A hoot of a Birthday! Card

Hey everyone, I'm here todayto share a new project for Sizzix Lifestyle. I have delved into my Chapter 2 collection of dies and am using the Sizzix Bigz Die - Owl (662587) to create a card for a special little man in our family. The owl die designed by Sophie Guilar for Sizzix Lifestyle is the perfect image for a baby boy card, or in my case a first birthday card.



To see more of how this card came together - including a video - check out my post on the Sizzix Lifestyle blog

Altenew May 2018 Blog Hop Winner



Congratulations to


Rea' said...
I absolutely love ALL your projects, the colors are delightful! Love the layout and the sentiments on the layout; Bride tobe flowers just so pretty. And the card is so cheerful.
Please email Altenew at winner@altenew.com with the subject line "May 2018 Release Blog Hop Winner from Raquel's blog" to redeem your $30 gift certificate to the Altenew store. 


Congrats and enjoy your prize!!!

Officially amazing - A You Rock CVS layout

Hey everyone! 

Over the April holidays we went on a little family break to a coastal town. It is beautiful to see how happy the kids are when we are there and hows much they love the beach. I managed to snap this gorgeous shot of my little man while there, and yes, if you are wondering his t-shirt is totally appropriate (I kid you not!).

Here is the layout that I created:

For the main design element I found a sunburst style cut file that I loved in the Paper Issues store and shrunk that down to a little smaller than an 8.5×11″ size. I thought the sunburst design would compliment a beach photograph really well. I also knew that I would be able to draw out colours in the patterned papers that would work well and ended up choosing the woodgrain Plus One, blue Experimental, and pops of the yellow for extra rays using the Inline paper.



I placed the photo in the circular sun design as the 4×6″ size portrait was able to nestle perfectly inside it. Next to the photo is my main cluster of embellishments. I chose to use the ‘you are my world’ die cut as not only is the sentiment correct, but the colours work well and the face that it is a circle piece repeats the circular design of the photo. I find that repeating design elements such as shapes really helps achieve overall balance in a page design. I have also repeated the use of stars both in veneers and card stock ephemera on this layout.


To add some further detail to the page I added some machine stitching to the yellow rays before I stuck them down. I also backed the whole cut file on the woodgrain paper. It really helps it to pop off the page. The finishing touches were some accessory stickers and enamel shapes of course!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!!!

Another CVS layout - Love you so much!

Hey everyone, I am having a bit of a Cocoa Vanilla week here on my blog and am sharing with you a layout using the More than Words collection. For this layout I am documenting a selfie of my little girl and I taken last month. Recently I won a prize of a matching handmade necklace and earrings. To our surprise the prize pack contained a little pair of clip on earrings too! Charlotte thinks they are the best thing ever and was so excited to wear matching earrings like her Mummy.

Here is the layout that I created: this is one of my favourite layouts that I have made recently. I love the whimsical feel from the cut file. 

I am passionate about telling our stories on my pages and being able to give the meaning behind the photos if there is one. Although my journaling may be short and sweet it gives the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ behind the photo. To finish off the journaling area I added an ephemera piece and a tiny word sticker.



The cut file that I have used as a feature on my layout is by Paige Evans and is available in the Silhouette Store. I loved the whimsical design of it and thought that it would compliment the More than Words collection nicely. For the flight path lines I used the bold Gossamer patterned paper and the hearts the Collage patterned paper. I decided to add butterflies fussy cut from the Gossamer paper and add them to the flight paths too.



Around the photo is layered with floral chipboard pieces, ephemera, stickers and vellum accents. I situated the photo to the bottom left of the page as the top of the page is busy and full of the cut file design. This helps keep the layout balanced.



I hope this layout and post has inspired you today to get creating!



Raquel xxx

Altenew May 2018 Stamp/Die Release Blog Hop



Hi everyone!

Welcome to the Altenew May 2018 Stamp/Die Release Blog Hop. I am so excited to share a few projects with you using some of the products that are being released today. If you have already been hopping along, you should have arrived here from Svitlana Shayevichs blog!

For this blog hop I have played with quite a few of the new release products; Bride To Be Stamp Set, Fabulous Floral Stamp Set and the Fine Frames Circles Die. I have created 2 cards and one layout to share with you today. Keep reading to see my projects and also the two ways you can win gift certificates to spend in the Altenew Store.

Before I begin you can see the entire May Release, click HERE. I have also teamed my projects with the 'Our Family' scrapbooking collection from the store.

Ok now lets get onto the making, here is the layout I created.


I documented a photo from our engagement photo shoot all the way back in 2011. The new Bride To Be Stamp Set made me want to go back through my photo archives to find a photo of hubby and I to document. For the actual design of the page I stuck to a somewhat vertical design with asymmetrical balance. I added clusters of stamped photos to either side of the photo and also the bottom right corner of the page. I used the mini cube ink pads from the store for my stamping. The pastel colour palette of the inks complimented the Our Family kit perfectly. 


The tag from the kit 'this feels like home' was just the sentiment I needed to reflect my thoughts on this page. 

Here are some more close ups of my page and the journaling too:



My second project I created for this hop is a card. For this card I have used the Fabulous Floral Stamp Set. Now these florals are absolutely gorgeous! 



The design of this card makes the florals stamped images the focus. The sentiment 'you are fabulous' is a great card sentiment for those everyday uses to show someone that you care. 



For my final project for this hop I have made another card to share with you:

I used a floral patterned paper, stickers and a chipboard word from the scrapbook kit. To frame my sentiment I used the Fine Frames Circles Die - the frame is beautiful and intricate. 
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I hope that you have enjoyed seeing the projects I created with the new releases today. Now lets get onto how you can enter this hop!

There are two ways you can enter this hop today!

Firstly, to celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to 6 lucky winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or Altenew Scrapbook Blog by Friday, May 25th for a chance to win. 6 winners will be announced on the Altenew blogs on 5/27/2018.

You can also win a $30 gift certificate to the Altenew store by simply leaving a comment on this post! I absolutely love reading all your comments, so thank you! I will announce a winner here on my blog by 5/26/2018.

Here is the May 2018 Stamp/Die Release hop order:

Altenew Card Blog

Agnieszka Malyszek

Sandra Dietrich

Jessica Frost-Ballas

May Sukyong Park

Debby Hughes

Paige Evans

Virginia Lu

Simon Says Stamp Blog

Lilith Eeckels

Vicky Papaioannou

Therese Calvird

Justine Hovey

Enza Gudor

Chari Moss

Gayatri Murali

Altenew Scrapbook Blog

Yoonsun Hur

Anna Komenda

Jenn Shurkus

Reiko Tsuchida

Laurie Willison

Kymona Tracey

Jennifer McGuire

Svitlana Shayevich

Raquel Bowman - YOU ARE HERE

Lydia Evans

Kelly Latevola

Nicole Picadura

Nina-Marie Trapani

Terhi Koskinen

Rubeena Ianigro

Sveta Fotinia

Emily Leiphart

Flora Monika Farkas

Laura Jane

Michelle Short

Erum Tasneem

Kimberly Wiener
Your next stop is Lydia Evans, Happy hopping!

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Love You - using Wild at Heart by Cocoa Vanilla

Hey everyone, I'm here today sharing a new layout with you all. For todays layout I delved back into one of my favourite collections Wild at Heart. I hadn’t created with this collection in a little while so it was just so lovely getting creative with it again to make this page that I am sharing today.

Here is the layout that I created:



The photo I am documenting is one of my hubby that I snapped on a recent family holiday in April. Hubby is not one to pose for photos or willingly be in photos so I was wrapped to get this one to document. Although this page is of my hubby that did not deter me from using the Wild at Heart collection. That is because I knew that I wanted to document ‘love’ – so using this collection would be perfect for that.

Here are some close ups of the layout:






You can see the layout and more detail over on the Cocoa Vanilla blog here

Raquel x

The new Jot Moodboard - designed by me!

Hey everyone, apologies for my lateness in sharing this but did you see that Jot Magazine have a new mood board out? You can check out the competition details and more Jot Girl samples here ...

Guess who designed the board? Yep, me.... very different to my usual colour choice but I had so much fun putting this one together. 


Here is the layout that I created:



And some close ups: I used a free cut file available in the Paper Issues store - Look how grown up my girl is looking!





Thanks for stopping by!!!



The big day is here....a project Wedding Inspired

Hey everyone, well I don't know about you, but Royal Wedding Fever has hit and all that is on our minds is the upcoming special event today. For those of us in AUS we can tune into our TVs at 9pm tonight AEST to watch it in all its glory.



Since I was feeling so much in the wedding spirit I decided to create a mock wedding favour box using the gorgeous Sizzix Thinlets Die Set 3pk - Butterfly Favor Box (662363) designed by David Tutera. I can imagine these beautiful little boxes filled with chocolate hearts, sugared almonds, personalised candy, etc. They would be perfect not only for weddings, but baptisms, birthdays and so much more.

Here is a look at the project - but visit the Sizzix Lifestyle blog here to see a video and a more detailed look of how it came together.