Saying Farewell ~ All Smiles

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Posted by Gabrielle Pollacco

23 March, 2016 - , , , ,

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All Smiles_resized

Hello Maja Fans, Gabrielle here with you today to share a very special project, dear to my heart.  As many of you know I have been with the Maja Design team for over 4 years now.  Today will be my last post for this wonderful team.  It was very hard for me to come to this decision as I have very much enjoyed creating with these beautiful papers.  But as I have a lot on my plate as of late, I felt it was time to make a few changes.  I decided to end my journey as I began…..the very first project I did for Maja Design was using their signature blue’s and neutrals….so today I finish my journey using these classic colors.

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As always I used a variety of collections in one layout (5 in all), but I mainly chose papers from the Life by the Sea collection.  I drew my inspiration from the navy and white stripe top my oldest daughter is wearing in the photo above of her and our dog.  These are the papers I used on this project:  Life by the Sea (Seaside Cottage, Bottle Message), Vintage Summer Basics (1945-bs), Vintage Autumn Basics (XXIII-bs, XVI).

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I chose the fresh and pretty ‘Seaside Cottage’ strip paper as my matting paper….and the softly scripted ‘Bottle Message’ paper as my background.  I decided on my photo and embellishment placement and then softly tinted the surrounding area with some Colorbox Mixed Media Inx in a Patina color.

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Before adhering my background paper to the matting paper, I added a little accent by tearing the two papers and curling back the edges to reveal the pretty check paper from the Vintage Autumn Basics collection with a little peek of lace as well. I added a small zipper pull from Prima Marketing to finish the look.  I also sandwiched a strip of burlap between the two papers before I finally adhered the two pieces together.  As an added finishing touch I added two ‘hinge’ designs by cutting a Dusty Attic ‘French Flourish’ chipboard design in half and glued them to the top and bottom of the right side.

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I double matted my photo with papers from Vintage Autumn Basics and Vintage Summer Basics, sandwiching the Dusty Attic ‘Vintage Frame #4’ between the two layers.  Then I added some butterflies (just some images I printed off from the internet), blossoms and clock images that I fussy cut from the Vintage Autumn Basics XVI paper, and applied with pop dots, adding a border with Platinum Stickles (glitter glue).

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I also added some randomly cut sections of Dusty Attic chipboard Lattice…..and as a final touch used some Dusty Attic Clear Gloss Varnish to attach some seed beads in around the lattice (Prima – Licorice seed beads).

I hope you enjoyed checking out my project as much as I enjoyed creating it!  It has been my absolute pleasure being on this wonderful design team and want to thank Marie Janson for her kind generosity and support all these years, as well as Camilla Lillieskold, our awesome design team coordinator and Jennifer Snyder, our social media coordinator for all their hard work on our behalf.

Suffice it to say I will be using all the lovely product I still have in my stash for years to come! xo

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Live Love Laugh

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Posted by Gabrielle Pollacco

10 February, 2016 - , , , , , ,

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LIveLaughLove_GabriellePollacco_Maja

Hi everyone! It’s Gabrielle here with you today to share a special page I made for my parents anniversary this month.  They are having their 58th wedding anniversary, such a wonderful milestone.  For this page I combined a number of paper collections, using 5 different papers. (Vintage Summer Basics 1922, Nyhavn-Strolling Along the Canal, Vintage Summer Basics 1923, Ska Vi ta en Fika-Pratstund, Vintage Autumn Basics-XVI).

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I began by using the Vintage Summer Basics 1922 paper as my matting/background paper. I then cut the corner and 1/4 inches off the edges of the Nyhavn paper, which I then painted with some Shimmerz paints (Black Cherry Soda Creameez and Onyx Inklingz) and stamped liberally around the photo area with some stamps that I designed for The Scrapbook Diaries.  I then layered on a crocheted lace Doily from Tresors de Luxe and a chipboard frame from Dusty Attic (Swirly Frame and Laurel Leaf chippies).

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I created coordinating blossoms using the Rose Creations dies from Spellbinders, using the scraps from the Vintage Summer Basics 1922 and 1923 papers.  I cut the smaller inner petals from the darker pink paper and the larger petals from the light pink paper.  I also cut out a few green leaves using the Ska vi ta en Fika paper (leaf dies are from the Rose Creations set).

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I added a cluster of embellishments in the bottom right corner using a couple of Dusty Attic chippies (title and scroll).  I also added some texture using a Prima flourish stencil and home-made texture paste. And as always I love to tuck in a little clock here and there from the Vintage Autumn Basics XVI paper.

I hope my parents enjoy this layout, I’m forever grateful to have them in my life and hope they will see many many more anniversaries.  Thanks so much for stopping by the Maja Design blog today!

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Wishing for Spring

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Posted by Gabrielle Pollacco

13 January, 2016 - , , , ,

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Majaphoto

Hi all, it’s Gabrielle here with you today to share with you my latest page using Maja Design papers!  I really can’t complain too much about the weather, it’s been a fairly mild winter here in Canada (Ontario, at least) so far….but the past few days have been so cold and snowy.  It doesn’t take long for me to long for Spring!  So today I thought I would scrap something that makes me happy….beautiful flowers.

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I used a number of papers from the beautiful ‘Enjoying Outdoors’ collection (Beautiful Trees-bs, Woodlands, Flourishing-bs)….also a bit of Vintage Autumn Basics (XVI) – Clocks, and Walking In the Forest (Die Cut Sheet- butterfly).

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I found these cute flowers that I thought were a good match for the blossoms in the photo….they are Prima Marketing flowers, but I couldn’t find a name on the packaging (I think they might be from the FairyBelle collection?).

I did a little painting with some Shimmerz Paints on the background. I used ‘Naughty or Nice’ Inklingz behind the photo area and then used a combination of ‘Sage It Isn’t So’ Creameez and ‘Greener Pastures’ Inklings, splashing out from the side underneath the floral embellishments.  I gave the Dusty attic chipboard scrolls a coating of  ‘Artie Choked’ Textures.

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You can see in this photo, the pretty textures the green texture paste gives to the Dusty Attic chipboard Scrolls.  I also tucked a few clocks that I cut out from the Vintage Autumn Basics XVI paper around the photo area along with some Dusty Attic green blossoms.  And as a finishing touch I added a butterfly that I cut out of the Die Cut sheet from the Walking In the Forest collection as an embellishment on the photo.

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I added a bit of texture using a new Dusty Attic stencil called ‘Cross Hatch’ with some home-made texture paste. I also added a new chipboard title from Dusty Attic, using the Shimmerz ‘Greener Pastures’ paint to color the scripted words in the title.

I hope you enjoyed today’s post and that it brought you a little hint of Spring on this cold winter day!

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