Birthday Boy

I love making my girly layouts for my girly girls :-) But how fun is it to branch out once in a while and do something quite different with your scrapbooking style (which for me means making a boy layout!)

Luckily I've got an obliging nephew who's well used to being behind the camera, and of course a family celebration for his 1st birthday means plenty of photos taken that require scrapping!

I'm really digging the challenges over at Scrap-it-Lah recently... they're just my style. Take the current one for instance which says I must include 'at least 6 layers, stamping and journal tags'. Well that could describe pretty much any of my layouts lately! But I'm entering this one :-)

Love the idea of using at least 6 layers, especially when I'm trying to use up my stash! So there's lots of bits and bobs on here from the Studio Calico Boardwalk kit. I've stamped the 'toilet man' in the top right as well as those round frames on the Pink Paislee mistables. And tucked in some American Crafts journal spots around the place as well.

HHHhhhmmmm.... makes me want to do more boy-scrapping!

Pet Starfish?

We recently had a wonderful time on a family holiday. We caught up with friends, we strolled on the beach, we played in the park and made lots of happy memories.

One of the highlights was a trip out to Daydream Island (yes it's as good as it sounds!!) where we were lucky enough to have a private tour of the biggest outdoor aquarium in the Southern Hemisphere.

Now when I say we had a private tour I don't mean that we arranged it that way or paid any kind of big bucks for it! I just mean we were lucky enough to organise it when no one else was around so we just happened to be the only ones!!! :-)

But it meant that the kids were given special treatment to be able to 'handle' the wildlife. They picked up baby sharks (there's a layout on that coming up soon!!) and stroked the stingrays, they fed the fish and held these amazing giant starfish..... which is obviously what this page is about.

The girls absolutely loved it. I thought perhaps they might be a bit shy or scared, but no, they couldn't get enough. In fact, I almost had to prise this starfish out of Moodles hands at the end of it otherwise it might have been coming home with us :-)

Have you had any exciting adventures lately?

The one with Nadia's verse, a Guest DT spot and a Rainbow challenge!

A little while ago now a dear scrappy friend of mine suffered a family tragedy and needed some extra love and support. In true scrapping style a bunch of us rallied around and decided to put together a "Golden Album" for her. We each made a page of hope and encouragement (in preference to sympathy) so she can sit back and flick though it when she's feeling a little down. This is the page I made for her, featuring the all new Picadilly collection from Basic Grey.

In other news, I'm totally chuffed about being featured as a Guest Designer for Imaginarium Designs! Wooo hoo! Their chipboard totally rocks - it's great quality; intricately cut without getting all that black stuff all over you, and there's about a MILLION designs to chose from :-)

Here's some sneaks of their chipbaord in action on some recent pages......

but you can check out the whole feature on me here!
You can also browse through what's on offer through their blog or shop. They're currently holding a DT call at the moment too which would be totatlly worth applying for... trust me ;-)

Inspiration image via Pinterest.

And lastly, I've been put in charge of this weeks Scrap a Rainbow challenge at Scrapz.biz! I decided on this dreamy colour combo of grey, pink, green and blue and made my layout using Studio Calico's Countryside and State Fair collections. See my full page and all the challenge details over here.

Gonna Trouble the Water.........(and a giveaway!!)

I'm dutifully still scrapping away a pile of photos from our beach holiday back in June. I think when I printed them all off I had ideas of using a lot of them in a mini-album about the trip. But I found I've used most of them up by now on pages!

My challenge last week at Scrapz.biz was a "Fetch a Sketch" so I tested my photoshop skills to the limit as I designed this sketch. When in doubt.... always go with a grid I say :-)

Except I had to find some interesting spots to include all the journaling I wanted to add..... so around the periphery and spilling over onto the photo it went!

The theme is "Wet 'n' Wild" so I challenge you to not only follow the sketch but to include some kind of 'splashing' onto your page. I used the fussy-cut paper splash, and of course my usual splatter of mists along with the photos of Moodles splashing around (rather tentively) in the water.

I used the happy bright vintage colours in Cosmo Cricket's Salt Air collection - it matched my photos perfectly. The sketch challenge doesn't end until November 30th so there's still plenty of time to enter. Find all the details here.

Supplies Used:

Cosmo Cricket Salt Air Colour Picks Sea/Ivory	Cosmo Cricket Salt Air Elements	Cosmo Cricket Salt Air Fish Tails	Cosmo Cricket Salt Air Sea Garden
Cosmo Cricket Salt Air Coral Bloom	Pink Paislee Nantucket Lasercut Woodchip Shapes	Cosmo Cricket Salt Air Buttons	Studio Calico Mister Huey Calico White
Studio Calico MIster Huey Lunch Tray

InLinkz.com

Now, onto a totally different (but equally gorgeous) colour scheme is the delightful kit that we're offering as a GIVEAWAY on the Once Upon a Sketch blog. It looks a little something like this.....

To enter is simple. Find out all the details on how you can get your hands on these delicious Melissa Francis goodies check out the blog post here.

About a Girl

November 15th saw a new challenge go up at "Once Upon a Sketch"

The trick is to incorporate our journaling criteria with our beautiful sketch, which is 'to journal about what is the best thing about being a woman'. Is being a mum? Is the shopping?! Make up and pretty clothes?

When I sat down to do my page for it I realised that I didn't have any photos of myself printed out, but lucky for me the criteria says that I can alternatively do my page about any of the special females in my life, and I sure have plenty of photos of my precious girls :-)

So I delved into my generous stash of Imaginarium Designs chipboard and found some perfect pieces such as the delicate butterfly, and the word 'girl' which was part of a larger title which read "Our little girl"

And along with an old Studio Calico kit I managed to quickly put this layout together about how much of a girly-girl Munchy is. She's very into playing dress-ups and tea-parties and dancing and what-not. Certainly much more than I ever was (or am!)

If you want to play along with this challenge there is still heaps of time left, and there's some plenty good prizes on offer such as your own haul of Imaginarium Designs chipboard.......

A fabulous bright and whimsical embellishment pack from our sponsor and Guest Designer Leeann Pearce from her Chip Chop Shop......

or a collection of Basic Grey "Jovial" products just in time for Christmas....

You can catch all the details about the challenge over on the Once Upon a Sketch blog here. Happy scrapping!

Daily Juice

Have I mentioned before (once or twice or 200 or so) how awesome it is that we have DAILY challenges happening over at Scrapz.biz? You'll never be without inspiration to get scrapping if you join us over there!

However, I am just a little behind in sharing some of my pages here on my blog though, so how about I catch up a bit?

First up is my 'Scrap Write Now' challenge which is all about focusing on the journalling, or the story behind the photos. The theme is "Pretty Wild" and so I challenge you to scrap about something 'wild' you or your kids (or whoever!) did once.

This is my page about a night out on the town in the heart of Melbourne. Fun times! Read all about it, and the rest of the challenge details right here.

Supplies List: 

InLinkz.com

Before that though was last months 'Scrap it Blind' challenge where I gave a set of instructions on how to put a page together but without you seeing my finished product. Until now.......

I kept the instructions fairly simple to follow along (because it actually gets quite hard to follow written instructions alone sometimes!) but the end result is still something special.

For a start I was able to add so much detail and texture to my page just with these Prima canvas shapes. I went to town with my Glimmermists - using them just like waterpaints to paint and shade these flowers. So effective don't you think?

And a new favourite of mine - the handcut title! Love the look of these for adding a shabby and handmade touch. And it means I can customise it to fit my space perfectly.

Supplies List:

InLinkz.com

And lastly, here's a sneak peek into my challenge that was revealed this week. It's for 'Fetch a Sketch' which means you need to follow this sketch I designed.....

and add some "splashes" to your page (ie. paint, mist,water photos....) to keep with the theme of "Wet 'n' Wild". Once again I splashed around some Glimmermist, added some handcut waves and plenty more. You can see my whole page, and get all the details on the challenge here.

Phew! That might do for now hey? Plenty to keep you busy for a little while :-)