The Story of Great Expectations Take 2

Following on from my other non-carnival layout made with the Midway Collection from October Afternoon that I shared earlier in the week (and has already been picked up for publication!) I threw some more of it at this page too.

I picked out the orange and green colours to focus on, and added some splashes of yellow and blue. But overall I think it has quite a citrus colour-scheme going on here. It reminds me of a light and breezy Spring afternoon, and it was all inspired from the lovely Mood Board challenge running at Jot Magazine currently.

That's my sister in the photo, showing off her gorgeously huge preggo belly. It was a lovely photo-shoot and this shot was too beautiful not to scrap. I especially love a good bit of sun-glare!!

I used a Balzer Designs Crafters Workshop template in the background with all it's numbers and months to represent the waiting period when you're pregnant. I see pregnant women pretty much every day at work, and we're all the same in some respects. Pregnancy is a time of such huge anxiety, expectations, excitement and anticipation. And 9 months can feel like forever!

I gave away a secret on my Instagram and Facebook account in regards to this layout. I shared a bit of a before-shot which revealed how I give my paper layers a bit of dimension. I'll give you a bit of a clue.... it's like foam tape but it uses product you might otherwise throw away. I share all sorts of extra things there that don't make it onto my blog.

Happy Scrapping.
xx

The Story of the Linear Layers

Just to keep things rolling along in theme I thought I'd now share with you my take on the March sketch challenge at Scraptherapy (since in my last post I shared my February interpretation).

Sometimes I think I'm so focussed on scrapping the 'everyday moments' that it can take me a little while to build up the courage to scrap the big events as well. But this is highly important too of course, so finally I've come to scrap the photos from Munchy's 6th birthday..... from September last year!!

I interpreted the sketch in quite a linear way, and translated it into a grid design. But I've still got the main elements of the two photos on the right, and the equally weighted large decoration/embellishment on the left.

I recently picked up a few more 6x6" Crafter's Workshop stencils at the Scrapbook Expo and I literally just traced around this lovely graphic number stencil with a black pen. I cut out the number six separately and misted the background to add emphasis to it alone.

I had fun with this colour scheme in case you couldn't tell!! Reminds me of lollies.. which is perfect for this party layout. I'm so glad I've finally finished this. Now I've got to work on Moodle's last birthday, but at least that was in November so I guess I've got a couple of months left up my sleeve ;-)

Sometimes I try to define my design style or wonder how I would describe it to someone. I've decided that I'm going to call my current style "linear layers". What do you think? Does that sound right?

 

I've been up all night

that's true!
Still on night duty for another week :-(
Maybe that's why I'm inclined to cover the background of this layout in stars despite the photo being taken on a bright summery day. Oh how I long for the sunshine again.

I've been following the Aussie Scrap Jack blog for the longest time, but I don't think I've ever participated before. Can you believe it? So much inspiration over there, so it's about time I changed that!!

I lifted the page by DT member Jeanenne which you can see here. I loved the title all down the right side, the layers of embellishments and the stitched square framing it all.

But I also took my inspiration from the very T-shirt Munchy is wearing in this photo which is covered in rows of houses..... et voila.. my street scene was created. Does it have anything to do with the journaling? No! Except that it's cute and whimsical much like my funny little girl.

This is what she said to me.... "Mummy, can you spend all night thinking about what clothes I can wear and how I can do my hair so that I can be the pretties girl in the world tomorrow when Harley comes over?" Harley is her favourite uncle whom she's desperate to impress :-)

Supplies: 

Studio Calico Daydream Believer kit February 2012	Studio Calico Stepping Stone Addon February 2012	Studio Calico Wood Vaneer Houses	Studio Calico Mister Huey Cameo
Crafters Workshop Punchinella	Crafters Workshop Mini Clouds stencil	Gesso

InLinkz.com

Feeling Hot

One of my favourite daily challenges at Scrapz.biz is the 'Fetch a Sketch' challenge. As you can guess, it's where the challenge is to build a page from a sketch..... which is nothing new right? But I think why it's so good for me is because if I'm completely honest... I find sketches really difficult!

Yes, I'm on the Design Team for one of the biggest sketch blogs going! Yes I've Guested for sketch challenges on fabulous sites like Two Peas in a Bucket and Pencil Lines! But YES... I usually find it hard to accomplish :-) But I'm constantly trying to improve my skills so getting stuck into not only building a page from a sketch, but designing the sketch in the first place is something I know will push me to my limits.

People often ask how do you go about doing it? Do you design the sketch and then create your page, or do you "cheat" and make a page first then base your sketch off that? For me the answer is 'both'! I actually design in a bit of a circle. What I mean is I start off drawing a quick rough sketch, then I create my page, then I formalise the sketch using my page to fill in the details.

As you can see I've managed to fit in lots of layers and embellishments and bright fun colours into this layout. Perfect for the summery beach theme don't you think? And more importantly for me - I've managed to also fit in a heap of journaling.

Now this particular sketch challenge that I designed finished at the end of last month, but at Scrapz.biz we've got a new challenge up every weekday, and Thursdays are the day for sketches if you're interested. But in the meantime we've got lots more inspiration, and this week it's my turn to host the 'Scrap a Rainbow' challenge, so maybe I'll see you over there?

Supplies:

Bazzill Zest	Echo Park Victoria Gardens Sunshine	October Afternoon Boarding Pass Venice	Cosmo Cricket Clementine Ada
Cosmo Cricket Clementine Ivy	Cosmo Cricket Salt Air Fish Tails	Cosmo Cricket Salt Air Elements	Chipboard Thickers Typo Mustard
October Afternoon Sidewalks Miscellany	Prima Say it in Crystals silver	Cosmo Cricket Salt Air Buttons	Studio Calico Brown-Grey Rubon Clouds
Crafters Workshop Punchinella	Studio Calico MIster Huey Lunch Tray

InLinkz.com

Are you ready for this?

I just recently came across Pretty Little Studio, have you heard of them before? Their logo states "Fresh Vintage, Whimsical Fun" which I think just sums up my style to a tee, so you can see why I was instantly smitten with their lovely product lines.

And whilst browsing through their blog I came across the most inspiring sketch challenge and I knew I would have to play along!

I simply rotated the sketch 90 degrees CCW and filled up the long column with my journaling instead of adding it at the top. Because you know me..... I had a lot to say :-)

I've decided that one of my scrappy goals for this year is to include more memorabilia on my pages, especially things like this - homemade cards, cute little drawings, notes of love. I'm often finding things like this around the house, or they're delivered into my hands because Munchy has a real passion for drawing and writing right now.

She's real keen to practice her letters and numbers, and can write her own name and a few simple words without prompting. And she's also getting more imaginiative with her creative drawing too. This cute little drawing is of me and The Man - as you can see we're made out of hearts. This drawing prompted this layout actually, as it made me realise I need to treasure these little pearls of love.

And what I journalled about was not only her writing and drawing abilities but how these are going to stand her in good stead now she's about to start school in a couple of weeks. Because it doesn't seem like it's a question of whether she's ready, I think it's more a question of whether I'm ready?!

Supplies Used:

Pink Paislee Office Lingo Cubicle	October Afternoon Sidewalks Marbles	Pink Paislee Nantucket Crab Cakes	Pink Paislee Nantucket Jumbo Shrimp
Jenni Bowlin Alpha Stickers Black Dot	October Afternoon Sidewalks Miscellany	Studio Calico Brown-Grey Rubon Clouds	Crafters Workshop Punchinella

InLinkz.com