Gabrielle Pollacco : MajaDesign

Scrapping Beautiful Babies

23 April, 2014 - Collections, Layouts, Sofiero, Vintage Spring Basics

Gabrielle here with you today to share a layout I made for my beautiful friend and our design team leader Jenny Grotherus. She had a beautiful baby boy this past year and was kind enough to share some sweet sweet photos of her baby with me. He is so adorable, it was hard to pick just one photo to scrap….so you just might see some more baby pages coming from me.

I primarily used the Vintage Spring Basics Collection for this page, layering a variety of the pretty stripe, polka dot and floral patterns behind the photo.

Maja Design has so many lovely shades of blue to choose from, so for this layout I wanted to use the cooler shades of blue with hints of brown/taupe and butter yellow. I used the ‘Princess Margareta’s Garden-bs’ paper as the matting for the main background paper which is a paper from the Vintage Spring Basics collection called ‘1st of April’ (I just thought the sweet little blue & yellow birdie in the corner was a perfect accent for a baby page!). I also fussy cut some of the little dogwood blossom branches from the paper called ‘6th of April’ and used them to dangle from the ‘V’ tears in the background paper.

I used a mini version of ‘Decorative Frame #1’ from Dusty Attic to create a corner accent on this page. As most of you know by now, one of my favorite Maja papers is the clock paper from the Vintage Autumn Basics collection (XVI) …here I cut out one of the clocks and placed it inside the little frame, then coated it with a crackle varnish (Dusty Attic Crackle Varnish) to give it a nice aged look.

I also did a bit of stamping (with Bo Bunny ‘It is Written Stamp’) and inking with Ingvild Bolme’s chalk inks (Worn Jeans, Dusty Tote) and went over the designs with some stencils (Crafters Workshop ‘Art Is’ and ‘Mini Well Rounded’) and home-made texture paste.

I always love to add fabric accents to a baby page, for this one I matted the sweet photo with a scrap of burlap and a snippit of lace from Tresor’s de Luxe. I added a strand of pearls to the top of the lace strip.

The main circle frame I used for the photo is from Dusty Attic called ‘Decorative Frame #2’, which I painted white, chalked with brown ink, stamped with a script stamp and then finished with a crackle medium. I wanted to keep my blooms light and airy so I used some blooms from Prima (Charlotte), Recollections and Dusty Attic (small roses) in light soft shades. The little butterflies are from Petalloo (Darjeeling).

I miss having babies around and so am so happy to have photo’s of my friend’s babies to scrap. I hope she will enjoy this page as much as I enjoyed creating it.

Maja Design Products: Vintage Spring Basics (1st of April, 6th of April, 5th of April, 4th of April, 4th of April-bs, 7th of April), Sofiero (Princess Margareta’s Garden-bs).

Creating Wall Art with Maja

Posted by Gabrielle Pollacco

9 April, 2014 - Altered Items, Collections, Crea Diem, Created Art, Ska Vi Ta En Fika?, Tutorials, Vintage Autumn Basics, Vintage Spring Basics

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Hello Maja fans! Gabrielle here with you today to share a home decor project! It’s no secret that I’m a big lover of the shabby-chic style, and I say why not take it off the page and into the home. For my project I used a variety of Maja Design papers and just had some fun tearing and painting away with them. I made a video step by step on how I created this project, so grab yourself a cup of coffee, kick back and enjoy!

I hope you enjoyed my video tutorial. Here are some individual shots of the each of the panels in this decorative wall hanging….

I used Vintage Spring Basics (4rth of April) as the base of this panel. I also added clocks from the Vintage Autumn Basics (XVI) paper to decorate the panel. The chipboard is from Dusty Attic Designs (Cherry Blossom Branch) and the butterfly is from Angelica’s Little Scrap Shop. I used home-made texture paste and a Crafters Workshop stencil (Mini Time Travel) for the clock designs.

I did a fair bit of layering with my patterned papers for the middle panel. I used a pretty blue paper from Crea Diem (Leva och växa) for the top layer, the next gingham layer is from Ska vi ta en Fika? (Två fröknar – bs) and then a bright blue layer from Crea Diem (Skapa dagen). I needed a lighter layer for my stamped quote (Tim Holtz stamp), so I used a scrap piece I had left over from my last project from the Vintage Spring Basics (6th of March). The stencils I used for this one were Crafters Workshop ‘Art Is’ and ‘Brick’. The stitch I used was from Prima. The cute lil frame and the butterflies are from Angelica’s Little Scrap Shop.

For my final panel I used another part of the Crea Diem paper I used in the middle panel (Leva och växa) and created a peek-a-boo tear showing a strip pattern paper from Vintage Spring Basics (4th of April-bs). I again used a Cherry Blossom branch from Dusty Attic and the ‘Art Is’ and ‘Brick’ stencils from Crafters Workshop. Here are a couple more views of the panels…

I hope my project has inspired you to give Maja Design papers a go when creating home decor projects. Thanks for taking the time to watch my little tutorial! xo

Loving Life

Posted by Gabrielle Pollacco

26 March, 2014 - Collections, Crea Diem, Layouts, Sofiero, Vintage Autumn Basics, Vintage Spring Basics, Vintage Summer Basics

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Hi everyone! Gabrielle here with you today to share with you my latest Maja Design project. Yep! I’m one of those scrappers that often forgets to scrap about myself. I have a big family and have lots to scrap about so I don’t often think to do a page about me. The photo in this layout is one that one of my daughters took of me when we were on a walk together.

I used mainly papers I still had in my stash from the Limited Editing Sofiero collection. I chose colors in the pinks and taupes with just a hint of green.

I really hate to waste any of my Maja Scraps so I save anything bigger than a couple of inches for upcoming projects. I had this piece of ‘Enjoy the Frangrance’ paper left over from another layout I made and decided to keep the angle cut the way it was. I just lightly moistened the paper and gave it some folds along the diagonal edge. When it dries, it gets quite firm and holds it’s shape well.

I added some lacy die cut pieces from Memory box along the cut edges of the paper (Norwich Corner, Quinn Flourish) and tucked them between the papers. Texture was added with some homemade texture paste and a Crafter’s Workshop Stencil (Gothic Romance). The soft pink in that I used behind the photo is a chalk ink by Ingvild Bolme called Sweet Pea.

The blooms were handmade from some pink scraps of Maja papers I had in my stash, I used a pale pink paper from Vintage Summer collection, deeper pinks from Crea Diem and a deep rose from Vintage Summer. To make the blooms I simply used a scissor to cut a wavey edge circle (in different sizes). Then I cut a wavey spiral into each circle and rolled them up (working from the outside – in) to make the roses. Then just glued down the spiral design to the center part of the circle. I added a pearl bead to each center.

Maja Design Products: Sofiero (Enjoying the Fragrance-bs, Princess Margareta’s Garden-bs, The Elegant Winehouse), Vintage Summer Basics (1923, 1922-bs), Crea Diem (Fylld av kärlek), Vintage Autumn Basics (III-bs, XVI), Vintage Spring (6th of May).

Thanks so much for stopping by the Maja blog today and hope you will give these beautiful Maja products a try on your next project! xo

Memories Captured

Posted by Gabrielle Pollacco

12 March, 2014 - Layouts, Vintage Autumn Basics, Vintage Frost Basics, Vintage Spring Basics

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Hi everyone, it’s me Gabrielle here with you today to share my newest layout using beautiful blue papers from a variety of the Maja collections. I used the lovely dark blue floral (XX) from the Vintage Autumn Basics collection as my background (matting) paper…

The next layer I used is from the Vintage Frost Basics collection called December 9th, for this one I did a little tinting with some Lindy’s sprays and added some texture with a doily stencil and home-made texture paste…

For the heart design, I cut out a piece from the 6th of March paper from the Vintage Spring Basics collection. This I matted with some of the Vintage Autumn Basics (XX) paper (that I cut out from the center of the background matting paper…

After I matted the heart cut from the above paper, I used a scallop edge scissore to create the border around the outside of the heart.

You can see the matting design in the above photo, I used a Signo Unibal white gel pen to put small dots inthe scallops to create an eyelet effect. The flourishy chipboard frame is one of my favourites from Dusty Attic Designs (Decorative Scroll #1)

I used Lindy’s (Afternoon Delight Denim) spritz on the background and added texture with home-made texture paste and a Prima Doily stencil.

The flowers I used are a loose variety of blooms from Prima Marketing and Dusty Attic Designs and the title chipboard was designed by my friend Janene at The Scrapbook Diaries. The Scrapbook Diaries has created a limited kit which also comes with a video tutorial I made to go with it if you are interested in trying out creating this page.

I hope you enjoyed my project today and hope that I’ve inspired you to play with some of your Maja Design papers! xo

Going Soft and Smokey with Maja Papers!

Posted by Gabrielle Pollacco

26 February, 2014 - Collections, Layouts, Life in the Country, Ska Vi Ta En Fika?, Vintage Autumn Basics, Vintage Summer Basics

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I don’t know how winter has been for you lovely ladies in Sweden, but here in Canada it has been extremely cold and snowy this year! I for one am soooo ready for Spring to make an appearance! So to warm myself up a little I thought I’d work on a summery photo. This is a photo I took a few years back of my oldest daughter when we were taking a summer vacation near Sable Falls in (Northern) Ontario.

I’ve recently been putting together a color inspiration board for myself on Pinterest and I find one of my favourite color combinations is purples with greens, but I’m particularly fond of the these colors in soft smokey tones. So for this page I reached for some of the soft smokey plums in the ‘Ska vi ta en Fika’ collection and mixed it with some taupey grey and soft green from the Vintage Summer basics colleciton.

I wanted to add some ‘lush’ greenery to the page so I matted behind the photo with some green paper from the Life In the Country paper collection (Sowing Seeds-bs), and added a new vine chipboard design from Dusty Attic called ‘Ivy Corners’ adding a few Dusty Attic purple roses in as well.

I just love to add vintage style embellishments to my Maja Design layouts because the beautiful papers lend themselves so well to these types of embellishments, like vintage lace (from Tresors de Luxe), Natural floral accents (also from Tresors de luxe), chipboard designs (Skelleton clock and flourishes, from Dusty Attic Designs) and the Flowers are from a tin of blooms from Recollections.

Clocks are one of those design elements that I feel work with almost any page. So again on this page I’ve added in some of my favourite clock designs from the Vintage Autumn Basics collection (XVI).

When I get my Maja Design collections, I love to fan out the papers and enjoy how the different patterns and designs look against each other. I always want to share these pretty designs in a unique and fun way, ….here I was able to do this using a new chipboard by Dusty Attic called ‘Geometric’ border. I glued a small sampling of a few of the patterned papers behind the small square designs.

Maja Design Papers used in this project: Ska vi ta en Fika (Söders höjder – bs, En Kopp te-bs, Chaite-bs, Favoriter-bs), Life In the Country (Sowing Seeds), Vintage Summer Basics (1932-bs), Vintage Autumn Basics (XVI).

I hope you enjoyed my little project today using Maja Design products and hope that it brought you a little Spring warmth as well! xo