Snip, Snap, Crop

Woo.... hoo.... I finally made it to a crop night.

2012-02-13T13:07:00.002+08:00

I was so excited to finally get to a crop run by someone other than myself. I'm going on a retreat in a couple of weekends and was invited to a crop to meet some of the ladies. It was NOR about 35 minute drive away at the Craft Stand, a lovely shop run by Paula. The ladies were all very welcoming and as it turned out I actually knew two of the ladies from online forums from years ago.... so they got a surprise to meet me too. I took some of Heather's sketches with me from Scrappy sketches:

This is the Mid-week sketch 4-12 with another photo from Paris of St. Michael's statue at La Place de St. Michel. This is a great sketch to use up those little strips of paper you have lots of lying in your stash.

The next is Mid-week sketch 5-12 with the boys dressed ready for their first day of school. I altered it slightly - as one does with sketches..... and I still have not learnt how to do inchies very well.

This is the Mid-week 6-12 from last week and was our breakfast on our last day in Paris. We had been looking at them over the last previous days... drooling at the thought and decided we must try it before we left. So sweet and so yummy - if you like nutella of course.

Last but not least, Heather ran a Step-by-step challenge over at Home and Scrapped on Friday night so to kick start my mojo for the weekend I played along. These were those random shots of me in Paris that did not quite fit in with the other photos I had. I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

Happy craftin' everyone....

Flower sale coming soon.......

2012-02-08T13:10:00.003+08:00

The lovely Heather from Home and Scrapped has this awesome ability to make lovely handmade flowers, many of which appear on my layouts. Why should I bother finding time to make them myself when she has it down to a fine art and I just can't be bothered....

This Friday the 10th of February she is having a super sale of her flower packs and will continue with it every second Friday of the month. Of course you don't just have to buy them on the Friday, you can visit her blog and click on the flower shop tab at any time to see what she has on offer. All the instructions are there for how to place an order.

Happy Craftin'

A week of fun and new things.....

2012-02-04T18:35:00.003+08:00

Well, it was back to school for the boys here in W.A. this week and so Monday I was at the school buying uniforms and Tuesday I was doing all the iron on naming and taking up pants and shirts etc. Mint green shirts are not the best idea for boys and already a couple of them have texta and paint marks on them.... SIGH!

They did look smarter than I thought they would in them though and they had a good few days settling into school. Ethan and Mitchell are together in class and have a male teacher and Keelan on his own with two female teachers, one does a 9 day fortnight and the other a 1 day. They have made some friends in class already and seem to be very happy at this stage. No homework for the week was pretty good too.

Last Sunday arvo we went up to Trigg beach for a get-together with the Perth Orientation Services group who help people settle into the state. I met some faces that I had met before and a couple of new ones so that was nice. The boys spent most of the time at the beach though whilst I was up on the grassed area so I was quite happy to put up with the conversation and not have to put up with the sand. I did venture down just as the sun was going down to see what they were up to and had to take the pic of the sandcastle they had been very busy building. Pic is not that great cos it was taken on my mobile. Yes..... I forgot the camera!

The start of the month brought with it new challenges over at Home and Scrapped. With a new design team on board, Heather handed over some of the reins to them to provide us with some challenges for the month.

Jewels gave us a challenge to use inks as out media to create our background and challenge ourselves with something that we may not have tried before.

I was blog hopping and came across a layout by Gayle Price - http://blissandgesso.blogspot.com.au/2011/05/new-may-challenge-at-ww1.html which really appealed to me so I lifted it - hope that is okay Gayle..... I used a crafter's workshop template with texture paste first of all and then once that was dry, laid down the mask and sprayed with Denim and Sapphire Glimmermist. I used white paint on the edge of business card to create a matte for the photo, a little stamping with a couple of stamps I have owned for years and not yet used as well a couple of more recent purchases and it was complete. A scrap of paper.... and I literally mean a scrap..... some cut out vintage Collections butterflies and my photo and the layout was finally finished. It seemed to take hours and hours as I am not used of the whole mixed media idea and waiting for things to dry is not my area of patience. I did love the final result though.

I also played with Sarah's challenge to choose a layout to "lift" from all those that you earmark in magazines and create a layout using a song title about summer or sun and include an item that has been given to you or you have bought that is handmade. I lifted a CK 15 min layout from Jan 2010 by Stephanie Howell but adapted her two portrait photos to suit my one landscape one.

Just a little more playing too to create some cards with the Cricut alone to show the shop owner. Off to discuss classes with her this week so wish me luck......

Everyday paper dolls and George and basic shapes cartridge on this one and below is made entirely with Storybook cartridge. Of course you could dress both of them up a lot more but I wanted to keep them very simple to show that you can still make a nice looking card with basic cuts.

Well..... my lamb roast is in the Weber and smelling pretty darn good so I am off to check the vegies and carve and eat...

Happy Craftin'......

Birthday week in our house.....

2012-01-28T21:43:00.002+08:00

Well this week saw my "little" boys turn 12 years of age. My Australia day boys enjoyed their day even though they haven't made any friends here yet because school has not yet started and their are no kids their age in the street. As a matter of fact I have seen very few kids in the street at all.

We had some extended family over for a BBQ lunch and after they left we headed into the city to the Esplanade near the Carillon to watch the Skyworks which is of course the boy's favourite thing to do on their birthday. They think they are very special to get fireworks on their birthday. It was all very easy, headed in via train, got off and walked not even a kilometre and we were there where we wanted to be. The weather had been hot and some rain managed to fall which was nice for about 10mins and then it was gone and we dried off quick. There was a lovely natural light show before the fireworks began at 8pm and by 8.30pm it was all over and we toddled off amongst the crowd back to the train station. We caught the second train out and was home by 9.15pm. All very easy and civilised.

Of course Wednesday night I was up till midnight making cards for them all - which I don't normally do as they get tossed pretty quickly but I thought this year they are taking a lot more notice of what I give to others so figured that maybe I should make the effort and give them something different each. I pulled out some stamp sets from The Stamps of Life by Stephanie Barnard and some Fiskars border punches and away I went.

Owls for Ethan

A froggy for Keelan

And a birdie for Mitchell

I had fun creating but was glad to pour myself into bed when I finally finished. I think they turned out rather cute and the kids have them on display on their desks so I must have done something right for a change.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend and not sweating it out like we are here in Perth.....

Happy craftin'

Looking over my shoulder

2012-01-23T15:47:00.004+08:00

One of the problems with having my scrap area upstairs and my back to the stairs whilst at the computer is that my charming children are doing their utmost to scare the pants of me by creeping up the stairs and sneaking up behind me. I have become so paranoid about it that I am now in the habit of checking over my shoulder continuously so that I can hear or see them before they reach me. They think it is hillarious when they actually achieve their result and I jump.

I finished off Heather's Mid Week Sketch 3-12 from Scrappy Sketches last night and used some really old papers I had in my stash. I think this will really be the concept behind all of my layouts for this year.

I even sorted out my photos from my trip that are left and am determined to get them scrapped over the coming weeks.

Whilst in Vielsalm, Belgium the weather was cold and damp so hiking was not really on the agenda. We found this great tank and thinking of our boys back home both Ingeborg and I decided we would get photos of something that might actually take the boys interest. We did not realise the meaning of the tank's presence until we reached it and read the memorial. It was left in the area following the Americans fighting at the Battle of Bulge and it is there as a memorial to those who fought valiantly at St. Vith. You do not realise how big these machines are until you are standing right next to one.

We got out and about a little this weekend by going to an open movie screening by the local council on Friday night. We saw Spirited Away a very interesting animated story. The kids enjoyed it even though the movie did not excite them so much.

Yesterday we went to Adventure World water and ride park which is only about 10-15 minutes from our place. It was busy as.... and of course we chose a day with a record number of people there. I didn't get many photos cos by the time they lined up and you waited and waited you never knew when to expect them to be ready with the camera. Still.... the boys and I went on the chairlift and the boys and Bruce went on the pedal rail around the front of the park and the kids enjoyed the Kahuna falls with water splashing in every different direction and some small slides.

It was a good day that the kids enjoyed out.

Happy craftin'.....

Continuing to play....

2012-01-20T10:51:00.002+08:00

The weather has been hot and humid and hard work to keep the brain focussed on anything but I have played around a little in the evenings to keep the mojo flowing.

Heather had another Mid week sketch up at Scrappy Sketches so I had more photos of the Cathedral to scrap and decided to use them and the same papers as my earlier layout to carry the theme of the Cathedral through both layouts. Not that I want them as a double page but I just wanted to link the story. This is what I came up with.

I also wanted to play with the Cricut machine and make some cards but have only gotten around to one so far so here is the first card I have made entirely from using the Cricut.... apart from the card base that I already had. I had no intention of doing it just from black and white, I was just testing the sizes of some of the cuts to familiarize myself with them again and I decided to use them. Some brads, kindyglitz and the floral fantasy Cuttlebug folder along with only the George and Basic shapes cartridge, gave me this lovely simple card which looks quite elegant in real life.

Well after not much sleep and thunderstorms all night long... I have been up early (most unusual for me) enjoying the cooler break in the weather and having a chance to do some computer things without sweating it out in my little upstairs room. The blue skies are peeking through again though so I don't think the cool will last too long.

Have a good weekend all and happy craftin'

Joining in the Fun on Friday night

2012-01-17T08:00:00.002+08:00

On Friday night over at Home and Scrapped we had the first of Heather's Step-by-step challenges for the year. I'm always a little skeptical of doing SBS challenges as they often are nothing like I would do but because I hadn't caught up with the girls since my move I decided to join the fun and play along.

I really enjoyed the background stamping and the fun of working out what embellishments to use when you don't really know what the layout is going to look like until you are nearly at the end. I found a great conifer SVG file from the SVG blog that I purchased files from and I altered it to make it taller and cut it with the ecraft. The rest of the embellishments were a RAK from Heather of her lovely handmade flowers and die-cut vines and leaves. The paper are again old, old ones and from Scrapbooking Memories free paper and a cardmaking magazine free papers.
I was so inspired by the SBS that I decided to keep going for the night and used the Mid Week Sketch 1-12 at Scrappy sketches to showcase these lovely photos from the inside of St John's Cathedral at 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands which goes along with the stained glass windows layout from yesterdays post. I'm sure I have one more layout to do about this lovely Church.

Well, am off to find some card inspiration and get going with a start on my Christmas cards this year...... Better check out Fab's blog to see if there is some inspiration starters there.....

Happy craftin'

Welcome to the New Year

2012-01-16T11:34:00.003+08:00

It has taken me a while to get into the swing of things but I have finally got all the boxes unpacked and have ventured into my creative endeavours again. I just wish my scrappin' area was not so hot! Still it cools at night time when the Fremantle Doctor ventures in so I guess most of my playtime will be at night.

My first layout for the year was the January sketch challenge at Home and Scrapped which actually had three photos on it but as I am still behind in scrapping my travel photos from over a year ago now then I only used the 4"x6"'s that I had printed.

I followed it up with a double inspired by a layout from Susan Longman in issue 11 of Australian Scrapbook ideas. Of course mine is nowhere near as stunning as hers and the papers are from me very old stash as I am on a stash busting clean out for the year and truly do not need to buy any more papers for a long time to come. This layout was for the Home and Scrapped colour challenge for Jan to use cream and green. The photo does not do it justice really and the colours are a little distorted as I could not find a decent place in the house to take photos of layouts in without lots of shadows or rays of sunshine overtaking the photo. Working on that concept still.

Yesterday the family took time out in the heat to head up to AQWA (the Aquarium of Western Australia) up at Hilary's Boat Harbour. It was expensive but worthwhile to do on the odd occasion. The boys favourites were the sharks swimming overhead, the sting rays in the sting ray bay and the large tube with the jellyfish. I got some better than expected photos from it which I'm sure will feature in a layout at some stage.

My funny story for the week was walking into a local card supplies shop looking for a product that I use to lengthen the life of my Cricut mats. The staff were interested in my use of the Cricut and as I had mentioned that I had been running crops and card classes in Adelaide for a few years now they were interested to know if I may like to teach some Cricut classes...... well, how could one say no to that? So, it has been an interesting week and we will see what eventuates.

Happy creating all!

It's been a busy couple of months......

2011-11-29T18:55:00.006+08:00

I know I always seem to say that but it really is true as our family is on the move to Western Australia. Only one more week in our house then another week before we arrive at our new home. Crazy, crazy time.

The boys have had their school concert this week and Ethan's class performed an adjusted Wakakirri routine to fit to the size of the stage they had to work on. Ethan did a great job.

Mitchell and Keelan's classes worked together on their songs. Keelan out the front with the dancing and actions and Mitchell at the stage side playing the large bongo style drums. The concert was a great success and all the kids tried really hard to please their parents. It's always exciting to see the little Reception students giving it a go even when some of them have only been at school for a few weeks.

The school band played before the event and I took the opportunity to take some pics of the boys as I realised that I have never really taken photos of them playing with the band before.
Mitchell on the guitar.
Ethan on the saxophone.
Keelan with that ever serious look whilst playing the keyboard.
Last weekend Mitchell headed off to karate grading and after missing out earlier in the year, he finally made it up to his orange belt. He was so happy to walk into his karate class on Friday night wearing that orange belt.

A few weeks ago before the madness kicked in I was challenged at Home & Scrapped to :

Use a quote from the photo subject, use no orange or brown and stamping. My hardest part of the challenge was the quote as I am not one to record the things that the kids say..... Does that mean I'm a bad Mum cos I don't listen to the kids...... LOL!
My October card class taught the spirelli technique which the ladies loved. I haven't used this technique much myself so enjoyed the opportunity to play with it. I used a combination of my Cricut with the Martha Stewart Elegant cake cartridge and my Ecraft with a design of my own to cut some shapes for the spirelli work.
I got out the Fiskars border punches: Rope border, scalloped border and lace punch. Add a little stamping and they make some elegant designs.

My November class was a fun and funky card class so that I could show the girls that you only need some cardstock in a few different colours and some stamps and basic punches to get some lovely cards. One of the ladies converted them all to Christmas cards by adding a Christmas greeting which I thought was good that she thought they could be effective for that event.

Most of the stamps are from the Stamps of Life or the Sugarloaf 246 stamp set.

Last month Heather over at Home and Scrapped gave us a card challenge to use some sketches she had designed to create some cards. I made mine Christmas cards as I still needed some more. I will be so glad to finally finish off the little stickers that I have floating around in my stash but unfortunately it may still be another few years before they are all gone.

A while ago I joined in a Soup project to try the new Vita Weat lunch slices and this is the parcel of product I received to try. Four different flavours and some info about the slices to share with family and friends.

I was surprised that all the boys liked them and my colleagues at work were very helpful with their input into their thoughts of the product, flavours, packaging etc. If you haven't tried them yet you should, the soy, linseed and sesame and the sunflower, oats and chia were the most popular amongst my family and friends. The slices are about the same size as a slice of bread but in a crispbread format. They taste great and they don't fall apart when you bite into them. You can add a moist topping to them and they still hold their own and stay crisp. Love 'em!

Well, in case I don't get back before Christmas, I wish you all a Merry one and a very special New Year. Hopefully I will get back into some of my own creative ventures in 2012.

Happy Scrapping and card making......

Needed inspiration

2011-09-25T19:02:00.003+08:00

Having not scrapped in ages, I was very happy to go to Michelle's for a Fiskars workshop yesterday. With going back to work for the last few weeks, my time has been challenging keeping up with life in general so the mojo has disappeared amongst my tiredness. It was nice for a change to just follow instructions of how to cut the paper and put the layout together and all I had to do when I got home was find some photos and finish them off. Now, that I could manage to get done.

I managed to turn my layouts into travel ones with photos from my trip last year. I can't believe it is almost 12 months ago and I am still scrapping the photos and have heaps yet to do.

This is a photo of Ivo's front garden at his home in Heusden. The colours were so lovely to look at and so intense in the red's and yellows. I could not resist on taking a photo. This layout involved lots of stamping and cutting out and I love the effect of it all.

The second layout is a photo of me and Mr Obama in Madame Tussauds. I didn't realise how tall he is, I felt rather small next to him. A little bit of work went into this layout with stitching and creating the little flags from a tag punch. A very clever idea. Pity I don't own the punch to duplicate the idea in future.

The third layout we created was designed to have us getting our fingers dirty. We painted the background and painted the edges of our papers. A little design fun with rolling the papers to create a nice little embellishment effect. Pleating paper also seemed to be a theme of the day which was funny as I used the same technique myself the other week in my card class and the ladies were cursing me. This is a photo of a lovely little home in Eltville, Germany. The title is the name and date on a plaque on the front of the house.

My card class for this month was Christmas cards with non-traditional colours. I repeated a couple of cards from a couple of years ago as the ladies had not done them before. The last one, the orange one..... was a new card design using one of my first ever Christmas stamps and some more current greeting stamps from the Stamps of Life.

Hope everyone is looking forward to school holidays again, I have one more week of work and then I get holidays with the kids for the fortnight.

Happy Craftin!

Getting through the Xmas stash slowly......

2011-08-30T19:18:00.005+08:00

Well I haven't been around for a few weeks as I have had the opportunity to work a few hours for six weeks and I am out of practice with the idea of working and running a household. My creative head has been resting whilst I get the basics around the house up to date and leave some for "later".......

I'm sharing a layout from a few weeks ago based on a sketch for August by Heather at Home and Scrapped. I might eventually finish scrapping my photos from Amsterdam and then I can move on to the other areas I visited in The Netherlands.

As my post says, I am working on getting rid of my Christmas stash although I think I probably have another three years of cards to do before I finish it all off. I have some really old card toppers and papers from magazines that I have to do something with so here are a few more of my cards for this Christmas.

I keep trying to alter some of the card toppers as they have words on them that I wouldn't use for my Christmas cards so that in itself can be an interesting challenge.

Crafty Hazelnuts challenge #23 - use blue. Well I did add just a hint of other colour with this glittery ornament sticker.

Crafty Hazelnuts challenge #26 - anything goes.

This is an altered handmade card that I received from a distant family member last year. I cut it down and mounted it on a burgundy card base, inked a little and added an extra mat to the merry and bright greeting.

Crafty Hazelnuts challenge #25 Christmas wings - use an angel or fairy etc. I had this vintage image already printed that I purchased as a vintage set a couple of years ago and I just love the image.

Christmas card challenges #17 - no stamping.

Just using the duplicate card topper I found.

Crafty Hazelnuts challenge #24 - buttons. I just happened upon this card topper when I was doing this one so figured it would work beautifully.

The lovely Karen sent me this card last year and I loved the papers and the sticker greeting so I altered it a little by trimming it down and mounting it on a dark red card then added some aqualip pen and dimensional magic to the flowers to bring them out a little. I love re-using cards that have been sent to me and forwarding the love on to others.

Crafty Hazelnuts challenge #12 - seasonal silver. I had this piece already embossed and I hate to cover up this lovely embossed image so always keep it simple with this embossing folder. Some kindyglitz and a border sticker make a great, simple card.

Fab's Challenge for July was to use a tree and/or dark colours. I stuck with the tree idea and did both the one above and the one below.

Crafty Hazelnuts challenge #18 - use a die-cut, found me using this great cut from the SVGblog that I purchased the file from. Just add a background and a playful pot and this makes a great card too.

Crafty Hazelnuts challenge #13 - a square card. Didn't quite work out the way I planned as I picked up two different markers and the blending didn't work so well but never mind it still looks okay.

The last two weekends I have run my simple, yet elegant card class using my favourite Kaisercraft clear stamps. I love pink and black or pink and brown as a colour scheme so I stuck with the simple pink/black colours and the ladies loved the stunning effect it produced with very little effort. Some plain black sating ribbon, a Fiskars border punch and some fussy cutting gave us some lovely designs.

Well the oven is beeping to tell me my banana cake is done so I best head off and retrieve it. Haven't baked a banana cake in ages with the price of bananas sky rocketing upwards but there was a bag of bruised ones in the supermarket begging me to use them so I have and the boys will be happy tomorrow.

Happy creating!

I was challenged......

2011-08-04T22:03:00.003+08:00

I was challenged to do the "Get Challenged Now" at Home and Scrapped this week and was given the task of creating a layout using: masking tape, two big circles and lots of red. This is based around an old sketch of Julie Bonner's from a couple of years ago. I love the way it turned out and decided not to really embellish it with much as I liked the clean style that I ended up with.

Does anyone else have that feeling sometimes of never being able to find an embellishment that fits the theme of your layout?

Not a lot of scrapbooking happening this week as our Korean exchange student arrived on Tuesday and I have been busy with craft and dog activities too. Keelan has a school assembly in the morning and he will be singing with his class and the school senior choir who have been offered a spot in the Festival of Music in September. He is really excited by it but also nervous so I hope he does well tomorrow as he has a little solo part to perform.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Christmas card class

2011-07-31T21:50:00.004+08:00

Well yesterday afternoon I ran my Christmas card class for July. I kept them simple so the ladies could duplicate them easily enough with their own products at home. They use stamps from Kaisercraft Merry Christmas set and The Stamps of Life Holly4christmas set. There is one small greeting from a Fundamentals Christmas greeting set also.

Of course the Fiskars scalloped edge border punch made an appearance as well as the apron lace border punch in the card below. Some heat embossing and dimensional pearls helped to put the finishing touches on this one.

The Die Cuts with a View paper range that is still in our stores here made a great background for this card. I love to use a more non-traditional paper range on my Christmas cards to give a break from the red and green and the black and silver really makes the little red and green I have used pop out.

I even introduced the ladies to some Smooch which none of them was familiar with. I have the snickerdoodle colour which comes up gold looking on some colours so used it to colour the top of the bauble just for something a little different.

The ladies were so quick with doing the other three that I threw in a quick card with just stamping, water colour pencils, some polysparkle embossing and rhinestones. So simple and done in 15 minutes but looks so good and quite elegant.

When I cleaned up my room a few weeks ago I found this old Big ideas kit from TLC days. When I first joined TLC back in 2005 they had kits you could purchase to give you ideas for presenting your products. I bought a couple that I was going to use - at some stage so finally I put them to use and copied (sort of ) some of the designs but did not use the pocket ideas for the inside of the cards or the additional stickers. I decided instead to find some extra cardstock to match and use the stickers and extra papers to make more larger cards so with s little ribbon and a flower or two I came up with some extra ideas. Do any of you ex-TLC consultants remember these lines? I actually quite like the colours for some birthday cards.

I have a layout still in the making but will have to share that another day........

There is a simple and elegant card class that I am running on the 20th and 27th of August at 2.30p.m. so if anyone is interested in playing along then email me for details.

Happy creating.....

The butterfly garden

2011-07-29T21:15:00.003+08:00

I missed the Cybercrop at Home and Scrapped on the weekend as my weekend was so busy and I kind of forgot about it. I did however finish a challenge today, albeit a little late for the CC. Karen gave us a challenge to find some butterfly clip art and use it on a layout which she also gave us a double page sketch for. I had these great papers - free with Australian Scrapbook Ideas magazine current edition which I thought were rather cute and looked like they would work for the layout so I had a lovely time playing.

For the month of July, Heather challenged us to make a minimum of four cards with no particular greeting on them..... they could be ready for adding a greeting later or simply a "for you" card which could be used for any occasion.
Some Basic Grey - Lime Rickey scraps for a funky and bright card.
A masculine design using scraps from the technique challenge for the month which is the art layout from my previous post.
Scraps from my Stars in my Eyes layout below which I later turned into a "thanks" card by adding a Stamps of life thanks greeting to the scallop circle.
Another masculine design card using a clip art gramophone image and a Kaisercraft music clear stamp.
Our colour challenge for July was to use raspberry, yellow and cream so I had these photos of the city of Valkenburg in the Netherlands to scrap and they worked well with the colours.
Using the scraps from the colour challenge I combined a Cybercrop challenge from Scrap of Difference to use a stamped image, embossing, punch a button and a flower. I love recipe challenges as I just grab everything I need out and then play and I was really happy with the result.
Jo gave us a sketch to play with also at the CC which I changed a little and converted from a 8.5" x 11" layout to a 12" x 12". These are some figures from Madame Tussauds in Amsterdam.
Lastly the colour challenge at Scrap of Difference was varying shades of pink and green from a lovely pic of a camelia. I used them with more photos from Madame Tussauds and combined it with the lyrics challenge for the month from Home and Scrapped. The title is a lyric from a song by Neurotica with the title of the same name.

Well next week is the arrival of our newest exchange student. Our 20th student we have ever hosted, our first from Korea and the youngest ever at 11yrs of age in Australian age as apparently the age in Korea is counted differently to here in Australia.Their first year comes at birth and the second on the first day of the lunar New Year, a child born, for example, on December 29 (of the lunar calendar) will reach two years of age on Seolnal (Korean New Year) , when they are only days old by western calculation.

The boys are very excited to have another brother for three weeks and have been having fun getting to know him via email. I have even managed to get his room sorted and ready already so he could move in tomorrow but his flight doesn't get here until Tuesday.

Chat soon........ Happy creating!

Just a few new layouts.

2011-07-06T21:37:00.005+08:00

Over and Home and Scrapped a number of weeks ago, Heather put up a challenge to take a photo of the season and scrap it. I had these gorgeous photos of Belgium in autumn which I immediately thought of so decided to use those instead but it had taken me a few weeks to do it.

Next is a layout - just because....... not for any challenge..... can you believe that? More photos of Ingeborg and I in Paris.
Then off to the Netherlands to Valkenberg and the Town Cave. Ingeborg took me here for an afternoon tour. A little train ride through this huge cave with the most amazing artwork on the walls.

The other weekend I went to a Fiskars workshop with the lovely Michelle Wallace and we created three layouts on the day. I had a lovely time and enjoyed the company of the other ladies there. As usual I loved the layouts we created with lots of stamping - so much fun.

That's all for today..... Gotta finish watching the end of Got To Dance UK now...... Who will the winner be?

Moving along with some travel layouts

2011-06-14T20:19:00.002+08:00

I can't believe that it has been two years since Heather started our little ning community of scrappers. In line with our second anniversary there, we have had a few challenges for June and the anniversary to play along with. I am trying to wrangle most of them to work in with my travel photo collection which I have of my holiday last year. Not so exciting for some as they are mainly 4" x 6" photos and lots of photos of streets and buildings but I wanted to scrap them none the less.

My arrival in Amsterdam where I look rather bedraggled at 6.30am out the front of the Airport. The shuttle bus driver kindly offered to take my photo after a 26+ hour flight with stopovers.

This is done using a sketch from Heather for the June sketch challenge. I've decided that twinchies and inchies are not my forte. Must be something to do with the size cos I don't do ATC's well either.
This is a quote challenge for June where I have used the quote:

A good friend is a connection to life - a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world. ~Lois Wyse

The June Stash challenge was to use those die-cuts and punched shapes that you have trialled or was keeping for a special layout or card and put them to use on a layout. I have a container of leaves in various sizes and shapes that I punched the majority of, years ago, whilst borrowing someones punch. I also have a Cricut corner cut in the top right along with a flower that was sent to me in a RAK.
The last layout I have completed was for an Anniversary challenge to use at least two things you have received in a RAK or swap from other members of Home and Scrapped. Here are flowers and brads from Heather, greenery from Joy and the chippie title that I altered with smooch and ink came from Ange in NZ.

I'm slowly getting there but I know there will be a few double pagers to make a good hole in the photos.

Hope you don't get bored looking at them all..........

Finally got my Chrissy cards on the go.

2011-06-07T21:24:00.007+08:00

I have been keeping note of some challenges from Fab's Big Christmas Cards Challenge Blog and Craftyhazenuts christmas challenge blog until I finally found time to start on them.

Here is my small start.....

Craftyhazelnuts #4 - use bling

Craftyhazelnuts #3 - use trees

Craftyhazelnuts #2 - use a recycled card or freebie.

Fab's challenge - June - Use a fun sentiment

Fab's challenge - May - Pastel colours and/or embossing

Fab's challenge - April - Baubles and ribbons

Fab's challenge - March - Curled paper strip and/or pictures

Fab's challenge - February - Peel offs or outline stickers. The card above is a recycled hand-made card from a friend which I have added to and the one below is a newly made one with a little smooch and kindyglitz for fun.

Hope you enjoy my creations and have some fun making your own.

Scrappassion challenge for June and the news of the month

2011-06-01T20:16:00.002+08:00

As you may have noticed we didn't receive many entries for Scrappassion last month. It seems that the interest to participate in the Scrappassion blogs isn't there anymore. Combine the lack of interest with some personal things that the blog owner is dealing with and there is only one conclusion: Scrappassion will end on June 30, 2011.

There is however a final challenge for this month:

Take the advertisement shown below as inspiration for your layout.

You can choose to be inspired by certain colours, the design with the 8 rectangles, shapes like the swirls and butterflies, pictures of angels, coke bottles, whatever really. You can also choose to get inspiration of one of the eight pictures, the words (like Love, Play etc.) This challenge really has no limits!

Once you have made your layout, please send an email to Ria before the 30th of June. Visit the Scrappassion International blog for further details.

Here is my example inspired by the bottom left image.

I hope some of you have a go at this months challenge just for a bit of fun.

Catching up for the month of May

2011-06-01T12:53:00.007+08:00

May has been a busy month and I really haven't done much in the way of scrapping and cardmaking until the weekend before last when I had a mad weekend of two cyber crops.

First I have to share the cards that the ladies made for the kids card class the other week:

The ladies enjoyed the fun of making them especially the dinosaur Cricut cut with googly eyes.

I had this old card that I had half done sitting around in my stash after teaching a class using emboss resist techniques. I figured that I should really finish the front off and use it so played with some distress inks and then an old stamp from a Sugarloaf set that I have never used before.

Scrap of Difference had a cyber crop and we had to make a card with the word Friend and something with wings. I was working on a card class plan for distressing techniques so added a little extra to make the card for the challenge.

Jo's technique challenge was to use stitching on a layout. I also had a challenge at Home and Scrapped to scraplift a layout from Sarah's gallery so I loved her weeds layout and used it as the basis for my stitching layout to kill two birds with one stone.

The sketch challenge was a sketch from Kaisercraft but I did not have any Kaiser papers that would work so picked up some old Cloud9 papers from when I started doing some work with Fiskars demos. I have had the photos matted for about six months and never got around to finishing a layout with them so finally they are done and I'm surprisingly happy with the result.

Some awesome colours for the colour challenge - pale blue, grey, terracotta and cream/beige, made for a lovely layout of photos of a restaurant in Belgium.

Over at Home and Scrapped, Angie and Kerri kept us busy with a range of challenges also.

Angie gave us an advertisement to take inspiration from and I chose the layering of the images and the colours from the ad to play with. I had these great colourful photos from the Zaanse Schans in Amsterdam where I went to a clog factory to see how they were made. The colours worked in so well with the photos that I used and I was really happy with the result of a simple layout using mainly scraps of paper.

Angie followed up by testing my ability with a technique/step-by-step challenge using various scraps, stamping with household items and paint, using stamps and inks and finishing it off with mod podge. It was fun but took a bit of time to dry between each step of the process.

Kerri wanted us to scrap our scrap space which was something I have done a few times now but every time I do a new layout about it, it looks different.

Kerri also gave us a birthday challenge using a variety of elements, ribbon, green, patterned paper background and a quote instead of a title, etc. I loved this layout of my sister Alison's wedding photos in the park and it used some really old papers from when I first started scrapping.

Well that's all to share for now, so will be back soon with the new challenge for June at Scrappassion International blog.

Catching up

2011-05-06T20:15:00.003+08:00

Well as I mentioned a couple of days ago, the new challenge went up at Scrappassion International Challenge blog on the first of the month and the challenge involves making some handmade flowers using Ingeborg's tutorial. I used some felt for the challenge and included my favourite photo of the puppy I've taken so far.

A card I made playing with scraps the other night and a lovely Kaiser stamp from the Lilac Ave collection.

I had very little time for the Scrap of Difference CC the other weekend so only managed to get the colour challenge done. The theme was "life changing moments" and the colour pallette was from the colour room site.
Over at Home and Scrapped I was the "chosen one" for the Get challenged now challenge. I was given the challenge to use handmade felt embellishments, distressed photos and 3 circles. As you can see I used some extra flowers that I made for my Scrappassion DT work. I sanded the photo which is a little difficult to see in the pic. Love how this turned out.
At Home and Scrapped I decided to take part in a new challenge called the Round Robin challenge which has another member sending you some items to use on your layout and you complete a layout using some of them and then send a package of goodies to the person following you. Heather sent me an amazing array of items and I have only used just a few on my layout. The die-cut, brown buttons, Kaiser small letters, journal tag, ribbon strip, handmade flowers, brads and Kaiser raindots. Loved all the items I received and will be sure to use up plenty of them.
Here is my example of the Midweek #41 challenge which was a sketch from Heather at Home and Scrapped. More photos of my travels - just another couple of hundred to scrap...... and I had a go at spiral flowers and used this cute light post from Collections elements.
Some of my clientele wanted to learn how to use Crafter's Workshop templates and stamping on a layout so I planned a layout for them to give it a go. This is the layout the first group did last weekend and I have another group to give it a shot in a couple of weeks time.
For the April Colour challenge at Home and Scrapped, Heather asked us to use white, grey and aqua. It worked beautifully for some more travel photos so I did a double and threw in a black title and rub-ons.
Another cool sketch from Heather for the month of April, saw me complete this layout with an old TLC Hot Fudge kit that I had lying in my stash. I was really pleased with the result.

I still haven't solved my blog access problem with Internet Explorer but have worked out I can access and update okay using Google Chrome. Just have to remember to use Chrome to do my blog hopping in future.

Have a good weekend and happy scrappin'

Blogger problems

2011-05-02T15:15:00.003+08:00

Hi all,
I seem to be having trouble visiting any blogger blog at the moment including my own. I can write a new post from my dashboard after signing into blogger.com but cannot view my blog as I get an error in IE. Hopefully once I sort it out, I will put up the challenge from Scrappassion International blog for the month of May. Better still..... drop by there at http://scrappassionchallengeinternational.blogspot.com and see the challenge for yourself. It's a good one if you are interested in making handmade flowers.

Let me know if anyone else is having issues visiting my blog whilst I work on it in the background.

I know I haven't been posting recently as I have had a new hard drive installed on my laptop and it was in for repair for almost three weeks. So bear with me whilst I sort out the hiccups and find all my contacts and things.
Happy Scrappin'

A new challenge for the month at Scrappassion.

2011-04-04T19:52:00.004+08:00

Well, the beginning of the month brings a new challenge over at Scrappassion and it certainly was a challenge for me. You all know that I am not an Off the page kinda person so this months challenge required the making of a mini album. Thankfully I had heaps of photos left from all of the witches I took pictures of during my visit to a town in Belgium last November so here is what I made with them: The mini album uses a number of cuts from PDDU Cricut cartridge as well as some lovely ones from the SVG blog that I purchased cuts from. The Stamps of life Halloween stamps came in handy also - which was a set I never thought I would use as we don't do Halloween in our family. But, you can never say never can you? Here is the only layout I made for the week too. It was the March sketch over at Home and Scrapped from the lovely Heather. I did manage to get to the Papercraft fair here in Adelaide this weekend after going on a wild goose chase for half an hour on the wrong road. Their blog stated one road which was the one I travelled up and down for on for a while before finally pulling the car over and phoning one of the shops holding a stall at the fair and got directed to the correct address. Seems I was not the only one that went missing..... and I apologise to those of my clientele whom I also misdirected with the blog address listing. It certainly was not intended to direct anyone incorrectly. Still, I arrived there fine in the end and spent up on adhesives, chipboard pieces and Smooch. A little more playing I can see in the future. Best be off to type up some card instructions....... Happy scrapping all.

A little more playing.....

2011-03-27T19:32:00.003+08:00

First of all I have to share this beautiful photo I took of the new baby in the backgarden the other week. This is Qaylie at 12 weeks of age and she is just gorgeous. I'm sure there will be plenty of other pics to share too. This weekend I ran a masculine card class and the ladies completed three cards. This uses some old TLC papers, Kaisercraft Script stamp and a greeting from the Sugarloaf 248 stamp set, some Kaisercraft pearls and a die-cut created in Design studio from the Storybook and George cartridges.

Love this Bird Call Cuttlebug embossing folder and it always looks good for a masculine card. Stamp is from The Stamps of Life banners4all set.

This one for a younger male is made with more stamps from the Sugarloaf 248 stamp set.

Last weekend I was involved with Cybercrops at both Scrap of Difference and Home and Scrapped. Scrap of Difference had the theme of Smiles, Frowns and funny faces, so the card challenge had to include scraps from one of our layouts and a face....... Trying to use up my old TLC papers all the time so this was fun.

The papers for the card came from this layout. This was the sketch challenge and I altered the plain yellow paper with paint, rub-ons and stamps. The frame was created in SCAL using a couple of cuts that I purchased from the SVG blog. The border punch is Fiskars lace which I love to use even on male pages.

This layout was a combination of two challenges. The technique challenge at Scrap of Difference required using masks or stencils on your background. I used the Cosmic Swirls Crafters Workshop template with glimmermist and the Cherry blossom template with chalks. The Home and Scrapped part of the layout was to create a layout using the title "I can't imagine life without you."

Back to some travel photos from my time in the Netherlands for Heather's sketch challenge which had to include some stitching and handmade flowers. Just one of the lovely families I stayed with during my trip.

Sarah at Home and Scrapped, asked us to create a layout using ephemera. I had some wonderful bits and pieces from my visit to Anne Franks house in Amsterdam. You are not permitted to take photos inside the house so I purchased a few postcards of the things I saw and included a couple of pics of the outside of the house that I took. There is also the online ticket that I purchased before I left Australia (thank heavens! - didn't need to line up) and the guide book that you receive upon entry.

Sarah also gave us an advertisement to use as inspiration for our layout. It was a Donna Hay recipe book ad and so I kept the food theme and the layout design for my afternoon tea photos in Frankfurt. Just had to eat a streusal cake in Germany. Yum!

I do remember being encouraged to eat lots of pretzels in Germany too...... funnily enough I did not feel the need to photograph those ;-)

I hope some of you are still planning to get a layout in for the Monochromatic challenge over at Scrappassion.... just a few days in the month left now to have a play.

Special giveaways over at Scrappassion International Blog

2011-03-05T19:50:00.004+08:00

This month we have a special giveaway over at the Scrappassion International blog!
The company ‘Say It With Letters’ is our sponsor for the month and is offering the EAT letters (see below) as a giveaway for the month.

‘Say It With Letters’ is a company that creates shapes and letters.

These letters will be given away to a person within the US only.

For others from outside the US, you have a chance to win this cute little house shape:

Here is a picture of a decorated house to show you how cute these can look:

Obviously if you win, you will get the undecorated version … LOL ...
There are two ways to win:

•If you complete the monthly challenge, you name will be added to the drawing. Click HERE to read about the monthly challenge)

•If you become a follower of the Scrappassion blog your name will be added another time (new followers only, please)

•If you already are a follower, please mention the give away on your blog and you will have a second chance too!

So ... what are you waiting for? We'd love to see many, many entries and have quite a few new followers too!

I am looking forward to seeing what ideas you come up with on your own layouts.

It's a new month....

2011-03-01T10:53:00.002+08:00

Which means a new challenge over at the Scrappassion blog

This month there is a slightly more difficult challenge for you.... make a monochromatic layout with 4 pictures on it! Head to the blog to check out the DT's inspiration. Here is my example:

Looking forward to seeing some lovely layouts this month.

Don't forget the Scrappassion challenge for Feb.....

2011-02-21T21:26:00.005+08:00

There is still plenty of time this month to Alter a Jar and join in the Scrappassion Challenge for Feburary. Don't forget to give it a go and have the opportunity to be a guest DT member for the month of April.

I have had a busy week, with a crop at my place on Friday night and a card class Saturday. We worked on Cuttlebug cards using some basic techniques as a couple of my clients have only just bought their Cuttlebugs to play with and are still learning with it.
We learnt how to use Fiskars texture plates in it as an alternative to embossing folders and Nellie Snellen die. Stamp is from The {stamps} of Life.

Some Heidi Grace and Fiskars stamps on this card with the argyle embossing folder from Provocraft and the Nellie Snellen die and a cuttlebug ornamental die also.

Using the postage stamp die that comes with the machine and an embossing folder also. They learnt how create sections of embossing and leave blank sections to stamp on.

I then spent the rest of my weekend playing along with the Scrap of Difference Cybercrop with the theme of: Two of a kind.

Jo's colour challenge was to use lime green and black and a little white was permitted also. I still love this Kaisercraft paper range. Fiskars effervescence border punch got a work out too.

The sketch challenge making good use of some Kaisercraft stamps.

And the technique challenge was to complete a double page layout. Now I had trouble finding papers to match my sister's wedding photos but happened upon the freebie papers from the recent issue of Australian Scrapbook ideas and used them. Some vanilla cardstock and a Fiskars hearts border punch helps give the page a simple yet elegant effect.

Finally Jo challenged us to use the scraps of our layouts to complete some cards for the card challenge. Stamps are from the butterfly2build set - The {stamps} of life.

Some Kaiser stamps and the word stamp from the {stamps} of life.

Love the lime green and black combo with yet another stamp from the {stamps}
of Life. Did I happen to mention that I love Stephanie Barnard's stamps for Club Members?

Well better head to bed as it has been calling me for the last hour or so. I will be happy when the toilet training part of the puppy raising is over and I can sleep through the night. It's like having a new baby but your body isn't set up to accept the sleepless nights.... LOL!

Some more appeal layouts and the new arrival......

2011-02-11T20:25:00.004+08:00

Have had a chance here and there to get a few more layouts done for the appeal although I think this may be it for now.
Some are scraplifts, others are using old TLC instructions for artist choice kits and others still are just general page maps. I hope someone appreciates receiving them and can make use of them and add their own little touches.

On Tuesday our new guide dog puppy arrived from New Zealand. She is adorable, cute and fluffy and only 8wks old. I know that won't last long, but for the moment she can just be a puppy whilst she settles into our home. She is already making mischief so I think she is quickly getting comfortable. Here are a couple of photos from her first afternoon.

Life is hard when you are a puppy........

Getting to know the boys on the back lawn.

Have a good weekend all.

Rising waters appeal layouts

2011-02-06T13:27:00.003+08:00

Have you heard about the Rising waters Flood appeal for victims of circumstance in Queensland? Check it out here:
I have been trying to get a few layouts together to send off, some with some old TLC kit papers and others with just scraps. Some with titles and some without.... it's kind of hard to know what to do but I'm sure if crafters of any type are receiving them then they will appreciate anything.

Hope you like the examples I have made so far. Off to make some more tonight hopefully.

Happy scrappin'

It's a good thing I am blonde......

2011-02-06T12:53:00.003+08:00

The blonde helps to explain away the stupid things I do sometimes.....

This post was supposed to appear on the 1st of the month but let's just say you may not have been reading it for some time..... Thankfully I remembered to drop by my blog today.
So what I was planning to mention on the 1st was that Scrappassion has it's next challenge up.
This month's challenge will be to:

ALTER A JAR [not a bottle, but a JAR!]

You can decide for yourself how you will decorate the jar. Maybe the DT will inspire you with their work, so go check out the blog.
I hope you will come play along again and I am looking forward to seeing your gorgeous entries!! Good luck!! The winner will become a Guest Design Team member for April!

Don't forget to read all the fine print on the blog so you get your entry correct.

In the meantime, here is my example - nothing exotic, just a jar for my little scrappy bits of ribbon that are not big enough for much but can be found to be useful on the odd occasion.

I was also a little late for the January colour challenge over at Home & Scrapped but the beauty of our Ning community there is that the challenges are always available to be done and there are no prizes to focus on for getting a challenge done..... unless it is the odd RAK for a CC.

The colour challenge was to use Plum, taupe and chocolate so here is my play using my new Martha Stewart Elegant cake Cricut cartridge and some photos of my time in Europe and my love of these cute little Smart cars. Of course we do have the occasional one here in Adelaide but they are few and far between. They were almost a necessity in Paris and Frankfurt with the tight little parking spaces and I loved that they are permitted to park at 90 degrees to the kerb amongst other traffic that is parked parallel to the kerb.

Chat soon......

Don't forget the Scrappasion challenge!

2011-01-29T19:58:00.003+08:00

Just a few more days and the first Scrappassion International blog challenge will end and the next begins. You still have time to make a vintage style layout detailing a word that represents you in 2011.

No more layouts from me in the last few days as I have been busy preparing my Sympathy card class. Here are the cards the ladies had to make this afternoon.

I knew a couple of the ladies have the Stampin' Up Manhattan Rose embossing folder and they have been disappointed when trying to use it as it was not as exciting an image as they expected it to be so I decided to make a couple of cards using it to try and sway their thoughts. They really liked the middle card with the lovely butterfly cut from the SVG blog where I bought the file of her cuts offered on the blog. There are lots of them.... and I love most of them.

The greeting stamps are from the KaiserCraft mini clear stamps Sympathy set. The flourish on the third card from Basic Grey flourish edges and the floral image on the first card is from the Papercraft clear expressions range.

It is great to see that my favourite Christmas card challenge blog will be back up and running as of Feb 1 with a few changes to the format. Looking forward to playing along with Fab's challenges again.

Who will join me in the fun?

Scrappin' my little fingers off at the Home and Scrapped Cybercrop.

2011-01-23T19:39:00.006+08:00

After a week in Mildura on holiday. I was starved for some creative activity so the Home and Scrapped Cybercrop came just at the right time for me. It also helped that I have been tired and grumpy for the weekend so has a been a good opportunity for me to keep to myself and whittle away at the challenges.

First up was a double page sketch from Heather so I used some photos of my recent European trip in Frankfurt. Some handmade flowers appeared too and my stash of those is almost gone so will need to put those on the to-do list.

Challenge #2 from Heather was a journaling challenge to take a photo of a loved one or item, choose 13 words about them/it and journal in a more unusual way about them/it. We also had to include a piece of bunting which I almost forgot...... Thank heavens for Wordle art - this wordle cloud was printed directly onto my 12 x 12 cardstock and I just worked the stamping and photo around it.

Ange challenged us in the third challenge to create a layout using two or three colours that lie side by side on the colour wheel. The only other colour allowed was a neutral - black, white or kraft. I enjoyed the chance to play with some pink and purple. This is a lift of a layout in the magazine - Super fast layouts with 4 x 6 photos, Vol. 2.

Lastly Ange challenged us to create a layout using: 3 photos, a border, predominant blue colour and a choice of 5 quotes.

I decided to go on and make a card with each set of papers left on my table from each layout.

Challenge #1

Challenge #2 using Fiskars - Wishes all around stamps, Apron lace border punch and scalloped circle squeeze punch.

Challenge #3 with stamps from The Stamps of life - Flowers2share set.

Challenge #4 and a Page maps card map design

Before I left for Mildura, I was the victim for the "Get Challenged Now" challenge over at Home and Scrapped. I ran out of time to get it completed before we left so worked on it Friday night after reading a CK magazine in my travels and being taken by the colours in a layout that would work for me.

My criteria: Paint or ink on the background, Patchwork of scraps and button and bows.

Hope you like what I came up with, it was fun to play with just scraps of papers.

Now, I knew I would get bored on my trip to Mildura as I am not your everyday, lie by the pool kind of person. So a couple of years ago I bought these Form a Line patterns and thought that I would take them with me to play with. Some pre-folded cards, thread, paper piercer, mouse pad and needles, along with the patterns and the following are what I came up with. When I got home all I had to do was add greetings and a couple of little extras and voila.... I have made a start on my Christmas cards for the year.

Well that's it folks..... off to type up some instructions for a card class for the weekend.

A Great RAK to win over at the new Scrappassion International blog.

2011-01-05T16:53:00.003+08:00

Now not only can you win a Guest Design Team membership for March, but you could win this fantastic kit too at Scrappassion Challenge Blog International!!

This wonderful kit has been provided by MICHELLE!

There are up to three chances per person to win this!

First chance: All you have to do is become a follower on the blog and we will add your name to the draw!!

Second chance: If you want your name added for a second time and a chance at the becoming a member of our Guest Design Team for the month of March, join in on this month's challenge and have it mailed to Ria by January the 31st, 2011.

Third chance: if you promote the Scrappassion International Challenge Blog on your own blog (please leave a comment with a working link to your blog on that blog - not on mine!) your name will be added for the third time! How cool is that?

Please note: this RAK will end on January 31, 2011. The winner will be announced on February 1st or 2nd.

Have a go why don't you!!

Another one... already....

2011-01-03T20:45:00.004+08:00

Well, I was determined to get this finished last night after it had me frustrated for many hours. Not entirely happy with it but it will have to do for now.

Most of these photos were taken by the lovely Ingeborg as we decided not to go mad and duplicate photos of everything. There is a couple of freebie SVG files I have used with SCAL and some great Dusty Attic chipboard which has been inked, misted and utee-ed. Sarah bought me these cute Parisian dimensional stickers from K&Co so there is a few of those on there too.

Thanks Ingeborg for all the cute photos.

Just a quick layout for the New Year weekend

2011-01-02T15:48:00.003+08:00

When Ingeborg and I went on our road trip to Paris we noticed something quite unique when we crossed the border into France. Unlike other places I had visited in Europe and Australia, the power lines had a unique style about them. Maybe it is the scrapbooker in me, I'm not sure but all I could see when I looked out over the coutryside were the owls sleeping in the fields.
I had to take a few photos just to show others what I meant and still some of my family don't get it. I hope others can appreciate my point of view.

The design is based on Heather's sketch for December over at Home and Scrapped.

Enjoy!

The first challenge for Scrappassion International is up.....

2011-01-01T12:10:00.003+08:00

Welcome to 2011!

My role on the DT at Scrapassion International blog has commenced and Ria has challenged us, and you to create a layout in vintage style, choosing a word as your title that represents you in 2011.

I chose the word CONTENT - and my quote reads: To accept what you are is to be content and contentment is the greatest wealth. To work with patience is to gather power. ~ Vimalia McClure.

Head over to the Scrapassion blog to see what the other lovely designers have chosen as their word.
What will you choose as your word?

Getting excited.....

2010-12-31T10:50:00.004+08:00

The Scrappassion International blog starts tomorrow so I am very excited to see who joins in our first challenge and also can't wait to see the designs from the other fabulous members of the team.

I haven't scrapped much over Christmas as I have been dog sitting my Sister's dog - a boxer, for a number of days whilst her son is visiting with his children. Holly, the boxer is obsessed with our cat so it is a continual trial of dog in, cat out then cat in, dog out. We are on watch the whole time as they have had a few fights so far and the dog always comes off with a bleeding snout but she still has not learnt that the cat is boss and continues to prowl the house looking for her.

I did manage a double pager the other night after Holly left...... More photos of Paris. I had about 260 more photos printed of the rest of my trip so I'm sure you will be seeing more and more. You will certainly get sick of seeing travel layouts...... he,he,he.......

This uses some old TLC paper that I have heaps of to use up so you may see more and more over time.

At Home and Scrapped we had a parcel swap and I took two items out of the pack and replaced it with another two items.

I chose a pack that contained the lace and flower as I needed the lace for my DT layout to come tomorrow and the stamp was the second item. The idea is to take two items and use them on a layout or card/s.
Below is the card I made with the scraps from my DT layout so you get a sneak preview of the papers I used.

Happy New Year to you all...... ours is a hot 43 degree celsius New Years Eve...... the hot wind is not too pleasant. Enjoy your Eve and New Years day wherever in the world you may be.

Now for my news..... for those not on my Facebook friends list

2010-12-13T16:30:00.000+08:00

Recently I applied for a DT role with a new International challenge blog starting on the 1st of January 2011, called Scrappassion International Challenge blog. Well, I was lucky enough to be one of the four people chosen to be a part of their new International DT. I was rather excited... and still am......

Each month starting in January a new challenge for the month with be added with instructions down the right-hand side of the blog page explaining the rules of entry. I look forward to a few of my friends joining me on this journey and having fun with the challenges. I will link every month to the new challenge for you to see.

At Home and Scrapped I was recently also chosen as the victim for the "Get challenged Now" challenge. The previous "chosen one" chooses the next victim and then three fellow forum go-ers give a challenge point each. Here is what I came up with:
My criteria - a minimum of 5 rub-ons, minimum of 3 stamped or hand-cut swirls and finally a frame. I just happened to be writing out Christmas cards at the time and this was the card front frame that came from a friend with a photo of her beautiful grandchildren.

Home and Scrapped - Heather's December sketch #1. Handmade flowers with stems and title from the Botanicals Cricut cartridge.

Just because I wanted to scrap photos of Paris....... Putting the Fiskars border punches to work too.

My lovely snack in Singapore airport from the Guylian chocolate cafe. Soooooo nice! Soooooo chocolately........ and yes you can overdose on chocolate!

First photos of the Eiffel Tower - I'm sure you will see more at some stage. Loving the Dusty Attic chipboard that I just bought.

Off to sort out kids......

M.I.A..... went off galavanting around Europe....

2010-12-13T09:07:00.004+08:00

Well my trip to Europe was a wonderful fortnight of catching up with old friends (20+ yrs ) and more recent friends. My plan was to only visit the Netherlands and Germany however a special treat from a friend took me also to Paris and Vielsalm in Belgium. Some amazing places that I never in my wildest dreams thought I would get to see.

Now I am back in the real world with school finishing up for Christmas and the arguements of kids on holidays, over who will play which video game on what machine.

Just a quick share or two whilst I am here from the November CC at Scrap of Difference:

Our theme was "How time flies" - So I challenged the girls to make a Christmas card seeing as Christmas has flown up so quick on many of us. It had to include a bird, and lace - either paper punched or real and be made with less than traditional colours.

Belinda gave us a neat sketch to play with that was great for using up strips of scraps.

The colour challenge was a pallete from "The Colour Room" blog - White, blue, green and orange.

And, Jo's technique challenge was to include a clock face, hands, the word time and a bird.

Back to share some more soon...... I have some news that I will share.......

The Power Gear Pruner

2010-10-27T20:43:00.002+08:00

Sometimes being a Fiskateer leads to some surprise benefits. Not only do you get great hints and tips from the forum about how to use your Fiskars tools - both scrapbooking and gardening, on the odd occasion you receive a surprise parcel in the mail to try.
This happened recently when I received this great pair of pruners - The Power Gear Pruner.
This product has recently received the Ease-Of-Use certification from Arthritis Australia and New Zealand.

When I first opened it up I thought that I had broken it already because the handle moved unexpectedly and I was immediately disappointed with my stupidity. However, when I actually read the instructions I quickly realised that it was designed to move that way - how clever! So in actual fact I wasn't as stupid as I thought, apart from the fact that I should learn to read the instructions first and then try.

Being a sufferer of Rheumatoid arthritis for almost 20 years I was pleasantly surprised by how easy the pruner was to use on quite thick stems even though I was having a "bad hand day" as they are known in my household. Once you become used of the rolling movement in your hand the pruner makes it easy to give a simple, clean, cut with very little squeeze effort.

Even one of my boys had to have a go after overhearing me telling Dad how great they were. I have included a couple of photos of my young man cutting some geraniums for me and he was happy that he did not need to use two hands to cut some of the thicker stems like he would with regular pruners. Maybe I will make a gardener out of him yet!

Well done to Fiskars for creating such a useful tool.

Using a couple of Ingeborg's sketches.

2010-10-05T19:23:00.002+08:00

My dear friend Ingeborg has her sketch blog that she started a short time ago and I have printed off the sketches but not used any yet. So, this weekend I had a play with a couple.

This layout was part of a CC challenge to use eyelets and buckles and I did not have a large photo like the sketch showed so used two 4" x 6" photos instead.

This was a card challenge for World Card making day, to use several patterned papers, an old preprinted chipboard element and make it a hello card for someone you have not seen for sometime.

Kim gave us the challenge to create a shaker card and it is a couple of years since I have made one. I like to do them with winter scenes from old cards and a window of glitter but didn't have any scenes to work. So, I pulled out the Joy2Christmas stamps from the Stamps of Life and made a snow globe instead. I wish I had a more suitable background paper to use as I am not so happy with the result but it looks okay.

Kerri challenged us to make a long A5 card to include a bird or owl and a sentiment. Can you see my little birdie? This card uses a mish-mash of stamps from Heidi Grace, Fiskars, Basic Grey and Kaiser. Nothing like playing with your stamp sets on hand.

I should really get on and finish the other two layouts for the CC that are sitting in piles on my table... oh, and do the last card challenge.

My baby girl is back for a visit.....

2010-10-02T20:21:00.006+08:00

Happy world cardmaking day to you!

I almost forgot but am about to head off and do some now before I go to bed so at least I can say I have done something.

In actual fact I have been working on a layout based on one of Ingeborg's sketches but just not finished yet..... maybe tomorrow for that one.

The weekend before last I headed to a Fiskars workshop at Michelle's place and we made a couple of lovely layouts and a number of cards so here are a few of my favourites to share:

And before anyone asks..... yes that is me in traditional Javanese costume for my "daughter's" wedding in Indonesia in 2003. She had the kebaya (top) specially made for me and my hair is done with a sanggul, a traditional hairpiece, held on with lots of pins. I am used of this style of dress after having lived there as an Exchange Student so quite enjoyed the opportunity to dress like it again.

The same weekend I had a cybercrop at Scrap of Difference. They were able to blame me for the theme this time, of "in the media". I thought it was a fairly broad theme allowing for layouts about any topic that you may find in a newspaper or magazine. It seems I did challenge everyone with the topic though.

The technique challenge was to do a hybrid layout. This layout includes a red/white paper from the Team Spirit - red digi kit from LifeTimez, along with the journal rectangle. The logo was scanned from a poster the kids received on the day and adjusted to fit the layout.

The sketch challenge was based on a PageMaps sketch from September.

And the colour challenge of Black, white and blue which also had to have a "hidden" element. Above is my hidden panel and below the layout.

At Home and Scrapped, Heather put up one of her lovely sketches for midweek challenge #26 and I used some really old mulberry paper on this one.

Last but not least some of my DT work for the month of September. My kit had a double-sided Fall plaid from K&Co and a paper from Daisy D's, Bella corkopia borders, along with a KaiserCraft clear stamp set - Lilac Avenue. It was quite an interesting array of items to work with. You can see the rest of my cards in my DT gallery:

Back to my title, my baby girl Viva is back for a visit after being withdrawn from the Guide Dog program. A little disappointing for us but I knew if she was going to fail it was for precisely the same reason that she has. She is dog distracted, some days good at walking past other dogs and other days she jumps and barks for no apparent reason. I was kind of hoping it had something to do with walking with me and that it would change once she got with the experts... but alas it didn't. She is staying with us until they find her a permanent home. And no, it won't be with us.....

Have a good weekend!

Way back in 2008........

2010-09-11T20:50:00.004+08:00

October 2008 it was, I bought some online classes called Octoberfest by Jen Hall. Well, I only got so far in doing them and did not complete them all so whilst my mojo has been holidaying lately, I decided to continue scrapping but just use Jen's wonderful classes to perhaps inspire me to get back excited about my own scrapping.
Here are almost the last of the classes done now.........

The most paint I have ever used on a layout - Octoberfest #31. The lovely doodled tags and embellishments on the pages from Octoberfest were all kindly drawn by Jen and delivered to us to use. I just wish I was as confident in the doodling world as she is.

#30 A layout from Jaimie Emmerton based on using a cluster. This is another one of my areas where I lack expertise but I think I have managed to do an okay job with it. It certainly doesn't look as good as the example but it works for me......

#28 - A layout I loved being a boy one..... I added an extra photo to the example layout and where Jen used the Basic Grey Archaic range, I found some Kaiser ranges that kind of went together and played with those to get similar design results. I really love it as it is so different to my own style and had me get out some tools I hadn't used in some time. Have to remember to pull them out again in future.

#27 - On a Christmas pageant morning. Love the Lime Rickey range.....

Over at Scrap of Difference the Product challenge for Aug-September is to use a Crafter's workshop template. You would think after all my playing in July that I would be quite over it but I actually enjoyed using a few different ones this time. I have used the Swirls & flowers for the journaling lines and some faint flowers in the background, Dot burst for the circle of buttons, cherry blossom for the background branches and leaves and the Regal Flourish for the flourishes on the top right. A small scrap of patterned paper, some kaiser rhinestones and TLC glitter and foil rub-ons makes for a nice layout.

And I did mention more Christmas cards, didn't I?

Uses some old sticker borders and a recycled card, as does the one below.

Some more old stickers and some silver stars too.

Old stickers and free papers from a magazine.

A stamped, embossed background and a recycled card.

Another recycled card and Letraset rub-ons.

Fab's challenge #15 - another of the cards from the Cloud 9 kit. Can you see I'm getting to the scraps now?

More recycled cards.

Another of those darned sparkly stickers of the kids.... and a free paper from a magazine.

Last but not least a tree from a recycled card and some old vellum stickers.

Well, best go get the banana cake from the beeping oven so the kids have something to eat tomorrow. I even baked some cookies from the Simple Savings $21 challenge book that I borrowed from the library. The batch was huge and made almost 100 cookies. I added some Cadbury drinking chocolate and coloured choc bits to the basic mix and one of the kids liked them cos they were crunchy, but another preferred the others I make that are soft. Can't win! Dad reckons he prefers them in the middle - crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.... can you guess what I might have suggested for next time?

Christmas cards.....

2010-09-10T12:31:00.005+08:00

For a few days now I have been busy working on Christmas cards again. I needed to get stuck into them as my next couple of months are busy ones as we head into the Christmas season.

Now some of these are a little average.... but I have been looking at the same stickers and card toppers for the past few years trying to put them to good use as I am determined to make use of them and not throw them out. I have a heap of kiddy, shiny metallic stickers of stockings and baubles and things too which I bought for a playgroup christmas activity and we never used all the stickers so am getting rid of those too.

There is just a few of Fab's challenges included and the rest are my "using up my stash" challenge to myself.

This is similar to one of my previous ones but my card class ladies wanted to do it so as I don't have enough rhinestone flourishes for a class of them, I recreated the effect using an Autumn Leaves flourish stamp and kindyglitz. Some Fiskars border punches, threading water, apron lace and lace work well together too.
Some free magazine papers and old card topper. A Pagemaps sketch from June 2010.

Free magazine papers, old stickers and a CM punch for the window effect.

Fab's challenge #23 - No brads, no ribbon and/or a little birdie.

Fab's challenge #22 - Tag and/or paper weaving and/or paper pricking. I left out the weaving bit but the other parts are there.

Fab's challenge #21 - To cut a diagonal and/or modern Christmas papers. I made two as I figured if I was doing a diagonal cut them I might as well do it to create two cards at the same time.

Fab's challenge #20 - Candle and/or vintage rich papers.

The rest are all Fab's challenge #15 - to make as many cards from a kit as you feel like. I used a Cloud 9 Christmas Joy kit with just a couple of extra matching embellishments.

That's it for now...... more to come later.......

August DT kit.....

2010-09-10T11:45:00.005+08:00

I had some lovely My Mind's Eye papers to play with in my DT kit for August which was quite different to the challenge that I had with the template for July.

I made some cards and two layouts which also use some Bella shapes and alpha from the kit provided.

The August Cybercrop at Scrap of Difference had a theme of "Blast from the Past". This enabled us to use not only vintage photos but any photos that haunted us... from our past, our children's past or catching up with old friends etc.

This was the sketch challenge from Belinda that I rotated to use this gorgeous photo of Keelan and Ethan in the bath at our Perth townhouse in 2001. Weren't they just cute little boys?..... Whatever happened to those little fellas?

Jo challenged us with the colours of brown and lilac which made me go for a hunt..... brown was okay but the lilac came from some old packs of Me and my big ideas papers that I had from when I first started scrapbooking. The photos are of my Mum in her thirties, long before I was even thought of.

This is my example that I put up for the card challenge. I was a little unsure how I would incorporate the theme into a card challenge so I decided to use a technique that I learnt early on for making cards and that was to use clip art. These days to create something hybrid is quite common however some were still challenged by the concept. On my card, I found a photo of a lighthouse in my clip art and imported it into Paint Shop Pro, converted it to a pencil drawing then printed it onto some cream coloured textured cardstock. It gives it an almost stamped and coloured impression. The idea does come in handy when you don't have patterned paper or stamps to match the theme of your card.

Last but not least, the technique challenge was to use Vintage or shabby chic techniques on our layout. I had an old photo of my grandparents whom I never knew and found some free papers from the new magazine in Australia called the Australian scrapbook ideas. It is a sister magazine to the "Scrapbook Magazine" from the UK by Practical Publishing. A little bit of tea-dyed lace, some distress inks over a Heidi Swap mask and some eyelets and lacing finished off the look.
Now, on the same weekend, there was another cybercrop over at Home and Scrapped. Sarah challenged us with an advertisement to use as we wished so I got to work with the photos I already had printed of Pawsy and Viva on the kitchen step trying to convince me it is dinner time. It was the only time of day they ever got this close to each other without arguements.... LOL!

Heather gave us a double sketch to work with so photos of Ethan and a caterpillar were put to use also.

Karen gave us a tutorial for making a handmade flower and Kerri wanted us to do a layout using the days of the week and some old sticker letters or chipboard which she asked us to create a card with leftovers of. Above is the card and below is the layout with a photo of my calendar showing the days of the week. Heather a while back gave us a midweek challenge to do a layout showing how busy we are in our lives right now, so these photos were the planning for that layout which never got done then.

Caroline set us the challenge to create a layout about our car as we spend a lot of time in it during the day sometimes but never really appreciate what it does for our lives. The only photos I could remember were when we were travelling over to Canberra to live in 2005 and the kids were watching the DVD player we had just bought for the purpose. The journaling is all about how we needed a car with more backseats to allow for transport of friends of the kids as well without the need for two cars and that the third row of seats allowed for separation of the three children to reduce the level of "disagreements" in the car......

Well that is it for the moment.... back soon with the first round of Christmas card making.

Crafters Workshop template.... what a lot of fun to use.

2010-08-26T13:05:00.002+08:00

Well my DT kit from Scrap of Difference for July contained a bottle of glimmermist and a Crafters Workshop Cherry blossom template. Hmmm.... what to do with it all. I looked at it for a couple of weeks before I was game enough to play but once I started and got the hang of it I really enjoyed it.
I decided to use the whole template rather than just sections of it and figured it was a waste of glimmermist if I did not make the ultimate use from it. So, with one spray session of the template I got three backgrounds to work with and below are the layouts I produced from it.
Now, if you place an order with Jo over at Scrap of Difference for a template or the glimmermists and mention that I sent you...... then you may just be able to request the instructions for how I created these layouts from one spray. There was also a card to go along with them.
Now, if you have the template and would like to try a Free Online Class to make a layout then visit the forum here: Melissa's online class

Have fun with it.

Been housecleaning the blog..... Do you like it?

2010-07-29T16:36:00.004+08:00

Well I dropped by my blog to do some more posts the other day and lo and behold I had lost my blog layout. So, I dropped over to the "Ettes" and company.com where the lovely designers from the previously known TLC business I used to consult for, have their own digi business now and have a lovely range of blog-ettes to choose from. I hope you like my choice of layout as it is very different to the previous one.

It has been a busy day for me as Ethan fell and hurt his wrist yesterday at school and was in so much pain that I decided to take him to the doctors today. This was followed by x-rays then back to the docs to find out that it thankfully wasn't broken but maybe some ligament damage. He is not allowed to play footy for a week or two until it does not hurt anymore though in case there is more damage than it seems. Seems alright to work a mouse on the computer but hurts to write and eat spaghetti bolognaise..... go figure!

Well back to some more layouts and cards from the past month:

The July CC at Scrap of Difference was based on a winter warmth theme so I had more photos from our winter holiday visit to the Glenelg beach where it was actually almost hot. The boys rolled up the long pants and took off the jumpers to go paddle in the water and chase waves.

Above is the sketch challenge and below the colour challenge to use green, white and red. The flourish is actually covered in beads and micro beads and you should have seen me with micro beads everywhere. I still keep finding them on the table and chairs.

The technique challenge was to choose 3 from a list of distressing techniques and use them on a layout. This is Keelan in 2006 at Perisher Valley learning how to toboggan. The layout was inspired by a Pagemaps sketch and I actually pulled out an old tool...... a tearing ruler...... you know those ones that we bought about 5-6 years ago but rarely use? I actually had fun using it after all this time so thought maybe I should keep it in mind again for future use.

Each month at Scrap of Difference there is a scraplift challenge which I never find time to do but was determined this month to do it. I scraplifted a layout by Kathleen Glossop who is very clever at using white space, something which challenges me. I really love how subtle and simple this layout is.

When we were doing the song title layouts at the last Scrap of Difference CC, I couldn't decide if I would use the lemur or the meerkat photos as I love both of the animals and found very suitable song titles for the layouts. I ended up doing the lemurs so the photos of the meerkats just sat looking at me and pleading with me to scrap them. The Basic Grey Granola range worked beautifully for it.

Another mid-week challenge from Heather was a blind scrap using some Cloud9 Finley's estate papers which really appeal to me for some reason.

My version of the Scrap Whisper no. #3 where I was second in the list so changed it very little.

I was involved with another stamp swap at Home and Scrapped and this time the criteria for stamping was a little different as it could be in any colour and on any colour. There was an interesting array of items and of course Heather had to challenge us to use some of the stamps immediately instead of throwing them into our stash never to be seen again.

The challenge was to also include a layout with bling that used at least four of the stamped images. Here the tag, four of the buttons and the "my diary" stamp were used. The flower was a ribbon flower tutorial from Angie after learning how to do them at a local LSS. I had seen them before on a youtube video but not got around to trying so had fun with it.

Two masculine cards were on the agenda and these had to include some distressing techniques to add dimension.
Then a trio of monochromatic cards inspired by the colour of the stamped images themselves.

Heather at Home and Scrapped gave us a lovely sketch to work with for a Mid week challenge and I found the perfect little gift card set that I had in a drawer with perfect embellishments on the front of them for a series of beach layout. This uses some Kaiser papers and Jenni Bowlin journal card.

Hopefully this post will work after a few tries to get it right last night. Enjoy your evening.

Computer issues have kept me away....

2010-07-23T21:57:00.005+08:00

Unfortunately my computer has been causing me grief over the last few weeks gradually losing battery power and not charging properly so my time has been limited which has led me to complete lots of scrapbooking and card making. Too much to share all at one time so I will do it little by little over the weekend. Or at least that is the plan.

We have had school holidays too so the kids have been around a lot and no quiet time for me until this week.

Last month our CC at Scrap of Difference had the theme of "Sing a Song" and required us to create layouts using song titles as the title or journaling of our layout. I used some zoo photos as you can see and found lots of suitable titles for my photos.

Technique challenge was to use at least three different stamps on a layout, so my tags, some background and part of my title was stamped.

I created the card challenge to use bright colours and gave a list of titles to choose for the theme of the card. They also had to use at least one button on the card too.

The colour challenge from Belinda had a CD cover which we could choose the colours to use from. That was a very cool idea.

Then the sketch challenge had me rotate and resize the sketch to create a 12 x 12 page from an 8.5" x 11" sketch.

Now to move on to lots of Fab's challenges over the past weeks and then some..........

#19 - Cosy and inking. I don't have any cutesy stamps so I found this image from one of the old card fronts that I saved. Good for the recycling.

#18 - Bling with a scene. It's probably not really the kind of scene that Fab was envisioning but it still works. It's a little hard to see from the photo but the stickers all contain glitter in some form and it really sparkles in the right light. Being winter here in Australia it is not always good for photographing these things.

#17 - Card with a wreath or glossy accents. I kind of forgot the glossy accents but at least there is a wreath. This one is part of my card class tomorrow arvo.

#16 Snowflakes and/or embossing by hand or folder. Love my lace tree folder and have used the debossed side of the image as I put the card in the folder the wrong way but loved how the image came up. By chance it also has a snowflake on the tree so it covers both criteria.

#14 Brads and/or steel grey. Only used a little of the steel grey and the brads are surely there. I actually am really happy with how this turned out after hours of playing and getting nowhere.

#13 Tone on tone and/or green. Found this cute santa recycled card front so used that with lots of green. I have so many green scraps that I could probably make a number of green cards with it all. I spent a few hours sorting all my green scraps into shades of green as my container was getting too full. I didn't actually realise how many shades there were.

#12 Word confetti and/or wide matting. Word confetti was the challenge for me as it is not something I have, however I did find some strips of greetings from a magazine lift out so hope that suffices.

#11 Pleated paper and/or cardstock stickers. It is a little hard to tell but the red strip of paper is pleated and stitched on the card. The cardstock sticker is the large Christmas tree topper which I quite like.

Last month I ran an acetate card class and here is one of the cards to share. It uses the the lovely flourish from the Kaiser Rewind clear stamps as well as a Kaiser butterfly and Carolee Creations frame stamp. The greeting is from The Stamps of Life.

Well that's it for the moment so will be back to share more soon.... I promise.

Yeah.... a long weekend

2010-06-13T21:15:00.004+08:00

Not much happening here this weekend although I did have a crop on Friday night and even managed a sleep in this morning. Looking forward to a BBQ with friends tomorrow night before back to school on Tuesday.

Managed to get some DT layouts completed this weekend too. Jo sent me some Prima, Shabby Chich papers - way out of my comfort zone. I am actually quite happy with the results so I hope you like them too.

On the baptism layout I used a tutorial by Debbie Buckland to create the rose. See here for the video on how Debbie does it. Instead of using the Heart template from Fiskars which I do not own yet, I used my Cricut and cut several different sizes of heart from the Plantin Schoolbook Cartridge.

I did mention in my last post that I went to a Fiskars crop a couple of weekends ago. Here are a few of the cards and the two beautiful layouts that Michelle taught us. Visit her blog here to see the other cards we had to create.

I haven't added a greeting to this one yet as I'm not sure what event I will use it for.

Loved Michelle's idea on this one to use a pearlescent embossing powder randomly across the front of the average cardstock to give a classy effect. Might have to find me some of that embossing powder.

I really enjoyed the flower making on this one and the papers were fun to use too.

This cutie is my niece's little girl. Again we have lots of stamping of flowers on this one. The title is Cricut cut with the Mickey Font and All mixed up tag option.

Hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend if you are in Australia and having a long weekend for the Queen's Birthday. I'm hoping for another sleep in........

Dear oh dear, where did May go?

2010-06-05T19:57:00.005+08:00

Since my last post ever so long ago, I have been on three camps. The first at the end of April with Ethan for 3 days and 2 nights to Victor Harbour, the second with Mitchell to the Adelaide Zoo and the last with Keelan, again to the Adelaide Zoo. All three saw such different experiences with the beach and Granite Island as well as the whale centre, Botanical Gardens, Parliament house and the bio-diversity gallery at the Museum as well of course studying enclosures at the Zoo and visiting Funi and Wang Wang the lovely pandas.

May also saw the start of my DT role with Scrap of Difference . Jo sent me a 6" x 6" KaiserCraft pad of Rewind papers and clear stamps to play with and here are a few of my favourites:

I created four layouts and five cards and I have still got plenty of papers to play with. If you would like to see the rest of the creations, feel free to visit my DT gallery and let me know what you think. I dug into some old photos that I found of the kids and tried to find some versatility with the papers for cards for different occasions. I loved working with the papers and playing with the stamps as I am not a person that uses many stamps in my scrapbooking.

It was also my first month helping with the Cybercrop where we chose Bedtime Stories as the theme. We had a colour challenge from Leanne to use black, white and blue:

The technique challenge which involved using two types of journaling on the page:

The sketch challenge by Christine using a sketch she had designed herself and we had to include a photo of someone sleeping:

And lastly the card challenge issued by me to use the jacket of the Bedtime Stories DVD as inspiration for a card with theme of your own choice:

Apart from DT work I have only had the opportunity to design for my card classes for the next two months and to do my newsletter. The rest of my time has been filled with camps, dog training with Viva who will be with us for a while yet, possibly until August and general running kids around.

I do have more to share after a Fiskars workshop last weekend but best I find a photo to complete the second layout and finish the cards that I didn't have time to do all of. Will share them all soon enough.

My news of the week........

2010-04-24T21:37:00.004+08:00

On Friday I had the pleasure of a call from the lovely Jo at Scrap of Difference offering me a position on her DT for the next 6 months. I of course agreed very quickly, so will be looking forward to receiving a pack of goodies to create with soon.

I have done a couple of CC's since my last post so have a few new things to share with you.

First of all there are a couple more photos of cards I have created with the stamped embellishment swap items. The "thinking of you" is from a Stamps of Life set.

During the month of April Kim at Home and Scrapped challenged us to create three cards that were not the traditional rectangular shape.

My first ever circle card for a friend of mine who has recently had a new baby girl. It took me ages to balance the the embellishments to make it stand straight. Seems I am a little particular about doing that kind of thing.

This cute handbag card was cut using a template from an old TLC Artist choice kit. I scanned it and created a SCAL cut file for the little bug. The stamp is from the Stamps of Life.

A card for Fab's challenge site too. #10 Triangular card and/or stencilling and/or stamping. This one I created the card cut in Design studio the with the cuttlebug and a brass stencil I embossed the front and with the stencil in place still, I coloured it with chalks. I used some silver border stickers and the greeting to complete it.

A couple of weekends ago I did the Home and Scrapped CC and I even put up a challenge for the other members.

I wanted a layout with a predominant date title to use up those number stickers, thickers, and chipboard etc. This was my example:

This was Bri's challenge to create a layout using a bi-lingual title. These are photos whilst in Indonesia in 1986 at a waterfall (air terjun) called Coban Rondo.

Kim challenged us to make a minimum of two cards using flowers that had to look like they belonged to a set.

Mistra’s handmade embellishment challenge which had to use fabric too. I cut the tree from some grungeboard and inked it. I used a Cricut cut from the paper dolls cartridge as a design to work with.

I also did Angie’s recipe challenge.

At Scrap of Difference we had the theme of "End of an Era" which I found a little challenging to locate photos for but after a lot of thought and searching through photos I found some things that would work.

This is a layout for the colour challenge to use mint, red, brown and cream.

The card challenge involved the same colours and required a quote or verse about change or new beginnings.

The technique challenge was all about distressing which I kept rather plain and simple with only using sanding, which I haven’t done for months and inking which I use all the time.

Lastly the sketch challenge, I rotated the sketch 180 degrees and worked with these photos of my Mum’s last Birthday. I tried out creating one of the spiral flowers with some Ink by Steph paper and ink and glimmermist. I might have to do this again as I really enjoyed it.

Well that lot's of sharing to peruse so I'm going to take it easy for the rest of the weekend for this lovely long ANZAC day weekend. Enjoy all!

Cards, cards and more cards......

2010-04-06T20:37:00.006+08:00

Over at Home and Scrapped just recently we had the pleasure of joining a stamped embellishment swap and received a huge variety of images to play with. The idea was to send a few images stamped in black on white cardstock so that others could colour them as they wished.
The lovely Heather of course could not miss the opportunity for a challenge so to get us using the image straight away, she asked us to create four cards and a layout with different criteria.
Below is what I came up with along with a few extra so far.

This is my layout based on an article by Vicki Boutin in Scrapbook and Cards Today relating to the under-utilization of our stamps. I scraplifted her layout on the page also but mirrored it and changed the number of photos. I have used two images of stamped mesh and two images of wheat, a floral image and the bird and owl. I water coloured the background images and cut them into 2" squares to form the background. I matted the photos, added a few strips of paper and the half left-over journal box from a previous layout, stamped and rubbed-on the title, wrote out journaling strips and added some brads to finish.

An additional card with a Stampin' up image from the batch and The stamps of Life happy birthday stamp.

Another additional card with the cuttlebugged background.

Yet another additional card with frames cut from the Cricut - Storybook cartridge. Cuttle bug embossing with Swiss dots and the "just for you" is from a Stamps of Life set also.

Another extra card with additional Stamps of Life stamps added to the nature embellishment image received - I think it is a Stampin' Up image too.

One of Heather's challenges to create a card by placing the chosen image in a frame, layer as desired to give depth and use ribbon. One of the cards had to be in black and white only so this was it too.

The challenge - to enhance the chosen image with kindy glitz, glimmer mist, glitter, mini beads or something similar and then add bling to the card. This has lots of kindy glitz on the wings and the background of the stamp but it didn't photograph too well.

The challenge here was to layer the chosen image onto pp or cs and use pop-dots to raise it above the chosen card layout. Inking the edges of the card was required also.

First card challenge was to colour the chosen image using chalks, ink, coloured pencils or paint and use some cardstock the same colour to accent the card. Also a scallop or other fancy scissored border was to be used somewhere on the card. Love the Fiskars Apron Lace punch! I water- coloured the butterfly and used patterned paper for my background to match.

Now, I did say I would share my cyber crop challenges from a few weeks ago for Scrap of Difference.

The card challenge was to create a card using a handmade flower of some type, use the word friend on the card and an item that was not intended for scrapbooking. My flower is made with dressmaking tissue paper from an old pattern and sprayed with Sapphire Glimmermist.

Michelle gave us a round sketch from Pagemaps to work with so this was a little challenging for me as I don't usually do a round page. The theme was family and friends so this is my husband and third born of the triplets at the Rainforest habitat in Cairns.

The colour challenge to use Black, white, pink and green - photos of my niece's little girl.

For something different we had a technique challenge this time and had to create two handmade flowers, one from scratch and/or one altered flower.

I wasn't too sure to start with about this layout but it is growing on me the more I look at it.

Thanks for dropping by....... Maybe you can catch me on the weekend at the Home and Scrapped cybercrop, would love to see you there.

RAK winner..

2010-03-26T21:01:00.002+08:00

Just a quick note to let you know who won the RAK I offered for those leaving a comment after my white inks post.

CONGRATULATIONS......... Josie!

I will get something off to you this week hopefully. I think I still have your address in my pile of paperwork.

This week has been totally crazy with school swimming, parent/teacher interviews, footy trial matches and training underway, amongst a few other things. It has taken me a few days to get to the computer. I do have a few shares from the Scrap of Difference CC but they will have to wait for the weekend now. Have a good one everyone!

More scrapping...

2010-03-13T19:54:00.004+08:00

A few months back, Mistra wrote up a tutorial for some "dodgy" flowers, or so they got called and it seemed like I was the only one on the forum that hadn't tried them. So, I decided that last week I had nothing to do at my craft morning so picked up some paper scraps, various sized flowers, some glimmermist and scissors and played ...... Well it took me two hours (talking included) to create these rather large numbers... but I do like them. Just have to find something to use them on now. Thanks Mistra for the tutorial.

This month I thought I would start the month off well by completing some challenges at the beginning of the month rather than rushing them at the end of the month. So, using the lovely Colorbok papers that I received in the big kit a few months back I created a few layouts for the month. So to start with is a Pagemaps sketch that Ingeborg has for her challenge on her blog this month and it is a layout of my boys on their tenth birthday.

Ingeborg also has a "Just Write" challenge for the month as does Heather at Home and Scrapped, who wanted a journaling and title challenge using the title "If not for you......" . As I often do, I combined the two for this layout about Ingeborg and her influence on my life and as my friend. More of the lovely Colorbok papers.

This one is still more Colorbok papers and is Heather's sketch for this month over at Home and Scrapped. Of course the lovely Viva is a true labrador who loves to chew things and definitely sticks are at the forefront of her choice.

Lastly is a free online class at Scrap of Difference, written by Michelle Wallace. I teemed it with Ange's challenge at Home and Scrapped to use our stash and create a layout using at least seven papers that are more than a year old. At least four of these papers are from a kit of Creative Memories papers that I purchased back in 2001 when I first started scrapbooking. Scary that we can hoard stuff for that long, isn't it? Thanks Michelle for a lovely simple layout.

Having a quiet weekend, stripping the beds and washing so was glad to take a break tonight and veg out on the computer. Happy weekend all!

White inks..... which is your favourite?

2010-03-06T18:28:00.005+08:00

The other morning at my ladies craft we were discussing using white inks and how difficult it was to find one that stands out well on dark cardstock. I asked this question a couple of years ago on a forum and got told by many that the Brilliance Moonlight white was the best on the market. I purchased it and whilst it does give and okay image I have never been entirely happy with white stamped images unless I emboss with white embossing powder. I have purchased another couple of inks in the last twelve months, the Stazon Opaque cotton white - which I find useless for what I want it for and the Versamagic Cloud white chalk ink.

As you can probably see from the images below I prefer the Versamagic to play with.

I would love to hear the opinions of others who use white inks and what their preferred one is..... so, if you leave me a comment about your favourite white ink by the 20th of March, 2010 I will put your name in the hat for a random draw for a surprise RAK......

Can you believe it, I have finally caught up on Fab's challenges, if but not for a moment..... LOL!

#8 - Vintage card and/or round focal point.

This is a vintage angel image from Royce Bairs Christmas collection that I purchased last year. I kept the card simple to maintain that focal point.

#9 - Alternative techniques.

When I was living in Canberra in 2006 I watched a lady one night at a Parish craft night making these lovely cards with ribbon. I went out the next day and bought some lovely ribbon to make some myself and it has sat in my stash since then totally untouched. So, for me this is and alternative technique which I have never tried before. Thanks to Cardinspiration.co.uk I found the exact design with instructions to make it. Finally I have made a small dent in the ribbon.

Finally I am sharing a layout that I created a few weeks ago now as part of a Scrap Whisper challenge at Home and Scrapped. Now I have revealed it on the site, I can also share it here. It uses the lovely Basic Grey Granola range which at first I was unsure if I liked or not but the more I use it the more I like it. I think this is the third layout I have done using it.

Happy long weekend to the Adelaidians..... Looking forward to a sleep-in Monday morning.

More Cyber crop playing

2010-03-04T20:59:00.004+08:00

Well after a weekend with a summer cold the other week, I am almost back to normal besides a blocked ear that is more annoying than sore.
We have had a musical couple of weeks with Mitchell commencing guitar lessons again this year and starting drum lessons..... thank heavens it is only using a practice pad!
Ethan has started saxophone lessons, an intrument that I never ever mastered. He still has it sounding like a sick cow at the moment but seems to be getting it a little better after his second lesson today. Keelan is into his third year of keyboard lessons and continues to improve well.

I have managed a couple of extra of Fab's challenges in the last week and still have more to catch up...... Funny how that happens when he adds one a week and I miss visiting the blog from time to time.

#7 Poinsettia and/or white space
#6 All about ribbons - use at least three different ones. I have used and old pack of DCWV Christmas adhesive ribbons and some stamps from Stamps of Life by Stephanie Barnard - the Christmas set. Aren't they cute!

My dear friend Ingeborg had a couple of challenges on her scrapbook competitions blog for February. This one is the Pagemaps sketch challenge.

This one is her "Love" challenge - to use the word somewhere on the layout. These papers are from a lovely Colorbok kit I received for the survey I completed. Loved it!

Now on to the CC at Home and Scrapped:

Heather's colour challenge - Tan, Hot Pink and Orange

Heather's journaling challenge to journal about a day/date that had an impact on your life. This is Jen Hall's - The write Stuff online class #13 which was supposed to be journaling about an end of an era but I couldn't think of one so figured the start of an era would be equally as important. This is the date my son was diagosed with diabetes.

Suzanne's challenge - another journaling one to find some pics of your childhood and journal about the memories those pics invoke. Mine were by the gates of the Old Catholic Church in Wallaroo so I journaled about my memory of the Church.

Heather's Sketch challenge - a double for a change. I had fun with this one even though my pics weren't fantastic at least it showed we visited the lagoon.

Sarah's challenge - Use an Abba song title for your layout title and include the colour blue and glitter. There is glitter on the title but it didn't show well in the photo. I promise, it is really and truly there.

Ingeborg's challenge was to use - a photo of one or more of your layouts, doodling and only one piece of cardstock. I made a collage of some layouts with a program called Picture Collage Maker and printed onto A4 so it took up most of my page and I didn't have to doodle so much. I know it's cheating a little but I'm never gonna be a doodler.........

Can you believe we are on to March already? Where is the year going? I have printed out my list of sketches and challenges for the month so off to play some more in the next few days hopefully.

Catching up slowly on Fab's challenges

2010-02-20T19:55:00.003+08:00

Well, I have been a bit off colour with a cold for the last couple of days so am hoping for a better nights sleep tonight.
I held a card class yesterday working on the technique of "kissing" stamps together. One of the cards I did create for a challenge just back before Christmas but have uploaded it again so you can see all three together. The stamps are predominantly from Stephanie Barnards, Fun and Funky flowers set by See D's but there are also greetings from Heidi Grace - Tags and words set and also See D's 262 stamp set.

On to Fab's challenge cards from his Christmas card challenge blog. I'm a little slow in starting the year with these and have not caught them all up yet but at least I have made a start......

#5 - Punch it and bling it. Uses three Fiskars border punches - Threading water, Apron Lace and Lace as well as a creative memories star maker. That cute sentiment is a stamp by Studio G which I found at the Quilt and Craft Fair last November.

#4 - Snowflakes and/or punches. Three punches used here too, Creative Memories snowflake maker and Square maker then Fiskars scalloped circle punch. The stamp is from my new set from Stephanie Barnard - Stamps of Life Christmas set. I have just received a few sets of her stamps now to play with now that she has opened them up to purchase Internationally. You may see some more cards with these soon.

#3 - Use a sentiment either printed or hand written and/or gold. I went for the gold and tried a couple of different greeting on it but they just didn't look right so left them off all together. The card actually looks quite stunning IRL.

#2 - Vintage and/or stripes. I tried the both combination and not that fussed by it really. I just don't do vintage well. I really find it a challenge. Stamps are again from the Stamps of Life set apart from the flourish ones which are Kaisercraft.

#1 - Tall card and/or frosty colours. More of the Stamps of life set with some papers from Delish designs. The snowflakes are cut from the Cricut - Christmas Cheer cartridge and the other snowflakes are stamped from the Christmas set and clear embossed.

Hope there is some inspiration for the beginning of your Christmas cards too.......

Not quite a month this time......

2010-02-15T20:01:00.006+08:00

Gosh a lot has happened in the last few weeks. Keelan, Ethan and Mitchell celebrated their 10th birthday with a Laser Skirmish party and had lots of fun. Bruce and I congratulated each other for managing to survive 10 years of triplet boys...... LOL!

The day after their birthday on Australia Day, which happens to be a public holiday here in Australia, the boys started school for the year. They have gone into year 5 and again we have kept them in separate classes. Mitchell has Keelan's teacher from last year, Keelan has the teacher that Ethan started with at the beginning of last year before his class was split up and Ethan has gone into a class with a teacher that I have not dealt with much before. Ethan is lucky to have his fourth male teacher during his Primary school years. That's a mean feat these days with the lack of male teachers around. He manages so well with them too and most do more PE classes so he enjoys the additional running around.

Have had a few crop nights already for the year and the attendance has been on the increase which is a pleasant surprise. We have had our back room tiled now so the couches are gone from my scrap area which has made room for a rearrange of storage and added an extra table and a wall unit. The best thing too is that the new room is now complete and it houses the Lego, keyboard and old TV and wall unit so no more Wii in someone's bedroom which reduces the arguements.

So much for my plan of hosting exchange students again this year...... my younger of my step-sons is moving back home in April. It will be strange having him back in the house after 10 years of only having the triplets at home. Still, he has offered to cook from time to time and look after the boys too when we have to go out on the odd occasion. Haven't quite got my thoughts in line yet for this whole idea but I guess it should work out.

I have even managed to maintain some creativity amongst all the moving furniture and starting the school year, so here are my shares to catch up on.

At Home & Scrapped, we have a Wednesday Night Scrapover on the second Wednesday of the month so this is the "Follow the Leader" challenge made with some lovely Lime Rickey papers and some scraps.

This is the layout for Heather's sketch from the same night using more Lime Rickey..... Have I mentioned that I like Lime Rickey?

We also had a Page kit swap at Home & Scrapped which the lovely Ange from New Zealand sent to me. I uploaded the photos I wanted to use and she chose the kit of papers, embellishments and cardstock.

I use a Pagemaps sketch as a basis for my layout and this is what I created with the kit. I have saved a little of it for another layout that I will do later of Ethan and the fish he caught....

This month Heather challenged us with a double page layout that had inchies on it. Now, inchies are not really my thing but I had some old strips of bits that I had created in a class on how to make serendipity squares back in 2006 so I used those as my base and just distressed them a lot to take the intense colour from them a little. I was quite happy with them in the end.

This month of Feb. the colour challenge at Home is Teal, lemon and chocolate. Those colours were not too difficult to find in my stash and this is the layout I came up with. Only to notice that I had forgotten to include her little added extra of three pieces of ribbon or braid. So, will think about that for a day or two an add to it in a subtle way.

Back to January's CC at Home & Scrapped, where Jules challenged us all to create a layout using a poppet. Now this really was a challenge for me....... I'm not into poppets at all so found a colouring page image and traced it on to various pieces of patterned paper and pieced it to look like Wonder Woman. Luckily I had a photo that came close to looking in the right direction to finish it off. Not sure that Wonder Woman ever needed glasses though!

Kim threw us the challenge to use a rule or law on our page and boy are there some funny ones around if you google them. I had an old pack of American Tradition stickers that had this rule about dressing which I certainly thought suited Ethan in his younger years. It reads: I have always dressed according to certain basic Guy fashion rules, including both of your socks should always be the same colour or at least both be fairly dark.

This is another of Heather's sketches which I turned on its side to suit my pics. Never ask the kids to take photos of you playing tennis as you never know which angle it is going to be from.

This was a leftover layout from the Scrap of Difference CC in January which had the new beginnings theme. It was the word challenge that required us to use the word "new" on our layout.

My final share is the layout that I created for the Pagemaps paper call using some lovely Max's backyard papers from Cloud 9 and some Finley's estate words and stamps. These are some photos of Ethan and I in the pool in Cairns back on our holiday in November.

I'm procrastinating tonight over doing some Christmas cards for Fab's challenge blog as I am already behind for the year. I have some lovely new stamps that arrived today from Stamps of Life by Stephanie Barnard which I am looking forward to playing with. Maybe tomorrow.... so I don't have to cut papers for a card class this Friday.

Catch ya later....

Some Cybercrop shares

2010-01-18T13:21:00.004+08:00

I did promise to share my cards that I created for the Silver Wedding anniversary and wedding recently. Both are made using Cuttlebug embossing and Cricut die-cuts. I hope you like them.

The silver Love sticker is a self adhesive paper lace that I bought at one of the cheap shops. I have been waiting to find something to use it on and finally this card gave me the opportunity.

Did I happen to mention that we made baubles for Christmas? After seeing the video on the Christmas with the Cricut blog, I went in search of the necessary floor polish from here in Australia to make these. I used the Pascoes' Long Life floor polish and it worked a treat. The boys enjoyed the play with glitter and the chance to makes something else to put on the Christmas tree.

As it turned out, not only did I have a wedding to attend on Saturday but I also have two Cybercrops on. So far I have only managed three items for the Scrap Of Difference CC. The first is Jo's sketch challenge with a theme of "New beginnings" for the CC. This is my Niece's third baby who is now three months old.

The colour challenge was Black, white and green again with the new beginnings theme...... I really did find this a challenge until I came home with some photos from the wedding. Mind you, I should really have commandeered the camera as DH has issues with clear photos and settings on "his" camera. I picked a couple of the better shots but many were not really what I would call great for my scrapbooking choices.

Lastly is the card challenge to use two patterend papers, ribbon or lace, flower or flourish, button with the same theme. I created another wedding card which will be for my Sister later in the year. The layout is inspired by a card from Carla Peicheff.

A busy week for me catching up with people before school starts back in the middle of next week. Have to prepare party bags and birthday cake for the Laser Skirmish party next Tuesday too. No style for those though..... ten year old boys aren't too interested in crafty stuff.....

Found some mojo lately........ yippeee!

2010-01-11T20:59:00.007+08:00

Happy New Year to you all out there in blogland......

Since my mojo has been away on holiday for some time I am very glad it has decided to return for a while. Here's hoping it stays for a few months now.

I have a number of layout shares for you all for a change as the weather has been hot, hot, hot..... 40+ degrees celcius on some days recently. It has given me the opportunity to stay indoors in the AC and scrap. I found some photos from Christmas 2006 when we were still in Canberra. I don't usually scrap the same/similar photos three times over as rarely I have similar ones, I just scrap whatever for each of the boys albums. However I decided to challenge myself with scrapping these photos on all different layouts. Do you know how difficult it is to scrap the same photo differently when you have already completed a layout you like? I really struggle with it. However I am very happy with the results.

Decided to kick start my year with a few challenges for the month also as I really needed some inspiration.

My most recent addition to my layouts is a challenge for three different sites. Home and Scrapped wanted a masking challenge, Ingeborg's competitions wanted a minimum of three different chipboard pieces and Scrap of Difference wanted us to use some dimensional pearls. My poor dimensional pearls were a number of years old and had gone rather thick so didn't work as nicely as I would have liked however I love the results.

A photo of my Nephew's daughter gave me inspiration for Heather's sketch challenge at Home and Scrapped.

Ingeborg's sketch challenge on her blog for this month is a PageMaps sketch - Love those!

The next three contain photos taken by Federal Press - the photographer for the Canberra Times who visited the Multiple birth picnic. Our family was the only family of triplets to attend the picnic so they of course wanted to take photos of them. The photos were never printed in the paper because they used a lovely photo of some baby twin girls - much more inviting to the masses, however I purchased a photo for each of the boys to have a memory of the event as I forgot the camera myself.

This one was done using Mistra's Step-By-Step challenge for December over at Home and Scrapped. I was just a little late in giving it a go as I'm not one to do these very often. It just so happened I had the right sized photo sitting in front of me at the time.

The next three are the same photo taken with Santa at the Hyperdome - Tuggeranong shopping centre. I have used a Breezy Design Spotlight kit for the first, the next is scrap papers and some stamp work inspired by an advent calendar I saw in the November issue of CK magazine. The last one is again paper scraps used to create a layout inspired by a layout from Jennifer Maguire
in an old CK magazine.

Finally my last layout is my entry for Ingeborg's sketch challenge for the month of December. It is photos of our scenic railway journey whilst visiting Cairns.

I did have a couple of cards to share too but blogger and my computer are not being my friends tonight so they will have to wait.

I promise it won't be so long next time.

An award from a few weeks ago

2010-01-09T20:48:00.003+08:00

Ingeborg gave me the 'Your Blog Is Fabulous Award'... Thanks Ingeborg!

When you receive this award, you have to mention five things that you love, which are:

Bruce, my wonderful husband;
Jason, James, Keelan Ethan and Mitchell, our busy boys;
My few close friends;
SCRAPBOOKING/cardmaking and of course ...
Chocolate!

I am passing this award on to five other people:

Karen Kowalick, a friend and fellow scrapbooker;
Penny Hackney, who inspires me with her clever work;
Vince, a talented gentleman who makes stunning cards;
Carla Peicheff, a lady who inspires me almost daily with her lovely colour combinations and clever ways to make use of her Cricut when creating cards;
Michelle Wallace, a Fiskars friend!

Gosh Christmas is creeping up fast

2009-12-05T20:56:00.007+08:00

I'm not real good at this blogging stuff, am I? I have really neglected it lately.

We spent a lovely ten days in Cairns in the beginning of November which I am sure you will see in the layouts that I will be creating over the coming months and indeed in the last couple of Cybercrops.

We stayed at Holloways Beach which is approx 10kms north of Cairns city and the beach is not like our South Aussie beaches where we have the soft hard packed sand, it was grainy and moved a lot under foot. In Cairns itself you cannot swim at the beach as the city has a more swampy beachfront which is muddy and tacky with lots of crabs. At this time of the year also, the waters are full of stingers so it is dangerous to swim in the sea unless in an enclosed netted off area for protection. Holloways beach had a small area to do this and the boys liked it but the current was strong and wavy and no sooner would they stand up than wave would come and dump them under again. It became a little much for them after a few days so we resorted to swimming in the pool at the resort.

One evening at dinner I got up from my chair on the balcony to find this little fellow sitting under it. I rushed to get the camera for a photo before the boys terrorised him and he left. I could not believe the intensity of the colour of him up close.

We did a variety of activities whilst there because the resort did not run the usual activities for guests, instead they relied on the local tourist trade to entertain. We took a trip, a rather bumpy one, out the the outer reef and spent time snorkelling over the Great Barrier reef. This was rather a challenge for me because I have a fear of getting my face in the water but I was determined not to let the boys down .... and show them sometimes you have to face your fears and I made myself do it.

Here we are suited up ready to go snorkelling and I must admit I did enjoy it after the first 15 minutes of psyching myself for the experience. There aint no hiding the figure in these suits!

Another trip was out to the Rainforestation Nature Park which I think overall was the best day we had. There was wildlife to feed and look at, Aboriginal dancing, boomerang throwing, didgeridoo demo, spear throwing demo and a rainforest tour on an old Army DUKW. The boys loved this...... as they were the only kids on our tour they all had the opportunity to drive the DUKW when we got into the water. This is Mitchell at the helm.

Ethan and Keelan even put up their hands to try the aboriginal dancing in front of the crowd - I was so proud of them for having a go.

Viva even remembered us when we returned to collect her from her short boarding home. Now we are back into the routine of walking twice a day and going to the shops and craft and swimming etc.

Tonight I have been having fun with a free online class by Penny Hackney. It's over at Scrap a while
I wasn't sure that I could make the class so I didn't buy the kit that was on offer but I managed to find some papers in my stash that would work with similar effect. Loved it!

Now into the Cybercrop shares from last weekend. As usual I found myself working on two CC's on the same weekend so I didn't quite find time to complete all the challenges at both.

Over at Scrap Of Difference Anne-Marie asked us to complete a belated birthday card. I used a computer printed verse and stamped the turtle from the Cute critters set of stamps by Clear Dollar stamps.

The theme of the CC was Remember - due to the fact it had been Rememberance Day in November. The colour challenge was to use cream, brown, rust red and green and Michelle wanted us to use the word "remember" on the layout also. This is the boys holding a carpet python at the Wildlife Dome in Cairns.

See, I told you I snorkelled....... This was the sketch challenge from Anne using a sketch from Pencil Lines.

Now over at Home and Scrapped, this was a little challenge Josie asked us to complete. We had thirty minutes and were to use once piece of cardstock and scraps to complete 6 - 4" x 3" cards in non-traditional colours. I used a Kaiser stamp from their Merry Christmas collection from last year. I actually enjoyed this challenge so much that I complete another two sets and made a little holder to carry six cards so that the teachers get a thank you gift of six Christmas cards, two of each design.

I haven't photographed the others yet, so when I do I'll add them including the little holder I made for them.

Jewels gave us a layout for inspiration which I virtually copied to a T as it suited my birdie photos. These photos are also from the Wildlife Dome in Cairns.

Did I mention that I won a Cardinal's song Fiskars punch from the Fiskars blog? Well, can you spot where I have used it?

Mary gave us a title challenge - to use the words Forever and ever. Straight away I thought of the song from the Winnie the Pooh movie so used a verse from that as my journaling. This photo has been sitting in a drawer for almost ten years waiting for something to be done with it. It was the first "studio" photo taken of Bruce and I long before we had any plans to get married. The paper is from Colobok - from my survey win which I received last month. Nice, eh?

Joy gave us a mixed challenge: 2/3 photos, some black a little white, a lot of one other colour, 3 red things and some stars. I kept it very simple and I really like how it turned out, not to mention the fact I used up some really, really old paper from my stash. The photos are of the boys at the lagoon in Cairns which was created for people to swim at because of the swampy beach. It is a huge pool and has one side of sand and the rest is concrete paths and grass/picnic areas surrounding it.

Heather gave us another of her great sketches and again I have photos of the wildlife dome.

Last but not least, I found some shopping centre photos from Christmas 2006 at the Tuggeranong shops in Canberra. I have three of the same photo, one each for the boys albums so this is the first of my layouts. Again kept it simple as I really want to get some scrapping done at the moment and don't want to waste my time looking and looking through my stash for the 'perfect' embellishment. I just want to keep them moving. I put it up for the Scrap a while December challenge to create a Christmas layout.

I'm so behind with Christmas stuff though. I have spent so much time making my cards that I have not got around to writing in them yet. Some will be lucky to get them before Christmas the way I am going. I even went to start writing them out and came across about 12 cards left over from the ones I made last year so I guess I will have heaps of them.

Hopefully I'll be back a bit before Christmas.....

It's been nearly a month.....

2009-11-04T20:51:00.007+08:00

Hi there..... I can't believe it has been nearly a month since my last post. Where has the time gone?

Lot's of shares in this one because I am heading off to Cairns for ten days for a holiday in just a couple of days so won't be around for a while again.

Have managed to do a couple of Cyber crops in recent weeks but the mojo is certainly not flowing freely yet. I have also managed a few more of Fab's challenges but not even close to caught up yet.

Took Viva in for a holiday stay arranged by Guide dogs whilst we are away so have been feeling rather odd today walking around the shops without my companion. Although it was rather nice being able to vaccuum the floor and have no dog hair on it an hour later and not have to close every door behind me. I'm sure she'll have a wonderful time as she has gone to stay with a gentleman who lives on his own with an older labrador so it is a combination of quiet time and a friend to play with. I wonder if she will remember me in two weeks time?

Onto the shares which I am doing a little back the front .... but who cares! Heather challenged us to complete at least three of the challenges over at the Home and Scrapped CC and with the leftovers create a card. So here are my three cards.

Ange challenged us to create a layout about the things we would do if we won the lotto and money was no object. I decided to use a Jen Hall layout concept from her online class "the write stuff" for this one as her idea was based on goals over the next five years and I'm not really a goal setting kinda girl.

Heather's challenge was a sketch which had to also incorporate something "old" from your stash. There's a few old things from my stash on this one.

The lovely Sarah wanted a layout with journaling and a frame of some kind about the area we live in and why we like it.

Kerri's challenge - a layout about growth, including a tree somewhere on the layout and we had a couple of quotes to choose from too.

The clever Karen wanted us to take inspiration from a shopping catalogue or magazine so the only one I had on hand was an Ezi-buy catalogue. I wanted to use a number of photos so played with the old Picasa collage and printed out my photos on an A4 page. I stamped the hearts on the background and used the logo for Jump rope for heart as the inspiration for the die-cut image.

Now onto the next CC from Scrap of Difference. Of course both CC's were on the same weekend so after a number of weeks of not scrapping I had numerous layouts over just a few days.

This was for Jo's sketch challenge - she had a single page sketch that I turned into a double layout and tried to get a Pip Prosser style happening but it's not quite there. I truly have to keep working on the doodling concept.

As the theme of the CC was Halloween, the card challenge was to use the colours orange and black predominantly and also include a "ghost" shape. I found the scalloped edge in the Breezy Design Kleer kutz so played with that.

Here's the colour challenge - black, white and orange. And before anyone asks..... I don't have the Fiskars effervescence punch, although I probably would like it... this is all done by hand using the Fiskars threading water punch as a base and a regular hole punch followed by the Big Bite for the smaller holes.

Last but not least was the word challenge which worked a little differently this time around. Our words were - Trick or treat. We did not have to use those words on a layout, but rather do a layout using a new "trick" that we had learnt recently or alternatively a layout with something we had treated ourselves to at some stage and not yet put to good use. I went with the "trick" technique and created the twirled ribbon roses from an embroidery technique that I found on you tube.

Back to one of Fab's challenges - #42 Yellow and/or watermarked background. I chose both the watermarking on the yellow card base and used up some really old stickers and this awful bear embellishment that I have had sitting around for a while. The card is okay but I'm not that impressed myself. Still, it made good use of some old stuff which never hurts.

#6 - Use a vintage Santa image. This is an image from a package of vintage images that I purchased recently. Can't find the name of the site at this late hour, but when I do I'll let you know.

#14 - Brads or a tall card theme. Of course I chose both ideas again. When I actually look at it now, it could also be a birthday card too but I'm still likely to use it for Christmas.

Just before I go I want to share with you the awesome gift I received from Colorbok last week for being involved with a survey of theirs. As some of you may be aware, Colorbok have bought the Heidi Grace and Cloud 9 names from Fiskars and being a fiskateer they offered us the opportunity to assist them in their design processes by sending online surveys asking our likes and dislikes to up and coming designs. I was lucky enough to be a part of the first group to complete the survey and won this huge set of papers, stickers, chipboard, album etc. I was pleasantly surprised by their generosity. Now I just have to pick up my mojo from somewhere and get on to using it all.

See you all when I get back from holidays!

Getting there with Fab's challenges.....

2009-10-07T19:49:00.003+08:00

Well, I'm back with more of Fab's challenge ideas and I think I have about 6 or 7 until I have got them up to date.

#10 - Use swirls and gems. This card has a mish mash of stamps from Heidi Grace, Fiskars, Kaiser and an old rubber stamp from Aussie Stamps and Crafts with a variety of words on it. I found this lovely green ink, Versamagic Tea Leaves chalk ink and I just love the shade of it and found this scrap of green paper to match it. The rhinestones are from Papermania, a UK brand which I purchased ages ago. I love the fact that they have these little tiny ones, smaller even than the Kaiser small rhinestones and they fit nicely into the centres of some of the Heidi Grace flowers.
#2 - Use free papers from a magazine. I think these were from a Simply Cards magazine and the little glittery stickers came from a magazine too. The "joy" is stamped with Stephanie Barnard's "Fresh lowercase" font created by Inque Boutique.

#11 - Stripes and ric-rac. The paper here is some really old Karen Foster paper that I bought in a pack of Christmas cut-offs from an LSS back in 2004. I have been trying to use it for ages. The vellum is a stuffed up cricut cut that I didn't have the blade setting right on so it gave the impression of the cut and not actually cut through. It made for a slightly decorative effect and the ric-rac was me playing with the Fiskars scalloped border edge punch and strips of paper 3/4" wide.

#13 - Either/or decoupage or Pink. I went for the pink cos I'm not really a decoupage girl. The tree is a Kaiser stamp - again from the Merry Christmas set. Background is a Sugarloaf products stamp and the Happy Christmas I have no idea - maybe an old Paper Pleasure Plus stamp.

#9 - Anything goes. I loved the stamp and the pink so much I played with it a little more. The other stamps apart from the little flower one are all in the same Merry Christmas Kaiser set.

#16 - Tea bag folding. No laughing now! This is my first ever attempt at tea bag folding. Nothing of the planet but at least I can say I have done it now. More Kasier Merry Christmas stamps and also played with an EK success corner punch around a circle to make an interesting effect.

On the home front we have had a busy day. The boys went to my sister's whilst I took our Guide dog puppy Viva to a group obedience session. She wasn't her usual well-behaved self today, whining and barking at the other dogs occasionally. But, she performed all her obedience tasks well. Now just have to work on the dog distraction for a bit. Our Supervisor informed us of her resignation today so will be interesting to see how things change over the coming months.

After the group session, I went back to Penny's and Viva had a chance to have a play with her boxer Holly and they were both exhausted after a good play. My boy's played with the twins for a while and we got home about 4pm. It was a lazy soup dinner and I think I might try for a semi early night..... Well, before midnight for a change.

Just a quick one...

2009-10-03T19:21:00.003+08:00

Today is just a share of a couple more cards for Fab's challenge #39 - Green, green and more green and/or two cards made with the same supply of materials.

I have used some old TLC papers, outline stickers and some chipboard embellishments I bought a few years ago.

Did I happen to mention I like this stamp?

2009-10-02T22:24:00.003+08:00

If you actually read my blog, you may recall my story about my card class and having extra glitter images sitting on my table to work with. Well, left the housework to do itself today and got stuck into working with them.

Here are the cards I achieved........

This one was actually embossed with Antique Gold powder instead of glitter.....

Back to glitter...

Are you tired of seeing this stamp yet?........... Funnily enough, I'm not. You would think I would be by now but I really like the design. Yeah for Kaisercraft!

This card is one I completed from a tutorial by Kim over at Home and Scrapped. I am including it for Fab's #12 challenge to use Organza or Vellum. This is my first ever parchment craft card and probably my last...... ;-)
I really enjoyed doing it Kim but I was so glad to get it finished. That pin pricking just drove me nuts!

Last but not least is #19 - Old fashioned with a twist/Altered image. I have used an angel image that I purchased through Smugmug from Royce Bair's Vintage collection. It works quite nicely with the hot pink.......

Hope some of my cards are giving you some inspiration.

And the Christmas cards just keep on coming.....

2009-10-01T21:35:00.005+08:00

I have continued on with more of Fab's challenges to keep me going but I did take some time out to run a Christmas card class using outline stickers and glitter.

This is my #1 - Anything just make a start challenge which uses an image that a friend gave to me because she was never going to use it. I knew straight away what I would use it for though. It's a little hard to tell from the photo but the oval cut-out in the card has an oval silver card insert with a transparency in the centre with the rubber image attached to it to give the stained glass window effect.

This card was a - just because...... Saw a design that I wanted to try and duplicate and had some chipboard card toppers that I bought cheap at the end of last season that worked for it.

The next four are my card class from last weekend. The first is a little difficult to see because I originally created the card with 'dazzling diamonds' from Stampin' Up and a Kaisercraft stamp from their Merry Christmas set from last season. After I thought about it for a while I realised I had other shades of glitter and brought those out for the ladies to try so have a few more glittery trees sitting on my table waiting to be used. Get used of seeing this stamp this Christmas cos I am really loving the delicate image of it.

This one is an outline sticker on transparency and coloured with kindyglitz to pop dot on the card. I love to use this technique with outline stickers because it gives an elegant look to the card.

There is all-over glitter on this one with a gold metallic background and combination of gold and silver stickers. Looks much better IRL.

This was an add in because I figured the others would not take long. Using the lovely Fiskars Apron lace punch and the strip that gets punched off which we have covered with glitter and added to the left hand side of the card to balance it. The sticker is coloured with brush markers and Kaiser rhinestones added.

I've skipped around a little with Fab's challenges as I hit some creative blocks with ideas so this is #4 - Xmas baubles. It uses the Kaisercraft Merry Christmas, snowflake image which is embossed and punched with the Fiskars circle squeeze punch. The bauble tops are bells punched with an old Carl punch.

#15 - Either/or use a square card, utilise some fabric or paper flowers. I stuck with the square card only and made two of these because I had to stamp and emboss both the green and red cardstock.

#12 - Put a Santa anywhere theme. This was playing around with glimmermist and a Santa from a recycled Christmas card from last year. It actually has a nice sparkle to it IRL which is a little hard to tell from the photo.

And finally..... #18 - Cute and cheerful. This is a digital stamp from Fab's mate, Vince. I hope Vince does not mind that I added a Christmas hat to one of his little monsters because I could not resist the idea that the image was reminiscent of my trio of boys. I have had the word stamp sitting around for a while and not used it - the one inside reads: but.... don't get caught!

Just have to keep my thoughts open on who I give this one to though..... LOL!

Back again with more Christmas cards.

2009-09-23T20:59:00.003+08:00

I warned you I would be back with more:

#37 - Rectangle card or use a glitter pen. The left hand card is one I created a few weeks ago for a CC and uses kindyglitz (the closest I have to a glitter pen) which is like sparkles or icicles depending upon where in the world you buy it from. It is a little challenging to see from the photo that the snowflakes are all sparkly.

#20 Something punched - this uses an EK success corner punch in conjuction with a technique I saw on you tube that I had to try.

#21 - No matting, no background paper, just stamping or using embellishments. Mine uses the emboss resist technique and simply varying the colour of ink used.

#22 - Add some bling or create a border. My stickers are really old ones from a few years ago and they have a bling effect on them as well as the sparkly ribbon.

#23 - Fun christmassy cute animal card. I don't have many cutesy stamps, I tend to stick with flourishes, words and basic images that can be versatile so cute stamps I don't really have. I did however come across this recycled card from last Christmas so used that and matted it.

#24 - White on red and/or rub-ons. I used both, the white are Kaisercraft rub-ons that I have put on the red pp. The stocking is cut from another recycled card and outline stickers are the star decorations.

#25 - Textured paper and a glint. Sorry about the bad photo but this is actually more of a gold paper.

#26 - Tags and/or flowers.

Well that's it for sharing for a few days, school holidays are looming so I am catching up on a few things before they start and preparing for a card class on Saturday and crop this Friday night at my place. Am looking forward to sleeping in a couple of days over the holidays.

Christmas cards on the go.

2009-09-21T22:12:00.003+08:00

Finally I have made a discovery and started on my Christmas cards properly.

I found this wonderful blog called Fab's Big Christmas Card Challenge. Each week Fabrizio posts a challenge for inspiration for us to complete a Christmas card a week so that by the end of the year we should have a reasonable stash.

I have started from Week #36 and am working backwards so this is just a small sample of what I have come up with so far. Dont' laugh..... some of the papers and embellishments I am using have been sitting in my "stash" for quite a long time.

#27 - Rounded corners either matting, the card itself or both.

#28 bright and funky.

#29 - Star and/or outline stickers

#30 - Cute and square

#31 - Half and half embossing

#32 - Use a sketch: this is a Pagemaps one from Dec 2008

#33 - From a kit. This is a Cloud 9 kit from last Christmas

#34 - Poinsettia or any other flowery Christmassy card. This is from the same Cloud 9 kit and uses the Fiskars scalloped edge border punch.

#35 - Stripes and dots. After making this one I went back to Fab's blog to check out another challenge and realised that I had almost cardlifted his card for this challenge without really realising. Sorry about that Fab, the design was a good one, what can I say!

#36 Owls and/or presents. I don't really like this one after all..... You know what it is like when you come up with an idea and when you go to execute it, it doesn't quite work the way you plan and you have to change direction with your thinking? Well, that happened to me on this one and I am not happy with the result. Might end up coming back to re-adjust this one.

Well, that is all for now, I have about another eight completed to share but they will have to wait until I have had some sleep.

Pleasant dreams all.............

Thank Heavens for Cyber crops....

2009-09-07T20:51:00.005+08:00

First of all I am sharing this layout that I completed from an online class at Scrap of Diffference.
It's a free class using glimmermist and you can join the forum, get the instructions from the online classes thread and show us your style when you are done. The lovely Jo wrote up the instructions for this one and has done a wonderful job with it. The photo is of my Mother and two of her sisters taken in 1936 when she was just 10 yrs old. Mum is the one in the middle.

I tell you, if I did not do a cybercrop every now and again, I would never get any scrapbooking done. I seem to run out of time these days to fit in monthly challenges, as much as I would love to do some but I do try to do a cybercrop a month to get myself motivated.

I have joined a Ning community called Home and Scrapped which has a number of my "old" friends from Scrapwitch there. It is great to keep up with all their going's on although I never find time to frequent there often enough these days. We had a cybercrop with a kind of Father's Day feel to it for some of the challenges and the others were a little more about scrapping on a budget and using your stash.

This is Nes's sketch challenge that also had to have a Father's Day feel about it.

Trisha's challenge to us was to share a little insight into our bedroom habits.... no, not that kind....! Get your mind above your waistline! About what kind of a place our bedroom is for us. I do have to mention that these photos are pre-triplets and the room is not nearly as clean and neat as this is here.

Heather's challenge at first was one I thought I would have to miss as she wanted us to focus on something that we had gained from a Father figure in our lives. Now many of you know my Father died at the age of 73 yrs when I was only 11 yrs old. I don't remember a lot about him when I really sit and think about it. For me this was a challenge because those memories that I do have I have documented on a layout previously in past Father's Day challenges and I don't want to rehash them. So I slept on it and thought about the photos of the kids playing lego that were sitting on my table of "to be scrapped" items and thought about how every time my Dad visited the city he would bring back a box of lego with him as a little surprise for me. He also bought a few ideas books and would sit at home and help me to follow the instructions and build things. Today I sit and do this with my boys so thought it apt to go down this path with my layout.

Just to make it a little more thought provoking, we also had to scraplift a layout from the gallery and ..... make a card with the scraps.

Angie's challenge was to do a scavenger hunt around the house and do a budget scrap page with the items found.

Here is the list of what I used:

Fishing tackle split ring and barrel swivel

Ribbon from a bath products gift pack

Mesh from the garage....

transparency stamped on from a box of Christmas cards from last year

washer

clothing tag

chocolate box for the scalloped edge and title

wrapping paper from Nepal made from recycled cotton rags

bubble wrap and corrugated cardboard for stamping

cogs from the inside of an adhesive roller for my glue glider pro, originally green and now painted

and the 'our' is from a four and twenty party pies pack that I used for lunch yesterday.

I must say I'm pretty impressed with the result, it actually looks like a good layout.

This one is the example I made up for my challenge. I challenged people to find an item that they had lots of and repurpose it on a layout. Im my case it was photo turns that I have heaps of from TLC Hot Fudge kits that I have used over my time with TLC/Breezy Design.

Can you believe it....? This is a layout just because I wanted to! I have been looking at a thank you card that I received from my nephew on the birth of their son and finally managed to do a layout with it.

You will notice a few of my layouts use scraps of blue pp and cardstock. The reason for this is that my blue scraps container was overflowing - clearly I use a lot of blue in my layouts. So, I have decided to make this a little of my focus for the moment, trying to reduce it. I actually stood and sorted out the various shades of blue..... Do you have any idea how many shades of blue there are? Well I can assure you there is a few. I have it down to six piles now where I put similar shades together so I can work from there. So, if I seem a little blue in the coming month then you know why.

Life outside of scrapbooking is all family stuff at the moment. One of my sisters got engaged last week which came as a little of a surprise to many of us. I'm taking her out for lunch tomorrow so hope to hear all about it. I happened on her birthday last Wednesday.

Boys have been busy with school, Keelan received a distinction on his International Spelling competition and is in the top 2% of Yr 4's from SA/NT who took the competition. Ethan's class have been rehearsing a play for a number of weeks and performed it for the school classes three times last week. I went to see it on Thursday and it was rather funny but some of the girls had a few too many lines to learn and got stuck two thirds of the way through forgetting their lines. Still they did a great job overall.

Mitchell and I headed off to diabetes clinic last week and all is well although his HbA1c is stuck at 8.1 at the moment and I would like to see it come back down again into the 7's. Hospital is happy with it but don't want it to get higher though. We will just have to see if we can keep him on track because he is getting a little forgetful with keying into his insulin pump lately.

Well it's getting close to bedtime so I better disappear. Have a great day all!