Sunday, November 30, 2014

Gossamer blue December Memories Blog Hop




Hi! And welcome to the Gossamer Blue December Memories Blog Hop. You are certainly in for a treat, as the design team has been working really hard to create with the gorgeous December Memories kit.

I have gotten started with my cover and base pages. I'm still not sure how I will organize it. I might do random memories throughout the month or do a photo a day prompt. I think I will see what kinds of things we end up doing. 

Here is the cover of my album. I decided to keep it simple with the bold stripes. I added the silver bookplate from my stash.


Here is my intro page. I love doilies, sequins, glitter, vellum and lots of light and airiness in my album. There's a little bit of all of that on this page. :) It's hard to see the different layers that are peeking through when you photograph it. But, I left lots of spaces to do that.




I decided to cut some stars, stitch them and layer them right onto my page. I love the texture and dimension this brings.


Here you can see the sequin pocket filled with glitter. The velum star is peeking through from the other side!



I love the colors in the kit this year. I also love being able to make the colors pop by adding lots of white.

On this spread, I used a 6 by 8 page protector and adhered one of the large
glassine bags on the outside. I folded it in half and created a little pocket for a journaling card. I'll be putting a photo on the inside flap.



On this little pocket, I adhered a die cut to the outside and added sequins, glitter, vellum and wood inside of it.

I found  large doily in my stash and decided to add it here. One of the wood veneers and the puffy sticker look great on it.

Are you seeing a pattern here? More sequins and glitter!

Here's another spread. Do you see the bottom of the Christmas tree peeking through on the bottom right?

Well, here it is. I cut half a tree and stitched it inside the large page protector. More glitter, more sequins and I even added some to the outside of the protector.




I just love the script on this card. Just added a couple of enamel dots for a punch of color.



I love the little velum square and gave it it's own space on this page.


The acrylic word and snowflake worked great behind it.


On this page, I added one of the smaller glassine bags in the pocket. Then I tucked a tag from my stash into it. I like how it sticks out and layers onto the card above it.


Finally, another star.  I love how it looks next to the 'believe' card. 

I will probably add more pages and more details to these ones. But, I'm really happy with the start I've made. I'm determined to finish my album this year!

Now, for more inspiration, you can hop to the rest of the team. I can't wait to see what they've created. Your next stop is Beshka's blog.

Let me know if you'll be using the GB December Memories kit and leave a link if you'll be blogging. I can't wait to see what everyone does with it.

Thanks for stopping by!


Anabelle O'Malley (you are here)

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving

Just popping on to wish everyone a blessed and beautiful Thanksgiving. We live in such a crazy, hate filled world. The news is awful to watch each day. So, I try to keep focused on the good in life. I am so lucky to have a wonderful family, caring friends, a job I love and a hobby that I'm absolutely obsessed with . There is gratitude to be found every day.

Thought I'd share these cards I recently made for Emma's. I love the combination of the Petaloo flowers, Prima gems and Kaisercraft tags. And of course, I have to have some doilies!





So, if you are celebrating today, I hope you are surrounded with love and gratitude. And great food!

Thank you for stopping by. I am truly grateful for my readers, too.

Happy Thanksgiving!



Wednesday, November 19, 2014

December Memories Kit is in the House!

I'm so excited! My Gossamer Blue December Memories kit arrived this week. I wanted to pop on and share it with you. I have a wooden caddy that I use to organize my goodies every year. I pulled it out so that I could start getting ready! Here is it sitting on top of the box that my kit came in.


I opened my kit to find it beautifully packed! Here is the album. Love the colors!


As always, I want to share my top 5 favorite items from the kit. The cards are all lovely, but these are my faves! How fun is that top left one designed by Ashley Goldberg?

And can you say EYE CANDY? The striped and plaid enamel dots really do look good enough to eat.


Gossamer Blue has been adding some adorable acrylic shapes to the kits lately. I adore the ones that came in the December Memories one. Those snowflakes and trees are just too cute!


Another one of my favorites are these puffy stickers. I want them in triplicate! Especially love the deer head and the lights.


My December Memories album would not be  complete without sequins. And these are gorgeous.


I gathered all of the materials and placed them into my little caddy. I love how it all looks together.


In the front I placed the smaller embellishments - wood pieces, sequins, doilies, enamel dots, acrylics, etc.

In the back are the cards, die cuts, 6 by 8 papers, 6 by 6 paper pad, stamps and glassine bags.

 Now my kit is ready to go. I placed it in its own special spot and plan to start working on it this weekend. Can't wait!

Lori really did outdo herself this year. You can find the kit in the Gossamer Blue store. Be sure to check out the DT blogs as we are all sharing our creations with it. There will be a blog hop soon so we can showcase the base pages we've made. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Gossamer Blue November Blog Hop




Happy November. I'm so excited to be here to share a couple of projects with you! If you arrived from the Gossamer Blue Blog, you are in for a treat. The team is sharing lots of inspiration from the November kits.

Here is mine. I created an insert to go along with one of my Life's Pages spreads. On Labor Day weekend, we visited Sea Isle City, NJ for our annual Jersey Shore weekend. I printed several 2 by 2 pictures and created this.


I wanted to create a fun title for the cover so I combined the wood and Thickers with several die cuts.
I cut white cardstock for the background to keep it neutral. Most of the elements here are adhered to the outside of the page protector. Glue dots work best.


On the back I added my photos along with lots of fun elements from the kits.




My next project is a page I created using the amazing Gramercy Road collection. I am so in love with it! This page is about my annual trip to Linvilla Orchards with Ryan and my sister in law. We've done it every year since he was born and it's always one of my favorite fall traditions.


 I wanted to use the die cut numbers and was able to add them here.

I think the floral chipboard piece is my favorite item in the entire collection. It looks so pretty here with the cork, wood and die cut leaves!

I added lots of layers around the photo and tucked a tag behind it so I could add some extra journaling.


Here is the list of this month's participants. Next you are heading over to the amazing Beshka's blog. (I never cease to be amazed by her creations, and she is a lovely person, as well.)


Anabelle O'Malley  http://anabelleom.blogspot.com/ (you are here!)


Laura Rahel Crosby  http://laurarahel.blogspot.it/



Thanks for stopping by and Happy Hopping!

Monday, November 3, 2014

Gossamer Blue November Projects

Gossamer Blue kits are live! They are filled with Crater Paper, Basic Grey and Teresa Collins goodies this month. I really loved creating my Life's Pages spreads using the kits.

Here is what I came up with...


I made this spread using only the LP Main kit. I focused on purple and aqua here with splashes of black. I couldn't resist this adorable cork owl, too.

This month's kits included some cute acrylic pieces. How fun is that purple camera?

For this next spread, I used a mix of the main kit and add on 3. I love the Crate Paper tags that were in the kit and incorporated several on this page.


The Heidi Swapp die cuts were more of my favorite embellishments here.



Be sure to head over to the Gossamer Blue site and check out the kits, as well as the rest of the DT gallery. You won't be disappointed!