GUEST BLOGGER - Michelle Nommensen

I hope you are all having a great day. I am here to introduce the talented Michelle who is here sharing a guest blog post. 

Enjoy.

Lydia xxx

Hi Everyone! My name is Michelle and I am excited to be here writing a guest blog post for Lydia. I love paper crafting and memory keeping in any way, shape or form so, I am always happy to chat about something that makes me feel happy!

A Little About Me…

I am a Paralegal by day. My life revolves around a cool husband, five beautiful daughters, two adorable granddaughters, and a handsome Goldendoodle. I am an inherent busy body. I work, I play, I create. (Not necessarily in that order). I love spending time with family and friends, creating decadent desserts, playing with pretty paper, snapping photos of just about anything, and working on crafty DIY projects.

I have been scrapbooking for over 20 years. I am a previous consultant for Creative Memories and Stampin’ Up and previousowner of an online scrapbooking and cardmaking kit company, Picture It Made. My husband might say I am “a little” obsessed with scrapbooking but he lets me be excited about it just the same.

Finding Scrapbook Inspiration…

Where do you find your scrapbooking inspiration – blogs, online galleries, Pinterest, craft stores, Crate & Barrel? There are so many wonderful, and seemingly endless,places to find ideas and inspiration for any type of scrapbooking project - traditional, digital, hybrid, pocket pages or Project Life. 

Recently, while on a weekend trip to Chicago, I convinced my husband to go into Crate & Barrel. I was in search of a clock for my daughter’s bathroom. Found it! Checked out, leaving the store, when these little pretties caught my eye…

I knew immediately what I could and would use them for…scrapbooking, of course! (And my guest blog post was born). Back through the checkout line I went. As we left the store, page ideas began to swirl around in my mind – the creative possibilities were going to be endless. These doilies were just a little bit different than the paper doilies you see during Valentine’s Day. To me, they felt more timeless—with a bit of a modern twist.

For my layout, I decided to use the larger of the two paper doilies as a background. The creative process was underway…so exciting!

Step-by-step, my layout came together. Here is my completed scrapbook layout Together featuring these fabulous paper doilies…with a little splash of gold and sparkle to make it shine!

So there you have it. Scrapbooking inspiration can strike anywhere and in the most unusual places. When you are passionate about something, inspiration finds you and that’s a beautiful thing!

What to do when this happens:

• Find your story

• Embrace your inner creative

• Feel free to make mistakes

• Stay focused on the creative

• Push the envelope and amazing things will happen!!

I hope you enjoyed the post! Thank you Lydia for the guest blog opportunity! I had a lot of fun!!

Let your creative shine,

Michelle Nommensen

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Deer Designer - #5

Hi everyone just here to share 3 tags I made and embellished with the beautiful KaiserCraft collection 'All That Glitter'.

I didn't have any tags in my stash so I jumped on Pinterest to find a tag printable, but instead of printing them I traced them and cut them out on a cheap canvas pad paper from Kmart.

I then got my watercolours out and did some ombré effects on them to co-ordinate with the  'All That Glitter' collection embellishment pack. I also used some bits and pieces of gold from my study also.

And here are some close ups of the finished product. 

I love how these simple and easy tags turned out.
Lydia xxx

"Best Friends" - 12x12 Layout

Morning, just here to share a quick 12x12 layout I did yesterday afternoon.

I have been trying to find a way to use these Thickers and thought ok this is the layout to use them on.

I got my stamps and texture paste out for this layout.

I did find this layout is a bit different to me but I do like how it come out.

Have a great Monday everyone.

Lydia xxx

Project Life - Week 9

Today I am sharing me week 9 layout. I still haven't posted week 8 of my holiday because it isn't finished but it will be up hopefully tomorrow.

This week I received my giveaway from Kellie from Give A Girl A Blog which she gave me a whole heap of Studio Calico PL cards and lots of other goodies so I mainly only used those goodies. 

Right side -

Left side -

Title Card - I loved this colour wheel which I got the colour inspiration from for this layout. I used my favourite Amy Tangeraine Journal Thickers and some of the cutest wood veneer sequins from Chic Tags.

This was the very first time I have used a overlay in my Project Life. I also added some stamping of the arrows and the 'State of my mood' card I made into a pocket for a little tag Kellie wrote a note on.

I was soooooooo excited when I saw RuKristin's 'Currently' stamp set. I have always wanted it and thanks to Kellie I now do so I decided because I didn't have many photos of during the week I would do a currently card.

And just a little note of school photo day.

I will be back soon to share Week 8. 

Lydia xxx

GUEST BLOGGER - Krisy Podolak

Good morning everyone. Today I have a very special guest posting here on my blog, Krisy. Krisy is going tell a bit about her self and her chosen topic for this guest post.

A bit about me…My name is Krisy. I am almost 32 years old and I live with my husband and our two children, Poppy and Leo in Brisbane, Queensland.  I am currently a Stay at Home mum with a third baby due in the next few weeks.  I have been scrapbooking most of my life but not necessarily in the ‘modern way’.  I enjoy all sorts of crafts but my main love is scrapbooking.  To see more of my stuff you can find me on my blog popleopod.wordpress.com, Instagram @krisy28a or Pinterest @krisy5.

Scrapbooking – The Evolution of Style : Don’t Change the Past

I constantly read Facebook comments about people who look back at their past albums and feel the need to go back and redo them.  I ask myself Why?  So many people complain about their inability to keep up with simplified scrapbooking projects like Project Life so why would you go back and redo an album that was clearly a reflection of you and your style at that time?

I have many albums, some coming up to twenty years old and I can tell you that the style of these albums is way different to the ones I am currently working on.  My first album is more of what is referred to as a smash book. This was the style back then.  Then it evolved to somewhat more traditional style. Why would I want to change it?  Not only has the style changed but the quality of my photography has improved and my handwriting but these are all things that make that album unique.  

The other thing that has changed that is reflective in today’s styles is our ability to share ideas and techniques through magazines and social media.  Back then, your style was limited to the one particular party plan company that was dominating the market at the time.  Since then, we are now spoilt for choice not only with physical stores stocking a variety of products designed specifically for scrapbooking and memory keeping but also online stores.  We are now only limited by our imagination and more often than not bank balances not actual products.

While organising my thoughts and photos for this post I came across a page that I did 15 years ago documenting the birth of a friends baby.  We were 18/19 years at the time.  This was the first child for our group of friends at the time.  I took a photo of that page and sent it to her through private Facebookmessage.  Her response to me was I forgot all that stuff.  I think I am going to have to redo that album there was so much inappropriate behaviour I documented in that album.  My words to her…”Don’t change it!  That is what it was at the time.”  At the end of the day we were a group of kids with a kid.  The photos won’t change and the stories won’t either.  “Your right”, was her reply “But…I might do another one to go with it.” I don’t know why!?! 

These are a few of my pages from various albums over the years.  

In the beginning my embellishments were all hand cut from bits of paper.

 I then travelled overseas for a few years.  I didn’t get many photos printed during that time but smashed together cut outs and ticket stubs to document this stage of my life.

Then came the style of cutting photos – I struggled with this one at the time.

And finally today is about one photo, embellishments, mixed media, stamping, paint etc.

So my question to you is, we as Scrapbookers are all about preserving memories, so, why go back and change them? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Deer Designer - #4

Hey everyone Lydia here sharing a 12x12 layout using the beautiful new KaiserCraft Sparkle! and All That Glitter.

I used all of the new Kaiser collection except the black Thickers, enamel dots and tiny word stickers.

I really like how it come together. this collection has all of my favorite colors so that is a bonus.

These very cute butterflies are from the All That Glitter Collectables and I used magic mount foam to give them and the page a bit on dimension.

 for my layers I used a piece of paper from the All That Glitter 6x6 paper pad and I used 2 of the 6x4 cards from the Sparkle! Captured Moments Cards.

I hope you all have a great day.
Lydia xxx

Deer & Fawn Designs - March Challenge and Inpiration

Morning everyone, I am here to share my take on this months challenge for Deer & Fawn Designs. Make sure you go to the blog here to get all the details on the challenge.

Use our logo as your inspiration... Create a 12x12 layout, Mixed Media project or a Pocket Page in these colours...

I loved using the logo as my inspiration as I love the colors and floral.

I knew exactly what products I was going use when I found out the challenge and that was Maggie Holmes Open Book Collection.

I love love love how this layout turned out. I love all the gold on this layout also.

 And a quick close up.

I cant wait to see all of your entries and I hope you got a little inspiration from my layout.

Have a great day 

Lydia xxx