FRIDAY FAVOURITES - Guest Designer; Jodie King

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Hello, Happy Friday, and welcome to Friday Favourites! It's Jodie with you today with my third project using the gorgeous January Cupcake Kit.

Does anyone else have trouble getting their man in front of a camera? Mine really does not like his photo being taken, and so rarely makes it into any of my scrapbook pages. I snapped this pic while we were at lunch on a recent holiday and I think it's kinda cool. So he finally gets to have a layout (probably the first ever) featuring just him, hence the title Hello Handsome.

Some of my very favourite pieces from this kit are the woodgrain and navy striped papers, the navy embellishments ('best ever' and 'that was so fun' tags), the gorgeous flair buttons, the cloud die cut, and the die cut shields. I've also saved the scraps of my favourite yellow polka dot paper from my last project, and seriously, who doesn't love a turquoise doily!

Hello 2015 is one of my favourite digi files from the Digital Shop January Releases and I've used it both as part of my title and as a background layer for my layout.

I duplicated the word 'hello' from the digital file into a grid pattern on a Silhouette Studio page, and cut it on my Cameo from white cardstock. After trimming it to size I adhered it to another piece of white cardstock and machine stitched the edge in white thread. By using all white products it adds visual texture to the background without becoming too busy for the other bright colours used in the layout.

There are quite a few black & white doodling elements to the My Minds Eye Jubilee Tangerine collection, including this smaller shield. To cut back on some of the busyness of the geometric lines, I've used my Mango Gelato from the kit with a watercolour brush to colour parts of it in.

The antler flair is just delicious and I've used it to reinforce the masculine feel to this page.

To build the title I've used one of the 'hello' scripted words that was left over from creating the background, and simply recoloured it.

One of my favourite things to do on a layout is to fussy cut.. I'm always looking through patterned papers to see what I can cut out. Once I had tucked in the cute cloud die cut, of course I needed to cut some hot air balloons from one of the 6x6 papers.

Even after three separate projects there's still so much product in my Cupcake Kit. The only things in this layout not included in the kit are white and blue cardstock, a few enamel dots, some twine and a tag that was a piece of memorabilia from our weekend away.

And that brings to an end the sharing of my Guest Designer projects at A Piece of Cake Designs. I'm so thrilled to have been creating with the Cupcake Kit this month, and can't thank Raquel enough for having me along.

The kits are always perfectly coordinated and have such a great mix of papers, embellishments and exclusive flair. Can't wait to see the February kit sneaks!

Jodie

TUTORIAL TUESDAY - Guest Post, Jodie King

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Hi friends, it's Jodie here today and I'm so excited to bring you my first post as Guest Designer for APOCD's January Releases! I've used the Cupcake Kit and a January release Cut File & Brushes from the Digital Store.

Our DS is about to start Uni, and this weekend he moved out of home so that he can study in Brisbane. I wanted to create a layout to celebrate this incredibly exciting time for him, a time when the whole world just seems to open up and anything is possible.

The January Cupcake Kit has two gorgeous Double Scoop Gelatos, and I've used the Mango Gelato in three ways to create my background. Here's a quick step by step on how I've created it.

Start with a piece of white cardstock and prime it with Gesso. Priming allows the Gelatos to blend more easily over the surface and gives a smoother finish, and it also prevents the cardstock from curling and distorting quite as much.

Allow the Gesso to air dry. When dry apply the Gelato across the page where you want the most vibrant colour to be. As you can see you don't need to be super neat with this step at all.

Take a baby wipe and rub over the Gelato to blend the colour, this creates a watercolour effect. When you have blended where you'd like the most vibrant colour, go over the edges with a clean section of baby wipe for a lighter shade, blending back to the white cardstock.

To use your Gelato to create a droplet or splatter effect, put a very small amount of water into a glass or small container. Rub the Gelato in circles on the bottom of the container to release the colour into the water. This may take a few minutes, but the more you rub the more concentrated the colour becomes.

When you have your desired colour, use a small paintbrush to apply splatters to areas of your background.

The final element to our Gelato background is to use a background stamp for subtle visual texture.

For this technique you will need a background stamp, a Gelato and a spray bottle of water (I've used a background stamp from my stash).

Apply the Gelato directly to the stamp in random sections (to create an imperfect edge). It's okay to get a fair bit of colour onto the stamp as it will be a darker layer over the already-coloured background. Spritz the stamp with water and let it sit for a minute while the Gelato activates, then stamp it on the already coloured section of the background. Repeat to create a random pattern.

And here's the background with our three Gelato techniques.

I've pulled a lot of the brighter papers and embellishments from the kit to match the vibrant Mango Gelato background. These pennant die cuts from the My Mind’s Eye Jubilee mixed bag come together as a quick and easy banner.

I've cut the word "Celebrate" in black cardstock from the Clink Clink Cut Files and Brushes. It doubles as my title and also as part of my journalling. I was curious if the scripty font would cut cleanly on my Cameo and I'm super happy with how it turned out - a beautiful clean cut.

There are lots of woodgrain elements in this kit, some of my faves being the Studio Calico Heyday frame stickers and the Jillibean Soup woodgrain frames.

To finish the layout I've added some black ink splatters using Mr Huey's (from my stash) and a few of the metallic sequins from the kit.

Thanks for dropping by today!

Jodie

STORE NEWS SUNDAY - January Releases and a Project Life Share

Hello everyone!

Welcome to todays Store News Sunday post. Today I have two reasons for posting; one is to share with you about the awesome things happening in the APOCD store, and the second is to share an AMAZING Project Life spread by the lovely and talented Jodie from Polka Dot Creative. 

Firstly, our January Main Kit sold out super quick so unfortunately that is no longer available. We still have a couple of these cupcake kits left though. Let me tell you there is SO MUCH value in this bitty kit; the double scoop gelatos, the whole die cut pack, heaps of papers and so much more! 

You can snag one up here 

This month we also have the most amazing cut file sets, I am just totally loving them!

The following are designed by Jodie from Polka Dot Creative. If you keep reading this post you will also see some gorgeous pages she has created by using the brush files (.abr files) available when purchasing. 

This one is perfect for any celebrations that you may have, new year, birthdays, weddings, Australia day, etc.

That wine glass! So adorable x

A set just for Australia Day, I am picturing these as brushes on photos, they would just look amazing. 

And finally, Hello 2015, a set perfect for your title page, new years pages and more!

We also have two releases from the talented Rachel Hodge. These sets were created with a Back to School theme in mind. I just love the elements Rachel has managed to include, the pencils and stars are a personal fave! 

This set can be used to create Project Life cards for your album, or you could even use them on a traditional page, mini album etc. Did you see Nat's awesome post using these yesterday?  

Before I leave today I wanted to finish up with a layout share from Jodie, using the designs that she scripted on her pages. 

Looks like she had a little help to photograph!

On this particular page she has used the Hello 2015 brush script files and the Clink Click set. 

Here is a better view of the scripted files :) The black and white and pops of colour from the photos really makes this layout stand out!

And some super detailed shots:

My personal fave; cheers! x

Awesome hey! These files and more can be found in our store www.apieceofcakedesigns.com.au 

Thanks for visiting, I hope everyone is having a beautiful weekend.

Lovely Together .... Natalie May

  

Hey guys

How has your week been?
Managed to get any creating done?

Today I'm showing a page I created using the Jewel Sentiments Cut Files and the November Cupcake kit

I wanted to cut some shapes into the background and this file was perfect.

I took the file of the two triangles duplicated them a few times to create the background I was after and the set it to cut.

I used snippets of the gorgeous Heidi Swapp paper and adhered them behind each cut out to add some colour.

I decided it needed a little splash of ink so I used the Prima Ink pad, made a little puddle of ink, added a generous amount of water and them splattered it onto my background!

 

I used the 'together' cut file from the Gather Together Cut Files released this month and inked it also in the Blue Prima Ink!

Thanks for sropping by ... Have a great weekend!

Natalie