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Thursday, March 31, 2011

Only hours to go...

Have you given your self a chance to win this kit yet?


No? Then what are you waiting for?
Pop over here to check out how to win it before time runs out :-)

And don't forget my own giveaway which you can enter here

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Enjoy Today

You might recall how last year I took a monthly photo of my girls, and did a corresponding layout for each of them (I've still got just one outstanding page left to go actually..... thanks for the reminder). It started as a way of documenting Moodles growth and development from a newborn to a 1-year-old. You can see the summary post here.


So this year to make it a little different, but to still keep the same concept running I'm going to do a monthly photo and layout of our whole family. This is of course, the first one - the January shoot.


I figured this was also a good way of getting me in front of the camera more too - because I don't do that very often hey? But the main problem then is getting us all in the same spot, and having someone else take the photo! I'm sure there might be months where we have to resort to the self-timer :-)


On the product front, I used this as an opportunity to get rid of put to good use some of my many journalling spots by layering them all up behind the photo. Apart from the Sassafras month ticket, all the others are from American Craft's Just Write packet.


And I found that I've got a tonne of rub-ons in my collection and I rarely seem to use them. So I set out to resolve a small portion of that dilemma on here too. What products are you hoarding but never use?

My "Choose Your Own Giveaway" is still open here.

Monday, March 28, 2011

I've got a feeling

Despite the fact that I'm married to an IT geek who will happily spend hours playing computer games, he's never been one for console games. Apart from an old Xbox we bought from my brother when he needed cash, we've not had any of the newer gadgets.


But finally we caved decided we better get with the times and bought a Wii for Christmas. Not as a present to the girls you understand, after all they're only 1 and 4, but as our present to each other. Yep, I'm sure you can guess whose idea that was!!


But of course, like all computer-savvy kids these days Munchy quickly picked up how to use it. And not only use it, but use it to beat her Daddy at the Wii sports games! This photo captures her at her proudest - the day she thoroughly whipped The Man at Wii bowling and scored a new record at the same time!!


The photo was so bright and happy that it really needed some bold colours if I was going to scrap it. Luckily the February Studio Calico kit was filled with lots of candy-coloured papers, and with a lot of mixing and matching from past kits and new SC goodies (check out those days of the week rub-ons) this page quickly fell together. 


I've been loving a bit of 'block-scrapping' lately haven't I? Sometimes I only notice my own trends when I see all my pages posted one after the other on my blog! Maybe it's because currently I only get little tidbits of time to scrap, which means I can just attack one square of the page at a time. What scrapping trend do you find yourself following at the moment?

Don't forget to enter my GIVEAWAY!

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Choose your own adventure *GIVEAWAY*

I've been meaning to do another giveaway, and have had this idea going around in my mind for a while about what I can use as the prize.

Did anyone else ever read those "Choose your own adventure" books as a kid? You know the ones where you read a little bit of the story and then you have a choice like "if you want to see Danny go into the woods turn to page 3 to keep reading" or "if you think Danny should go to the lake turn to page 5" and you can make the story the way you want it to go.

Well that's what I thought I would give away.

No I'm not planning on giving away books!
Confused?

Here's the deal. If you win this giveaway.... you choose the prize!

 
What you have to do to be in the running.....

1. Leave a comment here with what you would like if you win. I want you to tell me 3 manufacturers that you love (please try and choose mainstream popular brands so I can make sure I can source it!) and 3 types of products you would prefer (ie. is it chipboard, stickers, alphas, pins, paint, tags, whatever).

2. Leave another comment (for a second chance of winning it) if you are a follower of my blog. You don't need to tell me your products again, just tell me you're a follower.

3. Leave a third comment (for another chance of winning) if you post about this giveaway on your blog. Please include the little badge I've created, and leave a link so I can check it out!

Now I certainly won't guarantee that you'll get everything you asked for! But I'll endeavour to include at least one of your preferences in a nice package of goodies :-)

I'll give you a week, and will draw the winner next weekend.

Friday, March 25, 2011

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!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Exciting News!! And a giveaway!

Oh my gosh I am so happy to report to you all that I've been asked to join the Design Team of a new sketch challenge blog called Once Upon a Sketch. Wooo hoo!!

I'm excited about this for lots of reasons. For a start I love sketches. They just take a lot of the guesswork out of designing a page. Makes it so much easier don't you think. And of course, a sketch doesn't mean that you have to follow it to the letter, it's there as a guide which allows lots of room for interpretation.

But what's even more exciting for me is that this sketch challenge will have a twist. We're really going to put the focus back on journaling in our layouts. I know for many of us we got into scrapbooking for the purpose of recording the memories, but we seem to forget that sometimes. We often get scared of including journaling because we don't like our handwriting, or it won't suit the design of the page, or we run out of room etc. But I wholeheartedly agree that every page we do should include some kind of journaling, and you'll see that on the vast majority of my layouts.

Now lets get to the giveaway you say! Here's what you can win right now before we even post a challenge...


Yep...this absolutely stunning March kit from the Nook is full of the latest Emma's Shoppe from Crate Paper, My Minds Eye Stella and Rose, Webster's Trim and American Crafts ribbons and thickers...You don't want to miss this...


So what do you need to do to be in the running for this? Simple...help us spread the word that this challenge blog is alive.

Here is what you need to do...
** Head on over to the Once Upon a Sketch blog
**grab our badge and add it to your blog's sidebar
**post about our site and our giveaway on your blog with a link back to the Once Upon a Sketch blog and a photo of our badge and our prize
**make sure you are a follower of OUAS and leave us a comment on the giveaway post to let us know you have done all of the above.

Remember this is open to anyone and you have one week, until the 30th of March. We will announce the winner on March 31st!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

These are the days

 of Miracle and Wonder for these two beautiful cherubs of mine. Where everything is new and amazing, and discoveries are made on a daily basis.


We were given a mini herb garden for Christmas and Munchy decided that she wanted to taste every herb in the pot. Moodles of course will follow wherever Munchy leads so she was all for it too.


Not sure it was quite what she was expecting. But a new adventure nonetheless.


I'm using the gorgeous Candy Shoppe kit from Studio Calico, focusing mainly on the pinks in the kit and balancing it against the whites. Why you might ask?.......


The criteria at White With One this month is to use white, bright pink and artisan shapes/products. I think there was some confusion as to what the latter actually meant. I think they meant the curly bracket type label shape which I've used to write my journaling on. But some people took it to mean the Artisan products that Pink Paislee released last year. So I included a few of those for good measure too!

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

True Princess

She likes to watch me do my morning routine. You know.... perfume, make-up, hair etc. She sees my collection of beauty products that I simply must have (!) and wants her own.


She picks up my empty deoderant bottles, cheap perfumes and old make-up and starts her own routine, copying my every move.


She's a real princess in the making :-) I'm pretty sure there aren't too many other kids at kindergarten that smell as nice as she does (because she insists on spraying every perfume she can reach before she goes out!)


So I made this layout dedicated to her 4-year-old beauty routine. Yes, I realise how ridiculous that is, but it's a true snippet of our lives right now. I'm using lots of bits and pieces from Cosmo Cricket's Upcycle collection, and have put my Silhouette to good use on it.


And have you seen the latest accessory to hit Handmade by Suzanne? Bottlecaps! In this little embellishment cluster I've used both varieties (the flattened one on the left, and the standard one on the right) Both are filled with patterned paper and then I covered one with Rock Candy crackle paint, and the other with one of the Epoxy Dots. Simple but fun!

Sunday, March 20, 2011

She

She can't say much, but she communicates with squeaks and grunts and hugs. She points and squeals and reaches. It's very clear what she wants most of the time. But of course, there are plenty of occassions when I really wish I could read her mind.


The challenge this month at Scrap the Girls is a fantastic one - it's to use one of the SHE quotes by Kobi Yamada as the title & inspiration for your layout. Plenty of great choices, and I chose "She coloured her thoughts with only the brightest of hues". It was just a tad too long and I wanted to make it present-tense so I changed it slightly to the title you see here.




Apart from the quote, I also used this wedding invitation as the inspiration behind my layout. Journaling on clouds? Brilliant! Why haven't I thought of that before?!

And I have to credit Munchy with the idea for including the rainbow. When I originally finished this layout it was sans-rainbow and although she gasped and stated how beautiful this page was (that's her usual response..... and I love it!) she also said it would be prettier with a rainbow! Looks like she might be taking after me :-)


I used the February Studio Calico kit 'Candy Shoppe' for this layout, adding lots of mist and paint. I am loving this kit! I've got another layout to share with you that I made with it, and now the March kit has just landed on my doorstep too, so lots of fun ahead for me :-)

PS. I was gobsmacked to see the news that Scrapbook Trends Magazine chose my layout as the winner in the Cosmo Cricket sketch challenge, to be published in thier magazine in August. Thanks to all my girls who encouraged me and supported me, but I truly wasn't expecting that outcome. I am over-the-moon and totally giddy right now :-)

Thursday, March 17, 2011

To Be Sure

Happy St.Patrick's Day people!
Here's my only-very-slightly St.Pat's day inspired card. 


Supplies: Cosmo Cricket Upcycle papers, Webster's lace, Kaisercraft brad, 
Maya Road crystals, May Arts leaves.


Well it does have a green shamrock type embellishment.


And a 'lucky' sentiment.

Maybe pushing it just a smidge?! Still..... it's fun :-)

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Wednesday's Child

A bit of a flashback for me as I scrapped these pregnancy photos to tell a little story of my labour.


Not about the labour itself, or the gory details of the birth! But a side story of how the minute my mother-in-law found out I was in labour she rushed down (from 2 hours away) to be with Munchy for when the time would come that I had to go to hospital.


And it was just as well she did, because when the time came for me to go to hospital I really had to go! I only just made it in time :-) It was 1am in the morning, so certainly not the time to be ringing around for babysitters, and personally I don't think a labour ward is the place for a three-year-old. But that's just me.


It felt so good to mix and match all these layers on this page. Although looking at it now I'm pretty convinced it doesn't work at all. Oh well! I've always known colour and pattern combo's is not my forte, and I'm cool with that :-) But this was one of those pages I made whilst trying to turn my body clock around for night-duty, so it was about 3am when this came together. Maybe I can blame the delirium I was in!


And at the end of the day it's about the story right?

Monday, March 14, 2011

To Attain

I'm falling way behind on posting my layouts, so sorry if you've seen this one posted around before (but not on here)


I made this using the Crate Paper February sketch because 1) I love Crate Paper and have a bit of a stash of it to get through! 2) the sketch spoke to me and 3) I really admire Emily Pitts and she never ceases to inspire me.
But of course, the sketch had to work for me, not the other way around and I found myself wanting to use this portrait photo of Munchy rather than a landscape photo as the sketch calls for. So I needed to adjust things slightly.


I pulled out all my various Crate papers - because that's what they are now, no longer full or even partial collections. More like a random gathering of supplies. I decided to go with a cream/aqua/red colour scheme which allowed me to choose the papers to coordinate, even though they actually came from 5 different collections!!


Oh my, those gorgeous pink glittery Thickers that came in the February Studio Calico kit are just glorious, and totally fit right in here! And here's where my layout was directly inspired by this one that Emily Pitts did for Studio Calico a couple of months ago. Giant speech bubbles? Genius!!

Must have worked too - because although I didn't win the challenge, this layout was featured along with a few other 'honourable mentions'.


This page is about how Munchy is most definitely in that stage where she asks "why" for absolutely everything. Drives me barmy, and yet I know it's very healthy and I should actually encourage it. When I said to her "you sure ask a lot of questions" she cheekily answered "that's because I want to know everything!"

High aspirations for my 4-year-old!

Sunday, March 13, 2011

All the mommas who profit dollas

Check out my gorgeous girls! Beautiful through and through :-) And I love them bunches.



These are two of my best friends. Over the past 10 years they've been my college-buddies, flat-mates, study-group, brides-maid, drive-me-into-oncoming-traffic, holiday-makers, support-people, Wizards-and-Warlords, dance-partners, arthouse-movie-watchers, Charlie's-Angels and so much more.


Michelle Fowler designed this month's sketch at Handmade by Suzanne and it is FABulous! For once I stuck to the sketch pretty much as it was drawn!! Well.... almost :-) 


I substituted Glimmermist instead of paper to get the three long strips of colour down the centre of the page. And I layered my two photos on top of one another for something slightly different.



Once again, one of the tags on the Cosmo Cricket Upcycle Elements paper was absolutely perfect for my page. And the LilyBee chipboard and Kaisercraft doilies coordinated wonderfully with the other Upcycle papers I've used.


I'm a typography glutton at the moment -  I cannot seem to get enough! If you look through my recent Tumblr updates, they're all wonderful typography pieces. And translating that look onto a scrapbook page has just become so easy now I've got my Silhouette. Love it :-)

Anyway.....
come along and play with us at Handmade by Suzanne. There's so much going on! A MILLION wonderful new arrivals in the store, the amazing Kathie Link is the Guest DT for March, and the sketch challenge proved so popular last month that Suzanne has just upped the prize to a $30 voucher plus free shipping! Check out the details here.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

This is Why

One of the things that I absolutely adore about the Mix and Mend collection from Sassafras is that it's already so textured and embellished before you even do a thing to it! (I imagine the new Sweetly Smitten collection will be very similar and cannot wait to get it in my hands!)


And that's how this layout looks like it took me an eternity to build with all it's various layers, but in reality it came together so quickly. In fact, there's not much more here than just one page of 'Alterations' patterned paper.


Granted I did add a few extra details. Draped some Jillibean Soup bakers twine over it, and scattered some sequins.


The little funny cloud shapes are just made from the die-cut edge at the bottom of the Sass paper, and there's a couple Making Memories butterlies. And that's it!


Why do you scrapbook? For me it's all about capturing the everyday 'ordinary' moments as well as the big events. It's about remembering all those little details that might otherwise be easily forgotten, for my sake as well as for my children. And of course, I do thouroughly enjoy the creative process of it all too, and I love to create with pretty products. But ultimately it's about the memories :-)

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