Gabrielle Pollacco : MajaDesign

Summer Freshness with ‘Coffee In the Arbour’

18 June, 2014 - Coffee In The Arbour, Layouts, Vintage Autumn Basics

Hello Maja Design fans! I’m so ‘delighted’ to be sharing with you all my first layout using the gorgeous new ‘Coffee in the Arbour’ collection! I recieved this lovely collection pack in the mail a few days ago and literally dug into it the moment it got here!

I just love the beautiful summery images in this collection, just looking at these papers puts a spring in my step and ….maybe a little hunger in my tummy! LOL!

One of my favorite papers in this collection is the “Delicious Moments” paper, the beautiful hand painted vignettes evoke feelings of bliss and happiness. So I knew I had to include at least one of the pretty pictures in my first design. I wanted to keep a shabby-chic look to the page design so I tore the edges of the picture to keep a distressed look to it.

I wanted to frame the pretty ‘Enjoying the moment’ paper with a complementary color paper but I didn’t want to lose the designs close to the edges. So I trimmed out the design I wanted to keep and then bought the edge down into the page creating a little ‘arbour’ effect with a trellis design underneath it. I also used a harlequin stamp and some text/script stamps around the photo area. I was so delighted to find an awesome paint spray that is the perfect match to this collections pretty deep rose colors. I used Shimmerz ‘Bed of Roses’ Spritz paint for the background behind the photo area, it has the nice deep, cool rose color that goes well with the images in the papers. The large green flourish is one of my favorite dies from Cheery Lynn Designs called ‘Fancy Flourish”.

And speaking of delight…..that’s what I see in my youngest daughters face in these photos. She had lost her front teeth in this pic but that did not discourage her from giving me some big gummy smiles! The chipboard title I used here is a new one from Dusty Attic Designs. I painted it with gesso, then gave it a little bit of Shimmerz Key Lime paint at the edges and then gave the whole thing a coat of Glossy Accents.

I used a variety of blooms on this one, some lose blooms from Michaels (in the bargain bin) and some Recollections blooms as well. The small white blooms are Prima and the natural cluster with the twine are from Tressors de Luxe.

Maja Design papers used in this project: Coffee in the Arbour (Enjoying the Moment, Raspberry Jam, Delicious Moments), Vintage Autumn Basics (XVI).

Hope you enjoyed my project today!

Getting my Pink on with Sofiero!

Posted by Gabrielle Pollacco

4 June, 2014 - Collections, Layouts, Sofiero

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Hello Maja fans! Gabrielle here with you today to share a layout I made using the beautiful Sophiero Collection. I almost feel a little guilty sharing this layout because this is from a Limited Edition collection that I believe is now sold out….but then of course, that means that a lot of you have this collection in your stash, and might like to see more samples done with this collection.

I just love the florals and beautiful pinks and greens in this collection. The papers I used for this project are….. Sofiero (Royal Summer Recidence, Enjoying the Lovely Fragrance, Romantic Picnic in the Park, Stroling Down the Rose Path).

I was given these beautiful handmade blooms from my friend Lucy at Tresors de Luxe Etsy site. When I saw the pretty fabric blooms I thought immediately of the the Maja Design Sofiero collection, I just knew these blooms would work well with these papers!

I love these papers so much that I’ve used up most of my stash, but I still had lots of bits and pieces left, so I used some of these to make the little ribbon banners coming out of the side of my page design. I added machine stitching to the paper ribbons to give more of a ‘fabric’ look to them.

I accented my page with a few pieces of Dusty Attic chipboard (Skeleton Clock frame, Folliage, Wrought Iron Fence, Speech Bubbles, Ornate Corner #6). I also added a bit of of texture with home-made texture paste and a Crafters Workshop stencil (Mini-Damask).

Thanks so much for stopping by today and letting me share my latest project with you! xo

Life’s Simple Pleasures

Posted by Gabrielle Pollacco

21 May, 2014 - Collections, Layouts, Life in the Country, Maja Design information, Sofiero, Vintage Autumn Basics, Vintage Spring Basics, Vintage Summer Basics

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Hi everyone, Gabrielle here with you today to share a layout I made using lots of handmade blooms I made from Maja Design papers. Today I wanted to celebrate the everyday simple pleasures, like a little bouquet of beautiful smelling flowers/like a few snippits of Lavender. I echoed the title in my photo by using my photo editing software to add some words like ‘simple pleasures’ and ‘sweet Lavender’ to my photo with some script text. I used the Spellbinders ‘Rose Creations’ dies to make my blooms and pulled together a bunch of papers from the maja collections in greens and plummy/pinks.

I chose papers that did not have a lot of patterns on them to keep an even hue to the floral designs. To make the blooms I lightly moistened the die cut petals with some water and just curled the edges of the petals out to make my rosettes.

Another design feature I added to my page is thes layered stitched circles. I chose 3 patterned papers that I thought looked pretty together and then cut out 3 different sized circles. I inkedthe edges with some soft brown chalk ink and machine stitched to finish. I also added some texture to the background paper using the Rings & Puddles Memory Box stencil with texture paste.

Here you can see the combined cut circle and floral embellishments working together. I added some Ingvild Bolme resin butterflies to build up the shabby-chic look of the page as well as some Tresors de Luxe lace. I also added some small ‘bud’ clusters in that I plucked off some old silk flowers I was tossing out, they were the exact color match to my handmade blooms.

Maja Design Papers used for this project: Vintage Autumn Basics (X-bs, Heritage-bs), Sofiero (Princess Margareta’s Garden-bs), Vintage Summer Basics (1920, 1923, 1933) Vintage Spring Basics (7th of May-bs, 10th of March-bs), Life in the Country (Summer Fields-bs, Sowing Seeds-bs).

I hope you enjoyed my project today and hope I inspired you to try scrapping everyday little things that bring you joy!

A Little Peek at my Scrap Space

Posted by Gabrielle Pollacco

10 May, 2014 - In our sofa

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Hi everyone! Gabrielle here with you today to give you all a little glimpse into my scrap space. I love to see where people scrap and see how others organize and keep their scrap supplies. So today I thought I would share with you a few pic’s so you can see how I like to keep myself organized when scrapping. Join me in having a cup of coffee and let’s poke around my scraproom and maybe even peek in a few drawers, I don’t mind 🙂

It’s hard to see the color of my room in this photo (I’m not great at taking inside shots) but my scraproom is a soft fresh green, I find green a nice soothing color….don’t ask about the red chair! LOL…It’s really comfortable, but ugly (I keep saying I will recover it but still have not found time to do it).

I have a tall set of drawers where I like to keep my collection of punches and inks. I like the flat/shallow drawers because you can see in them at a glance, not digging around to try and find things.

On the right side of my room I have a large Ikea cabinet that I fill with some of my other craft goodies. The pink bins are great for storing those odds and ends that can look a little messy, snippets of lace and fabric, trims etc. I also keep my mixed media products on these shelves as well.

My shelves are ever changing with the coming in of new products,….but here I thought I would share a picture I took this week of what my cubbies are holding. I try to keep my products together by brand. I have a lot of Dusty Attic paints, for example, that I keep in the large boxes in the top left corner (you see a little peek of them).

When I was making up my scraproom, I had my dear husband put up a slatwall for me with lots of pegs where I could hang a lot of the embellishments, stamps, tools etc. that I work with daily. My kids and their friends call it my ‘store’ LOL! They ask me if they can go into my store to play with some of my stash.

Here is a closer view of my slatwall, this of course is constantly changing as I use product and add more. But one thing that doesn’t change is that I am meticulous about keeping it organized. I don’t like to hunt for products when I’m in the middle of a project, so I keep it in good order so that I can quickly find the product I’m looking for.

Beside my slatwall I have these little floating shelves where I keep my loose flowers and blooms in little glass jars I got from Ikea.

One of the most often asked questions I get is ‘What do you do with your layouts that have a lot of 3D elements?’ I have some open frames on my wall where I like to display these and change out the design every couple months or so. If I can find more of those frames, I’d love to add a bunch more to my wall and really fill it up, because heaven knows I have a LOT of 3D/thick page designs.

I hope you enjoyed a little tour of my scrap space today. The truth is, that I scrap where-ever it makes me happy to scrap. Sometimes I scrap in my scraproom, sometimes in our bedroom with my supplies all layed out around me on our bed. And if I’m filming one of my videos, I like to work on my dining room table where I get the best light for filming. Wherever you scrap, the important thing is that you enjoy it and that you get that happy creative buzz when you are doing it. Happy Scrappin’!!

Scrapping A Favourite Photo

Posted by Gabrielle Pollacco

7 May, 2014 - Collections, Crea Diem, Ska Vi Ta En Fika?, Vintage Autumn Basics, Vintage Spring Basics, Vintage Summer Basics

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Hi everyone, Gabrielle here with you today to share with you a layout I made with one of my all time favourite photos, a picture of my dear husband and my youngest daughter. I just love the way she is looking up at him while he chatting with her, it’s one of those photos that are just close to my heart.

This page was published in the April issue of a Swedish print Magazine called “Ett Trykk’ (meaning ‘One Print’ in English). I wanted to showcase a variety of Maja Design papers so I chose paper from their Vintage Spring, Vintage Summer and Vintage Autumn Basics as well as from Ska vi ta en Fika and from Crea Diem.

One of my favorite color combinations is purple and green, so I used the lush and beautiful Dusty Attic Chipboard piece called ‘Ivy Corners’ to accent the page. I simply painted the Ivy with gesso and then added some watered down green (DA Forest paint) and brown (DA Hot Chocolate) paint to it. The flowers are Dusty In Bloom ‘Evening Blush’ blossoms.

The quote you see here and the words on and underneath the photo are all old rub-on’s I had in my stash from my old days on the Daisy D’s design team. I also took this photo on an extreme angle so you can see the clear glass dome accents I added to my fussy cut clocks from the Maja Design papers (Vintage Autumn Basics XVI)…..I feel like they give the clock embellishments a really nice authentic finish.

The vine design you see in the bottom right corner is another Dusty Attic chipboard piece called Corner Flourish #3, another favourite chippie of mine. I painted it with more of the green and brown paints to give it a nice lush finish. I love incorporating clocks with flowers, I think it helps give a whimsical touch to a page.

Here is another view of the floral cluster I accented this page with. I interspersed a lot of clock cut-outs on this design because I wanted to reflect the passage of time and the importance spending time together.

Maja Design products: Patterned Paper: Maja Design: Ska vi ta en Fika (Pratstund, Våffla m björnbärssylt-bs), Crea Diem (Fylld av kärlek), Vintage Spring Basics (4rth of May), Vintage Summer Basics (1923), Vintage Autumn Basics (XVI).

Thanks so much for stopping by the Maja blog today! xo