Welcome DT Diva, Melissa Pablo

It has been FOREVER since I have blogged here (or on my own blog)!  But, today I am excited to share some work of one of our new design team Divas, Melissa Pablo.  Melissa has been a long time participant  of the Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker blog here and we are excited to have her on the team this term. 

The Divas are waiting on the new collections to arrive, but Melissa had some of the older collections and sent me three layouts while I was away at CHA.  I was so excited when I got these in my inbox from her!

For the first layout, she combined the following collections:  

My Friend Birdie, Gingerbread Land, and Tree Love.  

And they all worked together perfectly!

For this layout Melissa used:  

Will He B the 1, Flaming Butterfly, and Sugar Cookie

And for the last layout Melissa used these collections:

Sugar Cookie, We Are Family, My Friend Birdie, and I think there is a little Gingerbread Land in there also!

I love that she combined at least three different collections on each layout, but they all went seamlessly together!  Be sure to visit Melissa's blog, 

creative isay. 


Also, don't forget to grab one of the new collection badges over at the side to add to your blog.  I have already picked one winner this week!!!

Nikki Sivils and Pencillines sketches

Hello girls!

Last month Nikki Sivils has sponsored the Pencil lines DT and we had the great pleasure of getting to work on the beautiful Nikki’s papers in two amazing sketches provided by Anna Bowkis.

Today, I would like to show you what I’ve done.

First, sketch 196:

And sketch 197:

Sketches are wonderful tools for our creativity. Through them, we can already see beforehand where we position every element of our page and adequate the design to our supplies.

Sketches are also very versatile. We can adapt them, turn over, invert, increase or decrease its size, substitute elements, accentuate one or another, adapting them to our style.

It is right that when making use of the sketches, we end up obtaining new designs for our works, making them more creative.

I hope you liked these amazing sketches!

See ya!
Larissa

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

Bee good, bee happy...

Hi there, it's Michele Beck here, with some projects to share with you :)

You know, i love making mini album, cards or all that kind of project, but i am definitely a page maker, yes, i think i feel myself more creative in front of a 12/12 paper lol !
I am sure you all know the Chipboard Albums Nikki made for us, they are so easy to use, the shapes are just perfect for lots of fun and beautiful mini album.
But, as i told you just before, me, it's pages ! and this cute Chipboard Album Tree was screaming "please ! use me for your page!" Hihihi :)))

Of course, i didn't want to disappoint this cute little things ;)))
so here i come with a fresh and sunny page:



I choose my papers and cover with it the chipboard. I added some black ink, and distressed the edges:



Nikki supplies:
paper: A good place to B, Be good/Buzzin arround, Bee 2 bee/Queen bee, Willow's bee hive/Bee's cutie cut-ups.
stamps: Willow bee 4x4 clear stamps.
Embellishments: Brads, Buttons.

Here is a second page made with a sketch, it's so easy to create with sketch, sometimes i like to use one...


I love this butterflies ! so unique and original ! give it some volume by bending the wings and outline it with a white pen ;)



Nikki supplies:
paper: Butterfly games, Butterfly rest/Butterfly Galaxy, Forever Butterfly, Butterfly cutie cut-ups.
stamps: Dan the record Man 4x4 clear stamps.

That's it for today! Thank you so much for stopping by!
Have a wonderful creative day ;)
Michele

The 3-D details

I want to share with you a project that I have wanted to put together for awhile. I was recently issued a challenge to think "outside the box", so here it is, my finished 3-D Shadow Box!

Our youngest grandson is a rather busy little fella and so when I take photos of him, he is all over the place. This day when he and his sister were playing in the rain was no exception. I love to cut images out in silhouette so I thought this was the perfect time and a great way to show off some of that extra energy he has by using a few different poses from this day.

I want to go into a little detail to help you see the dimension I was able to create in my shadow box and it was so fun to use these particular Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker products to make my finished project adorable.

I basically have four layers. The little bee print paper is my background layer and some of the clouds are on that layer too. I cut the grass with scissors from the Butterfly Rest patterned paper. I just love this green piece, it can be so many different things and here it is my grass. One of the layers of the grass is also on the first or background layer. This cut out figure is the most foremost piece in my box. The bottom portion of him has one layer of foam tape, the portion under the umbrella has three layers of foam tape.

I took this photo so that you could "look down inside" at my layers. The full cut-out figure of my granddaughter holding her brothers hand has one layer of foam tape behind that to form the second layer.

The second strip of grass has two layers of foam tape pieces so that forms the third layer in my box. Notice how I placed the cut out figures of my granddaugher and her brother in between the grass and on top of some of it too.

When I mention my layers of foam tape, I am meaning that I am using these great little squares from 3L so I placed one piece on my figure, I remove the little protective paper that is on it and then place another piece of the foam tape on top of that. For three layers, I, of course, peel off that second protective layer and place another piece of foam tape on top of that. In the above photo, you can see behind the top umbrella, the three pieces of foam tape piled on top of each other.

I cut strips from the Bee Strips paper to accent the top, border of my box. The clouds are even added in layers and I hand cut my big raindrops. The raindrops are coated with the Aleene's Paper Glaze so they look wet. I added Glitter 3-D Fashion Paint by Tulip to some of the clouds for a slight glitter look.

So don't just save your photos for scrapbook layouts, try to think outside of the box to other ways to highlight them.

Thanks for visiting, Linda Beeson

RAINY DAY 3-D SHADOW BOX

Materials list:
Wooden shadow box – Provo Craft
Cardstock – Core Essentials/Core’dinations
Patterned papers – Bee 2 Bee, Bee Strips, Day Dreamer: Willow Bee Collection and Butterfly Rest: Flaming Butterfly Collection/Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker
Glitter 3-D Fashion paint/Tulip

Clear Paper Glaze – Aleene’s®
Sandpaper

Foam tape – 3M

Sharing my latest projects & a little Heidi Swapp...

Hi there! It's Nathalie hosting today and I hope to brighten your Monday a bit by sharing with you a few new projects I created with Nikki's papers. I have actually been busy playing with 3 different collections this month!

It is almost the end of the school year (no, I can not believe that either!) so I got ready by making these bright and fun tags for my teachers' gifts (you could follow the same designs to make bookmarks). I love the look of the bright colors contrasting with the black:

This was my first time playing with Bella Blue and Oscar Too and I discovered how versatile it really is! I am also a big fan of the Pockets of Stickers where I found the pink scallop border, the heart and the little flower over the i. I hope your LSS carries them!

I created this little ornament by recycling the packaging of a pack of brads. I placed a photo and paper from the 6X6 Mini Pad inside the packaging and then added the scallop stickers all around on the outside. I then embellished with other paper elements from the same collection. It is hard to see on my photo but it has a lot of dimension!

Last but not least, I made this very feminine birthday card using Ellie's Day Out collection, some Ellie's Cutie cut-ups and a breadless tab to embellish:

That's it for now! I have a couple more things in the works but that will have to wait. I hope that I have given you some ideas that make you want to go and scrap something!

Have a great week!

Hey there everyone... Nikki here! I'm just popping in to let you know... Heidi Swapp is having a sponsor appreciation day and that would be us here at Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker! Leave a comment and the winner will be randomly chosen. Check out Heidi's awesome blog for more details!!

What can you do with one stamp?

I have been a rubber stamper for something like 20 years! I think the thing that fasinatinated me about the craft of stamping was that I could take one stamp and basically make it my own. I could experiment with different papers, different colors, different coloring mediums and my image would have a completely different look each time. OR...if I needed to make multiples of the same card for an invitation or a number of thank you cards, for example, I could stamp this same image as many times as I wanted without it costing my more money! You can tell, I fell in love with how versatile stamping can be.
So, I took the large butterfly from the Flaming Butterfly set by Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker to work with and I want to share some of what I came up with.

You can see that I created my background paper for my card by stamping one of the little butterflies in the set repeatedly on a piece of white cardstock. I didn't color in anything for this card, instead when I had stamped all of my butterflies with a Black Versafine stamp pad, I embossed all of them with clear embossing powder and then gave this piece a few spritzes of Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels. I used two different colors of spray and then inked the outside edges of my piece with a turquoise blue Fluid Chalk stamp pad.

Now, when I stamped the large butterfly my challenge was to stamp the butterfly on some kind of paper so that I wouldn't have to color any of it in. I picked this great, kraft colored cardstock and stamped the butterfly once, again with the Versafine black stamp pad and embossed it with the clear embossing powder. Next I took a page from an old dictionary and stamped the butterfly again and embossed this one with the clear. For this second butterfly, I didn't cut out all of the image. I left off all of the outside layers of it's wings. I gently curled the wings on the second butterfly and then glued that in place over the first one, glueing it just down the middle so the wings were free. The green background paper on the card is also from the Flaming Butterfly collection.

For this card, I wanted to use this piece of patterned paper from the Flaming Butterfly collection for the background of my card but I wanted the butterfly to have soft colors.
I colored it with Copic markers, using very pale shades of the colors and I added some Aleene's Paper Glaze to the middle sections of the butterfly for some added interest. When this Paper Glaze is dry, it gives a 3-D, epoxy look.

This buttefly has rather soft shades of the colors too with an added interest.

After I colored it with Copic markers, I filled in all of the middle sections with Ultra Fine Flower Soft. Can you see the wonderful texture that gave my butterfly? The card base is Core'dinations cardstock. The lines were created with a Scor-Pal tool and then these lines were sanded.

I loved being your host today and I hope I showed you some fun ways to use your stamps!!!

Thanks for visiting, Linda Beeson

A little Willow, a Little Bella, and a little Butterfly.

Hey Everyone!!!

It's Katrina with my first blog posting here on Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker!!! I am so excited to be a part of this team...so filled with inspiration and talent. I admire everyone's talent on the team....it sometimes sends me into overload!!!

Well, here is my first creation...it's a clipboard I punched a couple of holes with my CropaDile, altered with the Willow Bee Collection and created a place to put some fun ideas when they pop in my head!

See that "pocket" to place ideas in? Well, Miss Nikki has these wonderful "Pockets of Stickers" that she debuted at CHA this January. I just trimmed it down and then lined some paper inside to make it pretty!!! So, just IMAGINE what you can do with these!!! I have another little something up my sleeve (or pocket, should I say!) with these that isn't quite finished yet, but you will see it the next time I blog here! A tease, I am!

Next up, one of my FAVORITE lines from this time around....Bella Blue and Oscar Too! We took the dogs to a local park to get some pictures (for me to scrap of course!) and I thought this picture was a great one to use with this paper line!

And see that doghouse with the Craft Flag? Well, I used the stamp set from Bella Blue and Oscar Too, to stamp the "in the doghouse" and the flowers on the flag. Nikki's stamp sets are so easy to color in!!! You should try them...and they are also great to emboss!

And last up, but certainly not least, is a layout and wall hanging using the Flaming Butterfly Collection. This is certainly not "normal" looking paper, but it's "OH SO FUN" paper!!!!

The wall hanging is created with one of the Scalloped Square chipboard albums and I die cut letters out of the Flaming Butterfly papers also. And don't forget...the 6x6 Mini Pads fit PERFECTLY on the chipboard albums that Nikki has! No more wasting your 12 x 12 sheets to get the right size of paper to cover your chipboard! If your store carries the 12 x 12 paper and not the mini pads, ask them to get them in! They are so fun to use and they are the same pattern as the full sheets, just scaled down. Super perfect for cards!

And here is my final goodie...a layout with Flaming Butterfly. And yes.....sometimes it does take me FIVE times to get a good picture. But hey, I turned it into a scrapbooking layout!!!!

And a little reminder: I am the Local Design Team leader for Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker and this is the first chance I have gotten to post this on here!! We are having a LOCAL design team call!!! That's right Springfield area scrappers...we are looking for you!!!! We are going to be the TOWNHOUSE DIVAS!!! You can read all about the call on my blog: Paper, Scissors and Glue. This link will take you right to the call. If you have any questions, please use the email in the call and we will get back with you. This is going to be so fun for the ladies that make the local team. So make sure and check out all the info!!!!!

Ok, I think I have rambled on enough!!!!!

Have a Scrappy Kinda Day!!~~Katrina