In the playground

I wanted to play along in the Method Playground again this month, so I joined in with the current prompt to scrap something with borders. The best part of this prompt is they left it completely up to your own ingenuity about how you wanted to use borders on your layout. So easy right? And there's a great prize on offer if you happen to own a die-cutting machine. You might want to go over and check it out yourself.

So here's what I did:

And I bet you can't guess what I used for a border around my page? I'll give you a clue...... it's fabric rather than paper. Any takers? I might just keep you in suspense a little longer (ha ha ha, insert evil laugh here!!!)

I also made some fabric yo-yo flowers and embellished them with punched shapes and vintage buttons. And I did some cute layered butterflies too. I seem to be adding butterflies to everything at the moment, I can't stop!

The rest is some old Basic Grey papers and die-cut stickers.
And for once, you can't see a single bit of my handwriting (or even alpha stickers for that matter) anywhere. How strange!

So if you made it this far I'll put you out of your suspense. The border is made out of...... a vintage hankerchief! Don't worry - it's never been used!!

I recently found an un-opened packet of these 12 hankerchiefs that my Grandmother must have given me 10 years ago at least (probably 15 actually) and I knew I would find a use for them somehow. So all I did was cut out the middle of it, and sew the rest of it to my page. Voila - instant interesting and unique border to your layout.

What do you think? Do you have anything like this lying around at home begging to be given a new life? Whack it on a layout I say!!

ETA - I'm so sorry. I forgot to give credit where credit is due. I'm continuously inspired by everything Debee Campos does, but in particular she inspired this layout by her piece of amazing art in her Etsy here.

Comfort measures

The new challenge at These are a Few of my Favourite Things is all about our favourite toys. As usual I decided to do a layout not about my own favourite toys, but about one of my daughter's favourite toys instead. And then I found out this also fits the current prompt at Scrap That Baby (thanks Gina) Yay! A new challenge blog for me :-)

So this is the story of Moodle's Doo-Rabbit.

In fact, it actually started long ago (hhhmmm, about 3 years ago!) when Munchy was given a teddy-bear called Kaloo (it's really the manufacturer's name, but for lack of imagination it became the teddy's name) and she loves it. She loved it as a baby, she loved it as a toddler, she still loves it now.

In fact, it became so synonomous with Munchy that when Moodle was born, both sets of grandparents thought that it was only fair that she get one too. So she's kinda got two (I say kinda, because one isn't a Kaloo - it's just in the same style). And keeping with the theme, it doesn't have a name either. We just distinguish them by calling one a Kaloo Bear and the other Kaloo Rabbit (or Doo-bear and Doo-rabbit)

In the greater scheme of things I've made this layout about how Moodle has always been one who has enjoyed her comfort measures. She was swaddled longer than Munchy, she was given a dummy earlier than Munchy, she was given her Doo-Rabbit much earlier too. Maybe that's also a product of second-round parenting - we're a bit more relaxed about the 'rules'.

All of the products on this layout (apart from the alphas and the banner sticker) are actually digital elements that I've printed out. They're from Kitschy Digitals - I just love Danielle Thompson's style, and I credit her alone with turning me onto hybrid scrapping. I'm certainly not about to venture into the world of digital scrapping (yet?), but I am enjoying the hybrid side of life.

:-)

PS. If you get in really quick, there's actually a blog-hop happening at the moment starting at Jessica Sprague's. That's where I buy all my Kitschy Digital stuff, and right now if you hurry, you can go on the blog-hop and download some free digital goodies at every single stop (that's 33!!!!), including a mini-kit at Kitschy Digitals. But it ends Sunday night (their time) so you better go and do it right now!

Chasing Rainbows

Have you seen the new blog that's just recently started up called 'Cartwheels in My Mind'?
It's got some amazing talent on it's team and is headed up by the amazing Cheryl Ametewee. It looks like they're going to offer something unique including lots of challenges, prompts and of course, loads of delicious eye-candy.

Last weekend there was a photo challenge given to take something from a new perspective and then create a piece of art from what the photo inspired.

Then this week they happened to choose my photo to share on their blog. I was so chuffed!
So I really thought I ought to share them all with you too :-)

Moodles was recently given this lovely crystal as a 'welcome to the world' present (yes, she is 7 months old now!!) and I hung it up in our window where it will catch the sunlight. There are a couple of hours a day where it produces these lovely rainbows that play and dance all around the bedroom. And so this was the first time we had noticed it.

Munchy had so much fun trying to catch them and I couldn't help but capture the moment on film (well it's not really film these days is it? It's really digital). Then I photoshopped the life out of them to add a few beautiful sentiments that seemed to sum it up nicely.

What do you think? I really like them!

PS. All of the overlays/stamps are by Karenika, except the last one which is by Ali Edwards.

PPS. Don't forget about my own challenge to you!

Perfect pair

So you know I always do my monthly layouts for a Year in the Chair in pairs don't you? So here's the matching one for yesterday's layout:

Putting to use all the LYB Fresh Print Clothesline goodies again I quickly slapped together this page.

This was a totally freeing experience as I just forgot all the 'rules' and decided to just go with the flow. I didn't get out my paper trimmer - I just cut everything by hand..... even trying to get wonky lines at times! I used up all the odd ends and left over scraps from the layout I showed you yesterday which explains parts like why the bottom half of my photo mat has a corner chopped off it.

And I let go of my own inhibitions when it comes to using up all your die-cuts on the one page. Is anyone else like that? You know when you've just spent $x on a sheet of die-cuts and you feel like you need to use them sparingly so you can spread them far and wide? Except of course in the end you never use them because it's difficult to get them to match, or you forget you have them once you've moved on to another product.

So quick and easy and fun, which I love.
Not entirely sure about the 'beauty' of the end result, but hey, sometimes it's more about the process I think.

:-)

Let the wild rumpus start

Challenge 45 at ScrapMojo is to create a layout using a quote from Where the Wild Things Are and try something new. Good one!!

Now I haven't seen the movie, but we are lucky enough to own the book so I quickly got it out and read through it again (for the 100th time it seems) to look for some good quotes. There's so many!

I thought about, "he made mischief of one kind or another" - I'm sure I've got plenty of photos that would do that quote justice!
Or, "his mother called him WILD THING" - ditto!

But ended up settling with "he sailed off through night and day, and in and out of weeks and almost over a year" because I thought that would be perfect for another one of my Year in the Chair pages.  I just tweaked it slightly.

As you can see, this is for May. Yay..... almost up to date!!

See the little 'flag' on top of the boat? That's one of the decorative pins I made the other day and this is the first time I've used one on a layout. But it was an afterthought really. My new thing was using all these scrummy new products I bought. They're all from the Fresh Print Clothesline collection by Little Yellow Bicycle and this is the first time I've really bought and used LYB. 

For a start, I really love how these papers have such a nice texture. I'm a real sucker for texture! If you haven't felt them before - you should. They're a bit similar to Crate Paper if you're familiar with their papers. And I love how they're all double-sided with a pattern on one side, and a plain colour (with some more subtle tone-on-tone patterns) on the back.

And another technique I tried was to stitch everything onto the page rather than glue it or stick it. Just my own personal challenge! Well.... all apart from that boat because I really wanted it to pop off the page for a bit of dimension. But guess what? I ran out of foam tape. Disaster! So do you know what I did to cheat? I cut up little squares of corrugated cardboard and glued them in between my page and embellishments - and voila..... dimension!! And of course, you can't even tell. So this is what I'm doing until I can get to a store and buy some more!

Now, don't forget my own challenge here. This page I've just shown you would be perfect for it!! You've got until the end of the month to link up your own creation for a chance at one of four great prizes.

Falling for you

I created a quick card last night after being prompted to play along again with Etsy Inspired Challenges. The Etsy shop this week is My Zoetrope, and amongst the 91 different prints and cards on offer I found this one which struck a chord:

Maybe because we've just finished Autumn ourselves, or maybe because I love the colour palette, or maybe just because it's soooooo cute!

I made this:

And I know I said before that there was no possible way I could make any more projects from my Kreatorville November kit (my all time fave - although you should see what the postman delivered to me today!!!!!), it seems I lied! Using up the tiniest scraps, and teaming it up with a few extras I managed to pull together this card.

I was wondering whether I should add to the sentiment on this card so that it read 'falling for you'? It might make a good Valentine's card. But perhaps I'll just let the leaves speak for themselves. Plus given we don't call it Fall but Autumn here in Australia it might seem like a bit of a sell-out?

Hhhmmmm.......

My Angel

I took a deep breath and held it for a couple of days after I read this challenge at Scrap-It-Lah. This is a challenge blog that's been on my radar for a few months now and I've been meaning to get around to actually doing one of the challenges. And I though that June would be the month. But when I read the current challenge I silently second-guessed myself because this was going to be quite difficult for me.

So the challenge is to make a monochrome WHITE layout.
I didn't even know where to start!

In the end I've just gone for butterflies galore!!! Not sure that was the best option, or that it turned out as I expected or wanted. But I can say that I've met the challenge criteria :-)

The first photo (at the top of this post) is in it's true colours, and hopefully you can see I've used a few different shades of white cardstock from various sources. I also painted the base cardstock with a silvery shimmery glaze but unfortunately it's not visible in the photos. It's a pity because it adds a delightful dimension and fits perfectly with this 'angelic' layout.

I tried to make up for the lack of colour by packing it with texture instead. I ran all the bigger butterflies through the Cuttlebug and then added some metal butterflies, clear buttons, pearls, rhinestones and brads.

It's entirely possible I went too far :-)

But if you're looking for a different colour prompt, why not try my very own Jolly June Yellow Challenge? Four different prizes on offer!

I want to show you

another fabulous entry into my Jolly June Yellow Challenge.

This one is by the amazing Lynnette, who among lots of other things is my boss over at XOXO Girls.

I love her style, and that yellow Studio Calico paper she used in the background is fantastic.
Thanks so much Lynnette for entering the challenge. But never fear, because there's still lots of time to show me your own yellow layout (or card, or whatever really) in the chance of winning an awesome prize that you get to choose yourself!!

See all the details here.

Now, I promised to show you some of my own layouts featuring yellow didn't I? So, taking my cue from Lynnette, here's a couple of older ones using some Studio Calico's goodness.

or how about this one:

Both layouts are created almost exclusively with Studio Calico products. It seems they have a few yellow papers hey?

So why don't you show me what you've done (new or old) that features yellow? I'd love to see them!

How many shoes

should a 6-month-old own? Especially given she hardly ever wears any?!

I'm not sure I like the answer to this question.  Because this photo only shows about a third of the shoes she actually owns!

I'm playing along with the challenge from These Are a Few of My Favourite Things which prompted us to scrap our favourite shoes. So I took a picture of some of my favourite shoes that The Moodle owns. And in doing so I realised that half of these shoes she's lucky to have worn once!

The problem with most baby shoes is they never stay on for very long. And coupled with the fact that this baby of mine seems to be growing at an alarming rate means that all of these beautiful shoes seem to be going to waste. But at least I've captured them in picture form :-)

I really like the combination of products I used on this layout. I think they all go together nicely, and that's definitely something I struggle with - mixing and matching from different companies.
The background paper is Basic Grey, the title alphas, embellishments and paper strips are The Girl's Paperie and the flowers are Kitschy Digitals. I've also used some paper doilies, ribbon and washi tape.

I'm also using the June sketch over at Handmade by Suzanne's for this layout.
Two birds, one stone and all of that.

I rotated the sketch onto it's side and put the title at the top and the journalling on the bottom. Oh, and kept the two photos the same size. But other than that I've kept to the sketch pretty well. I'll show you again so you can see.....

 
You may have noticed how I tried to photograph this layout in a new way today. I'm a bit undecided on whether this was a good idea or not. What do you think?
I really like it when other people have a some of the background showing in their layout photos, and I'm sick of having distorted-looking layouts when I've tried to photograph them on the wall. I certainly had more success when photographing them on the floor, but I don't think it's very nice to have some un-vacuumed carpet showing!!

So I'm experimenting. Maybe I just need to change up the location? or change the way I propped it up?
Hhhmmmmmmm.......

I'd really be interested in hearing your thoughts on this.

Stuck?

Not anymore thanks to this month's sketch from Stuck Sketches. I used it in order to finish my other April page for A Year in the Chair album (see the post below for the first one).

I rotated the sketch 90 degrees clockwise, and used the clock embellishment to represent the circle from the sketch. It's probably easiest if I show you the original sketch hey?!

Again I've used The Girl's Paperie so there will be uniformity in my album (obsessive much?)

You get so many embellishments in the packet that even after I layered all of these here I've hardly made a dent! 

I added all my journaling about the things Moodle did and achieved in April into the Maya Road envelope. As much as I love to journal, and have no problem covering my pages with it, sometimes it's easier just to hide it all away - mainly because I wrote a whole page worth!

Thanks everyone for all the kind comments you keep leaving me. I certainly do read and cherish every one of them.

xx

Adoration

I'm playing along with a few challenges this month. Sometimes I feel I need the creative prompts these sites/blogs give me.

So today it's challenge #69 at Method Playground, which just so happened to be a scraplift challenge. (Speaking of which - won't you join us at XOXO this month?)

So here's what I pulled together after being inspired by the lovely layout we were to lift.

And I'm also happy to get another page done in my "Year in the Chair" album. Yes, maybe that's what I'll call it from now on? Obviously, this is one of the two photos from April. Moodle always has this slightly shocked look on her face, but at least Munchy knows how to play up to the camera :-)

As you can see, my collection for April was Paper Girl by The Girl's Paperie. Aren't these colours and patterns just so lovely and vintage? I loved them all so much, it was really hard to chose which side of the papers to use! Hopefully I'll be able to share my other April page with you tomorrow.

But, back to the challenge.......
I lifted the idea of putting all my photo/journaling/embellishments into one (smaller) square within my layout. And having my title along the side of my photo.

I'll show you what I mean.

This was the layout we were given to scraplift. It's seriously amazing isn't it?
Of course, you know me. I couldn't quite manage the minimalist look outside of that square. I can't help but add more things :-)

Also - don't forget about my own challenge to all you wonderful people who read my blog!!

How beadyful

How Beadyful is the etsy shop you needed to pick something from to inspire you this week at Etsy Inspired Challenges. Given they've got over 250 things for sale, the scope is vast!

I ended up choosing these pretty little button earrings as my inspiration piece.

And made a wedding card that's been on my 'to do' list for a week or more.

I used another one of my Christmas papers for the background (can't tell can you?!) by Little Yellow Bicycle, and cut the butterflies from a Making Memories glitter paper. It's so pretty.

It was too hard to cut the butterfly antennae from the paper so I ended up making my own decorative pins. I've got plenty of brand name pins, but they were all a little big for what I wanted. So here's what I did.......

I gathered all my supplies, which was simply all my pretty beads, some ordinary pins and Dimensional Magic (or another fast drying strong clear glue).

(sorry for the fuzzy picture)
The easiest way I found to assemble it was to choose what beads you want and thread them all onto the pin first. Then put a small dollop of glue at the head of the pin and slide the first bead up into it. If you've got more than one bead like I do in the picture above then add another drop of glue under the first bead and slide the second bead up and so on. Use the smallest amount of glue possible so it's not dripping all over the place :-)

And there you have it. Your own set of unique and customisable decorative pins. Very easy.

The Lipstick Chicks have hit again

The June challenge has just popped up on the XOXO blog. This is such a good challenge site because it's so easy. You get 25 DT examples to pick from and then all you have to do is scraplift one...... or two...... or as many as you can fit in within the month!!

And you might want to have more than one chance at winning this amazing kit from Divine Designs. Look at the lovely goodies in it. (But even if you aren't lucky enough to win this kit, I would highly recommend checking out the website for even more delightfully yummy kits).

Meanwhile, this is the layout that I did:

I've been meaning to scrap this photo for the longest time! I had the title already chosen in my head for months, and was thoroughly committed once I digitally wrote part of it straight onto my photo before I printed it. Then all I had to do was add the rest the regular way. It's actually a line from a song in the TV show "Red Dwarf" (yes, I'm a total unashamed Dwarfer...... love it!!)

Perhaps you're wondering why I would deliberately try and capture a photo of The Moodle crying her little heart out, but it was actually perfect for this page that I wanted to scrap. It's all about how we had to get her tongue-tie fixed when she was only a few days old. And having her cry is the only real way of getting a photo of her tongue-tie. Of course, by the time I took this photo it had been fixed for a little while so you don't actually see it at all :-)

I'm also pretty happy about using up some of these old Basic Grey papers which have been in my stash for the longest time. Not that they aren't really pretty - I just tend to keep on using the most recent stuff I've bought and it can be hard to dig out some of the old stuff. But very satisfying when I do :-)

So why not join in the challenge this month? Scraplift me or one of the other 24 DT examples. What could be harder? Let me know if you do (I do vote you know! *wink*)

And why not scrap a page using some of those lovely yellow papers you've got lying around? Then you can add it to my Jolly June Challenge as well and have double the chances of winning something!