The Story of the White Tail Deer

Right back at the beginning of November I was reading a tutorial on the Crate Paper blog by the amazingly talented Megan Klauer who mentioned oh-so-casually about creating her own custom files for the Silhouette, including this fabulous deer that she was demonstrating in the tutorial. Now I consider myself fairly computer-literate and I've had my Silhouette for over 2 years, but I was like "what?! how do you even do that?"

So I dropped an email to my friend Megan ('cos I happen to know she's also super-sweet and generous) and asked her pretty much in those words the same question. Not only did she answer it but she also kindly shared her deer file with me! I've since learned a lot of things - including the fact that this isn't really a reindeer as I so naively suggested!

I think it probably still does the trick though doesn't it? As a reindeer I mean. Especially since I've used him to grace the cover of my Not-Quite-a-December-Daily. And especially since I smothered him in green glitter! Happy days :-) Thanks Megan.

xx

Paradise of Love and Joy

Are you ready?

Over on the Sassafras blog they are posting a new challenge every day whilst the gang are away living it up at CHA. Day 1 was hosted by Megan and she challenged us to make a layout focused on the journalling. Well, that's just my thing isn't it? So it was easy for me to play along.

Megan's example page featured a photo taken from an airplane window looking out over the clouds, so you can see where she's inspired me in more ways than one!!

We recently went on holidays for the first time with all four of us, and it was glorious! We escaped the chilly cold winter weather for 10 days and had a great time in Central Queensland. We caught up with some friends we hadn't seen in a couple of years, and did day-trips to the beach and the rainforest amongst other things. Plenty of highlights.

But there's nothing quite like coming home again is there?

I've used my favourite "Mix and Mend" collection for this layout, with a few Girl's Paperie "On Holiday" die-cut shapes, and Basic Grey rub-ons. And yes, that's a real luggage tag!
I'll be back again tomorrow to share my page for Day 2's challenge :-)

Peek a Boo

As you know (especially since I just mentioned it yesterday!) I very much believe in journaling on my pages. I'm all for telling the story of the photos, recording the funny things my kids say and do, or just writing down my thoughts and feelings. That's why I love The Story Matters - well the name says it all hey?

They had "Sketch Week" earlier this month. Check out this for a sketch to work with!.........

I'm aware some people might find it a little overwhelming but I instantly LOVED it!! Maybe because it was designed by Megan Klauer and I just adore her and her work or maybe because it just spoke to me. It instantly inspired me, and although my layout turned out more like a 'standard' grid-design, this is where it all began.

It helped that I was working with the delightful Upcycle collection by Cosmo Cricket for HBS this month because the colours and designs are just my thing. And they suited my photos to a tee!

I like adding lots of texture and dimension to my pages too, so everything had to be embellished :-) Like these new bottlecaps from HBS for example - I filled it with some LilyBee chipboard, added a flower and sequin and filled it with Glossy Accents to seal it all in.

Crazy funny photos of my girls playing hide-and-seek. Too adorable to resist scrapping!