Greatest View

Kim Jeffress: First Day

I am totally in love with the medium glassine bags and it was the  perfect size to fit some journalling, a painted handprint from my son and a poem about the first day of school. I can keep this memorabilia safely tucked inside and in years to come take it out and remember how I felt on that first day. I wrapped some twine around the bag to add an extra special touch!

I have used the back to school buttons layered over some tags and diecuts, this really helps to add some depth to a layout.

I also couldnt go past a yummy calico yoyo at the top of my layout, just adds a further bit of texture and fun!

 

Leanne Allinson: Love

Hello Friends. Have you ever looked at the kraft envelopes and immediately fell in love? Well, I have! LOL! Silly? Well, maybe... But I love them because they are so versatile and can hold a multitude of ephemera and of course journaling notes.

I’ve often used the combination of tag and envelope for hidden journaling. And because it contains words that I’d like to keep private, I also often tuck the envelope and tag directly behind a photo or patterned paper.

But what if I could be brave enough to make these envelopes into a feature on my layout...? Well Gail has so many gorgeous items in the store that are ideal for highlighting my hidden words, it just became too easy.

My layout includes a photo of my children on their first day of school. But instead of my usual “first day of school” pages I wanted to journal about how my older two, look out for their younger brother in the school grounds.

My challenge was to create something gender neutral out of the essentially feminine products I chose to decorate with. The kraft envelope immediately pulled back the doilies and stick pin from looking too girly, but it still retained the interest I needed for it to highlight my words.

Here’s how it was created:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Adhere three doilies to the front of the envelope. Allow some of the doilies to hang over the edge and then fold them back neatly behind.

2. Wrap the twine around the envelope several times and tie into a bow near the top.

3. Add a pre-cut heart from patterned paper and a co-ordinating button.

4. Finally thread the stick pin beneath the twine and tuck the end into and behind the lower doily.

 

It is a very simple technique and hopefully an effective feature on my layout.

Melinda Spinks: Follow Your Dreams

 

I'm really delighted to be posting my first 'official' blog post for GREATEST VIEW and hope that I can inspire you to find new and fun ways to use these gorgeous products. Gail puts so much time and effort into creating a delightful blend of embellishments and her February release is definitely a reflection of her beautiful style.

 

The February collection is subtle with hues of neutrals yet little pops of colour with the hand-made fabric flowers, dyed sem binding, pins and chevron badges which are in 'vogue' at the moment. So I styled my layout to compliment the overall theme of Gail's newest range and 'heaven forbid'... I actually scrapped a picture of myself (albeit a very old photo).

 

The fabric flowers are beautifully crafted and easily adhered to the layout using a hot-glue gun, although you could use a liquid glue or even foam pop dot to hold them in place.

 

 

Now, I've always loved pushing the boundaries a little with products to see what I can do with them apart from their original purpose. I decided to run the White Glassine and Kraft Stripe bags through an embosser and cut them up to use as background tiles on the layout.

 

Another simple addition to the layout was the use of the Natural and Ivory twine which I bent in the middle and hot-glued the other end to create a skeleton leaf to go behind the fabric flowers. I also inserted Ivory pins between the leaves for added effect. And I must compliment Gail on finding the perfect pins as they have that little bit of flexibility in the pin which gives you the ability to manouvre them around until you have them in the exact position you need, unlike other pins that seem to be quite stiff and non flexible.

 

Happy crafting - Melinda