Kraft It Up April Challenge

Here's a layout I did for this month's Kraft It Up Challenge....

The challenge was to use Kraft cardstock or patterned paper as a base plus three other Kraft items on the layout.

Here is a close-up of some of the embellishments I used....

I really haven't been enjoying what I'm creating lately, but my mojo was reinvigorated by using photos of my own children when they were little (these photos are from 1986!) instead of photos of my cats or my grand nieces and nephews. Special kudos and thanks to San Staples for discovering how awesomely ink works to bring out the pattern on the MME Kraft Fun Day papers!

A few more layouts done this month......

Here are 3 more layouts I have done in the last couple of weeks....no particular purpose....just playing with paper, inks and glue.

Shits & Giggles March Challenge

Here is my art journal entry for this month's Shits & Giggles challenge....lots of fun with paints and inks and mists.....





Here's the inspiration for this month's challenge....

A2Z Scraplets Sketch Challenge

It seems to have been a month of sketches for me this month. Here's another one I did for the A2Z Scraplets March challenge....





Here is the sketch that the layout is based on....again I turned the sketch on it's side....

Stuck?! Sketches March Challenge

Here's another layout I did of my great-niece Tayla, this time with her brother Jaden as well. This one is for a sketch challenge over at the challenge blog Stuck?! Sketches.






The layout was based on this sketch which I turned on it's side....

Scrapbook Savvy Sketch Challenge

This month's Sketch Challenge at Scrapbook Savvy really appealed to me, so thought I would give it a go. The gorgeous bubba in the photo is my great-niece who lives in South Africa....






Here is the sketch which was inspired by another Savvy contributor's layout in the gallery.....



I've been busily taking lots of photos today of all my projects from the last couple of weeks, so stayed tuned for some more uploads.

Felt Flowers

Here is a layout I did earlier in the year for Chelley Bean Designs as part of the creative team there featuring Chelle's gorgeous handmade felt flowers.
The photo was taken of my friend's daughter Georgia, when they came to stay at my place after Christmas, and she forgot to put on sunscreen for her day at the beach. She was so miserable....but I loved the colours in the photo which inspired me to do the layout.



....and a close-up of the flowers...



These flowers come in a huge range of colours....



....and are sold in packs of 3 of the same colour for $3 at the Chelley Bean Designs etsy store.
There are lots of other beautiful handmade items up for sale too.

February 'Shits & Giggles' Entry

This month I have continued adding to my A5 art journal with the February challenge from the Shits & Giggles blog.

Here is the page I made this time....



...and a close-up....



The challenge this month was to create something using the following as inspiration...



A bit of naughty one, but I chose not to use the actual quote just the colour and the sentiment behind the quote.

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.