Guest Designer at Words & Paintery

Hi everyone. I am here to show you a project I created for the challenge blog Words & Paintery as a guest designer for their November challenge. 

This was the board i had to play with ..

These are the rules

To participate you need to do your interpretation of our challenge and upload a direct link to your project with the help of our Linkytool. The interpretations are free in form (layout, card, art journal, album, canvas) but you need to follow the outlines of the challenge. Each month we will chose a couple of projects that will be highlighted in a special post.

Here is what I created.. I included a whole lot of current and past flowers, embellishments and art mediums from Prima and in particular some of Finnabair's collections. 

Thank you for dropping by! 

See you again soon X

Prima Cards & Tags October challenge

Hi everyone! Glad to be back today to share with you a card I recently made for Prima's October CAT challenge. I had not created something for a while as school is back into full swing these past 3 weeks and so the craziness started again.

Anyway, here is the sketch that was provided.

 Amongst other Prima mixed media products, I used the Rossibelle collection 6x6 paper pad, flowers and chipboard. 

I hope you have a great weekend. 

Love, Nadia

Prima October PPP Challenge

Hello everyone! I am back today to share with you another canvas I created for the October Prima Products Pick challenge. 

These are the colours we were invited to incorporate in a project ..

And here is my project

Among other beautiful Prima products, I used the Rossibelle collection as the basis of my colour choice. 

I hope you have been inspired somewhat :) Take care and have a great weekend! Love, Nadia

Mixed Media Canvas with step by step video

Good evening every one. I am hoping this post finds you well. 

I have been asked a few times lately to make a video of my creative process. I have a You Tube channel HERE and I have done a few videos in the past. I do find they are time consuming, but I do like to share whatever little info or some minimal techniques I use so I have created one for this canvas below. 

I want to say a little bit about my creations. First of all I do not ever have a plan. I have said in the past I always "just start" and I always work very very fast. After 1.5 years off, I have to say I have "slowed" down a little bit, but I still have no plan as to what I want to go on and create. Secondly, when I first started creating I used to use a lot of product and I wanted everything to SHOW! As time went on, and as you will see in this video, my style kind of changed and a lot of layers that I create on my projects don't really show. A lot of the embellishments or papers I use only can be seen a little bit. I think this gives a project a lot of "depth". I think it's OK if only a little bit of each layer shows. Lastly, since coming back to crafting, I have had to buy every single thing from scratch again. It sounds so silly doesn't it? However this has helped me a lot because I now know my style and I know exactly what I need to buy. So I have fallen straight back into creating my way using the same products I have used before. Therefore, its important to remember that it takes time to find your style and although you may want to create something inspired by others you need to keep searching for what it is that comes naturally to you. For me, I sometimes go between soft and romantic, to a little grungy, a little messy etc. It does depend on the papers I use etc. 

So anyway, here is my canvas with some close ups. 

You can watch the video on my Youtube channel HERE or below..

Let me know your thoughts!

Hope you have been inspired in some way.

Bye for now, Nadia

7 Dots Studio September Challenge

Good morning everyone! 

I am sharing a tag I made today for the current 7 Dots Studio challenge using the one and only 12x12 paper I had and some stickers for the Lost And Found collection! It is such a gorgeous collection and I am waiting for the only store that carries it in Australia to reopen to buy the 6x6 paper pad. 

Here is the inspirational circle ...

Here is my tag ...

Thank you so much for dropping by! Have a good one :) Nadia

13arts Challenge #46

Goodmorning! I am quickly popping in today to share a little motivational tag that I created for challenge #46 for 13arts. 

The challenge was to create a steampunk inspired project and this is my interpretation ..

I have used the gorgeous 13arts Secret Letters collection. I know there was a moodboard for inspiration too but these were the only 13arts papers I had sooo I hope its Ok??

That is all for today! I hope you have a good one :) 

Canvas Corp Brands September Challenge

Earlier in the week I spotted a Facebook friends' post about a massive prize they won from a previous Canvas Corp Brands challenge and it intrigued me because..well I am slowly building my little stash again LOL But besides that, I was intrigued by what Canvas Corp Brands were. I remember Canvas Corp from a while back and with the help of one of their designers, the lovely Mandy Leever-Koel , I went over to their blog HERE and discovered their current challenge which is this moodboard

As we have just started Spring in Australia, I did not create an Autumn project that this moodboard lends itself to but I created this tag using the colours recommended..

That is all for today! I hope I have inspired you somewhat :)

Have a great weekend ahead.,

A mixed media birthday card!

Goodmorning. Today I am sharing a card I created last week for my husband's 41st birthday. Yes I know it is pink. Yes I know it has flowers and screams FEMININE but ..i created and gave it to him anyway and he was happy with it I am guessing? lol 

I know it is hard to spot, but I have used the gorgeous 7 Dots Studio Verano Azul collection that my friend Valia sent me all the way from Greece :) I loved the pink tones in it and the rest was just bound to be pinky!  

Lots of flowers and really loving the colours and textures from Finnabair's  collections for Prima!

That's all for today. I hope you are inspired in some way :) 

Mixed Media Place Creative Gym #20

Hey everyone. I hope you are all well. I am doing very well and I am really enjoying creating again and finding my lost "me" time again. It's always so hard for a mother to find a hobby that allows personal time without taking away family time, especially when the kids are young. Unfortunately I am the furthest you would find to being selfish, and I simply cannot go against my very nature and start doing things JUST for me. Creating is perfect because it can be done any time of day which is the biggest challenge mothers and of course myself face. So it has been great so far :) 

So I have been keeping my eye on the Mixed Media Place blog as it is full of inspiration. Have you visited it yet? 

I did a bit of shopping there about a month ago, as they also have an online shop which is based in Europe but has a whole heap of things you cannot find easily in Australia. My order arrived just the other day and I could not wait to get started.

Their current challenge is this mood board...

We are free to interpret this any way we like and create anything we like. So I created this card for this challenge. This card is for a friend, who upon hearing I am starting to create again but have NO supplies,  sent me a HUGE box full of things to play with. The things she sent me was all things that I would use which to me it means she knows me well and knows my style well,  so thank you Maria :)

 Stuff like that always make me a little emotional and VERY thankful for good friends and to tie it in with the Mixed Media Place challenge, I would say that friends like that are WHAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF! OK OK very loose interpretation of the challenge but I just wanted to play along OK? LOL But in all seriousness, acts like that mean a lot to me. Not because I got free stuff. But because she is a busy mother of 4 and took time out of her day to send something to ME :) 

Here is a picture of me mid creation... I REALLY LOVE these new acrylic paints from Finn for Prima. 

I have used the most stunning collection from 7 Dots Studio , 9th Wave, which I purchased from Mixed Media Place. And by purchased, I mean I only purchased 1 sheet and 1 die cuts sheet because that is all that sadly available as I do not think they print it anymore. If there is anyone out there with any 9th Wave paper or stickers etc I would love to buy them off you and pay for postage to send them to me :) 

I added the Art Alchemy acrylic paint to the background and as accents over the flowers. I also used Prima's Art Ingredients Art Stones, Mica Flakes and Glass Glitter to build texture. 

The flowers are from Kaisercraft. 

Well that is all for today. I hope I have inspired you somewhat! Have a great weekend!

Prima September CAT challenge

Hi everyone!

Firstly, THANK YOU all so much for the love on my previous post. Thank you for the support and encouraging words and thank you to all my friends around the world that didn't forget me even though I was absent for a while. I am enjoying this so far so we will see :) 

I have been spending a little time continuing to look at blogs to get some inspiration, just like when I first started creating all those years back.  I have always found challenge blogs very inspiring because they gave me ideas or some rules to follow when creating. So when I saw the current Prima "CAT" (Cards and Tags) challenge sketch  I thought "Great! Just what I needed". But after tonnes of Prima products that I received as part of my DT there, I was left with not one little tiny square of paper or flower to play with after giving up creating a year and a half ago... So a visit to The Scrapbook Store and a few days later I had a few flowers and a few papers (and of course other bits and pieces lol) to work with. 

I used the recent Vintage Emporium 6x6 paper pad and Ephemera pack, as well as some new and old flowers from Prima, Art Ingredients from Prima and of course some Vintage Trinkets from Prima on this card. 

I will admit I was going for a soft and romantic look so I have kept the mixed media light, using only some Faber Castell Whipped Spackle and a Dusty Attic mask as my background texture. 

Well that is all for today. Thank you for stopping by..

Love, Nadia

Hello from the other side...

Well I never thought I would see the day, but alas, I have managed to prove myself wrong because here I am posting on this blog again! 

You must understand what I mean by this.. I almost nearly shut this blog down but kept it just for the memories. I sold off ALL my scrapbooking supplies and had literally NOTHING! I was never doing this again I told myself. But here I am. I am not sure if anyone is still out there but if you are I'd love to hear from you in the comments. 

I indeed gave up scrapping.. I had absolutely lost all my passion and drive. I had no time and honestly I had achieved all my scrapping goals and was on all the teams I had endeavoured to be on and I guess it all got overwhelming for me. 

I always missed creating ... and when I would see memories on Facebook pop up I was aching inside because I missed it so much. But what got me over the line to start again was a number of comments from all different directions. One was from my daughters who said they missed my cards and layouts. Then recently a nudge from my sister in law to pick up the hobby again. another comment from one of my daughters lately that said "I am going to pick one of your beautiful cards to give my friend for her birthday" and when we did arrive at the birthday everyone ooohed and ahhhed over my card (an old one) and it just clicked.. I thought "If i was maybe OK at something why did i give it up?" . Anyway the rest is history. I just got online that night and ordered some basics from my favourite stores and I really want to create again... Its funny, this time around I dont need to have everything! Just a few things. I know exactly what to buy and what works etc etc . 

I guess I just had to literally get rid of it all , disconnect from creating and the online world before I could find my way back again. Life is strange...

So anyway, all else is well. I am still a primary school teacher and working away, 2 older daughters at school and little one still at home and all in all doing well. 

Now back to creating.. I really wanted some inspiration and of course I went back to what is familiar and the brands and blogs that I love ! Firstly I created this tag with my favourite 13arts.. I used their recent release called "Aura Rosa" and I entered this in the Words Their Way challenge blog where the mini challenge was to use the word "BEST" on a card, tag or ACT. This was always one of my most favourite design teams to be on and working with 13arts again was like a dream. 

Once I created this, I also hopped over to my other super amazing past design team 7 Dots Studio and the current design team there is once again very inspirational. While browsing there i came across their August challenge which was to use 7 Dots Studio products and metallic colours on a project..

 

Of course I looked very hard online to find some older 7 Dots Studio collections which are SOOOO hard to find these days :( . But anyway I managed to find a few Dreamer and Domestic Goddess papers here in Australia. Yeah we are going back a few years with these collections but I never ceased loving them!

I created 2 cards for this challenge, I hope that is OK? I was just feeling very inspired :) 

This is the first card I created with the Dreamer collection..

Here is the second card I created with the Domestic Goddess collection...

Well that is it for today! I hope I inspired you in some way and hope to be back again soon!

Love, Nadia