Kraft It Up February Challenge

This month at Kraft It Up the challenge is to create a layout with Kraft (of course) with some pink on the page somewhere and the theme of LOVE. Here is my entry....



....a layout about a couple of very special people in my life.

And a bit of a close-up.....



The last couple of weeks I've been 'skype-scrapping' with the awesomely wonderful Tracey Thorne, and as a result have been quite productive, so I will be sharing a few more creations soon.

A new challenge blog....

Here is my entry for the first month's challenge at a new challenge blog called Shits and Giggles....you can check out this new blog here. It's a bit naughty, and a bit funny, but it looks like a fun blog to follow.

The first challenge was to create something using the following quote and design as inspiration....



And this is what I came up with.....



I've decided to use an A5 art journal to do all my challenges in. Can't wait to see what the next one will be!

Scrapchat Colour Challenge - January

Once again Scrapchat is having a monthly colour challenge courtesy of the beautiful Alison Callcott, who is keeping us all on our scrapping toes with these fab challenges.

January's challenge is as follows....

Colours - red and turquoise

Design requirement - use something from your stash of 'techniques past'

Something extra - tis all about handmade this month girls

Lifelines - black, white, cream or kraft

Here is my layout for this challenge....



My 'techniques past' is the use of stapled ric-rac....something I have not done on my layouts for some time, and my hand-made requirement is the crochet flower and the centres of the other flowers (Chelley Bean Designs creations).



Thanks Alz for the wonderful challenge :)

Masters Entries 2011

Thought it was about time I shared my Scrapbooking Memories 2011 Masters Competition entries. I was unsuccessful in being one of the 10 winners, but when the Masters edition of the magazine arrived in my mailbox, I was thrilled to see that I had received an Honourable Mention. Yay me!!

There were 4 tasks in all to complete, and here are my entries.....



For this task, we had to create a single layout on any topic or theme, but it had to include a 5x7 photo somewhere on the page.
I really adore the Crate Paper 'Emma's Shoppe' range that I mainly used for this, and I think this is one of my favourite layouts that I have done this year.
A close-up of some of the embellishments I used....



This next layout depicts the 'journey' of a red velvet cake, Elise's and my favourite cake for special occasion decorating....



This task was to scrap a layout based on the sketch that was supplied. Again, I have used one of my favourite ranges...My Mind's Eye, who are bringing out so many gorgeous printed Kraft papers, and this was my first purchase in that line.

This next photo is my entry for a task which was to create a single layout on any topic or theme, but the page had to include some hidden journalling or hidden memorabilia somewhere with a reminder to use our imaginations and think innovatively.



My inspiration for this came from a Christmas Advent Calendar but I only put 'doors' on 5 of the spaces, which when opened, showed extra images and heartfelt journalling about missing my dear Mum and Dad at Christmas...





Each of the little doors is held on by a brass hinge which I partially coloured with red and gold alcohol inks and then sanded....



My final entry was the layout that was published and earned me an Honourable Mention...



This task was to create a double layout inspired by the colour combination of orange, teal and charcoal.
The photos I used were taken by my daughter Elise in New Zealand, and I thought they were perfect for the colour brief we had been given.
Not only was I thrilled to have gotten an Honourable Mention for this layout, but I was extra chuffed to see an attached 'Judges Note' in the magazine which read "Making a word out of a photo? Genius!"
Here is a close-up of my 'genius'....lol



I would love to congratulate all the 10 winners of this years Masters Competition....your work rocks and is so inspirational to us all....enjoy your exciting year ahead! Special mention to Kaitlynne Roil,Anthea Peterson, Renee Iveson and Jo Kinder who I was privileged enough to 'retreat' with back in September.....I so knew there was some awesome talent in that room!

Huge congratulations also to all my fellow Honourable Mentions, with extra-special congratulatory hugs to my friends Marlene Townsend, Tanyah Payne, Gilly Lester and Anne Patterson who also got HM's.

Until next time...xxx

Words Or Whatever chipboard

I was pretty chuffed yesterday to see a few of my layouts shared on the WOW blog. These are the first offerings of mine as a guest Creative Team Member there.

Here are the layouts that were posted....



...and a close-up of the beautiful WOW Small Round Frame which I sprayed with Mr Huey's Mists, Calico White first, and then Calico shine....



Here is a layout of my beautiful kittycat Dash when she was a baby. This is the photo that made me fall in love with her....



The WOW chippy I used here is the 'Precious' word one of their gorgeous new flourishes which I painted rather than sprayed with Glimmermist to retain and show up the detail of the flowers....



And finally a bit of a fun layout with a photo of my daughter Elise taken on a phone camera by her boyfriend...I just loved the grunginess of this photo and had to use it (oh and she came up with the title BTW...lol!)



That's all for today from me....check out the awesome Words Or Whatever Design Team's layouts here for some extra inspiration.

Thanks for looking xxx

Chelley Bean Designs Doilies....check these out!

Thought I'd share a layout I did for Michelle Jamieson at Chelley Bean Designs using her hand-dyed doilies...these come in the five gorgeous colours of pink, green, blue, red and yellow.

They come in each of the individual colours or in a mixed pack.
Each pack contains 5 hand-dyed paper doilies in 2 sizes.
They are $3 per pack and are available from Chelle's Etsy shop.

Here is the layout I did with the red doily from this collection....



Check out Chelle's Blog for some other inspiration for the use of these gorgeous doilies.

Scrapchat Napkin Challenge

I went to the bi-annual Scrapchat Retreat at the Gold Coast on the weekend just gone....one of my favourite events on my yearly calendar....such good friends, inspiration and laughs!

One of the retreat challenges was to create something with a napkin, and I decided to make a canvas, and here is the finished result.....



Here is the napkin I started with...



I covered the blank canvas with plain scrunched tissue paper and Mod Podge, followed by layers of torn up pieces of the napkin. Once that was dry, I painted the canvas with a white acrylic wash to mute the patterns, and then sprayed the bottom half with some blue Tim Holtz Color Wash.

I added background detail with a Sharpie pen and rub-ons, and stuck on some paper-covered chipboard trees and handmade clouds.....



To finish off, I added some of the birds from the napkin that I mounted on white cardstock and fussy-cut around and an inspiration quote....



I had so many positive comments about this canvas on the retreat, I just felt I had to share....thanks for looking.

I also have to give a big thanks and shout-out to Nicole Pomeroy for the inspiration for this....Nic your canvas artwork rocks!

Another layout to share....

Just sharing a layout I did recently for Chelleybean Designs using Michelle Jamieson's gorgeous fabric buttons....



Here are the buttons I was given to work with...



....and a close-up of how I used them on the layout by combining them with some petals....



Michelle has a whole range of these for sale in her Etsy Shop in lots of different colours and designs, along with lots of other goodies as well.

Here are a couple of my personal favourites...

My latest CJ entry...

Today I have been working on my commitments for the Scrapchat CJ I am currently participating in. This time I did some pages for Alison Callcott. Her CJ subject is 'Pieces of Me' and she asked us to use pictures that represented who we are, where or have become. Here is what I came up with....




I really enjoyed the challenge of this LO and the journey through my history that it took me on....thanks Alz for an awesome CJ subject!

Cute picture...

As scrapbookers, we are always trying to come up with new ways to use our stash. Well here is one I haven't actually thought of before...



Our 8 week old kitty, Dash who loves to join me in my scrapping room decided that my box of large alphas made a very comfy bed. How cute, huh?

Kraft It Up - June Challenge

I have been meaning for some time to have a go at the monthly challenge at the Kraft It Up! blog, and this month, I managed to get it done.

This month's challenge is to create a layout on Kraft cardstock using a 'time line', at least 3 photos and journalling to explain the time line. Here is my entry....



And here are some photos showing some of the embellishment details on the layout...

Scrap The Girls - June

Being sick and off work this week with a rotten winter virus, I had a bit more time on my hands to do some scrapping (in between sneezing, coughing and nose-blowing that is!), so I decided to have a go at this month's Scrap The Girls Challenge.



The challenge this month was to create a layout using this colour palette....



As soon as I saw those colours, I thought of Basic Grey's Bittersweet range from a few years back.

You know when a paper range really takes your eye, you buy it, and then because you love it so much, you always put off using it because you're 'saving' it for some extra-special project? Ridiculous right?

Anyway, that was me with BG's Bittersweet, and because I recently decided to stop hoarding beautiful things I love, and just get in there and use them, that's what I did with this layout.

Here is a close-up of the embellishments I used, and my doodling around the edge of the white cardstock...

A2Z Scraplets Blog Hop

I have spent the last weekend (and then some) working on an entry for the A2Z Scraplets Blog Hop Challenge.

I used one of my favourite photos from the photoshoot Elise and I had with Leanne Stamatellos in January last year and here is my interpretation of the sketch...



The challenge entries were to be based on the following sketch...



Here are some close-ups of the detail....



I used an A2Z Scraplets chipboard 'leftover' as a mask for the Glimmermist butterflies in the background of the layout and covered one of the butterflies with vintage sheet music and crackle-finished and distress-inked the chipboard as well...



I can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with for this challenge.

My latest scrapping...

I've been doing quite a few layouts recently...nothing in particular, just what ever I've felt like.

I've been working with a couple of the photos that Leanne Stamatellos took of my daughter Elise and I back in January last year, playing around with cropping the photos and the contrast, brightness and colour etc for something a bit different.





And here is a double I did of Elise's boyfriend Elise on a recent driving adventure. You can click on any of these images to get a larger view of the detail...