Happy Earth Day

I'm a big fan of using recycled products in my scrapbooking but more commonly I upcycle things that would otherwise get thrown away. My husband once said to me (as I was discussing my latest paper purchases with him...... silly mistake) "what happened to using scraps in your scrapbooking?"

I double-think anything that is going in the recycling bin. And by far the most useful things are the ones we so easily throw away all the time........ food packaging! As in the cardboard variety. I'm forever harvesting the cardboard from cereal boxes and the like. And what do I use it for? Mainly as the base for my mini-albums. Once it's covered in paint or paper no one can tell!

I'm in the process of making this one. But I've finished the covers at least, and covered all the pages and stuck in the photos. I just have to add the rest of the journalling and embellishments etc.

And yes, all the pages are made from food packaging cardboard.

Managed to incorporate a tiny little mini banner across the title :) They still make me happy. So does my typewritten journalling. Very much in love with the typewriter at the moment <3

And another good thing about making this mini is that it has successfully used up nearly every last scrap of my Studio Calico and Cosmo Cricket Material Girl papers. That's a good thing because I haven't wasted any, but more than that........ surely it means I'm justified in going shopping again right?!

The rest will follow.

Just as soon as I've finished it.

:)

Flat Out - AKA Inspired by Digital

I was recently and immediately inspired by this layout by Jan (or The Queen of Quirk) which I spied on the Jessica Sprague website.
It is of course, a digital layout that she made with her very own kit, which you can buy if you're into that sort of thing.
I haven't touched digital scrapbooking, and although there are times when I'm tempted too, I really don't think it's for me. I appreciate how difficult it is, and all the design that still has to go into it, but it just doesn't appeal to my need to get my hands dirty and create something.
However, I am finding that I am commonly drawn to digital layouts as a source of inspiration for turning them into real live paper ones. And so I created this..


The main problem with turning digital layouts into paper layouts is there's commonly no dimension to them. What I mean by that is it's easy to fall into the trap of keeping them flat. There's no layers, no bulk, no foam tape, no thickness. And I'm such a fan of the scrapbook page you literally have to stuff into your album because it's too thick! That's why I usually take a 'dimension' shot of my scrapbook pages when I share them with you, so you too can appreciate the bulk of the page. I think it makes you want to reach out and touch it.

Well here's the 'dimension' shot on this one......

A bit pathetic hey?

And I also fall into that other common trap of not knowing when to stop. I love the look of minimilist pages when I see other people do them. But whenever I try I have to fight the urge to keep adding things :) I didn't win the battle this time either, I couldn't leave well enough alone and I added that heart bunting running across the page. Now I can't remove it because I stitched it in!

Oh well, another lesson learnt.

Last few days to enter the giveaway.

One more

ETA - better photos..... well, maybe not better - perhaps more interesting?

Just had time to do one more quick challenge from Shimelle's cybercrop party.

Challenge - Scrap your neighbourhood with Studio Calico


Why break the pattern of my cybercrop weekend? Meaning, of course my mum didn't have any Studio Calico. And I would have to say that with all the scrapping I've been doing with my own supply of SC I must be nearly out of it too. So I used Kaisercraft instead (which is something mum has a lot of given she can get it at wholesale price!)

This is the story of what some friends did to Dad's shop for his 60th birthday last year. Not only did they put that giant sign on it but all the inside of the shop was filled to capacity with balloons. As in, you had to burst balloons to be able to walk inside! Awesome practical joke, and a good photo to fit the theme of scrapping about things in your neighbourhood.

Cybercrop Weekend

ETA - better photos of the layouts and cards. I've kept them in their natural environment, leaving the background in the photos to give you a sneak peak into the antique wonderland which is my parents house :)

It's been a bit of a cybercrop party weekend it seems, with at least two forums that I know about throwing out challenges all weekend. And here I've been, away from home (and my scrapbook supplies) for my sisters baby shower.

But lucky for me my mum (who does absolutely no scrapbooking at all) has a craft room full of scrapbook supplies that would rival my own. Seriously! So I was able to quickly shuffle some paper around and play along with a few of the challenges that Shimelle was posting every 2 hours! However, what I didn't have was access to was a digital camera I knew how to use, or photoshop which I find pretty essential these days. But since these projects have to be posted today, you'll have to put up with the blurry, dark, uncropped version until I can get home and fix them all up for you.

(I also can't get Blogger to cooperate with me, so these following challenges aren't going to be in thier proper order - sorry)

Challenge 1 - Scrapping Cupcakes

Of course, it's obvious that Shimelle loves cupcakes, but it's not an element that I have scrapped... well.... ever - but this quick card was so much fun!! I freehand cut the shapes, and folded up the blue paper to resemble the cupcake wrapper, and that was pretty much it. Fun and easy and looks pretty cute :)

Challenge (I lost count) - Your favourite layout

This is my latest favourite layout I guess (it's a bit hard to pick just one isn't it?) And although I'm not sure I would say this is my best layout, it does hold sentimental value because it's got all the elements on it that I currently love such as bunting, paint, handwriting, glimmermist, border-punch, Jillibean's corrugated alphas and some good old photoshop action. And it's what won me a Guest DT spot at The Creative Type which was a huge privledge for me.

Challenge 4 - Scrapping with American Crafts

Didn't have to use American Crafts (thank goodness, because my mum only has a very limited supply of that. I think I found two pages) But simply had to make a layout using a background of four patterned paper sqaures.

So mine has 2 sqaures of Kaisercraft, 1 GCD Studios and 1 Fancy Pants as background squares. Then used mostly Basic Grey embellishments. What a mish-mash!!

And yep - that really is a baby picture of me. Wasn't I cute?!

Challenge 7 - Scrapping with Cosmo Cricket

Again, I'm very lucky we didn't have to use Cosmo Cricket because I couldn't find any of that at mum's, even though it's one of my most favourite manufacturer's ever!!

This was actually a scraplift challenge, and Shimelle posted no less than four layouts to choose from to lift. I ended up going with the last one and used her row of circle embellishments as the basis for this card. Mum was in need of a sympathy card, so that's what this became.

Challenge 2 - Scrapping with woodgrain

Was not actually about scrapping with woodgrain at all (!) but about the super-awesome layout she posted that we were to use as a sketch to base our own layout on. There were (imaginary) bonus points for using woodgrain, but unfortunately that was not something readily available in my mum's stash..... unlike my own.....

Big picture, taking up about half the page. A bit of handwritten journalling, and a long title with mixed alphas were the essence of the sketch. This is a picture of the farmhouse I grew up in, and where I currently am. Still love the feeling of 'coming home' even though I haven't lived here for 11 years and have since gotton married and had two children and lived in about 5 different places since then.

Challenge 3 - Scrapping with Bunting

Well, I don't need to tell you that this is one of my staple embellishments these days. Loving the bunting craze. Just loving it!

So I just quickly made up this cute little card. Covered it with bunting. And called it a day!

Citrus Fresh

I had a number of foam eggs left over from this Easter project and I was wondering what to do with them. I mean, an egg shape is fairly limiting I think. I could keep them for next Easter, or do a spring-themed creation of some sort (except of course, it's now Autumn in Australia). Then I came up with a better idea.....


Turn them into citrus fruits of course!!! It was so obvious!! (No, I'm joking really!)

What really happened was that I came across this challenge blog called Etsy Inspired Challenges, where the idea is to create something based on one of the products that a featured Etsy seller makes and sells in their shop. For Challenge #83 the featured shop is The Mouse Market. They specialise in handmade doll-house miniatures and collectible jewellery with a focus on sweet treats that are absolutely adorable! So upon browsing through their many products I was inspired by their bright lemon and lime earrings.


Which obviously inspired my own citrus creation above. I simply cut my foam eggs in half and painted them with acrylic paints. Easy peasy. So then I took it a step further and made this card too.


Which is actually for my sister's baby shower this weekend. I know, I know, it's not very 'babyish' but if only you knew that they called their little in-utero bundle "Buttons" then you would understand what prompted me to make this!!


I've got greater plans for my citrus fruits don't you worry. I'm thinking they'll be turned into part of a centrepiece for a table arrangement or something similar. Stay tuned!

101

Today marks my 101st blog post!
I never would have thought I would be such an avid blogger when I started this back in (only) November. But I guess it helps that I'm still a stay-at-home-mum with time on my hands :)

Anyway....

I just realised how many layouts are sitting in my "Unshared" folder. This is where I put all the photos of my layouts until I post them here on the blog. Then they get moved to my "For Flikr" folder, and once I've done that they eventually get filed away in their proper locations.

So I better share some hey?

Here's two layouts that I made (almost) exclusively with my February Kreatorville kit.



Don't you just love Keandra's handmade titles? She does a unique title and embellishment in every kit - and you get to choose what you want! Doesn't that alone want to make you sign up for the kit? I know that's what sold me! But even if you just want some titles, she's more than happy to take custom orders - you can get them here.



This was the embellishment I ordered for my February kit - gorgeous right?



If you go over to the Kreatorville sight, sign up to be a follower and leave a comment on this blog post you can be in the running to win some very yummy Buzz and Bloom products. But please put my name down as the person who referred you!!



Click on the pictures to get a larger view of them. That will help you read the journalling if you're wondering why I titled this layout "Drool Angel"!!

I also made a third layout, but I can't share that with you yet. It's destined for a super secret, super exciting, super amazing Guest DT spot in the future! Hurray :)

Don't forget my own giveaway happening here.

Retro girl

Sorry for my unusual absence the last few days. Over the weekend our church held it's annual conference and both myself, but especially my husband are quite involved in the running of it which meant that when I wasn't doing stuff myself I was looking after the kids solo and when I wasn't doing that I was trying to catch up on sleep!

But here's a quick share of a page I did a little while ago. At the time I was getting quite a few boxes of scrappy goodness delivered to my house and so I challenged myself to make a layout using only products that I received in my latest box, or that were lying out on the desk already. Which to be honest isn't necessarily a hard challenge some days if you look at the state of my desk - most of the time it's piled pretty high with supplies.



Not quite sure about the colour scheme going on here, especially that acrylic lava lamp from Buzz and Bloom - but it suited the theme of my layout perfectly and so I just thought to myself....

1. I'm not sure that I'll ever use it otherwise (it came in one of my Kreatorville Kraft kits) and
2. "who cares?" :)
   

Although I share most of my layouts here on the blog, I'd like to create more from the perspective that no one is going to see it. That way I'm creating just for pure delight of it rather than trying to be something that I'm not. And when I give up my inhibitions of thinking "but it doesn't match" or "it's not the latest product" and the other thoughts that limit me then maybe I'll reach a new place in my 'art'. Gained a new perspective on this at the conference from an awesome session I went to on Art vs. The Church given by my amazingly talented friend Ben. Many more thoughts to share on this at a later stage perhaps.

So I embrace the 'failures' as a learning tool, but I also especially embrace the thought that I've used up a (small) portion of my stash because I've gone beyond the thought of "saving those special products for a special layout" to "the more I use up the more I can buy"!!

The April giveaway of much goodness is still happening here - go ahead and check it out.

She is such a poser

I stumbled across a challenge blog mysteriously called BASB - anyone know what it stands for? Well that sucked me in straight away - I love a good mystery!
And then they've got a great (and pretty easy) challenge on at the moment which is simply to scrap a layout using only your favourite manufacturer. Well, the hard part of this challenge for me is working out who is my favourite :)

After much deliberation I ended up going with Sassafras Lass - they're easily in my top 3 anyway! I've just picked up some of those banner stickers (you all know my current banner obsession) and they need to be used! I promptly proclaimed these to be the best product coming out of CHA when I saw them.



So I put together this quick layout using only Sass, which was pretty easy really given I've only used one piece of paper, one journalling spot, and one banner!! And sure, I've got plenty more Sass products, but I wanted to just keep this one pretty simple.



My sister snapped these pictures in the summer holidays when we were visiting them. It was such a hot day, so No.1 Girl decided to strip off her clothes and ran under the sprinkler. Except they don't have a sprinkler (water restrictions and all that) so they put on the overhead mister in the fernery. It was like gentle rain! No.1 Girl had so much fun, and she just loves the camera so we came away with these pictures of her that look just like she's doing sexy poses for a magazine! I do not know where she learnt to do that!!! I think it was pure fluke actually - I don't think she was posing at all, I think she's actually just saying 'brrr, this water is cold!' But still funny :)

Easter Wrap-Up

Things I learnt over the Easter holiday....



Easter toys that require immersion in water for 7 days are fun..... but difficult to transport once you've started the process








Hiding 97 chocolate eggs makes a great treasure hunt...... but you'll never find them all again







When your brother tells your 3 year old to "eat so much chocolate it makes you sick"....... she will






Having 2 kids seems to mean getting twice the amount of chocolate ..... even if one of them can't eat it yet.






Always ALWAYS check inside the over before you turn it on if your daughter likes to play hide and seek with meltable pantry items.



In other news, I got published here and here in April's ScrapStreet magazine. Happy dance :)



Go ahead and click on the picture of this month's magazine cover. It should take you to the contents page.

Don't forget to enter this.

And just so I can leave you with something scrappy related.... here's a little peak for you.

I'm working on next month's From Screen 2 Scrap challenge and I've already done 2 different layouts, and I'm still not entirely happy with them, so might have to try for a third. I've never done that before.




Not that you can see very much from these little snippets - but do you prefer one over the other?

Still plenty of time to enter this month's challenge using the Little Miss Sunshine movie poster as inspiration.

Alphanumeric heartbreak

This is the current challenge over at Creative Prompts 4 u. You need to take the following image:



and create a layout or card using it as your inspiration.

I haven't played along with this challenge blog before but I was immediately struck by the image and quickly wrote it down to think about what I could do with it.

That was yesterday.

Today I made this card for the engagement party we've got on the weekend.



I used a digital download from Karenika which were these gorgeous heart shaped stamps that you can find here. She posts a new (and free!) digital download every week.
I simply printed it off onto some Sassafras Lass Apple Jack papers from the wee bundle, cut it out and layered it up :)



Giveaway here.

April Candy Showers

It never rains but it pours.
And it's currently pouring sweet blog candy for one of my lucky readers.

I've put together a BUNCH of stuff I've collected / found / purchased that would be perfect for making a mixed media album or art journal with.
There are some true and genuine vintage findings thrown in with some very good reproductions, alterable items, scrapbooking goodness, metal and fabric and paper embellishments, ribbons and buttons and more all packaged together for you in a handmade applique bag.



There's so much in this candy I needed to take 2 pictures to show it all to you :)



Candy Ingredients:

• 1 x vintage music sheet
• 2 x pieces of satin (gold and pewter)
  
• 1 x length of satin ribbon
• 8 x paper doilies
• 2 x lace doilies
• 14 x vintage buttons
• 2 x vintage coins
• handful of vintage beads
  
• 6 x metal charms
• 7 x felt birds (Maya Road)
• 10 x assorted tags (journalling tags, clothing tags etc)
• 3 x glittered paper die cuts
• bunch of handmade paper scraps
• 1 x length of silver ball chain
• 1 x length of black lace trim
• 1 x length of black mesh trim
• 2 x lengths of sequin waste (great for stencilling)
• 1 x packet of metal flower brads
  
• 1 x packet of sequin flowers
• 1 x packet of brown rub-ons (Delish Designs)
• 1 x chipboard embellishment (Buzz n' Bloom)
• 5 x square cards to use as album base
• 1 x grey applique felt bag handmade by yours truly :)
  

Phew!

Here's some ideas for what I was thinking you could make with it.....
Take the 5 cards and cover with music paper. Add some background texture by using the sequin mesh as a stencil and painting in random spots.
Punch holes in the side of the cards and tie them together with the ribbon.
Use the Buzz n' Bloom chipboard token on your cover as your title (it says 'enjoy the journey').
Cut the paper doilies in half and add them to the edges of your page.
Add the Delish Designs rubons to the tags for instant journalling.
Make some flowers out of the satin scraps and add brad or buttons or charms to the centre of them.

What you have to do to win....
1. Leave a comment telling me what you would like to see in further blog candy giveaways. More 'kits' like this? Do you like the vintage goodies or do you prefer more traditional scrapbook products? Themed giveaways such as girl, baby, wedding etc? Particular scrapping products or brands? Whatever you would like to see tell me!!

2. Blog / facebook / tweet / whatever, just let other people know about this giveaway. Then leave me another comments with a link for each one you did for another entry into the giveaway.

3. Becoming a new follower earns you another entry - just leave a comment and let me know.

4. All my faithful followers who would like another entry into the giveaway - add another comment :)

Giveaway ends 23d April

Easter Sunday

Guess who learnt a new trick just in time to show off to all the extended family over Easter?



Not only did she learn to roll from her front to back, but the very next day she taught herself to roll from back to front. Clever little girl :)



Now she's our rolly polly princess, and we can't keep her still when we need to!



Sometimes she can't quite do it and it frustrates her to tears :)

Happy Easter from my family to yours.

xx
xxxxx
xx

Oh Easter tree

Well why not?
If you have a Christmas tree then why not an Easter tree? After all, surely a tree covered in eggs symbolises new life better than chocolate bunnies?!

So this is what I did....

1. Foam eggs, collaged paper, ribbon and bling = egg decoration



2. Branches cut from our garden, a bit of gesso, and a quick spray of laquer to make it shiny = the tree



3. Stick it in a vase = an Easter tree!!!



4. Decided it wasn't finished and made this little fella to stick in the bottom.

Well actually, what I really wanted was a few of these little bunnies to put around the bottom. Hopping and playing and loving thier Easter tree.

But I ran out of time.
Even though they only took 10 mins to make :)



I followed this tutorial from Elsie Marley to make the bunny out of an old little baby sock.

A bit cute hey?

No.1 girl thought so anyway. She promptly took the bunny out and insisted on taking with us on our holiday. She must have played with it in the back seat for about at hour, keeping herself amused.

10mins of creating very well spent I say!



PS. This is what was in the vase before the Easter tree made it's appearance in my imagination and then took form.

My Little Miss Sunshine

The new prompt is up at From Screen 2 Scrap and it's a bright, colourful and happy inspiration piece we've got to work with this month.



The rules are pretty simple. Just create something (doesn't have to be a layout, and if you do a layout it can be digital or traditional) based on this movie poster for Little Miss Sunshine.
And then, if you want to increase your chances of winning then think about incorporating any or all of the optional criteria.

1) Must use yellow on the page, either the title, base cardstock or photo matt = 1 bonus point
2) Must use as part of your title 'Little Miss'....... or 'Little Master'....... Example: Little Miss Happy. Little Master Grumpy or Lille Miss Megan or Little Master Connor = 1 bonus point
3) **Movie Diva Demand** for an extra 3 bonus points.... give me either a car, truck, train or van somewhere on the page



I am really hoping that I can inspire more of my followers to have a go at the challenges in 2010. You don't have to be the best at scrapbooking or on a Design Team, I just want you have a go! There is always a Random Draw prize and Guest DT Raks and 'Golden Globe" prize too so there are lots of prizes for everyone to share :)



When I had finished my layout and my husband saw it his first reaction was "it's a bit flat isn't it?" So I quickly fluffed up the scallops on the border "what do you mean?" I say to him. "Well usually you have so many layers that each layout is up to here" he says, waving his arm at chest level. Hhhmmm, it seems I have fallen short of expectations - and I didn't even think I had a recognisable style! I do love my pop-dots though. So that's when I added the little butterfly embellishment on the journalling for a tiny bit more dimension. It was totally punched out of the literal scraps on my desk (that's why it doesn't coordinate, and there is glitter on the pink paper where Girl No.1 had been playing!) Just a little insight for you all!



I used the poster like a sketch, so included a row of square photos across the top, the title beneath them, and then a cluster of embellishments in the bottom corner. I planned to have the yellow background and the title with "little miss" but didn't think I was going to be able to include a car. However, I was using some of my lovely Studio Calico products and noticed at the last moment that one of the stickers in the pack had an old vintage car on it - so that did the trick!

So I hope to see some of you playing along this month - and let Shazza know I sent you!