Tutorial ~ Handcut titles with Kim Jeffress

Today I am going to share how I create my hand cut titles. Hand cut titles have been my favourite way of creating titles lately on my layouts.

First I will share my layout. I used a combination of papers from Pink Paislee Summer Solstice and Shimelle for American Crafts to create the base of my layout.

  

Now comes the fun part, adding my title and embellishments.

Step 1. To coordinate the colours in your title to the back ground, trim a square of pattern paper from the centre of your base pattern paper. Be sure to place the blade in the centre of your pattern paper not the edge to make your cut.

  

Step 2. Using a lead pencil draw the letters for your title on to the trimmed pattern paper. I prefer using capital letters because there are more straight lines which are easier to cut.

  

Step 3. Using a sharp pair of scissors cut your letters out. Erase any pencil lines still visible.

   

Step 4. For some added texture sand the edges of the letters.

    

Step 5. Add a small piece of adhesive to the middle of each letter and when dry machine stitch through each letter to complete.

 

Kim used: 

Pink Paislee Solstice Paper Trunk Bay

Shimelle Paper Haynes

Shimelle Paper Baxter

Heidi Swapp Project Life Core Kit Favorite Things

Heidi Swapp Project Life Embossing Folder Star

Chic Tags Cloud 9 Clips

Chic Tags Cloud 9 Label Stickers

BasicGrey Kelly Purkey Second City Title Stickers

BasicGrey Micro Mono Alpha Stickers Navy

  

September inspired by..... Challenge

How fun is this months Inspired by... image! Kim Jeffress asked if she could choose the inspiration piece and she chose well! This piece is so fun, from the graphics, to the colour palette, to the travel inspiration.. there are so many directions you can go can with this and we can't wait to see which way you choose! 

Here is how Kim was inspired.. 

So show us how Kims inspiration piece inspires you! Link your layout here by October 2nd and you could win an American Crafts Shimelle prize pack.. how perfect is this inspiration piece for that collection! 

Here is how to play along: 
- You can submit ANY kind of project that you were inspired to create such as layouts, cards, project life fillers
- The winner of the prize will be randomly drawn and our 3 favourite layouts be featured on the blog. 
- Our challenge will run until October 2nd at 11:55pm Hong Kong time. 
- Link your creation below by entering a link to your blog post or online gallery sharing your work.  Our InLinkz now has the ability to link your project from Instagram! so you can just snap a photo of your project and link while you share it on instagram.. so cool! 
- Please no back-linking.  This is for newly created projects only.  Any back-links will be be disqualified. 
- If you don't have a blog or online gallery, alternatively you can post a photo of your work on our facebook page. Please make sure you include " Mei Li September Inspired by... Challenge" somewhere in the post. 

Kim used: 

BasicGrey Kelly Purkey Second City Printed Alphas

BasicGrey Kelly Purkey Second City Title Stickers

BasicGrey Kelly Purkey Second City Frames

BasicGrey Kelly Purkey Second City Paper Kedzie

Chic Tags Cloud 9 Label Stickers

Chic Tags Cloud 9 Clips

The Dimple with Kim Jeffress

Hello Kim here today sharing a layout created with some great goodies you can find here in the shop. 

This is my favourite photo of my youngest taken when he was just one.

I love how the pops of orange bring out the orange in the photo.

I created a cluster of elements across the middle of my layout for a fun effect, adhering my photo above the text on the Summer Solstice pattern paper. I then added some layers for extra dimension including the Chic Tags word stickers.  

I used one of the new Heidi Swapp 3x4 embossing folders to create some texture on the Favorite Things 3x4 Project Life card and used a stamp from my stash on top of the Heidi Swapp Water Colour Star tag.

To finish I added my son's initial using the cute Kelly Purkey Second City Printed Alphas over the Second City Frame.

Thanks for looking! 

Kim used: 

BasicGrey Kelly Purkey Second City Printed Alphas

BasicGrey Kelly Purkey Second City Title Stickers

BasicGrey Kelly Purkey Second City Frames

BasicGrey Kelly Purkey Second City Paper Kedzie

Pink Paislee Solstice Paper Daytona

Chic Tags Cloud 9 Label Stickers

Chic Tags Cloud 9 Clips

Heidi Swapp Project Life Core Kit Favorite Things

Heidi Swapp Project Life My Heart Stamp and Stencil Set

Heidi Swapp Color Magic Watercolour Tags: Stars

September colour challenge...

September! Many of you will probably think that with September comes autumn colour pallets and inspiration of pumpkins, leaves and back to school type stuff... but although Autumn is my fav time of the year.. and I would do anything to be able to have it in my life... it just doesn't happen in here in Hong Kong. Nor is it happening in Australia, where our guest designer Kim Jeffress is... its spring there. So, I made this for all you crafters in those non-autumn parts of the world or those who generally are just not ready to let summer go yet.  Enjoy!!!

I knew Kim would rock these colours!

So shows us how this inspired you! Link your layout here by September 18th and you could win an Echo Park Creative Agenda prize pack!

Here is how to play along: 

- You can submit ANY kind of project that you were inspired to create such as layouts, cards, project life fillers

- The winner of the prize will be randomly drawn and our 3 favourite layouts be featured on the blog. 

- Our challenge will run until September 18th at 11:55pm Hong Kong time. 

- Link your creation below by entering a link to your blog post or online gallery sharing your work.  Our InLinkz now has the ability to link your project from Instagram! so you can just snap a photo of your project and link while you share it on instagram.. so cool! 

- Please no back-linking.  This is for newly created projects only.  Any back-links will be be disqualified. 

- If you don't have a blog or online gallery, alternatively you can post a photo of your work on our facebook page. Please make sure you include " Mei Li September Colour Challenge" somewhere in the post. 

Kim used: 

BasicGrey Kelly Purkey Second City Paper Kedzie

BasicGrey Highline Paper Perfect

BasicGrey Kelly Purkey Second City Frames

Chic Tags Cloud 9 Clips

Chic Tags Cloud 9 Flair Buttons

Shimelle Paper Baxter

Heidi Swapp Project Life Love you Stamp and Stencil Set

Welcome our September Guest Designer Kim Jeffress...

We are excited to be welcoming the talented Kim Jeffress to the Mei Li team this month, not only because we love her bright, graphic and fun scrapbooking style but because this is our first guest designer joining us who we have had the pleasure of hanging out with in person! 

One of my favourite aspects of being in this industry are the connections we make all over the world, but the best part is when you get to meet those people you feel you already know well virtually in real life. Fiona and I had the pleasure of hang out with Kim in LA this past January, first with a few chats on the CHA floor but also during the Big Picture classes Play event afterwards. Her scraping style truly represents how she is in reality, fun, bright and bubbly. We look forward to having her here with us this month!

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Hi everyone I am very excited to be here at Mel Li Paperie this month.

I am waving hello from sunny Brisbane Australia where I live my husband and two boys aged 5 and 7. They are my main inspiration from my scrapbooking, I love to record the little everyday stories about their lives which one day would be forgotten.

I am honoured to be involved in the wider scrapbooking industry.  I would have to say though the pinnacle for me has been  designing for Heidi Swapp. Being on her team has been a dream come true, her generosity, enthusiasm and inspiration for Memory keeping is so infectious it drives me to keep improving my own scrapbooking everyday.

I can't wait to share more of my family's stories on the blog this month , see you soon.

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You can find out more about Kim and see more of her awesome work at her blog Glass Half Full or on any of these design teams: Heidi Swapp, Bella Blvd, Pebbles Inc, Greatest-view or Jot Magazine.