Gabrielle Pollacco : MajaDesign

It’s All about Friends!

28 January, 2015 - Coffee In The Arbour, Collections, Created Art, Layouts, Nyhavn, Vintage Autumn Basics

Hello Maja Fans! It’s Gabrielle here with you today to share my latest layout using Maja Design papers! Let’s talk about friends. I’ve made many many online friends over the years, and so many in the scrapbook industry. I get lots of emails with questions, kind words on my work and I even get sweet gifts from some of you. On today’s layout I used a package of Prima blooms that were sent to me from of of my sweet friends, Kimberly (from Hawaii), thanks so much Kimberly! So I thought I would also make my page about friends as well. This is a pic I took of my 2 daughters with my oldest daughters BFF.

For this page I used the cool pinks and deep plum/wine color papers from the NEW Limited Edition Nyhavn collection….with a couple bits and pieces of some of the other Maja collections as well. I love that this collection lends itself to so many different looks! I used ‘Veteran Ships’ the deep plum/rose color paper as matting for my background paper which is ‘Strolling Along the Canal’. I did a little inking with Tim Holtz Victorian Velvet distress ink and a little stamping with a Martha Stewart Butterfly stamp and some Bo Bunny ‘Distress Textures’ and ‘It Is Written’ stamps.

Here is a close-up of the pretty fabric blooms sent to my by my sweet friend. I used some Tim Holtz Victorian Velvet stain in the centers of these flowers to give them more depth and bring in the rich plum/rose in the background papers. As and extra accent, I fussy cut some pink roses from the No.VI paper from the Vintage Autumn Basics Collection.

After inking I added some texture with some of my home made texture paste and a Prima flourish stencil, which incidentally was also a gift from a sweet friend (thanks Janene!).

The chipboard pieces are from Dusty Attic, ‘Live Beautifully’ title, ‘Sweet Pea Border’ and ‘String Frame Set’. I kept the String Frame chippie natural as I wanted it to resemble hemp twine. The Sweet Pea Border I painted white with a dusting of brown chalk ink (Ingvild Bolme) and the title chippie, I inked with more of the TH Victorian Velvet ink….for the ‘Live’ part I added some ‘Diamond’ Stickles to make the title pop out from the photo more.

I matted my photo with ‘Raspberry Cupcake’ paper from the Maja ‘Coffee In the Arbour’ collection. And I matted that with another paper from the Nyhvn collection, the one that looks like weathered wood called ‘Sitting At the Dock’.

The metal mailbox is a Prima Shabby Chic trinket, and those intricate looking butterfly embellishments are some pieces I pulled out of some of my old stash from years ago. They are Tattered Angels Glimmer Glass. I’d been hoarding those, and then realized, whats the point in having them, if I don’t use them! LOL!

Maja Design Products used in this project: Nyhavn (Strolling Along the Canal, Veteran Ships-bs, Sitting At the Dock), Vintage Autumn Basics (No.VI), Coffee In the Arbor (Raspberry Cupcakes).

Thanks so much for stopping by the Maja blog today, leaving you with this thought, have you scrapped your friends lately?

Getting Family Wedding Photos Scrapped

Posted by Gabrielle Pollacco

14 January, 2015 - Collections, Created Art, Layouts, Nyhavn

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Hello Maja Fans! Gabrielle here with you today to share my first layout using the NEW Limited Edition ‘Nyhavn’ collection! I really love the sunny, pretty colors in this collection, and when I saw the nautical elements in the papers, I knew that I had found the perfect papers to scrap a photo I took of my niece and her hubby.

My niece’s reception was at a yacht club, and she chose nautical elements for her decor. Add to that, her wedding colors where orange and blue, two colors that are prevalent in this lovely collection. So when I saw Nyhavn, I knew this was just the ticket to get this photo scrapped!

I used ‘The Sunny Side’ paper as my base and dabbed a little Ingvild Bolme chalk inks (Rusty Keys, Vintage Pink) around my photo area and the small cluster in the top right side of the page. I then added a bit of texture with some home-made texture paste and a few Crafters Workshop Stencils (North Star, Art Is, Time Travel).

I mounted this orange paper on the ‘Sitting at the Dock’ paper, I also used this paper as the matting behind my photo. I cropped it to look like uneven pieces of weathered board. All the chipboard I used on this page is from Dusty Attic (Elegant Swirl #3, Elegant Swirl 13, Word Pack #4, Skeleton Clock Frames). I kept the chipboard bare with just touches of grey and white to stay with the weather wood look of the papers. I also did a little bit of stamping with a Graphic45 stamp set.

The lovely pearl/lace strip running down the left side of the page is from Tresors de Luxe, and the blooms where one of my favorite finds (from a couple years ago) at Michaels, I got a 6 pack of these blossoms for $1.50!! Sadly most of them were sold out by the time I got to them, but I was happy to get my hands of the few that were there!

I hope you enjoyed my project for today using the Nyhavn collection papers and hope that I’ve inspired you to give this lovely collection a go (remember,…it’s a Limited Edition paper, so when they are gone, they are gone! So grab yours while you can!)

Love Completely

Posted by Gabrielle Pollacco

17 December, 2014 - A Gift for You, Coffee In The Arbour, Collections, Created Art, Layouts, Ska Vi Ta En Fika?, Vintage Autumn Basics

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Hi there, it’s Gabrielle here with you today to share with you my last project for 2014! I came across this photo of my dear husband and our oldest daughter Chloe from when she was just a little baby. We had a tradition of going apple picking in the Fall, even before our babies were born, and we continued the tradition on each year with our girls (and family). This was Chloe’s first apple picking trip. Now she is 16 years old and will soon be driving a car! Oh how time flies!

I used 4 different Maja paper collections for this one. It’s fun to combine the collections, the way I do it is to either go with the ‘warm’ colors from each of the collections or the cool colors. I used a color combination that I have not used in a long time. When I think of whimsical, the two colors I like to put together is usually purple & green…..but this time I went with purple and blue. I tore some paper strips from left over scraps I had in these colors and layered them with some drywall tape (found at your local hardware store). I then decorated around my photo with some chipboard…the circle design is a new Dusty Attic chipboard piece from their String Frames Set. I added some clocks from Vintage Autumn Basics XVI paper and tucked them around my photo area. The blooms are from Tresors de Luxe. And that diamond stamp you see around the photo and edges of my page?….That’s one of my new stamps that I designed! I used to doodle this design by hand on my layouts, so I thought it would be fun to make a stamp of it! You can find my stamp at The Scrapbook Diaries.

Once I had my embellishing done around my photo, I went to add my title, another new set of chipboard titles from Dusty Attic. I wanted the white letters to show up better so I did a little dry brushing with my Victorian Velvet Distress paint by Tim Holtz behind the title area….this allowed the title to pop.

I added a small corner design to balance the page by moistening the Maja paper and pulling it back a little. I love the way these papers withstand the rigors I put them through, LOL. I then tucked a piece of lace in the exposed area and added some chipboard accents, again from Dusty Attic (Small Scroll #2).

Maja Design Papers used in this project:

Coffee In The Arbour: Raspberry Jam Cookies, Butterflies are Free (both sides), Raspberry Cupcakes

A Gift for You: My Dear Friend

Vintage Autumn Basics: XVI (clock designs)

Ska vi ta en Fika: Våffla m. björnbärssylt (both sides)

I hope you enjoyed my project, thanks so much for stopping by the Maja Design blog today! xo

Scrapping Nature

Posted by Gabrielle Pollacco

3 December, 2014 - A Gift for You, Coffee In The Arbour, Collections, Created Art, Layouts

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Hi there Maja Fans! Gabrielle here with you today to share my latest scrapbook layout combining a couple of the Maja Design collections, A Gift for You and the Coffee In the Arbour collection.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a bit of a ‘backside’ scrapper (meaning that more often than not I find myself using the backside of the paper designs). For this one I began with the backside of the ‘Wrapped in Old Newspaper’ paper, using it as the back frame of my page design. I then used the backside of ‘Handwritten Postcard’ paper as the main background of my design framing it with the DeVine Chipboard frame from Dusty Attic.

I combined these neutral papers with some of the pretty florals and pinks/roses from the Coffee in the Arbour collection. What made me think of the ‘Rose Garden’ paper was the blooms (from Prima…Winthrop collection) that I used to accent this page, they reminded me so much of the blooms on Rose Garden papers.

I matted the photo with some more of the Wrapped in Old Newspaper and some of the Raspberry Jam paper from Coffee In the Arbour paper. I added some chipboard chains to make it appear as though the photo was hanging from the vine frame.

Maja Design papers used in this project: A Gift For You (Wrapped In Old Newspaper, Handwritten Postcard), Coffee In the Arbour (Raspberry Jam, Rose Garden).

I hope you enjoyed my project today! If you would like to make this page for yourself you can find all the products I used for this page in kit form at The Scrapbook Diaries, this comes with a Video tutorial made by me so you can follow step by step how to put this page together! xo

So Sweet ~ Watching Them Grow

Posted by Gabrielle Pollacco

19 November, 2014 - Äntligen, Collections, Created Art, Layouts, Sofiero, Vintage Spring Basics, Walking in the Forest

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Hi all, it’s Gabrielle here with you today to share with you my latest page using Maja Design papers. As I was scrapping this recent photo of my youngest daughter, I was struck by how much she’s grown up. I can’t believe she is a teenager now (turned 13 over the summer). I miss her being my little girl, but I also have enjoyed every stage of her life, this girl cracks me up with her funny sense of humour and quirky style.

For this page I used a modge podge of Maja Design papers. I more often than not combine a variety of Maja papers, coordinating them by color rather than collection name.

I used a variety of scraps in neutral tones and greens to make my rolled paper accents. I rolled up the scraps and then bound them with some twine. I added a fun l’il door hook on the side of my paper from Ingvild Bolme’s Junkyard Findings.

I used a variety of Dusty Attic chipboard as part of my page design, including a Skeleton Clock Frame, Foliage, and the ‘So Sweet’ title. For the frame I first painted the pieces with some white Gesso. Then I randomly dabbed on some ‘Broken China’ and ‘Peeled Paint’ Tim Holtz Distress Ink. I did a little edging with Ingvild Bolme’s ‘Branch Bark’ Chalk Ink. Then I added a coat of Inksenttials Crackle Medium. When it was dry and crackled I dabbed on some ‘Walnut Stain’ Distress ink so that it got in the little cracks and whipped off the excess ink.

I used the 11th of March-bs paper as the green background frame for my page and as the main background paper I used the backside of ‘Flannel Shirt’ paper from ‘Walking in the Forest Collection’….this is one of my favorite papers to use as a nice neutral background, especially when I do some mixed media on the page as I did here. I used a bit of Broken China and Peeled Paint Distress ink pads on the page and added some texture with home-made texture paste and a Crafter’s Workshop Stencil called ‘Mini Damask’. The butterfly is an image that I printed on a piece of transparency and cut out.

I wanted to keep my blossoms soft and clean, so I went with a burlap bloom from Petaloo and two white blossoms from Dusty Attic Designs. The small sugared dots are from Prima.

The strip of lace I used on the bottom of the page and the natural floral cluster (just above the title) are both from Tresors de Luxe. I had a little fun with the title. First I gave it a coat of brown chalk ink ‘Knotted Wood’ by Ingvild Bolme, then I used some ‘Waterfall’ Stickles in the center of my alpha’s. After it all dried I gave the whole thing a coat of gloss medium with some Glossy Accents.

Maja Design Products used in this project: Vintage Spring Basics (11th of March-bs, 7th of April, 7th of April-bs), Antiglen (Kaffe på trappan), Walking in the Forest (Flannel Shirt-bs), Sofiero (brown dot).

I hope you enjoyed today’s project and hope you find yourself some time this week to get your Maja on.