Katherine O'Shea

It's hard to believe, but it's true, December is here and so is the last Scrap the Boys challenge for the year: In the search for Christmas photos of my beautiful boy to scrap, I came across many typical Aussie style photos of a hot summers day, which didn't seem to match with many winter themed Christmas collections I had in my stash. I then got my hands on the Under the Gum Leaves collection by Kaisercraft and this layout come together really easily.  I used the Bottle Brush paper as the background and then layered the Leaf Sprigs cutfile from Cut to You  https://createdbygwen.com.au/product/leaf-sprig-cut-file/ .  I used the Lindy Stamp Gang magical shakers in California Poppy Gold and Lederhosen Lauret to paint the cutfile which represents the beautiful golden wattle found in Australia. I finished off the layout with a mix of embellishments from the collection, including die cut ephemera, stickers, fussy cut paper and curios. Where every you

This months challenge was a wonderful sketch provide by the very talented Laura Whitaker, go check out the  http://scraptheboys.blogspot.com/  for more inspiration. I really enjoyed using this sketch to create. I had just bought the Happiness collection ( https://cocoavanilla.com.au/product-category/happiness/ ) by Cocoa Vanilla Studio. I know, I know, I was late to the game, but I couldn't wait to scrap with it. The combination of these two things meant the layout come together so easily. The weekend I had to get my layout completed for Scrap the Boys, Melbourne had it's first beautiful spring day and I had snapped these photos of Seb making a wish on a dandelion while we were out walking Pepper the dog. I used the Spring Garden cut file by Cut to You ( https://createdbygwen.com.au/ ). I backed the word Spring with the Happiness Good Vibes Page and also used that paper as my main border. I cut the dandelions away from the title and backed them with velum to used th

This months STB challenge was definitely a challenge for me, as I am not use to using florals on a boy layout. However, I really enjoyed making this layout and feel like it has opened my mind to more flower love in the future. I have always enjoyed cross stitching, my mother introduced me to it when I was about 10 and I have been doing it every since. This was the first time however that I had hand stitched on a layout. I had been drooling over the beautiful hand stitching Paige Evans ( http://www.paigetaylorevans.com/ ) does on layouts and decided to give it a go. I used the Stitch heart file from Confessions of a Paper Addict ( https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/COAPACutfiles ) and a blanket stitch with DMC cotton embroidery thread. The embellishments are from the Cocoa Vanilla Studio Midnight collection. I really love the way it turned out and can wait to get more flowers on my boys layouts.

When I saw this cut file created by Gwen from CUT to YOU , I knew there were so many photos of my little man that I could use this with and I had to have it. I cut it with my Brother Scan n Cut on black smooth card stock. The majority of the layout is made using the Cocoa Vanilla Boys Rule collection, with the exception of the yellow paper backing the digger, which is B side of the Happy Snaps paper from the Totally Rad collection and the don't Grow Up it's a trap ephemera piece from the same collection. This layout come together quickly due to the awesome cut file and fabulous Cocoa Vanilla products. I really love how it turned out and hope this gives you some boy scrapping inspiration!

August welcomes in my first Scrap the Boy layout as part of the Design Team, which I'm thrilled to be part of such an inspiring and supportive community!   http://scraptheboys.blogspot.com/ The mood board for the August challenge, got me thinking about city life and how luck we are to have such amazing cafes in Melbourne. I couldn't help but scrap my darling boy casually sipping on his bubba chino out the front of our favourite Melbourne cafe. I had never tried a monochromatic grayscale layout before, but I really enjoyed the challenge. I used the Globe Trotter cut file from the lovely Virginia Walker over at Confessions of a Paper Addict (check out her etsy shop:  https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/COAPACutfiles?ref=notif_nfyfs&order=date_desc ). I cut the design on my Brother Scan n Cut from black cardstock, the background paper is Good Times from the Boys Rule collection from Cocoa Vanilla Studio and the embellishments are from a variety of boys collection

I knew I had the perfect photo for the Scrap the Boy challenge this month, however with a slump in my creative mojo I did struggle to know where to start in creating a layout. I checked out the Design teams creations and took some inspiration from the lovely Melinda Sweetmans layout. I found a beautiful cut file from the CUTtoYOU esty shop called 'Flower Crown', created by Gwen Wruck and pulled out a range of Cocoa Vanilla Studio supplies to create this: The background paper is the B side of 'Full Bloom' from the 'Hello Sunshine' collection. The light woodgrain was speckled with Heidi Swapp colour shine in gold before adding the cutfile bumped up on some craft foam. I backed the flowers of the cutfile with the beautiful pink 'Hip Hooray' paper from the 'Make a Wish' collection and the leaves were backed with scraps from my stash. I used the ephemera from the 'Colour me Happy' collection to create the title 'Sweet smiling fac

I was super thrilled to be selected as a guest designer for Scrap the Boys April Challenge. It was very fitting given my beautiful boy celebrates his birthday in April! I took great inspiration from the colours and the sprinkles of the mood board, using the Kaisercraft "Party Time" collection. I used the 100's & 1000's paper as the border and machine stitching the white card stock to it. The mixed media background was created by using a stiff brush with Gelatos through a stencil. The embellishments are a mixture of the Kaisercraft "Party Time" collection as well as some Cocoa Vanilla Studio "Colour me Happy" ephemera. As always I used my Muji pen for my journaling.  I loved how it turned out, even though it was completely different from what I had first imagined I was going to create. It is alway satisfying to get a special occasion documented and be able to look back at it to remember the fun party!

Even though summer has drawn to a close here in Australia the weather has still be stunning and rather warm, so I thought I would share a very summery layout. This layout was created using the Cocoa Vanilla Studio 'Hello Sunshine' collection and was the first time I have used the  8.5" x 11" size as a design. I used the Chill Out paper as the base, Sunny Spot as the next layer and Solar Flare for the strip base for my photos. I machine stitched around the edge using white thread. The embellishments are a mix of  accessory stickers, die cut ephemera, wood and metal buttons. I used some tissue paper to mat and cluster the 3 photos. For the title I used the Full Bloom paper to cut out a banner, added dashed lines using my trusty Muji pen and the puffy stickers. Even though this layout is very simple, I like the way it highlights the photos of my son (Seb) enjoying the cool river on an extremely hot summer day.

With the March Challenge being sponsored by Cocoa Vanilla Studio, my mind went straight to the latest boys collection 'Boys Rule'. I had only used this collection to complete 2 layouts before tackling this challenge, therefore I had a wonderful range of products to choose from! This layout was inspired by Anna Komenda's gorgeous layout using the 'Midnight' collection, that I swooned over from the Cocoa Vanilla Studio instagram account  https://www.instagram.com/p/BuYY1TNltfv/ I use a light blue Faber-Castell Gelatos and Heidi Swapp colour shine in Seafoam for the mixed media background. The Happy Go Lucky paper is the border paper, which is machine stitched onto white Kaisercraft cardstock that has been coated in clear Mont Marte gesso. The photo is backed with the Expressionist paper and I have used a range of all the embellishments from the chipboard pieces, miscellany, die cut ephemera, accessory and clear sticker sheets. This layout come together rela