Kraft Challenge February

Sweet Sofia

Thought I would start doing some challenges just for fun and the first one I've done is for the June 'Scrap Around The World' challenge.  Unfortunately trying to link it the day before I go overseas has proven to be a technical challenge I would rather not have right now so think I'll wait until I return home to start challenging myself.

Mixed Media Play

A few layouts of the grandchildren and their friends, particularly liking playing around with mixed media, nice to be creative in a different way, a long way to go before I would consider myself artistic at mixed media though but I'm having fun learning.

Mum (Erin) and daughter (Sofia)

Another beautiful photo Erin sent me and again Sofia making a 2 yr old fashion statement love it.

Spent a day scrapping with some new scrapping friends who have different styles to myself and always love to see new techniques so this layout isn't like anything they did but what they were doing gave me ideas to create similar in my own way, the strips of background paper instead of a matted photo being one of those things.

Kept pretty neutral with the colours due to the almost sepia tones of the photo.  Used a Prima 'stitch' stamp around the edges and a Martha Stewart stamp randomly then inked edges.  Chipboard bird cage from stash and butterfly and bird were from an old piece of DCWV paper, made me realise why I keep my old papers lol….any excuse for my huge stash.  Chipboard elements are from G45 and stencil used at bottom right was from a cheap discount store yet its one of my fans and also has an adhesive backing so no leaks under the stencil just love it, used Golden modelling paste with it and then coloured over the top with lemon Pan Pastels.  Other additions for a pop of colour were some wash tape.

Sofia's New Dress

Sofia loves her clothes and is happy to pose for this picture with her piggy tails which is the first time I've seen her with them and living so far away every little detail mess so much to me so was thankful to receive this photo from my daughter.

Another whimsical page which I love for photos of Sofia, using the G45 Secret Garden papers.  I've added some cuts from a friends Silhouette which she so kindly sent to me thanks Jackie A, the title Summer Fun and the Gate.  Prima flowers flowers, Prima stamp around the photo for definition ad something a little different, with dies from Heartfelt Creations around the stamped frame.  For the floral additions at each side of photo I used Golden modelling paste and added Luminarte mineral powder to it for the colour, I used a Prima mask for the pattern.

Been a busy few weeks, mainly pleasure and doing all those things that retirement allows you to.

Have been scrapping, recently met some lovely local ladies who are very good scrap artists who contribute to different Design teams and all have differing styles to my own.  As I'm always interested in trying new styles and keeping up with the latest techniques with scrapbooking, we decided to get together at Sharmaine Kruivjer's place (apologies Sharmaine if last name spelt incorrectly), we had a lovely day and lunch and decided to get into organising the next get together.

Many things were learnt on the day, lots of little features to make my pages a little more different, not that I want to change my layering and pretty style that I tend to prefer, but would just like to add to it and also use more of the newer techniques on 'boy' pages in particular, going to have fun trying anyway.

So although I do have pages to upload I still have to take photos and pop them up instead of playing with the mixed media in my Art Journal which I've been doing a lot lately.

Photo's on recent layouts are coming, in a day or so.

On a plus, my footy team had a great win at the weekend….go the Roos, and….
Only 6 weeks until we leave for America to visit our daughter and her gorgeous family.

Pretty as a flower

Recently did a class with Heartfelt Creations from America and purchased some dies for flower making, have used one of those dies in the mauve and green coloured flowers under photo, used liquid pearls in centre.

Now down to some layouts that I've done recently

This first layout was designed as my role as 'contributing artist' for 'Ideas for Scrapbookers blogspot'

This was my interpretation of a sketch that another one of our contributing artists put up.  Unfortunately the lighting in these is not very good, will take more pics when light better and replace.

Granddaughter Sofia

The following layouts are of my three adorable grandchildren, Henry and Sofia who live in America and Will who lives here in Tasmania.

Will at his 3rd birthday party

My youngest daughter Katie, picture taken when celebrating her 31st birthday.

Hello again Blog…..retired - yet not enough time in the day!!

That's what they say and it's so true I keep meaning and wanting to keep this blog up to date but get so busy with either scrapping or sewing or back and forth on the windy road to Hobart, that I neglect my blog.

Well, here we go again, now all my scrapping friends are on Facebook it is easier to put my pages on here rather than on Scrapbook.com where all my old ones are, and its easier for my daughter in America to view them on here seeing as my grandchildren are 90% of my scrapping topics.

Layouts will be different as I try to incorporate various techniques learnt from doing classes Interstate with International teachers plus local teachers in Adelaide who I think are as good as any from overseas, so although my favourite style will still be Shabby Chic, there will be some where I'm experimenting with mixed media and trying my patience in adapting to a style that doesn't come naturally to me.

Sticking with the 'girlie' pages for now, here are a couple of layouts again with Sofia using some of my fav pictures of her

In this page I have used Prima papers, would have to be my all time favorite papers, Spellbinders die cuts again cut with Prima papers and my Big Shot, the Leaves were cut using a Martha Stewart punch and the frame around photo is a prima surround followed by one of the large Martha Stewart border punches, and of course had to finish with Prima flowers, not a lot of embellishing needed on this one with the pretty borders.

When these papers first came out I swore I would never use them, too busy and complex and I just didn't know what I would do with them or how to use them, but that all changed when I was in Adelaide recently and the store owner where I was doing classes is on the Graphic 45 design team.  Her work was so inspirational and the new Secret Garden papers had just come in and I couldn't resist. For this photo of Sofia reading her book I thought I would cut around her and place her in that secret garden.  I actually used Gesso around the centre of the page so I could have a blank surface and then fussy cut the vine and birds from another page of G45, cut a few more pieces from other sheets and added the Prima mushrooms and cherub.

SASSY and SWEET

My dear granddaughter Sofia, her mum says she's feisty, I call her Sassy, so sweet and photogenic I find it hard not to scrap every photo I see of her, of course that isn't possible as I have two grandsons to scrap as well.  Sofia has some amazing 'faces' for someone so young only 18 months old but think big brother helps to to be a lot older than that in real life.

I used Webster's paper and embellishments on this as well as a few different Spellbinder die cuts, resin flower's and heart are from a teacher at Seriously Scrapbooking in Adelaide where I recently went with a friend to do scrap classes....well, here she is!!

Unfortunately my camera isn't a good one and fails to show the true colour when photographing layouts, the colour of this page is really quite pink.  Also the lovely Spellbinder die cuts at top and bottom of middle photo and underneath the black and white scrolls, do not show out unless you look really hard, definitely going to try to get a better picture of this one, camera permitting..

Blog revived yet again...

Well I have neglected my blog again, but am getting it up and running again and as from tomorrow I will start posting recent work that I've done.

Why...well, my last post says I just got back from America, that was August.  In November I was back over there to assist my daughter bring the grandchildren home for Christmas as her husband couldn't travel until later.  I spent 3 weeks with them before coming back home and as usual had a wonderful time.  But the lead up to that November trip back, was so hectic with a lot of things going on and I didn't have time to do any scrapping let alone keep a blog up....so....here we go again....see you back on here tomorrow.

Back from USA

Well my blog has been rather quite for a while....again...yes, been to the USA again to visit our daughter and her family, lots of wonderful photos taken just have to find the time to scrap them now and that has been proving difficult as its getting to that time of year...spring cleaning....sound like fun..NO, but has to be done.  About the only place that probably won't get done is my scrap room because every time I tidy it I can't find anything!!

We did a rather indirect route home from the USA and visited Thailand, a place I never wanted to go to but it just happened!! I came home really happy that we'd made the effort and thoroughly enjoyed finding out about all the history and culture, it certainly has an interesting background...not to mention some very good tailors.

Now, its back to scrapping, I've actually finished 3 of the 4 articles that I did when in Perth, Western Australia at classes run by Trisha Green-Ladouceur, who was awesome, but still have 1 to go and only a few very basic instructions for it, so may just have to wing that one and see how it turns out.  Have decided I am very anti classes where things do not get finished during them, it is so frustrating when you don't have photos of each of the completed pages as a guide to finish something off, not to mention time wasting, so all future classes will have to have a 'complete in class' tag attached to them before I take them on.

Well I did get a layout started today, well, did a bit of fussy cutting and threw some Gesso on, used a stencil, now left it to dry, really don't know where I'm going from there but am off now to scout around some of my favourite blogs for inspiration.

Lets go Camping

This is a project I did for Pam Callaghan's blog ideasforscrappers.blogspot.com  pop over to her blog and check out all her great designs, templates and other items from contributing artists.

Henry's early years have many camping memories already and although due to a posting to the other side of the country they have decided to sell their caravan, I'm sure they will have another in the future to continue exploring the great outdoors and increasing Henry's memories.  I have done the best I can to capture some of the memories of a couple of their trips, one to the Pacific North West (WA) and the other to Oregon.

I decided instead of doing numerous pages I would do a layout with a mini book on it.  This mini book although only being basically made of 2 folded sheets, contains many turn over pages, tabs and pockets so it will be an interactive and interesting item for Henry as he grows up.

For the cover of the mini book I used an old favourite stamp of mine and embossed it with fine detail black embossing powder, dried with a heat gun.  Then coloured in around it using Pan Pastels and finished with a fixative.

The book is just to pieces of cardstock 5" deep by 11" long, folded in the middle and 2 holes punch and thread through with twine.  I adhered the back of it to the layout with Terrifically tacky tape as it needs to be strong because of possible future use.

The pictures below show the various pages where you may be able to see the tags and pockets and journaling spots.

Watch Me !!!

Dear little granddaughter Sofia showing how clever she is sitting up alone and pushing herself around, great subject matter for scrapping thats for sure.

This was done for the DT on www.miraclemommasdesigns.blogspot.com

Using sketch No. 19, loved using this sketch I found it so easy to create my style of layout without having to even think much about it.

EXPLORE!!!

Something my dear grandson Henry loves to do....be outdoors.

This layout was done for my role as a contributing artist for www.ideasforscrapbookers.blogspot.com
I based it loosely on a template from the same site which the author Pam did a while ago whilst putting my own slant on it.  I love her templates and use them often.

Lets go on a short Hike!!

This is my daughter Erin and granddaughter Sophia whilst on a short hike to a beach not all that far from their home in WA, USA.

I don't very often try to scraplift layout's done by my favorite scrappers, many inspire me but I find it is too hard to even begin to to their layout's justice.  This design belongs to Stephanie (Steph) Devlin, and amazing artist whose work I love and she's Australian as well.  Steph is on the Prima DT and well deserves that honor with the great work she does, I never miss a day checking out her blog and because she's Australian I plan to go and do classes with her later this year between my 2 planned trips to America.

Firstly I am going to visit my daughter and her family for both hers and grandson Henry's birthday's.  The second trip is to help my daughter bring the children home to Australia for Xmas and a long stay, her husband who is in the United States Army cannot come at the same time but will be following a little later.

On this layout I used Gesso on the pink background to soften it and blend it in with the whole layout.  The vine is cut using a Martha Stewart Punch, the embellishments and of course the paper is Bo Bunny..love that range, the punch around the outer edge is an EK Success punch, while the chippy embellishment is from my stash which I also used Gesso on to create texture and then dappled it lightly with metallic rub ons.  The hearts were cut on my cricut but not totally successfully, I say that only because I couldn't get them to look anything like the wonderful hearts on Steph's layout.

One Sweet Smile

This layout created for www.ideasforscrapbookers.blogspot.com

This is my granddaughter Sofia, she is so photogenic and I have many photo to choose from, so loved scrapping this one taken when she was at the Tulip Festival at Mt Vernon in WA, USA.

I loved used the Pan Pastels for the background page, I have been playing with them for a few weeks now on backgrounds, but only using lighter shades.  This time I have chosen darker shades and tints and I still need to play a lot but I really like the effect.  Also love the Crafters Workshop negative image stamp down the right hand side, love how this looks like it has been drawn on the page.  Of course I have finished off with my favorite thing...Prima flowers.  Oh...the Super 8 punch was used to punch the edge around the inner white cardstock.  Hope you enjoy viewing.

MMD DT layout

On the MMD DT the oh so clever Heather Landry creates one of her wonderful sketches and we have to interpret it our way.  This is from her Sketch number 17.

Titled - Celebrate Spring
Features my eldest grandson who lives in WA, USA, when they visited the tulip fields recently, only the pic is taken in the daffodil patch.

What a crazy couple of weeks!!

Well I feel right now like saying stop the world I wanna hop off for a bit, I have crammed so much into the last 2 weeks and am now realising that I have a bad habit of taking on too much.  Firstly a jam packed scrapbooking trip to Perth in Western Australia, 4 hrs flying time and a 2 hr time difference, then 2 full days of scrapp classes, 6 in total, starting at around 9am and finishing around 11pm both days, then of course there was the scrappy shopping and the must do clothes shopping....so came home really fulfilled and happy with what we'd done, but also very tired.

The crunch was....I only had 2 days at home to unpack, wash, re pack, mind my gorgeous grandson for a day and leave home at 3.50am the following day to head back to mainland Australia to the State of New South Wales with my hubby to attend a 'bird show'...yes, he breeds finches.  My sister and brother in-law came up to stay a weekend with us as they don't live far away from where we were, we did the wine show, visited some wineries and yes...shopped...well until hubby said enough!!

Then it was back home to get my DT layout done and another for my role as 'Contributing Artist' on another blog.  Just finished and finally have time to breath...well for 30 mins when I have to hop on the treadmill before cooking dinner...lifes just too busy sometimes, but, only as busy as we allow it to be I guess.

I'm now going to go post the layout which was my 1st for the Miracle Momma Designs DT as its the first chance I've had to be able to post it...