Happy Travelers?

I really like this LO, though I'm not sure if I like this one AND it has a lot of journalling or if I like this one BECAUSE it has a lot of journalling. I've written about the memories this photo evokes for me, not just your basic details like most of my journalling has been recently. Photo is a bit of an older one of me and my siblings from 2006.

 

 

I went for a few more layers than normal. My favourite chipboard manufacturer, Scrapmatts, is currently having a DT call and I'm thinking of including this LO as one of my submissions so I've used a lot of their beautiful products.

 

Colour scheme has been inspired by the beautiful YummyScrap over at ScrapFriends for this month. I was originally planing on using an old pink/grey/black Kaisercraft range for this but once I started pulling out my papers I went in a totally different direction. I am LOVING yellow toned backgrounds at the moment. 

 

Sketch is from The Scrapbook Store. It was such an interesting design and different from my normal style that I just had to give it a go.

 

 

Natural Bridge

Wow, I really am scrapping a lot of photos of my mum and dad recently! Don't worry, I have different subjects in mind for the next two LOs. :) This is another page from our day exploring the national parks at Mt Tambourine. Natural Bridge is a beautiful waterfall and you can actually walk down into the cavern where the waterfalls pools. You used to be able to swim in the resulting lake but not any more. I'm thinking about going back again at night as apparently the cavern has an amazing glow worm colony living there.

 

 

This LO was inspired by the current competition over at Scrapz.biz which is Super Sleuth #1. It's quite an interesting idea for a competition: 3 DT samples are displayed at the start of the week. You have to guess which five elements are common to all three LO's and then create your own page with those elements. I'm not sure if I'm right, but I went with:
1/ 'Discover' sticker
2/ Feather
3/ White cardstock background
4/ Journal tag with journalling
5/ Banner/ pennant shape

 

ScrapFIT's Step Class #10 is to create a layered banner. The sample LO looked so great I just had to try my hand at this. I started with some calico fabric pennants, then added some washi tape, then paper pennants, then some feathers on each end and finally some bling for a finishing touch. I think that should definately cover me for a least two textures. :) I was thinking about doubling this up with their washi tape challenge too but I'm not sure if that is allowed.

Cherish

Don't you just love those happy snaps you take that work out even better than expected? This was just a quick snap of my parents while we were ten pin bowling but I love it.

 

 

The challenge over at Unstampabelles this month is monochrome. I took a bit of leniancy and incorporated a fair bit of white and black along with all the red. I took this as the perfect opportunity to use my new rolled flower die from Die-namics, they are so easy to create. The die I purchased creates two sizes and was only $13.

 

The sponsor this month is Anne of Cardmaking Online, who has very kindly offered a $25.00 gift certificate.

 

 

My sketch inspiration this month comes from Once Upon A... Sketch. I haven't played along with them since July so I thought it was definitely time to play with another of Nadia's beautiful sketches. There is no theme for the journalling this month. I have included a rub-on for my journalling in the top left, but also have 'Mum and Dad, Sept 12' under the love journal tag. You can just see it in the detail shot above. I have rotated the sketch to the left and moved the title to suit.

 

 

Halloween crafts

Halloween is not a big deal here in Australia, despite the best efforts of many retailers, however Ben has been looking at so many American websites recently as we are planning at trip to the US he decided he wanted to try carving a pumpkin for the very first time. We have had some terracotta edging tiles just lying around since we moved in and I thought they looked a bit like tombstones so I painted them up today and we created this display for the front of our house.

 

 

I couldn't resist taking some in-progress photos as we worked so I will possibly scrap this process later. We didn't have any proper tools so used a small screwdriver to poke the guide holes and then a small kitchen knife to cut out the design. He looks really cool and spooky all lit up. I think we might try a slightly more complicated design next year.  

She Is Beautiful

My sister HATES having her photo taken however she loves me enough to put up with it. The photographer got some amazing candid shots of her for my wedding and I've been wanting to scrap them for ages. My husband went to a weekend basketball tournament 4 hours drive away at the start of October so I booked into a class at my local scrapbooking store to keep myself busy. I ended up being the only person taking the class as one of the other ladies cancelled last minute and the other just didn't even turn up.

Here is what the LO looked like at the end of the class. I thought it was nice and good to do something a bit different to my usual style but it just didn't really pop for me.

 

 

I've always thought of classes as more of a good starting point for a LO than something that needs to be followed exactly. I've been in some classes and the other participants will be requesting the exact measurements for everything in terms of millimeters. I don't want my page to look exactly like 10 other people's, I want it to look like mine! So, I brought the pages home and had a bit of a play around and ended up with this:

 

 

You can see that I changed the left and right pages around because I prefer to have my central elements framed in a double LO. The 'beautiful' title was part of the class, I just hadn't stuck it down before I left the store. 

 

Here is my left page. I added the butterfly and pearl swirl, as well as some sentiment stickers to the photos and added my journalling. I'm laughing so hard in the first photo at something my sister had said. She really helped my stay relaxed and happy during the preparations, the perfect bridesmaid!

 

Here is my right page. I added an extra butterfly in the top right, the sentiment and title stickers and the pearls to highlight that the title relates to my sister.

 

The challenge for The Lollipop Ladies this fortnight is inspired by aniseed rings with an added challenge of black and white, so I'm also using this LO as my DT submission this week. I'd love to see what you can create with this inspiration.

 

 

Guest DT spots are able to be won each fortnight

and our sponsor this fortnight is: Annabelle Stamps *

$10 Voucher (thanks to Andrea).

 



Directions

This is the last LO I have from the retreat I took part in. I managed to get this one half done and it's just taken me this long to sit down and stick it all into place. The photo is of my parents from when we went exploring at Springbrook National Park and I just thought it was a really nice photo of the two of them.

 

The 'Ritchie explore' referred to in the journalling is a thing of family legend. At some stage we were trying to travel somewhere and Dad managed to get lost however typically didn't want to admit it so we drove around aimlessly for a while until we managed to get back on track. He claimed he was exploring and as our surname is Ritchie any time since when we have taken a needlessly convoluted path to get somewhere or have become hopelessly lost it has been referred to as 'Ritchie exploring'.

 

I was worried we would end up on a Ritchie explore either on the way to the National Park (it was over an hour's drive away through twisty mountain roads) or once we were inside the park itself (an old fear from previously getting lost while bushwalking with dad). I'm pleased to report we actually did quite well and no exploring was necessary. :)

 

 

This LO was inspired by the Kaisercraft October Saturday Sketch #2. I have used the lovely Great Southern Land range, some pearls, some chipboard, alphabet stickers, some fabric and paper flowers and some old-school brads all from Kaisercraft. This is the sketch I was working from:

 

 

Speaking of the retreat, I mentioned that there would be a group photo of us all celebrating the 70's themed night and here it is! I'm a bit upset that I'm hidden away in this photo because I had gone out and purchased a shift especially for this night but it gives you a great idea as to the feel of the night. :) If you are looking for a retreat to attend in South East Queensland I totally recommend signing up for the next one Ann runs. I think dates are May and September 2013 with a cruise in August 2013 as well. 

 

 

Christmas Bauble Card

As I mentioned in my last post, I went to the Brisbane Craft and Quilt Expo over the weekend. I didn't manage to sign up for any classes this time but I like to make sure I always create something to bring home to show my husband so I stopped off at the Kazazz stand to complete their free make-and-take class.

 

 

This is a pretty simply card using distress inks, stamps and kindy glitz. I have recently increased my supply of distress inks so it was good to see some different ways of using these products.

 

The middle bauble has perfect pearls rather than kindy glitz because I managed to wipe a receipt over the front of the card before it was dry so I had to touch it up at home! :(

Muck Up Day

I went to the Brisbane Craft Expo this weekend and whilst I didn't attend any classes I did stock up on a few new supplies including 4 new rolls of washi tape! You can see a lot of the new roles in my latest LO, which also uses the new chevron mask and Scrapmatts chipboard frames I picked up.

 

 

These are some more photos from back in my last year of high school so 2001! The challenge over at Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge is to scrap about a high school reunion, or a memory of your time in high school. Muck up day is the last day of Year 12 in Australia and as you can see people typically have all their friends sign and customise their uniform. I wanted to go with a kind of grungy look to the LO to fit in with the re-modelled uniforms.

When you're looking for a grungy sketch you can't go past ScrapFriends if you ask me. This is the sketch I was inspired by, rotated to suit my pictures.

 

 

Beautiful Gorgeous Pretty

Whilst going through photos to pick which ones I wanted to bring to the retreat I came across some photos from my final year of high school. Given that is now over 10 years ago I thought it was high time to scrap a few of these. 

 

 

The papers are from the Kaisercraft Butterfly Kisses new collection with that lovely blue from Hunt and Gather. I wouldnt have chosen this collection myself but I won a giveaway from the very generous Nadia Cannizzo and she sent me the range along with some collectables. I thought the bright colours really worked will with the dresses on show.

 

I used the sketch from Stuck?! sketches.

 

 

Outback

Just a simple LO of my parents, my husband and I prior to seeing the Australian Outback Spectacular which is a dinner and show performance with lots of horses. It is a fantastic performance and pretty good food in case you're ever on the Gold Coast and looking for something to do. I love the Dusty Attic chipboard I've used on this. They're not a brand I normally use but there was heaps available at the retreat.

 

 

This was going to be for Sketchabilities challenge #76 however I didn't get home and get the LO uploaded in time. :(