Baby Shower - Scrapmatts DT

It looks like my plan of scrapbooking more this year has not gotten off to a great start given my first upload for the year is taking place on the 16th. I have however managed to create two new layouts for the January Scrapmatts DT work. Our first theme was 'New Beginings'. I've chosen to scrap about my friend's baby shower prior to the birth of her son. It was a fun afternoon and the first baby shower I had ever been to.

Keeping in line with my habit of scrapping events very much out of chronological order, this even occurred back in June 2012. I have already scrapped quite a few pages of her beautiful baby, who has already turned one!

I have used a mixture of Scrapmatts chipboard here including CB3007 Tags 03, CB1141 Tea Set 01 and CB4060 Ornate Frames 17.

Scrapmatts is sponsoring Stuck?! Sketches this month, so I thought I'd incorporate their sketch into my piece. It's been quite a while since I've played along over there. Come and join me if you want a chance to win some great Scrapmatts pieces. As you can see, I've rotated it 90 degrees to better suit my photos.

 

 Frosted Designs is also sponsoring over at Stuck?! so you can kill two birds with one stone if you include some paint/ink/mists in your LO. I have some paint applied through a stencil in the background which you can see in the close ups.

2013 Advent Calender - UnstampaBelles DT

Ben and I used to buy advent calendars from the supermarket when we first moved in together. Back in 2010 though I decided I wanted to have a more lasting calendar which we could fill with whatever lollies we wanted so I grabbed a Kaisercraft kit and set to work, you can see the end result here. Recently I started to feel like committing to another in-depth project and remembered how much fun it was to create the calendar. I thought I might be able to showcase some new techniques and skills I had picked up in the last three years so decided to buy another kit and create a second calendar.

I went with a silver/white/blue theme this time around rather than more traditional red/green/gold. Painting all the MDF pieces really added to the construction time, project took me two weekends this time around. Most of the embellishment chipboard is from Scrapmatts. Regular blog-followers will know how much I love their products and their Christmas designs are always my favourites. I've used a mixture of old designs and new ones, like the chipboard tree which I just had to pick up as soon as I saw it.

This is also my DT piece for UnstampaBelles this month, our theme is Christmas so I'm really hoping to see lots of entries this month. This will be most last month on their DT as I've decided not to renew my position. The owner, Merry, is also stepping down by one of the other DT members will be stepping up continue running the challenges.

Prize for December Challenge includes:

Laser cut cards and card fronts - Christmas Designs

Card front designs pre-holed ready for stitching.

Card front designs with the stitching pattern printed on the card.

Christmas stickers.

3 types of star brads

Christmas foil shapes

Four pads of Sticky Notes

I am also entering the calendar into two more challenges:

Inkido's December challenge is to use stars and/or snowflakes. I've used multiples of both in this project.

Frosted Designs have a 'Pick 11' challenge running at the moment. From their list of things I have used Stars and Buttons.

Timeless Love - Scrapmatts DT

The second design team brief of November was 'Gift Giving', I chose to create a present for my Nana. The Scrapmatts painters trays make fantastic gifts or keep them for your own home decoration. This tray features photos from my Nana and Pa's wedding day and a photo of the two of them taken a couple of years ago.

 

The green vine is from one of my favourite packs so I'm a little bit sad that I have now used it all up. I also used up some bits and pieces from various class kits I have accumulated. I always used to do a Scrapmatts class whenever I went to a craft show and they always give very generous packs so you have enough chipboard to make some extra cards when you get home.

Here is a close up to show of the crackle finish of the frame and light gloss on the title pieces.

Scrapmatts pieces used: CB2020 Vines 01; CB1134 Assorted Words 01; CB1199 Scrap Words 07; CB7006 Printer's Tray 02.

Frosted Designs has their fortnightly challenge as 'Give a Gift!' so I thought I'd enter this there too.

Cherish Forever - RIP Pa

So back on 7 October 2013 I wrote about some issues in real life which had kept me quiet on the blogging front. My grandpa passed away on Tuesday 24 September 2013. He was first diagnosed with prostate cancer back in 2003, treatment was successful and life moved on. However, in 2008 tests showed the cancer had returned and over time, despite multiple treatments, the cancer spread to other parts of his body. In late 2012 it was deemed terminal and it was just a waiting game since then. Towards the end he was in a lot of pain almost constantly so whilst his passing is gut-wrenching there is also a sense of relief.

 

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These photos are two of my favourites from my wedding in 2011. I had held on to them for a special layout and decided they would be perfect for a tribute page. There is no journalling because the pain is still too raw to put into word but I might add some later.

I used the Scrapfriends sketch for October as the inspiration for this layout. The sketch was so fantastic and full of details that I kept to it almost exactly other than to rotate it to the right and remove one of the photos.

Frosted Designs have a fortnightly challenge of kraft, flair and chipboard at the moment, so I'm also entering this LO into their competition.

Love a Good Lazy Weekend - Once Upon a Sketch LO

Love a good lazy weekend is the title of this LO and what I got to enjoy this weekend! For the past three months I have had the busiest weekend plans in my life and it was starting to wear me down. We were meant to head out for a BBQ with friends this Sunday but unfortunately the host got sick so we had to cancel. It did free up this weekend though, hence why I managed to create two LOs and finish off one from the expo.

 

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I popped by Spotlight this weekend too and picked up a paper pad of 5th and Frolic by American Crafts. The flowers were just calling out for fussy cutting and it was the perfect way to de-stress. I've worked to build up the layers and finished it all off with a Eloise flourish from Flourish With a Bling.

 

This LO was inspired by the Once Upon A... Sketch challenge for this month. The theme was 'What's your guilty please?' My journalling is on a tag being the photo and talks about how Ben and I will sleep in, relax on the lounge and have breakfast together (hence the photo of the matching tea cups) around 11am when we get a lazy weekend. Here is the sketch:

 

 

It's also pink with spots so fits the criteria for The Lollipop Ladies for this fortnight.

 

 

Lastly, Frosted Designs is also having a polka dot challenge. I've got two sheets of patterned paper with polka dots on it.

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.

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.

Setting The Table

My mother-in-law, Helen, always creates the most amazing Christmas table spreads each year. In Australia we take a very relaxed approach to Christmas, probably due to the fact for us it's in the middle of summer and could be boiling hot. Before I started dating Ben most of my Christmas lunches/dinners were BBQ's. Ben's family has European heritage though and they do a massive Christmas spread with two or three different roasts, a whole array of hot vegetables, dumplings and so on. I am in awe of the effort Helen and her family go to every year and wanted to capture that in a LO.

 

 

The papers are Kaisercraft and I was lucky enough to win then during one of Nadia Cannizzo's giveaways. I wouldn't normally use this range as it was a bit traditionals and flowerly for my liking but I have ended up loving this LO so thanks very much to Nadia. All the paper elements on the LO have been hand-cut by me. The chipboard is from Scrapmatts. I had purchased the baubles pre-painted red and the leaves pre-painted green so didn't even have to alter them other than to put some backing paper behind the baubles.

 

 

This is my final design team submission for The Lollipop Ladies as my term ends at the end of the year. The inspiration sweet for this fortnight was a gingerbread house. It made me think of food/decorations/home, hence the theme of my LO. The added challenge was Christmas which is pretty easy to incorporate. :) $10 voucher and guest DT spot are up for grabs so please stop on by and show us what you were inspired to create.

 

 

I have used the fantastic ScrapFriends Sketch Challenge #8 as my inspiration for this LO. If you are ever looking for a sketch to inspire you then this is where you need to go. Besides monthly sketch competitions there are also additional sketches uploaded and they all look amazing. I think I stayed pretty close to the design this time.

 

 

 

Finally, Frosted Designs is running a twelve days of Christmas competition and Day 6 required six strips of washi tape. Mine are a little bit hidden, but there are six in there (three are in the close up above)

 

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and best wishes for the new year!!

 

Christmas Tags

Just wanted to share a couple of quick Christmas tags I made for presents. I made these at my mum's house and she has quite a few different supplies to me, which is sometimes good and sometimes frustrating.

 

 

Above is three strips of washing tape with lots of sparklets. This is for Frosted Designs 12 days of Christmas #7 which needed seven sparkling snowflakes.

 

This one was for #2 which needed two stamps.

 

This one was for day #3 which needed three inks/mists/paints. I initially tried three mists but didn't like the way her brand dried so went over it with three different Distress inks.

I think it's safe to say tags are not my area of experience. :)

The Hats

I love scrapping Christmas photos all year round so it's only natural that I would do a whole heap of Christmas layouts in December. This was one of those photos I snapped on the fly just because my camera was next to me and I ended up loving the way the light was shinning through from the window. My journalling is about the multiple 'hat' traditions my family has for Christmas.

 

Mainly Kaisercraft papers here from a few of their different Christmas ranges as well as some brads and mini-blooms. Chipboard florishes are from Scrapmatts.

 

 

This is my DT LO for The Lollipop Ladies. The sweet inspiration this fortnight is candy canes with the added challenge of spirals. I have used a lot of red/white stripes from the candy cane and have the twine looping in spirals as well as the spiral button from Evalicious. How are you inspired by candy canes

 

 

Guest DT spots are able to be won each fortnight and our sponsor this fortnight is: Mad for Markers*

A choice of 3 of her M4M digi stamps.

I have also combined this challenge with the wonderful December challenge over at Once Upon A... Sketch. The theme for this month was 'It's December...' so as I mentioned I've journalled about Christmas traditions. Below is the sketch for this month, which I have rotated counter clockwise.

 

 

Lastly, Frosted Designs is running a twelve days of Christmas competition. I'm not sure if I will get all tweleve challenges completed but thought it would be fun to try. The challenge for day 4 was to use four different patterned papers.

Panning for Gold

I am certainly not one of those scrappers who finds it hard to scrap about themselves. I think it might be because I don't have kids yet, so there are a limited number of readily available subjects for me. This is a LO of me panning for gold at Sovereign Hill which is an open air museum in Golden Point, a suburb of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. Sovereign Hill depicts Ballarat's first ten years after the discovery of gold there in 1851.

 

 

So this LO was created for the fifth and final Scrapping Sleuth competition over at Scrapz.biz. It was such a fun competition, I'm sad to see it end. I used their November kit for this LO and created my first ever zipper flower! This week I went with the follow five things as my guesses for the common items: 1/ Bird, 2/ Arrow, 3/ the word fun, 4/ washi tape and 5/ a die cut. The sketch for this week:

 

 

 

Frosted Designs is also running a 12 days of Christmas competition and the challenge for day one was to include a bird in your creation, so I'll enter this one over there too.

Strike a Pose

So I had some friends around today to do some scrapping, eat junk food and chat. We didn't get much scrapping done but two out of three isn't bad! :) Once everyone had left I finished up this LO but I think it hasn't quite worked the way I would have liked. Not sure if I need to add more or if it's the lack of journalling or what but something is 'off'.

 

 

I've combined a couple of challenges with this LO. Scrapping in by the skin of my teeth with the Sketches With a Twist challenge this month. I've rotated the sketch and only used two photos since I didn't have any smallers ones printed.

 

 

The additional challenge for this month was embossing which also happens to be the challenge theme for Frosted Designed for this week. I embossed my chipboard frame to create the dimples you can see in the close up below.

 

 

Lastly, I've used the wonderful colour scheme from ScrapFriends.

Open Range Zoo

This is my final double page LO for the Gold Coast Show. Good thing too, as I need to submit all the entries tomorrow. This one is for the open theme. For some reason this year I really struggled to think of what I wanted to scrap. Decided to go with a visit to the Werribee Open Range Zoo in Victoria. The LO seems a bit plain to me but I'm pretty happy to have finally scrapped all these photos.

 

 

Chipboard is from Scrapware, the pack also has a cute monkey and alligator/crocodile. Animal themed brads are from Francheville. Stickers and paper are from a very old Bo Bunny range (I think it might actually be 2005!). Green ribbon is actually from The Body Shop packaging.

 

Oneof the challenges this month over at Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge is to scrap about your pet and animals in general. Since I don't currently have a pet I figured this Zoo trip would fit the criteria. Frosted Design's curent challenge is to include chipboard so I'll enter this LO there too.

Bond Uni Graduation

Just to demonstrate How Times Change (the topic and title of my previous LO), here is one with my brother, sister and I in 2009 when I was graduating from University with a Masters of Criminology. Just a small step forward from graduating Grade 6! :) I wasn't happy with the professional photos taken on this day, however the casual ones taken before the ceremony were quite nice.

This LO was inspired by a few different challenges running this month. Firstly, I was inspired by the beautiful blue/tan of the bird at Show Us Your Stuff. It reminded me of the lovely Prairie Lane collection by Kaisercraft however it turns out I only had two sheets left from that range, hence the addition of the pink/orange version of the same patterns known as the Penny Royale collection. Their Try This technique for the month was book paper blooms and you can see I included a pink one in the right bottom corner. The bloom also counts as my handmade embellishment for Frosted Designs Fab Friday challenge. Oh, I also handmade the fabric covered button.

I figured since I was planning on using Kaisercraft papers I may as well use one of their fantastic Saturday Sketches as well. This LO is based on the #1 sketch for June. Kaisercraft papers, die cuts, brad and rubber stamp were used, mixture of Prairie Lane and Penny Royale collections. I've signed up to complete a full-day class at the Robina Kaisercraft outlet with a friend next weekend. I'm looking forward to learning a lot of new flower-making techniques and also getting a chance to hopefully pick up some of the newish Great Southern Land collection.

Lastly, the blue/pink/orange colour combo is perfect for the Scrapbook Kits With a Difference colour inspiration for this month.

Rosser Park

It's been a while since I've sat down and created a LO but the weather this long weekend is miserable so it was perfect for staying in and creating in my PJs. :) The photos were just some random snaps during one of our multiple picnics at Rosser Park. This park's entry is located on a fairly busy road and doesn't look much when you're just driving past but if you actually going inside it's so lovely. I always try to talk Ben into going for picnics there and take my Mum and Dad each time they come to visit as well.

I also wanted to share a couple of detail shots to show all the different layers. I've used some masking tape which I've stamped on to create my own faux-washi tape. :) Doilies from The Chip Chop Shop, journal spot from Lil' Red Rocket, chipboard from Scrapmatts, most of the paper is from Kaisercraft.

On to the challenges which inspired this LO. ScrapFriends have another stunning sketch up this month that I simply couldn't pass up. I used the journal tag and chipboard tree instead of the third photo and moved the jouralling but otherwise I stayed pretty close to the design.

Frosted Designs fabulous Friday challenge was to incorporate stitching on the LO. I have stitching on the top and bottom of the LO and also on the photo mats. I left the edges rugged on the mats to make it look a bit more rustic.

Southern Girls Challenge has a 'Things with wings' theme for this fortnight. I've included two birds and a butterfly on this LO.