Designer Day: Come Meet Anabelle O'Malley

First off Happy Thanksgiving to all of those celebrating this special day in the states! We hope you have a wonderful day with loads of delicious foods and restful time with family and friends.

As you count your blessings on this day of thanks, we also want to count one of ours: We have a very talented designer to introduce you to today-Anabelle O'Malley. We count her as a special blessing to our design team. Anabelle is sweet, kind, so easy to work with and is super talented!

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Hi everyone, it’s me, Anabelle. First off, I wanted to wish all of our U.S. readers a very Happy Thanksgiving Day! I hope you have a wonderful time with family and loved ones. We spend the day with my mom and my husband’s family. It’s one big eatfest and it’s great!

Supplies:

Packaging from flowers
Paisley Road Panaji 841669
Paisley Road Bhangra 841683
Fairy Flora Notecards 541972
Autumn Eve September Leaves 539672
Devines Felt Stems 537005
Say it in Pearls Strip Peach 530525
Roosevelt Eleanor Flowers 543891

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So, a little about me…. I live in Delaware with my husband and son. It’s a really small state located on the East Coast. I am originally from New York, but arrived at the University of Delaware when I was eighteen and have been here pretty much ever since. The University has played a big role in my life. I received my undergraduate degree here. While we were both working on our Master’s Degrees, my husband, Fran, and I took a class together. That’s where we first met! We both work there now. Our son went to preschool at the campus Lab School and hopefully he’ll follow in my footsteps and go there when he’s older.

I’m a former classroom teacher and now work in the Early Childhood Education department. I really love my job because I get to work with college students, as well as preschoolers and their teachers. The campus is beautiful and I love being able to stroll along the green in my free time.

Living in Delaware is great. We are located two hours from New York City, 45 minutes from Philadelphia, 1 hour from Baltimore and 2 hours from Washington DC. Another great thing is that the beach is only an hour and a half away in one direction and the mountains are equally distant in the other. We are a beach loving family in the summer and try to spend some time skiing in the winter.

Being near so many wonderful places is great, but realistically, we don’t get to visit them as often as we’d like. Why? Because we have a seven year old who is into scouting, sports, music and Lego League, to name a few. I spend a great deal of my time driving him from place to place and it seems like our weekends are always filled with activities. (If you’re a mom, I’m sure you know what I mean!) But, I love it!

Aside from scrapping, I also LOVE to cook. I can spend hours watching the Food Network or reading through magazines. I wish I had more time to do these things! (Darn work, it gets in the way of everything!) Being in the kitchen just makes me happy. To balance things out, I also love going to the gym. I try to get there at least 4 or 5 times a week.

As for scrapping, I began six years ago when Ryan was about a year old. I knew it would turn into an addiction and it definitely has. I try to do something creative every day! I’m an early morning scrapper. I’m up around 5 am and head into my room with a cup of tea. I’ve been lucky to work with several manufacturers and magazines and have made so many friends through this hobby. Joining Prima this year has been an absolute highlight of my ‘scrappy career’!

Details are my best friend! I love creating projects that are filled with them. I love to layer, as well. Shortly after I began making scrapbook pages, I started with cards. I really enjoy working on the smaller palette and giving them to the recipients.

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Here is a page that is pretty typical of my style. I tend to start my pages at the center and build out from there.

This ones uses a piece of Donna Downey canvas as the base, along with lots of flowers and pearls.

I love creating clusters and tucking elements into them.

Supplies for Loved:

Donna Downey Canvas 920722
Pearls with Lace 540876
Annalee Poetry 841782
Annalee Chipboard Journaling Notes 541651
Pinata Acapulco Mix 540074
Summer Mix 716424
Trini Bright 712303

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This next page highlights a few photos that I love. Ryan brought home this little turkey project from kindergarten a couple of years ago. Though it was eaten later that day, I wanted to capture the memory of my little kindergartener with his first Thanksgiving project. His little face with the feather headband is just so cute!

Even though I have a son, I still love to add flowers to his pages. I just don’t go overboard. On this page, I made my main embellishment the leaves and added a couple of flowers for interest and added color. I used the pom-pom trim to create a frame around the page, too. (Hot glue works great to do this!)

Supplies for Turkey Treat:

Fairy Flora Summer Storm 841751
Fairy Flora Journaling Stickers 541620
Road Trip Open Road 841850
Tropics Paper 840921
Fairy Flora Notecards 541972
Autumn Leaves September 539672
Alphabet 537395
Belle Arts Document 539382
Belle Arts Script 539375
E-Line Pearls and Crystals 300531

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The last thing I want to share with you today are a couple of projects that I created to show how to WEAR Prima. I love the flowers on my scrapbook pages and cards, but being able to incorporate them into my outfits is a lot of fun, too.

Here is a tee shirt I made using a sheet of the Donna Downey canvas. I cut the swirls and adhered them to the shirt using fabric adhesive. Then, I wet the canvas, scrunched it up and let it dry before I cut the circles for the flowers. Some crystals in the center of the flowers added just the right amount of bling.

T- Shirt Supply:

Canvas 655350 E Line Crystals

And finally, here’s a necklace that I made using some of the Grand Dame flowers. I adhered them to a piece of trim (with hot glue), then stitched it to the chain. It was really quick and easy and I love wearing it!

Supplies:

Grand Dame –Cognac 538163
Caravan- Gold Marigold 538224

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That’s it from me! Thanks so much for stopping by today and taking the time to learn a bit about me. If you’d like to see more of my work, it can be found on my blog!

Have a wonderful day! ~~Anabelle

4 Comments

Hi Annabelle...Love your projects! I'm from NY also and attended the Campus Lab school at SUNY Brockport...many years ago. Haven't heard that term if years...and to comment. Looking forward to seeing your projects.

Posted by: Martha Richardson | Thursday, November 25, 2010 at 09:07 AM