BELIEVE - Simple Stories

Hi there!  Nathalie with you today to share with you a new layout about documenting the Magic of Christmas using the beautiful Country Christmas.   I love the vintage, classic designs of this collection, and  it was perfect to bring the sentiment of the season to this page.

I wanted to showcase the papers in this collection, so i started by trimming  and distressing the edges of the O Christmas Tree paper, and adhere to the b-side of the Glad Tidings paper.   The color combination of these papers makes the page so festive.

To make the papers shine, i chose a simple design for the page.  First, one of the papers from the 6x8 paper pad was glued to the background ( i picked the paper to match the Glad Tidings paper).  To bring the snow details in the background, i used a cut file from Handipaper to create the snowflake cut out, and then attached it along the left side of the 6x8 paper.

The Sn@p cards are perfect to create layers, and i used one of the 4x6 and 3x4 ones behind the picture.  Then used  the Simple Basic paper pack to create a small pocket that is also layered behind the picture.  Once i attached this to the page, i used a few embellishments from the collection to bring color and fun to the page.

To finish the page, I used the large "Believe" sticker from the combo sheet and  then a small chipboard stickers.   I  chose to handwrite my journal, but finished the paragraph with a few stamped images from the coordinating stamp set.

I love how this turned out, a simple page made perfect by all the papers and embellishments from the beautiful COUNTRY CHRISTMAS collection.   Remember to check the collection, you will love how it can easily bring the magic of Christmas to your pages.

XO

ALTENEW BUILD-A-FLOWER: STARGAZER RELEASE BLOG HOP+GIVEAWAY

Hi there!
Welcome to the Altenew Build -A-Flower: STARGAZER Blog Hop + Giveaway.  You are arriving from Laurie's blog ( a list of all the participants is available at the bottom of this post). 

It is December, there is a festive feeling in the air, and this new BAF is one to sure bring cheer to your projects.  I love Stargazer Lilies (they were a favorite of my late grandma, so they are close to  my heart), and was floored to see how realistic the flowers are  -once stamped-.  I just  had to use it on a few projects.

For this card, i stamped the BAF STARGAZER flowers  using the Red Cosmos Mini Ink Cube set and Green Field Mini Ink Cube set for the leaves, then used the matching die set to cut them up.

For the card panel, i used a bit of Sunshine Watercolor Refill bottle to color the background, and added the sentiment using the Weekend Doodle Stamp set and Black Obsidian ink.

A few clear crystal stickers complete this card.  Just love how it turned out, and gave me an idea to use the same cluster design for my layout.

For this page, i decided to stamp the BAF STARGAZER flowers using Red Cosmos, Tea Party and Green Field mini ink cube sets. 

In order to make the flowers stand out on the page, i first applied  a bit of  Morning Frost ink to the background through the Broken Chevron stencil using a brush.  I covered just the corners of the layout and enough space to peek behind the picture.

To create my title, i chose to first create a mask of the little cluster of flowers that is included in the set, then stamped a continuous pattern on white cardstock with Black Obsidian ink.  I used the Bold Alpha die set to cut the letters and paired it up with the Across the Pond stamps sentiment for the title.

The following video will show you how it all came together:

Total love for this layout, and you can easily create it with the new BAF: STARGAZER.  Trust me, you want to add this stamp set to your collection.   The Altenew BAF Subscription program is a great way to guarantee that the each month the BAF stamp set arrives at your door at a Discounted Price ($35.00 →$29.99).

Now it is time for the fun part of this blog hop... GIVEAWAY!!!

To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $30 gift certificate to 5 lucky winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog for a chance to win. We’ll also draw a winner to receive a $15 gift certificate from the comments left on each designer’s blog on the blog hop list below. All winners will be announced on the Altenew Card Blog on 12/8/2019.

It is now time to hop onto the Ashlea's blog to be inspired by her creations. You can always go back to the Altenew Card Blog to start the hop or come back here to continue the loop. Here is a list of all the participants in the hop.

Altenew Card Blog
Laurie Willison
Nathalie DeSousa <<< YOU ARE HERE
Ashlea Cornell
herese Calvird
Jaycee Gaspar
Virginia Lu
Norine Borys
Svitlana Shayevich
Caly Person
Keeway Tsao
Kelly Griglione
Ilda Dias
LauraJane
Mindy Eggen

Remember you can always contact me with any questions on how the projects came together.  Enjoy the hop and be inspired

Til next time,

Nathalie

CREATING CHRISTMAS MAGIC - Pinkfresh Studio Monthly Challenge.

Hi there!

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and i love it!!!  So today's Pinkfresh Studio Challenge is perfect to kick off the most joyous month of the year.

I wanted to work a layout that will showcase the progress of a Christmas tree creation, so i decided to start with the new Holiday House cut file (available at the Pinkfresh Studio shop).

I cut the house three times from white cardstock, stacked and glued the die cuts together, then backed it with vellum.    To frame the page nicely, i chose to cut two strips of paper from the Home for  the Holidays collection and then detail the edge with one of the simple edge dies.  These were then glued to the sides of the layout.  Don't you just love the small car parked outside the house!!!

I backed and layered both pictures with papers from the Home for the Holidays collection from Pinkfresh Studio ( and a paper from the Just A Little Lovely collection, too).   These were attached to the right of the house as to continue the scene. 

To embellish the page, first, i used the CHristmas Greeting Stamp set and gold ink to stamp a series of star dust around the page -think of it as fairy dust-. The rest of the  embellishments come mostly from the Home for the Holidays collection, but also from previous Pinkfresh Studio collections.

The last step was to add a title to the page, for this i combined alphas from the Office Hours and Home for the Holidays collection then added my lines of journal at the bottom of the title.

I love how this layout turned out, and all the lovely little details that you can easily add with stamps,  dies, cut files and embellishments from Pinkfresh Studio.   The new Home for the Holidays collection is just perfect to document all the Christmas  memories. 

Remember you can win gift certificates to the PFS shop when you share your challenge creations in the Pinkfresh Studio blog.   There are so many prizes up for grabs.

As always, please contact me if you have questions on how this came together. 
Happy December!