Guest Designer @ Inkido!

Hi everyone!

A little while back I was contacted by the Design Team coordinator for the wonderful Swedish manufacturer Inkido, asking if I wished to be a Guest Designer there! Well the answer was yes because I REALLY am in love with anything that comes out of Europe right now. 

You will find Inkido at PaperCraft Scandinavia HERE

You will find the blog HERE  

 I was not wrong about this manufacturer ... I LOVED their Beautiful Memories collection that they sent me to work with. It is so versatile... it includes pinks, blues and neutrals, darker and softer colours and you can just adapt it to any theme. 

I have created 2 projects to show you today. I will be a Guest Designer on their blog later on in the year as well so keep an eye out for that for more projects with this collection. 

"In My Daughter's Eyes"

Materials List

Papers: Inkido Beautiful Memories collection

Stamps: Inkido Nature Stamp: Foliage 5

Other 

Flowers: Kaisercraft Paper Blooms (honey) , Prima Marketing (Metalique Iron, Lucerne - Nature Garden), 

Brick mask: Prima Marketing

Alphabet: Adorn It tiny etched natural, Prima Marketing Alphabet (black)

Honeycomb chipboard: Imaginarium Designs

Sizzix Big Shot machine

Embossing Folder: Sizzix Embossing Folder - Birdcage

Mist: Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist - Vanilla Breeze

Paper Punch: E.K. Success 2.5"scalloped circle

Ink: Versa Magic - Gingerbread, Prima Marketing - Attic Dust

Other: brown leaves, sandpaper, gesso, white acrylic paint

Here are some close ups

I first stamped the image of the Nature Stamp: Foliage #5 on my background and then used the Prima brick mask to create another image on top.

I then placed and glued my chipboard where I wanted it to show and with thick acrylic paint and a sponge , I painted the chipboard while it was stuck down on the background paper making sure the paint went around the area well. 

I like to dab some white paint on the edge of the leaves or flowers. I think it gives it a uniform look. 

 This has been a fave find of mine lately, the Sizzix birdcage embossing folder. I got this idea from my always inspiring friend Gerry Van Gent, when I saw it on one of her layouts ages ago. Once you emboss the image, you just need to cut around it and then what I like to do is sand it with a soft sand paper to age it a little and give it more definition. 

Now here is a card I made with the same collection! Yes ..see how many different colour combinations you can get out of just 1 collection? 

I wanted to also say here that I wanted to give this card a shabby looking theme and I had seen a card with messy lace behind the main image online somewhere a very long time ago. I knew I wanted to add something like that to one of my cards but I do not know who the designer was so I am very sorry I do not know who to credit for that idea. If anyone knows, please do let me know !!

Materials for the card

Papers: Inkido Beautiful Memories collection

Flowers: Green Tara mini roses (white), Prima Marketing

Lace: trims from my stash

SO I hope you like my projects and the look of these papers. 

Many thanks to Inkido for having me this month and I cannot wait to show you my other projects later on in the year :) 

All the best , Nadia

Scraps Of Elegance May kit reveal (part 3)

Hey everyone!

Back again to share with you my last 2 creations with the May kit from Scraps Of Elegance. 

You will find the Scraps of Elegance website HERE and the forum with many active participants and lots of challenges HERE.

To purchase or subscribe to these kits please go HERE. 

Here is what the May kit looks like...

"Yesterdays"

May kit includes:

Patterned Papers:

Pink Paislee: Hope Chest Collection: Treasures

Pink Paislee: Hope Chest Collection: Heirlooms

Pink Paislee: Hope Chest Collection: Keepsakes

Pink Paislee: Hope Chest Collection: Documents

Pink Paislee: Hope Chest Collection: Trinkets

Prima: Fairy Rhymes Collection: Fairy Collage

Prima: Fairy Rhymes Collection: Flower Song

Prima: Fairy Rhymes Collection: Papillion

Prima: Fairy Rhymes Collection: Periwinkle

Authentique: Cherish Collection:Cherish Two

Embellishments:

Prima: Fairy Rhymes Resist Canvas Stickers

Kaisercraft: Needle & Thread 12 x 12 Die Cut Paper - Lace

Gina's Designs: Laser cut chipboard bird cages (2 designs)

Gina's Designs:  Cardstock Doily Set Intricates (12 doilies)

Petaloo: Printed Darjeeling Pink Large Wild Blossoms

Reneabouquets: Our signature hand-crafted butterflies

Pink Paislee: Hope Chest Paper Goods Die Cut Ephemera

May Arts: Ruffled Edge Sheer Ribbon - 24"

American Crafts: 3" wide Tulle Ribbon - 24"

3 strips of 3" x 12" flexible corrugate

Inspirational Sketch by Suepup, created just for our Yesterdays Kit

Now here is my first layout...

Now here is something I REALLY LOVED making. I have envisioned this in my head for a while and I finally created it just days from when the baby was born. 

If you like the look of this kit and the add ons you can purchase all of it HERE (where available) 

Have a great day everyone :) 

xoxo Nadia

Last post for Donna Salazar Designs + a quick flower tutorial

Hey there everyone! Today is my last post for my Guest Designer spot  at Donna Salazar!

I have enjoyed sharing my projects here with you all and I LOVED working with Donna's products. Once again, I take this chance to thank Donna and Natasha for having me as a Guest in May and for all the wonderful product I received! I have HEAPS left over so you will be seeing lots more Donna Salazar Designs goodies on my upcoming projects :) 

Now here is a card and tag set I created. 

 Most of the Donna Salazar Designs products I have used here are available at Scrapbook.com or Moments Of Tranquility shop

Now here is a quick tutorial on how I put the flowers  together the flowers you can see on my projects above...

Materials List for all the cards

Paper

GCD Studios: Donna Salazar Designs - Natural Beauty 6"x6" paper pad, Fun & Funky 6"x 6" paper pad

Dies

Spellbinders Fancy Tags Three

Spellbinders Grommet Tags

Spellbinders Picot Edges

Punches

Martha Stewart Punch Around The Page- Swirling Lace

Martha Stewart Punch Around The Page - Cherish

Martha Stewart Deep Edge Punch - Vintage Doily

E.k Success border punch - Double Crochet Doily

2" and 1.5" scalloped circle punch

Stamp

Bo Bunny Essentials - Sentiments

Trim

vintage trim from my stash

Webster's Pages blue trim

Kaisercraft lace

Other

Kaiseercraft resins

hemp twine

vintage button from my stash

liquid pearls

Prima Marketing Say It In Peals

Green Tara mini rose

(materials for handmade flowers listed on the image above)

Bye for now everyone!

More DT work for May for Riddersholm Designs!

 

Hi there everyone. 

Back again today to show you my latest creation using the gorgeous Huntington Garden collection from Riddersholm Designs.

Doesn't it have a nice vintage feel this collection? I just absolutely LOVE working with Riddersholm Design papers and I highly recommend them. They are excellent quality, with soft and warm colours and I simply cannot get enough. 

Now this is a pretty quick card to put together. The base of the card is created with Summerfield paper and some vintage lace. 

I then placed a paper doily over the crease of the card and topped that with some die cuts from the Huntington paper collection, a couple of vintage buttons. 

You can find all of these collections at the Riddersholm Design online store HERE or for your nearest stockist please go HERE

In Australia, you can purchase them from SCRAPPY KAPERS!!!

I hope you like my creation. Don't forget to drop by the Riddersholm Design blog HERE for HEAPS of inspiration using these gorgeous papers :) 

Thank you for dropping by today!

See you all next time. 

WELCOME TO THE WORLD.... my precious baby

Hello my beautiful friends. 

I am home from the hospital after giving birth to my healthy,  gorgeous, wonderful and amazing miracle baby.. GIRL!

I am extremely happy to finally announce the arrival of...

Her name means WISDOM in Greek. And let me tell you there is no description MORE fitting to what this  journey and this child have taught me. 

I was induced on Friday morning at 8:30am and she arrived at 6:42pm that night. I think I did pretty well. I received at epidural early on , as with all my deliveries and everything just went perfectly well. All of you mums out there will celebrate the fact that she came out in 6 minutes. Yes I literally pushed 3 times and she was out and when my doctor said "Its .... another girl" I almost fell off my bed LOL! I was 95% certain it was a boy. 

My doctor said to me afterwards that I "cried my baby out" rather than pushing her out. Yeah, I cried a lot in that delivery room. I am not taking away anything from this special child, but it was extremely difficult not to connect the last time with this. It was very emotional. I kept thinking of what happened. I was imagining that this is what it was supposed to be like last time. 

As fate would have it, there was no free room for me at that time and you know where I ended up staying for the night? In the labor room I gave birth in when I delivered my lost baby. How strange to come full circle. This time, I walked away with a baby in my arms. Last time, I left my baby and my heart in that hospital. 

Life is strange... but all this has been nothing short of a life lesson. I am still learning the reasons why. I know there are still dark days ahead, but here is this beautiful child right here right now who came literally out of no where. In fact, my doctor had a laugh at me because I was continually saying "WHERE did you come from??" once they placed her in my arms. LOL! 

She is healthy, I am doing extremely well. We left the hospital the next morning at 9:30am and we have been home yesterday and today. 

Everything is amazing. I cannot stop holding her. I slept with her in my arms last night. I just want to be full of HER, her smell and her scent and everything wonderful about her. 

The girls love her, they have been helping me and looking after her. SO far its a dream. 

She is just SO cute. I am not sure who she looks like. She has changed faces a lot in the last 48 hours that she was born. LOL! 

I cannot wait to scrap her first picture. 

I hope I can finally put ALL this behind me, look forward to next weeks, months , years with 3 girls and the most supportive husband and learn to heal at the same time. Sam is the most amazing husband. He is my rock. I could not have done this without him. He is the best father and he is blessed now with 3 daughters to spoil him for the rest of his life. 

One last time, from the bottom of my heart I wholeheartedly THANK YOU. 

I keep on saying this, and I will always say it... You are all A BLESSING in my life .. A gift from God that helped me get to the end . ALL of you out there.. THANK YOU ! I cannot tell you enough just how much you helped me throughout this journey. Its not over yet, but I can finally take some deep breaths and maybe be normal again. 

That this child will be the most spoiled child in history is no doubt LOL! She has no idea yet just how much she is loved, just how much she is wanted and just how much she was FOUGHT for. She has no idea the lengths we went to get her here. I will write it all down for her. She needs to know she was no accident, she was always wanted and always , always , always LOVED.  I gave up in the end, but she didn't. SHE found her way to me... she is here now and she was sent to us as a gift from God. 

God is great and HOPE and FAITH is what its all about in the end.

My prayers have been answered. I hope yours will too. 

All my love, Nadia. 

Scraps Of Elegance May kit reveal (part 2)

 Hi everyone!!! Today I wanted to show you 2 projects I created with the BEAUTIFUL May kit from Scraps Of Elegance. 

You will find the Scraps of Elegance website HERE and the forum with many active participants and lots of challenges HERE.

To purchase or subscribe to these kits please go HERE. 

Here is what the May kit looks like...

"Yesterdays"

May kit includes:

Patterned Papers:

Pink Paislee: Hope Chest Collection: Treasures

Pink Paislee: Hope Chest Collection: Heirlooms

Pink Paislee: Hope Chest Collection: Keepsakes

Pink Paislee: Hope Chest Collection: Documents

Pink Paislee: Hope Chest Collection: Trinkets

Prima: Fairy Rhymes Collection: Fairy Collage

Prima: Fairy Rhymes Collection: Flower Song

Prima: Fairy Rhymes Collection: Papillion

Prima: Fairy Rhymes Collection: Periwinkle

Authentique: Cherish Collection:Cherish Two

Embellishments:

Prima: Fairy Rhymes Resist Canvas Stickers

Kaisercraft: Needle & Thread 12 x 12 Die Cut Paper - Lace

Gina's Designs: Laser cut chipboard bird cages (2 designs)

Gina's Designs:  Cardstock Doily Set Intricates (12 doilies)

Petaloo: Printed Darjeeling Pink Large Wild Blossoms

Reneabouquets: Our signature hand-crafted butterflies

Pink Paislee: Hope Chest Paper Goods Die Cut Ephemera

May Arts: Ruffled Edge Sheer Ribbon - 24"

American Crafts: 3" wide Tulle Ribbon - 24"

3 strips of 3" x 12" flexible corrugate

Inspirational Sketch by Suepup, created just for our Yesterdays Kit

Here is my first layout..

"Ioanna"

 I used primarily the beautiful Pink Paislee Hope Chest collection papers on this layout, as well as a number of Prima Marketing flowers and embellishments. 

And here is an album created entirely out of papers from Pink Paislee's Hope Chest collection papers and die cuts, Petaloo Vintage trinkets and Gina's Designs Doilies. 

 I will share some more things I created in a few days. 

In the meantime, if you like the look of this kit and the add ons you can purchase all of it HERE (where available) 

Have a great day everyone :) 

xoxo Nadia

Donna Salazar Designs Guest Designer part 2 + How to add art mediums on your projects + PLEASE WISH ME LUCK !

Hi there everyone.

Here is something I just posted on Facebook and thought I would paste it here for all you wonderful people that have followed me here all these years...

" My dear friends, I thank you for your messages today and the last few days asking how I am doing, wishing me well and wondering what is happening. Well.. The time is almost here . I am about to have my last night as a mum of 2 precious children. Tomorrow morning, I am in hospital very early to be induced and I hope to have the baby by this time tomorrow night. I am really scared. It's been 9 months of worry and as positive as I have tried to stay, I was waiting for it all to end like last time. I am exhausted from trying to hold it all together but all along I have never felt alone as you were all there with me for this tough journey. I have one favour to ask.. Please keep me and my baby in your prayers in the next 24 hours . Your positive vibe has kept me going all these months and I truly believe you all helped me get through this. I have met the most amazing people online over the last few years that have really supported me personally. Thank you, thank you ,thank you and God bless . Please wish me luck xoxoxo


Now on with the pre scheduled post...
Back again showing you one more project I have created with the gorgeous Natural Beauty collection.

I also wanted to show you some new found techniques on applying art medium on your projects, and I am having a lot of fun with these. I will admit, up to recent times I didn't know where to start and what I needed etc so I became quite overwhelmed. But after some recent exposure to these techniques and some of my own experimenting I am SO excited to steer my style in a different direction! So why not share my humble little ways of how I add art mediums to my work?

 Most of the Donna Salazar Designs products I have used here are available at Scrapbook.com or Moments Of Tranquility shop

SO here is my layout..

"This Is Love"

Here is a quick guide to show you where I have used all the Donna Salazar Designs products. 

And here are my ways of adding texture, detail and layers to this layout using different art mediums. I have tried to show you step by step what I did with the background.

And here are some close ups of my layout..

OK I admit.. I am not a "tough love" type of mum. I am strict don't get me wrong, but I do spoil my girls with too much love. Yeah, I say too much because .. IT IS too much. Its the only way I know how to love them. My mum has always said "No one ever died from too much love".. and this quote by Mother Teresa has been sitting on my iPhone for a while , waiting to be used on a layout.  

Just above, you can see some flowers I made with the Spellbinders Donna Salazar Rose Creations die. Super easy to make look great I think! 

Materials List

Paper

GCD Studios: Donna Salazar Designs - Natural BeautyTeal Burlap

GCD Studios: Donna Salazar Designs - Natural Beauty

GCD Studios: Donna Salazar Designs Mix'd Media Stax 2

Chipboard

GCD Studios: Donna Salazar Designs , Fun & Funky chipboard alphas

Imaginarium Designs - clock and compass

Die

Spellbinders Donna Salazar - Rose Creations

Ink

Clearsnap: Donna Salazar Designs Mix'd Media Inx - chiffon

Stencil

Want2Scrap: Donna Salazar Designs -Leaves Stencil

Punches

Fiskars Borer Punch - notebook

Martha Stewart - doily

Stamp

Kaisercraft Textured Stamp - Grid

Other

Melissa Frances Resin - Lock & Key

Prima Marketing alpha stickers

Green Tara mini roses

gesso

modelling paste

white and black acrylic paint

masking tape

mesh tape

puffy paint

mixed metal findings

I hope you like my creation today and I HOPE I have made it easy for you to try some new techniques. 

'Till next time, its goodbye for now :) 

Don't forget to drop by the Donna Salazar Designs blog HERE 

and the Donna Salazar Designs Girly Grunge ning