The Story of Hanging on for Dear Life

Last month I took part in the sketch challenge at Scrap Therapy (which I just so happened to have won!) so it really is time I shared this page here too.

The sketch was a little challenging for me, mainly because I don't often 'do' circles in my layouts. I'm pretty much strictly straight lines and sharp corners. And certainly I'm not into cutting any curved lines into my photos so I knew having a round photo was out of the question.

Once I figured out how to incorporate the circle element and still have the layout look like mine the rest was easy. There's no fancy circle-cutters in my house so I resorted to tracing around a dinner plate to get the size I wanted!

One of the first things I do when I approach as sketch is to figure out where I'm going to add my journaling if the sketch hasn't allowed room for it. This is essential for me, so I always have to adjust the sketch accordingly. For this one it meant clustering all my elements in the top left corner so there was space below it to write everything I needed to say. Despite how much importance I place on journaling I often don't know what I'm going to say before the pen is in my hand!

On this occasion I took my cue from the photo. It's pretty cute right? But what you don't see ('cos I cropped it out of the photo) is that she's actually stuck up on top of the playground and can't get down. That's the face of pure terror! Ummmmm yes, I stopped to take a photo first ;-) So I wrote about how it's ok to be scared sometimes, and that circumstances aren't always going to go according to plan but that some things will remain forever stable like her family's love.

The Story of the Happily Ever After

So I've had a few weddings again lately. There's nothing more perfect is there, than watching 2 people declare their love for one another in front of family and friends?

Of course, I don't really buy cards these days, which means having a ready stash of every-occasion cards on standby instead.

I'm not sure about you but when I think of wedding cards I think of soft romantic colours, layers of flowers and fabric and a shabby-chic style. Every time.

But of course, if you know me at all then you also know that's not my usual style. So when it came to making some wedding cards I looked to someone whom I knew embodies all that and who's super-inspiring to boot! That's my friend Nadia Cannizzo :-)

Despite having a 3-week-old baby in the house that lady is still creating up a storm, and lucky for me she gave me permission to scrap-lift a couple of her cards so that I had something reasonably decent to give away at my recent weddings.

Trust me, I wouldn't have known where to start on a project like this if it wasn't for a truck-load of eye-candy on Nadia's site. But it's so nice to stretch your creative muscle once in a while isn't it? These might not be my usual style but I had such fun putting them together.

xxx

The Story of the New Washing Machine

Yes folks, it just keeps on getting more and more exciting around here doesn't it? First I enthralled you with the tale of the head-lice, and now it's all about the new laundry appliances. Rivotting blogging hey?!

As any good housewife would know (not that I am one. Neither a housewife, nor a good one!) it's essential to have a functioning washing machine. And when your ol' faithful packs it in and calls it a day it's important to replace it as soon as possible!

Because washing clothes is one of those chores that really simply must get done every single day. Especially with young kids who potentially go through 2 or 3 changes of clothes a day.
Wash, rinse, spin. Repeat.
That's why I knew documenting this monotonous daily activity was going to be perfect for the My Mind's Eye Groundhog Day Challenge. In the movie he keeps repeated the same thing over and over, and so that's what I wanted to scrap about. Something that I do every day.

Firstly I thought about going to work and all the stuff I do there. Then I realised that delivering babies is really quite exciting.... and plus I don't think the photos from my point of view are really scrapbook worthy ;-) But just as important is the home-me. The me who looks after our family. Who cooks (sometimes) and cleans and bathes and feeds and cuddles and puts-ice-packs-on and screams at them and loves them whole-heartedly and ..... washes their clothes.
Every Single Day.

 

It's still supposed to be a bright and happy topic so I used my favourite MME collection - Alphabet Soup, with a good sprinkling of Lost and Found thrown in too. 

Now I know I have missed out on blogging here in a little while. But I've been around! Yesterday my first Evalicious blog post went up. It's another 8.5 x 11" page documenting Munchy losing her first tooth. Check it out here. 

And I've also got a video tutorial up on the Scrap Friends blog all about how to incorporate stamps and ink techniques into your pages. You can see it here.

Plus, I'm gearing up for the excitement that's coming by this little blog of mine on the weekend. Chooo choo!!

Soaring

Sorry for the blogging silence, but this scrappy doctor has been looking after two sick kids and one sick Man. Whilst on holidays. On the farm.

Not much fun.

I've been finding some time to scrap, or at least to start some projects that are now just waiting for me to get back home and add my paint and mist and sewing. All the things that are difficult to take on holidays, but for me my pages aren't complete without them.

But I've got lots of 'older' pages I can share with you. For the last couple of months at Scrapz.biz our weekly challenges have been product focused. For example, I made this page when our weekly 'ingredient' was tape.

I've got bunches of this stuff in my stash let me assure you! So great for adding little splashes of colour and a bit of different texture. You can see all my layers of tape under my word stickers in the top right corner which made a great little embellishment cluster of a kind :-)

At first glance you might not have noticed that the red layers are all tape as well. Makes for a quick and easy  highlight, whilst sticking things in place at the same time! Win Win!

In fact, this page was for my "Fetch a Sketch" challenge, so I based my layout on this sketch I whipped up for the occasion. Over the next few days I want to share with you the pages I made for the flowers, chipboard, brads, paint, mist, twine and rubon challenges too. Stay tuned!

Supplies: 

Pink Paislee Parisian Anthology Fancy Filigree	October Afternoon 5 and Dime Rock Candy	October Afternoon 5 and Dime Jawbreakers	October Afternoon 5 and Dime Lemondrops
October Afternoon 5 & Dime Label Stickers	My Minds Eye Lime Twist title	Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type Stickers	Studio Calico Autumn Press Scraps
Gesso

InLinkz.com

Falling and Flying

When I did my 'interview' for Jenni Bowlin they asked me which was my favourite project made with this months kits. Given I made 5 layouts and a mini-album at least I wasn't stuck for choice :-) Ultimately this one got my vote ....

In my mind 'favourite' doesn't necessarily mean best, although I do love how this turned out. I think a lot of the satisfaction came from finally finishing this layout in a way that was pleasing to me because I was on the verge of calling it quits for a while.

I had the idea of cutting up a bunch of the tickets from the My Mind's Eye paper in the Mini-Album add-on and mixing them up with the JBS perforated stamps from the beginning. But I must have gone through a million different arrangements before I settled with this. And I don't mean changing the position of colours, I mean different designs of laying these out around the page. And different backgrounds. And different alphas. And different photo placement... the list goes on.

..... and you thought it all came so effortlessly!!! LOL!

And the other reason it became a favourite is because this is a page about one of those 'big moments'. I snapped this selfie on my 30th birthday a couple of months ago, and used this page to document my thoughts on the accomplishments and failures of the past year. The title "Falling and Flying" is inspired by an Aussie HipHop album of the same name just becasue it just seemed appropriate (I haven't even heard it!) There are plenty of things that I'm good at and I'm proud of achieving, but that's balanced easily by the things that I'm still working on and I wanted to be realistic about that. I believe in scrapping with honesty, life isn't always peaches and butterflies.

You can see a bit of a feature about me in the JBS Gazette.... but there's many better reasons to get your hands on it. This month's issue is filled with ideas and inspiration, including a Paint Dabber tutorial, hybrid scrapping creativity, Project Life, and much more!  To download your pdf copy, just click here... and enjoy!

Supplies:

JBS Papercrafting Kit March 2012

JBS Mini-Album Kit March 2012

JBS Artisan Add-On March 2012

Jenni Bowlin Alpha Stickers Black Dot

InLinkz.com

Calvinball points: 25.5

As simple as 'ABC'

I like to find the positive side of life. I'm a glass-half-full kind of girl. So if there's one good thing to say about letting go of some of my DT comittments then it has to be that it allows me more time to play along with challenges, and to get through some of my accumulating stash :-)

I was instantly drawn to the current challenge on the My Mind's Eye blog this month. I'm sure you can see why. Here's the sketch.......

Look at all that room for journaling!!! Wooo hoo! I love telling the stories of life on my pages - the daily happenings, the funny quotes from my kids, my thoughts and emotions, the things I'll want to remember later on. Rather than just the date and place the photo was taken.

Along with the sketch, the journaling prompt was "Back to _______"
I pondered on that one a bit until I came up with this page which records my thoughts on Munchy needing speech therapy classes. I didn't plan any of my journaling ahead of time. When it came to adding it, I just picked up my pen and started writing.

I called it 'Back to Basics' because that's what we're really focusng on with her speech. We're practicing her pronounciation and phonetics of speech. Lots of guidance and 'repeat after me' exercises, encouraging her to shape her mouth and where to place her tongue..... that sort of thing. And it's working! She's making great gains, and is sooooo diligent for a 4 year old. She hardly ever complains about the practice, and is very proud of herself when she learns how to say a new word properly.

Of course, I used lots of My Mind's Eye products here. A mix and match jumble of some of their older lines like So Sophie and Alphabet Soup papers, with some newer brads and stickers from Stella and Rose.

Happy days :-)

Make the world a cuter place

What's the only thing better than a banner?

(that's a trick question)

The only thing better than a banner is adding another fun element alongside it...... the pinwheel!!
They seem made for one another. They just ooze fun and frivolity and whimsy, and were perfect for this layout I did for Scrapbooking from Scratch.

They're really easy to make too. Let me show you.....

Step 1: Cut a square from a scrap piece of paper. This one is approximately 2 x 2" You can choose to get all perfect and particular and measure it and cut it with your paper-trimmer, or you can choose to throw caution to the wind (aka. my style) and cut it freehand. It's very forgiving :-)

Step 2: Cut diagonally in from each corner towards the centre. But stop before you cut all the way across your paper (too easy to do let me assure you!!)

Step 3: You can't see in the picture but I've stuck a little square of double-sided tape in the centre to which all of my 'blades' will stick to. So all you do is fold one corner from every triangle in towards the middle and stick it down.

Step 4: Repeat with each corner. You'll need to secure the centre otherwise they'll start flicking back up again. A brad is the perfect solution for this.

See, I told you this was easy :-)

Step 5: You can choose to leave them just like it is in step 4 (plus a brad) or go the extra level and layer a smaller pinwheel on top before adding your brad like I've done in this example.

Either way I think they look fabulous and they added the right amount of extra texture and dimension to this layout. If you wanted to get really tricky you could pin them to your layout with the same brad so that they might even spin around like a proper pinwheel. I figure there won't be much spinning once this baby gets inside a plastic sleeve and stuck in an album :-)

Yes, that's my girl.... making the world cuter one smile at a time.

All the products in this layout (except the brads) were made with the July kit from Scrapbooking from Scratch. The papers are mainly Fancy Pants Wishful Thinking, with one My Mind's Eye paper thrown in for good measure. Beautiful Blush Foam Thickers and some ribbon.

Many thanks to Peta for having me as a Guest DT for Scrapbooking from Scratch in July. I had so much fun playing with this gorgeous kit and I really love the projects I was able to make from it. I ended up with three layouts and a mini-album which I think proves what fabulous value it is. All I've got left is about 2 inches of scrap paper and a couple of random stickers! I'd seriously think about picking up that last kit if I were you!