The State of Play

So I'm getting back into some scrappy time, and boy does it feel good!
Thanks once again to everyone who has left comments to wish me well as I'm continuing to make the transition back into full-time work. Things are getting easier as we all adjust to the new routine, and more and more boxes are getting unpacked everyday so it's starting to feel more like a home rather than 'the new house'.

Two things have made me particularly happy today:

1. I was able to whip up another page for my stint as Kontributing Kreator at Kreatorville Krafts, and it's just gone live on the blog.

Here's a little sneak:

I'll come back and give you a run-down on how I put this together another day.

2. One of my scrappy idols Kathy Link has showcased some of my work on her blog today as she does a focus on journaling. You only have to flick through some of my recent posts to know how much I value writing on my pages. In fact, I'd rather ruin the design of the page by including journaling than run the risk of forgetting the story in the future. I pretty much insist on writing/typing/whatever on every single page I do (well...... nearly!)

Kreatorville Winner

Thanks to everyone who left such kind comments on my Kreatorville Week (+1) posts. I've enjoyed reading everything you had to say, and I'm so glad that many of you seem to really like the kits. I'll continue to urge you to check out the Kreatorville blog for yourself, and think about subscribing because they really are worth it :-)

But now, onto the prize drawing.

This was the most fun way I could think of drawing a winner. Plus, it's about time that Moodles got a go at deciding who walks away with the Kreatorville prize (since Munchy so often gets her turn)

Does anyone else's kids get so much enjoyment out of eating paper or is it just mine? Maybe it's genetic? Not that I like to eat paper of course, but I sure do like to play with it :-)

So once I had extracted the winner from Moodle's mouth, I declare that the (quite soggy) winner is........

Deb Neerman!!!!!

Congratulations Deb. Send me an email with your postal address and I'll ship your prize off to you ASAP.

PS. For everyone who didn't win, go over and check out Deb's blog here because you'll still walk away with a load of (eye) candy :-)

Kreatorville Week (+1) Day Eight

So this is the last installment of Kreatorville Week. This is in fact, the +1. Thank you for indulging me and taking the journey along with me. 

But before it's officially over, let me share the June kit with you. 

Pretty papers in lots of happy colours.  

TWO Collage Press die-cut papers.  

Lots and lots of banners. Yay!! 

And a truck load of other goodies. Not to mention the handmade title and embellishment.  

I really wanted to do the June sketch with the June kit (not that it's a requisite, but it made sense in my head!) so I turned it on it's side so the stripes ran horizontally and interpreted them as paper strips, which is my current go-to technique in case you haven't noticed *lol* And I used a few of the Sassafrass banners across it too.

I used the b-side of the Collage Press paper (the first one on the left in the photo) as my background, and I misted over some 1" circles scattered randomly across it. I did that with the thought that I was going to use one of the Kreatorville tags on this page and so it would tie in with the spots on the tag. But that didn't end up happening. Never mind! 

 

I put a frame around my centre photo to represent the circle embellishment in the middle of the sketch. And then I stitched on my journalling, and attached a couple of buttons for a bit more dimension. 

The only other layout I've managed to do so far had to be with one of the die-cuts (I've got plans for the other one - they just haven't manifested on paper yet!)

I'm not brave enough to just do a layout on a die-cut and leave it alone. I'm stuck in the mindset that my layouts need to be square so I had to layer this pretty green circle die-cut on top of the b-side of one of the Jillibean Soup papers and sew it on. I misted the background first with the Spritz to get the sunburst pattern.

I am in love with that pretty Webster's bloomers that came in the kit, but that is one embellishment I couldn't bring myself to use all in one hit so I cut it up and only used a couple of pieces on this page. But I think it's enough to make a pop of colour and texture without overwhelming it.

The title "The Big Q's" comes from the journaling on this one which is about the day Munchy asked me who she was going to marry. I mean the girl is all of 3 years old and she's concerned about her future prospects! But meanwhile look how lovely and shiny those honey Thickers are! And yes, I stuck a million tiny pieces of red paper behind the holes in the scalloped edge. It's sometimes the little details........

Ok, and that's all folks. Well, for the time being anyway. There will certainly be more pages and projects from this kit, I just haven't had the time yet :-) Thanks for all your kind comments along the way. I've certainly appreciated every single one of them.

Today is the last chance to enter a comment to win the Kreatorville prize. You can comment on this post and/or all of the last 7 Kreatorville posts to go into the draw. I'll leave it open for another 24 hours before I choose a winner.

And never fear, even though Kreatorville Week is finished for now, it's only a little while longer until the July kit is revealed so you'll be seeing many more Kreatorville layouts from me in the future. And in the meantime don't forget about the crazy deal Keandra's got going to get some of the past kits for half price! That way you can start playing with all the kit goodness for yourself. I would love to know if you do end up getting any kits, or if you make any layouts inspired by this week. Link me up!

And stay tuned on my blog because I've now got a bit of a back-log of projects and surprises and Guest DT posts coming up in July.

:-)

Kreatorville Week (+1) Day Six

Are you ready for Kreatorville's April kit today? I am! I dived straight into this one when I got it.
For a start - the papers are just so colourful and cheerful :-)

Three of these were SEI papers that were thermography embossed and very glamorous!! And there was also the die-cut paper from Crate Paper that's not pictured, and some bright and lovely cardstock.

And then...

It was jam-packed full of embellishments. There's a whole packet of labels, and a whole packet of flowers, and those rub-ons and alphas and chipboard galore!! It was awesome :-)

Again, I just needed to use that title. It really packs a punch on this layout, even though I've got so many other bright colours behind it. It jumps right out at you doesn't it?! I altered the Buzz and Bloom chipboard alphas for the title by first painting them white and then giving them two coats of Dimensional Magic with the blue Pixee Stix that came in the February kit.

I actually did this layout for the challenge blog Kraft It Up. This blog has been on my radar since it began a few months ago, but I hadn't previously got around to entering it. As it's name suggests, every month the criteria is to use kraft paper plus something else. This month (June) it was to create a minimalist layout. I interpret that to mean leaving white space, something that I'm not particularly good at! But you know I'm always up for a challenge :-)

There's a couple of the Buzz and Bloom chipboard tulips and butterflies on this one too - treated in the same way as the alphas. Painted and glittered! And I splurged and used 6 of those silk flowers (that's half of the packet!) from Zva Creative behind the title too. I attached them with some colourful eyelets from my stash.

And speaking of challenge blogs, this layout I did for the newly re-opened 123 Challenge blog. The June challenge criteria included 'the word "new", the colour white and a paint-smeared background'. So I killed two birds with one stone by smearing my Crate Paper die-cut with white paint, and then creating this really long title to incorporate the word 'new'.

It's hard to see, but I tried to add a bit more dimension by curling over all the scallops along the edge of the die-cut paper. I altered the Buzz and Bloom alphas this time by painting them white and coating them in Dimensional Magic. I initially planned to leave them like that, but they looked too dull against the white background so I ran a pink ink-pad across them for a subtle bit of colour.

But what I especially love about this layout is that I finally got around to incorporating these pieces of memorabilia from The Moodles birth on a page (something I had planned since we came home from the hospital!) So you can see both hers and my name bands, and also the tape-measure that was used when she first born.

And lastly I did this layout which was inspired by this one from Laura. I thought the paper strips were reminiscent of waves which is exactly what I wanted for this layout about Munchy's first waterslide experience.

I had run out of 'a's from the Buzz and Bloom alphas by this stage so I used the alphas from the May kit (the same set as you will win in the Kreatorville prize I'm offering by the way!) and I coated them in Dimensional Magic for more of a wet-look.

The journalling star and the spot behind the title are from the packet in the kit (Melissa Francis) and then I punched a few other stars from the papers in the kit. Those decorative pins are some that I made myself. I gave a short tutorial on how to make them for yourself here if you're interested.

Don't forget to leave your comments today for a chance at the Kreatorville prize.

And tomorrow I've got the May kit, and a little surprise too.......

Stay tuned
:-)

Kreatorville Week (+1) Day Five

Aaaahh, the wonderful March kit. This is where the Kreatorville Week journey actually began.
For those who are still wondering why I'm doing this Kreatorville week, it is not because Keandra is holding my kids to ransom, it is not because I'm getting sponsored or receiving any kind of payment, and it is not my bid to get on the DT (although if an offer was made.........*lol*)! What happened is this...

For one reason or another, I ended up getting four (YES - 4!!!) Kreatorville kits all in one go. I got my March, April, May and June kits together in the one package. Talk about being hit over the head with a load of goodness! I didn't know where to start. I just knew I needed to start! And so I first challenged myself to create one layout with each of the 4 kits. But that was too easy! So then I did a second round and ended up with 8 layouts in the space of about a week. Then I started a third round!

About this time I was asking myself how I was going to share these layouts with you in blog-land. It was either going to be enough material to blog one layout every couple of days for the next month (!) or do it all in one big-hurrah! Well, you can see which I chose. Then I thought, if I'm going to share the March, April, May and June kits with you, then I might as well back-track and do the other 4 kits a bit more formally too. I had always planned to do a blog-post on all the things I created with the November kit at some stage, so now seemed like a good time.

So lets get on with the show shall we?!

March's kit had a bit more of a vintage vibe, and lots of people seemed to be doing heritage layouts with it. The papers were fantastic - I love all the muted tones. Love it a lot!

And then check out how many embellishments and alphas we got?!! I couldn't believe it :-)

Remember how I was saying yesterday how there are always certain things in the kit I would never buy for myself but end up loving? Well that happened here too. I haven't ever bought myself any Webster's Pages stuff (shock, horror I hear some of you saying!) because although I think they are outstandingly gorgeous, it's just not my style, and I wouldn't know where to begin. So I was a little bit overwhelmed by the amount of Webster's Pages products in this kit. I mean, there were two pages, a sheet of embellishments and the sheet with 4 sets of alphas on it!

But you'll never guess what happened? Out of the three pages I've created with this kit so far, 2 of them have been almost purely Webster's Pages!! And I must admit, the first layout is a shocker. I do not like how it turned out at all really. What I do like is that I got all three of these photos on one page, and the story behind it (and I'm comforting myself by thinking that's the main thing!)

I submitted this to the June ARTastic challenge, because I had made it fit (nearly) all the criteria. But I'm just not really that impressed with how it looks.

But I did manage to use up quite a lot of the Webster's die-cut embellishments. And I'm now at the stage where I'm no longer 'saving' stuff, but instead purposely 'using' stuff. So this makes me happy :-)

Meanwhile, I'm much much happier with how my second Webster's layout came together.

I know - how ridiculous is this photo of Moodles? She just has this frightened/shocked/intrigued look upon her face. Certainly not her best pose! But we've got so many photos of her looking like this that it was hard to avoid if I wanted to scrap her at this point of her life. Every time the camera goes on and she sees that little red light she stops smiling and just stares straight at it!

But what it also meant was that this story behind the photo made it perfect for including that awesome vintage camera chipboard shape that came in the kit!

And since I ended up with two pieces of this paper in my kit (part of Keandra's sorry for leaving you hanging for so long without your Kreatorville!) I was able to cut up the second one to create all these tone-on-tone layered hearts (an idea lifted straight from the super-amazing Jennifer Johner on her layout here) and pop up the flowers too.

And then lastly, how could I not use the Crate Paper die-cut?

I was actually brave (stupid?) enough to cut it in half, thinking I was only going to use it on the top part of this layout. But then I realised it looked much better left whole and had to attempt to join it back together - hence the paper strip and ribbon running across the middle!!! But hey - I like it!

Can't see the join, can you?! What this shot does show you is some of those Crate Paper rub-ons, the green silk trim and the lovely red buttons that all came in the kit. I added some glass glitter to the buttons which I think made them look a little bit more 'fruit-like' so I attached them in with the leaf trim and called them cherries!

This layout is actually lifted from one by Stephanie Wheeler that you can see here. I'm always looking out for different ways to incorporate lots of journaling onto my pages, because you know how I like to do that. And what I talked about on this layout was just an ordinary day. I outlined Moodle's routine at the date this photo was taken (obviously the 28th March!) because although it doesn't really seem important, it's definitely something that we'll forget later on, and if you read it you can see what an amazing baby I've been blessed with. All she does is sleep and eat and play. She rarely ever cries, and is always so happy and content :-)

Alright, and I'm done!

Leave your comments on today's post for your chance at the Kreatorville prize.

Come back tomorrow for the April kit.

Kreatorville Week (+1) Day Four

Aaahh February - the month of love.
I could tell there was going to be a lot of soppy, lovey, mushy, romantic layouts coming out of the Kreatorville February kit straight away. For a start, all I had to do was look at the title and embellishment choices.....

I had a heck of a time trying to decide between the cupid, the love birds and the dove!  And the title choices were just as hard. I could easily see myself making a layout with every single one of these :-)

And the papers were just as gorgeous too.

I knew the first thing I would do would be to use my handmade Title and Embellishment. So I quickly got to work and whipped out this:

These were pictures of Munchy meeting Moodle for the first time. Yes, they shook hands!! It's a little hard to see, but can you tell I blinged up my brown cardstock by spraying it with Irridescent Gold Glimmermist? It seemed appropriate! And how much did I love that Sassafras sunbeam paper.... the answer is.... a LOT! In fact, I loved it so much I couldn't waste any of it behind my photos, so I cut out that sqaure, and used it on another layout!

I can't show you the whole layout yet though because it's for an upcoming Guest DT spot (it's not too far away - come back in about a week or so and it should be up!)

And then I used my lovely dove on this layout. The journaling is a quote from The Man when he said "I see the Drool Angel has blessed our child again". Hhhhmmmm...... I guess it's just one of those things - both our daughters were dribblers! So even though this wasn't a 'romantic' layout, the dove still seemed appropriate with the whole angel vibe of the page.

And can I tell you something else that I love about the Kreatorville kits? See those red glitter mini-alphas from Making Memories that I've used on the two layouts above? Never in a million years would I have bought them for myself.... but you know what? I ended up loving them! What I think is great about these kits is that 3/4 of the contents I instantly feel a very close affinity for and know straight away what I'm going to do with it, and the other 1/4 which initially makes me go "ummmmm......" eventually makes me go "ahh hah!" I love that it broadens my horizons, makes me reach beyond my own limitations, extends my creativity.
:-)

And lastly today, this funny layout that is a bit of a mixture of the December kit as well as the February kit. But I love that I was able to recycle the packaging from the Prima bird (in December's kit) and the Jenni Bowlin buttons (from this kit) and use them as stand-alone embellishments! Bonus :-)

Ok.
Time for some exciting news for you all.
I sent Keandra a little email asking about whether the past kits were available, and whether they might be available at a special price (can't hurt to ask!) so guess what she did?
She's offering the November, December, January and February kits for 50% off. Now she hasn't given an exact price but I'm pretty sure that's going to be US$18.75 each. And if you're worried about postage (especially if you don't live in the States) then imagine this..... she can fit all 4 of these kits in one package if you want!!! WHAT A DEAL!

All you need to do is head over to the Kreatorville blog to remind yourself of all the goodies in each kit (or just back-track through my posts over the last couple of days) and then once you've decided on which kits you want, drop Keandra an email on: keandra@kreatorvillekraft.com
and she'll hook you up. Don't forget to mention my name when you order :-)

Leave your comments today to go in the draw for the fabulous prize.

And stay tuned for tomorrows kit.

Kreatorville Week (+1) Day Three

Happy New Year!

At least, that's what I thought to myself when I saw the January kit from Kreatorville Kraft. The papers were full of lovely greens and oranges from some of my all-time favourite manufacturers. And then there was the woodgrain alphabet, and the kraft envelopes. Yummy! And in January Keandra introduced two new staples to the Kreatorville repertoir. That was the die-cut paper (now there's one in every kit...... there was 2 in June's kit!!!) and Buzz and Bloom (go Aussies!) became Kreatorville sponsors so now we're lucky enough to receive some of their products in every kit.

Why don't I just show you what the January kit looked like so you can see for yourself?!!!

And of course, that doesn't include the cardstock or the handmade Titles and Embellishments.

The very first project I did was to put that gorgeous die-cut paper from Pink Paislee to good use!

 Then I very promptly cut up that retro Cosmo Cricket paper and turned it into dimensional flowers. You can see the tutorial I gave on how I did this here. This was another one of my Year in the Chair pages. And yes, I really did fill up that envelope with a heap of journaling.

Ooooh, a masculine layout. I don't do a lot of these so it was a little difficult for me. I stayed very plain and simple, and made it even easier on myself by scraplifting a (digital) page by Karla. The background paper from Basic Grey didn't come in the kit and was something that I've been hoarding for such a time as this :-)

Again for this layout below, these papers didn't come in the kit but I was really just trying to get that Buzz and Bloom acrylic shape onto an appropriate page! I really loved those woodgrain alphas on this page too, not to mention the chipboard arrow, and if you look closely, I've even used one of the Pink Paislee stamps behind my title. Yes, that's right.... we got a whole set of stamps. How cool is that!!

And look - I even whipped out some cards too! I'm really not sure why I don't have more of those Jillibean Soup buttons featured on layouts - I loved them :-)

OK, that's all for January.
Don't forget to leave your comment(s) below to win the awesome Kreatorville prize.
And come back tomorrow for February's kit, you know it's going to be lovely with just a dash or two of romance.