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

Baby's Got Blue Eyes

Another share from my scrappy closets today...... this one was made a couple of months back when the Hambly call was on. 'Bout time it made it to the light of day I thought ;-)

Some of my favourite techniques can be found here. A combination of handwriting, Silhouette-cut and traditional alpha stickers for my title. Lots of messy stitching, and splashes of paint and mist. And a must for me... some meaningful journaling.

I almost got too truthful and vulnerable here in fact. It talks about how Moodles is lucky she still has these bright big blue eyes, because at least it gives strangers something to compliment her on after they've finished heaping praise on her sister for her beautiful curly hair.

Because I sometimes just glance this moment of disappointment on people's face when they say "oh, she's got such STRAIGHT hair" as though it's almost an insult! I certainly don't want her to feel like she's less special than her sister, or that she's not as attractive because we know that'll never be the case.

In fact, it annoys me that there has to be a comparison at all. Both of my girls are unique in their appearance and their personality. And they're both beautiful beyond measure.

My Day Job

I did warn you hey? More kid art happening here!

This page was particularly relevant to share with you today. Today our world changes here in the Elphinstone household! This little Munchkin started her first day of school!! There were no tears here. It was all excitement and possibilities. I think this page captures some of her current innocence inquisitive nature.

Munchy is all about asking me how how my day was at work. And how many 'mummies did I help to have babies today' and 'what did they call them?' (and 'that's a ridiculous name!') She wants to know details too.... and I mean graphic details! She has a toy doctor kit and a doll and she asked me if I could show her how to 'cut a baby out of a mummy's tummy' as she handed me her plastic scalpel!

Which is probably why she knew just what to do when she came across this model pregnant abdomen when she visited me at work. And why she's able to draw pictures like this for me (that's me helping a lady have a baby in case you couldn't tell!)

And funny story.... when she went off to school today The Man said to her "well if you turn out to be a doctor like your Mummy then you'll be at school for the next 25 years" and she looked at him with incredulation on her face "25 years??? That's pretty much forever!"

Close Your Eyes and I'll Kiss You

So I just found an unshared layout that I made a few months ago. Time to let it loose on the world I think :-)

Just a mish-mash of scraps and left overs from my last Kreatorville Kit. Don't you just love the mixture of bright cheerful colours against the kraft and gold? It was perfect for this beach shot of us on our winter holidays.

 

I've done up a little tutorial for the double emobossing technique I used for the gold roses (above) which I may or may not share ...... still deciding! But you know I do love a bit of texture on my layouts so this was a pretty neat trick.

And I reverted back to my trusty vintage typewriter for the journaling which I haven't done in a while. I guess I've been getting lazy and just scribbling all over my layouts with my own handwriting lately. Not that I think that's a bad thing... it's like another piece of me that will be captured for future generations. But I do love the typed text too.

And there's that Cosmo Cricket splash that I've used a few times since. Hey... when something works then there's no reason why you can't keep repeating it on more pages! See my other pages here and here.... I don't think they look overly similar despite their shared elements. Do you have a go-to technique lately?

It's a wonderful world..

Moodles has well and truly entered that "why" stage. Although with her it's actually a "what's that" stage. She stares with wonderment and she points and reaches and asks in her squeaky high-pitched voice "whatsdat?" about a hundred times a day!

And as far as new and exciting places to explore is concerned, there's no better place than my parent's farm. It's full of discoveries... even simple things like this walnut tree that she's entranced by in the photos.

When I edited these photos I wanted to capture that feeling of excitement and fantasy so I added all the sparkles. Which then gave me the idea for the title ('cos I was feeling rather stuck by the time I got around to needing one at the end). That's something I tend to struggle with a lot - trying to think of inventive titles. Does anyone else get like that?

On my layout I tried to extend that same sparkly effect by sprinkling some glittery punched vellum shapes across it. I really like the end result - lots of embellishment and texture without heaps of bulk.

And I ended up adding the entire packet of Jillibean Soup label stickers because I liked the effect (and to be honest, I couldn't think of what else I might use them for since I'm most definitely NOT doing Project Life!! *LOL*)

I'm in the process of moving house again this coming week, so forgive me if it gets a little quiet around here won't you?

Soar Like Eagles

I'm sorry - but the way I'm going lately, you're going to be seeing a lot of my kids art on my scrapbook pages. I like that it's preserving another aspect of our everyday lives, and I kinda see each page now as a collaborative effort.

I'm only using pictures they drew independently. I'm not going to direct them to draw something so I can include it on a layout, that's not the point. So when I found this drawing that Munchy had stencilled the words "They will soar on wings like eagles" on I knew it would be perfect to include on a page.

I'm still getting lots of inspiration from the Pretty Little Studio sketches, and this week's was no exception.

I turned Munchy's journaling into part of my title and I augmented it slightly by adding the colours with waterpaints.

I wanted to highlight the contrast between what the future holds for these kids (one day they will soar on wings like eagles) whilst savouring the childish things they do now. And this succession of silly photos did the trick nicely!

 

Supplies: Using up some Sassafras papers, and those cute felt clouds are from my friend Aga's ScrAp this! shop.

Maybe you had to be there

I can't believe I caught this moment on camera. It doesn't look like much does it (and trust me, it wasn't)?! But this moment has recently entered our family folk-lore.

That's my brother on the left, talking to The Man on the right. We were at my cousin's wedding and the weather was just perfect for stepping outside onto the balcony for some refreshments and chit-chat whilst watching the sunset.

Now look, I don't know how the conversation came about or even how it evolved. I believe they were discussing novel solutions to the rabbit population that is plaguing our family farm. All I know is that by the end of it The Man was deeply curious to know what it would take to raise and breed goats. Goats? Huh!! That was the solution they came up with!! I believe that's a concept similar to 'lets swallow a spider to catch the fly'.......

And I wouldn't have thought too much of it if it was just a once-off conversation. But this was something that they discussed on numerous occasions over the next month. It even reached the point where The Man received a book on "Getting the Best from your Goat" for Christmas. Now this is getting ridiculous!

Possibly one day long in the future (when we may or may not be overrun with goats) I'll look back at these photos as capturing a moment in time that changed our lives forever. But my goodness..... I hope not!

One Little Word

Have you played along at Once Upon a Sketch before? Because this is a new year, filled with new and exciting challenges, and more and more fabulous prizes.

And we couldn't have picked a more fitting challenge for January. The journaling criteria is to write about something you're looking forward to in 2012. Goals or resolutions? Achievements? New beginnings? Fresh adventures? Alternatively you're free to write about why you're glad 2011 is over.

 And don't forget to combine it with this lovely sketch designed by my friend Nadia Cannizzo.

I took this opportunity to scrap a page about my One Little Word for 2012. My word "Embrace" is all about making the most of the opportunities that are coming my way this year. I took my journaling almost word for word from this blog post. That made it real easy :-)

And because my journaling ran long I ended up finishing it off on my photo.. which I quite like the look of actually! Happy mistakes!

And I dug into my stash of Imaginarium Designs chipboard for all these fabulous embellishments and titles. Lots of paint and glitter (some of my favourite things) to finish it off. I'm loving these dark and vibrant colours which is a bit of a change for me... but I'm rolling with it....

Supplies used:

Bazzill Cardstock Beetle Black	Crate Paper Random Modern	Crate Paper Random Pattern	Basic Grey Wander Turbulance
Crate Paper Random Accent Cuts	Crate Paper Random Alphabet Stickers	Crate Paper Neighbourhood eclectic buttons	Crate Paper Neighbourhood trims
Crafters Workshop Punchinella	Imaginarium Designs window with lattice	Imaginarium Designs capital letters	Imaginarium Designs numbers

InLinkz.com

Now what about those prizes I was talking about? For a start, you could win your own ginormous stash of chipboard from these wonderful people....

 

And then there's two whole paper collections from Feature Art..

Whilst the winner will recieve 60 days access to the classes at Miss Art's Papercrafting School. How exciting is that?! I see one of my fellow Aussies has a class coming up soon.. so you don't want to miss out of your chance at that!

Check out all the details about how to play along at Once Upon a Sketch.