A card using a great new product....

Here is a card I did last week for Scrap N Craft With T using a fabulous new crackle product called Viva Decor Croco Crackling Color. I used this fab new product on the heart on this card...so much fun working with this product.....







There are quite a few processes to creating the heart used on the card, so if you're interested in seeing how I did that, you can read the step by step instructions here.

Some unexpected visitors.....

On Friday afternoon, I looked out my back window to see a couple of uninvited, but very welcome guests in our pool....



How cute are they? They ended up staying and swimming happily around in our pool for over an hour before flying off elsewhere. We fed them some bread, which they eagerly gobbled up....



We're really hoping that they'll come back and visit some time.

Design Team Callout

Just letting you all know that Creative Girls @ Scrap N Craft With T is on the search for another Design Team member. You need to be able to create one project (layout, card or OTP) each week from the products supplied by Tanyah from her shop. You will also need to know how to post to a blog and upload your projects each week with instructions and/or sketches etc.

Tanyah offers her Design Team a very generous 30% off purchases in her shop, and each month supplies at least $25 worth of products to use for your projects, although from my experience on this team, it usually ends up being way more than this.

Interested?

If you would like to know more about what is required please email Tanyah at cardartbytanya@yahoo.com.au or use the same email address to send in your application including a link to your blog or site that showcases your work with scrapbooking layouts, cards and OTP projects. Good luck!

Here are some of the projects I have done as part of this Design Team lately.

Firstly a card for an older person...



The front of the card.....



...and inside the card.....



Next is a double page layout of my son Sam's 3rd birthday 23 years ago!!! How cute are those photos?



To even things up, here is a layout I did of my beautiful daughter Elise...



I'll share the rest of my Design Team creations in another post or feel free to check them out on the Creative Girls @ Scrap N Craft With T blog.

Thanks for looking and don't forget to consider applying for Tan's DT position! xxx

A couple of photos....

You've got to love how beautiful everything looks after rain. Everything is washed clean and colours seem to be more vibrant. I love the way raindrops make even the most mundane plant transform to a bejewelled beauty.

We have had some beautiful light but steady rain here overnight and this morning and I couldn't resist the temptation to try and capture some of nature's finest work. I was a bit limited with what I could photograph as it is still raining, so these shots were taken from the safety of our awning. I had fun playing around with some of my macro filters.

Maybe I should invest in one of those Japanese hats with an umbrella attached so I can venture further afield in the rain!

Here are some of my shots....

And one more.....

Here is my first Creative Team layout for Chelley Bean Designs.
Chelle asked the four of us to create something with her Romantic Roses which come in 9 gorgeous colours. Check out the amazing creations the other three talented gals came up with here.
Chelle also requested that we dress them up or alter them somehow, so I made mine into a spray of flowers inspired by Prima Flutter Vines.



This is my favourite layout of all the ones I have done lately. Huge thanks and kudos to my favourite photographer, the hugely talented Leanne Stamatellos for taking this beautiful photo of my daughter Elise at our photo shoot at The Rocks in Sydney in January this year.

Thanks for looking and happy scrapping until next time. xxx

A new layout...

Here is the first project I have completed in my new Deign Team position with Scrap N Craft With T using some lovely papers from Graphic 45.



This wonderful photo from Scrapchat's Retreat last November was taken and edited by the very talented Tracey Thorne...thanks Trace...you're a genius!

The whole post about this layout can be found on Tan's blog here.

Some more exciting news...

I am thrilled to be able to share that I have accepted an invitation from Tanyah Payne to join her Design Team at Scrap N Craft With T. I am really looking forward to this new scrapping journey and hope I can keep up with the workload and manage to produce projects every week that will inspire Tan's blog visitors to create some works of art of their own. Thanks Tan for this wonderful opportunity!

YAY!

I am absolutely thrilled to bits to be announced the winner of Scrap N Craft With T's Embellish It competition. It's been (at times) an arduous 9 weeks, but lots of fun and certainly full of inspiration from all the wonderful scrap artists that took part. Congratulations to all of you and thank you for the ride. A special congratulations to the 2nd and 3rd place winners Alicia Barry and Belynda Duffil....your week 9 creations were amazing and stunning!

Feeling light and free...

After spending 9 weeks immersed in the Embellish It competition at Scrap N Craft With T, I feel strangely light and airy. Now to find a new channelling for my creativity....

I would just love to say congratulations to all my co-competitors in this comp (many of whom I am privileged to call 'friends'). Your work has amazed and inspired me, and the final entries for this week are just mind-blowingly good. I am so glad it is not my job to judge the winner, because there is just too much scrapping goodness to pick. If you want to check out the amazing entries for the last challenge click here.

Stay tuned for the announcement of the winner tomorrow.

Week 9 - Embellish It Competition - Recycle It (The Final Challenge)

Well here it is...the final challenge for this fabulous competition and her is the criteria we were set for this week:

* Create a single or double page shaped layout. Circles, scallop circles/squares, 6x12s and other sized layouts (such as 8x8s), and any other variations thereof are not allowed (you get the idea). Further, the shape must support the theme/focus of your layout.
* As you’ll be working with plenty of photos (yes LOL … multiple photos are a requirement) please use them in a unique way and as your focal point.
* Bring your layout to life with interesting forms of texture, bold colours and three-dimensional elements.
* Create your layout in a collage format.
* Finally, recycle at least ten different things you find lying around. Be creative and think outside the square.

I really enjoyed this challenge and here is what I have submitted...







My favourite recycled item on this LO are the skis that I made from a meat tray from Woolies, that gave the perfect turned up ends for the skis...



Now the wait is on until Friday morning when the winner is announced...good luck everyone!

Week 8 - Embellish It Competition - Mixed Media It

Now this was the mother of all challenges! Holey dooley...I'm sure this stretched all of us to the utmost. I know for me it took every available hour in the five days allotted to get something up as an entry. I'm still not totally happy with it, and keep finding things in my scrap room that I wanted to include, but just didn't get there.

Here is our criteria:
* Create a mini album – you must create a mini album with at least 3 different materials as the base pages. Two of your pages will need to be created out of fabric. (I have used canvas/ heavy weight calico, cardstock, corrugated card) - your acetate embellishment page (described below) is not counted as one of these pages.

* All pages need to combine paint, ink and collage. The collage style can include anything you want – ribbon, photos, journaling, other embellishments, but every page must include at least one button and stitching (either hand or machine).

* Your embellishment for this artwork is to create at least one acetate page to go into your album – this page is to be a different shape to your album shape. This page will need to have patterned paper, stitching and a word or journaling.

Hmmm...simple, right?

Here's what I came up with.....















I was really sure this would see me exit the competition, because I wasn't very happy with the final submission, so I was VERY pleasantly surprised to see I had made it through to the final 10 for the last week!

Week 7 - Embellish It Competition - Alter It

Here is Week 7's criteria:
* create your own patterned background
* make and use at least 3 inchies on your project
* use a quote as part of your title
* not use alpha stickers on your project
* create a handmade embellishment from fabric

My first attempt at this was abandoned halfway through and I was somewhat more pleased with the second attempt...thank goodness I had just enough time to complete it! And here is what I came up with....



I was absolutely thrilled when it was announced that I was this week's winner...woohoo! At the end of this week, there are now 13 of us left in the competition.

Week 6 - Embellish It - Store It

Week 6 brought us a different style of challenge again with the following criteria:

* Create a card compendium to give as a gift.
* It must be made from at least 2 PP's from the same paper range.
* They must include a couple of cards to show how it is used.
* I would like the card compendium to look nothing like mine. (since someone has already made one in last weeks challenge)
* We require you to create an embellishment by taking a store bought embellish such as the flower shown and altering it in some way.
* Must make something and not just alter it by inking or using kindy glitz.

And here is what I came up with...







After this week, we now have 16 of us left in the competition.

Week 5 - Embellish It Competition - Roll It

This week's challenge was a doozey, but it took me on a very interesting and enjoyable journey. Here is the criteria we were to follow:

• Layout to be any shape but square!
• Monochromatic Colour Scheme (With a hint of one other colour only!)
• Paper Rolling or Quilling must be used on your layout!
• Stamping to be used on your layout and be a prominant feature (not just a little stamp in the corner).
• An embellishment to be made using acetate/transparency (you can also include any of the above criteria on your embellishment).

I had bought a quilling tool some time ago at a closing down sale thinking that it would be something I might like to try some time in the future. Feeling all organised and self-satisfied, I got it out and realised (to my dismay) that it had no hole in the end which meant that the paper was not held in place while you were rolling! WT? Fortunately, my LSS Scrapbooking Delights owner Sandra Staples very kindly came to my rescue, and loaned me her quilling tool to use for the challenge...thanks San!

Here is the LO I created after about 20 hours solid quilling...

...and some detail...



After this challenge, the number of contestants was reduced to 19.

Some exciting news I can now share....

As it has been officially announced, I can now let everyone know my exciting news that I am one of the new members on Chelley Bean Designs Creative Team!

This is a bit of a milestone for me as I have never been on a design or creative team before (perhaps I should scrap about it...lol) and I am really looking forward to the challenge.

For those who aren't aware, Chelley Bean Designs is owned by Michelle Jamieson, a very talented Australian scrapper and former Scrapbooking Memories Master. Michelle has an Etsy shop selling a gorgeous range of handmade embellishments that she designs and makes herself. Her Etsy Shop can be found here...

Wow! Where does the time go?

I can't believe it's been 7 months since I posted on my blog...how slack of me! There always seems to be something that takes precedence, plus I probably spend WAY too much time playing certain Facebook games.

Anyway, my time has been absolutely consumed lately with completing challenges for the competition at Scrap N Craft With T. This is a 9 week elimination challenge which is almost drawing to a close.

Here are my entries to date...

WEEK 1 (PAINT IT)
Criteria:
* paint
* doodling
* use 3 different patterned papers
* interesting ways to journal & title

I was absolutely thrilled to be the weekly winner for this layout...and 33 contestants became 32 still in the running.


WEEK 2 (HYBRID IT)
Criteria:
* cool colours
* paint
* some kind of title/lettering (handwritten/printed/alphas)
* at least one flower and
* an inventive hybrid embellishment

I won this weekly challenge as well and 4 girls were eliminated leaving 28 of us remaining.


WEEK 3 (STITCH IT)
Criteria:
1. hand stitching
2. felt
3. beads
4. bling / rhinestones
5. doodling

Another 3 people were eliminated this week and thankfully I wasn't amongst them. Congratulations to Belynda for winning this challenge....beautiful work!


WEEK 4 (VINTAGE IT)
Criteria:
1. Must be vintage style using lace and ribbon
2. creative use of rubons and paint
3. something for practical use
4. Must have included a distressing technique

I won this weekly challenge as well (I'm sure everybody hates me now....lol!) and we have been reduced in numbers to 22 now.






Stay tuned for more updates on the wonderful competition.

Thank-You Shaz!!!

A huge thank-you to the beautiful Sharon Dalton for announcing me as the December RAK winner on her blog CreativeMe 68. Those prizes look absolutely scrummy! MWAH Shaz!xxx

Welcome to 2010

I hope everyone out there in blog-land has an epically wonderful 2010.
While I am still on holidays, I am deperately trying to get on top of my scrapping commitments, and after cleaning, sorting and re-organising my scraproom, I have spent a couple of days working on some overdue Circle Journal entries for my forum friends at Scrapchat.
In case you don't know, circle journals are scrapbooks where those who sign up to participate, each contribute a page for each person's journal to their requirements and in keeping with each person's chosen subject matter. A little 'sign-in' card is also made to be attached to the 'Contributors' page of the journal. Here are some of the pages I've been working on....

Susan's 'Tips and Techniques'


Sarah's 'The Girl In The Mirror'


Noeleen's 'My Hometown'


Karen's 'I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends'


Ness' 'Betcha Didn't Know'


and Kylie's 'My Favourite Photo'


All of these are a 6"x6" format which I have struggled with in the past, but all these layouts seemed to work out okay AND stress-free.