Top Ten Blog Hop 2016

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Happy New Year to you all!

Thank you all so much for your very kind comments along this wonderful hop! I'm thinking for instant gratification I might actually do a $20 voucher to a store of your choice as my prize. The winner picked at random out of 19 entrants was:

 

Congrats Jean! Please get in touch with me to arrange the details.

Wishing you all much happiness and plenty of creativity in 2017!

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Hello and welcome to another year of the Top 10 Blog Hop. I'm looking at my poor blog and thinking 'what on earth happened this year?!' lol. It's has been a crazy one - leaving my little design business and going back in to the work force after around 7 years at home with my babes. It has been a very steep learning curve and along with lots of highs, there have been a few lows and a definately a few tears along the way.

To all you Mums out there, trying to juggle it all - well done. You have done an amazing job. Let's raise a toast to finding a few more life hacks in 2017 ;)

Now on to some all-important creativity...

Lots has happened since last year. Joining the We R Memory Keepers team and staying on at Simple Stories have been a dream come true. I'm so grateful to have this creative outlet to keep my fun side going when the going got a bit tough!

Below are a few of my favourites from 2016. I really couldn't just chose 10... so I've popped 16 on for the year that was ;)

LHR-SIN
This was such a fun page to create and it winged it's little way to CHA at the beginning of the year, which was awesome. It was also published in Scrapbook & Cards Today which was a first for me and such an honour! 
Details here >>

Hanging Mobile
I created this mobile for my daughter's room. I absolutely love the gentle light it brings to the area and how it lights up her face as she looks up towards it.
You can check out how this came together here >>

Open wide
This photo alone would make this one of my very favourite pages, ever!
My little one, at the cheeky age of 3, was trying to feed me some mud pie. Yum yum! I used a few different techniques and tools on this page, which is always fun and I think the combination was great for the subject.
Details here >>

Dear Jaime

My beautiful niece is turning 18 today! I just can't believe how quickly time has flown. This page is a little note from me to her.

Details here >>

Live Colorfully

This was another page for the Simple Stories booth at CHA. I pulled out all the floral elements I could find in my Carpe Diem collection and what resulted, was a bit of a colourful explosion!

Details here >>

Sun & Surf

This page was just so fun. I love the elements in Life in Color - the stars, the foil accents, the awesome little wooden die cuts. Totally me.

Details here >>

Miss you with my whole heart

The starry print on this page was the inspiration behind my constellation theme. I lost my beautiful Mum over twenty years to cancer, and its comforting to think she's up there, watching over us.

Details here >>

As wild as life gets

This project was inspired by Rio at the time of the Olympics. Having never travelled there myself, I have visions of a lush, tropical escape! I created this seriously interactive page using mostly Fuseable items. It a treasure trove of memories and keepsakes from a fun day out at Australia Zoo.

Details here >>

Framed Art

This framed bit of art was part of a set which I created for my craft space. I experimented with Minc paint and foil and just LOVE the result.

Details here >>

BeYouTiFul
This page was part of a GDT for The Cut Shoppe. I really don't make as much use of my Silhouette lately - something I need to work in 2017!
Details here >>

Life is Good at the Beach
I created this page for a monthly class I used to teach at Craft Inspirations in Petrie. Sadly, I had to give up my classes to make a bit more time for my family. Hopefully one day soon I can pick it up again.

Stationery Folder
My little girl got such a kick out of this custom stationery folder I made for her. It has paper for penning a letter, cards, envelopes, stencils and pens etc. She loved making cards for all her little friends which was SO sweet to watch.
Details here >>

Sparkle & Shine
This page was part of the same post which featured the page about my niece. I was in an introspective mood and created this one. The feathers swirling around were like the bits and pieces of life I felt like I was losing control over. There is a touch of hand stitching on it as well as some DIY feather stencilling.
Details here >>

Thankful for you
This page was super fun to put together. Check out the Simple Stories blog to see how I created the background.
Details here >>

With my Heart & Soul
This page was created during a class by the incredible Wilna Furstenburg. She and Louise Nelson were our amazing teachers at Escape 2 Create this year. I can't rave about this retreat enough and I absolutely adore the vibrance of this page.

Adventure Time Game

Ever in search of the fun - I created this little board game for my kids using We R Memory Keepers, High Five. Gameplay is simple, based off of an existing game, you just spin the wheel and move the amount of spaces on the board, watching out for obstacles/bonuses along the way.
Details here >>

Now I will admit that I am not organised enough as yet, to have a pic of my prize, but if you leave a comment below, it will enter you into a draw to win a little mystery goodie bag. Please make sure you have popped your comment in by January 1st, 2017. (I will accommodate for some time differences.)

If you are on Instagram, I will have another little giveaway on there too for followers both new and old. You can find me @chantallemcdaniel

If you are just joining the hop here, you can head to Mendi next...

Mendi Yoshikawa
Audrey Yeager
Christine Meyer
Juliana Michaels 
Wendy Antenucci
Suzanna Lee
Karen Hunter
Monique Liedtke
Kat Benjamin
Jennifer Haggerty
Jen Matott
Missy Whidden
Marcia Dehn Nix
Heather Leopard
Rebecca Keppel
Traci Penrod
Melissa Elsner
Monika Wright
Laura Whitaker
YOU ARE HERE >> Chantalle McDaniel

I am last, so if you are ending here - thanks for joining in the fun and good luck for your chances along the way!

Until next year ;)

WRMK Typecast Typewriter

Woot woot, I am sure you have heard the news of the totally amazing new Typecast Typewriter from We R Memory Keepers!

I am incredibly lucky to be able to try one of these out and let me tell you, you NEED to get one these on your letter to Santa. Exclusive to Michael's in the US, they are also available for Aussie retailers to buy right now, so get on the phone to your LSS or keep an eye out for some of the larger chains to pick them up.

This is the black one. It is also available in a super cute light pink.

The range comes with a compliment of stunning papers and accessories. You can see a little haul video of the full collection here. Please mind my accent! Lol. I also think I say the word 'gorgeous' like a hundred times. But it IS! I just love it so much.

Obviously, I had to create with it straight away! It fits a 12x12 sheet in the carriage so here is a page I created, where I have typed straight onto the paper

I've used the Mini Alphabet Punch Board to create the letters for the title. I absolutely love this little fellow as it takes a mini 2.5 x 1.5 inch bit of paper, which is great for scraps!

Here is a little me, looking adoringly at my newborn sister. I loved her so much, I wouldn't let anyone near her. I believed she was 'my baby'.

I've fussy cut some of the florals from the Typecast 12x12 pad and added some gold pops from Pink Paislee's C'est La Vie ephemera pack.

There are heaps of ideas on how to use this incredible line which you can check out on the WRMK blog.

Happy crafting!

Scrapbook & Cards Today Freebie & Giveaway

Scrapbook & Cards Today Freebie & Giveaway

I'm so happy to be able to share in the fun this month over on the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog. Nicole Nowosad has created an awesome cutfile for us, which is absolutely FREE to download! Here is a peek at the projects I created with the fun circular design and the new We R Memory Keepers 'Urban Chic' collection.

I released the compound path and repeated the images to get lots of circles. I knew I wanted to use the two with the text inside as my title, so I've repeated just the plain circles.

The two text ones, I cut with gold foil cardstock to make them pop.

A bit of stencil detail (new Prima).

There is lots going on on this page. I've added some gold foil semi circles to compliment the title and brought in pops of black to back up the patterned paper.

Thirty five was a year of really big changes for me. "Nobody said it was easy!"

I also used the cut file in this shaker card.

I kept the tray from some mini cheesecakes (yummo, lol) and cut them apart for a rainy day. Inside the dome are some black sequins so my shaker doesn't shout too loudly. I've also used the Urban Chic ephemera, the new Elegant Font Punches (my faves at the moment) and some hand cut florals from a sheet of Urban Chic 'English Garden', which I am obsessed with.

Rush over to the SCT Magazine blog to grab this awesome free cutfile, see Nicole's stunning projects and find out more about the awesome American Crafts giveaway!

Happy crafting

May Roundup

Sheesh, hasn't this month just flown!

Here is a look at some of the projects that I have created over the last few weeks...

This bright page was up on the Simple Stories blog not that long ago. In the post, I'm talking about using your stash tonally to keep it interesting. Click here to see the full post

This pop up card was heaps of fun to make! You can see the full details here along with the video link of how to put one together yourself. I promise, it's not as complicated as you think!

Simple Stories and Petaloo are having a product swap and there is some amazing inspiration from both teams on both blogs right now. The next two pages combine beautiful blooms and the brand new 'Bloom & Grow' and 'Sunshine & Happiness' collections.

Click here to view the full posts with lots of info on how these pages came together and to enter the competition to win an awesome combination prize from both manufacturers!

Have a special event coming up? What about giving your guests these light up wedding/party favours for a fun, interactive gift. You will find the step by step instructions are over on the We R Memory Keepers blog

Another page from the tonal post over on the Simple Stories blog. This one uses a favourite stencil along with Life in Color collection.

I'll be back soon with some more projects which will be up in the coming weeks.

Til then!

BeYOUtiful - The Cut Shoppe GDT and giveaway

The lovely Ashley Horton from The Cut Shoppe has asked me to Guest this month, how exciting.

I chose two files to play with, 'I'll Fly Away' and 'Just be You'. They were perfect to document my little one's birthday a couple of years ago. Her wish was to play the day away. Starting with a makeover for me and some face painting for her, we had such fun together! I've also used the gorgeous new We R Memory Keepers Flower Girl collection, pulling lots of butterflies and floral elements to compliment the sweet butterfly cut file.

I knew I wanted to use each file a slightly different way. The butterflies would be drawn as a base to give lots of lovely interest without the bulk of an additional layer. I placed both files in a 12x12 file in Silhouette Studio and tweaked the size/positioning until I was happy.

I then created the cut lines for each. I split the complex path of the butterflies and duplicated a couple, rotating them slightly...

By rotating them a bit, it's given them a bit more of an edgier feel which I really like. After they were drawn on my patterned paper, I then coloured a few lightly with some watercolour paint and a water brush pen.

For my title, I've used a sheet of 'Garden Path'. 

The little white dots were just a touch too distracting so I've misted it with Navy Color Shine. This has toned it down nicely, making it much easier to read.

Lots of lovely layers!

It just so happens that today is my birthday and to help celebrate, I'm giving away one of my favourite files from the Cut Shoppe! If you're on Instagram, head over to my feed to leave a comment to enter. The winner will be drawn this Friday 6th at 6pm EST.

Good luck and thank you for stopping by!