About a Girl

November 15th saw a new challenge go up at "Once Upon a Sketch"

The trick is to incorporate our journaling criteria with our beautiful sketch, which is 'to journal about what is the best thing about being a woman'. Is being a mum? Is the shopping?! Make up and pretty clothes?

When I sat down to do my page for it I realised that I didn't have any photos of myself printed out, but lucky for me the criteria says that I can alternatively do my page about any of the special females in my life, and I sure have plenty of photos of my precious girls :-)

So I delved into my generous stash of Imaginarium Designs chipboard and found some perfect pieces such as the delicate butterfly, and the word 'girl' which was part of a larger title which read "Our little girl"

And along with an old Studio Calico kit I managed to quickly put this layout together about how much of a girly-girl Munchy is. She's very into playing dress-ups and tea-parties and dancing and what-not. Certainly much more than I ever was (or am!)

If you want to play along with this challenge there is still heaps of time left, and there's some plenty good prizes on offer such as your own haul of Imaginarium Designs chipboard.......

A fabulous bright and whimsical embellishment pack from our sponsor and Guest Designer Leeann Pearce from her Chip Chop Shop......

or a collection of Basic Grey "Jovial" products just in time for Christmas....

You can catch all the details about the challenge over on the Once Upon a Sketch blog here. Happy scrapping!

Daily Juice

Have I mentioned before (once or twice or 200 or so) how awesome it is that we have DAILY challenges happening over at Scrapz.biz? You'll never be without inspiration to get scrapping if you join us over there!

However, I am just a little behind in sharing some of my pages here on my blog though, so how about I catch up a bit?

First up is my 'Scrap Write Now' challenge which is all about focusing on the journalling, or the story behind the photos. The theme is "Pretty Wild" and so I challenge you to scrap about something 'wild' you or your kids (or whoever!) did once.

This is my page about a night out on the town in the heart of Melbourne. Fun times! Read all about it, and the rest of the challenge details right here.

Supplies List: 

InLinkz.com

Before that though was last months 'Scrap it Blind' challenge where I gave a set of instructions on how to put a page together but without you seeing my finished product. Until now.......

I kept the instructions fairly simple to follow along (because it actually gets quite hard to follow written instructions alone sometimes!) but the end result is still something special.

For a start I was able to add so much detail and texture to my page just with these Prima canvas shapes. I went to town with my Glimmermists - using them just like waterpaints to paint and shade these flowers. So effective don't you think?

And a new favourite of mine - the handcut title! Love the look of these for adding a shabby and handmade touch. And it means I can customise it to fit my space perfectly.

Supplies List:

InLinkz.com

And lastly, here's a sneak peek into my challenge that was revealed this week. It's for 'Fetch a Sketch' which means you need to follow this sketch I designed.....

and add some "splashes" to your page (ie. paint, mist,water photos....) to keep with the theme of "Wet 'n' Wild". Once again I splashed around some Glimmermist, added some handcut waves and plenty more. You can see my whole page, and get all the details on the challenge here.

Phew! That might do for now hey? Plenty to keep you busy for a little while :-)

Now She's 5

It's birthday season around here - first Munchy, now me (tomorrow..... and it's a big one.... shhhhh!!!) and then Moodles in another week or so.

This was one of those layouts that I had been imagining in my head for the longest time and then when it actually came to translating it to paper it just.... well...... didn't!! *LOL*

Oh well! The birthday essence is still there - with the colourful flags and ephemera and misting/splattering fun. And the idea of capturing a moment in time is still there. I did a mini-interview with Munchy about all her favourite things right at the moment and tried to include as many of them as possible in my journaling.

I even had the courage to let her write her own name up in the corner on my almost finished layout. It went a bit crooked hey? But adds to the charm I think :-)

So there's a few birthday celebrations going on around here and I might not have a chance to get near the computer for a few days for which I apologise in advance. But don't worry because I've been scrapping up a storm lately and have quite the backlog of projects to share when I get back!

News Flash

Munchy turned 5 recently. I think she's rather clever - she knows all her letters and numbers, and can write her own name. But she's determined to do more before school starts next year. She's actually requested that we help her learn to read and write!

And when I suggested to her the concept of making some flash cards to help her do this, she was SUPER-excited! I mean, the idea of mixing patterned paper and embellishments with learning to read is mighty attractive right?!

So whilst she was out one day I got out some old kits and leftover scraps of paper and set to work making some quick and easy (and oh-so-pretty) flashcards.

Knowing that they were going to be handled a bit (I hope!) I was afraid all those letter stickers might fall off, so I ran the whole bunch through my sewing machine to keep them in place. Then I realised I had ended up with flash-card-bunting and strung it up to surprise her when she came home!

After squealing with delight and promptly ripping the whole thing down we cut it apart again and started practicing her words. Perfect solution :-)

In other fabulous news: the new sketch is up at Once Upon a Sketch, and this time the journaling criteria is a little easier! *LOL* You need to journal at least 2 sentences on when you started scrapping and why?

And the prizes are just fabulous (as always!!). Apart from gaining a spot as a Guest Designer in an upcoming challenge you can also win this amazing October kit from our sponsor Swirlydoos kit club.

We are super lucky to have Leeann Pearce as our Guest Designer this month (another one of my longstanding scrappy crushes!!) and she's offered up this exciting embellishment pack for a lucky winner from her Chip Chop Shop.

AND..... another lucky winner will receive this entire Ladies and Gents collection by Webster's Pages.
There's plenty of time to enter, so go over to Once Upon a Sketch and check out all the details :-)

The Wonder Years

Little Moodles is in the midst of a growth spurt. Physically of course .... she's almost changing right before our eyes. But she's growing emotionally as well.

We've challenged her recently with a few things. Firstly with taking away her dummy. That one was a little hard! Just like with Munchy, we simply threw away her dummy one morning so she had to go cold-turkey. The first night was pretty tough work.

After crying for more than two hours she finally went to sleep. But not before Munchy had her own breakdown and begged us to give it back to her :-( But the next night was easier... and it only got better from there.

Once she conquered that challenge, the next step was to take away her cot sides so now she effectively sleeps in a bed. After only one night-time wander around the house she settled down and probably goes to bed easier now than before.

I'm so proud of my growing girl. Facing life head-on and overcoming :-)