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.

 

(removed for publication)

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.

So Proud - Noosa Retreat Class

Ann ran a series of additional classes at the Noosa Retreat which you could sign up for during the weekend. I only chose to do one extra class but really like the end result. The focus of this class was using different embellishments on your page so this includes metal filigree pieces, press studs, die-cuts, pearls, and irridesent medium.

 

Here are some close ups of all the different hot air balloons we created. Best part of this class was the fact I got to go have a massage during part of it and Ann cut out all the balloons for me! LOL The chipboard letters were part of my lucky door prize, because I forgot to bring ANY of my alpha stickers to the retreat. Certainly added another level of challenge to the weekend. :)

Smile - Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness

I am hosing a Girls Night In to fundraise for the Cancer Council tonight and thought I would do up a pink themed layout to feature on the night. Photos are of my mum when she had to shave her head during her chemotherapy treatment in 2010. Despite undergoing a complete double mastectomy and six months of chemo treatment, she maintained a positive outlook and often had a smile on her face. She remains cancer-free today which is a great result! Unfortunately my paternal grandmother passed away from breast cancer about 20 years ago, early detection and advances in cancer treatment are so important which is why I'm hosting the fundraiser. If anyone is interested in donating, the fundraising page is here:

http://qld.cancercouncilfundraising.org.au/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=647015

 

I used the beautiful Kaisercraft mask and two different coloured inks to create the background. The feathers were my first time using foam stamps from A2Z Scraplets and also the first time I had used some Gelatos I purchased when in Melbourne. I think they will take a bit of getting used to but I'm excited by my initial attempts. I also used a couple of brads from a funky pack I purchased, another Tim Holtz metal tag and a Flourish with a Bling swirl which I coated with gesso to tone down the hot pink colour a bit.

 This layout was inspired by the challenge over at Once Upon A... Sketch. Their journalling challenge was to document "The Journey..." so I chose the start of mum's chemo journey. Nadia created this lovely sketch to work from.

Hens Party - Retreat Class

There is always a class included in the cost of the Noosa Retreat and this year we had the lovely Sue Smyth come to teach us. It was a very intense class with lots of instructions to follow. I have used photos from my hens party back in 2011 which I hadn't gotten around to scrapping yet. We did a burlesque dancing class followed by a life drawing session, hence the costumes and well-muscled gentleman. If anyone is looking for a venue for a hens party around Melbourne I can certainly recommend Hens Love Art in St Kilda. In fact, after checking out their website it looks like they have upgraded their venue since I attended so it would be even better now!

 

 Most of the other ladies at the retreat had never used gesso or templates so this class just blew their mind. LOL I think the layout looks a little bit too busy for my tastes and I'm not really convinced the colours work together but I did learn a couple of new techniques. The colouring technique used on the chipboard gate piece looks amazing and was repeated on a couple of layouts through out the retreat by some of the other participants. We also learned how to make the flowers using die-cuts. There was a lot of painting, misting, scrunching and stamen building involved but they do look pretty incredible.

Peace Love Joy - Rockerfeller Centre Christmas Tree

Here is the second challenge layout from the Noosa Retreat. This one came with a sketch, the green cardstock and the light brown grid paper which had the most beautiful designs on the other side but I just couldn't get them to work for this layout. Does anyone else do that? I've found I have done it a lot recently where I have purchased a paper for the pretty front but ended up scrapping it using the back. LOL

Anyway, photos are from our USA trip at the end of 2012/start of 2013. We went to the Rockerfeller Centre and couldn't resist getting some photos taken with the tree in the background. The rest of the papers and the die-cuts are Kaisercraft's Twig and Berries which I think was a collection from last year. The ornate stars are Scrapmatts and I finally found some of those wood veneer mini stars too so I've sprinkled a small trail.

I rotated the sketch to suit my portrait photos. You can see everyone else's interpretations of the sketch below. You can even see the basic sketch in the second photo.

All the ladies voted for the favourites for this challenge too and I was very surprised to find I came second! Here is a photo of me with the lady who came first, she had very cute photos of a donkey on her layout. I won another Kaisercraft pack so have a lot more scrapping I can do now. :)

Noosaville Retreat 2013

Hello blog reader. It has been a little quite here recently due to some troubles in real life however things are about to get much busier because I have just come back from a retreat in Noosa run by Queensland Scrapbooking Retreats. Long-time readers may recall I participated in this retreat last year and I had such a good time that I just had to go back. I roomed with Chantal again, which was nice, and two of her friends from her home town. I took part in two classes and created seven layouts.

Ann gives everyone goodie bags at the start of the retreat and these contain two challenge packs, amongst other things. The first challenge came with one double-sided piece of greenish paper, one brown cardstock and a raw custom chipboard title for the retreat. You had to use 70% of the supplied material and could add anything you wanted from your stash. Here is the layout I created:

 

If you want to compare it to my layout from last year, you can find that one here. I like the little banner I created. I was in Melbourne last weekend and popped by Paper Squared which claims to be the largest scrapbook store in Australia. While there I picked up some bits and bobs and challenged myself to actually use them on the retreat as I really don't need more things just sitting unused on the shelf. The Tim Holtz metal tags were one I was tossing up on, but I used three this weekend! The tiny pegs are so on trend right now and I found a big pack for $2.

I have used this month's sketch over at Stuck?! for inspiration and just rotated it to suit the photo.

 Here are all the layouts created by everyone at the retreat. Looks like flowers were a pretty popular embellishment. :)

At the end of the retreat everyone voted for their favourite two layouts. I was very happy to have my layout voted in first place! Here I am with the second place winner. I won a great Kaisercraft collection pack.

Inspire Journal Cover and Christmas Tags - Scrapmatts DT work

Scrapbooking Creations is an Australian scrapbooking magazine I subscribe to. This month they have started a new feature where all their Design Diva's showcase new techniques in an art journal. The whole project looked like so much fun I decided it was finally time to start my own art journal. I have copied Angella Peardon's technique for my cover using texture paste, mists and salt to create that very funky background.

 

I had the watch hands left over from the large fob watch piece so I painted them with Perfect Pearls and used them as a feature piece. I have also painted some leaf sprays and the Inspire word the same way. 

 

 And here is just a side view to show off the funky washi tape I put down the spine. This is also my mid-month example for UnstampaBelles challenge this month, which was to use us your scraps/stash. The journal book has been sitting in my draw for years without being used and was originally silver before I gesso'd it. The texture paste and mists are also something I have had for years.

 

Our second brief for this month was to create a couple of Christmas themed tags. I had never created a tag prior to joining the Scrapmatts team so I still struggle a bit with them however I like the challenge.  My first tag has a very traditional theme to it, using papers from the Kaisercraft Just Believe range.

 I went in a bit of a different direction with my second tag. This one has some gesso applied over the chipboard before adding some mists and water. The textured/speckled effect was hard to capture in a photo.

 

Baptism Day - ScrapFriends Guest DT

My two friends babies turned one and were also baptised recently. I managed to get some fantastic photos of both of them on each of their special days and took the opportunity to scrap this one from Harvey's day in May. I spent ages getting a funky background happening with mists and gesso, but then ended up covering most of it up. :(

 

 

I was in the Top 5 for ScrapFriend's YummyScrap #15! I am so excited by this, as I love all the sketches and colour combinations over there and they have some amazing entries each fortnight. They invited me to come back as a Guest Designer for Yummy Scrap #17.

 

The colour palette for this month is fantastic, I loved the bright yellow with the green/grey/red accents. I had to alter a few of my embellishments to match the colour scheme though. The doily was originally white, I misted it with yellow and green then washed it out to fade the colours. The flower was originally a light pink which I misted with a new bright red Dylusion mist.

I would love to see what you come up with for this colour scheme.

Hello Friend Card - UnstampaBelles DT

It's a new month and time for a new challenge over at UnstampaBelles! This month our challenge is to use your scraps (or at least something that has been in your stash for a long time). If you are anything like me this should be a very easy challenge, as I have LOTS of scraps and old products sitting around.

 

I decided to go with the left over paper scraps from my last scrapbooking layout. It was quite simple to use the same design and techniques to create a quick friendship card and better than throwing away the left over strips. So easy in fact I might need to consider making more cards with left overs.  The odd shape of the card is because I used a cardstock scrap for the base too.

Gold Coast Show Round Up

It was beautiful weather this weekend for the Gold Coast Show. Ben and I normally go on the Sunday so we can stick around and pick up my scrapbooking layouts at the end but this year the Gold Coast Suns had their last game of the season on the Sunday, so we went on Saturday instead. This meant we had the opportunity to see the dog competitions and wood chopping for the first time in a few years, as they only run the first two days (Friday and Saturday).

I always enjoy getting to check out all the visual arts entries and this year there was some incredible artworks entered. Unfortunately, a lot of the other competition sections were pretty light on entries this year, including paper tole and cakes. I also didn't see ANY cross-stitch entities. There were only a few scrapbooking entries this year and it is safe to say that the judge and I had very different ideas on what constituted good scrapbooking. The entries which followed a clean Azza style scored very highly, while I prefer a more mixed-media style. Still, I enjoyed the challenge of having to create some doubles and themes I wouldn't normally document. 

Here are my results:

First place - Christmas

 

Second place - Open Theme; Celebrations; Children/Babies; Weddings; Heritage.

 

 

Third place - Off the Page; Pets

 

Did not place - Teddy Bears; Seasons/Holidays.