Hi everyone. My name is Tracy Gardiner and I hail from the East Coast of South Africa – a hot and humid City called Durban . I cannot imagine living anywhere else – we have it all here including the most awesome weather year-round (although we have had quite enough rain of late, thank you very much …). I am a SAHM to a 14-year old boy, Bryce and 40-year old husband, Greg. I have been married for just over 16 years – Greg and I dated for 7 years prior to that so I feel as though we have known each other FOREVER.
I have been scrapbooking for the better part of about 12 years and I have loved every second of it – in fact, I dream about scrapbooking just about every evening … tee hee … you know how it goes … you see that perfect page in your sleep and when you wake up you can’t remember what it looked like??? Uh huh – you know what I mean … Anyway, I am a simple, clean scrapper with an attention to detail. My favourite part is journaling – to me there is no point in just “licking and sticking” – the STORY needs to be told for future generations – all the stories – the good, the bad and the ugly sometimes too …. I featured as a Design Team member for www.journalingjunkie.blogspot.com during 2009 and 2010 and will be returning there in due course.
I recently completed a year on the Imaginisce (www.imaginisce.com) Design Team and I loved every minute of it – what an awesome, generous Company to work with and they have such gorgeous products – go check out their CHA releases at www.imaginisceblog.com .
I have also recently, with my BFF Sophia, launched an online Scrapbooking Kit Club called Le Shabby Café. Please pop in and see what we’ve been up to … www.leshabbycafe.blogspot.com .
Lastly, please visit me at my Blog (www.tracyscharmedlife.blogspot.com) to see more of my work and to see where I will be teaching over the course of the next few months …
Thank you for having me over, Pam … it has been a great pleasure and I can’t wait to meet all the girls who visit with you …
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SUPPLIES: -
Patterned Papers: - Cardstock: -
Fancy Pants Happy Together – Glee 2 x sheets Brown Cardstock
Fancy Pants Happy Together – Grin 2 x sheets Light Blue Cardstock
Fancy Pants Happy Together – Strips 1 x sheet Dark Teal Cardstock
Fancy Pants Happy Together – Cards
Embellishments: -
Light Blue Jewel Brads Caramel Felt
Buttons Pearl Bling
Prima Flowers Brown Floss
Fancy Pants Happy Together Elements Stickers
Other requirements: -
Dark Brown Liquid Chalk Sewing Needle with large eye
Sewing Machine with brown thread Foam Dots
Paper Piercer Small Glue Dots
Brown Misting Spray (eg. Smooch or Tattered Angels)
Photo Requirements: -
1 x (9.5cm x 14.5cm) portrait photo 3 x (7cm x 10cm) portrait photos
1 x (7cm x 10cm) landscape photo
PLEASE READ NOTES THOROUGHLY BEFORE CUTTING AND ASSEMBLING PAGE/S
**** DO NOT cut any of the information strips off of the bottom of your patterned papers or you will not be able to tell which I am referring to in the notes ****
** Set aside the pieces you are cutting separately from the “scraps” so that you can find the necessary pieces when we assemble the page **
* Please note that we work in centimetres here in South Africa so you will need to convert my measurement to inches if necessary *
LIFE IS GOOD (double page Layout)
by TRACY GARDINER
by TRACY GARDINER
(we will first do all the cutting of the paper and then the assembly of the page)
Brown Cardstock: -
1) On the BACK of both sheets of cardstock, measure 4cm from all the edges and draw pencil lines;
2) Cut out the of both sheets with a craft knife and metal ruler (creating two square frames with a 4cm frame all around);
3) Set the Frames aside:
4) Cut the following photo mats from the inside pieces of
the frame: -
(a) 1 x (10cm x 15cm)
(b) 3 x (8cm x 11cm)
5) Set aside the remaining “scraps” of brown for matting stickers.
Lt Blue Cardstock:-
1) From both sheets of cardstock cut 2cm from the top and 2cm from the left-hand side of each, leaving you with 2 squares measuring 22.5cm x 22.5cm;
2) Distress the edges of these squares with a distress tool and ink all edges;
3) Set these aside with the 2 brown “frames” and the 4 photo mats.
The Brown and Lt Blue cardstock pieces you have just cut out form the background pages.
HT – Grin:-
1) Cut 2 pieces measuring 9cm x 12cm;
2) Ink all edges.
HT – Glee: -
1) Cut 5 strips of 1.5cm x full width of your page (ie. .5 cm x 30.5cm/12”)
2) From these 5 strips cut the following lengths: -
(a) 4 x (13cm x 1.5cm)
(b) 4 x (9cm x 1.5cm)
(c) 4 x (8.5cm x 1.5cm)
3) Cut a notch into one side of each of these pieces (2a-c bove) as you would the end of a ribbon (see detail in picture f the completed LO above);
4) Ink the edges of these pieces and set them aside.
HT – Cards:-
1) Cut out the following cards: -
(a) the one with the bird on it – cut the bird out, ink the edges and set it aside;
TIP - (when “fussy” cutting smaller items it is best to cut around the image leaving a small border all the way around – don’t stress about cutting it “exactly” as often there are small and skinny pieces which will just tear off if you don’t leave a little border)
(b) the one with the scallop circle grid – cut around the edge of the brown border, ink and set aside;
HT – Stickers: -
1) Mat the following stickers onto the scraps of brown cardstock you set aside earlier (just hand-cut a thin mat around each sticker once you have stuck it down):-
a) “Make a Wish” star;
b) “Remember” ticket;
c) “Sweet Thing” postage stamp;
d) small green/brown spotted heart;
2) at the “LIFE IS GOOD” title onto the dark teal cardstock.
HT – Strips:-
1) Cut the following strips: -
a) Harlequin/Diamond strip – cut out 4 diamonds, ink the edges of these diamonds and set aside;
Felt:-
1) Cut the following from the felt (simple draw these imagesdirectly onto the felt or onto paper and use as a template): -
(a) 1 x large Cloud;
(b) 1 x med Cloud;
(c) 2 x small Clouds;
(d) 1 x small heart; and
(e) 1 x med Flower.
Well done, girls – the cutting is over and it is time to assemble our pages … (maybe it’s tea time by now, so go on and have a cup of cappuccino for me …)
ASSEMBLY: -
1. Stick the Light Blue Cardstock pieces onto the Brown Frames leaving about a cm border all the way around. These now form the background sheets of your double page layout.
2. Place your two background sheets side by side and arrange (do not stick these down until you have arranged them correctly) the “HT – Glee (2a-c above)” strips as follows (follow the picture of the completed LO above): -
(a) Left-hand side page: -
- top right hand corner – 8.5cm strip
- bottom right hand corner – 13cm strip
- bottom left-hand corner – 13cm strip (horizontal)
- bottom left-hand corner – 9cm strip (vertical)
- top left-hand corner – 9cm strip (vertical)
- top left-hand corner – 8.5cm strip (horizontal)
(b) Right-hand side page: -
- top left-hand corner – 13cm strip
- top right-hand corner – 8.5cm strip (horizontal)
- top right-hand corner – 9cm strip (vertical)
- bottom right-hand corner – 9cm strip (vertical)
- bottom right-hand corner – 8.5cm strip (horizontal)
- bottom left-hand corner – 13cm strip
3. Stick these pieces down onto the light blue cardstock about 0.5cm from all edges and making sure that the vertical and horizontal corner pieces overlap each other to fit exactly (see details in picture of completed LO above).
4. Okay, now comes the Misting – this is not an exact Science and you may very well scream out in frustration if your mist comes out too fast, too wet and too concentrated – RELAX!!! Mine was not perfect either but I can give you some Misting Tips which may help BEFORE you actually start misting.
TIP – Turn the bottle upside down so that the “shimmer” mixes with the mist. Do not shake it too hard because it creates excess bubbles and can come out wet and blotchy when you spray it onto your project. Just lightly tilt it up and down to mix it properly. You may want to “practice” on a scrap sheet of paper first. Hold the mist about 5 or 6 cm away from your project and then spray once to see what kind of effect you are getting. Now continue spraying until you are happy with the position and concentration of the mist.
Using the photos of the completed layout as a guideline, mist in the areas where you can see Mist – on the left-hand page next to the large mat – on the right-hand page alongside the portrait mat at the bottom AND in the top right hand corner). We do this before we stick anything further so that the Mist does not transfer to any of our photos or other elements. Let the Mist dry before adhering anything further.
5. In the meantime you can start adhering your photos to the mats. I would use light sepia or black and white photos.
6. The next step is to adhere your photo mats to your background (follow details in the picture of the completed LO above).
(a) Left-hand side page –
- Brown 10cm x 15cm portrait mat – adhere this to the light blue background about 4cm from the top right-hand corner and about 0.5cm from the right-hand edge;
- Brown 8cm x 11cm (matted onto stripe) portrait mat – adhere this to the light blue background about 2.5cm from the bottom of the light blue cardstock and about 0.5cm from the brown mat you have already stuck down.
(b) Right-hand side page –
- Brown 8cm x 11cm portrait mat – adhere this 4cm from the top of the light blue background and about 0.5cm from the left-hand edge;
- Brown 8cm x 11cm (matted onto strip) landscape mat – adhere this mat in line with the bottom of, and about 0.5cm from the side of the brown mat you have just stuck down on this page;
- Brown 8cm x 11cm portrait mat – adhere this mat 2.5cm from the bottom of the light blue background and about 6.5cm from the edge of the light blue cardstock (below the mat you have just stuck down).
7. Stitching (again, see the details on the picture of the completed LO above):-
(a) Left-hand page:
- adhere the scallop circle grid between the two strips on the left hand edge of the page and stitch into place with a running stitch and a zigzag stitch in between;
- stitch the small felt heart onto the “Sweet Thing” Postage Stamp;
- stitch a button onto the small felt heart using the brown floss and tying a bow in front;
- adhere the Postage Stamp above the large cloud and in the top left-hand corner
- stitch the small Heart Sticker onto the large cloud and stick the large cloud down as shown
- draw 6 pencil lines, 1cm apart, below the large photo mat, trace over these with a brown pen and then stitch over the brown pen to form your journaling lines.
- stitch a running line with a zigzag in the centre between the two strips on the edge of the right-hand side page;
- stitch a button onto the felt flower with brown floss, tying a bow in front;
8. Banner: -
(a) Draw a circle in pencil, 10cm from the top right-hand corner of the right -hand side page – this is where your banner will be placed;
(b) Fold the 4 diamonds that you cut from the “Harlequins” strip in half to form a triangle and, using a glue dot, stick the two bottom points together;
(c) Thread the 4 triangles onto brown floss leaving a space between the 2nd and the 3rd triangles for the “Remember” ticket;
(d) Lay the banner onto the drawn circle and, starting from the left-hand side, use foam dots to secure the triangles and the “Remember” ticket to your page, following the line of the circle as shown below;
(e) Secure the floss to the page by adding brads and winding the floss around the brads;
(f) Adhere the medium cloud slightly under the “Remember” ticket;
(g) Add 3 small pearls as shown
9. (a) Adhere the small felt cloud, a small blue flower and the small newsprint flower onto your page to the left of the banner;
(b) Add the cut-out bird and 3 small pearl blings;
(c) Add a bling brad to the centre of the newsprint flower;
(d) Use Stickles to highlight the blue flower.
10. (a) Adhere the “Life is Good” Sticker to the left edge of the bottom portrait photo mat and add the “Make a Wish” star sticker to the bottom;
(b) Adhere the felt flower to the bottom right-hand corner of the mat;
(c) Add 4 pearl bling.
11 (a) Adhere the small cloud just slightly under the large cloud on the left-hand page;
(b) Add a bling brad just to the left of the heart sticker on the large cloud;
(c) Adhere the large newsprint flower as shown below.
THAT’S IT, girls!!! WELL DONE - it wasn’t so hard was it?? Maybe a little involved - but EASY as pie. Hope you enjoyed yourselves.
If you want to see more of my work, please pop along to my blog (www.tracyscharmedlife.blogspot.com) and scroll through older posts – you will find some tutorials as well as examples of some of my other work. You may also be interested in my challenge blog (www.scrapatale.blogspot.com) where you will find loads of tutorials and ideas from some well-known scrappers around the globe. (This hasn’t been updated for a while but we hope to get this going again soon … please email me if you would like to feature on this Challenge Blog … gardinert at telkomsa dot net)
Love,
Tracy
oxox
*** All content and pictures are the property of Tracy Gardiner and may not be sold and/or reproduced in any way without Tracy’s written consent ***
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Thanks so much Tracy for a great tutorial and post!
I really like the banners around the outside of the page! Prepare to be scraplifted.
ReplyDeleteJust a quick note to let you know that a link to this post will be placed on CraftCrave today [29 Jan 12:00am GMT]. Thanks, Maria
ReplyDeleteHI tracy, Love the colours on the layout.
ReplyDeleteLove it my BFF Tracy, congrats on the feature here!
ReplyDeleteYour layout is adorable! Especially the banner! So cool.
ReplyDeleteWow Tracy... your layout is great and the instructions so easy to follow... well done on being picked
ReplyDelete