Live in the Moment

If you are scrapping on a budget or just want to have more variety, then co-ordinating paper pads can be the way to go. Many companies produce a 6x6 pad, and Cocoa Vanilla produce a 6x8 which is a fantastic size as you can mat a 6x4 and/or 5x7 photo with it and the 8-inch side gives you more options when using the paper on your layers. Plain/B-side papers are good for making journaling cards and cut apart pieces are great for small embellishments.
My favourite way to use the papers is to cut them into strips and/or quarters and layer them up under my photos. I try to use an uneven number of papers and place them in opposite spots on the page for balance.

We have a bunch of great paper pads for you in the Mystical Store. 

Supplies used: Colour Blast: Arty Farty: Vision. Cocoa Vanilla- Happiness: 6x8 Paper Pad, Accessory Stickers, Die Cut Ephemera. Bohemian Dream: Enamel Shapes. Nuvo Drops: Gloss: Blue Babe and Carnation Pink.

Tuesday Tip: Cutlery Tray

A curtlery tray or spice rack layed flat can make great storage for your Project Life and other journalling type cards. Keep an eye out in Op Shops or pick one up at Ikea or another storage type store.

Gallery Pick: Tracey C

Each month on our Facebook chat group, we host the albums for the monthly and Cybercrop challenges. There is such a great wealth of inspiration in those albums I wanted to pick some scrapbookers work to share each week.

 This weeks page is from Tracey C. I love how Tracey has picked up the blue in her photos to give a bold compliment with her patterned paper and flowers.The neutral wood background is the perfect stage for this. Her flower clusters are just lovely! Her journaling is short but tells the story of Bronte's puppy love perfectly. Thanks for inspiring us Tracey!

Saturday Inspiration: Hello Gorgeous

12 ideas for celebrating a new baby...

1. Go traditional with pink and blue.
2. Use 'Welcome' in your title.
3. Go big with your photo- spread it across both pages.
4. Add the birth weight, length, time, and date for your journalling.
5. Choose a motif like a butterfly, star,ladybird, or flower to add to that child's pages from now on.
6. Keep the colours light- maybe even try all white.
7. Use ribbon and flowers to add softness.
8. Add a hint of glitter.
9. Journal some hopes for the baby.
10. Go untraditional with greens and purples.
11. Use a quote stamp. 
12. Make a watercolour background.

Supplies used: Colour Blast Arty Farty ~ Muse, Cocoa Vanilla: Midnight ~ Clear Stickers and Bohemian Dream ~ Accessory Stickers, Jillibean Soup Labels: Card Sentiments 2, Flowers: Prima - Pearl Panache - Snowbird, Stamps: Kaisercraft: Memory Lane, Ink: Versa Color- Celadon Distress: Wilted Violet. Nuvo drops: Glitter White Blizzard.

Tuesday Tip: Punctuation Embellishments

Thickers especially but also other alphabets often come with a bunch of punctuation that never gets used for it's intended purpose. Rather than throw them out try using them as embellishments on your page. 

Quick Share: Zombie

Washi Tape is great for layering and can help provide a frame, shelf, or in this case a corner to place your photo. I used it in this case because my photo has so much white space it needed to be anchored. The best way to do this is by tring to use like colours but varying size patterns. I've opted for black red and gold- and have repeated the stars across my page.

Supplies used: Bazzill Cardstock: Black, Colour Blast - Arty Farty ~ Possibilities, Washi Tape: WRMK- Onxy and Pomegranite, Ink Versa color: Charcoal and Distress Ink ~ Black Soot.

Gallery Pick: Judy O

Each month on our Facebook chat, we host the albums for the monthly and Cybercrop challenges. There is such a great wealth of inspiration in those albums I wanted to pick some scrapbooker's work to share each week.

This week I have Judy O's layout from our August Cybercrop. Judy's photo is loaded with people and colours so it's a great choice by her to keep her colour pallette muted and her embellishing very simple. Leaving lots of space around her jornalling and the plain blue patterened paper help to add even more lightness. Her title adds a lovely bit of sparkle for added interst and everything falls inside the visual triangle she's made with the embellishments. The design on this page is great and it's just so pretty! Thanks Judy for playing along.

Saturday Inspiration: Celebrate

A dozen ideas from our Cybercrop Mood Board to jump start your weekend scrapping...

1. Divide your page into six strips.
2. Add a rainbow to your page.
3. Put your title in a banner.
4. Add some sparkle with gold.
5. Use multiple thin strips of paper.
6. Make paper cupcakes to embellish a party page.
7. Make a BIG title.
8. Decorate a corner of your page with a cluster.
9. Go for a sherbert colour scheme. 
10. Sprinkle Confetti on your page.
11. Add a quote to your layout.
12. Add some garlands to your page.

Enjoy your weekend, make pages you can celebrate!

October Cybercrop - Celebrate

This month Mystical is celebrating 11 years with me as the owner!  I have loved all the up's and down's along the way.. I've been blessed with some truly wonderful DT members over the years, and a very friendly kind and a lovely group of scrappy friends via our forum and now our Facebook chat page.

Gypsy has been with me now for a few years... and she has given me lots of support and help to which I'm grateful for ...So with that in mind, we have 3 challenges based on things we are grateful for and things we want to celebrate.

Challenge 1 -  Use the word "Grateful" somewhere.

And here's my take...

I've used, Kraft - Chestnut and Colour Blast Limited Edition papers.  Memory Maze Chipboard Glitter Thickers, Jute Twine and some leftover bird, flowers & bits from a 49th and Market Kit.


Challenge 2 - Mood Board - pick and choose your inspiration from our celebration Moodboard to make your layout. Check back on the blog tomorrow if you're feeling stuck.

Here's my take...

Supplies used: Bassill Basics Cardstock and Cocoa Vanilla Boys Rule.


Challenge 3 - Requirement Challenge.  Include these on your page:

   Banner - Journalling - Bling - A tag - Chipboard

My take will be up this afternoon

Due date Sunday, 27th October - Midnight

Upload your challenge entry to the Galleries on our Mystical Scrapbooks Facebook Chat Page.

Our chat is private and if you haven't yet joined us, we'd love to have you.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/315729455225820/

If you have any trouble joining please email to me, Donna, with your name and or a link to your Facebook profile and I will send you an invite.

We will be giving away 1 gift voucher valued at $20.00 and each entry receives 1 ticket into the draw.....each challenge you do gives you a chance to win!

We will also have a surprise prize!! Our DT members will choose their favourite over-all layout and I will send that lucky person a surprise in the mail.

Happy Scrapping

Mystical Team

Loving Every Second

I thought the circles on this paper from Colour Blast were perfect for evoking the idea of water especially in this photo where the boys have some little round gel balls in their play. I wanted to emphasise that and add some texture to my page so I have added Nuvo drops. With the clear gloss (Morning Dew) I have loosely followed the lines of the circles on the page. Then I have added smaller drops with the clear/white glitter drops (White Blizzard) to add smaller drops.

Do you have any Mulberry Paper in your stash from way back? I love the way this Navy Mulberry almost looks like a splash behind my title. I use a wet cotton bud to draw a line of water where I want to tear my mulberry. This makes it so much easier to tear and you end up with this soft town edge as the fibres pull apart rather than rip.

Supplies Used: Cardstock: White Bazzill, Colour Blast- Arty Farty ~ Courage, Cocoa Vanilla- Happiness ~ Little Things Paper, Bohemian Dream ~ Accessory Stickers, Pink Paislee- Indigo and Ivy- Phrases- Expressions, Pebbles- Spring Fling Words, Nuvo Drops- Gloss ~ Morning Dew and Glitter ~ White Blizzard.

New In Store: Cocoa Vanilla ~ Unforgettable

The latest Cocoa Vanilla line in store is Unforgettable and I cannot wait to get my hands on it! It's a classic CV line with lots of basics and lots of florals and such pretty pretty colours. It's going to be great to scrap all the wildflower, garden, outdoors and party photos coming up with the spring and summer season.

I love these 6x8 Pads- they are so much more versatile than the 6x6- great for matting photos, cards, and just as exta patterned paper.

These little word stickers are especially great for adding some little details and flavour to your pages. You can colour them with a felt pen or mist.

 With 65 pieces the Die cuts are great value, so pretty and save you time with fussy cutting.

 

Perfect shine and sparkle for your embellishment clusters- great flower centres as well.

 I love the subtle look of these clear stickers on a white background- really soft.

 I am super excited to try these- lots of possibilities!

 Great feature embellishments!

 Add a touch of whimsy with the tassles and formality with the bows- great to dress up a little girl page.

 Text paper is so vertsatil and the cut apart pages are great for cards or just using a hint of something different on your page with out needing a whole 12x12 sheet.

 I see sunsets and little girls are, you with me??

Grey is so versatile and always looks great with pink- the floral is calling out for a bit of fussy cutting.

Definitely add some mists or watercolours to that text page to give it a whole new look!

Perfect paper for a single photo LO- especially a portrait. A little fussy cutting of the flower wreath and slide the bottom right corner of your photo behind it. Add a clear title and a little glitter with Nuvo drops- super fast page!

That aqua B-side would compliment some sandy photos perfectly.

Love the neutral timber, and spray or water colour the flipside to compliment any photo. 

Butterflies!! 😊

 Great for journalling and embellishing. Another neutral B-side that will work with everything- always good to keep some of these on hand.

Don't forget to grab some Unforgettable in store now!

Tuesday Tip: White Kaiser Mist

 If you have a paper embellishment or die cut that's perfect for your page except that it's a little bright for your colour scheme try toning it down with White Kaiser mist. I used mini post-it notes to cover the head and limbs of the girl below before I gace her too-pink dress a quick spray. 

 

  

Quick Share: Memories

Another super simple layout using two 6x4 photos and three main clusters of embellishments. This page design can be used over and over again and your page will always be balanced and flow. By using different supplies- it will always look different.

Supplies Used: Colour Blast: Arty Farty ~ Progress, Cocoa Vanilla Studio - Midnight - Shine Bright Paper, Chipboard pieces, clear stickers, Die-cut stickers, Die-cut Ephemera, Flowers: Prima - Pearl Panache - Snowbird, and Nuvo drops: Lilac Whisper.

Gallery Pick: Karen L-H

Each month on our Facebook chat, we host the albums for the monthly and Cybercrop challenges. There is such a great wealth of inspiration in those albums I wanted to pick some scrapbookers work to share each week.

This week our Layout comes from Karen L-H this was an entry of hers for our July Cybercrop.I love the way the design with the stacked papers evokes the idea of reflection. The colours she has chosen are lovely and substle and don't over power her photo and what a grand cluster of flowers complimenting the colours in her photo and papers. Thanks for sharing your page with us Karen.

Tuesday Tip: Book Rings

You can pick up book/binder rings in a variety of sizes at Officeworks and often newsagents will stock them too. I use them for ribbons and and keeping my twine all together. You can also use them for hanging things like packets of bling together and the larger ones would take quite a number of thickers, washi tapes, or sticker sheets. Of course you can also use them for making mini albums. I hang my ribbon one off my paper racks in the hopes I will see my ribbons right in front of me and use them more often!

Quick Share: WA Sunset

Sometimes a simple page is the way to go with an enlarged photo- and that's just what I have chosen to do here. This paper from Colour Blast is the perfect match with my Western Australian sunset.

Supplies used: White Bazzill, Colour Blast:  Arty Farty ~ Transform, Pink Paislee Indigo and Ivy Stickers, The title and enamels are Cocoa Vanilla (sold out).

Gallery Pick: Trudy C

Each month on our Facebook chat, we host the albums for the monthly and Cybercrop challenges. There is such a great wealth of inspiration in those albums I wanted to pick some scrapbookers pages to share each week.

This months Gallery Pick is Trudy C. Trudy made this page for our July Cybercrop. I love that she has used colours that are a perfect compliment to those in her photo- this means that the photo really grabs your attention. Stars are a great motif to use on a masculine page. That corrugated paper and the embossed backround give the page texture. How great is her title- echoing the finishing line in her photo. Thanks for sharing Trudy- lots of great ideas there!

Weekend Inspiration

A dozen ideas for your weekend scrapbooking...

1. Go for blue and green.
2. Layer up some paper pad pages.
3. Use a cut apart piece for your title.
4. Tie a ribbon a cross it.
5. Journal simply with word stickers.
6. Make a trail of stars to lead the eye.
7. Document a relationship between siblings.
8. Work on a diagonal. 
9. Pop a sticker up on foam adhesive.
10. Add a little glitter
11. Flick some mist on your background.
12. Add a flower or three on a masculine layout.

New Product: Colour Blast~ Love and Grace

The latest range from Colour Blast in the shop is the delightful 'Love and Grace'.

This line has a very neutral pallette with just hints of colour and some florals. It would be excellent for your feminine pages, garden and flower photos, little girls, friendship, memorials, love, some weddings, pinics and days out. I also think that Lucinda, Lucus, Effie and Elmore would all work for masculine pages too!

Look for some pages on the blog soon with this lovely and graeful new line. :-)

Love

Annie

Portia

Adele

Lucinda

Lucas

Effie

Vonni

Elmore

Floral Die