Hand in Hand Crop

Scrapaholics had a fundraising crop day for Hand in Hand.  Hand in Hand in a free beautician service for women with cancer.

I had a great day with lovely ladies & I didn't get much done,but it got me inspired.  These are most of the layouts I did at the crop & days following.  

This is from Maggies class:

I ended up buying the Basic Grey new releases kit.  As usual I used the instructions as a general guide...

Basic Grey  - Highline

 Basic Grey - Capture

 Basic Grey - Spice Market & Capture

 Basic Grey - Capture 

 Basic Grey - Highline

 Basic Grey Spice Market & Capture (& really old Basic Grey)

There are others in various stages of completion, but I figured this was enough for one post ;)

"Umbrella" by Rihanna

Now I am not a Rihanna fan, but it was challenge #49 on Challenge Me Happy & I was stuck.  When I read the lyrics I knew it would be perfect for a wedding photo.  I am not sure if I am too late for competition, but thought I would share anyway.

 This is one of my fave sheets of paper, unfortunately I cut the strip off so I can't tell you what it is.  I used my new Prima foam stamp I bought at SENZ.  It isn't as clear as I wanted, but gives cool 3D effect, I mixed gell into the paint.

The little frame is also Prima with metallic rub-ons  to give it more definition. The kids kissing is actually a jewelry pendant I painted the back of.

White plus one

As I was doing really well with my scrapbooking LO challenges so I thought I would have another go at one.  This LO was 90% done for the white plus one February challenge when tragedy struck our extended family & I was unable to complete it in time.  I really like the way it has turned out so thought I would post it anyway.  The chipboard background was a purchase from the retreat I went to at the start of this blog!!  I was always waiting for something 'special' to use it for, well my baby is special :)

We are related to the guy who was killed in the shark attack of Murawai beach.  As soon as I heard about it on the radio I thought "I wonder if...." but thought the chances that it was him was so slight I put it from my mind.  So when we got the call later that evening I was in shock.  Such a horrible tragedy I was speechless & in shock for days, I just could wrap my head around the fact that he was gone. I mean what are the odds?  Now that beautiful little girl has lost her adoring daddy & Meg has lost the love of her life so soon after finding him.  IT'S NOT FAIR!! There are so many scumbags in this world, why him? I know life isn't fair, I tell my kids that often, but still....

Another white space LO

I'm on a roll!

This is one of my fave pics of me as a teenager, it's just me.  I used 'Follow your heart' paper left over from the retreat & a new Kaiser background stamp.

Reading the Paper

 I love this photo, and the conversation that went with it.  I have  been wanting to scrap it for ages but wanted to do something special.  I saw the Challenge Me Happy competition #39 White Space & decided it was perfect inspiration.

On my blue paper I first I mod podged some strips of newspaper under the area for my photo, then i added some dimensional stickers & crackle glaze, then gesso painted over everything.  I wiped the paint off the dimensionals before it dried.  I did rub it into the crackle glaze. 

I decided it still needed more texture so added some texture paste to edges & top left corner.  I know my spelling & grammar is bad, but i was short letter stickers.

Busy Creating OTP?

Do all these count as OTP projects? Can't get any more off the page than a bed!

Nicola got a new bed for her birthday & wanted it painted rainbow.  So each draw is a colour of the rainbow & the base is her fave pink.  I think it worked well & she is very happy.  She has even made her bed properly every morning since she got it.

I saw this rose iron candelabra on the footpath outside work & had to take it home. 

 It is now the centerpiece of our dining room table.  Thanks to Louise for the birds.  The paper roses are Kaiser & the bird cage is Twiddleybitz.  The velvet leaves are from Spotlight.

 While I was a Spotlight looking for something unrelated i saw that patterns were on sale.  I accidently collect fabric but it just sits in the cupboard.  Baby needed a new sweat shirt & pants & when I saw the patterns.  She chose which patterns we were buying & what I made. I wanted a sweatshirt, she wanted the poncho.  She loves the  trackpants & barely takes them off.  The dress fabric I bought when we lived in Napier.  I finally made the Creeper face for the back of D's sweatshirt.  He is very happy.

 I made this little Teddy bear from a Scrapbooking stencil, it is felt.  It is small enough to  be posted to my B.I.L. for his baby. Don't tell them, it will be a surprise!

 What is this? A Layout???  I know I am shocked too.  I have been trying to finish sewing before I start on scrapbooking again. (shhh...I still have I more teddy to make)   I took these photos of my boy when we were away last school holidays & I love them.  They are just so him.  This LO came together quiet easily as I have heaps of stuff i have got over the years for his gaming pages.  The paper is DCWV Generation Tech & the stickers are Jodie Foster.

Basic Grey Marrakech Layout

These photos are from our trip to South Africa when I was a kid.  It took awhile for me to be happy with it.  That Marrakech paper is perfect for the photos, but difficult to work with.

It's been awhile....

It was the Book Week Parade at the kids school the other day. This this Harry Potter & Thea Stilton, don't hey look good :) Daniel wanted his hair black so we bought some coloured hairspray, but it didn't work so I PAINTED it! I had seen it done on NZ Next Top Model so thought it would just wash out like theirs did...but no. I have had to cut it & spend hours fine combing his hair.

This is the photo (finally) of the LO we did at SENZ in the Artfull Crafts class.

After all those sketches I did some double LO's. Believe it or not I actually got the idea for my mosaic from one of them. The flowers & tag are Kaiser, everything else is just stuff from my stash. I am trying to use it up, but it is not going well, still buying more than using. Oh well :) I have had these felt fish (Queens Co) for years too. Paper is Bo Bunny (I think) I used the paper that came off the back of the self adhesive fish as a mask for some inking. The brackets are a Pink Paislee magazine give away. Green Glitter letters are also Pink Paislee, the blue letters are Scenic Route.

I have been playing with some of that shrink plastic that I bought at SENZ. It is heaps of fun, but does take some experimentation (hence I just bought some more at the NZS sale) These are those stamps I bought there, I probably should have started with something similar......I discovered paint does not work, it bubbles & lifts. The colours get HEAPS stronger, so if it looks good before u shrink it is probably to much. Even tho the instructions tell u to use Brilliance ink I don't think this is a good idea. The shimmer is almost to much. Also you do need to use Stazon if u want to colour stamped image, other inks don't dry enough, but do stain plastic. I can guarantee I shall be playing some more.

I used my best fairy on the page below. I also used a Cosmo Cricket Gluber to make the flower. the paper is DCWV Ciao Bella that I got on sale at the Warehouse, isn't it pretty? The letters are Basic Grey that I coloured.

I had fun making this Websters style LO inspired by the LO Louise Williams taught us at the retreat last year. It is also DCWV paper.

Finally a sneak peak of two OTP projects I am currently working on.

Paper Chase July Sketch Challenge

Another sketch!! Shocking I know! Here is the sketch from July on the Paper Chase blog.

I have to credit my lovely husband for coming up wtih the titile for the is LO & isn't it cool? It's not often that the title is the first thing I do & everything else has to fit around it. I had fun making the little Jack-in-the-box men, they really move (not stuck down to page)

Challenge Me Happy Sketch #3

I am still working on my aquarium, (no u can't see it yet),but I decided to take a bit of a break & do some scrapping. I have gotten half way through a few LO's & decided they just weren't working, so when I saw the current sketch on Challenge Me Happy I thought it might be just what I needed. However I 'finished' it but felt it was till missing something. I do find sketches hard as some people's interpretation seem to me to be nothing like it, whereas I take them literally. So here is my literal LO from the sketch. One other thing I found difficult was purposely sewing non straight lines! This went against the grain of who I am! (but I love the effect) You probably wont be able to read the jouranling as it is so small, but this is me at 18 with my first car.

SENZ & some Layouts

Yesterday I took the day off work to go to SENZ with my BFF. It was great because we didn't have the kids either! I might have gone just a little bit crazy, but could have bought more! I got some glue, alchol ink, liquid pearls, Cosmo Cricket Glubers, Co-ordinates card stock, 4 stamps, flowers, polyshrink paper, bling, flower soft, Cricut blades & some other bits & pieces, hehe. We did a class with Artfullcrafts from Timaru which I shall share once finished, it was a very fast paced class! This is my first attempt at colouing in 2 Sweatpeas stamps I bought from Pitcher Stamps. The lovely lady said she colours her with watercolour pencils!!!! I love them, but hadn't thought about using them for the stamps as the currant rage is to use markers (which I don't like because you need special paper & need so many different colours), pencils I have been using all my life! I also painted them with my Twinkling H2O's to give them shimmer. I have learned that you do not need to use Stazon ink even though you are wetting them with the watercolur pen, but I think I do need to get a superfine ink pad as it was difficult to get a really clear image with my normal inks. I also found the images stamped better using a normal acrylic block rather than my wonderful Fiscar Stamp-press. She also told me I could use double sided tape to attach stamp to block if i don't have any of the proper sticky stuff! I had fun doing these but don't think it will be something I do regularly, although Nicola wants a LO with the pink one on it. I have done a bit of scrapping lately. When I saw this 'old school' telephone (Cosmo Cricket) the these dicuts (DCWV) I knew which photos I needed to use with them. The papers are Kaiser & DCWV
I finally finished this LO of Nicola being a Diva (she says she is not & doesn't like the LO)

Who is that lovely young couple? And why does he have so much hair? hehe. 1994 seems such a long time ago now! I used one of the SCAL files I downloaded to do this frame.On a slightly different note, I did get a bit annoyed when I read the submission guidelines/hints in a magazine. They said you are more likely to get accepted if you use the same brand on your LO. I don't like this! I like the idea of mxing it all up, if you only use 1 brand you are limiting your creativity. All my LO's are mixed up! So maybe that is why I don't get published.....they can't sell advertising space next to my LO's. (grumble over)

Queens Birthday Weekend

Nicola went to a birthday party at Extreme Edge Rock Climbing on Saturday. She made it to the top of two of them, & wanted me to take pics of her on each wall, hehe. She had heaps of fun & didn't want to go home.....ever!
Scott took Daniel to the Pokemon National Championship. He was very excited, if he won he got a trip to the USA. He didn't win but had a great day & did get some prizes including this ULTRA RARE card Scrappin' Patch had a blind scrap challenge over Queens Birthday weekend. I haven't done one before, it was quiet hard, but fun. They give you a specific list of items you must use, only allowed to add ink, glue, distressing, etc to list. So the list was : 1-12"x12" cardstock; 1-4"x6" photo; 5 different patterned papers cut to these sizes - 9.5"x5.5",1"x11.5", 4.5"x7", 0.5"x11", 2"x2.5"; a diecut shape; 3 circles; 3 tags; 3 stars; stamped image; 1 piece of ribbon; 3 stickers; 2 staples; 2 different colour alphas for the title; journaling; & doodling. This is what I finally came up with.Don't ask me what most of the papers are, they are out of my scraps, the main flower paper is Kaiser & the graph paper is Cosmo Cricket. The blue alpha's are Scenic Route, the red alpha's are Making Memories Foil Love Notes. The bird stickers are also the circles from Cristina Re Paper Chic. I inked some cool decorative staples I got from Warehouse Stationery awhile ago. It was definitely out of my comfort zone to use so many different patterned papers on 1 page, but I think it came up ok. I think it got my mojo back, cos now I want to try some other LO's using same list of ingredients, but I have to finish sewing for Daniel first. Here is my duvet I have been working on for ages too. I haven't managed to get Nicola to stand still long enough for a photo of the party dress I made for her.

Opps, it's been awhile.....

I have been busy lately, but have got a little bit of scrapping lately.

I finally did a LO of my first BFF, Lenny. It is using Basic Grey Marrakech paper, stickers & letters, & Kaiser Penny Royale paper & flowers. I used my new favourite Stamin' Up! brad maker to make matching flower centres.

Nicola helped me paint the background of this LO. I wanted the paper to look like Daniel's Moko, so the plain black Bazzil is painted white over the Crafter's Workshop Cosmic Swirl stencil.

This was a very fast LO of Nicola using daddy's laptop. It is a pre-printed sheet from DCWV Generation Tech with a few die cuts added.

I finally took a pic of the LO we did at camp last year in Louise's class. There was a lot of discussion at the time of who my dad looks like, the majority vote was for either Austin Powers (after he gets his teeth done), or one of the Flight of the Concord guys. I gave it to mum & dad for Xmas.I have been doing a bit of sewing lately instead of scrapping. I had to mend Daniels school pants, he wasn't pleased, apparently he liked them that way, hehe. I added a frill to the bottom of Nicolas favourite dress-up dress. It reminded me of my childhood, the dresses mum used to make longer for me as I grew, I loved those dresses. Then I made myself a top & started on the new duvet cover. I am now sick of sewing, but I know if I don't finish it now, it wont get done. I did take a break to make a Mothers Day card & a baby card for a friend.

This Saturday was the kids first hockey games for the year, Nicola's first ever! Both the kids did very well & it even stopped raining. Daniel was awake & concentrating for the whole game. Nicola scored her teams first goal! They enjoyed themselves so much that neither of them would take off their uniforms, in fact Nicola even slept in hers....with her stick! Time to get back to the sewing......