Creating layers with Melissa O'Neill! :)

My guest today is my awesome friend from down under - Melissa O'Neill of My Life with My Little Man. I love how she documents her life with her adorable son through her stunning scrapbook pages. They are always full of life with a great infusion of colours and fabulous textures. Today, she spills the secret on how she does that beautiful layering in a detailed step-by-step tutorial. She is also hosting a layered challenge with an awesome prize for the winner! :)

My name is Melissa O’Neill, I live in the sunny state of Queensland in Australia. I am a H.I.P.P.Y Tutor and work approx 30 hours a week, I am mum to a beautiful 4.5yr old boy Nate and have two equally adorable poodles, Maxi 16yrs and Stanley 9yrs, they are father and son.

I started scrapping about a year after Nate was born so approximately 3 .5 years now.

What is your favourite thing about scrapbooking?

This is a double whammy for me, not only am I documenting those special moments, both good and bad, messy or mischievous about my little boy, I am also expressing myself by creating and also documenting things about myself that I may forget to tell him later. I often wonder to myself, how can you NOT scrapbook?

I still cannot identify my specific style and really anything goes with me, but I really like layering my papers. I love starting with a sketch, but will almost always deviate off track completely, and will give most techniques a try. I like simple layouts and other times I fill up the page with heaps of embellishments. It’s just my style.

I don’t make many Off the Page projects or mini albums, but one day this may change.

One important thing for me I have learnt whilst scrapbooking is don’t stick things down on your layout until you are happy where everything is positioned. It took me some time for it to sink in, but after pulling things off my pages time and time again, it is now the golden rule for me,  I have met some amazing people through blogging and now consider these fellow scrappers as friends even though most of us have never met.

I would like to thank Yvonne very much for letting me be a Guest on her fabulous blog, I always come here and often go back to earlier tutes and I always find something that I just have to try.

My style has been described by some as very layered, so I will try to show you an example of how I create a layout from start to finish. I get my papers out (I am a big fan of using the same manufacturer) for me it takes some of the guesswork for choosing colours etc out of the equation when creating. I decided to use my Echo Park, Playground papers that dear friend Lynnda Hosni sent me.

I always use my scissors to rough up the edges of my papers, this also creates a more textured look for me. I never measure my paper lengths or sizes, as long as the paper on the bottom can still show through, I am happy. I just wing it with my cutting with scissors too. As I don't stick my papers down until I have reached what I want for the layout, I play with different coloured papers on the page and place the photo on top, this can take me ages sometimes...again using the manufacturer's kits for papers is an awesome way to get better with choosing colours - this is an area I have always struggled with.

Once the papers have been decided on I am thinking of the little bits that will enhance the layout  eg. the red edge scallop in this picture is a sticker and so I can play around where it is to go I stick it onto transparency and this way I can manoeuvre it around on the page to find a position I am happy with.

I get my embellishments ready next,  eg. in this layout the sun and clouds are stickers to so they get mounted onto clear transparency and this is so much easier when I want to 3d them as the tape sticks really well onto the back. On each of the hanging flags on the banner I have added a little 3d sticker to sit it up and highlight it against the paper that is underneath it.

Nate goes through so many stages and this one was where he put his fingers together and said "two minutes mum" which means he really does not want to leave and he thinks 2mins is a long time. It was so cute and I wanted to highlight the little fingers so I had some leftover preprinted circle transparency from Hambly and cut out a circle, this was glued over the photo in the highlighted position.

I go through my bits and pieces now and add another leftover piece of Hambly Transparency under the block of papers at the top, some cloud 9 mini bubble stickers down the bottom, and a SRM sticker in the corner of the photo. I felt like I wanted to highlight the outside of the layout so using my finger and some Tim Holtz paint I untidily added the paint to the outer perimeter.

I used the paint again to outline the letters to look a little dirty, you can always tell when Nates has had a great day out because he is usually a little dirty and ragged looking - His face always tells the story. I added a little plane and 3'd it and the black framing around the photo is actually a 7Gypsies divider transparency for their photo carousel.  I then drew a doodled line near the perimeter of the layout and added the date and where we were. And that was where I felt happy with this layout.

I hope you like my layout, and again would love to thank Yvonne for firstly liking my style and leaving such amazing comments for me and secondly for considering my layout worthy to put on her fantastic blog.

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Isn't it awesome seeing a step-by-step of how layers are added to create interest on a layout? Are you ready to play along? Please link your newly created layout (of any size)  layering at least three pieces of patterned paper via Inlinkz (located at the end of the post) by Friday 26 August.

As always, please leave a little love for my guest Melissa.