Aargh

Handmade by Suzanne is stocked to the gills with new products - all the latest stuff from CHA. There is sooo much goodness to choose from. I managed to limit myself to only three new collections ....... so far :-)

However, that doesn't mean that you can't also remain true to some of the amazing and classic "old" collections. I was lucky enough to score a package filled with some My Mind's Eye So Sophie collection to work with this month, and let me tell you - this line is gorgeous. For a start, the texture of these papers is like silk, and with such a rich and vibrant colour scheme they suit so many themes and styles.

So I promptly set about trying to do justice to this month's sketch which has been designed by the amazing Liz Weber. The very clever thing she's done here is to make the sketch applicable to both layouts or cards. So if you want to take part in this month's sketch challenge you can make either (or both!)

Anyway, as fantastic as this sketch is, it's a little frilly for my tastes (if taken at face value). Of course, flowers on a sketch don't have to equal flowers on your layout, and neither do bows or flourishes so I knew I needn't worry. But how to interpret it?

For a start, I wanted to use two photos instead of one - but that worked easily enough. And I did end up tying a bow around one of them as the sketch suggested. The sketch leaves it up to your own judgement to decide where to put a title, and whether you want to add journalling. And the rest was simple really - plain ol' paper strips. Always works well in my book :-)

It was the flourishes that stumped me for a while though. I don't really do flourishes! But as I was driving myself to a meeting the other day it came to me (I do a lot of scrapbook planning in the car!) I keep wanting to incorporate more free-motion stitching into my layouts because I love it as a technique - it's so fun! This allowed me the perfect opportunity. And I'm really happy with how it turned out. Of course, I'll have to think of new designs since I've done the leaves a couple of times now. Hhhmmmm.................

So pop on over to Handmade by Suzanne and see what the other DT girls have done with the sketch. And maybe I can persuade you to have a go this month. There's a $20 voucher to the store up for grabs to a random player so anyone can win!

PS. The title spells "Aargh" and the journalling talks about how Moodles is getting better at crawling, but ironically it comes with increased frustration, because now that she's got a small taste of freedom she wants more! She wants to be able to stand and walk and run and reach and play outside of her abilities - and it causes many tears.