Created by Gwen Blog - Page 54 of 109 - CUT to YOU (Created By Gwen)

It’s only taken 10 years

Hi Everyone,

A bit of a different share today…

After nearly 19 years of scrapbooking, yep I started in 1989 – I can finally say I now have my own little studio space!!!

It’s taken a long time, but it was so worth the wait! The big kids have moved out and my supplies and I have moved in! Of course, it is still a work in progress, I have only been in for a few weeks so I’m sure things will get shuffled, but for now here is how it looks 🙂

Looking into the room towards the door.

View from the door.

Ohhhh the Raskog… I don’t think I need more words for this one do I??? Since this photo was taken, I have moved the project life cards out of the bottom section and into a draw. I added a towel and our kitty likes to sleep in there while I scrap.

My clip it up. Top tier is all Crate Paper, bottom tier is everything else.

This little basket is for all things new… that is, when I buy new supplies, they go in here first. I find this way I am much more likely to use them; if they go straight into my stash, I forget I bought them!!! They will stay in here for a month or so, then anything left over will get filtered into my stash. The only exception to this is kits, but I am not currently subbing to any as I was finding I was getting supplies I wasn’t really loving, I really need to do some more kit club research.

My entire collection of pattern papers and cardstock, less than you might think, I’m actually not a hoarder. In general I think I have a lot less than people expect. One of the reasons for this is that I am a product scrapper, I use a lot of product on my pages, the second reason is that I don’t go nuts buying everything in every colour. I choose what I really love and that’s it. In the front there are masks, 12 x 12 and smaller. Papers are sorted by colour but there are special sections for Cocoa Vanilla and Crate Paper.

Not my entire collection, just a few favourites I use a lot… all sitting in a pretty little metal dish my mother gave me, her mum had it before her, it’s not real silver, but I don’t care, it’s special to me.

I have lots of vintage trays and tea cups etc around my space with pretties in them. I find if I can see things I’m much more likely to use them.

My very small collection of letter “G’s” – it’s a work in progress…

Paper scraps sorted by colour into these draws. The only exception to this is Crate Paper, they all go into a separate container as I tend to use the collections all mixed together and seeing they are all cream based and similar in tone, I find it much easier just to grab that box and go!

I keep my sewing machine permanently set up, I seem to stitch every page so packing it away would be a bad idea!

Copic storage and things I use all the time in the Couture Creations Whirligig.

First level of my Raskog – ATG lives here as well as all of my sticker sheets.

Coloured pencils sorted by colour some I may have borrowed from Miss 9, love the varying shades from different manufacturers; none are fancy, all work for me just fine.

My vintage typewriter… it is the perfect shade of green.

and lucky last, a little short of my mood board/notice board/inspiration zone. I made this from a frame I found in a thrift store, took out the centre and added some wire for hanging.

thanks for popping by today, I hope you enjoyed seeing my scrap space!

Gwen

Introducing the 2017 Cocoa Vanilla Design Team…. which includes me!

Hi Everyone,

Crazy excited to be a part of this amazing line up of talent!!! Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I would be on the same DT as these gals. I hope you are all ready for some amazing inspiration coming your way!

Cocoa Vanilla Studio – 2017 Design Team:

"Hello Grade 4" for D-lish Scraps

Hi Everyone,

Well, the business of Christmas and New Year is now behind us and today is my first day back at work after having a full 3 weeks off. I am now starting to think about ‘Back to School’ supplies and organising my little Miss into year 5 and it was in this organising that I realised I had not yet scrapped her first day of Grade 4… so I got working on that straight away and here is what I came up with.

I have had that chipboard pencil in my stash for a bit and I knew it was one of those things that had to go onto a school layout, so this one was the perfect fit.

I have also been on a mission of late to use my washi tape supply more, so I went about creating a colourful border layering tapes in sections in co-ordinating colours and then adding some stitching to make sure it stays put in the long term. Lots of Washi Tapes at the store if you are looking for some new ones to add to your stash. The background is a cut file I created using a diamond shape I bought from the Silhouette store Design ID #16577, I simply resized a few of them and positioned them on my page.

Aren’t those resin diamonds the cutest!!

I have added a journal Spot in here, lots available in the past kit bits section of the D-lish website as well as some D-lish flair and a paper Flower.

Some sewn on journalling and enamel dots to finish the layout.

Products used:

Puffy Alphabet Stickers

thanks for popping by,

Gwen

Jot Magazine – December Mood Board

Hi Everyone,

Here today to share a layout I created with the Jot December Mood Board. I was looking for something to inspire and loved the colours in this one.

Here is the Mood Board created by Suse Fish

and here is my take:

I wanted to use some really bold colours for this one to go with the black and white photo and background paper. Lots of layers, lots of embellishments and it was done.

So fun to play along and I love the result.

thanks for popping by

Gwen xo

On becoming a Master…

Thoughts on becoming a Master…

When I first started scrapbooking, I bought my first copy of Scrapbooking Memories. I ooooed and ahhhhed over the layouts thinking one day maybe I would be “good enough” to be published. Then, with the release of the Masters issue, I thought WOW, imagine if I could be a Master. At the time it was a dream that I considered possible but huge, like man landing on the moon, it was a big dream and one I quietly and patiently set about trying to achieve. 17 years on and I still cannot believe it is now a reality, I’ve done it and I am a Scrapbooking Master for 2017!!

So what was different this year to the other years I had tried, well actually lots!

My first attempt was in 2008 and I was just too new to scrapping, I hadn’t figured out what was me and what was the latest trend and I was just finding my feet and trying new things, I didn’t think I would win, but really wanted the experience.

In 2015 I left my entry to the last minute – creating all tasks in only a few days, staying up until midnight to get them done. My initial thought was, I don’t want to over think my pages, so if I smash them out, I won’t be able to do that. I started with layouts I had already created and scrap lifted them with adjustments to fit the challenge. I would definitely NOT recommend this! Masters entries need to be considered and measured, not rushed. Having said that, the pages I cerated I loved and were very true to me AND, after all, they were “good enough” (and I totally mean that tongue in cheek) to land me the Creative Team position, but still, I would NOT recommend this strategy!

This year, I took my time, I really thought about having a strategy for each of the tasks and a point of difference – something that really showed how I put myself and my love of scrapbooking into the page.

Overall I think the biggest difference was actually within me, it had nothing to do with the products I used, the colours I chose, what I thought they would like. I simply created 4 pages that were the essence of me and my style. I was not going to send in anything that I was 100% proud of and loved. If something needed re-doing I had time for that, I was able to make them perfect in my mind. They oozed “Gwen” and the way I like to have things on my page. I guess what I’m saying is that I feel very comfortable in my style and what I like. I’m not trying to be like “Suse Fish” or “Paige Evans” or “Maggie” – I’m just doing the best version of “me” I can.

So when people ask me, how did you do it? How do you know what they are looking for? I simply say “Find your true YOU and be that – the best YOU that you can be, that’s what I did”.

This hobby is so much more than cutting up paper, and becoming a Master is more than winning the Scrapbooking Olympics (as Miss 9 calls it). It is part of who I am and I am so happy to continue to fall in love with this hobby of mine and the amazing peeps who are apart of it. I hope becoming a Master means that I get to meet more amazing scrappers and I am so looking forward to a wonderfully creative year ahead.

Thank you all so much for your love and support!
Gwen
xo