It's the month of celebrating boys and men, so there are loads of boyish things happening around my work space!

It's time for another great sketch reveal over at Scrap Africa.I am not really a single page scrapper - i love them and when other scrappers do them they are always so amazing...and then i sat and played and made this layout literally from scraps off of my desk and floor. you know the feeling when things just fall into place - well they did at least for me. it's plain and simple but i love it.

here's the original sketch i used

an arrow cut from the patterned paper and a simple line sewn through it. the 'believe in yourself' card was cut from a teresa collins paper from another project - can you see i didn't even trim the top edge in the end - and that's ok - it kinda fell into place with the overall look.

sewing with my machine adds that uncomplicated care free look and feel - totally creative and a no-brainer.

life has been a tad bit hectic - so sorry for not hanging out as much. but thanks for staining so faithful and visiting. i promise to do a give-away in the near future in celebration of life and friends and creativity!

i am working on a little project that involves lots of organizing, purging and cleaning out stuff that clutters my creative soul! yeah i know you know the stuff. i often look at what i have accumulated over the years in my profession, and then i think of the girls who are on like 10 design teams who gets tons and tons of free stuff to work with - how do they manage all that stuff - does the stuff give them security and make them feel special - and will the one with the most supplies really win in the end. lets face it - with all that stuff, you still won't take it with you in the grave and will have no use for it anayways once you are dead. you might as well use it now and share the wealth with others! what are your thought regarding this? look forward to hearing from you!

So we are celebrating all things boy and men next month with fathers' day. We kick off with a class at Scrapbook Den in Edenvale with a beautiful layout featuring Webster's pages, Sandylion, Echo Park and loads of other patterned papers thrown into the mix.the layout is a busy one for my standards - you know i love my white space, somewhere the eye can rest and breathe - LOL. But i aim to please so the girls are getting busy. included in the class is a quick fathers' day card for dad and loads of techniques using inks and stuff.

how are you spoiling your dad this fathers' day?

We all love a pretty piece of patterned paper right? Yes! So you bought a couple of extra sheets and before you know it there were a dozen or so more new ranges on the market that you just had to have – so you bought them too. And now you are left with some pretty papers in your stash but you have no idea what to use them for because they seem to be outdated – wrong. I have always found the Graphic 45 papers so beautiful – but when it comes to working with them I shy away – that’s until I changed my mind set about it. I have never been anywhere close to the East that is Japan or China, so for me to even want to work with the ‘Bird Song’ range by Graphic 45 made no sense at all. But since I don’t scrap my photos to match my paper, but rather use the products I like, I felt quite comfortable to go right ahead and use the beautiful paper with birds on it. 

With love layout 

For my layout I used photos of a friend who celebrated her 9th birthday recently. I teamed the photos with the older Bird Song range of papers and threw in a new paper from Basic Grey’s Bow ties range. By using a newer paper alongside an older paper you can easily update the look or change it to something else. To further update the look of my paper I added some stamped images using the Artiste Markers and some themed stamps. I used Crystalina glitter glue to highlight some of the elements on the papers and lastly updated the look with some funky washi tape giving my layout the funky edge I wanted. The washi tape was used selectively for its pop of colour giving my layout an accent colour of bright pink and adding loads of unexpected interest. The elements used throughout focus on a feminine theme with birds and flowers – and the Eastern theme are no longer my main priority on this project.

cut out elements dressed up using glitter glue Crystalina

 Here are some more easy tips and tricks of how you can revive 

some of those older paper collections in your stash 

1. Pair them with a new sheet of paper and you won’t even know the difference between old and new 2. Heat emboss a simple design on patterned paper and then cover the rest with ink for a beautiful new look. The embossed image resist the ink and leaves only a small hint of the original patterned paper 

3. Add a layer of gesso (white acrylic paint) to camouflage some of the pattern you don’t like, then add collage stamped images onto the white areas to create a whole new look 

4. Cut them up and use small pieces on a project. Work on a white background to give the paper a fresh new look 

5. Use them on an altered project and camouflage the design with flowers and other embellishments 6. Throw paint and ink to the surface and cover up the old design or colour 

7. Blind emboss the paper using your Cuttlebug and embossing folders and add ink or thermal embossing to it to totally change the look 

8. Ignore the theme of the paper and use it anyway because you like it – don’t be limited because you think the papers has to match your photos 

9. Pick a technique and use it to alter your paper like die-cutting elements out of the papers and using them on cards or gift tags 

10. Add some new products into the mix – I added some modern Washi tape to my projects giving the older paper range a new funky twist and a nice element of surprise Don’t be afraid to alter and change the look of your paper stash – you will get so much more out of your purchases by adding some clever alterations to them.

To see how i altered some more of the beautiful Bird Song papers on a gift tag, head on over here

Products used 

Artiste Dual Tip Brush Markers (12 Pack) – Brights [DDOA851100]

Bird Song Double Sided Paper - Bird Song [GF 4500569] 

Bird Song Double Sided Paper - Endless Spring [GF 4500574] 

Bird Song Double Sided Paper – Tranquility [GF 4500573] 

Bird Song Double Sided Paper - Cherry Blossom [GF 4500575] 

Bird Song Double Sided Paper - Shanghai Girls [GF 4500579] 

Couture Creations Glitzin Glamour – Crystalina [ADCO 721971] 

Therm-O-Web Zots 3D 200 [TW 3786] 

VersaMark Watermark Ink Pad [TVM-001]

scrapbooking can take on many forms - and i love all of them! but....

I am giddy with excitement! Although I have played around with SN@P Life in the smaller 6x8 format, it is only until I completed the 12x12 layouts that I really felt my heart missing a beat or two. Yes I know what you are going to say – can it really be real scrapbooking! And yes my answer is – it C@N! But luckily for me scrapbooking is a personal thing and creativity in any way incorporating photos, memories and design is scrapbooking.

I worked in some page protectors that are divided in 4x4 squares and 6x4 landscape pockets. It was easy to fill them and create little groupings of elements that worked or applied to my photos. I like how I can use small bits and pieces that would otherwise not find a home on my traditional layouts but get lost in a box of odds. I wanted to photograph the layouts inside the pockets for obvious reasons, and ended up with some glare – but that’s OK – and I will continue to work on photographing them perfectly. In the meantime I would like to encourage you to give the SN@P life project a go – play a little and forget about the rules of scrapbooking. Instead you can apply all the rules of being creative and having fun while capturing your everyday life beautifully and creatively

i love that i can use different products combined into the pockets - quick and easy

To showcase my new found easy scrapbooking and capturing of everyday life, I chose the beautiful Printblocks 12x12 Ring Binder in Pink – I love these albums because you can fill it to the brim with loads of layouts and memories and they look really great – good value for good memories.

stickers, washi tape, and recycled packaging

buttons find a place to add dimension, making me very happy