Gabrielle Pollacco : MajaDesign

She Blooms {With Sofiero!}

17 July, 2013 - Crea Diem, Layouts, Sofiero, Vintage Summer Basics

Hi everyone, it’s me, Gabrielle here with you today to share with you my first project that I made with the NEW ‘Sofiero’ collection! I’m just a total sucker for pink when scrapping and the gorgeous blooms in the Sofiero papers totally made me reach for this photo of my oldest daughter Chloe. We like to pick bouquets of blooms from our garden on Fridays so that the house looks and smells pretty for the weekend. I love Spring and early Summer because we have lot’s of ‘picking’ flowers in our garden at this time of year. The peonies she picked that day were not only beautiful but the scent! Lovely!

The papers that I used from the Sofiero collection are….Strolling Down the Rose Path, Enjoy the Fragrance-bs (Don’t you just LOVE the pretty names of these papers!!). I also combined these with some accents from two other collections – (1922-bs from the Vintage Summer Basics, as matting for my photos, and Den oersättliga tiden from Crea Diem….love the clock images!)

I cut out some of the clock images, edged them with some Platinum Stickles and tucked them around my photos. For the larger clock image I created a delicate frame design using a cute little corner flourish die I got from Cheery Lynn Designs. I just layered them around the clock edge creating a doily effect.

You’ll also notice the fun textured writing design I put behind my photos and embellishments. I just love the scripted writing bits that Marie incorporates into her paper designs so I wanted to mirror this with some masking and texture paste. I used my home-made texture paste recipe (can be found on the right column of my blog ‘Such a Pretty Mess) and a new Crafter’s Workshop mask I picked up over the weekend.

The blooms I added to the page are a combination of handmade blooms (you can find a tutorial for these at my blog post for today at Such a Pretty Mess) and some mini roses from Dusty Attic. The birdhouse and the large flourish are also Dusty Attic Design chipboard pieces.

I hope you enjoyed my project today, I know I had a lot of fun making it and know I’ll be using this collection again and again! Have you got your order in for Sofiero yet? I’m happy to say that there are more and more retailers now carrying Maja Design papers! Just check the ‘Store Finder’ at the Maja Design Website for a retailer near you!

A Little Shabby-chic Off the Page Project! {Heart Frame}

Posted by Gabrielle Pollacco

3 July, 2013 - Altered Items, Vintage Spring Basics, Vintage Summer Basics

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Hi everyone! It’s Gabrielle here with you today. I thought I would share something a little bit different with you all today. I do tend to work mostly in 12×12 layouts but sometimes it’s fun to to play with ‘off the page’ projects! I recently found this cute wooden frame at my local craft shop for $1.50, so I thought it would be fun to make up a shabby-chic style frame!

I chose to use papers from the Maja Design ‘Vintage Summer Basic’s’ collection for this one. For me, this collection is the essense of shabby-chic! I began by giving the edges of the frame a couple of coats of Gesso and then lightly drybrushing some pink paint on the edges as well as doing some random script stamping. I then cut out a 3.5 x 8.8 cm piece of paper using the 1923 paper, then tore a section of 1921 and adhered it in the bottom left corner. I also added a scrap of 1891 as well. Here are the papers I used for this project….

I also did a little bit of masking with some texture paste and a Heidi Swapp mask around the edges of the heart opening. Then added a few Dusty Attic chipboard pieces (Mini Swirls and Sweet Pea Frame), some bits of lace, pearls and Dusty Attic blooms (of course you have to have lace, pearls and blooms on a shabby-chic project!). And I finished off with some little butterflies cut from the Vintage Spring Basics collection (above).

My blooms came in white, but I used some Dusty In Color paint in a color that just perfectly matched the pretty colors in the Maja Design papers and lightly tinted the centers of the blooms to coordinate.

I hope you enjoyed todays project!

My Sunshine {Daffodils by Maja Design}

Posted by Gabrielle Pollacco

19 June, 2013 - Layouts, Vintage Spring Basics

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When I first saw this sweet daffodil paper from the Maja ‘Vintage Spring Basics’ collection I just knew I had to scrap this photo I took of my youngest daughter a couple of years ago. There is a little forest we walk in, close to our home and come Spring there are huge patches of daffodils growing in it. Meagan always keeps an eye out, just waiting for them to bloom so she can pick a little bouquet for her room.

For this layout I played a little with some mixed media. I did a little bit of masking with some texture paste and did a little stamping and dry brushing as well with some coordinating paints.

I wanted to do a little bit of misting first but didn’t have the right color, so I used some Dusty Attic paint in a ‘Bisque’ color that I thought nicely complimented the yellows in the background paper. I then adhered my photo to the page and dry-brushed a little more paint over the edges of my photo to kind of fade it into the background. The next layer I added is some random stamping. I used text stamp from Bo Bunny and another ledger stamp from 7 Gypsies. The final layer I added was a texture paste design in random places around the photo and in one corner of my page where I would add some extra accents. I finished things off with some adhesive pearls by Recollections.

I was looking to add some soft yellow blooms to the page but didn’t have any in my stash so I made some from some felt I had in my supplies. These are really easy-peasy to make (you can find a tutorial for them at my blog ‘Such a Pretty Mess Blog’, in the right column under my tutorials). the chipboard is from Dusty Attic (Small Scroll), I just left it natural and lightly brushed it with some white gesso.

Supplies: Patterned Paper – Vintage Spring Basics (1st of March, 8th of March-bs, 7th of April, 6th of May), Blooms – handmade (tutorial at Such a Pretty Mess blog), Cork Tag, Cork Alpha’s, Natural Wood Buttons, Clothspeg (My Little Yellow Bicycle), Chipboard – Dusty Attic Designs (Small Scroll), Paint – Dusty Attic, Bird Trinket – Prima Marketing, Stamps – Bo Bunny Background Stamps, 7 Gypsies, Websters Pages Diamond Tag Stamp, Texture Paste – home-made (Recipe can be found at Such a Pretty Mess blog), Other: Lace trim (off the roll), Mask: from Michaels (Americana).

I just love how versatile this collection is! I’ve scrapped Pink, blue, green, yellow, taupe, lilac and now yellow with this beautiful collection pack! Have you tried it yet?

Scrapping my Spring Lilacs!

Posted by Gabrielle Pollacco

5 June, 2013 - Layouts, Ska Vi Ta En Fika?, Vintage Spring Basics

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May is the month of my dear husbands and my anniversary! And one of my favourite things about this month is that the Lilacs are in full bloom on our anniversary weekend. I just love to fill my house with Lilacs when they bloom because they remind me of our reception hall at our wedding. We have this creek that runs behind my mom and dads house, and early in the morning on my wedding day, my dad went down to the creek and picked bucket load after bucket load of wild purple lilacs to decorate the tables at the reception. We had over 350 guests so you can imagine how beautiful the reception hall smelled when we walked in after ceremony.

Every year Steve and my girls pick me armloads of lilacs from our trees (we planted some beautiful French Lilac’s when we moved into our house) on the weekend of our anniversary. I took these pic’s of my oldest daughter Chloe with her bouquet that she picked for me.

I used a combination of pretty purple patterned papers from the Maja Vintage Spring Basic’s Collection (10th of April-bs, 11th of April) mixed with Maja’s Ska vi ta en Fika? (Våffla m björnbärssylt-bs) to compliment the purples in my photo. The blooms I used are Recollections, Prima and the berry stalks are just loose pieces from my local dollar store.

The chipboard is a Dusty Attic piece called ‘Cherry Blossoms’ that I just gave a coat of white paint and inked with some coordination color inks. I also added a bit of stamping with a Prima diamond stamp from the Moulin Rouge collection, the quote stamp is a Tim Holtz stamp.

I love to cluster ‘natural’ style elements around the title. Here I used a Prima nest and blooms and added some lace and feathers mixed with an extra snippit of chipboard. The clock is a trinket I found in the clearance aisle at Michaels. The title is a Heidi Swapp sticker.

Thanks for stopping by today and checking out my latest Maja Design project! xo

Scrapping a Favourite Photo {Plus Corset Template}

Posted by Gabrielle Pollacco

22 May, 2013 - Layouts, Templates, Tutorials, Vintage Spring Basics

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Hello, it’s Gabrielle here with you today! I recently took this photo of my girls (Chloe, Meagan and Chloe’s best friend Peyton) at a festival we took the girls to. It’s not always easy to get at photo where everyone is co-operating, so I was thrilled to get this one of the 3 of them. I had actually started out this project as a card! I wanted to do a corset design, but once I had the corset done, it occurred to me that I would like to use it as an accent on a page instead. I made the corset by first drawing out a design on a piece of white paper. I know not everyone is comfortable with sketching a design so I have posted my sketch/template below, I made it to fit easily on one of the 6×6 inch patterned papers that are one of the sizes offered by Maja Design. Just set your printer for 6×6 and print directly onto you patterned paper, or you can just print it on white paper and cut out and trace onto patterned paper (this is a good method for when you have scrap bits of paper you want to use up!)

Template

Here are some quick and easy steps in creating this corset design. First print off the corset design above.

Trace out template onto your choice of patterned paper (I used the ‘7th of May-bs’ of Vintage Spring Basics for my design). I cut a small groove into the top and bottom of the corset so that when I lace it up it looks like two seperate pieces lining up (you don’t want to seperate the two pieces entirely as this makes it harder to to the lacing up). Then Ink all the edges with a complimentary ink color (I used Tim Holtz Victorian Velvet).

Do some machine stitching on the piece, zig-zag along top and bottom edges and straight stitch on marked lines to resemble boning on the corset. (see above)

I use a thick gage needle with a large eyehole to pre-punch the holes for the corset lacing. Just cross-stitch an ‘X’ pattern and tie off at the top. Adhere blooms, lace along edges and add pearl accents as desired to finish up your corset design. Here are some close-up peeks at the rest of the page….

I really like combining intricately cut chipboard pieces with my Maja Design papers, I think the detailed looking chipboard works so well with the vintage style of Maja designs. For my piece above I added extra detailing by using some 3D pearl paint (Scribbles) in white, to add even more texture to the design.

Above is another close-up view of the handmade corset embellishment. I added a little tuft of netting/cheescloth to create a skirt design under the corset. Add some lace and buttons to complete the vintage look!

Supplies: Patterned Paper – Vintage Spring Basics (1st of May, 7th of May-bs, 4th of May, 4th of May-bs, 10th of March, 6th of May). Chipboard – Dusty Attic Designs (Baroque Corners, Corrugated card). Lace paper doily. Circle Frame and Dress form stand – Pink Paislee Artisans Collection. Flowers and Flourishes – Prima, Dusty Attic. Alphabet Stickers – Websters Pages Designs (Beautiful collection).

I hope you enjoyed my project for today and hope you will give my template a try! It can be used on tags and cards as well!