My new look blog

Hi everyone, I had a message from a lovely scrappy friend, who alerted me in the best interests of being able to read my blog, that it's previous form with the orange background with swirls, was a little difficult to read.
So I have heeded this advice and changed my blog background to a very crisp and fresh white background.
So if you think there is something wrong with the blog, fear not, it is just a new look.

Deer and Fawn September challenge

This month at Deer and Fawn designs, the challenge is to use orange in a layout. Orange is my new favourite colour, I love it, it's so bright and cheery.
I had this photo of my nephew Lachlan, taken nearly 4 years ago at Christmas, and used it for this challenge. He was happily eating his Christmas lunch, I was an interrupting aunty and asked him for his photo, he was obliging  - love this little guy.
For my layout, I was inspired by a sketch designed by Ana Castro, I love her designs, they are awesome. I chose Websters Pages patterned paper, as well as Basic Grey for the orange. I spattered some orange paint onto the background. I backed the photo with Project Life journaling cards, added washi tape. I embellished with Charms Creations starsand mini tab, and Scrap Fx chipboard which I embossed with Lindy's stamp gang embossing powders to make them look a little rusty. I also added the button from Birdies embellies and resin stars from Cocoa Vanilla.
I'm just a little pleased with this layout.
Thanks for looking and for any comments you may leave.

Smile

Off the Rails Scrapbooking September challenge

The challenge set at Off the Rails Scrapbooking for September is to use this moodboard for inspiration:

The colours in this spoke of male inspired but also winter. I didn't want to scrap winter, I'm over it, so I scrapped a male themed layout. I was inspired by the word dream and the colours.  I chose this photo of my son, from his karate black belt grading 3 years ago. I decided to go grungy with this, after all it takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get a black belt. 

I chose this Rusty Pickle patterned paper - yes quite old I know, (is that brand even around anymore?), but it worked, in my opinion anyway. I roughed it up, and layed it onto the basic grey patterned paper base. I added a strip of the leftover, and then a strip of Couture Creations die release paper, some washi tape, Project Life journaling cards, tissue paper. I embellished simply with Charms Creations chevron, buttons, Birdies embellies chevrons. I die cut the title out of chipboard. 

Thanks for looking at my layout and for any comments you may leave.

Dream

Scrap the Girls September challenge

The September challenge at Scrap the Girls, is to be inspired by this sketch:

Whilst this sketch is beautiful, I personally found it a little busy, so I chose to tone it down a little with my embellishing, yet maintaining the integrity of the sketch as much as possible. 

I chose a photo of my daughter and her friends from her recent 25th birthday celebration. 

I had these project life journalling cards with gold on them, that I chose to use. In the pack came transparency cards with the words celebrate and you, so I cut these out, and used them as my title. I embellished with some die cut feathers and some gold Charms Creations X and O shapes, as well as my flowers. Even though it is a bit more simplified, I like how it turned out.

Thanks for looking at my layout, and for any comments you may leave.

Celebrate You

Scrapping Outback September challenge

This month at Scrapping Outback, the challenge is to use this image as inspiration, along with white, and of course chipboard:

I love using orange in my layouts, it's my new favourite colour, so vibrant and fun, so then teamed with this green, it needed to be really fun. 

So that's the direction I took with this layout. I scrapped photos from my 50th birthday from last year. I had this one of my outfit -60's inspired - coz it was 1960's themed party. My party was a whole night of fun, with everyone dressing up. My outfit had the orange and lime green in it, so these photos were perfect. 

I had this chipboard from Imaginarium designs, which worked so well for my layout. I embossed both pieces with embossing powder - the dress I stamped first then embossed. 

I love the way this turned out, so bright.

Thanks for looking at my layout and for any comments you may leave. 

It's a girl thing

White With 1 September challenge

As soon as I saw this colour challenge for White With 1, I knew I needed to do this challenge.

Now I don't ordinarily like working with green, but this colour is an exception to the rule, with it's earthy and golden tones. 

I decided to scrap something quite nature related, I had these photos taken at my parents house when I was visiting a couple of years ago, of a family of Willy Wagtails - the parents had made a nest in one of the trees in the backyard, and these beautiful parents very diligently tended to this nest and it's precious cargo, with a batch of 3 babies that they raised. Mum and Dad had watched this occur over the weeks, and Dad took these pics over that time. The parents would take turns to sit on the eggs - a perfect display of parenting. 

For my background I used my favourite technique - texture paste, added some paint and my trusty stencils, and added some small splatters of paint. I then layered with some patterned paper, cotton thread, chipboard and cardboard. I painted the burlap leaves and the cardboard with some of my paint mixture. The flowers are Prima and Little Birdie, and the worded wood veneer is from a pack at Typo. I just had to add a little family of wood veneer birdies. 

Thanks for looking at my layout, and for any comments you may leave. 

A study in nature

Scrap our Stash challenge #30 week 1

I have often thought about doing the Scrap Our Stash challenge, but have just not got around to do it. I was needing something to inspire me for this photo that I have scrapped, and this challenge helped me.

So the sketch is optional, but I used it as well. 

For my items that I used from the word layers, I used - L - layering, A - acetate, alphas, Y - yarn, E - enamel dots, embossing powder, R - resin snowflakes, S - star embellishment.

I had this photo of my kids from a recent trip to Mt Buller for a day of skiing. My son was wearing this skeleton mask - pretty scary in my opinion, but hey - what would I know - lol. 

I had this star embellishment with a skeleton button on it from Charms Creations which I had to use, and this was the perfect match for the photo. 

I layered under the photo with some project life journaling cards, patterned paper, acetate card, and chipboard strip. I also added the yarn as a layer under the photo. I embossed on the snowflakes with Stampendous embossing powder, and sprinkled the resin stars and enamel dots around the page. I have also added a flair button from Funky Flairs Studio. I am really happy with how this turned out. 

Thanks for looking at my layout, and for any comments you may leave. 

Skull Face

Show Us Your Stuff September challenge

For the September challenge at Show Us Your Stuff, the challenge is this:

This is a great awesome, so I hope you decide to give it a go. 

For my design team layout, I chose a photo of my nephew Lachlan, after a day out at the snow, when he was visiting Melbourne with his family 4 years ago. He had a great fun day, but by the end of it was exhausted. 

For my layout, I chose a white cardstock background, and I chose the colour green, which I have drawn from his jumper. I used a stencil with texture paste, which I then added embossing powder over and heat embossed. I added some black rub ons around the edge of the cardstock. I applied watered down gelatos using plastic wrapping from packaging to the cardstock. My handmade embellishments are chevrons from Charms Creations, including a DIY chevron, which I stamped in and coloured with the gelato, and a felt one which I stitched on as well. 

I would love to see what you come up with for this challenge.

Tired Boy

September Scrap the Boys challenge

For the September challenge at Scrap the Boys, there is a sketch to use:

It's a great blokey sketch, but then could also be translated for a little dude as well, quite a few possibilities. 

I chose to do a blokes layout. I had this photo of my husband and his best mate taken at our daughters 21st birthday party, which was a Burlesque theme. An awful lot of the guys dressed as gangsters, which is what these 2 did. 

So for my layout, I wanted to try to achieve that feeling of money/flashiness etc.  

I had this patterned paper from a My Mind's Eye collection, with all the flashy silver on it. I used this as my inspiration with the sketch. I kept to a monochromatic theme, and added the bits of silver and bling to it- nothing wrong with bling on a blokes layout. I had this car paper clip, which I found at Office works, which I thought worked well. I also had one of the new embellishments that will be released soon at Charms Creations. I used the moustache with a DIY diamond, to which I stamped and added silver embossing powder. Diamonds are another touch that I felt went with the gangsters/money theme. I quite like the overall effect of this, no mixed media as such to speak of, but hey, that's ok. 

Thanks for looking at my layout, and any comments you may leave. 

Gangster Style

Kraft + September challenge

This month at Kraft+  the challenge is a sketch challenge, designed by Nifty Pixel. Here is the challenge:

Awesome challenge, with a great sketch. 

I don't do digital scrapping, so it's the paper and glue for me, lol. 

I chose to use the 3 photos in the sketch, and have pretty much kept to the sketch design, except to move my journaling over to the other side. My photos are of the full mine rising over the estuary at a gorgeous town called Mallacoota, where my husband and I holidayed earlier this year. The full moon was spectacular this particular night, and we had a great view of it from our accomodation. I decided to be very patient (with a glass of wine in hand) and took a timeline of photos of the moon rising. It was sensational watching it over the glassy water, with barely a cloud to obscure it. The reflection on the water was beautiful. 

I have kept the layout fairly monotone, trying to keep with the silver theme. I tucked my alphas just a little under the Sirrah Sarrah handmade paper, to replicate the moon coming from behind clouds. I stamped using a clock stamp to replicate the time theme. I also stamped on the DIY arrow from Charms Creations. I had some gorgeous Prima crystals in the silver colour as well, and found some buttons that fitted too. I am quite pleased with the overall effect. 

Thanks for looking at my layout and for any comments you may leave. 

Silvery Moon

Charms Creations September Challenge

At Charms CreationsCharms Creations this month, we have a sketch for you to be inspired by, designed by the talented Amanda Hartmann:

This is a really cool sketch, and in the Charms Creations online shop, Charm has diamonds for sale, which are absolutely perfect for this challenge - mind you could use any embellishment. 

I started with the diamond stencil, made a mixture of gel medium and glimmer glam, and stenciled this over the background. I really concentrated my colours to the colours in the girls school uniforms. I made a little banner (after seeing something similar on pinterest), and added one of the new tab embellishments to that, also available to buy in the online shop also. 

Why don't you have a go at this challenge, you will surely be able to find an appropriate Charms embellishments to use for this. Have fun. 

Diamonds in the rough