by-step instructions on how to do it, you can check them here. And if you liked this embellie, I'm sure you'll love the ones we will create in my class, Fabulous Handmade Embellies: Birthdays. You can enroll HERE, and you can leave a comment HERE for a free seat! But remember, there is only a limited number of seats, so if you don't want to miss your chance to take the class, enroll now, and if you win the giveaway you can get a 100% refund!

Frugal finds: flower embellishment using a mesh bag!

I love the Frugal Finds feature at Practical Scrappers, it is always play time and creative time, and the results are amazing! For the latest feature we had to use mesh bags and that was an easy one for me, as lots of the produce I can find here comes in mesh bags. For this layout I chose baby pics -probably the fact that my little girl is growing so fast and her front teeth are loose (yet another milestone) influenced the choice of pics for this layout. 

I love playing with this piece of JBS cardstock and my light blue inks. But the layout needed a girly touch, so I used my mesh to create a flower. It was a bit tricky and I needed the help of the glue gun, but I love how it turned out, especially with that piece of Teresa Collins bling on top. You really MUST check what the other Practical Scrappers designers have created using mesh bags, I promise you will not look at the produce aisle in the same way again!

I am also sharing this project at Scrapscene's WIP Mondays, as I love having my mid-morning coffee and checking what other people are doing. And what exactly am I working on right now? 

A Tortuga Headquarters Pinata!!! It's not exactly a beautiful project right now, but it will be!!!! I will keep you posted on how it goes!

Layout Makeover at Practical Scrappers

Today it is my turn to post at Practical Scrappers, and I am doing a layout makeover, starting with this layout, which I was not too happy with:

If you would like to know how the layout looks after the makeover, you can click HERE to visit my post at Practical Scrappers. And please, let me know what you think about it! Have a great day and scrap a lot!

Negative Space Layouts - Happy campers!!!

Today at Practical Scrappers we were asked to create a layout using negative space. It was my chance to use this fab JBS letter stencil I got with my Studio Calico kit some time ago, plus some camping embellies I have had for a long time, which came in one of my Scraproom kits. We never go camping, so I didn't think I would use them, but the cabin embellie looked just like the one in the photo!

Visit Practical Scrappers for more ideas on how to use negative space in your layouts. Have a great week!

Sunburst tutorial at Scrapbook News and Review

I was invited to be the Featured Artist at Scrapbook News and Review this week, and I am so happy!!!! I created a sunburst layout with tons of embellies and colours, just the thing to match the sunny Barbados pic!

If you'd like to see step-by-step instructions, you can find them HERE. And remember, there's a $150 gift certificate to the store of your choice to be won if you register a SNR and take the survey HERE. I have done it already and it is not long, so you really shouldn't miss this chance!!!! Have a fabulous week!

April challenge at Scrapbook Supplies Online - Follow your heart

We are almost at the end of April already, but there is still time to play in Scrapbook Supplies Online's April challenge. The sketches were posted a bit later this month so there are not too many participants - what a great chance to win one of the $25 gift certificates!!!

Here is my take on the sketch:

I mostly used MME's Follow my Heart collection, which is gorgeous! I had so much fun playing with it! Some additional touches are paper ribbon from Studio Calico in the bottom left corner, the letter and word stickers from MLS (aren't those words just adorable?) and the white ribbon tied around the title, which I got with my Unique Crafters' Guest DT pack. Here are some close ups:

You can't tell me you are not tempted to play with this great sketch and that fabulous prize. See you at the gallery!!!!

Pretty girly layouts

If you are here for the March giveaway, 

A Martha Stewart bundle which contains: 12 neon glitter (4.4 oz. each),12 hexagonal glitter (.3 oz. each), 12 iridescent vintage leaf glitter (.14 oz. each) and 12 glittered flocking powder (.077 oz. each). The retail value of the bundle is around $80.

please click HERE.

As promised, here are the layouts I've created this month for Scrapbook Supplies Online, using Echo Park's This and That Graceful collection. And of course, having such pretty girly papers inspired me to create pretty girly layouts. The first layout was inspired by a layout I've seen somewhere and I thought I'd pinned, but was not in my scrapbooking board. I love, love, love the huge banner, and had to create a version of it myself. 

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The other two layouts have baby photos, and with them, I have officially finished the 0-6 months photo album.... 5 years too late? Well, better late than never, and I am happy to have a finished album at last!!!! The second layout was very simple to create, I saw the patterned paper with rectangular die cuts, and instead of cutting them, decided to use them as the base for a layout. Love how that turned out! The pictures were not great, but I still wanted to keep the memories of the walks in our complex carrying our daughter in her "moti" and our favourite restaurant there, where we spent lots of time until it was closed (and that's the only pic I have of it).

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The third layout has one of my favourite pictures, our daughter with the lady that was then her babysitter. On that day, she carried her on her back, African way (though women do the same thing in Peru, and my mother-in-law carried my husband on her back, so it's sort of keeping family tradition over two different continents!!!!). Even though we have both moved from Libya for different reasons, we still keep in touch with her, because she is a lovely person, and I am happy I finally have this very important picture in my daughter's album. This way she will always remember the person who first took care of her, read her stories and played with her, apart from mom and dad.

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And I had fun creating a little step-by-step video of how I put this layout together. It is only one minute long, so it won't take much of your time. Hope you enjoy it!!!

If you have already fallen in love with this fabulous collection, you can find it HERE. I will be coming back with some cards using the same collection next week, don't forget to come and have a look! 


I have just seen one of my birthday cards published at Scrapstreet.com's Mini Mag March issue. I love that card and it was a pleasure to see it there! If you'd like to take a peek, you can click HERE.


Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving such sweet comments, you always make my day!

Scrapbook Supplies Online's March challenge

If you are here for the March giveaway, 

A Martha Stewart bundle which contains: 12 neon glitter (4.4 oz. each),12 hexagonal glitter (.3 oz. each), 12 iridescent vintage leaf glitter (.14 oz. each) and 12 glittered flocking powder (.077 oz. each). The retail value of the bundle is around $80.

please click HERE.

If you saw this post yesterday and then came back and couldn't find it, it was not a trick of your imagination, but rather a trick of my iPad. I saw a typo in the title last night, and while I corrected it I somehow erased the whole post! So here I go again.

It was a scary week in our house, as our little daughter caught dengue fever, which you get byt being bitten by an infected mosquito. It is a disease we are not used to,it is dangerous, though not the first time you catch it, and she had so much fever for so many days we didn't know what to do. In fact, all we could do was sit next to her and try to comfort her. And wait. And wait. And wait some more. Anyway, she is feeling better now, she's not going to school yet to make sure she's strong enough to fight any bugs in the air, but she is having a great time at home!

Today I'd like to share with you the projects I created for this month's challenge at Scrapbook Supplies Online. The first one is a very simple layout, I flipped the sketch and converted some of the photos to sepia to match the page next to it in the album. 

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The second project is a card. This month's sketch had weaved paper strips, and I decided it would be a good idea to stitch the strips instead. It was very time consuming but it was something I could do while sitting next to my daughter watching yet another episode of My Little Pony! I really love how the stitching turned out.

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Now I am back to scrapping I will soon have more projects to share with you, I am working with the This and That collection by Echo Park for Scrapbook Supplies Online and it is totally yummy, so I can't wait to share my projects with you. If you want a chance to win one of two 25$ gift certificates, upload your projects based on this month's sketches to the gallery.

I have signed up for Pinerly this weekend. To be honest, I am not really sure what it is, but it sounds interesting and I'd like to check it out. The only way to do it at the moment is to have friends click on your link, so if you are interested and have a few minutes to spare, please click HERE. Hope you have a very productive week!

Make your own pins

Hi! If you have come to take part in:

click HERE.

Last Thursday there was a pin feature at Practical Scrappers, and we were asked to try and create our own pins, instead of using a ready-made one. I visited the jewellery section at my local crafts store and found some lovely beads and gold pins to decorate. 

I really love the special touch they bring to my layout, so I am already thinking of making a new trip to get more beads. Here is the complete layout, a page showing some pictures of my daughter "riding" a lion statue in Stockholm. She looks so little in them!

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Remember I will be having a big giveaway in March to celebrate my blog's new look with this fantastic prize so don't forget to come back once the contest starts and leave a comment for a chance to win!!!

A Martha Stewart bundle which contains: 12 neon glitter (4.4 oz. each),12 hexagonal glitter (.3 oz. each), 12 iridescent vintage leaf glitter (.14 oz. each) and 12 glittered flocking powder (.077 oz. each). The retail value of the bundle is around $80. 

Sketch Inspiration

Hi! If you have come to take part in:

click HERE.

I haven't had a giveaway for quite a long time, and all of a sudden I am having the blog hop, and the new look giveaway starting on March 1st. 

A Martha Stewart bundle which contains: 12 neon glitter (4.4 oz. each),12 hexagonal glitter (.3 oz. each), 12 iridescent vintage leaf glitter (.14 oz. each) and 12 glittered flocking powder (.077 oz. each). The retail value of the bundle is around $80. 

Now, I have a new giveaway going on!!! This week I am sponsoring Sketch Inspiration's sketch #8. This is the fabulous sketch created by Trisha:

And this is my take on it. There is a fond memory in those photos. We went to London's Little Angel Theatre to see one of their amazing plays; it is a tiny theatre with very small productions that are really fantastic. For a long time after we came back, Mia and Daddy would put on a caterpillar show for me, just like the one we'd seen. I cropped the photos for this layout, but in the background the photos showed my kitchen in Tripoli, which doesn't exist any longer, and it made me feel nostalgic. So many good memories in it!

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Here is a picture of the prize you can win if you post your take on the sketch before midnight Saturday 26th (CST) at Sketch Inspiration's gallery.

Hope you find time to play!!!! And before I leave I am happy to announce one of my layouts was published in this month's SNR magazine. I had never actually peaked inside the magazine until now, and I am so glad I did. There are tons of fabulous layouts, cards, and mixed media projects, plus lots of tutorials, techniques and product reviews. I really enjoyed reading it and couldn't leave my iPad until I had finished it all up even though it was already VERY late. I recommend it to you if you are looking for crafty inspiration!

Amigos - Double pager using Let's Scrap's sketch

Hi! If you have come to take part in:

click HERE.

Still working on my sister's wedding album. She has been patiently waiting for it, and I have finished 3/4 of the pages, which is a good number. Unfortunately, the time has come to scrap those pics I don't like and have left for last :). People and more people, many of them people I don't even know, sitting or standing by their tables. It is hard to make the mojo flow with them, and I have decided to make use of Let's Scrap fabulous double page sketches to ge them done once and for all! After that, I will only have the honeymoon pics and those are very nice, so it will be a breeze. This layout is based on this week's sketch at Let's Scrap:

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It was a very easy sketch to work with, I just moved things around a little to have some more white space. I used We Scrap's January kit, Astoria, which I won in Let's Scrap's random draw some weeks ago, and added some stickers from the Simple Stories Yearography collection I got with my Scrap Room January kit. The papers in that collection are so well designed you just need to add a few pics and embellies and you have a fabulous looking page! I used two different coloured patterned papers, I know I've read somewhere a line from a scrapbooker saying she liked using different colours and then use some other elements to give the two pager continuity, and I thought it was a fab idea. I just wish I remembered where I read it. If you happen to know, let me know!

Back to scrapping now, my head's full of projects, more than my hands can put into practice!!! Remember I will be having a big giveaway in March to celebrate my blog's new look with this fantastic prize so don't forget to come back once the contest starts and leave a comment for a chance to win!!!

A Martha Stewart bundle which contains: 12 neon glitter (4.4 oz. each),12 hexagonal glitter (.3 oz. each), 12 iridescent vintage leaf glitter (.14 oz. each) and 12 glittered flocking powder (.077 oz. each). The retail value of the bundle is around $80. 

February sketches - Scrapbook Supplies Online

Hi! If you have come to take part in:

click HERE.

I promised yesterday I would take pics of my projects as soon as the sun started to shine, and here they are. I like the card picture better than the one I took last night because it shows the card's real colours. I'm not very happy with the layout pics. Every once in a while I have a photography crisis with layouts and cards, and then things seem to get better, so I'm just waiting for this one to pass and for me to feel better about the pictures I take of my projects!!! 

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I got the sketches for the card and layout on Tuesday night. On that day, my wonderful grandfather turned 90. I rarely miss home as I keep in touch with the people I love and I accept that moving, changing, and being away from home is part of the lifestyle we've chosen, but I really wished I could have been home to give my grandpa a big hug on that night. So when I got the sketch, I looked at the papers on my rack and saw the empty chairs, and I immediately knew what I wanted to do! I am really happy with how the grey and yellow work in this card.

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I promise you this layout looks much better in real life!!! These are pictures of my daughter in Stockholm chasing some "ducks". They were not actually ducks, as you can see in the pictures, but that is what they were for her, and she loved it. I thought this Amy Tangerine paper was perfect for the sketch:

However, there was a problem.... the heart was not pointing the right way for my layout! I just cut it, sewed a circle of patterned paper on top of the hole, and then re-placed the heart and camera on top!

Instead of the butterflies in the sketch I used hearts, and I remembered I had a little duck left from some October Afternoon patterned paper, and it was the perfect touch for this page!

And remember, one random winner will be picked from among all the people who post their projects made using these sketches, and will get a 25$ GC to spend in the shop! You can post your layouts and cards by going to the GALLERY, registering, and uploading to this month's challenge folder. Hope you are the lucky winner!

Summer fun on kraft

Yesterday's feature at Practical scrappers was using kraft. That was an easy one for me, I love the look of kraft on my layouts and cards, and how it makes the colours of patterned paper just pop. For this layout, I punched out circles from patterned paper scraps; I picked some of them for their summer or beach motives, others just because I liked their colours. I then stitched to the kraft cardstock, and I had a perfect background. As it was a very busy one, I just added the picture with white matting to make it pop a little, and some buttons and letter stickers. 

It was a very simple layout to make, but it has quickly become a favourite of mine, just love the way the colours in the circles play with the colours in the photo and give the whole layout a summer fun feel. Want some more kraft inspiration? Visit Practical Scrappers and see the beautiful layouts and cards using kraft that the DT and readers have contributed. See you soon with more projects!

Nutcracker flowers - Using my sewing machine

Today's feature at Practical Scrappers is machine sewing. I wanted to use a lot of sewing, making it the main element of my page, so I sewed six garlands of flowers going from one side of the page to the other, and crossing. It looked good on the page itself, but when I tried to put the pictures on it, it didn't work. i tried with different pictures in different sizes, and none did the trick. So, I cut a piece of one of the garlands, used the pieces below the photos, and added some pearls to give the flowers a special touch. The photos show my daughter and her friends in the Nutcracker show they did at school last year. Pre-K kids were flowers.

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I finished a card using this week's Let's Scrap sketch today, but didn't have enough sunlight to take a photo, so I'll post it tomorrow. In the meantime, if you'd like to see some fabulous sewing machine layouts, visit Practical Scrappers.

Christmas ornaments and happy 2012!

The past two features at Practical Scrappers have been a Frugal Finds feature using what was left from our Christmas decorations, and a feature on 2012's trends. For the first one, I used fabric from my pijamas. As most of you know, a couple of months ago I bought a sewing machine, so this year I decided to make Christmas jammies for the whole family. I headed to the fabric shop and it was crowded Plus, not being a local, it is sometimes hard to get shopkeepers to start helping you instead of somebody who came later, as you do not know the way to get the shopkeeper's attention. So, after waiting A LOT, I finally got a shopkeeper to cut the fabric for me, and I had no idea how much I wanted. Since I didn't want to go back to that shop again during Christmas, and the fabric was cheap, I bought extra fabric just in case. But I miscalculated so much I bought enough for 4 or 5 pijamas por me and my husband!!!!!!!! Here are our jammies:

And here is the layout I made for Practical Scrappers, with hearts made from the fabric in my pijamas. I used pieces of the red fabric, and pieces taken from Santa's beard for the brownish hearts. Now, head over to Practical Scrappers, as you don't want to miss the tinsel heart Christine created for this feature here. 

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The paper and the buttons are JBS, I'm trying to think about the stickers but I am not 100% sure right now, will have to check that. The second layout I created is a 2012 layout. We had dinner on Dec 31st as a family, and we had a friend over for dinner who is still waiting for his family to get to Trinidad (moving countries takes time and lots of paperwork!). Our neighbours had a huge party with a fabulous firework display, so fireworks were a highlight of the night. 

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I had to include trends form 2011 for this layout, so I included chevrons, twine and lots of embellies from smashbooks, which were a big hit this year. For the photos, I gave each person (including myself) a patterned paper number, and then took a picture. I used PSE to play with the pics a little and make them black and white while keeping the numbers coloured. Lots of fun! 

Hope you enjoyed looking at these layouts, have you already scrapped in 2012?

Brrrrr... winter's here!!!

Well, winter is actually NOT here. It is about 30°C, or 86°F, as every other day!!!! When I moved, I thought I would not like this unchanging weather, but it really makes life oh so easy, I have changed my mind. I do miss a little bit of winter, though, so today's feature at Practical Scrappers was my chance to bring some snow this way! It is an acrylic card, so it was extremely difficult to photograph, something else I need to learn how to do...

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Another project I'd like to share is one I created using the left side of this week's sketch at Let's Scrap. It is another wedding layout, including family pics. The pics were quite grainy and I couldn't make them look the way I wanted, so I finally went for a vintage look using picnik, and I think it was really the right choice, as the photos now look great.

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I love the fact that I could finally use those feathers I had had for ages!!!! Here is a list of supplies for this layout:

Paper: K&Memories

Paper Flowers: they came in a kit, but I think they are Prima

Ribbon flower: Maya Road

Feathers: Little Yellow Bicycle

Doilies: from a kit

Rick Rack: from a haberdashery in Tripoli

Tag: from a kit

Stickers: My Mind's Eye, Amy Tangerine

Clip: Amy Tangerine

Letter stickers: American Crafts for Studio Calico

Glue: Glue Glider Pro

Finally, a little piece of news. Somebody in this house is finally learning to ride without training wheels (and somebody else is getting fit just by running behind to make sure she does not fall!!!). Little big moments of life. Love them all.