Necessity is the Mother of Invention

My last weekly challenge is up at Scrapz.biz. It's the 'Paint a Rainbow' challenge which means a colour combo as well as the weekly theme needs to be incorporated.

The colours I chose are 'dusty pink', 'teal' and 'apricot' and of course you can always mix in the neutrals such as white, cream, grey, brown and black.

And the theme of this challenge is "Necessity is the Mother of Invention" and what's the one thing that all of us need more of? (Well, apart from more time and money? :P )............ Space in our scrapping area for new products!!

If you're like me you have piles of "old" product that is too good to get rid of because you know you'll need it some day, but that day just hasn't seem to have come around!! :laugh: Well today is that day! I challenge you to mix the old with the new and use at least one product on your page that's been in your collection for ages!

 On my page I've used a variety of new products such as:
Glitz Designs Afternoon Muse Polka (the teal paper)
Glitz Designs Afternoon Muse Whatnots (the orange frame and vintage tag)
Glitz Designs Tiny Pink Alpha stickers
American Crafts tapes (very similar to the new Hambly ones in store)

But I've also mixed in some of my old stash including some very old Kaisercraft and American Craft rubons, and all those Basic Grey alpha stickers that I'm sure we've all got in our collection!

 

Another new product I used was this gorgeous chipboard leaf spray from Imaginarium Designs. I love how detailed their products are, and you're going to be seeing a lot more of their products on my pages I can assure you!

So I can't wait to see what you come up with using this colour combo as well as your old stash. Pop over to Scrapz.biz and upload your interpretation to be in the running to win one of the amazing weekly prizes that you've just made room for!

Hey Beautiful

I'm sure we've all been asked before "how did you meet so and so?" I know I've been asked about how I met my husband by many a friend or colleague. One day I imagine my children might want to ask that question too, but right now they're too young to understand.

That's the beauty of scrapbooking. To me it's all about telling those stories and remembering the funny little details that might otherwise get forgotten with the passage of time. I did this page for my Guest Designer gig at Scrapz.biz. The weekly challenge theme last week (sorry, it's finished now, but I've got a new challenge issued right here) was "How I Met Your Father".

Mine was a "Scrap It Blind" challenge which meant that I gave a list of instructions on how to go about designing this page, but I didn't actually reveal my own layout until after the challenge was over.

It's a lot trickier than you imagine to put together a page following written instructions only (without any visual guides). If you're up for that challenge, the new Scrap It Blind challenge is here.

As for the supplies I've used for my layout I've got a mixture of Studio Calico Countryside (with a touch of State Fair) and Sassafras Indie Girl. They work well together don't you think?

Hot Pot

I'm sure all you mother's out there are familiar with the idea of your kids rumaging through your kitchen drawers and playing with everything in sight hey? Hey, if it keeps them amused!

Grey is the new black right? I fell in love with this pretty grey and white paper called Trellis from the Pink Paislee Soiree collection and knew that I couldn't possibly cut into it :-)

And mixing it with the happy colours of yellow, peach and teal with a splash of lime was just perfectly playful for this whimsical layout.

The wooden shapes had me at hello. Again, another embellishment that I needn't do a thing to enhance. I also used the packaging from them and ran it through my Silhouette to cut out the yellow trellis background that I used under my photos.

And in case you're wondering about that luscious satin pleated ribbon - it's by May Arts and you can find it in many wonderful colours right here.

How to win a Nook kit

Do you want to be in the running to win one of these?

The absolutely gorgeous May kit from My Scrapbook Nook??

Once Upon A ..Sketch is giving one, right now!!

All you need to do is this..

1. Follow the Once Upon A ...Sketch Blog
2. Copy this exact information and post about this on your blog, together with the May kit picture and a link back to Once Upon A Sketch. 
3. Make sure you also post the information about the current offer at the Nook listed below. 

3. Link your post using the Link Tool at the bottom of the post!

That is it! You have until the end of the current challenge, which is midnight May 31st, Australian Eastern Standard Time. 

My Scrapbook Nook is offering a wonderful offer for a limited time only!Sign up for 6 months and receive the May kit for free......great deal! 

Or Sign up for 12months and get the 13th kit free!!!!!!!!!

Kits value between $31- $34 – Yours for only $29.50. This way we ensure that you receive a fully loaded kit each month. We will also offer combined shipping with any add-ons or goodies from the store you need.
http://myscrapbooknook.org/kit-club/

Tell a friend and if they sign up email us at orders@myscrapbooknook.com and give us your friends name and we will give you a $5.00 store credit. Good only while supplies last.

Send in the Clowns

I grew up in a small country town where one of the highlights of the year was the annual Country Show. You know the type where the farmers get to parade their livestock, the women have baking competitions and there are plenty of rides and sideshows for the kids?

For the first time I took my two girls back there so they could experience it too. They had a ball of course. The clowns were a firm favourite and I snapped these fun photos of them.

I also just recently got my hands on the two new ranges from Studio Calico, and although State Fair seems like an obvious choice for these photos (given the theme) it was actually the colours of Countryside that better matched them.

I layered and mixed and matched almost the entire packet of the Countryside Tags to ground my titles and write my journaling on. I do like the effect and it was entirely worth it :-)

When I was done I posted this layout in the Studio Calico gallery, and they chose to feature it on their Facebook page as a way of promoting the Tags I guess. I'm quite chuffed over here!

:-)

Good Times

Like all 4 year old's, Munchy started kindergarten this year. What I found wonderful was that she wasn't scared, wasn't anxious or apprehensive..... she was soooooo EXCITED!!

My mother-in-law was visiting us at the time and I was at work so she snapped this photo of Munchy posing (ever so cheekily I might add!) to prove how happy she was to be finally going to kinder.

The Pink Paislee Soiree collection was absolutely perfect for scrapping this celebratory layout. The whole collection is party-focused but easily translates into other styles and themes too.

It's so easy to incorporate lots of the embellishments onto one page because they're all so different. I managed to use the wooden shapes, the flags, the twine and the tissue paper (as well as the papers of course) all without it looking overwhelmed.

And you're going to be noticing that wonderful houndstooth stencil from Crafter's Workshop on lots of my upcoming projects because I just llluurrve it! I've got a couple of others as well, but plan on buying heaps more :-) I've got my eye on this one, and this one next!

Desperate Housewives

I'm so excited to be bringing you the Fetch a Sketch challenge this week over at Scrapz.biz, and let me tell you it's a good one!!

The theme this week is 'Desperate Housewives' which I immediately Googled to spark some creative ideas since I don't actually watch the show, and I came across this image of one of their DVD covers.

I used this to base my sketch off. And I've purposely left it fairly vague in order to allow you your own interpretation and add your own design style.

You can use all those squares as photos, or journaling blocks, or embellishment spaces or anything else you can come up with.

I also used the original Desperate Housewives image to help guide my colour choices.
I started off with a bold dark background and filled it with vivid blue, red and yellow patterns.

Products I've used:
My Mind's Eye Stella and Rose
My Mind's Eye Stella and Rose brads
My Mind's Eye Stella and Rose label stickers
Basic Grey Micro Mono alpha stickers

So if you want to join in with this week's challenge and go into the draw to win a fabulous prize all you need to do is create a layout based on the sketch above and upload it to the appropriate gallery using FAS 049 in your title by midnight Wednesday 18th May.

Have fun!

The School of Love

Have you caved yet and signed up for Pinterest? I finally did a couple of weeks ago. I'd done enough lurking for a few weeks before that and finally decided it was time. (You can see my pins here if you're itnerested. And if you need an invitation to join Pinterest let me know and leave me your email address).

Anyway, my point is that it was a post on Pinterest which inspired the title on this layout. You might have seen it around if you're a pinner. But it was this fortnight's sketch at Once Upon A....Sketch that drove the rest of my layout design.

Sometimes I find that the most interesting photos are those without the subject's faces don't you think? And I loved this cute photo The Man took of my girls. It would have only been better if they were holding hands :-)

And the girl stamps were perfect to represent my little ones. I got them at the same time as my Into the Woods kit from Studio Calico so I couldn't help but use it too.

Now don't forget that we have a journaling criteria to go along with our sketch challenge every time as well. This challenge is simply to type your journalling, and make sure it's at least 1 or 2 lines (it's not really journaling if you just put a date and place now is it?!)

I really urge you to pop over to the OUAS blog and check out everything that's going on. For one there is a tonne of eye-candy as our DT, our Guest DT, and our sponsor's DT have all made outstanding example layouts for you to be inspired by.

And if you want a chance to win this Fancy Pants Rusted Sun kit, or one of two vouchers from our sponsor Your Scrapbook Stash then you'll need to check out all the details won't you?!

Hope to see you over there :-)

It's back and bigger than ever!!!

I'm talking about Kreatorville Krafts!! Do you understand how exciting this is to me? It's my favourite kit club, and it's been on hiatus for the last few months so I was soooo happy to see it come back to life this month :-)

And it's certainly back with a vengeance! Not only is there a new kit, a new sketch, new designers and a new tutorial already but there's also......

a tag swap going on!! (in case you were starting to wonder why I'm showing you tags!)

Of course I signed up straight away, and I've been busy this past week working on getting my 12 tags done so I can post them off to Keandra.

I've tried to keep them uniform to some respect - that is, I've used the same colour scheme and kept many of the embellishments consistent throughout all 12 tags.

I made the base for my cards from scratch using the new Tim Holtz kraft resist paper (love it!), painted some pretty designs on with my new stencils, and got to work fussy-cutting flowers and layering on details.

I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, and now I've got the urge to kreate even more! I've got the Kreatorville bug I think!

Sunshine makes me happy

There's another fantastic sketch up this month at Handmade by Suzanne, designed by our very own Michelle Fowler.

And I've been working with the bright and happy Soiree collection by Pink Paislee which made putting together this layout a breeze!

I've been wanting to scrap these summery fun photos of Munchy and Moodles playing in the pool for the last few months, but I normally tend towards more vintage style papers which just wouldn't work.

But the bright yellow, pink, lime and turquoise of the Soiree collection were just perfect :-) And I just love the whimsical embellishments like those flags, and of course who doesn't love twine?!

But what is even more awesome is the printed tissue paper they've released with this collection - so many possibilities crowd my mind when I think about what to do with this! On this layout I used it as my background by gluing (and slightly crumpling) it onto my base cardstock. Talk about simple, but what amazing texture and detail it adds!

(Did anyone else notice the 'i' is missing in 'sunshine'? I didn't until now!) 

So if you would like to play along with the sketch challenge and be in the chance to win a $30 voucher plus free shipping then check out all the details here. I would love to see your interpretation in our gallery :-)

Happy Mother's Day

To all the mothers out there - wishing you a very happy day :-)

Popping in quickly myself to share this card I whipped up for the occasion (and for my first weekly challenge as Guest DT at Scrapz.Biz)

The challenge theme is "never quite the same" so I've challenged you to alter something for your card. For me it was this chipboard piece which started off as brown, but looks much better for my purposes once I painted it cream.

So come on by the message boards and check out all the challenges. There's great prizes to be won every single week!

May Arts Ribbon Tree

I had the crazy thought a little while ago that perhaps I could take on just one more design team committment (if I were to be so lucky) and so I tried my hand at applying for the May Arts design team. Unfortunately I didn't make it, but that's alright because I still came away with a lovely new project which I can share with you all.

So today I’m going to show you how to make this simple but beautiful home décor piece, that can be used as a centerpiece or to adorn your bookcase or mantle.

 

To make each of the flower buds (I like to think of them as cherry blossoms) you need approximately 12” of sheer organza ribbon. I’ve used CC17. And a needle and thread. And yes, that’s my dirty ruler in all it’s glory… I’m a messy mister, but that’s a tutorial for another day!

 

Tie a knot in one end and trim off the short end of the ribbon so the knot is right at the end. This is going to form the centre of our flower.

 

Then wind the ribbon around the centre knot, twisting it over and over as you go. You do not need to get too precise for this, in fact I encourage you to experiment. The tighter you twist, the smaller and more compact your flower will be.

Using your needle and thread, secure the flower together. If you’re clever enough you might want to do this as you’re assembling it rather than at the end (took me a few goes before I figured this out!)

Ta Da! Your first cherry blossom! Notice how I’ve still got the needle and thread attached? That’s because now you can go ahead and secure it straight onto your branch.

 

So what I’ve done is to go hunting in my backyard until I found a nice dry branch, painted it cream and stuck it in a vase. Easy right! Then I’ve added lots of my cherry blossoms and some faux suede leaves (I’m using XL09) until it looked right.

 

What do you think? Romantic and dreamy? Perfect for dispelling some winter blues by celebrating a perpetual Spring! I tied some CC09 around the vase for a lovely finishing touch.

Here’s a close-up of one of those blossoms on the branch. You can see how soft and delicate each one is. But the best part is, this is so easily adaptable! You could make this centerpiece in any colour scheme to suit your own décor. Or make a bunch of the blossoms to use for other projects instead. The possibilities are endless!

Thanks for letting me share my ideas with you today. It’s been so much fun!!