A big Hello from France !

Hey there ! It's Michele Beck, from France !
I am here to share with you some pages. One of my fav item from Nikki Sivils, well, in fact, i love them all, but the scalloped papers are just gorgeous, and it offers soooo many ways to use it on our projects!
So, here we go :)
For this first one, i used Henry's Brilliance. I cut the scalloped paper named "Smarty Pants" and reassembled it to make a frame:

For the second one, i wanted something extremely feminine as it was a page about me. It's so rare i make that kind of page as i don't have lots of pictures of myself. It's a mix of Elie's Day Out and Dan the Record Man. 
I really love the paper "4 the Record" but i only wanted something blue... So, i cut out the part i wanted, and punched some little circles. Then, i cut in in two parts. Some butterflies and flowers stamps, a little of sewing, and here we have a feminine page :

And the last one, the line "My friend Birdie" was perfect for this picture of my dd Camille and our dog Elysa. I think this photo represents them in the most perfect way, always in movement, one behind the other, the other behind one, playing etc. It's a pic i took with my I Phone so the quality is not perfect, but it's so easy to keep that kind of moments of everyday life...

I love these stickers, it matches with every thing:

Et voila :) that's it for today !
i hope you enjoyed this post !
have a wonderful month every body !
love,
Michele Beck

Nikki Sivils = "Must-have products for your scrapbooking!"

Hi everyone!  Is anyone besides me wishing that we were actually having some fall-like weather?  Where I live the forecast says it's going to be close to 90 degrees all week.  Booooo for that. 

But... rather than be annoyed with the above-average temperatures, I thought I'd get out my Tree Love line & scrap some photos from last year's visit to a pumpkin patch! 

I used a sheet from the 6x6 paper pad for my journaling card.  I printed my journaling from Word onto the paper, added the "My Favorite Time" cut-out and then used my border punch to finish it off...

I made my own flag banner for my title using a circle punch + some baker's twine.  For my tree, I used a flower punch & just kept layering them to add some extra texture.  I ♥ Bucky the Beaver...

And... just a little shout-out here!  If you read Creating Keepsakes magazine, you may have already seen this in the current issue!  Nikki's ghost mini album made the "Latest & Greatest" column as one of the 10 must-have products for your scrapbooking!

.

 

I just have one thing to say...

You ROCK, Nikki! 

Hugs & happy creating everyone! 

Deana

Nikki's papers ROCK!

Hi everyone! I'm Julie Howard and this will be my first official blog post as a Dog House Diva. Being a part of this amazing team is an unbelievable opportunity and experience. It rocks!

As does Nikki's Dan The Record Man collection of papers.

In recent months, I moved over 900 miles so that I could live closer to my family. As an aunt to two awesome teens, it's been a great pleasure to see what amazing kids they've become during the years that I wasn't around. My nephew, Chase, gave me an impromptu concert one afternoon. Not only did I discover that he's blessed with musical talent... the kid played Ozzy's Crazy Train! But I was also thrilled to see a Green Day poster hanging on his wall. 'Cause, you see, I'm like a huge Green Day fan. I mean, HUGE! So to hear my nephew playing his guitar, with the image of the Green Day poster in the background - it was a great moment for me. I'm so proud of him and who he's becoming. Plus he's got great taste in music... he's a kid after my own heart!


For the most part, it was the simplicity of the Green Day poster that inspired my layout's design... I really liked the look of the two circles with the outer rings. The largest circle is The Record die cut, without the scalloped edge. The smaller circle and the majority of my embellishments were cut from the Record Cutie Cut-Ups sheet of paper. For the background, I used Dan's Album and the green is a scrap of leftover paper from Dan's Turntable.

I really wanted to incorporate Green Day's heart grenade on the layout so I found the image online and simply printed it on photo paper. Then it was just a matter of cutting it out. As you'll notice, I do a lot of photo cutting. As long as you have the original image saved somewhere or you have duplicates, don't be afraid to cut your photos. It really helps to tell a story better if you're able to cut away distracting elements such as windows, background clutter, other people, or a messy teenage bedroom.


Another small detail that I wanted to incorporate was the "R" from the Green Day poster. For some strange teenage reason, my nephew had cut out the "R" from his poster (see, he cuts his photos too). So I just pulled the white surface away from my chipboard letter to reveal the raw chipboard beneath. Like I said, it's a small detail, but I wanted to include it as a part of the design.

I know everyone is getting really anxious for Nikki's new lines... I know I certainly am! But I also know that everyone has some of her older lines still in their stash. So while we're all waiting for the new stuff, I suggest we all pull out the old and ROCK it!!

mixin' it up .......

hello everyone -

Jill, here, on my first-ever assignment as one of the newest Dog house divas......WooooHooooo!!!! Am I ever lucky!!!!!

You will learn very quickly that I lllooooovvvvveeeeee to mix things up a lot and use as many product lines from a company as possible. In other words -- if Nikki were to ask me what product line she should send me to design with....I would have to tell her, "send me ONE pattern paper from every line you've got......I don't want anything too matchy-matchy."

That's me......the girl who can't seem to get herself to purchase more than one paper from a line. Anyone else like this....or is it just me?!?

Anyway.......I wanted to share two layouts that I have recently created with Nikki Sivils products (no ONE particular line highlighted).

Hooray for School:
products used: Flaming Butterfly: Butterfly Games, Willow Bee: Day Dreamer, My Sweet Cherry Pie: Cherry Tree, Will He B the 1: Date Night Strips, Ellie's Day Out: Ellie's Cutie Cut-Ups.
Lots of painting, stitching, layering, pop-dotting, inking, hole punching, sanding........the list goes on. Oh yeah....and lots of f.u.n.!!!!!

fishin' 4 tunes:

okay....in this layout, I tried to go completely out-of-my-comfort-zone and create a layout using more than one paper from a line (going completely against what i just told you about myself). Must admit, this is REALLY hard for me to do........I just naturally (normally) go for pattern papers that don't match AT ALL!!!!!!

products used: Flaming Butterfly: Butterfly Tag, Butterfly Eggs, Butterfly Strips; Dan the Record Man: Record Man; Bread(less) Tabs.

I used the Bread(less) Tabs to create these cute, little fish by cutting them in half, length-wise. I added a hand-cut oval from the Butterfly Eggs pattern paper. A google eye & smiley face seals the deal.
To view any of these products, click here (pattern paper) and here (Bread(less) Tabs).

Hope this stretches your creativity to grab those Nikki Sivils papers that aren't necessarily in one product line, and create fun & bold layouts with multiple papers. Now, go create something with "one from each" line. I know you'll love it!!!

smiles to all,

jill

OWL always have fun creating with Nikki Sivils' products...

I was in the mood to make something silly recently. I'm not sure that an owl with big pink kissy lips was initially on my mind, but that was my result! My daughter's friend told me it looked more like a cat with those lips, but humor me & go along with the fact that it's SUPPOSED to be an OWL!

Want to see how I made it?

I started with my OWL mini chipboard album...... and painted it white...



I used a circle punch on my Bella, Bella paper & punches out the flowers to begin making my "feathers" (or... it could be a dress... you decide!)

I flipped up the edges of each circle to add texture...

... and then added some Burlap Buttons for the eyes, some pink lips & some more pink for the ears. Although the pink lip "cut-ups" from the Will He B The 1 line is more commonly used for love-themed pages, there's versatility in everything!

I hope you've been inpsired to create something new, in a not-so-obvious way!

OWL be back next month!

Hugs...

Deana

SHOWCASING DAN THE RECORD MAN

Hello! This is Janis blogging here at Nikki Sivils today!!! First, let me say that I am happy to be (still) on the NS DT - - I thought three months was too short to showcase the yummy NS products (I started blogging here last March). To do this for a full-term is really an opportunity that I am thankful for.

Today, I'm gonna showcase Dan the Record Man - - I have three layouts featuring two of the most important guys in my life. ;o)

Let me start with my little guy Phil - - took the picture while we were at the local music cd store. These papers are just sooo perfect, don't you think? ;o)

Got to test my stamping skills (stamped my The Record paper with music stamp as background)...
Placed my cluster of cut-outs here and some blings there (for that rockstar feel!!!). Used some cord brads and black burlap buttons too (love the instant texture these two bring to my layout!!!)...

Cut-out another record and adhered it with a pop-dot for added dimension...

Next up is my big guy. I was looking at some old pictures and I saw these - - dated September 1992. ;o) Another yay for perfect papers!!!!!

For the record, I'm soooo blessed to have him in my life...


2 Bs on my cluster - - blings and burlap button...


I was able to finish these 2 layouts way ahead of time so I got to create one more - - I thought it would be fun to make a face-off of sorts - - I find it amazing that these two pictures have 18 years between them and that my little guy is sooo much like my big guy!!!! I found the inspiration on Journaling Junkie's Challenge 82: Create a layout about the similarities of your kids and their Dad:

I got to use the record stamp included in Dan the Record Man's 4x4 Clear Stamp Collection to dress up my star cut-out.

I also placed some 3D elements here and there by adhering cut-outs with pop-dots (ooohh, did some handstitching too!!!).


Hope I inspired you to grab your Dan the Record Man stash and play!!!

Have fun creating,

janis

P.S. My big guy hasn't seen these layouts, I plan to show it to him on Sunday as one of my Father's Day gifts. ;o) Hope he'll love them as much as I do. ;o)

Happy Fathers' Day to your big guys too!!! ;o)

How about some layout fun?!

Hey Everyone!!! It's Katrina and I have a couple of projects to share with you. The first one is with the Ellie's Day Out collection. This collection has one of my FAVORITE papers in it. The pink "Ellie's Shoes/Pink is Pretty" paper....LOVE IT! The pink side just reminds me of lamps! This is a layout that I was going to share last month, but with work happenings, Michele Beck graciously took my blogging post!!! THANK YOU Michele! Ok, here is my layout that I didn't get to share yet!

And now....for a little something TOTALLY different than that sweet, pink, and pretty page! Spring/Summer around here calls for festivals of all kinds. The one that I ALWAYS attend since discovering it is ArtsFest. It's always in May, usually rains....BUT I always have fun! Lots of different sites and sounds to take in...although, I don't recall any scrappy stuff....mmm...we may need to work on that! If you love handmade jewelry it's THE place to go. AND a great way to scrap lots of pictures of any event is to use a collage type mask or overlay. You can do this if you have Photoshop (or Elements) or on sites like Picnik.

I love all the bright colors that seem to be around ArtsFest and when I went thru the pictures I took, I realized the good pictures had orange in them....WELL...hello Mr. "Dan The Record Man collection"!!!! These papers were PERFECT to scrap this event. And yeah....they are "music" papers, but you know us scrapbookers we love to use paper for different themes! So...here we go......I used the Cute as a Button buttons for accents on things....LOVE THEM...did you know they are self adhesive?? How neat is that...you don't have to try to figure out how to attach them. (secret...I have a tendency to get glue dots EVERYWHERE!) I made the little hangers out of some floral wire, it took a little longer than I thought, but I like how they turned out! And I also used some of the Cut Up's on the shirt! Here's a close up.....

And I have ONE more layout with the Dan the Record Man collection!!! This is a mural that I found downtown and thought it was just too pretty of NOT to take a picture...then I decided to ham it up a bit for the camera! ha ha ha!!! And remember, you can always CUT UP those pretty round die cut papers and use them as accents. It took me awhile to get over that I had to use them all as one piece and was never able to come up with a layout!



That's it from me today! I hope I inspired you to create, Create, CREATE!!!!!! And don't forget the NEW DESIGN TEAM will be announced soon!!!!!!!

Have a Scrappy Kinda Day!!~~Katrina

What can you do with one piece of paper?

Now, I did use more then one piece to complete the projects I am going to share with you, but the main piece of each project is taken from one piece of patterned paper. It is kind of like cutting a pie in several pieces and you sure wouldn't want to waste any pie or paper.

The above image is the piece of paper that I am talking about, taken from the Dan the Record Man collection. I wanted the black, record looking portion from this piece of paper. I started to cut off the scallop edge but I sure didn't want to waste any of that because I love scallop circles. So I very carefully got a cut big enough to get my scissors in, I used a medium scallop scissors that I have and started to cut around the inside of the circle, making scallop cuts on the backside of the bigger scallop edge. Now I have a complete, cut out circle to set aside for my next project. (you will be able to picture this piece better when you see the layout I created with it)

What I didn't realize when I started out cutting this piece is the neat, negative scallop edge that I would create around the black, record print circle. This was going to work to my advantage for my card because I thought it helped with a masculine look. I cut two partial circles to fit on the front of my card. The background piece on my card is from the "Hear the Beat" patterned paper. I LOVE this piece of paper, it just seems to fit so many themes in it's soft shades of yellow. The accent pieces are cut from the "Record Room" patterned paper.
Now, back to my scallop circle. . .

The background piece of paper is a ledger print from the North Pole Nights collection. I LOVE ledger prints, they are so neutral and go with everything. This piece was just the right colors that I wanted to use. My scallop circle from the 4 the Record paper is all cut and ready to go so that part was fast and easy. I cut out one strip of a ruler print from the Henry's Brilliance collection. I thought it had a "boy" look to it and the color was just right. I used a sketch from Unscripted Sketches for my layout, I love the inspiration that comes from finding sketches.

I punched out some of the record designs from the "Record Man" patterned paper. I thought they made really cute little accents, kind of along the line of flowers but with a more masculine feel to them. Brads in the centers finished those off.

I even have some pieces of my paper left so I'll need to think of what else to do with it.

Thanks for visiting, Linda Beeson, Design Team member

Dad card
Materials:
Cardstock - Core'dinations
Patterned papers - Dan the Record man collection/Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker
Sticker letters - Sticko
Brads


KISSABLE LIPS layout
Materials:
Cardstock – Core Impressions/Core’dinations
Patterned paper – Henry’s Brilliance, Dan the Record Man and North Pole Nights/Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker
Sticker letters – October Afternoon
Circle punches - Papershapers
Sandpaper

celebrating dad

TGIF, right?
Hey y'all, it's Rae Barthel blogging today :)

Father's Day is fast approaching, and this year I will NOT be late
getting my Father's Day cards made!!
That's because I have them done NOW
and I'd love to share them with you!

Now you know that
Dan the Record Man
is the PERFECT line to use for Father's Day cards, right?

'you spin me right 'round' card

Here I used arrow die cuts, a record player,
and patterned paper from the
Dan the Record Man collection.
Add a computer-generated sentiment, and voila,
instant Father's Day card!
I'm planning on giving this one to my ♥hubby♥!
_______________________________________

'rock star dad' card

I kept this one a little simple, just adding some

stamped sentiments to the gorgeous patterned paper.
My husband will be giving this card to his dad, who has
just been released from the hospital. He has really been
a 'rock star' through his long hospital stay!!
____________________________________________

'my dad rocks' card

Thought that this one would be perfect for the kids to give
to dear 'old' dad! They tease him relentlessly about this taste in music,
so it will actually be quite funny for him to receive!!
Again here I used more die cuts from the collection, and added the
record player border. Just added a few alpha stickers to
create the sentiment.
___________________________________________

'Rock & Roll dad' card

Those record player adapter thing-a-ma-bobs just
crack me up!! This card will be perfect to give to my dad!!
I will remind him that I totally remember those adapters lying
around by the record player and listening to his Rolling Stones albums
as a kid!!!!
I love that record paper too!! Just think, kids these days have NO clue
what records are!! The die cut stars were the perfect embellishment
for the card!!
_________________________________________

Feeling inspired to get a jump start on your Father's Day cards?
Don't look further than the
Dan the Record Man collection
it has ALL you need to make some
'rockin' cards for Dad!!

Until next time....
~♥~
rae

From a favorite movie to a Father's Day project...

Hello, it is Nathalie here today sharing with you my latest projects with Nikki's collections.

I created this 6X12 page (one of my favorite format) using the fun Will He B the 1 collection. With its yellow tickets, popcorn prints and pink papers, it was perfect for this page that I have been meaning to do about a family favorite:

You can click to enlarge

You see, in our family, we are often caught laughing out loud when quoting silly sentences from the Pink Panther (which has been viewed many times) and I am very glad to have made a page about it so that my kids will remember that!

Loving the yellow and grey combo of many of the patterned papers in Dan The Record Man, I was super inspired to use it for a Father's Day project I had in mind for my husband. I asked my kids to come up with a few sentences about their dad (like "I love it when you take me fishing" or "You're awesome Dad!") and printed them to make paper strips. I then created fortune cookies using the 6X6 mini paddie inserting the strips as I folded them.

Finally, I purchased a chinese take out box (less than $2 at Michael's) and covered it using two sheets of Hear the Beat. Added a tag (from the Record Cutie cut-ups) and there you have a fun and personalized gift for Father's Day!

ETA: I have added a tutorial for my Father's Day project (including the fortune cookies) on my blog: HERE.