Gold Rush

Another LO using some old photos, this time from 2005. Ben and I had taken a short holiday to Ballarat in Victoria, Australia. All I remember from the holiday was arriving a few hours before check-in opened so we found a Plaster Castle Fun house and painted up a model each (I did a snail and Ben did a dwarf), the motel we stayed at had a basketball ring in their parking lot and we went to Sovereign Hill. I'm sure we did other things but I guess that is the downside of not having started scrapbooking back then. :)

 

 

This LO was inspired by Sketch #5 for Kaisercraft's Saturday Sketch in March. They didn't put up a sketch blueprint like they normally do, so instead this is pretty much a scraplift instead. I used the Miss Match collection including their sticker sheet. The flourishes are also Kaisercraft, they used to be border flourishes attached to flowers but I didn't think they suited my style so I cut them apart. There is some Kaisercraft lace and pearls as well.

 

"Savy” by Lori Williams

 

 

Lastly, Kaisercraft is also running a bonus competition for people who take part in their sketches yet have never won. This will be my 15th LO based on a Kaisercraft Saturday Sketch so I hope I qualify (you can see them all here). All you need to do is include a photo of youself creating the LO, so here I am. I'm certainly not one of those people who keeps a tidy desk!

 

 

Currumbin Train

This was one of those LO's where I had a solid idea of what I wanted to acheive but the LO just didn't want to agree with me. :( I had it half completed last weekend before putting it aside, decided I had to finish it today as it's the last day of the month and I wanted a fresh start for the April challenges. Photo is an old one from around 2007 I think.

 

 

I used the Scrapbooking From Scratch sketch for March as the starting point. Such a nice and simple sketch, it should have turned out really well.

 

 

I loved the colour palette for the Yummy Scrap over at ScrapFriends this month. The colours I used ended up a bit more muted than the sample picture though.

Lastly, Frosted Designs has a challenge this week of scallops. I have used my scallop punch along the top edge of the page.

Cards and ATCs

I'm not sure about anyone else, but I've been looking forward to getting a lot of crafting done during this long weekend. I had my goodie bag of Scrapmatts product including some of their beautiful new releases so I sat down and created some new ATCs. It's been so long since I've had a good play with ATCs and I really enjoyed myself.

 

 

I talked to Annette about the problems I had making my steampunk inspired card and she gave me some pointers to improve so I had another go at this style. I remembered to include some lace this time and also added some bits and pieces from my stash. I'm really liking the end result.

 

I also finished up the greeting cards I made during the Scrapmatts class at the Stitches and Craft Expo last weekend. I loved the idea of threading the banner through the wire of the flower.

 

 

Today my hubby and I also went exploring to find some koala sculptures hidden around the Gold Coast. We found seven today meaning I've now found 11 out of 21. :)

 

 

Stitches and Craft Expo and Love Forever LO

The Stitches and Craft Expo was on this weekend at the Brisbane Convention and Entertainment Centre. I took the Thursday off work and went along. I took part in two classes, one to create an interactive scrapbooking LO which I still need to finish and the Scrapmatts card class. You can see Anne teaching the class below, I'm second from the left.

 

 

We had the in-laws staying with us over the weekend so I didn't get much of a time to create anything. I thought I would use this chance to show off one of the full LO's I created for the Scrapmatts product swap with Flourish with a Bling.

 

The heart frame is one I've had in my stash for ages though I did use it as a mask on a previous layout. Photo is my husband and I taken at my work Christmas party last year.

Scrapmatts products used: CB1188, CB4005, CB1146, SW006. Florish With a Bling products: Chloe pearl florish in Olive green.

 

 

The little birdie chipboard is a new release and they come in a range of sizes in the pack. So versatile and easy to use. The Love title has been painted black, then covered in Dimensional Magic and had some glitter sprinkled over it while it was still wet. The sprigs just made the perfect finishing touch to the flower cluster. You can see in the big pearl florish I left it on the acetate backing because it was going over a lot of different levels.

Cherish Painters Tray

I have had one of the beautiful Scrapmatts painter's trays in my stash for months now but back in February I woke up one morning inspired as to what I wanted to create with it. I thought it would look great teamed with this photo of my husband's maternal grandparents and done in a beach theme.

 

 

You can see in the detail shot below the little beach scene I created with some sand and raffia. It also shows the crackled paint effect on the frame as well as some more of the great Scrapmatts chipboard I've included. I have done a tutorial on the Scrapmatts blog if you want more details or to see how I made it.

Road Trip

This road trip had so much excitement I knew I was going to have to scrapbook it! The journalling is actually quite long, so I typed it up and printed it onto a hand-made tag to fit it all in. The papers are quite old so I tried to make the page a but more current using new embellishment trends like the flair button, chevron masking and washi tape. Chipboard is by my favourite company, Scrapmatts.

 

 

Don't forget, the current challenge over at Unstampabelles is to use quilling in your project. Doesn't matter if you do layouts, cards, ATCs or any other paper project, you can enter them all. My snowflake was created following a tutorial by Reese Dixon. You can kind of see that I've had to hand roll of my shapes without theuse of a quilling tool and they are a bit more square than perfectly round. :(

 

This LO was also inspired by the current sketch challenge over it Scrap Friends.

 

 

The current challenge over at Inkido is The Great Outdoors. Road trips have to be done outdoors (unless it's entirely in a tunnel I guess) so I thought this LO would be suitable.  

Card and an ATC

Scrapmatts have requested all their DT members create a card to be added to their display for shows and expos. I had just seen Annette's stunning card, Love Wishes and Dreams, and was inspired to try a similar style. Mine is no where near as cool as hers but it was a lot of fun the play with all the mists.

 

 

I also whipped up a quick ATC just because it's been so long since I've done one. Scrapmatts chipboard for the trees too.

 

 

Family Support

Tried a bit of a different style for me with this one, really focused on building up layers in the background. I like the overall effect. Photo is from my Graduation day. My mum and dad were living in China at the time so they couldn't attend however they paid for my brother and sister to fly to the Gold Coast to support me.

 

 

I purchased some of the CB5021 Nested Shapes 07 from Scrapmatts which were these star shapes. I picked a beautiful metallic gold finish on mine but if you turn them over you still have a lovely natural colour. The fabric tag in the close up below if actually taken from the size tag of my husband's classic fit jeans. :)

 

This LO was inspired by the fantastic colour scheme challenge #10 over at ScrapFriends this month. I didn't use too much of the brown but everything else got a fair bit of play. I think I was lucky to have a photo that matched the colour scheme so well.

 

 

Lastly, I was also inspired by the March sketch over at The Scrapbook Shop however I rotated it clockwise.

 

Bar Hop!

This LO is such a mish-mash of different techniques which also made it a lot of fun to create.  I've used eyelets to attach my vellum - when was the last time you dug into your eyelet stash? :) The kit I used came with sequins so I've spread some sequins around which I've never done before. I've also used quilling to create some cloud embellishments. I was also happy to finally use this photo, which I've had printed and sitting on my desk for around a year.

 

 

The quilled clouds are my DT inspiration for the March Unstampabelles challenge. I just used left over printer paper to create these since I've never done quilling before so had no tools. Be sure to check out the blog to see the rest of the DT's work, they have created some fantastic examples to inspire you. There is a Kazzaz prize pack up for grabs this month.

 

My sketch inspiration for this LO comes from the March challenge at Paper Stories. I have also used their Pop Art kit which I purchased a month or so ago. I just loved the colours in the papers. How stunning is the washi tape I've used in this LO? It is also from their store and matched the papers perfectly.

 

 

Lastly, the current challenge over at Frosted Designs is to use chevrons. I've used chevron washi tape on my chipboard banners. These are Scrapmatts products which I've just painted white before carefully applying the washi tape.