The Story of My Affectionate One

I'm the mother of 2 girls. But they're quite completely different from one another.
In summary, Munchy is a miniature version of me (in both appearance and personality) and Moodles is a tiny version of her father. Which also tells you a little bit about my marriage. I think for the most part we're a case of "opposites attract".

By nature my little Moodles is the more affectionate of the two. She's quite cuddly and will use any opportunity to be near me. She'll sit on my lap watching TV, she'll hold my hand and stroke me, and she loves it when I pat her hair and smooth it down. Yep, that's pretty much a reflection of her father, although thank goodness he doesn't sit on my lap as he's much MUCH bigger than I am ;-)

Although I'm not too much of a touchy-feely kind of person myself, I do love it when she comes to snuggle.

I put this layout together using a lot of odds and ends, but with a focus on some Fancy Pants products (as I'm entering this layout into their competition with Gossamer Blue this month). I used their Artisan Filter Papers as a highlight on my page, colouring them with my new Gelatos and typing my journaling on them too. What a versatile material!

I also used the sketch below from the July challenge at The Scrapbook Store as my starting point too. As usual I took a few liberties. The main one being that I only used one photo instead of two. But I'm getting more comfortable with looking at sketches like this and just deciding that I can interpret it to fit as many (or few) of my photos as I choose! And it's quite easy for me to replace the photos with journal spots instead.

Happy scrapping
xx

The Story of the Medical Jargon

Sometimes there are stories that just need to be recorded. Even if the photos of the event aren't that great, and the layout you eventually come up with will never make your 'top 10'.
This was one such occasion.

Now I started off right. I began with an awesome sketch by Em that's forming the July challenge at Paper Stories. And I rifled through my collection of papers and found this lovely background piece by Cosmo Cricket, and some green and blue papers by Basic Grey and Echo Park.

My usual stack of linear paper layers wasn't cutting it for me and I wanted to add a splash of red to coordinate with Munchy's shirt in the photos. That's when my brilliant idea of sprinkling my leftover Thickers came into play. Not only is it quite a trend at the moment, but it's also helpful for someone like me who has trouble throwing stuff away! It was particularly poignant because the whole layout is about when Munchy couldn't speak for a few weeks, so having the letters as embellishments was perfect.

Aaaaannndd.... another bonus.. (which everyone in the world has probably already figured out) but these Thickers make an excellent replacement for foam tape! Just add some glue on their non-sticky side and you're good to go. I'm so about to go though my stash and put all my packets of letters that no longer make words into my adhesive pile instead ;-)

I have to admit I really second-guessed myself about whether I really should use medical jargon as my title. But then I figured... hey... I am One Scrappy Doctor after all! Dysphonia means an impairment in the ability of the voice to produce sounds. And my poor little Munchy suffered with this over the Christmas period. For the first week I ignored it, in the second week I figured it would still go away. By the time we eventually made it into the ENT doctor's office it had been going on for over 6 weeks. After several disastrous attempts by the doctor trying to visualise her vocal cords in his office (let's just say the gag-reflex is a mighty force not to be reckoned with!!) she was booked in to have the procedure done under an anaesthetic.

Ultimately nothing was found, and it was explained away as 'voice strain'. Which basically means she's like every other 6 year old and throws too many tantrums for her own good. It's quite a relief really. Well.... not about the tantrums, but nice to know there's nothing seriously wrong with her. Hopefully next time we don't have to go to the extent of a medical procedure to figure out our kid is normal!

The Story of the Resort

Missing the beach right about now. But we're past the half way mark of Winter now so the promise of Spring is looming. That's what I'm telling myself anyway.

And it helps if I keep scrapping these pool-side photos. Makes me feel warmer already.

We were super-lucky to visit the resorts on Hamilton Island on our family vacation. Stunning location, beautiful views, fabulous facilities. But we couldn't help but notice it all had a slightly retro feel to it all, like it hasn't been much updated in the last few decades. It's not that we're disappointed, trust me, I'm not living 5-star everyday. This was pure luxury. It was just something we noticed.

In an attempt to use design elements to represent what I was journaling about I've mixed in plenty of glitter but distressed everything along the way too. Sometimes I get these 'perfect' ideas in my head, which doesn't mean they actually translate into a great page, but I still love the idea ;-)

MMmmwwwahh.... I wanna go baaaccckk!

The Story of My Instagram (and the Winners)

Have you caught the Instagram bug yet? I started Instagramming 2 years ago or so, and now have over 1000 photos posted. I post on most days, sometimes even twice. I try to leave it at that as I don't like the idea of 'spamming' everyone's feed.

The majority of my photos are craft related, whilst some are family related too. If you're a follower of mine (my user name is: natalieelph) then here's some of the things you're going to see over there. There's projects that I'm not otherwise planning on sharing on my blog such as the tag at the top and this birthday card.

There's snippets of my craft room and how I organise my supplies. I share products I've purchased with little reviews on their performance. Here I've shared the book I keep with my stash of Evalicious stamps so I know which ones I own.

There's cards I've made for other people, and colourful displays of projects I've made en masse.

There's previews of off-the-page projects getting planned well in advance of Christmas, and sneak-peaks of pages that are destined for publication so can't be shared in full.

It's possible you even saw my latest giveaway promoted there and that's how you came to enter it?

I'd love it if you followed me over there, and be sure to leave some love so I can return the favour. But now, you've been waiting to hear the winner of said giveaway....

Congratulations to Nicole McNamara and Mary Bennetts. Your names were chosen by Random.Org to win the vintage prize and glitter prize respectively. I've already shot you an email, so let me know your postal address ASAP so I can get your goodies out to you.

The Story of Light

Last night I missed out on what sounds like an awesome engagement party. But such is the life of the night-shift worker. But I still sent my love...... and my husband and kids ;-)

Can you tell that this card is literally just a bunch of mismatched scraps slapped together randomly? What.. you can?! But I still hit a trend on the head with the glassine bag full of confetti and sparkles didn't I? And I heard it was well received by the couple and their crowd.

Oh yes. Second last night shift I'm on right now. I'm sure you can probably also notice that the sleep deprivation is starting to affect me. There is light at the end of this dark tunnel though.

Nearly time to draw the winners of my giveaway too. Only 2 more days to enter.

The Story of Her Story

Don't forget I've got a giveaway going on here currently!

I was feeling quite sentimental as I went through my large pile of photos to scrap and came across some that I snapped at my friends' wedding. This girl means the world to me, and her happiness means even more. One of my best friends for over 10 years now. We've been through many trials (lots of medical exams for a start) and celebrations (so many celebrations) together. Watching her marry the man of her dreams (and they were no small dreams!) in such glorious fashion was so emotional. I'm pretty sure I cried more than she did :-)

The only problem that left me with was my own high expectations of what a page of this magnitude was going to look like. Complex, elegant, refined, sensible and beautiful, just like my friend herself. Not frilly, frizzy, complicated, messy or grungy.

And one that captured the essence of love of course. Crazy, joyful love.
Inspiration struck when I saw the current mood board challenge at Jot Magazine. The colour scheme is light and happy. I knew I wanted to recreate all those ombre tones of pink and yellow.

Butterflies were my embellishment of choice. They speak volumes about truth, beauty and love. I cut them on my Silhouette, painted them in acrylics and then ran a few through my Cuttlebug for good measure. Just a little touch of bling was what was required as a finishing touch.

Ultimately I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I sure am glad to have put this story down on paper.

Giveaway Time

Night duty time commonly equals giveaway time on my blog. It gives me something to look forward to - reading all those lovely bloggy comments :-)

So this week I have not one, but two giveaway prize packs to be won. The first I think carries more a vintage, shabby chic kind of theme. It includes 4 alphabets, a Prima Notecard set, bling, flair and die-cuts galore among other things.

Whilst the second giveaway I'm calling my glitter and sparkle giveaway. Two sets of glitter Thickers, two packets of glitter chipboard, Prima crystals, FWAB bling and more!

To be eligible to win, here's what you have to do:
Leave a comment telling me which prize pack you'd prefer, share my giveaway on your own blog or Facebook, and/or sign up to be a One Scrappy Doctor follower. You can do one or all of those things, each earning you more entries into the draw. I'm trying something a little different by making this a Rafflecopter giveaway (I hope it works!! )

The random winner will be drawn in a week once I wake up from my last night shift :-) Good luck.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Story of Optimism

Still scrapping those beach shots I see. Yep, and there's a few more to go too! If it makes any difference, I haven't actually journalled about anything beach-related, I just used the photo to represent the happy and carefree nature of my kids.

So this was attempt No#3 at trying to create an interesting background. Getting closer with this one I think. There was still 2 more attempts after this though (and 1 more background that never got further than just that) before I hit the jackpot. Still going very much down the mixed media avenue with this one too. I changed tack a bit after this which you'll see when I share the next attempt.

Layers of gesso, paint, stamping, stenciling and splattering. There's a fine line to this though as it seems to be all too easy just to make a big fat mess! However, you can always then cover up the worst of it with your paper ;-)

I like how on this layout 'the mess' seems to carry on the idea of the beach extending across the page. With it's blue/green paint representing the ocean, and the gritty gesso like the sand I think it comes close. Perhaps I could have even sprinkled some sand or included some shells. That could have been cool. Aaahhhh..... retrospect.

I took my journaling cues from the paper itself. I'm using an old Simple Stories collection "100 Days of Summer" which included these fun bits like 'don't worry, be happy' and 'relax' which are true of me and my general attitude. I'm an optimist by nature, and in fact it annoys me when people grumble all the time. I guess I believe that if you create a happy atmosphere then happy things will follow. Obviously I don't believe that nothing bad ever happens or that you shouldn't express your feelings, but perhaps in a more constructive or therapeutic avenue than say Facebook? But hey, I guess I'm just a 'glass-half-full' kind of person.

The Story of the Preemptive Strike

It's been a little while since I scrapped. Not as long as Doris (!), more like maybe 10 days. That's what doing night duty does to my crafting habit I'm afraid.

So to get back into the swing of things I decided on a lovely challenge where I wouldn't have to think too much (which is another side effect of a stint of night duty).

The Russian Scrap Lifting blog chose this gorgeous card by Anna Zaprzelska to challenge us with. Of course, I have to do it in my own style and with the supplies I had on hand. So instead of lots of shabby floral layers I chose a bold graphic theme instead.

I'm calling this a preemptive strike against the next birthday party. There's no invitation on our fridge yet, but inevitably there will be. And when that day comes I'm going to be soooo prepared!

xxx

The Story of Aviation

Keeping on with the red, white and blue theme, I thought I'd share another layout I put together with the June JBS Papercrafting kit.

The kit is a little bit aviation-oriented with it's October Afternoon Travel Girl pieces, and the vintage TWA ticket. That's what I began with when I sat down to do this page. But then I thought I'd take it up a notch by including a slither of red Studio Calico paper from my stash which is covered in aeroplanes. Because even though kits are great at taking the guess-work out of choosing supplies, no one ever said you had to only stick with what's included!

And whilst it's not obvious to anyone else, this photo was my first choice of what to scrap. It's actually taken when we took the girls to the airport viewing area (I guess you would call it). It's where you can park your car or walk around and watch the planes flying low directly overhead as they come into land. Sssooooo noisy and a little scary for Moodles, but Munchy had a ball as you can see from the grin on her face!

I didn't journal about that event though. It really only lasted for about 10 mins before Moodles was hysterical, so it wasn't exactly noteworthy. Instead I used it more as a prompt to journal my thoughts on when Munchy will be grown up and leave home and how she should follow her dreams and achieve her destiny. A little bit more melodramatic no? Hey, sometimes you've just gotta use your scrapbook page like a diary entry I say. Write without fear of who's going to read it. Get your thoughts down even whilst they're still forming!

And when you come up with a really clever title you should get that down too!

JBS June Kits Used: