Archive for the ‘Scrapbooking’ Category

I for one am so glad that Spring is in full swing.  It really is my favourite time of year.

We had a lovely spring last year too and we visited our local National Trust property which was in full bloom. The Fine and Sunny collection was a perfect partner for my spring photos.

For my layout, I wanted to create a border at the top and the bottom of the page which I have lined with border stickers.  I just love those little raindrops.

I used the top border as a base for the little collection of die-cuts. I love to create a little scene with die-cuts.

I added more die-cuts for the journalling and finished off with a little quote.

You can find the Fine and Sunny Collection by clicking here. The gorgeous papers, stickers and die-cuts are just perfect for all our layouts this spring.

Thanks for popping in, be sure to pop back soon for more inspiration.

Morag x

Hello – Emilie here to introduce the very first Merly Impressions Monthly Challenge. I am really excited about setting this challenge for you and hope it will be the first of many fun and inspirational challenges at Merly Impressions.

I was wondering, when you don’t scrap about your children, pets, hubby, etc… what do you scrap about?

You see, I haven’t got any children; most people are getting bored of seeing photos of my dogs AND my other half isn’t a camera lover… So once I have exhausted all my “Scrap-able” pics of childhood memories should I just stop creating until some more re-surface or until the man in my life decides to stop sulking long enough for me to take an acceptable photo? Well, my answer is NO! I mean, our future generation will know everything there is to know about our offspring, dogs, cats, moody husbands, brothers, etc… but what will they know about us? The real us, not just the fact that we love his/her smile, hair, voice, sense of humour,… Yep, I knew it, not much! We love to talk about others but we are fairly shy.

Well, at Merly Impressions, we challenge you – we want to see a layout about you! You don’t need to use a photo of yourselves, or even a photo at all, but create a page that is about YOU. The possibilities are endless: your favourite food, music, film, or about a journey, a weight loss, an achievement,… The subject is vast but at the end, the page has to make you think “Yep, they will know me a little bit better now”.

So, to summarise, for this months challenge we would like you to create:

• a 12×12 scrapbook layout
• that says something about YOU (a secret, a fact, a story, etc)

Please link to your creation in the gallery below before the challenge closes at 1:00pm on 12th May. We will then choose the most inventive and inspirational entry to win this months prize – a £20 voucher to spend in the Merly Impressions online shop.

Please see the Monthly Challenge page for a full list of the rules.

Of course, I wouldn’t challenge you and not take part in it myself! I decided to talk about my favourite writer: Guillaume Musso. His books really strike a chord with me each time! I just took different shots of the same pile of books with different Hipstamatic lenses on my phone and layered them on top of each other to give the impression of a lot more books.

I used the back of the Kaisercraft Sweet Nothings Cupids Arrow paper as my background and then I added a lot of elements from the pack of Sweet Nothings Collectables around my photos and at the bottom right corner of my page.

I then stamped my journalling all the way down my layout mixing it up with some of these rub-ons. A few splashes of black paint to continue the feeling of a manuscript and my layout was complete! I hope I inspired you to talk about you!

Emilie

This challenge is now closed.

Today we have two beautiful layouts from the very talented Emma Williams who has used the lovely Tigerlilly collection to create a very girly look.

The first layout uses Tigerlilly papers and elements from the Collectables pack to highlight a fabulous photo with flowers, flourishes and butterflies.

Emma has used one of the Envelopes from the Tigerlilly Embellishment Pack to create a pocket for her journalling.

For the second layout Emma has beautifully matched the colours in her photo with the colours in the Tigerlilly papers and Collectables.

Emma has also used the new Kaisercraft Ribbon Roses which perfectly coordinate with the Tigerlilly papers.

Thanks to Emma for these lovely layout. We hope they inspire our readers to create something equally fabulous.

The Fine & Sunny collection from Kaisercraft features gorgeous imagery which is just perfect for so many subjects. I love the tweety birds, kites, sunshine and rainbows.  It’s happiness on a scrapbook page.

The Sky die-cut paper makes creating a scrapbook page easy.  I placed my photos on a mat on the right-hand side of the page.

The Fine and Sunny 6 1/2″ paper pad also has a section at the back of die-cuts.  There are an amazing 4 pages of die-cuts including tags, journal cards and borders.  I used a couple of the borders to frame my photos and added my own die-cut rosette (Tim Holtz).

I know the flags and banners are all the rage right now, so I put my scraps to good use and joined in the fun.  To anchor my banner, I used two buttons either side of my photos.

I then laced baker’s twine between the two.  I cut strips of patterned paper of various widths and snipped out the ends.  Glue into place or add a small staple or tiny peg.  You’ll also notice that I snipped some of the grosgrain ribbon and added a stamped ticket.

I didn’t put a title on my page since it’s going in my Disney album but a fun title could be place on the left hand side or up in the top left corner.  Or for an alternative title, how about stamping your title and hanging it with the flags?

I hope you enjoyed the layout. Thanks for popping in.

Morag x

First of all I wish to say how happy and honoured I am to have been invited to join the Merly Impressions Design Team!!! I really do hope that I will bring some inspiration your way!!! I have been so spoilt by Chrissy with my first box! Everything in it was soooo gorgeous that I sat for hours stroking my new stash!!! I am sure you all do that too… But I was simply amazed by the quality of all the Kaisercraft goodies!

I fell in love with the “Great Southern Land” collection. I have never been to Australia and to be honest it isn’t at the number one spot on my list of “Have to go to…” but the colours and designs of that collection just got me drooling!!!

I wanted to be original so I used the sheet of  TAS Die-cut paper as my background but as I didn’t have anything to scrap that would tie with the Australian theme I decided to create a layout about my older brother who has been in a lot places across the world. I spread some white paint over the bottom left corner of my background so that it wouldn’t overwhelm my photograph and then layered pieces of  papers from the same collection.

I added the hot air balloon that was in the packet of “Collectables” from the “Sweet Nothing” collection.  I am amazed at how well the Kaisercraft collections can be mixed together!!!

To balance my page I added a strip of used French postage stamps I had kept from a letter and two pieces of ribbon. Those packs of Kaisercraft ribbons are A-mazing!!!! Now I know I will have the exact shade of brown I want!!! A must have for me!

I finished off my layout by adding a few blooms and buttons in the colours of the back of the “SA” sheet and the back of the “NSW” sheet.

So there you go! My first layout for Merly Impression! I hope this inspired you!

Emilie

Don’t you just love Easter? What’s not to love? Spring flowers and chocolate – oh joy!  Kaisercraft’s Fine & Sunny collection is the backdrop for my Easter layout with its cute rainbows, sunshine and clouds.

Our Easter egg hunt last year was a perfect Sunday morning.  We followed the egg trail at our local National Trust property which was in full bloom with bluebells.

I cut out the little Easter eggs from the Fine and Sunny Forecast gloss paper and combined them with die-cuts and stickers to make my collection of embellishments. I made the pin wheel and topped it off with a button and pearl.

The fabulous clouds, sunshine and rainbows are just gorgeous.  The chipboard is layered as you can see here making it super-easy to get some dimension onto the page.

I adopted a really simple design for the layout which gave me plenty of opportunity to gather my embellishments. I used an old die-cut paper as a template to draw around on my white cardstock.

Thanks for popping in.  I hope I’ve given you some inspiration for your Easter layouts.

Morag x

Many thanks to the scrappers who made our recent March crop so much fun. We hope everyone who attended enjoyed the day as much as we did.

The kit for March was based on the beautiful Tigerlilly collection from Kaisercraft and included instructions and stash to make two layouts that we called “So Tiny” and “All Grown Up” although some scrappers interpreted the layouts very differently.

Below are some pictures taken on the day (click the image once to open it and click it again to close it). Thanks to Merley for making another huge batch of very tasty muffins.

Chrissy   xxx

The Merly Impressions March Crop is nearly upon us so we thought we would let everyone know about the kit our croppers will be using on Saturday 17th March.

The kit uses Kaisercraft’s collection called Tigerlilly. This collection features images of flowers and butterflies in shades of pink, orange, black and white – a beautifully colourful collection. The kit will include five 12 x 12 papers, one speciality paper, two sheets of cardstock, one Embellishment pack (Envelopes), a set of Rhinestones and some Bakers Twine.

The theme of the two layouts is “tiny” and “grown up” but the layouts can be adapted to suit a romantic or friendship theme.

The first layout, that we have called “So Tiny”, includes one photo measuring 10cm by 10cm preferably featuring shades of pale pink.

The second layout, that we’ve called “All Grown Up”, includes two photo’s measuring 8.5cm wide by 12.5cm high. We have used photos with pink highlights but pictures containing shades of orange would also work well.

You are obviously free to alter the title (and therefore the theme) of the layouts and you can also add journalling if you prefer (hidden in the Embellishment Envelopes or simply added on the some of the leftover paper). We will bring the tools we have used on the layouts such as the Sizzlet die (and a Big Shot machine) and the border punches used on the So Tiny layout . We will also take a Cricut Expressions machine to the crop if people would like to use it to create their title. Other optional items are Crystal Lacquer, a journal pen and an Edge Scraper Tool. You will also need to bring a small pair of small scissors because there is some delicate cutting out on both layouts.

We will post larger images and close-ups of the layouts after the March crop.

The kit will cost £10 on the day but is entirely optional. The location of the crop, together with other details, can be found on our Crop Dates page.

Documenting our children’s milestones is probably one of the reasons that we scrapbook.  If we’re not careful, we can quickly forget details about an event.  My son left junior school last year, he said goodbye to classmates that he’d had for 7 years.

I used the Technologic collection as a backdrop for my story.  The great colours are a great compliment to my fairly monochrome photographs.  I used the cogs border sticker as the starting point for my layout.  I trimmed the graph paper so that it stopped below the border.

A technique that I love to use is to ‘stencil’ shapes as part of my embellishment cluster. This is an easy technique to add depth to your embellishments. I created a circle stencil (punch a circle from some card) and used Distress Ink to colour. I then used the same circle to add a dotted line.

I added more die-cut cogs and icons behind my photos so that it seems to flow across the page.

Lastly, a small tag in the top left corner holds the journalling (I’ve added the names of the children shown in the photos).

Be sure to check out the Technologic collection here.

Happy scrapping.

Morag x

Do you find that it can be a challenge to get some great boy-themed scrapbook supplies?  I know I have.  So when I discovered the Technologic collection sitting in my pizza box I was overjoyed!

The collection features cogs and gears as well as some great icons such as robots, stars and iPods. The colours are bright without being garish – perfect for so many subjects. There are matching stickers and die-cuts which are brilliant for enhancing a layout.  I used the border stickers along the top of my layout to allow me to cluster some of the die-cut pieces.

My DS started senior school last year and has since become more gadget-conscious.

I balanced out my embellishments by putting more die-cut pieces just below my title, layering them in a cluster framing my photo.  It’s a great idea to use foam tape to add a little depth.  A little more sewing helps to ground these embellishments.

You can find the Technologic collection here.  Be sure to pop back to see more projects from the collection soon.

Morag x