The Story of the Girl Date.... (and a winner)

I'm very excited to say that I'm a Guest Designer at the Japanese store and blog "Casket" this month. I'm there in my role as a Jenni Bowlin Ambassador as they're celebrating the arrival of the new release JBS in the shop.

Casket have got a challenge running at the moment and we've teamed up together to bring it to you.

The challenge is to make a layout based on this sketch designed by our very own May Flaum. I love how open to interpretation this is. You can see how in my example I changed one of the photos into a Bingo Card for a start.

My layouts tells the story of how occasionally I take my daughters on a 'Girl Date'. If I'm lucky enough to have an afternoon off work then I'll take Moodles with me to pick Munchy up from school and then we might go to the shopping centre to run errands and stop and have a treat on the way.

I laughed as I snapped this photo. Here we are, 3 girls enjoying our quiet moment. And then I realise it's quiet only because they're both stuffing their faces with donuts! Little Princesses that they are. Still working on their table manners I guess. I try to remain civilized and gently sip at my coffee.

I've used up lots of fun little JBS embellishments on my page, especially in this cluster where the other photo was supposed to go.

If Google Translate is telling me the truth, there's some great prizes up for grabs for a random participant in the Casket/JBS challenge. Go ahead and check it out over here (and see what the other Ambassadors did with this sketch).

And speaking of Winners, it's time to announce who won my March Whimsy Giveaway....

Can you read that? By random lucky dip, the winner is...
EMILY!!
Emily can you please email me your postal address and I'll get your prize in the mail ASAP.

Hope you're having a good weekend
xxx


Supplies:
 

JBS die-cut Receipt paper JBS Red/Black Collection 2012 Boy Meets Girl JBS Red Black Extension 2 JBS Shadow Sticker: Green/Red JBS Printed Kraft Flags JBS Mini Bingo Cards: Red JBS Cardstock Feathers JBS Star Banner Stickers: Yellow JBS Printed Tickets: Valentines SODAlicious Stamp: Ladies

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The Story of her Training Wheels

There's a few days left before I draw the winner of my RAK, so there's still time to enter here.


I'm planning on using the month of March where I'm in limbo (before finding out the results of my big exam in April and then I have to knuckle down to studying again) to take part in some scrappy challenges where I can. I do enjoy a good challenge!

I found this one where Elle's Studio have partnered up with Gossamer Blue and challenge you to scraplift one of their designer's pages. I thought that would be a good one to start with to get the creative juices flowing! In fact the hardest part was choosing which layout to lift because there's so many awesome pages to pick from :-)

In the end I picked this page by Elle's Studio Designer Katie Gordon to base my own layout on. What really attracted me to it was her clever use of lettering to make a long quote into a title, and all the layers of paper and tags as a photo mat.

I have to be honest though - it got a little tedious sticking each of those letters on individually. I guess I'm not very patient with things like that. It got even worse when I finished the page, hung it on the wall, took my photos and then had scrappers-remorse and wanted to change them all around! Ever so gently I lifted them all up again and stuck them in their new arrangement (and changed their colour in the process too). You'll have to tell me which version you like better because ultimately I'm still undecided!

The second version of my layout also includes the journaling which is always important to me so I'm glad I added that. It tells the story of how Munchy has really become interested in riding her bike around everywhere this summer. And she's getting so much better at it. The next hurdle is now to take her training wheels off - she can't wait for that too. Maybe that will be her challenge this coming weekend!

I used a variety of Elle's Studio Summer Lovin' Tags which were just perfect for my theme. Love their fun colours :-)

The Story of the Toothy Grin

Doing a little catch up... It's been a while since I've posted my Evalicious projects here on my own blog. I'm reminded of it right at the moment because in the last few days I've had not one but two new posts go up over there. I would love it if you checked them out ;-)

But first here's my February Evalicious project. I'm still very much in love with this colour combo. I like to think of it as a delicious combination of caramel and vanilla with a touch of raspberry and teal. It's making me a little hungry even thinking about it. LOL!

My layout is about that fabulously scary moment when Munchy lost her first tooth. She was sooo super-excited when it started to wobble. But it's bitter-sweet to see them growing up right before your eyes. I knew this was a layout that was going to require some journaling (although lets face it, how many of my layouts don't include a few words?) and the 3x4" Evalicious journaling cards are the perfect size to jot down some thoughts.

I chose some other Evalicious tags which matched the colour combo but suddenly it dawned on me that I didn't need to keep on searching through my supplies for the tags that matched... I could make my own. All I needed to do was put the huge stash of stamps I've been given to good use!! That was my own little genius moment right there ;-)

I still can't seem to let a project go by without adding some stars either. I think it's my new obsession. Anyway, so I mentioned I've got two new posts up on the Evalicious blog.... did I mention that the latest one also features a new video I made? And the one before that has become my new favourite layout. Let me know what you think.

xxx


Evalicious Supplies:

Evalicious stamps: The Good Life	Evalicious stamps: Hello Hexagon	Evalicious Love You Lots Tags	Evalicious Buttons: Real Life V2
Evalicious So Daily Page Tabs

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The Story of Calvinball vs Scattergories

Do you know what Calvinball is? Ever heard of Calvinblogging?
Don't have a clue?! Well that was me a little while ago too, although this is not the first time we've played this game on the Jenni Bowlin Mercantile forum. It's becoming an annual tradition I think.

Let me explain things a little. The first rule of Calvinball is there are no rules. Or at least no set rules. They get changed all the time, and you're free to try and sweet talk yourself into more points as you see fit. But just to give you an idea, here are just some of the guidelines we've come up with so far....

1. the rules are subject to change at any time by anyone.
2. layouts = 1 point
3. the layout is the gold standard. all other projects are measured against the almighty layout.  
4. smack talking is expected.
5. cheering on your teammates is also expected.
6. the reward is the huge feeling of accomplishment at the end of the month! (oh and there's a JBS gift voucher to be won as well!)

The Point System:
1 point per layout (2 pagers are 2 points)
1 point per project life page
1/2 point per card
1/2 point per mini-album spread
1 point for art journal pages OVER 6x6 inches
1/2 point for art journal pages 6x6 inches and smaller
altered art awarded on a case by case basis

Plus already there's a bunch of different ways you can earn weekly bonus points, and one-off bonus points too. 

My tally so far:
Calvinblogging =2 (Calvinblogging is blogging every day for points :-)
Layouts = 1 (although I'm awarding myself 2 points for this one because it's for our Scattergories challenge)
Weekly Bonus Points = 1 (for using more than 5 JBS products on a page)
One-Off Bonus Points = 1 (for scrappy shopping) and 1 more (for doing a scrappy giveaway which I posted on my blog yesterday)
That makes my total = 7

Now lets talk about this layout! I made it for the Scattergories challenge which is also running at JBS at the moment. This is where everything on our page has to begin with the assigned letter. My letter for this page is 'V'. It actually turned out to be a bit easier than I first imagined. For a start, I've made my colour scheme vanilla and violet ... with a little bit of creative liscence for what you consider to be violet ;-) Next I added a fabulous FWAB Vine, vellum, wood veneer pieces, Valentines theme (with the heart) and used a lot of vertical lines in my design. It's come together nicely I think. 

So if you're up for a challenge then how about trying it out, and/or joining the Calvinball fun? Both challenges have a $25 gift voucher up for grabs!



Supplies:

JBS Core'dinations Everyday Assorted Pack JBS Perforated Paper: Fancy Checks JBS Red/Black Collection 2012 Mini Pattern JBS Magpie: Gather JBS Shadow Sticker: Vintage/Black JBS Rubons Butterfly Book Page: Silver JBS Butterfly Banner Stickers: Pink JBS Printed Tickets: Baby Girl FWAB Jack Vine Olive Green Shimmerz Spritz Plum Pudding Ranger Liquid Pearls Majestic Purple

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March Whimsy Giveaway

Only because things always sound better with a title don't you think? And plus I think I've put together a giveaway that's really going to suit all you girls who do those lovely romantic vintage shabby-chic style projects. Here's what it contains:

Please note, the 3 packets of Scrapmatts Chipboard is what I had left over from the recent product swap with FWAB. These are not complete packets. The lace is genuine vintage. And the rubber stamp has been used...... once! But the rest is brand new, in the package, honest-to-goodness just plain fun product, ready to go to a new home :-)

Winning is simple...
Simply post a comment here about what you want the most out of this giveaway (just because I'm interested and it will give you something to say!)
Becoming a follower of my blog, sharing this giveaway somewhere, checking me out on Instagram, letting me know you've seen my Guest Posts on Christina's blog or the FWAB blog will all earn you extra entries into the draw. You'll just have to let me know ;-)

It's open internationally and I'll draw the winner next weekend on the 10th March. Good luck.