Im so excited!!!

Hi everyone, its me Lori here and I can not tell you how excited I am to finally be sharing some of my work with Urban Swank! I remember way back when I first started scrapbooking, my very first "kit" I received was full of Urban Lily goodness... and that is when my love affair for these products started.

One of my favorite Urban Lily collections in amongst the many lines that I adore is definitely the Mooch Collection . I love the color combination, the graphic circle design, and the softness of the flower mottiff that are sprinkled all over. Of course the Sugarhigh paper is my ultimate favorite since it fits in so nicely with my love of circles and white backgrounds for scrapping!! A perfect match made in heaven.... here is my first layout to show you...

UR YOU

by Lori Mancini

Of course as soon as I saw this paper I immediately thought of my adorable nieces!! I used a photo taken on Christmas Eve of this year when she was putting on a little talent show for us...she was a little excited and a lot of silly!! Here personality is so unique that I tried to portray it in the layout and I did so by just a simple title...UR You... and that she definately is!!

This layout was actually very simple to create...you could most likely recreate it in less that 30 minutes...gotta love that!! I started by triming down a peice of white cardstock and adhering it to a coordinating colour blue cardstock. I distressed the edges of the white and then added my favourite technique of misting/spritzing the background!! You will quickly learn that I absolutely love building my layouts on a white cardstock base. I love how the colours of the pattern paper and my photo's just pop off of the page with a neutral background. Sometimes by adding just a little mist you still get the illusion of the white but its adds texture and visual interest - you must try it if you haven't!!

I continued on by cutting out all of circles in the Sugarhigh patterned paper and adhering it (with Helmars Adhesive) to my base. I then machine stitched all around the circles to again add texture to the layout - another must is all of my work. I matted my photo with white cardstock (again spritzed) and used a border punch for visual interest.

To complete this layout I used the Black and White alphabet with the Urban Cut Collection and cut out my title. I also love that I an add that extra white space around the letters to give the illusion of having them matted (which I usually do with all of my titles) - saves time, and looks better - PERFECT! I applied a glitter glaze to the letters and although hard to tell they have an overall shimmer with pinks and blue in them and are beautifull with the pattern paper. Again a great tip when working with an element that is maybe too harsh for your project - is applying a glitter glaze over them and that will soften them and dramatically change the appearance of whatever it is your working on. Sometimes what is in front of us to begin with can be altered and changed to fit in with our own unique style - and that is what I love about this hobby!

To add the finishing touches to my layout I pop dotted the title and used the butterfly from the secret keeper and covered it with the Apple paper from the Sugarhigh Collection... YUMMY!! I also need to add here that another thing I love so much about Urban Lily papers is how you can cross over collections and they all go so well together...Love that!

Adhering the butterfly and adding some more embellishments (ribbon, pins, bling) almost gave me the look I wanted but something for me was still missing. I needed a third strong element to offset the black title (I always work in groups of three...i know strange) so I did the old distress tear in the bottom corner for some added visual interest and balance and backed it with the a piece from Blackout. I added a bit more sewing and topped off the entire layout with some tiny punched butterflies using the Apple paper once again.

Here are a few closeups to show the dimension and details...

My second project to show you today is a quick a simple card.

HI

By Lori Mancini

To create this card I started with a black base of 12 x 6 folded for a 6 x 6 card. I used both the Swirl Memories Photo cards and the ATC cards as a color block background and added a strip of Apple pattern paper with the edges punched into a scallop and used some remaining paper and cut out the leaf pattern to add to my flower later on.

I used a generic sentiment of "hi" cause I like to have "generic" cards around for that last minute party or invite - and used the alphabet letters again onto the card.

A little sewing, one tiny flower and a little dazzle with a rhinestone flower center and another punched butterfly gives this card simple sophistication.

I hope you enjoyed my projects today and I look forward to seeing you next week when I will have more Urban Lily goodness to share. Have a great week everyone!