Our April Sketch Challenge

Happy April everyone!  I hope you have not fallen victim to an April Fool's prank today.  We're back again this month with a beautiful new sketch created by designer Michele Singh.  This sketch gives you an opportunity to use two photos if you'd like.

Here's a look at how some of our design team used the sketch with our April Kit (which is sold out).

"Cool" by Camilla Ekman

My son is a very cool guy. And for me cool means that you have a kind heart and that you can joke about yourself. I tried to keep the design simple and just added some texture paste and mist as a background to the photo.

"Be You" by Erin Blegen

 Wyatt is my oldest child, and I often struggle with some of his personality traits. He can be very particular, he is extremely intelligent so he's ALWAYS asking questions, and sometimes I catch myself trying to suppress those traits. I think it's because he is SO much like myself. So I just have to remember to encourage these qualities- for it's his curiosity and persistence which allow him to gain his incredible brainpower!
The masculine blues and blacks available in this kit were just perfect for a page about him. I find that as he gets older, I am drifting away from the more feminine colors that were once okay when he was little. 

"Sweet Face" by Keren Tamir

 My daughter loves making these cute faces when I point the iPhone her way. This photo was taken randomly one day!! I loved combining the purple and green tones together. 

"Angelic" by our Guest Designer Michelle Frisby

 Tips / Techniques : I've noticed of late that many scrappers have been using their border punches randomly along their paper edge and I too felt that it was the right time to do just that, throw in a little distressing, a little inking, tuck a little music paper in between the layers and I was more than happy with the result. Run Prima's gorgeous creamy pastel brown chalk ink around the edge and voila ... what a fabulous collection of papers, the colours are dreamy.

I've used two lots of packaging from gorgeous product in the kit and I've grabbed one of my Memory Box dies - Fresh Foliage metal die, cut out some foliage and gently brushed a little gesso on the top and tucked it in under my main floral embellishment cluster.

My chipboard flourish was gesso'd and sprinkled with diamond dust and then misted - but I felt it was a little on the 'blue' side, so I lightly retouched it with a little more gesso.

And let's not forget the photo ... a photo of my daughter when she was young, innocent and angelic. One of those photos taken many years ago, as parents we would go and visit the photographer, have numerous stunning 'shots' taken and feel obliged to buy them all and back then, a very costly photographic opportunity. Definitely pre digital cameras.

Now that we've given you some ideas as to how to use the sketch,  it's your turn to give it a try.  Our sketch challenges are open to everyone - even if you're not a member of our kit club.  You can interpret the sketch any way you want, but we do want to look at your layout and be able to tell you used the sketch.  But feel free to flip it on its side, or turn it upside down if that's what works best for you.

We will be offering two prizes, awarded randomly to participants in our Sketch Challenge.  The first prize is this beautiful assortment of paper, embellishments, and chipboard!  The winner of this prize package will also be able to shop in the C'est Magnifique Store, and have their purchases sent with the prize package, so that means you won't have to pay for shipping charges!

Our second prize, a $10 gift certificate to the C'est Magnifique Store,  will be awarded randomly to one of our participants who obviously uses one of our kits to create their Sketch Challenge layout. 

We will also chose 5 (or maybe more) layouts to feature on our blog!  

And you have the entire month of April to submit your layout.

What do you have to do to enter our sketch challenge?

1.  You must be a follower of our blog.  It's easy to become follower -see the left sidebar.

2.  Create a layout using the sketch, and add it to our blog using the Inlinkz tool below.  Please link to the blog post where you have uploaded your layout  (not your general blog address). If you do not have a blog, you may link to an online gallery.

 Deadline for entering the sketch challenge is midnight, April 30 (US time).

We look forward to seeing your layouts!

Meet Our Guest Designer - Michelle Frisby

Hello blog readers!  We are so excited to let you know a little bit about our guest designer, Michelle Frisby.  Those of your who hang around in the forums already know Michelle as Mrs. Frizz.  Her humor keeps us all laughing and her talent inspires all of us who know her work. 

Before I let Michelle tell you a little about herself, I'd like to personally invite you to join our Forums.  It's a great place to chat about scrapbooking and life, but the best thing is that it's not too big.  There's no drama, and everyone is so accepting of everyone else.  It doesn't matter how long you've been scrapping, or what style you scrap, we'd love to have you.  We have some interesting topics for discussion, and have really gotten to know each other.  We would love to have you join us!  All you have to do is sign up and create your user name.  Then stop by the Introductions thread and tell us a little about you.  We don't care if you get our kits or not.  We just like to chat!  Hope to see some of you there.

Now it's time to get to know Michelle a little better.  You're going to love her!  And wait until you see how she has used our April Kit, "Victorian Roses".

Hi everyone,

My name is Michelle Frisby - I’m also known as Mrs Frizz in blog-land and guess what ... I'm a little bit of a scrapaholic.

I’ve had a wee secret and it’s been a hard one to keep, but I can now share ... woo hoo ... fist-pump moment ... I’m both honoured and privileged to say that I am C’est Magnifique’s guest designer for April. 

A little bit about me ... I'm married to the love of my life and have been forever, I live in New Zealand [down under] and as I tell everyone, I really do live close to the bottom of the world.  

We have two wonderful children; our eldest is 24, graduated from university, an accountant, now living in Auckland; our youngest is 18 and is away studying at university and living in another part of New Zealand.  I have to say, this is not a good combination when I’m looking for current photos.

I work full time as an executive assistant and when I'm not at work you will find me in my scrappy mess, and I'm honest, it truly is a scrappy mess.  But it’s all mine and if anyone is looking for me, they know where to find me.

I love playing with paper ... oops ... that should read, I love being creative with paper!  It's my 'me' time.  It’s what I do, to chill out, shall we say.

I love taking photos and will be forever thankful to whoever it was that invented the digital camera.  Shame though that the digital camera wasn’t around when my children were younger.

So ... I’m the one that is normally behind the camera instead of in front of it and I’m more than happy with that!!!  Although I have become a little more ‘brave’ and have found myself in front of the camera more often of late.

Pretty patterned paper, photos and scrapping supplies, all those wee bitsers ... throw in a little muslin, a little paint, some gesso, a little bling, a few dies, a few punches ... but wait, there’s more ... what more could a girl want?  Ummmmm ...flowers!!!  Did I really say that out loud and in writing?  I think I did.  Yes, I love flowers and I’m nothing but honest.

Guess what ... the majority of those scrapping supplies you can get in the shore, right here at C’est Magnifique.  Have to say that Leslie goes out of her way to source all those extra bits to help make our creating a little more creative.

Right then, let me share a little creativity using the gorgeous April kit ...

 

 "Innocent" by Michelle Frisby

 I've scrapped this photo before, but it's one of those ones that remain special ... a photo of my sister and I taken back in the 1960's ... whilst visiting our grandparents. Taken on the street on what we refer to as the bank corner by a professional photographer. Unfortunately photos of us are few and far between.

"Carpe Diem" by Michelle Frisby

Tips / Techniques ...

I've cut strips of the blue and white rose paper and punched the edges using my lace doily edge punch. I've pleated the paper, under and over and adhered it to the back of my cardboard cake liner and in the process, made a round layout. It's been quite some time since I have put together a round layout and the papers in this collection screamed round for some reason. To keep the back of the layout neat and tidy, I have drawn around the original cake liner [circle shape] on plain paper, cut it out and adhered it to the back of my layout, to cover and hold the back of the layout together, over the pleating.

I've torn some of the top of the cake liner to show the corrugated area and then liberally wiped over the top with gesso and sprinkled it with diamond dust whilst it was still wet.

I've cut my clock chipboard in half and originally used gelatos - black and white to make a grey/silver colour. I wasn't overly happy with the result, so I grabbed my Color Shine Amethyst mist and sprayed and love the finish on my clock. I've used one of the silver flowers and sprayed the layers quite liberally with the same mist, leaving the stamen in its original colour. One of my white flowers I have pulled apart and cut in half and then layered and tucked it under one of the small purple Prima flowers.

While I can't take any credit for my next wee technique, I love this idea. Many scrappers are using this technique and rub-ons together ... but on my layout I've cut a strip of transparency and placed the word in my title 'carpe' on the top, added a smidgen of glue [which you can't see] and placed it on top of the word 'diem'. Another way of throwing in another layer without too much bulk.

And my photo on this layout, another one of my daughter, a more current one shall we say, she is now a few years older than the photo that I used in my sketch layout.

 Happy creating everyone.

Our April Kit Reveal - "Victorian Roses"

First, we would like to remind you that you still have several days remaining enter our March Sketch Challenge.  We'd love to have you participate!

We are pleased to show you our April Kit, which we're calling "Victorian Roses".  These lovely papers from Pion Designs are so Victorian, and you will fall in love with the beautiful, dainty roses in the corners of some of the paper.

This kit is packed with enough paper and embellishments to create a lot of layouts, with plenty remaining for cards, tags, or other crafty projects.

Kit Paper
Pion Designs: Alma’s Sewing Room: Purple Room
Pion Designs: Alma’s Sewing Room: Images
Pion Designs: Alma’s Sewing Room: Purple Rose
Pion Designs: Alma’s Sewing Room: Sewing Collage
Pion Designs: Alma’s Sewing Room: Blue Rose
Pion Designs: Alma’s Sewing Room: Borders
Pion Designs: Alma’s Sewing Room: Blue Room
Pion Designs: Alma’s Sewing Room: Blue Fabric

Kit Embellishments
Tim Holtz Tissue Paper: Idea-ology Tissue Wrap Paper: Melange
Blue Fern Studios: Chipboard: Royal Border
Prima: Hello Pastel: Fabric Flowers: Gray
Prima: Winter Branches: Plum
Maya Road: Mums Vintage Lace Trim
Lindy’s Stamp Gang: Starburst: Black Orchid Silver
Prima: Resist Alphabet
Prima: Engraver: Chipboard Pieces

 Seam Binding 

Assorted Buttons

*************************

Have a great day!  We will be back in a couple of days to introduce you to our Guest Designer for April.

Brit & Larissa's Sneak Peeks

Welcome to Friday everyone!  I don't know about you, but I love the weekends.  Our full kit reveal will happen on the 26th, but until then, we have a couple more sneak peeks to show you.  I love diversity in styles, and that's what we have today with layouts from Brit and Larissa.  Enjoy!

"Sweet" by Brit Sviggum

This photo is so cute. Tuva wants to hold her brothers hand in the picture. But I didn't see that, so I made the shot, and she got so mad at me; "Mum, you have to understand that we need to hold hands when you take the picture!!!!"

From the Embellishment Add-on:

 KaiserCraft: Miss Match Polaroid Frames
K & Company: Grand Adhesion Dimensional Stickers: Flora & Fauna

***********************************************

 "Borboletinha" by Larissa Albernaz

I started creating this single page layout by stamping onto the background and them have worked with a few layers of cutouts and embellishments while adding movement to it. 

Patterned Paper
Pion Designs: Alma’s Sewing Room

From the Flower Add-on
Petaloo: Darjeeling: Dahlias: Teastained Blues

From the Embellishment Add-on
Prima: Resist Alphabet
Prima: Engraver: Chipboard Pieces

From my stash:
Pearls
Glimmer Mist
Distress Ink Broken China
Clear Stamp

Sneak Peek #2 - It's Valerie & Camilla's Turn!

Hi everyone!  We're back today with a couple more sneak peeks of our upcoming April kit which features paper from the lovely Alma's Sewing Room collection from Pion Designs.  Both Valerie and Camilla chose to use photos of their nieces for their layouts:

"1 Year Old" by Valerie Serfozo

I chose to use this photo of my niece with the April kit. I knew the muted colors in the photo would be perfect with this paper from Pion Designs. I wanted to keep things in the center so the beautiful roses in the corners of the patterned paper would frame the design. Adding just a little bit of torn tissue paper provided a perfect background for the photo and embellishments. 

 Patterned Paper:
Pion Designs: Alma's Sewing Room

From the Flower Add-on:
Maya Road Vintage Sequin Flowers: Cream & Smoke
Petaloo: Darjeeling: Dahlias: Teastained Blues
Prima: Lifetime Flower Stem: Brown
Prima: Sugar Plum Roses: Eggplant

From the Embellishment Add-on:
KaiserCraft: Miss Match Polaroid Frames
K&Company: Grand Adhesion Dimensional Stickers: Flora & Fauna
Prima: Sunrise/Sunset: Alphabet Stickers

***********************************************

"Little One" by Camilla Ekman

 A portrait of my baby niece focusing on her curios eyes. I built the page making a flow from the left to the right using a mask and some texture paste. You can also see a mixture of flowers from the kit.

Patterned Paper:
Pion Design papers: Alma's Sewing Room

From the Flower Add-on:
Green Tara: Damask: Cream
Petaloo: Darjeeling: Dahlias: Teastained Blues

From the Embellishment Add-on:
Prima: Sunrise/Sunset: Alphabet Stickers
Other: leaves, die (Sizzix), paper clips, mask, texture paste, book sheet, doily

Thanks for taking a look at what's coming up in April.  We'll be back in a few days with a couple more sneak peeks. 

April is Right Around the Corner!

That's right.....it will be April before we know it.  We have assembled a beautiful kit for April featuring the Alma's Sewing Room line from Pion Design, a Swedish manufacturer.   

We have also put together two add-ons that are the perfect addition to this kit.  There are only a few add-ons available and they are sure to go quickly.  The first is our Flower Add-on.  We have included flowers from an assortment of manufacturers including Green Tara, Maya Road, Petaloo, and Prima. 

Our Embellishment Add-on for April includes items from Prima, K & Company, Blue Fern Studios, Maya Road, and KaiserCraft.

Now that you've seen the paper we're using, and the add-ons, we want to show you how it looks when it's all put together on a layout.  Keren used the kit with a photo of her son, while Erin chose a couple of photos of her niece.  This kit is very versatile, as you will see.

"Time Flies" by Keren Tamir

I used the Blue Fern Floral clock as a frame. I cut the inside clock and used it on the side. Then I framed the picture with the remainder. I Covered the chipboard in gesso, Then I sprayed it with Starburst spray. Finally I covered with Glass Bead gel. It looks as if I added micro-beads but its the gel. I wanted to use the blue and silvery hues for a layout about my boy. I wanted lots of clocks in it to signify time because I feel as if he's growing up so fast. Time is flying by!!

 From the Flower Add-on
Maya Road Vintage Sequin Flowers: Cream & Smoke
Green Tara: Damask: Cream

From the Embellishment Add-on
Prima: Sunrise/Sunset: Alphabet Stickers
Blue Fern Studios: Floral Clock

From my stash
Gesso, Doilies, Textured Paste, CW Clock template, Ice white pearl pen, 

Glass bead gel, Martha Stewart Punch, Memory Box Die

*****************************************

"Niece" by Erin Blegen

I've said it a hundred times, but my niece Lilah is just so gorgeous! I love her! This photo was stolen from my sister's Facebook wall- the conveniences of social media . I definitely focused on the purple in the kit for this one and I tried to create something as soft and feminine as she is. Though it's hard to see, I've cut out the inner most circle from the Blue Fern Studios clock piece and tucked it in to the right-hand side of my photo, after applying some purple mist, embossing powder, and microbeads.

From the Flower Add-On:
Green Tara: Damask: Cream
Petaloo: Darjeeling: Dahlias: Teastained Blues
Prima: Lifetime Flower Stem: Brown
Prima: Sugar Plum Roses: Eggplant

From the Embellishment Add-On:
Prima: Sunrise/Sunset: Alphabet Stickers
Blue Fern Studios: Floral Clock

We can't wait to show you how the rest of design team used this kit!  Enjoy your weekend. 

Winner Revealed & the Last Look at our March Kit

We have just one March Kit remaining in the Store, so if you want one, you'd better get there quick.  But one of our lucky blog readers is about to win the Bits & Pieces from Leslie's March Kit.  Thanks to all of you who entered, and helped spread the word by posting the giveaway on your personal blogs!  So, the winner, by a random draw is:

Entry # 52 belongs to Cindy Keogh.  Congratulations Cindy!  You are going to love creating with this beautiful kit.  Please contact: leslie[at]cestmagnifiquekits.com within 7 days to claim your prize. 

Speaking of the March kit, we'd like to share a couple more layouts created by our guest designer, Eila Sandberg.  It has been such a joy to have Eila creating with us this month.  We love her style, and we're sure you will, too!

"Our Girl" by Eila Sandberg

My stepdaughter is like a butterfly sprung from its chrysalis. She soars and flutters, discovering the world with curious eyes. This photo was taken in a studio when she was 18, the first time a camera captured her beautiful self which made her see what we had already seen budding in her since her early teens. Now she is 24 years old, runs her own company and works as a camera man for the national television.

"Bella Venezia" by Eila Sandberg

 This photo is taken off Internet and is from Venice. I love the colour of the walls and the tints of the water, something that I wanted to pick up with the kraft cardstock and the purple hues mixed with the lighter minty teal. I was inspired by the feel to the photo itself, echoes of bygone splendour.

We will be back in just a couple of days to show you what we have planned for April!