Mother & Son, Nat's Scrapbook Layout - Life Within the Seed 2 (Ready #3)

Hi everyone, hope you are all safe and well!
A few of the gorgeous Bo Bunny 'Garden Grove' papers that I received this month really suit a vintage theme - rather than the bright colours I have been using for my other projects.  With this month's theme being 'Life Within the Seed 2' I began thinking of motherhood, so scoured my family photos to find this beauty of a mother and her son and felt it would be perfect to go with the papers for my first ever scrapbook layout!

I chose the Garden Grove 'Remember ' and 'Tranquility ' papers with their gorgeous roses and vintage feel.

I cut down the 'Tranquility' paper to use both sides as the alternative side had a lovely ledger print, then inked all edges of the papers with 'Black Soot' Distress ink.  Next I found a rectangle doily that I had previously dyed with watered down black acrylic.  I arranged all of these pieces on top of one another until I was happy with the format and used double-sided tape to stick the papers down and Helmar's glue to adhere the doily.

My chosen photo was printed onto matte photo paper as I preferred less gloss for this layout.  I cut some black cardstock just a little larger than the photo to create a photo mat and adhered the photo to this with the double-sided tape.

Pieces of stunning second-hand black lace were glued onto the page in two places, then the faux negative strip and photo added using double sided tape.

Now the only thing missing is a title for this page.......

I grabbed some of my tea-dyed cardstock, jumped on my computer and searched the fonts available on Microsoft Word until I found one I liked then proceeded to print the title and date of the photo.

I tore around the words and date, inked them with the 'Black Soot' Distress ink then glued them onto the page.

I love the way this page turned out and think I may have caught the Scrapbooking bug!  Such a lovely way to display precious memories.
Process video available for your viewing here:

Aunty Vera products used for this page that are discounted for the month of April are the Bo Bunny 'Garden Grove' papers:

• Remember
• Tranquility

Take care and happy crafting!
Love Nat xxx

Easter Cards and Tag - Life Within the Seed #2 (2 - Ready)

Hi everyone, hope you are safe and well 😊It's nearly that time again that kids get all excited about! And maybe some adults too!  I have always loved chocolate and Easter was a great excuse to over-indulge.  Now that I am an adult - I don't need an excuse anymore 😉
I love the gorgeous Bo Bunny Layered Chipboard Pieces in this months kit and decided to make some cards and a lovely tag using these.

For my first card I also used my Inka Gold (any excuse as it is one of my favourite items from Aunty Vera at the moment!) and found some cream cardstock, a sheet of decorative paper and some feather trim from my stash.

Firstly I set about cutting my cardstock 10" across and 5" tall, then scored this at the 5" mark and folded it to make a card base. I cut the decorative paper 4 and 1/2" by 4 and 1/2" so it fit nicely on the card front leaving a thin border.  The Inka Gold was applied to the edges of the decorative paper using the tip of my finger to add a little definition and glitz.

I also rubbed a little Inka Gold onto some letters spelling "Happy Easter" that I had previously die cut from the cream cardstock off-cuts.

The feather trim I first chose was a little too bulky, so I found a packet of yellow and white downy feathers which I cut to size. Double sided tape was applied along the bottom of the card and the base of the feathers on one side of the quill were adhered to this.  I stuck the sweet Bo Bunny chipboard rabbit over the white feathers and the Easter eggs chipboard pieces underneath the yellow ones.  The sparkly banner fit perfectly atop the decorative paper.

I trimmed the feathers to take the thick quill off, leaving nice downy fluff at the base of the card which softened the edges of the chipboard pieces. Now it's time to apply the letters using a fine tip glue applicator bottle.

 The Bo Bunny Layered Chipboard pieces made it a breeze for a novice card-maker like me to make a gorgeous Easter card and I love how the colours of the pieces marry so well with the decorative paper and plain cream cardstock I found.

Next I grabbed the "Tranquility" paper from the Garden Grove collection as I had been itching to fussy cut from this!

I cut the flowers and butterfly from both bottom corners and rubbed Inka Gold on to highlight the straight edges and applied  Distress Ink "Seedless Preserve" to the rough cut edges

I grabbed more of the die cut alphabet letters cut from the cream cardstock and used my blending tool to colour these with the "Seedless Preserve" Distress Ink.  The colour matches the roses perfectly.

I cut another card base (10" by 5" and folded in half) using the cream cardstock and glued the roses to the top and bottom of the card front.  The little tags from the Bo Bunny Layered Chipboard pieces fit snuggly in the bottom left corner and the inked letters topped it off nicely. I added a touch of Inka Gold to the edges of the card front to match the edges of the fussy cut roses to finish it all off.

I now have two more chipboard pieces to use and have decided to make a tag this time using these and some of the Garden Grove "Spring" paper.

I found some green cardstock that I felt complimented the Bo Bunny "Spring" paper nicely and cut large tags out of both. The "Spring" paper tag measured 6.5" by 3.5", and the green one 6.75" by 3.75". I then cut the corners on the Bo Bunny paper first then lay this on the green tag and used it as a guide to cut the corners, leaving even margins on the green tag.  I inked the edges of both tags with "Vintage Photo" Distress Ink.

I glued the tags together and added one of the beautiful downy yellow feathers from my stash, my daughter left a pile of these here when she moved out and I have been desperately trying to use them up! I punched a hole for a ribbon to go through the top of the tag.

The two remaining pieces of the chipboard pieces were stuck on the tag, the beautiful roses down on the bottom left corner and the "Simply wonderful" tag was adhered at the top so that the hole in it lined up perfectly with the one I punched in the tag behind.  I found some secondhand yellow raffia ribbon which was the perfect accompaniment to finish it all off.

I love how pretty, bright and cheerful my Easter cards and tag turned out and hope you are all enjoying some crafting time yourselves.

Take care and have fun crafting!

Nat xxx

The Aunty Vera Scrap and Craft products used to create these projects are:

• Bo Bunny Layered Chipboard pieces
• Garden Grove "Tranquility" Paper
• Garden Grove "Spring" Paper

Family Fun, Decorated Easter Eggs - Life Within the Seed #2

Hi everyone - hope you are well 😊.  We are going through uncertain times at the moment with many shut in at home with kids to keep occupied.  Therefore, I thought I would begin my projects for April and the theme of "Life within the seed #2", by decorating some bright and cheerful Easter eggs - a wonderful project for a family to do together.

My first task was to utilise the Lawn Fawn - Outside in Easter Egg Stackables to cut a pile of eggs in white cardstock.  Then I used the Impression Obsession - Rabbit and Grass Tuft Die Set to punch a plethora of rabbits in cute little poses, and tufts of grass from coloured cardstocks.

I found these colourful satin paints in my cupboard which were perfect for what I wanted to do and I painted two coats on my eggs for good coverage.  So if you do not have coloured cardstock or paper, grab some paints and make your own, even more fun for the kids to have 😊

Then I painted strips of each colour on another piece of white cardstock.

I went through my punch collection and found some little ones that cut flower, butterfly and circle shapes and set about punching a pile of these out of my coloured card strips.

I felt like a kid again (which isn't necessarily a bad thing 😉) as I adhered these shapes to my painted eggs.  I love how bright and happy these eggs look and plan on using these in a number of ways in an upcoming project.  I tried a few other decorations such as floral napkin, ribbons and gel pens - all great fun for the kids (and big kids like me!).  I even tried some of the Aunty Vera Washi Tape  "Easter Grass" on the bottom of one egg and loved the addition of the grass hidden Easter eggs and pretty little flowers on it.  The words "Happy Easter" on the blue egg came from an Easter tag I had in my stash.

Next I wanted to try some egg shaped cards. To make the bases I folded an A4 piece of white cardstock in half. I then placed the largest Lawn Fawn - Outside in Easter Egg Stackable on top with one side overhanging the fold in the cardstock so that it would leave this part intact as the card fold when cutting.

Here you can see the cutting part overhanging the edge of the fold, leaving a small hinge area.

The result is a cute Easter egg shaped card that can be opened up and written on.

For my first Easter Egg Card front I found some green cardstock and used the second largest Lawn Fawn - Outside in Easter Egg Stackable inside the largest one (as shown below) to cut a green border the same size as the card front.  I also grabbed the  Aunty Vera Washi Tape  "Easter Grass" and Santoro - Leaf Ribbons to decorate.

I used an ink blending tool to lightly ink the front of the card base with "Salty Ocean" and "Mowed Lawn" Distress Inks to signify grass and sky, then placed a piece of Aunty Vera Washi Tape  "Easter Grass" near the bottom of the card.  I used glue to adhere the green border to the front of the base and stuck a cute little blue egg (painted previously) in the grass.

I so love the little Impression Obsession - Rabbit and Grass Tuft Die Set bunnies and found two to place alongside the egg. I used the grass tufts to stick along the bottom of the border piece. I finished the card off by placing two of my painted and punched butterflies and a strip of the lighter green Santoro - Leaf Ribbon.

For my other decorated egg card I will use the large Lawn Fawn - Outside in Easter Egg Stackable to create a card front from an off-cut of the Bo Bunny - Garden Grove "Ambiance" paper.  Then I am going to try using Deco Art - Dimensional Effects - Paintable Texture Paste for the first time through this gorgeous Kaisercraft "Flower Bunch" stencil using a palette knife, and I hope it works!

I let it dry overnight (but you could use a heat tool to make it quicker) and this is the outcome.  I love it!!! It looks great just the way it is, but I decided to add some colour....

I could not find my watercolours (hidden away in my messy craft area no doubt!) and decided to use my Distress Inks to paint with.  I grabbed some of the plastic packaging and dabbed the different colours onto this, added a spritz of water to the ink and used an empty water pen to colour the flowers and leaves. A plain paint brush and cup of water would suffice.

I am not the best painter, but I love how this turned out and cannot wait to use more texture paste through stencils in the future.

These projects are simple and fun, and there is something here for all ages to make to keep everyone busy and sane!

Keep an eye out for how I will be using these pieces in future projects this month.

Take care and have fun crafting!

Love Nat xxx

The Aunty Vera Scrap and Craft products used to create these projects are:

•  Lawn Fawn - Outside in Easter Egg Stackables
•  Impression Obsession - Rabbit and Grass Tuft Die Set (DIE269-N)
•  Deco Art - Dimensional Effects - Paintable Texture Paste
•  Aunty Vera Washi Tape  "Easter Grass"
•  Santoro - Leaf Ribbons 
•  Kaisercraft - Mini Designer Template "Flower Bunch"
•  Bo Bunny - Garden Grove "Ambiance" paper